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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)Y

Yaky

@ Yaky @slrpnk.net

Posts
1
Comments
178
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Messaging apps - XMPP vs Matrix vs ???

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  • I hosted Matrix for several years. It mostly works fine, apps look consistent, bridges are nice, but is a pain in the ass in some aspects. Onboarding sucks. Data needs constant cleanup (or gigabytes of storage, even for a dozen users). Sometimes notifications are delayed hours. Sometimes images don't load.

    New Element Server Suite is more corporate-oriented, requires Kubernetes (!) to run, includes defacto mandatory services. Element X has no feature parity with Element Classic, especially calls.

    I ran Snikket many years ago for a few months. But now they have smooth invites/onboarding, admin panel, and always had reliable notifications. Even bridges through Slidge. I plan to switch back to Snikket soon.

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  • Why are programmers so rude to beginners?

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  • I have once heard "It is our time to make fun of them" from a software developer. He wasn't a very well-meaning person in general, bootstraps and all.

  • [@alexkrokus] Elders

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  • At a repair cafe, just saw someone with a chunky Dell Inspiron laptop that had a built-in modem and phone jack (!), which dates it to late 2000s (I believe), and I was impressed how fast Windows 10 was on it compared to newer cheap laptops.

  • I watched several videos on a Combine Harvester's inner workings

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  • When I was taught that Philo Farnsworth, a "farmer" who "invented" television by using the idea of plowing a field in parallel lines to display an image, I was completely dumbfounded. A farmer figured out how to build a vacuum tube, fire an electron beam, deflect it at phosphor-coated surface, and do so in lines, varying the intensity, to display an image? This simplistic "history" skips about 50 years of progress in vacuum tube design and absolutely fascinating mechanical television.

    On that note, The Upright Thinkers by Leonard Mlodinow is a good book about scientific progress, and really drives a point about incremental nature progress.

  • What are your technology mispredictions?

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  • When Steam first appeared (and was required to play Half-Life 2 IIRC), I thought that was a ridiculous idea to have a middle man to play a game. Well, what do I know, everyone loves Steam now (yet hates on other launchers).

  • What did you stupidly believe as a child?

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  • ... and Fjöhurs Lykkewe

    (Portlandia skit)

  • The most bizarre tech announced so far at CES 2026

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  • TBF, specifically for games, enemy behavior has been called "AI" for decades.

  • I'm there!

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  • More of a self-directed way, but check out eBird for submitting bird observations and iNaturalist for almost everything else. The cool part about iNaturalist is that your observations also get identified by other people, so you know the submissions have been reviewed. And you could help identify others' observations too.

  • What's an unpopular UI opinion you have?

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  • Unfun fact: I taught computer literacy for about a year. The students struggled to see or find the hamburger menu on many pages. Understandably so, because it literally does not look like anything.

  • What's an unpopular UI opinion you have?

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  • Google cranks this up to stupid level by changing the corner radii of active or enabled elements within the same set (e.g. pull-down quick actions on Android)

  • Apple announces more ads are coming to App Store search results

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  • Absolutely. Somehow, Apple and Google convinced people (even more tech savvy ones) to want constant app and security updates as if the world would end otherwise. I've seen complaints about gemini (the protocol not Google's AI) browser not being updated (protocol has not been updated since 2022), and someone asking if it's safe to boot up an old Android 7 phone.

    And Apple dev license consting money does not help the situation.

  • Apple announces more ads are coming to App Store search results

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  • Now up the challenge: In App Store, find a simple app that is not a "solution", "ecosystem" nor a "lifestyle", does not have ads, and does not require a subscription for basic functionality.

    (Years ago, I tried about 10 RSS readers, News Reader was what I finally found, way down the list)

  • Removed

    When both say “I love privacy”

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  • This was posted by Proton on Proton subreddit, so yeah, it's an ad.

  • WhatsApp status and channels now showing ads: Here's how to hide and manage them

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  • Snikket is an all-in-one XMPP server-client that supports calls.

    But yes, in its current state, Matrix calls are pretty broken as there is no feature parity between Element Classic and Element X apps.

  • Latin names suck

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  • IIRC the "migratorius" part is only partially true, they migrate, but relatively short distances, so their year-round range is still pretty much the entire continental US.

    They do gather into flocks in fall-winter and then split back into pairs in spring-summer, which is interesting.

  • Extreme colour change from stress

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  • Real ABS turns white/grey too, from both stress and acetone (in liquid form, vapor does not seem to discolor it).

  • What open-source Android apps should people know about?

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  • Markor - text editor that treats text files as... files. Which means they can be accessed and synced by Syncthing (for example). Very fast and reliable.

  • What's your boomer trait?

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  • Back in my day when we were leet and pwned noobs, it was gg.

    Eh, slang was always dumb and obscure. That's the point, isn't it?

  • Your old android phone is begging to be a cheap home server!

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