neblem 3 days ago • 100%
If it survives a month you can buy another $500 clunker instead of losing the same to a new car loan, though they are far more rare these days (the example clunker typically now costs closer to $2-$4k now, or ~4 months of new car loan payments that you'd be stuck paying for 6 more years). The sweet spot is 10-15 year old cars under 200k miles and using small loans if you can't pay cash. New cars are for idiots and the financially independent, but newer cars 5-10 years old can be worth the price/stress tradeoffs for some once you can afford one.
You'll also get far more savings primarily riding a bike (and ebikes make this far easier once you can afford one) since most of your trips are likely under 5 miles, and your old car will last a lot longer for when you really need it. You might even find you can get by without owning a car.
neblem 1 week ago • 66%
I hope more governments and institutions start self hosting their own AP publishing, at least for microblogging.
I also hope we get more multiparidgm app platforms like friendica and mbin.
Loops and Peertube are super promising, especially with peered hosting to manage bandwidth hits. It'd be smart for major creators to have a delayed archive in self or group hosted instances to help with discoverability and fight risk of content loss. Canadian Civil is paving the way.
I predict there will be more integration with tipping / patreoning platforms.
I predict there will be some ATpro features like federated identity and moderation extended into AP, or a blessed version of ATpro from the W3C's Social Web group (Bluesky is already working on transferring ownership of the protocol to IETF). Either way apps will simply migrate or find bridges and the wider fediverse will grow.
neblem 1 month ago • 100%
You can put Lemmy communities in lists so they don't spam your home feed. https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-the-lists-feature-on-mastodon/
neblem 1 month ago • 90%
Cool to see that the app is just a nice wrapper to query OSM data and not using yet another dumb silo. Its also just a webapp and not a native app spying on your data. https://en.stnameslab.com/american-search-app/ is the app.
I wonder if this would make sense as a https://mapcomplete.org/ layer
Its been a few weeks, but I didn't see any post about it here. In case you aren't following the emacs-devel list, Eli Zaretskii, the current MS-Windows maintainer, is asking for anyone to take over day to day issue management and supporting the port as he's wanting to step down from the role.
neblem 1 month ago • 100%
Considering your comments, you are probably in a mindset where I'd recommend reading the funny named "How to Be Miserable" by Randy Patterson. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898044-how-to-be-miserable
If books are too much right now, you can get a great summary by CGP Grey's video based on it https://youtube.com/watch?v=LO1mTELoj6o Be sure to watch the footnote video after too (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qGCAE1jte8)
neblem 2 months ago • 100%
In addition to Joplin, Logseq is really great too, though with more of a text-first, outline based, zettle approach.
neblem 2 months ago • 100%
If public transport mapping is your goal, it might make sense to try out the MapComplete Train Station https://mapcomplete.org/stations and Bus Routes https://mapcomplete.org/transit themes which give an easier, more focused, mapping interface. Quest apps like Street Complete can also make getting into OSM a bit easier, though OSM Beginners Guise is great too. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners'_guide
neblem 2 months ago • 100%
Yes! https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_transport though it is a bit complex to fully add routes, adding stops is super easy!
neblem 3 months ago • 100%
On the microblogging side of the fedi, "fedihire" and "jobalert" hashtags seem to be frequently used for job postings, and "getfedihired" and "jobsearch" for those posting that they are looking.
neblem 4 months ago • 100%
OpenStreetMap's platform is the only real way to compete against Google and Apple and it's why Microsoft even though it has Bing Maps, has licenced to them resources like satellite imagery for mapping. It's awesome in bigger population areas but there's still a lot to map in rural places outside the EU.
Review is harder. Right now the leading open platform afaik is Open Reviews (aka Mangrove Reviews) which has tie-ins to OSM projects like MapComplete. OsmAnd and OrganicMaps have open tickets to hook into that ecosystem. You're right about the userbase problem though, I think it (or a successor) needs AP federation to really take off. That being said there's several active non-Google nonfree alternatives like Yelp and TripAdvisor as well as niche sites for things like camping, parks, and schools.
neblem 4 months ago • 100%
Neocities is trying to be a modern reincarnation https://neocities.org/
neblem 4 months ago • 91%
Man I feel old, back in my day we weren't allowed to use anything more powerful than a TI83 on most exams and the answers were on scantrons or paper due to fears of using the internet to cheat. These days with GPT I'm surprised that's not even more of a concern.
