The Rest Is History has received the 2025 Apple Podcasts Award for Show of the Year “The Rest Is History does a phenomenal job in taking a subject as vast as human history and captivating a global audience,” said Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Apple Sports, and Beats. “Tom and Dominic have created something special that represents the very best of what's possible with podcasting — it's educational, it's hilarious, and it has fostered a true sense of community.” It is worth noting though if you are not using Apple Podcasts, it is available for free elsewhere too. I did a search in my AntennaPod podcast player and found it. Just look for The Rest is History by Goalhanger. See

MacRumors

Apple Announces 2025 Podcast of the Year

Apple today announced that The Rest Is History has received the 2025 Apple Podcasts Award for Show of the Year for its high quality and cultural im...

#technology #podcasts #history

Been waiting for this! Proton now has a Google Sheets clone with end-to-end encryption Spreadsheets are finally rolling out over the next few days for Proton users. I actually use spreadsheets more often than documents, for product comparisons or purchase decisions. So this is something that has been holding me back a bit from using Proton Drive more fully. Yes, the feature set is going to be rather minimal right now compared to more mature products, and it also is not (yet) exporting to ODF format. "Proton Sheets is protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that no one else, not even Proton, can access your spreadsheet and the information it contains. Whether you’re tracking your home budget or managing a multi-team project, Sheets can help you get the job done. Use built-in formulas to perform analysis, turn raw data into easily understood charts, and collaborate with remote teams knowing your information is safe." See

How-To Geek

Proton now has a Google Sheets clone with end-to-end encryption

End-to-end encryption with your collaborative spreadsheets.

#technology #privacy #spreadsheets

[RAMBLE] offers privacy-respecting user forums similar to Reddit You may have seen many Reddit alternatives popping up on the Fediverse over the last few years, and some of them are pretty busy. I've done posts over the years on BeeHaw and similar sites there. And although they are decentralised servers, they are still IPv4 (clearnet) servers that can be blocked. [RAMBLE] is a similar type of social site that is accessible on clearnet, I2P, Tor and Yggdrasil. Interestingly though, you can ONLY log in on I2P though if you want to post, comment, or vote. Why the I2P network? The I2P (Invisible Internet Project) network excels in providing strong anonymity and privacy through its decentralised, encrypted overlay on the regular internet, ideal for peer-to-peer communication without revealing user identities or locations. By users being forced to use the I2P network to actually log in, their privacy and anonymity is better protected by default, and of course, it is also not easy to actually locate and block the [RAMBLE] site itself. So is [RAMBLE] then all criminal and dark web? Actually, no, it is not. It is about protecting privacy and preventing freedoms of speech censorship. It's rules actually prohibit buying or selling anything illegal, prohibit explicit sexual images including those of minors, no calls for violence, no hate speech (e.g. racism, bigotry, discrimination against other groups, etc), no trolling or harassment of other users. It has no age verification requirement. You can access it at: * Clearnet (read only):

[RAMBLE]

* Yggdrasil (read only): [200:b846:2eaa:4ed5:260c:a883:4df4:f79f] * Tor (read only): http://rambleeeqrhty6s5jgefdfdtc6tfgg4jj6svr4jpgk4wjtg3qshwbaad.onion * I2P (log in): http://ramble.i2p #technology #socialnetworks #alternativesto #privacy

How Tor Can Help You Be More Anonymous on the Internet Whilst a Tor browser can access normal HTTPS websites, it can also access onion websites and the dark web (where there is no age verification required). The linked article is quite comprehensive in that it also mentions some downsides like slower speed, and some exposure on both sides of the link (entering and exiting the Tor network) namely your ISP seeing the Tor protocol being used, and the Tor exit node. But importantly the article gives some suggestions on improving privacy, and also highlighting that the Tor network can be used for perfectly legitimate sites on the dark web — many being news sites, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. In some countries, VPNs and Tor are used to gain access to news and e-mail that may otherwise be blocked. So Tor also bypasses censorship attempts by governments. Some browsers like Brave browser will actually fire up their own private window with Tor, so no need to install the Tor browser itself. See

Lifehacker

How Tor Can Help You Be More Anonymous on the Internet

Tor can help keep your internet traffic anonymous—with some caveats.

