karelvo

Music I liked in 2025

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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Using an unsupported HP printer on macOS

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the year 2025, printers still suck. I have a HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw Color Printer model (quite a mouthful) that has never vibed with me, but I also never considered to buy another model. It came out in 2010, has been nagging about its toners other than the black one being depleted since 2012, and has caused me more than a few headaches.

HP CP1025-nw Color: the reason my hairline’s up there at age 31

Music I liked in 2024

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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Self-hosting forms, the sane way

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I run a few (very) small websites, nothing serious: they’re not businesses, they’re hobbies. There is no risk involved if they would go down, apart from maybe disappointing a few hundred people that found a link to it on search engines. Because working on them is sometimes a fun challenge, but at the same time I am not a developer/sysadmin, there are two rules I follow:

Try to do as much as you can by yourself, and seek out the challenges.
…but seek alternatives when it gets too frustrating/scary. It’s a hobby, after all - no stress.

Some examples of how the combo of those two things translates to my setup:

Music I liked in 2023

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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My simple, effective org mode setup

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I have the bad habit of switching note and task listing methods every so often. One product (or rather, system) that always loomed like a shining beacon on note-taking hill was org mode for GNU Emacs - a steep learning-curve tool that allegedly you “can live your life in” makes you “never look back”.

After close to a year of daily & extensive usage, I am happy to share my setup with anyone who may be interested. This post is not intended to go into the what or why of org mode (plenty has been written about that), but how I use it to track my notes, tasks, and thoughts.

Music I liked in 2022

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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Guide: TT-RSS on Yunohost on a VPS

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Note: since this blog was written, Linode has been renamed ‘Akamai Cloud’.

I am a big fan of RSS – both as a concept (easily readable and cataloged website updates) as “what it stands for” (an internet made from decentralized, low-weight information sources). The stories of its demise are largely exaggerated and are mostly fueled by the fact that the incumbent social media channels don’t support it – not because they can’t, but because it leads audiences away from their platform. However, close to all CMS have Atom/XML feeds enabled by default; good luck finding a blog or news website without one.

365 things I learned in 2021

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Living in the internet age, one tends to get overwhelmed with (often useless) facts on a daily basis. Fueled by hundreds of articles and studies via my RSS reader, social media, podcasts, journals and other content providers, the human brain meets more disposable knowledge than it can process. In 2021, I decided to keep track of one such piece of trivia every single day.

Note: I replace broken links every once in a while. If the added source is younger than the date of the factoid, that’s merely me replacing the link with the first source I could find.

Music I liked in 2021

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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Music I liked in 2020

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

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About me

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi, I am Karel Van Ooteghem. My main point of contact is hello@karelvo.com.

Among my interests are niche electronic music genres, incremental and/or text-based games, mechanical pencils, note-taking software, Gunpla, graphic & web design, indie animators, music tracker software, chess (watching rather than playing), GNU Emacs, Dungeons & Dragons, 3D-printing, mechanical keyboards, microcomputers, Star Trek, scripting languages, the self-hosted community, and unfortunately politics.

I currently work as a marketing director at Alludo. Although the name probably doesn’t ring a bell, their primary software brands might: Parallels, WinZip, and CorelDRAW.

About this site

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here are some things you may find interesting about this website. If you’re being directed here from privacy links of some of my other websites, what is stated below (apart from tech stack) remains true.

No tracking, no analytics: there is no tracking installed on this website. You don’t need analytics on a personal blog. I have no idea how many people visit this website, let alone who they are, where thet live, or how they got here. My previous website sent data to a self-hosted Umami instance, which I never ever ended up checking.
Tech stack: this website is made with Hugo and does not use a theme. It uses water.css with a tiny custom CSS file to make it it look good. Try to stay away from fancy things (that break and need maintenance) as much as possible.
Hosting: this website (and all my others) are hosted on sourcehut pages and the the source is available. Consult the .build.yml file in the linked repo to see how simple life can be. I am a paying customer of sourcehut because I support their ethos, and cannot recommend their services enough.
No AI: none of the content that you read on this website was produced with the help of articifial intelligence. Truthfully, I did use an LLM when learning Hugo when I made the switch, and small parts of this site’s (very minimal) configuration have been written with the assistance of ChatGPT.

