MeshCore SAR – The final hurdle has been reached for MeshCore I did a post about a week back when I started investigating a possible migration from Meshtastic radio to MeshCore radio network. I won't repeat that post here, but I'll mention two issues that often came up about MeshCore, and why this is just no longer true. Myth 1: MeshCore is not open source – since about January 2026 there is an excellent fully open source mobile app called MeshCore Open. It was so impressive for me, that I've actually made it my daily driver, even though I'd paid for the official MeshCore app and the MeshOS app. Myth 2: Because it does not flood fill locations you can't use MeshCore for search and rescue (SAR), hiking, EMCOMM, etc. Well the open source MeshCore SAR app blows that out of the water now. MeshCore SAR has: Rapid mesh chat for both 1:1 and group coordination On-demand voice (Codec2) and image (AVIF) transfer tuned for low-bandwidth links Offline-first mapping with tactical overlays and SAR incident markers Live team location, movement trails, and shareable tactical drawings It goes as far as low-res image sending as well as short voice clips too It is not intended for daily use though, as it could be easy to abuse the limited duty cycle requirements in the license-free bands that MeshCore uses. I did some wardriving today using the Meshmapper app, and managed to get a line of site ping from a repeater 111 km North of Cape Town. So our testing of MashCore so far has just been green ticks all the way. See

GadgeteerZA

MeshCore SAR - The Final Hurdle Has Been Reached For MeshCore

I did a post about a week back when I started investigating a possible migration from Meshtastic radio to MeshCore radio network. I won't repe...

#emcomm #meshcore #opensource #sar #technology

MeshCore radio network in Cape Town for off-grid communications Many may be familiar with the Meshtastic network which uses cheap LoRa radios (usually linked to a mobile phone app) to send direct text messages or post text messages to a public or private group. This type of network is very useful for direct commucations with neighbours across your city. It becomes even more useful if the cellular or Internet links go down, as this works independently of them. MeshCore is a newer type of such a peer-to-peer radio network. It works in the same license-free bands, is also text based chat to friends, or to public and private channels. The same radios can be utilised that Mestastic uses, so no need to buy new hardware. MeshCore's differences come in with its more efficient network routing protocol (direct messaging follows more efficient routing paths so less traffic), it has more solid read receipt confirmations, and has up to 64 network hops (versus 7 hops for Meshtastic). By default MeshCore also does not switch on telemetry for everything, so overall there is more bandwidth for actual messaging. Meshtastic has been going for a while in Cape town and in May 2026 there are just over 216 unique Meshtastic nodes that my own radio has picked up. But since we started testing MeshCore in Cape Town this week, it has grown from 7 or so nodes to 16. We are still attrracting new users and planning a few repeater high sites so that new users will be able to connect to others across the city. If the Meshtastic high site repeater on Du Toit's Kloof mountains is switched over to MeshCore, we'll also have Worcester linked to Cape Town. I've not been on MeshCore for even a week yet, but I have switched my rooftop node over to MeshCore, and flashed it as a room server. That node now not only performs a repeater function, but also runs a small text based bulletin board where anyone can leave messages for others to read later. What we really need in Cape Town now, is a few users on higher lying ground, that can run a repeater node, to help with the coverage. One user has a spare solar powered radio node that can be used for this purpose, and is willing to lend it out for that purpose. MeshCore is not only useful for making local contact with your neighbours and fellow citizens, but it can also perform a vital role during extended communications blackouts, where these solar powered nodes will still keep communications working across the city. Cape Town's communications are generally very reliable, but just between 2025 and 2026 we've had some more rural towns that have had weather related communications blackouts of up to a week at a time (that means zero cellphones and no WhatsApp). Networks like Meshtastic and MeshCore are disaster proof as they do not rely on any central service that can go offline, nor can they be censored by government. More info about it at

GadgeteerZA

MeshCore In South Africa - GadgeteerZA

As HAMNET operators we have to consider the EMCOMM (Emergency Communications) implications for radio communication. It is a question of what will b...

#technology #radio #capetown #meshcore

Large Study Finds That Replacing Workers With AI Is Backfiring Badly “A new study from Gartner immediately caught our eye. As Fortune reports, the research and advisory firm surveyed 350 global business executives whose companies are pulling in at least $1 billion annually to investigate whether all these AI layoffs are paying off in the real world.” The bottom line right now seems to be that replacing workers with AI gives no real benefit (let's not go into those businesses that lost data by letting AI actually manage their data), and in fact a business loses a lot of experienced workers. Where AI has actually been beneficial from a business perspective, is where it was used by workers themselves to enhance their work capability. See

Futurism

Large Study Finds That Replacing Workers With AI Is Backfiring Badly

Many companies bet big on AI and laid off hundreds of employees to do so. Now, a survey reveals they're barely breaking even.

