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ringworld | 3 years ago | on: 1k True Fans? Try 100 (2020)

While it doesn't fit TFA's premise of 100 on one thing, Patreon is used as a donation platform by many groups, for example i know of several online radio platforms using it (when asked "why not Liberapay?", they say Patreon helps take care of business and tax issues, provides an API, etc.). DKFM uses the API to display their Patreon donors on the website for example.

Sci-fi publications use it as well for monthly subscriptions - the general math holds up that some people spend $5/$10 per thing totalling up to $100/mo (or some variation). But I don't think that supports what TFA is suggesting $100/thing/mo), that feels like a lot. They might believe the Patreon user only supports one thing/mo, but I'm not sure that's true - people have varied interests based on my travels.

ringworld | 3 years ago | on: Can a laptop from 2012 be a viable home server?

Depends on the hardware - I run 2x Dell E6330 server-laptops and their BIOS has an option to change the charging configuration to "primarily always on AC" - some Latitudes are designed to run docked all the time as "business PCs".

While we're here, turn off TurboBoost in BIOS to keep them running cooler with the lid closed, I've found it really helps when tasks get a little bursty.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: TUIs

A little late to the article, if anyone is still reading comments I recommend cmus, a console music player with extensive key bindings and library support.

https://cmus.github.io/

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Reddit can't build a better search engine

I really like my Anker Bluetooth speaker, it's an old one that just keeps on working, lasted longer than Android phones. Listening to it now, every morning - the Anker love is real. ;)

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Phone number has been used too many times

In the USA, the cheapest option I've found is Tello (T-Mobile MVNO) - $5-6/mo for the absolute basic tier, real SIM with a real (non VOIP) number. Accepts number port-in after initial activation.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Stories Are Coming to Signal

Everyone has different UI feature desires so ill put that aside for this comment; flexibility is my key reason for Signal losing favor.

What the Matrix solution gives me:

- chat from multiple devices with history upon login (I read they're working on downloadable exports/backups) from any client;

- zero knowledge webapp logins (e.g. the work laptop on VPN, app.element.io in a Chrome tab) just use your Security Key like MFA;

- trivial and easy bridging with other endpoints (IRC, XMPP, etc.) it's not perfect but it works and I use this daily chatting with friends on other networks;

- choice of many clients whether actual apps or web interfaces (yes, it's early days and rough around the edges but the capability is there and happening) unlike Signal;

- distributed (federation) server designs baked in to avoid single company server lock in (Signal is opposed to this, goes hand in hand with using only their clients);

- less trouble and better client experiences about around the above than XMPP ecosystem. I just get annoyed using the XMPP versions of my bullet points above (and I've really tried, honest)

Is Matrix/Element perfect? no, lots of rough edges being worked on especially with the e2ee keys (my opinion). But I see healthy work, continual improvement and a good future ahead.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Search engines and SEO spam

The GP commented about using curated sources. One can disable all those (google, bing, etc.) and choose to only enable results from reddit, wikipedia and so forth in searX, which directly queries based on a config inside the project.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Search engines and SEO spam

You may be interested in searX - it refers to data sources as Engines; you have the ability to run your own instance (or use a public shared one) and only enable engines you want results from (reddit, stackoverflow etc.). Build your own meta-engine recipe, basically.

https://searx.space to learn / get started. Find one and visit it, click Preferences upper right then follow your schnoz.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Are cryptocurrencies to blame for high GPU prices?

There exists a (niche?) area of cryptocoins which are rewards for producing CPU / GPU intensive work - one example is GridCoin but many others are put there once you start searching. The result is there are work farms out there computing data arguably for good reasons (cancer research etc.) but in effect you have the same environmental cost as PoW chain computations as they chase the coin rewards.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Whatever happened to Flickr?

I don't see a specific period of time mentioned in the article which was the death blow for myself and a lot of colleagues; at one point in time instead of restricting it to amount, they restricted access to original size uploads on free accounts. Not just to viewers but content owners as well.

There was a mad scramble of script writing to get all your originals downloaded before the magic cutoff date (I have some laying around somewhere), it was one of my first interactions with python if i recall correctly. People such as myself were naive and had only Flickr storing all our originals - this was our storage method.

It was at that point we all moved on to whatever else having had the scare of using the service in our minds, leaving the friends who had Pro accounts (you could gift them to people back then, it was neat) stranded without an audience. Probably Instagram, back in the beginning IG prided themselves on iPhone-only high quality (no web, no Android) which was sort of the what Flickr Pro users were using anyways.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: The future of Python build systems and Gentoo

A significant amount of systems tooling has migrated from perl to python in modern Linux, RHEL relies heavily on it when you start looking under the covers. The basic python interpreter installation ("stdlib") does not include a few key libraries like Requests (think curl) or YAML parsing; these must be installed as complementary (extra) packages on top.

In the article the author makes note of the TOML parser (basically an enhanced INI file design); if a TOML parser is required to install a library (pyproject.toml instructions), and no TOML parser is in the stdlib, how do you install python3-toml (sic) to provide it? It's a circular dependency, chicken & egg problem caused by removing the legacy Setuptools abilty to install a library using only stdlib functionality.

This is only one example, others exist - the OS detection library (needed to know which flavor of Linux you're on) is external and has similar (but not identical) needs, as the python installation paths are different on RHEL-like systems than Debian-like. This one has solutions for it but the author is pointing out those solutions might break based on the current trajectory of upstream thinking.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Facebook removed the news feed algorithm in an experiment

It used to be that way. Then they started "forgetting" everyone's setting to turn it off (go back to the original reverse time based feed), then they took the option away. After purchasing Instagram they did the same exact thing, FB engineering specifically removed the feature on their platforms.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Delphi 11 Alexandria

> unless you go to a herculean effort to bundle your own Qt build

Zoom ships their own copy of Qt in the Linux packages as an example, lives in /opt/zoom next to their code.

ringworld | 4 years ago | on: Revolt: Open-source alternative to Discord

Suggestion: lift yourself up without tearing others down. Remove the comments at the end about Matrix leaving a sour taste in your mouth and being buggy: the reasons on this link are sound, engage your audience with all positive energy.
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