@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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What games have you played in the last 365 days that stand out to you as the most memorable experiences?

I think the most common answer is going to be Tears of the Kingdom, and that is one for me that stands out for sure, but I will try to add some more unique inputs as well. Many are games that came out longer than a year ago, but i didnt get around to playing until more recently....

GadgeteerZA,
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Snowrunner for me too. I nearly gave up in frustration at the beginning though, as the trucks are near useless at getting through any mud or water. But the stunning physics and landscapes etc kept me going. Once you have your bearings and get a decent truck, the whole experience changes.

GadgeteerZA,
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Just make sure when you search under communities that you choose All, as it often only defaults to Local. All should return any communities that match your search term, across all Lemmy instances.

OpenTracks is an open source sport tracking application for Android that completely respects your privacy: Almost a Strava alternative (beehaw.org)

Value your health by keeping track on your training. It records as you go running or walking, and gives you a bike computer with a bigger screen for cycling. You can even mark interesting locations along your way with pictures. The app keeps recorded statistics in great detail for analysis....

GadgeteerZA,
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They did not mention iOS. I suspect, although they exclude Google Services, it is hooking into some other dependencies. Their Githib project drills into more details on specific Bluetooth LE devices supported.

GadgeteerZA,
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There are some such as D3.js, and some Python libraries such as Plotly, Bokeh, Matplotlib, etc but I’ve not used them. Another source may be free analytics apps. But it may also be worth seeing if you can’t import your data to something like Samsung Health as the upload does also strip out most normal metadata that an actual app is reading the whole time. Otherwise this app may be an alternative too with some built-in analytics at f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tadris.fitness/.

GadgeteerZA,
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It was actually created in 2022 as Calckey, as a fork of Misskey, so one of the Fediverse social networking sites. It has recently rebranded though to the Firefish name. It is a real breath of fresh air though in terms of features and great UI!

GadgeteerZA,
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Does it not depend on who you follow, is what you see in your feed? Like most networks on Fediverse.

GadgeteerZA,
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The wakeup really is not whether it is the NSA or anyone else buying the data, it’s about the companies providing the data to the data brokers, who on-sell it. I, just this week, reported a company who state don Google Play Store that they don’t send data to 3rd parties, and where in their Privacy Policy on their website state in numerous places where and how they send data to 3rd parties (they actually use the words 3rd parties). I also sent them an e-mail highlighting the contradiction.

The fact is they rely on us not digging any deeper than the superficial statement. Whatsapp and Facebook do really deep level metadata analysis, yet they focus only on actual message content not being harvested. It is smoke and mirrors…

Meta Just Proved People Hate Chronological Feeds (www.wired.com)

Meta conducted an experiment where thousands of users were shown chronological feeds on Facebook and Instagram for three months. Users of the chronological feeds engaged less with the platforms and were more likely to use competitors like YouTube and TikTok. This suggests that users prefer algorithmically ranked feeds that show...

GadgeteerZA,
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I’m sorry, but those “suggestions” sound wrong - a chronological feed exposes users to untrustworthy content. The point is an algorithmic feed is unknown manipulation UNLESS the algorithm is known and published. Engaging less is also NOT a bad thing at all, unless you are the platform itself. The inference is that an algorithm will expose users to less political and untrustworthy content? Well, certainly not if the platform wants to generate continuous engagement through provocation and the creation of outrage.

But OK, it is an experiment by Meta, so let’s just leave it at that.

GadgeteerZA,
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Well universal chat (like universal e-mail) is either going to be a common open protocol (does not seem very likely given Apple and all the other players) or is going to be something like this on the client side. Although its a lot of work, it does seem more possible. The only pity is it can’t solve connecting to services that I don’t use like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp.

GadgeteerZA,
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Not “everyone” uses Whatsapp though - I deleted mine after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and I know of a few others who also did so. As far as I know Whatsapp has still never changed their T&C to pass metadata upstream to Facebook.

GadgeteerZA,
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No, not regionally, as Whatsapp is probably used most. It is more individuals who decided not to use Facebook related products. Luckily, about 90% of my contacts are on Telegram. It’s a bit sad that a proprietary product that leaks metadata could be so widely used. If there was going to be a single “one product” I’d rather prefer that to be an open standard protocol. Those protocols exist, but are not in broad use. But the W3C standard for social networking, really needs to also cover chat messengers.

GadgeteerZA,
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That is really going to be interesting, yes! It is seriously needed despite what Apple will say. And if implemented correctly it can still be E2EE but with our own client apps.

GadgeteerZA,
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Can run yourmain distro as a stable one, but have an unstable or testing version in a Distrobox container sout does not mess your main install.

If you have non Arch distro, you could run Arch in Distrobox and get to use all the AUR packages.

