And straight on with Carl, Donut, and whoever else they are all called because – even if it isn't Dostoevsky – the number of characters and events has grown rapidly over seven books. And since this volume revolves around the 9th floor that has been teased since Book 1 – the Faction Wars – we are going to read a lot of names here.

The series has changed so much by now that Dinniman no longer builds the floors based on difficulty levels and themes; he also seems to draw inspiration from various video game genres. The predecessor, for example, was heavily influenced by SPOILER Pokemon and card trading games like Slay the Spire or Magic: The Gathering SPOILER_ENDE and this one leans more toward tactics and strategy.

And I must say: Apparently – after being teased across 6 books – I expected a bit more. From my perspective, the middle section didn't read all that well. I quickly lost track of who is doing what where and which factions even exist. On the other hand, quite a lot happens on the lore level, because a development toward the end of the last volume [Note: Adapted to match the corrected German structure for clarity] gave a new meaning to the events of this game show.

Makes no sense not to go straight to the next volume now.

Last year, I introduced whathaveidone here – a TUI app designed to help me summarize what I did and in which timeframe. The main idea was to simplify my time tracking and provide better updates during daily standups.

This week, I finally found some time to work on this app again and have now released Version 0.6.2!

For one, I have significantly overhauled and simplified the layout. There are now separate views for commits, reports, and (new!) statistics, all operable via the same, consistent key bindings. 1 takes you to the Commits view, 2 to the Overviews, and 3 to the new Stats dashboard. On top of that, there is now a compact, responsive interface featuring a top bar, focus ring, context-aware footer, mouse support, and a ? overlay that lists every single key – because I cannot remember all of them either.

The AI Overviews are no longer ephemeral; they are now written to disk and survive a reboot. In the Overviews view, I can scroll through all saved summaries, copy, regenerate, or delete them.

Furthermore, AI Reporting is no longer limited to Gemini but now accepts any OpenAI-compatible API – OpenRouter, the Vercel AI Gateway, OpenAI itself, or a local server. On the first launch (or anytime via --setup), a Setup Wizard guides you through the provider, model, API key, and language, so you no longer have to dig through the whid.toml.

The Direct Mode outputs raw commits using whathaveidone --list and the finished AI summary using --generate. This allows you to skip the UI entirely and pipe both directly to stdout, bypassing the TUI. This finally makes it possible to integrate the tool into scripts and cronjobs or simply pipe the output, for example: whid -g week --lang german > standup.md or whid -g | pbcopy.

Additionally, there is the aforementioned Stats Dashboard, which breaks down your commits by day, weekday, and hour – and, since I happen to like Conventional Commits, also by commit type (feat / fix / chore / …) and ticket references like ABC-123.

The code is available on GitHub, and you can install it via crates.io using cargo install whathaveidone.

There is also a (admittedly very generic) GitHub Pages site now.

Feedback? Ideas? Wishes? Message me on Mastodon, Bluesky, or GitHub – and if you like the project, I would be thrilled to get a star on GitHub ⭐️

Normally, when reading a book series, I try to mix in other books between installments to avoid burnout. However, after the ending of volume 5, I just wanted to dive straight into the next one. It felt exactly like a video game where you tell yourself "just one more level," even though it's already 1 AM. And I genuinely think this sixth installment is the best one in the series so far.

Following the level skip of the seventh floor in the last book, Carl and Donut now find themselves on the eighth floor – Kuba. But instead of fighting their way through the city in the usual manner, this entire floor is nothing less than a trading card game. On one hand, they have to travel the world and capture powerful creatures—much like in Pokemon—and then use them to engage in card-based battles. It's a wild mix of Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, and Slay the Spire.

The nearly 800 pages practically read themselves; I simply couldn't put the book down. From my perspective, the trading card approach is a highly engaging shift that really freshens up the narrative. Plus, it’s incredibly satisfying to watch the protagonists grow stronger and stronger, just like in a video game. A classic, gamified omnipotence fantasy.

On top of that, we get a lot more lore about the world outside the dungeon. While it previously felt like the mere content of a reality game show, the story has now escalated to have consequences for the entire universe—complete with all the corresponding tropes.

I will most likely jump straight into the next book! ^[In the meantime, I've also learned that there is a whole subgenre dedicated to this type of story: LitRPG. Goodbye, free time.]

