I am currently running Xubuntu on all my systems but there are so many things that feel rather unstable/buggy - I am sure it is not all Xubuntus/Xfce's fault, but my knowledge is limited so I just attribute it to that.

Therefore, I am currently considering switching to Fedora. I feel like it is time trying out a new desktop (KDE) and a more up to date kernel. I am not entirely sure what I am hoping from this post, but maybe a "yea, it is worth it" would ease my mind a bit.

Also, I am a bit unsure how to easily move between them (programs and data).

To name a few of the bugs I encountered in the past:

• When connecting screens, quite often the created profile is ignored, screens get disabled, overlapped, ... By applying the profile multiple times eventually you can overcome this issue
• Dell specific: Webcam does not work, system sometimes freezes after closing the laptop lid even if sleep mode is deactivated
• Certain shortcuts are bugged (WIN+Left works, WIN+Right doesn't. When you reset WIN+Right, it works until the next restart)

Heyho,

I am an absolutely beginner when it comes to Smart Homes, but have some knowledge when it comes to coding, Linux, Docker and Co.

So, I decided to make my home smart and bought some stuff and hopefully I am now able to connect it somehow, but I am missing a good explanation/tutorial.

If I understand correctly then I should install some software on my minipc, connect it to my ZBT-2 which then form a Matter Controller which then can be somehow connected to the Matter lightbulbs. Is that general notion correct or am I already off? If it is correct, does anyone know a good tutorial for it? When I try to google Matter Controller I often find ready made ones and nothing on how to set it up on my own.

I bought the MiniPC because I want to set up a small home server, too, but that is largely unrelated.

Heyho, I wonder whether it would be interesting to create a mega thread where people can spotlight their own research (even if it hasn't been published yet).

I sometimes come across super interesting comments in threads where scientists add great detail to topics. For example when someone asked about sweeteners and a scientist in that field explained how they cause DNA damage for animals (and why the impact on humans is likely less; I can't accurately retell their explanation so you have to look it up yourself if you are interested).

Science communication is a difficult area and I would love to see what you are working on! Maybe this community is not the right place, but I thought it would be a good start.

Heyho,

I am from Germany and currently moving into a new apartment. I am going to throw out my old desk as it is too low and want to upgrade to a height adjustable one.

While IKEA has some options I wonder whether others have recommendations for solid brands to check out.

Heyho,

I am looking for smart devices - currently interior blinds and lights that support Zigbee - and thought why not take a look at the European market.

As far as I can tell most products come from china, but maybe someone here knows more than me :)

EDIT: So sadly it looks like there is no real european smart home stuff out there.

Heyho,

as I will soon move into my first "own" apartment (have lived in shared apartments so far), I would like to set up some smart home devices. Primarily lights, but I am open to other ideas.

Looking into the topic I noticed that basically all cloudless setups need a server - often they use a Raspberry Pie, a low energy protocol - like Zigbee or Thread, and a managing software like Home Assistant or openHAB.

Currently, I think about using the Raspberry Pie 5 (should also be helpful for other projects such as Immich) together with some kind of USB to connect to the Thread network (guess there is something similar like conbee2 for Zigbee) and openHAB as the software for greater customization. While openHAB is probably overkill, as a computer scientist I think I might enjoy the greater customization options.

So my question: Are there any good tutorials for this setup? While I knew of Zigbee before this project, I wasn't aware of Thread and am just looking into it. I don't feel comfortable yet to double down on it without learning more on possible ways to connect Thread to openHAB on a Raspberry Pie.

Thanks in advance!

Alright: For now I have bought:

• Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2, Zigbee 3.0/Thread/Matter USB-Adapter
• Soyo MiniPC M4

Instead of choosing openHAB, I will start with Home Assistant. While some people argued that they use Zigbee without issues, I still feel like Matter/Thread is the more interesting standard. Given that you can only use one standard with a ZBT-2, I will try to find all my devices in the Matter/Thread ecosystem.

Not sure if it fits here, but I found no community that distinctly focuses on phone repair/data extraction. I hope this is fine.

Recently, my phone's display died. I am trying to save the data.

