Writing in Markdown with Typora

In an earlier post called A Novel Approach to Writing, I presented my setup for creative writing using the Atom text editor and Markdown files. Since then, I’ve found an even better writing program called Typora. And while it’s not open source (or even out of beta), it’s such an amazing little program that I couldn’t help but write about it.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. I’m not affiliated with Typora or its creator.

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Easy Adware and Malware Blocking on Android

Letter box in brick wall.

Digital ads are a disaster. While ads themselves are a legitimate and often necessary source of income for service providers, the way they’re delivered to users can be downright malicious. On mobile devices, ads have been shown to drain battery life and surreptitiously deliver malware, without the content providers even being aware of it. Until content providers can get their act together, it’s up to users to protect themselves.

In this post, I’ll present a convenient, root-free way of blocking ads on Android devices using free and open source tools.

tl;dr: download Steven Black’s hosts file and the Vpn Hosts app from xfalcon.

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Digital Wellbeing: How Google Wants to Get You Off of Your Phone

Google’s Digital Wellbeing app found its way onto my phone yesterday, and it’s an interesting new app. Unlike most apps, which fight to hold your attention as long as they can, Wellbeing is all about getting you off of your phone. For a company that amassed its fortune on clicks and views, this seems counter-intuitive. What exactly does Wellbeing offer, and can it actually help you spend less time on your phone?

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Gamifying Your Life

Each day begins with a list of tasks I want to accomplish. Whether it’s short-term (writing a blog post) or long-term (working on a programming project), completing each task helps me feel more successful. But sometimes motivating myself can be difficult, and on some days even the simplest tasks can seem insurmountable. In this post, I’ll discuss a strategy I recently found that actually makes everyday tasks seem fun!

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