Keyboard lag. Apps taking a second to think before opening. Battery health sitting at 80%.

I had a quick look at the iPhone 17 and couldn’t justify it when everything else about this phone is still good. Storage is only half full. Camera is fine. It’s fast when it wants to be.

So I tried the logical fix first: a $90 battery replacement from a local repair shop.

This is where it had been sitting for a while. Still usable, but clearly the reason iOS had started throttling performance.

Straight after the swap I got a warning about the battery not being genuine which I was only made aware of right before pulling the trigger on this after reading a comment on the iPhone 13 Battery page on iFixit.

I made peace with myself and I was prepared to live with it. For $90 and being done in 30 minutes without having to schedule with an authorised repair dealer and being without the phone for up to four days. I just wanted the speed back.

But apparently because I’m on a newer version of iOS, I had the option to run Apple’s verification process. So I did… and it passed.

Battery health back to 100%, full stats restored, and the warning moved to Parts & Service History where it belongs.

That’s basically the authorised-repair end result for third-party-repair money.

I followed the usual calibration cycle: charge to 100%, leave it on the charger for a couple more hours, run it down until it turns off, charge back to 100%. Mostly to give iOS a clean read on the new battery.

The battery fixes the hardware bottleneck. The other half is software. Years of installed apps, background processes, cached junk. So I’m preparing for a full wipe and setting the phone up as new. No restoring from backup, sign into iCloud and let the data sync back, reinstall apps one at a time. Only the things I actually use get to come back. It’s the closest you get to a new phone without buying one.

This whole reset cost less than a case for a new phone. If the lag disappears, that’s another couple of years out of a device that’s still more than good enough. If it doesn’t, then I look at upgrading. But it makes more sense to solve the worn-out-battery problem before spending thousands to avoid it.

I’ll report back once the clean install is done and I’ve lived with it for a few days.

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After the ability to run uBlock Origin, containers are easily one of Firefox’s best features. I’m happy to share my setup that helps contain the big bad evil and annoying across the web.

Not because I visit these sites often or on purpose. I usually avoid them. But for the moments where I click something without paying attention, or I need to open a site just to get a piece of information and failing (lol, login walls), or I end up somewhere I don’t wanta to be. Containers stop that one slip from bleeding into the rest of my tabs. Firefox holds each site in its own space so nothing spills into the rest of my browsing.

Container layout

Here’s how I’ve split things up. Nothing fancy. Just tidy and logical.

Nothing here is about avoiding these sites forever. It’s about containing them so they can’t follow me around.

How it works

I use two extensions together:

• Firefox Multi Account Containers (MAC) for creating and customising the containers (names, colours, icons).
• Containerise for all the routing logic using regex rules.

MAC handles the visuals. Containerise handles the rules. You can skip MAC and let Containerise auto create containers, but you lose control over colours and icons, so everything ends up looking the same.

I leave MAC’s site lists empty so it doesn’t clash with Containerise. Containerise becomes the single source of truth. If I need to open something in a specific container, I just right click and choose Open in Container.

Why though?

Containers don’t fix the surveillance web, but they do reduce the blast radius. One random visit to Google, Meta, Reddit or Amazon won’t bleed into my other tabs. Cookies stay contained. Identity stays isolated. Tracking systems get far less to work with. Well, that’s my understanding of it anyway.

It feels like one of the last features in modern browsers that still puts control back in the user’s hands, without having to give up the open web.

The rules

    # Paste this into the Containerise config and save. All comments and formatting will be stripped when saved.
    #
    # ------------------------------------------------------------
    # Personal
    # ------------------------------------------------------------
    # (No automatic rules — use this as a default container)
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Banking  (These are the main reatil banks in NZ - add your own)

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?anz.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?asb.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?bnz.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?co-operativebank.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?heartland.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?kiwibank.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?rabobank.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?sbsbank.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?tsb.co.nz , Banking

@(.+)?westpac.co.nz , Banking
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Finance  (Payment processors & fintech)

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?paypal.com , Finance

@(.+)?stripe.com , Finance

@(.+)?wise.com , Finance

@(.+)?revolut.com , Finance
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Google

