Under new legislation passed in 2023, consumers of illegal IPTV services in Italy were warned that if police obtained their details, a fine would likely be issued by the state. This year a reported 2,500 people have already been fined but even for those who pay up, more trouble could be just around the corner. DAZN, SKY and Serie A say they have obtained the identities of those fined by the police, who they intend to pursue for "thousands of euros" each in civil damages.

DAZN, SKY & Serie A Prepare Action Against IPTV Pirates Already Fined By the State * TorrentFreak

DAZN, SKY and Serie A say that after obtaining the identities of IPTV pirates fined by the police, they will pursue them for civil damages.

^{Andy Maxwell (TF Publishing)}

Hey,

do you know of any way (except paying obviously) to get paid substack content like podcasts?

Are there any sites offering something like that?

cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/56217

A Meshtastic node has been one of the toys of the moment over the last year, and since they are popular with radio amateurs there’s a chance you’ll already live within range of at least one. They can typically run from a lithium-ion or li-po battery, so it’s probable that like us you’ve toyed with the idea of running one from a solar panel. It’s something we have in common with [saveitforparts], whose experiments with a range of different solar panels .

He has three different models: one based around a commercial solar charger, another using an off-the-shelf panel, and a final one using the panel from a solar garden light. As expected the garden light panel can’t keep an ESP32 with a radio going all day, but the other two manage even in the relatively northern climes of Alaska.

As a final stunt he puts one of the nodes out on a rocky piece of the southern Alaskan coastline, for any passing hacker to find. It’s fairly obviously in a remote place, but it seems passing cruise ships will be within its range. We just know someone will take up his challenge and find it.

---

From Blog – Hackaday via this RSS feed

I literally had no idea about his activism. He's quite the fascinating character when off-screen.

Cromwell certainly looks and sounds the part of an old lefty who might have a Che Guevara poster in the attic and consider Bernie Sanders to be too soft on capitalism. When the Guardian visits his home – a log cabin in the farming town of Warwick, upstate New York, where he lives with his third wife, the actor Anna Stuart – he rises from a chair at the hearth with a warm greeting and outstretched hand (it is a big hand that would have required a generous dollop of glue).

Cromwell stands at 6ft 7in tall like a great weathered oak. “Probably 10 years ago, I heard somebody smart say we’re already a fascist state,” he says. “We have turnkey fascism. The key is in the lock. All they have to do is the one thing to turn it and open Pandora’s box. Out will come every exception, every loophole that the Congress has written so assiduously into their legislation.”

Cromwell has seen this movie before. His father John Cromwell, a renowned Hollywood director and actor, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era of anti-communist witch-hunts merely for making comments at a party praising aspects of the Russian theatre system for nurturing young talent and contrasting it with the “used up” culture of Hollywood.

‘Push back – or they’ll eat you alive’: James Cromwell on life as Hollywood’s biggest troublemaker

He marched against the Vietnam war, supported the Black Panthers, has protested over animal rights, ended up in prison after a climate sit-in – and starred in Babe, LA Confidential and Succession. He explains how he became the ultimate activist-actor

^{David Smith (The Guardian)}

Age verification laws like the UK’s Online Safety Act are meant to protect children from harmful content, but they also increase the risks of surveillance and an internet that’s not anonymous. But what is age verification, and will it do more harm than good?

Age Verification: Does it protect children or kill anonymity? | Tuta

^Tuta

Senti parlare di NAC e pensi subito al classico "sciogli-muco"? Preparati a ricrederti! Quella che per anni è stata vista solo come un semplice rimedio per la tosse, in realtà è una molecola dalle mille risorse. Dal supporto al fegato e al cervello, al potenziamento del sistema immunitario, fino alla salute riproduttiva. È un vero jolly per il tuo benessere.

L'abbiamo riscoperta durante la pandemia, ma i suoi benefici vanno ben oltre. Sei pronto a scoprire come il NAC può diventare il tuo alleato per una salute a 360 gradi?

NAC: Il Tuo Alleato Multifunzione per Salute e Benessere

Oggi esploreremo una molecola affascinante e sempre più studiata: il NAC, ovvero la N-Acetilcisteina. Sicuramente ne avrete sentito parlare ...

