Feed: sizeof(cat)
Title: Anniversary - 10 years of website
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2025 01:15:09 +0000
Link: http://sizeof.cat/post/anniversary/
 
[image 1]
 
December 6th, 2025 is the anniversary of 10 years since the first article[2] was
published on my website, and I think a little bit of “history” is welcomed, to 
pinpoint the major website redesigns that this website went through with during 
those 10 years. This is a long-ish article with personal info, some stories, 
bits and pieces of the “legacy” around my website. If you’re not interested in 
that, you can definitely skip it because you’re not losing much. Near the end[3]
of the article you’ll be able to feast on some charts generated from the visitor
data of one randomly-selected month.
 
Design and re-design(s)
 
  * 2015[4]
  * 2017[5]
  * 2019[6]
  * 2021[7]
  * 2024[8]
  * 2025[9]
 
2015
 
In 2015 I started this website, with the idea of having a place on the Internet 
where I can write about my experiences with various mobile operating systems (I 
used to work on both Tizen and Firefox OS), with a little bit of security audits
sprinkled inbetween. That year I started working on Hoshi[10] but I didn’t had 
the foresight to keep a development log. Or maybe I didn’t imagine it going so 
far, to a fully-usable custom operating system[11] (it did start as a 
bootloader, though). The website was generated by Hugo from Markdown source 
files (it still is).
 
During 2015 I’ve been writing mostly[12] about ways to interact, modify and play
with Tizen and its development devices, Samsung’s RD-210 and RD-PQ. My main 
machine used to be an Apple MacBook Air 11", the 2012 all-pimped-out variant 
(2.0 GHz dual-core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) that I still use in 2025. Cor 
blimey, ’s reem, innit?
 
The dominant colors for the 2015 website design were:
 
And this is how the frontpage of the website looked:
 
[image 13]
 
At the end of 2015, the total content on this website was:
<b></>               <b></>     
Total words    3,636
Total articles 6    
 
2017
 
No idea why I thought compressing the main website body in a 480 pixels-wide 
div, would be a great idea. It wasn’t. During 2016-2017 I’ve been writing still 
about Tizen, as well as more security-related articles.
 
For a while I had the _@sizeof.cat e-mail address and boy, even though it’s a 
valid e-mail address, it was impossible to use it for anything. So I got a 
Riseup invite from Micah and this is the e-mail I’m still using today. I think 
between 2018 and 2025 I gave more than 50 Riseup invites for free, to people who
just asked. Just the way things should be, free.
 
The dominant colors for the 2017 website re-design were:
 
And this is how the frontpage of the website looked:
 
[image 14]
 
At the end of 2017, the total content on this website was:
<b></>               <b></>      
Total words    12,761
Total articles 30    
 
2019
 
In 2019 a full website re-design was in order because I got bored of the old 
layout, which was way too simple for my taste. It’s this design that I still 
work with in 2025, improving it. I removed all the Webmention support because it
was pointless to have people commenting with emojis to my content. Felt cheap 
and stupid.
 
The dominant colors for the 2019 website re-design were:
 
And this is how the frontpage of the website looked:
 
[image 15]
 
2014 was the time I started working on Firefox OS and its development devices, 
Flame and GeeksPhone Peak, but content-wise I didn’t write on the website about 
this subject until 2018. In 2019 I started writing one of my most-beloved pages,
“Favorite films”[16], that I’m still updating to this day. Also, 2019 saw the 
start of the “Life and death” series[17], which was a more serious way to tackle
philosophical issues. At the end of 2019, the total content on this website was:
<b></>               <b></>      
Total words    25,929
Total articles 63    
 
2021
 
2021 was the year I decided I needed to have my very own social media microsite 
(initially called so.cl), and implementing that in a static website powered by 
Hugo was a feat. The search function was developed using a not-so-small JSON 
file which contained all the content of the website, and allowed a JavaScript 
function to search through it. Optimal for a small website, not OK for a large 
one with lots of content.
 