#technology #AI #workplace

With KOReader My ancient Kobo eReader is now better than a new Kindle The linked article inspired me to install KOReader on my old Kobo eReader. It was just a question of copying two files to the Kobo's root directory, and running the install.sh script there. I then also ran an update for KOReader itself once it had restarted. It was as simple as that, and the Kobo software is still on the device. I can even exit KOReader and just go back to the Kobo software as normal if I wish. It is true that the KOReader does feel very responsive, and seems better than the Kobo software. What I liked was the mass of customisation options around not only appearance and behaviour, but also all the plugins. Most surprising was the wealth of reading statistics shown from calendar view, to activity, to time per book, and a lot more. If you have a Kobo this is really well worth installing. And yes, it does beat the socks off the software that comes on any Kindle! See

How-To Geek

My ancient Kobo eReader is now better than a new Kindle

All it took was an incredibly easy "hack."

#technology #ereader #reading #Kobo

South African universities developing their own ChatGPTs that better understand local languages “From Cape Town to the Free State, local educational institutions recently announced work on language-focused AI models that better understand local languages compared to international giants like ChatGPT. On Monday, researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) announced that they had developed a new AI language model specifically trained on South Africa’s 11 official written languages.” I'm really glad to see this for two reasons: We should not just be blindly adopting a dependence on foreign owned AI tools, and secondly, we need to develop our own LLMs that can better understand the local cultures and nuances of our country. This is a practice that should be more widely adopted throughout local industry, and not just for LLMs. It enhances the innovation we have and encourages local skill building. Of course, it will also bring a lot of meaning and involve non-English language groups too. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/ai/645787-south-african-universities-developing-their-own-chatgpts.html #technology #AI #SouthAfrica

I cut $800 in subscriptions by running free tools on hardware I already owned “Subscription costs have a way of feeling invisible. You might have a cloud storage here, an AI tool there, a transcription service you barely use anymore. All of this can add up to something substantial. But if you own a mid-range GPU, there’s a good chance you’re paying for things your hardware could handle for free. I have an NVIDIA RTX 3060 (currently around $250), and last year it saved me $819.96 by allowing me to cut or downgrade four subscriptions. It wasn't by doing anything exotic, but by running free, open-source tools locally that do the same job.” I started to realise this myself, just this week, as I was experimenting with AI tools and AI image generation. I made the mistake when I upgraded my video card a few months ago, from a 6 GB VRAM card, to a 12 GB VRAM card. This was because I had a game that really wanted about 8 GB of VRAM and I reckoned that the 12 GB would give it a bit of headroom. DaVinci Resolve Studio also wanted 8 GB of VRAM for its new AI functions. Yep, I know the prices get expensive as you go higher up, but I was thinking in a gaming mode, and not what else I could use that card for. Thinking now with this other mindset I realise I should have pushed higher on my new card. Still that said, you can work efficiently with a 12 GB card, or even a bit smaller, if you don't run too many GPU intensive apps together, and you can get away with smaller more efficient AI models too. See

How-To Geek

I cut $800 in subscriptions by running free tools on hardware I already owned

4 ways my old NVIDIA GPU saved me $800 last year—and again this year

#technology #opensource #subscriptions #GPU

My First Meanderings With My Own Locally Hosted AI Tools This is by no means any form of detailed tutorial, but I did pick up a few things about locally hosted AI while I’ve been testing the last few days, so I thought I’d share some of what I’ve picked up. I did upgrade my GPU card recently to 12 GB VRAM, mainly to better accommodate a game I sometimes play and to run AI functions on DaVinci Resolve Studio, which was struggling on my previous 6 GB VRAM card. But I realised my GPU is mostly idle, and seeing my home server has no decent GPU in it, I could maybe put my GPU to some better and more useful purpose. I also realised that many AI models could fit in even 8 GB or less of VRAM. I had recently upped my Google One subscription to the AI Plus option, and wanted to see how locally hosted AI compares with that. Not only that, but I’ve been testing out that Gemini option to see if it will replace my paid Canva subscription service. TL;DR for all of this is the locally hosted AI is not quite up to the standard of Gemini AI Plus. Probably a 24 GB VRAM card would do a lot better as you can fit way bigger AI Models into it and even run more than one AI app at a time, but those cards are super pricey. As someone said recently, you either pay for the AI subscription service, or you pay for your own hardware! The full post is too long to put here, so best to read at my blog as there are various photos also inserted into the text. See

GadgeteerZA

My First Meanderings With My Own Locally Hosted AI Tools

This is by no means any form of detailed tutorial, but I did pick up a few things about locally hosted AI while I've been testing the last few...