I recently tried to describe to someone what this series is about. It went something like this:

A guy named Carl was tossed into an intergalactic level-based game show after the end of the world, along with his ex-girlfriend's cat, whose name is Princess Donut. Together with other survivors of the apocalypse—initiated by an alien syndicate with profit interests—the two are now fighting their way through multiple stages. They battle things like meth-dealing llamas or KraKarens—which are octopuses with Karen haircuts.

In these dungeons, there is also collectible loot, so Carl's gear keeps getting better. The only thing he doesn't get is pants, because his boxers are already highly powerful, and the system's AI apparently doesn't want him wearing any. At the same time, the cat Princess Donut is gifted with human intelligence, gains the ability to speak, and becomes a magical cat who absolutely hates Cocker Spaniels. This cat, however, has a pet of her own, which initially looks like a chicken but later turns out to be a full-grown Velociraptor and is named Mongo.

Along the way, they meet many other crawlers who now partly possess forms of intergalactic races, specializations, or combat classes: A shepherdess including her flock of sheep, an Icelandic Valkyrie, or a borderline girl named Lucia with two psychotic Rottweilers. Or a bunch of lawyers who all somehow happen to be archers.

Furthermore, their social media manager Zev—a fish-like alien whom I picture as Klaus from American Dad—constantly makes them appear on strange talk shows and conduct interviews to keep their viewership entertained, as the whole thing is basically broadcast as an interstellar Twitch stream. Complete with sponsorships and recap episodes.

And here I have omitted about 98% of the events so far.

I still think my initial description holds up: Ready Player One meets Discworld. Lots of pop culture references to shows, movies, and games, as well as mechanics you usually only see in video games. Time and again, there are achievements and quests, new loot and rewards—and in this meanwhile sixth book, Carl has transformed from a nobody in boxer shorts into an absolute power fantasy.
Just like in a video game ^[Honestly, I wonder why no video game adaptation has been announced yet]. And it works.

As for the book itself—I liked it better than its predecessor. A thrilling jungle world, plenty of WTF moments. In between, there was even a vampire T-Rex with a magic wand and a ballerina dress named Big Tina ^[Spoiler: Who is actually a bewitched bear... don't ask. ]—which pretty much says it all.

The 700 (!!) pages were a quick read, and I will probably jump straight into the next installment.

The final book of the Green Bone Saga. This time, the story spans more than a decade and feels somewhat episodic on the surface at first. All in all, a beautiful conclusion, and by the end, I had truly grown fond of several characters – even though I occasionally struggled to keep the names straight.

Generally regarding the whole series: This blend of a fantasy and mafia family epic (with nods to the Yakuza or perhaps Chinese Triads? I'm not quite sure which served as the model here. To me, Kekon seems to lean more toward Japan than China) works surprisingly well for me overall. The world-building is exciting enough that I still want more. All in all, a fascinating fusion of magic and the real world.

Definitely a must-read!

It is one of the best moments a game can offer in 2026. The pixel-art world of Sad Cat Studios looks as if someone took the engine of Flashback and threw it into a time machine. Retro aesthetics meet modern lighting: Cyberpunk-80s with neon and smog. The cinematic 2.5D presentation turns a side-scroller into something that feels like a movie. No, it is not the first game to merge dimensions—the grandiose Inside comes to mind—but so far, no one has staged it as well as REPLACED.

And then ... then you start playing.

Dazzling! Just not in the gameplay.

The graphics stand in the way of REPLACED. Not metaphorically—literally. Level objects and paths vanish into the background. Abysses look like paths; paths look like abysses. You turn the brightness up to identify objects you need to interact with. Then you turn it back down because it simply looks better. And then you die anyway because you couldn't see that the point where you needed to stand was five pixels further to the right.

It’s frustrating. No matter how good something looks—if you can’t read it, it’s broken.

Pixel-perfect and terrible

Platforming sections in REPLACED require pixel-perfect precision. In some places, the jump must be timed exactly, yet the game fails to tell you that you should have pressed "jump." Input lag does the rest. You fall over the same steel beam for the fifth time, even though you know it’s there, even though you press the button in time—just not "in time" enough for the game to consider it the right moment.

Don’t get me wrong: I just finished a long playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that celebrates its sluggishness. The main character doesn't just stop running; an older cowboy in his 40s slowly comes to a halt. It fits, it creates atmosphere... even if it's a bit much sometimes. But at no point would you expect Arthur Morgan to complete millisecond-accurate parkour platforming sections.

I won't even start on how a tool for clinging to walls sometimes teleports us to the corresponding spot upon a button press—but only occasionally. However, that’s not even the worst part, as the elements to hold onto are almost always only recognizable at a second or third glance. Look at these two screenshots: can you spot them?

