=== ANCHOR POEM ===
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You know, there's no guarantee that Youtube or Gmail has to show you the EXACT
SAME video or message that your friend shared with you. Or did they even share
it at all? So hard to tell when they know all the communication you've ever
had, because you only know each other online on their platforms, [read: US
government observed platforms] [like, HTTPS] surely there's no room for
someone to sneak in and edit your conversations. Surely the only way to
securely communicate is to send pure PGP encrypted bytes to another target,
wrapped in a TCP/IP header, with unknown intent or expression. Worst they
could do then is just, y'know, block it entirely.
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=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===
--- #1 fediverse/1862 ---
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║ some people look for signals or signs before doing something. Try and have │
║ someone in your life who can give you signals or signs so that you know when │
║ to do things. And ideally, if they're more hardcore than you, you'll know what │
║ to do, not just when to do it. │
║ │
║ did you know that anything on the internet can be read by at least one other │
║ person besides your intended recipient? There's no way they'd let us talk │
║ amongst ourselves otherwise. │
║ │
║ I think encryption is pretty neat, all you have to do is run a shell script on │
║ some text, then send that text over the internet. If you want to decrypt it, │
║ all you have to do is run a shell script on it to decrypt it. │
║ │
║ downside is, it has to be translated into plain text somewhere along the │
║ line... Maybe if we rendered the words not as text that can be read from │
║ memory, but as like, brush-strokes that can have a randomized order, but still │
║ present to the user as visual text? anyway that's what's on my mind as I try │
║ and improvise a baking recipe with yeast, flour, and butter │
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--- #2 fediverse/3470 ---
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alternatively, when you initiate an SSH session it sends you a randomized
public key whose private key is the password that you need to login. By
decrypting the string of text it sent you and sending it back (plus the
password at the end or whatever) you can ensure secure authentication without
bothering with the passwordless keys which are wayyyyyy more trouble than
they're worth and lack the "something you know" authentication method.
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--- #3 fediverse/3234 ---
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║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
║ │ CW: ritz-is-fucking-stupid-I-guess-oh-whoops-cursing-mentioned │ │
║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
║ │
║ │
║ my understanding is that anyone with my IP address could make my heart bleed │
║ due to a hardware vulnerability on my motherboard. Though you might have to │
║ get past my decrepit ancient linksys EA 3500 router from 2012 first. │
║ │
║ unrelated, but does anyone want my IP address? I don't have any remote │
║ backups, so if you hate me now would be a great time to show me how despised I │
║ am. Alternatively you could try searching for anything evil to ensure that I │
║ can be trusted. You're gonna find mostly video games and source-code that I │
║ didn't write though. But also all my notes in directories that are │
║ non-standard, meaning you'll have to look around a bit. I leave little notes │
║ everywhere I go, so that I can remind myself how to do things in the │
║ directories I revisit months later. It's so weird how sometimes the things I │
║ wrote stop working after a while even if I didn't update my system lmao │
║ │
║ what is it with artists and self-immolation? "I never thought I'd actually di │
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--- #4 fediverse/1261 ---
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║ sometimes I run this WoW server with only like, 10 username and passwords. And │
║ they're all public. As far as I can tell nobody's ever tried connecting │
║ (whatever >.> ) but rather than set up a way to create your own │
║ credentials I just said "yeah pick one at random and play whatever someone │
║ else was doing because I like the idea of that" │
║ │
║ somehow, it felt right. │
║ │
║ most of my passwords (not all of them) are hacked and visible on the clear │
║ net. Like you could probably google my usernames and get my current passwords │
║ for things like, social media or my banks or whatever. I kinda like the idea │
║ that "you cannot trust anything I say, so think of the ideas behind my words │
║ and decide whether they hold meaning to you" rather than "execute these │
║ particular thought patterns in your mind as if they came from my voice" │
║ because one implies an exertion of control over the mind of the recipient │
║ -> obey my thoughts as I broadcast them into your mind, that kinda vibe. │
║ And I feel like you have to consent to that kind of thing hehe │
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--- #5 fediverse/3469 ---
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you know how SSH password login is deprecated because the password needs to be
transmitted in cleartext or whatever?
what if we just... required two passwords?
the first initiates the conversation, and sets up an encrypted line. It
doesn't matter if anyone sees the first password because they'll get a new set
of encrypted keys, meaning each session automatically is encrypted in a
different, randomized way.
the second password is the one that actually authenticates you.
