Self-Hosted photo albums are often considered as alternatives to Flickr or Google Photos. Both PhotoPrism and Piwigo provide something similar, but they do it differently, and in this video I highlight some of those differences. You may just want to host something for yourself, or your family and friends, or for the greater public at large.

PhotoPrism is newer and better looking than Piwigo, but does it have what is needed to provide the functionality you need?

Watch https://youtu.be/3dcD8Mu24r0

#technology #photoprism #piwigo #opensource #selfhosting

Yes, progress with Bluesky has been super slow (a bit like Tim Berners-Lee's Solid) but at least we now know what protocol it will use, which will help explain a bit more about what could be expected.

The AT Protocol website is still fairly sparse, but it offers three reasons the decentralized future of social might be the right one: “federated social,” which allows users to use many apps on top of one service; “algorithmic choice,” which lets them decide how that information is presented; and “portable accounts,” meaning you could move your stuff from one app to another without losing your content or social graph.

Don’t hold your breath for the app and protocol to hit your social sphere, though. Bluesky continues to move fairly slowly and is trying to do its work publicly. As Dorsey said when the project launched, “The work must be done transparently in the open, not owned by any single private corporation, furthering the open & decentralized principles of the internet.”

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/19/23412482/bluesky-at-protocol-decentralized-twitter-social-networks-app

#technology #Bluesky #Twitter #decentralisation #federation

An interesting read at the linked article below. Whilst it is a given that eSIMs (and their successor) are going to happen, there are clearly some rough edges that need to be worked on. What was going to be greater freedom to switch SIMs, could end up being a bit of a lock-in with an existing eSIM ;-)

I've switched more than once between an iPhone and an Android phone, and even moved a SIM card from a mobile hotspot into a second SIM slot on an Android phone. And yes, some of these things may not be easily possible yet with eSIMs. As the author pointed out, they ended up with two phones and no cellular service at all.

See https://www.theverge.com/23412033/esim-phone-plan-device-switch-ios-android

#technology #eSIM #SIM #mobile

The “data-free” messaging app MoyaApp, which already has six million active monthly users in South Africa, is working hard to become as big as WhatsApp in the country.

When an app or website is #datafree it means NO DATA is taken from your airtime or data bundle balance. Apart from instant and group chat, you can read news, get live soccer scores, browse Wikipedia, check the weather, communicate with government services and much more.

Lentell talks about the history of MoyaApp, how it’s able to offer “data-free” messaging to people who don’t have data or airtime, and why he believes this is a winning proposition in a country where Meta Platforms-owned WhatsApp has become entrenched.

Listen to the podcast at https://techcentral.co.za/tcdaily-how-moyaapp-is-taking-on-whatsapp-and-winning/216297/

#technology #SouthAfrica #datafree #MoyaApp #instantmessenger

Snowflake is a system that allows people from all over the world to access censored websites and applications. Similar to how VPNs assist users in getting around Internet censorship, Snowflake helps you avoid being noticed by Internet censors by making your Internet activity appear as though you're using the Internet for a regular video or voice call.

There are numerous tools available, such as Snowflake, that "transform" Internet activity, each using a different technique. Some redirect Internet traffic to appear to be coming from popular cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Others scramble Internet traffic in order to make it appear completely random.

It therefore becomes costly for censors to consider blocking such circumvention tools since it would require blocking large parts of the Internet in order to achieve the initial targeted goal.

Unlike VPNs, you do not need to install a separate application to connect to a Snowflake proxy and bypass censorship. It is usually a circumvention feature embedded within existing apps. Currently Snowflake is available inside Tor Browser on Desktop and Android, Onion Browser on iOS, and Orbot on Android and iOS. If you have downloaded and installed any of these apps, and they are censored in your country, you can bypass the censorship by activating Snowflake through the apps' settings page.

So, if you want to help people bypass censorship, consider installing and running a Snowflake proxy. The only prerequisite is that the Internet in your country is not heavily censored already.

You can join thousands of volunteers from around the world who have a Snowflake proxy installed and running. There is no need to worry about which websites people are accessing through your Snowflake proxy. Their visible browsing IP address will match their Tor exit node, not yours.

