Hippo 🍉

Fedizens, do y'all put #chicory in your #coffee or is it just an Indian thing?

(It used to be an adulterant but now people have been made to believe they like it 😢)

#BoostsAppreciated :boostRequest:

So the word going around here is that Christian voters in TN have to choose between Joseph and Stalin 🤪

#inpol #tnpol

@praveen I realised to my horror that #NPCI (the banking cartel which operates #UPI) added major restrictions to UPI collect requests last month. No wonder two of the websites I wanted to make payments at refused to support it

But I was able to make a UPI collect request while registering for #ChennaiFOSS a few days back and again today to make my monthly #SIP payment. I wonder what's going on?

Will update on the wiki if I figure out the pattern 🏁

Whoops!

#Convo #XMPP #KaiOS

Is there a #compositor / #WindowManager that lets me display apps with different GTK themes displayed on which display (eg. external monitor) it's displayed on?

:boostRequest:

What is up with all hosting providers offering only #SSD storage? I don't need your higher performance. Give me a higher-capacity #HDD instead! 💾

@movim indeed an important conversation we need to have in fedispace

(And I'm excited to see social features from Movim spreading to other clients like #MonoclesChat and beyond too!)

@fbinin also check the #Droidian devices list. Droidian relies on proprietary Android drivers to get some things to work, but on the flip side you'll have more things that "just work" without having to set up things or wait for someone to figure out the drivers.

FLX1 which I recommended earlier runs FuriOS which is based on Droidian, but you'll probably find one of the devices listed on the official Droidian list secondhand at a much lower cost:

https://devices.droidian.org/#/devices

@fbinin oh you said low cost. Then I go back to my original recommendation of #PocoF1...with the caveat that some things like Waydroid and GPS will need setup (and GPS on Waydroid still remains elusive to me)

@fbinin I'd say it's worth flashing it just to get a sense of how the interface itself works and to experiment before actually buying a new device. (Also, there's a chance that someone will figure out the drivers for it later and then you can use it: my camera started working a bit only a few months after I'd set up #Mobian on my #PocoF1)

Long term, a secondhand Poco F1 would be good for a cheap option but if you're serious about it I'd recommend investing in the #FLX1 by @furilabs

RE: https://liliputing.com/fedora-pocketblue-remix-is-an-atomic-linux-distro-for-mobile-devices-phones-and-tablets/

New mobile OS just dropped

#Fedora #Pocketblue #MobileLinux

I need to make a "Save to #Wallabag and also at the same time to #Instapaper" button 🦘

Are there any good open hardware #3Dprinters out there? I heard bad things about #Prusa

RE: https://mastodon.world/@anttipeltola/115967477302246485

Ditto for India!

#India #BigTech #InPol #MakeInIndia

You don't have to commit long-term either: there are numerous services you can use "just for now" without signing up at all, like #LibreY Search, #Cryptpad, #Etherpad, #LibreQR, and the #BinBytes pastebin

Shoutout to #FLOSSbOxIN, a small offering of #selfhosted services run by @fbinin for the public to use

https://flossboxin.org.in/

I think large instances are nice because they provide a landing place for people to get onto user-respecting software, but small services like this are filling a much needed role for returning to more distributed, more resilient Internet infrastructure

Donations are welcome, but simply signing on and using the services is too!

#BoostsAppreciated

#CSS folk, is there a way to check "@supports" for the "@property" declarer?

I tried "@supports(initial-value: *)" but that doesn't seem to fly, at least in #LibreWolf, although the rule itself is supported 🤔

#HelpWanted #Stylesheets #BoostsAppreciated

@alcinnz personally I'd want #XMPP messaging (it's the whole reason I'm making #Convo). But that might be opening a new can of worms, depending on what you have in mind?

What I'm missing from my #KaiOS is that and the ability to book cabs and make online payments (a lowkey must in some Indian cities *cough* Bangalore *cough*)

All these are peripherally "interacting with people on the go" which is what I'd want from my phone

@rohini interesting! What caught my attention is (the unrelated fact) that they use the same word for "dog" as in #Goalpara and #Assamese 🐶

@opensourceopenmind @hellomiakoda ooh I knew about #MNTPocketReform and the possiblity of adding phone-stuff (as well as any other stuff under the sun and above it) but what's #GOnnect? 👀

@Tutanota and here I was happily emailing people on #Thunderbird and making designs on #Penpot and #Inkscape to share via #XMPP, at which point I remembered to catch up on discussions on #Loomio, and got roped into drafting a manifesto on #Cryptpad, all while blissfully unaware of the chaos going on until I opened #Newsflash and read about it all on the #RSS feeds that I synchronise via #NextCloud, at which point I decided to head over to talk about it with the world thanks to #ActivityPub!

