GadgeteerZA
@GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org
I blog about #technology #gadgets #opensource #FOSS #greentech #traditionalwetshaving #LCHF #health #alternativeto #hamradio (ZS1OSS) #southafrica - see gadgeteer.co.za/blog. I also blog to various other social networks which I list at gadgeteer.co.za/social-networks-i-post-to.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
No they don’t have a central managed hosting, and that is the point they are making. It is intended for someone to host for their family and friends. There may be some hosting it at various places but no central list you can find them on. Those sites, of course, will federate with other Fediverse networks, but no-one will necessarily even know they are GoToSocial nodes.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
Yes, but it is a bit unusual for a “beta” to be the stable version, when there is a such a thing as “stable”. Beta is normally taken to be a testing version, between alpha and stable releases. But it shows we can’t just go on our own assumptions about what alpha and beta mean.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
Yes I think they’re meaning they’re still adding lots of new features possibly, but it is a bit confusing as I think of Alpha as raw and not production ready. Beta can be ready for testing with brand new features, and stable is usually production ready and all features already passed beta testing. I get it is for home use but still. Maybe they’re covering themselves legally, but then you can just say “use at your own risk”. It’s possible too they don’t have separate branches at all, and just add/update/fix the “alpha” version.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
From their site: “It is already deployable and useable, and it federates cleanly with many other Fediverse servers (not yet all). However, many things are not yet implemented, and there are plenty of bugs! We foresee entering beta around the beginning of 2024.”. I would say it should be described more as beta by now from that description.
Gmail was in beta for many years whilst it was in production, and Meshtastic only has alpha and beta releases, with no “stable” release. I think some projects feel if they are still adding features it says in beta and never reall is in stable until they stop adding features. But yes they should actually iterate through alpha, beta, RC, stable. Not everyone does, though.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
Let’s agree on newer. It is not even in stable release yet, and until this week I’d not even heard about it anywhere else.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
Yes, as there is full control over what is exposed or mapped for the app including network ports, and future updates don’t get broken by inconsistent dependencies. I suppose if you run only one service on a machine and stick to standard ports for reverse proxying then maybe a binary install can be simpler. But if you want to install multiple apps ona server containers does become easier to manage and update.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
Yes not “new” per se, but it is still in early Alpha release and mostly unknown to everyone. Nextcloud and most of the others have been around many years and have had iterative stable releases. I was actually on Mastodon since 2016 so GoToSocial is a lot newer at around 3 years. But yes point taken, “new” is not the best description.
- Comment on GoToSocial is a new ActivityPub social network server for the Fediverse 2 weeks ago:
They say it is less complex than Mastodon as well as lighter weight requirements. A Docker install is usually also easiest. So I’d say it is a better option to try for friends and family.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 32 comments
- Comment on Regaining interest in amateur radio 3 weeks ago:
I’m hosting an OpenWebRx+ receiver using an SDR dongle. Quite a few of our local hams use it when travelling to listen in to our local bulletins. It even now has basic text chatting on it, for them to “call in”.
- Comment on Regaining interest in amateur radio 3 weeks ago:
I’d second that amateur radio is way more than just chatting. There are so many digital modes, SDR, etc that can be explored. May be worth getting a mobile rig that can be pulled out and used in the QTH as well.
As a ham I’m helping right now to establish a backbone of Meshtastic radios across our city. It’s not ham radio, but it is something I can use my ham experience to build out and support others.
Personally I’ve been enjoying VarAc on HF for long range comms on low power, but I see they just standardised on some 2m and 70cm frequencies too, which I still want to try out.
- Comment on Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to Biden, who has already committed to signing it 3 weeks ago:
We’ve not actually seen for sure that TikTok data is being passed to the Chinese government - supposedly the USA data is being kept separately. But we have certainly seen US data brokers gathering data from all over in the US and selling that on to any 3rd party (domestic government, as well as anyone else). Facebook has been caught more than once being in the business of leaking private data. I’m just surprised that the US gov did not leave this choice up to its citizens to choose on - the ideas of freedom of choice and speech seem to be rather dictated here now.
I’m just wondering if it is not more a case of the US gov has no control itself over TikTok (think US CLOUD Act) and this is what is irking them. I’m not in the US so one way or the other I don’t really mind. What I do mind about though is that TikTok does not sell out to a US company. We really don’t need one single country controlling all the mainstream social media platforms. US laws after all do not represent all of mankind, so some diversity is a good thing.
