Danie

How To Check Disk Health In Linux: A Beginners Guide “Your computer's disk drive stores all your important files. Photos, documents, videos, and everything lives on your disk. But what happens when your disk starts to fail? You could lose everything. Worry not! Linux has built-in tools to check your disk health. You can spot disk-related problems early and save your data.” Smartmontools is a package on Linux that provides tools for monitoring and managing the health of storage devices—such as hard drives and SSDs—using the built-in Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) system found in most modern drives. But other tools are also covered such as badblocks, fsck, and the graphical user interface app GNOME Disks. See https://ostechnix.com/check-disk-health-linux #technology #Linux #diskdrives

How much VRAM do games really use in 2025? Why this caught my eye is because I just hit a VRAM limitation this week with my RTX 2060 card. It has been playing games just fine without any issue, but DaVinci Resolve Studio reports an issue with one of the new AI features requiring a minimum of 8 GB VRAM to work. So, this is something to keep in mind when looking for a new GPU. The advice seems to be to not necessarily buy the fastest or latest GPU, but rather go for something lower down the ladder, but with a lot more VRAM. See https://www.xda-developers.com/how-much-vram-do-games-really-use-in-2025 #technology #GPU

Denmark’s Government Ditches Microsoft for Open Source “Up to half of employees at Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Affairs will be switched to (an unspecified version of) Linux in place of Windows, and move from Office 365 to the leading open source productivity suite LibreOffice. Denmark’s minister of digitisation, Caroline Stage Olsen, confirmed the migration is in progress to Danish media outlet Politiken (paywalled), adding that if all goes well the whole ministry will switch to using open source software by the autumn. Denmark, like many countries, wants to have greater control over its own digital infrastructure, data, and cloud services.” This certainly seems to be a move that is growing in popularity across Europe. It does a bit of effort for any change, but this will likely also mean more investment is local skills and resources, and many governments are prepared to pay a premium for that. See https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/06/denmark-government-replaces-microsoft-with-linux-libreoffice #technology #Denmark #opensource #government

nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm why did I get a mail saying my lightning channels was closed? I did not close it. It was all configured and working until this morning (I logged in with my browser extension and it showed my SATS balance). Now my SATS show 0. I have a self-hosted Alby Hub running 24/7 on a VPS, and that is fully operational and reachable. Now it shows I must "buy my first channel". I already did buy a channel. It has been operational daily. What is asks for now to buy a channel, is my entire SATS balance. Not understanding this?

Peep show: 40K IoT cameras worldwide stream secrets to anyone with a browser “Security researchers managed to access the live feeds of 40,000 internet-connected cameras worldwide and they may have only scratched the surface of what's possible. The US was the most affected region, with around 14,000 of the total feeds streaming from the country, allowing access to the inside of datacenters, healthcare facilities, factories, and more. Bitsight said these feeds could potentially be used for espionage, mapping blind spots, and gleaning trade secrets, among other things.” After all the previous warnings, and even sites published that show these camera feeds, I can't believe this is still such a big thing. There are essentially two ways to quickly stop this with any of your cameras: 1. Prevent any Internet access for the cameras at all: Put them on a VLAN that has no Internet access, or on a guest network that has Internet disabled, and make sure UPnP is disabled on your router (that automatically opens firewall ports), etc. 2. Log into each camera and change the default password or set a password. The problem is most of these cameras come with an enabled API, and also a default username and password (which are known). It is clear that too many people are just bringing home any old IP camera or IoT device and plugging them in on their home (well in many cases work too it seems) networks. Yes it may work fine, but it could be punching holes through your firewall. This is not malicious really, as some devices try to get time sync from the Internet, or they want to check for updated firmware, etc. But they can expose your video and your network. These IoT devices are becoming a bigger and bigger problem, as default security is just about non-existent (remember Microsoft wanting to keep things simple and enable everything so as not to complicate things for users?), and they often have no way of really getting proper security patch updates either. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a post about two months back around IoT and security, ease of use and security are diametrically opposed to each other. Security is not easy, and easy is usually not secure... See https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/10/40000_iot_cameras_exposed #technology #security #vulnerabilities

