@littlebit670

LittleBithttps://paragraph.com/@littlebit670 I play games and mess with computersSun, 19 Jul 2026 02:16:22 GMThttps://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.htmlhttps://github.com/jpmonette/feedenLittleBithttps://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus\_images/0971867a13ca97a82ad52a46ec77201a2fadd601b7575a0aea9f87d694a76282.jpghttps://paragraph.com/@littlebit670

All rights reserved<![CDATA[A trip through Nostr – LittleBit]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/a-trip-through-nostr-littlebit pSPCJdkTtrchqrwAS4bpTue, 28 Apr 2026 20:45:56 GMT_Replicated on_ Nostr and Leaflet .

Hey everyone, Bit here. I’ve been hanging around a social network and communication protocol called Nostr for a little while now, and I thought I would write a blog post about it to demystify its existence. My goodness I hope I don’t lose people over this one.

What are you talking about?

Nostr is an acronym for “ N otes and O ther S tuff T ransmitted by R elays”, and is a protocol where JSON objects called “events” are cryptographically signed and published to decentralized nodes called “relays”. Each event has a kind number which determines how clients process them, meaning that developers can make their own kinds of events to make more kinds of content possible.

Anyone can sign up, no email or other information required. Only thing you have to do is save the “nsec…” string in a safe place since that’s the key to your account.

The sentiment reminds me of Rumble

I am also a user of Bluesky and the AT Protocol. One project that leverages the AT Protocol as well as another network called the Fediverse is “WAFRN”, a somewhat small open-source project designed to have a web UI that replicates Tumblr. When going around users of that network I saw a thread where WAFRN’s maintainer Gabboman made comments about Nostr being “full of Nazis” (the political left likes to refer to the right that way).

"not adding nostr support to it because its full of nazis but glad you enjoy it :D"
from gabboman the wafrn dev - view post

This sentiment held by Gabboman and probably many others on mainstream apps such as Bluesky and even less than mainstream apps like Mastodon seems to be very similar to the sentiment around Rumble, a video platform that prides itself on freedom despite it being centralized. Rumble has been criticized a lot for its high population of far-right political content/creators. I upload to 3 video platforms (YouTube, Odysee, and Rumble), but I tend to link to Odysee most prominently because it seems to have freedom in mind but seems more neutral in its marketing and creator demographic than Rumble.

Anyway, we’re getting off-topic.

To be fair, it is a Bitcoin echo chamber

I believe Nostr was developed by some users within the Bitcoin community, and as such one major feature of many Nostr clients is “zapping”, which means you can send small Bitcoin tips to creators you like. In another reference to the WAFRN maintainers, Alexia made a comment about Nostr in her blog post “AI Proto” (talking about how prevalent Claude Code and such is in the ATProto community).

"It's a bit like Nostr, which has tight integration with Bitcoin and Lightning, and as such invited a bunch of (bigoted) cryptobros in."
Alexia (on Leaflet) - see original

I can confirm that a lot of conversation on Nostr is centered around Bitcoin as well as development on the Nostr protocol itself. I don’t claim to be a “cryptobro”, I talk about cryptocurrency (and nostr) sometimes but not ALL THE TIME like some of the quoted “cryptobros” do. I do see some other posts, even from people who are developing/maintaining Nostr clients (such as Paul Keating, head of Primal, talking about other stuff he does such as surfing).

The versatility of ATProto without the (partial) centralization

Now let’s get out of the negative sentiments. Let’s talk about how Nostr innovates compared to other protocols such as ATProto (Bluesky) and the Fediverse

The partial centralization of ATProto

The AT Protocol that backs Bluesky and other ATmosphere apps such as Leaflet (blogging) and Tangled (GitHub alternative) is decentralized, but it operates in layers. The layer with the most frequent alternate hosts is the PDS (Personal Data Server) layer, where people’s posts are actually stored. However, ATProto also has the AppView and Relay layers, which aggregate posts. The only group I’ve seen hosting another AppView is Blacksky Algorithms, a somewhat large group of Black people developing on the AT Protocol.

With Nostr, the protocol is fully decentralized, with the only servers involved in serving posts to users being the independent relay network. This means that there’s no individual you have to trust, at least if you self-host a relay. Also you can’t have a corporation block you from being seen. If one relay won’t take your posts, there’s probably another that will.

All the versatility you could want

The Fediverse lacks versatility. Yes, people can make many apps that use the same ActivityPub protocol, but because ActivityPub is quite rigid there’s only so much that a Mastodon user could see about stuff happening on a Lemmy (Reddit alternative) or PeerTube (YouTube alternative) instance. ATProto is better because of its “lexicon” system, where developers can define new types of public records that can be stored within people’s accounts.

Nostr is also just as versatile as ATProto because you can define different kinds of data using the kind numbers attached to events. For example a Nostr client called Ditto has a virtual pet called Blobbi, and your Blobbi’s data is stored by your account’s relays using the kind number 31124. Microblog posts (think Twitter) are kind 1, and blog posts (like this) are kind 30023. You can even use a site like nsite.run to create nsites, whose metadata are stored events of kind 15124 (root site) or 35124 (named sites) with their data stored on Blossom file servers. I have an nsite copy of my main website hosted here. If you liked Tangled, there’s also a Nostr equivalent called ngit. If you want to see the technical details for all of Nostr’s known possibilities and updates, go look at the NIPs.

Bitchat, a mesh-network text chat app supported by Jack Dorsey, features a system called geohash rooms that let you chat beyond the mesh range. These rooms leverage the Nostr network for communication, although Nostr features are not prominent in the app. It even uses a different keypair for each chat, to increase anonymity.

Even more versatility than just within the network

A recent development has come out in the form of a piece of software called Nowhere. It allows you to create various types of webpages such as text messages, pastebins (called drops), stores, fundraisers, event pages, and forums. It leverages Nostr’s cryptography to sign pages, allowing them to be verifiably associated with an author, with a unique fingerprint phrase for every author and page to make attempted modifications detectable. As the web domain suggests, these pages are hosted nowhere, with the unique data of the page localized entirely within the URL.

Nowhere does use some relay communication for dynamic data within sites, but when signing the site initially with a Nostr key, an event is signed but not published since that event can be used as the proof that the person that is claimed on the Nowhere page made that Nowhere page.

I don’t know about many others, but there might be other possibilities that take advantage of Nostr’s cryptography outside of the network itself.

How easy is it to get started?

The only things you’ll need are a computer or a phone, and a secure way to store the keys. You can make your account with a starter wizard like Nstart (if you use that link to create an account you’ll automatically follow me) or make it in a client such as Nostria, Primal, Iris, or Jumble. If you want to see more clients and other apps, go to https://nostrapps.com/.

If you made an account without using the Nstart link, you can find me as littlebitstudios.com in most clients, or paste my key (shown below) into the search bar of the app you’re using.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)<![CDATA[The (potential) fall of Discord – LittleBit]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/the-potential-fall-of-discord-littlebit NHkBYhe6TgfT4S0oCV0FTue, 10 Feb 2026 06:09:05 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Seems like tech companies can’t get enough of being public enemy #1, eh? From “AI-first” to age verification, there are so many things that are shooting companies’ reputations in the foot.

This time, we have Discord on track to introduce age verification. Basically, they’re going to make it where all accounts will lose access to communities marked as age restricted unless they go through AI selfie verification or ID verification.

Discord took to Twitter to tell people about it, and they very obviously got roasted in the comments.

The descent onto the Anti-Discords

After this announcement, there was a very obvious trend to start making accounts on other Discord-like platforms or entirely different chat platforms.

Two big receivers of this exodus were Matrix and Stoat, and I happen to have accounts on both.

