About
Thanks for reading TechZerker!
I'm Scott, a Canadian tech professional in the industry since 2005. I have been passionate about technology long before it became my profession, starting off with an Apple IIC back in the early 90's!
Portrait created by: Peter @ Rock Paper Cynic
Through the 90’s and early 2000’s, I was raised and educated on the dominant windows platform and systems. As a working professional, I spent several years around the launch of Windows 8 as a staunch Microsoft fan, including carrying and promoting multiple Windows Phones (Nokia 520, 1020, 1520 and 950 XL). As the era of Windows Phone came to a crashing and burning end, I moved aggressively into Linux for all things. I’ve carried a range of iPhones and Androids, Linux distro-hopped with a long stint on Arch Linux w/i3wm, and finally settling long term on Fedora.
In my heavy Linux years until recently, I did all my PC gaming on Linux systems, no windows or dual booting at all, and self-hosted a large variety of my day to day services. A lot of this was driven by a hyper focus on controlling my data and privacy concerns, but without an angle of the time commitment or my own threat profile.
As of late, as we’ve exited the worst of the pandemic, I’ve done a few rounds of re-evaluating my tech and general daily workflow. A lot of my workflow has returned to Pen & Paper (Bullet Journal, Note Card Antinet), and utilizing the ideals of Digitial Minimalism I’ve re-focused my tools. I am not a die-hard Apple fan, but I trust their privacy focus more than the alternatives without the time commitment of self hosting services, and I keep my sensitive data contained within Proton services.
My main digital systems now are my iPhone 13 Pro, with the essential apps (minimal), no games or endless scroll time vortexes, paired with my iPad Pro 12.9” (4th Gen) as my main workstation, paired with a good keyboard and mouse. My old heavy ASUS Republic of Gamers laptop is around yet, with Fedora Linux 26 installed, but it’s rarely powered on, with my gaming needs focusing on: – PlayStation 5 – Nintendo Switch – iPad Pro w/Apple Arcade
I created TechZerker years back, when I was full-on Microsoft, first as a tech news and reviews site (running on WordPress). Once I decided that was not a passion for me, I evolved the site to be a all around personal site. Given my work, it is tech heavy, but is a place to write and discuss all my efforts and interests, such as from History, to Stoicism, Classic Cars, Motorsports, Photography and more. I am a heavy believer of use what works for you and have no tolerance for harassment, or the toxicity that surfaces in several communities.
With the help of the Digital Minimalism efforts, I have become very aware of the world addicted to phones, scrolling feeds, likes and shares without any genuine interaction. Hosting this site via the Write.As platform, you won’t find any of those features here, I encourage genuine and intelligent discussion, through Mastodon and the linked Remark.As platform. Any public photography I delve into sharing will be found on the linked Snap.As platform linked to my services.
Thanks for reading, your time is appreciated.
Here are the most common ways to reach me:
Mastodon: @TechZerker@fosstodon.org
Site Navigation
A few short notes about some of the sections on this site, beyond the main regular posts and articles:
Blogroll
As was common in the earlier days of the web, when it was more open and less platform centralized, I've added a Blogroll page. The Blogroll is a quick listing of various blogs and other sites I follow and find interesting. The intent from the era of Blogrolls is if you come my way because of something I wrote, you can organically see others I follow, and find other similar interests without an algorithm telling you who ( is most profitable) for you to see or follow. As I find other writers and organizations that interest me, I'll update the Blogroll with new entries, and likely write a post about any new additions to highlight them.
Reading
Inspired by a few other blogs I follow, I liked the idea of having a basic public reading list, as another way to share and collaborate. It makes for an easy location to show what I am currently reading, what I have read in the past (although that will take time to backfill!), and also a collection of all the “want to read” selections that I'll add to as I see recommendations elsewhere. If it helps encourage me to improve my reading habits, great! Otherwise, if it helps you expand your own reading lists or discover new authors to follow and support, that is the ultimate goal. Where I can, my intention on the reading list is to link out as often as possible, to non-Amazon stores where you can find many of these books, not necessarily to be anti-amazon, but at least to give some exposure to competitors and give them a fighting chance vs. the gorilla in the book-selling room.
Privacy & Advertising
As part of operating this site, hosted on Write.As and it's ideals, it has no Likes, Hearts or Quick Shares. You can contact me above for a genuine discussion.
For privacy, it has no identity tracking or data gathering mechanisms. I use Duck Duck Go's tools and regularly check my own site to make sure I have not unintentionally violated this.
The only type of advertising you will ever find here will be direct old fashion referral links in plain text. These links will only be present if it flows well with the writing as to not disrupt the reading experience. If any of those referrals ever actually turn a profit, I will always make sure a portion goes back to donations to open source projects like WriteFreely.org.
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