Linux Foundation unveils decentralised WordPress plugin manager “A collective of former WordPress developers and contributors backed by the Linux Foundation has launched the FAIR Package Manager, a new and independent distribution system for trusted WordPress plugins and themes.” An interesting development. Something like this is needed, and maybe if the other WordPress parties are not managing to get the issues sorted out, this may be another way forward. WordPress is probably the most used content management system across the Internet. The biggest weakness, as far as vulnerabilities goes (for most platforms, actually), is the 3rd party plugin system. See https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/linux-foundation-unveils-decentralized-wordpress-plugin-manager #technology #vulnerabilities #security

OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats This is going to become more and more of a privacy problem in the coming years, mainly because: Millions of people use ChatGPT daily for a range of purposes, OpenAI noted, “ranging from the mundane to profoundly personal.” The other problem is one that the US is causing for the free world. Most of the mainstream (centralised) social media as well as AI tools are controlled by the US. With the US more and more placing restrictions on the freedoms of speech, and legally compelling companies in its jurisdiction to hand over the data of their users (this is not new though as there has long been the PATRIOT and CLOUD Acts), there is more interest in citizens elsewhere in the world to preserve their privacy, protect minorities, defend their rights of association, etc. I very nearly did a post recently about Venice, an AI tool: Venice.ai is hosted on a decentralised GPU computing network provided by third-party companies such as Akash, which operate data centres and GPU cards distributed around the world. This decentralised infrastructure supports Venice's privacy-first architecture by processing user inputs without storing or logging prompts or model responses on centralised servers. Chat records are stored locally on the user's device and can be deleted at any time, while the company only accesses users' IP addresses, which can be masked with a VPN. The challenge was that Venice is legally registered and operates under the jurisdiction of the state of Wyoming, United States. So I left that post undone. It is no wonder that there is a bigger and bigger ground swell towards self-hosting and alternative social media today. I have done hundreds of posts about both of these types of alternatives, and it is good to see them all flourishing. But AI itself is growing quickly, and I hope that we see more alternatives outside of US control as well, as the world does need some balance. You cannot have just one country dominating social media, AI, and other technology when the world is full of a diversity of cultures and beliefs, and we need to create safe spaces for everyone to participate in. It also brings home to me what I was recently reading about in the book 'Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism', that when you are operating on a global scale, you do need to navigate some very difficult, diverse, and challenging waters, and you do need to actually care about all of that if you want to be a global player. The coming year may be an interesting one for technology globally (and maybe even broader than just technology). I still cling to my old mantra: Be careful of what you wish for, because you may just get it. Being a global and caring player in technology, means thinking in the global context, and especially of the cause and effect that will result down the line. South Africa has certainly already experienced this itself. In quite a few ways, South Africa is ahead of what may come to be in the US (not politically, but more around technology). The irony is some companies had headquartered outside of the US for tax purposes, and maybe the same thing will happen for privacy purposes in future... Of course everyone has long had the opportunity to use alternative tools, alternative social networks, etc, so no-one can say they are forced to use anything. We do in fact have freedom of choice, but it is often our own friends and family who shackle us to something. The network effect is one of the most powerful rip currents I know of, that works against individuals and corporations. But like I discovered myself over the last 12 months or so, after switching medical insurance, banks, social networks, e-mail provider, and more, sometimes once you've mad e change you wonder why you did not make the move a few years earlier. The grass is not always greener on the other side, but there are many lawns out there, and sometimes your eyesight just gets too accustomed to the colour and texture of one's own grass (it becomes a box, which you need to think outside of). See https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/06/openai-says-court-forcing-it-to-save-all-chatgpt-logs-is-a-privacy-nightmare #technology #privacy

