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Live updates about TROM Project
Mind you, some updates may sound a bit "personal" and unrelated to TROM project, but are indirectly related to it: my struggles with the project, my work on sister projects like VideoNeat and so forth. I want to give you an insight into my work on TROM and related projects. But most updates are, of course, entirely about TROM and the work that goes behind the project. I, Tio, created this project back in 2011 and I manage most of it at the moment. In time, other volunteers will be able to post updates here. If you can help my work please donate here - it really matters.
Tio:
I need to deal with some stuff on my to-do list now, some fixes to tromsite, books, etc. - I need to take these off my chest before I go "dark" on everything else but the big book - I feel like I said this so many times....
Tio:
Added more sources to our curated materials search engine - https://www.tromsite.com/goodies/news-cards/ - tellin' you this search engine is brilliant if only people would know about it and use it....basically you can search for any specific things. Like "are vaccines safe" and filter by health, or search "video editor" and filter by open source, or search for "self driving cars" and filter by technology and date to see the latest news in regards to that topic. Can't wait to restructure tromsite and add a section called "tools" where you can find all of our trade-free tools :P - we have plenty! Will restructure the site after the big book is released in full.
Tio:
73% done with the VN links. Maybe I'll finish tomorrow so that I can fully focus on the big book. I had to do this for VN
Tio:
I think people realized that if they go live on youtube their videos reach more people because of the "reminder" for the live video thing so I see more and more channels adopting this charlatan strategy. Well, the trade world, makes people behave the way that results in more benefits for them. They will game the game for their own benefit. I saw some such videos on TROM curated videos as well. Deceiving. Sad. But I get it.
Tio:
Vimeo paid for one more year ;) - we will try to migrate to p2p self hosted videos this years for tromsite.com. Let's see how it goes. I will even make a donation campaign to be able to buy a 5TB external hard drive to be able to seed all files. Maybe I'll start the campaign these days. I also need that hard drive for VN. It is around 150 Euros or so. I am also looking into popcorntime, the famous p2p streaming for movies (the free netflix) to maybe be able to modify it (since it is open source) and transform VN into a proper app for streaming curated documentaries and lectures. That could be amazing....
Tio:
This is how tromsite looked like 4 years ago https://web.archive.org/web/20150831062641/https://www.tromsite.com:80/ - really awesome in my view :D - well it was only the documentary page but it was interesting. Simple yet very functional. Of course I had to change that since we moved to wordpress and adapt to mobile screens + made TROM more than a documentary. Big thanks to Erico who helped with tromsite and videoneat years ago. A lot of work he did! For free. Thanks a lot man! Haven't heard about him in years....I hope you are good buddy and have a great awesome life :)
Tio:
I have so many things on my list besides the work on the big book. Work on VN, on MusikWave, on tromsite,com, several curated news sources to review, etc. - lots!!
Tio:
Over 50% done with VN - adding the new links to custom google search engine for the download and watch buttons. It is another significant change to VN, but a needed one. I will explain the exact change I did in a blog post on my site once it is done. I hope in 2 days I am done with it. I just have to take this off my chest and fix VN.
Tio:
80 Euros donation from Aaron! :) - offline, as a surprise. Wonderful gift thank you so much man! :D - you didn't have to, you already help TROM so much. I am adding the money to TROM's "bag of money" :P. I am going to pay for Vimeo account for 1 year + tromsite.com domain for 2 years - it helps a lot!
btw, in case you didn't know, I have to pay over 80 dollars for domains names alone, each year. Sure, some are personal websites, but some aren't.
Tio:
Seeing it in the Manjaro's software center makes me so happy :)
Tio:
So this awesome and random guy "cscs" from nanjaro's forums managed to build a "proper" app for MusikWave https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/musikwave-git/ - now you can install it so easily like a desktop app :D - in Manjaro (or TROM-Jaro) simply open the "software center" and search for musikwave :P - so awesome! Maybe we will make such apps for VideoNeat and TROMsite (our curated news, books, etc.). So awesome! Super happy :) - our first app in Arch User Repository. Please try and report if you find any bugs to the AUR or to me.
Tio:
The VN change is, in fact, not as important since it uses the same websites that I previously used + 50 more. So the difference is that before I had to manually sort and make sure I only post the links that work, whilst now you (at times) may get mixed results that you have to figure out. Should not be that difficult in fact. And in reality you may probably get more results (and better) now since it searches on a lot more websites. Anyways the conversion has begun :D - if you want to help VN, instead of the old "report broken links so that Tio spends hours fixing them" you download the magnet and SEED it. ;) - this way we get stronger together.
