⚡ Practical tech, automation, gadgets — and the occasional rant.

🧰 Meet PlainUtils — A Clean Suite of Practical Web Tools I recently launched PlainUtils.com — a site built for people who need simple, no-nonsense tools without ads, bloat, or fluff. Whether you need a word counter, a base64 encoder, a JSON formatter, or a DNS lookup utility, PlainUtils is designed to be fast, minimal, and useful. 🔧 How It’s Built PlainUtils is built with a modern developer stack that’s optimized for performance and simplicity: ...

I didn’t expect to love the Steam Deck as much as I do. But here we are. It’s not perfect — but if you’re even a little into PC gaming, retro titles, or tinkering, it’s the most fun I’ve had with hardware in years. ✅ What It Gets Right Game Library Access – Steam games, emulation, cloud gaming, and more — all in one device. Linux Power with Console Simplicity – Game Mode is dead simple, but Desktop Mode gives you full control. Dockability – Plug it into a monitor or TV with a USB-C dock and it’s basically a mini console. Controller Support – I use a DualSense (PS5 controller) over Bluetooth — no config needed, haptics and gyro just work. 🚫 What It’s Not A full desktop replacement — Yes, it has a desktop mode, but no, you won’t want to write code or edit video on it regularly. Zero-maintenance — You’ll spend some time tweaking compatibility settings, installing plugins, or figuring out why a game stutters. Plug and play for every title — Anti-cheat and DRM still block some popular multiplayer games (e.g., Destiny 2, Fortnite). 🧩 The Tweaks That Make It Amazing Out of the box, the Steam Deck is solid. But once you start customizing it, it gets ridiculous. ...

People in tech love talking about tools — but half the time, it’s just for show. Here’s the stuff I actually use day-to-day as someone running IT and tech operations for a scaling company. 🧠 Productivity & Personal Setup MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) – The best balance of power and portability. Quiet, fast, and never lets me down. MX Master 3S Mouse – Ergonomics + customizable buttons = massive time saver. Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID (no numpad) – Clean, tactile, secure. 💻 Core Daily Tools Chrome – My default browser. Profiles, extensions, and dev tools all work well out of the box. VS Code – Lightweight, flexible, and just enough for infrastructure and scripting work. iTerm2 – Better terminal. Tabs, profiles, and sane copy/paste. Raycast – App launcher, clipboard manager, and custom scripts. Replaced Spotlight entirely. 1Password – Shared vaults, strong auth, and secure notes for everything from vendor creds to internal tokens. 🛠️ IT & Ops Stack Okta – The hub. SSO, lifecycle, and device trust policies all live here. Google Workspace – Email, Drive, Meet — no frills, but reliable. Jamf + Intune – Covers our Mac and Windows endpoints. Intune’s clunky, but necessary. CrowdStrike Falcon – Lightweight EDR that doesn’t slow down users or trigger false positives. Workato – The automation engine. Powers onboarding/offboarding, SaaS workflows, and lifecycle integrations. 🧹 Tools I Ditched Notion – Looks great, but got too expensive for what we needed. Switched to Confluence. Moveworks – Tried to use it as a ticket deflection bot, but required too much up-front work and constant tuning for diminishing returns. Got your own favorite tools? Hate any of mine? 📬 mail@pingryte.com or open an issue on GitHub if you think I missed something essential. ...

Building this site — Pingryte — cost me exactly £0. Here’s how. 🛠️ The Stack Hugo – A lightning-fast static site generator. PaperMod – A clean, minimal Hugo theme with no fluff. GitHub – Free repo hosting + version control. Netlify – Free continuous deployment and global CDN. 🚀 Why I Chose This Setup I didn’t want WordPress, Wix, or anything bloated. I wanted: Full control over my content No recurring fees Speed, minimalism, and flexibility This stack checked every box. ...