Funny how the meanings of words drift over time

#Awful used to mean something really good, similar to "awesome". But through overuse, it gradually ended up falling lower and lower on the spectrum, until it ended up meaning the opposite!

As a more recent example, the word #terrorism used to mean people with evil intentions using violence to disrupt a peaceful society, but the word is nowadays used to refer to anyone who stands up in support of justice, freedom, and human rights

#GNS ✨

Just launched the new #Convo website. Feedback welcome ✨ 🚀

Happy #Vijayadasami!!

https://convo.fsci.in/

@amin almost had to scroll up halfway to double-check that the author wasn't myself! 🤪

I'm with you on most things including the #Tangara (I want one) and #PocketReform (same). I have two #Kobo and a half already, but am hoping for someone (my future self?) to make a decent RSS reader for it that's more than just an ebook maker.

I think the main difference would be picking #XMPP for messaging. Hey, with #Convo running on #KaiOS maybe I can turn those phones into your dream phone 😉

New version of #Convo just dropped. Main highlight: end-to-end #encryption support with #OMEMO! 🔒✨

https://git.disroot.org/badrihippo/convo/releases/tag/0.2.0

Coming up on the #BananaHackers store soon, which will incidentally also fix the currently broken install process from there 🍌

I'm going to now switch over to a more polished UI (based on the excellent work by solid-telekram author Cyan) after which we can let all the small but numerous missing features roll in 🏗️

@daemon_nova @liliputing_ they did mention something about it being possible to connect a 5G-capable antenna. Not sure if it's only theoretical or someone's actually done it (the demo device I saw at #IndiaFOSS didn't have it)

@thibaultamartin #binky was more prescient than I thought 😳

@SpaciousCoder78 @raccoon fortunately for me, the #UPI process is cumbersome enough on #KaiOS I don't end up overspending. Small mercies 🤪

@raccoon regarding WhatsApp, they used to support KaiOS but decided to drop support last February. Possibly one of the reasons people became interested in Convo. Since it's XMPP, #slidge should work but I don't know if that'd be functional enough for you?

In India the main barrier is banking and payment apps which are increasingly locked down and usually don't run if your phone is rooted, let alone trying a custom ROM or something like #Waydroid. Of course, they only support Android and iOS 😕

@raccoon well it's unfortunately not fully open source and does have some Big Tech stuff built in (Google Assistant, Maps)

There's a custom ROM called #GerdaOS specifically for the Nokia 8110 Bananaphone that is fully Free Software. There was also #ProjectPris for other phones but there's been no news on that for a while 🙁

Other two hurdles I think are app availability and sluggish hardware. As for #XMPP support...kind of, with #Convo, and I'm working on it 😉

https://git.disroot.org/badrihippo/convo

Putting the final touches on my upcoming presentation about #KaiOS at #IndiaFOSS2025 this weekend 🎨

I'll also bring the Nokia 8110 #bananaphone running the #Convo app for you to try out afterwards! :xmpp:

Will you be there?

https://fossunited.org/indiafoss/2025

@ambuj yep that is a total pain 😵

That's why I'm looking forward to #LibreFin, also presenting at #IndiaFOSS2025 which will pave the way towards changing that!

https://mas.to/@fossunited/115065307632226628

They are not directly related to #KaiOS, but being #FreeSoftware and #OpenSources means we're one step closer to implementing it wherever we want 💸

By the way, what are the other missing features you think are a must before you'd consider using #KaiOS?

@fossunited

@valhalla @praveen it also depends on the hardware, doesn't it?

#Debian on a #PocoF1 is very much a smartphone, but if you put the same label to Debian on a #Beepy it won't quite live up to expectations

Unfortunately, many people have the impression that "being small with a physical numpad" and "capable of running complex applications" are mutually exclusive resulting in most manufacturers not giving good specs to such devices. So in practice #KaiOS phones are closer to feature phones 😕

@GossiTheDog shucks, I have the following libraries in #Convo 😳

- color-convert
- color-names
- ansi-styles
- debug
- chalk
- supports-color

People, be careful when trying to do any #cryptocurrency transactions using an #XMPP messaging app on #KaiOS 🤑

@praveen you're right...that might have been encrypted too

Maybe we should say: first #E2EE message sent from a #FreeSoftware app on a #FeaturePhone?

