Distill Web Monitor can do many more things, but I'm using it for running in the background to check and alert me if any prices change on items I'm watching for price drops. I have some more expensive items, like whisky or toothbrush heads, that I'll buy two or three of if I see the price drops. Sometimes the price falls quite a bit (maybe due to a website error even) and then I get my alert, and put my order in! But it can alert to any changes on a web page, so need not just be prices, and is also useful for alerting whether an item is back in stock too.

Distill Web Monitor can run in the background using a browser extension for monitoring of up to 25 items for free (called local monitoring), and at one minute intervals if required. In my video, I'll show how I'm using it for the actual items I'm monitoring, and how to add a new item to monitor by just pointing and clicking. I also show how a condition can be set to only alert you if a price drops below a certain amount, and how to see the price history of an item you're monitoring.

Watch https://youtu.be/NCbJqw75ZcM

#technology #pricewatch #pricechange #bargains

We all have long known the JPEG file format because it is quite old already, and just works everywhere. Back in the day it offered a reasonable compression, being a lossy compression, but it is probably no longer the best format to use. Whilst PNG is a lossless format, so offers better quality than JPEG, its file sizes are even larger than JPEG, so it is generally not found in camera apps as an option to save photos.

Although HEIC is best known for being adopted by Apple across its products from 2017, it was actually finalised in mid-2015 by MPEG (the Moving Pictures Expert Group). The actual encoding format used, is called HEVC, and it is for both image and video encoding. Today Samsung, Google, Canon, Sony, Qualcomm, and some others also support it.

Not only does HEIC offer better compression than JPEG without sacrificing image quality (meaning also much smaller file sizes), but an HEIC file also carries an alpha channel to store pictures with transparency, a depth map to store LiDAR scans, depth estimations, and more. Overall, it offers more versatility than a JPG file.

I've long just stuck with JPEG out of fear of losing compatibility, but I tested HEIC today a bit, and it is reading just fine on my Linux computer, and it saves fine on my Samsung phone too. I've uploaded the HEIC photo to Google Photos, and it reads it fine too. On my phone, a JPEG photo takes up 3.9 MB and the identical resolution photo in HEIC is 2.6 MB (about a 40% saving). In general, though, the average saving can be about 50%. That translates not only into less storage space, but also quicker uploads and file transfers too. RAW is another alternative for really high quality, but as it is completely uncompressed, the file sizes are generally around five times larger than HEIC.

While Apple (and Samsung) only uses the .heic format on iPhones and tablets, several other associated extensions exist. For example, Canon and Sony prefer .hif. The rest of the file extensions are .heif, .heifs, .heics, .avifs, .avif, .avci, and .avcs. I seem to recall, too, that Apple saves additional quality features into its HEIC format photos versus into using the JPEG compatible format.

And related to this as well, is the images used on webpages, because again it has been JPEG as the default for many years.

Whilst HEIC is often now used for camera image and video storage, webpages have started to make use of the WEBP format (not intended for cameras). Both JPEG and WEBP are lossy compression formats (because web images are generally not ultra-high resolution, as load times are preferred over quality) and WEBP is said to be about 25-35% smaller size than JPEG. I downloaded 3 sample photos in JPEG and WEBP, and on average the WEBP is about 30% smaller. Mostly all modern browsers support WEBP today.

So JPEG does probably offer 100% compatibility everywhere, but if you can use HEIC for camera photos and videos (check whether your computer requires an extension to be installed) it is probably well worth doing so. The same really goes for WEBP for websites where the images are for viewing in a browser (images intended to be downloaded for printing should probably still be in JPEG format).

It is probably time for us to default to using HEIC where we can.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/what-is-an-heic-file/

#technology #JPEG #imageformat #HEIC #images

This is certainly a growing trend which was first started amongst end-users themselves, and slowly we've seen a few news media outlets also following suite. So far, only a very few government agencies have actually followed. Coming to mind are also The Netherlands.

