Lessons from open source in the Mexican government “The adoption of open-source software in governments has had its ups and downs. While open source seems like a “no-brainer”, it turns out that governments can be surprisingly resistant to using FOSS for a variety of reasons. Federico González Waite spoke in the Open Government track at SCALE 22x in Pasadena, California to recount his experiences working with and for the Mexican government. He led multiple projects to switch away from proprietary, often predatory, software companies with some success—and failure.” More open source progress, although it also faced its challenges. The lessons learnt are especially interesting. The first lesson mentioned is especially true: The regulations around open source helped a lot, "because it gave a legal framework to explain to people why we were doing stuff", but it was not enough. South Africa's own open source project had similar Cabinet level policy signed off, but the entire project floundered in the late 2000s. What is worrying is that Mexico may face a similar challenge, as they've also had a change of administration. In South Africa's case, and a number of key political leaders changed, and suddenly the focus was elsewhere. Our lesson learnt was you need to progress as quickly as possible to secure your ground before changes come. Don't ever assume you've gained the high ground. Unfortunately in government, a change of leadership, often means no continuity in projects as the change wants to prove their own new visions, and are not keen to make a previous leaderships projects a success. That, and Big Tech will apply pressure at a political level, and not at an IT level, where they will typically meet their match. So far, BRIC of the BRICS countries have all made very good progress on their own open source projects, but S has sadly lagged behind. I'm still hoping the success of these projects will rub off on S too, one day. See

LWN.net

Lessons from open source in the Mexican government

The adoption of open-source software in governments has had its ups and downs. While open sour [...]

#technology #opensource #Mexico #government

It's not just clock speed: Here's what makes one CPU better than another “When you're comparing two of the best CPUs, the first spec that comes to mind is clock speed. It quite literally represents how fast the CPU can churn through clock cycles, and naturally, you'd assume a higher clock speed means higher performance. Today, however, clock speed doesn't say much. It can still represent performance differences between two CPUs, but when choosing a processor for your rig, there are several other considerations you should keep in mind.” So true as a CPU has multiple cores as well as threads, cache, etc that all work together. One CPU clock speed versus another does really not mean much. Way back in the day we had single and dual-core processors where it was perhaps a bit more meaningful. I also look at CPU benchmarks, but then also compare both single processor and multiprocessor benchmarks. Certainly for gaming and video editing, multicore processing is important (well and along with your GPU of course). See

XDA

It's not just clock speed: Here's what makes one CPU better than another

Get your head out of the specs.

#technology #CPU

GKrellM: A Cross-Platform Open Source System Monitor GKrellM is a single process stack of system monitors which supports applying themes to match its appearance to your window manager, GTK, or any other theme. It could be seen a GUI equivalent to Conky. It is easy to configure and runs well on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It will show monitors for a host of sensors and activities on your PC, and you can even set alarms to alert you when thresholds are exceeded. There are also numerous plugins that further extend its capabilities. My video shows what it looks like, what sorts of themes there are, what menu options there are, and how to set audible alerts. I also contrast various aspects of GKrellM with Conky itself. Watch #technology #opensource #GrellM #systemmonitors

EU OS: Community-led Proof-of-Concept for a free Operating System for the EU public sector EU OS is a Proof-of-Concept for the deployment of a Fedora-based Linux operating system with a KDE Plasma desktop environment in a typical public sector organisation. Other organisations with similar requirements or less strict requirements may also learn from this Proof-of-Concept. It is led by a community of volunteers and enthusiasts. The project goal is to become a project of the European Commission. Despite the name, EU OS is technically not a new operating system. Distrowatch lists currently over 250 Linux operating systems (‘distributions’) and their various flavours, spins or subvariants are not even counted in. The added value of EU OS is a different one: * a common Linux OS as a base for all EU OS users with options to layer on top modifications (national layer, regional or sector-specific layer, organsation-specific layer) * a common desktop environment * a common method to manage * users and their data * software * devices The aims of this project are very similar to that of SAOSS (South African Open Source Software) but the advantage of the EU is that there are a number of firmly established OSS implementations already in place in a few countries within their public sector. In South Africa, most of the initiatives within the public sector have died out, apart from maybe one municipal district in the Eastern Cape. I was part of one initiative in the South African public sector, and it passed with flying colours, but a change of political leadership very quickly killed off the project just one month before it was due for its permanent switch over. So, I have three vital pieces of advice for any open source project within the public sector, and they have nothing at all to do with the technology: 1. Strike hard, fast, and with momentum when you have willing political leadership in place. If leadership changes there is a very good chance you could lose your sponsors, because in government a change of leadership does mean a different stance/focus (unlike in the private sector). 2. Do not take things for granted. A lack of opposition does not mean the private sector is behind you. Quite often with government, the Big Tech proprietary companies will stop engaging with IT managers, and they will engage at a political and non-technical level instead. 3. Smaller, local companies have a good chance of benefitting from open source when government drives it. You need to get them actively on your side with regard to training, support, customisation, etc. Standardisation is important here as they want to invest their time in one standard suite of products, not a wild west of different competing products. One approach is to involve them in this decision-making. They can still compete to provide the services. See