^{Giuliano (Blogger)}

Writing well is a valuable skill whether you’re a student, professional, or content creator. Clear, error-free writing builds credibility and helps your message shine. However, spotting every mistake on your own can be difficult. This is where digital tools like grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and AI content detectors become essential. If you are just getting started, this guide will walk you through how to use these tools effectively to polish your writing.

Why Use a Grammar Checker?
Grammar checkers are designed to detect common writing issues such as spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, subject-verb disagreements, and improper sentence structures. For beginners, they serve as a user-friendly solution to improve writing quality without needing advanced grammar knowledge.
Benefits include:
• Saving time on proofreading
• Catching unnoticed errors
• Improving sentence clarity
• Offering learning opportunities with explanations of mistakes

How to Use a Grammar Checker
1. Choose a Tool – Popular options include Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Quillbot. Many offer free versions with basic features.
2. Paste or Upload Your Text – Most tools let you copy-paste text or upload a document directly.
3. Review Suggestions – Pay attention to each correction offered. A good practice is to understand why the correction is suggested rather than just accepting it blindly.
4. Apply or Ignore – Not every suggestion fits your writing style. Use judgment to accept corrections that improve clarity without changing the meaning.
5. Recheck Your Work – After edits, run the text again to ensure it is polished.

Adding a Plagiarism Checker
While grammar checkers fix errors, plagiarism checkers ensure originality. Beginners often unintentionally copy text by paraphrasing too closely or forgetting citations.
How to use a plagiarism checker:
• Paste your text into a reliable tool like Turnitin, Grammarly’s plagiarism checker, or Quetext.
• Review the report, which highlights matched content sources.
• Rephrase flagged sections or add proper citations to make your work original.
Using a plagiarism checker not only prevents academic or professional issues but also boosts your credibility as a writer.

Free AI Content Detector: Ensuring Authenticity
With the rise of AI-generated text, many institutions and platforms now require proof that content is authentically human-written. Free AI content detectors help by analyzing whether your text resembles machine-generated language.
Steps for beginners:
• Copy and paste your work into a detector tool such as GPTZero, Originality.ai, or Scribbr’s AI detector.
• Check the percentage score—it will show how “human-like” your writing appears.
• If your score suggests high AI involvement, review areas that sound generic or overly formal. Rewrite them in your voice for more authenticity.

Best Practices for Beginners
• Use these tools as a guide, not a crutch. Don’t rely on them to do all the thinking for you.
• Combine grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and content detectors for a complete polish.
• Always reread your work manually; no tool is 100% perfect.
• Learn from the corrections. Over time, you’ll notice fewer mistakes in your drafts.

Final Thoughts
For beginners, writing may seem overwhelming, but tools like grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and AI content detectors simplify the process. They ensure your writing is not only error-free but also original and human-authentic. By using these tools wisely, you can grow into a confident writer with polished, professional content.

Writing well is a valuable skill whether you’re a student, professional, or content creator. Clear, error-free writing builds credibility and helps your message shine. However, spotting every mistake on your own can be difficult. This is where digital tools like grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and AI content detectors become essential. If you are just getting started, this guide will walk you through how to use these tools effectively to polish your writing.

Why Use a Grammar Checker?
Grammar checkers are designed to detect common writing issues such as spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, subject-verb disagreements, and improper sentence structures. For beginners, they serve as a user-friendly solution to improve writing quality without needing advanced grammar knowledge.
Benefits include:
• Saving time on proofreading
• Catching unnoticed errors
• Improving sentence clarity
• Offering learning opportunities with explanations of mistakes

How to Use a Grammar Checker
1. Choose a Tool – Popular options include Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Quillbot. Many offer free versions with basic features.
2. Paste or Upload Your Text – Most tools let you copy-paste text or upload a document directly.
3. Review Suggestions – Pay attention to each correction offered. A good practice is to understand why the correction is suggested rather than just accepting it blindly.
4. Apply or Ignore – Not every suggestion fits your writing style. Use judgment to accept corrections that improve clarity without changing the meaning.
5. Recheck Your Work – After edits, run the text again to ensure it is polished.

Adding a Plagiarism Checker
While grammar checkers fix errors, plagiarism checkers ensure originality. Beginners often unintentionally copy text by paraphrasing too closely or forgetting citations.
How to use a plagiarism checker:
• Paste your text into a reliable tool like Turnitin, Grammarly’s plagiarism checker, or Quetext.
• Review the report, which highlights matched content sources.
• Rephrase flagged sections or add proper citations to make your work original.
Using a plagiarism checker not only prevents academic or professional issues but also boosts your credibility as a writer.

