Welcome to issue #19 of the Dithering Digest Weekly Tech News Roundup.
As you can hopefully tell, my experiments with the Hugo Static Site generator have paid off! The site is now completely static, which means faster page loads, increased security and a distraction-free writing environment for me. Yay!
I have managed to port the old comments from the Wordpress site to this one using Disqus and hopefully all the URLs have mapped over so everything should be working well. If you notice any strange behaviour please let me know.
Have a lovely weekend, and enjoy the links.
Home Assistant Voice assistant contest winners announced
Home Assistant recently held a community contest to see who could come up with the coolest, weirdest and best integrations to conclude The Year of Voice. There are some absolute crackers in here and it really shows off the creativity of the Home Assistant community as well as the fact that open source allows these kind of creations to flourish.
macOS 14.4 update seemingly breaks Java and some USB hubs
A recent update to macOS Sonoma seems to be causing havoc for users with many reporting USB hubs no longer connecting, printer drivers causing problems and and app crashes in certain Java apps.
The problem seems confined to Apple Silicon Macs so running apps in Rosetta mode may allow you to workaround until a fix is issued.
🔗 USB Hubs and more broken by macOS 14.4 update
CSA announces IoT Device Security Specification
With the explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in homes and offices all over the world, many lesser-known brands are releasing substandard products with massive security flaws. Just the sheer number of wide open web cameras in peoples’ homes is terrifying.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance has announced a baseline security standard and certification program to provide a globally recognised certification to allow users to easily spot devices that adhere to this standard.
Apple still considering the Core Technology Fee in Europe
Apple recently had executives at a 9 hour(!) workshop in conjunction with the EU to discuss implementation of the DMA rules. Developers were able to ask questions directly and Riley Testut, maker of AltStore - a 3rd party AppStore, used his question to ask about the CTF for free apps. He is worried it will put off young developers who develop their apps for free, and who could potentially be bankrupted by it.
Apple seem to still be working out the kinks in their approach but it was interesting to see the executives answering.
There is a video of the exchange in the linked article.
Long distance debugging
Debugging code or hardware is time-consuming and fiddly and can be a royal pain. However, I am willing to bet you have never had to debug a system that takes 45 hours to let you know if it worked or not!
NASA are trying to work out and rectify the issues that have prevented Voyager 1 from sending a solid signal back to Earth since November 2023, but now they seem to be making progress. But with each command taking 22.5 hours to send and then the same time again to receive, it is a slow process. And it’s not like they can just drive out to it if a remote fix doesn’t work!
Apple overhauls support docs section of website
Apple has just released a revamp of part of the support section of their website. It looks like it is much easier to find manuals, specification sheets and downloads for any Apple product now.
One to save to your bookmarks for future reference!
Computer Joke of the Week
An SQL statement walks into a bar and sees two tables. It approaches, and asks “may I join you?”
If you have any cool projects or tinkering you are doing, let us know and we will feature it in future issues of the digest. I would love to hear what you are all dithering on!
Until next week, happy dithering!
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