Takealot SA versus Amazon USA tech price showdown: It's around 50/50 so always best to check properly
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/gadgets/497469-takealot-versus-amazon-tech-price-showdown.html
Interesting results shown in the comparison in the linked article. In quite a few cases a single import, with duty and shipping to SA, is cheaper than Takealot in South Africa. I'm wondering how this will improve when Amazon opens its own warehouse in South Africa later in 2023, because then it won't be individual shipping imports any more.
But the big takeaway is that you do need to check, and weigh it up also with whether you may ever need warranty support. There are also many items you just cannot find at all inside South Africa.
#technology #southafrica #takealot #amazon #onlineshopping
How to make your own self-hosted VPN in under 30 minutes (and why you'd want to, or not, do this)
https://www.androidpolice.com/how-to-make-personal-vpn-30-minutes/
Self-hosted VPNs can be quite good if you are hosting them from a hosting service, but network traffic is often limited to about 1 TB (and you have to count it both ways) and many streaming services will still detect it as a VPN connection and maybe block it.
Hosting from home solves the network traffic issue, but exposes your home IP address.
So this is a good article to understand where and how a self-hosted VPN may help you or not. In many cases, especially for Netflix and similar types of streaming, the only reliable option is a paid VPN service that specifically works around streaming services.
#technology #VPN #selfhosting #privacy
FeverPhone App: Researchers Created a Simple App That Turns Your Smartphone Screen Into an Accurate Thermometer, but it takes 90 seconds
https://gizmodo.com/thermometer-app-1850565745
Thermistors, which are also used in medical-grade thermometers, can’t directly measure a user’s body temperature while inside a smartphone, but they can be used to track the amount of heat energy that has been transferred between a user and the mobile device they’re making contact with.
During a clinical trial at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine’s Emergency Department, the app was tested by 37 participants, which included 16 with a mild fever, and the results were compared against readings from an oral thermometer. FeverPhone was able to predict a user’s core body temperature with “an average error of about 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (0.23 degrees Celsius),“ which is on par with the accuracy of home use thermometers, including non-contact options.
It does sound quite good, especially seeing no extra hardware is required. The app is not yet available though for download, and it also sounds like other devices may also be explored e.g. holding a Fitbit to your forehead.
#technology #smartphone #temperature #health
Why You Should Consider Changing Your DNS Server Today If You Still Use Your ISP's Default
https://www.howtogeek.com/897514/why-you-should-change-your-dns-server-today/
Are you still using your internet service provider’s DNS server? Unsure of why your choice of DNS server is important? Here’s why you might want to change your DNS server right away.
Change your DNS server for better privacy, faster browsing, protection from known malicious websites, and to circumvent DNS-level censorship.
What I found especially interesting, are the various additional links the article also provides.
#technology #DNS #privacy
Improbable launches MSquared, a network of metaverses, to open borders between virtual worlds
The company spent a decade building immersive virtual worlds, from military simulations to K-pop parties, before pivoting to building metaverse infrastructure. While the unicorn’s focus (and fortunes) have fluctuated, Improbable’s faith in open spaces has persisted.
“We have seen how walled gardens and closed networks exploit the people that spend time on the services for the benefit of few,” Herman Narula, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said last year.
“We want to contribute to ensuring the metaverse holds its promise of being a network of meaning that unlocks creativity, social interaction, and economic opportunities, free from gatekeepers,” he said last month.
The intention seems to be creating the ability for a universal wallet and asset inventory for users to accompany them across the different platforms. It's something I'd like to have seen tying social networks, or even instant messenger networks, together as well. Technically, it is possible, but practically the people of each network, and their egos, get in the way. The closest I've seen to something like this succeeding was Pidgin messenger and also the Flock browser, where the user logged in to each separate service, and was presented with a unified interface. In other words, it gets done from the outside.
Still, it seems that they have produced a Metaverse Markup Language (MML) and also have some big players involved. So let's keep an eye on this.
#technology #interoperability #metaverse #virtualworlds
In praise of Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) with Python or C
https://hackaday.com/2023/06/21/in-praise-of-rpn-with-python-or-c/
For whatever reason, RPN didn’t really succeed in the general marketplace, and you might wonder why it was ever a thing. The biggest reason is that RPN is very easy to implement compared to working through proper algebraic, or infix, notation. In addition, in the early years of computers and calculators, you didn’t have much to work with, and people were used to using slide rules, so having something that didn’t take a lot of code that matched how users worked anyway was a win-win.
