Today, I celebrate 20 years of Vienna, the open source macOS RSS reader.

https://www.vienna-rss.com/blog/news/2025/07/07/Celebrating-20-years-of-ViennaRSS.html

#longread #macos #opensource #macintosh

Great! A bunch of us here wanted it. Now it exists. 👍

It's a "dark archive" of the arXiv - a non-public backup to save the data in case of attack by hackers or the US government. The arXiv, I hope you know, is the biggest source of modern math and physics papers.

Who got the job done? The TIB: the Technische Informationsbibliothek, run by the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, in Hannover, Germany.

They write:

"The TIB has now set up a so-called dark archive for the arXiv content in order to be able to make the backed-up data accessible if the data stored in the USA is lost. The archive functions as a silent reserve: the complete copy of the content is stored decentrally at the TIB, but is not publicly accessible. This means that the data stock – almost 10 terabytes – is protected against potential outages and can be activated in an emergency.

The TIB is currently working on processes to keep the archive up to date: new submissions and updated versions must be backed up regularly in order to preserve the state of research as completely as possible.

“Building a Dark Archive is an expression of our longstanding commitment for a reliable, international academic provision, and as a partner of arXiv. Even though the Dark Archive today only works in the background, it is a key element in safeguarding digital research contents in the long term, because in case of a crisis, we could open the archive,” explains Dr Irina Sens, Deputy Director of the TIB."

We should call it the darXiv.

More details here:

https://blog.tib.eu/2025/05/14/protecting-science-tib-builds-dark-archive-for-arxiv/

Holy shit! I've found a contactless payment app which works on #GrapheneOS!

Google Wallet refuses to play nicely with nonofficial OSes.

All UK credit card providers seem to go via GPay.

But Curve - the virtual card app - works perfectly! I added my credit card, set up their contactless wallet, and just paid for a bun using NFC 😃

Only works with Visa & MasterCard, but that's good enough for me.

Obligatory referral link (sign up and get £10). https://www.curve.com/join#D4MK9ZKN

Omgggg!! I just discovered that Project Gutenberg has an automated feed on #Mastodon where they post new books they add!

Go follow them: @gutenberg_new

#books #bookstodon #reading

Back in the day, Twitter used to be really good if I set up a thread to connect freelancers with clients. Let's see if Mastodon can do it.

Clients: if you're looking for freelancers/contractors, get in the comments

Freelancers/contractors: get in the comments

Everyone else: boosts appreciated.

The market is *dead* for freelancers and a big part of that (in my opinion) is fragmentation. Let's get that network effect *back*.

#FediHire