Category: Blog

Swedish Government report on digital collaboration platform technologies for the public sector puts Nextcloud front and centre as the key solution in this space

Danie
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The report was put together by 8 Swedish government agencies, including the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Companies Registration Office and the Försäkringskassan. The report gives an exhaustive definition of digital collaboration, noting the important components needed for teams to work together.

Nextcloud is already in use at the Swedish Transport Agency and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, while Försäkringskassan offers authorities Nextcloud as a service.

See Swedish Government: Nextcloud premier digital collaboration platform – Nextcloud

#technology #opensource #sweden #government #nextcloud

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Nextcloud is the most deployed on-premises file share and collaboration platform. Access & collaborate across your devices. Your data remains under your control.

Gaphor is an Open Source Graphical Modelling Tool with support for various modelling languages such as UML, SysML, RAAML and C4

Danie
Not aware of the term “modelling language”? Basically, it’s a set of instructions that can be used to create the design and constructions of structures. It could be textual and graphical, both. The graphical one is easier to look at and figure out how various components of the project are related to each other.

It’s not just a drawing tool. It implements a fully-compliant UML 2 data model. You can create highly complex models with Gaphor.

See Gaphor: Open Source Graphical Modeling Tool – It’s FOSS

#technology #opensource #gaphor #modellingtool #UML

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Gaphor is a free and open source modeling application with support for various modeling languages such as UML, SysML, RAAML and C4.

How to hide your email from data collectors; Preventing spam and tracking

Danie
smiley wink
Nowadays, it seems like everyone on the web wants your email. When you give your email address to a site in order to log in or just get some info, many companies will take that as a free pass to do anything from relentlessly spamming you with newsletters to selling your email address to advertisers, who will in turn track you relentlessly.

Thankfully, there are also people building tools that can make things harder for the companies trying to get your email address.

An interesting linked article below but worth also noting you want to set up with a company that will be providing this service still in a few years time. I recall over two decades back I was using the Bigfoot relay service and one day the e-mail relay service just disappeared. That left me with some major issues with changing my login passwords at other sites, as back then they e-mailed a password reset link to you… That said, any e-mail service can disappear ;-)

See How to hide your email from data collectors

#technology #email #privacy #spam #tracking

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Make your digital address hard to aggregate.

Despite having up-to-date firmware, nine popular Wi-Fi routers likely used by millions worldwide contained more than 200 security flaws

Danie
That is according to recent security tests carried out by IoT Inspector in collaboration with German tech magazine Chip. The models analysed in these tests were primarily used by small businesses and homes and included Asus, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, and Synology units.

“The firmware versions were automatically analysed by IoT Inspector and checked for more than 5,000 CVEs [Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures] and other security issues,” Lukavsky said.

Yes, you do certainly want to be sure at least that you do regularly update your router firmware, and have changed the default password for something unique and difficult to guess. Older routers, not receiving OEM updates, can possibly be flashed with OpenWRT or similar, which may provide security patches and enhanced functionality.

See Wi-Fi routers used by millions had 226 security flaws

#technology #security #routers #vulnerabilities

Nine popular up-to-date Wi-Fi routers likely used by millions of people worldwide contain more than 200 security flaws. 

WSATools lets you install ANY Android app on Windows 11

Danie
WSATools has been made publicly available on the Microsoft Store, and the users will need to have Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) installed on their PC.

Currently, WSA is only available to users in the Windows Insider programme, and the feature only allows users to install certain Android apps. WSATool offers a workaround for this issue by allowing users to install any Android app.

See This new tool lets you install any Android app on Windows 11

#technology #windows11 #android #wsatools

WSATools allows Windows 11 users to install any Android app on their PC.

