Simon Weiss

Artist, designer, coder, FOSS enjoyer.

Mostly memes here. Check out Mastodon for art and stuff.

  • 3 Posts
  • 25 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 20th, 2023

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  • Simon WeisstoPrivacyAny good Telegram alternative?
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    3 months ago

    I know that habit of using messenger app for notes :) Try [matrix] using Element or SchildiChat. It’s e2eencrypted and federated, and even supports markdown formatting in messages. Also some Slack features are included. The only issue for non-techy person might be verifying sessions - just be sure to use the same client on all devices.



  • Simon Weisstoaskchapo@hexbear.netWhich incense scent to choose?
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    4 months ago

    TL;DR Check out natural incense from different countries/traditions. Don’t burn cheap stuff, it’ll give you a headache and potential health issues.

    There is a plethora of incense beyond cheap rolled sticks that we see everywhere. I’d say, go for the most natural stuff you can find. For that you will most likely need a store that specializes in incenses to some extent. Good incenses may not be cheap, but in the long run your lungs and smell receptors will be grateful to you :)

    There are some classic base materials that are incenses themselves, but also are widely used as a base component in complex aromas. These include frankincense (of many varieties), myrrh, agarwood, juniper or sandalwood powder and many more. Most of them have pleasant pure scent. Try burning a small amount on a charcoal and you’ll be able to sense them in mixed incenses after that. In Latin America they have copal (which is similar to frankincense) and palo santo wood on this team.

    As for Indian rolled sticks: only buy those covered with powder, it will guarantee at least some quality, otherwise it would be just a charcoal core soaked in synthetic aroma oils. AFAIR “HEM” is always bad. “Satya” is a safe bet among popular brands, although as someone already mentioned all their products smell kinda the same at first sight. There are still places in India where they make sticks from natural powders and essential oils, of course more pricy and less easy to come by, but their aromas are truly rich and diverse. Most of Indian aromas are strong, sweet and intoxicating.

    Another popular type of incense is made in form of solid sticks from powdered aromatic wood, ground medicinal herbs and other solid ingredients with little to no use of essential oils. Mainly originated from Tibet, they are now produced in Nepal and Bhutan. They have smoky, earthy and herbal aromas. Most of them have relaxing or concentrating effect thanks to herbs. They’re easy to come by online or in Buddhist-related places.

    There are Japanese incense, Nippon Kodo for example, which in my experience mostly smell like highly refined Indian aromas, but they also have some bizarre scents like “Pais Cafe” (cinnamon, bread and coffee) or Aqua (basically an amplified watermelon smell). A distinctive feature of Japanese incense is that giving rich aroma they produce as little smoke as possible. Needless to say they’re the most expensive of all.

    This is what comes to mind first. The list is far from complete, feel free to ask questions if you decide to dive down the rabbit hole :D



  • If by wirelessly you mean via Wi-Fi network then one convenient option is qrcp. It generates a QR-code right in your terminal, which you can scan with a phone and send/receive files through a web interface on the URL it provides.

    If you want to transfer files regularly, there is another option. Almost every distro has Python installed, and the Python has a “built-in” FTP server. You need to just cd into desired directory and run the command python -m pyftpdlib -w. It will open a FTP server with root in this directory. You then can access it through a file manager, like Material Files for example, and send files and folders back and forth. In Material Files you can save the server address for future use.


  • If by wirelessly you mean via Wi-Fi network then one convenient option is qrcp. It generates a QR-code right in your terminal, which you can scan with a phone and send/receive files through a web interface on the URL it provides.

    If you want to transfer files regularly, there is another option. Almost every distro has Python installed, and the Python has a “built-in” FTP server. You need to just cd into desired directory and run the command python -m pyftpdlib -w. It will open a FTP server with root in this directory. You then can access it through a file manager, like Material Files for example, and send files and folders back and forth. In Material Files you can save the server address for future use.












  • SensMe in Sony and Sony-Ericsson phones and players. It was the tool that analyzed your music collection and sorted it according to energy, mood and tempo.

    The best variant was on the later products whey you had a list of channels representing either moods/styles (Energetic, Emotional, Lounge, Dance etc.) or time of the day (from ‘Morning’ to ‘Midnight’). The results were very good, especially for the time channels (except the morning) which were perfectly fitting the mood and pace of times of the day, much like Indian ragas. It really felt like your personal radio stations, freeing you from having to make playlists by yourself ever again…

    It was discontinued in 2010s because of declared low adoption by users according to some obscure internal studies :( I’ve been dreaming of replicating it using Python ever since, but never had time to do a proper research.