Free AI Content Detector: Ensuring Authenticity
With the rise of AI-generated text, many institutions and platforms now require proof that content is authentically human-written. Free AI content detectors help by analyzing whether your text resembles machine-generated language.
Steps for beginners:
• Copy and paste your work into a detector tool such as GPTZero, Originality.ai, or Scribbr’s AI detector.
• Check the percentage score—it will show how “human-like” your writing appears.
• If your score suggests high AI involvement, review areas that sound generic or overly formal. Rewrite them in your voice for more authenticity.

Best Practices for Beginners
• Use these tools as a guide, not a crutch. Don’t rely on them to do all the thinking for you.
• Combine grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and content detectors for a complete polish.
• Always reread your work manually; no tool is 100% perfect.
• Learn from the corrections. Over time, you’ll notice fewer mistakes in your drafts.

Final Thoughts
For beginners, writing may seem overwhelming, but tools like grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and AI content detectors simplify the process. They ensure your writing is not only error-free but also original and human-authentic. By using these tools wisely, you can grow into a confident writer with polished, professional content.

Latin America is the most dangerous region for environmental advocates, with many of the cases remaining unsolved, according to a new report. Indigenous people, farmers and activists are all among the casualties.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/dw.com/en/mo…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

More than 140 environmental defenders killed in 2024

^{Felix Tamsut (Deutsche Welle)}

President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital has led to federal charges against more than 50 people over the past month

Prosecutors already have dropped nearly a dozen cases from Trump's DC crime surge, judge says

^{Michael Kunzelman (The Independent)}

Global warming brought on by humans was responsible for around 16,500 deaths across European cities this summer, according to a preliminary study released by climate scientists and health researchers, who say the death toll could be even higher. This year was the continent’s fourth hottest summer on record.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/france24.com…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Climate change caused more than two thirds of heat deaths in European cities this summer, study says

^{FRANCE 24}

This comes in the wake of the implementation in summer 2025 of new rules on entering the mountain.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/straitstimes…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Climbers on Mount Fuji’s popular trail drops by 30% following new rules

This comes in the wake of the implementation in summer 2025 of new rules on entering the mountain. Read more at straitstimes.com.

^ST

After nearly 50 years, Greenfield says he cannot ‘in good conscience’ continue; Unilever has previously rejected similar claims by Ben & Jerry’s social mission board

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield quits accusing Unilever of silencing social mission

After nearly 50 years, Greenfield says he cannot ‘in good conscience’ continue; Unilever has previously rejected similar claims by Ben & Jerry’s social mission board

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

🔴 Soutenez, partagez, rejoignez la riposte pour une INFO libre, populaire sur la TNT et les réseaux-sociaux ! lemediatv.fr/campagne

Mardi 16 septembre, l’armée israélienne a lancé officiellement sa phase terrestre principale à Gaza, après des bombardements massifs sur tout le territoire. Cette offensive intervient au lendemain de la visite de Marco Rubio à Jérusalem, où il a réaffirmé le soutien des États-Unis à Israël pour « l’élimination du Hamas ». Netanyahu a salué Rubio comme un « véritable ami d’Israël », confirmant l’alliance indéfectible entre les deux pays. Les frappes israéliennes sur le Qatar, qui ont tué six personnes, ont été minimisées par Washington, malgré les critiques qataries dénonçant un « terrorisme d’État » et la violation du processus de médiation. Pendant ce temps, Gaza-Ville subit des bombardements « massifs et incessants », avec 650 000 habitants piégés et la défense civile palestinienne alertant sur un « massacre majeur ».

Depuis octobre 2023, plus de 200 000 Palestiniens ont été tués selon l’ancien chef d’état-major israélien Herzi Halevi, un chiffre déjà largement sous-estimé. Un rapport universitaire estime que 377 000 personnes ont disparu, dont plus de 150 000 enfants. Ce mardi, une enquête de l’ONU accuse Israël de commettre un génocide, remplissant 4 des 5 critères de la convention de 1948, citant les déclarations de Netanyahu, Herzog et Gallant comme preuves d’intention génocidaire.

