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jdillaaa

53 karma · joined September 28, 2018

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jdillaaa··on Ask HN: Good tool to send personal notifications?
Matrix server/Element mobile app if you want something that you can host yourself / privacy is a concern. The Synapse Matrix server doesn’t send your message content to any Apple/Matrix.org server, it just tells your phone to download the message from your self-hosted instance.

Little more complicated to get setup and maintaining it though (not just a `curl` call )

jdillaaa··on Ask HN: Python on iPad
Perhaps Blink Shell + an EC2 instance or a digital ocean droplet? You also get Vim and a full linux system. This is what I do
jdillaaa··on Ask HN: Personal photo library recommendations? Open source, browser-based
I've been wanting to set up https://git.zx2c4.com/PhotoFloat/about/

Photoprism/Lychee/similar options don't really appeal to me because they involve a bunch of moving pieces. I want something that takes a directory, and serves static images from them with a nice and fast UI. PhotoFloat looks like it should do that and its the same author as wireguard/cgit so I feel like it could be good.

jdillaaa··on How I Manage My Random Daily Notes
It's a proprietary note ecosystem, so if you ever try to leave (or not use iCloud, which iOS/macOS note syncing depends on), it will be very difficult to regain control of your notes. I did this and it took a lot of effort, involved parsing out some protocol buffers, and losing a lot of formatting. I now just use markdown text files, never going back to that.

There are iOS shortcuts now which can let you do this programmatically, but you also lose formatting, and its a hack.

jdillaaa··on Purism's AweSIM – monthly plan for Librem5 including unlimited data
Yeah I mean a prepaid SIM + top up with cash is < $30 USD.

It just feels like they're taking advantage of people.

Although now that I think about it I wonder how they do E911? Sounds like a liability

jdillaaa··on Purism's AweSIM – monthly plan for Librem5 including unlimited data
As a few others have pointed out I'm not sure I buy the privacy argument here (although there is very little to go on on the linked page..)

Having your phone radio on at all (even without a SIM, e.g. E911 calls) is inherently privacy violating. If you must have connectivity on the go, any prepaid SIM + always on VPN will do the trick. Use Twilio if you want multiple numbers.

$99/mo is ludicrous, even if this actually works, which I have doubts about given the history of purism.

jdillaaa··on FBI serves warrant on Apple to access Senator's iCloud data
That's pretty accurate. Some stuff is encrypted with the device passcode like Health data and Keychain data. Around iOS 9 [1], Apple implemented some functionality to encrypt backups through a similar mechanism. This never panned out.

1) https://wccftech.com/ios-93-prompt-passcode-restoring-encryp...

Edit: as others have pointed out, looks like this never happened because the FBI said no.

jdillaaa··on PinePhone Review
> Interesting how you are sending SMS with different caller-ID based on contacts, but I am curious - without a VOIP dialer, can you place voice calls from your native dialer with different caller ID ?

Yes it is not very pleasant, and it is how you basically described it where you call a Twilio number, and then type in the destination. You could set up some sort of signaling where you activate the outbound number with an SMS which may be less cumbersome than dialing on a phone call, but for native support that is the only way I can think of -- just dialing the target number would of course route from your main Telco

A decent SIP app might be an alternative here, I haven't explored them thoroughly because of Twilio Wireless (last I checked they weren't spectacular, but SIP is good)

jdillaaa··on PinePhone Review
Hijacking here, I use a similar setup and the fees are way less than my Telco plan. Standard telco is basically only worth keeping for the Data plans.
jdillaaa··on PinePhone Review
Neat! I have a similar setup, except a little more native support because of Twilio Wireless (not sure if you know about this? https://www.twilio.com/wireless)

I have the Twilio SIM (T-Mobile coverage) in my primary SIM (iPhone dual sim), and then Verizon/ATT/Sprint/TMobile on my e-sim. The e-sim is for data only, because data is expensive (and slow) on Twilio. If you don't have Dual Sim then the data element may be a bit of a roadblock for you to totally switch over to the Twilio SIM depending on your data needs. Tthe goal of my setup is to be completely cell phone agnostic. I wanted to be able to send a single signal into the PSTN over an IP connection OR over a cell-only connection (no data). The native support on this is great when you use the Twilio SIM, but with call forwarding and some other hacks you can get support without the Twilio SIM. Also, the great thing about the SIM is that I can pop it into a phone from 2002, and have it talk to the internet through a series of signals sent via SMS (e.g. server maintenance, open up a firewall for a few moments, etc). I wrote a server that I point the SIM endpoint to, and this server handles all of the forwarding/reception of voice and SMS.

I also built out a CLI for messaging (pulls in SMS history, deletes from Twilio, stores locally encrypted, lets you send out messages on a "convo" view, etc)... using the python API, and then built out a Web UI for making phone calls using client.js (receiving phone calls TBD). This has integrated support with my CardDav contacts (and depending on if someone is in my contacts, they get a different number on the caller ID), which makes for a more powerful (IMO) app than an iOS VOIP app, of which the options are fairly clunky and limited.

It is all pretty hacky but if you want to talk more about it I am curious to see what you have built out. I am not totally dependent on it for a few reasons, a big one being that I don't want to send all of my communications through the unencrypted telephone network.. The long-term goal here is to package it and open-source it so that people can easily "free" their communications, but it is pretty scattered right now.

