Nostr notes by Danie

Fairphone’s latest repairable earbuds are smaller, lighter, and ...

2026-10-14T22:00:33Z

Fairphone’s latest repairable earbuds are smaller, lighter, and longer-lasting

“The Fairbuds 2 have been redesigned from the ground up, moving to a stemmed design, available in black or green, and a case that’s 37 percent smaller than the first generation. Despite that shrinking hardware, Fairphone has almost doubled the buds’ battery life, which now totals 40 hours without active noise cancellation, with eight hours on the buds alone, dropping to six with ANC on. Charging is over USB-C, and takes a couple hours for a full top-up. Sadly Qi wireless charging isn’t supported — though it isn’t on Apple’s $129 AirPods 5 either.”

I know I've mentioned this before, and keep repeating it, but I will never forget my pretty expensive Apple AirPods dying about a month or so past their warranty date. I've since bought other brands which has lasted much longer. But I get real peace of mind if batteries can be removed so easily for replacement. These earbuds also have ANC, which is now a minimum requirement for me.

They're not going to be competing with Sennheiser or other high-end brands in terms of audiophile quality, but for most users these would be good enough, and then there is the repairability and ethical build too.

PS: It does come in black colour too!

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/fairphones-latest-repairable-earbuds-are-smaller-lighter-and-longer-lasting/
#audio #environment #technology

Strata is an alternative file manager for Linux written in Rust ...

2026-10-14T21:00:34Z

Strata is an alternative file manager for Linux written in Rust

“This file manager is written in Rust with GTK4 and released under the MIT license, with its lead developer, Pierre, announcing its first stable release a few hours ago. He claims that in 45 days, the project has picked up over 30 contributors and 700+ commits, with ~300K lines of Rust now in the codebase.”

Seems that recently so many alternative apps are coming out in Rust… I wonder why. But the real point is that new apps are also bringing fresh ideas and shaking things up a bit. This file manager has fuzzy search, navigation by arrow keys (in addition to the usual mouse stuff), a preview panel, theming, SMB support, and more.

Seems it is targeting the Arch environment, but right now maybe no AUR installation, as it offers a one line install option from CLI, or interestingly, it also gives a detailed prompt for how to get your AI agent to install it for now (sign of the times).

See or

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/strata-is-an-alternative-file-manager-for-linux-written-in-rust/
#filemanager #linux #opensource #technology

What's the criteria for "best"? Subjective or ...

2026-10-13T22:49:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…eupx
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What's the criteria for "best"? Subjective or objectively based?

2026 Kindles Have Removable Back Panels for Easy Battery ...

2026-10-13T19:36:20Z

2026 Kindles Have Removable Back Panels for Easy Battery Replacement

All I can say is, this was quite a refreshing surprise to me, where everything is going tinier and more glued and sealed up today. True, I've not yet had to ever replace a battery on one of my Kindles, and they've been running for years.

What has appeared to be a dead battery sometimes, just required a trick to kickstart it and get it charging again. But a battery is often what gives in first, so just knowing could be easier to open up and replace, does give some peace of mind.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/2026-kindles-have-removable-back-panels-for-easy-battery-replacement/
#environment #ewaste #technology

Free cybercrime and online scams helpline goes live in South ...

2026-10-13T19:00:44Z

Free cybercrime and online scams helpline goes live in South Africa

“South Africans who have been scammed, hacked, extorted or harassed online now have a free place to turn for help. The Cyber Helpline, a UK charity, has launched a 12-month pilot in South Africa with local social impact organisation MiDO Academy, funded by Amazon Web Services. The service covers a wide range of incidents, including investment and employment scams, phishing, hacked accounts, fake social media profiles, sextortion, identity theft and ransomware. It is confidential and open to anyone in South Africa aged 13 and older – but only to individuals and sole traders, not larger businesses. Victims start with a chatbot on thecyberhelpline.com, which offers immediate step-by-step guidance at any hour. If a case needs more help, it is passed to a human responder.”

To be clear, this is an advice line to help explain what happened to a victim, and what they should do. So it will include relevant referrals, and won't be doing any recoveries. Victims should probably not delay though reporting anything to their banks and the police.

This could still be very useful for individuals and small business, as they often have no idea who to turn to, or what resources are available, and what exactly must be preserved as evidence.

The other big plus is, this may also give far greater visibility to what sort of scams are actually happening, as many firstly don't make it through to the police, and secondly the police drop it into buckets like “fraud general”. We can now possibly get a clearer picture of what platforms the scams take place on, who is targeted, what the cumulative amounts involved are, etc. This not only starts pointing back to patterns around the perpetrators, but could pressurise the relevant computer platforms to take more severe action and preventative measures themselves.

Police statistics just don't go into this sort of granular detail. They do also state “The partners plan to use aggregated, anonymised case data to track emerging threats”.

This is not a government funded service, and is an AWS funded initiative for a period of a year. Hence, they are also running a Cyber Steps Challenge on BackaBuddy, as a fundraiser to try make this a more sustainable service.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/free-cybercrime-and-online-scams-helpline-goes-live-in-south-africa/
#cybercrime #scams #southafrica #technology

I have Kwallet installed that keeps my logins and keys and it ...

2026-10-12T12:15:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…wfre
_________________________

I have Kwallet installed that keeps my logins and keys and it shows keys for brave browser etc. But something is not right as the bunker login also not working even with Tor disabled on desktop app.

Private key login does work but reverts to public key on next start.

@npub1gcx…nj5z very pleased to see a desktop version. I first ...

2026-10-12T10:06:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…d9e7
_________________________

VitorPamplona (npub1gcx…nj5z) very pleased to see a desktop version. I first installed the v1.16 or so with AppImage and that accepte dmy key fine, but upgrading now to v1.18 showed this about not saving the key. Normally it goes into KWallet or somewhere.

No phone signal? LastBar will find the nearest place that has it. ...

2026-10-10T12:00:39Z

No phone signal? LastBar will find the nearest place that has it.

“LastBar is a map of where mobile phones have signal and where they do not, made by the phones of the people who use it. When you are stuck with no bars, it gives you the distance and the direction to the nearest place where your phone will work, and to the nearest water and shelter. It needs no connection to do so.”

This is an interesting South African app that is intended specifically for those who venture into areas where there is no cellphone signal coverage. This app will point you in the direction where you will most quickly find a signal, depending on which network you use. That may be nearby hill, but could be any location where signals were confirmed from. I remember being in a wilderness retreat once for a work session, and the only place you could just get a signal, was at one of the tennis courts. This app would typically point you to such a location. An emergency call can be made from any phone network, so in that type of scenario, the app will navigate you to where any phone network is reachable.

