Eric the Cerise @[email protected]

An American in Sopron, pt 1,

I am an American expat, of Hungarian ancestry. Hungary allows for jus sanguinis (right of blood) citizenship, and thanks to that, I am now a Hungarian citizen, as well. I moved here about a year ago, for political reasons (details to follow, eventually).

Until now, I've used Mastodon intermittently, mainly as a tech-y news exchange. Moving forward, I hope to use it as an actual daily micro-blog about my life and experiences here in the EU (and beyond?).

An American in Sopron, pt 2,

I'm mainly targeting my friends and family, both here and back in the US, but perhaps others will find it interesting, as well.

I will mainly be making posts visible only to my followers. If this interests you, maybe you want to follow me. If you follow me now for my FOSS/tech stuff, well, most of my friends are nerds, too, so that's not going away, but there'll be less of it, so maybe prune me off of your list (it's probably getting too long, anyway, right?)

Good day today. I spent several hours working on a personal project, my re-imagining of an ancient text adventure game in #Python and #Android.

It's a fun little project to help me relearn Python and mobile development, and ideally, to get something deployed on #Fdroid that others might hopefully enjoy.

Supposed to be last weekend's project, but most of my free time went into learning #PyCharm and #GitLab and getting them to talk to each other...and then teaching same to my student-du-jour.

New #e-phone, pt 3. I've already switched to a different launcher, though I'll keep testing Bliss, reporting bugs.

The pre-installed apps—mostly—just work. A few are still pure LineageOS, or even AOSP, but most have had some kind of /e/-makeover, generally for the better. Several others have been pulled in from the FOSS world (like Open Camera, OpenKeychain).

It's worth noting, I've never used a standard Android or iOS phone, so my expectations are different. That said, so far, I like it.

New #e-phone, pt 2. But of course, the interesting thing is the new /e/ OS, plus its associated apps, features, services, etc.

Overall, it is already very nice, with clear potential to be much nicer in time. It is still a bit buggy.

The Bliss launcher is a bit unstable, occasionally losing app-icons when you move 'em around, and no way to restore them on-screen. No 'all installed apps' screen ... Apparently, this is modeled after Apple's design? This is on purpose? WTF, Apple people?!

At long last, I have my new phone. Got it 2 days ago, still spending hours exploring, configuring, adjusting etc.

It's a Galaxy S7 Edge. I guess it's decent hardware, except the 'cool' curved screen edges are just a royal PITA to navigate. Worse-than-useless 'feature'. Worst part is, somewhere in Samsung's nether regions, a team of engineers is proud of themselves for figuring out how to do this.

Otherwise, nice. Crisp, hi-res screen, noticeably faster CPU, great battery ... decent phone.

Hey there, #Python, #Android and @fdroidorg Developers!

I'm doing a new project this weekend, (re-)learning Python and Android mobile dev ... I want to write a simple text adventure in Python, get a finished, buildable apk to share on #FDroid.

It looks like the #kivy library is primarily what I need.

Any potential 'gotchas' (or guides) writing an app for deploying to F-Droid? Particularly, a home-made Python-based #FOSS game?

Thanx in advance

I'm still a fan of #Skyrim, esp. modded, and esp. of a lovingly curated, massive mod collection called Ultimate Skyrim.

UltSky 4.0 dropped recently, and it looks impressive. But I haven't tried it yet, because this time, I want to run it on my Linux box, instead of resurrecting my Windows OS, which hasn't seen daylight for 5-6 months, since my last foray into UltSky.

But alas, getting it to run on Linux is a Task. So I keep putting it off, just read about how much fun everyone else is having.

So, I have a couple of new laptops back in The States, which should be coming to me, via my friend Jane, in a month or so.

Today, I SSHed into them, from my phone, here in Hungary.

There are, of course, polished 3rd-party remote access apps out there (TeamViewer, M$ RDP, etc), and I'm sure professional SysAdmins are used to SSHing into all kinds of devices from all kinds of other devices ...

But for me, at least, this was, technically speaking, Really Effin' Awesome.

Linux rocks.

Happy Independence Day, America. Nice tanks.

https://invidio.us/watch?v=LPH-uD0YaH8

Finally fixed it. The problem (again) was that -- all evidence to the contrary -- NextCloud was using the wrong version of php. Again.

