Worst is that is expanding further to services too - when I started in IT we did all our own network cabling, server management, etc. Now more and more that gets outsourced, ending with cloud services, and inside the company there is no-one that can do any of that any more. Everything must be bought, everything becomes a subscription, and you just lose control of it. Worst is, you don't have internal qualified IT staff to even evaluate quality and manage the outsourced services.
The biggest worry is if government had to choose between farmers producing wholesome food vs the ultra-processed industry, the choice would fall with industry. It is not healthy and a lot of health issues today are caused by going ever more ultra-processed (with the added "vitamins" of course).
Yes, in the past I understood patents etc were supposed to help actually spur on new innovation. But the opposite seems to be happening. A hundred years ago one inventor would improve another's inventions and there seemed to be such progress. Now it is a legal minefield. But literally preventing someone from repairing a tractor, is criminal.
About 5 years ago, my country passed a law that we no longer needed to take our car back to the agent to be serviced, and warranties would not be voided. That increased competition a bit and gave consumers more choices.
But cars are going the same way as tractors - you need all the diagnostic computers etc to work on them. I grew up being able to change oil, filters, plugs, and adjust the timing, using a feeler gauge, etc. Back then, we could buy a workshop manual for every car.
Sadly yes we see many companies doing that wanting to make a profit selling their own stuff. Big Pharma is often guilty of wanting to make a pill for something that has a perfectly good natural remedy. Often governments even end up outlawing natural remedies in favour of a prescription drug. In my country there was a long and bitter fight to get legal access again to cannabis to help treat pain and suffering for cancer patients (at least people have a choice now).
So true, the constant purchasing means people lose their ability to repair things, and companies have no need to make things repairable or provide parts. It's no wonder laws are now needed to force companies to make items repairable by users or other parties. And of course all the disposed stuff is even worse for landfills.
Well after all Jack Dorsey did move on from Bluesky to Nostr
Some of Edison's earliest voice recordings of famous Britons from 1888
Really eerie listening to these moments captured in time 136 years ago when recording equipment was basically 'unheard' of. I don't think many of these people would ever have thought their voices would be heard around the globe at just the click of a mouse 100 years into the future.
The voices of Robert Browning, Arthur Sullivan, Florence Nightingale, a trumpeter from the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava, to major political figures like William Gladstone and Queen Victoria.
This really still qualifies as a mechanical invention at the time, but one which had a more significant impact than others, as it brought the ability to us to perceive something from way back with our senses. Prior to this, there was of course photography, but maybe we have become too used to seeing the many photographs that circulate today from way back when.
Hearing an actual voice recording, is to me closer to it being a real experience. The manner of speech, too, is pleasant to behold today when we have become so used to rushed speech, slang, abbreviations, etc.
Listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrXUcEh0ncE
#technology #vintage #history
11 Must-Have Docker Tools To Simplify Your Workflow And Why CLI Is Good
Docker is a popular tool for creating, deploying, and managing containerised applications, but managing containers, images, and configurations can become complex over time.
Here’s a detailed guide to some essential Docker tools that simplify your work, whether you’re a beginner or experienced. These tools help you monitor, troubleshoot, and manage Docker more effectively.
I do monitor and work with three different docker based servers, and activating the VPN, then opening Portainer or whatever to work on each one, can all take time. So I'm testing some of the CLI based tools listed in the linked article.
The reason is I can open a terminal window and just type 'ssh het' or whatever the shortcut is which I use, and instantly that opens a public private key based session into that server. I can quickly run (or keep open) the CLI app to monitor my containers. I could have three terminal windows open, one for each server, at the same time if I wish.
It is why terminal windows and apps can be super useful and lightweight for many occasions.
See https://www.tecmint.com/docker-tools
#technology #docker #servers
Mermaid is an open source tool that can be used to create such charts using Markdown plaintext
Quickly create a flowchart, mindmap, or Gantt chart without once touching your mouse.
Open source means it is not going to suddenly disappear tomorrow, it can be broadly supported across different platforms and Markdown editors, and you can see what it is doing (not a binary storage blob).
