I like talking about sci-fi, space, robotics, linux, anti-fascism and democratic socialism. 🇩🇪☮️
(SeaOfTranquility on libera.chat)
Another thing you might want to consider is the repairability. If you want to swap the battery years down the line, this can become a really important metric as well. iFixit is your friend here: you can just look up a device and check what the repairability score is.
Thanks for the info, I changed it.
is the GCam app noticeably better than a stock camera app? What sorts of things would it do better?
As I mentioned in my first comment: “Sometimes, the picture quality is decent, but often times it’s lacking” when it comes to the ROM camera app. How well a camera does, depends on the app (which is supplied by the ROM) and the driver (usually supplied by the manufacturer). The quality can, therefore, vary from device to device. A few years ago I would’ve definitely said that GCam is a step above ROM camera apps, but in more and more cases, those have become almost comparable in quality. One aspect where GCam still actually makes a difference is long exposure modes (low light and night photography) as well as offering special modes like panorama or photo-sphere.
The last I checked, the Pixels had excellent sensors but had some camera software issues that I believe were eventually resolved. I’m hoping that isn’t an issue if I’m just using a basic OS.
From my experience, older oneplus devices (e.g. oneplus 7/oneplus 7 pro) and pixel devices (pixel 5 and upwards) have excellent community support, so you should be golden.
For me, the key aspects for selecting the right hardware are the camera and the comunity support. All the other capabillities you listed are available on any phone that has a relatively recent ROM available.
Let’s start with the camera quality: If you want to use your phone without GSF or microG, you could use the camera app that comes with the ROM you flashed. Sometimes, the picture quallity is decent, but often times its lacking. Instead, I would recommend using a modded GCam App together with fake GSF. This way, you can use googles powerful camera app without sacrificing your privacy. So when I’m looking for hardware, I always check, if there is a modded GCam version available.
Aside from that, I would check if there are recent stable versions of the ROM I want, available for the hardware. The last thing I would check is, how active and how big the modding community for that device is. If you can’t find a lot of support on XDA, it’s probably not the best hardware choice to begin with.
When it comes to software, there are a lot of privacy-friendly replacements to choose from, but here is my setup:
EDIT: GCam and FUTO are not Open Source, but they are free and don’t collect or require any user data
Picture this: It’s one of those perfect days in the shire. You are sitting in your armchair and smoking a pipe of haflings leaf. In front of you is the book with all your best memories. You open it and the first chapter is called Concerning Hobbits.
So… if I had to choose a goto song for my best memories, it would probably be this one.
As a lemmy client, I would add Eternity (APGL-3.0).
For latex documents I would highly recommend Overleaf (APGL-3.0). You can selfhost it on an old PC or raspberry pi and have crossplatform access on all your devices
A better alternative to F-Droid would be Neo Store (GPL-3.0) which has a more modern design and is less broken in general.
For apps that are only available as github releases (e.g. hypeBard) I would recommend obtainium (GPL-3.0) which automates the update process.
My personal preference for calculator apps is NCalcLibre (GPL-3.0) which has a slightly different set of features than your suggestion but has a more structured UI imo.
Text Tools Pro (Apache-2.0) is another awesome tool that can improve your typing experience dramatically.
If you have a degoogled device you might want to install FMD (GPL-3.0) in case you lose it.
For rooted devices, I would also add BCR (GPL-3.0) + BCR-GUI (GPL-3.0) to keep a record of important calls.
Another app that is especially useful on rooted devices is AdAway (GPL-3.0) which is a system-wide ad blocker that doesn’t require any resources.
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but you could use a website archiving solution to store one of those online man-page collections. I know it sounds like overkill, but it’s actually easy to setup and can be used for all kinds of other things as well. For instance, I have a local docker container running SOSSE for C++ and Python references and for all kind of libraries and APIs I use for software development. This way I have everything I need on my laptop and can work anywhere, even if there is no network connection.
I think every school in the USA needs a geostationary satellite with a high-powered laser so that any school shooter can be vaporized at the speed of light. Without high-precision orbital strike capability, the USA won’t be able to solve their gun problem… I mean, what else could you possibly do to combat gun violence… 🤔
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll look into it when I find some time.
Personally, and I’m going to be completely honest and frank with you, I don’t think I would play it, (though I’m definitely not the target market), but also, it’s not likely that I would recommend it to someone who wants to learn to code either.
Usually when people want to learn to code, it’s because they have some end goal in mind - they want to make an app, game, website, they want to get a job as a developer, data analyst, QA, etc. or they have something in particular which interests them - such as machine learning, embedded design, blockchain (yes, I know it’s a scam), digital music/art, etc. - and based on what they want to do, I’d recommend them some very different pathways, and it’s very unlikely that your game would be the best use of their time, to be honest.
I appreciate the honesty, and I see your point about the game not appealing to a lot of the target audience. Your suggestion with the platform-first approach and the monetization options sound like a good idea, but it is not the direction I’d want to take. I definitely have to think about it more and figure out, how to address the points you made while still pursuing a project I fell invested in.
I haven’t played any of these games before, but if a find enough time, I’ll look into them. Thanks for the suggestions!
I think your idea is interesting, but based on the examples I’ve listed, which I must admit is not a huge sample, most of them are played in a sort of GUI experience sort of way. I think it would be very, very difficult to translate the core concepts of programming to a side scroller.
Unfortunately, I haven’t played any of these games, but I have scrolled through that category myself to see what’s out there. I agree with you, that a side scroller is probably not the best option to introduce programming concepts from a game-mechanic perspective. I think didn’t really communicate well, that the way I envision my game differs a bit from these approaches. I don’t actually want to focus on specialized in-game mechanics that help to visualize algorithms or programming concepts. Instead, the game is meant to be a very mechanically trivial, story focussed frontend, that makes achieving the programming tasks more exciting.
Hmm… so thats why they say, Apple is a religion 🤔
Must be binary…