Eagerly awaiting the PinePhone to give me more flexibility with all of this.

jdillaaa··on PinePhone Review
Can you provide more info on this Twilio mini-telco? I’ve been working on something similar to work around the lack of well supported libraries for telephony
jdillaaa··on Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?
I have the X1C. Little thing I noticed about the matte IPS screen (which I selected for outdoor usage much like you said) is that the screen goes black when I wear my sunglasses with a polarized lens, so if your sunglasses are polarized perhaps consider buying some non-polarized ones :-)
jdillaaa··on Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs
Spotify has a linux client that runs on electron. The Librem 5 runs a full Debian OS. So you should be able to run electron on it without any issues.
jdillaaa··on Librem 5 Smartphone Final Specs
There are also a ton of CLI tools to generate TOTP if thats what you're using authy for.

https://github.com/WhyNotHugo/totp-cli

jdillaaa··on Facebook is embedding tracking data inside the photos you download
Yeah, years ago. Nothing new here. Running "exiftool FB_IMG" would reveal the same "structural abnormality" (not an abnormality though because its part of the valid IIM block of the file). See https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/IPTC.html
jdillaaa··on Moa fossil footprints found in New Zealand river
Wow that fossil is huge! And so well preserved... What a cool find.
jdillaaa··on The privacy paradox: why do people keep using tech firms that abuse their data?
The paradox here is pretty difficult to break down because it its function and causes are so intertwined with everything in "industrialized Western society" as the above comment makes note of.

The book "24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep" captures many social phenomenon and mechanisms of the neoliberal/"late capitalism" moment.

Here is an excerpt from a book review: "the emergence, rationalization, and normalization of the “observing subject” across the 19th century, revealing new techniques of discipline, such as the regulation of attention in industrial labour and later the pathologization of deviant forms of perception and attentiveness" from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/580561

jdillaaa··on Apple’s $9 engineering marvel no one wants (2017)
I am pretty convinced that this greatly degrades audio quality on my aux headphones. Bluetooth quality is normal, but with this cable, I can hear the difference. When plugged into an amp/speaker the grain is so abundantly obvious (compared to a BT or AUX connection)
jdillaaa··on How Apple Card Works
fascinating. thanks!
jdillaaa··on How Apple Card Works
Why on earth would it run java?
jdillaaa··on Philadelphia Is First U.S. City to Ban Cashless Stores
Is a policy which discriminates against cash usage the best way to screen against the "behavior" of being dirty/smelly? Why not just ask him to leave if he loiters too long?

Instead, this policy clearly screens against a group of PEOPLE (those without access to electronic means of payment), which may or may not overlap with those participating in the undesirable "behaviors" I agree a restaurant should have the right to not tolerate.

jdillaaa··on Philadelphia Is First U.S. City to Ban Cashless Stores
Who said this person hasn't bathed in months? I have to challenge your claim of it being fine to want "pleasantness" or "standards" in a public space. 60 years ago, pre civil rights, this "pleasantness" meant not being black, which is ridiculous. "Filth" is also very much culturally shaped ... it sounds like you are saying homelessness == filth && unhealthy && public menace, which is very problematic.

edit: also, the no-cash policy does not filter against the "middle class home owner who hasn't bathed in months", so that does not hold.

jdillaaa··on Philadelphia Is First U.S. City to Ban Cashless Stores
I am very shocked. I really like Joe & the Juice. This story warrants a boycott, if it is credible.
jdillaaa··on Fractional scaling has landed in GNOME 3.32 (and may make it into Ubuntu 19.04)
finally! been waiting forever for this on my WQHD thinkpad with wayland

edit: good post and discussion here https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-3....

jdillaaa··on Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music
Last I used libspotify on Linux it still worked, but yes, official support has been withdrawn. It was a hassle to get it working, so yeah it was far from perfect. I found no solutions at all for doing the same with Apple Music though. That has changed a bit recently it seems.

I have a few projects too that involve the hybrid of the REST API and the libraries, it is definitely not ideal (should all be through REST API IMO). I guess Spotify could do it all over the REST API (including playback, Spotify connect, etc.), and then the client would only need to pull in a library that handles content decryption because the API can't send back decrypted audio streams (copyright/pirating). DRM is likely the biggest reason why they haven't done this yet (thoughts?), but the previous solution sounds plausible.

https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot has been a very good replacement for libspotify, and is pretty actively developed. Spotify can of course break this at any minute but it seems unlikely that this would happen.

jdillaaa··on Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music
Sorry, I was referring to your curated music library, not searching.

For example, in Spotify they just list all the tracks

https://i.imgur.com/Bse9J7z.jpg

In Apple Music, they list the albums, year, artwork, etc.

https://i.imgur.com/jyktt7R.jpg

I definitely prefer Apple's for browsing my current music.

jdillaaa··on Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music
Yeah, I have found Apple Music to be better than Spotify for the curation of music libraries.

> it just lists all of the songs that I have saved from an artist, ignoring the album information

AM definitely has Spotify beat here. Click an artist, see their albums, choose an album to listen to. All in one view. It seems so natural ... I wonder if this is because I learned to curate my music on iTunes, and it is just a habit?

But for music discovery, open development practices (this is the biggest reason I switched from AM to Spotify - knowing that no matter what kind of thing I want to hack together, Raspberry Pi connected to BT speaker connected to projector, I would be able connect Spotify to it somehow), and social music experience, I think Spotify has AM beat.

jdillaaa··on Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music
Yes, the raw AAC / OGG content would naturally break DRM. Spotify, however, has a ton of libraries that allow for you to write your own clients, which honestly allows for an "audio stream" for most purposes if you are able to run an OS. You can write a very simple CLI app that plays Spotify music for example, and Spotify's libraries will handle the DRM.

"Audio stream" to burn to a CD or a tape cassette? Yeah, that's not gonna be supported.

jdillaaa··on Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music
What do you mean by actual streams?
jdillaaa··on Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music
May I ask why all of the effort to use Apple Music? Why not switch over to Spotify which has a ton more open libraries / APIs?
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