I blog about #technology #gadgets #opensource #FOSS #greentech #traditionalwetshaving #LCHF #health #alternativeto #hamradio (ZS1OSS) #southafrica - see https://gadgeteer.co.za/blog. I also blog to various other social networks which I list at https://gadgeteer.co.za/social-networks-i-post-to.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 26th, 2022

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  • I only choose to buy hardware that I can connect to Home Assistant, because I can still use it if the company goes bust or no longer supports it. I have one dashboard in HA that manages all my different devices. Point is, I still buy the hardware and the sale is made. I’m not going to buy 5 different standard products which must all be managed through separate apps. Open standards can open up to a much bigger market. There is good reason why so many OEMs opened up to the Matter protocol.

    But as I say, I check first for compatibility, then I narrow my choices from there. So yes, right now your company’s IOT product won’t get onto my radar. Been there, done that, and got a handful of dead paperweights to show for it.







  • Problem is if social media is being used to stay in contact with friends / family then you are stuck with where they are, as they generally don’t move to a new network with you. If it is for news etc, I actually prefer a good selection of RSS feeds that I follow in my RSS reader.

    I’m on lots of different social networks for blogging and although MeWe has my far biggest followings, it is centralised and non-FOSS - it’s the site I’ve also had the most troll issues on. The Fediverse (numerous site services to choose from) has the most potential, being open and federated widely.





  • Apart from the Apple Watch (which became a door stopper when I moved back to Android) I’ve not had a lot of success with really good accuracy on watches. I actually opted to get a Polar H10 chest strap, and it is really super accurate. I usually live monitor the data on the Polar app on my phone (and it uploads to Strava, and then to Samsung Health), or if I’m outside I pair my Samsung Galaxy Watch to it with the Sporty Go! app so it shows on my watch.


  • To be fair to Obsidian, the default view is like three panes making it look busy, but you can toggle off both the left and right sidebar, leaving just the edit view which can be switched between edit and reading modes. Even the various toolbar icons need not be visible, and you could just use shortcuts to call them.

    I use Syncthing to sync my Obsidian notes between desktop, server, Android, iPad, and Android tablet - it happens seamlessly in the background complete with version control.


  • I’m still using Obsidian (free but not FOSS) mainly because of the wealth of plugins. QOwnNotes was another good option I used before. I really liked Logseq, but the deal-breaker for me was its approach to primarily being an outliner - and that modified all the paragraphs of my markdown notes as they become referenced blocks (otherwise it is great). I like to stick to standard markdown for portability to any future app.







  • Default Signal is better although Telegram has Secret Chat. I love thar Telegram let’s you use a username to connect to others without exposing your mobile number to contacts.

    But I have way more friends who actually use Telegram than Signal. No idea why although for many the massive community groups are used by a lot communities for staying in touch, as well as safety/security groups in communities.


  • I love the idea of Wayland, but it only finally actually booted for me onto the desktop earlier this year (on Manjaro KDE). But it still randomly freezes for about a full minute, quite a bit. I am keen to move to it as my compositor hangs on X11 for some odd reason on KDE every time I try to do a rectangular area screenshot with Spectacle (mmm just realised it is also for around a minute - maybe I do have some other underlying issue), or when accessing the Compositor menu option. But X11 is still otherwise rock solid for me.




  • There’s no mention though in the linked article that Richard actually thinks this? Both XMPP and Nostr are extensible. Nostr saw accounts linked to a server as weakness, and therefore went with many relays (any of which can be used).

    But as also mentioned, Richard is actually very active on Mastodon today. ActivityPub is not the best protocol around, but it is now a W3C standard and seems to have more popular uptake than both XMPP and Nostr (Nostr having the excuse that it is very new still).

    BTW I’m active daily on XMPP, Nostr, Mastodon, IRC, and many more, so have no particular stake in any one.