diff --git a/en/blog/2022-06-03-Come-e-Perche-il-Sitoctt-su-Tor.md b/en/blog/2022-06-03-Come-e-Perche-il-Sitoctt-su-Tor.md index 365ac3c..051c700 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-06-03-Come-e-Perche-il-Sitoctt-su-Tor.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-06-03-Come-e-Perche-il-Sitoctt-su-Tor.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-06-03-0000-How-and-Why-the-Sitoctt-su-Tor.html", ] Categories = [ "Internet", "Sysadmin" ] -Dates = 2022-06-03 +Date= 2022-06-03 Lastmod = 2022-06-29 +++ @@ -23,12 +23,12 @@ The idea - apparently successful - was to use a free PaaS service, Replit, to do This way, I don't further burden my improper server. For months now, precisely since the beginning of mid-February 2022, I have been using a Switch console as a server for too many things: in addition to the historic SpaccCraft server, I have my own Matrix instance, some Telegram bots which are perhaps the things that require the least resources, and software assorted minors. Yes, Nintendo Switch on which I started Ubuntu.. I won't go into details, it's better to do it in a separate article, but in short the reason is that SBCs like the Raspini, to date, due to current world events, have scary costs, and the Switch was the only low-cost computer consumption with enough RAM (4GB) that I already had at home. You have to adapt. -This here is also the very first post I write on the postocto blog, who knows how it goes and above all who knows when it will pop up, because I should fix my static site generator for a moment to be able to manage pages like this which, instead of common pages, should be treated as subpages of the "Blog" page (autogenerated). +This here is also the very first post I write on the postocto blog, who knows how it goes and above all who knows when it will appear, because I should fix my static site generator for a moment to be able to manage pages like this which, instead of common pages, should be treated as subpages of the "Blog" page (autogenerated). ## How? Let's go back to the discussion of the postoctt: with Replit, taking as a basis a Repl found around that demonstrated how to host another type of service on Tor, I built my Repl which: at each new start, downloads locally everything needed to compile and deploy my static site (from my Git repos), prepare everything, and start an HTTP server and the Tor daemon, which acts as a proxy by exposing the HTTP server to the outside via the Tor network. Then endlessly, all through Git, download any updates to any of the parts and, when necessary, regenerate the site. -I leave here the link to a GitLab snippet with my files, for anyone who wants to do the same service as me for their own website, perhaps built with my very low quality static site generator (at a code level, if I was disgusted on a conceptual or practical level I wouldn't be developing it slowly yet): [gitlab.com/-/snippets/2338457](https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/2338457). +I leave here the link to a GitLab snippet with my files, for anyone who wants to do the same service as me for their own website, perhaps built with my very low quality static site generator (at a code level, if it disgusted me on a conceptual or practical level I wouldn't be developing it slowly yet): [gitlab.com/-/snippets/2338457](https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/2338457). With free PaaS services like Replit, however, there's a little problem: there are limits on software execution times. In the case of this platform, everything goes into suspension if the project's web address does not receive pings for I didn't quite understand how many minutes. If it receives any later, it wakes up after the time necessary to redo the startup operations. It's a shame however that, apart from the fact that it would mean making anyone who wants to visit my site wait at least 30 seconds for the first connection to be established, it is the HTTPS address on the Replit domain that must be contacted, for obvious reasons not the Tor address. And having people connect via the HTTPS address defeats the purpose of having a Tor site (which I'll get to shortly, I swear). @@ -41,11 +41,11 @@ Or, perhaps, the merit was that I created a second Replit project, which has the ## Why? Let's immediately get the elephant out of the room (which is already small): the desire to set up a site that contains immoral material at serious levels (which I differentiate from illegal material per se), which if hosted on the traditional web would be very easy to tracing back to the owners with all the consequences of the case, is not the only sensible reason for wanting to use Tor (or any other network based on the same technical principles, but Tor is for better or for worse the most famous and used). -This site is also on the clear web without any problems, that is, it has no problems being there. +This site is also on the clear web without problems, that is, it has no problems being there. Tor provides strong anonymity compared to the unfiltered Internet. The reason why it should be of interest to those who do not traffic in illicit content is quickly explained not with an answer, but with a question: do you happen to want to make known what you do (including visiting a particular website, like my blog) to multi-billion dollar corporations? that in return they will not give you anything, indeed they have no scruples about doing everything possible even to your detriment (tracking) to profit in one way or another? How do you want your ISP to know about the particular Internet services you contact? Or have the person hosting those Internet services identify you (me and my ISP if it's something hosted in my house, otherwise the particular provider for servers provided by companies, like Replit itself or GitLab.com where I host the site on the clear web ), if you won't gain anything from it? -For many people, for some reason, this reasoning doesn't add up, but few care and, although I don't go to some extremes, I understand the points of view of the few people who want to maintain as much anonymity as possible even when they do moral and moral things. online lawyers. Accordingly, I agree with and encourage the use of Tor to access the services and content I provide. +For many people, for some reason, this reasoning doesn't add up, but few care and, although I don't go to some extremes, I understand the points of view of the few people who want to maintain as much anonymity as possible even when they do moral and moral things. lawyers online. Accordingly, I agree with and encourage the use of Tor to access the services and content I provide. I still don't convince you? So listen to this. Tor allows, for example, journalists who live under total or partial censorship regimes to report the truth, whether directly or not. Or, it allows those living in these regimes to inform themselves freely and uninfluenced by government propaganda, and to communicate with other people in other parts of the world. The real principle that it is easier to hide who you are and what you do on an individual level in the midst of a huge crowd, rather than when you are with a few other people, also applies to distributed networks: more people use them, even for simple web browsing, the safer individual users are. So, by using Tor to surf the web, even if you don't care about anonymity, you will help those in need. diff --git a/en/blog/2022-06-14-I-Documenti-Non-Devono-Diventare-Applicazioni.md b/en/blog/2022-06-14-I-Documenti-Non-Devono-Diventare-Applicazioni.md index ef878e4..a3d5f28 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-06-14-I-Documenti-Non-Devono-Diventare-Applicazioni.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-06-14-I-Documenti-Non-Devono-Diventare-Applicazioni.