Yeah, it’s dangerous for a community to tolerate and adopt closed-source software. We should have done a better job pressuring them to license it openly.

The OSM wiki pointed me to Maperitive first, but I wish it pointed me to qgis first. We should probably edit the wiki with a huge warning banner that the code is closed, the app is full of bugs, and that it is not (and can not be) updated.

Edit: I took my own advice and added a big red box to the top of the article warning the user and pointing them to QGIS instead.

Edit 2: Do we have any way to know when the latest version of Maperitive (v2.4.3) was released? Usually I’d check the git repo, but…

Edit 3: stat on the Maperitive-latest.zip file says that it’s last modified 2018-02-27 17:25:07, so it’s at least 6 years old.

Well, the title was mostly a take from this post:

• Help designing a tiny solar system

But I guess I should have said a “PV system”? Or do you have a better name?

We’re not looking to be tied to a grid outside the community. Do you have any links to recommended resources to learn more about microgrids and/or community grids?

If it were me and I understand correctly I would probably not tie the systems together.

Well, the loads of the buildings are different, so tieing them together would be very beneficial. For example, one building is a workshop with lots of power tools and heavy machinery and some other buildings (with equal sq meter rooftops) are residential (with less energy requirements)

Hi, Michael Altfield here. I was the sysadmin for OSE from 2017-2020.

Everything OSE does is transparent, so you can just check the OSE websites to see what everyone is currently working-on. OSE contributors log their hours in a worklog called “OSE Dev”. There you can quickly see who is working on what.

• https://osedev.org/graphs

The above graphs show 4 contributors in the past ~10 weeks (one is me; we had some issues with the apache config recently). There’s no direct link, but you can then check the wiki to see people’s work logs (just search for the person’s name and Log):

• https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Marcin_Log
• https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Catarina_Log
• https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Alexa_Log
• https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Maltfield_Log

I also like to look at the MediaWiki “Recent Changes” page to peak at what people are up-to as well:

• https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&limit=500&days=30

I told Marcin about Lemmy back in June 2023. Another OSE contributor even created an OSE community on the slrpnk.net instance, but it appears to have been abandoned. I’ll email him about this thread to see if he’ll bite and publish updates in this community since there’s clearly interest :)

Also, shameless plug: I started an org that’s very similar in spirit to OSE called Eco-Libre, with a focus on projects to sustainably enfranchise human rights in smaller communities. We’re currently accepting volunteers ;)

• https://eco-libre.org/join

You associate everything that can be bought with cryptocurrency as a scam? It sounds like you haven’t even read the post. I spent a lot of time making it easily accessible here on Lemmy. You don’t even have to click the link. Just scroll-up and read :)

Yes, it’s clearly disclosed in my profile that I am the founder of the BusKill project.

This is a PSA that our sale has started. I’ve had inquiries from members of our community asking about Black Friday sales.

10% off is barely any discount anyway.

Sorry, we’re a very small open-source shop. I’ve paid myself nothing so-far. The price just barely breaks-even for the business.

All of this is explained in-detail in “The Finances” section here.

Prices would drop dramatically if we could do production runs (and actually sell) >10,000 units at a time. Currently we only sell a few cables per month. If you want to help, please tell all your security-conscious friends about BusKill :)

How exactly did you come to the conclusion that this is a scam? We’re a fully open-source hardware & software project that’s been around for a few years. If you don’t want to buy from us, we go out of our way to help users build their own 3D-printed BusKill cables (currently in prototype stage).

• https://www.buskill.in/tag/3d-printing/

Our software is free as in speech and free as in beer under the CC BY-SA and GNU GPL licenses.

• https://github.com/buskill/buskill-app

Hi, this is not spam but a useful PSA that’s full of information, not just about the sale.

BusKill is useful for many groups, including human rights defenders, activists, journalists, whistleblowers, etc. You can read more about the use-cases of our community at our documentation here:

• https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/introduction/what.html#who-uses-buskill

Yes, BusKill works with any USB drive.

• https://github.com/buskill/buskill-app

In fact, the BusKill cable is just a USB Drive. The only thing “fancy” that it has is a magnetic coupler in the middle of the 1-meter cable so that it will breakaway at any angle. But, if you’d like, you can build your own. The instructions are here:

• https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/hardware_dev/bom.html

It’s run by the folks at dys2p.

Besides running ProxyStore in Leipzig, they have published some pretty great articles:

• Random Mosaic – Detecting unauthorized physical access with beans, lentils and colored rice
• Revealing Traces in printouts and scans
• On the security of the Linux disk encryption LUKS

You can follow them on Mastodon here https://chaos.social/@dys2p

Yes BusKill works similarly – any USB drive can use the BusKill software

• https://github.com/buskill/buskill-app

The BusKill cable is just nice because it includes a magnetic breakaway, so it works when the laptop is snatched-away at any angle. There’s actually a ton of anti-forensics software like usbkill and BusKill; we enumerate them all on our documentation’s Similar Projects section

• https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/attribution.html#similar-projects

You may want to check ^ it out :)

Most people don’t, but there are many high-risk folks who do. The main target is journalists, activists, and human rights defenders operating in oppressive countries.

There’s also benefits for anyone with very sensitive private keys or other IP on their machines, including some businesses and cryptocurrency traders.

For more info, see Who Uses BusKill? in our documentation

• https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/introduction/what.html#who-uses-buskill

Thank you for supporting open-source security hardware <3

I made a video of this (demo in Windows, MacOS, Linux, TAILS, and QubesOS) with the old DIY model here (sorry for the terrible audio quality)

• https://www.buskill.in/demo-2/

We’re currently working on an updated video with someone who is much better at video production than me; it should be finished in early 2024.

You’d need magnets, pogo pins, wire, glue, solder, etc. The list of materials needed is listed in the “Materials” section of this article.

@[email protected] can provide more info

This article is literally a guide to building your own.

It has a magnetic (de)coupler, which allows it to break away at any angle if your laptop is physically snatched away from you.

Some of our users actually use the BusKill cable with a Yubikey:

• https://humandecoded.io/qubes-os-yubikey-buskill/

If that’s not clear, I highly recommend watching this 2-minute explainer video

• https://www.buskill.in/#demo

I build open-source USB Dead Man Switches and the accompanying (also free) software

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

You attach the kill cable to your body and if the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys. It’s designed to protect high-risk users’ data. Data could include private keys (eg theft of cryptocurrency assets), contacts of correspondence (eg sources of a journalist – such as whistleblowers), etc.

I’ve paid myself nothing so-far. The price just barely breaks-even for the business. There’s one-time costs like a few grand for a CNC’d injection mold and assembly jig, but also certification fees, product boxes, cardstock paper for documentation inserts, printing fees, artist commissions, packaging materials, warehousing, shipping, other logistics fees, etc.

All of this is explained in-detail in “The Finances” section here.

I prefer open-source hardware to be designed using common off-the-shelf items that are easily found everywhere in the world. Unfortunately, the one vendor of a USB-A magnetic breakaway couplers decided to EOL their product shortly after I published a guide on how to build your own BusKill cable. After we published, they all got sold-out, and we had to go to manufacturers for a custom component.

Prices would drop dramatically if we could do production runs (and actually sell) >10,000 units at a time. Currently we only sell a few cables per month. If you want to help, please tell all your security-conscious friends about BusKill :)

It should only be posted once to this community. It’s also been cross-posted to other relevant communities.