#AndroidAppRain at apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid today brings you 12 updated apps (hey, all without that DependencyInfoBlob 🤩) and 1 added app:

* Octo: an unofficial FLOSS Octopus Energy agile tariff monitor 🛡️

RB stats: 401 apps (32.3%) – yupp, we crossed the 400! 🥳

At apt.izzysoft.de/magisk 5 #Magisk modules where updated.

Enjoy your #free #Android #apps with the #IzzyOnDroid repo and #reproducibleBuilds

IzzyOnDroid F-Droid Repository

This is a repository of apps to be used with your F-Droid client. Applications in this repository are official binaries built by the original application developers, taken from their resp. repositories (mostly Github, GitLab, Codeberg).

^{IzzyOnDroid App Repo}

This RAM consumption test between Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera browsers demonstrates which one consumes the least memory. Spoiler alert: Firefox won by a mile.

#firefox #chrome #edge #opera #browser #ram
slashgear.com/1753454/what-web…

We Tested 4 Browsers, And This One Used The Least Amount Of RAM

Common knowledge holds that Google Chrome will chew up your computer's RAM and spit it out, but is that true? We put four popular browsers to the test.

^{Samyak Goswami (SlashGear)}

Matt Mullenweg deactivates the accounts of several WordPress.org members, some of whom have been leading a push to create a new fork of the open-source project (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)

techcrunch.com/2025/01/11/matt…
mediagazer.com/250111/p3#a2501…

Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork | TechCrunch

 Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several WordPress community members, including two with plans to fork WordPress.

^{Paul Sawers (TechCrunch)}

Friendica beginner help megathread

Hello, everyone! As we know what Zuck's place is going through, I decided to create a post with all the resources I found online all these years I've been on this place, in a bid to help more people board. Here we go:

List of guides/presentations/quick start

• @anubis2814's excelent guides for Friendica. Available as a playlist on YouTube:
  
  or on Peertube:
  peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEY…
  (6 videos)
• The Future of Social is Here: a Show and Tell (part 3: Friendica) by @Elena Rossini ⁂
• The Beginner’s guide to Friendica by @Tio
• no less important, The Friendica Wiki also available under the help section of your instance (click on your pic and name on the top-right where you're logged in -> help)
• The @Friendica Support group for any questions or issues (yes, I intended to post this here).

All of these should be more comprehensive than this guide.

Short Q&A with the most common problems

How do I post stuff?
Easy, on your profile, click the button in the top right that looks like this:

A pop-up window will open, and you can type anything. Make sure to set the appropriate permissions by clicking the tab at the top. If you want your post to be public then choose public, if you don't, select limited/private and add the exceptions or add who can see it. Make sure you properly select these permissions, because you cannot change them later. If you format your post (see below), you can also check the preview pane to see how your post will look. This also applies for comments.

How to format my text?

Friendica uses BBCodes for text formatting like bold text, italic text, underlined text and many others. You can find more example on the usage of it in the Wiki or under https://your-instance-address/help/bbcode. You don't have to style your text, but you can do some nice stuff with it. You can also get suggestions for formatting by typing [ and selecting an option from the drop-down menu, or typing out your option to narrow your search. But do check the wiki, though. Generally, BBCode looks like [option]your-text-here[/option].

If there is any text where you don't want to add any tags on by accident, slide it between these tags: [noparse][/noparse].

How to upload an image (and how to add alt-text to it)
Just drag&drop it into the composing page. Simple. Easy. No frills.

Also, to note is that you can also re-use an image you previously uploaded if you go to the Browser tab in the compose window.

Finally, you can link to any image you find online, without downloading&reuploading it in the 1st place. Right-click an image, click "copy image link", then go to your post and type [img]paste-your image-link-here[/img] (of course, you paste your image link instead, between the img tags). This is generally how images are displayed via BBCode.

I personally use an external site to host my media and link it this way, whenever there is something I want on the internet for as long as possible in order to save some space on my instance. I mostly use postimages.org, but I also used

• files.catbox.moe
• imgur.com

Meta and now also Reddit like to change the URL string to the media posted on their platforms, so don't rely on these if you want your post to still stay relevant after a few days.