That year I decided on two colors that will represent my website “branding” for 
the future, which would be #5550ed and #ed1980 . ed is from “Ed, Edd n Eddy”, a 
cartoon from my childhood, 1980 represents an year (and an era) when the world 
was very different from today and 555 is a well-known integrated circuit that is
used in “pulse” generation. Pulse is life.
 
At the end of 2021 I had to move web hosting from Exoscale to Njalla because 
Twitch (actually their parent company, Amazon) complained[18] to Exoscale about 
a security audit I did on the 2021 Twitch Leaks, and for a Switzerland-based 
company, Exoscale sure was quick to give me the boot. Amazon complained[19] to 
Njalla too, and threatened their ISP with a lawsuit over not cutting access to 
my website, but things calmed in the end.
 
The dominant colors for the 2021 website re-design were:
 
And this is how the frontpage of the website looked:
 
[image 20]
 
During 2020-2021 I wrote the most music album reviews[21], also, in 2021 I wrote
the best-known article on my website, “Web Browser telemetry - 2021 
edition”[22], and it’s still quoted to this day even though in 2025 I wrote an 
updated version[23] of it. In 2020 I started working on the largest article[24] 
so far, with over 40k words now. At the end of 2021, the total content on this 
website was:
<b></>               <b></>       
Total words    10,4671
Total articles 154    
 
2024
 
In 2022 I built my first (and only) terrarium[25] and started working with 
bonsai (I still do that). The South Korean Police asked me nicely[26] to remove 
a torrent file of the Samsung leak of that year (2022), but I politely declined.
 
In 2024 I drastically altered the theme and while initially I was pretty happy 
with the result and the color scheme, it turned out not to be such a great idea.
I heavily dislike dark color schemes (except terminal ones, where I use Monokai 
mostly) and the website was pretty rough on my eyes (and I’m sure some visitors 
complained about it too). The “old” so.cl section got renamed to notes because I
felt like the name conflicted with the so.cl social media website[27] created by
Microsoft, long gone by 2024 anyway.
 
I replaced the original search functions with Pagefind, better suited to search 
in the powerhorse that turned out to be the notes section, with over 2.5k 
entries. And I removed all traces of IndieWeb tags because I didn’t want (and I 
still don’t) to be associated with them and their community.
 
This re-design featured the tab-favicon-changing[28] shenanigans that so many 
people complained about. It’s still implemented but no longer features the FBI, 
NSA, FSB, SVR and Mossad favicons.
 
No other major functions were added to the website, but the re-design sure took 
its time to be completed. Almost forgot that I participated in the 2024 Old 
Computer Challenge[29] with my Nokia Booklet 3G[30] retrobook and had lots of 
fun with the people involved, on IRC. After OCC, I returned to using a 2012 
MacBook Air 11" as my main machine, coupled with a Nokia 808 PureView camera 
phone.
 
The dominant colors for the 2024 website re-design were:
 
And this is how the frontpage of the website looked (the logo pumpkin was there 
for Halloween):
 
[image 31]
 
From 2021 to 2024 I really moved into writing about security, privacy and 
related issues, but I did continue writing about retro hardware[32] and ways to 
unlock proprietary devices. At the end of 2024, the total content on this 
website was:
<b></>               <b></>       
Total words    226,515
Total articles 305    
 
2025
 
2025 is the year my website returned to the original color scheme with small 
adjustments, while the layout of the website was more optimized for mobile 
browsing (yes, I know). I eveb removed some content from the website.
 
A simple guestbook[33] written in PHP, which stores its data in a SQLite 
database, was added to the website, because I got so many e-mails over the years
where people just wanted to say hi, and it felt like a guestbook is more suited 
for this kind of content.
 
Since I removed lots of content from the website, the word count dropped 
drastically and I was able to return to the initial website search, featuring 
Lunr and a simple JSON file. Simple is always good. I skipped the 2025 Old 
Computer Challenge due to spiritual differences with some of the “people” in the
community, and it was for the best because it turned out to be such a 
politics/pronounfest that split and destroyed everything.
 
