Been waiting for this! Proton now has a Google Sheets clone with end-to-end encryption

Spreadsheets are finally rolling out over the next few days for Proton users. I actually use spreadsheets more often than documents, for product comparisons or purchase decisions. So this is something that has been holding me back a bit from using Proton Drive more fully.

Yes, the feature set is going to be rather minimal right now compared to more mature products, and it also is not (yet) exporting to ODF format.

"Proton Sheets is protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that no one else, not even Proton, can access your spreadsheet and the information it contains. Whether you’re tracking your home budget or managing a multi-team project, Sheets can help you get the job done. Use built-in formulas to perform analysis, turn raw data into easily understood charts, and collaborate with remote teams knowing your information is safe."

See https://www.howtogeek.com/proton-now-has-a-google-sheets-clone

#technology #privacy #spreadsheets

Why I Ditched My Smartwatch for a Retro-Styled Casio Watch

This video takes you through my decision-making process and reasons for ditching my Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (and other smartwatches) for a modern, retro-styled Casio ABL-100WE watch.

The video starts with the straw that broke the camel's back, and concludes with two other possibilities I'll weigh up early in 2026.

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BtlVV-lfT0

#technology #smartwatches #retro #Casio #gadget

Viseron is a self-hosted camera monitoring app and the perfect Frigate alternative

“If you've ever wanted to keep an eye on your surroundings without sending data to third-party servers, you've probably heard of Frigate. The open-source is a popular choice as an NVR that runs locally and taps into the power of AI to detect people, cars, and more. But Frigate isn't the only game in town. There's another contender worth looking at. It's called Viseron, and it's a self-hosted camera monitoring platform that offers a polished interface, widespread hardware support, and, most importantly, it works on your local network. Viseron is designed from the ground up to be simple, flexible, and private. There are no subscriptions to worry about, no hidden restrictions, and, of course, no cloud dependencies to worry about.”

Having any CCTV cameras running 24/7 in or around your home has to be a concern for privacy. We have seen way too may vulnerabilities, with even a website dedicated to showing you everyone's exposed cameras, which included children's nursery cams. My own cameras are restricted to a VLAN that has no Internet access (ingoing or outgoing).

So it is good to see more and more self-hosted alternatives becoming available for everyone. This one even has AI-powered object detection, which my much older Reolink system does not have.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/self-hosted-camera-monitoring-app-perfect-frigate-alternative

#technology #privacy #opensource #CCTV

Tecmint's 6 Best Linux Distros for Gaming and Playing Windows Games

“The good news is that gaming on Linux has improved dramatically in recent years. Besides the many native Linux titles already available, you can also play a huge selection of Windows-only games using compatibility tools like Proton (built into Steam) and Wine. In fact, nearly 80% of the most popular Windows games now run on Linux with little to no extra effort.”

For myself, I've been using Manjaro Linux the last few years, and I am playing all the games I've needed to so far on Linux. My list includes:

* Snowrunner

* War Thunder multiplayer

* Ships at Sea

* Assetto Corsa EVO

* Assetto Corsa Competizione

* BeamNG Drive

* Train Fever

* Euro Truck Sim in multiplayer

* American Truck Sim

* FORZA Horizon 4

* Hell Let Loose

* Red Dead Redemption II

* Dirt Rally 2.0

* rFactor 2

* Train Sim World 5

All in all, it is 77 games, so I have more than enough to keep me playing. I've not got Microsoft Flight Sim 2024 so cannot comment on that one, but the only one that I think did not play for me on Linux was World of Subways 3.

See https://www.tecmint.com/linux-distros-for-playing-windows-games

#technology #linux #gaming

https://npub1g2jpj7x9rjcqd9dp3hnvja2tjr3q3hf362z3ulrfzpyfnsdw5qlqyayjj6.blossom.band/d118a68f2517048a81f7287189e51cd85994fd4e06902a1306dfb7c99b038d5b.webp

https://github.com/meshtastic

The Founders were immigrants themselves. I don't get this US hang up about "immigrants" as it is probably the country most constituted out of immigrants whether they go back one or more generations back. It has long been a melting pot of different cultures, religions, etc. It's actually what gives the US the strength they have - a strength in diversity. Some immigrants were slaves, and others came from all the other continents.