And again: the visuals interfere. The game does not communicate clearly when to do what. Here, too, I see the staging and poor level readability as the main issues. With the right reflexes, it should theoretically be possible to clear certain sequences on the first try. Unfortunately, REPLACED only excels at trial and error.

A parkour sequence with a drone in the final third is a prime example. Starting with a beautiful camera sweep that was a highlight of the game for me, we land in a chase that allows zero mistakes. Not one. One error—even if it's just because the stick wasn't already pointing right after a retry to start running immediately—and I had to hit "Start -> Restart Checkpoint." Swung on a pole one too many times and wasted a second? Reload checkpoint. Some other sequences even set the checkpoint before a cutscene.

And I'm not talking about surprise elements like those found in 2D games like Limbo. The problem is the controls and poorly readable levels. This instantly ruins beautiful, cinematic moments.

Another example? Do you see where you need to hold on here? Even with the brightness turned up, I had major issues.

Not only are these squares hard to see, they aren't even solid blocks. Most of the element is just background, and you can move perfectly right in front of it. But you don't know that, you'll probably fall, and you can start the climbing section all over again. Thank you.

A combat system like a wet sponge

REPLACED features a free-flow combat system. Comparisons to the Batman Arkham series are fitting—but the implementation feels like the developers didn't understand what made the combat in their inspirations good.

One example: counters have a timing window so short that it's less a game of reaction and more a game of luck. In games like Batman or Mad Max, I didn't hit every counter either, but I can count the counters I actually pulled off in REPLACED on one hand. Since a successful block barely offers any advantages and the dodge-roll is generally the better choice, unblockable attacks becoming the standard is likely the result.

And then there's another problem: different enemy types require different strategies. Some need heavy hits, some counters; projectiles must be dodged or reflected. But usually, everything happens simultaneously. However, active animations cannot be cancelled; often, it just comes down to whether I or the enemy attacked first. And since there are only two dimensions, other enemies simply slide in front of the one you're actually targeting, causing the attack to likely fail. It is sluggish.

The UI doesn't help. In one section, the general level color is reddish; at these moments, the entire interface simply becomes unreadable. Health bars, attack icons, etc. This cannot be a design choice—there are other level segments with limited lighting that deliberately play with light and shadow—it's an oversight in production.
Then there's the task of managing gadgets, abilities, and gauges in the late game, all assigned to buttons that seemed anything but logical to me. I only understood how an essential gameplay feature worked in the final stages of the game.

All these points ensure that the difficulty level quickly shifts from a walk in the park to "masochistically hard" as abilities and enemy types grow.

And in case you're wondering how often a combat sequence starts with the character falling through a ventilation shaft: it happens constantly in this game. You can almost assume that as soon as I'm in a vent, I'm about to crash into a room.

A game that stands in its own way

When I started REPLACED, I thought we were dealing with a game featuring great graphics and gameplay similar to Limbo, with occasional fights. That describes it well—but only until about Chapter 3.

Then the identity crisis begins. It starts with a clear direction—then you land in the station, a hub visited repeatedly to advance the story and provide small side quests. These side tasks consist of walking from A to B to C. "Exciting."
For instance, the retro arcade mini-games: a decent idea, but they don't justify more or less forcing the player to complete them. Why? Besides exposition, they offer upgrades and rewards that, while optional, are actually essential to survive the game.

And for what? I suspect to stretch the playtime. Without the station, the playtime would feel a third shorter—which wouldn't have been a bad thing.

Another point: there are sections where R.E.A.C.H. can move on two depth planes. It’s cool at first but is barely utilized. The game doesn't even know how to properly use one depth plane; the second one usually just ensures I walk around the same scenery more just to occasionally find a scrap of lore.

Let's talk about the story

The story has strong beginnings and an interesting AI-protagonist dilemma—R.E.A.C.H. is a "fish out of water," a cold AI developing human emotions through suffering the more it lives in the world it operates in. Not particularly gripping, but solid. But the game never pauses long enough for you to engage with it. Documents revealing more about the game world are scattered everywhere. Basically the opposite of show, don't tell.

Because we are capable of using a pistol, we are somehow made into the "Chosen One." That's it. A generic gun taken from a guard can apparently topple the entire dystopian system.

And at some points, it feels like random story arcs were cut out without providing transitions. People are mentioned whom we never met, characters behave completely differently without explanation, things happen that are chronologically impossible, and there are poorly interpreted time skips.

