How To Use Reddit to Stay on Top of The News as well as more Good News
Despite there being pretty good alternatives to Reddit (think Lemmy etc), Reddit still can't be matched for the sheer volume, breadth, and depth of content to be found. Having hands-on moderators also means that the Subreddit rules are pretty well adhered to.
What you end up getting is strongly topic focussed content, which also gets rigorously crowd vetted by the community in each Subreddit. You can find news along with some balanced commentary and moderation.
But Reddit is more than just the big general r/news and r/worldnews that many know about. There are also Subreddits specifically focussing on Uplifting News, Science, Good News, and more.
So, if you're looking for more positive news (wanting to actively avoid bad news), some of these Subreddits maybe worth looking into.
The linked article also goes on to explain how you can create your own custom feed.
If bad news gets you down, it is well worth spending some time to focus on places where you can get more positive news for a change. Too many news outlets (and even social media posts) want to use clickbait headlines and content focussed on angering, upsetting, or alarming viewers into reading their content.
See https://www.howtogeek.com/how-i-use-reddit-to-stay-on-top-of-the-news
#technology #goodnews #positive #news
Mensinator is an open source privacy respecting period tracking app for Android
Mensinator provides a clean and intuitive interface for tracking your menstrual cycle, monitoring your periods, and viewing essential statistics—all without the need for sign-ups or sharing personal data. All information is stored securely on your device, ensuring your privacy is always protected.
It's not the only such app on F-Droid, but coming from F-Droid means it is proper compiled open source code, and says what it does. There is no Big Tech company requiring registration to install it, or having privacy intrusive adverts inserted (which usually track and report locations).
There are a few countries in the world today where such information needs to be kept private to protect their citizens' privacy. Open source respects the individual's right to decide how they want to use their software.
See https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.mensinator.app
#technology #opensource #menstruation
BrickMasterVR - Building Lego using Oculus Quest VR Glasses
I know someone who builds Lego for therapy. He buys sets on an ongoing basis, some of which are well over 10,000 pieces (think of the Titanic). They take up a mass of space. I get that some sets are great for physical display, but it also gets costly building and giving them away.
There is already online free virtual Lego building with Bricklink Studio, but has none of the "handling" of the pieces nor seeing it in proper three dimensions.
The logical direction to take this is towards VR glasses type solutions, where you can see it in 3D (as if you were looking at the real model) and be able to pick up and place pieces (using virtual hands). A partnership between Lego and Apple would also have been a logical conclusion for this.
But, as far as I know, there is still no real working solution for this, despite lots of interest in it.
The video linked below shows an early prototype in action, but that was about 3 years ago. It was also discussed on Reddit in r/OculusQuest back then.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrm0V6goFlw
#technology #VR #Lego
Apple Maps on Web Now Works on Linux (But Only in Firefox)
The screenshot above shows Mozilla Firefox 132 (running on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) with the web version of Apple Maps successfully loaded.
All features work as they should, including search, directions, hybrid images, location detection, guides, places of interest, plus core interactive features like scrolling/zooming, and so on.
In other browsers, this is not the case.
Thing is, Linux users being able to access a competent alternative (not the only alternative, of course) to Google Maps is a good thing, even if most people would prefer to use another service, like OpenStreetMap.
See https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/11/apple-maps-beta-linux-support-ish
#technology #firefox #applemaps
Capacities could be a very good alternative to Obsidian Notes
I've only had a brief look and test so far, but I'll be testing this out a lot more. Obsidian is free to use but not open source software, Capacities is the same with a generous free option and is not open source software either.
Something quite different, but useful, is that Capacities is cloud synced first, so the various clients all sync via the cloud for free (unlike Obsidian which can be a bit clunky via SyncThing or similar sync software).
Obsidian is more offline first in Markdown format for full portability between other note apps. Capacities however does export (and backup) to various formats including PDF, Markdown, MS Word, and Latex. I'm just not seeing a bulk export yet of selected notes (called pages in Capacities) to these various formats. I'm testing this a bit more still.
Getting some notes from Obsidian into Capacities so far was just a matter of copy and pasting. I just had to copy and paste any images separately into the note. Tables, code snippets, headings, etc all came across perfectly.
