The Android app “Öffi” has become Open Source and is available at GitLab:
https://gitlab.com/oeffi/oeffi/tree/master/oeffi
This action was preceded by the suspension of the app from Google. See also the report at Golem (in German).
(auf Deutsch anzeigen)
Again an illegal copy of Periodical
A while ago someone informed me about an illegal copy of Periodical which was modified without providing sources of the modified version. This copy does not exist any longer.
But there are also business-minded people who create their own version based on the existing sources (as from August 2017) that contains paid ads – of course only after deleting all references to the true origin:
Extensions in Lightbox with PhotoSwipe
Originally I created Lightbox with PhotoSwipe just to be able to use PhotoSwipe at all. In the beginning some features didn’t get used at all.
BBC Computer Literacy Project
In the 1980ies the BBC explored the world of computers as part of the national initiative “The Computer Literacy Project” and produced numerous programs for almost a decade.
This material is now available as an archive where you can watch all the old programs again. You can also run the software developed in the past for the “BBC Micro” in an emulator directly in your browser:
https://computer-literacy-project.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/
Root access in Android as of 2018
I already wrote about the topic “rooting of Android” in 2013. Since then the direction of Android itself changed a lot.
Things which where not very popular five years ago are now quite normal: films are being watched on mobile devices with services such as Netflix and games like Pokémon GO generate huge sales (by the end of 2017 about 890 million USD). For the providers of such services it is of course important that the data of the apps is not accessible by third parties – for example to protect DRM mechanisms.
Another area are payment services, such as Google Pay, which got introduced in 2015 – and again, it is important that no third party can access confidential data.
Three years smoke-free
As today’s the World No Tobacco Day, it’s appopriate to mention it: I’ve been smoke free and happy with it for three years now :-). In May 2015, I smoked the last cigarette and live since then smoke-free. Aside from the health aspect, I also grossly estimate to have saved well over 5000 EUR not spent on cigarettes. Money, which I can use in a better way for other things.
If you are interested, I also wrote some other articles about my experience (in German only yet): Der lange Weg zum rauchfreien Leben und Ein Jahr rauchfrei.
Segmented type displays to play with
Probably everybody knows public displays which are composed of segmented characters.
On https://aresluna.org/segmented-type/ you find an emulator for that which displays different variations from 8 to 93 segments per character. You can type any text on your own and select different display variations with the displayed text.
Does anyone still remember the time when the first pinball machines started using 14 segment displays which allowed to show not only the current scores but also any kind of messages?
Experiences with NextCloud
Many years ago I already had look at OwnCloud, which was first released in 2010 and claimed to offer an alternative to commercial services like DropBox or Google. The idea was good, only the implementation and the security was lacking at the beginning, which had kept me back from permanent use.
For exchanging files I later discovered Seafile as an alternative. For addresses and appointments I used Baïkal to synchronize the data between my Android devices and different computers with CalDAV and CardDAV. Added to this is Roundcube as a webmail client with an extension for using the Baïkal address book via CardDAV.
Although this constellation basically worked, there were some drawbacks: a browser-based calendar does not exist at all and Baïkal has no longer being actively developed for some time – the latest version is from August 2016 (see release page at Github).
CarbonROM on the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
In September 2017 a security hole concerning Bluetooth was discovered in Android and published under the name “BlueBorne”. Unfortunately Sony decided not to provide any updates for the Xperia Z3 Compact anymore, as the device was already too old after nearly 3 years on the market (also see my other post about this).
Illegal copy of Periodical
Recently someone informed me via Github about a copy of Periodical on Google Play, which was published as “Period Tracker” – however without the modified source code and without mentioning the original source, which is a clear violation of the GPL.