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?google.com , Google

@(.+)?gmail.com , Google

@(.+)?youtube.com , Google

@(.+)?ytimg.com , Google

# Optional & noisy (S3-like CDNs):

# @(.+)?gstatic.com , Google

# @(.+)?googleapis.com , Google

# @(.+)?googleusercontent.com , Google
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Microsoft

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?azure.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?bing.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?github.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?github.io , Microsoft

@(.+)?linkedin.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?microsoft.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?office.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?visualstudio.com , Microsoft

@(.+)?windows.com , Microsoft
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Meta / Facebook

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?facebook.com , Meta

@(.+)?fb.com , Meta

@(.+)?messenger.com , Meta

@(.+)?instagram.com , Meta

@(.+)?threads.net , Meta

@(.+)?meta.com , Meta

@(.+)?oculus.com , Meta

@(.+)?whatsapp.com , Meta
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Amazon

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?amazon.(com|co.uk|co.jp|de|ca|com.au) , Amazon

@(.+)?primevideo.com , Amazon

@aws.amazon.com , Amazon

# Optional & noisy (CDNs used by third-party sites):

# @(.+)?amazonaws.com , Amazon

@(.+)?amazon.work , Amazon
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Twitch

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?twitch.tv , Twitch

@(.+)?twitchcdn.net , Twitch

@(.+)?ttvnw.net , Twitch
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Twitter/X

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?twitter.com , Twitter/X

@(.+)?x.com , Twitter/X

@(.+)?twimg.com , Twitter/X
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Reddit

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?reddit.com , Reddit

@(.+)?redd.it , Reddit

@(.+)?redditstatic.com , Reddit
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Shopping

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?ebay.com , Shopping

@(.+)?aliexpress.com , Shopping

@(.+)?etsy.com , Shopping

@(.+)?shop.app , Shopping
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Streaming

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?netflix.com , Streaming

@(.+)?disneyplus.com , Streaming

@(.+)?hulu.com , Streaming

@(.+)?max.com , Streaming
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# AI Tools

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?openai.com , AI Tools

@(.+)?chatgpt.com , AI Tools

@(.+)?anthropic.com , AI Tools

@(.+)?claude.ai , AI Tools

@(.+)?midjourney.com , AI Tools

@(.+)?runwayml.com , AI Tools

@(.+)?stability.ai , AI Tools
# ------------------------------------------------------------

# Social (non-Meta social media)

# ------------------------------------------------------------

@(.+)?pinterest.com , Social

@(.+)?tiktok.com , Social

@(.+)?snapchat.com , Social

So while Firefox keeps pandering to the industry with AI features nobody asked for (lol), there’s still a lot to like about the browser. Containers, uBlock Origin, and the general flexibility of Firefox still give you real control over your internet experience.

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I’ve found the new Firefox “AI” features, like the pop-ups that appear when highlighting text, to be more distracting than useful. The sidebar chat isn’t something I need either; if I want that experience, I’ll just open ChatGPT in a containerised tab.

If you’d like to turn these features off, open about:config in the Firefox address bar, search for browser.ml.enable, set it to false, and that should disable everything.

If you’d rather try some features while disabling others, keep browser.ml.enable set to true and toggle each feature individually.

I’m giving Smart Tab Groups a try for now, as I’m curious to see how the “AI” handles organising my dozens of open tabs. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Below is a list of the “AI” features you can disable in about:config, along with a short explanation of what I understand each one does. Enjoy.

Later 👋

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July 2025: After this post got picked up on the Kagi Change Log and even made its way to Hacker News, I decided to give my block list a bit of a tidy-up. Off the back of some solid feedback from visitors, I’ve now split it into three more manageable parts:

• 16 Companies – Based on Bobby Hiltz’s excellent filter list.
• Top Blocked – Pulled from Kagi’s most commonly blocked domains.
• Combined – A mash-up of both lists, ready to import.

I’ve kept my personal domain blocks out of these so you’re just getting the broadly useful stuff. Feel free to copy and use them however you like.

The main selling point for me is that Kagi isn’t powered by AdTech and allows us who have the money to pay a monthly fee for a pleasant search experience. I’m paying $14 USD/month for the Duo Family plan that gives me and my wife a Professional Plan each. That alone would make me happy, nice ad free web searching. A subscription worth having.

With payment out of the way the two features I absolutely love are Lenses and Personal Results.