The most beautiful game that plays poorly

REPLACED is a game that wanted to be more than it is. Eight years of development—and the result is a game that looks like a modern classic and feels like a prototype.

A game that you can play, but shouldn't necessarily.

Perhaps you can tell from the length of this article, which was originally planned as a short post: I wanted to love it. And in the end, I was a bit sad and angry. The cinematic moments are great. But the effect wears off. And then you see the rough edges, which are so sharp that you constantly cut yourself on them.

"Replaced is good, but it can't quite Reach true greatness."

Currently, I would recommend watching a highlights video on YouTube/Twitch rather than playing the game. Or wait and hope that the developer revisits it.

• Steam
• Metacritic
• OpenCritic

Anyone following my little side blog (which everyone should, of course – more on that here) probably already knows that I ordered an Ollee Watch Kit a while ago.

It arrived a few days ago ^[3 weeks waiting time from order to shipping, shipping from Canada to Germany approx. one week] and after 20 minutes of screwdriving, I was already done with the project.

The modification itself was truly child's play: unscrew, take the original watch out, put the new Ollee Watch in. Done. Here is a short review review ^[it turned out a bit longer after all]:

The Casio F91W or the Casio A158 (the only difference is the strap material – see here) has the following functions:

• Time (duh?!)
• Alarm
• Stopwatch
• The world's worst backlight of all time.

One shouldn't expect more at a retail price of around 17 dollars ^[and yet it's enough to be the best-selling watch worldwide].

Ollee Watch now beefs it up significantly.

Quite a lot of promises; here are my observations after about 5 days of use:

Faces and Apps

Clock: The time can sync with the included app. But even if it's a bit fiddly on a vanilla Casio, this is a task you typically do once initially and then twice a year for daylight saving time.

Alarm: I can now additionally set the alarm via the app. There, I can also choose weekdays, set ringtones ^[Late 90s Jamba subscription vibes here; however, I don't see myself ever choosing anything other than the Indiana Jones theme music], and ... there is a snooze function! Bonus points for that! Downside: I am still limited to only one alarm. Shame. Without the app, it remains just the same alarm function as before.

Stopwatch: Without the app, it's initially the same function as the vanilla stopwatch. With the app, I can log times and save them in it.

WorldTime: I can display the time of one (!) other time zone, configurable via the app. I have no use case for this function, which is why I disabled it immediately. I can imagine, however, that it might be different for others.

Timer: A standard timer. I can set one directly, the time counts down, an alarm sounds ^[No idea what else to expect here, tbh] or I can set multiple intervals in the app, save them as presets, and then switch between them on the app. Beyond a certain amount of times, it gets confusing, but for a standard Pomodoro workflow, it’s very practical since there is also an interval mode – meaning I can switch between 25m work and 5m break when the respective timer is up.

Sunrise/Sunset: Shows sunrise and sunset based on the location you set via the app. I found this quite practical at first, as it’s actually something I often quickly Google.

Step Counter: The built-in motion sensor counts steps. I am simultaneously wearing an Amazfit Helio Strap on my other arm and compared the numbers, seeing significant differences. While the Amazfit shows 6,000 steps, Ollee only shows 4,000. I’m still observing it, but for now, it seems unusable to me and will likely be disabled.

Temperature: The watch can display the temperature. This is a mix of skin and ambient temperature – as a single value. Honestly, I have no idea who this provides value to, so I disabled it immediately.

Counter: Remember those little hand-held tally counters? This is the same thing. Press a button, number goes up. Status and time can be logged in the app. I don't know what I'd want to count with it yet, but I see it as one of the more interesting features.

Heart Rate: No, the watch cannot actually measure your pulse. It works more like this: I start the measurement process on the watch, then count the pulse myself with my fingers until a certain number is reached, and then stop. A nice idea. To start and stop the measurement, you can use the integrated motion function, which I would recommend, otherwise a finger has to stay pressed on a button constantly – and I haven't found a way to do that AND measure my pulse at the same time. I also wonder how such a poor interaction made it into a final product. A simple start/stop, like a timer, would be much more logical here. I'm hoping for an update, as I actually find it quite practical.

By the way, the measurement can also be imported into Apple Health and Google Health Connect!

Flashlight: This is a function that was just there and is now being sold as a feature. I disabled it immediately. Even though the Ollee Watch has a much better LED than the vanilla Casio, it can't serve as a "flashlight" even at maximum brightness. Disabled.