This day in history...I mean present: first ever end-to-end encrypted message to be sent from a #dumbphone?

https://git.disroot.org/badrihippo/convo/commit/c95d048c9dafa51ceef5c5c07b241abe6290696b

Using #Convo on #KaiOS, powered by #ConverseJS, #XMPP, #OMEMO, and #libsignal :xmpp:

@tyil @kskarthik yeah, "decentralised Internet" sounds like a tautology but it unfortunately isn't 😕

What you're describing sounds like #web0 (and I'm all for it)!

https://web0.small-web.org

(By the way @aral why's that domain redirecting to the Wayback Machine? Interestingly recursive 👀)

@praveen for those coming upon this later: I created a new wiki page dedicated to different payment methods, and shifted the #IMPS stuff there for now.

The #UPI page now redirects to one specifically about using #NUUP (dialling *99# basically)

https://wiki.fsci.in/Payments

@nigel good to know! I last experimented with bridges, what...a decade ago? They were pretty unstable at the point (more the fault of the messaging companies changing their APIs every so often than anything else) but it's good to hear things have improved

I'm lucky not to have to use most of those centralised platforms any more, but I should try running #slidge again and see if it helps my friends

@famubu not new ones (except perhaps some locked-down Jio's) but you can find them secondhand. I normally look on #OLX where I've bought from individuals but also see some shops in Chennai and Mumbai selling them on a more large-scale basis

Beware of the Barbie Phone: some international variants use KaiOS, but the Indian version does not!

@esoteric_programmer it's a web-based OS for feature phones (that use buttons, not touchscreens). It's based on what used to be #FirefoxOS, so apps are written in HTML/CSS/JavaScript

KaiOS is unfortunately not fully open source but I'm holding out hope that someone will come up with a fully open ROM at some point...

Rounding off by circling back to #XMPP, where @zeank is working to bring invite support (#GreatInvitations) to #ejabberd 📮

https://nlnet.nl/project/ejabberd-invites/

Practically, this means another of the major XMPP servers will support a mechanism for people to create accounts more easily and without too many hurdles, while letting server operators keep signups invite-only or moderated in some way to avoid spam 🤖

🧵 11/n

Another hardware-focused project is #RIVET, making a plug-and-play way for #RISCV systems to connect to #ethernet 🔌

https://nlnet.nl/project/RIVET/

These are the small things that go a long way in speeding up #OpenHardware development.

(I don't know if you gathered, but I like using open, customisable, and repairable devices that I can specially tailor to my needs—and I'm excited to see this take more shape in future!)

🧵 9/n

Coming back to the more mundane (and therefore probably also the more immediately useful 😉) is #Formulas, which plans to bring Excel-compatible formula evaluation to #Python :python:

https://nlnet.nl/project/Formulas/

As someone who avoid spreadsheets when I can, but also sometimes ends up working with people who think and dream in them, this sounds like something that could form a workable solution for both sides 📊

🧵 7/n

@beacondb, a wireless positioning database and alternative to the now-defunct #MozillaLocationServices 🛰️

https://nlnet.nl/project/BeaconDB/

Even without a direct satellite connection, #BeaconDB lets your device figure out its position by triangulating from known networks like WiFi hotspots and cellphone towers 📶

🧵 5/n

Universal #EInk Solutions, which aims to provide a consistent API for driving #epaper displays 🖥️

https://nlnet.nl/project/Universal-EInk/

As someone who cannot concentrate for long periods on bright screens and the owner of an e-ink monitor as well as an e-reader, this is something I'm looking forward too as it'll increase hackability and enable the development of more #OpenHardware devices!

(On a related note, I also learnt during the course of the meeting that #Modos is also an NLnet-funded project)

🧵 4/n

I'm excited to announce that #Convo, my #XMPP messaging app for #KaiOS has received a grant from @nlnet, or, more specifically, @NGIZero! 🎉 🤸

https://nlnet.nl/project/Convo/

I can now turn what began as a quick project made in a providential three weeks of free time into an app that can...actually do basic things like add contacts 😅

More importantly, it'll make the open and standardised messaging protocol available to a mobile platform where few large players have dared to tread 👟

#NLnet #NGIzero

@debacle yeah, that's unfortunate and also unfortunately above my "pay grade" 🙁 (I mean, area of experience)

I see from the hashtags that you're familiar with #GerdaOS. There was also #ProjectPris by the same people, but it got stalled partly due to getting caught up in the war on #Ukraine. I hope #Convo and other apps will make KaiOS interesting and useful enough that people get together to create a #FreeSoftware version 💭