otter

otter , 4 days ago

Usually because resources are limited, both financial and time, so people make do with what they can.

As projects grow, and as the FOSS alternatives improve, projects can switch over.

otter , 10 days ago

I'd recommend starting with ANKI and looking up guides for that language. You might find add-ons that make it easier to use. While making your own deck is better, you can also download recommended decks to learn vocab. Otherwise there are open access textbooks and courses if you want more structured learning.

As for apps, I saw this one recently: https://simjanos-dev.github.io/LinguaCafeHome/

Other discussions right from the Duolingo community:

• https://forum.duome.eu/viewtopic.php?t=23376-we-need-a-community-driven-open-source-duolingo

• https://forum.duome.eu/viewtopic.php?p=68075-open-duolingo

otter , 10 days ago

Yep, which I think is why it's more important to see what data is being collected and stored, rather than giving up data based on how trustworthy an entity seems

If the tool doesn't collect or log the data to begin with, then there's nothing that can be stolen/taken/demanded

The solution in this case might be for Proton (and the other companies) to list out risks and data collection information along the way.

We need X in order to do Y. Read more on how Y works. Now here are some risks, and how to avoid them:

otter , 10 days ago

This browser extension "would allow Facebook users to automatically unfollow their friends, groups, and pages, and, in doing so, to effectively turn off their newsfeeds, which Facebook algorithmically sorts to drive user engagement," the Knight Institute said in a statement.

Interesting, I've been doing that manually for a while now (not Facebook though, I haven't opened that feed in years).

Here's an article from 2021:

https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/facebook-unfollow-everything-cease-desist.html

otter , 12 days ago

I wasn't sure myself honestly, thought I'd check if someone else brought it up first

I think people get super excited to share the good news that it's not a company behind it and all the benefits that come with that

otter , 12 days ago (edited 12 days ago)

I would say to just try it out and see how it is! The live USB works nicely and you can decide you don't like a distro and move on rapidly. There are also tools out there that let you load up multiple distros on the USB at once, and then pick which one to use when you boot up.

I went through my own struggles with dual booting Linux some time ago. If you search on Lemmy, you can find those embarrassing posts. It was my fault, I got confident and messed with 'grub' in all the wrong ways, before cutting my losses early and reverting everything because I had other commitments to deal with.

The good thing though is that it's totally possible to put Windows back 100% the way it was before, even after messing up as badly as I did (I couldn't boot into either operating system because the machine couldn't find the boot entry). Once you're ready to replace windows with Linux (or dual boot etc.), make a good backup with something like Macrium Reflect and you should be safe to go for it. I highly doubt you'll make the mistakes I did, the story is to say that you can mess up and be just fine!

As for your use case:

• affinity programs aren't on Linux from what I remember, you might want to experiment and see if you can run it with Wine or if you have an alternative (ex. Dual boot, different programs)
• Not sure about Davinci, comments suggest that it runs ok on Linux. I like KdenLive

As for what people recommended, and what I'm planning to try soon

• Kubuntu (if you want Ubuntu that looks similar to windows)
• Fedora (what I tried last time)
• Linux Mint

otter OP , 13 days ago

Thank you, that was helpful!

otter , 14 days ago

I love these little signs

Sadie can jump the fence, as a treat

I wonder if Sadie tries to teach the other goats

otter , 14 days ago

While leaving it behind is best for privacy, the article touches on some reasons people bring them anyway

Leaving your phone behind means the data it holds and transmits will be the safest it will ever be, but it also means giving up access to important resources. It becomes much more difficult to coordinate with others, or get updates from social media. For many, phone cameras are also the only way they can document what’s happening.

If you have access to a separate phone, whether it’s a “burner” phone, an old smartphone that you can reset, or an old-fashioned camera, you could choose to bring these devices instead of your regularly-used phone. However, not everyone has access to these devices, or can afford to purchase a separate phone just for protesting.

otter , 15 days ago (edited 15 days ago)

I might actually recommend it for anything except financials. Financials are very important to have access to, and sometimes your email address is the only way to access your account.

I want something very stable as my email address for such cases, because I don't want to risk my email alias provider shutting down, or my self hosted setup to randomly die. Or even some weird "security measure" where the bank decides that any unknown domain is no longer ok.

In such cases, I want my email address to be reliable. Email alias providers shut down from time to time, and I don't trust my skills to set up a reliable self hosted option. If my setup breaks after an upgrade, I might be out of luck till I can change my email with the banks.

