Onno (VK6FLAB)
Anything and everything Amateur Radio and beyond. Heavily into Open Source and SDR, working on a multi band monitor and transmitter.
#geek #nerd #hamradio VK6FLAB #podcaster #australia #ITProfessional #voiceover #opentowork
- 204 Posts
- 491 Comments
3·3 days agoWelcome to the community!
Apparently the petition went up in November 2025 and has a year to get enough signatures. Last I saw it was near to the halfway point of acceptance.
I came across it because I saw a post announcing that Inkscape was supporting it.
https://inkscape.org/news/2026/05/13/inkscape-supports-german-petition-to-recognize-ope/
143·4 days agoNo doubt the threat of a Stripe ban on Kickstarter is predicated on the expected ban on Stripe by MasterCard and or Visa.
In other words, online censorship is being controlled by two credit card companies.
We really need more payment processors, preferably not based in the USA.
Basically two choices:
- Find a project you’re interested in and make a contribution. Many projects tag certain issues with something like “Good First Issue” as a way of lowering barriers to entry. Other things are updating documentation, fixing typos, then you can branch out into patches and pull requests.
- Make your own FOSS project.
5·6 days agoThis episode about Palantir is an episode of an ABC TV program called “If you’re listening” by Matt Bevan.
2·8 days agoI faced pretty much the exact same choice, except I was given four of them, each with 8 GB of RAM.
Unfortunately they were two different hardware revisions, so the most I could achieve was two servers with 16 GB each.
They sound like a Jet taking off when powered up and the BIOS doesn’t support lower fan speeds.
Instead after months of deliberation I decided to go with a SFF Lenovo, 32 GB, 2 x 1 TB NVME, Ryzen 7, and bought this:
It’s whisper quiet and running Proxmox.
To get VM video passthrough to work I installed an extra video card, though, you could install a desktop on the host OS instead if you prefer.
The video card I used to fit inside is this:
Here’s what fuel costs in Western Australia, changes daily, next day prices are published at 06:30 UTC (14:30 local time).
12·11 days agoThat’s a whole lot better than your cat gagging whilst looking you in the eye.
2·11 days agoNo idea. I have two accounts, one on Lemmy, one on Mastodon. Presumably somebody is mirroring this community to Mastodon, or perhaps the other way around, I’m not sure.
The issue is not packaging, it’s users circumventing security out of ignorance, willful or not, still ignorance.
As Linux gains popularity, the users will need to learn, often the hard way, how to go about installing stuff. Running a random script off the internet is not how it’s done.
Uhm … no.
Linux had permissions from day one, neither Windows nor Apple did until much more recently.
I use Apple, since there’s many versions of its OS and only¹ the one based on BSD has permissions.
The entire Linux ecosystem is permissions based, it’s baked into the kernel and while bugs continue to be discovered and patched, they’re visible to everyone, where that’s not the case with either Windows nor Apple.
Permissions aren’t new. Unix has had them from the early days, as have operating systems like VMS, BSD and OS/400 to name a few.
As for exploits, the level of user social engineering exploits is exploding with the growth of Linux, since most new users come from operating systems with poor security.
In my opinion Mac OS is hurting itself by making inexplicable security choices, causing pain where none is required, resulting in people actively disabling security to their own detriment.
As for actual exploits, they’re getting more and more ubiquitous since more and more operating systems are running the same code, think python, nginx, bash, etc.
Finally, I’d point out that your attempt at dispelling what you call a myth does not appear to be backed up by facts or sources.
I’ve been in this industry for over 40 years and while it’s far from perfect, I am comfortable stating that Linux is more secure than many operating systems and I suspect that it will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
I also note that it has a significantly larger user base than any other OS. Don’t believe me? Heard of Android, same Linux kernel.
¹ There was a brief A/UX hybrid OS that had permissions, based on Unix System V and BSD. It was discontinued in 1995.
5·12 days ago5 Watt is plenty to be heard. A more important question is, when are you trying to make contact?
I don’t know your experience level, so make sure that you’re doing this when the band is noisy, not when it’s quiet, especially on 40m.
Also make sure that you are aware of solar storms and geomagnetic disturbances, but if you can hear others, that’s a great start.
Think of making contact as flyfishing, it takes patience and practice!
Good luck.
1·13 days agoNot sure what you mean. When I click the link on my post, it goes to where I intended. Note that I removed an errant period at the end of the URL about an hour ago.
Edit: Well this is getting weird. I tested it three times, now it goes to a redirect page that does require the period.
Edit: I think I nailed it third time around.
Thank you, fixed.
I think that it’s going to take societal change to stop this from being the norm. In Australia there was a road safety campaign with the slogan:
“Speeding. No one thinks big of you.”
It essentially compared speeding with having a small penis, by using the metaphor of a wiggling pinkie, and thus embarrassing perpetrators.
In other words, it needs to become uncool to drive such a massive vehicle. Perhaps “The bigger the trick, the smaller the …”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speeding._No_one_thinks_big_of_you.
Edit: Removed stray period.
Edit: Added non stray period back and changed how I entered the URL. Fingers crossed this works. Remind me again why I work in IT.
23·14 days agoI’m sure I’m not alone in asking:
- How do you set a SIM PIN on a modern smartphone?
- Can it be more than four digits?
- What’s to stop it being brute forced?
According to this source: https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2021L00617/latest/text
286AA The frequency band 450–470 MHz is identified for use by administrations wishing to implement International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) — see Resolution 224 (Rev.WRC-19). This identification does not preclude the use of this frequency band by any application of the services to which it is allocated and does not establish priority in the Radio Regulations. (WRC-19)
287 Use of the frequency bands 457.5125–457.5875 MHz and 467.5125–467.5875 MHz by the maritime mobile service is limited to on-board communication stations. The characteristics of the equipment and the channelling arrangement shall be in accordance with Recommendation ITU‑R M.1174‑4. The use of these frequency bands in territorial waters is subject to the national regulations of the administration concerned. (WRC-19)
289 Earth exploration–satellite service applications, other than the meteorological–satellite service, may also be used in the bands 460–470 MHz and 1 690–1 710 MHz for space-to-Earth transmissions subject to not causing harmful interference to stations operating in accordance with the Table.
AUS98 The harmonised frequency ranges in the 400 MHz band are used for national security, law enforcement, and first and second responder agencies. These agencies include police, fire, ambulance, and emergency rescue. These agencies are normally consulted about use of this spectrum for government purposes via the Commonwealth, State and Territory representative arrangements established by the National Coordinating Committee for Government Radiocommunications[1]. The harmonised band comprises the following frequency ranges: