@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

GadgeteerZA

@[email protected]

I blog about #technology #gadgets #opensource #FOSS #greentech #traditionalwetshaving #LCHF #health #alternativeto #hamradio (ZS1OSS) #southafrica - see gadgeteer.co.za/blog. I also blog to various other social networks which I list at gadgeteer.co.za/social-networks-i-post-to.

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GadgeteerZA,
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Problem is if social media is being used to stay in contact with friends / family then you are stuck with where they are, as they generally don’t move to a new network with you. If it is for news etc, I actually prefer a good selection of RSS feeds that I follow in my RSS reader.

I’m on lots of different social networks for blogging and although MeWe has my far biggest followings, it is centralised and non-FOSS - it’s the site I’ve also had the most troll issues on. The Fediverse (numerous site services to choose from) has the most potential, being open and federated widely.

GadgeteerZA,
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A broader context given at cleantechnica.com/…/adding-context-to-that-consum…

Consumer Reports also grouped powertrains together when discussing reliability, which is where some issues start to appear. Apparently, EVs suffered 79% more problems than gas-powered vehicles. That will undoubtedly lead to shock headlines, but it’s also misleading, Autoblog says. Most EVs are new to the market, which goes back to the cliché mentioned earlier. There are also a lot fewer make/models availability, meaning that simply averaging all models together will result in a few bad apples skewing the results.

Good, inexpensive fitness trackers?

I’m looking for a watch that can track my heart rate, stay on my tiny wrist, and that doesn’t cost a lot only to break frequently. Fitbit is….no longer meeting that criteria and was honestly out of my budget to begin with, but i am nervous about spending money again on something random that could also break just as...

GadgeteerZA,
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Apart from the Apple Watch (which became a door stopper when I moved back to Android) I’ve not had a lot of success with really good accuracy on watches. I actually opted to get a Polar H10 chest strap, and it is really super accurate. I usually live monitor the data on the Polar app on my phone (and it uploads to Strava, and then to Samsung Health), or if I’m outside I pair my Samsung Galaxy Watch to it with the Sporty Go! app so it shows on my watch.

Twitter's lost 13% of its daily users and its rebrand has failed (www.bigtechnology.com)

The new data — comprehensive and definitive — should put to rest the countervailing narratives over Musk’s management of the app. Under his stewardship, X’s daily user base has declined from an estimated 140 million users to 121 million, with a widening gap between people who check the app daily vs. monthly. X’s...

GadgeteerZA,
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Choosing a single letter name was a marketing disaster. Elon is truly clueless when it comes to people and social. Even worse when X implies Ex anything.

GadgeteerZA,
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I’m still using Obsidian (free but not FOSS) mainly because of the wealth of plugins. QOwnNotes was another good option I used before. I really liked Logseq, but the deal-breaker for me was its approach to primarily being an outliner - and that modified all the paragraphs of my markdown notes as they become referenced blocks (otherwise it is great). I like to stick to standard markdown for portability to any future app.

GadgeteerZA,
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To be fair to Obsidian, the default view is like three panes making it look busy, but you can toggle off both the left and right sidebar, leaving just the edit view which can be switched between edit and reading modes. Even the various toolbar icons need not be visible, and you could just use shortcuts to call them.

I use Syncthing to sync my Obsidian notes between desktop, server, Android, iPad, and Android tablet - it happens seamlessly in the background complete with version control.

GadgeteerZA,
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Syncthing warns you and asks you to choose which is newer. If you have versions set it should also keep older versions for any roll back. But I make a point to rather work in one device at a time. I actually sync all my devices to a Docker instance running Syncthing, so it works from a central point versus all devices syncing to all devices. That Docker version is on 24/7.

GadgeteerZA,
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Reddit’s big claim to fame is having results show up in Google searches. Removing it would probably hurt Reddit (and to some extent Google). I’m just hoping that enough content gets indexed by Google for Lemmy and similar sites, as the best content creators don’t just reside on Reddit.

Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List that can Guide Opting out from Data Broker Databases (github.com)

This list, also known as BADBOOL, was started on September 29, 2017 and was most recently updated in October 2023 to add PimEyes and to remove TruePeopleSearch and Cyber Background Checks, since those sites will automatically remove your data if you successfully opt out of Intelius and BeenVerified....

GadgeteerZA,
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Default Signal is better although Telegram has Secret Chat. I love thar Telegram let’s you use a username to connect to others without exposing your mobile number to contacts.

But I have way more friends who actually use Telegram than Signal. No idea why although for many the massive community groups are used by a lot communities for staying in touch, as well as safety/security groups in communities.