#technology #selfhosting #AI

Google quietly fixed AirPods compatibility with Android, and the LibrePod app is all you need “It’s long been a poorly kept secret that AirPods technically work with Android phones. However, certain features have always been broken due to Apple’s disregard for Bluetooth standards. That’s finally been fixed, and an app called LibrePods unlocks the possibilities.” The actual fault though does lie with Apple as they just do not follow the Bluetooth standards. Did I ever mention I have a real hatred for Big Tech companies which try to lock out any competition? The same goes for Facebook taking open communications to get users on board, and then shutting down that access. But I digress. LibrePod is now in the Play Store and good news is it does not require root. The article also notes that all functions are available for free if you download the app from GitHub directly. See

How-To Geek

Google quietly fixed AirPods compatibility with Android, and this app is all you need

Another win for iPhone converts.

or

GitHub

GitHub - librepods-org/librepods: AirPods liberated from Apple's ecosystem.

AirPods liberated from Apple's ecosystem. Contribute to librepods-org/librepods development by creating an account on GitHub.

#technology #opensource #airpods

Stop using Cloudflare's default 1.1.1.1 DNS (changing one digit blocks malware at the router level) “Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS server is popular for its speed, reliability, and support DNS over HTTPs (DOH), which gives you some added privacy. However, 1.1.1.1 doesn't do much besides lookup IP addresses for you. If you want something that offers additional security, you should try 1.1.1.2 instead.” Many folks do use Cloudflare for their DNS and using 1.1.1.1 is the usual default (it is often better than using your own ISPs DNS) but if you do, you can notch up your security a bit by rather using 1.1.1.2. It could help prevent you from visiting a phishing link or being infected by some malware. It is a small quick change that you can make, and typically is just one small change on the home router. See

How-To Geek

Stop using Cloudflare's default 1.1.1.1 DNS (changing one digit blocks malware at the router level)

Everyone uses Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1, but 1.1.1.2 is the one that actually protects you

#technology #malware #security #DNS

Stop Guessing if Your Servers are Up: Free VPS Monitoring Guide In this video, I explore how to set up Uptime Kuma on a Free VPS using Docker Compose to create a robust, 24/7 monitoring solution for your home lab or AI applications. I dive into the practical logic of utilising free-tier cloud resources to ensure your services stay online without adding to your monthly overhead. The discussion covers the end-to-end deployment of a modern monitoring stack. I walk through my docker-compose.yaml configuration, which integrates Uptime Kuma for service availability alerts, Caddy for automatic SSL encryption, and the Beszel Agent for lightweight host metrics. Practical Tips: Best practices for managing your monitoring environment via the terminal and keeping your containers up to date. Whether you're looking to monitor a complex AI workflow or just want a reliable status page for your personal projects, this setup provides a professional-grade solution at zero cost, and that includes running from a free VPS server. Watch #technology #opensource #selfhosting #freeVPS #uptimerobot

Self-hosted Pinchflat will download YouTube videos or playlists into Jellyfin “Pinchflat can technically download individual videos, but its strength lies in archiving entire channels and playlists at a time. For starters, Pinchflat lets me add channel and playlist URLs as sources, and I can modify the indexing frequency, download cutoff days, and retention settings. On conventional YouTube downloaders, I’d have to pull new videos manually every so often, while Pinchflat can archive fresh uploads after detecting them with its indexing algorithms.” Personally I have been using TubeArchivist for this, but there are some key differences between the two: * Pinchflat acts like a “Sonarr for YouTube.” Once you set up a source (channel or playlist), it downloads the videos, names them according to your template, and saves the NFO and poster images. It uses low resources. * You install the TubeArchivist Jellyfin Plugin. This plugin talks to the TubeArchivist API to pull in metadata, thumbnails, and watches progress. TubeArchivist has its own dedicated web UI to browse your YouTube collection and is a bit heavier on resources (Requires Redis, Elasticsearch, and the App container). See

XDA

This free self-hosted app turned my Jellyfin server into a YouTube archive overnight

It would be more appropriate to say my Jellyfin library exploded

or

GitHub

GitHub - kieraneglin/pinchflat: Your next YouTube media manager

Your next YouTube media manager. Contribute to kieraneglin/pinchflat development by creating an account on GitHub.