Cool links

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Remember digg? Remember StumbleUpon? The internet is awesome and every so often you come across something completely random and completely cool. On this page I collect such links whenever I happen to come across them; so go ahead, spin the wheel and get 5 random cool links!

Note: do you have Javascript disabled? Find them all in the source code of this website.

Search the Deck - Search inside 15,000+ pitch deck slides.
Pianochord.io - A reference to a comprehensive collection of piano chords.
Cables - Interactive visuals, made from cable salad.
YouTube Infinite-Storage-Glitch - Neat idea: convert files to videos and use YouTube as a cloud provider.
Emergent Drums - Generate unique drum samples using artificial intelligence
pdfux - PDF tools in the browser.
OpenVIM - Interactive, browser-based Vim tutorial.
Slow roads - Browser-based procedurally-generated driving game, aimed at zen.
Astrofox - Free, open-source motion graphics program that lets you turn your audio into custom, shareable videos.
Fold 'n Fly - Paper airplane folding instructions.
Notable people - Map showing birthplaces of the most “notable people” around the world, down to a village level.
Those Who Cannot Learn From History Are Doomed To Repeat It - News reporting comparison between the advents of the Second World War and the Russian-Ukranian war. Spoiler: eerily similar.
Arteater - Create hand-drawn GIFs on paper.
mess with dns - Do weird DNS experiments and see how it works (and when it breaks).
Microns - Marketplace for buying your own micro startup, without commission.
Loneliness/translate - Google Translates text over 9 random languages and ends up with a surprising result in your input language.
rpilocator - Find an in-stock Raspberry Pi during this worldwide shortage.
radio.garden - Listen to radio stations from (literally) all over the globe.
awesome-oss-alternatives - Awesome list of open-source startup alternatives to established SaaS products.
Overtone - Overtone is an open source audio environment designed to explore new musical ideas from synthesis and sampling to instrument building, live-coding and collaborative jamming.
Animatize - Making animations the easy way.
awesome-piracy - A curated list of arrrrrrrrr!
Cheezam - Computer Vision with AI for cheese.
Libretexts - Open and libre searchable university textbooks library.
edit.photo - Free photo editor in your browser. No popups to close. No ads to ignore. No cookies to accept. No account to create.
Peppercat - The collaborative World Leaders list.
Cyberchef - The Cyber Swiss Army Knife.
If it were my home - If you were not born in the country you were, what would your life be like? Would you be the same person?
AutoHotkey - Automate anything on your device. Powerful. Easy to learn. The ultimate automation scripting language for Windows.
emojimix - Mix emojis.
Ambient Chaos - Ambient music gone a little too far…
Bitfortip - Tip Bitcoins as an incentive. Earn Bitcoins for being helpful.
Amazon Mechanical Turk - Crowdsourcing marketplace that makes it easier for individuals and businesses to outsource their (micro-)processes and (micro-)jobs to a distributed workforce who can perform these tasks virtually.
Bespoke Synth - Bespoke is like a DAW in some ways, but with less of a focus on a global timeline. Instead, it has a design more optimized for jamming and exploration.
Neurocracy - Solve a murder in a near future world by diving into the Wikipedia of that world.
Godly Website - Your daily dose of the most godlike website design inspiration.
Aristotl - A cool logical fallacy lookup tool.
Looping Music Seamlessly - Python script that lets you loop .mp3 files seamlessly, forever, based on a loop point determined automatically.
Developer roadmaps - Step by step guides and paths to learn different tools or technologies.
GSAP - GreenSock - Professional-grade JavaScript animation for the modern web.
Home Assistant - Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.
STEALING UR FEELINGS - Meet the new AI that knows you better than you know yourself.
🗿 + 🎮 = 😎 - A collection of Moai statue appearances in video games.
Pi-hole - The Pi-hole is a DNS sinkhole that protects your devices from unwanted content, without installing any client-side software.
Computer Stupidities - Humorous anecdotes of users creatively misusing computers.