I bought a more advanced OTG hub that should allow connecting the mouse and an external display. It also has a USB-C power input so the phone doesn’t have to power everything itself. The phone is connected to the hub via USB-C as well.

However, I haven’t even managed to get that setup working with my current phone (CMF Phone 2 Pro). I enabled the “Improve OTG Compatibility” option, but the hub still doesn’t appear to work, even though it’s advertised as being compatible with smartphones and other OTG devices: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GD7G9HS9

At this point I’m unsure whether the problem is me, the adapter, or possibly an issue with the display I’m trying to use (though the display works fine with other devices).

Any ideas? If OTG is not the right way, I am open for other suggestions. I am not really interested in repairing the phone, I just need the data.

EDIT Why Otg?: I thought of OTG for data extraction, because attaching a display and a mouse should enable me to use the phone again assuming that it is just the display that is broken. In order to verify my correct OTG setup, I attempted it first with my working phone which did not work.

My father considers buying an Android TV box. Initially, I thought that's a bad choice as a mini pc has much greater capabilities and control.

However, he does have a point that Android TV boxes are cheaper (~60) and work with tv cable which most mini PCs don't have a connector for.

What are your thoughts on this?

Heyho, in the past we used Discord with OBS for streaming. That allowed us to capture each persons video and audio separately afaik. Is capturing video and audio separately also possible in Matrix?

How is the audio quality in Matrix compared to Discord.

While I have used Matrix in the past for work, I have never used it's VOIP extensively.

In the past I didn't really catch that the people were rebelling against the government and suddenly there is great violence against protestors.

I think I missed this completely. I am aware that the beginning was spiralling costs. Is this connected to international sanctions?

"I said sit down, don't stand there." Zhorik insists. Unsurprised, I sit down at the campfire lightning up the dark night. Last time I had seen Zhorik he was a bouncer at the Bar - not any bar but THE 100 RAD Bar in Rostok and I – I was a young Loner looking for the Klondike of artifacts everyone had promised. A lot has happened since then. "Greetings wait." Zhorik carries on and points at the Stalker across the fire. "Mah-kuh-loh-v, carry on!" he drawls with a grin dragging the name longer than necessary imitating the slurred speech of a Zombie. I look at “Mah-kuh-loh-v”. He wears an old torn military suit; likely claimed from a poor soldier unable to complain. It is dyed black either by dust or a costly sense of fashion that usually gets you killed. From the dirty green swamp to the bright colors of the red forest, there's no place for black colors. Unless you go underground. The SA Avalanche loosely hanging from his back reveals that this is no rookie. No patch. Do I have to be careful?

Before I can finish the thought Makulov clears his throat beneath his Mask-1 helmet - a solid choice - and leans forward. As he starts talking, I understand why Zhorik was making fun of him - his speech was dragging, swallowing letters and at times it sounds like he is inhaling while talking "I-ihd aall sta-hted ad thee Ga-aten. Haad waas spi-inning. Laights touh brihihght. Pah-hinfuul. Thehn grena-ade. Trai-hed to stoop hiim, shoot. Too-oo laate. Boohm. Then. Mah guun. Moved. To my hea-eahd. I pu-lled tri-igger. Ih dro-opped deead. Ih thought."

I cannot follow. I look at Zhorik, but Zhorik focused on Makulov does not care to explain, but Makulov notices my irritation and adds with some frustration "Ah survi-ved but mah jaw di'not." As he puts down his mask, his slowly revealed face leaves me in shock. Where the lower jaw bone should have given the face character, there was just a sack of skin without scars. “Tough luck”, Zorik states, unaffected. Makulov continues now looking at me his skin bag wobbeling “Ih do-nt knoo. Mahbe it waas a controher. Mahbe an anomele. Id ma-hde me kill mah self. Luckelee, I failed. When I wohk mah jaw wahs go-hne. I hada Pedl in mah po-het. Laer a doc did dhe rest.”

I look at Zhorik again. He seems unimpressed “I will send you some coupons as promised. If you have anything to share about what happened at Yubileiny it will be more.” Zhorik waits attentively, but Makulov shakes his head.

“Too bad.”, Zhorik sighs.

Zhorik turns to the side searching his bag. I look across the campire at Makulov’s cold eyes. Does he pose a threat? I have to make a decision now. I look at Zhorik still searching through his junk unalert. Alright.