But it is more than just finding a location with a signal. The map also shows water, shelters, huts and caves, clinics and hospitals, police, fuel and peaks, from OpenStreetMap. Tap one for its address and a number to call, where there is one.

The app works without any Internet. What your phone measures shows on your own map at once, with no internet needed. Readings wait on your phone and go up by themselves when a connection returns.

It is not an open source app, but the privacy policy seems to cover all the bases with just the essential information being collected, and anonymised. There is no account that needs to be registered and your name, phone's IMEI, or SIM details are never sent either.

The free version will include ads (and we all know what that means as there will then be basic ad tracking) so the better option is to go for the paid version which excludes any adverts. It is available for both Android and iOS.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/no-phone-signal-lastbar-will-find-the-nearest-place-that-has-it/
#hiking #southafrica #technology #wilderness

You can now tell telemarkers to get lost officially in South ...

2026-10-09T15:00:38Z

You can now tell telemarkers to get lost officially in South Africa

“South Africans can register blocks against direct marketers on the government’s new National Opt-Out Registry now – not from May 2027, as the National Consumer Commission’s (NCC’s) own indicated – the commission has told TechCentral. But a block won’t stop the calls straight away.”

Is it a good sign that this actually went live earlier than expected for consumers? I hope so, and I've already registered today. There was a previous opt-out register, but that was never really very effective, but it does look like this one is being done properly now, and with the teeth to enforce it.

I'd like to see those reporting spammers, getting a share of those big fines, as in incentive to report. So often the effort is put on consumers to do all the reporting, and yet they get no benefit from the inconvenience they have experienced. But government pockets the fine money.

Let us just hope that our registration info on the portal does not get hacked as that includes full names, address, contact details, and a copy of the citizen ID document.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/you-can-now-tell-telemarkers-to-get-lost-officially-in-south-africa/
#southafrica #technology #telemarketers

Best Rolling Release Linux Distros for Every Kind of User ...

2026-10-08T15:00:57Z

Best Rolling Release Linux Distros for Every Kind of User

“Every Ubuntu or Fedora user eventually hits the same wall. The six-month update cycle stops feeling exciting and starts feeling like a chore, or worse, a two-year LTS jump breaks half your configuration in one sitting. Rolling release distributions exist because a lot of Linux users got tired of that rhythm and wanted their system to just stay current, indefinitely, without the ceremony of a version upgrade.”

“A rolling release distribution doesn’t have version numbers the way Ubuntu 24.04 or Fedora 41 do. You install it once, and from that point on, your system receives a continuous stream of package updates instead of being frozen at a snapshot and later replaced by a new one. There’s no scheduled jump from one version to the next. There’s just the same installation, continuously updated, for as long as you keep it around.”

In the beginning, there was Arch as a rolling distro. Yes Arch was not at all noob user-friendly, as sadly neither were its users. Arch has got quite a bit better in two ways. Firstly, the installer is a bit better now to use, and there are also alternative rolling distros that are a lot more friendly from the installation through to package support. Many says too, that the users of these alternative rolling distros are much friendlier as well. Now, whilst that is true of the users, actual Arch users are also a shade friendlier to new users.

Despite all of that though, the Linux kernel, is the Linux kernel, no matter what the distro is. Something that installs on distro A, can be got to install on distro J too. So no-one should break their heads over the endless choices. Linux users just love to have options and choices.

The only thing to watch out for with Linux, is using bleeding edge GIT packages from the AUR. The reason I say this is, not only have they got very new features in, they also sometimes expect the dependency packages to be just as new. This is often the case on pure Arch, but rolling distros like Manjaro, hold back the core packages for more testing, and then you may find that GIT package breaks on updating as it is being paired with “older” dependencies.

Which is why I moved (very easily I may add) from Manjaro to EndeavourOS. Endeavour lets things roll much the same way as Arch itself does.

A rolling distro is still fine, and very stable to use, if you stay away from those Git packages. An alternative is to install a Flatpak or AppImage version of an application. These install on any Linux distro, and they include all their own dependencies, so nothing can break. They use a bit more space because of that, but storage today is no longer such an issue. Think of a Flatpak or AppImage file like a Windows EXE but with the DLL and drivers all rolled inside of one file.

Usually KDE is the easiest desktop flavour to recommend as it is most similar for ex-Windows users. It sounds confusing, but Linux has a kernel at the bottom (OK, near bottom) of every distro stack. Then comes the operating system which is often differentiated by the type of package manager it uses to get package updates (the update command to run, to be blunt), and at the top is the desktop presentation layer (the GUI look and feel and how windows and menus work). Distros are merely different mixes and combinations of these. Which is why Flatpaks and AppImages work across any distro. And also why if you have KDE as the desktop, you can even install a different desktop like GNOME, and switch between them.

Rolling distros are actually perfectly safe for new users if the installer app is friendly, if one sticks to a stable version, and one stays away from Git packages.

Rolling distros are getting more popular, and back when I started on them, Manjaro was the flavour of the day as it had an easy installation process. Today the ones I hear the most about are: NixOS, CachyOS, and Garuda Linux. The last two are especially popular with gamers.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/best-rolling-release-linux-distros-for-every-kind-of-user/
#linux #opensource #technology

Someone Vibe Coded a Free and Open Source Knockoff of Adobe ...

2026-10-08T15:00:56Z

Someone Vibe Coded a Free and Open Source Knockoff of Adobe Creative Suite

“Using Claude Opus 5.5 and the programming language Rust, the creator of these apps, Atlanta-based Brandon Thomas, says he recreated Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, After Effects, and InDesign, and made them free to use. The new versions are technically called Photocraft, Vectorcraft, Filmcraft, Lightcraft, Printcraft, Effectcraft, and Designcraft. The overarching umbrella project is titled Artcraft.”

The Photocraft app (alternative to Adobe Photoshop) is a few days old on GitHub, and has been starred 23k times already. I know there is GIMP, which probably still does more than this app does, but many want a friendly and intuitive type interface. It certainly does not (yet) match Photoshop feature for feature, but it likely already has most of what any ordinary user would want to use.

It is fully compatible with Adobe's public specification for the PSD format (read that like Microsoft sticks to their own OOXML published format…). Another plus, is that it is ready for AI agent use, having an MCP server. What this means is that a graphics challenged type of user, like me, could ask my local AI agent to use that MCP server and do things for me in Photocraft.

It installs easily on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Linux has various distro version, but also Flatpak and AppImage binaries.