GadgeteerZA,
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Still Snowrunner

GadgeteerZA,
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I love the idea of Wayland, but it only finally actually booted for me onto the desktop earlier this year (on Manjaro KDE). But it still randomly freezes for about a full minute, quite a bit. I am keen to move to it as my compositor hangs on X11 for some odd reason on KDE every time I try to do a rectangular area screenshot with Spectacle (mmm just realised it is also for around a minute - maybe I do have some other underlying issue), or when accessing the Compositor menu option. But X11 is still otherwise rock solid for me.

Beehaw on Lemmy: The long-term conundrum of staying here

Yesterday, you probably saw this informal post by one of our head admins (Chris Remington). This post lamented some of the difficulties we’re running into with the site at this point, and what the future might hold for us. This is a more formal post about those difficulties and the way we currently see things....

GadgeteerZA,
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I’m not in any way tied to Lemmy specifically. I like the concept of voting posts up (and down), threaded comments, etc. But just like many different types of social services reside on top of the ActivityPub protocol, I would like to see something still working with ActivityPub. That was not really mentioned. But for me its about the UI and not Lemmy itself.

GadgeteerZA,
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Was already posted about in this group just a few hours before - beehaw.org/post/7621751. Always worth doing a quick search before posting.

GadgeteerZA,
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There’s no mention though in the linked article that Richard actually thinks this? Both XMPP and Nostr are extensible. Nostr saw accounts linked to a server as weakness, and therefore went with many relays (any of which can be used).

But as also mentioned, Richard is actually very active on Mastodon today. ActivityPub is not the best protocol around, but it is now a W3C standard and seems to have more popular uptake than both XMPP and Nostr (Nostr having the excuse that it is very new still).

BTW I’m active daily on XMPP, Nostr, Mastodon, IRC, and many more, so have no particular stake in any one.

Any rss reader which aggregates feeds

On Thunderbird for example, there’s no way to aggregate feeds from different places, into just one common view. I’m looking for aggregating all feeds from different places into a common view, where I can globally just keep what I want to read from everywhere and remove what I’m not interested on....

GadgeteerZA,
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I second Fluent Reader. I even did a video about it as I was pretty impressed with it for its full text retrieval. It has an articles view, as well as lots of good display options.

How do you even start with breaking up with your gmail?

I have this bad feeling daily that for whatever reason I loose access to my gmail. Don’t think of anything shady but simply I just loose it. There is a very small chance to it but still. You can read the stories that people uploaded their family photos to google drive and the algorithm marks their kids photos CP and they loose...

GadgeteerZA,
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I’m been in this process for the last two months (because there are so many sites to change my e-mail address). I went with Gmail originally so I did not have to change my address everytime I changed ISPs.

So my first step was to use my own domain name so that as long as i keep renewing that annually (it’s a small cost) then I keep my e-mail address (even if I change actual e-mail providers).

Next was to find an e-mail service I could point my domain to. I also needed one where I could download my e-mail to my desktop computer for archiving and reference, eg. I’m using BetterBird, but ThunderBird is another option.

So finding a mail provider is interesting as most that let you use your own domain name (custom domain name) are not free. One option was paying a small fee to by actual domain provider and use their service. I went though for ProtonMail in the end as I was already paying for their VPN service, so the difference to upgrade to the “everything” account was not that much more and scored me 500GB of online storage too (I pay separately for Bitwarden password management, otherwise that would be another plus). This allowed me to use my custom domain name (unlimited addresses), download mail through their bridge, etc.

So the real challenge really was finding a suitable mail service. I can switch easily in the future as I just point my domain name to the new mail provider, and never have to update my mail address at any sites again, and all mail is always available on my desktop computer.

Firefox can now import and use Chrome extensions as part of its migration import option (debugpointnews.com)

In a major update towards cross-browser compatibility, Firefox users are set to enjoy the benefits of importing Chrome extensions (note this is really part of the data import/migration from an existing Chrome browser installed, just for extensions that are already supported, and not installing from the Chrome web store), thanks...

GadgeteerZA,
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Thanks, I see now it is actually more a migration option for some supported extensions, I’ll see if I can update the post accordingly. The title they gave was a bit misleading.

GadgeteerZA,
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Thanks, I see now it is actually more a migration option for some supported extensions, I’ll see if I can update the post accordingly. The title they gave was a bit misleading.

GadgeteerZA,
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Maybe that is exactly what we need to do, to spare them from the indecision. Recommend them to a specific instance to sign up and follow you (if in doubt, the instance we use). I suppose we can mention there are lots of choices, and those who are inclined that way will want to explore other servers, many are not, and for them pointing them at a server may be best.

I’m just thinking that trying to say there are lots of networks, each with lots of servers etc, may be the problem.

Alternatively, should ask them some questions like do they want to post short format or long text format, and take into account a specific interest they have, and then we still recommend a server instance to them to join.

So for fellow ham radio operators, I just pointed them all to the ham radio Mastodon instance and said sign up there.

GadgeteerZA,
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Bitwarden and it’s fully cross-platform. I like that it auto copies the 2FA pin to clipboard after filling in login - cuts out extra clicks and copy movements.

