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@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

GadgeteerZA

@[email protected]

I blog about (ZS1OSS) - 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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Jumblie is a challenging browser-based open-source puzzle game to guess the four words of the day (jumblie.com)

The game has a theme word for each day, so keep that in mind when guessing the words. It is more challenging than Wordle because there are no hints apart from the theme word. So, if one of the words is ‘landing’ and you guessed ‘land’ there is no confirmation you’re getting warm at all....

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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Nope I bombed out - no idea what the association of the 6 letter word was with potato

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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Thanks, no, I surrendered ;-) but still can’t figure out why that 6-letter word relates to potato specifically. Just not something I can really relate to potato specifically.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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It very much is, but British English so wondering if that was a US term

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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Ah, see it now in results - never heard that before. We normally speak of toppings or stuffings.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Today was a bit easier

Jumblie 🔴🔵🟢🟠 7 guesses in 2m 14s jumblie.com

Token2 is an open-source Swiss FIDO2 security key that brings innovative features at a cheaper price (www.token2.ch)

Token2 is a cybersecurity company specialized in the area of multifactor authentication. Founded by a team of researchers from the University of Geneva with years of experience in the field of strong security and multifactor authentication. Token2 has invented, designed and developed various hardware and software solutions for...

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Seems it fits on a lanyard string from what I see of the other photos. A keyring is thicker and would put twisting force on it, yes. So, seems the lanyard type connector may be better for long term use.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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Good point on OpenPGP. I suppose I already do my mails with OpenPGP in Proton Mail (using my own key that is already uploaded). But something to keep in mind yes.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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They say it is less complex than Mastodon as well as lighter weight requirements. A Docker install is usually also easiest. So I’d say it is a better option to try for friends and family.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes not “new” per se, but it is still in early Alpha release and mostly unknown to everyone. Nextcloud and most of the others have been around many years and have had iterative stable releases. I was actually on Mastodon since 2016 so GoToSocial is a lot newer at around 3 years. But yes point taken, “new” is not the best description.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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Yes, as there is full control over what is exposed or mapped for the app including network ports, and future updates don’t get broken by inconsistent dependencies. I suppose if you run only one service on a machine and stick to standard ports for reverse proxying then maybe a binary install can be simpler. But if you want to install multiple apps ona server containers does become easier to manage and update.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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Let’s agree on newer. It is not even in stable release yet, and until this week I’d not even heard about it anywhere else.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
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From their site: “It is already deployable and useable, and it federates cleanly with many other Fediverse servers (not yet all). However, many things are not yet implemented, and there are plenty of bugs! We foresee entering beta around the beginning of 2024.”. I would say it should be described more as beta by now from that description.

Gmail was in beta for many years whilst it was in production, and Meshtastic only has alpha and beta releases, with no “stable” release. I think some projects feel if they are still adding features it says in beta and never reall is in stable until they stop adding features. But yes they should actually iterate through alpha, beta, RC, stable. Not everyone does, though.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes I think they’re meaning they’re still adding lots of new features possibly, but it is a bit confusing as I think of Alpha as raw and not production ready. Beta can be ready for testing with brand new features, and stable is usually production ready and all features already passed beta testing. I get it is for home use but still. Maybe they’re covering themselves legally, but then you can just say “use at your own risk”. It’s possible too they don’t have separate branches at all, and just add/update/fix the “alpha” version.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes, but it is a bit unusual for a “beta” to be the stable version, when there is a such a thing as “stable”. Beta is normally taken to be a testing version, between alpha and stable releases. But it shows we can’t just go on our own assumptions about what alpha and beta mean.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

No they don’t have a central managed hosting, and that is the point they are making. It is intended for someone to host for their family and friends. There may be some hosting it at various places but no central list you can find them on. Those sites, of course, will federate with other Fediverse networks, but no-one will necessarily even know they are GoToSocial nodes.

GadgeteerZA ,
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I’d second that amateur radio is way more than just chatting. There are so many digital modes, SDR, etc that can be explored. May be worth getting a mobile rig that can be pulled out and used in the QTH as well.

As a ham I’m helping right now to establish a backbone of Meshtastic radios across our city. It’s not ham radio, but it is something I can use my ham experience to build out and support others.

Personally I’ve been enjoying VarAc on HF for long range comms on low power, but I see they just standardised on some 2m and 70cm frequencies too, which I still want to try out.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

I’m hosting an OpenWebRx+ receiver using an SDR dongle. Quite a few of our local hams use it when travelling to listen in to our local bulletins. It even now has basic text chatting on it, for them to “call in”.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

We’ve not actually seen for sure that TikTok data is being passed to the Chinese government - supposedly the USA data is being kept separately. But we have certainly seen US data brokers gathering data from all over in the US and selling that on to any 3rd party (domestic government, as well as anyone else). Facebook has been caught more than once being in the business of leaking private data. I’m just surprised that the US gov did not leave this choice up to its citizens to choose on - the ideas of freedom of choice and speech seem to be rather dictated here now.

I’m just wondering if it is not more a case of the US gov has no control itself over TikTok (think US CLOUD Act) and this is what is irking them. I’m not in the US so one way or the other I don’t really mind. What I do mind about though is that TikTok does not sell out to a US company. We really don’t need one single country controlling all the mainstream social media platforms. US laws after all do not represent all of mankind, so some diversity is a good thing.

So I guess I’m rather for a “ban” than a “sell out”.

