Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

The thing I'm most excited about now that the Librem 14 is shipping, is running Qubes on it. In this post I talk about why I think it's the best Qubes laptop you can buy: https://puri.sm/posts/best-qubes-laptop-is-the-secure-librem-14/

Their two-factor implementation is a face palm.

You have to hand it to them... https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/21/amazon-palm-print-whole-foods/

This whole write-up is great, but the Hackers-inspired video demoing the exploit just clinches it. Gold. #hacktheplanet https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/

How can you leave IMAP standing
Alone on a net that's so cold?
Maybe Evo's too demanding
Maybe it's just like Mozilla Tbird
Maybe you're just like UW
It's never what I've tried
Why do connections stay open?
This is what it sounds like
When dovecot cries.

OpenSnitch update: I've re-enabled it by default. After chatting with one of the developers I realized I was weighting its load way too much because I measured it while the screen was off and RAM was clocked way down. The latest version doesn't seem to cause a significant load.

When butchering spare ribs St. Louis style, you separate the bottom section where the bones are from the top along a natural bend. There's a long, narrow flap of meat between them you remove that cooks hours before the rest and serves as a chef's snack (pictured on the right).

Breaking in my new "BBQube" temperature controller on a few racks of St. Louis style pork spare ribs. #BBQ

I have Raspberry Pis scattered around my house wired to my network performing various tasks (like controlling 3D printers). Since they are always on anyway, I'm turning some of them into WiFi APs to extend WiFi coverage where there is weak signal.

Since that article was written there's been additional research on using other sensors (ambient light, gyroscope, etc) for tracking, which is why we implemented lockdown mode in the Librem 5 so you have an option to turn it all off.

This guide from Grugq is a great overview for phone privacy and applies even if you have a phone with hardware kill switches for the modem, or a user-swappable modem like in the Librem 5. While those things might make certain steps easier, you still have to keep all the correlation in mind.

https://grugq.github.io/blog/2014/02/10/a-fistful-of-surveillance/

OpenSnitch update: I disabled it on my Librem 5 because it kept a CPU pretty busy at all times, even when idle. I'll keep checking new releases as they come out for improvements. Until then I'll enable it opportunistically whenever I need to increase defenses.

I just learned VLC in Linux can stream videos to a Chromecast. One more task my Librem 5 can take over from my old Android phone.

Keyboard purists: "Having a slightly smaller shift key on a laptop keyboard is a dealbreaker."

Also keyboard purists: "I remapped my caps lock to esc, and switched to modified dvorak in a week."