Audacity is the go-to audio editor for a lot of people, and for good reason—it’s simple, free, and still reasonably powerful. But with the recent privacy controversy weakening confidence in the new owners, now’s a good time to look at the alternatives. Fortunately, there are a lot of great ones that have been competing with Audacity for years.
KiwiSDR is hardware that uses a software-defined radio to monitor transmissions in a local area and stream them over the Internet. A largely hobbyist base of users does all kinds of cool things with the playing-card-sized devices. For instance, a user in Manhattan could connect one to the Internet so that people in Madrid, Spain, or Sydney, Australia, could listen to AM radio broadcasts, CB radio conversations, or even watch lightning storms in Manhattan.
On Wednesday, users learned that for years, their devices had been equipped with a backdoor that allowed the KiwiSDR creator—and possibly others—to log in to the devices with administrative system rights. The remote admin could then make configuration changes and access data not just for the KiwiSDR but in many cases to the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, or other computing devices the SDR hardware is connected to.
The brouhaha started just a few months ago when Audacity was bought by the Muse Group, the company behind equally popular music software like MuseScore, which is also open source, and Ultimate Guitar. So far, Audacity remains open source (and can’t really be changed into proprietary software in its current form), but that doesn’t mean that Muse Group can’t do some pretty damaging changes. Those changes come in the form of the new privacy policy that was just updated a few days ago, a policy that now allows it to collect user data.
As a desktop application with no core online functionality, Audacity never had any need to “phone home” in the first place. Now the privacy policy says that the new company does collect data and does so in a way that’s both over-arching and vague, most likely by design. For example, it says that it collects data necessary for law enforcement but doesn’t specify what kind of data is collected.
There are also questions regarding the storage of data, which is located in servers in the USA, Russia, and the European Economic Area. IP addresses, for example, are stored in an identifiable way for a day before being hashed and then stored in servers for a year. The new policy also disallows people under the age of 13 from using the software, which, as FOSS Post points out, is a violation of the GPL license that Audacity uses.
Google offers many desirable, easy-to-use, effective features. Going open source is trickier. //
Finding a solution to organizing and safely storing these precious memories is more important than ever, and it's becoming an increasingly large problem to solve. Photos depict a special moment in time, a memory or event that can't be recreated. They are irreplaceable and largely only exist digitally. Because of this, there are few categories of data that suit a free and open self-hosted solution better.
frab is a web-based conference planning and management system. It helps to collect submissions, to manage talks and speakers and to create a schedule.
frab is based upon Ruby on Rails . It was created to organize FrOSCon , where it replaced pentabarf as the primary conference planning tool.
Image Composite Editor (ICE) is an advanced panoramic image stitcher created by the Microsoft Research Interactive Visual Media Group. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the app creates a high-resolution panorama that seamlessly combines the original images. ICE can also create a panorama from a panning video, including stop-motion action overlaid on the background. Finished panoramas can be shared with friends and viewed in 3D by uploading them to the Photosynth web site. Panoramas can also be saved in a wide variety of image formats, including JPEG, TIFF, and Photoshop’s PSD/PSB format, as well as the multiresolution tiled format used by HD View and Deep Zoom.
ZippyPeanutArs Praefectusreply2 days agoignore user
If you disallow sideloading, your wrong. If you tell me I MUST get a third-party product from you and you only -- that I do not have the liberty to get it elsewhere -- then you're up to something that's no good; I don't trust you.
(Also, if you inject code into my processor's firmware that slows my processor and you don't tell me, I don't trust you.)
(Also, if you do everything in your power to prevent me from repairing my own product or prevent me from using a third-party repair shop to to fix my paid-for product -- including using your wealth and power to disrupt supply chains to those third-party shops, I don't trust you.)
(Also, if you tell me that my data is irretrievably lost and that it would be foolish to try, and a third-party tells me that it is retrievable, and it turns out to be retrievable, I don't trust you.)
(If you remove an app from your store because a repressive government pressures you to do so -- and I can't get that app from another source other than you -- I don't trust you.)
