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The code that runs Redbox DVD rental machines has been dumped online, and, in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy, a community of tinkerers and reverse engineers are probing the operating system to learn how it works. Naturally, one of the first things people did was make one of the machines run Doom.

As has been detailed in several great articles elsewhere, the end of Redbox has been a clusterfuck, with pharmacies, grocery stores, and other retailers stuck with very large, heavy, abandoned DVD rental kiosks. To many people’s surprise, many of the kiosks remain operational even with the bankruptcy of Redbox’s parent company, which has led some people to “liberate” DVDs from the abandoned kiosks. Reddit is full of posts by people who say they have taken dozens of DVDs from kiosks all over the country.

In a Discord community called “Redbox Tinkering,” a FAQ states “just ask the store manager if you can have it. They will most likely tell you to just take it, but don’t just take it without asking.”

“Use heavy or appliance hand-trucks/dolly to wheel it onto your trailer or out to your truck,” the FAQ says. “It is heavy, so be prepared. I pull it right onto the trailer and strap it down standing up. You can lay them down, but know that most of the discs will be in disarray when you open it. Take everything having to do with Redbox, don’t leave a mess.” The FAQ also contains information about how to disconnect the Redbox from its power supply and how to cut through the bolts that secure the kiosk to concrete with a grinder. It also has information about how to open and disassemble the device at home.

“Unlike most tinkerer's my main goal isn't to reverse engineer the Official Software more than I have to. I am mainly interested in carousel movement, movie retrieving/returning, etc. I am using the machine to make my own version of the App to effectively do the same thing the original software does, but with my own spin on it. I mainly want to use it to create a massive DVD/Blu-Ray storage machine with ease of use for retrieving the movies.”

“I work in IT and have a decent sized Homelab and I've always been interested in making things work again once they break,” they added.

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/18171286

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21509416

example from wikipedia:

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20900834

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20896812

FlorisBoard is a free and open-source keyboard for Android 7.0+ devices. It aims at being modern, user-friendly and customizable while fully respecting your privacy. Currently in early-beta state.

New update includes:

• Major rework of emoji suggestions
• Major rework of emoji history
• Rework inline autofill suggestions from password managers
• handful of other changes listed in the link above

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21340843

Came across this article in the latest stuff magazine and in the past, a lot of writers were a little unsure, but seams more positive.

What it is, for those unfamiliar

AppFlowy is an open-source alternative to Notion

If you're unfamiliar with Notion, it is a collaboration/productivity tool. The layout is different, and generally you can make different item types / databases to organize information.

AppFlowy is opensource with options for selfhosting

New Features

• Copy link to share and open it in a browser
• Enable the ability to edit the page title within the body of the document
• Filter by last modified, created at, or a date range
• Allow customization of database property icons
• Support CTRL/CMD+X to delete the current line when the selection is collapsed in the document
• Support window tiling on macOS
• Add filters to grid views on mobile
• Create and manage workspaces on mobile
• Automatically convert property types for imported CSV files

Author information:

Charles Marty

Adjunct professor, Carbone boréal, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)

Excerpt from article:

The autumn has arrived and northeastern North America’s forests will soon grace us with a breathtaking palette of reds, yellows and golds. These vivid colours will then fade, giving way to bare branches, as the fallen leaves blanket the forest floor, thereby returning their nutrients to the soil. The spectacle is not as impressive a few degrees farther north, where deciduous trees give way to conifers, which keep their dark green needles through the winter.

These contrasting landscapes are familiar to all of us but have you ever wondered why some tree species shed their leaves in autumn, whereas others don’t, remaining green throughout the year? Why do these two leaf habits co-exist? Do they reflect an adaptation to their environment? These questions have intrigued ecologists for a long time, but it’s only in the past decades that a clear conceptual and theoretical framework has emerged allowing a better understanding of the ecological significance of this trait.