The TX-6, and it’s a tiny (in size, not price) field mixer, is absolutely festooned with knobs. In addition to letting you mix together sound from six stereo inputs and output them to a computer, speaker, or both, in true Teenage Engineering fashion, the TX-6 can also act as a basic synthesizer, drum sequencer, and USB-C audio interface.

By default, the knobs act as controls for a three-band equaliser, letting you tweak the highs, mids, and lows for each input. But a peek at Teenage Engineering’s guide reveals the tons of other things you can do with them, from controlling compressor settings to adjusting pan or note length. Whatever you use them for, you’ll be doing it in style; the knobs are colourful and knurled at the top, which should help you grip something that’s otherwise approximately the size of a large Q-Tip. There are also LED volume meters, with controllable brightness.

It's big claim to fame probably though is that it packs all of this into a footprint about the size of a large iPhone. I'm just thinking at this price it is probably ripe to have a cheap look-alike manufactured at some point.

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/21/23036369/teenage-engineering-tx-6-mixer-portable-knobs

#technology #music #mixer #audio #TX6

I was pretty used to saying "OK Google Good Morning" and this type of morning routine just worked on Android and wit Google Home. Apple's iOS has no such default, so you really need to create your own routine in Shortcuts from scratch. On the plus side, you have 100% control over what you'd like to include.

There are a few videos already that do tutorials on the individual steps, but what I'll do is share a link to download my Good Morning routine, which you can import and edit. In the video I'll demo the shortcut being used, and then I'll talk you though the action elements that are included to give you an idea of what to edit (name, RSS feeds, a key date, etc).

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScMErXwuG9Q

#technology #ios #goodmorning #shortcuts #heysiri

The first part of the article deals with the ease that Linux can be installed on many old computers. These are computers that are made redundant often by Windows no longer getting updates (remembering that macOS still updates at least for 7, 8, or longer years after manufacture). So many older computers can be perfectly well repurposed and used for many more years using Linux, and still receive security patches and updates.

However, it is also important that hardware parts can be replaced, especially hard drives, power supplies, etc. It's an assumption that I also made that ATX motherboards are a standard fit, the PSU connectors on a motherboard are all generally a standard fit, and the same goes for SATA drive connectors, and so on. This often means you can even cannibalise parts from another broken computer you have on hand. Replacing and re-using parts is all important to reducing wastage and extending the use of what you have.

But this is the first time I've read that Dell uses some non-standard parts that you can't easily replace (for example, in the Dell Optiplex). When you can find parts (like power supplies and motherboards), they are not cheap. The reason is that those vendors create systems with non-standard power supplies and motherboards that only fit within their own non-standard cases. This is a strategy used to keep revenues up. If you can't find these parts on the open market, you must go to the original manufacturer and pay inflated, if not exorbitant, prices. Eventually, one or more of those non-standard parts will fail, and you won't be able to find a replacement at all, or at least not for a reasonable price. At that point, it makes sense to dispose of the old computer and purchase a new one.

So although up to now, I was quite pro-Dell in terms of their Linux support, I certainly will not touch buying any computer with non-standard parts.

The best option for the planet is to keep computers running as long as possible.

See https://opensource.com/article/22/4/how-linux-saves-earth

#technology #environment #dell #standardisation #ewaste

This article actually emerged from a debate on Lemmy (an alternative to Reddit) recently, and I found it does explain quite clearly why many so-called reasons for using VPN's, in fact, don't provide those protections, and why just using the Tor browser for some of those scenarios may actually be better.

Yes, certainly if your aim is to bypass geoblocking for streaming services, or to isolate your activity from risky public Wi-Fi, then a VPN is a good thing. Tor is better at actually hiding your IP address, and cannot just be blocked or shut down.

But it is true that a VPN emerges somewhere (as does the Tor browser traffic) and from there it is openly accessing websites. Those websites can still fingerprint you, plant cookies on your computer, inject malware on your computer, etc.

It's not to say that Tor browser will magically prevent everything, but it can do a better job of protecting you from fingerprinting though, and also not by exiting through one known provider. Tor can also have bridging activated, which offers an additional layer of protection, especially when operating in a country where certain social media and sites are being blocked by authorities.

But yes there are many companies selling VPN services (some good, and some very dubious) and obviously they are marketing to make money (by selling the service to you, or in some cases selling your metadata).