neblem 4 months ago • 66%
Not single for long, but they do exist. Also far more people are open to experiencing Linux and Star Trek than have experienced either, so you might want to look for more root indicators like curiosity, enjoying tinkering / learning, likes fiction, etc.
neblem 5 months ago • 100%
You really should. https://indieweb.org has a lot of resources.
neblem 5 months ago • 100%
The episode wrapped up so many things too. Such a great way to end things before the long pause.
neblem 6 months ago • 100%
Tilvids.com, maketube.net, urbanists.video, spectra.video are a few
neblem 6 months ago • 100%
Can't we just move past carrier managed messaging? I'd rather my telecom to just be dumb pipes and move everyone to Signal and similar.
neblem 6 months ago • 100%
Thanks for posting this, really highlights all the hard work, and congrats @nutomic!
neblem 12 months ago • 100%
Great points!
neblem 12 months ago • 50%
YouTube still pays creators pretty high comparatively (55% of ad revenue according to https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-influencers-get-paid-on-instagram-tiktok-youtube). You are simply getting a service (hosted, searchable, collection of the largest collection of web videos in an extremely nice interface) that costs money even outside of the creator's cost. For creators they are allowing that 45% cut of ad revenue to get access to the YouTube audience, paid hosting that simply works, nice creator tools, etc.
You can state that it's a valueless thing that anyone could replicate, but the evidence is that there aren't many alternatives that do better. Today we do have things like PeerTube (which I think all creators should consider selfhosting with ads/subscriptions and federating the free stuff after a delay) and joining creator owned video services like Nebula (which could be made even better with federation). Unfortunately, with both you run into the discoverability problem, something creators and their audiences are paying to solve when you are hosting on YouTube.
I'd take your argument further back on the sourcing of getting content to you - why should you pay for internet service when it's the content of the videos you watch not the wires that deliver it that have value? If you hacked around your neighbors WIFI to get some free network access, you could zero-cost get something you might not necessarily want to budget for, and you get quite a nice service out of it. Why shouldn't that be okay when you still Patreon the creators of your videos given your reasoning about YouTube providing no value?
neblem 12 months ago • 50%
I totally agree we can't simply drop SMS immediately, but what am I missing in supporting backwards compatibility (for example via my pseudo number solution, like how VOIP works) preventing us from moving forward during a stagged shutdown in the span of decades? MMS and RCS both would also fail under cellular data loss, and SMS itself hasn't always been available during major disasters. I'm not sure I buy the argument you can't have similarly low energy towers (even with net neutrality states, you can still cap all bandwidth per user), and a simpler tower that only does data should be far more reliable than a tower that provides multiple carrier services given the simplicity (and it's very rare to have towers that only do voice + SMS anymore).
neblem 12 months ago • 100%
Yeah that's a big problem that I'm trying to research solutions for myself too. It was way better when I could tell people to just install Signal and it'd replace their SMS app but be secure when others use it, but unfortunately Signal dropped SMS. Currently I just have all the apps, but since Signal does contact discovery (like Whatsapp) I follow a Signal, Whatsapp, FB Messenger, RCS (via Google Messenger), then SMS pattern and stopping when I can contact someone. Obviously, this has the issue that all these apps are getting far more data than they need and I'd like to look into a multiplatform app that does e2e. From what I've researched so far, Matrix bridges (servers that connect your Matrix account to a third party messaging service) might be the answer.
I haven't tried it yet but there is a Matrix bridge that you can host if you are selfhosting a Matrix server (or use a commercial Matrix provider that already hosts it) that will allow you to connect to your Whatsapp friends without needing the Whatsapp app yourself that could be interesting for at least that use case https://docs.mau.fi/bridges/go/setup.html?bridge=whatsapp .
neblem 12 months ago • 100%
ASFAIK Signal doesn't support RCS, only Signal protocol, after they dropped SMS.
neblem 12 months ago • 92%
Why not switch to something not owned by Facebook like Signal (or something on an open protocol like Element)?
neblem 12 months ago • 84%
Why should anyone care about RCS? The trend has been to get everything into data instead of carrier owned services for two decades now, we don't need another SMS (it will likely always be a fallback). What we should move onto is a carrier and device type angnostic universal standard protocol over TCP / QUIC like XMPP or Matrix, with SMS as the backup.