Tio:
Making a significant change to VideoNeat....will change the Download and Watch buttons' function. Right now I have to manually search on tens of websites to see if I can find links for each documentary then create buttons for each of them, then fix the ones that don't work (in time). It is NUTS! I simply cannot do this anymore. These links/websites get down all the time and I simply cannot fix this. This leads to thousands of dead links on VN. I want for people to use the MAGNET link that is the main and the only one that will always work. I make sure the MAGNET links work! So, from now one I will change both Download and Watch buttons for each documentary. They will point to a custom google search that searches on tens or hundreds of websites that are specifically for download or watch, and are added by me manually to this database. But it is a one time add. This will look ugly and may become harder for people to watch or download these documentaries but I honestly cannot do anything about this. I think i am offering a lot anyway, like I make sure the MAGNET link works and it is the EASIEST to use. Some people are lazy and simply want to click 5-8 links to watch a documentary instead of installing a torrent client (in Linux you already have one) and click MAGNET and download. Or do the same but watch with WebTorrent before the torrent is downloaded. So yeah, I know this will upset some people but please get used to the MAGNET links that stream/download from decentralized places, thus making it the perfect solution (no ads, no BS). I will work to replace all Watch and Download links for buttons the following days.
Tio:
Next TROM-Cast is about Education ;) - the present education, the future of education. Again, anyone can participate!
Tio:
I also worked a bit on MusikWave today :P
Tio:
Cleaned up a bit the TROM Curated news - fixed some broken sources and removed all podcasts. But WHYYY? :) - because I will make a special page with curated podcasts. You see feeding podcasts into TROM News was messy and when you want to listen podcasts you need to be able to listen in a comfortable way and for the app to remember where you left off, etc. There are several such trade-free apps like CPod that anyone can use to subscribe to such podcasts. So I'll make a page where I will recommend a bunch of podcasts that you can subscribe to via RSS or directly CPod like apps. You'll see.
Tio:
A nice guy from manjaro's Forums helped make MusikWave into a standalone app (web-app). In Linux you can test by following the instructions here https://gitlab.com/cscs/musikwavemobile - it is super easy and seems to work great. We are testing it and if it works properly he said he will make a proper app for it, like an appimage for instance so you can more easily install on Linux or any operating system! If so I will include it to TROM-Jaro. We create trade-free services :P
Tio:
For the German people out there you can read Aaron's blog https://aaronboos.de/ - he writes about TROM and TROM-related subjects and he is the one who translates TROM stuff into german.
Tio:
Finally managed to make VidedoNeat RSS work properly: featured image + description. Looks great when fed onto our curated trom news! Love it! Will add more and more documentaries the following days. I also disabled VN¡s notification plugin that was basically a tracker....anyways. better without. I also made some design changes to MusikWave to make it look better. Now it even works on mobile though a simple version of the website that relies on cookies to store playlists. At least works to search for music and play :P
Tio:
MusikWave https://www.musikwave.com/ is back and encrypted! :) - hopefully it is back for good. I had to shut it off for a few weeks or so because I detected suspicious activity and I was afraid the website and the server will be hacked. I reinstalled MusikWave as brand new and restored the database. Plus changed the admin. Hopefully all is good now. You can also download the script we use for the website and create your own such music website - see MusikWave About page. Enjoy! All your playlists should be in place ;)
Tio:
Great TROM-Cast today! Loved it! Great discussion!
Tio:
Tio, Aaron, Daniel and Dima confirmed for tomorrow's tromcast. Awesome! Since we are more than 2 then we can make room for anyone else. And so, tomorrow anyone can participate if they like. Will post the link to Jitsi (to participate) here a few minutes before or after the live begins ;)
Tio:
The news update system seems to work now thanks to Ziad! :)
Tio:
Tio:
I added VN to trom curated news directly via RSS which is much better. Before VN posts were feed from our Twitter account when we shared them. Now they simply go to the news system whenever we post a new documentary or lecture. Is not that good since it fails to pick up the description and the thumbnail....I am trying to improve on that. More documentaries to be added these days. Will add them one by one instead of waiting a month then add like 40 at once. It is better this way for our curated news and the VN notification plugin that sends a notification to a few thousands people.
Tio:
So MIT Tech Review, one of the good tech sources we use for our curated news, is not only letting people read 3 free articles a month unless you subscribe to them....trades trades trades....so I guess we are going to remove it from our curated news...such a shame
Tio:
I updated some stuff to tromsite to make it more secure. Also, right now the curated news notification seems to not work so you dont get to see notifications about the update. Will try to fix - not me, but Ziad because he is the mastermind behind that awesome and simple script :D
Tio:
I absolutely love CPod, the podcast application that we have it pre-installed on TROM-Jaro :D - it makes me listen to so many science radio stations. LOVE IT! In TROM-Jaro it comes with several science radio stations "pre-settup". Will add more when we release TROM-Jaro officially ;)
Tio:
Ok so tromcast is Thursday, 10th apparently. I have no idea about the days of the week in english and get confused quickly :D - they are random and hard to remember and I don't need to remember that. So, on 10th. Topic: human behavior. Anyone who wants to participate, can.
Tio:
Ok so now I think I can say that VN https://videoneat.com/ is properly back. I did all I could to make sure it is ok now. I will keep a close eye on it and I will go through tromsite and tiotrom.com as well and check them manually for any "suspicious" activity and update them, etc..