Le 22 septembre, Emmanuel Macron reconnaîtra officiellement la Palestine à l’ONU, un geste diplomatique historique qualifié de « chemin irréversible vers la paix ». Notre reporter Amina Kalache sera sur place pour Le Média, pour vous faire vivre ce moment historique en direct.

⚠️ Le Média est diffusé sur le canal 165 de la Freebox et sur le bouquet gratuit de Molotov TV.

Suivez Le Média sur sa seconde chaîne Youtube :
👉 https://www.youtube.com/@LeMédia24-7

👉 Pour signer la pétition pour une "TNT plus démocratique" et soutenir notre recours contre l'ARCOM : lemediatv.fr/campagne

👉 Pour recevoir les dernières actualités, le résumé de la semaine et être alerté des derniers programmes publiés du Média, directement dans votre boîte e-mail.
newsletter.lemediatv.fr

▶ Soutenez Le Média :
👉 soutenez.lemediatv.fr (CB - SEPA - Chèque)
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✅ Suivez-nous :
Instagram : instagram.com/lemedia_tv/
Facebook : bit.ly/FacebookLeMedia
BlueSky : bsky.app/profile/lemediatv.bsk…
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Telegram : https://t.me/LeMediaOfficiel
TikTok : tiktok.com/@lemediatv

Rejoignez la communauté des Socios !

Le Média lance le plan “Riposte” | Le Média

Le Média lance une contre-offensive citoyenne pour renforcer votre média indépendant et rééquilibrer la bataille culturelle.

^{www.lemediatv.fr}

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/36040248

Alphane Moon

2025-09-17 06:39:47

Millions turn to AI chatbots for spiritual guidance and confession

Millions turn to AI chatbots for spiritual guidance and confession

Bible Chat hits 30 million downloads as users seek algorithmic absolution.

^{Benj Edwards (Ars Technica)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/42411443

Archived

Chinese miners are illegally extracting Congolese gold on a vast scale, according to a new report from the nonprofit PAX, which also accuses the Democratic Republic of the Congo of weak and ineffective governance.

The report, published Wednesday by the Netherlands-based peace advocacy group, said that semi-industrial gold mining operations have devastated at least 155 miles of rivers and streams in Haut-Uélé, a province where poverty is widespread and where armed conflict and violence have roiled the population for decades.

[...]

Asked about whether Chinese nationals are engaged in illegal, semi-industrial gold mining in northeastern DRC, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a written statement: “I’m not aware of the specifics you mentioned. Please refer to the competent authorities for further comments.”

He added: “As a principle, the Chinese government consistently requires Chinese nationals abroad to abide by local laws and regulations and to refrain from any illegal activities.”

China’s Foreign Ministry said virtually the same thing in January when asked about similar illegal gold mining operations in a different DRC region, Kivu.

A surge in illegal gold mining in Haut-Uélé began in 2020, with Congolese mining enterprises presented as small-scale, artisanal “cooperatives” using Chinese financial and technical backing, the report said. Congolese law allows artisanal mining cooperatives of Congolese nationals to operate in certain areas if licensed.

Chinese Miners Accused of Gold Pillage, Environmental Destruction in DRC - Inside Climate News

A new report says illegal, semi-industrial gold mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is wrecking havoc on Congolese people and the environment.

^{Inside Climate News}

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/oracle-silver-lake-consortium-control-80-stake-tiktok-us-wsj-reports-2025-09-16/

State of the Bird August 2025

The State of the Bird is a recap of what has been happening in the project.

You can find the previous posts via the #state-of-the-bird tag.

Retrospective

Our last State of the Bird was August 2nd 2025 and can be found here.

Things have picked up considerably since the summer lull in the northern hemisphere.

Metrics

We have a number of metrics we keep an eye on which you can see below.

Contributors

The number of contributors continues to fluctuate a bit, but that's expected for a volunteer project.

If you're interested in contributing you can find some documentation here including ways that don't require knowing how to program.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#db3a83,#e76a2a,#4cdc8b" title="Contibutors" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-03 | 2025-04 | 2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08Developers | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |Crazy Patch Writers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |Casual | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1[/chart]

Review Requests

Review requests are what we call our code reviews and this is a look at how many were open and closed each month.