What is attractive for many organisations and agencies on Mastodon, is that they can better control their own message, and can be sure that on their sites there won't be something embarrassing to them right next to their posts.

Also, with Mastodon there is the advantage of a feed being able to be available as an RSS feed for those users who do not want to visit different sites individually (or even use a social media network).

I think, too, that with the W3C declaring ActivityPub protocol as a social network standard, this only helps give the Fediverse a better standing.

See https://www.landtag.rlp.de/de/aktuelles/detail/news/News/detail/hier-twitterte-die-verwaltung-des-ltrlp-landtag-stellt-kommunikation-auf-x-ein/

#technology #Germany #Mastodon #opensource

This is a podcast about hackers, breaches, shadow government activity, hacktivism, cybercrime, and all the things that dwell on the hidden parts of the network. Darknet Diaries produces audio stories specifically intended to capture, preserve, and explain the culture around hacking and cybersecurity in order to educate and entertain both technical and non-technical audiences.

The Guardian's review says "Neatly edited and charmingly presented by Jack Rhysider, the podcast does occasionally stray into nerdiness, but it’s chock-full of real-life examples of when our virtual lives fail."

You should be able to subscribe to this podcast series from most podcast players.

See https://darknetdiaries.com/

#technology #cybersecurity #security #podcasts

GPU Screen Recorder is a screen recorder for Linux similar to ShadowPlay for Microsoft Windows, that makes use of the GPU to record the screen, having a minimal impact on the system performance (very low CPU usage). According to its developer, "this is the fastest screen recording tool for Linux". It currently only supports X11 sessions (Wayland and Xwayland are not supported).

The software is available as a command line tool, but there's also a graphical user interface built using GTK.

Using it, you can record a window, follow focused window, a monitor, or all monitors, with an option to choose the audio input. The resulting recording can be saved locally, it can live-stream to Twitch, YouTube or a custom service for which you can add the URL, and it supports Nvidia-like instant replay where only the last few seconds are saved.

How is this different from using OBS with nvenc? OBS only uses the GPU for video encoding, but the window image that is encoded is copied from the GPU to the CPU and then back to the GPU (video encoding unit). These operations are very slow and causes all of the fps drops when using OBS. OBS only uses the GPU efficiently on Windows 10 and Nvidia. This GPU screen recorder keeps the window image on the GPU and sends it directly to the video encoding unit on the GPU by using CUDA. This means that CPU usage remains at around 0% when using this screen recorder.

I like the idea of an option to follow the active window for recording, and it does also highlight a shortcoming with OBS on Linux that we still have. So although it does stream directly to Twitch and YouTube, it does appear that if you want to have various overlays and other effects, you may still have to use OBS.

But it does offer a good alternative if you have a slightly older PC and find that OBS is creating some stuttering during recordings. The replay option is very useful to just have running for "when" that amazing gaming moment happens for you, knowing it won't be taxing the CPU at all.

See https://www.linuxuprising.com/2023/04/gpu-screen-recorder-for-linux-adds.html

#technology #Linux #gaming #screenrecorder #opensource

As smartphones became mainstream over the past decade, multiple research papers popped up, documenting how extremely filthy they can get. Fresh research from the University of Arizona said that smartphones can be 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat. Another paper published in Nature claimed that microbial infection is so bad that robust public health and biosecurity protocols are needed to minimize the risks.

But over the years, another class of personal devices has become a part of our daily lives — health wearables such as smartwatches and fitness bands. Researchers at Charles E. Schmidt College of Science of Florida Atlantic University studied various types of wearable straps and discovered that nearly 95% of them were contaminated with various forms of bacteria.

Among the different types of band materials, rubber- and plastic-based materials were found to harbour the highest degree of contamination, while metal-based bands with gold and silver metal showed the lowest bacterial activity. The research paper — published in the Advances in Infectious Diseases journal — notes that depending on the gender and a person’s occupation, the bacterial load can vary.