Games: Pong, Blackjack, Poker – cool that they exist, but more of a gimmick or proof of concept. The Casio display simply isn't made for this, so I disabled them accordingly.

Besides these functions, there are a few other improvements:

• Ringtones!
• Improved light!
• I can display words on the watch at the touch of a button to impress my friends... or something.

Okay, admittedly, the new backlight is great. Not only can I set it to different brightness levels, but I can also adjust the color. That’s cool and a real improvement over the rather symbolic Casio vanilla backlight.
However, I can also achieve this for free with a piece of aluminum foil.

The App

Even though the Ollee Watch works without the app, it is obviously necessary to use many advanced features. Those looking to quit smartphones should therefore refrain from investing.

The app itself is functional and clear. I can configure or even turn off many features directly there. The built-in help is available offline, and without it, I never would have found some functions like the interval timer.

Only once did I have trouble connecting to the watch; according to the error message, this seemed more like a problem in the Ollee Watch backend.

What I don't understand: I can create an Ollee Watch account, but whether I have one or not seems to be quite irrelevant. Nowhere could I find out what I actually need it for.

Image Sources: https://olleewatch.com

Was the Ollee Watch a good investment?

Let's put it this way: I was curious but also had fairly low expectations. And with the knowledge I have now, I wouldn't risk buying it again at the moment.

Many functions are uninteresting or, in the worst case, simply useless. The only feature that truly adds value is the improved backlight.

In short: My Casio is now a gimmick watch. Nothing more. Even if functions like the timer, sunset, and step counter are somewhat cool, in the end, I traded 10 years of battery life for 10 months. And a better light doesn't justify a 50-euro surcharge on a 20-euro watch in my view.

At the same time, I see a lot of potential for more, and considering that there is currently only one developer behind Ollee Watch, I believe that many new things and improvements could come in the future. I'm curious.

Update 04/12/26: I also took a look at the Ollee Watch blog and indeed, there is a roadmap! And a multi-alarm also seems to be in the works!

After closing the third book, I immediately started the fourth one. And I liked it much better right away: a thrilling setting, plot twists, and even the fictional backstory—which is actually just a pretext for the plot within the book itself—was gripping. After the rather mediocre third installment, this is definitely a step back in the right direction!

At the same time, I’m going to shift down a gear with the series now. Reading a series back-to-back is a bit exhausting, especially since the series hasn't even been finished yet.

The third installment of Carl's journey through the Dungeon World throws us into the fourth level (out of 16 ^[Still very skeptical about whether the story can actually be stretched out that long]) and into a labyrinth of subways called "The Iron Tangle".

The boxer-shorts-wearing Anarchist Carl, an Icelandic clay-figure woman Katia, and his talking cat Princess Donut (now sporting stylish sunglasses), including their own velociraptor pet named Mongo, must solve the riddle of the Iron Tangle to... oh, I won't even try to summarize the story. It's all very wild and a massive spoiler if you aren't familiar with the previous two parts.

Actually, I found Anarchist’s Cookbook to be just mediocre. The greatest strength of the setting is that every book can be completely different; there is a lot of experimentation with scenarios, and the risk of boredom is low for now. However, this also carries the greatest risk: if the setting and premise of a Dungeon floor don't appeal to you, the whole book feels a bit "meh." And that’s exactly what happened to me in the subway labyrinth.

The world is so confusing that the author himself states in a foreword that one shouldn't even try to understand it – and I'm not sure if I find that exhausting. Without that narrative arc, the protagonists just move from scene to scene to see what happens. I also found the resolution at the end a bit underwhelming.

Additionally, Dinniman decided to remove one of the best characters from the story for a while – a character whose dramaturgical role is to provide background information to both the protagonist and the reader. This layer is missing for a large part of the story.

But – I'm complaining at a high level here. While it is the least interesting book for me so far, it was still anything but boring. Every now and then, there were very beautiful moments and ideas, and Dinniman knows how to incorporate common tropes from literature and pop culture.

It just simply wasn't as good as the previous two parts.

Fun fact: I didn't take the sleeve off the previous volume, so I was all the more surprised that the hardcover holds this little surprise... Cool!

Recently, I read this blog post by Philipp about switching from 1Password to Vaultwarden and thought it might be interesting for me as well. I actually own a lifetime Pro license ^[Because I bought it back then – in times when it was still common to pay once for software] for Enpass, but naturally, a Premium license has since been introduced, for which I am being asked to pay monthly again. Without it, I cannot use an authenticator or store passkeys. Also, a warning for data breaches is now missing ^[where I am certain this was already part of my Pro license]. Added to this is the slight feeling that there is hardly any noticeable development for this app and that it is being treated rather neglectfully by the developers.

