Ubuntu Linux works pretty well on a 2014 MacBook Air I also have a 2014 MacBook Air, except mine still has its original battery in, and works perfectly. But this is a great idea as there are no longer macOS updates for these old devices. It is an intel based CPU so most Linux distros should work perfectly well on it, and then regularly receive OS updates. Just note, in the linked article, that there was a small workaround needed to establish Wi-Fi connectivity. See https://www.howtogeek.com/i-installed-ubuntu-on-my-old-macbook-air-and-wish-id-done-it-sooner #technology #Linux #mamacbook

YOURLS is an open source self-hosted alternative to Bitly or TinyURL A link shortening service translates any web URL link into a custom, and typically shorter and more manageable link. A link shortening service is useful for a number of reasons: * A shorter link to share, especially if the target is a long complex one * The short link can have a more intuitive name to remember * Basic stats are provided on how often it is accessed and from which countries * A self-hosted one could bypass Bitly being blocked * No need to update social media posts if the backend is moved * Brand consistency by using your own custom domain My video goes over how YOURLS can be used, and includes a few tips that I picked up for installing php-zip for the download plugin, as well as how to deal with any plugins which break the service. See #technology #opensource #selfhosting #YYOURLS

Casio made a tiny fully functional Ring Watch Wearables are all the rage right now, with options from Samsung, Ultrahuman, and others offering every imaginable fitness tracking feature in the compact form factor of a ring. The Casio Ring Watch launched to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary does none of those fancy fitness tracking duties and simply tells you the time. This was originally thought to be a Japan-exclusive, but a listing on Casio's US website confirms model CRW001-1 is actually headed stateside. Casio's latest innovation is a complicated piece of tech using a miniature display and internals, powered by a simple coin cell battery that should last two years before needing replacement. It almost seemed like an April Fool's joke, but seems real enough. This is pretty unique actually, and even seems to perform all the other functions like stopwatch, flashing alarm, etc. It's a genuine and unique Casio! See

Android Police

Casio made a tiny Ring Watch, and it

The Casio Ring Watch is coming stateside as the brand marks its 50th anniversary

#technology #watch #Casio

You can turn your non-smart TV into an Android TV with just a Raspberry Pi This should work just fine, but also consider using any other mini PC. I used an Intel NUC with 8 GB of RAM, and with Manjaro Linux on it, it does not only movie streaming very well, but just about everything else too. Although I have an "early" 3D smart TV, I always found the apps that came on the TV to be a bit crippled vs the full website functionality you could have. An added bonus is, your OS is always updating unlike most smart TV's after the first year or two, so you get richer features for many years if you connect a Raspberry Pi or mini PC to your TV. See

XDA

I turned my non-smart TV into an Android TV with Raspberry Pi — here’s how you can too

If you want to modernize your older TV, you can use a Raspberry Pi to turn it into an Android TV.

#technology #smarttv #raraspberrypi

The Samsung SmartTag 2 is down to $15 for Black Friday - But In South Africa still at Full Price! Yep, it is pretty sad to watch some other countries get some really great tech bargains. I did go to Samsung though in Cape Town and managed to negotiate R100 off a 4-pack (that's a US$5 discount). I couldn't wait any longer to ditch my AirTags seeing I moved back to Android over a year ago. At least on the furniture front, I made up for this with a lucky draw, which got me an additional discount over the Black Friday discount at Four Walls. It was my biggest purchase today, so pretty happy about that. Too many stores were also just giving 10% discounts, which is not really in the spirit of Black Friday. But back to tech, I do love the Samsung SmartTag 2's as they do have separation alerts, which the Google Find My Device still does not have. See

Android Police

The best smart tag for Samsung phones is down to $15 for Black Friday

Take 41% off this Galaxy SmartTag 2 bundle as it drops to its lowest price yet

#technology #Samsung #SoSouthAfrica

First time a satellite operator and a wireless carrier have received FCC authorization for a Direct-To-Cell service Satellite connectivity on smartphones can be an incredibly important safety feature, and both phone makers and carriers are working to expand its availability. Now, Starlink's direct-to-cell service that will be used by T-Mobile now has FCC approval. The big promise of direct-to-cell satellite service is that you will be able to connect to a satellite just like you currently connect to a cell tower, with your current smartphone, whenever you find yourself in a dead spot. It's like putting a cell tower in space that you can access at all times. So, this is actually a huge event. Any ordinary cellphone user, stuck in some rural area (or at sea) where these satellites have coverage, could establish communications as if there was a cellphone tower in range. It will be very interesting to see how these pan out in terms of more congested areas, and how operating costs compare. I'm thinking too here of some of the extreme electricity load shedding that South Africa experienced, where cell towers had no grid power for up to 6 hours at a time. South African operators have also had very expensive backup batteries being stolen on a regular basis from their terrestrial sites. When one factors all this in, how do a few satellite units compare? Even for rural communications, due to the reach of the towers, how many towers and interconnectivity infrastructure are required to cover a 200 square kilometre area vs by satellite? See

How-To Geek

Starlink Direct-to-Cell Satellite Service Just Got FCC Approval

From space, straight to your phone.