On the Matrix side, they were experiencing 10 times more signups than usual because of Discord’s problem.

“this just in from #synapse:matrix.org: matrix.org is currently receiving 10x more registrations than usual due to discord” – someone in the Matrix HQ room

Also, Stoat’s servers were experiencing some lag, but not as much as happened to Polytoria when Schlep and famous Roblox users mentioned it. Still, one person on Bluesky commented about the lag that Stoat was experiencing.

Please don’t spam this Bluesky/Stoat user’s inbox…

The wider shift, and why it’s bad

It seems like every tech company around the corner is trying to implement age verification. The panic was initially caused by the Roblox controversy, and has caused age verification to appear on Roblox and it seems to be spreading across services. Also, nations and US states have been trying to force age verification upon sites for some time now, especially in places like the European Union and Australia.

The main reason that this is happening is that it seems that parents don’t care about the safety of their children online anymore and expect the services themselves to keep kids safe. Sadly, there are infinite possibilities on the internet and services like social media can’t keep your kid away from everything. The best solution to this for parents who don’t want to become overbearing on their child is to set up content filtering so that children can avoid well-known naughty sites, and it might be a good idea to check on your children every once in a while without standing over them constantly (being a helicopter parent just leads to a loss of trust between both the parent and their child).

Just use common sense. As with anything in life.

A word of caution about proprietary software

For some people their anti-Discord of choice is Root. However, Root is proprietary closed-source software. Stoat and the Matrix network are both open-source technologies.

Open-source matters because it means anyone can see the source code and even make forks of it if the project has a sudden unwanted change in direction. Also, open-source projects are often built by both a corporate entity and a wide network of contributors, as opposed to just being built behind the closed doors of one corporation.

Also, when something is open-source there is less incentive for the people running the service to do something anti-consumer, as someone could just fork the project and make a new version that has anything anti-consumer removed.

Just read the fine print of whatever proprietary service you’re signing up to, especially the privacy policy. Many proprietary services that are free end up profiting from selling data to advertisers, and because of privacy regulations in some areas this has to be outlined in the company’s privacy policy. Also, don’t say I didn’t warn you if an app like Root ends up becoming just like Discord is now in the future.

In conclusion

I wish that big tech companies weren’t trading their good will with the internet for some extra money to appease the investors. Although, I do like to see that open-source projects are being furthered along by the deterioration of big tech companies’ reputations. We’ve even seen an uptick in Linux users because people are disillusioned by Microsoft and Windows, even if their computers are new enough to run Windows 11.

This has been Bit, and I’ll see you next time.

Replicated on Leaflet and Nostr .

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)<![CDATA[The death of Guilded]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/the-death-of-guilded yFHuqEmmfkDrAXpCV4cUFri, 28 Nov 2025 05:53:59 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Guilded (a Discord rival owned by Roblox), is being shut down on December 19, 2025. It's really sad to see this happen since Guilded had many features that gave it great potential.

Crazy features?

Yes. Guilded had many features that gave it greater functionality than Discord ever had.

  1. Chat - just your basic text channel, like Discord.

  2. Voice - also standard, but it's upgraded as I'll explain later.

  3. Stream - A dedicated room for video chat or screensharing.

  4. Calendar - Plan events for your community.

  5. Schedule - Know when people are available; especially useful for esports teams.

  6. Announcements - Like the name suggests, a place for admins to make announcements to the community. The Server Overview page has a built-in announcement area too.

  7. Forums - The only Guilded channel type that Discord now has. Create topics and reply to them. Guilded's forums feature has a better structure, similar to traditional forum software like Discourse.

  8. List- A to-do list. You can ping members to assign them to tasks. Each task gets its own chat thread.

  9. Docs- A place to write long documents that others can read and comment on.

  10. Media- A card-based view where people can upload images or videos. This channel type is replicated by Discord using a forum channel set to Gallery View.

The main groundbreaking features for me were the server and voice channel nesting. It was nice to be able to have a server with many sections for games while keeping each channel list easy to navigate.

The Roblox problem

Before you comment or spam my messages: I already know of Roblox's continued lapses in judgment when it comes to child safety. After a recent corporate speak-sounding statement from Roblox CEO David Baszucki, I took the move of privating all of my games. It's sad that this company can't seem to do anything right.

Anyway, Roblox acquired Guilded in 2021 ( TechCrunch article). For the time after that until now, people have been able to continue to use Guilded as it was. However, there have been trends of so-called "killer acquisitions" which is when a big company acquires a smaller (sometimes struggling) company either to just shut them down or to poach their talent. There's even an academic paper about the phenomenon. I think this "killer acquisition" phenomenon is what happened to Guilded; Roblox acquired it to bolster the talent for upgrades to their Groups (now Communities) feature and possibly the platform's chat features.

Companies trying to stand up to Discord now

There are still companies or communities trying to create platforms that try to rival Discord, if not in features or market share, in niche areas that make them appeal to certain communities.

I haven't seen many people use Stoat (even when it was still called Revolt), but Matrix is popular among open-source projects (such as Linux distros) and people who enjoy open-source technology in general. If you're looking for a space on Matrix to join and you're a gamer who wants to try Linux, you should consider joining the Friendly Linux Players at #community:flip.earth. I'm not affiliated with FLiP's admins, but I've enjoyed chatting in their rooms.

The end

Well, it was nice to see what innovations Guilded had to offer. If only the Roblox acquisition hadn't happened we could have seen Guilded grow. Goodbye, Guilded. It was nice seeing what you had to offer. Anyway, this has been Bit, and I'll see you next time.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)blog-postsgaminggamingguildedrobloxshutdownsocialsocialtechtech<![CDATA[Exploring arcade rhythm games]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/exploring-arcade-rhythm-games 1TfFTuiWWYbf1dTp3mdmSun, 18 May 2025 08:21:30 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. I’ve been into rhythm games a lot recently, mostly Project Sekai, otherwise known as Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage outside of Japan (although many Americans including me still call it Project Sekai).

I’ve gotten good enough at the game that I can get an all perfect play on some mid-level Expert charts, with my highest-level AP being “Beyond the way” [Expert 25].

The thing that got me back into rhythm games after a while of not playing osu! was some videos on YouTube about a discontinued Japanese arcade game called Wacca. I also saw an arcade game that was somewhat similar to Project Sekai and made by the same company, called Chunithm. There were even some other interesting machines.

At one point I decided to go a website called Zenius I-Vanisher, a website commonly recommended to find rhythm arcade games near you. So I ended up finding a place about 2 hours away from where I live called Hooligans Arcade, that had many rhythm games to try. I’ve been there and I will recount the experience of going there in this blog post :>

Getting started

At this particular arcade, you pay $15 to get in and you can play as much as you want for that day (they also sell monthly passes for $60). They also sell the Amusement IC card for $10, which allows you to create a profile and save progress in the rhythm games. I researched some about the card they gave me since it’s custom printed, and sadly it won’t work if I somehow ended up in Japan, so I would have to play those machines in guest mode or get a real Aime/E-Amusement card in Japan. If you don’t want to worry about that, the website that made the cards for Hooligans ( eamusement.cards) also sells real Japanese cards too.

Also, if you go in any arcade that has rhythm games and you plan on playing them, bring a pair of 3.5mm wired earbuds. Most rhythm game cabinets will have a headphone jack somewhere to allow you to hear only the game and not the rest of the racket in the arcade.

The games

Here’s my experience with the individual games.

