iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 29/09/2026

Hello everyone from the Southern-most tip of Africa! (L'Agulhas, Western Cape, South Africa)

Photo of poster standing at beacon at southern-most tip of Africa

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 14/09/2026

#macOS 27 is available now! BRB, just clicking that shiny shiny "Update Now" button...

Screenshot of the macOS software update screen showing macOS 27 being available. 26.81GB download...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 03/08/2026

Thank you very much for this option #fastmail! I'm moving my primary data residency to the EU, because from here in Somerset West (close to Cape Town) the average ping to your servers will improve from 211ms to 176ms.

average ping time comparison between fastmail us and eu. Note that eu also has much lower variance.

Screenshot of fastmail UI to confirm data residency setting

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 28/07/2026

Today during our meeting walk to the beach, @enginerd.co.za and I ran into a Cape dune mole-rat! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_du...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 16/07/2026

This is really very exciting, an **open weights** model at this size (2.8T) that scores 57 on Artificial Analysis's combined intelligence index. Congratulations MoonshotAI with the release of #Kimi #K3 and... WHOOOHOOOO!

screenshot of artificial analysis's tweet showing Kimi K3 scoring 57 on their intelligence index.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 04/07/2026

Silver lining: It did remind me to remove Edge and all related cache + data files from my #macbook using the amazing and free #AppCleaner app!

Screenshot of AppCleaner finding and removing all files associated with Microsoft Edge on my MacBook

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 04/07/2026

#microsoft is really going through a sad phase. Here I am trying to report the same outlook.com spam that I've reported 5 times over the past weeks (the spammer just does not stop) via their website. Guess what: It force-opens #Edge from my Chrome browser and then, adding insult to injury, fails!

screenshot of microsoft failing at receiving an outlook spam report

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 28/06/2026

TelePi rendering in the Telegram Web app is really pretty!

screenshot of new rich message markdown in the telegram web app

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 18/06/2026

If you know you know... It only took me half a century and some change. 🥹 Thank you friends.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 14/02/2026

All the #Chrome family browsers as well as #Safari render the attached #HDR #AVIF image correctly on my 16" M1 MacBook display. #Firefox 147 over-saturates / washes out the colours, also 16bit #PNG ver. gfx.color_management.mode=1 & restarting does not help. Source #blog cpbotha.net/2026/02/07/t...

Sunset over the sea at Betty's Bay, South Africa

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 13/02/2026

Vertical tabs now also available in the #Chrome Beta (146.0.7680.0)

Screenshot of the vertical tabs flag in chrome://flags

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 22/08/2025

I'm using lsd [1] as drop-in replacement for #ls instead of exa [2], as lsd is closer and I can use the same invocations. The screenshot below shows example output, plus the small config tweaks required to render readably in a light theme. [1] github.com/lsd-rs/lsd [2] github.com/ogham/exa

screenshot of kitty terminal using the solarized light theme, showing example lsd output, as well as the config file tweaks required to render readably in a light theme.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 09/08/2025

Misleading packaging (partner bought because at a glance looks like extra virgin olive oil) by Checkers here in South Africa, normally quite good. "Vegetable oils (canola seed and/or maize and/or sunflower seed andor soybean" and olive fruit (10 %))."

Vegetable oil blend with 10% olives that misleadingly looks like olive oil

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 06/08/2025

Usually I let my experiencing self drive during #running but this scene was so epic that narrative self briefly took the wheel to take a photo before I could stuff him back in his box

Blue sky beautiful clouds reflecting on water layer on beach

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 18/07/2025

In a remote location with low bandwidth, I needed to find out which process on my macbook was sucking up data in the background. Activity Monitor only shows accumulated totals. Fortunately, "nettop -Pd" will show you instantaneous network bandwidth by process! culprit was #icloud drive #macos

example screenshot of nettop -Pd in this case showing Edge downloading data. In the menubar, my xbar lua plugin bandwidth_total is showing total down / up, but at 2s update (instead of 1s like nettop), hence the discrepancy.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 10/07/2025

In record time, dr calle ported #bitchat to Android. announcement on twitter: x.com/callebtc/sta... (screenshot attached) I've also attached a screenshot of colleague and I testing three-way between iPhone, macOS and Android.