GadgeteerZA,
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It’s the one I’ve been using for a while now and does everything I’ve needed. I did a video overview about it a while ago just showing the basic stuff I use it for, and gives a feel of what it looks like youtu.be/nwl6RzymZVg

GadgeteerZA,
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Unmanaged is the cause, but lost is the effect. It is quite correct in usage.

GadgeteerZA,
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They did link though to the full report at www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/13/6205

HP-1973 is a Python simulator app for the retro HP-45 calculator and 5 other HP ROMs, written by Sarah K. Marr (beehaw.org)

The app was written in Python and started out for the HP-45 (ROM is included) but finally included also the HP-35 and the HP-80, as well as three others. For macOS and Windows you could just run the included executables, or with the Python code, this will run fine on Linux if you have Python installed. Nice thing is that you can...

What's your opinion on telegram from a foss and privacy perspective?

I see i can find a foss version on f-droid, and that’s something not a lot of social networks can have, i don’t really like all the crypto bullshit and ads testing they’ve been up to lately, but still looks better to me compared to what Reddit have done lately or what other platforms have done in these years…...

GadgeteerZA,
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I use Telegram the most, as I have most of my contacts on it. Secret chat is there for those that I want to be sure to be private. I have no issues with them as they have proven not to be sharing their data, or selling it (through the absence of that ever coming to light - unlike WhatsApp metadata passed up to Facebook). They are streets ahead on features, and their broadcast channels are really useful. I also push my blog posts to a channel that I have on Telegram. But like others have said, I also have Signal, Matrix, XMPP, etc as I have different friends on different networks. The only messengers I don’t have are Meta owned ones, as we have clearly seen what happens to our metadata there in repeated occasions.

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes, it also does not offer my national weather service, but then what 3rd party app does for me? It does offer most of the commonly used weather forecast services though with a very good comparison to find which is the closest match (which other app does that as they normally list by name only?). I think its rating is really a testament to its usefulness for so many people. I’m really not aware of any 3rd party app that offers the national weather srvices of 150+ countries?

GadgeteerZA,
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Not sure which widget, but I’m assuming the daily forecast? An option is to use the hourly projection widget for a more accurate picture. But yes when a day is party sunny and maybe a little rain, what gets shown for that whole day summary? Possibly they should summarise it better with what is mostly the forecast for the day ie. one hour of rain shows still as mostly cloudy and not rain. It may be worth you suggesting it to them with an option for users to toggle between ANY rain vs MAJORITY of forecast.

GadgeteerZA,
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I’d been using Weather Underground for years because of their forecast accuracy for my area, but the last two or three years their app has gone backwards and the widgets really lacked.

GadgeteerZA,
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And even choices for icon sets too. My Android tablet shows numerous widget designs to choose from and I’m looking forward to seeing what options there are for my iPad.

The xdotool command on Linux can automate just about any keystroke or mouse actions from the command line, or for shortcut keys (github.com)

I’m busy looking into xdotool to automate various actions on Linux with the Elgato Stream Deck (well because Elgato only provides apps for Windows and MacOS). There is a good Linux alternative app to work with the Stream Deck, but I do need to be able to execute some commands when I want to bring a specific window into focus...

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes I think right at the bottom of the page I linked to, they mentioned two options for Wayland.

GadgeteerZA,
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@eshep Too right, I discovered that great trick to rename the Window was only working with the Brave browser windows. OBS Studio by default does not have that option. Also, my having num lock keys to work as mouse pointer movements was interfering with those shortcut keys. I could use wmctrl to rename a window title but it is only temporary. So still work in progress.

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes, syncing is critical for me too. I self-host FreshRSS (will run on a Pi) and can access from my desktop browser or phone browser. I also pair it with Full Text RSS so that it pulls in the full text of the article. Otherwise, you have to look at Inoreader, Feedly, or similar, but they have limitations on their free tiers.

GadgeteerZA,
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On that paragraph about prominence, what I do notice is that the letters are way more closed, with less noticeable gaps, for example with a letter ‘c’. To those with weaker eyesight, the letters may be seen as an ‘o’. But a great article and I liked the comparisons.

BMW smart glasses help bikers navigate with head-up display technology: But of course it's not cheap (www.timeslive.co.za)

The new BMW Motorrad ConnectedRide smart glasses integrate the familiar BMW head-up display technology found in its cars. They project data such as navigation, speed or selected gear directly into the rider’s field of vision in real time....

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes, it does have Sats if you want to use those to get tips. But it is not required in any way to use the network. What you see depends on who you follow. So I don’t follow Jack. For those who want to tip, or receive, Sats is better tan using your own credit card I reckon.

GadgeteerZA,
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Well I’m on 17 social networks but yes it does not make me suddenly happier. But like alcohol, fear of heights, firearms, etc I think social media affects different people in different ways. I use them more for sharing knowledge than any actual “friendships”.

