DEV Community: Digital Alchemyst

I Spent $192/Year on Note Apps Until I Found This Local-First Alternative

Digital Alchemyst — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:53:56 +0000

You know that feeling when you check your credit card statement and see yet another $16 charge from Notion? Yeah, me too.

Last month, I sat down and actually calculated how much I've been paying for note-taking apps. The number was embarrassing: $192 per year. Notion at $16/month. And honestly? I was barely using half the features.

The Breaking Point

It happened on a Tuesday. My internet went down right before a client meeting, and I couldn't access any of my notes in Notion. Everything was locked behind that "No connection" screen.

I had my meeting notes. My project ideas. Everything. Just... inaccessible.

That's when I realized: I don't actually own my notes.

What I Actually Needed

After that disaster, I made a list of what I REALLY needed:

My data on MY machine (no cloud dependency)
Fast performance (I'm impatient)
Markdown support (because I'm a developer)
No monthly subscription (subscription fatigue is real)
Something that just... works

I tried Obsidian first. Great tool, but then I looked at the pricing:

Sync: $96/year
Publish: $96/year

Wait, so to get the features I need, I'm back to paying $192/year?

The Discovery

I found NuvoPad almost by accident. Someone mentioned it in a Reddit thread about "markdown editors that don't require a subscription."

Here's what caught my attention:

$9.99. Once. That's it.

I literally had to read the pricing page three times because I thought I was missing something.

What It Actually Does

Local-first: Everything lives on your machine. Internet down? Who cares.
Built in Rust: Opens in milliseconds. Search is instant.
Tabs: Because context-switching is how we actually work
WYSIWYG + Markdown: Write with formatting, export clean markdown
SQLite full-text search: Find anything, instantly

The Math That Sold Me

Let me break this down:

Notion: $192/year = $960 over 5 years
Obsidian (with sync): $96/year = $480 over 5 years
NuvoPad: $9.99 once = $9.99 over 5 years

For the price of one month of Notion, I own it forever.

What I Gave Up

Let's be honest about trade-offs:

❌ No collaboration features (but I wasn't using them anyway)

❌ No mobile app (yet - I use my laptop for real work)

❌ No AI features (ChatGPT exists if I need that)

❌ Windows only (but I'm on Windows, so...)

What I Gained

✅ My data is MINE

✅ Works offline, always

✅ Lightning fast (Rust performance is real)

✅ No anxiety about subscription renewals

✅ $182/year back in my pocket

Three Months Later

I'm writing this post in NuvoPad right now.

My workflow:

Wake up, open NuvoPad (it's already open, it starts with Windows)
Hit Ctrl+N for a new note
Write
Ctrl+F to find stuff when I need it
Done

No loading screens. No "syncing..." No "reconnecting..."

Just... writing.

Should You Switch?

Honestly? It depends.

If you:

Need collaboration → Stick with Notion
Need mobile → Maybe wait
Use Mac/Linux → Not an option yet
Love paying subscriptions → (why though?)

But if you:

Want your data local
Are tired of subscriptions
Just need a fast markdown editor
Use Windows

Try it. It's $9.99. That's less than a lunch.

Where to Get It

Microsoft Store | Official Site

Not sponsored. Not affiliated. Just a developer who got tired of subscription fatigue and found something that works.

Your mileage may vary. But for me? Best $9.99 I've spent this year.

What's your note-taking setup? Still paying monthly, or did you find an alternative too?

Building a Matrix Digital Rain Screensaver for Windows 10/11

Digital Alchemyst — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:15:16 +0000

Remember the iconic cascading green code from The Matrix? That hypnotic digital rain has been a staple of hacker aesthetics for decades. I wanted to bring that experience to modern Windows, so I built a premium screensaver that does justice to the original while adding powerful customization options.

🎯 What I Built

A high-performance Matrix-style digital rain screensaver featuring:

✨ Buttery Smooth Animation

60fps performance optimized for modern displays
GPU-accelerated rendering
Adaptive performance scaling

🎨 Visual Customization

Classic green digital rain (free version)
Multiple color themes: blue, red, white, amber, purple (pro)
Adjustable speed, density, and glow effects
Custom background images and overlay messages

⚙️ Professional Features

Multi-monitor support with independent configurations
Clock overlay with customizable positioning
Extended character sets: katakana, binary, custom symbols
Native Windows screensaver integration (.scr format)

🛠️ Technical Stack

Core Technologies

Tauri Framework - For native Windows integration and performance
HTML5 Canvas API - Hardware-accelerated rendering engine

TypeScript - Type-safe development
MSIX Packaging - Seamless Microsoft Store distribution

Why These Choices?

