lucg

I discovered this site because they wrote a JavaScript n-body gravity simulator as a side note for an article on iirc Cyclers. That's the level of commitment I expect from a particularly dedicated space enthusiast, not a journalist! Especially when it's not essential and a prominent piece in the story. Incredibly cool

They also have a podcast which I would recommend. Ain't got no time to read the long pieces* but having them stories read to me while I'm cleaning the house? You bet!

* this is a lie; I read books for crying out loud

Wow. It apparently took me 32 years to notice The Count has more than one meaning o.o Thanks for making that point clear to a fellow Dutch speaker xD

Age of Empires 1 is old enough, but does one "use" it?

It's got a unique co-op feature where you actally control the same people and can divide tasks (not like other RTS where you can play in a team but still need to do everything yourself, with any resource sharing being a manual (or even taxed) action in a menu somewhere), so my gf and I are sticking with this game. I think it's the only game we've been playing consistently for our 10 years together. Crap, did I say playing? I meant using! It's a relationship tool. Try it today! xD

I let them know that I was cool with transcription software being used as long as it was installed locally on their machines, but I did not want a third party online app having access to recorded sessions for the purposes of transcription. They didn't take issue with it.

A cynical part in me thinks they'll just have it "locally installed" in the same way that Firefox is locally installed (doesn't mean the meaningful part runs locally), and that no third party has access because the servers just don't show stuff from other tenants even though the server operator could theoretically see all. It's not like the medical people necessarily know better if their vendor answered the concerns in this manner

One way to find out for lay people might be to turn off WiFi, or disconnect the network cable, and see if it still works — in case you're in a position where the doc might seem willing to do such a 30-second experiment (if they haven't already tried this in the past themselves). Doesn't mean it doesn't get uploaded when internet is reconnected (e.g. for backups), but that is much harder to check, and if the vendor already made sure the processing is all local then it's probably okay and not being sold off as training or insurance data

Kudos for reading the terms of service and raising your concerns with them! So long as some of us keep doing that, the privacy of people who don't know about this sort of thing is also better-protected. Thank you :)

"I'm not sure"

It's rarely all bad. Then that would be simply the answer. The problem is that it's often complicated (not the emotional capacity of a teaspoon, for those who get that reference) and idk how to summarise that into a single feeling so I literally don't know what the answer is and so that's when you get an idk from me

If it's just a pleasantry by some english person (in my language this isn't a standard question a stranger or customer support will ask you) then I'll probably pick a random euphemism

From Germans I've learned that they say "muss", meaning must. Like, you must get on with life but not because you seek out what you're going through but because life doesn't stop. At least that's my working understanding of this deceptively simple word

bit niche but as a big streetcomplete fan I should have tried SCEE much sooner. So for any Openstreetmap contributors still holding out, that's a small recommendation https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete.expert

Breezy Weather is so pretty! I didn't know we had such beautiful FOSS software out there https://f-droid.org/packages/org.breezyweather

WebLibre I'm just trying out still, but I love that someone is extending Firefox on mobile https://f-droid.org/packages/eu.weblibre.gecko

Germans might appreciate Bahn Vorhersage. It's not magic, it won't know when your train will actually be there, but it helps planning trips on unfamiliar routes by giving you a much better idea of how much buffer time to plan. I actually prefer the webapp version here: https://bahnvorhersage.de/ (shout-out to @AskewLord@piefed.social downthread ;) )

I recently rediscovered UsageDirect for seeing how much time I spend in different apps. It's not really focused on this "spend less time on your phone" thing (you're old enough to decide that for yourself), it just shows you data that Android already collects anyway — and I love data! https://f-droid.org/packages/godau.fynn.usagedirect

Most of these, I discovered via f-droid's new feed, so that's also a rec! Even the Bahnvorhersage website I found that way via their app ^^. I just love "more free stuff"! https://www.stickycomics.com/computer-update/ :)

Be sure you didn't miss @jtrek@startrek.website's Too Good To Go recommendation downthread. It's about as commercial and nonfoss as it gets, but the end result is cheap food that would otherwise have been thrown away (I sometimes ask the store people what happens with the rest, only rarely is there some partial collaboration with a food bank type of place). Used to simply be a website to match people and restaurants iirc when I used it in Finland; now it requires an american credit card and anti-fraud algorithms magic to get anything but... still worth it

So share some webapps!

I wasn't meaning for it to be calling out so much as attempted humorous way of misunderstanding / literally interpreting your post 😅

I'm still not fully sure what you mean though. Does "root" mean VPS here (a system which you have root access to), and "tld" a domain name or even the DNS server for it?

Thank you! I'm going to take a look :)

You mean registrar. The registry is the place that administers the register of domains within a TLD (like .se or .mobi) and for some reason doesn't let you order domains unless you want to become a registrar first

I don't know which registry is the best but I can tell you about the worst. My registrar was also not amused by the mess that is AFNIC (twice now, concerning different domain names, and I don't have many domains so if I already had multiple problems...). They sit in Paris and operate the TLDs of former colonies

For registrars, I picked OVH because they're among the cheapest and their servers have been very reliable and fast across the months where I tested them before switching over. Their software is ass though, the forms frequently display three languages due to broken translations (their source language is French, my contract language is Dutch so a lot of elements are in Dutch, and then English trickles through where I guess they have a translation available but not to Dutch), multi-year ordering broke at some point and hasn't gotten fixed, automatic renewal is wonky to set up... but once it runs, it simply works well so I still recommend it for people who want good service on a budget. You can also set records by editing the zone file which I appreciate. I've had registrars before that wouldn't let you use certain record types; don't have such problems here

Which root server letter did you get assigned?

The Martian is my favorite book and the movie was surprisingly close! Very well made.

Do you have recommendations for a fellow fan? I haven't seen the middle two you mentioned, are either of them similar in style? Like in the nerdy, clever ideas, positive vibes, collaboration, and plausible physics type of way