I swiftly draw my silenced UDP Compact from my back holster and unload a .45 into the back of Zorik’s head. Without waiting for the body to drop, I turn around pointing the bullet at Makulov and say, “Listen, I have no trouble with you. I am a mercenary. My contract only covers Zhorik. I have no bullets to spare, but I rather give than receive, if you get me. If you listen, we both live. Remove the bolt from your rifle. Slowly please. Good. Now throw the bolt over there like a good Stalker. Perfect.” Makulov follows my instructions calmly. Too calmly, I think. Most would show at least a little unease, but this guy… I should shoot him to be sure. I grab Zhorik’s PDA without lowering my UDP. “Zhorik has become a bandit after losing his job at the bar. Check his body when I am gone for proof. He killed the wrong Stalker. I returned the favor.” Usually, I don’t myself. Makulov does not seem to care. He sits motionlessly staring at my gun. Should I?

I slowly move back while looking at Makulov. Then thicket obscures the view. Strange guy. My muscles ease. I look at my PDA planning my path towards the wagons south of the terminal. Another job well executed. Sid will be pleased.

I recently saw someone creating a bingo chart for 2025 so I decided to create one for 2026 (image of this post). What are your predictions for 2026?

Initially, I looked for an open source smartwatch that is sold with an opensource OS preinstalled. However, this was not really feasible.

• PineTime had some really bad first hand reviews in addition to them being quite expensive in the EU.
• Pebbles warranty is too low and it is rather expensive.

So as a second attempt I looked for operating systems that you can flash onto watches. I found Open-SmartWatch with OSW-OS and AsteroidOS. While I think that building your smart watch from scratch is cool, AsteroidOS looked more accessible and mature (just based on easy navigation and the feature list).

Sadly, the most supported watch is no longer available: TicWatch Pro 2018

So I thought I just mindlessly ask whether you have a different OS you would recommend or if you have a watch recommendation that is still available.

Tbh. I thought for a second that pinetime was it for me. Price bit more expensive than I hoped for but maybe reasonable idk. Then I looked at the US price and now I am stunned.

Are they sold from the US so tariffs apply? I can't support that.

I do not really have a body for this. I was not aware that this is a thing and still feel like this is bs, but maybe there is an actual explanation for HDMI Forum's decision that I am missing.

Heyho, I would like to track how much I walk per day. Ideally via a FOSS app as I don't have any other device on me all the time. Is there anything good available?

Heyho, recently someone asked for the silliest reasons, but as someone who has suggested linux to many people, I often encounter people having valid reasons for staying with Windows or switching back.

The most boring but valid one is "I have to use Windows for work. It is a requirement (of some software I have to use)". But there are also other answers that fit. My sister for example tried Linux, but while installing software constantly encountered issues that I helped her solve and eventually switched back because she felt like she had less control than over windows. While I am aware that this is fundamentally wrong, it is valid that some amateur users do not want to invest enough time to get over the initial hurdles of relearning how to install software.

What are the best reasons people have given you for not wanting to try Linux?

As I am considering to use Mermaid to create diagrams for my thesis, I am looking into ways to make the diagrams more concise. I am not entirely sure whether that would look good, but I thought about using a smaller box padding i.e. distance between box lines and text.

Any ideas how one might be able to do that? Other ideas how we can make this less space consuming?

In a compelling, entertaining and accessible format, we present these negative awards to companies, organisations, and politicians. The BigBrotherAwards highlight privacy and data protection offenders in business and politics, or as the French paper Le Monde once put it, they are the “Oscars for data leeches”.

I can really recommend Digitalcourage and the event. I am not directly involved.

I hope this kind of post is allowed (different language, political in nature). I checked the rules but nothing sounded against it.

The linked image is from the German satirical magazine "Postillon" and reads:

‘It's genocide’ – Captain Obvious also presents investigation report on Gaza

The other German bits are unrelated jokes with a less serious topic as typical for the magazine:

Poison: Is it really as bad as people claim?

Free Jimmy Kimmel in each magazine!

"I don't feel seen" Spirit of Don Aurelio di Monteverdi (dead since 1573) in an interview