๐ช2022
Things discovered
Apps & software
Yunohost: Linux base image for self hosted applications that can be installed via a integrated web store. It simplifies installing & updating these applications as well as the underlying linux OS. Applications installed via its webstore are automatically configured for reverse proxy (yourdomain.com/app) and there are global security and backup settings. So far it works great for me. I run Yunohost as a VM on my Proxmox server.
Static Marks Bookmarks: YAML file based static site generator for a bookmark start page. Can be run as a GitHub pipeline to automatically regenerate whenever the underlying yaml file is changed. I really like using this as my main launch page in Chrome.
Raycast: Spotlight replacement for macOS. When I was looking for a way to extend spotlight via plugins and I didn't really find anything good I stumbled upon Raycast. It's basically spotlight but with a integrated store for extensions. There's lots of great stuff like translating, searching docs, asking gpt3 stuff, .... I also wrote my own extension to search & launch Static Marks Bookmarks and got it merged into the store. The maintainers of the extensions repo are incredibly helpful and professional. Pretty cool, absolutly recommended for any macOS users.
Firefly III: Personal bookkeeping & finanical planning app that can be selfhosted. Data from banks can be imported via CSV or even directly from an api provider such as nordigen (Revolut etc.). The import via CSV works really well, which is important because swiss banks are generally old fashioned and do not provide API access (which sucks!). When importing a csv for the first time you can choose how each column should be mapped and you can then save it as a settings file so you only have to do this once. It also recognises duplicates very consistently. Because of Firefly I found Yunohost (as it can install Firefly from its store), but it's also possible to run Firefly locally via docker compose.
Services
Bring: A shopping list service that can be used in the browser or as a mobile app. I know this has been around a long time. Personally I've used a self-integrated Todoist setup (via IFTTT) for Google Home. But this year Google has ended their partnership with IFTTT so that integrated would stop working and as an alternative I've switched to Bring. The voice setup is more or less just as good as the old one but the mobile app of Bring is a lot better than simply using a Todoist list. It's a lot easier to use in a store and it's very nice that it adds icons of products and that it recognises (at least in Switzerland) actual product names of the things in store.
Neon: A swiss banking app. I've fully switched to Neon now as it is free, doesn't charge for currency conversions when paying via credit card, has all basic banking features necessary in CH (eBill, QR bill scan, Apple Pay) and has a somewhat useable CSV export.
Yuh: Banking and investment app from Swissquote and Postfinances. I've played with this for a bit and it's pretty good. However it doesn't have a csv export so in my current setup I can't use it as my main account.
Frankly: Pretty good service for 3A accounts with low fees. Very readable user interface and you can easily see what the 3A account is costing you in fees. However I'm currently considering other 3A providers for 2023 as Frankly invests into CH currency hedged foreign stocks, which is costly, with no clear benefit when long term investing. See e.g. https://thepoorswiss.com/finpension-3a-review/
Smile.Direct: App based insurance provider. Low fees and good app and sign up service. Also you get cashback when coming from Neon. I started using them as my new home & personal liability insurance provider.
Cool Places
Lenzerheide: Ski holiday
Phantasialand: Cool themepark with steampunk-esque atmosphere in Germany.
France: Paris, Mont Saint Michel, Carcasonne: Summer holiday, roundtrip with TGV.
Rheinfall: Swiss touristic area with a big waterfall :P
Goodbyes
UBS: I used to have UBS as my main bank for a long time and I didn't really care about the controversies or even the monthly cost for using their services. I used UBS in combination with Revolut for a while so that I didn't have to care about currency conversion on credit card payments. But when UBS in 2021 started to advertise their own card without currency conversion fee for an additional monthly fee this pushed me over the edge. As a paying customer I didn't want to have advertising shoved in my face every time I launched their app for a service that other providers (Revolut, Neon etc.) offer for free. So goodbye UBS and hello Neon & Frankly. Apart from that, moving my 3A to Frankly made sense from a financial perspective anyway, the cost of UBS 3A investment products were far to high and also they hide their fees so that you don't even really see how much you're paying.
CSS (health insurance): No hard feeling, CSS had a great app. Just switching to the cheapest option, which is KPT this year.
Baloise younGo (home & personal liability insurance): Got too old :P and now they wanted more money. Tbh I'm happy to switch, the online login/app never really worked for me. Got old fashioned emails and phone calls. Overall never had a claim or problem with them but also didn't feel like a good customer experience.
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