With RPN, there is no ambiguity depending on secret rules or parentheses, nor is there any reason to remember things unnecessarily. Processing RPN, on the other hand, is easy. If you see a number, push it on the value stack. If you see an operator, pop off enough stuff from the stack, do the operation, and put the result back on the stack.
#technology #Python #math #RPN
Beginning of the end for LCD TVs: They're still cheaper but prominent companies focusing on OLED and microLED technologies
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/gadgets/496983-beginning-of-the-end-for-lcd-tvs.html
Essentially, LCD suppliers have hit the ceiling when it comes to what the displays can offer, and all R&D funding is going towards newer, self-emissive displays.
LED-LCDs differ from traditional LCDs as they use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for backlighting rather than cold cathode fluorescent tubes.
This allows for higher contrasts, slimmer displays, a wider colour gamut, and lower power consumption. According to Tom’s Guide, LED-LCDs will continue to be produced and could see prices drop.
It will probably be much like the transition from CRT to LCD, as the price-points converge, the big adoption just takes over.
#technology #TV #OLED
#technology #gaming #retro #textgames
50 Years of Text Games book parses the rich history of a foundational genre: Zork and MUD? Sure. But also Universal Paperclips, AI Dungeon, The Oregon Trail, and Lifeline
Reed's book—which has over 620 pages of analysis, code samples, photographs, maps, flowcharts, footnotes, asides, cross-references, and other details—thoroughly backs up this claim. Text games, in both their earliest parser form and in more modern incarnations, are a fascinating space in which people have pulled off amazing feats, and innovations continue today. Many of the earliest text games mastered key aspects of world-building, narrative shaping, and player choice that some modern games, with exponentially more resources at their disposal, still struggle with.
Reed, a writer and game designer himself, picks one game for every year from 1971 through 2020. He adds an involving dive into the pre-1970s history of experiments, games, and brutally unforgiving code. Each decade also gets its own introduction, and there are summaries of 500 other text games included. Each of the game picks started out as a post on his Substack, though they have been revised and more deeply integrated with their historical context in the book.
There are classics you might expect, like Adventure, MUD, Hitchhiker's Guide, and Trade Wars. There are definition-stretching inclusions, like the original Choose Your Own Adventure book, The Cave of Time, and Dwarf Fortress. And there are probably at least 20 games most of us have never encountered.
The article linked below contains some answers by Reed about this fascinating book.
#technology #gaming #retro #textgames
Bluetooth vs. Wi-Fi Music: Which Has Better Audio Quality? Choose Wi-Fi if you can
https://www.howtogeek.com/878574/bluetooth-vs-wi-fi-music-which-has-better-audio-quality/
Wi-Fi is better for music since these connections have much higher bandwidth than Bluetooth, meaning your music isn’t additionally compressed, making for higher-quality audio. Bluetooth can still sound good and is very useful (and is probably good enough), but for lossless or hi-res audio, Wi-Fi is your only option.
Bluetooth may not offer the highest-quality audio, but the good news is in many cases, this doesn’t matter much. If you’re doing most of your listening via Spotify, a higher bandwidth connection isn’t going to offer any sort of upgrade anyway (since Spotify doesn’t have the best audio quality).
Some streaming services like Tidal, Deezer, Apple Music, and Amazon Music Unlimited offer either lossless audio, hi-res audio, or both. With these, you may notice a slight upgrade in sound quality over Wi-Fi, but even that is debatable.
#technology #music #streaming #quality
Withings Body Smart Review: A Connected Scale For the Masses that includes baby/pet weight
https://www.howtogeek.com/894214/withings-body-smart-review/
I like devices that are not locked into an OS ecosystem (Apple, I'm looking at you!) and although I already have a Fitbit Aria scale, it gets thrown out when my wife stands on the scale with a pet, to get the pet's weight (you weigh yourself, hold the pet, and then work out the difference). Having a built-in pet/baby mode is actually really useful.
