I admin the.coolest.zone, the coolest site on the net for online social engagement.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • So this is actually an interesting term. Looking it up from Wikipedia…

    The term “sideload” was coined in the late 1990s by online storage service i-drive as an alternative means of transferring and storing computer files virtually instead of physically. In 2000, i-drive applied for a trademark on the term. Rather than initiating a traditional file “download” from a website or FTP site to their computer, a user could perform a “sideload” and have the file transferred directly into their personal storage area on the service.

    The advent of portable MP3 players in the late 1990s brought sideloading to the masses, even if the term was not widely adopted. Users would download content to their PCs and sideload it to their players.

    So as applied to phones it originally meant a particular type of download and install - rather than installing directly to your phone from an app store, you have somehow obtained the file on your PC, transferred the file to your phone, and then installed it. In that context, downloading an APK directly to your phone and installing it would not be sideloading.

    However, semantics have shifted somewhat and now it’s used generally to refer to any install that isn’t directly from an app store of some kind, and requires downloading an actual package file and then installing it.


  • I think this is mostly what you want, but as far as I can find online (and I’ll test it again later today) it no longer shows traffic warnings and your current speed like the destination maps does. I think it used to, though, which is what’s annoying about this whole situation.

    I actually lost this feature for a while - it used to be under the hamburger ≡ menu as “Just Drive” and then the hamburger menu disappeared, and I’ve just recently found it again as a widget.

    So, yeah, Google kills all good things and I’m sure it won’t last for much longer, but it’s nice in the meantime.




  • @ISometimesAdmin@the.coolest.zone Let me know if you need rehab.

    But seriously… yeah, I get it. Especially this part about the workplace:

    Nevertheless, [addicted programmers] can also pose significant risks, especially because they frequently deviate from the planned course. They follow their own agenda, introducing challenges where none were necessary, or dedicating hours to minor, tangential aspects of a project. In the process, they diverge from the project plan, programming what they believe is necessary rather than what the project itself requires.

    I have been that person before, and now I’m in a position where I have to keep those folks on a tight leash and remind them “our goal is to deliver a product right now, and we can enhance it in future sprints. Let’s just focus on what our primary goal was right now.” It’s easy to fall down rabbit holes, and that’s where having proper planning and a ticketing system to backlog and prioritize future enhancements is so critical.


  • Ok, so I use Gboard and it doesn’t seem to do that for me, it leaves existing spaces alone. Here are my settings:

    Under Text Correction I have enabled:

    • Show suggestion strip
    • Auto correction
    • Auto capitalization
    • Double space period
    • Proofread

    Everything else is disabled, so maybe try toggling things off and on and seeing whether the behavior changes?

    I also have two keyboards I switch between: English (US) and हिन्दी . I’m unsure whether having multiple language keyboards changes how the base functionality works.



  • As we’ve been tracking, Google is now beginning to roll out “Profile discovery” in Messages for Android to establish your name and photo across the RCS app and others.

    This is part of “Profile discovery,” which appears in Messages Settings > Advanced once rolled out to your phone. It is a Google Account-level setting that you can turn on/off. Google notes what phone number is associated with your name and profile image, with the ability to change things.

    Ok, so good things:

    • I’m glad it’s not auto-pulling from your Google profile, because you may not want that data actually visible to everyone who has your phone number.
    • I guess it makes it more like iMessage which is cool (?)

    Thoughts:

    • So our text messages (which, I know RCS technically isn’t but for all intents and purposes it is a replacement and serves the same purpose) are becoming more chat-like.
    • At the same time, Google has made Google Chat more like Messages, visually.
    • If the intent is to eventually combine the two, the advantage is that Google has a stronger and more unified messaging platform, but the downside is Google’s RCS implementation is even more customized to the point it’s harder for others to hop on.
    • If the intent is not to combine the two, I don’t see why making them look almost identical and yet having two separate apps is at all a good thing for Google. Their user base remains fragmented.

    Hopefully this is some secret ongoing messaging solution cleanup plan by Google. I won’t hold my breath, but a small part of me still longs for the return of a Hangouts-esque combined system.



  • So… let me get this straight. Google sucks and Pixels are only sold in some countries, so their solution is to reduce Fitbit devices to those same countries?

    This is foreboding. Could this be the start of either a rebrand of Fitbit or, worse, a culling of the line in favor of Pixel smartwatches?

    Google, I swear if you fuck with my Fitbit I’m adding it to The List (right under Play Music and Inbox). I don’t want a smartwatch, I never wanted a smartwatch. I want my compact little step tracker that gives me a ton of metrics data.


  • Cobbling together data from a couple sources…

    Install each bulb, and toggle it on/off five times with the wall switch. Make sure to wait 10 seconds between each toggle. (Edit: like on for ten, then off for a couple seconds, repeat)

    Unsure whether there’s any visual feedback once this process is complete - I would assume it may go into some pairing indication mode like a dim/brighten cycle to indicate it’s ready to pair.






  • bendy phone: goofy as hell, but I imagine the tech would eventually be used in smartwatches and such. Imagine a smartwatch where a larger portion of the band is the display and it can be wrapped around both big and tiny wrists. Kind of a neat idea.

    moto AI: oh boy, another copilot. I hope one of these ends up being the phone assistant I was promised last decade. Is it so much to ask to have what is essentially a phone secretary that will tell me if I have conflicts when trying to schedule a meeting, or remind me that I told someone I would follow up with them via text, or suggest to me at bedtime that I need to set my alarm earlier because I have a morning meeting I haven’t accounted for and I usually set my alarms one hour before the first meeting of the day? Just. All the data is there. Please, big tech, you can read all my data anyway, just make something useful out of it. I will buy whatever stupid phone with a stupid custom OS that has an actual semblance of proper assistance.

    “transforming crinkled receipts into pristine documents” yeah that’s neat, I don’t really scan and keep paper documents but I can imagine it will be very useful to a certain market.



  • Frankly, I like the idea of connecting this stuff up, even the silly ones like refrigerators and washing machines, for two reasons:

    1. monitoring - if my fridge is having temperature issues, I would like a warning
    2. notifications - my ADHD brain tends to forget to empty the dishwasher or laundry dryer and having a notification on my phone would help me remember.

    Of course, my appliances are not smart enough to actually connect in the first place, and it’s not worth buying new ones simply for this functionality, but if it’s there then I can see some of the appeal. :)