World Wide Web Foundation to close, as Berners-Lee shifts focus to Solid Protocol to take on centralised social media n a surprising announcement, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the web, and Rosemary Leith, co-founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, revealed that the organization is ceasing operations. The decision comes after 16 years of advocating for a safe, trusted, open web. However, Berners-Lee is not giving up on the Foundation's goals; instead, he's just redirected his efforts to the Solid Protocol. From where they sit, the top threat to users' rights is dominant, centralised social media platforms, such as Facebook, X, and Reddit. This dominance has led to the commoditization of user data and a concentration of power that's contrary to Berners-Lee's original vision of the web. I've mentioned before that I was very concerned about some great ideas that came out of the Solid Protocol, but the momentum was dismally slow. There was a proof of concept and then not a lot heard. So this move is probably a very good thing to get some momentum and help shake things up. Big businesses running a centralised social media platform, some selling the data, others exploiting it for their own gains, some giving into political interferences, etc is just not good for end users (the public). On the other hand, decentralised platforms need to work cohesively, profiles need to survive hosting changes, users need to be found (if they wish to be), and they need to interconnect. This is what the Solid Protocol was tackling. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with this going forward. See

ZDNET

World Wide Web Foundation to close, as Berners-Lee shifts focus to Solid Protocol

The web's founder isn't stopping advocating for a safer, better web. He's just redirecting his energy.

#technology #decentralisation #socialmedia #solidprotocol

Cloudflare beats patent troll so badly it basically gives up: Patents will go Public "Sable is a patent troll. It doesn’t make, develop, innovate, or sell anything. Sable IP is merely a shell entity formed to monetize (make money from) an ancient patent portfolio acquired by Sable Networks from Caspian Networks in 2006." Lately, these patent profiteers have targeted the open source community. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Linux Foundation last month strengthened ties with United Patents, a company focused on defending against predatory patent claims. "In the end, Sable agreed to pay Cloudflare $225,000, grant Cloudflare a royalty-free license to its entire patent portfolio, and to dedicate its patents to the public, ensuring that Sable can never again assert them against another company," said Terrell and Nemeroff. Well, this is a big win for the small guys and open source projects, as patent trolls can put these guys out of business and stifle innovation. Unfortunately, it takes a Big Tech company to use its finances to fight such patent trolls. Obviously the win benefits Cloudflare, but the positive benefits will flow far wider than for themselves. See

Cloudflare beats patent troll so badly it basically gives up

Networking giant pockets $225K, foe promises to stop suing and abandons IP

#technology #patents #patentrolls

Pebblebee's new Universal trackers can switch between Google's and Apple's networks on the fly When buying a Bluetooth tracker, you typically need to make certain you're getting the model tailored to either the Google Find My Device or Apple Find My network. Pebblebee recently became the first company to release models that support either, and they come in all three form factors: card, keychain, and ultra-compact tag. I like the no vendor lock in approach as I moved back to Android a year ago but am still stuck with my AirTags, and get daily warnings from my Android phone that an unknown tracker is following me. These tags are probably ideal for those who are not 100% locked into one phone ecosystem. Hopefully it encourages other manufacturers to also provide this functionality. See

Android Police

Pebblebee

Can

#technology #trackers

New $70 AI Camera works with all Raspberry Pi's without requiring additional accelerators or a GPU It comes with onboard AI processing that can help Raspberry Pi users develop “edge AI solutions that process visual data” with ease, according to the tiny computer maker. The 12.3 megapixel Raspberry Pi AI Camera can capture footage at either 10 frames per second in 4056 x 3040, or 40fps at 2028 x 1520. It also has a manually adjustable focus, a 76-degree field of view, and measures 25 x 24 x 11.9mm. It's refreshing to see some new high-end kit released that does NOT require throwing out the older hardware and having to upgrade (looking squarely at Microsoft here!). This may in fact allow some older Pis to have new life breathed into them. See

The Verge

Raspberry Pi and Sony made an AI-powered camera module

The AI camera works with just a Raspberry Pi — no GPU needed.

