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.

Today was a bit easier

Jumblie #242 🔴🔵🟢🟠 7 guesses in 2m 14s https://jumblie.com

Ah, see it now in results - never heard that before. We normally speak of toppings or stuffings.

It very much is, but British English so wondering if that was a US term

Thanks, no, I surrendered ;-) but still can’t figure out why that 6-letter word relates to potato specifically. Just not something I can really relate to potato specifically.

Nope I bombed out - no idea what the association of the 6 letter word was with potato

Good point on OpenPGP. I suppose I already do my mails with OpenPGP in Proton Mail (using my own key that is already uploaded). But something to keep in mind yes.

Seems it fits on a lanyard string from what I see of the other photos. A keyring is thicker and would put twisting force on it, yes. So, seems the lanyard type connector may be better for long term use.

I suppose having a short summary with the post would go a long way in helping everyone decide whether to watch it or not. I do wish everyone would put summaries in, as too many just comment on the headline without even following the link. For me, what is always important before following it is, why would it be of interest to be to follow it further.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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”.