No. 807304Thursday, October 15, 202624h to 12:48

The Nostr Observer

Printed from one corner of the network

Ranked as EZ696 events through your lens229 voices

White Noise · Preview choices

The preview asks permission

White Noise adds opt-in link previews on iOS and on-device translation on Android. The two releases take different routes through the everyday work of a messenger.

A link preview is a small convenience with a second destination. White Noise’s new iOS release leaves it switched off until the user enables it in Appearance: fetching a preview contacts the linked site, which sees the phone’s IP address.

The iOS update also plays GIFs that previously arrived as still images and explains the steps of signing in. Report and Block move into the message menu. According to the announcement, a report sends White Noise the reported key and a reason, never the message itself.

Android gets a different set of changes: documents and videos up to 512 MB, transfer progress, cancellation and retry. Translation runs through the separate Offline Translator app, either for a selected message or a whole chat. Swipe actions, home-screen chat shortcuts and individual notification sounds are configurable too.

Both versions are intended to catch up on busy groups faster, keep older messages readable, and stop labelling a delivered message as failed. These are the unglamorous details that decide whether a conversation stays in an app.

A group large enough to notice

Max reports more than 150 members in the White Noise community group and is inviting more people to see how the latest release handles it. That is a live community trial, not a published capacity limit.

Education · Hongdae, Seoul

A place to walk in and ask

Bitcoin Center Seoul joins My First Bitcoin’s Education Network, with classes capped at 16 and a door open every day.

Bitcoin Center Seoul offers something a price chart cannot: a place in Hongdae to ask a question and try self-custody with help at hand. My First Bitcoin welcomes the centre into its Education Network, describing daily access and small, in-person sessions.

The programme runs from beginner classes and self-custody workshops to a multi-week protocol course for developers, now in its second cohort. There are monthly developer meetings, a newcomers’ meetup and a library of Bitcoin books in Korean.

Events paid in sats give the lessons somewhere to go. The announcement puts the network’s purpose plainly: Independent educators, empowering others, in their own language and their own city.

The centre’s local language, regular hours and repeat courses matter as much as the introductory lesson. They give someone who has tried a first transaction a place to return with the next question.

Release notice

Bisq asks users to update promptly

Bisq announces version 2.1.14 with an unusually direct request: Please update as soon as possible!

The announcement points to the project’s release notes. This is the update notice to give priority in today’s software reading; the source post carries the download reference.

The workshop · Make the next step easier

Relay sync · A measured result

Four times faster, in this test

hzrd149 reports that relays supporting NIP-77 returned events about four times faster in repeated thirty-day sync tests. The author explicitly cautions that many variables are involved.

The test setup used applesauce to sync a contact list over twenty-four-hour, seven-day and thirty-day windows, recalculating relay selection as relays failed. A run counted as complete when fewer than two events arrived over five seconds.

That stopping rule matters: this is a comparison under a stated procedure, not proof that every historical event was recovered. The result makes a case for further testing and broader relay support without turning one benchmark into a universal promise.

Commerce

One inventory, two storefronts

BITKARROT introduces Infinite Markets as an LNBits extension that publishes products to public relays and receives encrypted NIP-17 orders.

The pitch joins Lightning payments and Nostr around the same stock list. The post includes a demonstration video and a documentation address for the project.

Myco 0.11.0

USB joins the release list

Arjen ships Myco 0.11.0 with FIPS over USB, HTTPS support for NAP-RESOURCE, and app icons and screenshots under the new napplet specification.

Small tools

The terminal learns to share its controls

Tim releases Autonomix 0.4 with JSON output for frontends and an Omarchy bar widget for apps distributed through GitHub releases. The widget shows update counts and offers installation without opening a terminal.

A separate fm-cli 0.3.5 update adds a default From address and calendar-and-contacts discovery that asks the server for the user’s identity, with help from fsnoah.

The filmmaker hosts the film

First Man Photography tests custom video-hosting software with Fleeting Moments. The system hosts films on the photographer’s own site and shares them to Nostr with each video’s SHA-256 fingerprint included in the signed post.

From the picture desk · A welcome and a way through

Satoshi gets a welcome in Vienna

A layered metal sculpture of a seated hooded figure with a laptop, on a plinth beside water and buildings.
Cuddy posts a welcome to Satoshi in Vienna. The photograph shows the seated figure and its laptop, built from thin metal layers.Photograph shared by Cuddy

Morning shade, ten miles to go

A rocky stream runs between forested banks beneath a pale blue sky.
danielw shares a photograph captured on July 20, 2023, while hiking down to Cascade Canyon. The plan was to reach the Needleton train stop about ten miles in. A summer morning, returned to the feed in October.Photograph by danielw

The exchange · Work wanted

15 years of making things meet a new brief

No Good Kid is looking for a role across brand, creative work and communications, open to remote teams worldwide.

The experience spans more than fifteen years in agencies, in-house work and independent practice: graphic and brand design, strategy, campaigns, copy, production and leading a small design team.

Recent work includes Bitcoin and Nostr projects, but the search is not limited to either. The emphasis is on understanding a brief, bringing the right people together and carrying an idea through to production.

The source post carries the portfolio and contact routes.

In brief · On the calendar · Worth the scroll

More than a zap button

Dee Kay’s money chapter in the Amethyst manual starts with a disabled-by-default Pay control. Enabling it adds a way to inspect the payment addresses an author has published, with QR, copy and app hand-off controls.

The chapter also explains a recurring distinction: selecting a different segment of the payment control does not send money until the next tap. It is a reference worth reading before assuming that every button under a note does the same job.

A familiar bear turns 100

The Internet Archive marks the centenary of Winnie-the-Pooh on October 14, pointing readers to its digitised copy. Yesterday’s anniversary brings a century-old book back within reach of a new reader.

Dates ahead

Tonight · Oct 15 · 19:00 · Reggio Emilia
Bitcoiner meetup, Birreria Ghigiu Risto Pub, Via Fratelli Cervi 17/a.

Oct 17 · 12:00 · Arnhem
Bitcoin & Nostr Kids, Foodhall Arnhem, Rijnkade 49. Questions, new friends and food paid for in sats.

Oct 31 · 14:00 · Barcelona
Whitepaper Day BBQ, Av. de l’Estatut de Catalunya, s/n. The BCC organisers also promise news about their next conference.

Nov 21 · 09:00 · Manchester
Freedom Fest 2026, Pendulum Hotel, Sackville Street. Privacy, civil liberties and freedom technology.

Times are local to each venue. Check the linked listing for organiser updates.

The reading desk

Latest Strikes returns

Fanis brings back Latest Strikes after a month-long interruption. The Lightning newsletter’s return is welcome news for readers who prefer a periodic account to keeping every development in their heads.

In a reply, Fanis says the weekly schedule should resume. The promise is tentative; the new issue is already out.

371 songs, seven paid requests

Noderunners Radio reports Wednesday’s tally: 371 songs, seven requested and paid for by listeners. The selections range from Kettel to Ministry and M A R R S.

The Instrument

The anonymous control returned 400 notes; three also appeared among the 399 ranked notes. Across fourteen desks, the reading contains 696 events from 229 voices.

Twenty-four hours ending Thursday, October 15 at 12:48, Europe/Vilnius. All editorial events fall inside the window. These counts describe this reading, not the whole network.