Encrypted Pigeons – Whatever caught my interest this week

❓ Should I start using Google apps again?

4 min read

On 25 October 2026

I know, I know, it’s a borderline blasphemous statement to say, but it’s something I’ve been considering for a little while, and today is one of those days when I remember I have a site dedicated to my thoughts. Who knew.

Over the last six months or so, I have comprehensively stripped Google and other Big Tech products out of my life as much as I could — photos, email, search, messaging, note-taking and storage, navigation, DNS, passwords, and more besides. As I went through, a pattern became visible, which was that I would delete a Google service, and then realise I needed to replicate their services. So I looked for other, more privacy-conscious providers. If I couldn’t find a suitable one that combined security and convenience adequately, I’d end up hosting the solution myself on my own server. Now, I’m at the stage where a lot of the apps on my phone or computer are entirely interchangeable; they all just read the protocols coming from my server. Which leads me now to this question: do I start using Google apps again, but this time with me in control, not the Googleplex.

🖊️ I’m quite particular about the Oxford Comma

2 min read

On 11 October 2026

So I’m a bit of a pedant if you couldn’t already tell, and that extends to grammatical snobbery as well as technical and literary.

Part of that is my appreciation for grammar and language in general, as it is a living record of our history. But also it’s fun to tell other people about it. Anyone who knows the difference between ‘who’ and ‘whom’ well enough to correct someone when they use the wrong one knows the exact feeling I’m talking about. We are such awful people. 😂

🕳️ My review of 12 Kilometers

2 min read

On 4 October 2026

So I am a very sad person who has the Wikipedia mobile app downloaded on their phone. 😂

And it was whilst browsing Wikipedia that I came across the article for the Kola Superdeep Borehole. I found it quite interesting, so continued researching the concept of digging deep into the Earth. That was when I came across 12 Kilometers.

🔒My favourite Proton feature

4 min read

On 25 September 2026

So for the avoidance of doubt, and for anyone who might not know, Proton AG is a Swiss tech company trying to create an internet where privacy is the default option, directly opposing big tech giants like Google or Apple. They are my go-to for Mail and Password/Auth security, as well as more general advice on the current state of the internet.

I could say many things about Proton’s feature-list, some of them excellent, some less so. But one thing stands out in my everyday usage of Proton, and it relates to the calendar.

🚀 Shards of Earth: a masterpiece of science fiction

2 min read

On 22 September 2026

Most science fiction takes one of two stances: a positive one of exploration and discovery (à la Star Trek), or a dystopia where humanity is being brutally oppressed or even is the one doing the oppressing.

Adrian Tchaikovsky takes a slightly different path from either, but does tend to lean towards the negative. His books contain a brilliant impression of interstellar travel by humanity into the far future, with a refreshing sense of pessimism. 😂

✍️ Why I struggle to write a blog

3 min read

On 20 September 2026

It’s been a bit of time since the last time I wrote. I wish I could say that’s because I have other stuff in the works to be published, but in all honesty it’s simply because I’ve not bothered to write anything. So today, I thought I’d take a bit of a closer look into why that is, and what’s causing my particular form of writer’s block.

🇪🇺 Europe isn’t the answer

4 min read

On 7 September 2026

Part of Encrypted Pigeons

Ah, so you’ve decided my deranged ramblings are worthwhile listening to after all. Well, at the end of the last instalment of Encrypted Pigeons, I had a very healthy de-Googled phone, a bunch of data exports, and absolutely no way to do anything with them. The thing about Google apps is that you actually need to replace them with something. Stands to reason, really…

But I wasn’t going to be put off and return to American Big Tech. Rather than tackling Big Tech specifically, I decided it was the Americans who had to go. Hello Brussels.

My concern at this point wasn’t privacy per se — it was simply is an app British or European, and do I enjoy using it. A few notable cases come to mind with this.

🪤 Turns out leaving Google is harder than you think…

2 min read

On 30 August 2026

Part of Encrypted Pigeons

Welcome back to the next part in the series I’m calling “Encrypted Pigeons“. Why? Because it’s a frankly terrible name and I’m sticking with it.

At the end of the last issue, I was talking about my overall experiences with privacy, and how that has changed quite a bit. Roughly six months ago, I had no real understanding of digital privacy, and I was perfectly happy to keep going as I was. My main computer was Windows 11; I messaged everyone on WhatsApp, and practically everything I did backed up onto Google drive in some way or another. Google Photos, Google calendar, Google everywhere.

I was happy with that, because it all worked together quite well. I only had a vague sense that maybe my digital life wasn’t quite in my control.

🧙 My review of Earthsea: the first four books.

4 min read

On 26 August 2026

I’d been quite excited to read this one for a while. It was a Christmas present, and I’d been told that Ursula Le Guin was “the birth of modern fantasy”. Tolkien’s predating her by about a decade aside, it was certainly interesting.

One disclaimer: the edition I read was the original Earthsea quartet of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu. It did not include the two later books written to finish the series.

🇬 I tried to get rid of Google

3 min read

On 25 August 2026

Part of Encrypted Pigeons

I use Google Wallet.

That’s a bit of an issue for me, because I’d quite like to stop using Google’s products.