Speaking of code snippets, I do really like that you can tag each one as a bash script, Python code, Lua code, etc, and it does a great job of syntax highlighting (something I was not seeing in Obsidian).
Capacities does not yet have all the plugins that Obsidian has, but for many who were thinking of starting to use Obsidian, Capacities may be a good option to consider.
I'll also be interested to see what the Linux app (in development) stores locally and how well it works offline. There are already desktop apps for macOS and Windows (and mobile apps for Android and iOS).
#technology #knowledgemanagement #notes
10 brilliant PC games you can enjoy without a graphics card
Modern PC gaming often gets a bad rap for being too demanding, pricing out countless gamers who lack powerful graphics cards. Plus, the state in which some AAA games get released, makes them a struggle to play even on high-end GPUs. Fortunately, the most demanding games don't always equate to the most impressive ones.
Even if you don't have a recent graphics card on your gaming PC, you have a treasure trove of titles to explore. You actually don't even need a discrete GPU (or a PC) to experience these must-play games. Even your laptop with Intel HD or Iris Xe graphics (or AMD equivalent) can handle these titles, albeit sometimes with optimized settings.
Firewatch looks like an interesting game to try.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/brilliant-games-without-graphics-card
#technology #gaming
The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor revolution is here, and OnePlus is leading the charge
From bulky physical button sensors, and capacitive ones, to under-display optical fingerprint sensors and ultrasonic ones, the technology has significantly advanced over the last decade, with ultrasonic sensors sitting at the pinnacle at the moment.
They truly shine when it comes to accuracy, considering that their ultrasonic pulses can penetrate through surface or finger contaminants like dirt, oil, or moisture. We've previously only seen ultrasonic fingerprint scanners on Samsung's flagship devices, and most recently, the Pixel 9 series. Ultrasonic fingerprint scanners have long had one major drawback — they're expensive, essentially preventing them from making their way to a wider range of devices.
OnePlus recently confirmed in a Weibo post that its upcoming OnePlus 13 flagship will be unveiled on October 31 in China.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/oneplus-13-ultrasonic-fingerprint-sensor-confirmed-goodix
#technology #security
SearXNG is an open source privacy respecting metasearch engine that is really easy to use
SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from more than 70 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, SearXNG can be used over Tor for online anonymity.
My video covers how to pronounce SearXNG, what does it do exactly, some demo searches, user preferences, setting it as a browser default search, and some self-hosting answers to problems I faced with the Docker installation.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8QNTdWJfT8
#technology #search #privacy #selfhosted #opensource
The open secret of open washing – why companies pretend to be open source
This is a deceptive practice in which companies or organizations present their products, services, or processes as "open" when they are not truly open in the spirit of transparency, access to information, participation, and knowledge sharing. This term is modelled after "greenwashing" and was coined by Michelle Thorne, an internet and climate policy scholar, in 2009.
Some corporations use open washing to shield their models and practices from scientific and regulatory scrutiny, while benefiting from the "open" label.
Another major factor is that the EU AI Act provides special exemptions for "open source" models. This creates a powerful incentive for open washing: if their models count as open, they'll have far less restrictive requirements. That, in turn, means they'll need less money to meet regulatory requirements or have to clean their datasets of copyright and other intellectual property (IP) issues.
It's true, too, that the term open source is used way too loosely by many companies. We just have to think also about the recent débâcle with Winamp. And, as pointed out in the article, many of the Big Tech companies also punt products as being open source when they are not.
See https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/25/opinion_open_washing
#technology #opensource
Samsung Dual Audio: What it is and how to use it
Most Android phones can connect and stream audio to one Bluetooth device. But there may be situations where you may want to stream to multiple devices instead. For example, you own a pair of portable Bluetooth speakers that can't be paired in stereo mode but would prefer the audio to be louder. Another example would be if you wanted to use your earphones and speakers simultaneously. You can accomplish all this with Samsung's Dual Audio feature. It allows you to stream audio to two Bluetooth devices without switching.
