February 2025 – Cubicgarden.com…

I bought a Framework 13, heres my early thoughts

As part of my redudancy I needed rethink my computer setup at home. For the longest time I have used my work laptop as mine. It fits with the blur of work and personal life. Although I did run Ubuntu on the Dell XPS 13 and had pretty much complete admin control to it.

Ultimately I needed to give it back and wipe it clean using Dban of course, meaning I needed to pick a personal laptop. As Dell has dropped the XPS 13 range, now was a good time to switch to Framework.

There has been a few times when I considered one. Once when my laptop bag strap broke as I was crossing the road and squashed the cornder. It didn’t smash the screen or damage the USB C port luckily. Anyway I clearly remember a conversation with Cory Doctorow who I was hosting for his new book at the time, he showed me how cheap and easy it was to replace the audiojack, USB C’s and just being able to replace every aspect of it.

I was pretty much sold but it wasn’t till about a 18 months later when the reality set in that I should actually buy one. I did a ton of research and asked peoples views including Andy Piper and found the only disadvantage is advance configurations and the firmware doesn’t get updated as quickly as other laptops. Nothing major.

Framework DIY edition screen bezel in a box

With that I opted for the Framework 13 DIY Edition (Intel Core Ultra Series 1). I bought the most amount of memory (1x 32gig DIMM) and storage (4tb) my budget would take on Amazon then put it all together. It wasn’t difficult but I was very careful as I didn’t want to cause any problems for myself. I’d say it was easier than building PCs in the past but more fiddly.

I choose Intel, mainly because I had problems with AMD and Linux in the past. Maybe this was a legacy mistake but its done now.

Once it was put togther, I installed Ubuntu on it giving the silly amount of storage I have 100gig of swap (mainly for when I do get another 32gig Dimm)

Its been a few days and honestly its a great machine.I have had problems mainly with Ubuntu and moving things between the Dell and Framwork. Ubuntu defaulted to Wayland and Unity cruff. I couldn’t get Appimages to work and moving mainly to Flatpaks required a lot of permission tweaking.

The laptop its self is good but large compared to the XPS 13, it only just fits into my laptop bag. The keys are taller than what I’m use to but the trackpad feels great. I think Ideally I would have a black graphine body rather than the silver. It reminds me of the Mac books.

Weirdly the fan does come on sometimes (like old mac books) and its a bit noisy but I’ll get to the bottom of it in time.

Framework laptop with ubuntu with my background

I really like the expansion ports which there are 4 of. I thought the audio jack was also on an expansion port but its built in. The screen suporised me as I have very good eye sight and opted for the 2.5k screen with a max resolution of 2880px x 1920px at 120hz! I have mine set to 60hz to save on battery. Talking of which its been great at about 8-9 hours with the battary limited to 80% in the bios. To be fair replacing the battery isn’t a problem with the Framework laptop, when it gets low after lots of use.

This is a good buy and glad I went this route, although maybe I bought too soon… the 12 inch looks good but would I replace my Raspberry Pi 5 desktop for the desktop framework unlikely.

The best spas I have been to…so far!

I do love a good spa and I have been to many over time. Sometimes they are ok, some have been shockingly bad. For example the 5 star nobu hotel in Barcelona was good except the spa which only happened because my partner made sure our junior suite (except they made some stupid last minute comment saying all suites except the junior ones include spa access!) was a nice spa but so cold! Nothing worst than sitting on a stone slab in a cold steam room!

I say nothing worst but the Mercure in Bournemouth had half of the facilities advertised and the Jacuzzi wasn’t filtering out the old water, meaning not only did my end up with a rash on the back of her neck where she had been resting; but I also caught a stomach bug from the dirty water for 24hrs and couldn’t eat anything! Makes the Nobu look positively heavenly.

On that note let’s talk the bests so far…

Starting with Sweden.

Centralbadet Stockholm, Sweden

The guide to the best spas in Stockholm - Stockholm's best spas

This spa was a surprise it was underneath a park and buildings but was large with from memory at least 6 types of sauna’s and about 3 steam rooms. The pools were huge too and surprised me as I originally thought that was the whole place till went through a door into the spas. Honestly it’s a bit of a maze. It was reasonably priced from what I remember too. I would talk about Finland, Iceland and Norway but I haven’t been to any which are as good as this one in Sweden.

As it’s Scandinavian, I think there aspects of being naked but it was a long time ago so can’t remember exactly. Pretty sure like liquidrome to come, the pools are clothed and spas are naked.

Another aspect of this spa is it’s just around the corner from Urban Deli too if you are hungry. We need more of this type of setup in the UK.

My next big one is the one which got me into spas back in 1999.

Liquidrome, Berlin, Germany

Vom Nachtschwimmen bis zum Unterwasserkonzert | Liquidrom Berlin

My good friend who was born in east Berlin took me to liquidrome and I was kinda blown away. Every time I head to Berlin I find time to visit liquidrome, especially because it’s open till 1am on the weekends. It took a while to get over the naked spas, dripping only on to your towel etc but now it’s just not a thought. It’s changed over time but currently 4 saunas, 2 steam rooms, dive pool, outdoor pool, juzuzzis and best of all the sea water pool where you float with ambient music & lights above and below the water. It’s incredible!

I have been to Amsterdam so many times and only been to a spa for the first time in 2023 and it was a hotel spa Corendon Vitality Spa). Then Margaret last year clued me into Zuiver!

Hotel & Wellness Zuiver

Spa Zuiver | Relaxing places, Pool bath, Swimming pools

This is not a spa it’s a bloody retreat with about 8 steam rooms, 8 Saunas, 3 juczzis, steam baths, swimming pools and so much more inside and outside! Also open till late and like liquidrome. There is even a restaurant if you get hungry! All not super far from Zuid station.