screenshot of dr. calle's android port of bitchat

screenshot of our android, macos, iphone testing of bitchat

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 09/07/2025

If you were wondering what Jack Dorsey's new distributed chat app #bitchat looked like, I built from source for my iPhone and made a screenshot. Currently p2p bluetooth, later wifi direct and lorawan. No internet required, near-indestructible comms. Test tmrw with others. github.com/jackjackbits...

screenshot of bitchat app running on iPhone

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 22/06/2025

The latest release 1.8.0 of my #obsidian ai-chat-as-markdown plugin has better support for the perplexity web-grounded models directly from the #perplexity API. When you use these sonar models via perplexity, citations have titles and dates. (#openrouter only URLs atm) github.com/cpbotha/obsi...

screenshot of perplexity sonar-pro answering a question about m-series geekbench performance comparison, with a follow-up question, all in obsidian

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 16/06/2025

Whoops, the #Mastodon embed I used on 2024-01-28 did exactly what I feared it would do: Disappear the source, thus breaking the embed. Fortunately #bluesky does this more durably, with the post text in the embed itself, so it will mostly render even if the post is removed or bluesky disappears.

screenshot of mastodon embed which used to display the post, but because the server was shutdon, it now just displays "not found". Whoops.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 10/06/2025

In #vscode, if you would prefer that #github #copilot only suggests completions when you explicitly trigger them instead of as-you-type, ensure that the setting github.copilot.enable has an item "*: false", and use Alt+\ (alt-backslash) to trigger a completion when you actually want it.

$Screenshot of VSCode showing default alt+\ keyboard shortcut for editor.action.inlineSuggest.trigger on the left, and copilot disable setting on the right.$

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 01/06/2025

I'm working on a new @obsidian.md plugin which tries to render a small subset of #emacs #org-mode style timestamps as prettily as org-modern [1] does. [1] github.com/minad/org-mo...

screenshot of obsidian with prettier timestamps

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 31/05/2025

I just created a PR (just merged!) that modifies DaInfernalCoder's Perplexity #MCP server to add the actual citations / sources to its responses. github.com/DaInfernalCo... Below you can see the results with Github copilot in VSCode using perplexity via MCP. All other MCP clients will benefit.

Screenshot of github copilot in vscode using perplexity MCP to answer request

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 23/05/2025

Scene from Friday afternoon #running in perfect autumn weather, Strand, Western Cape, South Africa

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 15/05/2025

Scene from this afternoon's after-work beach #running. Perfect autumn weather in Strand, Western Cape, South Africa.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 08/05/2025

#running on Strand (Western Cape, South Africa) beach today in perfect autumn late afternoon weather was omni-sensory joy.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 06/05/2025

Latest version 1.7.0 of my #Obsidian plugin ai-chat-as-markdown now does image generation and editing as well, in addition to its main function of branching conversations in markdown structure. website: github.com/cpbotha/obsi... reddit if you want to chat there: www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD...

screenshot of "conversational" gpt-image-1 image generation and editing via Obsidian plugin AI Chat as Markdown

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 02/05/2025

Latest version 1.6.0 of my #Obsidian plugin ai-chat-as-markdown will now correctly render citations as returned by the Perplexity Sonar range of models which have search grounding built in. Works on mobile; With @openrouter.bsky.social API access, answers in your pocket! github.com/cpbotha/obsi...

screenshot of obsidian with the ai-chat-as-markdown active, showing an answer by perplexity sonar with citations.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 09/04/2025

The trick is to learn how to want the things you already have. -- William B. Irvine P.S. this Waking Up quote of the day hit me exactly right this morning.

Two Blood Lily flowers in the foreground, mountains and sea in the background, photo taken at Silver Sands, between Betty's Bay and Pringle Bay.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 31/03/2025

It was fun #23andme, but it's clear that it's time to say goodbye. (I did the sample in 2013, so a pretty old version of the chip, probably v3, see isogg.org/wiki/23andMe, but regardless I will sleep a bit better when my data has been deleted.)

screenshot of 23andme confirmation that my data is being deleted

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 30/03/2025

visible-orbit.org lives on from a shiny new server! This is the third time since 2007 that I port these histological sections, along with github.com/ma-tech/WlzI..., an unmaintained modification of the C++ IIP image tile server. This time I have eternalized WlzIIPSrv inside a #docker image. #anatomy

screenshot of histological section of a human eye on the visible-orbit.org server

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 26/03/2025

Perfect flat whites on this beautiful autumn day for me and my friend, made by Merkava here in Somerset West, South Africa. #coffee

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 22/03/2025

Start of a family #hike along the Palmiet River lagoon to the beach. Betty's Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

Palmiet river looking from the r44. Fynbos and blue sky with clouds

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 19/03/2025

Thanks to @enginerd.co.za it really feels like I've reached some sort of #keyboard endgame. Quefrency 4.0 split keyboard with gateron g pro 3.0 silvers FTW!

