Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK - No Way I Trust any Social Network with my ID I don't live in the UK, but my point just is that I would never upload my government ID to any social network. I don't even like having to upload it to government sites, as they have a tendency to get hacked. Seeing I do have unlimited virtual banking cards, I suppose I could upload a payment card, and just freeze that card. But again, there is no way I'm uploading any image of my physical bank card to any social media site. And I can imagine that this is where the trend will, go for all the larger networks. I doubt this will ever make it to networks like Mastodon, Nostr, and the countless other decentralised sites anyway (and who have zero revenue to fine anyway). For the many who end up being harassed online, I'd expect they will be only too happy to not do age verification, as it will mean maybe having more guardrails in place against online harassment. My point being, that younger users are absolutely NOT the only users who need protection and privacy online. This is a rather short-sighted view of social networks as it really only tackles the Big Tech social networks, and ignores everything else. It is also ignoring the fact that actually most adults also don't want online harassment. Users should choose their platforms wisely according to their needs, and if parents think platforms are not suitable for their kids, then they should be enforcing that or making their kids aware of the dangers. As this stands right now, there is zero friction at all to kids just choosing any of the other alternative platforms out there that are way worse when it comes to any protections. Even younger users should just not be on adult social networks at all. It is only parents who can judge how ready their kids are, and what sort of devices to give them to use. But yes, these laws will just go ahead regardless, and hopefully all the ostriches remember to pull their heads out of the sand, to just breathe once in a while. For the rest of us, we have lost and lost of options, so luckily no-one is ever locked into one single social network. See

The Verge

Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK

Bluesky users in the UK can verify their age using their face, ID, or payment card.

#technology #ageverification #socialnetworks

Jack Dorsey made an open source peer-to-peer encrypted Bluetooth messaging app called Bitchat “Twitter co-founder and Block Head Jack Dorsey launched a new peer-to-peer messaging app over the weekend called Bitchat that runs entirely over Bluetooth. Bitchat relies on Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks to send encrypted communications directly to nearby devices without requiring internet or cellular service.” Don't be too concerned about the Bluetooth range as this app sets up mesh connections across multiple peers, much like how Meshtastic and Reticulum radio works. So, hopping across two or more peers will quickly extend this reach. Bitchat is working over Bluetooth LE and the claims are that distance between peers could be as much as 300m. Certainly, for line of sight such distances should be easy to achieve. The plan in future seems to be to include Wi-Fi Direct as another connectivity option. I'm wondering if this could evolve in future to work something like the Reticulum network, across all sorts of protocols. As with Nostr and other similar projects, Bitchat requires no account creation, no servers, no e-mail or mobile phone registrations, and also it has password protected channels, and even a panic mode that will clear all data in the logo is triple-tapped. Right now, it is working on iOS devices through Apple Testflight, and an Android client is still expected to be released in the near future. As this type of app is normally easier to released for Android, I'm wondering if it was not primarily intended right now to protect the privacy of protesters inside the USA. See

The Verge

Jack Dorsey made an encrypted Bluetooth messaging app

Just don’t abbreviate it.

and the GitHub site at

GitHub

GitHub - permissionlesstech/bitchat: bluetooth mesh chat, IRC vibes

bluetooth mesh chat, IRC vibes. Contribute to permissionlesstech/bitchat development by creating an account on GitHub.

#technology #privacy #opensource #P2P

I'm enjoying playing Ships at Sea on Steam Games I did a short summary with quite a few photos at my blog at

GadgeteerZA

I'm Enjoying Playing Ships At Sea On Steam Games

This is a pretty relaxing simulation game to play. No shooting, or being shot as soon as you respawn! It is pretty well much like Snowrunner, but i...

#technology #gaming #ships #simulation

CoMaps is a fully open source navigation app that works offline and doesn’t track users “Born out of governance concerns in Organic Maps, CoMaps has been created with a goal of restoring transparency, community control, and privacy-focused navigation. It’s a fully open source navigation app that works offline and doesn’t track users. A few weeks after the project began, CoMaps has officially launched with apps for both Android and iOS.” It will look similar to Organic Maps but some key differences (apart from the governance) are that remappable left button, and some choices to reduce display clutter. I noticed too, there is an optional (off by default) choice to use Google detected Wi-Fi hotspots for assisting in location. See

It's FOSS

Look Google, We Have This New Private, Offline Alternative Now

A maps app that doesn't track you but lets you track your path on the map. A pathbreaking open source alternative.