(Also, if you solder in RAM and intentionally make it impossible for me to upgrade a product I bought from you, I don't trust you.)
So, Epic might not have legal standing here, but I'd trust Roger Stone before I trusted Apple. //
bushrat011899Ars Centurionet Subscriptorreply2 days agoignore user
I think consumer devices designed to run software a user buys should allow them to load software from an arbitrary source. Consoles included. Consider 20 years from now, what if a developer wants to release a new PS4 game, but Sony has shut down digital distribution services and has stopped signing the game discs. I would argue that the ability to get software for that device is integral to its operation.
Allowing users to sideload software ensures that critical functionality is preserved for all time.
I don't care for Epic in the slightest, but one outcome of this court case improves software freedom, and the other entrenches walled gardens in legal precedent. I know which outcome I want. //
LrdDimwitArs Scholae Palatinaereply2 days agoignore user
quamquam quid loquor wrote:
How far can this case go up for appeal? My understanding is the higher it goes, the more political and broad it becomes.
I wouldn't say it's necessarily true that the higher it goes, the 'more political' it becomes. That can often happen, but isn't guaranteed.
This is a federal case. There are three levels: the district court (where the trial just ended), the appellate court, and the Supreme Court. Appealing to the appellate level is automatic; any party has the right to appeal any judgment, and the appeals court must consider the appeal (if filed properly). The appeals court is usually a panel of 3 judges from the whole court; you can petition for an 'en banc rehearing' where the whole appeals court revisits the case, but that's not automatic (and is rarely granted). After that, a party that still doesn't like the decision can ask the Supreme Court to intervene. This, too, is not automatic; the Supreme Court has the discretion to decide which cases it wants to hear, and declines most petitions.
As for 'how broad' a ruling is, rulings set precedents; the key holdings of a case are binding on future decisions involving the same issue. District court rulings basically aren't precedent at all, but can still sometimes be used for reference when there is nothing better . Appeals court rulings are binding precedent on subsequent cases in the same district (for district courts and future appellate rulings; only an en banc appeals court can overrule its own precedent). District courts are supposed to rigidly follow binding precedent. Different appeals courts can issue conflicting rulings, and thus a given situation might be handled differently depending what part of the country you're in. (This is called a circuit split, and reliably gets the Supreme Court involved to sort it out nationwide). Supreme Court rulings are binding precedent on everyone but themselves, and they make a point not to reverse course often because of the chaos that ensues.
Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open source server virtualization management solution based on QEMU/KVM and LXC. You can manage virtual machines, containers, highly available clusters, storage and networks with an integrated, easy-to-use web interface or via CLI. Proxmox VE code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3. The project is developed and maintained by Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH.
For an overview of the Proxmox VE key features see the Proxmox website.
DB-Engines is an initiative to collect and present information on database management systems (DBMS). In addition to established relational DBMS, systems and concepts of the growing NoSQL area are emphasized.
The DB-Engines Ranking is a list of DBMS ranked by their current popularity. The list is updated monthly.
The most important properties of numerous systems are shown in the overview of database management systems. You can examine the properties for each system, and you can compare them side by side.
In the database encyclopedia terms and concepts on this topic are explained.
OfflineIMAP is a GPLv2 software to dispose your mailbox(es) as a local Maildir(s).
For example, this allows reading the mails while offline without the need for your mail reader (MUA) to support disconnected operations.
OfflineIMAP will synchronize both sides via IMAP.
ImageUSB is a free utility which lets you write an image concurrently to multiple USB Flash Drives. Capable of creating exact bit-level copies of USB Flash Drive (UFDs), ImageUSB is an extremely effective tool for the mass duplication of UFDs. ImageUSB also supports writing of an ISO file byte by byte directly to an USB drive (*). ImageUSB can also be used to install OSFClone to a USB Drive for use with PassMark OSForensics™.