Wherever a Markdown editor has support for Mermaid (often through a plugin) this type of chart and diagrams will work. For those who do tables in Markdown, Mermaid's syntax will look familiar.
Plain text format means it will still be readable in 500 years time when Microsoft is long gone.
The linked article also gives a link to the online Mermaid site where you can test this out, or design your chart and then copy the code to your Markdown file.
See https://lifehacker.com/tech/mermaid-creates-diagrams-and-flowcharts-with-plaintext
#technology #opensource #markdown
Nebraskan Farmers Were Using Wind Turbines Before Environmentalism Was Invented
Many seem to forget that electric cars, windmills generating energy (whether electric or mechanical energy) are just not new ideas.
The difference is that the technology at the time was limited by what was known then. Today, we can make things work much more efficiently. With the networking of ideas, we are also able to exponentially improve what we know.
So many inventions have come about from society's need to solve challenges and problems. And yet so many ideas were violently resisted as well - remember when all cars had to be proceded by a person waving a flag, or where it was thought that steam locomotives would cause cows to stop producing milk, when we thought humans could not travel faster than they could run, when we were not made to fly, when we thought 5G cell towers were going to cause cancer, and so the list goes on and on.
Our biggest problem today is we are a society of buying everything - so things cost more, we lose our ability to fix and repair things, and then we panic that a new invention is going to take all the jobs away. In fact, new things (like just moving from horses to cars, or typewriters to computers) have created more new jobs after the transitions.
Society's difficulty is more one of not being willing to change, and today even more so, with the misinformation that is so popular.
#technology #windpower #environment #change
Successful South African electric vehicle maker that few people know about
South African firm MellowVans is seeing massive demand for its groundbreaking three-wheeled electric vehicle (EV), which aims to combine the best features of motorcycles with light vans for last-mile cargo transport and courier deliveries.
After its tremendous success in South Africa over the past decade, the MellowVan is poised to make big waves overseas.
The EV is the first vehicle from a South African automotive original equipment manufacturer to achieve European and British homologation, a long and costly process that makes a vehicle road legal in a particular jurisdiction.
According to the company’s website, a MellowVan delivery with a driver is around R16.94, compared with the R32.36 it would cost to deliver the same amount of goods via two petrol-powered motorcycles.
Yes, it's true that many of us just assume when we see these vehicles, they are Chinese imports. But this is far from the case, and it is impressive to see what thought has gone into the design right down to the transporting of perishable goods and medical supplies.
"Total practicality" seems to permeate through the design and operation of these vehicles. It charges anywhere, the driver is protected from the elements, it can carry more cargo than a normal scooter or motorcycle, it is environmentally friendly, and it costs less to operate than a conventional motorcycle.
It has won international awards already, and has already started to export its first vans to Europe (I'm assuming Europe does not charge an extra import duty on EV imports like South Africa does).\
#technology #SouthAfrica #EV #environment
Online shopping syndicate warning in South Africa
Hot on the heels of today's report about some incredibly weak passwords that South Africans are using online, and then re-using across other websites, comes this warning now about very realistic looking fake online shopping sites that closely resemble the real brand.
We have Black Friday coming up, as well as the festive season, so everyone is looking out for bargains. We should never be clicking on links we receive over instant messengers or e-mails, but now you want to be doubly sure you are actually on Takealot, or whatever site you expect to be on.
I'd suggest you check the URL carefully before making purchases, and rather use your saved bookmarks to access sites you regularly use. Your password manager refusing to show a login, is also a sign you may be on a fake site.
#technology #southafrica #scams
Google's Gemini AI Chatbot Finally Has an iPhone App
Billed as a way to converse with Google’s AI, it’s kind of like using speech-to-text, but without having to press a microphone icon before each question. Just say your questions out loud, and Gemini will respond to them in real time, incorporating context from your previous questions.
Exclusive to the iPhone app is some clever use of the Dynamic Island. While you’re talking to Gemini, you’ll see icons in the Dynamic island indicating that Live is still active and whether it’s listening to you.
So far I've been Gemini the most useful for decent answers to things, including helping out with getting various code snippets sorted out. But it is pretty good for most things you'd ask of any smart speaker.
