Yeah the mobile app is open source too https://github.com/pebble-dev/mobile-app

Seems weird to have a separate app read sent and received messages? Is it poking holes in the Messages app sandbox?

Consider something like the aoostar R1 with Intel N100. Small and low power like a commercial consumer NAS but cheaper and you can chuck whatever OS you want.

Would you consider making the LLM/GPU monster server as a gaming desktop? Depends on how you plan to use it, you could have a beast gaming PC than can do LLM/stable diffusion stuff when not gaming. You can install loads of AI stuff on windows, arguably easier.

I’ve been using pcloud. They do one time upfront payments for ‘lifetime’ cloud storage. Catch a sale and it’s ~$160/TB. For something long term like backups it seems unbeatable. To the point I sort of don’t expect them to actually last forever, but if they last 2-3 years it’s a decent deal still.

Use rclone to upload my files, honestly not ideal though since it’s meant for file synchronisation not backups. Also they are dog slow. Downloading my 4TBs takes ~10 days.

I’d view it as the longer you can keep using the current pair, the longer you can save money towards the eventual replacement.

My 10 year old ITX NAS build with 4 HDDs used 40W at idle. Just upgraded to an Aoostart WTR Pro with the same 4 HDDs, uses 28W at idle. My power bill currently averages around US$0.13/kWh.

I’ve always just wiped my work laptop and installed Linux.

Oh boy you’re gonna love Seal https://github.com/JunkFood02/Seal

Another aspect is the social graph. It’s targeted for normies to easily switch to.

Very few people want to install a communication app, open the compose screen for the first time, and be met by an empty list of who they can communicate with.

https://signal.org/blog/private-contact-discovery/

By using phone numbers, you can message your friends without needing to have them all register usernames and tell them to you. It also means Signal doesn’t need to keep a copy of your contact list on their servers, everyone has their local contact list.

This means private messages for loads of people, their goal.

Hey, we know this account sent this message and you have to give us everything you have about this account

It’s a bit backwards, since your account is your phone number, the agency would be asking “give us everything you have from this number”. They’ve already IDed you at that point.

To me I’d consider Linux not standardized since anything outside the kernel can be swapped out. Want a GUI? There are competing standards, X vs Wayland, with multiple implementations with different feature sets. Want audio? There’s ALSA or OSS, then on top of those there is pulse audio, or jack, or pipewire. Multiple desktop environments, which don’t just change the look and feel but also how apps need to be written. Heck there are even multiple C/POSIX libraries that can be used.

It certainly can be a strength for flexibility, and distros attempt to create a stable and reliable setup of one set of systems.

The only problem I run into is sites that use Bluetooth or USB APIs to talk to a local device. Both Firefox and Safari don’t implement them due to security concerns.

I’ve dabbled in a couple recently, xTTS v2 in Coqui sounds pretty good and is pretty quick. Especially if you use one of the built in voices. Has a weird “only for non commercial use” licence if that bothers you.