Self-Hosting Isn’t Just for Nerds Anymore—Here’s Why You Should Care “Let's face it, we use the internet for just about everything. We even use the internet for sensitive things, be that banking, sending sensitive data, or just storing our photos. With all of that, privacy is expected (and not an unreasonable request, either). However, privacy is rarely given by the companies that house all of that data, even if that means skirting the law to achieve what they want. Companies will often tout that your privacy is at their core—but is it really?” The article goes into this point as one of the driver's for self-hosting for many. It is also the reason we are seeing so many decentralised and federated social networks springing up as well. Others want to self-host to save money on expensive cloud storage costs, whilst some in South Africa do it so they have services to still enjoy when the grid is busy load-shedding. But whatever the reason, most of us start out small, and the habit keeps growing as you realise self-hosting works pretty well. I started out with one Raspberry Pi, and by the time I had my 3rd Raspberry Pi going, I realised I need to migrate to an Intel NUC, which then migrated to a Lenovo M720q. Exactly the same has happened with the storage side, and only from this month have I finally moved to a proper RAID 1 storage solution. Only last month, I finally built my first own network cabinet. Most of my YouTube videos over the last year or two have been about various solutions I have self-hosted, and been finding very useful. So, do not be intimidated by expensive looking home labs that some YouTubers show off (the flashing lights usually serve no functional purpose). Any self-hosting can start off with a Raspberry Pi and an SD card. Your next step may be to just attach an old hard drive to that Pi, and it goes from there at whatever pace works for you (in many cases, your spouse with reign you in any way). See https://www.howtogeek.com/self-hosting-isnt-just-for-nerds-anymore-why-you-should-care #technology #selfhosting

PowerTOP is a Linux tool created by Intel to monitor and diagnose power usage by running apps and services “It's best used for devices with internal batteries, and you need a way to work out what's draining your internal power source between charges, or those that run continuously, and efficiency is a priority. It's interesting in that the tool lets you manipulate power management settings to experiment with different configurations. Released in 2007, the tool has since been updated to work with modern hardware.” Modern power supplies adjust their power usage according to their loads over time, so apps or services using a lot of processing power over time, are going to use more energy. This is especially noticeable if the device is battery powered like a laptop. This also does not only work for Intel processors, but also AMD and ARM as well. The linked article also has a link at the end to another similar tool as well, which exports to Prometheus. See https://www.xda-developers.com/reasons-powertop-is-the-most-powerful-linux-tool or GitHub site at https://github.com/fenrus75/powertop #technology #energy #environment #opensource

Jelly Music App is an open source app that turns Jellyfin into a true Spotify alternative I wondered why this was not integrated into Jellyfin before realising it is a third party front-end app that bolts onto Jellyfin. So you have your existing Jellyfin server with the music on it, and there is an additional docker container that runs for Jelly Music App that connects to the Jellyfin server. Yes, the UI is better, but it also brings additional features such as the ability to download songs for offline listening. You can save individual tracks, playlists, or albums for offline playback. You can also set the auto-download feature to trigger for any new tracks that you add to your playlist. It is a bit of a pity that Jellyfin has not been expanding the music side more. I did post a week back about the self-hosted Navidrome, but that is a standalone option, and does not integrate with Jellyfin. See https://www.xda-developers.com/this-free-open-source-app-turns-jellyfin-into-true-spotify-alternative #technology #music #selfhosting #opensource

Packet is a Linux app that uses Android’s native Quick Share feature to exchange files “Anyone with an Android phone near your device can send/receive files to/from you via Packet. They don’t have to install an app on their device since the feature is built-in, and the Quick Share protocol uses end-to-end encryption for (relative) peace of mind.” I have been using LocalSend up to now, which has worked well, but it does require the app to also be installed on the Android device. So for anyone visiting your home, for example, that is a bit of an extra step. Packet looks really low-friction and may fill the gap to wirelessly fling files, photos, videos and whatever else between Android and Linux devices. There is a link to the open source GitHub project at the bottom of the linked article. See https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/06/packet-linux-android-file-transfer-app-quick-share #technology #filesharing #opensource

Statistics for Strava is a self-hosted tool that gives you full control over your fitness data This is an open source self-hosted tool that allows you to download your Strava data and to not only be a backup of that Strava data, but also allow you to perform more detailed analysis on it. It does not replace using Strava as Strava is still used to upload your data to (and this service connects to your Strava account), and to do the all important peer pressure and competitiveness that Strava offers in the cloud. For non-premium users of Strava, though, this service could well offer a bit extra. It is the perfect companion app if you already use Strava. And if Strava does ever get discontinued, you'd have a very usable history of your data. See https://www.xda-developers.com/ditched-strava-premium-self-hosted-stats-dashboard #technology #opensource #selfhosting #health #fitness