Lenses allow you to customise searches by specifying which websites you see in your results. Kagi provide a few Lenses by default, but you’re also able to create your own. You can create as many lenses as you want, but can only have up to 20 activated at a time at the moment.

Personalised Results allow you to block, lower, raise or pin particular websites/domains which determines how they’re showing in your search results. These are easily managed right away from the search results page by clicking on the little shield icon where each of the personalised options are available.

Kagi also make Domain Insights available so you can check out the most promoted or blocked domains. If you already have an account and are logged in you can easily kick start your block list from this page by toggling any of the listed domains to blocked. You can also lower, raise or pin any of the domains too.

My Kagi Block List

I’ve been curating my block list since I started with Kagi and was pretty happy with it until I came across this post Sneaky SEO Shenanigans Suck from Bobby Hiltz which I bookmarked back in January this year.

In the post Bobby describes an article he read about the decline of Google, shitty search results and how 16, yes just 16 companies dominate the web with their individual brands that plague and polute search results with crap.

This led him to create and share a set of filters to use in uBlacklist to use in Google and other provider searches.

I’ve taken those and added them to my existing list of domains to block within Kagi, you can find the list here, Flamed Fury Kagi Blog List. You can copy and paste these directly into the Kagi blocked domains in your settings page.

My Kagi Lenses

Lenses are a fun way to search and surf the web. One of the default Lenses provided by Kagi is Small Web which allows you to search through all the websites listed on the Kagi Small Web repo.

I’ve made one slightly different and called it Smaller Web which attempts to find results in known small web communities, leprd.space, bearblog.dev, smol.pub, pika.page, nekoweb.org, weblog.lol, dreamwidth.org, neocities.org. This doesn’t find any homepages on these services with a custom domain, nor does it find sites like Flamed Fury who are self hosted. I feel that this can be used nicely in combination with the default Kagi Small Web lense with sites on these hosting platforms that aren’t specifically listed in the repo.

The other is The Old Web that lets you search through small website hosts from years gone by, geocities.ws, geocities.restorativland.org, tripod.com, members.tripod.com, fortunecity.ws, angelfire.com. I love having a search through these every now and then to see what people were saying about DMX or Limp Bizkit back in the day.

The two lense links above will only work if you’re already a Kagi member and logged in.

That’s all I have for now, catch you on the flip side!

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As I prepare to rebuild my home media centre, I’ve been watching a few video guides in order to get an idea of what a good way to approach this in 2025 is.

There are many videos showing dozens of different approaches to managing the software stack, and they have been great for an overview and a walkthrough on how they’ve set up the apps. The problem I have is that videos are the worst format to use for reference.

If you’re producing fantastic video content, please put in a bit more effort and provide a text version too. I’m sure many people will appreciate it.

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The active noise cancelling works perfectly for me. There is just enough noise cancelling for me, allowing me to still be aware of my surroundings while being perfectly comfortable in my ear. Being aware of my surroundings is crucial for me while walking my dog, as I like to hear approaching traffic, whether it’s on the road or rapidly reversing down a driveway.

I tried Airpods Pro once and couldn’t stand the in ear seal. The way that these AirPods do noise cancelling without the seal is fantastic.

I’ve been using these in adaptive mode, and they work great switching in and out of varying levels of noise cancelling depending on the situation. Again, while out walking the dog, the noise cancelling helps keep the volume of the wind down so I can still focus on what I’m listening to. This works the same back inside the house and is amazing for when I’ve got the extractor fan going in the kitchen while cooking or cruising around the house with the vacuum cleaner.

I’ve played with the conversation awareness setting, which has been great for a quick hello to neighbours while out walking but is no good when back in the home gym working out singing along to the music. I will look into setting up focus modes that turn this setting on or off depending on whether I’m out dog walking or working out.

These things sound incredible to my non audiophile ears. They’re the perfect companion to pair with the AppleTV in the bedroom instead of the TV speakers (as they sound terrible). Watching TV shows in bed on the odd occasion without disrupting the sleeping kid next door is a massive bonus while also sounding amazing.

And finally, the new case is smaller than any AirPods model yet and has USB-C and MagSafe. I’m happy to report that my phone is the last remaining device not on USB-C, which will be updated in a couple years (iPhone 13). I’ve seen various videos and posts about the MagSafe not being strong enough and unable to attach to vertical MagSafe docks. Well, the charger dock I have on my desk holds them perfectly.