In my own country, my family immigrated here back in the mid-1600's, but even that has become a debate about whether this should be my home country because my family originated from Europe, and not Africa. So the question really is when is one an immigrant, and when not?

And if so, how does anyone "go back" to a country they were never born in? They are not recognised as from that country, either. It's pretty complex.

Yes I wonder, but in today's world it seems popularist to be dissatisfied with everything ;-)

Switzerland releases its own AI model trained on public data and its open source

“Switzerland launched an open-source model called Apertus on Monday as an alternative to proprietary models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, reports SWI as spotted by Engadget. The model’s source code, training data, model weights, and detailed development process are available on the AI model platform HuggingFace.”

Of course, being Switzerland, this is an attempt to adhere to the European Union’s copyright laws and voluntary AI code of practice, which may set it apart from some other AI models. Some may argue then it is won't be as good as some other AI models, but I suppose the analogy may be a thief could be richer than most workers who earn their honest dime through their own hard work.

See https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/770646/switzerland-ai-model-llm-open-apertus

#technology #privacy #AI #opensource

But still way way better than what WhatsApp does!

nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcpzamhxue69uhhsmtj9e6hxetwdaehgu3wdaexwtcpzdmhxue69uhk7enxvd5xz6tw9ec82c30qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehgu3wvfskuep0qywhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnzd96xxmmfdejhytnnda3kjctv9uqzp8tqw3mtec06j06r07w8p3qtxvk30zcrl4pjpqspu26e5zk84ytjyh0cce too true, as mostly one does never need to really go deep under the hood. Yep I remember back in the mid-2000's there were some irritations which we have all forgotten about now ;-)

Not really though - if you follow my link in the post to my video I do give the link directly to the widgets page for that site. The landing page just does not really say very much as a page.

[URGENT] DEF CON Researcher Exposes How Password Managers Betray Your Trust

"Czech security researcher Marek Tóth demonstrated at DEF CON 33 how a single click on any malicious website can steal passwords, credit cards, and 2FA codes from 40 million users of major password managers, with vendors like 1Password and LastPass refusing to fix the vulnerabilities."

What this brings home yet once again is, in regard to security, the easier something is to use is usually not better for security. In this case, much of the issue is around the autofilling of passwords on page loading (because that is easier). So, to some extent, this is all helped along by settings we choose to set.

Again for subdomains vs exact domain, it is easier to match to just the base domain…

Many password managers will be addressing these issues in the coming week or two, but it is worth rethinking your "ease of use" settings on your password manager so long.

See https://www.sambent.com/urgent-def-con-researcher-exposes-how-password-managers-betray-your-trust

#technology #security #vulnerabilities

You can once again buy an official Commodore C64

"Basically, there is a whole gamut of ways to get some part of the C64 experience, ranging from emulator-only to a full hardware DIY or pre-assembled format. Each of which come with their own price tag, starting at $0 for running VICE on your existing system. With so much choice we can only hope that the renewed Commodore company will become something more than Yet Another C64 Experience."

The video in the linked article gives a good run down of the various Commodore C64 options up to now, before ending with the details and cost of the revived "official" C64. Apart from holding the world record for the most microcomputer sales of all time. I had one as well, after my ZX81, and it was a major breakthrough with colour graphics, sound, etc. I have very happy memories from that C64, although I must say I did enjoy my Amiga 500 a lot more as the game quality was just that much better, and it had a lot of games. I still play some of those Amiga games today such as Ports of Call every now and again on my Linux PC using an emulator.

So the question is, would there still be interest in 2025 for the C64? Well it certainly has been modernised a bit with regard to HDMI and peripheral support, and apparently many thousands of the unofficial C64s are still being sold.