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-06-14-0000-Documents-Shouldn't-Become-Applications.html", ] Categories = [ "Internet" ] -Dates = 2022-06-14 +Date= 2022-06-14 +++ {{< noticeAutomaticTranslation it >}} @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ To understand the problem, however, we must remember what the World Wide Web was In the very early days of the Web there were only so-called static sites, meaning they always remain the same (unless updated by those who administer them), and there is nothing that users who visit can do to change them. This category includes things like a simple blog, the site itself for example, a news site, the demonstration site of a company or product, an encyclopedia... in short, simple things of this type. -A little later (days or weeks, the idea was already envisaged in the very first specification of the Web and HTML) the idea of ​​using servers that could process information entered by users with buttons and text fields, interact with database, and essentially provide a user-generated content experience. Therefore, forums in a more classic sense began to appear, sites for creating sites (!) in a simpler way (CMS), the social networks closest to us, webchats and, let's not forget, search engines. These are the dynamic websites. +A little later (days or weeks, the idea was already envisaged in the very first specification of the Web and HTML) the idea of ​​using servers that could process information entered by users with buttons and text fields, interact with database, and essentially provide a user-generated content experience. Therefore, forums in a more classic sense began to emerge, sites for creating sites (!) in a simpler way (CMS), the social networks closest to us, webchats and, let's not forget, search engines. These are the dynamic websites. In this period, however, it did not matter whether we were talking about static or dynamic sites, only documents returned to the computers of any user who contacted the site. Whether it was the HTML page itself, a CSS file to stylize the page, or multimedia files (at the time only photos) placed between one block of text and another, to the browser, the program that interprets and displays these documents, only documents to be interpreted returned, not programs to be executed. Here we are still in the exclusive existence of the Web of documents, for the Web of applications we will still have to wait. @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ The only thing you had to trust was the browser itself (and that it was up to da ## The current state of affairs Then, came the scripting. We've seen all sorts of things, but in the end only JavaScript has survived to this day, and is the basis of the pioneering (and tragic) Web 3. -Web scripts are actual programs that a browser can execute if loaded from a page. Here, however, an obvious problem arises: you have to trust every single website that integrates scripts, a problem that is however decidedly complex to deal with. +Other Web scripts are actual programs that a browser can execute if loaded from a page. Here, however, an obvious problem arises: you have to trust every single website that integrates scripts, a problem that is however decidedly complex to deal with. To be honest, this is not the only problem: scripts very often slow down pages, especially on older and less powerful devices, and on some very old stuff they don't work at all, thus breaking sites that use them extensively. In practice, this means that sites that unnecessarily choose to integrate JavaScript are, on any hardware, often much slower than those that don't. However, we will discuss this in detail another day. @@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ The problem of the unverifiable authority of the code, clearly, becomes even wor On the Fediverse, I say that the question particularly strikes me because I wouldn't expect it. Honestly, from Big Tech, which relies on spying on users to earn money by selling their data, I expect a progressive abandonment of the Web of documents in favor of that exclusively of apps even just for reading a few paragraphs of text (which is happening, but slowly), considering the very large potential to subjugate users. -From those who develop software for communities that are concerned about some of the new privacy issues on the Web, and who therefore use less popular alternative software, I absolutely don't expect it. +From those who develop software for communities who are concerned about some of the new privacy issues on the Web, and who therefore use less popular alternative software, I absolutely don't expect it. ## It will all end in tragedy diff --git a/en/blog/2022-06-23-Rasperino-Solare-ed-Altri-Esperimenti-Andati-a-Male.md b/en/blog/2022-06-23-Rasperino-Solare-ed-Altri-Esperimenti-Andati-a-Male.md index 6472b0b..cf9a295 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-06-23-Rasperino-Solare-ed-Altri-Esperimenti-Andati-a-Male.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-06-23-Rasperino-Solare-ed-Altri-Esperimenti-Andati-a-Male.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-06-23-0000-Rasperino-Solare-ed-Altri-Esperimenti-Andati-a-Male.html", ] Categories = [ "Rasperino", "Ecology", "Technology" ] -Dates = 2022-06-23 +Date= 2022-06-23 +++ {{< noticeAutomaticTranslation it >}} @@ -71,15 +71,15 @@ The idea popped into my head after I unfortunately left the magical product unus I thought, first of all, of configuring BOINC on Raspbian, a distributed computing software that can be used to contribute to scientific research projects, while earning a few cents a month (rip) in a kind of cryptocurrency, the [Gridcoin ](https://gridcoin.us). As I already said, the Raspino must be powered by the powerbank, the panel directly does not give it enough current. It seems to turn on, but in reality it seems to go into bootloop. -Well, I won't beat around the bush too much: while (with the same powerbank, I think 4000mAh) for some low-load applications, like [Pwnagotchi](https://pwnagotchi.ai/), the Pi can stay on for hours even with a backlit LCD screen connected... the CPU at 100%, doing complex calculations, eats so much of that current that the battery flattens out in just 1 hour. +Well, I won't beat around the bush too much: while (with the same powerbank, I think 4000mAh) for some low-load applications, like [Pwnagotchi](https://pwnagotchi.ai/), the Pi manages to stay on for hours even with a backlit LCD screen connected... the CPU at 100%, doing complex calculations, eats so much of that current that the battery flattens out in just 1 hour. -[![Screenshot of one of my toot. The photo shows the panel hanging on my balcony with hooks, with a cable connecting it to the Rasperino fixed to the panel itself. The text reads "#RasperinoVitaEcologica I fixed the Pi to my solar panel with the fabric elastic bands of the disposable masks (before throwing them away, I detach the elastic bands, wash them, and keep them), and it seems to have just the power it needs to work in the afternoon. Today I flashed the new SD with Raspbian, for now I choose to use the accrocco to run #BOINC, a distributed computing tool with which you can donate computing power to scientific projects. Tomorrow we will test how it goes BOINC".]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Screenshots/mastodon.uno-octo-108211397314015161.png)](https://mastodon.uno/@octo/108211397314015161) +[![Screenshot of one of my toot. The photo shows the panel hanging on my balcony with hooks, with a cable connecting it to the Rasperino fixed to the panel itself. The text reads "#RasperinoVitaEcologica I fixed the Pi to my solar panel with the fabric elastic bands of disposable masks (before throwing them away, I detach the elastic bands, wash them, and keep them), and it seems to have just the power it needs to work in the afternoon. Today I flashed the new SD with Raspbian, for now I choose to use the accrocco to run #BOINC, a distributed computing tool with which you can donate computing power to scientific projects. Tomorrow we will test how it goes BOINC".]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Screenshots/mastodon.uno-octo-108211397314015161.png)](https://mastodon.uno/@octo/108211397314015161) _Psssss.. if you want to see other photos of the panel (3) and in a slightly more decent quality, I put them on Pixelfed: [pixelfed.uno/p/octo/426839557817260168](https://pixelfed.uno/p/ octo/426839557817260168)!_ ## The reality of the facts -Apart from this thing, which even if it doesn't make me money in practice would be useful as it is beneficial for scientific research, I have no practical uses in mind for the Rasperino Pi 3 Solare. Maybe a Pi Zero would be better: apparently, other people in the throes of madness (but better equipped), thought of using that to mine Bitcoin, with a small panel similar to mine ([YouTube/CbpfNU7oaws](https://invidious.snopyta .org/watch?v=CbpfNU7oaws)). +Apart from this thing, which even if it doesn't make me money in practice would be useful as it is beneficial for scientific research, I have no practical uses in mind for the Rasperino Pi 3 Solare. Maybe a Pi Zero would be better: apparently, other people in the throes of madness (but better equipped) thought of using that to mine Bitcoin, with a small panel similar to mine ([YouTube/CbpfNU7oaws](https://invidious.snopyta .org/watch?v=CbpfNU7oaws)). For now, I use the small panel sporadically to charge my power banks, which I discharge when I happen to use them around to charge my smartphone. If there's anything I learned from this story, it's that I should buy the damn USB multimeter. diff --git a/en/blog/2022-07-03-L-Idea-di-una-Tastiera-Fisica-per-Smartphone-Fatta-in-Casa.md b/en/blog/2022-07-03-L-Idea-di-una-Tastiera-Fisica-per-Smartphone-Fatta-in-Casa.md index 7d9c91f..ce1c6ef 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-07-03-L-Idea-di-una-Tastiera-Fisica-per-Smartphone-Fatta-in-Casa.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-07-03-L-Idea-di-una-Tastiera-Fisica-per-Smartphone-Fatta-in-Casa.