I waddled onto the beach and stole found a computer to use.

🍁⚕️ 💽

Note: I’m moderating a handful of communities in more of a caretaker role. If you want to take one on, send me a message and I’ll share more info :)

  • 129 Posts
  • 673 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 5th, 2023
  • Otter@lemmy.catoFediverse@lemmy.world•Social Web Foundation is Betting Big on Client-to-Server APIEnglish
    6·
    18 days ago

    I blame all the similar sounding terms and organizations in the fediverse space. It’s actually pretty cool

    What SWF is:

    In a gesture that’s been a long time coming, Evan Prodromou, co-author of the ActivityPub protocol, has launched The Social Web Foundation. The organization aims to tackle the various headaches and challenges the ActivityPub ecosystem has faced over the last decade of its development. Their mission? A bigger, better Fediverse.

    From this article:

    the SWF has been working on several interesting projects outside of these stated scopes, and it’s something Evan Prodromou has been bullish about: leveraging the ActivityPub Client-to-Server API. Historically, this piece of the ActivityPub protocol is rarely ever implemented, due to complexity as well as the fact that Mastodon’s own client API has seen widespread adoption.

    To really understand the C2S API, we have to go back in time to when the protocol was being developed. The basic concept was that any ActivityPub implementation would effectively act as a generic server, with clients providing unique experiences. Compared to Mastodon’s dedicated API, C2S isn’t explicitly limited to microblogging or statuses. Instead, clients dispatch activities to and from an Actor’s inbox and outbox.

    Instead of every new social experience in the Fediverse acting as a bespoke server, the C2S API instead lets a wide range of clients interact with an instance. Instances no longer become specific delegates of what activities can or cannot be used. C2S opens the floodgates for any kind of application to hook in to a Fediverse account. Instead of an instance doing all the hard work, clients would handle much of the advanced logic themselves.

    Setting aside unique applications for a moment, one of the key killer-features that ActivityPub C2S could offer the Fediverse is a coherent and streamlined login system for any Fediverse account.

    It then has some other examples of how this protocol is being used

  • Otter@lemmy.catoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•is there any legitimate use of blockchains?English
    3·
    23 days ago

    https://xkcd.com/2030/

    I appreciate that when you find a relevant xkcd, the explainxkcd page also has relevant information to the discussion:

    https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2030%3A_Voting_Software

    When the reporter follows the interview up with a mention of blockchain technology, Megan and Cueball reflexively tell the reporter to avoid any voting system using the technology at all costs. Blockchain is a relatively new technology that is intended to solve some computer security issues by making it difficult to doctor old data. However, in the process of solving the old computer security issues, it has introduced new computer security issues that have not yet been ironed out; for instance, it doesn’t solve input fraud issues, only data-doctoring fraud, so if a program caused the voting machine to record a vote for candidate B whenever a vote for candidate A was cast (such a program could be uploaded to the voting machines through USB, or through the internet which the voting machine must be connected to for blockchain), blockchain would not prevent it. Blockchain has also had a large number of high-profile scams, thefts, and implementations with critical security holes. Thus, Megan and Cueball may not trust this blockchain solution because of this history.

    Blockchain is really great at preventing post-facto data changes. With blockchain you can somewhat guarantee that no one comes in after the election and changes the votes on the machines. (Unless they’re handling the blockchain in a stupid fashion, for example without the distribution.) But you cannot prevent tampering with the machines themselves, such as making them record votes that didn’t happen, or tampering the data before it’s written to the blockchain.

    Also, the security issues that Blockchain solves could also be solved via write-once memory, which would be more secure and more difficult to doctor.

    Most computer security specialists are more worried about programs that randomly and/or deliberately misreport a vote, than people changing the votes after they’re already recorded, so blockchain would solve an issue that most computer security specialists are less worried about, while causing new issues (the perpetual internet connection among them).

  • Otter@lemmy.catoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•Does total privacy entail isolating yourself from 99% of people?English
    5·
    2 months ago

    This is important because no matter what you do, there is always so much more you could be doing. I’d argue that for most people, having those connections is also important for fulfilling whatever reasons you have for pursuing privacy (safety, financial security, political reasons).

    It’s also possible to use a service while severely cutting down how much information they can gather:

    • use a relay email address
    • use the web browser instead of the app
    • set up recommended settings on your browser

    Another point is that there is a benefit from blending into a crowd. You don’t want to stick out as the one user that’s doing much more than necessary

  • Otter@lemmy.catoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•Do you check what community you're about to participate in before participating?English
    8·
    2 months ago

    I think that’s reasonable

    I have run into users not being aware of which community a post is in a few times. Two recent examples

    • We were discussing whether we should remove a post from [email protected] and if it was relevant to Canada. Two users may have misunderstood it as trying to defend trump
    • I posted a study comparing the efficacy of a particular vaccine regiment in [email protected], which is intended for medical professionals, and someone thought I was posting antivax disinfo. Studies on vaccine efficacy are common, and that’s how we decide on schedules and develop better ones

    I get it, times are stressful. I left polite comments pointing out the community, and in both cases it would have been smoother if the person checked what the community is about before making assumptions.