New phone arrived that had a built-in radio transceiver. On that device are combined the power of a smartphone and transmission for hundreds of kilometers without Internet. Thousands of kilometers when you use a satellite. The next weeks will be fun.

Wi-fi station in the jar. This is an emergency hotspot station. Built with a cheap 3 USD/EUR microcontrolller (ESP32-C3 mini) that is connected to any normal powerbank you have around. Inside the jar can work for about 5 days straight before it needs a recharge. Serves two purposes: 1) permit to quickly connect devices between themselves 2) give a chat app that anyone can use with immediately with a browser when they first connect to the station Point 1 seems moot because smartphones can create hotspot. The big difference is that this one creates a mesh network. Add a few more stations in jars and you automatically extend this network for a mile of needed. Installation is simple: flash the firmware on the esp32 using a web browser or directly from the geogram app. The download for both the app and the firmware are at

geogram

When the internet goes down, Geogram keeps going. Direct device-to-device communication without servers, accounts, or infrastructure you don

Will publish a more complete guide if there is interest. Screenshots are from the jar itself and the chat app when you connect.

In case you are interested, in geogram is possible to publish your own blog and webpage running and hosted directly from your phone using NOSTR underneath. Would be happy to hear your feedback and improve the tooling:

geogram

When the internet goes down, Geogram keeps going. Direct device-to-device communication without servers, accounts, or infrastructure you don

Geogram has a brand new web page at

geogram

When the internet goes down, Geogram keeps going. Direct device-to-device communication without servers, accounts, or infrastructure you don

There is also a page that details the current implementation status in regards to what is missing to write and improve:

Status - Geogram

Check the status of Geogram station servers and app features.

According to calculations we are at 38% of implemented features. Focus this week will be on the device-to-device chat messages. They are working and doesn't really get more private than talking directly to another device without servers in the middle but the UI itself needs to be more fluid. People nowadays expect a very high-quality level of UI, so somehow this has to be delivered with very scarce resources to get it done.

Description of the cyberattack on the Polish electricity. Key points from the document: + the attackers were inside the system since May 2025 + default passwords were used on plenty of devices + inside attacks were being repelled automatically but no humans were there to sound the alarm bells + this will happen more often in next months https://blossom.primal.net/217f3df4682ca73b324652db7ba77b66ea3337b0dd379adcf0829c7ed3314020.pdf

"When collapse awareness emerges, epistemic independence becomes a liability socially, but an asset cognitively"

Why Some People See Collapse Earlier Than Others

Perception, pattern-seeking, and the role of neurodivergence in a failing civilisation

Geogram now includes an app for creating and editing spreadsheets as seen on the screenshot. There weren't good libraries to use the proprietary formats from Microsoft Office (what a surprise) and the ones for Libre/OpenOffice are not usable either. Solution? Created a new format called NDF which stands for Nostr Data Format and is basically a zip archive with a few JSON files inside for data and (npub signed) permissions. Makes it easy to include media (e.g. pictures) and includes an index.html inside the archive to permit viewing the document as a web file. As bonus: includes the mechanism for feedback on that document (likes, dislikes, votes, eating, comments) signed with Nostr identities. If you like what you see, just install geogram for Android or Linux from

GitHub

Releases · geograms/geogram

Run geogram on Linux, Android, Windows, OSX, iOS and Web - geograms/geogram

and add the new app there called "Work". From there create a new workspace and add spreadsheets to try out this feature.

Geogram is since today able to connect with another geogram using a direct USB-C cable. Why does it matter? There is no greater privacy than a direct cable from one device to another. Usage is simple: synchronize messages, emails, photos and basically any large files or folders by simply plugging a USB cable. At the moment works from Linux to Android and Android to Android, will later be adding more devices as the feature stabilizes. The 80s called and brought back P2P.