+ I’m Dan. I live in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire. I work remotely as a software engineer, team leader, and system architect. +
+ ++ I like to talk about engineering, networking, and system design. There’s a really good chance I may also talk about some of my other interests – photography, lego, gaming and game dev, coffee, or the great outdoors. +
+

+ As well as traditional photoghraphy, I am trying to get to grips with my DJI Mini 2 for drone photography which opens up a whole new world of angles. +
++ I’ve been a keen photographer for many years. Currently I shoot with a Fujifilm X-T5, mainly with the 16-55mm f2.8. I also have the 70-300 f4-5. I’m making some effort to post my photos to instagram more frequently. +
+ + + + + +
cd /mnt/user/appdata/rest_of_path_you_found_above && chmod 777 .htaccess
+
+This will make the file writable by every group. If you’ve got security concerns you should probably not be following instructions found on someones blog without understanding them.
+
+Now edit the file however you wish, either using a terminal based editor like `nano` or opening the file in something on your local machine.
+
+Add the following two lines to the bottom of the file:
+
+php_value upload_max_filesize 500M
+php_value post_max_size 500M
+
+Adjust the values as you see fit.
+
+In the latest version of WordPress this didn’t seem to do the trick for me, I also had to edit the value stored somewhere in WordPress’ gubbins… To make this simpler I just used the plugin [Increase Maximum Upload File Size][1]. Navigating to the plugins page in your install and change the drop down. Hit Apply. Done.
+
+That’s it! Let me know if there’s a way to do this without the plugin.
+
+ [1]: https://wordpress.org/plugins/upload-max-file-size/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/content/posts/2024-01-24-cutting-off-from-compulsive-connectivity.md b/content/posts/2024-01-24-cutting-off-from-compulsive-connectivity.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3270311
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/posts/2024-01-24-cutting-off-from-compulsive-connectivity.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+---
+title: Cutting off from Compulsive Connectivity
+author: Dan
+type: post
+date: 2024-01-24T15:11:51+00:00
+url: /post/cutting-off-from-compulsive-connectivity/
+categories:
+ - Digital Minimalism
+tags:
+ - tech
+
+---
+Towards the end of 2023, a growing unease prompted me to seriously evaluate my device and app usage. I found myself habitually reaching for my phone, ostensibly to “just check”. Recognizing that I wasn’t alone in this sentiment, I delved into the realm of digital minimalism and connected with various communities centered around this philosophy.
+
+The main issue that surfaced was my persistent need to stay connected— whether through Discord, iMessage, Reddit, or email. I found myself compulsively checking these apps, only to discover that I was missing out on nothing substantial. Even with the majority of notifications disabled, allowing people instant access to my time and attention started to feel very wrong.
+
+I wanted to cut people off, and cut myself off.
+
+I found the book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport, which I can highly recommend. As with all books like this, all the methods won’t work for everyone. I am choosing to implement some of the suggestions, and then going far more extreme and deciding to put my iPhone in a box outside of work hours.
+
+There are multiple issues which will need overcoming and I want to address them all in individual posts as I come up with proper solutions, here is the rough list so far:
+
+ * **Watch** – I currently use an Apple Watch
+ * **Phone** – Yes, the obvious iPhone replacement quest looms. But not just any replacement — a humble dumb phone dedicated to emergency calls and texts. A bold move towards essential communication without the smartphone overwhelm.
+ * **Camera** – With the iPhone out of the picture, my portable camera dilemma surfaces..
+ * **Music** – No iPhone, no portable music player. The silence is about to be shattered by a new rhythm, a device solely devoted to delivering musical bliss.
+ * **Gaming** – Portable gaming system enthusiasts, fear not! The absence of an iPhone won’t hinder the gaming experience. A new, dedicated device is on the horizon.
+ * **Notes** – Joining the league of paper aficionados, I’m set to conquer the world of note-taking without the digital distractions.
+ * **Reading** – I’m finally going to get a kindle I think.
+
+Those are the main areas to address if I want to cut my smart phone usage in the evenings and weekends.
+
+The first one, the watch, was actually pretty easy to address. I’ve always admired the retro styling of the old-school Casio watches so I picked up one of those for around £10 and have been wearing it for a week already. I haven’t missed the notifications on my wrist and I really don’t care how many steps I haven’t taken in the day so it’s really not been much of a transition.
+ All the cool kids list the hardware and software they use (uses.tech) so here is mine. +
+ +
+
+ + The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. +
++ A * next to the item denotes that it lives in my server rack. +
+ ++ This page contains affiliate links so I can claw back some of the money I have spent on this stuff. 😁 +
+