Whoa, it looks like Linux Journal is back (again again):
To close out last week I was asked to review an attempt to lock down sudoers rules for a specific user. This included, in a command alias, a wildcard argument. Anyone who has ever had the displeasure of reading the sudoers manpage knows this is dangerous, but at least this opened the door for a conversation about the right way to do what was intended.
A ban on TikTok would have been impossible without closed app store gatekeepers, says EFF board member @Zittrain. Walled gardens are free speech weak links. https://twitter.com/zittrain/status/1306945902498770945
If you (like me) are watching #Hackers for the 25th anniversary, you should check out the novelization! So amazing and with subtle differences from the film.
For a good piece on my last point, give: https://social.librem.one/@kyle/104848690491569211 a read
Finally, and I think most importantly, we need to be the owners of our devices. Completely. Not just the allowed operators as is so prevalent in the iOS and Android ecosystems. Complete ownership means unrestricted access to the hardware and software. The ability to service the device, and keep it in service for years on end. Much of the mountain of data for sale about you comes from your mobile devices. You should be the one who decides exactly what your device can do, and how.
Purging Facebook from my life hasn't left me with any real desire to replace it. Mastodon could serve as a stand-in there as well, I suppose. #TheSocialDilemma
For replacing Twitter and Instagram, one might suggest moving towards Mastodon on any number of the servers federating services. Without a barrage of AI-driven post promotions you're in the driver's seat of your experience. #TheSocialDilemma
Firing Google is probably second on my list, and full disclosure I fired them because of a failure to deliver services for which I paid a lot of money. My personal issues aside, their entire model hinges on collecting and selling data about every aspect of your online presence in any of their applications or services. Just don't use them. Get a different browser, use a different search engine, take back your email. #TheSocialDilemma
The first, and likely easiest, step I can see towards offsetting the harm done by the direct monetization of your time and data is to simply disable app notifications for anything that isn't critical. Couple this with a reassessment of what is actually critical, and already you're in a pretty good position for reducing the influence these complex algorithms have in your daily life. #TheSocialDilemma
I watched #TheSocialDilemma yesterday and it struck harmonic chord with one that had already been struck earlier in the year. Since I've yet to decide on a longer format platform my reflections will be in a series of posts here. TL;DR - move towards federated FOSS services, turn off your notifications, and take steps to use devices you truly own.
Wandered deeper into the Matrix rabbit hole this morning, creating another user for myself with the matrix.org homeserver. Using the Element.io client from two separate browsers I found myself unable to send messages from my matrix.org acct to librem.one. I could send from librem to matrix, and even receive them on the matrix side, but nothing originating at the matrix side was ever received on the librem side. I hope @purism can sort these issues out for the sake of Librem 5.
Your Phone Is Your Castle
https://puri.sm/posts/your-phone-is-your-castle/
"If your home is your physical castle, your phone is your digital castle. More than any other computer, your phone has become the most personal of personal computers and holds the most sensitive digital property a person has..."
Matrix seems really cool, and I really want to like it, but it is extremely difficult to use securely and in some surprising cases encountered today actually just flat out impossible to verify (even in "legacy" mode) all users even from within the same client. All bets are off if two communicating users aren't using the same client. Any element.io/librem chat gurus out there have any tips on verification?
If you live inside a fortification where someone else writes the rules, decides who can enter, can force anyone to leave, decides what you’re allowed to have, and can take things away if they decide it’s contraband, are you living in a castle or a prison? https://puri.sm/posts/your-phone-is-your-castle/
I like to work with my hands. That may mean hammering out solutions to complex problems in #Python or #Rust, building things in my shop, or spinning yarn to knit something warm. You’ll likely see some of all of that here. By day (and sometimes night) I keep >13k nodes and services alive in the Electric Vehicle sector.
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