New #blogpost!

I Used To Take Notes...

From #GoogleKeep to #Joplin to Doom #Emacs to #PlainText files to pretty much nothing

This is day 84 of #100DaysToOffload

https://joelchrono.xyz/blog/i-used-to-take-notes

Over or under rated: Moleskine, Obsidian Sync, Markdown, Vim, Pizza? @hyde 's Over Under series has another episode to check out.

Read it on my blog https://ellanew.com/2025-06-13-moleskine-obsidian-sync-markdown-vim-pizza
or Hyde's (includes his take on those 5 things) https://lazybea.rs/ovr-022/

#OverUnder 022 with @ellane !

Her opinions on:

- #Moleskine
- #Obsidian Sync
- #Markdown
- #Vim
- #Pizza

#blog #fediverse #mastodon #notebook #ink #fountainPen #Plaintext #pkm #notes

#100DaysToOffload : 063/100

https://lazybea.rs/ovr-022

This #emacs drawing package looks great! https://github.com/tbanel/uniline

Sourcehut created a plain text email guide.

CONTENTS
Recommended email clients for plain text users.
How to set up plain text with other email clients.
Etiquette recommendations for plain text emails.
Why is plain text better than HTML?
Recommendations for software which sends emails.

Website: https://useplaintext.email

#Journelly 1.1 is now available on the App Store

Now available in 11 languages, delivering the first round of feature requests and bug fixes.

Check out the release blog post: https://lmno.lol/alvaro/journelly-1-1-released

"MediaWiki has the most overwrought, over-engineered, over-complex syntax known to man. You might as well just write directly in OOXML and zip it up, along with your self-respect" (https://rldane.space/why-i-love-markdown.html by @rl_dane)

Not terribly far off-base

(and yes, #plaintext is incredibly long-lived)

OOPS

Wired: The Company Behind the Signal Clone Mike Waltz Used Has Direct Access to User Chats

A new analysis of TM Signal’s source code appears to show that the app sends users’ message logs in plaintext. At least one top Trump administration official used the app.

https://www.wired.com/story/tm-signal-telemessage-plaintext-message-archive/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_050725&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_Daily_050725&bxid=67a55b07e0b7ef5c690d6cda&cndid=86140256&hasha=7213f5fc65db9d9e956ca66e659c1114&hashc=7d14e354e23b1d1b8a5f8095df3a496f14420a0f662aa69dcbdbd4c05c69f5f1&esrc=MARTECH_ORDERFORM&utm_term=WIR_Daily_Active

My iOS app made it to the App Store, please help me get the word out and boost

Journelly: like tweeting but for your eyes only (offline / powered by plain text)

https://lmno.lol/alvaro/journelly-like-tweeting-but-for-your-eyes-only

Plain text emails are awesome.

Be awesome.

https://useplaintext.email

Factors:
1. Accessibility. Not everyone has really fast (or stable) internet.
2. Environmental. There's no reason to use more computing power than necessary for the task at hand. It's wasteful. Very few people need the fancy features advanced text editors introduce.
3. Interoperability. Text files I write and send are readable *everywhere.* Try loading up Google Docs on a 1024x768 screen with a 256MB RAM Pentium 3. You'll be lucky if Google Docs even loads.
4. Privacy. A text file is easy to protect. GPG is the most straightforward. It remains small, and there's no way middle-men can read it. Google Docs? Google has root and they're not encrypted from them. So, good luck.
5. Account requirements. Text files require no accounts anywhere. All you need it an Internet connection and a DNS server that'll point your computer the right way. SaaS requires that you also have up-to-date software, a powerful computer, and that you register an account with them to access files shared with you.
6. Storage space. A text file takes kilobytes. A .docx file takes megabytes. My daily journal, which granted has some meta-data but is still plain text, is nearing on 580kb after three years of diligent, detailed journaling. I can't help but doubt that Word would even open a .docx file that large if formatted natively. (Thousands of headings, links, timestamps, etc.)
6. Feature-set. Plain text lets you do enough for 99% of all tasks. Yes, it's not as pretty, but within the bounds of putting characters into a file, you have complete freedom. Proprietary services, on the other hand, have a very very rich feature-set, most of which is irrelevant for 99% of users. The drawback of this is that every user is forced to load these rarely-used functions onto their own computer when the applications load up. That's wasteful, and likely cost the world hundreds of millions in unnecessary energy expenditure already.

TL;DR: Use plain text unless you absolutely positively can't help it. It's seriously better in every way.

#plaintext #emacs #txt #notepad #bloat #bloatware #saas #googledocs #msword #microsoftword #rant

RE: https://fed.bajsicki.com/notes/a6uy06mot0