#technology #raspberrypi #AI

Mozilla Thunderbird Lands On Android With New Beta Release The popular open-source email client, Mozilla Thunderbird, has just launched a beta version of its Android app. This release, version 8.0b1, is available as a pre-release with a range of new features and improvements. This beta release introduces the official Thunderbird for Android branding, moving away from its previous identity as K-9 Mail. For those already using K-9 Mail or a previous Thunderbird for Android build, migrating settings to the new version is now a seamless process. See

OSTechNix

Mozilla Thunderbird Lands On Android With New Beta Release - OSTechNix

The popular open-source email client, Mozilla Thunderbird, has launched a beta version of its Android app with a range of new features and improvem...

#technology #opensource #email

South Africa’s first electric minibus taxi to hit the road in Cape Town Christened the eKamva (kamva is the Xhosa word for future), the 15-seater battery-powered minibus is supported by a cluster of dedicated “taxi-rank adjacent” charging stations to support the taxi industry’s transition to electric mobility. Coetzee said the DC charging hubs to support its electric taxis provide 60kW and are able to charge the eKamva to 80% capacity in an hour, with a full charge taking 75 minutes. eKamva delivers cost savings of between 40% and 70% on running costs compared traditional internal combustion engine vehicles of a similar build, he said. According to Coetzee, much of the cost savings promised by eKamva relate to the fact that the vehicle has only eight moving parts compared to the complexity of a traditional petrol- or diesel-powered taxi. “There are no oil filters and air filters, spark plugs or oil to change, so it is much easier to maintain. There are also fewer points of [possible] failure. I'm blown away that the usual 40% tax on EV imports will also apply to these vehicles (South Africa really needs to sort this out, as these are not "luxury vehicles"). I just dread to think what could happen though when drivers discover the acceleration that an EV motor has. It could be great for safer overtaking, but we'll really have to see how this pans out. The last paragraph in the linked article s very interesting about future plans for driver safety monitoring. As far as any public transport drivers go, this is probably a good thing. See

TechCentral

South Africa's first electric minibus taxi to hit the road

A consortium led by fleet management solutions provider GoMetro has launched South Africa’s first electric minibus taxi.

#technology #southafrica #EV #taxis #environment

Working with MP4 H264 in DaVinci Resolve on Linux DaVinci Resolve for Linux free edition does not import or export any H.264 or H.265 codec files (whether in a MP4, HKV, or MOV container) nor does it work with AAC at all (The $299 Studio version only handles the H.264 and H.265 video codecs but not the AAC audio codec). This is said to be a Linux licensing issue, so will not be receiving support on the free version of DaVinci Resolve. I explain in this video how two batch files will help convert any MP4 from cameras or other sources into ready to import straight into DaVinci Resolve on Linux. The second batch files transcodes the massive Quicktime file that DaVinci Resolve renders, into a smaller, universally compatible, and easier to MP4 file to share or upload to YouTube. The video ends off by explaining how to otherwise import the DaVinci Resolve woking project into a Windows version of DaVinci Resolve, to render it using the free Windows edition which will render to H.264 or H.265. Watch #technology #DaVinciResolve #HowTo #Linux

Yes, You Can Get the Epic Games Store on Your Linux PC. Here's How The Linux gaming community has grown rapidly over the past few years, thanks to open-source game development and compatibility layers. With all these games, Epic games are also making headlines in the Linux community. It's now easier than ever to run Epic games on Linux. Yes, you can play Epic Games titles on Linux, but it requires a workaround since the Epic Games Store doesn't officially support Linux. Instead of the official Epic Games launcher, you can use alternative tools like the Heroic Games Launcher to access Epic Games on Linux. Another option is Lutris, a game management platform for Linux, which uses programs like Wine that allow you to run Windows games on a Linux system (including the Epic Games launcher). Steam Games does a pretty good job of running many Windows games quite seamlessly using the one-click compatibility software, but it is great to also have all these alternatives as well. I started using Steam Games mainly when I was still dual booting between Windows and Linux, and did not want to pay twice for the same game (I imagine cloud logins makes this mostly redundant nowadays). See