And I suppose this can make sense as wearables are usually even more exposed on one's wrist vs a phone that is often carried in the pocket. We also saw during the Covid-19 pandemic that brass transferred way less virus than other materials (brass is a copper alloy, and copper has antimicrobial properties).

The team tested three kinds of cleaners — Lysol Disinfectant Spray, 70% Ethanol, and apple cider vinegar. Notably, the Lysol and ethanol solutions took only 30 seconds of exposure to dramatically reduce the bacteria count, while apple cider vinegar needed 2 minutes to get the job done.

The linked article does also give some additional guidelines on cleaning, but it is important not to forget cleaning wearables, and again it seems the same lessons from the Covid-19 epidemic apply, namely that 80%+ concentration of alcohol should work well.

See https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/why-scientists-want-you-to-clean-smartwatch-fitness-tracker-bands/

#technology #wearables #hygiene

If you’ve ever had trouble with a footpath, bus stop, or other piece of urban infrastructure, you probably know the hassles of dealing with a local council. It can be incredibly difficult just to track down the right avenue to report issues, let alone get them sorted in a timely fashion.

In the suburban streets of one Australian city, though, that’s changing somewhat. New smart garbage trucks are becoming instruments of infrastructure surveillance, serving a dual purpose that could reshape urban management. Naturally, though, this new technology raises issues around ethics and privacy.

I know in our own Province of Western Cape, in South Africa, they had been experimenting a few years ago with vehicles to drive around and record potholes for repair. But that was before AI (meaning that it need no longer just be for potholes) and it was all done with a specific vehicle in mind (way better to put it on a vehicle that regularly travels along most streets in a city).

Not only can this timeously record issues, but even more important, it can measure how long it takes to actually be repaired. I get really irritated when our own municipality closes out calls as soon as they've been scheduled for repair, as the actual repair may only be a month later. As I pointed out to them in an escalation, citizens measure performance by when something is actually repaired, not by how quickly it can be scheduled for repair to happen later.

And yes I get it that many may be quite worried about privacy, but I suppose that is also why these streets are called public roads. I would expect such a system to have some assurances (and audits) that facial recognition is not being used (no, I don't suppose the municipality would prevent number plate recognition, because after all, they'll want to recover those outstanding speeding fines while they're at it).

Something I've also long suggested to our municipality also is, why can't the garbage trucks beacon out their location, so we know exactly when to put our bins out. Maybe we can get that functionality in exchange for this AI scanning.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/08/24/smart-garbage-trucks-help-with-street-maintenance/

#technology #AI #localgovernment #maintenance

In a major update towards cross-browser compatibility, Firefox users are set to enjoy the benefits of importing Chrome extensions, thanks to a new feature unveiled by Mozilla. This is a big deal because it brings us one step closer to having more compatibility between browsers.

Mozilla has been working on making extensions easier across multiple browsers, and this new feature is currently being tested.

Best part? It’s already available to all users of the latest stable version of Firefox.

Firefox itself actually has quite a few excellent extensions that you don't find on Chromium based browsers, so I'm wondering whether Google will be responding with importing Firefox extensions into Chrome? But I'm not holding my breath at all.

See

#technology #Firefox #extensions

This is an IronOS open-source software portable soldering iron with temperature control, auto sleep, and auto shut-off based on movement. It costs around US$36-$45 depending on where you buy it. It can be powered off USB-C (even via a battery) or the 12V barrel DC jack.

The hardware board schematics as well as software are all open-source. Pine64 encourages you to experiment with the software, and seeing its bootloader is safely in the ROM, this is reasonably safe to do.

I hear there are some AliExpress knock-offs, so you should probably consult their Wiki page to ensure you are sourcing an original device.

Watch https://youtu.be/Gbc0koEhKGA

#technology #Pine64 #solderingiron #DIY #opensource