Radio Mobile Online is a radio wave propagation prediction tool created and maintained by Roger Coudé, VE2DBE, which is dedicated for use by the ham radio community. As indicated on the Radio Mobile Online website, it uses digital terrain information and a mathematical model to simulate radio transmissions between two fixed sites, or between a fixed site and a mobile. The digital terrain information comprises three databases: ground elevation, land cover, and population density, which combined total 200 GB of information.

Nothing in radio is definite, so you can go with some default values for line loss, etc. But what was on real interest to me was the terrain effect, taking into account the height above ground of the two antennas, and the elevation of the land around the transmitter.

The coverage map I got for Cape Town does quite accurately reflect the dead spots I've experienced, and also why, even after I have cranked up my transmission power to 50 Watts, I still can't hit those areas. VHF is not really about the power, but often the line of site available, with what lies between.

See https://www.ve2dbe.com/english1.html

#technology #propagation #hamradio #amateurradio #radio

Although the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 offers various health and fitness tracking features, some are not available for all users. Features like ECG and blood pressure monitoring are restricted to certain regions, and you can’t use them if your watch is paired with a non-Samsung device. Thankfully, there is a simple workaround to enable ECG and blood pressure monitoring on the Galaxy Watch 4.

The workaround uses a modded version of the Samsung Health Monitor app from XDA Senior Member Dante63. It bypasses the regional restrictions on the ECG and blood pressure monitoring features and enables the features even if you’re using your Galaxy Watch 4 with a non-Samsung device. Sadly, it has one significant drawback. If you’re using the modded Samsung Health Monitor app to enable blood pressure monitoring on your Galaxy Watch 4, you won’t be able to sync your blood pressure data with the Samsung Health app on your phone. Fortunately, Dante63 offers a solution for that as well.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-enable-bp-sync-samsung-galaxy-watch-4/

#technology #health #samsung #bloodpressure #hack

Thonny comes with Python so you don’t need to do additional effort for installing Python. The interface is simple. It gives you an editor where you can write your Python program and hit the Run button or use F5 key to play the program. The output is displayed at the bottom.

It has a built-in debugger, easy to view variables, a syntax error highlighter, and Pip packages can be managed from inside the GUI.

It is cross-platform so runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

See https://itsfoss.com/thonny-python-ide/

#technology #python #programming #schools #opensource

There’s a growing split over how much room browsers should leave for ad blocking — and Chrome and Firefox have ended up on opposite sides of the fight.

The rupture centers on a feature called Web Request, commonly used in ad blockers and crucial for any system that looks to block off a domain wholesale. Google has long had security concerns about Web Request and has worked to cut it out of the most recent extension standard, called Manifest V3, or MV3 for short. But, in a recent blog post, Mozilla made clear that Firefox will maintain support for Web Request, keeping the door open for the most sophisticated forms of ad blocking.

In essence the move by Google will increase security as it closes out the ability for any 3rd party extension to use an API feature called Web Request. This is the feature that most ad-blocker extensions use to filter the traffic, by observing traffic between the browser and a website and to modify or block requests to certain domains.

The Web Request feature is powerful and flexible, and it can be used for both good and bad purposes.

For compatibility reasons, Mozilla will still use most of the Manifest V3 spec in Firefox so that extensions can be ported over from Chrome with minimal changes. But, crucially, Firefox will continue to support blocking through Web Request after Google phases it out, enabling the most sophisticated anti-tracking ad blockers to function as normal.

Once Manifest V2 support ends in June 2023, changes in functionality will become more apparent to users of any Chromium-based browser.

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/10/23131029/mozilla-ad-blocking-firefox-google-chrome-privacy-manifest-v3-web-request

#technology #security #privacy #browsers #adblockers

Open source reading and editing tools for PDFs are often more secure and reliable alternatives to the applications residing in the first pages of "PDF editor" search results. There, you're likely to see proprietary applications with hidden limitations and tariffs, lacking sufficient information about data protection policies and hosting. You can have better.

Here are five applications that can be installed on your Linux system (and others) or hosted on a server. Each is free and open source, with all the necessary features for creating, editing, and annotating PDF files. Being covered are LibreOffice, ONLYOFFICEdocs, PDF Arranger, Okular, and Xournal++.

See https://opensource.com/article/22/6/open-source-pdf-editors-linux

#technology #opensource #PDF #Linux #annotate

If you have a Mac, iPhone, or iPad (support planned for other platforms in future) that it and you’re looking for something new from your web browser, you should check out Orion. The new browser lets you run both Google Chrome extensions and Firefox add-ons (even on iOS), while claiming not to sacrifice your privacy. Orion is based on WebKit, the browser engine used by Safari on Mac and all the browsers on your iPhone.

