“We’ll definitely be beta testing with commercial customers in 2024,” Dave Limp, head of Amazon devices, said at a conference in Washington.

The “standard customer terminal”, 11-inch square antennas for the Kuiper network, will cost Amazon less than $400 each to produce and provide Internet speeds of 400Mbit/s for customers, the company said.

Up until now, Starlink has been unable to obtain a communications license to operate over South Africa, but I'm thinking that Amazon will be able to, mainly because it has quite physical presence on the ground in South Africa.

But I'm also wondering what a satellite service means for spying (I've not forgotten about the US government's NSA and AT&T's collusion on phone spying). Recent rumours also have it the Chinese wanted to spy on undersea Internet cables for the islands around Taiwan. So it is safer to just assume everyone is spying on your communications, and your own government is also not necessarily the "good guy".

See https://techcentral.co.za/amazon-targets-2024-for-launch-of-starlink-rival/

#technology #satellite #Amazon #ProjectKuiper

Scrcpy is a cross-platform open-source mirroring application for Android devices that connects over USB or TCP/IP, for controlling the connected devices via keyboard or mouse.

The best part of using this application is that; it doesn't need root access on Android devices and doesn't show ads or collect your data.

This has been a great solution to use, but all sorts of workarounds (like USBaudio, but it was very problematic) were needed to capture audio. So finally, it looks like we have audio included in the capture!

Note, this will only work for Android 11 and above. Scrcpy itself runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

See https://news.itsfoss.com/scrcpy-2-0-release/

#technology #Android #Scrcpy

Until today, I'd mainly been hearing about DAB as a digital radio standard to replace AM and FM analogue broadcasting. Then today I heard about DRM (thinking it was ham radio DMR Motorola standard), and realised there is more than just DAB out there.

Without going into the technicalities (as I'm still picking up on all this and our own country was still to make a decision between DAB+ and DRM), DAB is chiefly adopted by the UK, DRM is very European-centric, HD Radio is North America, and China Digital Radio is of course Chinese.

The older standards are better established and more 'popular' as far as adoption goes. So, as with VHS and Betamax, or PAL and NTSC, it does not mean the most used is always the 'best' one technically. It is a matter of which country adopts what according to their own criteria.

The important thing though is that digital requires less electrical power, less radio spectrum, and can carry more programming stations than older analogue like AM and FM. We saw the same with amateur radio, actually, with digital modes like JS8Call digital mode punching through the static way further than an analogue signal.

So digital is clearly the future of radio. For example, the DAB+ standard would allow 18 different programming stations to exist off a single transmitter, using around 75% less electrical energy to cover the equivalent footprint that 18 FM analogues stations would have provided. So from an aggregated signal distribution perspective, this is way better. Again we saw the same with ham radio, where more than one station could use the same digital frequency, requiring only one repeater frequency.

So as a listener, your choice is really easy. For whatever country you are in, you have to use that standard (for local radio, anyway). As I understand it, HD Radio is a proprietary standard, whilst DAB+ and DRM+ are open standards, but technically there is no reason why a digital radio could otherwise not support more than one of these standards on the same radio receiver (much like many older radios support both AM and FM standards).

So if you do import a radio, be sure to check that it supports your country's standard. Also be aware, older standards such as DAB are not forward compatible with newer DAB+, so unlike analogue, you may have to ditch your receiver if the standard upgrades in future (unless they can receive software patches).

Unlike VHS and Betamax though, one of these standards will not likely rule worldwide, and it will be more a case of PAL/NTSC or Metric/Imperial standards just exiting together.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_radio

#technology #digitalradio #DAB #DRM #HDRadio

Calibrate and characterize your display devices using one of many supported measurement instruments, with support for multi-display setups and a variety of available options for advanced users, such as verification and reporting functionality to evaluate ICC profiles and display devices, creating video 3D LUTs, as well as optional CIECAM02 gamut mapping to take into account varying viewing conditions.

Many years ago I bought a ColorVision Spyder2 colorimeter which worked on Windows, but when I changed to Linux there were just no drivers to work with it. Today I found that DisplayCAL just worked straight out the box to work perfectly with my Spyder2 on Linux.

When I say worked, I mean reads and calibrates etc, but I'm still figuring out how to actually write back to the profiles to execute the corrections. But at least it is actually reading the levels and responding to adjustments. It's not a simple tool to understand (well for me right now) and standard calibration testing has taken up to an hour per monitor, but I see very quick mode was about 15 minutes.

