John Lines @[email protected]
Retired Scientist/IT person. Likes: Freedom, Science, Diversity
Joined Dec 2019
Interesting piece from Logic Magazine on the inter relation between making IT systems secure and making them accessible at https://logicmag.io/security/access-denied/
Noticed that BBC News article "Why popular YouTubers are building their own sites" makes no mention of Peertube, talking about a bunch of platforms I have never heard of, but not really surprised.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55349255
Came across this really infomative info-graphic on Covid-19. Good to have clear information on something which is affecting our lives so much
https://www.azuravesta.com/covid-19-pandemic
John Lines
boosted
John Lines
boosted
The Ambrige Garden Club DNS is registered
My sample Small Organisation Server, the Ambrige Garden Club, is now registered on the DNS. The process is described at https://wordpress.debian.social/jlines/2020/11/13/ambridge-garden-club-registering-the-domain/
Instant Messenger systems used by the military should be based on standards and federated... you can probably see where I am going, but if people with really high security requirements are using the same system, then they have an interest in making sure it is secure. The Internet is built on the back of the ARPANET, a product of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Instant Messenger systems used by the banks should be based on standards and federated. People need to trust the system they use to IM their bank manager, but it should not be unique to the each bank, needing is own app. Some may argue that the financial sector has particular security needs, but so does the NHS, the military etc. If the XMPP standard can not meet these requirements then should be improved until it does, working with other interested parties.
Instant Messenger systems used by the NHS should be based on standards and federated. People need to trust the system they use to IM their doctor, but it should not be unique to the NHS, needing is own app. Some may argue that the NHS has particular security needs, but so do banks, the military etc. If the XMPP standard can not meet these requirements then should be improved until it does, working with other interested parties.
John Lines
boosted
Worried about WhatsApp
I distrust things, particularly big things, which exist without any obvious means of financial support, so wrote 'Who pays for WhatsApp' at https://wordpress.debian.social/jlines/2020/11/10/who-pays-for-whatsapp/
Green Woodpecker in our garden, just turned away from admiring one of my wife's glass sculptures
John Lines
boosted
Key systems are not a game.
For a computer game, or other software used for entertainment, and End User Licence which says 'Any attempt to disassemble .... is illegal' is fine, but if lives are going to depend on it then the people responsible for purchase should use this as a danger flag to walk away (unless it is accompanied by something like 'We (software vendor), will guarantee that this works exactly as specified and will be responsible for any consequential damage, injury or death)
John Lines
boosted
Infrastructure should be open or interchangeable
Software, or hardware that we depend on should Open Source, i.e. we should be able to, if needed find out exactly how it works, or interchangeable, so that we (the big we - national institutions, governments, education, health, the military), can swap out a component with one from another, independent vendor and the overall system should still work.
Diversity, working together is stronger. Thinking of a rugby team, made entirely of players with the build of Forwards, for example, even if they were the best Forwards in the world, they would not be as good as a team of Forwards, Backs particularly the essential scrum-half
In this age of increasing unreason I wrote 'The reasoned feedback loop' - although I am hoping reason will prevail on both sides in the US Election.
https://blog.wp.paladyn.org/2020/11/07/the-reasoned-feedback-loop/
I really like what Mark Nottingham says about 'RFC8890: The Internet is for End Users' at https://www.mnot.net/blog/2020/08/28/for_the_users
I would like it even more if I could comment via ActivityPub rather than Twitter.
John Lines
boosted
1984 should be a warning, not an instruction manual
Many people think of George Orwell's 1984 mainly in terms of 'Big Brother', but Newspeak is as important and here today. When most people's only word for a concept is a product then the dangerous bit of 1984 is here. Almost everyone uses - and thinks - Excel instead of spreadsheet, Zoom instead of Video Conference, PowerPoint for Presentation Software. People might use the word Hoover for Vacuum Cleaner, but here their concept is broader.
Like most viruses Covid19 mutates, and at present these muatations are not revevant to the vaccine development as they are not on the parts of the virus used to iddntify it. They are even helpful in allowing epedimiologists to track strains . Once a vaccine is devoloped will introduce selection for strains with more resistance, so I hope thix is being considered in the modelling. On the plus side, with many teams working on development there should be a choice of vaccines too. #coronavirus
John Lines
boosted
Youtube-dl getting taken down is bad, and a zillion mirrors instantly springing up is good and necessary, but how about:
-> stop using youtube
-> stop using github
-> stop giving money to RIAA members
John Lines
boosted
This is pretty cool. The University of Alberta has launched a free online course on Science Literacy.
Learn to tell the difference between real and pseudoscience. https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions-programs/online-courses/science-literacy.html
John Lines
boosted
it takes effort to build community these days. re-decentralising is increasingly important.
this is the lame (though partly valid) excuse of people using f***book, whatsapp, other centralised "platforms".
I didn't miss the point so much as willfully assign it very little value :)
Retired Scientist/IT person. Likes: Freedom, Science, Diversity
Joined Dec 2019