EU OS Proof-of-Concept

EU OS

Proof-of-Concept OS for the EU

#technology #opensource #EU #publicsector

This Machine Flattens Your Old Warped Vinyl Records “The aptly named “Flatten It” device is designed to do exactly what its name suggests: flatten warped vinyl records. This isn't some DIY hack; it's a purpose-built machine that uses carefully controlled heat and pressure to restore your records to their original, pristine condition.” Some things improve over time. I don't ever recall seeing such a device back in the 1970s and 1980s when we all used vinyl records. Nice to know there is a safe way of “tuning” your vinyl records. I still have all my old vinyl records (along with the player) and I certainly could have used this device back in the day. I loaned one record out to a friend, and she left it in her car, and the record buckled a bit. I had to throw that record away. But this device is not at all cheap at US$850. See

How-To Geek

This Machine Flattens Your Old Warped Vinyl Records

A premium method to fix those wonky records.

#technology #retro #vinyl #audio

Open Source KStars is the most feature-rich free astronomy software for Linux, macOS, and Windows KStars caters to a wide-variety of use cases. Whether you are a student, an educator, an amateur astronomer or an astronomy enthusiast, you will find tools in KStars that are useful to you. Graphical simulation of the sky with the planets, up to 100 million stars, 10000 deep-sky objects, comets and asteroids, with adjustable simulation rate. It has complete astrophotography workflow (with extensive support for INDI, KStars can control almost any sort of astronomical equipment, including telescope mounts, motorised focusers, filter wheels and CCD and CMOS cameras), and a host of tools that predict conjunctions, plot time variation of positions of planets, perform calculations etc. It can therefore be a powerful observation planner to plan your observations. See

KStars

KStars - Desktop Planetarium

The most feature-rich free astronomy software

#technology #opensource #astronomy #astrophotography

Huginn is a free, open-source IFTTT alternative that's much more powerful “Automation tools like IFTTT (If This Then That) have revolutionized how we connect apps, devices, and services to create workflows. However, while IFTTT is user-friendly and widely accessible, it lacks the depth, flexibility, and control some advanced users crave. Enter Huginn, a powerful, open-source platform that is often hailed as a more robust alternative to IFTTT.” I'd actually stopped using IFTTT because the free tier was reduced to near useless with so many limitations. This looks very interesting and very powerful, although it won't be quite as easy as IFTTT. I'm certainly going to try this out in the near future. See

XDA

Huginn is a free, open-source IFTTT alternative that's much more powerful

If you're looking for an open-source alternative to IFTTT, try Huginn.

#technology #opensource #selfhosting #alternativeto #IFTTT

OxiCloud is an open source lightweight alternative to NextCloud NextCloud is great, but it tends to be heavyweight and packs a ton of extra functionality in. OxiCloud may be worth considering if you are looking for something a lot lighter and faster. OxiCloud requires a minimum of 512 MB RAM, and I see it has a Docker installation too. Its focus though is very much on performance and speed. Just note some features are still on the roadmap (which NextCloud already has) such as WebDAV support for desktop integration, basic file versioning, simple file sharing with links, etc. It has three contributors and the code has been updated in this last week, so it is being actively developed. The project has been around for only a month, so it is also quite new, hence why those features are still to be added. See

GitHub

GitHub - DioCrafts/OxiCloud: ☁️ Ultra-fast, secure & lightweight self-hosted cloud storage — your files, photos, calendars & contacts, all in one place. Built in Rust.

☁️ Ultra-fast, secure & lightweight self-hosted cloud storage — your files, photos, calendars & contacts, all in one place. Built in Rust. - ...