#technology #satellite #communications

TagSpaces is a privacy-focused file manager that combines tagging and note-taking without relying on the cloud An open source (but not a truly fully open source) cross-platform app that not only does the usual notes management (Plain Text, Markdown, and HTML) but also can browse and tag local files, photos, music, ebooks, and folders too. It is primarily an offline privacy focussed application, without any user tracking. It can also sync via your own online S3-compatible object storage from providers like AWS, Cloudflare, Wasabi, or MinIO. Furthermore, it can also expand functionality via plugins. On the not so great side, I see there are various paid versions, and the project is dual-licensed under the AGPL (GNU Affero General Public License) Version 3 for FOSS projects and under a commercial license for independent software vendors and resellers. What that all means is, it is not fully open source, do as you wish with it. Some functionality is also only in the paid versions. I don't so much mind organisations offering a paid tier for support and / or proper cloud storage, but this one does not seem to offer any fully functional community edition. Still, I'm sure the Lite version probably does what most individual users would really need, but it is probably good to just first double check what sort of restrictions may be ahead of you that you may need in future. See

Organize your files and folders with tags | TagSpaces

A powerful, file-based workspace—no cloud required.

#technology #notes #organising #productivity

How to make a 3D model from a 2D image in Blender Even though Blender is free of cost, building anything in Blender can come with a high barrier to entry for users who are new to the software. But if you are just starting out and want to create a model that you can actually finish while simultaneously learning about the basic functions of the software, then you should give this easy project a try. Creating 3D models from 2D images is a great way to start off or practice in Blender without the need to watch hours of tutorials just to learn the tools. Many a Blender veteran will most likely scoff at a project like this. However, for many beginners who are practising on Blender, there are very few fun projects for users to jump into and learn the basics of the software, which ultimately leads to something they can be proud of or show off. While everyone loves the basic doughnut or coffee cup tutorials, the truth is that most people want to see cool results when they put a lot of effort into their first project. See

XDA

How to make a 3D model from a 2D image in Blender

If you're looking for a quick and easy project in Blender, or just need to create a 3D model from a 2D reference image, then we've got yo...

#technology #opensource #blender

How many years do we need to be told VR is the future before it actually takes off? Virtual reality has been close to mainstream adoption for decades, yet it remains a niche technology. While promising developments and incremental improvements continue, the game-changing app that will propel VR into every home remains elusive despite the efforts of tech giants like Meta, Google, and Apple. History is littered with VR failures, from the early Nintendo Virtual Boy to the pricey Apple Vision Pro, but the promise of immersive digital worlds keeps companies investing billions. The stakes are high, as whoever unlocks mass-market VR will shape the future of the user experience across gaming, fitness, productivity, and beyond. I'm very sure that VR will be an amazing and immersive technology. I was only about a month a way from buying a Quest headset myself, when Meta bought them out, and I dropped that idea very quickly. I've clung onto my 3D TV because I've always enjoyed watching movies in 3D. But, for me, VR really needs two things to happen: * Pricing needs to be affordable (not Apple $3,500). * It needs some killer apps that take it to the next level and are truly immersive and compelling to use (the apps need to pull users in). I don't even think it is about having the very highest of resolutions, as the 3D stereo effect will still reel people in. And there are some who seem to experience problems wearing VR headsets for longer periods, and we probably need to understand why that is. See

Android Police

How many years do we need to be told VR is the future before it actually takes off?

VR has been the next big thing for three decades now

#technology #VR

Using Linux File Manager Right-Click Menus to Quickly run Scripts This video will show how to link any bash script file to a right-click menu on Linux, by creating a .desktop file. I'm using it to select a few .mp4 video files, and then to batch convert their AAC audio codec to PCM audio codec. But you can link any script file that you want to use on your files. I also explain how to change the context so that the script would only show in the menu for a particular MIME type e.g. video, audio, text, etc files. I intended this to work for DaVinci Resolve as it does not support the decoding of AAC audio codecs at all on Linux (free or paid version). At the end of this video, I demonstrate how I can now quickly convert any video with AAC audio codecs, within a few seconds, from "inside" DaVinci Resolve. The bash script file has been modified, after I recorded the video, to now handle single or multiple audio track conversions. See #technology #Linux #bash #DaVinciResolve

Serval Tracker will notify you of price specials on Takealot in South Africa Serval Tracker not only shows you the price history of an item (giving you an idea of its past lows) but you can set an e-mail alert for the moment it drops below a price level. Useful for this coming Black Friday. The link below goes to their website, but you can also get a 3rd party Chrome extension at https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/serval-tracker-linker/lgkaeblmlapcmgmnjnddefdinlcmpmnk and a Firefox extension at

Serval Tracker Linker – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

Download Serval Tracker Linker for Firefox. Adds a link to Serval Tracker on Takealot product pages.