See https://hackaday.com/2025/08/17/commodore-is-back-selling-new-c64s-but-should-you-buy-them

#technology #Commodore #retrocomputing

Homepage - An Open Source Self-Hosted Dashboard

Homepage is a modern, fully static, fast, secure fully proxied, highly customizable application dashboard with integrations for over 100 services and translations into multiple languages. Easily configured via YAML files or through docker label discovery. With features like quick search, bookmarks, weather support, a wide range of integrations and widgets, an elegant and modern design, and a focus on performance, Homepage is your ideal start to the day and a handy companion throughout it.

My video explains why I moved from Heimdall to Homepage. It also shows what various service and information widgets are available, what my dashboard looks like, what the various parts do, and how the configuration files work. My docker compose file is also unpacked.

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvB0Jcn3e3g

#technology #selfhosted #opensource #dashboard

Various desktop Linux tips for newbies

I'm also seeing more and more new Linux users popping up. They're noticeable for often saying "why did they not do this earlier". The point is, today's Linux is very different from 20+ years ago. It generally just installs and works, often looking very similar to what users experienced before (meaning basically everything can be done in the graphical menus and windows).

Linux gets a bit more interesting if you venture into using the AUR or Git versions of apps (you have to enable this, as these are more bleeding edge). This is where dependencies may break, and you need a bit of terminal skill often to fix things, but the good news is, you're not losing any data.

Over the years I've also opted to having all my user data (the stuff under /home) in its own partition so that is it fully separate from the main OS. The reason was in the early years I used to format the drive and do clean installs, or was distro hopping. Nowadays, I just use Manjaro KDE, and it just keeps updating all then time - have not reinstalled for many years now (and no nagging to activate it or end of life coming).

You may wonder what happens if a distro is no longer supported? Well firstly it keeps working, and it may well still pull some patches and updates. But usually you will be able to migrate to using some other distro, and your user data all stays intact. But this is also a good reason for picking one of the many mainstream distros, that should be around still for a very long time (measuring that long time in terms of Windows release cycles).

No-one has to move to Linux, but for those curious enough to want to find out more, the usual approach is to start with a liveboot version and just run it from a USB stick or external drive to test it out a bit. The next step is typically to install it side-by-side with Windows, but I'd really recommend a separate hard drive, as Windows does some odd things to the boot partition sometimes. Linux can access the user data on a Windows drive, but I'd be careful with that, as Windows can lock the drive if it uses hibernation mode. The point is, lots of things are possible for Linux.

One will find of course that many companies only bring out their software for Windows and macOS. And example is Stream Deck. But I discovered two excellent 3rd party apps that work even better under Linux with Stream Deck. Da Vinci Resolve for example produces world-class video editing software that runs on Linux natively, but there is also Kdenlive that will work just as well for most users. So always do a bit of research before buying software or hardware to choose wisely.

Personally, for me, it's more about the freedom to what I want with it.

See https://akselmo.dev/posts/how-to-linux-2025

#technology #Linux #opensource

I'm finally able to use Wayland on an ongoing basis

It was the need for Waydroid only working under only Wayland, that forced me to again have another go at Wayland this week on my Manjaro KDE Plasma. Yet again I hit some issues, one or two of which were show-stoppers, but I have finally overcome them, and although there are some irritations, they are now pretty minor, and I have workarounds to make everything work now. These were all issues that made Wayland feel, for me, it was not quite ready for full prime time.

Key for me was to be sure that:

* Steam games worked

* KMyMoney finance app worked

* My hundreds of shortcuts in Steam Deck worked

* OBS Studio worked

* VLC Media player worked

* Wayland was stable without intermittent crashes

I suspect that XWayland has largely been the reason everything now seems so much better.

For KMyMoney I had long since sorted out that if I added the environment variable "QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb", this sorted out the non-display of the application. This may even not be needed any more.

My biggest challenge had been to find alternatives to the excellent xdotool utility, which I use extensively in Bitfocus Companion for my hundred plus productivity shortcuts. Not only is xdotool exclusively for X11, but it is really easy to use as it uses the key names such as Enter, Space, etc. Yes there is ydotool, but it is really difficult to do set up say 'xdotool key Ctrl_L+f' in ydotool as this must be 'ydotool key 29:1 33:1 33:0 29:0' and just don't dare forget one of the key up sequences otherwise it will all break. I started looking into dotool this week as well as other options.

