saf @saf@librem.one

We are getting asked about "verified accounts" quite often recently, so lets try to clear this up: There are no verified accounts on Mastodon like there are on Twitter. Some Mastodon instances have a custom emoji that looks like the verified icon on Twitter and people put that in their display name, probably because it looks fancy. It does not mean anything though.

I just wanna sleep...

My "How to fight back against Google AMP" post is going on another Reddit trip. Trending on /r/programming now.

99,200+ visitors to that post since published in December 😮

https://markosaric.com/google-amp/

AT&T is blocking Tutanota in some US regions. As AT&T has not fixed the issue after more than two weeks, we are reaching out publicly in the hope of getting the attention of the right people at AT&T. Read more on our blog: https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/att-blocks-tutanota #netneutrality

Schneier on Security / Apple's Tracking-Prevention Feature in Safari has a Privacy Bug
------
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/02/apples_tracking.html
------
information leaks : detecting websites visited by the user ( web browsing history hijacking , stealing a list of visited sites) tracking the user with ITP, making the mechanism function like a cookie ...

The ProtonVPN APK is available to download on GitHub! It's now easy to download and install ProtonVPN on your Android device, even in countries where our website is blocked. https://protonvpn.com/blog/download-android-app-on-github/

I refuse to get a Twitter account, since Twitter refused my registration attempts with privacy-enhanced browsers and without giving away personal data I deem irrelevant to Twitter.

So I turned to good old RSS and started using http://twitrss.me/ to be able to follow Twitter accounts. Works pleasingly well.

Firefox now shows what telemetry data it's collecting about you | ZDNet
https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-now-shows-what-telemetry-data-its-collecting-about-you/

Your browsing data is so valuable that even an AV company that's supposed to protect you from software that capture and sells your data, itself captures and sells your data. #privacy
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdkq7/avast-antivirus-sells-user-browsing-data-investigation

Don't dismiss compulsory student tracking via a phone app just because it's limited to athletes. These measures always start with a small powerless group, then use that "success" to justify expanding to others. #privacy

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14274

Numberphile / Colouring Numbers - Numberphile
------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE3OuzlkUnU
------
[ No Summary ]

Holy shit, you can create a disk which is ext2 and FAT at the same time
https://github.com/NieDzejkob/cursedfs

Smart TVs give corporations another device with which they can monitor your activity and collect your personal data — and they compromise your #cybersecurity. See what you can do to protect your #privacy here: https://protonvpn.com/blog/smart-tv-privacy-risk/

https://sha-mbles.github.io/

> We have computed the very first chosen-prefix collision for SHA-1. In a nutshell, this means a complete and practical break of the SHA-1 hash function, with dangerous practical implications if you are still using this hash function. To put it in another way: all attacks that are practical on MD5 are now also practical on SHA-1. Check our paper here for more details.

To other Mastodon sysadmins: Check what pg_repack can do for you, especially if your server has been around for a really long time. PostgreSQL indexes get bloated over time and VACUUM does nothing about it. pg_repack can re-build indexes without downtime.

@xinayder A good book is "How Linux works" by Brian Ward:

▶How Linux boots
▶How the kernel manages devices,
▶device drivers,
▶processes
etc.

https://nostarch.com/howlinuxworks2

Openstreetmap is reaching the point that it is just more information rich and beautiful than google maps and that is awesome

The day has arrived! ProtonCalendar is now in open beta. Stay organized and stop corporations from spying on your schedule. Paid users can begin testing it today. Full details here: https://protonmail.com/blog/protoncalendar-beta-announcement/

2000s hackers: My dream is to connect all of my devices to the internet.
2020s hackers: My dream is to disconnect all of my devices from the internet.

Wrote a blog post about experience of using the @kde #PlasmaMobile on @PINE64 #PinePhone as a daily driver.

https://blog.bshah.in/2019/12/20/plasma-mobile-as-daily-driver/