#technology #navigation #opensource

French City of Lyon Kicks Out Microsoft “European countries have been growing increasingly wary of relying on Microsoft for critical government and public sector services. Concerns about data privacy, digital sovereignty, and potential governmental surveillance have led many to question the viability of depending on an American tech giant for sensitive infrastructure.” The point is, this is actually quite possible to do. Whether an organisation invests in its own people, or employs local companies to assist, it can be done. It is the marketing machine of Microsoft that convinces executives that Microsoft is so easy, that pays to certify installers and consultants, etc. The same can be done by governments, just like the UK government established their PRINCE project methodology, which all consultants and training companies were certified against. The same also goes for document formats. There is no reason to be stuck on .docx after so many governments committed to actually using ODF instead. Governments are not helpless, and can set standards to be complied with, and industry will conform if they want contacts. The big benefit for everyone involved is, anyone can freely download fully compliant ODF suites, and they do really work much the same as Microsoft Office does. I know this personally as I was part of a project to ready our own government to transition away from Microsoft in 2007. Yes, that never happened, but the reasons had nothing to do with the technology not working, or workers not being able to use Zimbra mail or LibreOffice. It was all politics and backroom manoeuvring around the IT staff. Such a change though does take guts and drive to implement, and the willingness of someone to stand up to the so-called “norm” of Microsoft. The world not only needs digital sovereignty, it also needs more competition and choices. Such choices do rest on having proper open standards for the formats of data being stored and processed. Vendor lock-in should be a major red flag for any government. See

It's FOSS

French City of Lyon Kicks Out Microsoft

Microsoft faces growing rejection in Europe whereas open source software sees growing adaption.

#technology #opensource #France #government

South Korea Brought High-Rise Fire Escape Solutions To The Masses “When a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, conventional wisdom is that stairwells are the only way out. Lifts are verboten in such scenarios, while sheer height typically prevents any other viable route of egress from tall modern buildings. If the stairs are impassable, or you can’t reach them, you’re in dire peril. In South Korea, though, there’s another option for escape. The answer involves strapping on a harness and descending down ropes hanging off the side of the building, just like in an action movie. It might sound terrifying, but these descending lifeline devices have become a common part of fire safety infrastructure across the country.” Interesting that the design works in both directions, so as one person descends, the other side is going up ready for the next person to descend. It is limited to 15 stories high, but it is real food for thought for skyscraper designers regarding better planning for evacuation of taller buildings. The fact is, things do go wrong, and what happens to the people up on 30 plus floors? Many skyscrapers also have sealed windows. It's a bit like planning for the ideal scenarios, and we hope nothing else ever happens. See

Hackaday

South Korea Brought High-Rise Fire Escape Solutions To The Masses

When a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, conventional wisdom is that stairwells are the only way out. Lifts are verboten in such scenarios, ...

#technology #escape #fire

EasiShop is a South African comparative groceries shopping service developed by an ex-student from Cape Town "A former Fish Hoek High School learner is using his tech skills to help South African families stretch their grocery budgets. Tinashe Madanire, a 26-year-old student at Stellenbosch University, along with his co-founder Tendai Katiyo, launched a price-comparison website called EasiShop earlier this year. The idea? A simple website where users can track deals, build shopping lists, and find the best prices across major retailers.” This was something I've long thought we've needed. One place to put a shopping list of grocery items together, and then have the prices compared across Pick 'n Pay, Checkers, Woolworths, etc to find where it will be cheapest to buy. It is not yet going to be perfect, as many retailers also offer reward programs, personalised discounts, and many consumers also have additional kick backs through eBucks, GreenBacks, etc as well. Ideally, you'd want to be able to tick these relevant additional discounts too, and to also have Clicks and Dis-Chem added in future. But it is a great initiative and something that is certainly needed. I hope that it is going to continue to grow, and to benefit many local consumers. See the story at

IOL

How a former Fish Hoek student is helping families save on groceries with EasiShop

Discover how Tinashe Madanire, a former Fish Hoek High School student, is leveraging technology to help South African families manage their grocery...

or website at

EasiShop - Compare Prices from Different Retailers

Find the best deals from different stores. Save money by comparing grocery prices with EasiShop!