GoAccess - Visual Web Log Analyzer - An open source real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer that runs in a terminal in __nix systems or through your browser.
autoEdit 2 - Fast text-based video editing.
Obsidian.md - A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files.
Laws of UX - A collection of best practices that designers can consider when building user interfaces.
Kdenlive - Open source video editor (that can match Premiere Pro for the amateur user).
one-hour-of-random-interpolations - Google Drive folder with hours of morphing images.
Intro to Web Dev v2 - Step by step guide to becoming a web developer.
Sonic Pi - Code-based music creation and performance tool.
HTMHell - A collection of bad practices in HTML, copied from real websites.
Fancy Border Radius - WYSIWYG blob maker that merely focuses on the CSS border-radius value.
Yamauchi No.10 Family Office - Website of the family that owns Nintendo. Uniquely and beautifully designed.
Occlusion Grotesque - Occlusion Grotesque is an experimental typeface that is carved into the bark of a tree. As the tree grows, it deforms the letters and outputs new design variations, that are captured annually.
Ableton/learning-synths - Interactive and well-designed tutorial by the Ableton team on the different components of sound synthesis.
asteroidblock - Web-based, interactive, atmospheric pad synthesizer which queries NASA’s asteroid API, using live proximity data to throttle initial parameters of the synth.
GDevelop - Free, Fast, Easy Game Engine - No-code, Lightweight, Super Powerful.
Crokinole - This isn’t just a flicking game, but a century-old test of skill and strategy.
SiteOne Crawler - A useful website analyzer.
Minimal Gallery - For the love of beautiful, clean and functional websites.
Artificial Intelligence Incident Database - Whenever AI does an oopsie, it gets added here.
Air Fry Pro - Quick reference cook times for popular air fryer recipes.
MakerSkillTree - A repository of Maker Skill Trees.
Linkpreview - Check Preview your website og image, meta tags, favicon, etc.
Long Bets - The Arena for Accountable Predictions.
Degreeless.Design - An opinionated and carefully curated collection of links, books, articles, and more that will help you speed boost your UX and Product Design career.
Webbed Briefs - Brief videos about the web, its technologies, and how to make the most of them.
ScrapeGPT - AI-powered scraper to extract valuable information effortlessly.
Digital Defense - The ultimate personal security checklist to secure your digital life.
noclip - A digital museum of video game levels.
Grumpy Website - Old man yells at cloud, the website.
Open Source Game Clones - List of open source clones and remakes of popular old-school games.
Viewport Tester - Test your website with 180+ different viewports and device dimensions.
FriendsDontLetFriends - Friends don't let friends make certain types of data visualization.
awesome-engineering-games -
Digital Defense - The ultimate personal security checklist to secure your digital life.
Variable Fonts - Resource for browsing and testing variable fonts.
Ruby's Exceptional Creatures - Honeybadger's playful guide to Ruby’s exception system.
Not Paid - A joke script that fades a client’s site when they don’t pay.
Godly - Curated gallery of outstanding web design inspiration.
Big-Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List - A comprehensive list of data brokers and opt-out instructions.
Strudel REPL - Browser-based live coding environment for music patterns.
Mario Meets Pareto - Interactive guide to optimizing Mario Kart 8 builds using Pareto analysis.
Pay Once Alternatives - Directory of software with one-time purchase pricing.
Fffuel - Free SVG generators, color tools, and design utilities.
About Ideas Now - Search engine for personal “/about”, “/ideas”, and “/now” pages.
PikaPods - Privacy-first hosting for open-source apps, starting at low cost.
Dead Simple Sites - Showcase of minimalist web design examples.
AnythingLLM - Self-hostable app to run any LLM privately and chat with documents.
Kinopio - Neatly designed spatial note-taking tool for visual idea organization.
ramen.tools - Directory of tech stacks used by indie makers and startups.
DOOM Captcha - Yes, it's in your captcha now too.
Scrapy - Python framework for web scraping and data extraction.
GifMemes - Create and share GIF memes with motion-tracked text and images.
Eyecandy - a visual technique library for visual technique lovers.