How to share a single database service with various Docker container services

Danie
This video is intended for new Docker users, especially those using Portainer docker-compose.yml files, to create numerous stacks for services, where there is a shared database with an associated phpMyAdmin manager. The database service stack also creates a user-defined shared network, which allows the various container services to communicate with the shared database service. So many example tutorials only deal with a single service, and it’s own linked database, so I decided to make this video to give a conceptual overview of how a shared database can be utilised.

The docker-compose files are intended to spin up and create stacks, each of which can have one or more associated containers, with each container being created by its image being pulled for installation. There are links below the video to the example docker-compose files.

Watch

How to share a single database service with various Docker container services
by Danie van der Merwe on YouTube

#technology #opensource #docker #containers #database

Anyone can compile open source code in these three simple steps… It’s a part of open source’s heritage, and is quite liberating

Danie
You don’t need to know how to write or read code to compile it. There are many ways to install software, but you get an option not available elsewhere with open source: You can compile the code yourself, and it only takes three standard commands.

I don’t have to do this very often myself (with the ease of one-click installs from repos included with distros today), but I must say it is a liberating feeling knowing you can do it, and that you have the ability to examine or change the source code if you wish, and to compile it yourself. It is the essence of what open source is all about.

See Anyone can compile open source code in these three simple steps

#technology #opensource #compiling #Linux

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There are many ways to install software, but you get an option not available elsewhere with open source: You can compile the code yourself. The classic three-step process to compile source code: $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install Thanks to these commands, you might be surprised to find that you don’t need to know how to write or even read code to compile it.

Nextcloud Forms European Coalition — Begins Antitrust Actions Against Microsoft Over Default Inclusions Of Teams And One Drive In Windows

Danie
The Germany-based company behind the on-premises content collaboration platform that shares its name, has put together a coalition of 30 organizations to fight Microsoft on antitrust grounds.

The issue is the integration of Teams as a default application in Windows 11, along with Microsoft pushing One Drive for file storage in its software, especially in its browser based 365 family of apps.

“This is quite similar to what Microsoft did when it killed competition in the browser market, stopping nearly all browser innovation for over a decade,” Nextcloud’s founder and CEO said in a statement. “This kind of behaviour is bad for the consumer, for the market and, of course, for local businesses in the EU. Together with the other members of the coalition, we are asking the antitrust authorities in Europe to enforce a level playing field, giving customers a free choice and to give competition a fair chance.”

Gaël Duval, founder and CEO of France-based ECorp/Esolutions, said in a statement. “Microsoft should compete on the merits of their solution, not pushing it down users throats with anticompetitive behaviours.”

So yes, the case is about giving others a fairer chance to compete, especially the various enterprise open source providers as well as proprietary vendors. But previously with the browser market, this did open up the market to a lot more competition and variety.

See Nextcloud Forms European Coalition – Begins Antitrust Actions Against Microsoft – FOSS Force

#technology #EU #anticompetitive #microsoft #competition #opensource

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Nextcloud, The Document Foundation and 28 others are pushing the EU and member states to end noncompetitive actions by Microsoft and others.

E-waste regulations come into force for South African companies, with threat of fines and jail time, but what will happen differently now?

Danie
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The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations, created under section 18 (1) of the National Environmental Waste Management Act, affect all companies involved in the lighting, electrical and electronics industries, including those who sell computer and IT equipment, smartphones and renewable energy equipment. Battery importers or manufacturers and direct distributors, as well as the paper and packaging and single use product sectors, are also all impacted. The regulations were published in November 2020, with amendments made on 5 May 2021. They came into full force six months later, on 5 November 2021.

It’s a pity the focus appears to be mostly on registration requirements. What the article does not delve into is, what will happen differently, and what options do registered companies now have for disposal of e-waste. How does this affect us as consumers, i.e. can we still toss away e-waste, or can/must we dispose of it with any registered company.

See E-waste regulations come into force, with threat of fines and jail time

#technology #southafrica #ewaste #environment

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New South African regulations dealing with electronic waste have come into full force, and companies that fail to comply face the threat of hefty fines or even jail time.