Chunithm Luminous+

So the machine at this arcade is not running the latest version of Chunithm (that would be Chunithm Verse, Luminous+ is 1 version behind) but whatever, it’s probably some weird import complication because Sega is weird and doesn’t officially import their arcade games to the US despite making the “International Version” of the game that has English menus. (in fact, I think all of the rhythm cabs here are unofficially imported)

The gameplay is VERY similar to Project Sekai, although instead of directly touching the screen, you’re touching a touchpad below the screen. There’s also a row of motion sensors above the touchpad for interacting with Air notes. Air notes can be simple “raise” notes (like the swipe notes in Project Sekai) or Air-Action notes. Air-Action notes are basically “air holds”, and a purple note may appear during these air holds that require you to wave your hand slightly.

I tried the single-song option that came with the first scan of the login card, then played 2 full sets (3 songs each, so 6 songs total). I even found some of the ORIGINAL SONGS from Project Sekai in the library under the “niconico” tab, where you would usually find Vocaloid songs.

My biggest achivement was an ALL JUSTICE (all perfect) on Kyo-Fu All Back [Basic 2]. That’s a low difficulty even for the Basic range (which can go up to 7, and the full range goes up to 15), but you have to start somewhere. Although I believe in Luminous and newer versions, you can get a special “AJC” tag on a song for hitting every note as Justice Critical.

Wacca Plus

Wacca is actually a discontinued game. It was developed in a partnership between Marvelous (game developer) and Hardcore TANO*C (music label). It came out in 2019, meaning that it was stymied by the COVID pandemic, leading to Marvelous discontinuing the game after the Reverse version update. However, a community-made continuation for the game called Wacca Plus is out there, and the cabinet at Hooligans is running it.

The game is based around a circular touchpad and screen. It has all the same note types you would expect from a mobile game such as taps, sliders, and swipes.

Although I was able to play for this first time without them, people recommend gloves for playing Wacca (and even Chunithm) because your hands can have high friction with the smooth plastic touch surface.

I didn’t do as well as in Chunithm, but I got at least an SS for each song in the set I played. The songs I played were Ouverture [Normal 3], Night of Nights [Normal 3], and Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story [Normal 4].

Sound Voltex: Exceed Gear

After Chunithm and Wacca, I don’t have much to say about the other games.

I did pretty poorly with Sound Voltex, mostly since the controls are quite complicated with 2 knobs and 6 buttons. My highest rating for a song was a B, and I never got a full combo (known as Ultimate Chain in SDVX). Also I think the cabinet’s right knob is damaged, since the right knob would only register input if I moved it in a certain way.

Jubeat Ave

I don’t know if Jubeat Ave is the latest version of Jubeat (pronounced you-beat). If I had to describe Jubeat in simple terms, it’s basically a rhythm game built out of a giant Stream Deck. It’s played on a 4×4 grid of buttons with displays in them. I did better with Jubeat than Sound Voltex, getting an S rating for a song.

Beatmania IIDX 31 Epolis

Another game I sucked at was Beatmania IIDX. It’s a game consisting of 7 keys and a turntable. The highest rating I got for a song was a B, and I even failed a song. I think it’s just because I’m new, and even for beginners Beatmania can be unforgiving.

In conclusion

I will probably be returning to this arcade in the future, and maybe try more of their games such as Pop’n Music. Also I’ve found a set of gloves I can use for Chunithm and Wacca, as well as Project Sekai at home :>

Anyways, this has been Bit, and I’ll see you next time :D

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)gamingarcaderhythm-gamesjapanwaccachunithmsdvxjubeatbeatmania<![CDATA[The story of the Oversplatters]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/the-story-of-the-oversplatters 5EMj8LuXOJGEyYQC5IEpSat, 09 Nov 2024 06:11:01 GMTIf anyone has seen my bio on social media pages, you probably know about this team’s existence. I kinda wanted to tell their story.

Before the Oversplatters

Before I founded the Oversplatters, I was trying my best to be a part of the Splatoon competitive community. I attended a tournament called Low Ink (hosted by Inkling Performance Labs, the most well-known community Splatoon TO) a few times with a team called Sunset.

The founding of the Oversplatters

Me and my friend Willow (formerly known as Daffy or Milo), were trying to come up with ideas to found a new Splatoon team. We were into Overwatch 2 at the time, so I decided to give the team an Overwatch theme and call it Oversplatters. We even got a logo commissioned for the team by an artist named Doom.

The Oversplatters logo.

How it died

Esports is a hard thing to get into. It seems that I’m better at playing competitive games casually, not being a hardcore esports competitor. So the team slowly died. Also, the people who I had chosen to be members weren’t really into it either. When I was managing to keep schedules they wouldn’t come to trainings and such. So I just abandoned the team. Willow tried to get me back into it a few times while she was still into competitive gaming, but now she’s lost interest in Splatoon (at least in a competitive sense). Honestly I think that this team should become a casual clan (Discord please make guild server creation open to all).

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)gamingnintendocompetitivesplatoonsplatoon3<![CDATA[To the Blue Skies]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/to-the-blue-skies k76xys4tX2euo1gVOEsYMon, 04 Nov 2024 01:25:39 GMT

Engineering

@XEng

We’re starting to launch the block function update

Engineering

@XEng

Soon we’ll be launching a change to how the block function works.

If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage (like, reply, repost, etc.).

\ 5,190](https://twitter.com/XEng/status/1852934762144698736) 11:44 PM • Nov 2, 2024

The Land of X is becoming more barren.

It’s so bad that I’ve made some graphics and art. (The X logo, Twitter Bird, and Bluesky logo were found with Google Images.)

▼View images

So I’m going to write a guide on how to move from X to Bluesky.

Why is the change so bad?

I explained this in 2 other articles.

▼View the articles

[Twitter's E𝕏odus \ \ People are very unhappy with Twitter (aka 𝕏).\ \ https://paragraph.xyz\\ \

[Twitter/X plans to remove the block button \ \ This might be the end of Twitter, or the end of a sane Twitter.\ \ https://paragraph.xyz\\ \

Time to leave X

Download your data package

There may be ways to look through your data package in the future, so I would recommend going to Settings -> Your Account -> Download an archive to download the X data package. It will take at least a day for them to send you the email with your package, but it will contain your ENTIRE history on X up to the point at which you requested the archive.

Create your Bluesky account

Go to https://bsky.app to make your account. All you need is an email address.

You can also choose between my starter packs. They contain different subsets of users, and all of them will sign you up to Bridgy Fed which effectively means you exist on Bluesky AND Mastodon. Learn more about Bridgy Fed.

My starter packs have science/tech users and artists, and there’s also a variety pack.

Tell your followers about Bluesky

Some of your followers may find you on Bluesky if they are already there. However, you should also spread the word about Bluesky so that your followers who haven’t left can begin onboarding as well. I would also recommend making starter packs of your own or sharing the starter pack you used to join Bluesky if you used one.

(possibly) DESTROY your X account

If you have no plans of ever using X again and you have already acquired the data package from earlier, you may opt to deactivate your X account. Unlike the name suggests, deactivation is a PERMANENT process. Your handle will be released after the grace period, for the event you ever decide to return (unless someone steals your handle). Once deactivation starts there is a 30-day grace period and your account will be destroyed after this period.

Missing post notifications?

If you used X’s post notifications or services like UnfollowMonkey or fllwrs.com that provided unfollow notifications, then I would recommend using SkyAlert, a bot that I developed to fulfill those purposes on Bluesky. Its code is open-source on GitHub.