KRAZAM - Cool site for the great YouTube channel.
Large Horse - neigh.
Crocotile 3D - Create 3D maps and models with 2D tilesets.
Dead Startup Toys - Collectible parody toys based on failed startups.
Hall of Shame - Gallery of dark patterns and deceptive design examples.
HellPot - Honeypot that punishes unruly HTTP bots.
Button Stealer - Demo that “steals” buttons from websites you visit.
mmm.page - Make a unique personal site quickly, without templates.
Cables Standalone - Offline editor for creating visuals with Cables.
Stipple Effect - Scriptable pixel art editor for making game assets.
Surveillance Watch - Interactive map of surveillance companies and their ties.
Looom - Playful hand-drawn animation app with a unique UI.
Graffiti Removals - Submission-based archive of graffiti removal images.
Disney Filmmaking Process - Explore Disney’s animation pipeline from sequence to shot.
elle’s homepage - Personal homepage with handmade HTML projects.
98.css - CSS library for recreating classic Windows 98 UIs.
The Pudding - Visual essays explaining complex cultural ideas.
The Art of Pokémon - Database of Japanese Pokémon cards, artwork, and artists.
Books That Will Induce a Mindfuck - Community list of books known for 'mind-bending content'.
IMG_0001 - Collection of accidentally YouTubed videos via the early iPhone's "sent to YouTube" function.
BlenderGPT - Generative AI for 3D models.
0data - App for owning and managing all your personal data.
Sherlock - Tool to find usernames across 400+ social networks.
DIY Multideck - Card deck system enabling hundreds of traditional and modern games.
The Free Movie - Fan-made, crowd-pirated recreation of Bee Movie.
Software Folklore - Blog post about classic programming stories (often funny).
TabBOO - Add random jump scares to sites you want to avoid.
Webring - A handmade webring connecting personal and experimental websites.
WikiTok - Scroll through Wikipedia like you would TikTok.
Eggs US (Trading Economics) - Market data and historical prices for eggs in the US.
2DGD_F0TH (GitHub) - Community compendium on game design and development.
seized.fyi - Archive of official government website seizure banners.
Binocular Shot - Collection of inaccurate binocular shots in movies.
Ghost House (MIMT) - Very creative visual design software.
Drum Patterns - Free drum loops and patterns for many music genres.
BuyOnceSoftware - Directory of software with one-time purchase licenses.
DIY Synths - Curated database of DIY-friendly open source hardware synths.
monkeys.zip - Simulation of monkeys attempting Shakespeare.
404s - Gallery of creative and inspiring 404 error page designs.
Relativity in Short Words - Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity in words of 4 letters or less.
Anime.js - Lightweight JavaScript animation engine.
Johnny.Decimal - Really cool system to organize information at home or work.
Maker Stations - Curated collection of real-world desk setups and workspaces.
getoutofmyhead.dev - A guide to clearing the <head> of your website.
Plain Vanilla Web - Guide to building sites with simple, vanilla web techniques.
Vecto3D - Tool to convert vector logos (SVG) into 3D models.
Anukari - Experimental 3D physics synthesizer project.
Glitch Gallery - Online exhibition of software bugs as accidental art.
Fictional Brands Archive - Exactly what the title says!
R00M101 - Turns Reddit usernames into detailed OSINT-style profiles.
LibRedirect - Browser extension that redirects requests to privacy-friendly frontends.
MacPaint Art - A look back at digital art made with MacPaint in the 1980s.
Tooooools.app - Apply lo-fi effects like dithering and halftone to media files.
Are We Trek Yet? - Tracks Star Trek-inspired technologies being built today.
LOADMORE - Mobile websites gallery showcasing the best design inspiration for the unconventional web.
Doomsday Scoreboard - Keeping track of all failed apocalyptic predictions.

My projects

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I would speak to when people ask me about ‘side projects’.

Table of contents

Neocortex

Name: Neocortex
Links: Soundcloud | YouTube | Facebook | Bandcamp

Electronic music project, started in 2010 as a joke but have since performed 250+ gigs in multiple countries. Mixes breakcore and gabber with Flemish folklore - let’s say it’s an acquired taste. My DAWs of choice is Renoise for composition, and Ableton Live for live performances (example).