Tech on KemoNine's Blog

Non 'Smart' E-Reader File Naming and Reading Time

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2026-04-02: Initial publication

Background

For many months I’ve been trying to migrate away from my Boox Palma. I’ve had it for pushing 3 years now (I think, definitely over 2 years now) and the Android updates have stopped. This worries me because the Android version is old enough now to risk going unsupported by Google. This won’t happen ‘soon’ but it will happen. For me this is A Problem. That said: I adore the Boox devices and still strongly recommend them if you’re ok with an Android based device.

Dictionary Shenanigans

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2026-03-30: Initial publication

A Critical Note

I live in America, I’m a career programmer and I have horrific health problems.

Normally I’d assume folk know what that means but I need to be explicit: this means my survival requires me to have a practical, useful and ‘reasonable’ understanding of Generative AI. Particularly models that programmers use.

Self Hosted Search

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2026-03-10: Initial publication

Preface

This blog post is the result of two humans bringing up self-hosted search within days of each other. I was curious and ended up dancing with the Red Queen.

This post will discuss two options I find useful for self-hosted search and my thoughts regarding both. However, it must be noted: this is a wholly different approach to search than going to some big name (Google / Bing / Duck Duck Go / Others) search engine and casting about the internet.

KOReader

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2026-03-11: Add section about reading statistics 2026-03-07; Initial publication

Preface

I’ve been eyeing the XTeink X4 for awhile now but the whole ’no book metadata browser’ gave me significant pause for quite some time. Historically I’ve used readers like the Kobo Clara HD, Moon+ Reader Pro and Librera Reader which provide me a good way of viewing books by tags, series and similar metadata which I rely on to filter my ’to read’ list.

Phone Alert Forwarding

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2025-12-07: Initial publication

Context

Historically I’ve been Not Fond of traditional telco services (sms/mms, phone calls, voicemail) as they are strongly tied to a specific device and it’s next to impossible to work with them from multiple devices. Signal, XMPP, Telegram, Matrix, Delta.Chat and others don’t suffer this problem. I can link up multiple devices and work with the data freely.

Rose-Thorn-Bud Obsidian Vault

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Figure 1: Rose, Thorn, Bud quick reference

Changelog

2025-08-20: Initial publication

Rose, Thorn, Bud

First some context and background before getting to my thoughts.

The Rose, Thorn, Bud mindfulness exercise is designed to get you to think about the day’s events. It’s basically a mini journal entry.

Old School PDA

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Some History

Recently a friend got me thinking about the old Palm Pilot, Sony Clie and Handspring Visor PDA’s (personal data assistant) and how they were particulary useful.

They existed prior to having the internet always at-hand, they are very focused environments, they use a stylus for text entry which mimicks writing in a notebook and there were a ton of great apps available.

They worked ridiculously well as pocket notebooks, date books, todo list managers, course work managers and a hell of a lot more. I should know, I had a Sony Clie during my Uni years and it’s the reason I didn’t wash out or fail out of Uni. I relied on the Clie heavily and it truly was a second brain for me.

Digital Drawing

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Going Digital

Given I gave up on Analog coloring and drawing due to health and living space needs, I figured it was time to really commit to figuring out digital for coloring and drawing. Note I intentionally avoided making desktop or laptop computers a requirement for my setup. I want to have this whenever/wherever in it’s simplest form.

A Digital Anti Bad Habit Notebook

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Analog Version

This post is about the digital anti bad habit notebook. For an analog version implemented as a pocket notebook, see this post.

The Post

Not going to lie : I have a few bad habits and have used my analog anti bad habit notebook to break some in teh past.

Sadly, I can no longer reliably use analog methods for my notes and similar. Due to this I went ahead and re-implemented the anti bad habit analog notebook as an Obsidian vault. So far it’s proven very helpful for tracking a bad habit I want to break and should work well for pretty much any “bad habit” one may want to break.

How I Computer

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What’s Within?

This post contains a breakdown of how I use a computer, laptop and phone. I’ve made some significant changes over the last few years due to worsening health hassles. Everything here has been iterated over time in order to create a compute environment that makes my life easier to manage. Especially when my my health hassles are at their worst.

Feel free to borrow ideas, adapt things and generally use the contents of this post as you see fit. As always: this is a highly individual approach to computering. Take what works, leave the rest.