In conclusion

I’m sad to have to say this since Twitter has been the town square of the Internet for a long time. I will not be deactivating my account at this point. If you want to learn more about Twitter’s controversies, you can see my other blog posts. This has been Bit, and I’ll see you next time.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)blueskysocialtechtutorialtwitterx<![CDATA[Jetpack asks: “What are your favorite websites?”]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/jetpack-asks-what-are-your-favorite-websites 4O5f2Wq3NJpTEPlweetuSun, 03 Nov 2024 14:38:29 GMT_Context for Paragraph readers: I put blog posts on WordPress as well, and a service that ties into WordPress has question prompts._

Hey everyone, Bit here. This is my first time writing for one of Jetpack’s prompts, which seems like a question of the day.

What are your favorite websites? - question from Jetpack Prompts

Web games

There are many games out there that run entirely in a browser, from simple casual experiences like Slow Roads to competitive-focused games like tetr.io and Krunker.

Slow Roads is an infinite driving simulator. You just drive a car down a road using directional keys. You can even enable autopilot if you just want to hear the sound or watch the screen.

Although I say tetr.io is a competitive game, it’s like any other Tetris clone and includes single-player casual modes, even a hypercasual mode called Zen. It’s just that since the game’s release it has become the go-to game for many competitive Tetris players, alongside Tetris Effect: Connected and Puyo Puyo Tetris (or its sequel).

Krunker is a very hard game to get used to as it incorporates an odd movement technique called “slide hopping”. Apart from that, it’s like any ordinary first-person shooter. Although it does have a retro pixelated appearance. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen such a game running entirely in a web browser, and it would be nice to see more complex games that run inside the browser.

Teable: web-based GUI database

If you haven’t seen Teable yet, you must be new to my blog. If you’ve ever filled out a form by me recently, they’re all made in Teable. They have their own website ( https://teable.io), but you can also self-host a Teable instance (like some people do with WordPress). They have Docker setup files on their GitHub page. All of the spreadsheets and forms on this website that come from Teable are on my own instance, not Teable’s official cloud-hosted instance.

In conclusion

Sadly those are the only two interesting websites I could think of. If you have any interesting websites you want to share, you can leave them in the comments. This has been Bit, and I’ll see you next time.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)daily-promptstech<![CDATA[My thoughts on Linux and video game anti-cheat]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/my-thoughts-on-linux-and-video-game-anti-cheat-littlebit IJtj1njREDMaHqJQ95DwSat, 02 Nov 2024 09:30:48 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment recently decided to block all Linux users from playing Apex Legends over alleged concerns of cheating on the OS. However, I would like to explain in my opinion how these concerns of cheating are unproven, as they relate to the entire concept of playing multiplayer video games on Linux.

The news of the end of Linux support for Apex

EA and Respawn put a blog post on the game’s official account @playapex@x.com.

(X Articles don't play nicely with embeds, sorry.)

Apex Legends

@PlayApex

x.com/i/article/1852…

\ 2,416](https://twitter.com/PlayApex/status/1852019667315102151) 11:07 AM • Oct 31, 2024

This sent shocks through the Apex Legends community as a whole as well as the Linux gaming community. While I do not use Linux full-time (right now some could say my primary desktop OS is MacOS because I do a lot of work on my MacBook Air), I still fully support Linux and will try to make things that work across devices wherever possible, whether it be making cross-platform native apps or making web apps (which are cross-platform because they run in browsers). This also shocked me because this is only the second time that a company has supported Linux and then pulled out, the other time being Rockstar with Grand Theft Auto Online (I don’t play GTA).

Why the alleged cheating issue is unproven

In my opinion, this alleged cheating concern is unproven, and I will try to explain why in these next sections.

Argument 1: The ALGS hacks

The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) is the largest Apex Legends esports tournament, hosted by EA themselves. In ALGS 2024, two players were hacked in the middle of the tournament and had cheats applied to their games and their computers were under remote control. The first player to be targeted, Genburten, noticed that the cheats and remote control were happening and immediately exited the match. Another player named ImperialHal was also targeted, and the admins noticed the issues and promptly ended the match.

View article from The Verge about the hack here.

Keep in mind that neither of these players were on Linux. These issues happened on Windows. A virus that implemented remote code execution was likely at play, and while some speculated it was an exploit in the game’s anti-cheat engine (EasyAntiCheat), the EAC developers said that it was not the cause.

Argument 2: The Proton layer (or other sandboxes)

The Proton layer acts as an effective sandbox that could be combined with anti-cheat software. Sandboxes are also offered by packaging systems like Snap and Flatpak, and Steam has a Flatpak version for Linux. Sandboxing could prevent other software on the Linux machine from tampering with games without effort. Anti-cheat software could monitor the game’s execution environment for unexpected execution and terminate anything not related to the game. Sandboxing and monitoring wouldn’t stop cheating completely, but it would make it harder to do so. Hardware cheating, which requires controlling the game through automation or using hardware control augments like the Cronus Zen, is possible but time-consuming and expensive.

Argument 3: Cheating is rampant even with small Linux playerbase

Search “apex legends cheating issues” on a search engine (I used Google and DuckDuckGo) and you’ll see many news articles. Many of them come before the announcement about dropping Linux support, meaning that removing Linux support probably doesn’t do much about cheating in the game. The game’s playerbase on Linux was probably quite small, but if there are communities that shouldn’t be fooled with, the Linux community is probably one of them (and probably FOSS as a whole, see WordPress/Automattic/Matt Mullenweg’s controversy with WP Engine). People were quite vocal about the end of Apex Legends on Linux (including Steam Deck), but since EA is a wealthy company they simply won’t listen.

Valve’s reaction

In what seems to be a reaction to this, Valve has decided to require games that have kernel level anti-cheat to disclose that on the game page. This would help people make informed buying decisions, or dissuade people from investing in games that use kernel level anti-cheat.

View Valve’s official blog post here.

This is good news, and this would probably be something good for both Windows and Linux users. Less games with kernel level anti-cheat would make more games compatible with Linux, and it would reduce the reliance on kernel mode. Less kernel mode software is good since interacting with the kernel can cause system stability issues (see CrowdStrike disaster).

In conclusion

I hope to see more games support Linux in the future. There are many that do. Activision Blizzard has some support for Linux as Overwatch 2 is rated Playable by Valve’s Deck Verified and is Gold rank on ProtonDB. Developer Alfa Bravo even has a first-person shooter called Combat Master (which closely resembles 2019’s CoD: Modern Warfare) that is Linux and MacOS native. Valve even supports their own competitive multiplayer experiences such as Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2 on Linux. Even competitive multiplayer games that use kernel anti-cheat such as The Finals are rated Gold on ProtonDB because they chose to enable the Linux settings in EasyAntiCheat.

If you want to discover what works on Linux in your Steam library, go to https://protondb.com.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)gaminglinux<![CDATA[Twitter's E𝕏odus]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/twitters-exodus mkIu6ewfflTUSPb8tVj8Sat, 19 Oct 2024 03:12:58 GMT_if you saw the title: yes, the X logo is a Unicode character._

Hey everyone, Bit here. We're at it again, talking about social media. Elon Musk is at it again, making changes to X that people aren't very happy with. But this is the most outrage I've EVER seen towards the platform, leading many (including me) to believe that this is the beginning of the fall of 𝕏, formerly Twitter.

Issue 1: Dysfunctional Block Button™

The first issue that people are having with Twitter is that the block button is fundamentally altered.

Usually, when you block someone, you are COMPLETELY INVISIBLE to them. Elon is changing that. Now when you block someone on Twitter, you are no longer completely invisible to the person you blocked. The target of a block can see someone's profile, but they cannot interact with you at all (no following, liking, retweeting, or commenting).

The fundamental issue with this change to the block button is that although it supposedly prevents people from blocking someone to just to harass the block target, it now opens up the block origin to harassment because people who get blocked on social media can sometimes be oddly vindictive.