Tio:
Didn't find any malware on VN from the scans. I increased the security for it and even pay 3$ a month for a server tool that automatically checks the site and fixes security issues. Will see in a few months time if it is a good "investment". Anyways, I am happy VN is back let's hope the problem was removed. I reinstalled WP as new and only restored the database and files before I was unable to access the site anymore.....anyways.....tired....going to sleep
Tio:
15 tromsite plugins are 0.5 to 3 years old. Meaning not-updated. Not good. But some are hard to replace. Will have an in-depth look at them these days. Is not easy to manage a website....or 2.....or 3...or 4 sometimes :(
Tio:
These days I will manually check tromsite to try and avoid any hacking for this website...i would hate to see that....
Tio:
VN is kinda back....I updated all plugins and themes. I am scanning for malware now. Tired as fuck....the scan may take hours.
Tio:
I managed to restore VN and log into it, which is great! But now I need to figure out what was the error. Deleted all spam messages - I have no clue how they can still post spam comments when comments are disabled on VN. I am updating everything now, manually, to make sure there are no old plugins or themes. Also scanning the website for threats. Let's see....working furiously on it!
Tio:
see this? is at the bottom of videoneat homepage it is a comment and if you click the name you go to a scam website...it is an automated hacking script
Tio:
so videoneat apparently was kidna hacked on 20 december....now i cant even login to it....damn....now let's see how in the world I am going to fix it. basically as far as i can tell these are automated bots that search for vulnerabilities in plugins and post comments with spam websites....
Tio:
I removed TROM twitter from our curated news for 2 reasons: 1. twitter images have trackers inside them and are blocked by default by many useful extensions and by firefox itself and thus for those users that are concern with privacy they won't even see the images for the TROM psots in the trom curated news. 2. we post all important news to our updates that appears on all pages so why duplicate that? It is true you wont see the memes that we post on social networks but that should not be an issue since they are repeats of text (copy-paste) that is inside our books. So I don't think you'll miss anything. I will also try to add videoneat RSS directly to our curated news so you'll see that in our curated news as soon as we update videoneat with new stuff ;)
Tio:
btw today no trom-cast. we may change the day of the livestream i'll let you know ;) - next stream will be about human behavior and i encourage any of you to participate like Alex did last time
Tio:
The first comments round for teh Entertainment book is done. We still need more revisions of the comments then of the book itself. But we work on that ;)
Tio:
New TROM-Jaro updated iso - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7tamh8wdagdlf3y/TROM-Jaro 05.01.19.iso?dl=0 - I fixed some bugs, replaced 1 app and added 2 or so more. Again, this is still not officially released. When we'll do that we will create a special page on tromsite where you can see all about it: what it is, how to install, what apps we pre-installed and what settings we implemented. Plus, you'll be able to track any update we do to it. For now you can test it ;)
Tio:
We are testing alternative open-source solutions for musikwave. I am so sorry that I had to remove that website so announced and that people lost their playlists but the website was old and not-updated in years and suddenly some strange activity was detected on the website and we were at risk fo being hacked and we have all websites, including tromsite, on the same server, so I had to quickly remove it. I will try to put it back so that people can save their playlists and I will also share the source for the website with everyone. Give me a few weeks or so. In the meantime we are searching and testing for alternatives.
Tio:
Almost done with the going through the many comments on the huge Entertainment book by Dima. Have to say, I think we do a better job at sourcing than wikipedia haha. We pay attention to every detail from every book. I also improved a bit the trom curated search engine https://www.tromsite.com/goodies/news/ (added new sources). Also added more science podcasts to TROM-Jaro podcast app and have to fix a few bugs with it, maybe will release an updated version today. Cannot wait to make a page for TROM-Jaro and explain it with every feature it has + release it for good :D. Linux is awesome!
Tio:
Every donation that we'll get over 100 Euros will be added to our monthly income for the current year. Like say we get 200 Euros in June, we will calculate how many months are left from that year and divide the 200 Euros for those months. This way I can properly manage this. And at the beginning of each year will see what monthly donations we are left with. I am doing this with donations over 100 euros to keep it easier for me to calculate. In the end all money goes to me and the project. So say I got that 1.000 Euros donation a few days ago....is not like I am spending that on who knows what in that month. Now I can say that we grew in terms of donations in a significant way. Probably like 10%. Fantastic! We are active and we have lots of plans for this year for the project!
Tio:
oh wow 150,00 EUR donation from Raimondas! Thank you so so much! I added it to our monthly donations (that is around 12 Euros a month). In total we get around 542 Euros a month for this year. That means a jump from 44% to 45% (1%) for the entire year, from one single donation :). Trust me this is important. It is like we can pay for our backups for all of our websites for the entire year or more. Lately 2 big donations. Cannot thank you enough. You provide the fuel for this project!
Tio:
Oh on another note you can use popcorntime and stremio-beta to watch video content as trade-free and decentralized. Both, again, simply available from TROM-Jaro Software center: search, select, and install. Of course these are mostly full of movies....but you'll also find documentaries or stand-ups with (say) George Carlin and the like. On Stremio when open select sign in with email, then accept terms of services and then guest login, this way you do not have to register with them (I do not know if this is a trade-free service though since they may collect some data?). But in any case give them a try. I love the simplicity of Manjaro (and TROM-Jaro) to install and keep such apps updated.