The dominant colors for the 2025 website re-design were:
 
And this is how the frontpage of the website looked:
 
[image 34]
 
In 2025 I replaced my trusty Nokia Booklet 3G[35] retrobook with an Apple iBook 
G4[36], and obviously I wrote a lot of articles (actually, a series[37]) about 
my new old toy. I also bought myself an used Apple iPod Classic 4th generation 
and an used Apple iMac G5 17", planning to switch my main machine to the 
aforementioned iMac. I think I mentioned elsewhere that I used to be a big fan 
of Apple hardware and software (OS 9 and X used to have soul), and currently I 
massively dislike the present Apple software (mainly macOS being crap) and I 
could totally live without their restricted hardware. Still using that 2012 
MacBook Air 11" notebook until the iMac is ready. And I’m still using the Nokia 
808 PureView camera phone that’s still taking exquisite photos.
 
As of now, the total content on this website is:
<b></>               <b></>       
Total words    256,095
Total articles 340    
 
Charts
 
The charts below are generated for the data over a period of one month, April 
2025, obviously before the big fallout[38].
<b></>                <b></>         
Total requests  753,146  
Unique visitors 175,273  
Requested files 199,195  
Data transfer   103.72 GB
 
Visitors per day
 
Operating systems
 
Web browsers
 
See you for the 20 years anniversary in 2035!!
 
Links: 
[1]: http://sizeof.cat/post/anniversary/img/sizeofcat.png (image)
[2]: http://sizeof.cat/post/install-tizen-231-on-samsung-rd-pq/ (link)
[3]: http://sizeof.cat/post/anniversary/#charts (link)
[4]: https://sizeof.cat/index.xml#2015 (link)
[5]: https://sizeof.cat/index.xml#2017 (link)
[6]: https://sizeof.cat/index.xml#2019 (link)
[7]: https://sizeof.cat/index.xml#2021 (link)
[8]: https://sizeof.cat/index.xml#2024 (link)
[9]: https://sizeof.cat/index.xml#2025 (link)
[10]: http://sizeof.cat/project/hoshi/ (link)
[11]: http://sizeof.cat/project/hoshi/img/hoshi.png (link)
[12]: http://sizeof.cat/archive/#2015 (link)
[13]: https://sizeof.cat/img/2015.png (image)
[14]: https://sizeof.cat/img/2017.png (image)
[15]: https://sizeof.cat/img/2019.png (image)
[16]: http://sizeof.cat/post/favorite-movies/ (link)
[17]: http://sizeof.cat/series/life-and-death/ (link)
[18]: https://sizeof.cat/img/twitch.jpg (link)
[19]: https://sizeof.cat/img/njalla.jpg (link)
[20]: https://sizeof.cat/img/2021.png (image)
[21]: http://sizeof.cat/tags/music/ (link)
[22]: http://sizeof.cat/post/web-browser-telemetry/ (link)
[23]: http://sizeof.cat/post/web-browser-telemetry-2025-edition/ (link)
[24]: http://sizeof.cat/project/world-of-warcraft-xpoff-45/ (link)
[25]: http://sizeof.cat/project/terrarium/ (link)
[26]: https://sizeof.cat/img/samsung.jpg (link)
[27]: https://sizeof.cat/img/socl.png (link)
[28]: http://sizeof.cat/post/tricks-with-web-browser-tabs/ (link)
[29]: http://sizeof.cat/post/old-computer-challenge-2024-thoughts/ (link)
[30]: http://sizeof.cat/post/old-computer-challenge-2024/ (link)
[31]: https://sizeof.cat/img/2024.png (image)
[32]: http://sizeof.cat/tags/retro/ (link)
[33]: http://sizeof.cat/guestbook/ (link)
[34]: https://sizeof.cat/img/2025.png (image)
[35]: http://sizeof.cat/project/nokia-booklet-3g/ (link)
[36]: http://sizeof.cat/post/my-apple-ibook-g4/ (link)
[37]: http://sizeof.cat/series/apple-ibook-g4/ (link)
[38]: http://sizeof.cat/post/a-day-to-remember/ (link)