But Withings also has some other interesting features like Eyes-Closed mode, Athlete mode, Pregnancy mode, etc apart from all the usual smart scale measurement features. And of course it will sync to Apple and Google/Samsung Health, and Strava or MyFitnessPal.
Thankfully the Withings+ subscription is not needed for any of the above functionality, so I may seriously consider buying this scale.
#technology #weight #Withings #smartscale #health
Brave Browser's Off The Record feature, to protect vulnerable people, is different from Private browsing mode: Website owners to action this
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/05/29/first-look-at-brave-browsers-upcoming-off-the-record-feature/
I know this news is a month old, but I thought it no different at the time to Private browsing mode, and yet it is. It is specifically intended to help protect vulnerable people (for example, an abused spouse looking to find information about exiting a relationship), and where a browser profile is maybe shared with someone else, who should not see that specific websites are being visited.
Normal Private browsing is deliberately turned on before visiting a site, and leaves a complete hole in the browsing history whilst it is in use (showing someone removed browser history). The same goes for deleting recent browser history. And in both cases you must remember to perform these actions.
With Off The Record, the visited website will pop up a prompt asking if the OTR mode wants to be used (it prompts the user, and is something that qualifying websites would embed on their site for this purpose) and it only removes traces of this website's visit. Other browser tab history continues to be recorded, leaving no suspicious gap in the browser history. This is browser specific, so obviously any other spying tools would still be operational if they record outside the browser, such as network traffic spying. I'd expect, though, this feature may be expanded further still to include some sort of automated split-tunnelling on the network, as the user action needs to be as simple-to-use as possible.
#technology #privacy #BraveBrowser #abuse #vulnerable
Gillette Cartridge Blades R110 ea (US$5.79) vs Gillette DE Blades R4 ea (US$0.21)!
https://void.cat/d/MrafdBLWhSmkGvQXgECQkj.webp
https://void.cat/d/2YofwGz8wwSvumL7XAoq5c.webp
I was so shocked at the price of these cartridge blades, I had to take a photo of it. I used to use one of these blades per week when I still used cartridge shaving blades. A pack of eight blades will fill my car's tank with petrol. I can see why wearing beards has become more popular!
In contrast, Double Edge (DE) blades, even by Gillette, cost only R4 ea. That is 27x cheaper! I actually normally use the Astra Superior Platinum blades at R17.99 per pack of 5 blades. But if we want to compare with "cheap" DE blades, then it is about R10 per pack of 5 blades.
Apart from just cost, it becomes a real no-brainer to be using DE blades for shaving, when you also consider they can be recycled, and a single blade is better for prevention of ingrown hairs than multi-blade cartridges.
#traditionalshaving #wetshaving #Gillette #shavingblades
Computer Storage Choices: It's no longer just SATA Hard Drive vs SATA SSD as motherboards often support even faster options now like NVMe SSD
I'm starting to find my external backup drive is getting too small to back my data partition up fully (I have a large second internal hard drive that does still get the job done automatically every day) so I was looking at possible options. I always just gone straight for SATA connected drives, and have small SSDs for boot, and then 4TB SATA hard drives for data and internal backups.
But I had a good look at my motherboard (which is not very old) and noticed it has two M.2 2280 M-key socket which support both SATA and x4 PCI Express (yes I'm still figuring out the generations). Supposedly then, a NVMe SSD drive card can fit into that socket.
And it seems that the NVMe SSD (non-SATA) is blindingly faster than a SATA drive! Yes it can cost maybe 25% than a SATA SSD, but speeds can be easily 6x or 10x faster than the SSD.
So I'm doing more homework on this, as my older 120GB SATA SSD drives are getting a bit tight on space too for my Linux boot drive. I'm considering maybe 256GB for the boot drive and 2TB for the data drive.
The linked video did give me some overview as to the different choices regarding drives and their connectors and protocols.
The thing is to have a good look first at what your motherboard can fit. Buy something faster, as long as it fits, because if you later upgrade the motherboard, you'll gain that extra speed for your faster storage device.
#technology #hardware #storage #NVMe
NixOS has one config file, can roll back changes, and keeps package dependencies separated for each app
https://tilvids.com/w/kNVby1VfBYz9vbn6Zbg5xW
This is quite an interesting Linux distro that has been around longer than Ubuntu, but does require some learning of their package management system in the command line interface i.e. not really for beginners.