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--- #6 fediverse/536 ---
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┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CW: re: PSA: aspublic.org is still active, and still archives + makes searchable all public posts, they have no opt-out, nor do they respect the "Include public posts in search results" setting │
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@user-391
Just want to point out that email is about as private as skywriting. Which
means that everyone knows what you buy on Amazon or which forums send you
messages... So if you want to keep your posts secret, you should use
encryption - such as gpg, for example.
Actually, wouldn't that solve the problem that @user-78 is talking about?
Just, build encryption into everything.
Ah, nope, wouldn't work, just realized that public means public, and you can't
encrypt a public post. Well, you could, but then it's no longer public, just
noise transmitted on a public channel.
Idk. My opinion is that the fediverse is (and should be) like email. Like
skywriting. If you mark something as public, it should be seen by anyone who
wants to see it. It's an opt-in option. And frankly I miss Myspace, so I'm
okay with archives.
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--- #7 fediverse/2200 ---
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I love D&D books with lots and lots of randomized tables because you can,
in a pinch, use them as code-books for encrypting text using a method that
nobody will ever guess. Well, as long as you have two of them, one to give to
your friend and one to keep yourself.
This is a form of "symmetric encryption", where you each have a copy of the
input/output tables. More secure is the private/public key style encryption,
but good luck explaining that to a 14 year old. Plus you can't do it over a
radio, you need a computer.
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--- #8 fediverse/4159 ---
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║ ┌───────────────────────┐ │
║ │ CW: mastodon-politics │ │
║ └───────────────────────┘ │
║ │
║ │
║ editing posts is great because you can say one thing, get a like or three, and │
║ suddenly you have a group chat pre-made for you. Sans notifications of course. │
║ │
║ ... that's way overkill though. who would even do that? │
║ │
║ same people who boost one of your posts whenever they want you to look at the │
║ thing on their profile. If they want you to see the fourth thing down, they'll │
║ boost your 4th non-pinned post. │
║ │
║ wow that's hardcore, who would even do that? Not me, that's for sure, I don't │
║ have time for that. (legitimately don't have the time nor the brainpower for │
║ that) │
║ │
║ also liked posts are inadmissable in court because they can say one thing, │
║ then be edited to say another, and if you liked it once then you've liked it │
║ forever. │
║ │
║ However the court of public opinion is a largely different matter, because │
║ people will generally believe anything a friend tells them. │
║ │
║ computers are fun, aren't they? we should totally have more one-to-many │
║ posting methods that are collected in multiple locations and locally! │
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--- #9 fediverse/884 ---
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│ CW: completely-unfounded-no-evidence-mis-information │
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If we make a law that says you can't sell user data, they'll just build an
intentional vulnerability into their system and point it out to specific
people who paid under the table. Then, when they get "hacked", they'll surely
be ashamed and sorry to their users, but hey the data's out there now not like
they can take it back. Oh don't worry we already patched the hole in our
security, that way nobody can get in through the same door that was
intentionally left open for very particular people who've paid, and not for
the people who haven't paid yet, who are still waiting patiently for a door to
be built for them.