[Musk is gutting X's blocking feature - why this change is dangerous \ \ As X moves ahead with its altered blocking feature, users fear its repercussions on online safety.\ \ https://mashable.com\\ \

Issue 2: Forced AI Scrapers

There was also news about changes to Twitter's terms of service, which will remove the option to prevent Grok and xAI from scraping your content, at least outside of Europe. This has especially angered artists, who don't want their work stolen off the web to be used in training AI models.

I agree that companies should either not scrape web content at all, or at least make it where people must consent to their content being scraped into an AI model. There are ways you can prevent art from being used to train AI, such as Glaze and Nightshade, developed by the University of Chicago. Glaze prevents AI from learning from your art, where as Nightshade actively attacks the AI.

[X Updates Terms of Service to More Explicitly Cover AI Training Permissions \ \ A new pop-up is alerting users to the update.\ \ https://www.socialmediatoday.com\\ \

The Result

The result of this... is that the E𝕏odus is upon us. People are slowly fleeing to other social media apps.

For the general public, most are fixating on Bluesky and Meta Threads. Artists may be looking for apps more suited to them, such as Cara. There are also many more alternatives than that, I've signed up to a lot of them (see littlebit670.link), and I sometimes elaborated on them in other articles here on Paragraph.

If you need a better way to share all of your social media apps, then I recommend gravatar.com. It provides both a link-in-bio as well as a profile picture that can be shared across many websites.

If you're finding fatigue from having to deal with multiple social apps while Twitter is possibly coming to its final stages, I would recommend yup.io, as long as you're not averse to blockchains. Paragraph is also a blockchain app. Both can be signed up to using just an email and password.

Anyway, this has been Bit, and I'll see you next time. Find me everywhere at littlebit670.link .

All companies mentioned are not affiliated with me. All recommendations come from personal experience.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)<![CDATA[Twitter/X plans to remove the block button]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/twitter-plan-remove-block aYnHpgXL77B3pPlXuSfbWed, 25 Sep 2024 18:12:22 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. It seems like Elon wants to get rid of the block button or make it where the block button only blocks interaction.

Swak

@swak_12

NEW: @X has begun works on removing block

\ 443](https://twitter.com/swak_12/status/1838276550615326959) 12:57 PM • Sep 23, 2024

Why it's against the rules

The main app stores have rules that would prevent Elon from doing something like this, or kill Twitter on mobile if he went through with it anyway.

The rules that govern apps containing user-generated content are in Section 1.2 of the Apple App Store rules and on this support page for the Google Play Store rules. Both app stores have words in these rules about blocking, although Apple seems to have more focus on global moderation whereas Google seems to enforce that apps must have a block button for individual users.

Possible reasons for Elon to do this

Probably the main reason that Elon wants to lessen the strength of the block button or remove it entirely is to promote his so-called vision of "free speech." However, one user might be bothering another in a way that is allowed on the platform itself but may be unwanted by the offended user. The block and mute functions of social media apps allow people to hide what they don't want to see, but it seems that Elon wants people to see everything no matter what people think, all in the name of "free speech."

Alternatives to Twitter

I've gone over Twitter alternatives way too many times already. But I'll list them again.

  1. Bluesky ( https://bsky.social): Bluesky was the main platform that Brazilians moved to when Twitter was banned in the country due to Elon not complying with court requests to take down content. It lacks some features that Twitter does, like being able to post polls. You can still post images and GIFs, and you can even limit people's ability to reply using lists instead of just everyone/following/no one. Bluesky also has an insanely accurate automatic content filter to help people who don't want to see NSFW.

  2. Mastodon ( https://joinmastodon.org): Mastodon is another compelling open alternative to Twitter. Instead of being hosted on one server like most social networks, Mastodon is hosted on many servers, although the main one is https://mastodon.social. You can add media (image/video/audio) and polls to posts, and it even supports custom content warnings.

  3. Meta Threads ( https://threads.net): Threads is a Twitter-like social network maintained by the Instagram division at Meta. Meta probably uses data from Threads to train their new AI bots, so if you want more privacy you should use a network like Bluesky or Mastodon. Threads users can opt to have their posts shared with fediverse users (Mastodon, etc), meaning that a Mastodon user could follow a Threads user.

  4. Tumblr ( https://tumblr.com): Tumblr is more of a blog than a social media network, it deserves a mention here. It supports many of the features that Threads and Mastodon does. You can also add advanced formatting to posts, which the others don't support.

  5. Farcaster ( https://warpcast.com): Farcaster is an onchain social network. You cannot post videos to Farcaster directly, and some features offered by other social media apps aren't offered natively by Farcaster. Although, developers can expand on what can be included in posts using frames, such as a poll system developed by https://weponder.io. Farcaster also features channels, which are like Twitter's Communities.

  6. Lens ( https://lens.xyz): Lens is also onchain, but it supports direct media posting as well as polls on some clients. One Lens client called Orb introduced clubs, which are very similar to Farcaster's channels. Lens posts can even be made collectible, where images in the post will show up in your wallet.

In conclusion

This may be the end of Twitter, or the end of a sane Twitter. I hope that Apple and Google block Twitter's attempts to remove the block button, forcing Twitter to end service to mobile users or retract this decision. This has been Bit, and I'll see you next time.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)social<![CDATA[Splatoon 3 Reflection]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/splat3-reflection 5FVlOi9yOkYL6mZiBqEBMon, 16 Sep 2024 00:57:18 GMTWell, The End 3 (the Grand Festival) has come and gone. I would like to write about my time in the Splatoon community.

Reflecting on generations

Here's some talk about specific generations of Splatoon.

Splatoon 1

In Splatoon 1, I was still young. Splatoon 1 was the first shooting game and first online multiplayer game that I had played on a major console.

I had no social media at this time due to young age (I was born in 2005 and Splatoon 1 came out in 2015), so I didn't have any friends to play Splatoon 1 with.

Splatoon 1 probably cemented my favorite genres of games in my mind: shooters and platformers.

Splatoon 2

Because of how much I liked Splatoon 1, Splatoon 2 was one of the biggest reasons I wanted a Nintendo Switch. Also, I would finally be able to play the game more often, as I didn't have to take up the TV that my mom is usually using to play the game.

I spent all of Splatoon 2's active lifecycle playing solo, as I still didn't know anyone who played the game. After Splatoon 2's active lifecycle, I found Twitch user Cephalorock and Twitter user shayshay. While I don't frequent Twitch streams often anymore, Shay has been one of my best friends online to this day. Many more good internet friendships were made because of her, and I'm glad that I met her. 🙂💙

Splatoon 3

I don't really have many thoughts about this game. I was one of the people to acquire the game on its day of release, and I've been having good times with friends ever since. May Splatoon 4 be another great multiplayer experience for all.

The community as a whole

The Splatoon community has had its ups and downs, although many communities have their toxic moments. All of the people that I have connections to have been very nice, and I talk to some of them every day.

I once tried to play this game competitively, but I gave up on competitive because I felt like it was stressful and would often get in the way of my schedule or keep me glued to a screen for a time that felt uncomfortable to me. Don't get me wrong, I still stare at screens for a while anyway; it's just that competitive Splatoon took it a bit far 😅

In conclusion

I hope that Nintendo announces the Switch 2 (or whatever comes after the Switch) soon. There was speculation that it would happen this month, but that's uncertain.

I'm just glad that I found a place online with the Splatoon community and also play some other games with those same friends. I just hope I can find some people to connect with in reality 😅

This has been Bit, and I'll see you next time.

Find me everywhere at https://littlebit670.link .