#technology #opensource #storage

Nitisinone Could Make Human Blood Deadly to Mosquitos, Combatting Malaria “Mosquitoes are more than pests. They’re also a mortal threat, contributing to millions of cases of malaria a year. Fortunately for humans, however, a team of researchers has recently identified a medication that could curb mosquito populations, controlling their spread of malaria. Revealing their results in a paper published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers report that the medication nitisinone makes human blood deadly to mosquitoes.” This is quite interesting in that it has no effect on the environment at all. Malaria affects 100's of millions of people worldwide, so this could help a lot of people. Scientists still have to determine what dosages will work, and I suppose how long it will last in the blood. I wonder if this also why mosquitoes like some people's blood, but not others. The difference with nitisinone though is that it is deadly to them. See https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/this-medication-could-make-human-blood-deadly-to-mosquitos-combatting #health #malaria

Mini rolling robot takes virtual biopsies — And it's all in the shape “The team, led by engineers from the University of Leeds, say this is the first time it has been possible to generate high-resolution three-dimensional ultrasound images taken from a probe deep inside the gastrointestinal tract, or gut. It paves the way to a transformation of the diagnosis and treatment of several forms of cancer by enabling ‘virtual biopsies’ — non-invasive scans that provide immediate diagnostic data, allowing doctors to detect, stage, and potentially treat lesions in a single procedure: eliminating the need for physical biopsies.” Very interestingly, the big innovation seems to be around changing the shape (the oloid shape) so that the device can manoeuvre far better. The important outcomes of all of this is that immediate results can be obtained for determining colorectal cancer, and the process may be more comfortable for patients. See

Mini rolling robot takes virtual biopsies | University of Leeds

A tiny magnetic robot which can take 3D scans from deep within the body, that could revolutionise early cancer detection, has been developed by res...

#technology #health #cancer

Ear Tip Fit Tests: How Do They Work, and Are They Accurate? Apart from the explanation of how the software test actually works, there is some good advice why you want to start out first testing with the smallest size tip and work your way upwards. See

How-To Geek

Ear Tip Fit Tests: How Do They Work, and Are They Accurate?

A good fit is key, but does the test really work?

#technology #audio

Wow, this is a 25-year-old Palm Pilot still being used in 2025 “They were the original distraction-free technology before we even needed such a thing. You didn’t spend the money on a Palm Pilot to play games or scroll social media. You spent the extra money on a Palm PDA because you had a job to do. Palm Pilots were the original productivity monsters, keeping us on schedule and connected through lightweight email programs and RSS feeds.” I don't think many of the youth today could visualise a really distraction-free and advert-free piece of technology. Today notifications keep popping up, adverts clutter pages, as well as pop-up cookie notices. I remember using a Palm Pilot myself, and I used to sync my notes, e-mails, etc with my desktop PC. A Palm Pilot was one of the really early productivity devices, being able to run all sorts of 3rd party downloadable apps. I remember, too, the early database apps, I think mine was called HandyDB. This is PURE productivity at its best. Technically, with the Pebble watches making a comeback, there is no real reason why Palm Pilots could not also do so. Big Tech would of course hate this as they still want to sell newer flashier devices to you, that can pop up all sorts of messages and disclaimers. And look at this: “Surprisingly, the 25-year-old rechargeable battery still works well, holding a charge for over a month.” See

Android Police

I still use a Palm Pilot in 2025, and you should, too

So many products offer to help us disconnect, but sometimes you need to look to the past

#technology #retro #PalmPilot

Keep Tabs On Your Vehicle’s Needs With Self-Hosted LubeLogger “This free and open source software tool is designed to make it easy for individuals to keep track of both the routine maintenance needs of their vehicles, as well as keep track of any previous or upcoming repairs and upgrades. In perhaps the most basic example, LubeLogger allows the user to add their vehicle to a virtual garage and set up routine maintenance tasks (such as oil changes), and fire off reminders when tasks are due. But it can also do things like track your vehicle’s mileage and fuel efficiency over time, and break down its operating costs.” It looks like a great app to track all of this data. You can test it out on the app's website, where there is a demo version. The only pity is there is no knowledge base of vehicles with the recommended maintenance. I suppose you'd enter this from the owner's manual yourself. I do like the touch for choosing an oil change based on date or mileage, whichever comes first. See

Hackaday

Keep Tabs On Your Vehicle’s Needs With LubeLogger

It doesn’t matter if its a Vespa or a Peterbilt truck — if you ignore the maintenance needs of your vehicle, you do so at your own peri...

or their website at

LubeLogger

Self-Hosted, Open-Source, Unconventionally-Named Vehicle Maintenance Records and Fuel Mileage Tracker