So, why not give Vaultwarden a try? Vaultwarden is a lightweight open-source alternative to the Bitwarden server, written in Rust, and ideal for self-hosting. It provides everything I could do with Enpass for now.

The installation was quickly completed using Coolify, and I was able to directly use my CSV export from Enpass. On Mac and Android, I could use the respective Bitwarden clients immediately. My initial conclusion: So far, I am satisfied. The interface is cleaner and everything feels a bit faster.

The only disadvantage compared to Enpass so far seems to be that I am now more dependent on the cloud; Enpass had a local-first approach with optional backups to cloud providers like Google Drive or Dropbox.

Edit: I was told on Mastodon that Enpass does, in fact, support passkeys in the Pro license. Even though the app itself tells me otherwise. It’s possible that these updates are either still coming or only apply to the mobile apps. It’s all a bit unclear.

Oh, a new Sanderson book – the last one was more than half a year ago. So, what do we have here:

Context

Firstly, Isles of the Emberdark is another book from Sanderson’s now iconic Secret Projects drop. Secondly, it is a Cosmere book – meaning it takes place in his cross-series universe of the same name. And finally, it is also a sequel to the short story "Sixth of the Dusk" from the Arcanum Unbounded anthology.

The author mentions at the beginning that it is difficult to write a direct sequel to a story that few people will have read, which is why that original story is integrated as flashbacks in the first part of the book. This doesn’t mean it stands on its own. On the contrary: this is a book that few authors could get away with, as in my view, it requires the current status quo of the major Cosmere book series, including spin-offs. In short: It is fan service.

Much like Tress of the Emerald Sea or The Sunlit Man, it is deeply woven into the Cosmere. Furthermore, it is set very far back in the current timeline.

I believe you should have read at least the following books to truly understand all the references or to avoid being spoiled:

• The Stormlight Archive series,
• the Stormlight novella Dawnshard,
• Mistborn Era 1 and Era 2,
• Mistborn: Secret History and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, both collected in Arcanum Unbounded,
• and Tress of the Emerald Sea.

So, you really should have done your homework. But there are rewards: For one – to my knowledge – we finally learn something real about Yolen and its inhabitants – a place of significant importance for the Cosmere.
And then: Since the story takes place at the end of the timeline, it also references events that haven't even happened yet. Vague hints, more teaser than exposition, but still – pretty cool. But only if you are truly deep into the Cosmere. Did I mention the fan service?

Plot

The story is – as mentioned – a direct sequel to a short story. The original story was about a trapper making his way through a dangerous jungle island and dealt with the opportunities and dangers of technical progress for existing traditions ^[Okay, admittedly, that sounds more dry than it actually is]. This book takes place five years later ^[which also places that entire first story at the end of the current timeline, which I didn't expect], and the former protagonist of the adventure story now finds himself, in the first half, in a book about politics, colonization, and science fiction.

The protagonist Dusk finds himself in a world that no longer needs island trappers; however, his world is in danger of becoming a pawn for major powers. This leads him on a journey to the eponymous Emberdark to find his people's past and a means of defense.

And?

As you can tell, the book demands a lot of prior knowledge. Time and again, I had to look things up or try to remember if I had heard a certain name before, who mentioned people were, all while having a constant fear of missing something important. Sanderson’s Cosmere has grown so large that the original premise – that you could read the book series selectively without prior knowledge – no longer holds true ^[It’s most comparable to Marvel’s MCU – too many series and movies with just as many allusions. You constantly need to know who is doing what where and how they relate to others. Superhero fatigue is real.].

Nevertheless, in the end, I felt somewhat rewarded, even if it felt a bit like a teaser for things to come.

Also: I hope that the upcoming Mistborn Era 3 will streamline the Cosmere approach once again.

I write my texts myself; I neither provide an AI with an outline nor do I have articles generated ^[Note: I did do it once, back when it was new. The quality was poor and it felt soulless. I won't say which text it was, though—maybe you can find out.]. Also, images, unless otherwise labeled, will be accordingly real.

However, since I am not a Luddite and do not condemn AI in general, I still use it for the following use cases:

• Spelling correction, punctuation, and grammar.
• Translations.