GadgeteerZA,
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I think it is more about passwords being accessible after hacks etc. What you are referring to, is if Bitwarden were to be hacked, both are accessible. Online Bitwarden has securely hashed all the data, so that is pretty useless if anyone gets it. On my devices I use biometric login, and on desktop a Yubiky as 2FA into Bitwarden. I also have it set to request login every time the browser is restarted, just in case someone were to steal the session data from the browser.

But your point is very valid if a user were to have a weak password for their Bitwarden, or not to have a good 2FA for their Bitwarden login. You want to keep that basket of eggs as safe as you can.

GadgeteerZA,
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I see how 2FAS cross-device sync works, but there is no mention for Aegis on their site how they do it? For me, not having good sync across my Android devices and Linux desktop is a showstopper.

GadgeteerZA,
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But if the access to the combination of the two requires a separate 2FA (my Yubikey), then it is virtually separated. It is not just one password and you inside Bitwarden. One could argue otherwise, that having a 2FA app on the same phone as your password manager, is also not separate, if the same PIN/biometric gives access to that phone with the two apps on.

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes, just for 2FA into Bitwarden’s login as it’s 2FA after password.

GadgeteerZA,
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X has got horribly toxic - just not the place to have any type of discussion any more. I’ll bet two years back no-one would ever have though X could go down like this. I always thought it was going to happen to Facebook first, but seems Zuck is at least not as simple-minded as Elon is.

GadgeteerZA,
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Not enough data vs actually talking to their team…

GadgeteerZA,
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They are probably too many people and trying to push the videos out to sustain and grow that further. Quality and detail can suffer because of that. They probably need to scale back a bit, and spend more time on producing the videos (sort of go back to their roots).

GadgeteerZA,
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I put my Android phone on plane mode, shut the app and reopened it, and yes I could read the full content when opening each article.

GadgeteerZA,
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That’s good to hear as I had about 40 links that related to two sites, one has a cloudflare authentication, and the other a verification for out of country access (I think). Hoping they can be fixed. I can understand that is problematic to have an automated text retriever passing tests like that.

GadgeteerZA,
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My bookmarks only save a title and link - no tags to group, no full text content, no unread indication. So, how would one use bookmarks in a meaningful way? I could use a piece of paper too, but it’s not the best way for me.

GadgeteerZA,
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So with sub-channels and then dragging and dropping between them? I suppose existing Discord users may try that. I’d be interested to hear if many others are using Discord in that way.

GadgeteerZA,
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Thanks very much for that docker file. Yes I tried it about 2 years back, and I think Docker was not really an option then (or an easy one). I know what you mean by the RSS reader integration as I was using that with Wallabag. I’ll need to have a good look at the two again I think. Omnivore is still very new so not much 3rd party support, although they have an API and some webhook integration.

GadgeteerZA,
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I was impressed that their Android app is slick and works really well.

GadgeteerZA,
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Is this not the code though for the Android app at github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore/tree/…/Omnivore

India, the world’s largest smartwatch market, is getting new smart rings by BoAt and Noise, similar to Oura but likely cheaper (techcrunch.com)

Tech giants such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei have long focused on the wrist. It’s not the most comfortable option for everyone, and it can be challenging to maintain precise tracking through the wrist. Ensuring that your smartwatch fits snugly to obtain accurate data is crucial. A smart ring can be the great solution,...

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes I had big issues with Fitbit straps always breaking. But they only lasted for me just past warranty dates. A ring is really hardy and still gives about 6 days ona charge.

GadgeteerZA,
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That depends on the version. There standalone, server, and docspace. For me standalone was just an AUR click to install.

GadgeteerZA,
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South Africa has the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act

GadgeteerZA,
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I can identify with this. I went on early retirement (5 years ahead of time) because I was sick and tired of an open-plan office that kept distracting me constantly. If I had to get something done seriously quickly, like consolidated month reports etc, I had to do it from home. My productivity was at 50% or less at an office because of constant interruptions, or colleagues talking at the desk next to mine.

And of course senior managers would have their own offices, so they could get work done.

The rule should be, if open-plan offices make so much sense for collaboration etc, then everyone gets an open-plan office, including HR and the CEO. They can also go meet in a meeting room for private conversations.

It’s easy to make decisions for employees when you don’t have to follow those decisions yourself… want employees back at work, yes then make it better for them.

GadgeteerZA,
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I have the same problem. I have Liftoff set for one if my Profiles, and Jerboa for the other one.

GadgeteerZA,
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Proton VPN - been working well fir streaming services too for me

GadgeteerZA,
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No as far as I know this was legal requirements around thd right to be forgotten. It costs time and effort so not a feature they exactly wanted to just role out for the good of all.

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes, as I said, but nevertheless the news is good for everyone else!

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