#technology #vehicles #maintenance #selfhosting #opensource

These 5 Companies Make Linux-First PCs Many probably take this for granted, but I remember well the painful years about 3 to 4 decades ago where Microsoft would have prohibited us having this choice at all. Yes, back then any OEM wanting to get the discounted price of having Microsoft Windows pre-installed on their desktops or laptops, was only allowed to sell Windows desktops and laptops. So all that a buyer would find to buy, would be PCs with Windows on. Many ended up buying a Windows PC (including paying for that Windows license) and then formatting it to put Linux or a different OS on. This was how Windows became so dominant today. Today it does not matter much to Microsoft as they are firstly not interested really in selling to the end user, and secondly they have entrenched themselves into schools to ensure the youth are exposed to their OS and apps early on. It is great that today at least buyers can choose freely what they want to buy, and if they buy a Linux laptop, they won't be paying for a Windows license. So, if you are intending to run Linux on your PC or laptop, and want to buy a ready to use device, then try to support these PC makers. The PC makers mentioned are: * Kubuntu Focus * Laptop With Linux * Star Labs * System76 * Tuxedo Computers * Dell (still offers this, but not exclusively) See

How-To Geek

These 5 Companies Make Linux-First PCs

Skip the ISO downloads and USB drive flashing, just buy a computer with Linux on it.

First direct-to-satellite phone call in South Africa using a LEO satellite and unmodified mobile phones “MTN South Africa and low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite service company Lynk Global carried out a successful technical trial of one of the first satellite-to-mobile device phone calls in South Africa. The phone call, made in Vryburg, North West, allowed the companies to test voice call quality and SMS capabilities over an LEO satellite connection.” Once this goes commercial, this will obviously be useful for disasters and very remote areas. Although these satellites will work with ordinary unmodified cellphones, including older models, right now it may not be a 24/7 coverage. I'd imagine though for a commercial service in future there will either need to be more satellites, or there may need to be a few geostationary satellites. Still, it shows what is possible, and that you don't necessarily need Starlink to offer such a service. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/588871-first-direct-to-satellite-phone-call-in-south-africa.html #technology #satellite #southafrica

Sez Us Is A New Social Media App Punishes Users for Rage-Baiting “If there is one certainty of social media in 2025, it’s this: Rage clicks rule. Hyperbole, hate, brash deception—it’s all par for the course—and often rewarded with virality. On Sez Us, users who are intentionally inflammatory may score lower than those who gain influence through respectful dialog.” I must say I do love this concept. The app is trying to build up trust, civility, transparency, and reputation. Because of this, I'm going to give it a try. My early impressions are I do like having a 300 character post title and 15,000 characters available for the body text. An interesting point too, is you can link to X (yes I know...) as well as Bluesky, and set toggles on the post to send to those networks at the same time. But don't worry, the feed view only shows a few lines from the post, so the scrolling is quite easy. Their business model says that Sez Us is built on advertisers working directly with creators and investing in great content. There is nothing I could see about their technology, but it appears to be a centralised platform. There are also mobile apps I see available. See

WIRED

A New Social Media App Punishes Users for Rage-Baiting

On Sez Us, users who are intentionally inflammatory may score lower than those who gain influence through respectful dialog.

and you can find Sez Us at

Sez Us

The social media platform built on the real world principles of identity and reputation and a commitment to democracy and freedom of expression.

#technology #SezUs #socialnetworks

Signal vs WhatsApp: Signal is still the most private by a long way Users adding an incorrect user by mistake to a group is no reflection at all on the security of any app. This happens across all apps, as the user is the issue, not the app. I had long ago deleted the WhatsApp app off my phone, mainly because of its metadata collection, and the sharing of that data with their upstream 'partners' including Facebook and others. This is clearly stated in WhatsApp's T&C's. 'In a statement, a WhatsApp spokesman said it relies on metadata to prevent spam and “keep the service safe from abuse”.' This is just not true, in that this is not the reason why WhatsApp collects metadata — their T&C's state it is to be shared elsewhere. Yes, both Signal and WhatsApp keep the message content secure, and use the same encryption protocol. But WhatsApp is also collecting your location continuously, when you message who, for how long, when you wake up, when you go to sleep, where you shop, etc (and of course shares this with your consent). This is not Signal's business model, nor do they obtain your consent to share this data. WhatsApp/Instagram/Facebook are all about targeting users for advertisers, and sharing data for that targeting (and of course being US owned they have to share that data under the CLOUD and Patriot Acts with the US government as well when requested). What came out of the US Congressional hearing this week was also interesting to hear — the CIA have Signal installed on their desktops, and they use Signal themselves. I'm not saying at all that Signal is perfect, as it still requires a verified phone number. So the user is still always identifiable (unlike other messengers such as Threema, SimpleX, Matrix, Session, etc). It is about what data is collected, and what data is shared with anyone outside of the organisation. Between WhatsApp and Signal, Signal is the clear winner here. For this reason, there is no WhatsApp app on my mobile phone. If organisations want to ensure better privacy, they should use Signal (like the CIA does) or go a step further and self-host a service like Matrix on their premises where they fully control the data as well as the user access verification. WhatsApp was a very good app (I used to use it) before they got bought out by Facebook, and it is that business model that has ruined it. See

