David Anaxagoras

Notes, fragments, and strange signals from the edge of story.

Colophon.
Posted on :: 1533 Words 

Privacy Policy

This website and content copyright © David Anaxagoras 2025. All rights reserved.

Use of this site’s content for training AI models, large language models, or automated data-mining systems is expressly forbidden without prior written permission. This prohibition includes but is not limited to scraping, reproducing, or incorporating text into machine learning datasets.

Plain Text Internet

This site is created with plain text. It loads fast, works offline, and should still make sense a decade from now. I’ve moved away from bloated, engagement-optimized web — the one full of dark patterns, autoplay videos, and SEO sludge. I’m tired of being a product. Maybe you are too.

Gear

This is a list of the tools I use to create and maintain this website, write fiction, stay organized, and manage my creative business. I try to keep things lightweight, privacy-conscious, and distraction-free. I lean toward open-source, portability, affordability, and sustainability.

Online Presence & Privacy

  • Firefox Web Browser Because nuts to Chrome specically and Google in general, that’s why.
  • Private Internet Access An affordable VPN that provides privacy and security.
  • DuckDuckGo My default search engine. Prioritizes privacy and doesn’t track my searches or create a filter bubble. Givds me relevant results without compromising personal data, making it an essential alternative to big tech search engines.
  • Privacy Badger is a browser extension that automatically blocks invisible trackers and third-party cookies and keeps my browsing private without complicated setup. You can fine-tune settings for individual websites to make sure everything is working like you want it to. You are are in control.
  • Dreamhost Website hosting and email.
  • Zola Static website generator for my personal website. You’re looking at it. Fast, minimalist, and plain-text friendly. No trackers, ads, cookies, or other crap. You know, the Internet as it was supposed to be.
  • Apollo Theme for this website, lightly customized. readable, responsive, and quiet. Fonts are loaded locally. JavaScript is minimal. You won’t get cookie popups because my site doesn’t need to know anything about you.
  • GoatCounter Open source web analytics platform. Tells me about web traffic on my site but does not track personal data.
  • Beehiiv My current author newsletter platform. Free for up to 2,500 subscribers.
  • Bluesky is my social platform of choice. It’s built on an open standard with strong moderation tools, and fosters a culture I value: block trolls, report bad actors, and move on. No algorithmic outrage, just conversation on your terms.

Writing

  • Obsidian I use it for outlining, research, worldbuilding, and managing long-term writing projects as well for research, general notes and building a knowlege base. Obsidian lets you link quicklky between notes with [[wiki-style links]]. With Obsidian, all your notes live as plain-text files on your computer. They are completely human-readable, unlike note apps that store everything in a proprietary database. Your notes belong to you. Obsidian respects that.
  • Zotero + Obsidian Zotero Plugin For collecting and organizing research sources, especially for fiction projects with a historical or scientific foundation.
  • Markdown A markup language for formatting text with a plain-text editor. This website is written in Markdown. I keep notes and draft stories in Markdown. It’s clean, human-readable, and plain text so it’s future-proof and portable.
  • Typora A clean, distraction-free Markdown editor I use when quickly drafting smaller pieces.
  • The Grinder No, not that site. The other one. The Submissions Grinder is essential for short story submissions and tracking. Not pretty to look at but gets the job done.

Productivity & Admin

  • Wave Free accounting software I use to manage bookkeeping and taxes for my loan-out corporation and side-gig.
  • Obsidian Tasks Plugin For more project-oriented tracking inside my vault.

