GadgeteerZA

GadgeteerZA OP , 20 days 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 20 days 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 19 days 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 19 days 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 19 days 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 19 days 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 19 days 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.

GadgeteerZA , 23 days 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".

GadgeteerZA , 1 month ago

I use Sleep as Android for:

1. Great softer sounds that can be adjusted to gently increase alarm audio. I use bird sounds.
2. It can control lighting too.
3. It's smartwake looks at my sleep stage to choose the best time to wake on the window of time I allow. It uses my watch to measure sleep stages, but works with numerous other watches, chest straps, etc. or also has its own Sonar function using ultrasonic to detect stages from movement.

But chiefly it also has other stuff I use apart from the waking alarms such as sleep stats, warning for bedtime, lullabies when going to sleep, anti-snoring measures, noise recordings, 30 min power nap management, etc.

GadgeteerZA OP , 1 month ago

Bot, why would you summarise something that I already summarised as a human?

GadgeteerZA OP , 1 month 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 1 month 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 1 month 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 ;-)

GadgeteerZA , 1 month 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.

GadgeteerZA OP , 1 month ago

Thanks, yes, I especially like the use of the titles and description from inside the photo's EXIF data. Just makes it easier to import from a source that already has that info in.

GadgeteerZA , 1 month ago

It's often not the cost of the software, but the hosting costs, especially on a growing platform.

GadgeteerZA , 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.

GadgeteerZA , 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.

GadgeteerZA , 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.

GadgeteerZA , 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.

GadgeteerZA , 2 months ago

That is really just not relevant at all to the discussion here, but to satisfy your curiosity, I'm busy building a Lego model that a family member sent me, so the generated AI photo was supposed to depict someone that looked vaguely like me building such a Lego model. I used Bing in the past, and it has usually delivered 4 usable choices. Fact that Google gave me something that was distinctly NOT what I asked for, means it is messing with the specifics that are asked for.

GadgeteerZA , 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.

GadgeteerZA , 3 months ago

Apart from just privacy, 3rd party routers offer way more features and customisation especially if they can also run 3rd party router software.

GadgeteerZA , 4 months ago

I'd be interested to hear too as I've been using Canva for a while now as it's pretty slick and quick for what I do. I really wish Gimp would get a bit slicker with its UI. When I struggle to find a tool I want to use something else.

GadgeteerZA OP , 9 months ago

I put my Android phone on plane mode, shut the app and reopened it, and yes I could read the full content when opening each article.

GadgeteerZA OP , 9 months ago

My bookmarks only save a title and link - no tags to group, no full text content, no unread indication. So, how would one use bookmarks in a meaningful way? I could use a piece of paper too, but it's not the best way for me.

GadgeteerZA OP , 9 months ago

KeyOxide has been replacing Keybase for many, so no Keybase is not such a thing any more. To some extent, domain verification on Mastodon for example does do some of this too.

GadgeteerZA OP , 2 months ago

Thanks for letting me know - makes it worth posting here.