Optimizing a Python program with profiling data

If you have been maintaining a Python program that has been growing for some time with new features you may notice at some point it can get a bit lagging and slow. For example, the app that is powered by hearham.com repeaters listing has grown from thousands of repeaters to now over 10,000 repeaters in the listing shown in the app. This hung things up especially on devices like Raspberry Pi or Librem phone while starting up the app.

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Snap Store and Flatpak – missing “app stores” for Librem 5 Phone?

As you may have noticed, the Librem phone and other Linux phones don’t always have the same apps you may be looking for for iOS and Android, with few available within the built in store. While you must check with developers and encourage them to build their apps for Librem phone, there are a number of these that can be installed already from Flathub/Snap store:

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Re-flashing the Librem Phone with Byzantium

If you just received a Librem 5 you probably have the latest software – including the new software that has a (mostly) working photos app, gps and a basic maps app! Development has continued on these devices but if you have one of the previous preorders you probably have been waiting on new updates and only getting a few standard package updates and no new apps 🙁

If you want to upgrade the phone in this case you need to re-flash it and wipe it with the newer version. Note this deletes everything and starts anew!

Their instructions here should be fine for some, but only if you have a very very new Ubuntu based system. If you have an older one such as Ubuntu 20.04 then you can get set up as shown below.

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Let your voice be heard for Librem Phone/Pinephone Apps!

As you may have noted if you have recently upgraded to Pinephone or Librem Phone, there are currently some missing spots as far as good and well built mobile apps for the platform. While this affords great opportunity for the first folks to build apps to profit from this growing segment, we also should encourage local app makers to fix their apps to work on Linux/Librem Phone!

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Purism price increase scheduled for end of June

If you have been thinking of buying the new Librem phone now may be the best time to do so! The price will be increasing $100 according to a recent posting on their blog. And what better way to celebrate independence day than a device independent of many of the major tech giants’ updates? You can even buy a Librem phone that is built in USA… at over double the cost, however.

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Severe weather alerts with a simple Python script

If like many you have been starting gardens and planting rather than traveling and visiting in recent months, there is one important thing to consider lately – severe weather reports including frost on your crops. I noted there was a little red (!) alert icon on an Android weather widget, but there seems to be no such alert for desktop computer or Linux computer or phone. It is a fairly simple to make this alert though with a simple script:

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