Around 7000 people all over the world have installed a small SDR (usually a Raspberry Pi with a low cost Software Defined Radio receiver) and an antenna to receive 1090 MHz and feed the data into their project. The received data is collected (ADS-B) and correlated to create MLAT positions. As they need to see an aircraft with 4 feeders to be able to find its location with MLAT the best way to expand coverage is to install your own feeder, even if there are already some in your area, or help them arrange to place one in the area of bad coverage.

ADSBexchange started as (and still is) a group of aviation enthusiasts pooling their feeder data to provide the most complete picture of air traffic possible without the censorship present on the “large, commercial networks”. ADSBx prefers to allow “free” access to as many features as possible. They don’t put features behind a “paywall”, then hold them ransom to encourage/force people to feed.

Their primary goal though is to answer the question of “what’s up there” rather than “is grandma’s flight on-time”. The photos shown on ADS-B Exchange are not provided by ADS-B Exchange, rather they are hosted and provided by planespotters.net. So there are certainly differences from FlightRadar24, but as ADS-B Exchange says, they are not trying to tell you if grandma's plane is on time.

See https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #flightdata #flights

Around 7000 people all over the world have installed a small SDR (usually a Raspberry Pi with a low cost Software Defined Radio receiver) and an antenna to receive 1090 MHz and feed the data into their project. The received data is collected (ADS-B) and correlated to create MLAT positions. As they need to see an aircraft with 4 feeders to be able to find its location with MLAT the best way to expand coverage is to install your own feeder, even if there are already some in your area, or help them arrange to place one in the area of bad coverage.

ADSBexchange started as (and still is) a group of aviation enthusiasts pooling their feeder data to provide the most complete picture of air traffic possible without the censorship present on the “large, commercial networks”. ADSBx prefers to allow “free” access to as many features as possible. They don’t put features behind a “paywall”, then hold them ransom to encourage/force people to feed.

Their primary goal though is to answer the question of “what’s up there” rather than “is grandma’s flight on-time”. The photos shown on ADS-B Exchange are not provided by ADS-B Exchange, rather they are hosted and provided by planespotters.net. So there are certainly differences from FlightRadar24, but as ADS-B Exchange says, they are not trying to tell you if grandma's plane is on time.

See https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #flightdata #flights

A Fitbit feature that passively monitors users’ heart rhythms was cleared by the US's Food and Drug Administration, the company announced today.

AFib is a form of irregular heart rhythm that affects nearly 33.5 million people globally, and individuals with AFib have five times higher risk of stroke. Unfortunately, AFib can be difficult to detect as there are often no symptoms and episodes can come and go.

The feature periodically checks wearers’ heart rhythms and alerts them if they show signs of atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that puts people at a higher risk for stroke. Fitbit already had an FDA-cleared EKG app that can do spot checks for the condition, but users had to manually take those readings. The new tool runs in the background.

See https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/11/23020143/fitbit-google-fda-clearance-heart-rhythm-afib

#technology #health #fitbit #heart

Scheduling meetings can be a nearly insurmountable task. Finding a time that works for everyone in the same organisation, let alone across different time zones, can feel like trying to solve a puzzle with a missing piece.

There are several web applications that can help you send around a poll to find out what times work for each participant, with several different options for dates and times provided. By taking the intersection of all the good times, you can uncover the ideal meeting schedule. | Should you want to host your own meeting poll software, there are several open source options available to you, and the linked article covers five of those. Not all have to be self-hosted as the very first option is a free cloud hosted solution, which can be optionally self-hosted too.

See https://opensource.com/article/22/4/open-source-alternatives-doodle-polls

#technology #opensource #scheduling #meetings #event

Today, it's mostly power users who still mod their devices, but that's only because it requires full root access to make it happen. The Shizuku app changes that, and will hopefully bring some new and old modders back onto the scene.

Shizuku uses a unique service that allows third-party apps access to system-level Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). It achieves this through the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) interface. ADB commands are somewhat limited by nature; however, combining them with system APIs gives you a significant amount of control. You also don't have to bother learning about the Android rooting process to start using Shizuku.

Just as with the wireless debugging feature, you must reactivate the Shizuku service each time you reboot your device (if your phone is not rooted). These two methods rely on the ADB interface, which only makes temporary changes to your device without root access. Since you don't need to reboot that often these days, it likely won't be an issue for most.

Yes, only four apps are listed right now at https://shizuku.rikka.app/apps/, but it will likely grow if this becomes popular.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/how-to-use-shizuku-for-adb-rootless-mods-on-any-android-device/

#technology #android #modding #Shizuku #adb

Whether it is Windows, Linux, or macOS, you will find plenty of Indie games to play. There are chances to find incredibly exciting games that are often underrated, which makes it exciting to explore Indie games.

But, here, the focus is only on the best Indie RPG games (i.e. developed by small teams) available for the Linux platform. It does not matter if you have an entry-level gaming setup, most Indie games should work perfectly fine on a range of computers (even with integrated graphics).

See https://itsfoss.com/best-indie-rpg-games-linux/

#technology #gaming #linux #indiegames

VPNs are useful for preserving your online privacy, but Netflix does its best to block subscribers who use them. These are the best VPNs that were tested to work with Netflix in the US right now. All in all, 16 VPN services were tested, with only 5 actually passing the test. Note though, the tests were focussed on Netflix use, and not privacy or other aspects as a core focus.

What is also of interest, are links to more detailed reviews on each of these VPN services.

See https://uk.pcmag.com/vpn/90005/the-best-vpns-for-netflix

#technology #VPN #netflix #streaming

Supercaps are certainly not a drop-in replacement for rechargeable batteries, but it can get irritating having to climb onto a roof every few months to switch out the rechargeable batteries. My latest Ambient Weather station is using expensive single use batteries which last about 2 years, so I'm living with it, but my previous Acurite 5-in-1 station was also chewing through rechargeable batteries.

Supercaps do charge very quickly, and their lifetime use can be a good 30% or longer than rechargeable batteries. But they take up more space, and they discharge linearly, so other allowances need to be made for their use. But even so they may be worth considering for some use cases.

Using supercaps though for this weather station example, the monitoring device is showing that the supercaps were fully charged in just an hour and a half on a sunny morning, and maybe three or four times that on a dark and rainy day, which is pretty good.

See https://hackaday.com/2022/04/07/wireless-weather-station-gets-solar-powered-supercap-upgrade/

#technology #supercaps #weatherstation #PWS #batterylife

Rolling out now to the service’s public beta is the new Discover section that helps you search, add, and stream any movie or TV show across multiple services. You can finally maintain a single universal watchlist in the Plex app (which is synced across all your Plex apps, on all popular platforms), and when you choose a title, you’ll see all the available places to stream it. When you choose to watch it on Hulu, it will open the Hulu app, and will directly start the media playback (thanks to some deep-linking magic).

There’s another advantage to using Plex’s universal watchlist: Plex will keep track of where a movie or TV show is streaming currently. So even if a TV show leaves HBO Max and moves to Hulu, it won’t suddenly disappear from your watch list.

See https://lifehacker.com/finally-a-universal-watchlist-for-all-your-streaming-s-1848756968

#technology #streaming #movies #plex