Luc

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m not sure”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So share some webapps!