Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

#CriticalMass #Vienna heat map of paths taken since 2011.

@danb @webmink @fdroidorg By "drops out", do you mean like if an app adds a proprietary lib? In that case, we've handled that many times. We also have handled many cases of changing Anti-Features on existing apps. We generally engage with upstream in these cases, and work through the issue. Many upstreams are thankful because we caught something they didn't know was happening. Occasionally, upstreams are very grumpy about it, and even demand their app is removed from f-droid.org.

After mostly living off grants I wrote or helped write for a decade, it still feels like a gamble whenever I submit a proposal. I guess the key is to submit many, and find an acceptable failure rate. It still sucks to put a bunch of work into something, then it is just rejected.📝 💥💨

@webmink @fdroidorg thanks again for the discussion! Interesting to hear it framed as a "lifestyle movement", I guess that is a sign that I need to lighten up a bit about free software ;-) But really, that's a key point: people really want ethical tech, and they choose it whenever they can. It is our job when building the tech to make things that don't compromise our own values. Then the users will come. And the software has to really fulfill needs, it is not enough just to be #FreeSoftware

For all those saying "#Mastodon has failed" or something like that, consider that #Threads usage has already fallen by half, and that is with all the #Facebook money behind it. https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/social-media-news/threads-week/

@gwagner as far as I know, spying on foreigners is not illegal in Austria. Seems ok to me as a method to make sure the big powers don't want to attack us. Or at least it is better than #Austria joining #NATO or some other military pact.

@stevenroose oh yeah, we're there already in #Vienna. We're ahead of the curve, the climate has already changed. It is more and more Mediterranean. There are farmers growing olives and lavender in Austria now.

@gwagner The hard part is building up the system enough that it is possible to roll out something like that. #Austria has loved railways for well over a century, and #Vienna has made mass transit a local industry while building a model system. I guess #NYC has enough critical mass to do it, but most of the US and even Europe does not.

I really love the moments when it has been very hot for a few days, and then the wind picks up as thunderstorms start to roll in. I still get a child-like anticipation of the incoming thunder and lightning, and can start to feel the cool relief that is coming as the thunderstorm cools the city down.

@cryptax right I get that. I'm thinking that a security-sensitive app like Aegis could have a setting to let the user disable the accessibility stuff.

Interesting to see the Netherlands banning the use of mobile devices in the classroom. I totally understand why. My kids' school has basically the same policy. I wonder if a nation-wide ban will make other things difficult though. In Vienna, the school decides the policy. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/04/mobile-phones-other-devices-to-be-banned-from-dutch-classrooms

@cryptax Is the malware using accessibility tweaks to read SMS/email/etc 2FA codes? Or can it also read 2FA codes from OTP apps like Aegis Authenticator, andOTP, or Google Authenticator? I meant that OTP apps could maybe have a setting to enable blocking the accessibility methods for reading.

@cryptax Does the "screenshot prevention" stuff help at all there? Like using a OTP app that sets the Android feature to block screenshots. I don't know much about the accessibility APIs, and whether that is affected.

@gwagner The #klimaticket is truly the future of mass transit. I know the experience personally via the #Vienna annual pass (Jahreskarte). It is the closest I've seen to the Jetsens future experience of just taking motorized paths to get around. I just carry a card in my pocket, and take whatever transit happens to be on my way (bus, tram, train, etc). I show my ticket every couple of years. It would be great if they also linked in the city bike share system so that was included in the price.

According to my tests with my single #GooglePlay device (#Android 10), Play Protect does not put up the "Unsafe App" warning screen for F-Droid 1.17-alpha0. Can anyone else confirm this?