Johan Bové

Looking for a new phone, but you're holding back because of the environmental impact? There is a solution with Fairphone.

I've had my FP3 for over three years now and it still works great.

I was even able to upgrade  the cameras in the phone myself by ordering the parts (yes, FairPhone made better camera modules available after the phone was released!) and opening up the phone and installing everything back in place with a couple (about 13) of screws.

Comes with easily replaceable battery, screen, speaker and other modules. Just look at that beautiful 10/10 Ifixit rating!

The phone seems a bit more pricey at first glance, but if you consider that you can probably use the same phone for double the time you would with a cheap, non-sustainable alternative, it is worth the investment.

PLUS Fairphone will make sure to provide your phone with software updates much longer than any other phone manufacturer. And if you don't like Google's default Android install there are options to install an alternative, privacy focused, operating system with minimal effort.

PLUS Fairphone makes sure to resource as many raw materials from responsible sources as possible and is also making sure that the people building the phones and working in the factories get decent wages and can enjoy better work-life balances.

By getting a FairPhone you're joining a growing movement of people who actually give a F*** on what tech does to our World.

Sounds good, right? I thought so too.

You can get yours with a €50 discount by following this link:

http://fairphone.refr.cc/johanbove

Yes, this is a referral program post. (I get €25 off my next purchase if somebody goes through the whole thing - not really why I am posting this) But I am honestly really happy with mine and just wanted to promote Fairphone and their work more. And if you can get started with a nice discount, then why not?

What is Fairphone about? See below in this great introduction video:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/SoeXLVvfpVQ

I got a Surface Pro 3 in February 2015 and today it is still my main personal computer. Thanks to Microsoft Windows 10's commitment and performance improvements I was able to get by until today.

The device IS getting old however. The fan is spinning constantly and the battery life is just enough to shut it down when the power would drop. Surprisingly the 8GB Ram and 256GB SDRAM are still sufficient.

Most of the slow experience I get is regarding CPU.

If I get new hardware it'll probably won't  be a laptop anymore as I only sit at a desk to work on it.

Why do I believe Gemini is great for personal Internet presences? First of all, it's a real grass-roots initiative which I am very excited about.

If you're reading this, chances are high you are already using Gemini. But for history reasons and to share my opinions of Gemini I would like to offer you here some views of mine.

Collecting some of the strong-points of Gemini from my perspective of having some experience with Gopher and running personal websites.

Fast and lightweight

• It's very easy on the system resources. So the protocol works really well on slower hardware without any problems. Hosting on a Raspberry Pi3 is easy-peasy.
• Since there are no fancy design in Gemini capsules, it is really optimized for low bandwidth.
• It should work really fine on a feature-phone, like for KaiOS. I don't believe there is a client yet for KaiOs at this time.
• It's fairly easy to build clients and servers for the protocol.

Simple yet complete

• The specifications provide enough functionality to do basically what you would expect to be able to do online.
• Much lower learning curve compared to Gopher and HTML. You can start publishing Gemini pages within minutes.
• Even-though the syntax is limited, it still gives enough playroom for creative expression.
• Use of TLS certificates promises security and privacy.
• It is more international than US-centric Gopher.
• The procol supports the UTF-8 character set so any language can be used to publish sites in.
• This should help make the protocol more popular in non-ascii wielding regions in the World.

Easy to publish

• Content will be probably first of all stored in static text files which are future-proof and easy to maintain.
• Many servers already available that require minimal technical skills.
• Yes, you still need a server, but there are many collectives which you can join to facilitate this.

Focus

• No popups, animations, videos, sound effects.
• Focus on actual content instead of fluff and effects.
• No advertisemens and commercial tracking.
• No Facebook, Google or Twitter.

Accessible

• Power of formatting goes into the clients or readers. Like in the good old days of the early Web, people are expected to style the content to their own liking.
• It's pure text, has simple navigation rules, so should be great for people with disabilities.
• No JavaScript so you really see what you get.

And on top of this, the young Gemini community is driven to make this a success!

I'm sold.

ps. I published this first in plain text on my Gemini capsule and now that I copy paste this into a HTML document I can really tell just how easy it is to publish on Gemini.

Pretty proud that I was able to replace the camera modules in my #FairPhone 3 with the latest camera upgrades.

It is really awesome how Fairphone made a truly up-gradable phone possible and they made it really easy to take apart the phone.

The process does require steady hands and some nerve to execute. Detaching the screen from the frame was exciting. You need to get everything to "click" and not "break".

Everything came apart as planned and taking out the old modules and putting in the new was no issue. I did forget to take away one of the blueish protective covers of the front-facing camera module, after I had put the phone back together. So I had the exercise of taking apart the phone twice.

Followed the instructions from Fairphone themselves

The old modules are on their way to IFixit in Stuttgart Germany for refurbishment or recycling.

My Surface Pro 3 is turning five years old soon and I still use it as my main machine, albeit not on-the-go as the battery life is abominably bad. And today Microsoft is coming out with the latest edition in this neat little PC, the Surface Pro 7 and i'm thinking ... darn, that is a super sleek, non-upgradeable, fancy super-portable PC, should I upgrade?

And then I reconsider because for a while now, we have this whole sustainabibility - thing going on and since absolutely nothing in this new Microsoft hardware is upgradeable or even repairable, I am empowering my inner Earth-loving self and deciding to NOT get seduced for the fancy-pance glued down hardware.