GadgeteerZA,
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Well, I’d certainly see it still more like ActivityPub. Only different is there are no actual login servers. You get 8 default relay servers that help relay your messages, and there are over 200 I think. Nostr is a different way of doing ActivityPub, but your identity stays with you (not on a server). A week after I tried it, I did this video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSyMCJlSwA trying to explain some of the differences and similarities (like I did before for Lemmy, Mastodon, etc).

GadgeteerZA,
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I tried to explain that in my own video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSyMCJlSwA. This documentary did not really go into that. But in summary they don’t have servers to log into where your ID is kept. You own your identity/profile and that stays on the client side. Every post is cryptographically signed so it is your post that no-one can alter. You send posts to a usual default of about 8 relays that pass posts on to who is following you. If one relay blocks you, or disappears, there are hundreds of others. So there is no server to delete your posts. But don’t lose your public/.private key as then you’ve lost your access to your profile. There is no password reset by a server owner. They actually do have a bridge relay with ActivityPub so I was able to follow and reply to some Mastodon users.

GadgeteerZA,
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That is really weird. OK fixed that now in the OP I hope. The pity is this video does not really go into the actual mechanics of how Nostr works, and that was what got me interested in it (as my 17th social network). I did this video myself at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSyMCJlSwA after trying it out, to help highlight the actual differences as I understood them.

GadgeteerZA,
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You certainly want to test out what you expect to use before moving. The advantage would also be finding apps that run natively on Linux. There certainly are some such DAW apps.

I’m using Manjaro KDE and my games are running fine under Proton on Steam Games. But I play Snowrunner, Red Dead Redemption 2, etc.

A tip on Windows VMs as I do keep one. I discovered that running one with it’s Windows files rather on a separate partition formatted at NTFS, really works quite well for me (versus the VM sitting on one massive VM file on the Linux partition. Can see Chris’ video about this at youtu.be/6KqqNsnkDlQ.

Nice thing for just testing Linux, is install it on an external drive, and boot with that. Then your existing machine is completely left as it is, and you can test Linux as it would really run on your computer.

GadgeteerZA,
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Linux can also boot with EUFI (hope that is the right letters) as I converted mine to that. So it is recognised alongside my dual-boot Windows 10.

GadgeteerZA,
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I’ll second TWIT too. Have to agree with the other comments, but I still stick with them. I listen on 1.5x which you get used to.

GadgeteerZA,
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Not at all as I hear about all of them all the time (daily at least). It’s just that Bluesky and Nostr are both less than a year old so are seen as the new networks, whilst Mastodon and Lemmy (Fediverse) has been around a bit longer. Bluesky and Nostr’s protocols are very new, so many are asking what they are and how they compare. Neither integrate yet (unless you count Nostr’s bridge with Mastodon) with the Fediverse.

Remember BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems)? Here’s How You Can Visit One Today Using A Telnet Connection (www.howtogeek.com)

These days, social media gets all the attention, but the Bulletin Board System (BBS), a relic from a kinder, gentler time in computer communications, persists. Each BBS is its own retro-flavored community with messages, text-based games, and files you can download. And you can still connect to one today....

GadgeteerZA,
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The default for old BBS’ is Telnet usually. So any Telnet client should work.

Keyoxide is a privacy-friendly open source tool to create and verify decentralized online identities using a cryptography-based approach to bidirectional linking (keyoxide.org)

Just like passports for real life identities, Keyoxide can be used to verify the online identity of people to make sure one is interacting with whom they are supposed to be and not imposters. Unlike real life passports, Keyoxide works with online identities or “personas”, meaning these identities can be anonymous and one can...

GadgeteerZA,
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KeyOxide has been replacing Keybase for many, so no Keybase is not such a thing any more. To some extent, domain verification on Mastodon for example does do some of this too.

GadgeteerZA,
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It’s a form of self-verified proof of identity.

Your Gmail Account (and other e-mail) Has Unlimited Addresses - Useful For Seeing Who Leaked Your Address to Spammers (lifehacker.com)

You can append to your existing e-mail address in various ways, and this could be pretty useful for seeing who leaked your e-mail address to spammers. For example, for your bank, give them the address [email protected]. Then, if spammers send to that address, you can quickly see where they got the e-mail address from!...

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes I must say I’ve only had about two that would not register a plus address. Most others are just sending and then accepting a OTP response. Plus addresses are also working with my own domain e-mail.

GadgeteerZA,
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Now you can tell us who you worked for, so we can be sure to avoid them…

GadgeteerZA,
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Yes, thinking about, I’m also not seeing what is really different. AT protocol is decentralised, but so is ActivityPub. I can see Nostr has done something really different with relays and own identity, but AT is not doing that. They do allow you to set a domain name as a handle and that may move across servers, but we have not actually seen other servers yet.

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