Nothing beats xdotool for simplicity of use. I'm not sure why or when, but I tested out an existing xdotool shortcut... and it just worked! Wow, OK so this must be some XWayland improvement. This made me very happy, as converting everything to ydotool would be pain times 100.

Wayland still has its 'security' limitations on insertions into keyboard/mouse input, so I do sometimes get a popup that I must accept, but it works! Wayland also does not like keystrokes to be inserted into background windows, but I see there is now an application called Kdotool which I must still explore.

The other irritation was not being able to resize application windows. Normally, I'd move the mouse cursor to any corner of an app and then drag it bigger or smaller. Wayland was just not allowing this to happen. So what I've discovered to make this happen is two things:

One can hold down the Meta key and then hold the right mouse button near that corner, and then do the usual resizing quite quickly. How will I remember the key combination? Well with my Stream Deck, as I now have a key mapped to hold the Meta key down, and reminds me to right-click the mouse.

The other thing I discovered was, resizing does sort of work if you have extremely fine motor skills. You have to position the mouse about a pixel outside the corner of an app, and then you can grab and resize it like 'normal'. If you do this on the corner or just inside the app, it does not work. So the issue seems to be that the resize handle area is extremely small. I've looked inside the window theme settings and cannot seem to see anything that would make this larger. Yes, I know there is a setting called 'Enable extended resize handles' and I have that ticked already.

There is also a window menu that has an option for resizing, but that is too clunky to use, so the above two workarounds see m to work OK for me for now.

Another thing was my mouse cursor 'sticking' as it moved across screen one to two, and from two to three. It only happens when I move it fairly slowly. Turns out this is a feature for those not wanting to go past the screen edges. But there is a setting not only to adjust the stickiness, but also to disable that. So sorted too.

I have some open apps that show blank icons in the toolbar. This is not too serious, as if I hover the mouse cursor over them, their preview shows what they are. For now too, it is only my Joplin notes app that does this under Wayland.

OBS Studio works as-is. The only issue seemed to be the screen to capture. It is a super easy fix, but must be reversed if you ever use X11 again. Basically I had to just add a new screen capture and I think its properties were for Pipewire capture or something like that. Everything else worked as before.

The last thing that was broken, was VLC media player was giving codec errors on playback. The short of it was I just needed to install additional codec plugins (not sure why, as it all worked as-is on X11). Or one can also install the Flatpak version of VLC and that works out of the box (or is that inside the container?). Other media players like MPV just worked as normal without any changes.

Some screenrecorders, like Vokoscreen will work, but they lose their ability to record only a window or a rectangular area, as they are X11 specific. OBS Studio can do the job, but I also installed Kooha which does do rectangular areas under Wayland.

I've now been using Wayland for two and a bit days. No need yet to go back into X11 to do anything, and Wayland has been stable so far. I've tried two games under Steam Games, and they are working, and my Stream Deck shortcuts for those games are also working fine.

Very ironically, the Waydroid app is not starting after the second day. It was the reason for me re-trying Wayland again. But that is not really a Wayland issue itself.

It looks like I'm now fully moved over to Wayland, and my mind is at rest, at least for the showstoppers I had before with it.

https://npub1g2jpj7x9rjcqd9dp3hnvja2tjr3q3hf362z3ulrfzpyfnsdw5qlqyayjj6.blossom.band/0a8fc9f560a1a168f7a934f83bfc7aae034efef1451877175af286d165b08ba0.webp

#technology #Linux #opensource #Wayland

Harper is a grammar checker that is on-device and open source

"When it comes to grammar checking, Grammarly is the premium tool for it. It's a proprietary tool and it was among the first one to make a mark as a web-based Grammar checking tool. Then there is LanguageTool that is/was open source, made in Germany and offers hosted service for free or for a price (you get additional features). LanguageTool was acquired a couple of years back and since then it's privacy policy has changed as it processes data on US servers, instead of European ones."