How-To Geek

Yes, You Can Get the Epic Games Store on Your Linux PC. Here

Playing Epic Games on Linux isn

#technology #gaming #linux

Dog Poop Drone Cleans Up The Yard So You Don’t Have To Yes, you probably really don't NEED this, but some people may well think they do. The video in the linked article below, from a lightning talk at a conference, gives a pretty good overview of how it works, and some of the thought process involved in getting it to where it is now. And while Caleb’s PoopCopter is clearly still a prototype, it’s easy to get the gist. Combining data from the previous poop-adjacent efforts, Caleb has built a quadcopter that can (or will, someday) be guided to the approximate location of the offending package, home in on it using a downward-looking camera, and autonomously whisk it away. See

Hackaday

Dog Poop Drone Cleans Up The Yard So You Don’t Have To

Sometimes you instantly know who’s behind a project from the subject matter alone. So when we saw this “aerial dog poop removal system&...

#technology #drone

12 Best Free and Open Source Steganography Tools Steganography is the art and science of concealing messages in other messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message. It’s a form of security through obscurity. Steganography is often used with cryptography. Plainly visible encrypted messages, no matter how unbreakable they are, arouse interest. This weakness is avoided with steganography. In most cases, no-one would even know there was a hidden message, so such means are not usually subjected to attempts to crack them. See

LinuxLinks

14 Best Free and Open Source Steganography Tools - LinuxLinks

We recommend steganography tools captured in a LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. All the software is free and open source goodness.

#technology #privacy #steganography #opensource

Japanese orgs now paying salaries direct into e-wallets Ten subsidiaries of Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group have begun paying employees' salaries into SoftBank's own PayPay digital wallet. PayPay is the largest mobile payment app in Japan and is owned by LY Corporation – a Softbank subsidiary. "This initiative aims to enhance payment employee benefits by increasing salary options and to promote the expansion of the PayPay economic sphere across the entire group," explained the fintech business back in August, when it announced it would eventually issue digital salary payments. This is quite interesting as we often needed banks in the earlier days if "credits" needed to be transferred to employees, but with digital wallets this could actually be directly done. The big thing to ensure is that such digital wallets can be easily used to purchase any services or pay for anything that needs to be paid for. And, yes, provision needs to be made for any problems experienced with a digital wallet. It's an interesting development though to watch. See

Japanese orgs now paying salary direct into e-wallets

Starting at SoftBank, using its own PayPay service

#technology #banking #digitalwallets

Adapter adds eSIM to any Android smartphone Most Android phones, that contain eSIMs, are pretty expensive. Fortunately, several companies have developed eSIM adapters that can be plugged into regular physical SIM card slots and add eSIM technology to your phone. Among the newest providers is JMP, whose adapter was recently tested by Android Authority. The adapter’s shape is identical to a regular physical SIM card, which lets you insert it into nearly any device with a SIM card tray or slot, including Android smartphones, tablets, and mobile Wi-Fi routers. The only feature your smartphone must support to use the JMP eSIM adapter is the Open Mobile API (OMAPI), which is required for interfacing with the eSIM chip. Almost every smartphone with Android 9 Pie or later comes with the feature, but there are a few exceptions — like the Nothing Phone 2a. The downside is the cost of the adapter at $39.99 (about R716) and shipping to SA $35 (about R626) but I suppose that is cheaper than a higher end phone, and offers the versatility of an eSIM. Interestingly, too, JMP has open-sourced its software as well. The linked article also mentions two other alternatives to consider. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/561542-adapter-adds-esim-to-any-android-smartphone.html #technology #eSIM #opensource

You can develop native apps for Android using Python Python’s simplicity and readability make it an attractive choice for developers looking to quickly develop and deploy applications. Although Java and Kotlin are the traditional languages for Android development, Python offers a streamlined alternative that leverages Python’s rich ecosystem of libraries and frameworks. Using Python on Android can accelerate development and enable the integration of advanced functionalities like data analysis and machine learning. Five different options are covered in the linked article: 1. Kivy 2. BeeWare 3. Chaquopy 4. PySide for Android 5. Pydroid 3 And interestingly, you can use Buildozer for Kivy, Briefcase for BeeWare, or PyQtDeploy for PySide to package your Python app into an APK as well. That makes the app distribution and installation identical to any other Android app. See

Analytics Insight: Latest AI, Crypto, Tech News & Analysis

How to use Python on Android

Python on Android offers a versatile and powerful approach to mobile development, extending its reach to the world's most popular operating system....

