Time for an official MIME type for patches?

1st November 2018

As part of my involvement in +the Nikita +archive API project, I've been importing a fairly large lump of +emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would +go. I picked a subset of my +notmuch email database, all public emails sent to me via +@lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import. +In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in +these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed +that one of the most common attachment formats do not have +an +official MIME type registered with IANA/IETF. The output from +diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats +included in these emails. At the moment people seem to use either +text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered. It +would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used +everywhere.

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To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought +up the topic on +the +media-types mailing list. If you are interested in discussion +which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in +making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like +to join the discussion?

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+ + + Tags: debian, english, standard. + + +

A bit more on privacy respecting health monitor / fitness tracker

13th August 2018

A few days ago, I wondered if there are any privacy respecting -health monitors and/or fitness trackers available for sale these days. -I would like to buy one, but do not want to share my personal data -with strangers, nor be forced to have a mobile phone to get data out -of the unit. I've received some ideas, and would like to share them -with you. - -One interesting data point was a pointer to a Free Software app for -Android named -Gadgetbridge. -It provide cloudless collection and storing of data from a variety of -trackers. Its -list -of supported devices is a good indicator for units where the -protocol is fairly open, as it is obviously being handled by Free -Software. Other units are reportedly encrypting the collected -information with their own public key, making sure only the vendor -cloud service is able to extract data from the unit. The people -contacting me about Gadgetbirde said they were using -Amazfit -Bip and -Xiaomi -Band 3.

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I also got a suggestion to look at some of the units from Garmin. -I was told their GPS watches can be connected via USB and show up as a -USB storage device with -Garmin -FIT files containing the collected measurements. While -proprietary, FIT files apparently can be read at least by -GPSBabel and the -GpxPod Nextcloud -app. It is unclear to me if they can read step count and heart rate -data. The person I talked to was using a -Garmin Forerunner -935, which is a fairly expensive unit. I doubt it is worth it for -a unit where the vendor clearly is trying its best to move from open -to closed systems. I still remember when Garmin dropped NMEA support -in its GPSes.

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A final idea was to build ones own unit, perhaps by basing it on a -wearable hardware platforms like -the Flora Geo -Watch. Sound like fun, but I had more money than time to spend on -the topic, so I suspect it will have to wait for another time.

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While I was working on tracking down links, I came across an -inspiring TED talk by Dave Debronkart about -being a -e-patient, and discovered the web site -Participatory -Medicine. If you too want to track your own health and fitness -without having information about your private life floating around on -computers owned by others, I recommend checking it out.

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As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- - - Tags: english. - - -