Tauri over Electron: 10x smaller bundle size, native performance, and Windows-first optimizations made Tauri the obvious choice.

Canvas over WebGL: While WebGL offers more power, Canvas provided the perfect balance of performance and simplicity for 2D rendering.

💪 Key Technical Challenges

Challenge #1: Maintaining 60fps with Hundreds of Characters

The Problem: Rendering 500+ falling characters with glow effects tanked performance on older hardware.

The Solution:

Implemented object pooling to recycle character instances
Batch rendering updates to minimize draw calls
Used offscreen canvas for glow effects
Added performance profiling modes

// Character recycling pool
class CharacterPool {
  constructor(size) {
    this.pool = Array(size).fill(null).map(() => new Character());
    this.activeIndex = 0;
  }

  get() {
    return this.pool[this.activeIndex++ % this.pool.length];
  }
}

Challenge #2: Windows Screensaver Integration

The Problem: Modern Windows has evolved, but .scr screensaver format hasn't. Getting proper preview mode, configuration, and multi-monitor support required deep registry work.

The Solution:

Implemented proper command-line argument handling (/s, /c, /p)
Registry integration for screensaver settings persistence
Custom preview window rendering for Settings app

Challenge #3: Multi-Monitor Synchronization

The Problem: Users with multi-monitor setups wanted synchronized rain across all displays while maintaining independent configurations.

The Solution:

Separate rendering contexts per monitor
Shared timing engine for synchronization
Independent density/speed settings per display

📊 Performance Benchmarks

Hardware	Resolution	FPS	CPU Usage
RTX 3060	1920x1080	60	2-3%
GTX 1660	2560x1440	60	4-5%
Intel HD 630	1920x1080	60	8-10%

🚀 Try It Out

The screensaver is available on the Microsoft Store:

Free Version: Classic green digital rain with essential features

Pro Version: All color themes, multi-monitor, and advanced customization

Download from Microsoft Store

💬 Feedback Wanted!

I'd love to hear from you:

⚡ How's the performance on your setup?
🎨 What color themes would you like to see?
🐛 Any bugs or issues?
💡 Feature requests?

🗺️ Roadmap

Planning to add:

[ ] Custom character set editor
[ ] Animation presets (slow fade, intense storm, etc.)
[ ] Performance profiles for different hardware tiers
[ ] Community-shared configurations
[ ] Linux/Mac support (maybe?)

🎓 Lessons Learned

Start with performance: Optimize early, not late
Native matters: Tauri's native integration made Windows screensaver format much easier
Test on real hardware: Simulators don't catch performance issues
User feedback is gold: Beta testers found edge cases I never considered

Try the screensaver and let me know what you think! Drop your feedback in the comments or open an issue if you find bugs.

Happy coding! 💻✨

Rapidok — A High-Performance TikTok Downloader for Developers & Power Users

Digital Alchemyst — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:18:17 +0000

If you work with TikTok content — analysis, archiving, OSINT, meme-farming, creator backups — you already know the pain: unreliable sites, rate limits, "video unavailable", constant API changes, and slow, one-by-one downloads.

Rapidok fixes all of that.

Built by miztizm, Rapidok is a fast, concurrent TikTok downloader powered by yt-dlp, engineered for people who actually need performance, reliability, and structure. This isn’t another web UI wrapper — it’s a real tool that behaves like a dev tool should.

⚡ Why Rapidok Exists

TikTok updates break online downloaders every month. Some watermark your videos. Some compress them. Some flat-out lie about “HD”.

Rapidok takes a different approach:

Local. Fast. Concurrent. Structured. Developer-grade.

No ads
No browser scraping
No shady servers
Everything runs locally
Full control over throttling, speed, concurrency, metadata, folder structure, and safety

If you’re tired of unreliable online downloaders, welcome home.

