ianso

What I'm looking for is an 8GB phone that I can run Docker on, to host apps like DHIS2 & OpenMRS3 (so a JVM). I have the impression that this isn't easily possible with Halium-based kernels, but I'm not an expert.

Edit: oh and full access to the radio chips, so I can set up mesh networks (and a cherry on top :-))

https://ianso.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-we-dont-have.html

Things like running a distributed database for a community on top of the devices they own, hopefully also running true mesh networking.

In my personal GH account there is a "sponsor" button that shows me what dependencies I have that I could sponsor. Unfortunately the list is empty.

My _organisations_ have hundreds of repo's, but there's no "sponsor" option at the org level in GH that says what dependencies the orgs use and then set up batch transactions at that level.

The dependency data already exists in dependabot for a lot of stuff, so it wouldn't be starting from scratch.

SDR + something like Reticulum or Yggdrasil would definitely provide the infra or network fabric for the kind of thing I'm thinking of.

However, a normal Android, e.g. a Pixel 7, can't to my knowledge be turned into a web server or a podman host for containers. (I know of people hosting websites on old Androids that are flashed or hacked).

Given phones already have a WiFi/WLAN radio chip, it's a shame to need extra kit for connectivity.

It's something that's been on my mind a lot recently and so you provoked me into writing down a series of scenarios in story format that illustrates what SHOULD be possible using current hardware, were it not, as dlcarrier says, locked down like a games console.

Here you go:

https://ianso.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-we-dont-have.html

Think mesh networking, resilient ad-hoc application clustering, non-Internet P2P, like Freifunk but everywhere. We shouldn't have to depend on Google or any of the big tech companies for anything except the hardware.

That would offer much more freedom. There are also contexts where this kind of thing could also enable life-saving applications. And unlike todays Internet where a database query in Cloudflare or a DNS bug in es-east-1 can disrupt half the services we use, this kind of technology really could withstand major attacks on infrastructure hubs, like the Internet was originally designed to do.

So it's not like you need to crawl the sites to get content for training your models...

Massive respect to this ED.

Honestly, people complain about software all the time and all software sucks to some extent, some more than others of course. Complaining about all EMR just because the USA bodged a national rollout in their uniquely messed up healthcare situation is a bit myopic.

Needless to say we don't have a Fortune 500 budget. When I see a nice, affordable app that says "and here's a Docker image!" next to the SaaS options, I am like ( ˘ ³ ˘ ) ♥

http://everything2.com/title/Two+stories+of+the+pistol

GPG is just one guy. Who's practically beggared himself writing and maintaining the tool.

GPG is actually used by human rights activists, journalists etc. That, right there, is reason enough to celebrate it and NOT "kill it off".

I think the massive pile-on this is creating is really dumb, to be honest. So Moxie thinks it could be done better; that's great. He's good enough that he can "show, not tell".

Why waste time denigrating a project that's basically a labour of love for one guy that is actually tremendously important, even if it's "90's technology"? Old doesn't necessarily mean bad.

"But, at first, cautious NASA bureaucrats didn’t want to stop the construction on their own authority. And then Congress — at the urging of a senator from Mississippi — swooped in and ordered the agency to finish the tower, no matter what."

Why condemn NASA for cronyism and Congressional stupidity?

http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.7152

>By design as in, that's the only way the network could conceivably work.

This network, yes. But you can construct truly anonymous cryptocurrencies with e.g. zero-knowledge proofs, yet the author(s) chose not to. This would have enabled AP, maybe answering PGs question in point #2 of his post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5547423).

I didn't know the original code was that buggy, I confess I was lulled a bit by the line "This was the only major security flaw found and exploited in Bitcoin's history" in the wiki article. Maybe it needs changing in the light of https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Common_Vulnerabilities_and_Exposu... :-)

Point 6 is my main stepping-stone from 'organised and capable' to 'government'. FWIW governments have deliberately set up 'dodgy banks' as a way of attracting money launderers and then busting them, so I think it's valid.