Electric cars only solve one problem: tail pipe emissions. We will still have problems of over crowded highways and too much space needed for parking. The real key is to reduce our dependence on highways.

I’m too long in the tooth to pass myself off as a student at Crumpledbeercan University but I could probably teach beer research there.

I’d like to start opinion blogging about politics and international current affairs. The problem is I’d like to keep it out of the social timeline at Micro.blog and I don’t want to start a new seperate MB blog. So I need to decide on a platform.

Most of the plastics in our fresh water come from our laundry per American Scientist. Our washing machines don’t filter out micro-plastic lint and neither does our sewage treatment plants. #greatlakes

What is it with automobile drivers these days, ignoring the stop arm on school buses? Drivers seem to have a sense of entitlement these days that didn’t use to exist.

Oh great, another invasive insect from China that is eating our trees and grapes. Thank you New World Order. Just what we needed.

I could not find graph paper in any of the stationary isles of the pharmacy or dollar stores close to me. I’m not going to drive 20 miles to find it so I ordered from (where else?) - Amazon. The paper will go with my new Pentel drafting pencil and rusty old skills.

My Rules: The only proper use of no-follow in links is when linking to anything owned by Google or Google itself. Otherwise, ignore what Google wants.

Thinking about colors and web design, if I had my way, all links would be old school blue like the 1990’s. It’s very easy to pick them out and I don’t care what it might look like.

Reminder to Self: An Emu is a goofy looking bird, not the name for some color only women know about.

Huawei Opts for Linux on Its Laptops Not surprising. More people should use Linux.

Perversely, the whole ban against Huawei from using US tech is more likely to promote Linux and un-Googled Android on phones faster than US Gov’t anti-trust suits. The world wants out of the Google/Android and Apple/iOS stranglehold.

Brexit - I have no clue.

Trump - I have no clue, other than he likes baiting the opposition.

Democrats - Soundbites.

News Media - lost the hunt.

I really hope e Foundation can get a good phone out for USA customers in the next few months. I like their eco-system approach, access to open source Android apps. Plus maybe I can get @vivaldi to run on it. @gael_duval @e_mydata

The new Land Rover Defender is out and coming to America. I like the looks although I wish it were even more boxy, but EU regs won’t allow. Still it looks way better than SUV’s from USA and Asian car makers.

Reminder: The Correspondent starts publishing 30 September 2019. Just in time for the full blown Election Season of Weird.

Windows users: just in case you want a WebKit based browser on Windows you can try Midori web browser I’ve never gotten excited about Midori. I do notice it has an RSS extension.

Android users: Vivaldi has released a beta of their first mobile browser The news is on all the tech websites. Sounds like it is a pretty polished beta. Give it a try.

Previously, I had been using an online RSS reader service. But I’ve hit the limits of the free version and I don’t want to add yet another monthly subscription payment. These monthly services for streaming TV, apps, subscriptions, web services and even charitable donations are starting to become quite a drain and I really don’t want to add any more. So I’m experimenting with switching back to an old school software RSS feed reader, so it resides on my computer not in the cloud.

Advantage: free software, no ads, no fees. No third party provider so privacy too.

Disadvantage: Not cross platform and no sync.

I went to my favorite review site and (re)found this article Best Free RSS Reader-Aggregator. Their top recommendation for a desktop RSS reader was: QuiteRSS

QuiteRSS is open source, free and multi-platform. It has Windows, macOS, Linux, OS/2 and more versions available. I’m using Pop_OS version of Linux which is derived from (downstream) Ubuntu and they have an Ubuntu version. Most any Ubuntu software will run on Pop_OS. Good. But the Ubuntu version requires an install from command line. This gives me pause, I’m not a fan of command line. But, frankly, this looks like the only full featured RSS reader I’m likely to find so I had to man-up and just do it.

The command line install, went smoothly, so I won’t bore you with the details. When I got done there was a nice friendly QuiteRSS icon in my software tray.

I clicked on that, and wonders, QuiteRSS ran! I added a feed and that worked perfectly.

My first impression is QuiteRSS runs smoothly and looks and feels polished and full featured. So much of FOSS, Linux software always seems to me, to be, not quite finished, but QuiteRSS is the exception to that experience. The UI is not very intuitive, but using the “Stupid Brad” principle - if I can figure it out then most people can figure it out. I don’t think you will have much of a problem. There are lots of customization options, it’s just that you have to dig a little to find them.

More after I use it.

Today, I start searching for a good Linux based RSS reader.

Librem 5 Linux Smartphone Shipping Schedule (Click it, it’s a link.) Hrrm, looks like it could be 2Q of 2020 before I can get a final, long term release. Pine Phone may be out by then. Will have to think about this.

Gnome “Web” browser f/k/a “Epiphany” is going to be the supplied default browser on the Librem 5 Linux smartphone. Because of that and because I’m lined up to get a Librem 5, I decided to check it out.

I’ve tried Web on the desktop years ago and always found it to be too minimalist, too light weight for my needs on a desktop. But looking at it again I did find some really Good Things.

Good Things:

1. Rendering Engine: Web uses the same open source fork of WebKit that Apple’s Safari uses, or darn close to it. This is good because Safari renders very well on a smartphone screen. It’s tried and true and well supported with Apple, Gnome and others contributing improvements and refinements to the upstream. Plus it is NOT based on Chrome/Chromium so we help avoid a mono-culture.

2. Leanness: Web only uses 2MB of memory running on most Debian based Linux distros. While that leanness might be a liability on a full desktop computer (subjectively), it becomes a strength on a smartphone with a 6” touchscreen.

3. Firefox Sync: If you are a Firefox user, Web will sync with Firefox. This means your FF bookmarks, history and passwords will sync back and forth between Web and FF.

These three things do a lot to put my mind at ease about being restricted (at least at first) to Web as a browser on the Librem 5.

Even Linux users on the desktop might find Web to be just what they are looking for, so you might want to try it out.

Bicycles, Scooters and the Centuries Old Fight for City Streets Long article but extremely interesting. We’ve been here before.

Alternative Operating Systems – TechRadar. Beyond Windows, macOS and Linux. Sorry to see OS/2 is on life support. I never used it but I hear it was good.

Indianapolis rolls out the red carpet for transit. I think Bus Rapid Transit is a good option for many mid sized cities in America. I’m glad Indy went with electric BRT buses.