#technology #southafrica #groceries

I replaced my ISP router with OPNsense months ago, and I don't regret it at all OPNsense can also be fairly simple to set up if you go with the basics (like most home routers offer). But the great thing is you can also deep dive into it and setup separated VLANs and masses of tweaks and rules. What you need to know, though, is that you will need to run it on a separate piece of hardware (just like you'd have bought a router device) and ideally you'd want at least 4 Ethernet ports on it. The minimum is really two ports (a WAN port and a LAN port). My OPNsense device is a Protectli with 4 ports. One is a WAN port, and I have reserved another for a LAN port, and I have the remaining two ports connected as a LAGG interface to my main switch (so it has dual links for load balancing and redundancy). But again, you don't to do this either if you want to keep it simple. What I still want to explore with mine, is using the Haproxy plugin to do my reverse proxying directly on the OPNsense device, instead of in a container on my server. This will mean that some traffic destined for my OpenWebRx device can flow directly from the router through the main switch and to the OpenWebRx device (instead of via the server and then back through the main switch). OPNsense (and PFsense) does mean total control in your hands, and also ongoing updates and patches for many many years... See

XDA

I replaced my ISP router with OPNsense months ago, and I don't regret it at all

I took the plunge a while ago, and OPNsense is fantastic.

#technology #opensource #security #routers

Steam Now Has an Overlay Performance Monitor “Steam has added a new performance monitoring tool to its in-game overlay, giving you information about how your games are using your computer’s resources. This should help you spot potential performance problems, although it is currently in beta. This tool shows information about FPS, CPU, GPU, and system RAM usage, making it easier for players to understand their game’s performance and fix issues.” Mileage may vary on this one, as I'm only seeing the FPS right now. For now MangoHUD works better for me, but if you don't have MangoHUD, this is better than nothing. The screenshot I've included shows MangoHUD at the top left, and the Steam performance overlay at the top right. See

How-To Geek

Steam Now Has an Overlay Performance Monitor

Steam is giving users a performance overlay monitor.

#technology #gaming

WUD is a better alternative to Watchtower for Docker updates What's Up Docker (WUD) will notify you of updated Docker container images for installation, just like Watchtower can do, but WUD solves a number of challenges that I have with using Watchtower: 1. Shows a custom descriptive name for images, including database images. 2. This means no time wasted checking which image must be updated. 3. Updates can be run with the click of a button inside WUD. 4. Auto prunes the old images. 5. Can work with more than one remote Docker host endpoint. 6. Numerous notification services supported. 7. Can single-click to see image's change log. 8. Can optionally auto update docker-compose file with new image version. I demonstrate a number of these features, but I did not really go through the menus, as most settings are set using the environment and label variables in the Docker files for containers (which I do show in the video). Watch #technology #opensource #docker #selfhosting

This is a good overview of how regex works “Regex is a pattern-matching language; it's a way to expressively describe patterns that match strings (e.g., words or sentences). For example, say you're searching your hard drive for an image called foo, but you cannot remember if it's a JPEG or a PNG. Many utilities make use of regex for searching, transforming, and interacting with text.” You won't be able to just effortlessly compose your own regex after just reading the linked article, but a quick read through will at least help put it in context. It also gives a feel of what regex can be used for. The reason regex persists after many years, despite looking very confusing, is that it is very powerful. With many GUI applications, you could well find regex running in the background to perform the more complex tasks. See

How-To Geek

Boost Your Linux Terminal Productivity by Learning This Advanced Search Syntax

The fundamentals are easy and will carry you far.