On Writing Digitally

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It would seem I’ve regained the ability to write more frequently and regularly despite my health hassles

My Preference

Normally I write posts for this blog by hand using a pen, Tomoe River paper and a clipboard. Sadly, my health hassles make this approach to writing very difficult and I do not have the capacity to write using analog methods regularly or reliably. Over the last few years I’ve had to patiently wait for windows when my health hassles doesn’t interfere with my writing. With analog I have to slowly write blog posts over the course of weeks and sometimes months. It’s quite frustrating but I enjoy writing and refuse to give it up, even if frustrated by my health hassles.

How I Research

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What’s Within?

This post lays out how I research topics. I’ve struggled with “research” in the past and, thanks to a friend, finally figured out a methodology that actually works for me. This post goes through my methodology, how I use it with success and the details needed to recreate and/or adapt it.

What / Why / How

Important Context

Over the years I never really figured out how to research a topic properly. Basically if I needed to research anything I just sort of went digging around the internet, read books, read published articles and similar but didn’t really take notes or create summaries or similar. At best I’d catalog very basic snippets that I could turn into something actually useful at a later date.

My notebook & organizer journey

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What’s Within?

Within is a walk through of all things analog and digital that I put together to be effective with notebooks and organizers. Things I’ve cataloged, setup, used, tinkered with and more. It even includes the how and why of my personal needs, preferences and opinions.

In short: it’s a very long breakdown of everything that actually works for me as well as many things that didn’t work for me. Think “Kemo’s Notebook & Organizer Autobiography”.

Health Hassle Handwriting

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Editors note: KemoNine wrote this post before realizing they had already written Digital Writing Tablet Mini Review 3 ish months ago. Some information below overlaps with the prior blog post but the core of this particular post is how KemoNine is using a drawing tablet day to day for handwriting.

Prelude

Let’s get this out of the way up front: I am a pen and paper human at heart. Despite being labeled a ’tech nerd’ I use pen and paper as a default medium. I do have some health hassles (read: serious, chronic health issues) that prevent me from using pen and paper with the frequency I desire and, arguably, need in order to stay on top of daily life and more.

MS VC++ Redist As Non Admin User

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The below is an amazing trick for working around the need for an updated Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable runtime on a Windows machine where you do not have admin rights. It’s not ideal (you have to copy the dlls to every app folder) but it will let you run apps that need a more recent runtime than the system admin of your computer has installed.

This process was tested with Saber which I use for note taking at my $dayJob.

Digital Art Composition Book

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2024-12-01: Significant edits to add clarity, information and more to this post. A basic re-write.

A Problem

One of my biggest ‘problems’ with digital art is the fact it has more constraints than non-digital (analog) art. When working with analog art I usually have a sketch book and some kind of composition book or journal handy so I can cross reference ideas with my actual drawing or reference materials. With digital, all this falls apart and becomes A Problem as digital forces less ‘scattered about the pages’ and more ‘hierarchical folder and file structure’.

Samsung XCover6 Pro Rugged Phone Mini Review

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

2025-04-24: Add Koamtac accessories and information based on 6 months of regular use. Also cleanup text some.
2024-09-02: Initial Post

Prelude

I’ve used rugged phones and other rugged electronic devices since ~2009. I’ve worked in the trades as a career. I’ve worked truly Dirty Jobs. I used to write custom firmware for rugged phones including the Samsung Rugby Smart, Samsung Rugby Pro and Kyocera DuraForce. I’ve been hired to work on Android firmware for rugged phones by companies creating Android phones (OEMs).

Android Tuning

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Prelude

I’ve been sitting on this post for awhile (read: months) as I wanted to write something longer, robust and full of detail how I worked through re-thinking how I engage with my portable compute devices like my Samsung Z Fold 4 and Boox Palma. Annoyingly the re-think of my Android devices triggered a much deeper re-think of how I approach ‘focused time’ and some other things. The bigger re-think is a super set of the information I hoped to put forth here and, frankly, I’d rather use my few spoons and energies to just write the ’total re-think of compute’ blog post.

Digital Writing Tablet Mini Review

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This post is about 2 different writing tablets. The Wacom One and XP Pen G430S. Both are very small drawing tablets.

I bought both of these recently to help me with note taking on my computer. For my $dayJob I do a lot of implementation work and I regularly receive PDF specifications that I need to annotate. I’m also a remote worker (work from home) so I can’t just print the files and use a pen to annotate. I also can’t ‘break the glass’ in terms of moving data between my $dayJob environment and personal environment so I need some kind of drawing tablet so I can annotate PDFs as part of my job duties. I also need competent note taking software with a focus on handwritten notes as well as a tablet that has enough precision to allow me to write in cursive or printing within my chosen note taking application.