You can also add Alt-Text to your image if, instead, you type [img=your_image_url]Your Alt-Text here[/img]. Alt-Text is generally an image description that is displayed when the image fails to load/before loading, and is useful to visually impaired people using screen reading software which can read this out loud. The latter is the reason why it is highly recommended by many people all across the Fediverse (not just on Friendica).

How to upload a video or other media
Just like you do with an image. However, the video will be posted under Browser, and then the "Files" icon:

Select your file, and it will be posted with an tag.

However, there's currently no user facing way to delete these as yet, so feel free to upload them on any other external service and share the direct link to the audio/video if you care about this.

You can use the tags [audio]your-link-to-the-audio[/audio] and [video]your-link-to-the-video[/video] for that.

How do I make a poll/vote at polls
Polls are currently supported by a few Fediverse platforms, but not by Friendica fully, right now (you can see them, but you cannot vote on them and create them).

You can again use an external service for creating polls, such as poll-maker or Strawpoll.

How to post to a group

Groups on Friendica, as well as any other ActivityPub platform, are generally just some special accounts that automatically boost/reshare whatever post you added while tagging them. Therefore, just create a regular post and tag them with the ! or @ signs (one of these tags should suffice). The former one creates a post that is visible on the group but unlisted wherever else (i.e. in a public feed). The latter takes account of your permission settings. You will see how you can find groups somewhere below.

How to find various people

There are multiple ways; One is to use any of the established lists:

• Fedi.db's list
• Most followed Mastodon accounts by Stefan Hayden
• Fliboard federated accounts (for news organizations on Flipboard who enabled AP integration) [Google Sheet spreadsheet]
• [Public] Popular/famous/notable Mastodon accounts (also available as a website) [Google Sheet spreadsheet]
• The Friendica directory (only for people on Friendica)
• Follow @FediFollows for suggestion

You can also go to Settings>Profile>Miscellaneous and scroll all the way down to add some tags to the profile. Then, you can also go to Contacts and choose "similar interests" in the left pane, get friend suggestions or a random profile.

Finally, you can also add yourself into the aforementioned Friendica Directory or to your server's one by going to Settings>Account>Security and Privacy Settings and check any of these two options:

This way anyone can find you according to your interests.

Finally, you can also follow hashtags to get posts from people that also share your interests directly in your feed, and then follow them from there.

If you want to have more privacy, you can check the following box below:

This limits the visibility of your content to only instances that are made aware of it, and people that have access to it based on your privacy settings. Unlogged users will not be allowed to find you.

How do I find groups?

Same as with regular people. There are multiple lists:

• Friendica Directory (for groups that are on Friendica).
• Check the list of @Fedi.Tips available here.
• Lemmyverse (For Communities on Lemmy - a decentralized Lemmy alternative - be wary of this though)
• Check out the servers of other Fediverse software like Mbin or Piefed. These are more forum-like platforms, centered around communities. Generally, each of these communities has a Fediverse address. Copy that, paste it in the search bar, and you should be able to find it. If it doesn't work the 1st time, try a few more times. If it still doesn't work, look whether the server is not on the banned list by accessing your-server-address/friendica, and/or contact your admin for clarification.

How do I use the search? Is it any useful beyond just searching for people and groups and other accounts?

Yes. Check the Wiki for more information.

Are there any mobile apps?

Yes there are. From my personal experience, Raccoon for Friendica gave me the best results. Relatica is also a great option, as well as Fedilab (the latter is more of a Mastodon client, but you can disable the display of reply in the feeds and enable BBCode - fiddle out in the settings). There are other apps for various platforms as well. If you don't find any of them fitting, you can just access your Friendica server in your browser (e.g. friendica.world, nerdica.net etc.). It's very responsive and easy to use.

I hope this Q&A covers the most common aspects of using Friendica

Happy to be featured in an article this week in the FNN :

Five takeaways from GSA’s latest Section 508 assessment

federalnewsnetwork.com/it-mode…

#GSA #Section508 #Accessibility #A11y

Five takeaways from GSA’s latest Section 508 assessment

Agencies are dedicating more time and staff to digital accessibility efforts, but acquisition is still a key hurdle when it comes to Section 508 compliance.

^{Justin Doubleday (Federal News Network)}

The #XMPP Newsletter for December 2024 is out!