This is going to be very interesting…

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/someone-vibe-coded-a-free-and-open-source-knockoff-of-adobe-creative-suite/
#alternativeto #graphics #opensource #technology

Dutch tax office ditches Microsoft 365 cloud for on-premises ...

2026-10-08T13:01:09Z

Dutch tax office ditches Microsoft 365 cloud for on-premises alternative

“The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 cloud migration in favour of services hosted on infrastructure it controls, alongside European open source alternatives. Email and calendars will move on-premises in 2027, followed by storage and collaboration services later that year and in 2028.”

Yes it is not just for the technical security reasons mentioned in the linked article, as those were Microsoft decisions. Once in such a cloud service, it is very difficult to exit it again, not to mention of course there is the digital sovereignty issue that should concern every government around the world.

Be wary of market-speak that sells convenience, reduced need for own IT personnel and hardware, etc. The truth is, the cost goes up, you have less to fall back on, and your data is no longer under your (and often your country's) control. It is a bit like drugs, just don't do it at all, as it will seem nice, but it will be very difficult to get away from.

Most countries have potentially good skills they can develop, and help grow local businesses. Those investments pay off far better in the medium to longer term. These skills and businesses, in turn, help drive further growth within the country through consulting, training, etc.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/dutch-tax-office-ditches-microsoft-365-cloud-for-on-premises-alternative/

Voicebox can clone your voice from a few seconds of audio on your ...

2026-10-08T13:00:54Z

Voicebox can clone your voice from a few seconds of audio on your own PC

“Voicebox is an open-source and free-to-use voice studio created by Jamie Pine, who is the founder of Spacedrive Technology Inc. It is distributed under the MIT license, pitched as a local replacement for two paid services, including ElevenLabs for voice cloning and text-to-speech, and WisprFlow for dictation. Since it's open-source and everything runs on the hardware you own, using it doesn't require an account.”

This does a lot more than just voice cloning though, and the author describes a few other uses as well. Voice diction may also be on interest.

Linux users will have to build the software as it seems there is still no Linux binary for installation. Make sure you follow the download link from the main Voicebox webpage, as I see the linked article for some reason points to a fork which is not maintained.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/voicebox-can-clone-your-voice-from-a-few-seconds-of-audio-on-your-own-pc/
#ai #audio #opensource #technology

Map Animator makes animated route maps for travel and adventure ...

2026-10-06T20:00:53Z

Map Animator makes animated route maps for travel and adventure videos, right in your browser

“It's made for people who film their trips: motorcycle tours, cycling, hiking, road trips and sailing. Draw the route or use your GPX recording, give it a look, and get a video clip that shows where you went. Everything happens on your own computer. Your projects are stored in your browser and your videos are made in your browser, so nothing about your trips is sent to us.”

A while back when I was looking at doing some travel map animations, I noticed all the reasonably good ones seemed to be paid versions. And if you did not pay, you got very restricted features or limited resolution video output. This does not yet do “everything” but it is pretty good and usable already, and it has received quite a few updates already.

I especially like that you can add your own photos to signs, as that was something I was wanting to do.

Whilst it is not open source, it is free, no account needed, has no adverts, and runs offline in your own browser.

See the website at or the dev's video demo at

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/map-animator-makes-animated-route-maps-for-travel-and-adventure-videos-right-in-your-browser/
#technology #travel #travelanimation #videos

Honor’s Magic 9 Pro Max Has a Shotgun Mic and a 500mm Lens ...

2026-09-30T20:00:42Z

Honor’s Magic 9 Pro Max Has a Shotgun Mic and a 500mm Lens Mount

“The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max launches in China on September 28 with a directional “shotgun” microphone, ARRI cinema color, and a lens mount that takes a 500mm teleconverter. If you shoot video on your phone, the mic may matter more than its two 200MP cameras, and it hints at where flagships go next.”

Very interesting, as my last few phone decisions rested very much around the camera abilities. Most of the other stuff is pretty much the same, or there is enough of it anyway.

A 200MP 1/1.28-inch sensor, with proper stabilisation, is also very appealing.

I was just saying again, the other day, that we really need standard lens mounts across different phones, especially in the Android ecosystem. I'm not going to splash money out on a lens that only works with one phone brand. This would allow an ecosystem of 3rd party suppliers to produce lenses, and make it more worth their while. Even my last camera I bought, was a brand change from Minolta to Sony I think, because the Sony mounted the same lenses.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/honors-magic-9-pro-max-has-a-shotgun-mic-and-a-500mm-lens-mount/
#photography #technology

Veilamp is an open source music player that also streams your ...

2026-09-29T22:00:40Z

Veilamp is an open source music player that also streams your music to friends

You really have to see this cross-platform player to believe everything it does. Apart from all sorts of technical music listening tweaks, it can act as a headless music server on your own network, or you can let friends listen by sharing your friend code with them. It will also scan your network for any mDNS discovery.

It seems to use peer-to-peer connections, but bootstrapping through the Veilid network, so you don't give out any IP address. Your node joins Veilid's distributed hash table (DHT), which is spread across thousands of ordinary nodes. It's a decentralised phone book with no owner. Your node builds a private route: a chain of relay hops through other Veilid nodes that ends at you. It then gets an encrypted "route blob" describing how to enter that chain. The blob doesn't reveal your IP address.

But that's not all by a long shot: It also finds lyrics, radio stations, and podcasts.

It looks amazing by default, and has plenty of skins that can also be loaded, but what I really love, are the stereo analogue VU meters. That just reminds me of my old Hi-Fi system from way back.

It's a Winamp-inspired player with a private, peer-to-peer sharing layer where access is limited to the friends you explicitly trust.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/veilamp-is-an-open-source-music-player-that-also-streams-your-music-to-friends/
#music #opensource #privacy #technology

First for South Africa as robotic exoskeleton aids Table Mountain ...

2026-09-28T10:00:58Z

First for South Africa as robotic exoskeleton aids Table Mountain rescue

I can really sympathise with this situation as it happened to me as well a few years ago. We hiked up the mountain and planned to come down with the cable car. But many hours later by the time we reached the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway at about 4pm, it was closed (due to high winds I think). The only way down, was down Platteklip George, and that is a very steep descent. If you are over 50 or so, it hammers your knees and ankles. We only got down by 8pm, long after it was dark.

An exoskeleton could certainly make things easier. But regardless, the WSAR (Wilderness Search and Rescue) are a group of volunteers who do a tremendous job. Contact WSAR in case of emergencies on 021 937 0300.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/first-for-south-africa-as-robotic-exoskeleton-aids-table-mountain-rescue/
#capetown #southafrica #technology

Microsoft going back to its roots and breaking spreadsheet ...

