Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

New features in Android theft protection. Special mention to Brazil, where from now on, two of these features are enabled by default when setting up a new phone.

Neocities is blocked by Bing. Neocities is a kind of spiritual successor to Geocities. No one knows what is happening. Worse, the disappearance of the domain affects other search engines that depend on Bing's index, such as DuckDuckGo.

Transmission 4.1. Almost three years after version 4.0, this update to the (excellent) torrent app arrives. Several internal improvements. The only visible ones are icons adapted for the current macOS and Windows. FOSS, for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Apple’s “Creator Studio” app bundle now available for USD 12.99 Per Month, MacRumors.

Chawan. A state-of-the-art browser with a TUI interface (runs on the terminal), capable of rendering websites in a way that resembles the OG graphical browsers. FOSS.

What are the odds?. Probabilities become increasingly unlikely as you scroll down the screen. (I haven't checked if the information is correct.)

Firefox icons. Firefox for Android offers alternative icons. There's the classic 2004 version, a pixelated version, and a cute one designed by illustrator Momo.

For me, NetNewsWire is the perfect app for macOS. NetNewsWire 7.0, released this Tuesday (27th), reinforces this distinction. The implementation of Liquid Glass is so good that the app looks better (screenshots), without losing its identity. Extra points for the icon-free menus, mitigating one of the silliest problems in macOS 26 Tahoe. Now I’m looking forward to the iOS version.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Apple updates iOS 12 to extend iMessage and FaceTime support on older devices. iOS 12 was released in 2018. (Other more recent versions, including 26.2, have also been updated.)

Boomerang. A simple website for sharing files. Similar to WeTransfer, and for good reason: Boomerang was created by the founder of WeTransfer. Free, with an optional paid plan.

FitDrop 1980–2025. A personal exploration of fashion. Outfits fall from the sky, and you can toss them from side to side or drag them to the square in the upper right corner for more details.

TestUFO 3.0. This website shows the refresh rate of the browser on your device. It is useful for testing whether the 120 Hz screen is working as it should.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Signal's popularity soars in Europe. In Finland, the app is the most downloaded one in the Play Store's communication category among free apps. I'm curious about the reasons. It can't be sovereignty or anti-American sentiment, since Signal is based in the US. (By the way, have you downloaded it yet?)

WinDirStat 2.5.0. This Windows utility visually displays the device's memory, distinguishing the directories (folders) that take up the most space. The new version adds dark mode support and brings several improvements. Download it here.

stegodon. A CMS for blogs accessible via SSH that communicates with ActivityPub. (The published blog can be read on the web and generates an RSS feed.)

Start a f***ing blog (archived links). I don't know if it's “the best thing on the web you can do,” but it's certainly among the best.

rekall. A fairly dose of cyberpunk aesthetics.

RCS, SMS via the internet, is good, but that doesn’t matter

In 2024, Apple made a gesture of goodwill to European regulators and opened iOS 18 to RCS, the evolution of the old SMS. Great, but too late.

RCS, which stands for Rich Communication Services, is SMS via the internet with all the benefits that come with this improvement, such as support for high-quality images, read receipts, typing indicators, and audio messages.

In other words, it is the “WhatsApp version” of SMS.

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Diplomacy by WhatsApp  newcartographies.com

Nicholas Carr, author of the excellent Superbloom, argues that:

Texting turns everyone into a semiliterate twelve-year-old, and presidents, prime ministers, and secretaries general are no exception.

In this article, he opposes the widespread practice of conducting diplomacy via WhatsApp. Which, obviously, does not work.

In general, a medium’s speed of delivery is inversely correlated to the thoughtfulness and nuance of the messages it carries. The growing hegemony of the instant message, it seems fair to say, is not fostering eloquence in either private correspondence or public speaking. Texts are great for quick, offhand exchanges. They debase pretty much everything else.

He draws an example from the aforementioned book to demonstrate that speed in communication has long wreaked havoc on diplomacy.

The arrival of the telegraph in the late XIX century was the hope for an end to war. Nikola Tesla and his rival, Guglielmo Marconi, both researchers dedicated to the development of the wireless telegraph, had this expectation.

In 1912, Marconi declared that the wireless telegraph would “make war impossible.” Two years later, World War I broke out.

He quotes French historian Pierre Granet, referring to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870:

The constant transmission of dispatches between governments and their agents, the rapid dissemination of controversial information among an already agitated public, hastened, if it did not actually provoke, the outbreak of hostilities.

If it is difficult for an individual with a great deal of freedom to choose which groups to participate in, imagine how difficult it must be for statesmen and government officials, who have to deal with unpleasant people and make decisions that impact millions of people? As Carr says at the end of the text,

Successful statecraft requires deliberation, discretion, and discernment, qualities rarely evident in messages thumbed out through apps on phone screens.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

30 years of ReactOS. The project aims (since 1996!) to create a FOSS alternative that is compatible with applications and drivers made for Windows. What perseverance!

Substack’ app for TVs, in beta. Remember when Substack was a newsletter service? The app, available for Google TV and Apple TV, even has a “For You” tab with algorithmic recommendations.

Resurf. Schedule emails to your future self. “A time capsule for your thoughts.” Free during the beta period. Please don't write anything confidential in this thing.

Skyreader. RSS feed aggregator built on Bluesky's AT protocol. It promises to bring back the social aspect of the late Google Reader. Free.

The origin of the names MySQL and MariaDB. Today I learned that MySQL and MariaDB are named after the daughters of the guy who created these databases. (Yes, one of them is called My.) The family is Finnish.

What’s on your phone, Julia?

Editor's note: Every week, I publish the phone's home screen from a blog reader. Want to participate? Fill out this form. Want more? Check out the archive. All app links go to the App Store, Play Store, or F-Droid.

What is your name and what do you do?

Hi, my name is Julia. I am 32 years old, I am a trans woman, and I work as a lead designer specializing in accessibility at [Brazilian telecom] Vivo. I also play guitar and bass, play card games (currently focused on Star Wars Unlimited and Gundam TCG), and collect board games.

I have been following Manual do Usuário since the beginning and Ghedin since the classic WinAjuda in mid-2005.

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For this [AI] not to be a bubble, by definition it requires that the benefits of this are much more evenly spread. I think a telltale sign of if it’s a bubble would be if all we’re talking about are the tech firms. If all we talk about is what’s happening to the technology side that then that’s just purely supply side.

Bald man wearing glasses, smiling.Satya Nadella,
CEO of Microsoft

I have some bad news for you, Satya…

In another excerpt from the interview, picked up by Pivot to AI, Nadella says that companies need to reorganize around AI to learn, in practice, how to use it in business. Destroy what is working to learn an innovation that might help them… do what they were doing before?

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here every Thursday. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

MBCompass. Modern compass and navigation app for Android. FOSS and free, available on F-Droid and Obtainium.

PowerToys 0.97 brings a new utility for the mouse. Microsoft's (FOSS!) Swiss Army knife for Windows 11 has gained “Cursor Wrap,” a feature for those who use large screens that allows you to move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other by “teleporting” it around the edges. (Like Pac-Man, you know?)

WalletWallet. Convert physical barcodes and QR codes into cards compatible with the iPhone Wallet. Free and runs in your browser.

Gnome website. The official Gnome website expanded its translations and now is available in English, Bulgarian, Basque, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Chinese. (The announcement was made on January 9th.)

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