Hardware & Gear

  • MacBook Pro (Intel) Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 My main writing machine. Heck, my main everything machine. It’s old but still has plenty of fight left in it. I don’t believe in the contant upgrade cycle and filling landfills with perfectly usable electronics.
  • Western Digital 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive A solid reliable performer for my regular backups.
  • Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac Mouse Crap. Expensive crap. But it’s one of the few mice that fits comfortably in my large-sized hand.
  • Logitech H390 Wired Headset For video calls and online readings. Not thrilled with the reedy mic quality but the price was right. Searching for affordable upgrade. Still looking.
  • Samsung A35 mobile phone Cheap and solid. Not happy about Android’s deep Gemini AI integration so this phone is going bye-bye as soon as I can afford a new one.
  • AUKEY 20,000mAh Portable USB-C Power Bank Slim and slides easily into a laptop bag. Fairly generic but works great. Charges my devices a couple times over if needed. Handy for extended sojourns away from power outlets or if I forget to charge my phone overnight.
  • Anker 521 Powerhouse 256Wh Portable Power Station My power goes out if the neighbor sneezes. This luggable power station gets me through unexpected outtages, especially in the dead of night when I need to keep my CPAP running. It has 2 AC outlets, 2 USB-A, 1 USB-C, and 1 car outlet, plus a built-in light and digital power-level monitor. 5-year warranty.
  • Portable Camping Fan One of the best investments I’ve ever made. Keeps me cool during power-outtages and lasts a surprisingly long time on a charge. LED light, USB-C charger, super quiet.

Media

  • Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB Direct-Drive Professional Turntable (USB & Analog), Silver My first turntable since high school. It’s solid. I wish it had an auto-return function, though
  • SMSL SA-98E 2x160W HiFi Stereo Digital Amplifier Tiny and cheap but packs all the power I need. Great quality.
  • Pioneer SP-BS22-LR Andrew Jones Home Audio Bookshelf Loudspeakers (2) Been pumping out great sound for years. Crystal clear and amazing quality, even though the drivers look a bit undersized. A little lacking on the low-end.
  • Blu-ray Discs Physical media doesn’t disappear like your favorite movie or show on streaming. It also doens’t come with ads. But it. Keep it.
  • Plex A media server for your home. Rip your Blu-rays onto a hard drive and you have your own bespoke streaming service.
  • MakeMKV Creates high-quality, unencrypted digital backups of my personal Blu-rays. It preserves the original video and audio without compression, making it ideal for archiving or watching on my own devices. Simple, reliable, and essential for maintaining access to media I own in a format I control.
  • Samsung SE-506CB/RSWD 6X USB 2.0 Slim Blu-ray Writer External Drive This external Blu-ray drive is nearly ten years old and still going. I use it to rip my discs onto my media server.
  • Seagate Expansion 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive I use this to serve my media files. It’s not especially fast but seems to be fast enough to stream my movies on Plex.

Reading & Input

  • Libro.fm I get my audiobooks through Libro.fm, an employee-owned platform that supports independent bookstores through a revenue-sharing model. Unlike Audible, Libro.fm lets me choose a local bookstore to benefit from every purchase. It’s transparent, ethical, and built to support booksellers and readers — not monopolies.
  • Libby Library eBooks and audiobooks.
  • Apple Books My main eBook reader.
  • CLZ Books/CLZ Comics For cataloging my library and comic book collection.

What I Do Not Use

I choose my tools with care, based not only on functionality but also on the values and practices of the companies behind them. Some popular platforms are absent from this list because I believe they undermine creators, spread misinformation, or otherwise contradict the kind of world I want to support.

  • Spotify Pays artists fractions of a cent per stream but has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elevate controversial figures like Joe Rogan, despite repeated concerns about harmful misinformation. I prefer platforms that more directly support artists and take public responsibility seriously.
  • Substack I’ve chosen not to use Substack because they financially support and profit from writers known for spreading bigotry, harassment, and disinformation—all under the banner of “free speech.” I prefer platforms that don’t subsidize harmful rhetoric or blur the line between neutrality and complicity.
  • ChatGPT and other LLMs or “AI” Large Language Models (LLMs) require vast amounts of energy to train and run, contributing to environmental strain and carbon emissions. Additionally, they are trained on copyrighted works pirated from the Internet without the consent, attribution, or compensation of creators.
  • X (formerly Twitter) I left the platform after its acquisition by Nazi-saluting Elon Musk, whose leadership has amplified hate speech, disinformation, and harassment while dismantling basic safety and moderation systems—not to mention the damage he’s done to the United States as the transphobic, anti-DEI leader of DOGE. X is no longer a platform I feel comfortable supporting or participating in.
  • Meta (Facebook, Threads, etc.) Meta has repeatedly demonstrated a disregard for user privacy and democratic stability—most notably through the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the company’s role in enabling the spread of disinformation and extremism. Its business model depends on surveillance and algorithmic amplification of outrage, which I prefer not to support.