danie10

The director of the Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Associate Professor David Holmes, said the results demonstrated the importance of news media to search engines, with the top search terms clearly reflecting that people were trying to learn more about current affairs topics. “It is in the interests of search engines to show news sites because that brings users who are in search of trusted and useful quality content,” he said. “These results suggest that Google’s competitors are well able to deliver that kind of professional content.”

Don't be fearful of change, sometimes you end up even better off. So experiment a little.

See https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/03/googles-search-engine-not-as-good-as-its-competitors-for-news-research-finds

#technology #search #news

After the first few days of using my new strop I went and nicked it. Obviously I still need to apply my mind to this until it becomes real muscle memory. Maybe others will find these tips useful too.

See https://shavelibrary.com/w/Strop_treatment_and_repair

#traditionalshaving #wetshaving #shaving

So I've clocked 3 months now and thought I'd share how it's going. I started out a bit shaky and definitely favouring my right hand to do 3/4 of my beard area. I noticed now as muscle memory has kicked in, that my left hand may actually be shaving better than my right hand! I like the way the blade can be precisely controlled around the jaw, under the nose, and next to the nose (which was never as easy with a safety razor).

The 14 mins includes heating the water, stropping the razor, and finishing up. Yes it's longer than a safety razor shave, but it's closer and more controlled, better for the environment, and more satisfying. All I'm replacing now is shaving soap every 4 to 6 months or so, and pre-shaving oil which lasts a good year.

Where I save some time is whilst the kettle is heating the water to 90 degrees Celsius, I'm busy stropping the razor. I've certainly noticed doing the stropping well (and using a little chrome oxide compound every week or so on the canvas side of the strop) makes for a much sharper cleaner shave. All I probably still need a very fine honing stone. Muscle memory also helps to make the stropping an easy background task.

#traditionalshaving #straightrazor #environment #shaving

Classic iPods have their fans, but they’re not built for the modern age of music streaming — except for this one, which has been turned into a Spotify player by tinkerer Guy Dupont. While it may look like an iPod from the outside, inside, it’s got a Raspberry Pi loaded with software custom-built by Dupont to interface with Spotify, while still keeping the classic iPod style. He calls it the sPot.

If you wanted to make one of these yourself, Dupont has posted all of the code you’ll need on GitHub. He also created a Hackaday page detailing the other software that’s needed to get Spotify working.

See https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2021/2/1/22260540/ipod-mod-portable-spotify-player-click-wheel-project

#technology #opensource #hardware #audio

The reason why we as consumers get held to ransom by Big Tech is because they are the one's who create walled gardens of their apps to ensure it is very difficult to leave their service and to maintain any communication with your friends or family who stay behind. They count on that sticky network effect to hold you in place.

The world was not always like this, as we see with e-mail where any app can e-mail any other app. Neither was messaging as it was also once open.

So what we need is a protocol to be broadly supported that will connect anyone to any other app supporting that open protocol, but which allows end-to-end encryption. We need apps to support it, just like Hubzilla which built in a number of plugins to allow it to communicate with Diaspora, XMPP, Fediverse, etc all from one place.

What do we do about Big Tech like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft? Well either they must be mandated by law to build in this protocol support, or we as consumers must start voting with our choices and not make use of services that are walled gardens. Our future lies in an open interoperable Internet offering privacy. The future cannot be walled gardens separating us all.

From the link below the key columns are the License (how open is it for anyone to use without cost?) and End-To-End Encryption (can I use it privately?). From these requirements we can see that the following protocols could be suitable to consider:

• Bitmessage (Desktop P2)
• Briar (P2) but Android only
• Echo
• Jami (Desktop and Mobile P2P)
• Matrix (Desktop and Mobile Federated Client-Server)
• Ricochet (Desktop P2P)
• Signal (Centralised Desktop and Mobile)
• SIMPLE (more phones with SIP?)
• Tox (Desktop and Mobile P2P)
• XMPP (Desktop and Mobile Decentralized Client-Server)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_protocols

#technology #instantmessengers #interoprability #bigtech #privacy

This is pretty puzzling as we know Signal is reputed to be secure (apart from having to provide a phone number to register) and although Telegram's default settings allow access to metadata and even message content ultimately, both have been banned because they have been proven before not to release any user data.