When you get a phone you can get an phone system account and a telephone number already. Modern apps in the Google ecosystem should already recognize you are already signed in with Google and sync your contacts. Since almost everyone is already in the Google ecosystem, if Google supported it they could have extended their XMPP implementation in Hangouts to allow messaging directly via XMPP to those contacts and SMS for anyone not yet in the system (similar to how Signal did, Apple does, and Google does now with RCS). Unlike Apple, since its just XMPP, users can still add friends and be added by friends on other XMPP servers (ex. their ISPs, their own, or a third party). They could have supported or jumpstarted a new very simple open source alternative app for that portion for AOSP if the EU complained. Eventually Carriers could have supported passthroughs for those still on feature phones and other users of SMS to use the number@carrier accounts to hit XMPP users with generated SMS numbers for non-SMS users (pushed either by business necessity or part of a government / teleco org like GSMA staged removal of SMS and telephone numbers). It's all data at the end of the day.
Instead, they developed a whole new protocol to fluff the telecos and keep the now badly managed telephone number system even more necessary allowing spammers and allow the problems of legacy SMS to continue.
Apple, Google, and Samsung should all be shamed for not supporting fully open protocols and necessitating dependency on user harming stacks.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Even if that is an accurate number, there are only ~56 million Americans living in census defined rural areas. With some actual planning we should be able to get missing backbones from our urban areas (which should be getting far more funding). Wireless is also a gamechanger, with microwave, 5g (and nextgen 6g), and Starlink, and that can really reduce this cost since not everyone needs fiber. If we can incorporate requirements for new backbone lines with any greenfield rail or highway projects we can get wireless coverage out faster and cheaper.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
The existing integration works suprisingly well given the different use cases. Bettet than Masto and Peertube.
Unfortunately Mastodon not supporting group actors is the main difficulty in the integration on its end. Lemmy has hacks like auto-boosting thread posts, but kbin and peertube don't so you can't get thread posts without following the post author.
I think allowing user following (allow subscribing to user pages) and handling tags (which I'm not sure the right approach, probably can fit in whatever multicommunity feature gets developed) are the only missing things on the Lemmy side.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
What would be nest is a feed aggregatior that combos as a lemmy / larger fedi client. When reading your feed, there can be a comments button. The button would do a quick lookup to see if there has been any discussions tracked on your instance for that link and if so let you choose on of the results to join a discussion and a start new thread button that has a workflow for posting the link in a community you select.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
At least more salaried workers will be paid overtime with the new rules thus week in the US.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
You can't turn pictrs off as a configuration setting?
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Can CSAM distributors use it as a test suite for workarounds?
Edit: first draft was too declarative where I meant to pose the thought as a question.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Frendica and Pixelfed.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Hydrogen is interesting for remote use cases, but the 10-15 year old used Leaf and Volt market argue against your second point. Most battery issues will be discovered in the first few years and after that it's minimal (1-10%) loss after a decade, using far older tech than today's models. The industry does need some standardization on battery modules to ensure less e-waste, more mechanics, and better pricing.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
A giant electric "luxury" truck is still a giant "luxury" truck. Buying one over the other is like buying a cruelty free synthetic beaver cap over a cap made from an actual beaver. Yes it probably is better, but you are still wearing an ass on your head.
It's 2023, most people live in urbanized areas where a truck is similarly ridiculous, especially the modern "luxury" models. Those that actually use their vehicles for hauling things at a farm want real work trucks and tractors (regardless of engine type) with lower and longer beds.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Credit cards have better identity protection and handle disputes more favorably than a bank debit card here.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Unsubscribe to meme communities and only subscribe to the less active non-meme communities for your "home" (subscribed), then view the memes on local and all feeds? Or you could just go to the communities you want to see individually / try changing hot/active/top sorts.
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Your post reminded me there is a playlist on the NATO channel of members of the varying armies sharing each other's field rations. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_vlwQEsZAbzA5OikUd8nZlu3YtiPQC0S
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
Aren't these archives protected explicitly under several points in US Title 17 Section 108? https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#108
neblem 1 year ago • 100%
M365 is an option even without Windows, but LibreOffice and/or NextCloud could work too.