#technology #Python #Android

Car guards going cashless in South Africa can often double their income Digital payment solution Street Wallet is helping car guards across South Africa to increase and sometimes even double their daily income in an increasingly cashless society, the Sunday Times reports. Street Wallet offers customers multiple ways of paying, including Scan to Pay using a quick response (QR) code, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, SnapScan, and Zapper. Andre Ilunga, a car guard in the Camps Bay area in Cape Town, told the Times that everything has changed for him since he started using the app. Because most people did not tip him due to a lack of cash, he now makes nearly double what he would typically have made in a day. So true, I often don't have cash, or have a negligible amount as it costs money to draw cash, and I must make a special stop somewhere to get cash. Just about everything today accepts a card or online payment. I probably only draw some cash about three times a year, and that usually goes for card guards over a period of time. Even domestic workers today, and garden services, accept EFT or other payments. We've had more than one domestic worker in our suburb get robbed of their cash at month end. It's not really safe to carry cash, and cash is actually pretty filthy to handle (hygienically-wise). I suppose some will comment that is why cash gets laundered The app being mentioned in the article does not require the car guard to even have a bank account - they get a digital voucher that can be exchanged for cash at a bank (one hopes that they can receive their funds electronically too though as an option). But what is of extreme concern, are some of the stats given in the linked article about how few people actually have access to the Internet from their homes, and in rural areas it is almost non-existent. This is a major stumbling block to a digital economy. At R85 per gigabyte, mobile data prices in 2022 were three times as high as in North Africa and double the price in Western Europe, according to the report. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/banking/561682-car-guards-going-cashless.html #technology #SouthAfrica #cashless #digitaleconomy

Redis has reason to be worried as Valkey 8 fork moves beyond its parent program In March 2024, Redis announced that it was dumping the open source BSD 3-clause license for its Redis in-memory key-value database for a “source-available” Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1). That made both developers and users unhappy. So, as open-source people do, community members immediately forked the code into Valkey with the support of the Linux Foundation. The release has garnered support from major tech companies like AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle, indicating strong industry backing for this open-source initiative. Valkey has been one of the quickest moving forks for open source. On top of this, the new fork seems to have already surpassed the original in terms of new features and performance. It goes to show that open source forks can actually be a very good thing. See

Open Source Watch

Valkey 8 sets a new bar for open-source in-memory NoSQL data storage

Redis has reason to be worried as Valkey 8 moves beyond its parent program.

#technology #opensource

The mystery of the rogue HP calculator: 12C or not 12C? That is the question For most of us, a calculator might have been superseded by Excel or an app on a phone, yet there remains a die-hard contingent with a passion for the push-button marvels. So the shocking discovery of an apparently rogue HP-12C has sent tremors through the calculator aficionado world. The HP-12C [PDF] is a remarkably long-lived financial calculator from Hewlett-Packard (HP). It first appeared in 1981 and has continued in production ever since, with just the odd tweak here and there to its hardware. Murray wrote a lengthy blog post on the topic and put together a battery of TVM tests designed to stretch the TVM solver and found to his, and others, surprise, that not all HP-12C units were equal. Dubbing the unit the "rogue edition," Murray demonstrated some worrying bugs and differences in the "rogue" hardware, which was shipped from Brazil, versus another unit. So his test may be useful to others to do a check on their HP to ensure it is 100% accurate. Maybe even a rogue version is found to be accurate, so it won't be proof that a calculator is an original HP. See

The mystery of the rogue HP calculator: 12C or not 12C?