#technology #opensource #Jellyfin

25 years later, is it time for a new iPod? “After being essentially flat for five years, Google searches for MP3 Player tripled since last fall. A Reddit group for fans of digital audio players is now attracting 90,000 visitors per week on average. And this spring, The New York Times published a trend piece on how iPods are suddenly in fashion with teenagers.” I can imagine many today want a device that plays music without distractions, and where you can buy and install your own music with it being yanked back by some streaming service. My original Apple iPod still powers up and works just fine today, and the music I had back then, is all still there. The Sleevenote integrates with online services (for purchasing music and downloading) such as bandcamp, qobuz, amazon music, beatport, bleep, and quite a few more. See

The Verge

25 years later, is it time for a new iPod?

Amid smartphone and subscription fatigue, hardware startups like Sleevenote smell an opportunity.

or

Sleevenote

Sleevenote - a new kind of music player

#technology #music

Open-source KOReader is an alternative to the default Kindle interface “Firstly, KOReader supports way more formats than the default Kindle reader. It can read EPUBs natively (no conversion required). It even loads digital comic book formats like CBZ and CBR natively, which Kindle doesn't. Office formats like DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, and HTML also work. PDF files work on both, but on KOReader you can enable text reflow to make the PDF intelligently fit the screen or even crop margins. On Kindle, extra PDF margins have always bothered me.” Actually the only thing really going for Kindles was that mass of DRM locked content that Amazon sells. When it comes to the interface and features, it really looks like Amazon has not put enough effort into the software over the years. KOReader makes a pretty good case for 3rd party apps being much better. See

How-To Geek

I put this open-source reader on my Kindle, and I wish I had done it sooner

Create your dream eReader and safeguard your library.

#technology #opensource #reading

Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit “An independent privacy audit of Microsoft, Meta, and Google web traffic in California found that the companies may be violating state regulations and racking up billions in fines. According to the audit from privacy search engine webXray, 55 percent of the sites it checked set ad cookies in a user’s browser even if they opted out of tracking. Each company disputed or took issue with the research, with Google saying it was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how its product works.” Yes, I know this is no surprise to anyone. I suppose one just hopes are many years of fines and negative feedback, there would have been some change. Other countries, like South Africa, have pretty advanced privacy protection legislation in place too, but there seems to be little evidence of South Africa actually hauling any of these companies over the coals. For example, Meta's T&Cs for WhatsApp clearly state they'll share user metadata with partners. See

404 Media

Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit

“This is the Strait of Hormuz in the data economy. If you want to make a change, this is where you cut it off. Anything short of that is theatric...

#technology #BigTech #privacy

Instead of upgrading your motherboard you may be able to use your spare PCIe x1 slot It's true that most often we just use one slot for the video card and there are another two or three empty slots waiting to be used. Such a slot can easily accept a card that will provide upgraded Wi-Fi, Ethernet ports, extra USB ports, allow mounting on NVMe drives or extra SATA drives, and more. It's not going to make your CPU faster, but it could mean not having to replace the whole motherboard and matching CPU in the shorter term. I did realise this when I wanted to install a NVMe drive a year back. Mounting a single NVMe drive on my motherboard meant giving up two of my SATA drives (their share the same data lanes), but buying an add-on card could have allowed the mounting of multiple extra NVMe drives without sacrificing my SATA drives. See

XDA

Stop ignoring your spare PCIe x1 slot — it's more useful than half the upgrades you buy

The smallest PCIe slot on your motherboard is surprisingly capable

#technology #upgrades

Immich Kiosk turns any screen into a photo display “No processing happens on the tablet, it is just a display for the image output. In fact, you won't even have much of configuration options since all of that is done through a config file. My tablet, which feels sluggish for practically everything, can handle this within the browser just fine. It loads quickly, transitions are smooth, and it doesn't crash. What else can you ask for?” Any old tablet that at least has a browser on it, can run this kiosk mode view of Immich photos, albums, people, memories, and a lot more. Good to see in the config that you can limit it to specific albums or people only, or hide specific albums or people. So the admin will just need to apply their mind to that side of things. Another alternative to this is Immich Public Proxy which requires each album to be configured and shared manually, but has the ultimate security as a result. Immich Kiosk's website also has a demo that you can try to see how it actually works. See

