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⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)

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Unison is a console file 
synchronization tool.

Here's the issue: my old BlackBerry is 
starting to have problems downloading 
podcasts. I *think* it's probably due 
to TLS. The Bold 9900 has TLS 1.0 and 
the world has moved on to TLS 1.3. I'm 
not really sure why podcasters need to 
use TLS 1.3, but they are. Are they 
really worried about a MITM attack? Is 
someone out there itching to 
impersonate Nilay Patel?

Anyways, I've been looking for a 
solution to the Podcast problem -- and 
I think I've found one. The old 
Palm-style USB sync.

The process involves downloading the 
podcasts on my laptop, and then 
connecting the BlackBerry by USB and 
syncing the podcast folders on both 
devices. That's where unison comes in.

Unison is a console utility (it also 
has a GUI apparently) that allows you 
to sync folders. 

The syntax is really simple:

unison directory1 directory2

Or, in my case, since I'm syncing with 
a FAT32 system, the command is

unison -fat directory1 directory2

It appears that when I attach the 
BlackBerry by USB, it establishes the 
same path every time. I guess only 
time will tell whether that's true. In 
any case, I am assuming that it is, 
and I've created a little batch file 
to shorten the command. If it works on 
a regular basis, I think I'll add the 
Palm Desktop sync sound to the batch 
file for nostalgic purposes...

Unison may be useful in other contexts 
as well. Since it can sync any two 
folders that you can mount, it could 
provide a cloud sync alternative to 
syncthing.

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Obligatory K.Mandla reference:
https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/unison-an-alternative-to-rsync/