I love these things.

Catch you on the flip side, laterz 👋

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Caught in a death spiral, and backed by their employees, Netscape instead chose to gift their browser to the open source community and spun off Mozilla as a non-profit to take charge.

For years, Mozilla retooled the codebase, piling rewrite on top of rewrite. Eventually, in 2004, they released Mozilla Firefox from the ashes of Netscape, a new browser focused on modern standards support. Firefox looked to be able to challenge even Microsoft, who’s lumbering Internet Explorer had seen very little developments in recent years.

After re-reading the Mozilla manifesto, I realised they are still working towards a healthy internet. Their ventures into private AI and privacy-preserving advertising work towards that, but that’s not what we want in our browsers, right?

I never want to see another ad online while surfing the web, so I use Firefox as a browser with a handful of add-ons that enhance my surfing experience while keeping me safe. I don’t want privacy-preserving tech that allows me to be advertised safely; I don’t want ads or to be tracked in any way at all. Do I need to consider other options?

Can Mozilla continue to develop a browser that users adore without alienating its supporters with ventures that don’t align with Firefox users’ needs?

Is it time for a rebirth? Should Firefox, a browser loved by many, break free from Mozilla’s revenue-driven strategies that diverge from the user’s core desires: a reliable web browser, freedom, and choice on the web?

Could a user-funded model be the answer? I’m more than willing to invest in a vital piece of software that I use daily. After all, I’m already paying for search to enhance my online experience. It’s worth considering…

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I picked up a Miyoo Mini+ for myself after seeing Joel talk about, and link to other people talking about it a couple weeks ago. It arrived within a week which was a surprise as packages from Ali Express can take up to a month to make their way down here.

The device itself is gorgeous and well put together. I love holding it and looking at the screen. I’ve been playing Game Boy Advanced games and I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful everything looks on the screen.

After being encouraged by Joel I installed Onion OS on the device. The process was straight forward and easy to follow the instructions from their website. Before doing this I replaced the stock SD card that is reported to be unreliable with a 64 GB Sandisk Ultra Micro SD card. This has provided me with more than enough storage for the new OS and more space for games that I’ll ever be able to play.

It takes 11 seconds from powering on to see the OS loading screen and then 4 seconds to load into the game I was last playing. That’s 15 seconds from powered off to playing Pokemon!

It takes 14 seconds to boot up and get me to the game selection menu.

When loading a GBA game, it takes 3 seconds to see the loading screen and a further 3 seconds until the game splash screens and then I’m starting a new game, around 10 seconds total. Similar timings for loading the PSX game, Thrasher Skate & Destroy.

One of the cool features that Onion OS offers is the ability to quickly switch between games. It keeps a save state of where you are in each open game and you can easily switch between them without doing full reloads.

The SD card that came with the Miyoo Mini was full of games. As I replaced the SD card I replaced them with the Tiny Best Set: GO!. They include the required BIOS files required for each of the emulators to ensure the best compatibility.

There are more games here than I will ever have capacity to play. It will be fun to go through them and have a little go on them.

Overall I’m happy with this device. It can easily fit in my pocket and will be hand to have when out and about and I find myself with a spare moment.

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If you used AIM back in the day, or MSN Messenger, or ICQ, then you’ll be right at home with XMPP

https://advent.weblog.lol/2023/day-4

Yes. Yes I do feel right at home with XMPP.

It’s been great chatting with the few people who responded to the last post. If you want to chat, just hit me up.

Are you looking to get started on XMPP? It’s simple; you just need an account on a server and a client.

If you’re already an omg.lol member, head over to the social page on your dashboard and provision an XMPP account. Otherwise, create an account on one of these public providers.

Then you’ll need a client; there are lots to choose from.

I’m using Beagle on the Macbook, Dino on the Linux Desktop, and Monal on the iOS devices.

I’m only using XMPP for the IM capabilities. I haven’t joined any chatrooms yet and don’t plan to.

The Join Jabber has a couple of sweeet tutorials for connecting to other networks, integrating with other Fedi services or self-hosting your own server.

Again, if you already have an account on XMPP or decide to create one, hit me up. Happy

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