🔥 Core Features (for people who actually care)

Multi-threaded downloads — process multiple TikTok URLs at once
Full profile archiver — download all videos/images from any username
Smart content filters — image-only, audio-only, video-only, metadata-only
Auto-sorted folders — everything grouped by creator
Metadata extraction — titles, captions, stats, timestamps — saved as JSON
Watermark control — choose clean or watermarked sources
Archive tracking — never re-download items unless you want to
Robust failsafe mode — retries, logs, human-readable errors
Safe defaults — rate limiting & jitter to avoid TikTok bans
Image extraction — grab photos from slideshows (carousel posts)
Optimized yt-dlp integration — modern, stable, future-proof

This is one of the few TikTok downloaders that is actually suitable for:

Researchers
Developers
Archivists
OSINT workflows
Content creators backing up their own profiles
Heavy users who download hundreds or thousands of videos

📦 Install in 5 Seconds

From PyPI (recommended)


bash
pip install rapidok

🚜 Farmore — Mirror Every GitHub Repo You Own in One Command

Digital Alchemyst — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:16:09 +0000

Most developers rely on GitHub as the single source of truth for their work. That’s fine—until it isn’t. Repos get deleted, teams reorganize, permissions change, and old code quietly disappears. Farmore solves that problem in the simplest way possible:

It backs up everything you own on GitHub in one go.

No platform dependence.

No manual cloning.

No “I’ll do it later.”

Just a complete mirror of your GitHub activity saved locally, whenever you want it.

🚀 What Farmore Does

Farmore’s goal is straightforward:

Give developers an easy, reliable way to back up their GitHub repos and related data.

Here’s what it brings to the table:

1. Automatic full-account backups

Tell Farmore whose account you want to back up—yours or an organization’s—and it pulls all repositories for you. Public, private, starred, watched, forks—everything.

2. Keeps backups updated

Already backed up a repo? Farmore updates it instead of re-downloading.

It behaves the way you wish Git behaved when cloning 200+ projects.

3. Stores more than just the code

Your repo is more than files. It’s issues, pull requests, releases, wikis, workflows.

Farmore bundles all of that into your backup so you have the full picture.

4. No micromanagement

You don’t need to think about which repo to download or what changed.

Run Farmore → walk away → everything is backed up and organized neatly.

👤 Why Developers Use It

Because most of us have:

Repos spread across personal and organization accounts
Experimental projects we forgot existed
Starred repos we wanted to “check later”
Old work we may lose access to after job changes
Code we don’t want tied solely to a platform

Farmore gives developers control over their own history.

Nothing gets lost, nothing disappears quietly, and nothing depends on GitHub’s UI decisions or your memory.

📁 What You End Up With

A complete, structured, local archive of:

Every repo you’ve created
Everything you’ve starred
Everything you’ve watched
All the metadata tied to those projects

It becomes your personal GitHub mirror — simple, predictable, future-proof.

🧩 Who It’s Perfect For

Developers with years of GitHub activity
Open-source contributors
Indie hackers running multiple projects
People switching jobs or cleaning old accounts
Anyone who wants a guaranteed offline copy of their work

If GitHub is your cloud, Farmore is your local backup drive.

📝 Final Thoughts

Farmore isn’t trying to be clever or overengineered.

It solves a real problem every developer eventually faces:

the need to keep their work safe, organized, and accessible — without juggling dozens of repos manually.

If you’ve ever thought “I should clone everything before something breaks,”

Farmore is the tool that actually lets you do it.

👉 GitHub: https://github.com/miztizm/farmore

⭐ If you rely on GitHub daily, this tool deserves a bookmark.

[Boost]

Digital Alchemyst — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 11:43:28 +0000

This site refuses to leave beta. It’s been stuck there since 2014

Digital Alchemyst ・ Sep 24

#php #showdev #socialmedia

This site refuses to leave beta. It’s been stuck there since 2014

Digital Alchemyst — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 20:28:03 +0000

This truly anti-social network, developed on pure php, that doesn’t care about your clout, doesn’t force you to perform, and doesn’t try to algorithmically babysit you into “engagement.”

Tired of being gently coerced to friend your grandma so she can like your posts about crypto or cat memes?

Tired of chasing 1,000 followers just so your words don’t sink into the void?

Tired of every “new network” being a clone of the same three platforms, with more ads and less soul?

What makes Hobius… Hobius?