#technology #regex

OpenCloud is the lightweight Nextcloud alternative that runs on anything If you are finding that NextCloud is using too many resources, and just packs way more functionality than you need just for file syncing and sharing, then OpenCloud may be the answer. You are not going to have calendar, mail, chat, etc functionality with OpenCloud, but it also does not load a bunch of other services that NextCloud requires to run. It does have file sharing with passwords and expiring access, and interestingly it handles some basic tasks like PDF viewing on the client side. So this will happily run on a Raspberry Pi. See

XDA

OpenCloud is the lightweight Nextcloud alternative I'm using that runs on anything

Looking for a lightweight, self-hosted cloud storage alternative to Nextcloud? OpenCloud is fast, minimal, and perfect for low-spec servers or solo us

#technology #opensource #filesharing

Steam's latest beta build makes gaming on Linux a breeze by enabling Proton for all titles by default Whilst you can still set a specific Proton version per title, for example maybe you want to use Proton GE, this default seems to default to Proton Experimental (from what I observed). This means all Windows games will now show as installable by default. I inadvertently tried this out about 2 days back when I installed Ships at Sea and just hit the install button. I thought it was odd at the time, as I had not set any Proton version for compatibility. Proton Experimental version is not the most stable version as it includes the latest compatibility patches, but I suppose what is nice about it, is firstly it will be the most compatible for most games, and you won't get left stuck on an older version of Proton either, as the experimental version is not fixed by any version number (it's a sort of rolling update). See

XDA

Steam's latest beta build makes gaming on Linux a breeze by enabling Proton for all titles by default

Think gaming on Linux is a pain? Think again.

#technology #gaming #Linux

You could use an M2 SSD in a PCIe adapter instead of a dedicated M2 slot on the motherboard “If you've already stuffed the slots in your motherboard full of PCIe SSDs, you might be wondering what's the best way to add more. While you could buy larger capacities and swap them out, several manufacturers make PCIe add-in cards that can add one, two, or a whole bunch of M.2 NVMe drives to your system.” This looks like a very interesting option. My mother board only has two M2 slots, but the problem is when I use one of them, that eliminates two of my SATA connectors. Plugging an M2 NVMe drive instead into a free PCIe slot, could make a lot of sense. The linked article also shows what sort of performance impact this may have versus the dedicated M2 slot. See

XDA

I tried using an M.2 SSD in a PCIe adapter instead of my motherboard, and the results were impressive

Add-in cards bring added value.

#technology #hardware #NVMe

6 Free Games With Hundreds of Hours of Content to Enjoy “With the era of $80 games upon us, free games seem more appealing than ever. But can a free game really give you as much value as something you paid for? Well, in the case of these titles, not only do they give you a ton of content, but they even outstrip many paid games in sheer value.” I've long been playing (and enjoying) War Thunder, and did not really know about Enlisted, so that may be something new for me to try out. See

How-To Geek

6 Free Games With Hundreds of Hours of Content to Enjoy

Gaming is more expensive than ever, but these free games can give you hundreds of hours of fun for no cost at all.

#technology #gaming #free

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 battery life hammered by Samsung Health Monitor app I noticed about a month or two back that my Galaxy Watch was suddenly no longer getting its two days of use out a battery charge. I do keep my watch usage quite light, and normally have the Wi-Fi off, display set to lower brightness, etc, so 2 days is usually fine. I do use watch with the Sleep For Android app that monitors sleeping heart rate etc, and that does chew about 11-12% during the night, but that has been my normal usage. I thought at first maybe it is the battery ageing, but it is not even a year old yet. But checking the battery usage stats showed that the Samsung Health Monitor app (not the standard Samsung Health app) was chewing the battery by a good 3%, higher than any other app. Rebooting had not helped either. Seeing that app is only used for ECG, sleep apnoea and blood pressure, not of which I had used for quite a while, that app should be idling with no battery usage. I tried to delete the app, but it deleted off the phone but not from the watch at all. It would also not disable properly, nor could I turn off the background usage toggle. In the end, I used the ADB command to manually delete the app. And wow, now I have a full 2 days battery use again, plus a little extra. It shows again what impact badly behaved apps have on hardware. Ideally, this app should not be using any battery power if I don’t have sleep apnoea detection active, or if its parent app on the phone is deleted. #batterylife #samsung #technology

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

OSTechNix

How To Check Disk Health In Linux: A Beginners Guide - OSTechNix

Learn how to check disk health in Linux using smartctl, badblocks, and fsck utilities. Identify failing HDDs/SSDs early and prevent data loss.

#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

XDA

How much VRAM do games really use in 2025?

How much do you actually need?

#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

OMG! Ubuntu

Denmark's Government Ditches Microsoft for Open Source

Denmark is making 'digital sovereignty' a priority, replacing Microsoft and other US big tech products with Linux and open source.

#technology #Denmark #opensource #government

@Alby 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?