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-07-03-0000-The-Idea-of-a-Physical-Keyboard-for-Smartphone-Made-in-Home.html", ] Categories = [ "Technology", "Mobile", "DIY" ] -Dates = 2022-07-03 +Date= 2022-07-03 Lastmod = 2023-03-21 Featured_Image = "@/Media/Cover-Tastiera-mobilefun.com.avif" +++ @@ -19,9 +19,9 @@ Maybe a year ago, partly out of curiosity and partly because I already imagined I don't mean the damn numeric keypads, which you still see on non-smart phones today, I mean keyboards with dozens of individual keys dedicated for letters and symbols. This type of keyboard was already rare to see on phones prior to the smartphone era: it first appeared not on ultra-cheap models, but in any case it might not always be very comfortable due to its small size. -The more smartphones began to spread, the more physical keyboards began to disappear, even if they rarely existed on some modern phones, and even of generous dimensions. +The more smartphones began to spread, the more physical keyboards began to disappear, even if they rarely existed on some modern phones, even of generous dimensions. -I don't remember if this time last year was just before or shortly after I bought a new smartphone, my current one today; the fact is that I had to choose it based on precise and restrictive criteria, first and foremost the cost and, unfortunately, there was no low range with a physical keyboard. +I don't remember if this time last year was just before or shortly after I bought a new smartphone, my current one; the fact is that I had to choose it based on precise and restrictive criteria, first and foremost the cost and, unfortunately, there was no low range with a physical keyboard. ## A new idea @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ I would swear that the keyboard itself is even older, considering the references ## Bad ending -What can I say. Should I have expected a problem like this? Maybe yes. Surely, however, I doubt that other people in my place would have expected this. +What can I say. Should I have expected a problem like this? Maybe yes. Surely, however, I doubt that other people in my place would have expected it. Finally, the only thing I can say is that this article should not have come out; or rather, not with this end. I should have talked about the already made Prototype 0 of my smartphone stand that adds this tiny keyboard, but, unfortunately, I feel like I haven't had a chance to test it enough. Hoping to be able to solve the battery problem (but I think so)[^New Battery], in the next article, of what I believe will be a series, I will explain how I fixed everything, and I will illustrate the curious Prototype 0. diff --git a/en/blog/2022-07-09-Come-ho-Riparato-il-mio-Portatile-con-25-Euro.md b/en/blog/2022-07-09-Come-ho-Riparato-il-mio-Portatile-con-25-Euro.md index 5e56655..9f4f1f4 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-07-09-Come-ho-Riparato-il-mio-Portatile-con-25-Euro.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-07-09-Come-ho-Riparato-il-mio-Portatile-con-25-Euro.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-07-09-0000-How-I-Fixed-my-Laptop-with-25-Euro.html", ] Categories = [ "Technology", "DIY", "Ecology" ] -Dates = 2022-07-09 +Date= 2022-07-09 +++ {{< noticeAutomaticTranslation it >}} @@ -30,17 +30,17 @@ For at least a year now, my use of the laptop has dropped significantly, because Going in order, - I don't remember precisely, but we're talking about at least 3 or 4 years ago, when this was my only personal PC - the problems started when the W key stopped working, over the course of a few days. Az. It's true that I'm a Linux user, and that at the time I was also excessively gamer, but I never hammered that or any other button, contrary to what the stereotypes about my categories may tell you. -The lesson to be learned here is: if you are at home, and therefore have the opportunity to use an external keyboard, it is better to use that to play, otherwise over the course of a few years you will completely burn the key you use (in many 3D video games). to move forward. +The lesson to be learned here is: if you are at home, and therefore have the opportunity to use an external keyboard, it is better to use that one to play, otherwise over the course of a few years you will completely burn out the key you use (in many 3D video games). to move forward. The funny thing is, like I said, the button broke within a few days, not right away. Initially it only became hard to register the pressures, which inevitably led me to press harder and harder, until I evidently **broke through** it. Acer shit? I'd say, **Acer shit**. -But, it seems, all laptop manufacturers, even the big, famous ones, often mistakenly associated with quality just because of their fame, too often churn out products with terrible design or construction errors. The laptop that unfortunately happened to me, as we understood, was no different. +But, it seems, all laptop manufacturers, even the big and famous ones, often mistakenly associated with quality only because of their fame, too often churn out products with terrible design or construction errors. The laptop that unfortunately happened to me, as we understood, was no different. ### The consequences At this point, the PC had become only slightly inconvenient to use in some situations. There were no big problems on my desk, I connected a USB keyboard and that's the end of the story. -In other situations, typing the W (you don't need a sledgehammer to write in Italian, but you do for many other things) began to require the use of the on-screen virtual keyboard, with the mouse to press the W, which would then start to do the rounds of CTRL+C and CTRL+V whenever I needed. +In other situations, typing the W (you don't need a sledgehammer to write in Italian, but you do for many other things) began to require the use of the on-screen virtual keyboard, with the mouse to press the W, which would then start to go around CTRL+C and CTRL+V whenever I needed. In any case, from that moment, the use of the notebook keyboard reduced, both because I used an external keyboard when possible, and because a little later I assembled the new PC and started using the laptop less in general (difficult do otherwise, when there is comfortable space on the desk for only one external keyboard, which for obvious reasons must be connected to the fixed PC). What is very strange is that, since about 1 year ago, despite little use, many other keys quickly started to fail, out of nowhere. I can't say if any other keys then completely died, but certainly at least 60% of the keyboard started to want **beats** to register the pressures. @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ This is where my laptop use plummeted. ## I realized Just a few days ago, I don't know why, perhaps because with the desktop PC I don't even have the convenience of moving to another room to use the computer - something I would like to do to escape the terrible heat that develops in my room in the summer - it occurs to me that I would like to use the laptop. -I spend like 30 seconds thinking about why the idea unconsciously has a bad aftertaste for me, and then it occurs to me... I'll quote verbatim what I wrote on my Telegram channel (which I use as a microblog) at that moment. +I spend like 30 seconds thinking about why the idea unconsciously has a bad aftertaste for me, and then it occurs to me... I'll report verbatim what I wrote on my Telegram channel (which I use as a microblog) at that moment. > Hm, I just consciously thought: "but why do I practically never use my laptop even at home where it's convenient for moving from one room to another?" @@ -57,12 +57,12 @@ I spend like 30 seconds thinking about why the idea unconsciously has a bad afte > 1. Acer Shit -> 2. Incredible how, because of the broken keyboard, I unconsciously began to develop a sort of passive repulsion for my (only) laptop, slowly stopping using it +> 2. Incredible how, due to the broken keyboard, I unconsciously began to develop a sort of passive repulsion for my (only) laptop, slowly stopping using it > If only it were easy to buy a replacement keyboard... Rightly, in the comments, a person points out to me that I should have easily found the replacement keyboard I need on Amazon.it and... he wasn't wrong. -I honestly should have bought it right away when the W broke, but, trivially, I don't know why I didn't. My memory tells me that I didn't find it on Amazon at the time, but honestly I don't know how much to trust. And in all this other time I didn't think about it. +I honestly should have bought it right away when the W broke, but, trivially, I don't know why I didn't. My memory tells me that I couldn't find it on Amazon at the time, but honestly I don't know how much to trust. And in all this other time I didn't think about it. ## The replacement keyboard arrives @@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ The chances of something horribly bad coming out are high, but I'm a Linux user: ## The replacement -I don't lose heart, and I begin to unscrew the countless screws that hold the laptop's body together, and I separate the plastic sections. Then I disconnect the 3 flex cables for the power button, keyboard, and touchpad, and lift the upper part of the body. Nothing new, however, I already had to do this procedure when I installed the SSD. +I don't lose heart, and I begin to unscrew the countless screws that hold the laptop body together, and I separate the plastic sections. Then I disconnect the 3 flex cables for the power button, keyboard, and touchpad, and lift the upper part of the body. Nothing new, however, I already had to do this procedure when I installed the SSD. After this, however, other screws. _Damn!