Banks also have their own policies, and sometimes they make questionable decisions in the name of "security". Companies already block certain alias domains, and there are stories out there of people being locked out of their online accounts after a domain was blocked. Banks are meant to be trustworthy so they may take an even harder stance on it. They may decide to restrict the common alias domains (ex. citing that spammers use them), or even restrict personal accounts to the big email providers (ex. Gmail).

For example, some bank apps don't work on phones with a custom OS (grapheneOS). Singapore went even further with:

Local banks DBS and UOB are rolling out new anti-scam security measures that include restricting customers from accessing the banks' digital services on their mobile phones if apps from unverified app stores – also known as sideloaded apps – are detected

Ultimately it's a lot of risk for a very small reward. If you use a different password for everything (you should), then someone knowing your email still won't be able to do much. The bank itself would have way more information about you, so it's not like you're protecting yourself from the bank with a custom email.

otter , 15 days ago

Fair enough, I took some time to explain it better above :)

(See edit)

otter , 16 days ago

Your link broke, here

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81hGTaHIS3L.AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_DpWeblab.jpg

otter , 20 days ago

It would need to keep up with future changes and any security updates

otter , 20 days ago

Going by the releases, it didn't need updates that often, but it still needed updates to fix and ensure compatibility as things changed

Security wise, I think you're right

otter , 20 days ago

Hopefully the dev is doing well, and has luck with whatever he's doing now

otter , 20 days ago (edited 20 days ago)

Personally I would filter and only look at platforms that are open source and Fediverse/ActivityPub compatible. Otherwise it will suffer from similar issues as the other alternatives (centralization, lack of community/momentum, takeovers).

As long as the platform federates nicely then it really comes down to personal preference. The content and communities can grow independently :)

The platforms that come to mind for that are Lemmy, Kbin, Mbin, and Sublinks. I'm probably missing some other good ones

otter , 20 days ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misskey

My understanding is that Misskey is a lot older, from before the Fediverse and ActivityPub was a thing. It's very popular in Japan, so it might not have as much content from other places.

Firefish (formerly known as Calckey) is an actively developed fork of Misskey that hopes to add many requested community features.

So firefish was started because Misskey development slowed (or stopped?), but it has had issues recently

https://fediversereport.com/an-uncertain-future-for-firefish/

otter , 20 days ago

Looks like it's open source, but very dead

• Sorting by new gets around 1-3 posts a day, site wide

• the top post of all time was 6 years ago and it was discussing the shut down of Voat

So while they might not have recent hate speech, it seems like that's the community that started there. Sort by top all to see the context

otter OP , 23 days ago

I should have added context, my bad

https://anytype.io/

They describe themselves as an "open-source self-hosted all-in-one tool". It behaves and looks similar to Notion, and my understanding is that you can either selfhost for free or use their paid backup service

otter OP , 23 days ago (edited 23 days ago)

Part of the problem is that I don't know the extent of what people might use this kind of tool for. It's a productivity tool that has docs, calendars, databases, and other tools, but people use it in very different ways. Some people use it for documentation, some use it for course notes / planning, some use it to make dashboards, etc.

There's probably a better way to describe it that I'm not thinking of, so I might recommend checking out the website above until someone else comes along to give a better explanation.

Here's how Wikipedia describes Notion

Notion is a freemium productivity and note-taking web application developed by Notion Labs, Inc. It offers organizational tools including task management, project tracking, to-do lists, and bookmarking. Additional offline features are offered by desktop and mobile applications available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Users can create custom templates, embed videos and web content, and collaborate with others in real-time.

Anytype meanwhile is a newer open source and self hosted alternative to the above. Better for privacy etc. There's another open source project with a similar purpose called AppFlowy

otter OP , 23 days ago

You can probably use it to do similar things, but it's a different format. Everything exists in one place, so you're not using it to open and save files externally (but you might be able to export individual pages as markdown).

For example, this post today is announcing that they have implemented collaboration. Until now, people would have been using it individually for personal notes and project management.

The main function I like is being able to make objects with custom fields, which I can then add information to and sort. I haven't used it extensively yet, but I have friends that use Notion for quite a bit

otter OP , 23 days ago

I didn't use Notion much myself, but I'm hoping that AnyType and AppFlowy can implement features that Notion hasn't. That could get people to switch

What would help though is

• painless importing from Notion, for people that already built up a lot of content there

• guides on the specific changes, similar to what Windows/MacOS or Android/iOS have for people switching over

otter OP , 23 days ago

I share this criticism, it's got so many features that it gets confusing.