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 17/03/2025

Beautiful "Bone Crusher" #weiss #beer (by Darling Brew!) from the tap with friend at Prime Wagyu on Beach Road, #Strand, Western Cape, South Africa. 12/10 would do again.

Beer in glass with lettering "darling brew", background blue sky mountains and sea.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 26/02/2025

Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. -- Alan Watts

photo of kite surfer being lifted out of the seawater by his kite. blue sky and mountains in the background. Strand, Western Cape, South Africa.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 25/02/2025

Tony's Chocolonely beautiful delicious #chocolate 🤤

Red wrapper (empty) of Tony's Chocolonely milk chocolate so good

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 22/02/2025

Thanks to @fastmail.com my outgoing #emails are DKIM signed for years now. However, only today I added the DMARC DNS TXT record "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine;" on my two most important domains to prevent them from being spoofed. (I received a lame extortion attempt this morning, spoofed from me)

screenshot of cloudflare's DMARC management

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 02/02/2025

Scene from this morning's #running in Betty's Bay, South Africa

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 01/02/2025

Scene from yesterday morning's #running. I made this so you too could listen to the water babbling over the Lourens river rocks.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 26/01/2025

Perfect Sunday lunch in 35 deg Celsius summer heat at Cosecha #restaurant on Noble Hill wine estate, rural #Franschhoek, South Africa. The smothered chicken burrito was delectable! (Darling slow beer as starter, Noble Hill #Chenin with meal 🤤)

Darling brewery slow beer on table at Cocheca restaurant

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 26/01/2025

Commanditor is an open source Google Drive extension, based on Monaco (same as VSCode), to edit any of your text files from the #GDrive web UI, with syntax highlighting. workspace.google.com/marketplace/... P.S. Syntax highlighting for many popular markups and languages, but not #emacs org mode.

screenshot of commanditor editing my books to read markdown file

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 25/01/2025

View from Haute Cabrière in #Franschhoek, South Africa. Photo taken right after MCC (Methode Cap Classique) tasting, during our (process) data science team outing on the Franschhoek #Wine Tram's red line, all highly recommended!

View of mountains blue sky with clouds, taken from Haute Cabriere wine farm

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 19/01/2025

Scene from this morning's #running - entrance to Vergelegen and Morgenster, Somerset West, South Africa

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 13/01/2025

Sunset beach #walk with family, some barefoot #running as well on that lovely sand. Strand, Western Cape, South Africa

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 07/01/2025

Welcome to my 8th pair of Altra Escalante #running shoes!

Altra Escalante 3 running shoes, gray with orange accents

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 03/01/2025

Action sequence from this morning's #run on the beautiful paths of the Seal Bay Nature Reserve, Cape St Francis, South Africa. Hot, humid, enjoyable #running!

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 02/01/2025

Sunset rock in Cape St Francis (South Africa) yesterday evening was a bit chaotic and busy, but the vibe was great (gezellig!) and the view stunning.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 01/01/2025

Scene from this morning's new year's #running in Cape St Francis, South Africa. Easily my favourite #run of the year so far! (I'm a #dad, these jokes come effortlessly :P)

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 30/12/2024

Perfectly cromulent last #run of the year 2024. Hot and humid here in Cape St Francis, South Africa, but beautiful route with first half road and then second half rugged coastal trail #running

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 29/12/2024

Man this resonates: "I'm going to go obsessively run diagnostics on systems I know are solid so I can feel like I have control of something." -- Alex Kamal to Bobbie Draper right before highest risk attack in Tiamat's Wrath by James A. Corey (book 8 of The Expanse)

First edition cover of the book Tiamat's Wrath, from wikipedia

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