Deliverer of ideas for a living. Believer in internet autonomy, dignity. I upkeep instances of FOSS platforms like this for the masses. Previously on Twitter under the same handle. I do software things, but also I don’t.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • Worked for a newspaper for many years. This is a great question.

    Good headlines are both intended to give reasonable summaries and drive readers toward articles they’d like to read, because newspapers – and news media congregation systems in general – don’t have a true table of contents, only a series of categories under which article types live. Headlines, at a glance, function as a table of contents in newsprint formats because of this: you can scan for what you find interesting, but don’t have to intake the whole newspaper page to understand what’s being reported.

    App scrolling through headlines, then, is functionally the same thing. Just a different UX, is all.








  • TrailSense, an easy to use, comprehensive wilderness tool.

    The goals of the developer are fun to consider:

    Goals

    • Trail Sense must not use the Internet in any way, as I want the entire app usable when there is no Internet connection

    • Features must provide some benefits to people using the app while hiking, in a survival situation, etc.

    • Features should make use of the sensors on a phone rather than relying on stored information such as guides

    • Features must be based on peer-reviewed science or be verified against real world data

    Likewise, the features being developed under those goals are great for getting outside:

    Features

    • Designed for hiking, backpacking, camping, and geocaching
    • Place beacons and navigate to them
    • Follow paths
    • Retrace your steps with backtrack
    • Use a photo as a map
    • Plan what to pack
    • Be alerted before the sun sets
    • Predict the weather
    • Use your phone for astronomy
    • And more





  • Recommendations to purchase a smart TV but never connect it to a network are futile, as well. Just like Amazon devices, smart TVs will find an open SSID and then phone home for updates without your knowledge.

    My recommendation, when these kind of topics come up, is: either exchange your smart TV for a dumb one, or go to an electronics repair shop to have a board or two exchanged (depending on the make and model, older dumb components may be direct-ish replacements for smart ones).

    EDIT: Another option? Try a projector! I was looking for dumb TV options online after writing up this comment, and someone on an old Reddit post recommended it. Great idea.

    2nd EDIT: Someone else also recommended buying digital signage, another solid dumb display option.




  • Even though there’s a small monthly cost, the results have been consistent for Kagi. But consistency meets only half of my needs for search: I also want to make decisions quickly from what I find within the contents. If I were to to go to a link, wait for it to load, scroll the content, etc. – does that listed forum post have the answer I am looking for? Does this news article cover the nuances I have been tracking and would like to read more of? Kagi offers an AI-based summarize feature that helps. And that’s been meeting the other half of my needs, as well.

    EDIT, an opinion: Search services may well be eventually replaced by small, niche LLMs trained to perform summerization tasks, such as Consensus, which I have used for work research, and Perplexity.ai. The AI summarize feature of Kagi is why I see the service as more useful than straight indexes, even when self-hosted. Kagi is a stepping stone toward this for me, and why I recommend it.



  • I have owned the Light Phone 1 and the Light Phone 2 – both were built with the intent to stay connected in a handful of ways without needing to have a full-spec’d, app-heavy, typically-sized smart phone.

    If the intent and the vibe make sense to you, then it is a wonderful approach for a more ‘minimalist’ device: you can go outdoors, travel, hike, camp, etc., without having a smart phone to pick up and play with. I dig it.

    If the intent and vibe don’t make sense to you, the Light Phone may not be a good fit.

    I really like the device, and use it often enough as a daily driver on weekends. Always glad to see some public attention on it.


  • I have looked around, myself, but not found a FOSS alternative. There are typically compliance issues like PCI DSS for certain banks that prevent trust and cooperation from those banks outside a larger entity like Google, Apple, etc.

    Aside smart phones, Flipper Zero can clone some cards sucessfully. But that’s an entirely different device, not an app for a phone. Best of luck!