2026-09-26T09:00:30Z

Microsoft going back to its roots and breaking spreadsheet compatibility

“Microsoft has ended 40 years of single-occupancy for Excel cells and is now allowing multiple values to inhabit the same home. For the time being, this capability is only available in Microsoft Excel for Windows and Mac Beta Channels. And it is opt-in.”

Which is exactly what Microsoft was accused of doing many years ago when they brought out their OOXML standard and punted it as a global standard. Very few fell for that as ODF was already the open document standard, and not owned by any corporation. But they would keep tinkering with things behind the scenes so that if anyone tried to use OOXML, it would still break in practice as features were not supported. This would happen a lot with MS Word where especially all the formatting and layout would often not be the same.

I remember this happening with a South African charity who had to provide business plans to a Department of Social Development. Being a charity, and not having unlimited taxpayer funds, that charity was using a free alternative called OpenOffice, and working in ODF format (which by the way, was the only officially approved document format for that government), but the business plan's template did not load as the Department had designed it using MS Word. Did the Department redesign it into the compliant standard? No, they told the charity to go and buy MS Word!

This was why open document standards were created, and also approved by many governments around the world. It was to reduce the cost of ownership (can use the free software), and to improve interoperability and freedoms of choice.

The correct way to do it, is to propose the change to the standards body, and get it voted on or amended, and then it goes live after approval, giving all other providers a chance to implement it as well so that compatibility works.

It just goes to show that Microsoft still acts the same underneath, despite the PR. It is probably not going to bother me really in 2026, as I'd just respond that the spreadsheet is broken. What bothers me more is Microsoft's attitude and approach to changes like this. Certainly, there could be some good reason for going with this change, but then let's do that process correctly and be good neighbours to each other.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/microsoft-going-back-to-its-roots-and-breaking-spreadsheet-compatibility/
#microsoft #openstandards #technology

F-Droid’s Android open-source app store has been rebuilt from ...

2026-09-25T10:00:32Z

F-Droid’s Android open-source app store has been rebuilt from the ground up

“Virtually every Android device comes with the Play Store preloaded, but there are other ways to get apps. F-Droid bills itself as a community-driven source for free and open source Android apps, but its official app store has gone 10 years without a major update. That’s finally changing: After a multiyear effort, the team has just announced F-Droid 2.0 is rolling out. The new F-Droid client was redesigned from scratch in Kotlin Compose, which is the standard for modern Android apps. This makes the store much more responsive, and there’s optional support for Android’s Material theming. The interface has also been cleaned up considerably, making the most important functions easier to access and hiding some others in overflow menus.”

I've been using F-Droid, along with Obtainium, for a long time. Many open-source apps are not at all on the official Android play store.

F-Droid fetches the public git/mercurial source code for an app, strips out non-free dependencies (like proprietary tracking, ads, or Google Play Services binaries), and compiles the APK on its build servers. Because F-Droid compiles the binaries itself, the resulting APKs are typically signed with F-Droid's cryptographic key rather than the app developer's key.

But this does guarantee that the app you download and install, is true to the published source code. Nothing of course is perfect, but we have seen numerous times that problematic apps have even appeared on both the Android and Apple play stores. So let no-one cast stones from their glass houses.

The reason I have returned twice to Android, is because of the freedoms of being able to install open source software without limitations. It bugs me that both Apple and Google go out of their way to control and monetise apps for the platforms. Imagine if Linux imposed such restrictions? Basically everything installed on Linux is “sideloaded” and guess what, my Linux has been working fine for decades (Better than my wife's Windows has been struggling along).

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/f-droids-android-open-source-app-store-has-been-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up/
#android #fdroid #opensource #technology

OSS Document Scanner is an open source mobile app to scan ...

2026-09-22T18:00:46Z

OSS Document Scanner is an open source mobile app to scan documents to PDF

This mobile app does largely what Adobe PDF Scan or similar apps do, but your scans stay private and offline.

It runs on Android and iOS, with the Android app being available from a variety of sources. It is open source without ads or tracking. It has been translated into 40 languages already.

Features include scanning, document enhancement functions, PDF export, auto edge detection and OCR support. Not only that, but it can also optionally sync via WebDAV to your own cloud storage such as Nextcloud.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/oss-document-scanner-is-an-open-source-mobile-app-to-scan-documents-to-pdf/
#documents #opensource #privacy #technology

Grist is an open source self-hosted spreadsheet with a database ...

2026-09-20T19:00:59Z

Grist is an open source self-hosted spreadsheet with a database hiding underneath

“Grist is a relational spreadsheet-database app that I can host on my own server. When I first tried it, it felt familiar because the basic idea is still the same: I get rows, columns, cells, and tables that I can use to organise information. I came across Grist while looking for something that could replace the spreadsheets I use for everyday work. I mainly wanted a simple way to create tables, organise information, and keep track of things without dealing with a complicated interface. The first thing I noticed was that Grist doesn't try to make spreadsheets feel completely different. I can start with a blank document, add columns, enter information, and use formulas just like I would in a regular spreadsheet.”

I remember way back when the first spreadsheets appeared, many would try to make them work like databases. But the fact is if you have a lot of data, and it needs to reference other data (relational) and be updated, an actual database was usually more robust. Sorting partial columns by mistake in a spreadsheet can completely mess up your data (versus using proper indexes).

So this looks like a pretty good idea. Apart from the database aspect, this can always be available as it does not depend on access to some else's cloud, and it stays private. It is also accessed via a browser so you need not install anything on your devices, and can work on it from anywhere.

See or

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/grist-is-an-open-source-self-hosted-spreadsheet-with-a-database-hiding-underneath/
#opensource #privacy #selfhosting #spreadsheets #technology

OpenCode is an open source alternative to Claude Code OpenCode is ...

2026-09-16T19:00:37Z

OpenCode is an open source alternative to Claude Code

OpenCode is an open source agent that helps you write and run code with any AI model, including free (for now although the free tier uses a limited subset of backend models including Big Pickle) use of its own OpenCode Zen model. It's available as a terminal-based interface, desktop app, or IDE extension.

So OpenCode is similar to Claude Code in that it has agentic abilities, MCP servers, etc. Their Zen model is interesting. You connect to it (so no download or local GPU really required) and it is a curated set of AI models tested and benchmarked for coding agents created by the team behind OpenCode.

OpenCode passes whatever costs are involved in using Zen, straight through without any markup. However, to cover costs, OpenCode adds only a small payment processing fee of $1.23 per $20 balance top-up. The models being used are optimised for coding ability.