What I did was start with a single page, and then added more pages from that one (I think the / key should bring up options). Trying to understand everything before starting was impossible

otter OP , 23 days ago

Good note, I will edit that in

otter OP , 22 days ago

More of a productivity tool, similar to Notion if you are familiar with that. If you aren't, I tried explaining some more here: https://lemmy.ca/comment/8843380

otter , 27 days ago

What ActivityPods effectively provides are automated mechanisms. They constantly check the contents of the Solid pod, and are notified whenever a change gets made.

Let’s say you’ve just made a post with your Fediverse app: a document representing a post is written in the Pod, then a dispatch mechanism acts as the user’s outbox and sends the activity out. Meanwhile, the corresponding inbox mechanism waits for replies.

What this could mean in practice is that editing a Fediverse post may be as simple as editing a corresponding file, while a mechanism pushes out an Update activity through your Outbox to make changes on the network.

I think I need an even more higher level explanation of Solid & Solidpods, but so far that sounds cool!

Would the data still live on your instance's server or on user devices? If it's the latter, how would it work if some people have really slow connections, or lose internet all together.

otter , 27 days ago

It might be good to post about those topics in this main instance, even if those communities were made (cross posting to both). Otherwise people may not see the posts

otter , 29 days ago

This is cool! How hard would it be to have a list where you can select which icons to have. That way you can pick the FOSS apps/services that you like or are using

otter OP , 29 days ago

I agree, and I'm planning something similar for myself

Since this is for friends, and since signal backups are encrypted, I wanted to see if it was possible with existing cloud backup services that they already use

otter OP , 29 days ago

Or is their only concern switching to Signal, but the lack of backup besides on the device?

Pretty much this, they like the comfort of being able to check old messages to remember what was talked about. I'll look into deleting my files to keep backups at a manageable size

otter OP , 29 days ago

Thank you, I'll try it.

What's the difference between this and Syncthing-fork? I see both recommended in different threads

otter OP , 26 days ago

Is it possible for them to mark a specific folder for upload / backups? I think android has a similar backup option, but it's for the entire phone's contents.

otter , 1 month ago

Description: twitter with no timeline, no likes, no retweets, no buttons, nothing. just the tweets.

Notes: i made this because i wanna see tweets people link, but i don't want an account, but i have to create one to see them.

Looks cool, going to give it a try

otter , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

On android there's Lockdown mode, so everyone should look into this regardless of what phone you have. Better to look up what to do now rather than when you need it

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-use-the-android-lockdown-mode-and-why-you-should/

otter , 1 month ago

You could try one of those automation apps. I remember seeing some triggers for entering and leaving a location, and the advanced ones should be able to use wifi connections/disconnections

Whether it can change security settings though I'm not as sure about.

otter , 1 month ago

Maybe the title was changed after posting, but it's more reasonable on the actual article

“A bad TV show no one will remember in 3 months…”: Some Fallout Fans are Gatekeeping Pretty Hard after New Vegas Revelations and Retcons Send Them Over the Edge

otter , 1 month ago

Quoting the government portion

Apple declined to elaborate on the specific spyware attack since doing so could tip off the attackers about the company’s detection techniques. Still, the email references commercial surveillance provider NSO Group, an Israeli company notorious for developing the Pegasus spyware, which can sometimes hijack a smartphone simply by sending the user a single message. In the past, Pegasus has been found on phones belonging to activists, journalists, and politicians, with additional evidence pointing to governments possibly buying access to the spyware tech.

These spyware attacks can cost millions of dollars to develop. They can then expire once the software vulnerabilities they exploit are patched. As a result, commercial spyware providers and their government customers tend to deploy such attacks in a targeted fashion, rather than through mass deployment. Still, Apple’s alert underscores how pervasive commercial spyware has become, targeting users in nearly half of the world’s countries.

otter , 1 month ago

It's still relevant to this question, but I don't think the problem is the app itself. A new app likely won't help solve this problem

Cloud backups are on the way and I imagine that will help give Signal a boost

otter , 1 month ago

Honestly, this might be a good thing in that case. I didn't like when my default browser randomly changed

Ideally, this would also stop browsers (ex. Edge) from using dark patterns to try and trick you into changing to them