As you can see activity has picked up quite a bit.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#db3a83,#e76a2a" title="Review Requests" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-03 | 2025-04 | 2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08Open | 78 | 44 | 26 | 20 | 42 | 61 |Closed | 82 | 43 | 22 | 25 | 39 | 57 |[/chart]

Issues

This is a look at the number of issues that were opened in our issue tracker as well as how many were closed by month.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#db3a83,#e76a2a" title="Issues" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-03 | 2025-04 | 2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08Open | 41 | 16 | 6 | 11 | 11 | 16 |Closed | 18 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 11 |[/chart]

Commits

This is a break down of commits to each project per month. In most cases a review request is just a single commit, but this chart helps to see what projects are being worked on.

As you can see, Pidgin 3 activity continues to dominate everything else.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#ed207b,#9eb83b,#0088cc,#b3b5b4,#8c6238,#231f20,#f1592a,#ffea61,#bf1e2e,#0088cc,#57e389,#7f007f" title="Commits" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-03 | 2025-04 | 2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08Pidgin 3 | 27 | 28 | 15 | 10 | 25 | 51 |Pidgin 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 |GPlugin | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |HASL | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 |Birb | 6 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |Xeme | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |Ibis | 27 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |Hiya | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |Myna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |Seagull | 8 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 0 |Traversity | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |retro-purple | 0 | 0 | 38 | 48 | 0 | 3 |[/chart]

Infrastructure

No new updates here.

#pidgin3

Retrospective

Lots of work on Pidgin 3 this month!

Updates

• Cleaned up and modernize PurpleImage. We were looking to get rid of this, but GdkPixbuf is getting deprecated so we cleaned this up and backed it with GBytes as we'll be using it going forward.
• Replaced Purple.Avatar with Purple.Image. With the above mentioned GdkPixbuf deprecations there isn't much need for this anymore as Purple.Image will handle everything we need.
• Added an avatar-for-display property to Purple.ContactInfo. This is just like all the other -for-display functions, but for avatars.
• Created Purple.Contacts. This is a simple collection of Purple.Contact instances which is used by the new Purple.ProtocolDirectory API.
• Created Purple.ProtocolDirectory. This is currently just being used to search for users but in the future will include channels as well.
• Added Purple.ConversationMembers.find_first_other. This is used to help find the ConversationMember for the non purple user in a direct message.
• Don't show the presence icon in messages. This turned out to get really obnoxious over time.
• Made the demo protocol plugin use the active presence. This is the first step in getting a status selector going.
• Added default handlers to Purple.Account to manage the online state of conversations. These handlers will automatically mark all conversations for an account offline when the account disconnects as well as ask the protocol to refresh the conversation when the account comes back online.
• Added a Purple.ContactInfo:badges property. This allows us to set badges at a global global as well as the existing conversation level.
• Added vfuncs to Purple.Protocol for setting display names.
• Added a Purple.Conversation::displayed. This is useful for protocols so that they can avoid syncing a conversation until the user is actually looking at it.
• Removed all of the proxy code. Nearly all of our proxy stuff is supported by GProxyResolver so we didn't really need it anymore. We do still need to add back the preferences and account settings, but there isn't a large need for this right now.
• Moved the saved-plugins preference to GSettings. This was the last user of the preferences API.
• Removed the preferences API. Everything has been ported to GSettings now so this API was no longer necessary.
• Removed Purple.ContactInfo:username. For protocols that still use usernames should be using the id field and this field was just making everything more confusing.
• Deprecated ChangeLog.API. This was a very large and difficult to read list and most of the API changes are in the core documentation and separate articles are being written to make the changes easier to understand.
• Renamed Attachment:inline to Attachment:is-inline to fix some compiler errors on Windows.
• Ported everything to the birb string functions.

Releases

None

Future Plans

• The account options API is in the process of being replaced by a new AccountSetting API.

The following items are still in the works from the last state of the bird.

• Add persistence to the scheduler.
• Add persistence to the contact manager, this needs to be done so we can fix some issues with direct messages being restored correctly.
• Gary has started an out o#gplugin-plugin-library f tree protocol plugin to help figure out how the voice and video API will work.

As always, you can view the burn down chart for our next release here.

#pidgin2

We're still planning on doing a 2.15.0 release, but we haven't moved forward on this at all this month.

Updates

• Cleaned up the app data file.
• Removed the auto package spec file.