TechCentral

Signal vs WhatsApp: messaging app war heats up after US security blunder

Signal has been growing in popularity in Europe, the US and elsewhere as an alternative to WhatsApp.

#technology #metadata #privacy #messengers

Powerfoyle may be able to keep many battery powered products permanently charged This is a flexible type of solar charging device that can be moulded to fit many devices such as wireless headphones, Bluetooth speakers, etc to keep them topped up whenever there is outdoor or even ambient light. Yes, it's not going to be used to charge car batteries, and is really aimed at wearable devices. But with so many devices going battery powered today, keeping track of charging and ensuring they are ready for use at any time, all becomes a bit of a pain. It will be interesting to see how this gets used in the future. Already big brands such as Adidas, Porsche, Urbanista, Philips, JBL, 3M, and POC are starting to incorporate Powerfoyle into their products. See #technology #solar #environment

inZOI is a hyperrealistic life simulation going into public early access by end March 2025 Yes, it is similar to The Sims in terms of what it is about, but it is a whole two or three levels above what The Sims ever reached. The character setup is incredibly detailed and of an extremely high quality, as are the buildings. The gameplay is very AI driven and certainly delves into lots of life's normal events such as births, deaths, relationships, marriages, divorce, banking, working, jail, etc. It appears to be a single player game, though, so nothing like you'd get in Second Life where you are interacting with real people. The reviewer here is actually not using the highest quality video, as I've seen some other video that shows a lot of finer detail, and I'd imagine this depends on what graphics card you're using. Also to be seen in other video reviews is the actual making of food. You'd see the actual egg broken in the pan, and being stirred until it turns to scramble egg. These types of detail in the game would be enthralling to experience. Another point this reviewer mentions is that you can upload a photo of a real world object, and the AI in the game will convert it to an in-game object which you can use. That is probably a taste of what more there is still to come. This is still an early access game, so I'd expect a lot of what is mentioned by the reviewer, would be addressed and expanded on in future. The game looks pretty playable right now, though. Hopefully in future too, you could travel as a tourist to the other cities, and I'm sure there may be more cities coming as well. The cost is expected to be about US$40, but this is apparently a discounted price, so this won't be any quick impulsive buy for most folks. See #technology #simulation #gaming

It's true that Big Tech are not the most innovative companies around The linked article is about the many shortcomings that Google Password Manager has, and it is quite true that many of the dedicated password managers out there have way better features than Google has. It was for the same reason that I never used Google's Authentication app at all. The same went for their passkey management. Many Big Tech companies have millions or billions of funds to throw at buying out their competition, and to cobble products together. The reason they buy out their competition is, because the competition has something better that they cannot just use, unless they buy the business and own the patents. Often they even kill those products off, or they neuter them (like the original peer-to-peer Skype) and let them die off. Big Tech is no friend of innovation, and can use their financial (and other muscle) to kill off the competition. Anyone still remember the early days of Microsoft Windows when the deal was struck for discounting Windows with new PCs as long as the manufacturers only pre-installed Windows? I remember a government department having to also pay for Windows licenses for all their Linux computers (which had no Windows installed on them) because the licensing deal was “all” PC's irrespective of what OS was installed. This all helps us understand how the “Big” came about in Big Tech... But I digress, the point being actually Big Tech is really not that good at innovating, and this is especially true once their own founders have departed the organisation. Their founders were often the ones who were innovative (OK, excluding Microsoft) when they started out themselves. See

Android Police

6 reasons I gave up on Google Password Manager

Google Password Manager works, but it's just not good enough for me

#technology #innovation #BigTech