_ All these screws, and it becomes a mess to put everything back in place. No more screws. ![All external laptop screws, removed and collected]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Repair-Aspire-V3-572G/Screws.avif) @@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ Or almost. Since I was there, I also wanted to take the opportunity to clean the fan and its filter a little, which over the years have accumulated dust, allowing less air to pass and thus allowing the CPU to reach a good ~50°C in idle . I thought more powder, honestly, oh well. -![The fan disassembled, with some dust removed and collected in a ball]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Repair-Aspire-V3-572G/Ventola.avif) +![The fan disassembled, with some dust removed and collected in a ball]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Repair-Aspire-V3-572G/Fan.avif) I also checked the thermal paste on the fly (perhaps too quickly). To do this, I had to turn the motherboard upside down, after removing even more screws. You could see some of the paste outside the CPU perimeter, and what little I saw didn't seem particularly dry. I don't actually know how often the thermal paste should really be changed unless it's very dry, so I left it alone. @@ -124,10 +124,10 @@ I only regret not buying it sooner. A curious detail, but which absolutely doesn't make me think I've made a wrong choice, is the fact that an area of ​​keys on the left is not exactly level with all the others. It doesn't seem to be a problem in practice but, aesthetically, well, it makes me laugh. -![The leftmost keys (W to F) of the new keyboard, appearing just slightly sunken inwards at one corner]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Repair-Aspire-V3-572G/Keys -Sunken.avif) +![The leftmost keys (W to F) of the new keyboard, appearing just slightly sunken inward at one corner]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Repair-Aspire-V3-572G/Keys -Sunken.avif) Don't throw away your laptops if they have some small problem that can be solved easily and cheaply. -If the keyboard breaks, you change that; if Windows becomes unbearably slow, install a Linux distribution (GNU is recommended, but not mandatory!) that meets your needs. +If you break the keyboard, you change that; if Windows becomes unbearably slow, install a Linux distribution (GNU is recommended, but not mandatory!) that meets your needs. By doing so, you not only save a lot of money; electronic waste, the so-called e-waste, is reduced and therefore a minimum amount of good is done for the environment. _Note: Some of the photos in this article are available in JPEG, less compressed, on my Pixelfed profile: [pixelfed.uno/p/octo/451398427740616761](https://pixelfed.uno/p/octo/451398427740616761)_ \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/en/blog/2022-07-17-Come-la-nostra-Impronta-Digitale-Sociale-ci-Frega.md b/en/blog/2022-07-17-Come-la-nostra-Impronta-Digitale-Sociale-ci-Frega.md index dcb689d..52b19b4 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-07-17-Come-la-nostra-Impronta-Digitale-Sociale-ci-Frega.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-07-17-Come-la-nostra-Impronta-Digitale-Sociale-ci-Frega.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ +++ Title = "🥸️ How our social digital footprint screws us" Description = "For the most varied reasons, even legitimate ones, you can find yourself wanting to hide your past identities. Sometimes, however, the details ruin everything!" -Dates = 2022-07-17 +Date= 2022-07-17 Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-07-17-Come-la-nostra-Digitale-Sociale-ci-Frega.html", "/Posts/2022-07-17-0000-Come-la-nostra-Digitale-Sociale-ci-Frega.html", @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ The more I listen to the voice, however, the more familiar everything becomes. I ## The investigations begin I decide to let her friend know this immediately before she, curiously, says she thought the same thing. -The stakes this time are really too high to pretend nothing is happening, so we start via chat to collect elements, of any kind, that could coincide between _Censored_ and _Deadname_, cross-referencing everything we can obtain about the person, and the little that we have more left. +The stakes this time are really too high to pretend nothing is happening, so we start via chat to collect elements, of any kind, that may coincide between _Censored_ and _Deadname_, cross-referencing everything we can obtain about the person, and the little that we have more left. We start with interests, which all seem to match, even the strangest ones. Even the taste in niche memes seems the same. Even some personal and social details - such as about his family, his cultural status, or the area in which he lives - are consistent with _Deadname_'s past (even if only my investigation partner remembered these details, I didn't). @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ However, we did the really big coup, which removed all doubts, because: And it is exactly like this, with both small and large details that fit together perfectly, that the puzzle is officially complete: the two characters investigated are the same individual. The redpill said without knowing, therefore, turned out to be such. -I, however, have no idea why _Censurato_ had to necessarily embark on this undertaking to cover his old tracks. I understand, now, why he wanted to delete his old contents: because the character that appeared in them no longer corresponds to who he is today in terms of gender - but I don't understand why pretend that the past never existed . +I, however, have no idea why _Censured_ necessarily had to embark on this undertaking to cover his old tracks. I understand, now, why he wanted to delete his old contents: because the character that appeared in them no longer corresponds to who he is today on a gender level - but I don't understand why pretend that the past never existed . I would say that I am quite happy to have found again, after so many years, even if as a slightly different character, the same person who managed to entertain me in the past, and I am happy that he still has the passion to do what he did well. @@ -91,5 +91,5 @@ As long as you are not doing it to escape, so to speak, the consequences of comp But then, how do you do it? Protecting yourself from tracking is possible, but it is not at all simple. Just as to protect your computers from web tracking you need to use browsers like Tor Browser which - when communicating with other computers - omit some data and mask others, to protect your personal identity from social tracking you need to avoid sharing too much of yourself with the world, even going so far as to lie if necessary. -It is undoubtedly impossible to hide what some of the things we are passionate about are, if we have the desire to share them with the world, and perhaps discover like-minded people. +Undoubtedly it is impossible to hide what some of the things we are passionate about are, if we have the desire to share them with the world, and perhaps discover like-minded people. Other things, though - for example, what relatives you have, the name of your first pet, what places you frequent, or how your passion for something began - if you're trying to erase your past and carry yourself as a totally new person, it's better not to tell them out loud. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/en/blog/2022-07-27-Emulazione-NDS-Google-Play-e-una-Storia-Oscura.md b/en/blog/2022-07-27-Emulazione-NDS-Google-Play-e-una-Storia-Oscura.