What Zen's real offering is, you are paying this one entity, to pool funds, and get access to various backend models, which would normally be separate subscriptions on their own. You could also connect your own front end AI to the Zen service as well.

With over 195,000 GitHub stars, 950 contributors, and over 13,000 commits, OpenCode is used and trusted by over 16 million developers every month. So this is no small project. That said, it is really for coding and technical troubleshooting, and not really for use as a chat service.

See or

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/opencode-is-an-open-source-alternative-to-claude-code/
#ai #opensource #programming #technology

AI Efficiency Could Cost Us the Next Generation of Experts This ...

2026-09-15T11:57:20Z

AI Efficiency Could Cost Us the Next Generation of Experts

This is a very though-provoking that applies much wider than just AI. In fact, its origins go back to long before AI was even around. It is applicable to whenever automation is involved with humans. The problem with humans is they get lazy, and they lose muscle memory over time, and it is even worse if they never gained the muscle memory in the first place.

Examples given are a nuclear power station where, despite the possibility of fully automated processes, humans are deliberately kept in the loop to perform approval and manual processes. This was to keep them current and to practice what they need to do.

The other example was the Air France flight 447 accident which could have been prevented if the humans in the cockpit were not so accustomed to flying on autopilot for years, and they could have still assessed what went wrong using their manual flight skills.

It really brings to the foreground some of the inherent issues we have with humans, and how these can manifest themselves when humans work with, or let AI do their work for them.

The real meat of the article though, is the long term effects, and how junior engineers become senior engineers through hard effort, diagnosing and understanding problems, and struggling for hours to fix something. Most of today's senior engineers and designers went through these stages when they started out as junior engineers. This learning process is vital to later growth and success in most field. What I learnt this way in the 1990s, I still applied many decades later, even with newer technology, as I understood how the fundamentals fitted together and interacted together.

We've already seen signs of this reality with studies about students using AI and where, without the AI in exams, they actually score lower than students who did their studying without AI. Of course there are always exceptions to this, and it is certainly not that AI is just all bad, but it is how we use AI with humans that is important.

Another study I have quoted before, also showed that organisations fared economically better when AI was overseen by humans using it, versus organisations trying to just replace humans with AI.

What is becoming clear, is there is nothing wrong with AI, and it will be part of our future just like telephones are, but we need to think about AI's usage alongside humans to ensure a good future for both. It is no good, in 20 years time when today's senior engineers are due to retire, to then wake up and realise we don't have any suitable senior engineers to replace them.

It also brings home what I have preached before about just outsourcing everything to an external cloud provider. The organisation loses all its ability to deeply evaluate and quality assure any cloud provider because they have lost their own internal skills. If you ever want to withdraw from that external cloud provider, they have nothing to fall back on.

It all comes down to the same final argument in the linked article: “Deliberate inefficiency is not waste. In safety-critical engineering we have always known it as insurance, and we buy it on purpose”.

The linked article is really well worth reading, and should be part of any AI awareness training for senior management. Just looking too at some humans who have committed suicide based on “advice from their AI therapists” we humans have our own failings, and we need to consider how we use and interact with AI to harness it successfully into the future. This is probably going to be really fertile ground for doctoral thesis in the coming years.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/ai-efficiency-could-cost-us-the-next-generation-of-experts/
#ai #skills #technology

Immurok Fingerprint Key Unlocks Linux, Approves SSH and AI Agents ...

2026-09-12T20:00:33Z

Immurok Fingerprint Key Unlocks Linux, Approves SSH and AI Agents

“It is a tiny wireless box that can unlock your desktop session, approve a sudo command, authenticate via polkit, log you into a server over SSH, generate TOTP codes for 2FA, and put a physical touch in front of an AI coding agent. And it does all of that with the same finger, over Bluetooth. The good news is that the core features work. The less good news is that on Linux, getting there was not as simple as touching a sensor.”

So, yes no ready to use graphical interface like Windows, and macOS users get, but it can be setup and got to work, and after that it seems pretty seamless.

You always have your passwords to fall back to, if you leave your finger behind or lose it somewhere.

It is a Kickstarter project, but good to see there is a working review unit, so it is not vaporware.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/immurok-fingerprint-key-unlocks-linux-approves-ssh-and-ai-agents/
#linux #security #technology

Australians Could Soon Opt Out of Social Media Algorithms ...

2026-09-09T21:00:43Z

Australians Could Soon Opt Out of Social Media Algorithms Altogether

“The Australian government is proposing to give social media users the option to switch off the default algorithmic feed, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday. Under the draft legislation, “Digital Duty of Care”, users could opt to see only posts from the people they follow on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, instead of what the algorithm curates for them personally.”

Now this really does make sense for quite a few reasons:

It would go a long way to cutting down on the social media “doom-scrolling” addition that many users have.

It is a cleaner feed which is more relevant to users wanting to follow family or friends.

It is an easy measure to hold Big Tech accountable for.

Most importantly too it should cut down on many viral posts with misinformation etc, as the user should actually not see those being inserted into the feed.

This indirectly also reduces the spread of viral misinformation, as they can't take root across all users' feeds anymore.

It's not going to stop adverts being served, nor metadata being harvested by Big Tech (nor the sharing of that data to data brokers or “partners”). For this, you still want to rather move off to decentralised and federated types of social media.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/australians-could-soon-opt-out-of-social-media-algorithms-altogether/
#doomscrolling #socialmedia #technology

I discovered KDE’s hidden superpowers after installing these 3 ...

2026-09-08T15:00:23Z

I discovered KDE’s hidden superpowers after installing these 3 open-source utilities

“If you've been in the Linux space for a while, you know just how customisable KDE Plasma can be. However, a lot of us only limit that customisation to picking the theme or moving the panel. What surprises me is how many plug-in surfaces Plasma exposes that I barely even touched. On top of that, they sit right next to the Plasma features you probably use daily. Well, the timing is perfect because Plasma 6.7 just arrived back in June 2026. When 6.8 comes out, it's going to drop support for X11 and become Wayland-exclusive. So, all the tools I've picked for this work on Wayland.”

I've been on Plasma KDE for a long time now, because I'm very happy with it, and love the customisation as well as some of the power apps that come with KDE.

But even I forget that things progress and newer apps and features come along. What quite impressed me in this article, was the Panel Colorizer. It really overlays and skins your existing panel so you don't need to configure anything new. You just get to make it look quite stunning and visually appealing. As oner commenter said, Plasma is a never ending journey of discovery. There is always more you can explore and do with it.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/i-discovered-kdes-hidden-superpowers-after-installing-these-3-open-source-utilities/
#kde #opensource #plasma #technology

Kept is an open-source self-hosted alternative to Google Keep ...