The single config file gives you the ability to replicate the exact same setup across other machines (organisation) or maybe just for rebuilding your own machine. It also enables you to specific exactly what packages must be installed on any build, ready to use. So to restore, or reproduce, your system all you need is that main config file, and your document and user config files from /home (I'm imagining you still need to backup the entire /home folder).
Updates are run from the command line, but it tracks dependencies separately for each application, so this keeps the system rock solid. One update does not break other packages. As far as I understand it, this extends further than just user applications, so on boot-up at the grub menu, you can roll back changes. Yes Flatpak and Appimages also do this, but only for their applications, and it does support both of this, but not Snaps.
It usually has two stable releases per year, but you can also opt for a unstable rolling release. It has over 80,000 packages so is close to what the AUR has.
So, yes its a different philosophy, much like Arch is different say to Debian. It does require an initial learning curve, and then you do need to stick to using its package manager and keeping your config file updated when required.
#technology #Linux #NixOS #opensource
So the Reddit CEO has now threatened to "democratically" remove mods... well he can on my Subreddit, as this is what it looks like with zero posts left after I deleted them all... Checkmate!
EU: Samsung and other brands may be forced to bring back phones with removable backs so that we can easily replace batteries
Gone are the days when we could easily take off the smartphone’s battery and replace it with a new one. You didn’t need a heat gun or a specialized tool to pop open the back of your phone, and you could easily do that with your fingernails. It seems like we could get the good old days back, thanks to a law passed by the European Union.
According to a new report, the European Parliament has changed a previous law that will force all gadgets, including smartphones, to have easily replaceable batteries. The MEP’s vote count ratio for this change stood at 587 to 9. The term ‘easily’ means that users should be able to replace the batteries without requiring special tools.
This means OEMs, from Apple to Google to Samsung, all have to make drastic changes to their smartphone designs (by 2027) to adhere to the new change that asks them to mount easily replaceable batteries on their devices.
Yes, my experience (a Nexus 6P) has been that it is usually the battery that wears out first, causing a perfectly good phone to become largely useless unless you want to risk the almighty pain of heat guns and levers to pry the phone apart. I did a battery change once, and it is just not something I really want to do again.
I know manufacturers are going to say it is about size (well I'll gladly have a slightly thicker phone) or water resistance (I'm sure designers can come up with something again that includes rubber rings etc). I do get the feeling that manufacturers deliberately went the route of sealed phones so that we get pressed into buying new phones every two or three years. Now we have longer software updates, but batteries die after three years or so.
It is not just about the environment, but I've also seen that so many disposable products actually become far more expensive for users (for example cartridge razor blades).
#technology #ewaste #EU #smartphones
Calckey is also a federated social network based on the ActivityPub protocol, but it is really good looking with some extra functions inc account migrations
https://void.cat/d/4XaQJdi86P2iwPemgpQVnD.webp
Like Mastodon is a social network on the Fediverse, as is Pixelfed and Misskey, Calckey is also such a social network in its own right. Like the others it is also interconnected by ActivityPub to everything else on the Fediverse. What probably sets it apart though is its much nicer looking user interface, post editing, customisable web UI, and rich chatting, and MFM (Misskey Flavoured Markdown) text formatting.
But they say they don't just want to be another client, they also want to provide the tools to build online communities, without undermining them in favour of the wider network.
Calckey's development started in 2022 originally as a soft fork of Misskey. They then added their own unique features, like account migration, a new layout to view posts, and browse threads. It can be easily self-hosted too in a Docker container.
Something unique with migrating to Calckey, is that they were busy testing out importing posts from Mastodon in May 2023, which means that if you're migrating your Mastodon account to Calckey, you can take your posts with you.
Yes, the name is not ideal, but supposedly there is talk about changing that.
#technology #Calckey #socialnetworks #Fediverse
Their Github project at https://github.com/rdbell/nvote with details to run own local instance in Docker
Nvote already exists - https://nvote.co/
Relive the Internet of the ’90s With ‘Neocities’ - Build your next website like it's not yet 1999
https://lifehacker.com/relive-the-internet-of-the-90s-with-neocities-1850540482
Seems to be all young people consciously choosing an outdated style to call back to a “simpler time” that they didn’t actually experience.
#technology #retro