#technology #Tor #privacy #darkweb

5 Docker Compose tricks that made my home server more reliable This was an interesting article. I did not know about the limiting of restarts up to a defined number of failures. That is pretty useful to prevent a container continuously restating, and then sometimes showing as green for running. The other intriguing one was using curl for health checks. Just note you must use the internal container port as it is running inside the container. If curl is not present in your container, the wget command can be used instead. The syntax for both, that I found worked, were: `test: ["CMD-SHELL", "curl -f http://localhost:8080 || exit 1"] ` and `test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -q --spider http://localhost:8080 || exit 1"] ` so I hope that helps others. Another trick, where some containers only respond when using the container IP address (which changes) is to use something like this for the IP and port: `http://$(hostname -i):8080`. I had one stubborn container, a MQTT one, that refused to respond to any querying, so I used this instead `test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pgrep mosquitto || exit 1"] ` which checks if the process is running inside the container. See

XDA

5 Docker Compose tricks that made my home server more reliable

A collection of tips and tricks that leveled up my Docker Compose game

#technology #docker #containers #selfhosting

5 open-source projects that secretly power your favourite apps "You've heard that the world's infrastructure runs on Linux, and how important Free and Open Source (FOSS) software is to just about all the technology we enjoy every day, but there are some (to bring out the old cliché) unsung heroes of FOSS without which your stuff just wouldn't work—and you should at least know their names." It is true, too, that most open source projects are built using other open source projects, but these are a few of those that sit in the background powering many popular projects. I love the article's comment about Electron. I suppose it is the same as for Flatpaks, AppImages and Snaps. They make things possible across distros. See

How-To Geek

5 open-source projects that secretly power your favorite apps

The taste of freedom you didn't even know you had.

#technology #opensource

Filedropshare uses WebRTC for local peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers without the cloud This is not the first service to do this, as Pairdrop does something similar. It should not be confused though with Localsend, as Localsend requires the apps to be installed on each device it works with. Syncthing too is something different, and apart from apps being installed, Synthing also requires configuration for the ongoing syncing of files. All Filedropshare requires is a browser. The central site does the WebRTC signalling to establish contact, but the filers are not actually uploaded to that site. If Fieldropshare makes you a bit nervous (not having any published open source software) then Pairdrop may be a better option as it is open source at

GitHub

GitHub - schlagmichdoch/PairDrop: PairDrop: Transfer Files Cross-Platform. No Setup, No Signup.

PairDrop: Transfer Files Cross-Platform. No Setup, No Signup. - schlagmichdoch/PairDrop

and

PairDrop

Instantly share images, videos, PDFs, and links with people nearby. Peer2Peer and Open Source. No Setup, No Signup.

. You can also self-host and instance of Pairdrop if you wish to. See

XDA

I wish I knew about this local file transfer tool before I trusted the cloud

The local file transfer tool that’s faster than your cloud sync

#technology #filetransfer #privacy

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are better to use for major social network services than their mobile apps Yes, you do lose a few things like instant notifications and some performance, but the benefits are no app in the background that tracks your location the whole time, sometimes storing masses of data on your phone, and also sometimes chewing data in the background too. But if you are trying to break free from doomscrolling, then using a PWA instead may be just what you needed. PWA uses your browser but saves the icon on the homescreen, so it starts up pretty well much like a mobile app, and all the usual browser buttons and other menus are hidden, so it is quite a clean experience. Importantly, a PWA is sandboxed by your browser, so now that social network service can't see your photos, texts, or other apps unless you give it explicit permission. See

Android Police

Why I deleted every social app — and what I replaced them with

I deleted every social app and my phone finally feels alive again

#technology #privacy #socialnetworks

The Astrion smart remote is a game-changer for Home Assistant users "Every once in a while, some piece of smart home tech launches that's genuinely different to those that came before it, and one that I came across at this year's Maker Faire in Shenzhen is the Astrion remote by Sanytron. Astrion is a dedicated universal remote built specifically with Home Assistant users in mind. Sanytron is a Chinese company that specialises in human–machine interaction hardware for smart homes and custom install systems, and the Astrion is a remote designed to look like a regular TV remote." Yep it's not that cheap at $145 but for those that make use of the functions it supports, it could be pretty useful. See

XDA

The Astrion smart remote is a game-changer for Home Assistant users

If you want a smart remote for your home, this is one of the best and cheapest options out there.

#technology #homeassistant #selfhosting

Why I Ditched My Smartwatch for a Retro-Styled Casio Watch This video takes you through my decision-making process and reasons for ditching my Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (and other smartwatches) for a modern, retro-styled Casio ABL-100WE watch. The video starts with the straw that broke the camel's back, and concludes with two other possibilities I'll weigh up early in 2026. Watch #technology #smartwatches #retro #Casio #gadget