Blog Article
Recovering Redacted Content It’s Scary How Easy It Is
Recovering Redacted Content It’s Scary How Easy It Is Blurred and pixelated images can often be reverse-engineered to reveal censored details, making them unreliable for secure redaction. Black bar redaction in digital documents are not foolproof despite being industry standard; hidden text can be retrieved using simple software tools. Proper redaction involves using the right tools for the job, but can go as far as printing, physically cutting out portions, and rescanning in 2-bit. I censor images and documents everyday as part of my job.
August 13, 2024
An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Effective Time-Tracking
A good tool improves the way you work. A great tool improves the way you think. - Jeff Duntemann Maybe you’ve heard of time-tracking tools; perhaps you’ve even tried a couple. Today, we’re taking a closer look at the benefits, the challenges, and how anyone can find a system that works for them. Why You Should Time Track A quick Google search reveals dozens of time-tracking solutions on the market. When I started my time-tracking journey, it was difficult to choose between the various features and price points.
August 8, 2024
I’ve Time Tracked for a Week, what I’ve Learnt Made Me Uncomfortable
I’ve started time-tracking 2 weeks ago after being inspired by the Cortex Podcast by Mike and CGP Grey. Why? Humans are poor judges of how we spend our time. We overestimate the time spent productively while severely underestimating the amount of dead time, or transition time in-between tasks. Ever since I’ve finished my postgraduate studies, I’ve been filling up my hours as best as I can. Despite my best efforts, I always feel like I’m short of time. There are plenty of projects that need completing and new habits to be formed, and yet 24 hours is not enough for my typical day.
June 25, 2024
Doom Emacs A Text Editing Playground I didn’t Know I Needed
After migrating my notes to Notion, the names Emacs and Org-mode appeared constantly in threads, podcasts, and forums. Though I knew the destination, embarking on expeditions into different productivity systems is an inevitable part of the journey. A straightforward note-taking system expanded into task management, calendars, and time-tracking solutions. The toll on my wallet is substantial, a practice I heavily discourage. To maintain my sanity, I reassured myself that playing with software is a cheaper hobby compared to more extravagant pursuits like cameras and cars. Plus, the benefits of increased productivity and the self-discovery intrinsic to each platform migration more than justify the costs sunk into this hobby. But still, I find it hard to justify the expenditure, even though I’m supporting developers and their work.
March 22, 2024
Guide to Publishing to HugoJekyll Remotely via iOS
Hugo excels at desktop publishing. I can create files using CLIs or markdown editors, then publish to a Github repository. This directly reflects on the website through Netlify, Cloudflare Pages or Vercel. However, publishing from my phone is not as straightforward. I have a micropost section on my website, intended to be a Twitter replacement, where I share posts that are: Short Contain photos taken from my phone Can be published quickly I initially thought that the only feasible way to publish using my phone was via Micropub. This is evident in direct integrations with writing apps such as Ulysses, iA Writer and Paper.
February 25, 2024
Changing Jobs for the 8th Time
Changing Jobs for the Eighth Time Where Am I Heading? I’m currently embarking on a new venture, CoThinking, a marketing firm specialising in the B2B tech marketing sector. My return to Innov8tif is a transitionary measure, with the management there providing substantial support to help with the company launch. Why the Change? Now, at 28, I’ve spent a significant part of my adult life transitioning between jobs in search of a company to which I can fully commit. (Like Zhu Ge Liang waiting for a Liu Bei, as my high school friend once put it.)
February 15, 2024
Omnifocus is not a Todo App, it’s a Can Do App
I made the switch from Things (my main app for 3 years) to OF4 after learning about David Sparks and CGP Grey’s approach to task management. My issue with most to-do apps is that they are time-based, whether it’s assigning a date or using time-blocking/calendar hybrids. This method is poor at task recovery. My workdays are unpredictable and get disrupted all the time. Unfinished tasks today get rolled over to tomorrow, and tomorrow to the day after tomorrow, and so on. The only time-based app that does task recovery well is Skedpal, but it’s expensive, ugly and requires a lot of configuring to use effectively.
February 11, 2024
Why Am I Migrating to Micro.blog
This is my 7th blog migration now—away from WordPress, Obsidian Publish, Super.so, Ghost, Substack & Hugo. Admittedly, it’s a form of procrastination. Spending more time messing around with websites means less time producing content. But I don’t think it’s time wasted. I’ve learned a lot about web hosting and publishing with each content migration, and I believe that Micro.blog is just one part of a long journey ahead. Motive I love sharing, but I dislike social media Micro.blog is part of the IndieWeb & Fediverse movement, where the key idea is to have content ownership in the hands of users. By committing to social media platforms, I’ll lock myself into walled gardens where content is difficult to migrate and control. Moreover, it creates bad incentives—such as paying for exposure, preying on people’s insecurities, and developing addictive time-sink features. Pure blogging isn’t right for me either. The 6 blogging platforms mentioned above have one big challenge— Reach. Despite hosting content on my own domain, I find myself still sharing them on platforms like LinkedIn & Facebook to get some semblance of visitor traction. Solutions like RSS feeds & email subscriptions aim to help with that, but the “marketing” aspect of publishing can’t be ignored. Hence, I find myself maintaining several platforms instead of one, while facing the same aforementioned walled garden problems. How I Came across Micro.Blog I first heard of webmentions while configuring the Anubis Theme for Hugo.