A VPN is not a magic bullet, so the best advice is to think about why one wants to use one, and then to probably rather use a paid one which provides some guarantees of auditing and privacy. Yes, you can spin your own VPN too, but you are usually associated with its public IP address in some way.

Interesting read at https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/2019-10-17-you-want-tor-browser-not-a-vpn/

#technology #security #privacy #VPN #Tor

Mastodon has been one of the best alternatives to corporate social networks over the past few years, with its decentralized design and open protocols. The platform released its own app for iOS last year, and now there’s an Android app available on the Google Play Store.

Mastodon is a social network with an estimated user base of 4.4 million people and a similar design as Twitter. The back end works a bit like email: anyone who signs up on one community (server) can follow and talk to anyone on any other community, just like someone with a Gmail account can send messages to a Yahoo email, and vice-versa. There’s no centralized database or platform collecting data, and no algorithmic timelines. The protocol powering everything, ActivityPub, is open-source and has been implemented by other social networks. For example, Mastodon users can follow people on PixelFed, an Instagram alternative that supports ActivityPub.

Because Mastodon is decentralized, rules can differ between instances, you should take the time to choose one that fits closest with your own values. I post identical content to both Twitter (831 followers) and Mastodon (718 followers), and certainly the engagement I get on Mastodon is way higher than on Twitter. It seems that Twitter has such a fire-hose of adverts, promoted tweets, etc that it buries posts from those who you really choose to follow.

It is also worth exploring some of the 3rd party Mastodon apps (both Android and iOS), as they often contain some extra features you may find appealing.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/mastodon-official-android-app/

#technology #mastodon #socialnetwork #decentralised #activitypub

Most Android smartphones and tablets already have dozens (or even hundreds) of settings for changing everything from notifications to system colours. There are even more settings hidden away in the Developer options, which are mostly intended to help with creating Android applications, but some of them can come in handy for other situations too.

Even though some of the features accessible through the Developer options can be helpful, it’s not always clear which option does what. Although none of the features in the Developer options will break your phone or tablet, enabling some of them can cause unintended problems. That’s why we’re going over everything you can do with Developer options in this roundup, so you can know exactly which setting does what.

For example, if you wanted to sideload apps using ADB, you'd enable that within the Developer Options. Or if you want to graphically show taps on the screen (eg. for video recordings) this is where you'd enable that too.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/android-developer-options/

#technology #android

The Nitecore UFZ100 camera battery is here to release photographers from Sony’s proprietary grasp — a built-in USB-C charging port lets you power it up using the same hardware as many of your other devices. It hasn't been officially released yet, but you can use the battery with the Sony A7 III, A7R III, A7R IV, A7S III, A9 (ILCE-9), A9 II, A6600, A7C, A1, FX3, and A7 IV, saving you from lugging around a separate charger if you want to bring along (and charge) an extra battery on a shoot.

Reliability and price have not been made known yet though. So yes there may be some trade-offs as certainly the capacity is slightly less, with a longer charging time.

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/19/23031768/nitecore-sony-camera-ufz100-battery-usb-c

#technology #vendorlockin #batteries #sony #photography

I had this same issue myself last week, and found that some of my WiFi channels in use were clashing on channels that nearby neighbours were also using. You can do some scanning using free Windows or Android apps (not iOS, but Linux also has a nice app called LinSSID, and some routers will do their own scanning which is sometimes called site survey) to determine which channels are the most open where you are, and then set your router to use one of those instead. The 2.4 GHz segment is especially crowded nowadays (but unfortunately it has the better range). The 5 GHz has many more available channels which are open, but the thing is the range is quite a bit less.

It seems that many routers, which have auto scan ability, tend to go for channel 1 or 6. So often channel 10 upwards will be a bit clearer. But there is also some overlap across channels, so a strong channel 1 and channel near each other, will still interfere.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/441668-wi-fi-signal-interference-test-simple-trick-to-speed-up-your-connection.html

#technology #WiFi #interference

Quite a good summary overview, in the linked article below, which is easy to follow. As the saying goes for Linux "Everything in Linux is a file", so understanding file permissions is quite important. Also, if you do any web hosting or similar server based applications, it is often incorrect file permissions that create errors (usually just needing file ownership or permissions corrected to solve them).

I can probably add, too, that you can also change file permissions and ownership across all files and sub-directories within a folder, with the addition of the -R option. Although there are many flavours of Linux distros out there, these basics remain the same across all of them.

See https://linuxhostsupport.com/blog/understanding-the-linux-file-permissions/

#technology #linux #files #permissions