As a Canadian, I’ve been thinking since last year about migrating to non-US services and applications.
My main goal is simply to avoid giving money or data directly to US corporations. I have no illusions, these non-US services probably still benefit US companies in some ways.
They’re rare, but I’ve consciously decided to stay away from some Canadian alternatives. The main customers of most Canadian tech companies are in the US, and I feel they would happily move there if needed.
I started with this:
Gmail / Drive → Proton Mail / Drive
NameCheap / GoDaddy → Infomaniak
Google Maps → TomTom
Google Chrome → Vivaldi
Google Search → Startpage (Vivaldi default)
GitHub → Codeberg & Codefloe (for private)
I do like Proton Mail. The main thing I hate is how often the app and web versions get out of sync for read and archive states.
I’m really happy with Infomaniak, migrating all my domains was a breeze.
Vivaldi is based on the Chrome codebase, but I really love all the extra customization options. It was a very easy switch.
Startpage took me some time to get used to. It’s not as good as Google, but whatever.
TomTom isn’t great, but it’s not like Maps has been great over the last few years either.
Forgejo is much better than what GitHub has become.
Next, I’m thinking of moving away from Google Photos. I’m considering pCloud for that.
Bought the paperback, I really like curated anthology, it's best way to discover new talent.
I would have bought Compelling Science Fiction too but look like its out of print.
I worked for almost 10 years at HP/HPE in the 2010s on embedded systems. I don't remember if it was a memo from Dave or Bill, but it was about never sacrificing quality for a deadline. Needless to say, we loved to dig up that old memo whenever PMs pushed too hard to get things released too early.
This is not a python module, but a guide to learn the basic of digital signal processing using python in the context of using a SDR. It also goes into the specific of using the most popular SDR HW.
I'm active in the retro game console modding community and we pretty much all jumped ship same time in early November.
I still log to Twitter once a week to check, there haven't been anything new in my following feed for at least a month beside the people cross posting.
So I can easily see myself do just that, I wouldn't miss anything anyway.
No I got panels with multiple pcb fully assembled from china. But I still had to program them, solder the connector and assemble them into the case. A very long process.
I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console.
I guess I could update from my previous post in a similar thread. [2]
Long story short, my open source firmware is used by product makers and they make a voluntary contribution often base on how many unit they sell. It is also widely used by Chinese company on AliExpress.
I got one of those Chinese company to sponsor me a significant amount on GitHub sponsor since August 2022.
I guess they forgot about it, still going ever since!
I still make 1000 USD a month from the various HW makers.
One new thing I made this year after 5 year of doing this hobby, is that I finally manufactured and sold one adapter base on this code myself for the OG Xbox console. [3]
Factoring all the expenses I made 7K for a batch of 300. I plan to do a 2nd batch next year, which should yield double that since I will only incur raw materials & shipping expenses.
It took me 48 hour of manual labor to assemble them and ship them. So it's doesn't make much sense TBH, but it's a good experience. Made me appreciate my desk job.
I think it's really important to make it clear that the contribution is for what is currently there. I get often ask "Will $$$ make you work on that issues" and I always answer no.
What will help fix that issue is my wife going shopping with the kids long enough for me to figure what is wrong. ;)
People are nice? But most likely they want a good relationship with me in case they get problems. Also they benefits from being able to tell their customer they support the project.
I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console.
I made a gross income of around 3K a month last year out of Royalties on the soft for each device sold.
It's Apache 2.0 software so people can do whatever they want.
I started making money when I decided to list on the GitHub README the list of manufacturers/makers that where sponsoring the project. (Only one person at that time)
Soon after the others offered to give royalty as well.
I even got a Chinese company, notorious for selling "clone" of OSHW projects, to support the SW development as well via GitHub sponsor.
I've been working on it for the last four years. I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on the software.
It naturally pivoted into a more community driven project where multiple makers are selling various variations of the HW.
The most annoying thing for me is that a workflow_dispatch only workflow can't be launch manually until it's push into default branch as they are not listed. I can understand the Web-UI won't list them but even GitHub cli can't launch them. Once they appear in the default branch, only then you are free to launch them on any branch.
The thing I hate most in new car is clicking forever on the temperature button to get to the min or max degree setting. At time it's really distracting from the road. All I want is either maximum cold, maximum heat or off.
I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I've been working on it for the last three years.
I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on the software.
In the end this pivoted into a more community driven project where multiple makers are selling various variations of the HW and giving me a cut of their profit to support the SW development.
Recently I even got a Chinese company, notorious for selling "clone" of OSHW projects, to support the SW development as well via GitHub sponsor.
I used to be a big user of Total Commander back in the Win9x days (then Windows Commander)
I was actually too much used to it and I had a hard time using my friends computer at all using the default Windows explorer.
I probably updated to WinXP at some point and didn't reinstall it. Never felt the need to to install a double windows file manager since then. Even if it's clearly better than the default option.
I started to use my own domain within Gmail 2 years ago. Transitioned things I cared about to use that email at that time.
Then this years I moved to Proton using that domain. And I'm forwarding Gmail to proton indefinitely.
I told my family, friends to start using that address going forward.
Slowly but surely as I get email into my gmail folder on proton I take the time to go change the address.
The big change is using an address from you own domain.