julian

The PineTime (open-source hardware and software) smart watch strap fits with a 20 mm pin connector, which is a common standard fitting. However, not all 20 mm straps fit, because of the shape of the housing around it.

I bought a cheap silicone 20mm watch strap. Its ends were 20mm wide but too fat to fit in the PineTime. I sliced off some silicone with a sharp craft knife. Now it fits. Not perfectly beautiful but unobtrusive and neat enough.

#PineTime #openHardware

Completing This Phase

This is the last week of my funding on Moderator Tools for PubHubs. It has been a pleasure working with the PubHubs team. The time seems to go quickly.

Over the last few weeks I have been documenting everything about the Moderator Tools for PubHubs project on my dedicated web site, https://www.ph.trax.im/.

To summarise, these are the main work areas in this project, linking to their web site sections:

1. Civilised Discourse

   • Researching best practices to inform the longer term design of PubHubs moderation facilities.

2. Disclosure of Identity Attributes

   • Building a moderation tool specific to PubHubs' special features.

3. Draupnir for PubHubs

   • Adapting the best existing moderation tool from the regular Matrix ecosystem (Draupnir), evaluating and extending it.

An idea for explaining Matrix: it's hi-fi separates vs. a mini-hi-fi.

We bought a solar panel installation and now generate more electricity than we use... sometimes. In principle, we can sell that electricity back to an energy company. In practice there are two caveats. The first is well known: the rate they pay us is only a small fraction of the price they charge us for electricity. The second problem I did not appreciate in advance: the hassle of applying for and setting up the payment scheme.

This is my POSSE copy of the announcement posted in This Week in Matrix (TWIM) 2024-03-29.

This is my POSSE copy of the announcement posted in This Week in Matrix (TWIM) 2024-03-29.

I wanted to write “please matrix me!” with “matrix me” being a hyperlink to my matrix identity. Why should this be hard?

I wrote (in markdown mode, using Element-web/desktop): please [matrix me](https://matrix.to/#/@julian:foad.me.uk "@julian:foad.me.uk")!

This was formatted into HTML (by Element-web/desktop) as: please <a href=\"https://matrix.to/#/@julian:foad.me.uk\">matrix me</a>!. Already we've lost the “title” part of the mark-up. Let's consider that a separate issue and continue by looking at how clients render this resulting HTML.

How did clients render it? Ordered roughly best to worst.

good?	client	rendered	notes
☑	Hydrogen		a pill with my given text “matrix me” inside it, and my initial in place of avatar.
☑	Nheko		a plain hyperlink
☑	matrix-static/view.m.o		a plain hyperlink
!	Element (web/desktop) edit mode		a pill with my avatar and my given text “matrix me” inside it. Different from view mode!
-	Element (web/desktop, Android)		a pill with my avatar and username, losing the link text that I specified.
-	Fluffychat (desktop, Android)		a pill with my avatar and username, losing the link text that I specified.
-	Syphon		plain text, losing the hyperlink.

Differences in styling are not the issue, such as colour and shape and whether and how they display an avatar. Clients should differ in style. The issue is about functionality: it is a problem if the link text or the link target are lost.

The first three are good (correct link text and hyperlink). The last three are all bad. (And the middle one in that table is technically correct but is a weird inconsistency in the UI.)

Why should this be hard? Sigh.

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#matrix

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Comments

@rookienerd:aaria-net.org on 2024-05-14:

The worst one seems to be Fluffychat in my opinion! I'll give a go to Nheko

I put up a web site with details of my PubHubs work:

https://www.ph.trax.im

Under Moderation, there are subsections for the main work areas of the project: Draupnir+Pantalaimon, Disclosure of Identity Attributes, and Civilised Discourse.

That last area is the one I am currently working on.

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#PubHubs #matrix #awesomeFOSS

“How can I transfer photos between my PC and my phone?”

• perhaps to get a digital camera photo from the PC into a phone app
• perhaps to get a few phone photos onto the PC for editing
• perhaps any other kinds of files, not only photos
• perhaps Internet access is slow

Here we are not looking at ways to manage our whole photo collection, we are looking at simple ways to transfer files between our devices.

Towards Matrix, Properly Decentralised

One of matrix's key properties is decentralised communication.

No single party controls the whole system, there is not a single service provider of whom everybody is a customer, anyone can choose who provides their service or run it themself.

When I install a Matrix client app, I expect it to connect to my Matrix server. What happens currently: most matrix client apps invite me to connect to one particular de-facto “central” server called “matrix.org”. As a user, connecting to my own server is a chore. In Element's flagship “Element X” preview, for example, currently I have to choose the less obvious buttons to skip past screens inviting me to choose the “matrix.org” server, twice, and input my server's domain on a “search” screen separate from where I enter my “username”.

What matrix client apps should do: discover my local server automatically, make a reasonable suggestion for my username (e.g. from my computer's or phone's user account details, address-book, etc.), and move on to asking me for my password.

It would be nice if we could standardise a way for a local matrix homeserver to advertise itself on the local network, and for a client to detect the local homeserver(s) automatically. Home media servers do this, and some other kinds of home servers. Technically there are a few different ways to achieve Zero-configuration networking, like UPnP, mDNS, DNS-SD.

A different and complementary approach is to integrate with the accounts already configured in the phone's settings (on Android for example). I should be able to configure one matrix account in one place, and then any matrix client app I install should pick up the settings from there.

Which technique(s) we use is not as important as that it should Just Work, for ordinary low-tech people who have not set up their own infrastructure but are perhaps subscribing to a matrix server provider.

(Traditional “enterprise” deployment techniques are still valid in an enterprise setting, for example where the enterprise IT department configures the employees' devices. But that is something they have the resources to develop and deploy. I am interested in what we can do for ordinary individuals at home.)

It seems to me that's the way things should Just Work, everywhere from homes to enterprises, if we care about decentralisation.

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#matrix #awesomeFOSS