2026-09-06T20:00:20Z

Kept is an open-source self-hosted alternative to Google Keep notes

It looks and feels like Google Keep notes, but is private and tracker-free. It has some extra features too, such as location notifications, CalDAV integrations, collaborative editing, file attachments, etc.

Kept is designed for people who love fast, low-friction note capture. Whether you need a quick checklist, a drawing, or a simple text note, Kept makes it effortless to jot things down and organise them visually with colours and labels.

I imported over 500 of my notes form Google Keep, using Kept's import tool, and they came across exactly as I used them in Keep with same colours, labels, images, and pinned status.

You can host it in Docker on a virtual private server or your desktop, or using the Railway hosting service. Mobile apps are available on iOS and Android, or as a Progressive Web App (PWA).

Watch my video at

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/kept-is-an-open-source-self-hosted-alternative-to-google-keep-notes/
#notes #opensource #selfhosting #technology

“I’m Not Dead Yet!” Reverse Polish Notation Calculators You ...

2026-09-02T18:00:11Z

“I’m Not Dead Yet!” Reverse Polish Notation Calculators You Can Still Buy

“RPN isn’t exactly the way people calculate with pencil and paper, and it certainly wasn’t derived from the slide rule, but there is a similarity in the way you work. With a slide rule, you generally establish some value, operate on it, and continue from the result. When doing a long-hand calculation, you often calculate a subexpression, write down the answer, and use that answer in the next step. You will probably start with the inner parenthesis and work outward, just like someone with an RPN calculator does. RPN formalises that process with a stack.”

I still have my HP41CV, and it still works well 40 years on. RPN is actually a highly effective way of doing complex calculations. Once it is understood, it is quite intuitive. My HP41CV was RPN-only, so I got very used to using it.

It is good to see there are still options available to buy, and I did not know about the Linux AppImage for HP Prime Virtual Calculator. Neither had I seen the CalcTastic Android app — must say it works very nicely, and I do love the many theme options.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/im-not-dead-yet-reverse-polish-notation-calculators-you-can-still-buy/
#calculators #rpn #technology

yes that would take it to a whole different level, but the ...

2026-09-01T14:14:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…m4kr
_________________________

yes that would take it to a whole different level, but the intention with tethering was not automation per se, and more mirroring I think. I suppose though, it could be a link in an automation chain though.

Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux ...

2026-08-31T20:00:38Z

Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux

“Continuity. That is Apple's catch-all term for how iPhone, iPad, and Mac talk to each other. It covers a wide range of small conveniences. Copy something on the iPhone and paste it on the Mac. Start an email on one device and finish it on another. Take a call from the Mac even when the phone is across the room. But, to no one's surprise, there's a gap in its support. It doesn't officially work on Linux. So Zack built Tether, an open source project that replicates pieces of that experience on Linux without requiring a Mac device.”

Yes there is KDE Connect, but apparently Tether goes a bit deeper than that for Apple. So this may be interesting for Apple users to try out with Linux.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/tether-brings-the-apple-continuity-experience-to-linux/
#ios #opensource #technology

Could flipping Raise wrist to wake and Always On Display (AOD) ...

2026-08-31T15:00:38Z

Could flipping Raise wrist to wake and Always On Display (AOD) improve battery life?

This is an interesting option to try (I have a Pebble watch, so battery life is not an issue). The theory is that raising the wrist normally kicks the full CPU on to check time, and that probably triggers quite a bit when you don't want it to.

Turing off the raise wrist activation, but also enabling AOD, could result in less battery usage.

I suppose this may differ between watches and people, so it is something one needs to try and see what difference it makes. The theory could make sense though.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/could-flipping-raise-wrist-to-wake-and-always-on-display-aod-improve-battery-life/
#batterylife #technology

Scientist learns in front of peers why we cannot trust AI Blindly ...

2026-08-29T17:00:37Z

Scientist learns in front of peers why we cannot trust AI Blindly

“Sutter’s cringe-inducing tale perfectly illustrates how many users of AI tools are putting themselves at risk without knowing it, including in the most rarefied echelons of academia. The science world has been inundated with poorly-researched and often unedited AI slop, a major reckoning forcing academics to be responsible for everything they publish — including any potentially embarrassing hallucinations.”

Don't get me wrong here, AI can be extremely useful, but its usefulness comes when it is overseen by humans. You cannot just sit back and assume AI is correct. It does often hallucinate, and needs savvy contextual checking by humans.

Businesses that just let agentic AI loose, have a good chance of failing. In April 2026, the software company PocketOS lost its entire production database and backups after an AI coding agent named Cursor, powered by Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, autonomously deleted the data in nine seconds. When employing AI, you want to ensure you do have experienced humans watching over it. I still prefer to read the outputs and then manually click allow, before letting AI just update things itself. My AI also has a standing instruction to always back up any file before it makes changes.

It's quite true that AI is little more than a sophisticated next-word predictor. It appears to be very clever, and it wants to please you, but it has no real intelligence despite what marketers of AI tell to CEOs.

Don't discount AI either though, as a person using their savvy with AI and who has some experience of what is being performed, is a lot more effective than someone just not using AI at all today. So I would never ridicule anyone using AI, as it is where the future is going to be, they just need to be cautious as to how it is applied.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/scientist-learns-in-front-of-peers-why-we-cannot-trust-ai-blindly/
#ai #technology

HAMgpt Launches as a Personal AI Copilot Built Specifically for ...

2026-08-28T21:00:36Z

HAMgpt Launches as a Personal AI Copilot Built Specifically for Amateur Radio

“Unlike a general-purpose chatbot, HAMgpt is built around the real operating situation of each ham. It can take into account the operator's license class, country, grid square, radios, antennas and operating history, then combine that station profile with live propagation, space weather, DX activity and current on-air conditions.”

This is quite interesting as it is not just a rebranded chatbot, it actually checks the various live reporting sites that many ham operators use. Just a lot quicker and more broadly, and applies that to the specific operators circumstances. HAMgpt is designed to work like a personal digital Elmer that already knows the operator's station.

It appears otherwise to look like any AI chatbot, so plain English queries work perfectly, making it easy for non-technical users too.

There is a free tier with five AI queries per day, but it does require registering an account.

See or

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/hamgpt-launches-as-a-personal-ai-copilot-built-specifically-for-amateur-radio/
#ai #amateurradio #hamradio #technology

Image Toolbox is an open source Android app for social media ...