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)gamingnintendo<![CDATA[The Twitter Brazil Ban]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/twitter-brazil-ban NGilLdbsjV7BOm5W9tMcSat, 31 Aug 2024 02:51:04 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Twitter (now X) just got banned from Brazil after the company refused to comply with orders over misinformation on the platform.

What happened?

The Internet's main social space, Twitter/X, has been ordered to cease its service in Brazil by Brazil's Supreme Court. This comes after Musk posted an attack tweet related to Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordering Twitter to remove content from the platform. The Tweet read: "Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge", with a link to a tweet from Twitter's Government Affairs account. The judge in question even threatened to arrest a Twitter representative in Brazil. The Brazilian Supreme Court has even gone after Starlink, since it's another company that Musk owns, saying that Starlink should be responsible for the fines against Twitter.

Information in this section sourced from article by Mashable .

What can Brazilians do?

I don't know if there's anything Brazilians can do to reverse the court decisions, but at least Brazilians can move to more social networks. I'll give the most viable alternative first, and then some others.

Bluesky: the best Twitter alternative for most people

Bluesky ( bsky.social) is probably the Twitter alternative that most Brazilians (and even people who aren't from Brazil) should consider. It's structure is very similar to Twitter, being able to like/repost content, and include images/GIFs.

Missing features include

If you have a Bluesky account and want to follow me there, I'm @littlebitstudios.com.

Other Web2 social networks

Before I get into Web3 social networks that people might cringe at, here are some other Web2 networks to consider.

Farcaster: Onchain social with seamless onboarding

The easiest way to be onchain is to join Farcaster. You can download their app at farcaster.xyz or warpcast.com. You will need a mobile device to join Farcaster; there is no way to join on a PC. Joining Farcaster costs $5 one-time, and there may be payments in the future due to storage unit costs. FC is not just a place for cryptocurrency/NFT nerds, there is general discussion that happens there. Farcaster has similar limitations to Bluesky, although polls are supported by third-party services like WePonder using frames.

Another notable mention in the onchain social media space is the Lens Protocol; see my article about social networks to learn more.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)socialgovernmenttech<![CDATA[Reddit's Hidden Crypto (a guide)]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/reddits-hidden-crypto-a-guide CCFo24lFiWNiiKfTJTt9Wed, 14 Aug 2024 05:49:11 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. I’m here to write about the hidden blockchain in Reddit.

For people who cringe at crypto: see the last section!

What do I mean by ”Reddit’s hidden crypto”?

In 2022, Reddit introduced a feature called Collectible Avatars. It allows people to go to the Style Avatar menu in the Reddit mobile app and buy special Reddit avatars they can use as their profile picture. Purchasing them looks like any ordinary in-app purchase, and a few times Reddit gave them out for free (I happen to be a recipient of 2 free Reddit avatars).

Turns out that the Reddit Collectible Avatars are actually backed by the blockchain, specifically Polygon (a subchain of Ethereum). Reddit doesn’t involve cryptocurrencies in the purchase process, but your Collectible Avatars are a part of the blockchain.

How do I know if I have these avatars?

It’s simple to find out if you own Collectible Avatars or if you have a Vault.

  1. Open the Reddit mobile app.

  2. Tap your profile picture (top right corner).

  3. Tap Vault.

  4. If you see some Collectible Avatars, or a screen that says Vault at the top with a back and settings button, you have a Vault.

What do I do if I have a Vault?

There’s nothing you have to do if you find out you have a Reddit Vault. But, I would recommend noting down the Recovery Phrase and keeping it somewhere safe.

To get the Recovery Phrase:

  1. Follow the steps from the last section.

  2. Tap the settings icon.

  3. Tap Recovery Phrase.

You‘ll see a set of 12 words. Like this:

width donkey human master wage energy noise space hidden inflict kind flock

Keep these words safe. Anyone who holds these words can access your Vault, which is also called a wallet.

Is there anything else the Vault can do?

Yes, there is! Once you have those 12 words, you can put them into a different app (I recommend https://rainbow.me or https://coinbase.com/wallet.) Once you have one of these other apps, you can experience everything that Ethereum and its networks offer. Even for people who cringe at cryptocurrency (and NFTs for that matter), I would recommend looking at some dapps (decentralized apps) like Yup (post to many social apps at once) and Mirror (blogging platform).

Can I learn more about some of this stuff?

There are websites to help you learn about the blockchain. It’s some interesting stuff, although I don’t know if it will help you stop cringing at crypto.

  1. https://ethereum.org - a general website about the Ethereum chain (and everything that branches off of it)

  2. https://learn.rainbow.me - this one is made by Rainbow, the people behind the wallet app I use

  3. https://learn.opensea.io - this one is more NFT focused as OpenSea is a website about NFTs, you don’t have to go here.

  4. https://web3.littlebitstudios.com - A website created by me.

Disclaimer.

I don’t want to be associated with the ”crypto bros” or “crypto degenerates” or whatever else you want to call them. There are some people who just boast about crypto, NFTs, or other related things. I am not them. I just happen to have come across some cool stuff. I am welcome to your opinions in my comments or DMs, I kinda want to hear them.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)cryptotechtutorial<![CDATA[Considering other social networks]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/considering-other-social-networks CNshLVe1TZQZPUOsp1xFMon, 12 Aug 2024 01:06:33 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Time for another blog post, this time about something going on with Twitter (X) and its current owner, Elon Musk.

What is happening?

This morning (Sunday, August 11, 2024), a new hashtag suddenly hit the trending bar. It was #BlockMusk. Apparently Elon Musk has done something horribly wrong and people are on a rampage of blocking his Twitter profile. It seems like most of the controversy surrounding Elon is related to him giving some negative political opinions, as people cite British politics and right-wing thinking.

So what can people do?

Well, one way you can criticize Musk is by blocking him, but why are people still wanting to remain on the platform owned by the person they now hate? There are other networks you can join if you feel like Twitter is on a downward spiral.

The other networks

We’ll go from other big tech socials to smaller networks to onchain networks.

Big Tech

These socials are owned by other big tech companies.

Meta Threads

Meta Threads ( threads.net) is a Twitter-like social network owned by Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram.

Threads is pitched as an app adjacent to Instagram, as Instagram is Meta’s only other “social” network app. (Facebook is a “personal” network app; only for people who know you in real life.)

Smaller Networks

These networks aren’t owned by big tech companies. They may or may not have a large user base.

Mastodon (Fediverse)

The Fediverse, including social networks powered by Mastodon ( joinmastodon.org), is a network of decentralized servers that all contribute to one large network through a protocol called ActivityPub. My Mastodon name is @ littlebit670@mastodon.social, but there are other servers (some general-purpose, some dedicated to one app). That’s why a Fediverse name has the second at sign; the second at sign dictates what server your profile is on.

Bluesky

https://bsky.social is a social network also designed with an open and decentralized nature, around a protocol called the AT Protocol. One great feature of Bluesky is its insanely accurate content filter; if you tell it to hide a form of content you don’t want to see, it will almost certainly fulfill that request. It was one social network that received a lot of buzz around its release.

Onchain Social

These social networks are within the Web3 ecosystem, and require payment to join. If you want to learn about how to be onchain, visit https://web3.littlebitstudios.com.

Farcaster

https://farcaster.xyz is an onchain social network. Just like the Fediverse and Bluesky, Farcaster is designed around an open and decentralized philosophy. It only costs $5 to join, and it supports all features a modern Twitter-like social network does, including direct messages (called direct casts). There are some idiosyncrasies to deal with such as storage units, and I attempt to explain them on the LittleBit Web3 site.