This Asus PC case monitors your dust filter so you don't have to (www.xda-developers.com)

Traditionally, one would have to periodically check the status of the dust filtering on a PC case, but that’s not the case (pun intended!) with the Asus ProArt PA602. This chassis has a fancy infrared (IR) sensor behind the front-facing dust filter. Should this detect a set layer of dust covering the filter material, a small...

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Bot, why would you summarise something that I already summarised as a human?

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Sort of in a way, yes, if you count there is some increasing pressure from the spring. But in reality, no, it is really based on the travel distance that can be adjusted. But you raise an interesting point for a future innovation, being more around actual pressure/resistance per key setting.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes it is an excellent idea. I’d be interested to see tests done around how this travel distance maybe actually increases or decreases any key pressure at all.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Wow nice!! Yes my issue seems to be touching a key next to where I should be hitting. So if I could even increase travel to register, I’m wondering if that would at least make my typing a bit better. Of course, there is no easy cure for dyslexic typing ;-)

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Hope I don’t have to pay for audiobooks I don’t listen to because that’s a waste. Spotify should just stick to what they do OK which is music. I’ll stick to music only.

GadgeteerZA ,
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It’s often not the cost of the software, but the hosting costs, especially on a growing platform.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

I think it’s why many decentralised platforms don’t want very big instances, and prefer them to split off into smaller federated sites.

‘We definitely messed up’: why did Google AI tool make offensive historical images? (www.theguardian.com)

Brin’s “We definitely messed up.”, at an AI “hackathon” event on 2 March, followed a slew of social media posts showing Gemini’s image generation tool depicting a variety of historical figures – including popes, founding fathers of the US and, most excruciatingly, German second world war soldiers – as people of...

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

It’s not just historical. I’m a white male and I prompted Gemini to create images for me if a middle aged white man building a Lego set etc. Only one image was a white male and two of the others wrecan Indian and a Black male. Why when I asked for a white male. It was an image I wanted to share to my family. Why would Gemini go off the prompt? I did not ask for diversity, nor was it expected for that purpose, and I got no other options for images which I could consider so it was a fail.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes, but it does not really matter what the rest of the prompt detail was? The point was, it was supposed to me an image of me doing an activity. I’d clearly prompted for a white man, but it gave me two other images that were completely not that. Why was Gemini deviating from specific prompts like that? Seems the identical issue to the case with the Nazis, just introducing variations completely of its own.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Sometimes you do want something specific. I can understand if someone just asked for a person x, y, z and then gets a broader selection of men, women, young, old, black or white. But if one asks for a middle-aged white man, I would not expect it to respond with a young, Black women, just to have variety. I’d expect other non-stated variables to be varied. It’s like asking for a scene of specifically leafy green trees, then I would not expect to see a whole lot of leafless trees.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

That is really just not relevant at all to the discussion here, but to satisfy your curiosity, I’m busy building a Lego model that a family member sent me, so the generated AI photo was supposed to depict someone that looked vaguely like me building such a Lego model. I used Bing in the past, and it has usually delivered 4 usable choices. Fact that Google gave me something that was distinctly NOT what I asked for, means it is messing with the specifics that are asked for.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes, it could be that, and may explain why the Nazi images came out like they did. But it sounded more like to me, Google was forcing diversity into the images deliberately. But sometimes that does not make sense. For general requests, yes. Otherwise they can just as well decide that grass should not always be green or brown, but sometimes also just make it blue or purple for variety.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Manjaro KDE for me - it’s not Arch per se, otherwise Ubuntu would also be eliminated for being a derivative of Debian…

Atuin is an open-source shell command history app for Linux with syncing, unlimited history, and with contextual search (beehaw.org)

Atuin replaces your existing shell history with a SQLite database, and records additional context for your commands. With this context, Atuin gives you faster and better search of your shell history!...

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Yes spot on!

Mbin is a fork of kbin: a decentralized content aggregator running on the Fediverse network (beehaw.org)

Mbin is a decentralized content aggregator, voting, discussion and microblogging platform running on the fediverse network. It can communicate with many other ActivityPub services, including Kbin, Mastodon, Lemmy, Pleroma, Peertube. It is an open source alternative to other link aggregator services like Reddit. The initiative...

GadgeteerZA OP , (edited )
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Not sure what you mean by management, or which aspect of management? The issue was more about acceptance of community enhancements through the open source code project. Some contributors felt they could move faster with more diverse enhancements. It may be something like the LibreOffice fork from OpenOffice, where some wanted to just move faster with changes.

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Exactly, most forks are considered a healthy thing

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

You should only see who you follow. For example I put zero on Nostr about crypto. My interests are general tech.

Polycentric is an Open-source distributed social network - Similar in some ways to Nostr (beehaw.org)

I’ve not done an in-depth look at this network but reading through their documentation shows it has a lot of similarity to the basics of the Nostr protocol and network. There is just not as much information available on the Polycentric site as there is already for Nostr. Nostr is also censorship resistant, with distributed...

GadgeteerZA OP ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

Thanks for that extra info - yes not much of that detail was on their site. Nostr has been around a bit longer I use it daily (amongst other networks) and it seemed the most similar network to Polycentric that I’ve seen (the philosophy). I did a video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSyMCJlSwA about Nostr, but right now there is not that much to get me excited enough about Polycentric yet.

GadgeteerZA ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

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 ,
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org avatar

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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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.

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