XDA

I turned my old tablet into an Immich-powered photo display

Transform an old tablet into a stunning photo display with Immich Kiosk.

or their project site at https://github.com/damongolding/immich-kiosk. I did a video about Immich Public Proxy at #technology #Immich #opensource

This Bicycle Bell Can Even Be Heard by People Wearing Noise-Cancelling Headphones because its 2026 “The unique Škoda DuoBell bicycle bell is a classic example of a completely analogue solution to a problem caused by digital innovation. Its ringing sound bypasses the noise-cancelling capabilities of modern headphones, which often isolate the wearer from outside noises all too well.” LOL we need new solutions to 2026 world problems. I'm wondering if cars won't also need something like this fitted. ANC headphones and ear pods are definitely becoming more prevalent. Seems the low frequency used here, is something that ANC does not easily mask. Although it is a frequency tone, bells have long been tuned for specific frequencies, so an analogue device can actually do this perfectly well. See

WIRED

This Clever Bike Bell Can Even Be Heard by People Wearing Noise-Canceling Headphones

Škoda's DuoBell is designed to avoid collisions between cyclists and pedestrians preoccupied by their podcasts.

#technology #cycling #ANC

France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, calling US tech dependence a strategic risk “The French government has decided that enough is enough. It has announced that it will shift away from proprietary technologies from outside the European Union and focus more on open-source solutions — and part of that means ditching Windows for Linux.” The South African government made the same statement in the mid-2000's but mysteriously abandoned the implementation after the success of the pilot project. Brazil, Russia, China, and some others had also committed to similar objectives and have actually been making some stead progress. So time will tell in this case too. That said, it is actually right and proper that any government should want to invest money in localised efforts and ensure the digital sovereignty of their data. From the beginning I've not been a proponent of external cloud services. Ideally a government should consolidate all its various departments onto its own platforms, or at least have them fully managed locally by local companies. See

XDA

France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, calling US tech dependence a strategic risk

The ministries have until the fall to find a solution.

#technology #France #opensource #Linux

LinkedIn secretly scans for 6,000+ Chrome extensions, collects data I initially ignored the first post about this after LinkedIn had stated it did not dispute that it detects specific browser extensions, telling BleepingComputer that the info was used to protect the platform and its users. The company also claimed the report was from someone whose account was banned for scraping LinkedIn content and violating the site's terms of use. But others have been digging deeper into this issue, and it does appear that the data collection is a lot broader than the reasons that LinkedIn gave. For example LinkedIn is scanning for over 6,000 extensions (most of which have nothing to do with scraping of data from websites), and they do this by scanning the files on the drive for those extensions, as well as collecting other data about the user's machine. It was not verified though that LinkedIn is actually sharing this data with any other parties. My own website's Matomo stats engine for example does also collect machine data (type of device, browser, pages visited, and city) but the data stays on my platform and I don't identify anyone from it. It is just worth remembering that there are some companies who do aggressively collect data and some (like Facebook) who openly state they share that with upstream providers and 3rd parties (yes you can assume data brokers). If I ever visit a Facebook page it happens in a private browser via a VPN. In LinkedIn's case I suppose we do need to remember it is owned by Microsoft, and they have an AI service. Their record around security and privacy has also not been great over time. See

BleepingComputer

LinkedIn secretly scans for 6,000+ Chrome extensions, collects data

A new report dubbed "BrowserGate" warns that Microsoft's LinkedIn is using hidden JavaScript scripts on its website to scan visitors' bro...

#technology #privacy #LinkedIn

You Should Be Using Reddit on Your RSS Reader “You may know that Reddit can be a treasure trove of useful information and opinion, and that RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a clean and straightforward way to keep up with what's happening on the web—but you might not be aware that you can combine both Reddit and RSS in numerous ways.” So yes no real news that RSS is already baked into Reddit, and that can be a cleaner way of ensuring you don't miss posts for s specific Subreddit, or a keyword search. But what I did not realise is you can also put some qualifiers on at the end of the URL to sort, limit the number of posts, filter on top posts only, etc. You can even combine two or more feeds into one. See

Lifehacker

You Should Be Using Reddit on Your RSS Reader

You can connect your favorite RSS reader to your favorite subreddits, and you should. Here's how it's done.

#technology #RSS #reddit