2026-08-28T21:00:27Z

Image Toolbox is an open source Android app for social media creators

“For you, as a content creator, the tools that matter the most are batch processing, format conversion, the 61 built-in export presets sized for platforms like Instagram, X, and YouTube, background removal, and watermarking. The latter, background removal, comes in both automatic and manual modes, with a choice of models including MlKit, U2Net, RMBG, and BiRefNet.”

It has many such tools, and is available both on the official Play Store (published by ProgiX), but also on the F-Droid store.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/image-toolbox-is-an-open-source-android-app-for-social-media-creators/
#contentcreation #opensource #socialmedia #technology

The Days Of Broadcast Digital TV Could Be Numbered “When the ...

2026-08-26T18:00:27Z

The Days Of Broadcast Digital TV Could Be Numbered

“When the analogue TV signals were turned off in most places around fifteen years ago, their replacement took the form of a set of digital multiplexes. ATSC for North America, and DVB-T for Europe and other places. This would deliver a multichannel broadcasting solution for the future, and this would be how those not on a cable would consume their telly. It’s a surprise then to find that some governments are already looking at turning off digital TV broadcasting, with the UK in particular wanting to put a date on the switch-off of 2032.”

It always seems bad when radio rolls backwards as it is the ideal medium for disasters and emergencies, but despite that, the trend amongst consumers today is less broadcast TV (having migrated to cable TV, Internet streaming, YouTube) and the same often for audio FM broadcast radio (I listen to podcasts in the car and never the radio, whilst others listen to Facebook).

But actually despite that, radio is still actively used across police, emergency services, ambulances, etc for speed and reliability, especially when teams and groups need to coordinate. One could say something like WhatsApp or Zello could be used, but they aren't used as a primary communications tool in these teams. The problem is apart from the Internet going off for any short periods, phones must have data, users must have apps installed, they must have phones available, etc. And everything short range with phones must travel via that app provider and the phone network (data). Disaster events generally also mean congested phone and SMS networks, delaying those mediums of communication.

Radio bypasses all of that. Most radios don't rely on a network (apart from maybe trunk radio), don't rely on data expiring or being bought, they work instantly at the press of a button, and the devices are provided by the employer, which sets the standard for what will be used by all in the team.

It's why, as much as ham radio operators also have lots of digital modes and satellites etc, we still also rely on the faithful fallback of VHF and HF phone radio — it just works across all users everywhere as it is the one thing all operators have, and were licensed to use.

Given Oudtshoorn's (in South Africa) recent 4 to 5 days without power, it is not a given that power will just stay on at all times. In any disaster there is a chance that power as well as the Internet (along with VoIP phones and Microsoft OneDrive) go offline. Disaster and emergency personnel will still be using their radios and keeping essential communications alive as their initial response.

If those radio networks also start to fail due to extended outages, we as ham radio operators will be responsible for re-establishing communications locally and further afield, using our “fallback radios” and our communications savvy to “make it work”.

And on the topic of traditional radio, I can say now that Cape Town has over 180 MeshCore radio nodes across the city, and many of them operated by ordinary citizens without any radio knowledge. MeshCore links Cape Town to Worcester in the East, and up to Saldanha and past Piketberg 160 km to the North. It is fostering good relations across suburbs where no-one was even aware of the other person before. This has a backbone of solar-powered repeaters that will survive any extended power outage no matter how long it lasts. It is all pure radio without any Internet required.

When everything else needs a network, radio is the network. Or as HAMNET says: “When all else fails, amateur radio will not fail”.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/the-days-of-broadcast-digital-tv-could-be-numbered/
#disasters #radio #technology

Quest VR Headset Becomes Unlocked Hardware “The Quest virtual ...

2026-08-26T18:00:27Z

Quest VR Headset Becomes Unlocked Hardware

“The Quest virtual reality headset gets a fully unlocked bootloader thanks to the QuestStack tool, which automates a complex process of privilege escalation to provide stable, privileged access to the hardware. This solidly frees the headset from its existence as a device tied to Meta’s walled garden, although the tool only works on the Quest 1.”

I was on the point on buying one of these back in the day but was not at all keen on Meta owning them (of all the IT companies on Earth). But I'm glad it is open as it can at least be experimented with now, and there is freedom to use it in other possible ways. Interesting innovations may come of this.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/quest-vr-headset-becomes-unlocked-hardware/
#technology #vr

I tested out the new Elecrow ThinkNode M9 with MeshCore ...

2026-08-25T20:00:49Z

I tested out the new Elecrow ThinkNode M9 with MeshCore Decentralised Radio Network

For those who don't know, MeshCore (similar to Meshtastic and same hardware LoRa radios) is a decentralised radio network that runs in the license free bands. It's a great way of being in contact with neighbouring suburbs and towns. I Cape Town we have just passed 180 to 190 nodes (chat and repeaters) and it stretches oof to the East over the mountain to Worcester, and Northwards about 167 km to Saldanha and other side of Picketberg.

I just bought this newly launched Blackberry style device to use on the network. It is similar, but slightly different to the LilyGO T-Deck. It does some impressive stuff, I tried a few firmwares out on it, and there are some pros and cons to using an all-in-one device like this.

I've settled on using the free and open source WADAMESH firmware, and it has quite blown me away with all it can do.

There is a lot of info, as well as screen photos, that I wanted to share so it is best to view it all on my website at the link below. There is also an additional link on that page, to tips on using WADAMESH specifically on the M9.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/i-tested-out-the-new-elecrow-thinknode-m9-with-meshcore-decentralised-radio-network/
#meshcore #opensource #technology #thinknodem9

You're proposing a whole different solution which is not what ...

2026-08-22T18:12:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…dz0r
_________________________

You're proposing a whole different solution which is not what I'm looking for. Jellyfin works perfectly well, and I use front ends like Music Assistant and Navidrome in front of it, as well as Android apps that source the music from Jellyfin. It is already all self-contained.

Is it going to work in my Jellyfin library and set the playlists?

2026-08-22T18:02:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…4nw7
_________________________

Is it going to work in my Jellyfin library and set the playlists?

Jellyfin Playlist Membership — Easily browse Jellyfin Music ...

2026-08-22T16:00:39Z

Jellyfin Playlist Membership — Easily browse Jellyfin Music song titles to add or remove from playlists

I wanted to quickly see which of my song titles are already in which playlists, and to quickly add them to other playlists or remove them etc. There is just no view that does this inside Jellyfin, and neither in Music Assistant nor Navidrome. You can do it by opening and closing each one, but that is very messy and time-consuming.

I iterated through something with Claude Code to create a simple HTML file that allows me to do this much quicker and slicker now. It also has some sort functionality, and you can play a track to hear it, and even delete it from your library to clean things up. As I have multiple folders on Jellyfin Music that separate radio shows, there is also an option filter for folders at the top of the screen.