Farcaster is also highly extensible through features such as frames and Sign in with Farcaster (SIWF). Apps can bring profile information in from Farcaster with SIWF, as well as provide an interface for interaction with an app from within a Farcaster feed using frames.

Lens

https://lens.xyz is another onchain social protocol, with some extra features beyond Farcaster. Lens has a collection feature, where any post can be made into a collectible on the Polygon network. This is great to allow you to make moments that people can keep forever; collection can even be given a time limit or be made limited edition (only a certain number of iterations can be collected). Besides that, most of the functionality of Lens and apps that work with it such as https://hey.xyz is similar to Twitter and the rest of the networks here. Joining Lens costs $10 by card payment or 8 MATIC in crypto.

In conclusion

While many people choose to remain on Twitter, there are other networks to choose from. Pick the one that you like the most. There are some apps out there like https://yup.io (another web3 app) that can crosspost; meaning you can send posts across platforms. (Yup is compatible with Twitter, Bluesky, Lens, and Farcaster.) Anyway, this has been Bit, and I will see you next time.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)social<![CDATA[An issue with a social network]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/an-issue-with-a-social-network AhRT2YV11LVU4I1ufV5wSun, 09 Jun 2024 01:54:22 GMTHey everyone, Bit here! We're diving into the Ethereum ecosystem again, this time with a social networking protocol called Farcaster.

What is Farcaster?

Farcaster ( https://farcaster.xyz ) is a decentralized social networking protocol. Decentralized, in this context, means that the content published using Farcaster clients is not controlled by one single entity. There are other protocols that meet this goal, like the AT Protocol (which powers Bluesky) or ActivityPub (which powers Mastodon). Farcaster is special in that some of its components are within the Ethereum ecosystem. There are 3 contracts on the Optimism chain (a layer 2 chain) that control Farcaster's accounts and storage capacity, but the actual data published to the protocol is held by a network of servers called hubs. All of this is generally transparent to the user, and most Farcaster clients behave like most normal social networks.

What is the issue?

Farcaster does not have just one app. The mainline app that the Farcaster team advertises is called Warpcast but there are other apps out there such as Farcord(the one I used). Luckily, all of the posts I have made are visible to Warpcast users, but I can't use the Warpcast app due to a flaw in Farcaster's architecture.

The architecture issue

The Farcaster protocol relies on something called signers, and the signers allow Farcaster-enabled apps to sign messages as your user. Whenever a new device signs into Farcord, for example, Farcord creates a signer that lives on your device (creating signers sadly costs a gas fee).

When you create an account on Farcaster without using Warpcast, no Warpcast signer is created. Normally how this should be handled is that the Warpcast app would ask you to create the signer, but instead the Warpcast app just breaks and there's nothing you can do about it. I made posts on Lens and Farcaster itself with a screenshot of the problem.

How it could be fixed

The Warpcast app simply needs to account for the fact that outside signups are possible. If it is given a wallet that already has a Farcaster ID connected to it, but no Warpcast signer, the Warpcast app simply asks the user if it can create the signer. It would cost a bit of ETH due to the gas fee, but at least it means the Warpcast app will actually work instead of being broken constantly.

Is there anything like Farcaster?

Yes, there is. It's called the Lens Protocol, and it's a lot more user-friendly than Farcaster.

If you want to join Lens, go to https://lens.xyz and then you can post to it from https://hey.xyz on desktop or https://orb.club on mobile. If you want to find me there, it's https://hey.xyz/u/littlebit670.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)socialweb3<![CDATA[Analyzing some crypto concerns]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/analyzing-some-crypto-concerns R3HFQbk4W02YcaPsF2CVWed, 05 Jun 2024 03:23:35 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. As you may know, I have been talking about cryptocurrencies lately, mostly Ethereum. I'm not a "crypto degenerate", but I have been very afraid of speaking about this since it seems to cause many of my followers to cringe. I even got an opinion from one of my Discord server admins, and I want to analyze that opinion here.

Environmental concerns?

Here's the first concern:

nft is just bad and harmful to the environment

There was an event on the Ethereum chain called "The Merge" ( learn more on ethereum.org) which switched the chain from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) verification. The PoS method is more efficient than the PoW method, meaning that the Ethereum chain is more efficient than it was before. However, Bitcoin is still a PoW chain and uses about 127 TERAWATT-HOURS of energy each year and 707 KILOWATT-HOURS for EVERY TRANSACTION (see Forbes article, and current data from the University of Cambridge) .

The COVID Graphics Card Shortage?

Now the second concern:

while crypto also caused a graphics card shortage and also was bad for environment anyway

This is true. Ethereum mining (when it was a PoW chain) relied on GPUs, therefore partly causing the graphics card shortage during the COVID pandemic. Probably the Ethereum demand alone was not enough to stifle the GPU market, but the COVID pandemic pushed GPU demand even further due to new PCs being built. Now that Ethereum is a PoS chain, GPUs are no longer used on the Ethereum chain. Bitcoin does not use GPUs, instead it is primarily mined with ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) hardware which is custom-built for mining Bitcoin.

Untraceable Money? Fully-Digital Currency?

The last concern I could point out:

and also far too much a push for total digital currency which i am deeply uncomfortable with. if you wanted untraceable money pay in cash

Crypto is not exactly untraceable. Cryptocurrencies are based on something called blockchain ( Wikipedia ). Blockchain is a system of cataloging transactions in units called blocks. Each block references the block before it through a hash. Each block contains the addresses (like my Ethereum wallet address, 0xc5f3...9de9), of the sender and recipient. It's just that wallet addresses aren't directly linked to any personally identifying information. So cryptocurrency is not totally untraceable, since the blockchain is entirely public, but the addresses don't reference personal information. Also, the thing about fully-digital currency, we already use part-digital currency now thanks to bank accounts with electronic transfers and debit cards.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)crypto<![CDATA[My take on video game emulation]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/video-game-emulation SdjNzBtaJ3q9sKzgM6xcWed, 05 Jun 2024 03:18:10 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. It's time to make a drawn-out blog post about another topic: emulation.

Why is this being brought up?

On March 4, 2024, Tropic Haze settled out of court with Nintendo and the documents of the agreement finally came out. Tropic Haze were the developers of two Nintendo console emulators, Yuzu for the Switch, and Citra for the 3DS. Both of their emulators as well as their websites have been forced to shut down, and their open-source code repositories have been destroyed and are no longer accessible. The only place where these two emulators survive now is the Internet Archive ( https://archive.org).

What do I think about emulation?

First of all, emulation is not solely a tool for piracy. The reason that Nintendo seems to absolutely hate anyone who creates software that emulates a Nintendo system is because Nintendo thinks that emulators are strictly for piracy. The logical and potentially legal use of emulation is to keep a backup of old games so that their existence does not depend on the company that made them. Nintendo and other companies don't have to keep producing a game or system forever, so both the system that runs them and the games for those systems should be preserved by communities. The only company that seems to ravenously pursue any emulator or ROM repository that exists is Nintendo. Emulators are a way of preserving systems, and once a system is no longer maintained by its creators, I don't have a problem with people emulating or archiving ROMs for it.

About current-gen vs. retro emulation

I do not personally condone emulating current generation hardware or archiving current generation software. Since it is still being actively supported, I understand why Nintendo was going after Yuzu originally because it emulates their current-gen system, the Switch. Once a system is no longer supported, meaning the digital storefronts have shut down and production of new hardware has ceased, I no longer have a problem with software archival, emulator usage, or software/hardware modifications.

Why Yuzu was especially targeted

People kept talking a lot about Yuzu

One reason that Nintendo could have wanted Yuzu taken down more is because many people were promoting it actively in places where Nintendo was able to see it readily, like on the comments of Nintendo's official social media accounts. If it wasn't so popularly mentioned, then Nintendo might not have sought it out directly. As one person said, Tropic Haze and its community kept poking the bear and it came back to bite.