Why? For one, because I have a complex relationship with the german "dass/das" (I guess in english it is "that/which"?). I often rewrite sentences but don't always completely remove fragments of previous versions, and it simply makes me feel better. I am relatively confident that current AI can handle this reliably.

And translations: simply to save time. I can read, write, and speak English fluently, but it still takes time. To keep my motivation high, I want to put as few obstacles in my own way as possible, which is why the texts are translated either by an AI or DeepL.

Should I use an LLM for anything beyond what has been mentioned, I will label it accordingly. And since I couldn't pass up the opportunity to demonstrate this right away: The following image is definitely AI-generated.

The problem: As soon as everyday life interferes, there’s no time for proper articles. And so it happens that I currently take a photo after every book and upload it here. Predictable and easy to manage in terms of time.

Still, I felt like I was missing a way to share things quickly without writing a long essay. Until I recently had a thought.

The Concept: Raindrop.io as a Backend

I've been collecting bookmarks in Raindrop.io for years – with varying levels of motivation. Articles, tools, videos, repos – everything ends up there, neatly sorted into collections and labeled with tags. I noticed that Raindrop offers an indefinitely long note field for each bookmark. That’s actually all you need for a link blog: a link and a short comment in Markdown, done.

A very short research session later, I fired up VS Code and started playing around. The result is a new site – a wild mix of link log and link collection. Target audience unknown, but for now, I like it.

The result – with the temporarily uncreative name "Open Tabs" – can be found here.

Currently, everything is obviously still in "Beta". The logo will change, and the name was only the first second-best thing I could come up with. But right now, I’m trying to ignore my inner perfectionist and I'm for now satisfied.

Control via Tags

Using Raindrop.io as a backend and database brings a few hurdles. With any standard blog software, I can precisely control how data is displayed. At first glance, Raindrop doesn't offer this flexibility – unless I use tags.

That’s why I implemented Control Tags that influence the behavior of an entry:

• Recommended: A bookmark with curated/recommend ends up in a dedicated recommendation feed – and is directly visible on the homepage or the recommendations page.
• Pin Tags: A tag pins an entry to the top of the collection if I set curated/pinned.
• Highlight Tags: If I set curated/highlight, the bookmark is visually highlighted within the collection.
• ... and more.

The end user – YOU – won't see any of this logic. The control tags are simply hidden in the frontend. I thought it was clever for now. Whether it actually is, time will tell.

RSS Everywhere

I love RSS, so there’s plenty of it here. Every collection has its own feed, e.g., my collection for Note Taking Apps. The recommendations have their own feed, and there is a global feed for everything combined. ^[I would, however, advise against subscribing to this one. It’s very unfiltered and random.]

The Tech Stack

Technically, the whole thing runs on Nuxt 4 with Nuxt UI, Tailwind CSS, and Pinia. The Raindrop API is extremely pleasant to use – everything I need is there. The layout is functional, though from a UI and UX perspective, there is certainly plenty of room for improvement.

What’s Next?

Content-wise, it will probably revolve around technology, apps, books, hobbies, software, and web development – simply the things I deal with daily. But I reserve the right to sprinkle in other topics whenever something interesting crosses my path. Essentially, it’s a braindump with link lists.

And: will I write more in English in the future? Maybe. More reach, a broader audience – the arguments are obvious. But that hasn’t been decided yet. For now, this will continue in German – though with occasional English articles, like this one.

It goes on seamlessly and had it through just as quickly as the previous part. The 350 pages were read in record time and still thrilled and just as still skeptical whether the scenario can really drag on over 10* planned* books.

The Measure begins with this premise: One morning, every person on Earth wakes up to find a box on their doorstep. Inside this box lies a thread intended to visualize the length of their life. Nevertheless, this book is not a work of science fiction or fantasy.

Rather, it is a story that invites reflection and philosophizing. As a reader, would I open this box? Do I want to know the length of my own life? And what impact does this knowledge have on the actual answer?

Nikki Erlick poses these questions and tells the story through the perspectives of a handful of people over the course of a year. In doing so, she addresses various effects on society: Can I build a life with someone who might only have a few years left to live? Should I hire a person with a short string? What happens if I only send people with long strings into battle? How does society behave when it is divided by a populist? And, of course: Would I want to open this box?

I enjoyed understanding the "rules" of the strings and discovering what influence they could have on our lives. During and after reading, you feel a strong desire to engage yourself and others in conversation about it.

