Welcome to TechTea, my humble slice of the internet. This is the personal website of Matthew Lamont. Here you will find my blog, projects, and anything else that interests me.

My blog consists of articles, these are longer form content focused on FOSS Software, Digital Freedom and Personal Digital Sovereignty, and Privacy. There is also a notes section, these are smaller titbits that I find interesting. Notes are still a new section to the site so there is not much there yet, but soon it will have a little bit of everything that doesn’t fit nicely into an article.

I have been inspired by the indie web to transition to this new format for TechTea. If you have any suggestions feel free to contact me. This site is ever changing and always expanding so feel free to subscribe to our RSS feeds: Everything, Articles, and Notes


2023 App Defaults

| 401 words | ~2 mins
A lot of blogs I follow seem to be posting their default applications they use and I figure I should share mine too. 📨 Mail Client: Thunderbird 📮 Mail Server: DreamHost as it is included for free with my hosting 📝 Notes: Leuchtturm1917 A5 Hardcover Dotgrid Notebook / Logseq for digital ✅ To-Do: Nextcloud Tasks 📷 Camera App: Open Camera 🟦 Photo Management: digiKam 📆 Calendar: Nextcloud Calendar for Server / Thunderbird and KOrganizer on Desktop / Simple Calendar on Android

How I run this Site for Almost Free

| 1020 words | ~5 mins
Running a website takes time, money, and a willingness to learn new things. There is no getting around that, but there are ways to run a website for almost free in terms of financial cost. Today we are going to explore that and I’ll explain how I do it for TechTea.io while we are at it. You Still Need a Domain A core reason for having a personal website is to have control over the things you create online.

2023 Website Update

| 997 words | ~5 mins
It may be the middle of the year, but I went down the rabbit hole known as the IndieWeb and converted this website over from WordPress to using Hugo. The site still doesn’t support webmentions yet but that will come eventually. It was not an easy process to convert everything, but I think it is all working now. I have a more in depth article in the works now on how I did it.

Open Source Productivity Tools to Organize Your Life

| 1783 words | ~9 mins


If you have ever seen a productivity video on YouTube, you’ve probably been recommended a bunch of proprietary tools to help organize your life. The problem with these tools is that they are a black box, usually controlled by a big tech company, and productivity tools often include every aspect of your life. Today we are going to discuss free and open source tools that both respect your privacy and help you keep track of life, no matter how busy you are.

Test Linux in a Virtual Machine

| 1366 words | ~7 mins


So you have decided to check out Linux. Maybe you are fed up with Windows or you are just curious. Regardless of your reasons you are probably overwhelmed with the options and the conflicting information you see online. Today we are going to help make the process a little easier by installing a Linux distribution inside a Virtual Machine (VM). What is a Virtual Machine? A Virtual Machine is exactly what it sounds like, a virtual computer.

Meta's Metaverse is Evil

| 461 words | ~3 mins


This is not a normal post, but rather an announcement. We are removing our Facebook account. Meta’s Vision of the Future Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has shown that it is objectively evil. Our goals at Tech Tea and the goals of our tech overlords are incompatible. Meta wants to control our reality. They are gong to use VR to do so and nobody seems to be concerned enough to take a stand.

Reading Documentation | Finding Answers Online

| 941 words | ~5 mins


Read the Manual – First answer to your technical question. If you’ve ever asked a technical question online before you’ve probably come across this at least once. You don’t know how to do something so you ask online and only get angry replies that don’t help. Often you worded the question incorrectly or did not know the forum’s culture, but there is a great way to avoid these issues to begin with: Read the Manual.

Merry Christmas

| 39 words | ~1 min


Merry Christmas to all our readers. Thank you for supporting us over the year. Please have a fun and safe holiday season. We are going to be doing big things in 2022, we look forward to seeing you there.

Basic SugarCube Macros | Intro to Twine Ep 2

| 80 words | ~1 min

Series: Intro to Twine


This content is available as a video on Odysee and YouTube. Last time we covered the various story formats in the Twine 2 game engine. Today we are going to add logic to our game using SugarCube’s Macro system and make a door that needs a key to open. You can find SugarCube’s docs here. In the future we will write an accompanying article for each of our video uploads. Till then please consider following us on Odysee at: @TechTea.

Twine Story Formats | Intro to Twine Ep 1

| 81 words | ~1 min

Series: Intro to Twine


Video covering the topic is available on Odysee and YouTube Last time we discussed what twine is and how it works. Today we will cover the Twine 2 story formats. Story formats are a way to add logic and mechanics to twine. This is the second in a series of videos about the Twine Game Engine. In the future we will write an accompanying article for each of our video uploads.