February 4, 2024
Why I Chose Hugo for My Personal Website
Having my own website is essential to me. Being an online lurker for so long, I have often regretted not contributing more to the internet space rather than just passive consumption. However, I disliked the idea of posting on social media and contributing towards data-hungry big tech corporations. Hence, building a site on a custom domain is my way of carving out a small slice of the internet I can call my own.
January 22, 2024
18 Months Being a Marketing Manager
I lead a small team of three. Though small, this department is an important one and has an undeniable impact on the company and the industry. We are marketers on paper but also organisers, data analysts, salesmen, IT experts, culture builders, content creators and even automation engineers. I don’t have a marketing background, hence the word “marketing” always had a bad rep in my mind—and for good reason. It’s a word associated with deceit and manipulation.
January 21, 2024
How Competitive Shooters Made Me a Better Leader
It’s easy to chalk up e-sports as just children’s pastime. But like any other sport, it takes a lot of practice, skills, and talent to be highly competitive—even more so within a team setting. After more than a decade of playing competitive shooters, I come to appreciate the mental gymnastics, teamwork and quick decision-making needed to reach the top of the leaderboards. These values have also helped shaped my career as a B2B marketing manager.
January 20, 2024
Will ChatGPT Replace Writers
A few weeks back, an old friend asked me this over some pints. “Do you think ChatGPT will replace us one day?” Both of us are from the creative industry, initially assumed to be technologically resilient. But like truck drivers with self-driving vehicles, it is now our heads at risk of the chopping block. By now, most readers are well aware of the disruptive capabilities of ChatGPT. OpenAI and their counterparts have been making inroads within the generative A.I. space, mainly for text, images and code. With rapid development within this space, is it a cause for concern for the average knowledge worker?
January 14, 2024
Plight of the Malaysian Young Adults
I had a discussion with a friend about rising property prices. Both of us are in our late 20s. “We have it tough. During our parent’s time, homes could be bought with cash. The economy was booming back then, and that’s how affordable houses were.” Someone older heard us and came over. “Yeah, but have you seen current interest rates? You young people have it easier. Housing loans are so cheap now, and easier to obtain.”
January 1, 2024
I’ve Experimented with Personal Productivity for 18 Months. here’s what I’ve Learnt
I am obsessed with productivity systems. From Ali Abdaal to James Clear, Keep Productive to Cal Newport… task apps, calendars, daily planners, and personal knowledge management—if it exists in the Apple ecosystem, chances are I’ve tried it before. Have I become more productive after this exercise? Yes! I can’t imagine going back to the life of drifting aimlessly, living life by default and not by design. However, I went past the point of diminishing returns a long time ago.
November 1, 2023
Why Everyone Should Learn Task Management
Thanks to the availability of AI tools like ChatGPT, completing tasks is easier than ever before. Work that once took hours can now be completed in mere minutes, which is a dream for any knowledge worker—whether you’re a student, professional, or even a homemaker. However, completing tasks does not necessarily translate to being a productive person. That’s because task management and task completion are, in fact, two separate skill sets.
October 30, 2023
Guide to Being a New Manager Alignment
The prospects of higher pay and benefits come at the expense of more responsibilities and an extended notice period. But the real challenge lies in managing higher expectations from your employers, new colleagues, and mainly yourself. Externally-hired managers get called upon when there are significant problems that need solving or gaps that need filling. It’s likely that internal promotions weren’t a feasible option. Most newly hired managers are also pre-qualified, whether through recommendations by mutual friends or freelance consultants turned full-timers.
October 15, 2023
Building a Personal Website Why I Chose Obsidian Publish
Why I Need a Personal Website The job market is highly competitive for both full-time work and freelancers. In the past, a solid portfolio and resume/CV were sufficient for getting one’s foot in the door, but today, companies are looking for more than just academic qualifications. If you’re a software developer, you need a solid GitHub page. If you are a graphic designer, you need a solid portfolio on Adobe Behance.
September 18, 2023
Side Projects within the Workplace
Isn’t it ironic? Many companies preach the values of creativity and innovation within the workplace, but don’t provide the breathing space to do so (Thankfully, mine is a rare few who does). To use office hours for self-development is viewed as slacking; to stray away from ordinary work is “risky”, “not towing the line” and “showing off”. In fact, many people prefer working remotely because nobody will judge them for watching YouTube tutorials, experimenting and making mistakes.
June 23, 2023