Retrospective

We still need to finish up the build environment packages so we can upgrade GTK on windows and get that all into the installer. We also need to remember to update the spell checking dictionaries as we haven't done that in awhile.

Releases

None

Future Plans

Just the same as what was mentioned above.

#gplugin

GPlugin is our GObject based plugin library that is used in Pidgin 3.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Updates

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

We're going to continue moving forward with the GLib.List -> Gio.ListModel changes and eventually have GPlugin.Manager implement Gio.ListModel.

#hasl

HASL is the Hassle-free Authentication and Security Layer library. It implements SASL in a modern and easy use way compared to the existing libraries.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Updates

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

We have been in the progress of implementing the SCRAM Mechanisms which will be included in the next release.

#birb

Birb is a library of GLib utilities that we use across all of our projects.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Updates

None

Releases

None

#xeme

Xeme is our XMPP integration library. It is the basis for both the Link Local Messaging (Bonjour) and XMPP protocols in Pidgin 3. It is still early in development and has not yet had a release.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Updates

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

Everything! Seriously though, we're looking to get back to this in the near future.

Ibis

#ircv3-library is our IRCv3 integration library. It has seen a lot of active development as it is used in the IRCv3 protocol plugin in Pidgin 3.

We are nearing known feature completion on it and expect to do a 1.0 release in the near future.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Updates

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

Continue working through the open issues and watching new IRCv3 specifications for things we should be including.

#hiya

Hiya is a new client abstraction library for mDNS. It was created to help make implementation of the Link Local Messaging protocol easier as we would have to abstract out the different platform implementations and by putting it in a library that abstraction can be used by other projects.

Hiya has not yet had a release.

#myna

Myna is a new integration library for Matrix. It is still extremely early in development.

#sqlite3-helper-library

Seagull is a new library we created to make working with SQLite feel more like a GLIB/GNOME library and force usage of prepared statements with named parameters and other similar things.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Updates

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

We have a few features to fill out yet and a few ideas that need a bit more time in the oven.

More specific details can be found in our open issues.

#traversity

Traversity is a new library for traversing NATs. There are many different ways to traverse a NAT and the goal of Traversity is to hide that from developers who just need to traverse a NAT.

It is still early in development and has not yet had an official release.

#retro-prpl

retro-prpl is a new repository we've created on GitHub. This repository contains all of the abandoned protocols that have ever lived in our code base and is meant to make them easier to study and for people to use with services like Retro AIM Server, escargot, and NINA.

Retrospective

We realized that users can't necessarily point these protocol to different severs so we've been slowly correcting that.

Updates

• Fixed some compiler warnings in libymsg.
• Removed the default server from napster.

Releases

None

Future Plans

Right now we didn't add any support for protocol specific emojis because we completely forgot about them. Anyways we're looking at creating a custom emoji theme that will include everything for these retro protocols.

One Last Thing...

We've gotten a fair amount of feedback when it comes to the user interface direction of Pidgin 3. The feedback is that some people prefer the simplified user interface of Pidgin 2 which is more focused on one to one chats than multiple user chat rooms.

Due to this, Gary has been playing around with an additional GTK4 interface which will reproduce the Pidgin 2 look and feel. This is still very early in development, but as it's just another GTK4 user interface which we're all very well versed in, it should pick up steam quickly especially since it's cloning an existing design. However, we're waiting on the Account Setting API before we really move forward at the moment.

So that said, the only thing left to discuss is the name. As you might have guessed, we've spent a fair amount of time discussing this and I'm pleased to tell you that we're calling it Gaim 3. That's right, we're bringing the Gaim name back. We've talked to a lawyer and they believe we are in the clear when it comes to the old AOL trademark which has since expired.

We have created a #gaim category on our Discourse for additional discussion including some screen shots of what it looks like so far and Gaim 3 will be part of future State of the Birds!

Closing

We hope you all are enjoying the new format and if you have any questions of comments please leave them below!

Discuss this on our forum.

Matrix.org

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications

^matrix.org

Just updated Chrome on Windows.

You now have to sign in at the start, or go in limited "Guest" mode in which everything in settings has been cut out. So it automatically downloads to OneDrive for instance and you can't change it.

There is no Google prompt, only an AI prompt where the URL bar would be.

I'm using Firefox now, I can't get anything to work on Chrome.