Read about the latest XMPP universe updates and the latest updates on our #standards!

xmpp.org/2025/01/the-xmpp-news…

Enjoy reading! 📰 ☕

#jabber #chat #interoperability #rtc
#opensource #decentralization

worth repeating: everything looks like a conspiracy when you don't understand how anything works

cbc.ca/news/world/los-angeles-…

The IRS relaunched its Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN) program this week and all US taxpayers are encouraged to enroll for added security against identity theft and fraudulent returns.

bleepingcomputer.com/news/secu…

Here is this week's #Linux and #OpenSource News video!

youtube.com/watch?v=UfHb9FpQVs…

Linux Foundation endorses Chromium, SteamOS ISO is coming: Linux & Open Source news

Head to https://squarespace.com/thelinuxexperiment to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code thelinuxexperimentGrab a brand new l...

^YouTube

Mark Zuckerberg lamented the rise of "culturally neutered" companies that have sought to distance themselves from "masculine energy" (Riley Griffin/Bloomberg)

bloomberg.com/news/articles/20…
techmeme.com/250111/p9#a250111…

Mark Zuckerberg on Joe Rogan Podcast Slams Biden Administration

Mark Zuckerberg lamented the rise of “culturally neutered” companies that have sought to distance themselves from “masculine energy,” adding that it’s good if a culture “celebrates the aggression a bit more.”

^{Riley Griffin (Bloomberg)}

Elektronische Patientenakte: Lauterbach verspricht einen Start „ohne Restrisiko“
netzpolitik.org/2025/elektroni…

Na ja, man wird sich ja mal versprechen dürfen...

#epa #security

Elektronische Patientenakte: Lauterbach verspricht einen Start „ohne Restrisiko“

In wenigen Tagen beginnt die Pilotphase für die elektronische Patientenakte. Gesundheitsminister Lauterbach versichert, dass bis zu ihrem bundesweiten Start sämtliche Sicherheitsprobleme gelöst sind. Mit Gewissheit überprüfen lässt sich das nicht.

^{netzpolitik.org}

"I got all your fucking info either you turn yourself in or ill show it to the police"

Nine years ago today. Still weird.

daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/01/11…

Tales from my inbox, part++

"Josh" sent me an email. Pardon the language here but I decided to show the mail body unaltered: From: Josh Yanez Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 22:27:13 -0800 To: daniel Subject: Hey fucker I got all your fucking info either you turn yourse…

^{daniel.haxx.se}

✨ I tried @jack's django-templated-email-md project tonight, which was easy to use and was all I needed. I tried out a few other libraries, but it checked the right boxes for me.

If you want a bit more than Django's default mail handling provides, I recommend checking it out.

I no longer have an excuse not to send emails in my projects.

#Django #Python

django-templated-email-md.read…

I needed to do something for Los Angeles, so I just donated $100 to World Central Kitchen who has staff on scene now helping to feed both first responders and displaced residents.

One of the reasons I always choose this charity is that they do not pummel you with requests after you donate. And...Jose Andres is just an awesome human being. And good starts at the top.

worldcentralkitchen.org/donate

#palisadesfire #eatonfire

those damn undocumented immigrants are at it again, putting out fires, saving people's houses

npr.org/2025/01/10/nx-s1-52541…

ghod how did I only just today learn this existed

a daily soap opera, shot every day as the characters are commuting home on a GO train

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_48

Hey mastodon, anyone interested in a really cool internship for the blind through the library of congress teaching you how to transcribe music and documents into Braille? If so here’s the link to find out more

loc.gov/nls/who-we-are/interns…

Erica C. Vaughns NLS Aspiring Leaders Internship Program - National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress

The Program was established in 2020 through an endowment to provide legally blind individuals opportunities to work at NLS in areas of study or interest.

^{National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress}

APH Secures $10 Million Grant to Advance Employment Opportunities Using the Monarch for Individuals who are Blind or Low Vision

aph.org/app/uploads/2025/01/AP…

Google: Device Fingerprinting ist okay
heise.de/news/Google-Device-Fi…

Ist ja auch für die Werbeindustrie ganz dolle wichtig...

#privacy

Google: Device Fingerprinting ist okay

Google lässt ab Februar das Tracking von Verbrauchern per Device Fingerprinting für Werbezwecke zu – eine fundamentale Abkehr von seiner bisherigen Position.

^{Jo Bager (heise online)}