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..870998c --- /dev/null +++ b/en/blog/2022-07-27-Emulazione-NDS-Google-Play-e-una-Storia-Oscura.md @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ ++++ +Title = "👾 NDS emulation, Google Play, and a dark history" +Description = "What began as a search for an NDS emulator that ran, well, on my Android, quickly revealed absurd truths and events..." +Aliases = [ +"/Posts/2022-07-27-NDS-Emulation-Google-Play-e-una-Storia-Oscura.html", +"/Posts/2022-07-27-0000-NDS-Emulation-Google-Play-and-a-Dark-History.html", +] +Featured_Image = "@/Media/Android-NDS-Emulation/ACWW-on-Androids.avif" +Date= 2022-07-27 +Lastmod = 2022-07-29 +Categories = [ "Technology", "Gaming", "Mobile" ] ++++ + +{{< noticeAutomaticTranslation it >}} + + + +The Nintendo DS. Enough, there's no need to say anything else; after all, among _connoisseurs_, we understand each other. +A console that, 15 years ago, was able to innovate the market with the same spirit with which the Gameboy innovated in its time. A console whose exclusives remain, even today, timeless pearls. + +As much as I would like to sing endless praises to the DS, however, today I'm here to talk to you about something else. +Today I'm talking to you about emulation, and about a specific area of the **NDS emulation scene: the Android** one. + +## Emulation in general + +Many consoles, in their years of life and even after, are [reversed](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering) by passionate and capable people who are interested in understanding how these work, and then perhaps create emulators, i.e. software that replicates the operation of the console on a completely different machine. +The Nintendo DS, of course, is no exception. + +Typically, emulator development occurs under one of 2 philosophies: + +- Create something fast, that works, and immediately allows as many people as possible to use the emulator as a practical alternative to the original console; +- Create something accurate and as technically close as possible to the original console, in order to preserve it in a metaphysical form for the future, putting speed into the background, which can only be achieved by running the emulator on a sufficiently powerful machine, even if also future. + +### "Here and now" emulation + +Although the second philosophy is undoubtedly the most noble, that of the "here and now" is also very important: it allows those who cannot afford the original console or have reduced it to [spacc](https://wikispacc) to play .miraheze.org/wiki/Spacc), makes things easy for those who want to develop their games, and improves the lives of players who, with an emulator, can enjoy many conveniences never seen before. + +At the moment, I am one of the people who play on emulators despite owning the original console. +I have a Nintendo 3DS XL, which is backwards compatible with DS games, but badly, to the point that for me it's worse than playing on a phone: the games take a long time to start, they scale poorly on the screen, and it's an additional device (bigger and heavier than my smartphone) to carry around. + +## The state of the NDS emulation + +DS emulation on mainstream PCs is currently in very good shape. +The best emulator there to date is undoubtedly [melonDS](https://melonds.kuribo64.net): free, supports online play, is fast enough, and is accurate. It doesn't run very well on PCs from maybe 10 years ago but, in this situation, if you are content to play offline, you can always count on the excellent [DeSmuME](https://desmume.org) (which is apparently back in development for a few months?!). + +The simple fact that I'm writing this article, however, should make you smell trouble; problems that, in fact, exist. +While on PC we can say we are fine, **on mobile the situation is not rosy at all**. +In general, on low-end embedded devices (not just smartphones, even single-board computers), the two emulators I just mentioned don't work very well. + +### My mobile experience + +On my current phone, with Android 10 operating system (stock variant from the manufacturer Xiaomi, MIUI 12) and SoC [Snapdragon 662](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/qualcomm/snapdragon_600/662), neither melonDS nor DeSmuME they make the games run satisfactorily. +Of both emulators I tried both the respective unofficial native Android ports, and the available [Libretro](https://www.libretro.com) cores (already present or downloadable in the latest version of the respective applications below) for the [RetroArch](https://www.retroarch.com) and [Lemuroid](https://github.com/Swordfish90/Lemuroid) frontends. + +So, before continuing I should perhaps make a clarification. +The tests I've done in recent days were done with just one game, namely _Animal Crossing Wild World_, for a very simple reason: at the moment I'm interested in playing this one on my smartphone, and that's it. So, the only thing I care about is that this game runs perfectly. +Already with this, I hear people screaming at the lack of scientific nature of my tests, which are actually limited in scope; let them be satisfied, I say, **this is a personal blog, not a research laboratory** 🥱️. +In any case, I have tried all these emulators several times in the past with other games too, and my opinions today are more or less in line with my past ones - but now I'll go into detail. + +### Varied tests + +Keeping in mind that these tests were done simply by looking at the performance of the _Animal Crossing Wild World_ title screen (which requires approximately the same performance as the game running in the overworld requires): + +• APK compiled on November 13, 2021 of the unofficial port of [melonDS for Android](https://github.com/rafaelvcaetano/melonDS-android): +: It runs practically as the previous version did about a year ago, July 2021, the period in which I got the new phone; + + + +• Core Libretro by melonDS, a little more updated: +: Runs slightly better than the native port, but not quite perfect; + + + +• APK compiled on August 27, 2017 of the dead fork of [nds4droid by tangalbert919](https://github.com/tangalbert919/nds4droid), whose (equally dead) upstream project is an unofficial Android port of DeSmuME: +: Perhaps with frameskip at 3 it runs a little better than the APK, but a little worse than the Libretro core, by melonDS; + + + +• Core Libretro by DeSmuME: +: It basically runs like the latest version of the original nds4droid branch (2016) (yes, I also tested that APK just for, but I won't say it other than because it's not relevant); Worse than anything seen above. + +As a bonus, I also mention this other emulator that I discovered by chance while looking for stuff: [NooDS](https://github.com/Hydr8gon/NooDS). The goal is to be a fast emulator, but at the moment, from what I have seen and from what the README says, we are not there yet. +It works more or less like the melonDS APK I mentioned so far. I hope that development continues and is successful, however, the project promises. + +So, is this the end of the story? Should I be satisfied with emulating the game slowed down by at least a good 7-10% on melonDS? Well, actually, no.. _maybe_. + +## Only one solution + +In the Android NDS emulation scene, all the emulators I've talked about so far are actually the least famous (although melonDS has been gaining traction lately). There is a much better known one, which anyone who has tried to emulate the DS on Android at least once will know at least by name. +So, let's talk a little about [Drastic](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dsemu.drastic). + +Drastic is the fastest Nintendo DS emulator for Android. It's not accurate at all, but it runs all games without major glitches, and already on low-end smartphones from 5 years ago it can run practically any 2D and 3D game at **full speed**; +On even older devices it may be a little iffy, but it remains a true miracle. For example, look at the videos under "_[2019-09-17 15:16] Various tests with the Galaxy Player_" on my page [MicroBlog Archives of September 2019](./MicroBlog-Archive/2019/09/index .html). It is absolutely absurd that that device, which I bought for just 90 euros 9 years ago, is already able to emulate the DS in the first place; let alone making a game like Super Mario 64 DS run excellently. + +Where's the catch? Eh eh, where do we start? + +### Trouble ahead + +First of all, Drastic is **proprietary software**; This alone, for me, is bad. +Even if, unfortunately, I can't do it 100%, I would like to use as much free software as possible. Since this emulator is the only one that is a sliver, there wouldn't be a real alternative. +I'm keeping the proprietary emulator and never mind, it's not the end of the world, also considering that the games I want to emulate are themselves proprietary, and that even the original console (in my case, with the 3DS, even worse, because it has a entire OS rather than just a BIOS) is proprietary. + +The real serious obstacle here lies in the fact that Drastic integrates a **DRM**, i.e. a Digital Restrictions Management system. +In theory, this would mean: if you pay for the program, you can't use it unless you find or create a crack. +At least, this is the theoretical idea of DRM in general. In practice however, and the [Defective by Design FAQ](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/faq) (an anti-DRM campaign) certainly explains it better than me, **DRM does** more** harm** to consumers than it does good to producers. + +In this specific case, what is Drastic's DRM problematic, besides the fact that by design it denies access to a useful program to those who cannot spend €4.49? +It's problematic because it relies on purchasing from Google Play; this means that those who do not have Google Play Services and Google Play Store on their device - like me who, for privacy and performance reasons, have always removed them from mine for years - even if they