Just like liquidrome there is some naked aspects. Twice a week they have naked days and for some reason I just seemed to end up picking those days due to conference days.

I can’t tell you how amazing it was being in the warm water wood barrow looking up at the night sky and seeing the stars. Then wondering over the huge sauna to get the full effect of the communal sauna (as I first experience in Oslo’s Salt) Next time I’m in Amsterdam I’ll be there for sure, hopefully with my partner too. Can’t believe it took me so long to explore the Dutch spa scene.

I sound a little down on Hotel spas but that’s not completely true. For example the Oasis spa in Barcelona and Serena spa in Lisbon were great for different reasons.

Spa Left View

The Hyatt’s Oasis spa was just excellent in so many ways, I could have spent all day there. Not so many spas but each one had the touches which make for a great spa. Free water, free fruit, seats in the right places, lots of space and perfectly placed ice room, etc.

In Lisbon, I wanted to note Serena Spa for the best treatment I have had. Myself and my partner were treated to a special couples treatment called the 4 seasons. 1 hour of different flavours, smells and levels of impact. From the careful ice cold touches to the warm embrace of a hot towel and the leaves and vapour! Just amazing like they were experimenting with some new and exciting things.

i would give a thumbs up to the Onsens in Japan but when I compare them to the best I have in this list, they just don’t compare for what I’m looking for in a spa. It didn’t help that I didn’t feel comfortable wearing unfitting clothes and being stared at by groups of business men.

Surfing the beta wave

I have been testing Flipboard’s Surf beta for a while. I have been meaning to write about it for a long while but have been busy due to redundancy.

What is Surf? I could go into detail but I would say it’s a way to aggregate a number of sources and share them in a form which others can follow or flip through. It’s all using the fediverse and acts like a first class citizen of it. I gather Bluesky has a similar type thing where you can design and share algorithms to others. I guess it’s like that but so much more.

So I have setup a couple of channels one for digital legacy and dating troubles. For the dating one I have connected up a few dating YouTubers and my own raindrop.io bookmarks using the same scope (dating troubles).

This means not only can I have add things to followers by manually adding posts, media, etc but every time my bookmarks are updated it’s reflected across the fediverse too? Pretty sure this is kind of true but I guess what makes surf more compelling compared to a RSS reader is the client reader. What else do you expect from the team behind Flipboard? Although it’s beta, it’s smooth and well thought out, not just for reading but for creating too.

I wasn’t surprised it supported activitypub, meaning you can aggregate or group from across the fediverse (oh yes and bluesky) but RSS really opens things up a lot more. I can see this being super useful for businesses, community leaders and those into super niche topics. I choose the things which I have been tracking anyway, but been thinking about one for the #pacemkaerdevice #pebblewatch #diabolotricks #eatingoutallergies, etc etc.

I also gather as Surf creates a activitypub feed you could aggregate those back into another surf account created levels piping (something I talked about about 20 years ago)

Generally I like it and look forward to the next update…

By the way if you are interested use the referral code CUBICGARDEN when signing up for the waitlist. Mastodon sign up are the priority right now but Bluesky is still in progress.

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Feb 2025)

Woman looks to the viewer while a bot looks over her shoulder

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed reading how Zuckerberg wants to dodge EU fines, the AI Brad Pitt scam and when will the car data grab stop?

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

You are seeing aspects of this with Meta running scared of Fediverse links, large scale eink displays and the EU are on Musks case.

Cover your tracks?

Ian thinks: The EFF highlights how fingerprinting works using your own browser data. It seems so harmless but the site runs you through the identifying information and how unique you are to advertisers. Its eye opening and worth 5 minutes of your time.

Is Biden right in his warning of ‘tech-industrial complex’ and oligarchy undercutting US democracy?

Ian thinks: There has been a lot said about Biden’s last words before handing over to the trump presidency. I found the German broadcasters summary pretty good in explaining what a tech oligarchy means for us all. Also worth listening to Tech won’t save us deeper discussion on the same point.

Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to the future

Ian thinks: This letter beautifully written and read for us in the future, has a lot to think about right now. Quoting @andtobin’s comment for the video… “Kurt Vonnegut, always having the right of it. Benedict Cumberbatch, always reiterating the message perfectly.”

Luddites with mechanical eyes?

Ian thinks: Although Marx has talked about the Luddites term in the past, this updated insight is worth hearing, as written in his Futurism post. Looking and understanding of systems and technology like a mechanic is key to the decisions of these so called Luddites. I would describe it similarly to how hackers see the world.

Swiping to see if your home still exists

Ian thinks: A conversation between Sinek and Mills is emotional but digs deep into the problems of competition and true metrics. Although an American focus, there is a lot learn from this interview, especially around the importance of public services. We all need more of this.

Charlie LLM meets your Solid pod?

Ian thinks: This update from Tim Berners-Lee is a positive sign towards an AI agent using only your controllable data. I would still like to see Solid, use the human data interaction guidelines, as this would bring a level of autonomy to everything. However, one step at a time?

Nations fall without women rights

Ian thinks: The more sexist a nation the more fragile the nation is the core message in this economist short documentary. Its pretty self evident but this pulls together a lot of research from across the world. This is a message which isn’t getting through, especially with the recent call for more masculine energy. Its time this changed!

How we fell in love with plastic?

Ian thinks: This podcast, although obvious in nature doesn’t just chart how we got so in love with plastics but also delves deep into what we should do. Focusing on making the polluters pay, it pulls together a number of high profiles legal cases and points the way to change our love for plastics.

The second renaissance: A matrix fan fiction

Ian thinks: The matrix is already well established and a clear warning when looking at the current AI resolution. This fan fiction is striking and right on point as another warning of where we are and where we may end up if things are left to fear and ego.

Find the archive here