: Brazilian model flummoxes calc fans

#technology #retro #calculators

Will your SSD lose data without power? Don't store it for long periods There are some concerns about even the best SSDs losing data if kept without power, and people may question their feasibility for long-term storage. There's some truth to this, as SSDs use flash storage to store data, and are more susceptible to power-related issues than HDDs. Normally, the SSD you use on your PC would stay powered down for, say, a few hours, days, or weeks, at the most. Even if your PC is turned off for months, your SSD will still work as intended when you turn your system on the next time. The real problem begins if your SSD is devoid of power for longer periods, say, well over a year or so. Definitely worth powering up your SSDs art least every 6 months or so, to be safer. See

XDA

Will your SSD lose data without power?

Losing your SSD data without power might sound preposterous, but it can happen in certain circumstances.

#technology #SSD

Kelsey Hightower: If governments rely on FOSS, they should fund it Acclaimed engineer Kelsey Hightower, who stopped coding for money in 2023, remains an influential figure in the world of software, and he's proposing something that might stir up the open source community. Funding open source is an ongoing hot topic. During a chat at Civo's recent Navigate event, Hightower joked with us how companies were happy to spend big on cloud subscriptions but tended to skimp when it came to paying a comparatively token amount for open source. Open source developers, however, require reimbersement, and Hightower has some interesting ideas on how that could be accomplished. "I think we have all got a little complacent," he tells The Register. It's true that much of the open source that is used by governments, are often essential, otherwise they'd be paying an arm and a leg for some commercial cloud subscription. It's important, not only to ensure getting some support, but to also ensure that the software is kept up to date and continues to receive support into the future. Some governments do actually contribute already if I think of some examples from France, Germany, and the EU itself. FOSS software being used is not just the glossy front-ends that users see, it is often the essential plumbing holding the wide area networks together, or keeping the storage and databases going. In many cases, I'm pretty sure that CEOs are not even aware of how much open source software is used in their organisations. See

Kelsey Hightower: Governments must pay for FOSS they rely on

Kubernetes doyen talks to The Reg about keeping coders coding

#technology #FOSS #opensource #government

Inside Joburg’s new lithium battery recycling plant which uses food-safe chemicals Once collected, the batteries undergo shredding, which exposes the valuable metal-containing black mass at their core. From there, the black mass enters a proprietary hydrometallurgical process, where a blend of food-safe chemicals is used to leach out metals such as lithium, manganese, nickel and cobalt. Unlike traditional methods that rely on pyrometallurgy and high temperatures, Cwenga Lib’s facility operates at room temperature, making it safer for operators and more feasible in the South African context. There is going to be a growing demand for this type of recycling in future. Not only from an environmentally friendly disposal perspective, but also for recovery of these metals for re-use. Yes, whilst the SA government is bent on extending gas extraction and the use of coal, the private sector is investing in the future business around further enhancing environmentally friendly and sustainable energy production. See

TechCentral

Inside Joburg's new lithium battery recycling plant

Cwenga Lib has built a facility to recycle lithium-ion batteries that had previously been exported or dumped in landfills.

#technology #environment #recycling #SouthAfrica

The Danger of Cheap Gadgets: The Rise Of Self-Cleaning, Cat-Killing Litter Boxes Machines that automate the various tedious tasks that come with being a servant in a cat’s household — like feeding and cleaning Mr. Fluffles’ litter box — are generally a godsend, as they ensure a happy cat and a happy human. That is, unless said litter box-cleaning robot kills said cat. That’s the gruesome topic that [Philip Bloom], also known as the bloke of the One Man Five Cats channel on YouTube, decided to investigate after coming across a report about a certain Amazon-bought unit. For some uses, one has to be really careful of trying to just save money. This is a good example of one such case. See

Hackaday

The Rise Of Self-Cleaning, Cat-Killing Litter Boxes

Machines that automate the various tedious tasks that come with being a servant in a cat’s household — like feeding and cleaning Mr. Fl...

#technology #gadgets #safety