I'm trying out Harper and although it works fine, it is a very new product (less than a year old), so there are some improvements that can be made. For example, I'd like to see auto-correction rules we can add ourselves for whenever I type teh to be changed to the. But it is being updated regularly I see.

Right now too it only supports English (but being open source I think that will change soon).

It has plugins for Firefox, Chrome, Obsidian, WordPress, and it can be integrated into various code editors as well as into JavaScript/TypeScript/Rust codebases.

There are no mobile apps as the view is that most keyboards have their own built-in spell and grammar checkers.

But the privacy-first approach does mean no data going into someone's cloud, and does mean also better speed and even working offline. That would also mean right now no syncing of personal dictionaries across devices, but I'm sure that can be added in time to use Nextcloud, Dropbox, and other personal cloud services.

See https://itsfoss.com/harper-grammar-checker and GitHub site at https://github.com/Automattic/harper

#technology #opensource #spellchecker #privacy

HA can be incredibly useful for automating and monitoring stuff. I use mine a lot for announcing things audibly like when the shower water is hot. But it all starts with one thing and you just keep building from there over time.

A fascinating listen into the power of Public Relations, and how it became another term for propaganda. Awareness should be the school curriculum.

"In this episode we'll meet the godfathers of American PR, Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, and explore the origins and evolution of industry-funded experts who shaped everything from the breakfast table to our understanding of the economy and science."

Listen at https://www.spreaker.com/episode/s1-ep1-fake-experts-and-real-bacon--47148620

Да, ты прав. Частные каналы означает, что меньшие группы также могут безопасно общаться.

One key difference is Briar never made it to iOS at all...

Jack Dorsey made an open source peer-to-peer encrypted Bluetooth messaging app called Bitchat

“Twitter co-founder and Block Head Jack Dorsey launched a new peer-to-peer messaging app over the weekend called Bitchat that runs entirely over Bluetooth. Bitchat relies on Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks to send encrypted communications directly to nearby devices without requiring internet or cellular service.”

Don't be too concerned about the Bluetooth range as this app sets up mesh connections across multiple peers, much like how Meshtastic and Reticulum radio works. So, hopping across two or more peers will quickly extend this reach.

Bitchat is working over Bluetooth LE and the claims are that distance between peers could be as much as 300m. Certainly, for line of sight such distances should be easy to achieve.

The plan in future seems to be to include Wi-Fi Direct as another connectivity option. I'm wondering if this could evolve in future to work something like the Reticulum network, across all sorts of protocols.

As with Nostr and other similar projects, Bitchat requires no account creation, no servers, no e-mail or mobile phone registrations, and also it has password protected channels, and even a panic mode that will clear all data in the logo is triple-tapped.

Right now, it is working on iOS devices through Apple Testflight, and an Android client is still expected to be released in the near future. As this type of app is normally easier to released for Android, I'm wondering if it was not primarily intended right now to protect the privacy of protesters inside the USA.

See https://www.theverge.com/news/701272/jack-dorsey-bitchat-bluetooth-messaging-app and the GitHub site at https://github.com/jackjackbits/bitchat

#technology #privacy #opensource #P2P

South Korea Brought High-Rise Fire Escape Solutions To The Masses

“When a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, conventional wisdom is that stairwells are the only way out. Lifts are verboten in such scenarios, while sheer height typically prevents any other viable route of egress from tall modern buildings. If the stairs are impassable, or you can’t reach them, you’re in dire peril. In South Korea, though, there’s another option for escape. The answer involves strapping on a harness and descending down ropes hanging off the side of the building, just like in an action movie. It might sound terrifying, but these descending lifeline devices have become a common part of fire safety infrastructure across the country.”