Dual Audio and Multipoint audio are two different features. Dual Audio streams audio to two earphones or speakers simultaneously. Multipoint audio is available on the best wireless earbuds, which allows them to connect to two devices and switch between them seamlessly. For example, you can connect your Pixel Buds Pro to your phone and laptop and move between the two devices without issues.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/what-is-samsung-dual-audio
#technology #Samsung #audio
Apple Tested Blood Sugar App for Preventing Type 2 Diabetes
Select employees with prediabetes were invited to test the app, which offered assistance with food selection and lifestyle changes. Employees who participated confirmed that they had prediabetes with a blood test, and then actively monitored their meals and their blood sugar using glucose monitoring devices.
The app was used to demonstrate to employees how healthy and unhealthy food choices could impact their blood sugar and lead to disease progression. A significant glucose spike after a carbohydrate-heavy meal, for example, could encourage testers to consume more protein and make different choices. Intervening at the prediabetes stage could help millions of people avoid developing diabetes 2.
It has really been a bit disappointing seeing how Type 2 diabetes just seems to be "treated" with medications instead of health practitioners making a real effort to advise patients about lifestyle changes that should be attempted properly first.
Medical doctors really should not be seen as pill prescription generators. Maybe they think patients should have done their own homework first before coming to see them. But I think many patients don't realise the link between Type 2 diabetes and some lifestyle choices. Medical practitioners should be advising on this with the initial diagnosis.
So, well done Apple, at least on tackling this and hopefully making this something fun to use.
See https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/25/apple-diabetes-prevention-app-test
#technology #diabetes #health
Passkey portability is what the password-less future needs: FIDO Alliance standard coming
Just like your house key, passkeys are unique to the lock they go in, at whatever service they were set up to unlock. That could be your bank, your social media account, your email provider, or a website like XDA. Unlike passwords, there's nothing to remember, nothing to type into a fake website in a phishing attack, and nothing that could be reused across several accounts. Given what we know about users and their security hygiene, this can only be a good thing.
Passkeys aren't the only way toward a passwordless, more secure future, but they're one of the best ways to reduce user error completely. They won't work on any website other than the one they were generated for, they can't be copied or reused, they won't work on a stranger's device, and they can't currently be moved between users. That last point is also one of the issues because they're currently locked to the operating system or password manager that created them.
That's a problem, because you might have generated it on the wrong device, or want to move it to your new password manager, and that's just not possible right now. There are standards for the passkeys, but the easiest way currently to move a passkey to another storage provider is to delete it and make a new one with the new service.
Yes, this is pretty essential to passkeys being adopted as mainstream. It's an advantage that passwords have, as they can be exported from one service to another quite easily. So, although for example Bitwarden is fully cross-platform, what if you want to leave Bitwarden and have your passkeys in a different password manager? Or if you want to leave the Apple ecosystem and take your passkeys to an Android device?
This is why Apple, Google, Samsung and some others rushed to get passkeys out as quickly as possible, because they knew it would lock users into their ecosystem. Many of us waited for cross-platform services to adopt passkeys, but even so, you can't easily leave that service with all your passkeys.
So an open and secure standard for transfer of passkeys is really important. Such a standard will mean not only being able to export (and backup) but to also import elsewhere.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/passkey-portability-is-what-the-password-less-future-needs
#technology #security #passkeys
BoxBuddy – graphical manager for Distrobox
Distrobox is software which creates and manages container-based development environments without root privileges. It lets you run a wide range of Linux distributions on a single host system.
It’s not reinventing the wheel. Distrobox is merely a rather sophisticated wrapper around Podman or Docker. Podman is a daemonless tool designed to find, run, build, share and deploy applications using containers and container images. Docker is a set of platform as a service products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers.
Distrobox integrates these containers within your host system. Among other things, this means you share the HOME directory of the user, external storage, graphical apps (X11/Wayland), audio, systemd journal, even down to things like aliases in your shell. This is a real time-saver from a configuration perspective.
Distrobox is a command-line affair. BoxBuddy is a graphical user interface for Distrobox.
For each box, we can open it in a terminal, upgrade the box, view the applications installed in the box, clone the box, delete the box, and stop the box. The UI lets you select your preferred terminal, with a good range of terminals supported.