perhaps make the purchase from the Google Play site and install the application by logging in with the Google account on [Aurora Store](https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store), will not be able to use the purchased app, because it will not have the possibility to verify the purchase on the device. + +### The appikapposa tradition + +In short, in any case, the only possible solution to actually use the little program is to have a patch. +In the past, both when I couldn't afford Drastic, and when I can but no longer have Google Play, searching for the patched APK on the Web - done every time I updated Android or changed devices - was in itself the boring game that it preceded the prettier game (the one emulated in the working app). +Often it was necessary to look for a new APK, both because Drastic's DRM has always been stupid and the cracks often stopped working, and because the interactive part of the application was and is written with feet: it uses system APIs in strange ways, which With each new version of Android Google breaks, and therefore breaks the app. + +A version of Drastic that I used on my old phone with Android 7, in fact, doesn't work on my current one: the file selector simply doesn't see files and folders in the storage memory. Even an old trick, using an external file manager to open a ROM in the emulation app, no longer works on Android 10: the app crashes. +So, I find myself having to look for the most updated cracked version. +I looked it up the other day and apparently downloaded something that worked. It's a shame that - and this is the shitty DRM I was talking about, also according to what people report who, on the official Drastic forum, ask for support despite having pirated the program (it takes courage oh, a medal for these fearless heroes) - after you start a game just once or twice, every subsequent time the app closes in your face (that's right, it doesn't crash, it closes, because the Android error message doesn't come out). + +At this point, the situation looks really bad. What to do? + +## What is Google Play hiding? + +I remember that on the Play Store itself - and I'll come back to the implications of this at the end - you can find a free application, [Free DS Emulator - For Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details ?id=com.cpu.free.dsemulatorv6). I had tried it in the past and, surprisingly, it ran games like Drastic. +How is this possible? So is there another fast emulator for Android? Absolutely not, because this app **is Drastic**. +Of course, it is Drastic that has undergone some substantial changes, including, in addition to the removal of DRM: a total rebranding, the restructuring of the menus, the addition of invasive advertising, the rewriting of the file selector (which now at least works, but it is very rough), and, for some absurd reason, the removal of some emulation settings; but it remains technically Drastic. +We are therefore talking about a real **unauthorized copy** of the famous emulator, **created with the sole purpose of profiting from the work of others** thanks to the advertisements (which, let's give credit where credit is due, in the app Drastic's original at least there aren't any) - advertisements that I wouldn't see anyway, because I have [Adaway](https://adaway.org) installed and always block Internet access to proprietary applications. +The only thing I'm surprised about, and quite a bit, is that I found this **illegal app on the Google store**. + +However, the creators of the app have put in a lot of effort in removing any reference to Drastic. They _almost_ succeeded. +The infamous name never appears in the program, but a decompilation of the APK file via [apktool](https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool), and then searches in all the extracted files (with `grep -iR Drastic *` ) of the string "Drastic", shows that the name of the app from which the suspicious one stole the code is present 2 times in total, in 2 different files. Just so, here's the confirmation, in case there were any doubts about the nature of this application. + +![Screenshot of the above grep command.]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/NDS-Android-Emulation/Free-DS-Emulator-Grep-Drastic.avif) + +### New research + +What can I say? This app works, and is still a great solution, despite being slightly worse than the original Drastic. +Except that, at a certain point, I think: is it possible that this is the only _illegitimate_ fork of Drastic found on the Play Store? +Consequently, I open Aurora Store and start looking, hoping to find better. Apart from the various rebrands of nds4droid - these too exist only to allow those who put them online to profit from advertising, given that the official app is already on the Play Store, free and without crap - some other elements on the list attract my attention Attention. + +I download 2 apps in particular, very similar but with different names and colors. +The screenshots on the application pages smell like scams from a mile away, they look like those apps you find on Aptoide or other alternative stores when looking for cracked programs. Those apps that: if all goes well, do nothing other than show dozens of advertisements when opened; if it goes bad, they're malware, bluntly. + +Both, when I open them, present me with a "Play" button which, when pressed, starts the installation of an APK (I think patched) of Drastic (!!!). +You understood correctly: this **app**, **coming from the Play Store**, **contains** in its package **an** APK file (don't even download it from the Internet!), **cracked** , from another app. One of the two, among other things, also integrates the pirated ROM of a DS game that I've never heard of before: _Zoo Quest Puzzle Fun_. How kind, what a nice gift, not only the free emulator but also the free game. It seems like we're on strange app stores, but instead we're on Google Play. + +![Screenshot of the Google Play pages of the 2 apps, side by side, and screenshot of the list of copyright infringing files in one of the two APKs.]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Emulation-NDS-Android/Adware-Emulator -Installers.avif) + +For the skeptics, I not only refer you to this video that I recorded a few days ago , but I invite you to download the applications in question (and, perhaps, _block network access or deactivate the Internet connection_ before starting them) and see everything first-hand: [Green Emu NDS](https://play.google .com/store/apps/details?id=com.nud.ndsemu), [The FrieNDS Emu](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blackversion.citra_platinum). +However, it wasn't a helpful discovery: the goodies given by these apps have the same problems as the Drastic APKs found on the web. + +### Finally.. + +In my visit to the store, finally, I see yet another app that smells like a rebranded Drastic, I don't know why, perhaps due to the layout of the buttons in the screenshots: [vDS](https://play.google.com/store/ apps/details?id=com.icorewwwi.vDS). It costs a good €1.29 but, luckily, after less than 10 seconds of searching I already found the APK reuploaded by other people on the Web, and I installed it. +Upon opening it, I confirm my suspicions: the main menu is identical to Drastic's, except for the changed colors. All other menus are also identical, and the emulation engine too. As if that wasn't enough, the folder where it saves the data is exactly the same as Drastic (`/sdcard/Drastic`!). They didn't even try to hide the theft, these guys! + +![Drastic and vDS home menus, side by side for comparison.]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/Android-NDS-Emulation/Drastic-VS-vDS-Main-Menu.avif) + +Anyway, yes, the emulator works, it opens files and doesn't do the trolling of closing in your face. I've been using it for 3 days now, and I have no complaints. + +So the story, at least for me, ended well.. but **I could add something**. + +## Google, damn. + +The [Google Play Developer Policy](https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy) categorically prohibits applications that, like the ones I mentioned, violate copyright. Yet, these 4 who are literally stealing all the code of another app, proprietary and sold for a fee, are all still there. Some for months, others for years, but they are there. +Technically, even applications that directly and immediately integrate installable apps into them for the sole purpose of being to all intents and purposes "packaged installers", like those 2 specific ones, would be against Google Play rules, because they would count as a alternative app store~~ would violate specific rules regarding the use of the Android package installer by apps.[^ APK inside the apps] + +In all of this, however, **What does Google do?** What does Google do when those that violate the rules are not very famous applications that at the same time bring Google itself some money? +**He really doesn't give a damn.