Unlike other USB duplication tools, ImageUSB can preserve all unused and slack space during the cloning process, including the Master Boot Record (MBR). ImageUSB can perform flawless mass duplications of all UFD images, including bootable UFDs.
imageUSB includes functionality to Zero a USB Flash Drive. This will replace the contents of the entire drive with 0s. Or alternatively to just Zero the MBR and/or GPT entries that exists on the drive. In addition, imageUSB has the ability to reformat even hard to format drives and reclaim any disk space that may be lost previously.
OSForensics lets you extract forensic evidence from computers quickly with high performance file searches and indexing. Identify suspicious files and activity with hash matching, drive signature comparisons, e-mails, memory and binary data. Manage your digital investigation and create reports from collected forensic data. Phone, E-mail, Forum support, plus free upgrades, for 12 months after purchase included.
Collaboration suite,
encrypted and open-source
Rich text
Code
Presentation
Sheet
Poll
Kanban
Whiteboard
CryptDrive
Private by design
CryptPad is built to enable collaboration while keeping data private. All content is encrypted and decrypted by your browser. This means documents, chats, and files are unreadable outside of the session where you are logged in. Even the service administrators do not have access to your information.
Meet the Free Speech Web Browser
The Dissenter web browser is built for The People, not advertisers. Block Big Tech ads and trackers by default. Discover a comment section on every URL online. Welcome to the free speech internet.
Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format.
Notes exported from Evernote via .enex files can be imported into Joplin, including the formatted content (which is converted to Markdown), resources (images, attachments, etc.) and complete metadata (geolocation, updated time, created time, etc.). Plain Markdown files can also be imported.
The notes can be synchronised with various cloud services including Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV or the file system (for example with a network directory). When synchronising the notes, notebooks, tags and other metadata are saved to plain text files which can be easily inspected, backed up and moved around.
The Database Built for Speed and Scale
SingleStore is a distributed, highly-scalable SQL database that can run anywhere. We deliver maximum performance for transactional and analytical workloads with familiar relational models.
The Free Version Includes:
Full developer and administrative access
Up to 4 nodes
128 GB memory capacity
Ability to run on-premises or any cloud
Guided tutorials, self-paced exercises & moreSingleStore is The Database of NowTM for Modern Applications. Run both transactional and analytical workloads at scale with an integrated, familiar, durable SQL database
Smooth remote desktop, remote scripting, and rich auto-complete to maximize your IT support efficiency.
Remote Desktop
Instantly connect to remote desktops either unattended or by invite. Invites are started from a single-file, portable executable that's easy for customers to download and use.
Notable Features
- Support for Windows and Linux devices
- Unattended and attended access
- Remote scripting for Windows PowerShell, PowerShell Core, Bash, and CMD
- Optional WebRTC for secure peer-to-peer screen transfer on Windows agents, which reduces load on the server
- Drag-and-drop file transfer
- Remote audio streaming (Windows only)
- Bi-directional clipboard sharing
- Integrated chat
- 2-factor authentication
Get Started
Remotely is free and open-source, and there are multiple ways to start using it.
- Download the portable client to try out instant screen sharing
- Create an account on the demo server that we host to try the unattended access and remote scripting
- Install a server package to host a server yourself
- Download and build the source code to host a server yourself
Microsoft Flight Sim released yesterday, giving quarantine-stricken players an opportunity to explore a complete 1:1 scale Earth in real-time from the comfort of their homes. The Bing Maps-powered illusion is usually pretty seamless, but some players are now finding bugs that feel like “glitches in the Matrix.” Like viewing into an alternate earth, these point to what are certainly Eldritch secrets sitting just beneath the game world’s multi-petabyte surface.
Take this obelisk Twitter user Alexander Muscat found towering over Northern Melbourne during a flight. Definitely not present in real-life, this impossibly narrow skyscraper certainly isn’t there to take part in any demonic rituals, no sir. //
That said, Microsoft posted last night that it is aware of issues players are having with the game and is working to fix them. Rather than the world map, though, these mostly apply to long installation times or even installations failing to complete. These problems are somewhat understandable, given the massive 150GB of data the game needs, though some Steam reviews are upset given that the long installation time makes it impossible to get any game time in underneath Steam’s two hour refund window.