So I guess I’m rather for a “ban” than a “sell out”.
- Comment on Magnets are switching up the keyboard game with an additional keystroke setting 5 weeks ago:
Wow nice!! Yes my issue seems to be touching a key next to where I should be hitting. So if I could even increase travel to register, I’m wondering if that would at least make my typing a bit better. Of course, there is no easy cure for dyslexic typing ;-)
- Comment on Magnets are switching up the keyboard game with an additional keystroke setting 5 weeks ago:
Yes it is an excellent idea. I’d be interested to see tests done around how this travel distance maybe actually increases or decreases any key pressure at all.
- Comment on Magnets are switching up the keyboard game with an additional keystroke setting 5 weeks ago:
Sort of in a way, yes, if you count there is some increasing pressure from the spring. But in reality, no, it is really based on the travel distance that can be adjusted. But you raise an interesting point for a future innovation, being more around actual pressure/resistance per key setting.
- Comment on Magnets are switching up the keyboard game with an additional keystroke setting 5 weeks ago:
Bot, why would you summarise something that I already summarised as a human?
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 4 comments
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 20 comments
- Comment on Spotify plans to raise prices this year and introduce new plans - GSMArena.com news 5 weeks ago:
Hope I don’t have to pay for audiobooks I don’t listen to because that’s a waste. Spotify should just stick to what they do OK which is music. I’ll stick to music only.
- Comment on Enshittification Continues: Discord to begin showing advertisements on it's free platform 1 month ago:
I think it’s why many decentralised platforms don’t want very big instances, and prefer them to split off into smaller federated sites.
- Comment on Enshittification Continues: Discord to begin showing advertisements on it's free platform 1 month ago:
It’s often not the cost of the software, but the hosting costs, especially on a growing platform.
- Comment on ‘We definitely messed up’: why did Google AI tool make offensive historical images? 2 months ago:
Yes, it could be that, and may explain why the Nazi images came out like they did. But it sounded more like to me, Google was forcing diversity into the images deliberately. But sometimes that does not make sense. For general requests, yes. Otherwise they can just as well decide that grass should not always be green or brown, but sometimes also just make it blue or purple for variety.
- Comment on ‘We definitely messed up’: why did Google AI tool make offensive historical images? 2 months ago:
Sometimes you do want something specific. I can understand if someone just asked for a person x, y, z and then gets a broader selection of men, women, young, old, black or white. But if one asks for a middle-aged white man, I would not expect it to respond with a young, Black women, just to have variety. I’d expect other non-stated variables to be varied. It’s like asking for a scene of specifically leafy green trees, then I would not expect to see a whole lot of leafless trees.
- Comment on ‘We definitely messed up’: why did Google AI tool make offensive historical images? 2 months ago:
Yes, but it does not really matter what the rest of the prompt detail was? The point was, it was supposed to me an image of me doing an activity. I’d clearly prompted for a white man, but it gave me two other images that were completely not that. Why was Gemini deviating from specific prompts like that? Seems the identical issue to the case with the Nazis, just introducing variations completely of its own.
- Comment on ‘We definitely messed up’: why did Google AI tool make offensive historical images? 2 months ago:
It’s not just historical. I’m a white male and I prompted Gemini to create images for me if a middle aged white man building a Lego set etc. Only one image was a white male and two of the others wrecan Indian and a Black male. Why when I asked for a white male. It was an image I wanted to share to my family. Why would Gemini go off the prompt? I did not ask for diversity, nor was it expected for that purpose, and I got no other options for images which I could consider so it was a fail.
- Comment on Atuin is an open-source shell command history app for Linux with syncing, unlimited history, and with contextual search 4 months ago:
Yes spot on!
- Comment on Mbin is a fork of kbin: a decentralized content aggregator running on the Fediverse network 4 months ago:
Exactly, most forks are considered a healthy thing
- Comment on Mbin is a fork of kbin: a decentralized content aggregator running on the Fediverse network 4 months ago:
Not sure what you mean by management, or which aspect of management? The issue was more about acceptance of community enhancements through the open source code project. Some contributors felt they could move faster with more diverse enhancements.
- Atuin is an open-source shell command history app for Linux with syncing, unlimited history, and with contextual searchbeehaw.org ↗Submitted 4 months ago to technology@beehaw.org | 15 comments
- Mbin is a fork of kbin: a decentralized content aggregator running on the Fediverse networkbeehaw.org ↗Submitted 4 months ago to technology@beehaw.org | 7 comments