** I thought that no one had tried to report these applications to Google for removal, but actually someone did... and got nothing. I tried too but, after 3 days, everything is still on the store and I haven't even received a response via email from Google. + +And it is precisely in this way that, with this story, today we reconfirm two important facts. + +## What did we learn? + +1. **DRM proves**, once again, not only as useless (avoidable, given that I would now be playing with a modified version of Drastic with the DRM removed), but above all as **harmful** (given that, even if I bought Drastic according to the rules, I still couldn't use it on my devices); +In general, programs that use DRM, i.e. proprietary software that does not even guarantee "[freedom](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.it.html) 0" (being able to run the software as you wish), they prove to be unreliable. It is better to always prefer software without DRM and, when possible, completely free and community-based. + +2. **Google**, like too many other multinationals, **does not deserve a shred of trust**. He has rubbish on his store and he deliberately doesn't care, even though in theory he has automatic systems to control marsitis which, among other things, [often cause innocent victims](https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic .php?t=76643). +Before the fanboys arrive: no, okay that the Apple App Store is a little better off than the Google Play Store - also because the fee to publish something there is a huge sum of [$99 per year]( https://developer.apple.com/it/support/enrollment), instead of the [one-off $25](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6112435?hl=it# zippy=%2Cstep-pay-registration-fee%2Cstep-pay-the-registration-fee) from Google - but even there they occasionally throw out questionable apps, often predatory for users. At least, though, Google sees allowing the installation of applications from unofficial sources as a standard part of its operating system, while Apple actively puts a spanner in the works on sideloading because "it's for user safety"; +In general, you should be wary of the master fathers, and prefer the web pages of the developers themselves to download the apps, or stores like [F-Droid](https://f-droid.org). + +## I have a little present..! + +And, finally, I can say I'm done. I leave you with a **little gift**: archive.org/details/Emulation-Archive< /a>. +On this Archive.org page I created I put a few things. +First of all, the vDS APK, which however only works from Android 4.1 and up; For this reason I also put 2 patched APKs of Drastic vero, one from perhaps 3 years ago and one even older, which instead work from Android 2.3 _up_ ("up" meaning: until the file selector problem broken does not appear, which I believe is up to Android 5, including it, on many devices). **Everyone should be able to play!** +In the archive there are also other scattered emulators, even free ones, of which I have however archived the right code to preserve it. + +--- + +Thanks for reading. I invite you to follow the blog, even if not in all future articles there will be free binary files 😁! +**P.S.**: How cute are all my androids running _ACWW_ together? I'll leave you the photo, just for. + +![Photos of 3 of my pocket Android devices, showing the Animal Crossing Wild World title screen.]({{< assetsRoot >}}/Media/NDS-Android-Emulation/ACWW-on-Androids.avif) + +## {{% i18n notes-refs %}} + +[^ APK inside the apps]: **Update 2022-07-29**: I corrected this part because I remembered that apps like this violated the rules because they "would count as alternative app stores", but in reality I can't verify the What. However, I found this obscure developer help page, which clearly says for what purposes apps can call Android's system package installer: . The practical purpose of these apps, that of being trivial wrapped installers, would technically not be okay. diff --git a/en/blog/2022-08-26-sitoctt-da-3-mesi-ad-oggi.md b/en/blog/2022-08-26-sitoctt-da-3-mesi-ad-oggi.md index 7d43c81..9cde4f3 100644 --- a/en/blog/2022-08-26-sitoctt-da-3-mesi-ad-oggi.md +++ b/en/blog/2022-08-26-sitoctt-da-3-mesi-ad-oggi.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Aliases = [ "/Posts/2022-08-26-sitoctt-da-3-mesi-ad-oggi.html", ] Categories = [ "Internet" ] -Dates = 2022-08-26 +Date= 2022-08-26 +++ {{< noticeAutomaticTranslation it >}} @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Dates = 2022-08-26 This article can probably be considered as the first of a series on the _site philosophy_, if you want to say so. To start, what is better to talk about, if not everything that led to the **birth of the site** and began to characterize it? -When, 3 months ago now, I had just started to conceive the ctt site, one of the things I felt was that I didn't have a **place** in which to arrange my stuff - the stuff to be preserved and shared publicly, at least - in a way that made it **tidy, available, watchable, usable, and leak-proof**. +When, 3 months ago now, I had just started to conceive the ctt site, one of the things I felt was that I didn't have a **place** in which to arrange my stuff - the stuff to be preserved and shared publicly, at least - in a way that made it **tidy, available, watchable, usable, and loss-proof**. ## Let's go back to before @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ The only really important thing, however, has never changed: "**occt**". At the end of the name there is always Octt, that is me. Whether it's a site, a place, a post office, what matters is that it's **mine**; and speaking precisely of this, of the fact that the site is mine, there is a lot to say. The site is mine because I have **complete freedom** to make it the way I want. -If already in the mid-90s the only real limit for a website was the **creativity** of the person who built it, today the **potential** of the Web platform are truly **infinite**; although, in a certain way, it doesn't seem that way at all if you only frequent the common Web. +If already in the mid-90s the only real limit for a website was the **creativity** of the person who built it, today the **potential** of the Web platform is truly **infinite**; although, in a certain way, it doesn't seem that way at all if you only frequent the common Web. The sites of the "_non-personal_" Internet all have the same same and banal appearance. Many blogs or demo sites use recycled graphic templates. Modern social platforms (Mastodon, Friendica, Pleroma, and so on and so forth) limit customization to a photo, a banner, and a description. Stuff like [Misskey](https://misskey-hub.net/en) already does more, but it absolutely doesn't reach the levels of **total customization**, with **granular precision**, that only a site The Web - even if it were a forum like those of the past, and not a private space - allows. @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ It's something you find, admire, maybe share... and it all ends there. It is the Contents which, for goodness sake, must also be decently **ordered**. I _try_, it took me a long time to arrive at what I have now, with a global menu that first of all includes fixed pages, such as the home page, because they have no specific category or because they are of particular importance. -Immediately following this, I have a list of sections, which I wanted to call "**Collections**". They are links to pages that contain lists of any other page of the given topic. This path is also circular, considering that, from the individual content pages, you can click on the automatically generated entries to visit the pages of the relevant categories. +Immediately following this, I have a list of sections, which I wanted to call "**Collections**". They are links to pages that contain lists of any other page of a given topic. This path is also circular, considering that, from the individual content pages, you can click on the automatically generated entries to visit the pages of the relevant categories. For now, there are perhaps a little few pages in the classic sense. I won't repeat them here one by one because _well_ - but even if I did, I wouldn't be able to create a wall of links. Their particular reason for existing is told on them. The real bulk of the site is in the blog articles. diff --git a/en/blog/2022-12-13-Blogging-Rapido-con-Standard-Notes.md b/en/blog/2022-12-13-Blogging-Rapido-con-Standard-Notes.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36cd168 --- /dev/null +++ b/en/blog/2022-12-13-Blogging-Rapido-con-Standard-Notes.md @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ ++++ +Title= "⚡️ Quick blogging with Standard Notes" +Date= 2022-12-13 +Downsync= "/it/blog/Blogging-Rapido-con-Standard-Notes.html" +Aliases= [ "/Posts/2022-12-13-Blogging-Rapido-con-Standard-Notes.html" ] +Description= "As I wanted to write and publish more, I found my workflow was slowing me down, and in looking for faster ways to blog, I looked back to Listed." +Lastmod= 2022-12-16 +Categories= [ "Technology" ] ++++ + +{{< noticeAutomaticTranslation it >}} + + + + + +