I see it can also be used to report road conditions and issues in Waze, something which I need to try instead of doing the three button presses on the car dashboard.
See https://lifehacker.com/tech/googles-gemini-finally-has-an-iphone-app
#technology #AI #ios
Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple Health
A big issue with some Big Tech health cloud services like Apple, Google, etc is you can't get your data out easily to perform your own analytics, or use them if you decide to leave that platform. Apple Health cannot be viewed or analysed on a Linux desktop at all.
These tools help monitor exercise offline from your devices, either through direct link, or importing of data.
Jogger is for Linux computers or phones to track running and other workouts.
Golden Cheetah is a really powerful offline analysis tool that connect with indoor trainers and cycling equipment such as cycling computers and power meters to import data. In addition, it can connect to cloud services such as Strava. It shows many stats that I don't even understand, but seems ideal for analysing cycling, swimming, etc and asks for data such as wheel sizes, swimming pool lengths, and so on. It will also track nutrition and body measurement data, and it runs on Windows, Linux and macOS.
MyTourbook is software which lets you visualize and analyse tours which are recorded by a GPS device, bike- or exercise computer and ergometer.
See https://www.linuxlinks.com/best-free-open-source-alternatives-apple-health
#technology #health #opensource
Open Source Cardiography Signal Measuring Device
Much of the world’s medical equipment is made by a handful of monopolistic megacorps, but Milos Rasic built an open cardiography signal measuring device for his master’s thesis.
Using a Pi Pico W for the brains, Rasic’s device can record, store and analyze the data from an arm cuff, stethoscope, electrocardiograph (ECG), and pulse oximeter. This data can be used for monitoring blood pressure in patients and he has results from some of his experiments to determine the optimal algorithm for the task on the GitHub if you really want to get into the nitty gritty details.
See https://hackaday.com/2024/11/13/open-cardiography-signal-measuring-device
#technology #opensource #medical #cardiography
You can finally move your health data across Android devices - Can't believe this was not backed up before
Since Google had moved Health Connect (the service that each health and exercise app can optionally sync to on Android) into the main Android device menu, I just assumed it was part of the device backup (E2EE if needed). Now it turns out that this was never the case. If so, this is terrible design, and I can't imagine that Apple Health only exists on the user device with no sync or backup via Apple Cloud.
But OK, let's move on. It seems now that backup is available, it is also not on by default (you must activate the backup schedule), and no it is not going to back up as part of the Android device sync (it exports to a local file, and you must back that up). Again, what a clunky implementation.
When I activated mine, I got the option to save my backup file to Proton Drive, which is perfectly fine for me. So it will back up to cloud services that you have active on your device (and you can import from them too). The linked article also mentions Google Drive, so I'd imagine if that is active on your device, you may see that as an option.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/you-can-finally-move-your-health-data-across-android-devices
#technology #health #Android
Signal introduces convenient “call links” for private group chats up to 50 people with creating a group
Users can control who joins the secure group chats by requiring admin approval when a new join request is created, so the host can approve or decline them.
Nice to see such chats also have features like raising a hand button, emoji reactions, enhanced desktop call views, microphone and camera muting, switching video source, etc.
And it is cross-platform too, so this should make it really easy for everyone to use. What with Telegram defaulting to no E2EE and WhatsApp leaking metadata like a sieve, Signal has become an attractive private and secure option for most users. Yes I know all about Session, Threema and SimpleX (and I use all three) but I have no friends using them, so they are not yet a mainstream option really.
#technology #messengers #privacy #security
5 of the coolest things you can run on Docker
These are some refreshingly different things to consider running on Docker.
Covered in the linked article are:
* game servers for popular multiplayer titles
* Kasm Workspaces
* LLMs and image generators (Generative AI)
* emulate retro games inside your browser
* macOS
See https://www.xda-developers.com/coolest-things-you-can-run-on-docker
#technology #Docker #gaming
Victron's VRM app can now install on Your Apple, Android or Garmin Smartwatches
Well, this is something new. Depending on whether you have their solar system, temp sensors or EV charging devices, you can view any of this at a glance on your wrist now.
See https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2024/11/11/vrm-on-your-smartwatch
#technology #Victron
