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alt-ctrl-zb

Tech Notes

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    converting bulk exported strava data to gpx

    When you bulk export your Strava data you’ll receive a zip file of:

    • .gpx
    • .fit.gz
    • .tcx.gz files.

    To get them all into gpx format follow these steps.

    Extract the .gz files

    1. Bulk extract .gz files using 7-zip. 7-zip allows you to select all files and extract them all in one go.

    Convert .fit files to .gpx (requires Python)

    1. Install the fit2gpx python library Type pip install fit2gpx into command line (as admin). Note fit2gpx can also do the extracting in step 1 if not done already (see documentation)
    2. Run the code from Python IDE: 
      from fit2gpx import StravaConverter
DIR_STRAVA = 'C:/strava_bulk_export_parent_folder/'
strava_conv = StravaConverter(
    dir_in=DIR_STRAVA
)
strava_conv.strava_fit_to_gpx()
    3. Converted files will be in the activities_gpx folder.

    Convert .tcx files to .gpx (requires node.js)

    1. Download/clone tcx-to-gpx-converter to a folder.
    2. Type npm install into the command line from the folder’s location.
    3. Copy the tcx files into the input folder.
    4. Type node convert.js into the command line.
    5. Converted files will be in the output folder.

    #TechNotes

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    micro.blog is working for me

    Since April I’ve farted around with a few setups for a website and started dipping my toes into blogging. I went with a fail-fast, learn-fast approach, signed up to a heap of services, downloaded a bunch of git thingos, and posted a bunch of crap to figure out what works for me.

    For now, I’ve landed on micro.blog with a customised Tiny Theme. It’s the most frictionless and well-rounded tool I’ve used so far. I like simplicity, with out of the box design and ability to customise. I never tried Pika, but I reckon I’d be happy with that too.

    I’ve just done a digital cleanse and deleted my published websites and accounts with services I tinkered with. In the end the setups just gave me the shits. It’s nice and refreshing to just have one main online space now.

    Websites I deleted

    …and a snapshot of the workflow I tried.

    • z - Obsidian->Digital Garden Plugin->GitHub->Vercel (website)->RSS->EchoFeed/MastoFeed/IFTTT->Mastodon
    • alt.ctrl.zb (2) - Obsidian->Digital Garden Plugin->GitHub->Vercel (website)->RSS
    • Crispy-octo-train - Obsidian->Jekyll->GitHub Pages (website)
    • Octo-waddle - Obsidian->Quartz 2.0->GitHub Pages (website)
    • zb.logs - Obsidian->GitHub Publisher plugin->GitHub->Jekyll Now static site generator->GitHub Pages->RSS->EchoFeed/MastoFeed/IFTTT->Mastodon

    I also removed some old sites I had from way back which I didn’t tinker with any further:

    • Dig Deep - WordPress
    • alt.ctrl.zb (1) - Blogger.com

    Services and tools I tried

    I am not saying any of these are bad - in fact, most of them are really good. They just don’t fit my needs right now, or more that micro.blog just does it all for me.

    • EchoFeed
    • GitHub
    • IFTTT
    • MastoFeed
    • Quartz
    • Vercel

    I have kept a Neocities account where I can tinker with HTML and CSS and use back in micro.blog.

    Of note there is the micro.publish plugin where I can push notes out to micro.blog from Obsidian and the RSS Reader plugin where I can pull published posts back into Obsidian via the RSS. I sometimes use these, but my desire to push all my notes from Obsidian has dwindled. If they get the image attachments working I may look at using micro.publish more frequently.

    Resources

    #TechNotes

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    Time to move on

    Been trying a bunch of Obsidian / GitHub Pages deploying thingymabobs with Jekyll / Quartz / Obsidian GitHub Publisher, Obsidian Digital Garden blah blah and they’ve pretty much all broken on me, I have no idea how to fix them, and don’t have the desire to allocate the attention needed. Going to simplify. There are plenty of options that are looking good. These two are grabbing me:

    #TechNotes