What I didn't like as much was the depth of character in some figures; for example, one antagonist is simply a bad person because the story requires it. Many other characters are also so flat and predictable that they would probably only seem exciting to people who have never read a book before. Anyone expecting complex characters and story twists should probably lower their expectations here. You simply have to accept many things – just as the people in this book simply accept the boxes (the text said "cubes," but the boxes were likely meant).

In short: The entire story thrives on the idea of the strings, and you can tell that the author had a lot of fun exploring the potential impacts on society. Even though I would have expected a bit more depth here, I enjoyed what I read.

If you are looking for a story with an exciting premise, you can't go wrong with The Measure.

There are those books that appear on every Science Fiction best-of list. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is one of them. But is it actually that good?

First of all, it’s a Young Adult novel, and you should be aware of that. One shouldn't expect sophisticated hard science fiction or overly complex themes. At the same time, the book seems so deeply rooted in pop culture that I somehow saw the ending coming – a vague feeling of having seen it before. It’s probably comparable to someone who has never seen Die Hard but feels like they already know the story through countless copycat movies, quotes, and memes.

Then you should also know that the protagonist is a six-year-old boy. This is completely bizarre, as he simply doesn't behave like one. No child in this world behaves normally. Yes, I know, we are dealing with a super-talented mastermind child prodigy here. Perhaps my memory of how a six-year-old thinks and feels is flawed – but I had a hard time believing this. Maybe that's also why the lead actor in the film adaptation of the same name is at least twice as old as in the original source ^[Small movie review: I watched the film right after finishing the book and would advise against it. The film skips important passages of the book, almost the entire middle section. It also changes the ending – unfortunately for the worse. Just don't watch it. 3/10].

Also interesting: At the beginning, it’s stated that a certain character is far too aggressive for the program, but later in the cadet school, the place seems to be crawling with psychopaths. For an interstellar fleet with a personnel shortage, their selection process seems quite random. I was also annoyed by a situation right in the first chapter, which in hindsight can be seen as a red herring. ^[Spoiler: What was the point of that near-failed surgery? The boy almost dies, but in the next paragraph, he’s fit and it’s never mentioned again? And then the doctor says things that sound more like foreshadowing than a normal dialogue? Or was I the only one who read it that way?]

By the way: As soon as I held the book and looked at the cover, I knew immediately that it was an illustration by John Harris (https://amzn.to/4qFcugg). An illustrator I already know from Ann Leckie's "Imperial Radch" books or the "Old Man's War" series by John Scalzi. An instant upgrade!

All in all, though, it’s a solid story, situated somewhere between Full Metal Jacket and Starship Troopers. I'm not sure if I want to support the message the book sends ^[Toughening up through psychological terror and isolation... I don't know about that, man], but it was fun. And the fact that every chapter begins with a conversation between nameless officers is an interesting trick. However, I believe the book was better and more surprising in its own time than it is in 2026.

When it comes to Young Adult Science Fiction, however, I would rather recommend Red Rising today; I definitely enjoyed that much more.

Apparently, there are a bunch of sequels, but I probably won't read them. For me, the story is closed enough that I’m not interested in further episodes from this universe.

The funny thing is: I’m already tracking my time – with GIT! So I built myself a little tool: whathaveidone. It shows you all your Git commits for any time period right in your terminal, whether for a single project or all at once. Written in Rust and powered by Ratatui for a slick TUI – fully keyboard-controlled and packed with options.

AI summary? Totally optional!
With a single keystroke, you get an AI summary of your commits (Google Gemini). But you don’t have to – if you prefer reading yourself, that’s cool too.

Some Examples & Use Cases

• Quick Standup:

  whathaveidone today --lang english
  

  Shows all today’s commits and a snappy summary (choose English or German).

• Weekly review for multiple projects:
  You don't want to write whathaveidone all the time? You can just write whid.

  whid week --model gemini-2.0-pro
  

  Switch the AI model for even better summaries.

• Custom prompt for personalized reports:

  whathaveidone --prompt myprompt.txt --from 2024-07-01 --to 2024-07-07
  

  Use your own prompt templates and pick any date range.

• Detailed view:
  Hit d in the commit view for a full "git log"-style overview.

For more examples, check the whathaveidone github repository

What’s next?

• Stats & analytics about your own commits
• Integration with Olama
• Even more default prompts

Feedback? Suggestions? Ideas?
Hit me up on Mastodon, Bluesky, GitHub
If you like the project, I’d also be super happy about a star on GitHub ⭐️

More info & installation:

• GitHub: heroheman/whathaveidone
• Crates.io: whathaveidone