Web Content As A Primary Media Source

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A workflow dedicated to reading web content

Over the last 15-20 years I’ve kept up a reading habit that is driven by only content I find online. I read an average of 10-20 “articles” per day and they range from single panel comics to forum threads to blog posts to mainstream news. If it looks interesting, I’m likely going to read it at some point.

If that seems like an absurd amount of reading day to day: it is! But! I do not consume much television, movie or other video content. It’s incredibly rare for me to sit and watch video of my own volition. I’ll go as far as skipping video content when I come across it. Yes, I’m “different” and “weird” about video and I genuinely don’t give a shit ; video isn’t for me.

Xaiomi Mi Band 7 Review

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

TLDR

The Mi Band 7 should be a top consideration for anyone considering a smart watch or a fitness tracker. The only potential ‘problem’ is the software can be fiddly to setup but works incredibly well despite setup hassles.

For full details and thoughts, continue reading.

The Hardware

The device itself is setup to look more like a bracelet than watch when worn. It has a similar look to the bracelet styled fitness trackers. The screen takes up the whole device face and is very ‘smart watch’ in style for the UI. It’s also got a few built in apps and tiles that make using the device feel more like a basic smart watch than simple fitness or health tracker. It’s a wonderful midpoint between a simple bracelet fitness tracker and full smart watch.

Boox Palma (e-reader) Review

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Prelude

Awhile ago I spent some time reviewing how I read books, news and random internet articles day to day. My goal was to bring a Kobo Clara HD back into regular use as I greatly prefer e-ink displays for reading. As with most things in my life, a “straight forward tech rework” was just the beginning of something far bigger.

I read a lot: an average of one hour plus per day with some days being over four hours of reading. I also cannot listen to audio books due to some speech processing and memory issues. Nor do I watch much video as it can cause me to turn into “a lump” that’s borderline catatonic. Video also does not relax me or help me unwind, recenter, or similar. It’s a pure time killer that has zero benefit for my physical or mental well being on the whole.

The Chargie and Happy Batteries

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Figure 1: The Chargie

The Chargie

The Chargie is a small piece of hardware that’ll allow you to tune the way electronic devices are charged. It’s designed to let you only charge a device to a specific percentage as well as block data during charging. It’s basically a hardware ‘battery life saver’ for your phone, tablet and other devices that can run their app (Android and iOS, click the above thumbnail for what the app looks like).

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Mini Review

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For the last 18 months or so I’ve been using a OnePlus 8T and Microsoft Surface Duo. As of this writing, I’m now using a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 as my only device. Why?

Because Samsung got it right when it comes to an adaptable device.

This quote, unquote phone is a phone, tablet and laptop for me. It is a converged form of every mobile device I’ve used to date, including a laptop.

Android org-agenda

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Preface

I’ve written in the past about my Digital Bullet Journal setup (link) and how I’ve come to use it as my primary organizational system. Unfortunately, until very recently, I always had a disconnect between my phone and org-mode.

Historically I’ve kept a ‘churning’ area of my to do list on my phone that sync’s to my desktop. It was a daily list of stuff I wanted to get done as well as things I thought of over the course of a day. Kind of like a slip box that was disconnected from all of my org-mode data, including my daily habit tracking. The setup was great for the daily churn but really hard to tie into org in a low friction way for me.

Tech on KemoNine's Blog

Non 'Smart' E-Reader File Naming and Reading Time

Table of Contents

Changelog

Background

Dictionary Shenanigans

Table of Contents

Changelog

A Critical Note

Self Hosted Search

Table of Contents

Changelog

Preface

KOReader

Table of Contents

Changelog

Preface

Phone Alert Forwarding

Table of Contents

Changelog

Context

Rose-Thorn-Bud Obsidian Vault

Table of Contents

Changelog

Rose, Thorn, Bud

Old School PDA

Some History

Digital Drawing

Table of Contents

Going Digital

A Digital Anti Bad Habit Notebook

Analog Version

The Post

How I Computer

What’s Within?

On Writing Digitally

My Preference

How I Research

What’s Within?

Table of Contents

What / Why / How

Important Context

My notebook & organizer journey

What’s Within?

Health Hassle Handwriting

Prelude

MS VC++ Redist As Non Admin User

Digital Art Composition Book

Changelog

A Problem

Samsung XCover6 Pro Rugged Phone Mini Review

Changelog

Prelude

Android Tuning

Prelude

Digital Writing Tablet Mini Review

Web Content As A Primary Media Source

A workflow dedicated to reading web content

Xaiomi Mi Band 7 Review

TLDR

The Hardware

Boox Palma (e-reader) Review

Prelude

The Chargie and Happy Batteries

The Chargie

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Mini Review

Android org-agenda

Preface