Yuzu paywalling beta software using Patreon

Patreon ( https://patreon.com ) is a website that allows creators to receive monthly subscription-based donations. Most creators offer benefits for subscribing to their Patreon, and Tropic Haze was using Patreon to paywall access to the Early Access version of Yuzu. These Patreon donations netted Tropic Haze around $29,560 every month, according to a Community Note on Twitter/X. Emulators are fine if they are free software (closed or open source), and many popular emulators are FOSS (free and open-source software). Charging for features or a beta version may put you in the legal crosshairs of the one you're emulating, as what happened to Yuzu.

Finishing up

Luckily the Internet Archive exists to keep many pieces of software that exists or has ever existed so that they are never completely gone. Also, now that Yuzu and Citra have been litigated out of existence, I don't know how much longer any other Nintendo emulator will survive. I hope that Nintendo doesn't achieve complete lack of any emulation of their hardware, since hardware needs to be preserved in any way possible, whether it be collections of consoles or FPGAs (looking at you, Analogue) or emulation software. May emulators live on, and I'll see you next time.

Updated on 3/8/24

A line was added mentioning a Community Note on Twitter/X that listed Tropic Haze's Patreon revenue.

Originally posted on Listed.

https://listed.littlebitstudios.com/50131/my-take-on-video-game-emulation

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)gaming<![CDATA[The End of Tumblr Live (and discussing its awfully personal alternative)]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/end-of-tumblr-live qKywhtNIjbJVde0gzWzvMon, 13 May 2024 02:38:46 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Tumblr is ending its live-streaming service and directing people to an app that is awfully personal for the purpose of replacing it.

What is Tumblr and its live streaming service?

Tumblr ( tumblr.com) is a blogging platform structured more like a social media app. It allows much longer posts than Twitter does, and also allows you to have multiple blocks of content (like a title and some text and an image, or a title and some images with text after each one).

Tumblr Live, the live-streaming service offered by Tumblr, was developed in a partnership with a company called The Meet Group ( themeetgroup.com) using their Livebox backend. Even though you had to scrutinize blogs and streams to find something that was actually OK to watch, there were some actually good people there that I even followed on other platforms. Sadly, Tumblr will end this service on January 24, 2024.

Who is The Meet Group?

The Meet Group is a company focused around live interaction on the Internet. They have 4 apps listed on their website: MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, and Growlr. All of The Meet Group’s apps are focused on generating IRL interactions through Internet meetups. They aren’t really designed for online dating, but can be used for such. Each app seems to have a different purpose. MeetMe is mostly focused on the US, Skout is more of a global app, Tagged has resonance with black people, and Growlr was specifically designed for gay men.

They have a live-streaming backend called Livebox, which is what Tumblr Live was based on. Livebox is mostly designed around being a safe environment as well as fostering monetized content creation. Livebox-based platforms (including The Meet Group’s own platforms) feature costreaming, streamer battles, and features for finding random costreamers like NextGuest and NextDate.

What is the alternative Tumblr is directing people to and why do I think it is bad?

Tumblr, in their support article about the end of Live, is directing people to transfer their Tumblr Live data to MeetMe. I understand that Tumblr is suggesting MeetMe because it is owned by The Meet Group, but MeetMe is not a viable alternative to Tumblr Live in a few ways.

What is the verdict?

If you were using Tumblr Live, then you can use MeetMe if you want. If you don’t want to use MeetMe, there are a few platforms to consider.

That’s the end of this. This is the first time I’ve used Listed, and I’ll be using it again if I ever need to write something that’s WAY outside the bounds of Twitter.

***Originally posted on Listed:***

https://listed.littlebitstudios.com/49088/the-end-of-tumblr-live-and-discussing-its-awfully-personal-alternative

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)social<![CDATA[Decentralized Blogger? (my hello to Mirror)]]>https://paragraph.com/@littlebit670/decentralized-blogger-my-hello-to-mirror 1qtThMO0IIy79sBXdiB7Fri, 10 May 2024 03:07:32 GMTHey everyone, Bit here. Welcome to my first post on this odd place called Mirror.

My background

I play games and mess with computers. If you want to see my projects, they’re on GitHub. My personal profile is @jaherron and my org is @littlebitstudios. If you find my Twitter (or other social media) profile, please don’t talk about me being here. Speaking of that…

My friends and Web3

Web3 is the wild west, and my friends really don’t like it. I made a Twitter poll asking people if crypto or NFTs were the problem, and a lot of my friends are saying it’s both.

For me personally, I kind of have hard feelings about NFTs. I don’t know why anyone would want to spend outrageous amounts of money on a random image, but I might try it if some cool free mints appear. I’ll be talking about how Reddit disguised NFTs later.

Learning about Web3

Since I’m speaking on a crypto-native network, I want to talk about some stuff I’ve discovered about the chain and Web3.

  1. It’s easy to get started, just make a wallet. All you need is an app like Rainbow (rainbow.xyz). If you’re a Reddit user, you might have a wallet already.

  2. Connecting your wallet is basically Web3’s “Sign in with Google.” Just like OAuth sign-in, such as Sign in with Google, signing into Web3 apps is as simple as clicking a few buttons. And you get the same benefit of having one account for everything.

  3. Finding some apps you like might be easy. My entry into Web3 was through an app called Yup (yup.io), which is an app for posting across multiple social networks at once. I have it connected to Twitter and Bluesky right now, mostly since their Meta Threads integration is broken. Sadly they don’t work with ActivityPub/Mastodon/Fediverse. Also consider the website you’re seeing right now (Mirror). It’s a really nice-looking blogging app.

  4. Adding devices to your wallet is also simple. Creating a wallet gives you a set of 12 words that’s like a password. Keep this secret phrase safe. To use your wallet on a new device, simply use your secret phrase to import your wallet.

About Reddit…

You’ve probably heard of Reddit. It’s a massive platform full of forums called subreddits, such as r/softwaregore, r/macOS, or r/homeassistant.

Reddit introduced a feature called Collectible Avatars in October 2022. These “Collectible Avatars” are actually NFTs in disguise, and they’re stored in an Ethereum wallet that Reddit calls the Vault.

I ended up with 2 free Reddit NFTs, Button Mashers (promotion by Reddit) and The Champs (Super Bowl partnership). I don’t have as much hard feelings about Reddit’s NFTs since you can actually use them. They honestly made NFTs feel like any other in-app purchase, but you are able to rest assured that your Collectible Avatars are safe on the chain. I will probably never buy a Reddit NFT, but they might do more free drops in the future :>

Connect to Web3 using a Reddit Vault

If you are wanting to enter into Web3 and you’re a Reddit user, open the Reddit mobile app and tap your profile picture followed by Vault. If you can see Collectible Avatars or you otherwise have a Vault already, tap the gear icon followed by Recovery Phrase. This will show you one of those 12-word phrases I mentioned earlier. Copy that and download Rainbow (or another Ethereum wallet app), and paste it where the option to import a wallet is. You should see your Reddit Avatars in there as NFTs.

In conclusion

You probably won’t see me much here because of my friends’ dislike for Web3. Maybe if Web3 continues to proliferate, maybe some of my friends will have a change of mind. But for now, I don’t want to get blocked by everyone. Please don’t talk about my presence here on Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon, or anywhere else. I may end up being blocked by a lot of my friends.

Want to see more about me? Visit my website, https://littlebitstudios.com.

]]>littlebit670@newsletter.paragraph.com (LittleBit)