Hopefully this helps others who have had a similar challenge and wondered why this was not a built-in feature.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/jellyfin-playlist-membership-easily-browse-jellyfin-music-song-titles-to-add-or-remove-from-playlists/
#jellyfin #music #opensource #technology

Moving your Linux home folder to a dedicated drive is the ...

2026-08-19T19:00:40Z

Moving your Linux home folder to a dedicated drive is the distro-hopping secret I wish I knew earlier

“Home is where the heart is. On Linux, home is where everything personal to you is: your documents, downloads, screenshots, and configuration. In fact, your home is so special, you really ought to be showing it a bit more love. When you first installed Linux, you might’ve overlooked the option to use a custom disk setup—and nobody would blame you for doing so. But take your time to understand the benefits, and a highly portable, easily upgradable system is yours for the taking.”

Although I've stopped distro hopping, I did still move earlier this year from Manjaro to EndeavourOS. It was completely painless seeing I've long had my home folder on a separate hard drive (although a separate partition is also fine).

The key reasons are:

No worry about overwriting your important documents, settings etc when installing a new Linux distro as /home is physically separated.

Can test new distro with a separate / root with your data.

I have a higher speed NVMe boot drive whilst my /home folder sits on a bigger slower hard drive.

It is really well worth setting up.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/moving-your-linux-home-folder-to-a-dedicated-drive-is-the-distro-hopping-secret-i-wish-i-knew-earlier/
#linux #technology

The Powerful Chinese AI Model Experts Warned About Is Here The ...

2026-08-18T20:00:58Z

The Powerful Chinese AI Model Experts Warned About Is Here

The “best” model is not always the “best” model for you. Why I say this, is because Z.ai's model is still outperformed in some dimensions by proprietary models from Anthropic for example. But can you afford to actually use that top end “best of the best” model?

Very usually you cannot afford them. Now consider that the new model for Z.ai is only a few percentage points (depending on what benchmarks you look at) behind Anthropic's Fable 5, but the cost is only 25% of the cost. You end up with a situation, that what you can afford through Z.ai is way better than you'll get from Anthropic or OpenAI (given like for like payment).

I have not done in-depth testing between Claude Pro and Z.ai, but I have thrown some similar challenges to both, and I got pretty good answers from them both. The difference is I'm on the free tier of Z.ai yest I have some access to their current flagship GLM-5.2 model (5.3 is only being released in a week or two), whilst on the Pro level paid Claude subscription, I'm locked out from using their flagship Fable 5 model unless I pay usage credits over and above my subscription.

It also does not seem that the proprietary US based models are fully private either. Someone was recently prosecuted after their AI model chat history was produced as evidence. We have also seen that some API keys and other information got recycled as output to others. The advice has been to not feed private notes and documents with API keys and secrets to cloud based models. All I'm saying here is that privacy is also not some feature separating proprietary AI Models from open weight models.

The very nature of how AI models are trained, means they have all “stolen” information from various sources across the Internet. None of them can claim to be fully self-taught without any hint of theft.

There is a lot depending on the future of AI, some say that can be as much as a country's entire economy being at stake. So lots of money and high stakes, as well as the weaponisation of AI, means this is becoming a lot like politics. Who can you believe is telling the truth, who is trying to sell us vapourware, who could be spying on us through AI, who could pull the rug out from under us, etc?

Either ways though, we should be thankful for two things:

There is right now no “Microsoft” of AI totally dominating the market, so we are seeing healthy and credible competition.

There is certainly the ability to self-host AI, not to the level of the big cloud providers, but certainly fit for most purposes and fully private.

But given that, it is a difficult call to make, and to decide decisively which path to take. Where do you bet your money, as a lot of customisation and work goes into adopting whichever technology you choose? Or do you take the slower more focussed middle road of trying to enable some in-house hosting and skills development. In the latter case, you build incrementally upon what you do, and there is no sudden rug pulling out from under you.

Personally, I've always been a proponent of the latter path, rather being in more control of what is built and ensuring absolute privacy. I've viewed Big Tech cloud services as land grabs and lock-ins. Yes they're convenient, they're quick, and they cost less in the short term, but that turns against you later on as your data is no longer under your control, getting it out later is very expensive and not easy, and the vendor lock-in and cost increases are very real.

Which is why my own cloud subscription is only paid month-to-month. I'm ready to switch or go fully self-hosted once I can get a more mature setup. Businesses don't always have that luxury though.

What I would bet on though, is that AI is here to stay. It is no passing fad. It is the same as moving from steam power to internal combustion engines. The world is moving on, and it is now just a question of which wave we ride, and how it helps leverage whatever we do. We're not going every going back to an age of no cellphones, no Internet, etc, much as I may sometimes wish we could.

Yet, the more digitally instant and interconnected everything becomes, I realise too how very little we own in that world, and how it can be gone in the blink of an eye. I still fear this generation may lose the most of its heritage in the future millennia. Our innovation has outstripped our abilities to preserve the volumes of data we are creating daily. In the year 3030 or 4030, if humans are even still around, they may know more about Ancient Rome than from 2026. I'm not speaking here about Wikipedia, I'm speaking about my and your hard drives at home, and in hundreds of millions of other homes, all collecting documents, photos, memories… They're all going to become lost to civilisation within just 50 to 80 years. Clouds are also not the answer, as they do shut down eventually, and memorialised accounts just get lost.

So who knows, maybe our data being sucked up (stolen) by AI, means it somehow grows and prospers on deeply embedded inside of AI, as it gets “restolen” between different AI providers

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/the-powerful-chinese-ai-model-experts-warned-about-is-here/
#ai #archiving #technology

Open Source Caving: 20 Years of Making Cave Mapping Tools “In ...

2026-08-18T18:01:06Z

Open Source Caving: 20 Years of Making Cave Mapping Tools

“In his talk Open Source Caving: 20 Years of Making Cave Mapping Tools at Hackaday Europe 2026, Phil takes us through a series of progressively more advanced open hardware devices that he’s designed to increase the speed and accuracy of underground mapping efforts. Along the way, he’s learned a number of valuable lessons about designing hardware that’s robust enough to handle the uniquely challenging environment underground while still being accessible enough for a hobbyist to build and use.”

Interesting, and entertaining, to listen to this talk about the progression of the technology being used. So true too that these environments require dustproof, shockproof, and waterproof devices. And of course all being open source, means anyone can reproduce it and improve it too.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/open-source-caving-20-years-of-making-cave-mapping-tools/
#caving #opensource #technology