Interesting that the design works in both directions, so as one person descends, the other side is going up ready for the next person to descend. It is limited to 15 stories high, but it is real food for thought for skyscraper designers regarding better planning for evacuation of taller buildings. The fact is, things do go wrong, and what happens to the people up on 30 plus floors? Many skyscrapers also have sealed windows. It's a bit like planning for the ideal scenarios, and we hope nothing else ever happens.

See https://hackaday.com/2025/07/02/south-korea-brought-high-rise-fire-escape-solutions-to-the-masses

#technology #escape #fire

I replaced my ISP router with OPNsense months ago, and I don't regret it at all

OPNsense can also be fairly simple to set up if you go with the basics (like most home routers offer). But the great thing is you can also deep dive into it and setup separated VLANs and masses of tweaks and rules.

What you need to know, though, is that you will need to run it on a separate piece of hardware (just like you'd have bought a router device) and ideally you'd want at least 4 Ethernet ports on it. The minimum is really two ports (a WAN port and a LAN port).

My OPNsense device is a Protectli with 4 ports. One is a WAN port, and I have reserved another for a LAN port, and I have the remaining two ports connected as a LAGG interface to my main switch (so it has dual links for load balancing and redundancy). But again, you don't to do this either if you want to keep it simple.

What I still want to explore with mine, is using the Haproxy plugin to do my reverse proxying directly on the OPNsense device, instead of in a container on my server. This will mean that some traffic destined for my OpenWebRx device can flow directly from the router through the main switch and to the OpenWebRx device (instead of via the server and then back through the main switch).

OPNsense (and PFsense) does mean total control in your hands, and also ongoing updates and patches for many many years...

See https://www.xda-developers.com/replaced-isp-router-opnsense-dont-regret

#technology #opensource #security #routers

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 battery life hammered by Samsung Health Monitor app

I noticed about a month or two back that my Galaxy Watch was suddenly no longer getting its two days of use out a battery charge. I do keep my watch usage quite light, and normally have the Wi-Fi off, display set to lower brightness, etc, so 2 days is usually fine. I do use watch with the Sleep For Android app that monitors sleeping heart rate etc, and that does chew about 11-12% during the night, but that has been my normal usage.

I thought at first maybe it is the battery ageing, but it is not even a year old yet. But checking the battery usage stats showed that the Samsung Health Monitor app (not the standard Samsung Health app) was chewing the battery by a good 3%, higher than any other app. Rebooting had not helped either. Seeing that app is only used for ECG, sleep apnoea and blood pressure, not of which I had used for quite a while, that app should be idling with no battery usage.

I tried to delete the app, but it deleted off the phone but not from the watch at all. It would also not disable properly, nor could I turn off the background usage toggle. In the end, I used the ADB command to manually delete the app. And wow, now I have a full 2 days battery use again, plus a little extra.

It shows again what impact badly behaved apps have on hardware. Ideally, this app should not be using any battery power if I don’t have sleep apnoea detection active, or if its parent app on the phone is deleted.

#batterylife #samsung #technology

How To Check Disk Health In Linux: A Beginners Guide

“Your computer's disk drive stores all your important files. Photos, documents, videos, and everything lives on your disk. But what happens when your disk starts to fail? You could lose everything. Worry not! Linux has built-in tools to check your disk health. You can spot disk-related problems early and save your data.”

Smartmontools is a package on Linux that provides tools for monitoring and managing the health of storage devices—such as hard drives and SSDs—using the built-in Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) system found in most modern drives.

But other tools are also covered such as badblocks, fsck, and the graphical user interface app GNOME Disks.

See https://ostechnix.com/check-disk-health-linux

#technology #Linux #diskdrives

How much VRAM do games really use in 2025?

Why this caught my eye is because I just hit a VRAM limitation this week with my RTX 2060 card. It has been playing games just fine without any issue, but DaVinci Resolve Studio reports an issue with one of the new AI features requiring a minimum of 8 GB VRAM to work.

So, this is something to keep in mind when looking for a new GPU. The advice seems to be to not necessarily buy the fastest or latest GPU, but rather go for something lower down the ladder, but with a lot more VRAM.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/how-much-vram-do-games-really-use-in-2025

#technology #GPU