I use Shotcut. I only use basic features like cutting and stitching, but it’s never let me down.

If it was just a screen, general purpose processor, and customisable OS then I’d have one already.

I don’t feel like paying a monthly subscription fee for a product to lie to me every time I ask a question, and relay everything I do back to a company who will sell my personal data to anyone.

I love my Pebble watch and enjoy playing with new tech. If a company like Pebble can make one without the spyware, bloatware, and AI, then I’ll probably get one.

Do you think you could make an automatic warranty claim for the door not being strong enough for standard use?

If your device is not quite strong enough, a small spring that’s too weak to open the door on its own could help.

If you access to the side, then a form of lever could provide mechanical advantage (just check what the fulcrum rests on or you might dent something).

If you aren’t concerned with reusability, dynamite is fairly effective at opening doors.

I guess this is the last kick I needed to buy a new phone and move away from Google permanently.

Clippy never sold your data or demanded a subscription fee for something you already bought. Clippy just tried to help.

The clippy movement is not about clippy as a program, but as an idea that companies need to be held accountable, and that we will hold them accountable.
If a company tries to make a feature a paid subscription after you paid for the product, or releases and update that removes your privacy, we will be watching and we will hold them accountable.

Companies can lie to one person or hide changes from a few people, but they can’t handle all of us. Samsung has already reversed their added subscription fee for a smart TV as a result of community action.

Welcome to the club!

I have 3 computer monitors, and one is effectively dedicated to displaying Home Assistant. I started running HA on a Raspberry Pi 2 (not recommend, but possible), and upgraded to an old ThinkPad when adding a few more demanding tasks.

I’ve recently got into self hosting, ad found that HA runs equally well in docker as OS. The output on the laptop is not particularly useful considering you can do just about everything remotely.

Advice: Make backups, save any configuration files you make/change, then just go nuts and tinker with everything.

Almost everything can be done using the GUI (and it’s fairly user friendly), but it’s worth at least knowing how to access the YAML. Copying other people’s code (with permission) is a great way to learn and find new features.

Read the documentation before installing the community store (HACS). Is easy to install, but has a few steps that will keep you troubleshooting for hours if you don’t follow them the first time.
My favourite HACS integration is apexcharts-card. It takes a little learning to get right, but the graphs look really good. I’d be happy to share some tips and examples if you’re interested.

It only works on Google Pixel phones.

There are other operating systems, and some more open (but more expensive) manufacturers like Fairphone and PinePhone.

I know, but I’d rather leave them to people who really want them, and support the people working hard to make open source products.

I want a fairphone 4 with either e/OS or Ubuntu touch. It’s still a little out of my price range though.

I would love to run grapheneOS on my phone, but I’m not willing to pay Google to not use Android.

I don’t personally have a regular mouse, but most “gamer” mice have a DPI button.

I have seen several pro gamers use the DPI button on their mouse to rapidly change their precision while playing. I suspect it would take more practice than I’m willing to put in, but they seem to use it to great effect.

I had a couple of minor issues when it was new, but it’s been rock solid for months. The only issue I had recently turned out to be a major bug in Steam that is currently being fixed.

That may be technically true, but what’s stopping someone from using the same button on a regular mouse?

A regular mouse can have a large amount of movement with your elbow and very fine control with your wrist. Your thumb on a trackball may have more range or precision than either, but not both combined.

My personal experience is that a trackball mouse is a little less accurate when trying to move a large distance precisely. Perhaps I just need more practice.

The mouse stays in one location with grippy feet and the trackball moves the cursor. There is no sensor for mouse movement. It does take a while to get used to.

The reason I chose it was that I didn’t have enough desk space to move a mouse. I barely even had enough space to put the mouse. Now that I’ve moved house, I just like the novelty. It’s not as accurate as a regular mouse.

I would love a mouse that could do both regular movement and trackball movement so I could have 4 axis inputs. Sadly, I haven’t found any like that.

They do have a trackpad, but not in this shape.

I was surprised when I started using the Steamdeck. The Steamdeck’s trackpad felt almost identical to my trackball mouse, and it took effectively no time to get used to it.

The advantage of a trackball over a trackpad is that you can spin the ball for high movement speed, then stop it after a set time for fairly accurate distance. A trackball (or trackpad) will never be as accurate as a regular moue, but it is surprisingly usable (after a few months or practice).

I had 2 Logitech m570s fail on me before I bought the Ploopy Thumb. So far it’s lasted longer than either Logitech mouse, and looks like it will manage to be my longest surviving mouse.

My scroll wheel was very stiff and irritating at first. It did loosen over time and is now completely useable. It doesn’t free-spin, but it also doesn’t take a lot of force to move.

The lack of clicking is a little disconcerting, but not a deal-breaker for me. I guess you could add an extra part to make it click — like putting a playing card in the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

Because I bought the trackball mouse, I changed the trackball to scroll when a button is held. I now have horizontal and vertical scrolling, and don’t use the scroll wheel except for middle clicking.

The PCB has electrical buttons permanently attached. The 3D printed parts have protrusions that touch the buttons.
You could possibly redesign the 3D printed parts only, but at some size increase you may need to start looking into redesigning the PCB.

The good news is that the mouse itself is bigger than the picture makes it seem. You might actually be OK without modifications.

If you do want to give it a try, I highly recommend buying the kit and fully assembling it yourself. That way you know that it works, and you have a solid foundation to apply the modifications to.

You don’t need to pay them anything.

You can just download all the files they’ve made available and build one yourself. The electronics have full schematics so you can either make it yourself or send the schematics to a PCB company. The shell is entirely 3d printed. All extra hardware is readily available.

If that sounds like a lot of work, maybe it’s worth paying the person who created it and is offering to do all that work for you.