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frabbit

1,520 karma · joined August 18, 2013

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frabbit··on David Graeber has died
Paul Mason also was busy trying to climb over Corbyn's corpse.

He's another of the Look-We-Publish-Left-Wing-Opinion go-tos for the Guardian centrists.

frabbit··on David Graeber has died
Don't forget the use of Facebook micro-targetted ads to attempt to trick Corbyn into believing that his own party machinery was putting out the message that it was supposed to be:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-hq-used-facebook-a...

The centrist and right-wing of the Labour party have a lot to answer for and have clearly displayed that they will stick at nothing to ensure that:

* There is no Green New Deal and the climate crisis is going to happen * Power remains in the hands of few incompetent fail sons and their sociopathic remoras.

frabbit··on Threema Goes Open Source
They might want to play down the "Swiss == secure" angle, e.g. from the About Precision, reliability, and discretion are typical Swiss characteristics, and as a true Swiss company, Threema lives these values every day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG

Personally I am happy with Riot.im/Element Matrix. Is there some feature which distinguishes Threema from it?

frabbit··on Threat modelling case study: bicycles
Good stuff.

Needs to add another persona though: Smashing Sam who will knock you off your expensive bike in order to steal it: https://road.cc/content/news/e-bike-stolen-after-rider-ramme...

Having had to cut through my own U lock with a portable angle grinder I can verify that it is not too difficult. The cables are only for the snatch-and-grab prevention.

Only minor nitpick is that Campagnolo make wheels and groupsets, not bicycles themselves.

frabbit··on The Jellyfish Problem
Use "cnidaria" as your keyword?

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/fsts/media/DNAbarcodingCnidar...

frabbit··on The Jellyfish Problem
A good tour of the problems of phenotypic classifications -- which reached their heyday in the funfair of cladism. Always reminds me of Terry Pratchett's jokes about banana classification:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6870748-yes-sir-but-the-lib...

frabbit··on Show HN: 3D first person game rendered in CSS/HTML
Works for me on Linux with Firefox 70.
frabbit··on Show HN: Visualize Data Structures in VS Code
Powershell support would be nice.
frabbit··on Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home
Why do you think it is just the USA? Are you genuinely surprised or this just a baity-get-things-rolling type of question?

Just off the top of my head this is one of the most famous (exposed) examples in the UK https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47457330

Police were created explicitly to help with suppressing the threat that comes from anyone that earns their living by a wage from others.

frabbit··on A Nixon deepfake, a 'moon disaster' speech and an information ecosystem at risk
Knowing the speech was a fake and paying attention to it "skeptically" I noticed the double head-bob as an odd thing which seemed suspiciously convenient as a transition between cut-n-pastes.

Now I'm going to have to go and watch archival Nixon footage to see if the same thing is there or not :)

frabbit··on A Nixon deepfake, a 'moon disaster' speech and an information ecosystem at risk
3m06s to 3m15s seemed a bit cheesy and stagey
frabbit··on Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
Are you claiming that Mullvad are doing the same for the Firefox-brand VPN? If not why are you making a distinction between email,matrix and vpn services?
frabbit··on Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
whoah! I didn't mean this to turn into a Brexit, get rid of the immigrants thing!
frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
Thanks. Guess I have to start making some new friends: "Heyyyy... you look like Fido kinda guy..."
frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
Thanks for the response. One more question: when I look at those plans on Fido¹ they seem to suggest that I need to be an existing postpaid customer. The plan seems like an add-on to other plans. Is this accurate or did you sign up from scratch with no other commercial relationship with Fido?

Make sure that you are an eligible Fido customer. You must be an existing, postpaid, mobile customer.

1. https://www.fido.ca/consumer/tablets

frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
Signal does not send encrypted SMS messages. Period. It can send encrypted messages but they are not SMS.

I think that without using the same words that other "security professionals" (which I would not class myself as) use most discussion becomes absolutely pointless.

frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
I appreciate the suggestion but had already experienced the issue that WiFi Calling did not work with my unlocked Nexus5, similar to this: https://forums.fido.ca/t5/General-Support/Wifi-Calling-worke...

As noted on this article, your compatible device must have been purchased from Fido. If you have a non-Fido device and no conflicting services, Wi-Fi Calling may work, but we can’t assure that the feature will work properly!

Without WiFi Calling enabled sending Secure Signal messages will not work. The only option left is sending a normal insecure SMS to which the message text has been input using the veneer of the "secure" Signal app.

frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
Sure. Agreed. I was responding to your statement that you can send encrypted SMS messages using that handy PSTN directory access provided by Signal.

You can't.

I think this is a common misconception.

frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
I use Signal because I think it protects my SMS messages

It depends. I think calling them simply SMS messages instead of being more precise is misleading because: Text messages sent through your mobile SMS/MMS plan are insecure and need your phone to be connected to your mobile network.

and

Signal Desktop does not send or receive SMS/MMS messages. Only Signal messages will be sent or received. The desktop app is an independent client that works whether or not your mobile device is present or online. We also want to encourage users to move away from insecure legacy protocols.

https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007321171-Ca...

I find it very confusing.

frabbit··on Lenovo’s Fedora-Powered ThinkPad P53 Is Everything I Want in a Linux Laptop
As soon as I see anything nVidia related I know not to waste my time with it. I am not a gamer, I want secure, easily-updatable, stable drivers. That is exactly what you will not get from nVidia. Intel or AMD are the only sane options.
frabbit··on I don't trust Signal (2018)
Signal falls into an uncomfortable place for me.