But why was WhatsApp not banned in Iran, and neither in Russia previously either? This is what is really puzzling many people? It would be pure unfounded conjecture to speculate whether WhatsApp provides metadata about who contacts whom, locations, etc to authorities as we've not seen evidence of this yet as far as I know. We do not know this but all the same, the question does need to be asked.

If you are in Iran I'd recommend though that you install XMPP, or P2P apps such as ManyVerse or similar anyway as centralised apps are just too easy to monitor or disable.

See https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/26/iran-blocks-signal-messaging-app-after-whatsapp-exodus

#technology #privacy #rights #instantmessengers #iran

Of course some of us have already deleted our WhatsApp accounts, but I did actually backup a few of my chats, so I'll be trying this out when it gets to Android.

Even if you are an iOS user who has deleted your WhatsApp account, this will still work for any chats that you did export.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/telegram-7-4-makes-easy-migrate-whatsapp-chat-history

#technology #telegram #deletewhatsapp

Big social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc hold their users captive through the high cost for users to migrate elsewhere ie. all they have to give up by leaving friends and family behind, finding a new alternative platform, losing follower counts, often losing sponsorships, etc. This is why Facebook for example cut off their messenger interconnectivity with XMPP years ago because then any Facebook user could leave, and stay in contact with friends and family on Facebook.

As the article points out there are also some downsides to decentralisation like maybe losing the ability for one network to do mass mobilisation for good.

Personally I've also held the belief that we need more interoperability rather than just breaking up a big tech company. We do already have protocols such as ActivityPub, XMPP, etc that are in use connecting completely different social networks together.

Break the walls down and let Big Tech compete more equally and openly with everyone. This will also give the smaller social media networks a chance to compete for attention.

See https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/twitter-and-interoperability-some-thoughts-peanut-gallery

#technology #bigtech #interoperability #socialnetworks #decentralisation

openmediavault is the next generation network attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux. It contains services like SSH, (S)FTP, SMB/CIFS, DAAP media server, RSync, BitTorrent client and many more. Thanks to the modular design of the framework it can be enhanced via plugins. openmediavault is primarily designed to be used in home environments or small home offices, but is not limited to those scenarios.

RSS newsreaders allow you to focus on just the quality news you want to follow without the noisy website views with adverts and behavioural tracking. They allow you to consume vast amounts of information without distraction on your mobile phone or PC, with your progress synced.

I'm comparing these two as I needed something that could be hosted at home on a free OpenMediaVault server using easy-to-install docker containers. So yes this could run on a Raspberry Pi, Intel NUC, or larger hardware.

Funny thing is I'm using both still as I cannot declare a clear winner ;-)

#selfhosting #FOSS #opensource #alternativeto #freshRSS #tinytinyrss #RSS #news #reading #inoreader #feedly #comparison

This is similar to Utopia, previously shared, with regard to functionality and peer-to-peer operation, but unlike Utopia this one is fully open source, is not blockchain based, and starts out with only connecting to your known friends. The devs are also known, and it uses well known PGP encryption which you share directly with your friend to get authenticated.

'Onion routing' is used for anonymity and needless to say you don't need your real-world credentials to register. Being P2P it does not require any servers or central services to operate - you connect to, and via, your friends directly, completely out of site of Big Tech.

It's a bit like your own private secure Facebook and is actually great for younger children to participate safely. There are no hidden costs, no ads and no terms of service. It installs on Windows, Linux and MacOS desktops, and on Android mobile. Sorry no iOS app.

See https://retroshare.cc

#technology #P2P #decentralized #socialnetwork #privacy

My list is separated into 30 separate categories to help find your area of interest whether it is networking, security, messengers, video editing, education, etc. It is also backed up to the Wayback Machine for future reference.

I update this page as and when something new of interest crosses my path so there are usually bi-weekly or monthly updates.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/opensourcesoftware

#opensource #technology #alternativesto