See

Serval - the simple Takealot price tracker

Serval is a simple price tracker for takealot

#technology #southafrica #Takealot #BlBlackFriday

Not Sure What a Linux Command Will Do to Your System? Ask ChatGPT or Google Gemini You've likely heard you should never run a command or script that you don't fully understand in the Linux terminal (or any command line). Unfortunately, the syntax for command-line apps can be tricky to break down and understand. Here's how ChatGPT or Google Gemini can help. They both give an excellent break-down for what each parameter does. I often use them in reverse, and get them to help give the correct parameters to do something with, for example FFmpeg. Just bear in mind, they do sometimes get this wrong. See

How-To Geek

Not Sure What a Linux Command Will Do to Your System? Ask ChatGPT

Here

#technology #help #Linux #rereference

5 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Learned Programming Starting your programming journey is exciting, but it’s easy to fall into traps that slow down your progress. By understanding the common mistakes new programmers make, you’ll set yourself up for success right from the start. Here are five mistakes often made that you can learn from. I must say what always helped me, was having a real world problem to solve and build in my new language I was learning. I had an app that I'd written way back to do prompt for data and then to calculate one independent variable regressions from that. Every time I was learning a new language, I'd take that code, and rewrite it in the new language. Needless to say, it improved every time I learnt a new language! Coding is very much about perseverance, having a problem to solve, and being able to break down the errors bit by bit until you get it working. It is very rarely going to work the first time around. Another thing that worked for me was breaking it down into chunks, and getting each chunk or module to work on its own with an input and an output. It made diagnosis easier as you progressed. I'm not sure about art, as I'm really useless as design and artistic flair, but coding can be gotten right with just persevering with it long enough. I have infinite patience, and can (used to) persevere through many nights to finish a coding job. It filled me with excitement to arrive at the final product, and have someone use it, and then finding it helped them. To me, coding was like creating a work of art. If it was functional, and was also durable and future-proofed, I was always filled with a sense of satisfaction and achievement. See https://www.howtogeek.com/things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-first-learned-programming #technology #programming #coding

Is Choosing Last Year's Flagship Smartphone Worth Your Money? Here Are 5 Reasons Why This actually makes a lot of sense as you can discount prices, and actually have a phone that outperforms midrange phones. Flagship phones get all the updates still, usually for a good 2 to 3 years, and quite often the previous model is not really a way lower spec model than the latest version. I got relatively ripped off buying the Galaxy S23 Ultra just when it was released. The inflated price included a voucher (which turned out to be utterly useless as it expired after only 3 months, but that was not stated clearly anywhere). I could buy this phone today at a good 30 to 40% less, and it is still an excellent phone. Also, with a good enough phone now, I can wait a bit longer until today's models are a year or so old before buying again. See

How-To Geek

Is Choosing Last Year

Old but gold.

#technology #prices #flflagshipphones

You can easily disassemble this repairable Spectra smartwatch using just a Phillips screwdriver The Spectra is a new smartwatch designed from the ground up to be hackable and easy to repair. It was created by Pocuter, a company that has spent the last few years honing an expertise in building small electronics like its tiny Pocuter One computer. What makes the Spectra unique is that it’s repairable, yet with a design that mirrors the Apple Watch which is much harder to get into. The wearable is now available for preorder through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with delivery expected as early as July 2025. The downsides are it is a Kickstarter project so we'd have to see what actually transpires, and it will run SpectraOS based on JavaScript, so will not be installing any apps from the Apple or Android store. That said, I mostly use my watch for exercise tracking, my groceries list, and mirroring notifications from my phone. So what sort of apps are available may also be an important consideration for many. It will be much like a modern reincarnation of the Pebble watch. If it proves popular, it may well attract a lot of app development. See

The Verge

You can easily disassemble this repairable smartwatch using just a Phillips screwdriver

The Specta might be easier to open than a bag of airplane snacks.

