Hi, I’m sbird! I like programming and am interested in Astrophysics and all things space. I also have a hobby of photography.

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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2025

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  • It’s better to use a separate password manager, since it’s an additional layer of security, as you must type in a master password or, if you configure it, use a hardware key/biometrics. Also, as others have said, you can use them in non-website logins too, so it’s more flexible!

    Personally, I think Bitwarden is a pretty good option for most people. It’s cross-platform, and I think there is an option to self-host the server if you wish.

    Another option, the one I use, is KeePass (XC on desktop, DX on Android, KeePassium on iOS), which stores passwords in a local database file, and you can use Syncthing to sync the contents of the database!







  • I will say, even with the Chinese ROM, I feel like I can use so much more software and have better access to my device than my old iPhone. For one, I can connect the USB with my computer and share files quickly, and F-Droid has so many cool apps that work, and in many cases look, awesome! Being able to use different default apps, use a different launcher, and customise the icons easily with an icon pack (Apple’s sorry excuse for icon theming isn’t all that great, all you get is either a glassy colour or glassy glass)


  • If I do ever switch to a new phone (which won’t be for several years, since my phone is relatively new) I would probably go for a phone that I know is supported by LineageOS or perhaps iodeOS. This would probably be a Fairphone (likely a used model) given that I really want to support their mission for fairer materials and more repairable electronics.

    I could also try going for a strange little Linux phone, just for fun.


  • Using a Vivo smartphone (the Chinese ROM) for its good cameras (once you disable all the AI “enhancements” to the zoom that makes it all look like a messy oil painting). The OS spin is, in a word, pretty garbage. There’s unfortunately no LineageOS support for my device it seems like.

    It’s got some neat features, but there’s a whitelist for SMS apps, meaning I was stuck with the stock one. Additionally, it pops up a security warning whenever you install any app that isn’t verified by Vivo, but it doesn’t hamper my ability to install apps from F-Droid and Obtainium too much.

    Using NextDNS with a few blocklists shows that it phones home to Vivo constantly, Vivo-related links are far and above blocked by NextDNS over anything else on my devices. Not very good for privacy, like at all. It also tells me off for having private DNS and assumes that it’s the problem whenever there’s a change in the network connection.

    I am currently using the Kvaesitso launcher (and I know many like Lawnchair, but I favour the more efficient search-based interface of Kvaesitso) and for a long while it randomly switched me back to the stock launcher. The swipe up gesture also sent me to the home launcher like Kvaesitso was running as an app. It turns out that there’s a hidden option in settings to disable that, but it took a lot of looking around online to figure that out. With Kvaesitso, much of the oddities of OriginOS work out better (like the advertisements and Baidu results in the global search). I also disabled the “Origin Island” since it only worked for Spotify and nothing else I used, as well as a few other bits that I didn’t really need.

    If you want a neat phone that is good for user privacy and all that, Chinese ROM phones aren’t the way to go, but dang the camera hardware run circles around anything Apple and Samsung can produce. If you want something that supports custom ROMs, there’s of course Fairphones, which are super repairable and use fair materials and labour, but there’s plenty of other devices that support LineageOS, iodeOS, e/OS, etc. If you really want to become independent of Google you could also try a phone that supports mobile Linux (like the OnePlus 6)

    I do have photos backed up with Immich, and it works quite well!


  • Nvidia’s software bits for upscaling (game plays with lower resolution, GPU does funny things to make it look higher resolution), frame insertion (in a nutshell, creating fake frames in between real frames to make gameplay look smoother), and similar. Many of the features require game support though, so a majority games are unable to utilise the more advanced features. They can also result in a degradation in quality and increased latency.

    DLSS 4 introduced multi frame gen, where up to three fake frames were made for every one. It doesn’t magically make you have 4x the performance (so no, the 5070 is not the performance of the 4090), but it’s still pretty neat tech.

    DLSS 5 is being criticised as it’s “enhancing” video game graphics to look like AI-generated images that look more “cinematic” and “photorealistic”. To quote an IGN article, “I think it looks shit.” (https://www.ign.com/articles/nvidias-dlss-5-is-a-slap-in-the-face-to-the-art-of-video-game-design)

    In other words, it’s removing the human element of game graphics and nobody likes it.