I like pre-paid cellphone plans which give me a small number of text messages, a small amount of airtime. Using these I can communicate with people when I am not near a WiFi AP. I do not want to pay for data and would prefer to use my and my friends' access points and the free wifi in the small number of commercial locations that I visit.

In Canada all of the major carriers disable WiFi Calling² on pre-paid plans. They essentially only enable it as crutch to leach off public infrastructure to take up the slack on their insufficient private infrastructure.

So I infrequently (but enough to be annoyed) find myself in the situation that I am not near a WiFi access point and wish to communicate with someone else. Currently Signal will only allow me to do this via insecure SMS messages.

I read their original explanation in 2015 for disabling this functionality. Namely SMS leaks too much metadata¹ and we are only catering to needs of real-activists in real-dictatorships, and anyway SMS is too expensive there so this is a 1st World Problem.

As an explanation it leaves me wondering why I would bother with Signal: if I bite the bullet and sign up for a circa CA$50/month plan with data I may as well just use Element Matrix over WiFi. Signal brings nothing to the table except the possibility of accidentally sending an insecure SMS message and incurring a 30c charge for it.

1. https://signal.org/blog/goodbye-encrypted-sms/ 2. https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007321171-Ca...

frabbit··on Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products
/That/ I would pay for. Add in Matrix server(s) , email hosting and I'm a subscriber.
frabbit··on Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
If I decide to wastefully and stupidly order a bunch of extra clothes and food when I can fulfill the same requirements by other means... then, yeah, sure.

Imagine walking around with an extra 1000Kg of clothes on me powered by fuel extracted from a dictatorship half-way across the world. I'd say the exhaust is only the beginning of the full cost I should fairly be charged.

frabbit··on Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
we must also note that environmental footprint of private residencies (HVAC, water supply, trash collection, construction process itself) is pretty bad as well;

Absolutely, this is another excellent argument against mindless sprawl.

unfinished concrete Concrete is not an ideal construction material if you are worried about reducing CO2 emissions.

It also follows that intercity travel should be restricted, for the same reasons. Yes, if you want to have a pleasant earth to live on then feckless, wasteful travel should be restricted. This does not have to be done by rules -- simply charging people the full cost of their trip would place it out of their ability.

outside temp is fixed so no heating cost, No, the outside temperature is rising, thanks to the freedom-loving, brave self-expression of car drivers crawling like ants to and from their places of consumption to their places of production.

In case you missed the memo: the party bosses are now the ones selling you the polluted suburban lifestyle while they cycle bicycles around clean, gated, low-traffic, tree-lined communities. So, keep living in the past... after all the future won't hold much for you.

frabbit··on Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
Yeah, I don't buy any of that.

Why would a programmer, artist, schoolteacher, hairdresser, restaurant owner need to travel any great distance from their village or town?

Most people in the world already live in cities... and they like them. They like looking at other people, smelling them, ranking and comparing them, copying them. They like the convenience of being able to get around easily, have other people cook food for them or play music for them.

The inevitable and obviously viewable consequence of people moving out of cities is that they create noisy, polluting, long-distance commuting sprawl: exactly the opposite of cleaner air and less light and sound pollution.

In order to move back away from the existing situation of an earth riven by roads the incursion of humans into ever smaller fragments of natural ecosystems we need to reduce the population and concentrate it in cities.

This¹ is mostly concentrating on tropical rainforest destruction but the same is true nearly everywhere: more and more roads are built in order to service human desires (cheap wood, grazing or (in EU and NA) solitude and privacy.

It can't go on.

1. https://e360.yale.edu/features/as_roads_spread_in_tropical_r...

frabbit··on Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
It's not just ICE vehicles. These are obviously the worst, but even the most modern, efficient EV causes a massive number of problems when chosen as personal transport:

  * It makes the streets dangerous for everyone else
  * It occupies a vast amount of physical and visual space
  * It facilitates the construction of centralized shopping spaces that are at awkward distances for anyone not also driving
Overall private automobile use ought to be restricted to those with a compelling need for it: emergency services, some tradespeople, those with serious physical disabilities.

The rest of the circa US$10,000/capita should be garnished by taxation and spent on comprehensive electric bus, light electric rail and long distance train infrastructure.

Neighborhoods need to be quiet, safe, green and relaxing. This cannot happen with personal automobile use.

frabbit··on Drivers who keep their windows down are exposed to 80 percent more air pollution
It's not just the US. It's everywhere. I have seen quiet country roads perfect for relaxed cycling and walking turned into dangerous, loud irritations by people who claim to 'love the countryside' as they drive their mountain bikes and backpacking poles to ever dwindling quiet places.
frabbit··on An Inside Look at CloudKitchens
Interesting re-framing of this sort of operation as 'Dark Kitchens' which facilitate worker abuse in this discussion on Trashfuture:

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-iaxgv-e4084a?utm_camp...

frabbit··on Show HN: A bookmarking tool designed to help synthesize your web research
Obviously not answering for the OP, but: because sites disappear or change and also having a local database that does not depend on internet access is wonderful. (Zotero is also great in this regard).
frabbit··on Bitoduc: A French dictionnary for CS related words
I have heard people use "a commercial" quite a bit in QC.
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