#technology #smartwatch #righttorepair

PrivateBin and MicroBin compared as alternatives to Pastebin for text and file sharing Pastebin is a long text and code snippet sharing site. The site has some limitations for free accounts, and does not allow file uploads. Pastebin recently flagged one of my pastes as spam, so I needed to look for an alternative. The best two open source self-hosted alternatives I found were PrivateBin and MicroBin, both of which do what Pastebin does, and sharing of files. My video takes you through a comparison I did to try to decide which of the two would be best for me to use. I also mention a workaround for not being able to remove a MicroBin paste, and demonstrate how both these applications work. Watch my video at #technology #opensource #selfhosting #alalternativesto

Beginner's Guide to Install and Use Conky in any Linux distro Conky is a lightweight system monitor available on Linux and BSD. It can display the system information and statistics such as CPU consumption, disk usage, RAM utilization, network speed, etc. in an elegant way. All the information is displayed on top of your wallpaper. It gives your desktop a live wallpaper feel. The looks of the displayed information can be changed via Conky configuration file. Conky is incredibly configurable, and I have it setup on my Manjaro Linux desktop to monitor available drive space, fan speeds, etc. I did a video a while back comparing various system monitoring tools, including Conky, at It is a bit of work to set up a more complex setup, but once done, you don't really need to touch it again. See a good beginners guide at the linked article below. Although it is aimed at Ubuntu users, Conky really works across all distros. See

It's FOSS

Beginner's Guide to Install and Use Conky in Ubuntu Linux

Learn all the essentials about using Conky to customize and beautify your Linux desktop.

#technology #opensource #Conky #linux

Cape has been selling a privacy-focused cellphone service to the U.S. military, now offering to high-risk members of the public Cape runs its own mobile core, all of the software necessary to route messages, authenticate users, and basically be a telecom. Ultimately, this gives Cape the control to do more privacy-enhancing things, such as periodically give its phones a new IMEI—a unique identifier for the phone—and new IMSI—a similar identifier, but one attached to the SIM card (or eSIM in Cape’s case). The phone can also give itself a new mobile advertising identifier (MAID), which is an identifier advertising ecosystems and apps use to track peoples’ web browsing activity and is sometimes linked to their physical movement data. Cape said the IMEI and MAID rotation is handled by the custom Cape handset, which runs standard up-to-date Android. Cape lets users create bundles of these identifiers, called “personas”, then cycle through them at different points. This means that during some attacks, a Cape phone may look like a different phone each time. Well, this is a very interesting phone. Whether governments really want their citizens (or their terrorists or child molesters) to have these devices is another story... The author also raises an intriguing point about why has AT&T and other phone networks not offered something like this before. The easy answer is wire-tapping requirements (remember the NSA vs PGP encryption in the 1990's). Google could have offered encrypted email too if it wished, but reading our mail helps fuel its advertising business. But way more shocking in the linked article, was the statement by the author that they have not owned a smartphone since 2017! I get that you can do a lot on your desktop (like I do), but even I realised that I needed that banking app to do 2FA when approving payments, or SMS for some sites still to authenticate access, and needed Waze to navigate through ever denser traffic, etc. Even the poorest of the poor in our country now at least have a feature phone. I find it difficult enough telling many people, no, really, I don't have WhatsApp when they want to send receipts to me via WhatsApp. See

404 Media

I Don't Own a Cellphone. Can This Privacy-Focused Network Change That?

A small tech company called Cape has been selling a privacy-focused cellphone service to the U.S. military. Now Cape will be offering its product t...

#technology #privacy

Why electric car charging stations are expensive in South Africa Well, no surprise as SA government already applies and over and above tax on all EV imports. SA liquid fuels are also very heavily taxed. And with fast charging stations, there are already a few middle-people adding their mark-ups. I don't think even yet, SA government has added any road levy taxes to these charging stations. I know there are discussions on the go about reducing import levies, as well as road taxes, but right now in SA owning an EV is purely a rich person's pursuit. Technically, EVs could be very cost-effective to operate, even given the standard residential electricity tariffs. But right now is just not the time. Other countries in Africa are already offering better incentives, and even manufacturing and exporting their own EV buses. As far as EVs go, South Africa has somewhat missed the bus. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/571145-why-electric-car-charging-stations-are-expensive-in-south-africa.html #technology #SouthAfrica #EV #environment

DXOMARK's Apple iPhone 16 Camera test Although I no longer use an iPhone, I do always find DXOMARK's benchmark testing interesting for the various flagship phones. It shows too that a megapixel number is not what you should compare one phone against another on. I always try to compare based on like for like tests done between the various devices. Spoiler: iPhone 16 falls behind the Pixel 9 and 8 cameras. But still it is worth "zooming" in on the aspects that are important to you as none of the phones perform equally across all the different aspects measured. See

DXOMARK

Apple iPhone 16 Camera test

Discover how the Apple iPhone 16 excels in DXOMARK Camera tests, showcasing impressive stills and videos with enhanced autofocus and stabilization ...

#technology #photography #camera