Since Orion only recently entered public beta, it still has a few rough edges, but overall it appears to be a promising alternative you can try right now.

It also has the ability to move the list of open tabs to the left sidebar as a vertical view, making it easier to find the tab you’re looking for. This feature works on iPhone and Mac. If you’re reading an article and open a link in a new tab, the tab sidebar adds a nested tab. It’s a nice way to group tabs if you’re a tab hoarder.

This actually looks quite promising, and they say they're 'working on being open source' so the question really will be whether it will ever be fully open sourced, or will it follow a Vivaldi model.

See https://lifehacker.com/this-browser-can-use-chrome-and-firefox-extensions-at-t-1849038809

#technology #browsers #orion #privacy

After spending a year in beta, Vivaldi Mail and Calendar are now officially out on the stable channel.

Vivaldi Mail 1.0 is built into the Vivaldi browser and incorporates Vivaldi Calendar and Feed Reader. The main highlight of Vivaldi Mail is that it shows all your emails from multiple accounts in a single inbox, so you don’t have to switch between accounts. It works with any email provider that supports IMAP and POP3, including Gmail. You can use your existing mail service or set up an account on vivaldi.net.

I was a big fan of Vivaldi, mainly because of their adoption of vertical tabs (like Edge browser did), but that went a bit sour for me when I discovered their improvements are closed source software riding on the back of others' open source... But be that as it may, I am glad to also see they brought in an RSS reader (yes like Edge too), as Google will realise in time that dropping Google Reader was not a smart move. I survive daily with my tech news, by having a good RSS reader.

The e-mail integration is interesting as it does support other mail services I see. This is pretty important as I've lost access to some sites, mainly because I no longer had that e-mail address (even one that I hosted with my own domain name), and some services like Amazon will just lead you in continuous circles without ever resolving your access, even when you have finally re-established the use of the old e-mail address. So the choice of e-mail provider is something that require some careful thought before making changes, especially if you have 800+ account services with your e-mail as the login ID.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/vivaldi-mail-with-calendar-and-rss-reader-launch/

#technology #vivaldi #RSS #email #calendar

The Libre NFC flash glucose monitor (which is available to all UK-based type-one diabetics for free via the NHS) is turned into a customisable and open continuous glucose monitor by sticking a Bluetooth LE transmitter on top of it. With this, you have inexpensive per-minute glucose readings going to any device of your choosing over Bluetooth LE.

The MiaoMiao is chosen as a device to convert the Libre from a flash glucose monitor to a continuous glucose monitor. It's a small Bluetooth LE / NFC device that performs a simple task — every five minutes, it does an NFC scan on the Libre, and forwards the sensor data over Bluetooth LE to a device.

Due to the way that the Libre measures blood glucose levels there’s still a slight lag of up to 10 minutes between measured and actual blood glucose readings.

But the other big step forward with this process is that most CGM apps still use an app on the iPhone to send alerts and notifications to the Apple Watch, but here we now have a fully independent Apple Watch app to continuously read blood glucose without the need for any other device. Be it when swimming, out in the ocean, going for a run, headed out to the shops, or any other time you might be without a phone nearby, you’re now able to shrink your digital pancreas down even further — to the size of a watch on your wrist and a coin on your arm.

The app is built on many other open source apps, and once the libraries are polished, Harley says he will publish the app as open source too. He suggests following his Twitter account if you're interested in getting the app when done.

See https://hturan.com/writing/apple-watch-continuous-glucose-monitoring

#technology #health #diabetes #bloodglucose #CGM

Yes I know that many (including one of these features) are playing catch up to what Android has had for while (like a weather app on a tablet, but still no calculator app).

But from an actual usability and usefulness perspective, having real overlapping and movable windows will give the iPad a real boost (I never really went for side by side view, which felt clunky).

The new medications app will let users add any drugs they take by either scanning a label on a medication bottle or searching through a list of medicines. People can create custom schedules for each drug they are taking and receive alerts to remind them when it’s time to take one. In the United States, the app will also alert users if there are any dangerous interactions between the drugs that they take.

So no, the medication app is not just a collection of glorified alarm settings... Again it is good to see Apple consistently improving health features on iOS (after all, that was one of the main reasons why I moved from Android back to iOS).

See https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/06/apple-unveils-ipados-16-with-beefed-up-multitasking-features/ and https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/6/23144267/apple-watch-health-app-sleep-medications-wwdc

#technology #Apple #WWDC2022 #iPad #medication