International. Topic-centric, not ego-centric. You don’t follow people. You follow ideas.

No 1000-friend rule. You don’t need to be “popular” to be heard.

Anti-overload. Limited subjects → less spam, more signal.

No Grandma Pressure™. Nobody forces you to connect with family members you’d rather not.

Radical simplicity. Write. Post. Share. That’s it.

Still Beta (Since 2014)

Website is “in beta” for over a decade. Why? The admin is always drunked and the website is never finished — it mutates, like a strange organism. Hobius embraces that chaos. Every bug is also a feature, every quirk a personality trait.

Who is Hobius for?

People allergic to “like-chasing”

Writers who want to post without feeling like unpaid content slaves

Philosophers, trolls, artists, misfits, meme-lords

Anyone tired of mainstream dopamine slot machines disguised as networks

Why bother?

Because the internet was supposed to be weird, fun, dangerous, and free. Not sanitized malls of ads and recycled memes.

Hobius is not trying to be the next Facebook.
It’s trying to be the next unFacebook.

Hobius: The Anti-Social Network (Stuck in Beta Since 2014)

Digital Alchemyst — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 20:22:01 +0000

This truly anti-social network, developed on pure php, that doesn’t care about your clout, doesn’t force you to perform, and doesn’t try to algorithmically babysit you into “engagement.”

Tired of being gently coerced to friend your grandma so she can like your posts about crypto or cat memes?

Tired of chasing 1,000 followers just so your words don’t sink into the void?

Tired of every “new network” being a clone of the same three platforms, with more ads and less soul?

What makes Hobius… Hobius?

International. Topic-centric, not ego-centric. You don’t follow people. You follow ideas.

No 1000-friend rule. You don’t need to be “popular” to be heard.

Anti-overload. Limited subjects → less spam, more signal.

No Grandma Pressure™. Nobody forces you to connect with family members you’d rather not.

Radical simplicity. Write. Post. Share. That’s it.

Still Beta (Since 2014)

Who is Hobius for?

People allergic to “like-chasing”

Writers who want to post without feeling like unpaid content slaves

Philosophers, trolls, artists, misfits, meme-lords

Anyone tired of mainstream dopamine slot machines disguised as networks

Why bother?

Because the internet was supposed to be weird, fun, dangerous, and free. Not sanitized malls of ads and recycled memes.

Hobius is not trying to be the next Facebook.
It’s trying to be the next unFacebook.

Computers as Living Beings

Digital Alchemyst — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 02:36:01 +0000

Do computers have a "soul" ? It may seem strange to ask this question but considering the pace of development of artificial intelligence and robotics, this question is not so absurd. Computers are no longer just utilities and sources of information. They are becoming increasingly intelligent, emotional, and may soon be capable of self-awareness. In this blog, we will explore how this idea is changing the way we look at technology and where it might lead us.

Historical context

Alan Turing: The father of Artificial Intelligence, not just an outstanding mathematician and logician of his time, he was a visionary who envisioned the possibilities of artificial intelligence long before technology reached today's level. It was his ideas that formed the basis for the creation of the first computers and the development of machine learning algorithms.

Turing did not live to see machines learn to pass his famous test, but his legacy lives on. He embodied the courage of intellectual inquiry and the tragedy of social rejection. Today, as artificial intelligence moves ever closer to solving problems previously considered exclusively "human," the questions he posed are becoming more relevant.

The first computers were extremely primitive compared to modern machines. They were large, slow, and performed a limited set of functions. Over time, computers became smaller, faster, and more powerful, but their basic function remained the same: processing data.

Artificial Intelligence: The Turning Point

With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), the situation began to change dramatically. Machines learned to analyze large data sets, make decisions, and even mimic human emotions. This opened the door to the creation of AI capable of learning and self-improvement.

The development of artificial intelligence has been a key factor in allowing computers to "come to life". Interfaces are becoming increasingly intuitive, and robots are beginning to understand human language and emotions. This makes them not just tools, but partners capable of adapting and responding to different situations.

Robots and Emotional Intelligence

Recent research in AI and robotics is making it possible to create robots that can understand and even mimic human emotions. This could lead to the creation of robots that not only perform tasks, but can also become "friends", support in difficult moments and even offer advice.