South African app Sociable aims to shake up social media Cape Town-based social media platform Sociable combines online activity with in-person meetups. The Sociable feed makes it easier than ever to find everything happening around you in real time. No more outdated articles, just real experiences. So this app is not your general status posting app from what I can see. Users can choose from categories such as Party, Sport, Food, Adventure, or Lifestyle to create an event based on a location, which others can subscribe to or follow. An event has a description, FAQ, a capacity, etc to get more information, and users can also indicate if they will attend. The aim seems to be to create a safer environment without AI driven bot posts etc. I suppose it is also a great way to meet up in person with like-minded people to enjoy a common interest. Certainly for Cape Town I see organised walks, hikes, runs, pottery classes, and more, some of which are intended just for women. Interestingly, it also makes provision for paid events with tickets, and even private events that can only be accessed with a unique pin code. There are mobile apps for iOS and Android available. See https://techcentral.co.za/scroll-soul-sociable-social-media and their website at https://www.thesociableapp.com #technology #social #southafrica #events

Nextcloud in 2025: How 25 Million Users Escaped Big Tech's Data Prison “Nextcloud powers 400,000+ servers worldwide, giving organizations like the German federal government complete control over their data while escaping Big Tech surveillance. Discover why millions choose open-source collaboration over Microsoft and Google's data-mining platforms.” “Today, ITZBund operates Nextcloud for 300,000 employees across the German federal government. The French Ministry of Interior runs it for their 300,000 staff. Schleswig-Holstein deploys it across 25,000 systems. Swedish federal agencies, Dutch ministries, universities across Europe, hospitals, law firms, and millions of home users rely on Nextcloud for file storage, video conferencing, document collaboration, email, calendars, and now AI assistance. These organizations discovered they could have enterprise-grade collaboration tools while maintaining complete control over every byte of their data. No surveillance capitalism. No vendor lock-in. No data held hostage in Silicon Valley.” NextCloud actually has way more functionality inside it than MS Office will ever have. But the real point is you have ownership and control over your services as well as your data. But what about AI? For better or worse, AI now comes in a lot of applications. Nextcloud Assistant 3.0 also brings AI agency features to everyone, and not just those who pay for OpenAI. It is supposedly more than just chatbot functionality. It's true too though that apart from data sovereignty and cost savings of around 50-80% you will also miss out on Microsoft license audits, and surprise price hikes (remember Microsoft moving from per CPU licensing to per core licensing). See https://doingfedtime.com/nextcloud-in-2025-how-25-million-users-escaped-big-techs-data-prison #technology #opensource #selfhosting #datasovereignty

Navidrome is an open source web-based music collection server and streamer Navidrome gives you freedom to listen to your music collection from any browser or mobile device. It's like your personal Spotify! It handles very large music collections, will stream virtually any audio format available, and reads and uses all your beautifully curated metadata. Furthermore, it has full support for playlists, with option to auto-import .m3u files and to keep them in sync. Additionally, it can also work as a lightweight Subsonic-API compatible server, that can be used with any Subsonic compatible client. This means there are a number of additional client apps that will also work with it. They also have a demo site where you can try it out. See https://github.com/navidrome/navidrome #technology #opensource #selfhosted #music

How to Keep Containers Up-to-Date with What’s Up Docker (WUD) This looks really promising over both Watchtower and DIUN. It takes a bit more tweaking to get to where you want to be, but some key highlights that I really like about WUD are: * Plenty of docker container labels and environmental settings * Being able to custom name any specific docker image with `wud.display.name: Maria DB` label in the docker compose file for the container * Being able to just watch the major, minor, and patch version changes with the 'wud.tag.include' label * Being able to set a changelog link per image with the 'wud.link.template' label (although this is a pain to set up) * Being able to actually trigger an update from within WUD's GUI with the prune and auto settings set All past solutions up to now have been really messy with notifications not really pointing you to exactly which image is ready for updating (when you have three Postgres database images) but WUD is zooming straight into which one/s are ready to update. Once I bed down what is working well, I may do a video about WUD in the near future. See a how-to at https://linuxiac.com/how-to-keep-containers-up-to-date-with-whats-up-docker-wud and their GitHub project at https://getwud.github.io/wud #technology #docker #selfhosting #opensource

