By using publicly available information, software, and some ingenuity, [Information Zulu] has created a live simulation of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for your simulated plane spotting pleasure.

Plane spotting is now possible for anyone with an Internet connection who need not be near a physical airport.

Many individuals around the world already operate Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers, which update the plane location telemetry data to various online services. Some subscription services such as FlightRadar24 charge users then to see 3D simulations of the plane in flight.

The solution though described in the linked article is achieving something similar using free and open source software which links to PSXseeconTraffic (free but copyrighted).

See https://hackaday.com/2022/07/12/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-live-air-traffic-plane-spotting-simulation/

#technology #planespotting #flightsimulator #ADSB #planes

We’re on the cusp of a new generation of wireless headphones that are more power-efficient, sound better, and support novel new features like being able to connect an “unlimited” number of devices to a single source. That’s thanks to Bluetooth LE Audio, an umbrella term for a collection of new features for Bluetooth devices that the Bluetooth standards body is officially announcing the completion of today.

Bluetooth LE Audio was announced way back at the beginning of 2020, and the Bluetooth SIG had originally hoped that supporting devices would be released before the end of that year. But, after a significant delay due to the pandemic, the completion of the specification today means that manufacturers can now start adding support for the standard to their devices. It means the first compatible products should start becoming available before the end of the year, the Bluetooth SIG says.

It is certainly a significant step forward, and unfortunately another reason to have to yet again upgrade Bluetooth devices if you want to reap these benefits ;-)

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204956/bluetooth-le-audio-completed-low-power-high-quality-wireless-headphones

#technology #bluetooth

If you're reading this article from home, you are probably connected with a LTE/5G/DSL/WIFI router. Such devices are usually responsible to route packets between your local devices (smartphone, PC, TV, and so on) and provide access to the World Wide Web through a built-in modem. Your router at home has most likely a web-based interface for configuration purposes. Such interfaces are often oversimplified, as they are made for casual users.

If you want more configuration options, but don't want to spend for a professional device, you should take a look at an alternative firmware such as OpenWrt.

Not only are many lower end consumer devices crippled as far as functionality goes, but many manufacturers just stop providing software updates after two or three years. If your router is in either of these categories, you may want to consider OpenWrt instead. The linked article below has a link to see what devices are supported.

See https://opensource.com/article/22/7/openwrt-open-source-firmware

#technology #routers #OpenWrt #opensource

The Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has launched a new mobile app to let travellers get updates on their flights, pay for parking, and navigate at the airport.

The free app was rolled out at the beginning of July 2022 and is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Huawei AppGallery as the “ACSA App”.

They can also subscribe to a flight to receive notifications on its status from the app.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/452116-airport-app-for-south-africa-with-flight-updates-parking-payments-and-navigation-to-your-car.html

#technology #southafrica #ACSA #airport

Maybe this should be titled the best lesser known KDE apps as all of them are actually excellent apps, but the best known are likely to be DigiKam, Kdenlive, Amarok, Krita, Marble, etc which are not in this list.

Others such as Kate, Konsole, and similar do already have excellent counterparts on GNOME.

Some of the most feature-rich free applications are designed for KDE.

See https://www.debugpoint.com/best-kde-apps-part-1/

#technology #linux #opensource #KDE

If you are an advanced PC user and have been using Firefox browser for a long time, you might already be aware of about:config Settings. For those who don’t know, Firefox gives you a lot of customization by visiting about:config section.

See how to, with some suggested changes, at https://trendoceans.com/firefox-tweaks/

#technology #firefox #security

Digging into the weeds of the EEDI is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish, so let’s just take Lloyd’s word on that double-digit improvement. As cited by Anomie, Lloyd’s has “validated that the newbuild Newcastlemax would have its EEDI score reduced from 1.92 to 1.37 (29% reduction) by installing six 5x30m Rail Rotor Sails and 1.47 (23% reduction) by installing four 5x35m Folding Rotor Sails.”

As for how it works, that’s easy. “The Rotor Sails are driven to rotate by a motor,” Anemoi explains. “When a wind flow meets the spinning Rotor Sails, a pressure differential is created. This causes a thrust force which provides auxiliary propulsion to the vessel and can be used to increase the vessel speed or reduce the consumption of the main power unit.”

See https://cleantechnica.com/2022/07/08/lloyds-register-gets-behind-wind-power-for-cargo-ships/

#environment #ships #wind #windpower

Oregon Trail fans can use an integrated "Walk the Trail" feature that takes advantage of data from the Health app to walk a virtual Oregon trail. There is also a new Apple Watch app called The Oregon Trail: Step Tracker that lets people be motivated by an Oregon Trail walking experience on the wrist.

Yes, it is a bit like Fitbit has long had ;-)

See https://www.macrumors.com/2022/07/08/oregon-trail-apple-arcade-health-app/

#technology #fitness #applewatch #oregontrail #gamification

Cadmus adds a notification icon to your shell which allows you to easily select a microphone as a source, and subsequently creates a PulseAudio output which removes all recorded background noise (typing, ambient noise, etc).

Whilst software exists on Windows & MacOS (Krisp, RTX Voice, etc) to remove background noise from recorded audio in real-time, no user-friendly solution seemed to exist on Linux. Cadmus was written to address this shortcoming, allowing users to remove background noise from audio in Discord/Zoom/Skype/Slack/etc calls without having to use the commandline.

Cadmus is written in Python 3.6, making use of PyQt5 and the Fman Build System (fbs).

See https://github.com/josh-richardson/cadmus

#technology #opensource #Linux #microphone #backgroundnoise