Python

Updoots for The 4400. Might be my favorite show of all time. The theme song is still playing in my head.

Do /not/ make the mistake of watching the cw’s 4400 (without a The). I would rather watch Tommy Wiseau’s The Neighbors over it.

Add Tucker and Dale vs Evil to that category.

I think you can link a second Whatsapp app, similar to the web client. your primary one needs a webcam to read the QR code though

Hi! Although your post is full of reasonable advice on maintaining privacy online I want to challenge you on the statement that the threat model matters. The contrapositive of the statement “I don’t need privacy if I have nothing to hide” is “I have something to hide, if I need privacy”. This puts those marginalized groups you mentioned in a position where simply by using a privacy tool or technique, they draw suspicion to themselves. It might immediately raise subconscious alarms in internet communities like facebook, where the expectation is that you use your real name.

The only way privacy measures work for anyone, is if they’re implemented for everyone.

Further, I’d like to challenge the concept that a cis white tech bro has nothing to hide. There’s a big invisible “for now” at the end of that statement. The internet, mostly, never forgets. We’ve had waves of comedians get “cancelled” over tweets they made years ago. Times change, people grow, laws regress. Posting statements about abortions is as of this year, suddenly unsafe. Maybe posting about neurodivergence comes next. Who knows with the way the world is going, maybe 5 years from now you’ll regret having posts on /c/atheism associated with you.

I think a good way to be considerate of privacy is to think in terms of identities, what those identities are for, and what links those identities. Does your identity on github need make comments about your political leanings? Should your resume have a link to your github? Does your identity on etsy need to have a link to your onlyfans? Does your dating profile need a link to your reddit account? Your “2nd” reddit account? Not all of these are clear yes or no answers, they’re just things to consider and make decisions about. Also, consider what class identities you only have one of, and what class of identities are for the most part unchangeable, e.g. attaching your phone number to two separate identities functionally links them.

A JavaScript VM in the kernel is inevitable.

not by any means modern, but I used to really like pal

John Oliver take on it https://youtu.be/gYwqpx6lp_s

More than that, your editor doesn’t run with root permissions, which reduces the risk of accidentally overwriting something you didn’t mean to.

it feels to me, like they’re less looking for new people to start doing this “work”, but more to connect with people who already happen to be enthusiastically going to events and showing off their laptops.

I really think that’s the secret end game behind all the AI stuff in both Windows and MacOS. MS account required to use it. (anyone know if you need to be signed in to apple ID for apple ai?) “on device” inference that sometimes will reach out to the cloud. when it feels like it. maybe sometimes the cloud will reach out to you and ask your cpu to help out with training.

that, and better local content analysis. “no we aren’t sending everything the microphone picks up to our servers, of course not. just the transcript that your local stt model made of it, you won’t even notice the bandwidth!)”

I use these two vim plugins for the same functionality without leaving $EDITOR:

• https://github.com/wookayin/fzf-ripgrep.vim
• https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim

I’ve also started dabbling with using fzf in scripts for the team to use. Don’t sleep on the --query and --select-1 flags!

is that more or less cursed than cat image.img > /dev/whatever?

dd if=image.img of=/dev/disk/flashdrive is usually all you need

Definitely not what you’re talking about, but still: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/a-whole-new-world

Not a security scientist, but in my interpretation, it’s the “categories” of the factors that matter. Ideally, you use some two of three of:

• something (only) you know - generally represented by passwords
• something (only) you have - most commonly represented by some device. you prove that you have the device by providing a token only that device can generate.
• something (only) you are - generally represented by biometrics

the goal then is maintaining the "only"s.

if you tell someone your password, or they see you type it in, or they beat it out of you with a wrench, it’s no longer something “only” you know, and it is compromised.

if you use the same password on two websites, and one website is compromised, the password is compromised.

OTPs from a key fob or yubikey or something are similarly compromised if the device that provides them is left out in public/lost/stolen/beaten out of you with a wrench.

biometrics are again, are compromised if it’s not “only” you with access to them - someone scans you face while you’re asleep, or smashes your finger off with their wrench.

having multiple factors in the same category, like having two passwords, or two otp tokens, or two finger prints, doesn’t significantly improve security. if you give up one thing you remember, it’s likely you’ll give up more. if one fob from your keychain is stolen, the second fob on that keychain is of no additional help.

you can start shifting what categories these things represent though.

if you write down your password in a notebook or a spreadsheet, they become thing you have.

OTPs can become something you know if you remember the secret used to generate them.

knowing many different things is hard, so you can put them in a password vault. the password vault is then something you have, which can be protected by something you know. so although your OTPs and passwords are in one place, you still require two factors to get access to them.

you still need to protect your "only"s though. and don’t put yourself in situations where people with wrenches want your secrets.

I use passwordstore.org/ as my password manager, including for my otp codes. It’s backed by a git repo. I get a backup of it on every device it is cloned to.

Further, in terms of safety, having a large display built into your dash showing you navigation is much better than a small device you jerryrig onto a vent or something. It’s easier to see via your peripheral vision, and won’t put you in a situation where you need to go find it off of the floor when it falls off.

grep -r exists and is even more faster and doesn’t require passing around file names.

grep -r --include='*.txt' 'somename' .

Better than that, git config supports conditional includes, based on a repo URL or path on disk. So you can have a gitconfig per organization or whatever, which specifies an sshCommand and thus an ssh key.