How to set up a self-hosted newsletter using listmonk “Listmonk is an amazing feature packed self-hosted email newsletter manager. It offers loads of features like analytics (clicks, opens, bounces), templates, public subscription pages, importing subscribers and much more!” Listmonk is not perfect, as it cannot by default trigger from an RSS feed (although there is a GitHub-based workaround) and it does still need to connect to a mail service. The latter could be a pro or a con, as it certainly gives flexibility and can for example connect to a free service like Gmail. It does track opening of mails, mail bounces, etc and whilst some may not like this, the point is it is the individual sending the newsletter who tracks and acts on this. It is not some 3rd party corporate who is doing who knows what else with the addresses or embedded tracking. I started using a “free” mailing subscription service, and I am regretting it now, as I'm getting suspicious of the embedding I did on my website to get it working (this after I removed Google tracking and other similar services). I do like that listmonk offers the basics of having to actively opt into a mailing list, there are easy opt out options, wiping of user data, and it does all the basics most probably need. The pain though is sometimes finding a good mailing service you don't have to pay for. Good one's, for example Proton, don't allow this type of functionality. Interestingly, too, I see listmonk can connect using HTTP webhooks to send SMS, Whatsapp, FCM notifications, or any type of messages in fact. So, I'll be looking into this open source offering in future to migrate my own mailing list. See https://4rkal.com/posts/listmonk #technology #opensource #selfhosting #maillists

Thousands of Asus routers are being hit with stealthy, persistent backdoors “Thousands of home and small office routers manufactured by Asus are being infected with a stealthy backdoor that can survive reboots and firmware updates in an attack by a nation-state or another well-resourced threat actor, researchers said.” It is called ViciousTrap, and it basically embeds a public encryption key for access to the device through SSH. So this is one way it can be detected. Some vulnerabilities have been patched, but a good 9,500 plus devices were already affected. It all comes down though again to the old issue of whether there are still updates available for routers that are a few years old, and also whether their owners are even bothering to check for and apply the patches. In the case of Asus, there is the third party Merlin software available that does support the routers a bit longer, but even Merlin at some point freezes updates a while after Asus stops providing updates. Which is why I made a clean break and decided to go with OPNsense, which keeps updating pretty well much like Linux does. OPNsense uses FreeBSD though, but the same theory applies. See https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/05/thousands-of-asus-routers-are-being-hit-with-stealthy-persistent-backdoors #technology #routers #vulnerability

AFFiNE is an open-source, self-hosted alternative with a user interface very similar to Notion’s “Where AFFiNE truly stands out is in customization and its whiteboarding features. You can enable a translucent sidebar UI, toggle AI features on or off, adjust font styles, enable spellcheck, set page width, and more. The whiteboarding capabilities alone set AFFiNE apart since it’s not something a lot of apps offer.” This is actually quite an interesting application, especially for those who need to be creative and to collaborate with others. Although it uses Markdown shortcuts (and menus) and can export to Markdown format, it is not really intended to compete head-on with dedicated note-taking applications (at least not yet). One of the reasons is there are no stable mobile client apps yet. It does install on all the key desktop OSes and there is also a self-hosted version (as well as a paid cloud hosted version). Although it has been evolving in leaps and bounds, there are still some incomplete features, like I saw someone mention (and I could not find) a resorting option for tables. But for edgeless mixing of all sorts of different media in a collaborative environment, it looks like it is standing alone right now in the open source world. See https://www.xda-developers.com/self-hosted-alternative-notion-best-pkm-tool #technology #opensource #selfhosting #whiteboard #collaboration

KOReader is an ebook reader application supporting many formats, running on Cervantes, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook and Android devices KOReader is actually intended to replace your existing ebook reader software that runs on a Kobo or Kindle ereader. For Kindles, this will also mean you have to jailbreak them. But it can also install on Android, Linux and other OSs. It does provide a much richer and more customisable experience than Kobo or Kindle offers, and the real power also kicks in with plugins that enable Wallabag read-it-later service, RSS news feeds, integration with Calibre, etc. It supports fixed page formats (PDF, DjVu, CBT, CBZ) and reflowable e-book formats (EPUB, FB2, Mobi, DOC, RTF, HTML, CHM, TXT). Scanned PDF/DjVu documents can also be reflowed with the built-in K2pdfopt library. ZIP files are also supported for some formats. The linked article below gives some feedback on usage experience, but I have also provided the link to the source code site of the product. If you want to see it in action, you can watch some videos on Stefan Svartling's channel. See https://matija.suklje.name/trying-out-koreader-and-wallabag-the-first-few-days-and-months and https://github.com/koreader/koreader #technology #opensource #reading #koreader