I'd say I've been using Standard Notes for a long time as < strong>personal notesapp.
+Years ago I chose it for its being free and open-source, but at the same time very clean, well-kept, and functional. It was a perfect fit at a time when I was looking for something that supported data encryption that works, without affecting usability.

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Old Standard Notes Android app on my tablet.

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Without dwelling on why I liked continuing to use it, then I stopped, and then I started again until now, we need to delve deeper into one of its integrated functions in particular: Listed.
+It is a blogging platform designed by the same developers as Standard Notes, and available for self-hosting or free use on the official instance. Although I have never really used it before, I found the concept and its application interesting from the beginning.

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A quick need

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A few days ago, however, I started playing around with ChatGPT. This is a totally different question, yes, but it's relevant because I asked myself a question: all these conversations I'm having with artificial intelligence, where can I put them to keep them integral, organised, findable and accessible to anyone, and easy to load for me?

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The choice was about touse staticoso, my generator of static sites that I already use for sitoctt, but then I thought better of it.

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I thought that, in fact, I want to actually make my collection of experiences findable on the Web. The problem here, however, which I have been able to bitterly observe in all these months, is how my site example is, how to say... Search engines don't give a damn. 😭
+Besides this being a separate topic, it should be noted that the blame for the horrendous fate of my site does not depend on its code; It's the fault of the domain and/or the host. So, no, I will never abandon my static one: just changing the generator (and consequently the templates) with a more serious one wouldn't solve any problem.

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In short, I had to completely trash the idea ofhosting on GitHub and GitLab, and think about something else.

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The choice of Listed

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My ideas were finished and, since I was in a hurry to put on this site and start uploading the experiences I had with ChatGPT, considering how my goodness it was convenient to copy and paste things directly into Standard Notes, this was a good time to try Listed.

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To be honest, I'm a little worried about the prospect that the weekly backup file of notes could become tens of MB large, but the die has now been cast.
+I could create a second account to use only for ChatGPT notes, exporting them from the primary one and importing them there, and then deleting them from the first account to lighten the collection, but there are problems. Maybe I can transfer the username, but the links to the individual posts will be broken, because they include automatic IDs, and therefore a redirect to the home page for those who follow an old one. Also, old guestbook messages aren't copied over, and I don't think email subscriptions are transferred either.

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The thought of "what a drag"

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All in all however, for this limited purpose I appreciated how efficient it is to have Standard Notes as the final part of the > my workflow. It seems to me to greatly reduce the "I'm annoyed" effect.

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Considering the pleasure of the discovery, I reflected for a moment on how the "what a pain" factor is one of the things that < strong>keeps me from updatingthe ctt site more frequently.

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Let's leave aside the thematic pages, which are beasts apart; let's leave aside the long posts, which require strong inspiration and enough writing time; but what the hell, at least something for the MicroBlog, which is all the rage, I would like to create it more often! But I just don't feel like it, for some reason, considering all the process I have to do.
+To tell the truth, I had already immediately got into the habit of starting to write a post in Standard Notes, so as to be able to manage everything more flexibly, perhaps quickly switching from one device to another. However, if I had to start writing something not long and elaborate, to be published as soon as possible, I just didn't feel like taking action.

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"But why don't I switch to Listed at least for my microblog?", I therefore think. Well, there's a reason why I even got to the point of making my own static site generator: I need it!...And even if I no longer needed it and could therefore stop using it, I honestly wouldn't even want to think about it. do something like this, after all the work! 😖

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Limitations of Listed

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However, to put it well, Listed is quite bare-bones: it barely allows you to insert custom CSS, and to format posts in Markdown and a narrow subset of HTML. I propose my analyzes of the latter below:

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