But it does appear there are some shortcomings, which, according to the dev, are due to the upstream Distrobox.
See https://www.linuxlinks.com/boxbuddy-graphical-manager-distrobox
#technology #Linux #opensource
OpenSnitch is a comprehensive open source Linux application firewall
This is not a simple firewall to get started with as it can be a bit of an uphill battle to get all the outgoing connections vetted (if you want to filter those), but I'd imagine once set up, it is a pretty powerful tool to have.
Key features:
* Interactive outbound connections filtering.
* Block ads, trackers or malware domains system-wide.
* Ability to configure system firewall from the GUI (nftables).
* Configure input policy, allow inbound services, etc.
* Manage multiple nodes from a centralized GUI.
* SIEM integration
It is regularly updated, with 74 contributors contributing to over 30 releases. The project has also received over 10,000 starts.
See https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
#technology #opensource #security #firewalls
This is another impressive firewall tool - https://safing.io
OpenSnitch is a comprehensive open source Linux application firewall
This is not a simple firewall to get started with as it can be a bit of an uphill battle to get all the outgoing connections vetted (if you want to filter those), but I'd imagine once set up, it is a pretty powerful tool to have.
Key features:
* Interactive outbound connections filtering.
* Block ads, trackers or malware domains system-wide.
* Ability to configure system firewall from the GUI (nftables).
* Configure input policy, allow inbound services, etc.
* Manage multiple nodes from a centralized GUI.
* SIEM integration
It is regularly updated, with 74 contributors contributing to over 30 releases. The project has also received over 10,000 starts.
See https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
#technology #opensource #security #firewalls
Flyby11 is a Rufus-like app is here to help you dodge Windows 11's system requirements
Microsoft has been clamping down on the methods people use to dodge Windows 11's system requirements, but some third-party apps have kept fighting to dodge anything thrown at them. For instance, Rufus has been a go-to method for a long time now, and it's still letting people perform in-place updates with incompatible hardware. As good as Rufus is, it's always good to have alternative apps in the mix, and this new one seems to fit the bill nicely.
This may be useful to those stuck on Windows and feel they can't transition their hardware to Linux instead. Remember you can always try Linux out from a USB stick without installing anything.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/new-rufus-like-app-dodge-windows-11-system-requirements
#technology #Windows11
Happy 20th Anniversary, Ubuntu!
Exactly 20 years ago today, on October 20, 2004, the 4.10 “Warty Warthog” release of the Linux distribution with the strange and unfamiliar name Ubuntu debuted under the company’s slogan “Linux for human beings.”
For me, what stands out most about Ubuntu, is that it helped drive Linux to be more popular and increase adoption amongst end-users and small businesses. Back around 2006 my own company was busy preparing to adopt Linux, and Ubuntu was the distribution being looked at. I started out on Ubuntu as my first Linux distro back then.
If Linux is so widespread today, it’s largely thanks to Mark Shuttleworth and his company. They were bold enough to challenge tech giants like Microsoft and Apple, believing that Linux isn’t just for tech experts but for everyone. And it can be said that he succeeded in this endeavour.
Mark is also a South African entrepreneur, but has no musk odour...
See https://linuxiac.com/happy-20th-anniversary-ubuntu
#technology #Linux #opensource
It may well have been copied but the license attached prohibited any changes or modification. So legally you could only use it was freeware really.
Streamyfin is an open source mobile app for Jellyfin with some extra features
This is designed to work with an existing Jellyfin server, so you should be able to even install and use this alongside any existing Jellyfin mobile apps you have installed.
It lists the following additional features:
🚀 Skip intro / credits support
🖼️ Trickplay images: The new golden standard for chapter previews when seeking.
📺 Picture in Picture (iPhone only): Watch movies in PiP mode on your iPhone.
🔊 Background audio: Stream music in the background, even when locking the phone.
📥 Download media (Experimental): Save your media locally and watch it offline.
📡 Chromecast (Experimental): Cast your media to any Chromecast-enabled device.
It has been updated as recently as a week ago, so looks actively maintained by 10 different contributors. It is available for iOS and Android.
See https://github.com/fredrikburmester/streamyfin
#technology #Jellyfin #streaming #opensource