Research in the field of "emotional AI" is particularly interesting. These systems can analyze facial expressions, voice intonation, and other nuances of human behavior to better understand a person's mood and needs.

Imagine a world where your computer is not just a tool, but a friend who understands your emotions and can adapt to your needs. It may seem like science fiction, but given the current pace of technological development, this scenario seems increasingly likely.

"When machines began to think for you, our civilization arose and yours ended" - "The Matrix"

This famous phrase from the movie "The Matrix" epitomizes the deep problem of the relationship between man and machine, which is becoming more and more relevant in today's world. With the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, we are on the threshold of a new era where machines do not just perform tasks, but can also make decisions, analyze situations and even "understand" emotions.

The point is that machines, having started to think and make decisions, become autonomous entities capable of forming their own "desires" and "goals". In this context, they cease to be mere tools in the hands of humans and begin to play a role that can be not only useful but also potentially dangerous for humanity.

This raises the important question of what role machines play in shaping our civilization. If they begin to think and act independently, it could lead to radical changes in social structure, economics, and even our understanding of ourselves.

We may be standing on the threshold of an era where "machines that think" will cease to be mere tools and become full-fledged participants in society. This may lead to the emergence of new forms of social organization and even culture.

There are many ethical questions related to this issue. What are the rights and responsibilities of these "thinking" machines? Can they replace humans in certain roles? And what happens if machines start making decisions that are contrary to the interests of humanity?

It is all a powerful reminder of the potential implications of the development of artificial intelligence and robotics. It raises questions that we, as a society, must consider and debate before machines truly begin to "think" for us. The answers to these questions will determine what our own civilization will be like in this new era of cooperation and perhaps conflict between man and machine.

Is the brain a quantum computer?

If someone (theoretically) threw a wrench on your head, you could catch it just in time to avoid a concussion. But how? Usually, when it comes to split second actions, we don't make a conscious decision to catch. Your brain reacts, catches, and you don't even have to think about it.

In fact, our brains regularly make decisions before we are aware of them. In one 2008 experiment, which has since been repeated several times, participants were offered decision-making tasks while their brains were observed using brain imaging techniques. It turned out that the brain could decide 10 seconds before its owner realized it.

There is a lot going on in the brain that scientists are still trying to understand. Indeed, despite numerous attempts by neuroscientists over the past century or more, it remains difficult to determine why consciousness exists or what it is - a mystery known as the "hard problem of consciousness." While we have a good understanding of where consciousness comes from - essentially through neurons sending signals to each other - scientists are still not sure how it arises in matter. After all, humans are made up of the same basic chemical elements as the rest of the universe. A rock doesn't possess consciousness, does it? So what makes our chemical mixture called the brain different? That's what's hard to decide.

Some researchers have speculated for decades that the brain has something to do with quantum entanglement that leads to consciousness. And a recent experiment published in the Journal of Physics Communications is an indicator that it may be possible.

Conclusion

We are on the threshold of a new era in which artificial intelligence and robotics do not just perform tasks, but also make decisions, analyze situations and "understand" emotions. This is a watershed moment that requires us, as a society, to recognize a new reality and make important decisions. These "thinking" machines may cease to be mere tools and become full-fledged participants in society, causing radical changes in the social structure, economy, and even in our understanding of ourselves.

There are many unresolved ethical issues, from the rights and responsibilities of these autonomous systems to the definition of their role in society. These questions require a considered and informed approach.

It is also especially important to consider that even our own human brain operates at a level that we do not always fully understand. Our brains can make decisions before we ourselves realize it, pointing to the complexity and obscurity of consciousness. In this context, how can we expect to fully understand and control machines that may be designed to act at a level similar or even superior to the human?

These are not just theoretical musings. The answers to these questions will have a direct and lasting impact on our civilization. We need to be prepared for the possible consequences and be active participants in shaping this new era. Otherwise, as the movie "The Matrix" warns, we may find that machines will begin to think and act for us, thereby determining our future. Whether we should allow our civilization to "end," as the cult film warns, or whether we will be capable of managing this new world remains an open question that we, as a society, must decide now.

That is why the discussion of this topic is so critical. It goes far beyond academic research or technological innovation and goes to the very core of human experience and existence. Nothing less than the future of our civilization is at stake. It is therefore imperative that we actively engage in this dialog before the time for solutions runs out.