Notices by Danie van der Merwe (danie10@mastodon.social)

@glynmoody a case of the pot calling the kettle black...

@glynmoody yes it is sickening to have had to pay for laptops in the past with Windows cost included, and then to have to delete Windows to put Linux on. Should not have to pay for something you won't use. That pre-install deal has inflated Windows numbers.

@Gargron I already deleted them the previous time around - when the T&C's demanded acceptance that all metadata could be passed upstream to Meta and to their partners.

Bike Index — Over $28,937,727 Worth of Bikes Recovered Globally Through Crowdsourcing

It’s simple. Submit your name, bike manufacturer, serial number, and component information to enter your bike into the most widely used bike registry on the planet.

If your bike goes missing, mark it as lost or stolen to notify the entire Bike In ...continues

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/bike-index-over-28937727-worth-of-bikes-recovered-globally-through-crowdsourcing/

#bikes #crowsourcing #stolen #technology

@eff assuming what it looks like for US users, as the rest of the world is not banning it

Linden Lab Test Launches Browser-Based Streaming for Second Life — And You Can Try it Now

This works pretty well, actually. Starts up in about a minute, although on Brave browser I did have to disable Shields and uBlock Origin (may have been the latter that was blocking something).

Interestingly enough, I caught a brief glimpse of a W ...continues

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/linden-lab-test-launches-browser-based-streaming-for-second-life-and-you-can-try-it-now/

#gaming #secondlife #technology

ChangeDetection.io is a private self-hosted website change detection and price monitor service

Monitor web pages for changes (such as watching prices, restock notifications), to deep inspection such as PDF text support, JSON and XML monitoring and extensive text triggers. Get notifications when a website updates.

The service is not only us ...continues

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/changedetection-io-is-a-private-self-hosted-website-change-detection-and-price-monitor-service/

#opensource #pricebargains #privacy #selfhosting #technology

@soapdog interesting, I'm thinking of learning it as DaVinci Resolve video editor supports Lua and Python. Although I know the basics of Python, supposedly Lua is simpler for thew scripting jobs there.

@Gargron such reviews should not be allowed as it zero to do with the app at all. Like saying MS Word stinks because of the documents I'm reading in it.

5 reasons you should use Markdown for documentation and notetaking

A good reminder again about the future-proofed nature of Markdown format notes. They are essentially plain text and will be read my many apps well into the future.

Also true that Markdown’s “shortcuts” for headings, lists, are largely universal, ...continues

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/5-reasons-you-should-use-markdown-for-documentation-and-notetaking/

#markdown #notes #openstandards #technology

If Online Grammar Checks Concern You, Run Your Own Private Grammarly Clone Using Docker and LanguageTool

I can’t see any feature advantages with this apart from all your checking being done locally. So for really privacy conscious folks, this may be a big plus to host this service on your own PC, or even an accessible server or Raspberry Pi.

One adv ...continues

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/if-online-grammar-checks-concern-you-run-your-own-private-grammarly-clone-using-docker-and-languagetool/

@Gargron music turned up a bit does also help a bit

@eff going the way of China supposedly - the irony is just too much

@glynmoody that really seems extreme, and I'm not even sure that men face equal treatment...

@glynmoody so much happening at religious institutions (over decades) and God watches silently without intervening...

@eff actually Apartheid was a blend of both censorship and propaganda - selectively holding some information back, whilst also selectively pushing other information. It is still found today in other governments and industries, in a more subtle guise, to also shape opinions and thoughts.

@eff blocking used to be called censorship in days gone past...

@deadsuperhero that's the Mike I always think of - funnily enough he integrated with the Fediverse but his nomadic identities etc were really way ahead of the Fediverse.

@glynmoody just thinking with all that money, they could maybe have funded their own app to be written for gov, where they owned the source code, and could use it across all local authorities. I don't get why separate solutions get sold to each local authority.

@frogzone the law is problematic as proving age with ID is going to be a major security risk unless it is a basic declaration. I don't think the gov has realised there are decentralised networks, as they are even one person hosting services in any country, or hosted by an under 16 themselves even...