Alternatively, you can embed a Snowflake proxy yourself inside a page in your own website (e.g., relay.love). Visitors to your site can enter the page, enable the proxy, and leave it open to allow people to proxy through it (it behaves and looks exactly like the web extension). Or run a command-line version of the Snowflake proxy on your desktop or server.

See https://snowflake.torproject.org/

#technology #censorship #snowflake #privacy

Dashlane is trying to help move things along, announcing today that it’s integrating passkeys into its cross-platform password manager. “We said, you know what, our job is to make security simple for users,” says Dashlane CEO JD Sherman, “and this is a great tool to do that. So we should actually be thinking about ushering in this passwordless era.”

Going forward, Dashlane users can start to set up passkeys to log into sites and apps where they previously would have created passwords.

Bitwarden also announced in the Subreddit that they are working on their solution for passkeys.

Whilst we know you can use your Android passkeys to unlock websites on Safari browser, what happens if you want to switch from Android to using an iPhone, and similar questions? I'd far rather stay with a true cross-platform solution. I only see Big Tech using passkeys as a way to lock users in, especially Apple.

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/31/23329373/dashlane-passkeys-password-manager

#technology #security #passkeys #passwords

Commenting on the pilot project, Quintas said: “We often see that vehicles are queueing at red traffic signals long after pedestrians have crossed the road.

“With this innovative system, the thermal sensors at pedestrian crossings are used to detect whether there is any pedestrian movement.”

The link below also has the audio interview.

See https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/first-of-its-kind-thermal-body-sensors-implemented-at-blaauwberg-crossings-9f3932bd-1de7-4550-b8b6-11bd03a67331

#technology #SouthAfrica #CapeTown #pedestriancrossings

It’s not everyday that you’ll see a small electric vehicle with just 3 wheels and a single seat. Designed for those within a city for easy commuting and use, the ElectraMeccanica Solo was founded in 2015 as a way for solo drivers to complete the majority of their trips in an efficient auto-cycle. The Solo is powered by a liquid cooled 17.4 kWh lithium-ion battery pack with up to 100 miles of electric range. The Solo is offered in two configurations, Solo and Solo Cargo (with double the cargo space), for a starting price of $18,500 before all credits. Note that the Solo is only sold in just California and Arizona at the moment.

A two-seater would have been perfect, but maybe that could be an option in future. It does have some cargo space at least. 220V charging is about 2,5 hours. Top speed is about 80 mph (or 128 km/h) which is perfect, as we see too many smaller vehicles often only achieving around 80 to 90 km/h which is not fast enough for highway / freeway travel.

See

#environment #EV #greentech #ElectraMeccanica

Big Tech wants to kill the password, with "Passkeys" being the hot, new password replacement standard on the block. Passkeys are backed by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and the FIDO Alliance, so expect to see them everywhere soon. iOS picked up the standard in version 16, and now Google is launching passkey betas on Chrome and Android.

The Passkey standard just trades cryptographic keys with the website directly. There's no need for a human to tell a password manager to generate, store, and recall a secret—that will all happen automatically, with way better secrets than what the old text box supported, and with uniqueness enforced. The downside is that, while every browser in the world supports showing that old text box, passkey support will need to be added to every web browser, every password manager, and every website. It's going to be a long journey.

Not only that, there is also talk of it being locked to a mobile device, and what about those who move across all platforms like me having an Android as well as iPhone, and a Linux and Windows desktop? I make use of apps such as Authy and Bitwarden that sync and work across all my devices. I can't use Apple's Passkey as that only works on Apple devices, and Android's one is not going to help me on Linux.

I just get this queezy feeling that Big Tech has been out to grab land as quickly as it could here for itself, and has not tried to really work openly with each other, and others, to create a truly portable solution. I want to make use of a solution that does not belong to any platform owner, and which I can use anywhere.

Problem is, Big Tech owns platforms and they end up being the majority voice. I really would have preferred cross-platform players to have had a louder voice.

See https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/google-rolls-out-beta-passkey-support-for-chrome-and-android/

#technology #passkey #passwords #authentication #BigTech