Here is my full-throated documentation of the issue and solution.

https://help.nextcloud.com/t/blank-page-shortly-after-upgrade-to-16-0-1-1-but-may-be-unrelated-where-to-start-debugging/55840/8?u=nattiegoogie

I run a small #NextCloud server, for syncing files and docs across devices, calendar and contacts, share it with a few friends, etc.

Two nights ago, I upgraded to version 16. It worked that night, but then the next morning, NC just died.

I spent most of yesterday troubleshooting the issue ... didn't solve the problem yet, but I'm homing in on it (NC forgot how to connect to the db).

Weird, how insecure I feel now, w/o my data syncing. I haven't actually lost any data. Still nervous, though.

Continuing in my quest to find a decent replacement for #Wire. Currently testing both #Riot and #Jami.

Jami has seen great improvements over the past year, but there are still enough significant bugs in it — contacts & account management across multiple devices, plus sometimes unreliable call connectivity (still testing that) ... that I think the app is not ready yet for average users.

Riot seems much more stable, but also still a bit buggy. Still testing.

Hey, are there really no Slovenian Mastodonians around?

I posted 2-3 weeks ago, looking for first-person experiences about moving to and/or living in #Slovenia. Trying once more, this time with the All-Powerful HashTag.

I'm seriously looking for feedback and advice about moving there, apartment-hunting, dog-friendliness, assorted pros and gotchas, etc.

Feel free to DM me. Danke, gracias, és kösszi.

If no one in Slovenia uses Mastodon, I may have to move there just to start recruiting.

It's official. #NASA is going to send a quadcopter aerial drone explorer to fly around on Saturn's moon, Titan. Launches in 7 years, arrives in 15.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-dragonfly-will-fly-around-titan-looking-for-origins-signs-of-life/

Parno Graszt, a popular Gypsy band, is playing downtown tonight in Sopron's main square.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fi5ir-2AZUM

Looks like they put on a good show. See you there?

So ... @Jami ( jami.net ) ... is a free / #FOSS / #GNU app ... encrypted, decentralized -- no servers at all ... bills itself as a Skype alternative.

I tried it out 8-10 months ago, back when it was still called Ring. I was underwhelmed at the time.

Just tried it again. Just one audio-only conversation with one friend, so far ... so early days. But so far, it works pretty damn well. Better than Wire, which has long been my go-to communications app.

Anyone else try it out? Opinions?

I'm thinking of moving to Slovenia. Looking for informed, personal-experience opinions ... anyone living there now? visited recently? have friends or family there?

What do y'all think? What are the people like? Cost of living? Job prospects? How do landlords feel about tenants with dogs? Apt-hunting recommendations? How's the Internet service? Ljubljana vs small-town/countryside? etc & yada.

I just visited Maribor last month. Very nice town. Lotta swans.

Danke, y gracias a todos.

Hey, @angristan, and others,

What's the deal with posting video? Is that an unlimited option? No file size limits or anything? I don't want to be a resource hog.

Thanx
EtC

Is #fedilab broken for other Mastodon users? It works for me on only one (of four) accounts. I can add other accounts, but when I actually switch to them, fedilab crashes. When I restart, I have ~3 seconds to switch back to the one working acct, else it keeps crashing.

Additionally, with other accts added, I'm seeing 'leakage' of some (but not all) toots from the other accts into my working acct feed.

Worked fine for me, back when it was just #Mastalab, but I quit using it for awhile.

@angristan and other Mastodon admins,

The admin of an instance I'm on is quitting, wants someone to take it over. I'm considering it.

How hard is it to manage a Mastodon server? Technical challenges? Tons of user support? Expensive resource requirements? Other pitfalls or considerations? Additionally, the primary language is one that I speak, but not well. Thanks in advance.

An American in Sopron, pt 2,

I'm mainly targeting my friends and family, both here and back in the US, but perhaps others will find it interesting, as well.

I will mainly be making posts visible only to my followers. If this interests you, maybe you want to follow me. If you follow me now for my FOSS/tech stuff, well, most of my friends are nerds, too, so that's not going away, but there'll be less of it, so maybe prune me off of your list (it's probably getting too long, anyway, right?)