It is open source and written in Python, I see.

See https://displaycal.net

#technology #calibration #monitors #display #opensource

LocalSend is a free and open source, cross-platform alternative to AirDrop for sending files securely over the local network. The Flutter app runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android / Android TV, iOS, and Fire TV / OS.

The application doesn't use any third-party servers and doesn't require an Internet connection to work. For communication in the local network, it makes use of its custom LocalSend Protocol and HTTPS encryption. The data is sent securely over HTTPS, and the TLS/SSL certificate is generated on the fly on each device.

From Android, I see I can send files, media, text, and even app APKs to my Linux machine. It works pretty quickly and easily and does away with 3rd party cloud based transfers. It does not mirror screens or notifications, though.

See https://www.linuxuprising.com/2023/03/send-files-securely-over-local-network.html

#technology #filetransfer #localsend #opensource #security

I found this video quite interesting as I did all my VHS conversions to a DVD recorder many years back, and from there stuck those into my CD drive and copied them to my hard drive as CD format video files (.VOB I think they are). But yes, many had jagged lines on them, so quality was just not great.

This video not only shows an easier way with direct RCA-USB dongle capture, but also mentions why some such devices don't scan well and which ones to rather go for. It certainly looks like I should try to reconvert my VHS tapes again, trying this advice.

Watch https://youtu.be/tk-n7IlrXI4

#technology #VHS

Yes, there are easier dashboards to just install and use, but this is a pretty good article on how to configure for the use of Appsmith (which can be used for many other purposes).

Appsmith is an open source, low-code app builder that helps developers build internal apps like dashboards and admin panels easily and quickly. It’s a great choice for your dashboard, and reduces the time and complexity of traditional coding approaches.

See https://opensource.com/article/23/3/build-raspberry-pi-dashboard-appsmith

#technology #opensource #RaspberryPi #Appsmith #dashboard

This browser extension shows a beautiful daily nature photograph with an inspirational quote, along with a weather icon, and some quick links you can set. But its key focus is a todo list on the bottom right, and a larger central main focus for that day.

What I really like is the simplicity of it. No clutter or complexity, and it syncs between your various open desktop browsers. The free version does everything I need, but there is a paid Plus version that has a few non-essential extras.

It is not intended to replace more complex todo tools, but rather to bring simplicity and immediacy to your daily planning.

See https://momentumdash.com

#technology #planning #todo #extension #momentumdash

According to Markey, AM radio operates at lower frequencies and longer wavelengths, enabling it to pass through solid objects and travel further than other radio waves — a feature not shared by FM broadcasts. As a result, FEMA’s National Public Warning System — through which FEMA delivers critical safety alerts to the public — operates through broadcast AM radio stations.

"Ford said there were other technologies available, such as internet streaming, HD radio delivered on FM bands, or some apps that provide AM content, that will make up for the absence of AM radio in its vehicles."

The problem here is car manufacturers (and most listeners) are thinking of the perfect urban world. The reality is we still have regular disasters, and the fact is that cellphone towers, the Internet, etc all only last about 4 to 6 hours on battery backup.

FM does work well (along with its Traffic Announcement alerts and RDS data display) but it is shorter range. But even FM for emergencies and disasters is at risk by listeners themselves, as many today only have a radio in their vehicle. Even broadcast TVs are often no longer found inside homes, as everything has moved to streaming over the Internet.

Take South Africa with its already up to 4 hour power outage load shedding. There is not enough time typically for batteries to recharge, so at extended Stage 6 and above load shedding, the Internet as well as some cellular coverage gets lost for many hours. This has already even affected emergency services own radio communications via repeaters.

The final fallback, is to broadcast AM and FM radio stations (yes and Amateur Radio, but that is not receivable by all citizens). But as a citizen, you can still ensure that you have at least one radio receiver kept at home. An example is the photo with this post, which costs around $17 (ZAR330) and has solar charging for its rechargeable batteries.

The more we digitise and get smarter, the more dependent we are on vulnerable electrical systems... Plan for the future, keep Retro.

See https://www.theverge.com/23633932/am-radio-discontinue-ford-tesla-markey-fema-fcc

#technology #diasters #radio #emergencies