Henson Razors are engineered to give a spectacular shave with dirt-cheap generic blades, and it's on sale “Razors are one of the most heavily and competitively marketed products in American capitalism. Made with steel and plastic that costs a few pennies but sold for a thousand-percent profit, the razor market is the subject of vigorous academic study and debate. The founder of Gillette famously came up with a model of basically giving away the razor handle so he could sell the blades. Canadian startup Henson has the opposite model, charging $79 for a razor that can give you an excellent shave with dirt-cheap disposable blades that cost about 15 cents each.” I've not used one of these Henson razors yet, but seeing I have been using safety razors and DE blades for the last 15 years or so, I can attest to it costing a lot less than cartridge razors, the shave is pretty good, and it takes about the same time. It should be a no-brainer, but the Gillette PR machine has so many people convinced that they need the latest vibrating 8-blade razor. Two tips I can give with wet shaving with double-edged blades, is not to skimp on the quality of the razor as you're going to use it for decades, and the other is to buy a blade sample pack. The reason for the sample pack is, everyone's skin is different, and razors have differing aggressiveness angles, as do the blades. With those three factors, you want to find the sweet spot. A sample pack helps you test a few popular blades out with your razor. Of course, this type of shaving opens up all sorts of opportunities for gifts from razor stands, to custom handles, to shaving soaps (yes you don't want to use aerosol shaving cream anymore), to shaving scuttles, and so on. It becomes a whole hobby in itself. I was also pleasantly surprised to see in the last month, quite a few youngsters asking on Reddit about how they could get started with traditional wet shaving, as well as one lady who wanted to convert her spouse to it as well. So it is ever-growing, as can be seen from the number of artisans making shaving soaps, handles, razors, etc. I can safely say (that's a pun, by the way) that I will never ever go back to multi-blade cartridge razor shaving. Sorry Gillette. See #technology #retro #traditionalwetshaving
Pikimov is a free video editor that runs entirely in your browser “Pikimov is a free, browser-based motion design and video editing tool developed by Clément Cordier as an alternative to Adobe After Effects. You don’t have to download anything, and you don’t even have to create an account to use the entire app. However, you are encouraged to support the project via Patreon. Just like After Effects, Pikimov uses layer-based editing, a composition system, and a familiar panel layout. So anyone coming from AE should feel right at home, and its simplicity will feel like a breath of fresh air compared to Resolve. Pikimov is the perfect tool for anyone who wants to create animations or edit videos but doesn’t have the hardware, doesn’t want to pay a subscription, or doesn’t have the patience for learning heavyweight tools.” I was actually a bit lost trying to use it, but I'm more used to DaVInci Resolve and Kdenlive video editors, and have never used Adobe After Effects. But seeing it all runs locally in my browser (versus uploading to the cloud) it actually loaded my test video very quickly and scrubbing through it was very quick as well. It says it runs in Chrome and Edge browsers, but it did not load in my Brave browser. It did however load fine in my Vivaldi browser. But it does show again how incredibly powerful browsers can be, and I do like the local first, no account registration needed. See #technology #videoediting
This new Steam game lets you dissect and repair an Atari 2600 “If you're someone who likes dissecting every piece of technology that you come across, especially older retro tech, then keep an eye on this newly revealed Steam game. At the Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards 2025 Edition indie game showcase, I Am Future developer Mandragora and Hello Neighbor publisher tinyBuild revealed ReStory, which is set to launch on Steam in 2026.” I needed this game back in the early 1980s, as I remember taking our family TV apart to build an oscilloscope. The oscilloscope worked, but the TV did not, and my dad had to get a TV technician to repair the TV. Back then, we also did not have smartphones to take photos of things as you were removing their insides. See #technology #gaming #retro
4 productivity Docker containers that don't require 24/7 runtime Yes, these services need not be run 24/7, just when you actually want to use them. It's true, too, that BentoPDF is way lighter on resources than SterlingPDF, but with it's zero-knowledge and ultra-light footprint it also remembers nothing. So, if moving between PDF tools, you will need to save the PDF and re-open it in the next tool to work further. If they could introduce some local persistence, it could be a great tool. The services covered are: * Excalidraw * BentoPDF * Budget Board * BookLore See #technology #selhosting #opensource
The Intel N100 killed the Raspberry Pi for home servers Yes, Pi prices have gone up, as have requirements for hosting a few services. I already found myself migrating off my original Pi, and even my Intel NUC device as a home server. It is worth keeping in mind what your requirements are vs the total cost of ownership. See #technology #raspberrypi #selfhosting
8 tiny open source utilities that can instantly make your Linux desktop feel faster I'd not heard of these apps before, so would be interested to hear if anyone has had good experiences with them? * Zram-generator * Preload * Profile-sync-daemon * Ananicy-cpp * Nohang * Wl-clipboard * FSearch (had heard of this one) * Vicinae See #technology #Linux #opensource
I tried this text adventure game from 1977, and it was better than I expected Back in the early days, before graphics and even block graphics, we had text adventure games. This sort of goes back to the dial-up bulletin board days. They were actually a lot of fun, and one of the reasons why was, because we used our imagination instead of 4K graphics on a plate. Even my Hewlett-Packard HP-41CV programmable calculator had a great text adventure game called Hunt the Wumpus, where you had to navigate 20 interconnected caves with pits, bats, and try to find and shoot the Wumpus. See #technology #gaming #retro
Big Microsoft 365 price increases coming next year This should also be a call to those of us (personal or organisations) who have been using free and open source alternatives such as LibreOffice, FreeOffice, ONLYOFFICE, and many others for the last decade or two, to make a small donation to those projects for keeping their office suites free and open source, as well as free of vendor lock-in. See #technology #opensource
The Rest Is History has received the 2025 Apple Podcasts Award for Show of the Year “The Rest Is History does a phenomenal job in taking a subject as vast as human history and captivating a global audience,” said Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Apple Sports, and Beats. “Tom and Dominic have created something special that represents the very best of what's possible with podcasting — it's educational, it's hilarious, and it has fostered a true sense of community.” It is worth noting though if you are not using Apple Podcasts, it is available for free elsewhere too. I did a search in my AntennaPod podcast player and found it. Just look for The Rest is History by Goalhanger. See #technology #podcasts #history
Been waiting for this! Proton now has a Google Sheets clone with end-to-end encryption Spreadsheets are finally rolling out over the next few days for Proton users. I actually use spreadsheets more often than documents, for product comparisons or purchase decisions. So this is something that has been holding me back a bit from using Proton Drive more fully. Yes, the feature set is going to be rather minimal right now compared to more mature products, and it also is not (yet) exporting to ODF format. "Proton Sheets is protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that no one else, not even Proton, can access your spreadsheet and the information it contains. Whether you’re tracking your home budget or managing a multi-team project, Sheets can help you get the job done. Use built-in formulas to perform analysis, turn raw data into easily understood charts, and collaborate with remote teams knowing your information is safe." See #technology #privacy #spreadsheets