Reading an article about this published two days back in The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review, got me thinking yet again about this topic (as you do when you are past your 40's or 50's) and what I've gravitated towards in order to preserve some memories. Too many just think about backups, but backups are for own our convenience, to recover our lost data now or tomorrow.

In case you have not realised it, all those thousands of e-mails, photos, documents, etc you've saved online with your 100 GB or more cloud storage plan, are all wiped out in a split second when the service provider goes out of business one day, or your dormant account is just removed a year or two after your demise. Downloading it all to your PC hard drive? Well, who knows what to find where on your 1 TB or more of storage on your drive (if you did not encrypt it). Hard drives get stolen or damaged just as easily.

I've spent the last year sifting through thousands of old family photos, going back 100+ years, and these actually led me to one of my first solutions below...

1. Every year, select some of your best photos - then use an online service to have them printed into a hard cover photo album, along with captions etc. These old analogue albums do stand the test of time as well as accessibility by relatives.
2. My blog posts are all automatically archived from my WordPress site (via a plugin) to The Internet Archive, along with my static web pages.
3. I'm using Google Documents to document my own life story, and have shared that to my daughter, so she can follow it as it develops.

As we get cleverer and cleverer with all sorts of new technology, social networks, AI, etc, we also realise that all of that is often very fragile when it comes to longevity, and archival periods that can stretch over 100's of years. But what is of concrete importance is, if you don't give some thought to it, and take some action, yours will just be wiped out.

If you have any ideas that can also add any practical value to this topic, please comment below, and I'll add them to my original post.

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/with-around-180000-people-dying-daily-i-found-more-analogue-ways-of-preserving-my-memories/

#technology #memories #archiving

Yes, if a joystick uses friction-based materials, they are going to wear out over some time and need to be disposed of and replaced. I suppose the issue is that manufacturers would just love to sell you more replacements. I would be prepared to spend a bit more on an item that is good quality and will last a few years longer.

The fix shows here is to yank the potentiometers off a PS4 joystick and replace them with contactless Hall effect sensors. The end of the shaft for each axis gets a diametral neodymium magnet attached to it, while a 3D printed bracket holds a tiny custom PCB in close proximity. The PCB has an AS5600 Hall sensor, which translates the shaft angle to an analogue voltage output. After programming the chip over its I2C bus, the sensor outputs a voltage proportional to the angle of each shaft, just like the original pots, but without all the wear and tear.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/05/24/hall-sensors-offer-drop-in-replacement-for-drifting-game-console-joysticks/

#technology #hardware #PS4

Samsung Display has unveiled a new generation of OLED panel that it says can recognize fingerprints anywhere on the screen and even check the user's heart rate, blood pressure, and stress levels using multiple simultaneous finger readings.

"To accurately measure a person's blood pressure, it is necessary to measure the blood pressure of both arms," notes Samsung Display's press release. "The Sensor OLED display can simultaneously sense the fingers of both hands, providing more accurate health information than existing wearable devices."

Samsung did not provide information on the accuracy rate or speed of its Sensor OLED display, nor did it explain whether the authentication and biometric readings could be taken at the same time, but the company clearly has confidence that the technology is destined for smartphones in the near future.

Well, this would certainly raise the game considerably for fingerprint, as well as health, sensing. It certainly looks like new technology is focussing on better cameras and health/fitness tracking in a big way.

See https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/23/samsung-sensor-oled-display-fingerprint/

#technology #health #bloodpressure #fingerprint

Driving, gardening, walking, shopping, travelling, and so many more activities are often 'dead zones' as far as learning or entertainment goes. Podcasts are a great way to help fill those voids with thought-provoking informational or learning, or even gripping storytelling and entertainment.

The real beauty of podcasts is that they are mostly free, you can pause and continue anywhere, and they can run in the background without lots of other distractions found with webpage browsing.

The linked article below is specifically aimed at those who do not currently listen to podcasts, as the selection is of the most popular podcasts available. The full range of podcasts truly does cover just about every topic under the sun, so the usual challenge is, where does one start. This list will help with that!

See https://lifehacker.com/12-podcasts-than-will-make-anyone-fall-in-love-with-pod-1850458582

#technology #podcasts #entertainment #audio

South Africans can take several measures to minimize the amount of spam calls and unsolicited marketing they are regularly bombarded with.

In 2021, Truecaller’s Global Spam & Scam Report found that South Africa had the 9th-highest rate of spam calls in the world. That was a massive jump from 17th place in 2020.

The popular call-screening app found that South Africans received an average of 13.2 monthly spam calls per user.

So even though there is legislation, and I've opted out, I still get a few calls every day. It is true, there may be some older form that still has a tick (or no tick) next to "Yes I'd love marketing calls" or "Don't give my number to 3rdparty suppliers", but either ways, the calls just don't stop.

Truecaller has really worked well for me, so well, that I had to get rid of my iPhone and move back to an Android phone, as the Truecaller app is crippled on iOS due to not having dialler permissions.

So, this app is really the only way as reporting to the police, and opting out, just don't seem to work in practice. It is a nightmare in South Africa as far as managing it goes, and opting out of marketing calls.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/492323-how-to-stop-spam-callers.html

#technology   #southafrica   #spamcalls   #Truecaller

An interesting review, and it was much expected that cheaper earbuds would probably do a similar job. There are some minor drawbacks, but still for those who can't afford $5,000 these may be quite liveable.

On the Android side of things, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro look like a good choice as a first foray into hearing enhancement. The company recently rolled out an update that offers higher levels of amplification for its Ambient Sound option, which passes and enhances outside sound before it reaches your ears.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/jabra-enhance-plus-review/

#technology #hearingaids #accessibility #hearing

LibreOffice probably still remains the most complete set of features and a pure open source option, but I can see why the free SoftMaker FreeOffice is also given a lot of credit: It opens very quickly, has a pretty slick more modern user interface, it has excellent MS Office compatibility, and it already has usable mobile apps for both Android and iOS (apart from Windows, macOS and Linux too).

So yes, on all of these fronts, LibreOffice does lag a bit. But LibreOffice is open source and all advanced features are completely free. FreeOffice also does not open or edit existing PDFs.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/

#technology #MSOffice #AlternativesTo #Productivity

Official spare parts, batteries, and repair guides for select Logitech hardware will be available through iFixit starting ‘this summer.’ I imagine that is the Northern Hemisphere Summer.

This is good news though, as Logitech is widely used (and often voted as number one in popularity in South Africa), and especially by Linux users for its good cross-OS compatibility.

See https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/17/23726681/logitech-ifixit-self-repair-program-announcement-mx-master-anywhere

#technology #Logitech #repairability #iFixit

According to Apple, users can create a Personal Voice by reading a set of text prompts aloud for a total of 15 minutes of audio on the iPhone or iPad. Since the feature integrates with Live Speech, users can then type what they want to say and have their Personal Voice read it to whomever they want to talk to. Apple says the feature uses “on-device machine learning to keep users’ information private and secure.”

There’s also a new detection mode in Magnifier to help users who are blind or have low vision, which is designed to help users interact with physical objects with numerous text labels. As an example, Apple says a user can aim their device’s camera at a label, such as a microwave keypad, which the iPhone or iPad will then read aloud as the user moves their finger across each number or setting on the appliance.

See https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/16/23725237/iphone-personal-voice-speak-training-accessibility

#technology #iPhone #accessibility #disabilities