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--- #10 fediverse/1857 ---
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║ ┌──────────────────────┐ │
║ │ CW: scary-question │ │
║ └──────────────────────┘ │
║ │
║ │
║ honest question: if they cut off internet to a medium sized town like │
║ Nashville or Spokane and man-in-the-middled every attempted communication out │
║ and sabatoged any plans to visit... they could kill everyone in that city and │
║ replace them with an LLM that sorta posted the mostly correct things, and if │
║ users comment things like "hey are you okay you don't sound like yourself" │
║ then just have a human operator study their data for a bit and pretend to be │
║ them using deepfakes over zoom or whatever. Then, any time they say "I miss │
║ you, I want to visit you" just say "darn I'm actually visiting my grandma in │
║ afghanistan" or "sorry my cousin is visiting from peru" and suddenly they're │
║ completely isolated and alone. Oh and their teams at work? Cut off from the │
║ rest of the corporation who doesn't even know they exist. how, uh, how would │
║ you even notice if all these people who live around you were suddenly replaced │
║ by those you don't know? What if they cycle through, like a slaughterhouse... │
║ I don't want to │
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--- #11 fediverse/1994 ---
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║ @user-1123 │
║ │
║ hi nice to meet you let me just transfer my unencoded public key to you so │
║ that you can sign it and verify that it's definitely the same thing I intended │
║ to send and not a malicious package that plans to execute itself to executable │
║ space and permanently hardwire your machine to continually feed data to an │
║ external site, no siree just a regular ordinary public key that was │
║ transferred over the internet, that place that basically guarantees a │
║ man-in-the-middle via it's communication processes over the lines and cables │
║ connecting ye to thee which are naturally administered and watched over by │
║ your host, AKA the isp. │
║ │
║ ... but yeah trust me bro plug in this flash drive, there's no way that a │
║ secret hacker might install a rootkit or something on my computer just because │
║ I plugged in a flash drive, once, literally just a nugget of information │
║ carried upon a little machine that you can fit in your pocket roughly the size │
║ of a thumb) drive, the kind that is useful for transmitting information by │
║ sneakermail. :) │
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--- #12 fediverse/482 ---
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@user-246
You're absolutely right. It's easy to think of the internet as this
encapsulated entity "the world", but really it's "the people whose computers
are physically connected to your computer using a limited and tangible piece
of infrastructure comprised of copper wires that are laid between the
router/switch that connects to your computer... and the internet service
provider which directs your traffic. Then it probably goes through some cables
under the ocean or whatever, and eventually after traversing many
indeterminate passthrough locations eventually arrives at the computing
infrastructure that comprises the access point that another person (presumably
in another country) uses to express their thoughts toward you (the person who
sent the original message) in the hopes that you might one day correspond.
I mean... That's a lot of points of failure. I sure hope that we can sustain
such connection, in the face of [redacted, whichever circumstances may come in
the near future]
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--- #13 fediverse/497 ---
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@user-346
Nobody will get past the login screen on my computer, but if they do they
probably won't know that you need to push alt+p in DWM to start a program. But
even if they push "alt+p firefox" they will only have access to my gmail and
discord, because those are the only two places I've saved my login information.
Most of my data is on my hard disk anyway, so for that they'd have to push
alt+enter and then navigate my filesystem to find it. Shouldn't be too hard if
you're familiar with Linux.
They could always just pull the hard drive and put it into a new computer
though. It's not like it's encrypted, because why would I encrypt it? I want
to share information, not conceal it! Surely nobody would desire to exploit
that vulnerability of mine, that my data should be unencrypted?
If you have a copy of Wikipedia then you're 500% more prepared than 90% of
humanity so good job _^
Sure would be cool if you put it in the documents folder of every person in
your family who solicited tech advice from you
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--- #14 fediverse/2674 ---
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│ CW: factually-untrue,-that-never-happened.-this-is-just-gesturing. │
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the kind of friendship where you SSH into each other's systems and leave notes
for one another.
as soon as you find one you message the person who left it like "yoooo only
just found this lol" and they're like oooo yeah did you see the bash script I
wrote in that directory "yeah totally I used it on one of my video files just
now - cool filter!"
ahhhh reminds me of all the times hackers have hacked my permanently insecure
system and left me friendly messages like "hey I'm on your side" or "how's
life, friend? I hope it's going well." or "never forget; you are worth all the
fear" y'know cute things like that
oh. right. because leaving vulnerabilities like that can lead to threat actors
affecting your stuff. how lame.
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--- #15 fediverse/5109 ---
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does anyone know of a website where I can host videos on my neocities that
isn't youtube? maybe something I can set up on my own server computer at home
like a file server or something? how do I do that, what should I google, which
is the easiest and closest to the metal tools I can use? [practical, sensible,
courageous. these are the adjectives we need.]
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--- #16 fediverse/5369 ---
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@user-138
you can use a username now. They added that functionality recently.
it's supposedly more encrypted or something. But, it's still a centralized
point of failure. If you want to say something privately, pretend like you're
ordering drugs on the dark web and use PGP encryption or SSH keys or whatever
it says in the "how to order drugs on the dark web" guides.
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--- #17 fediverse/71 ---
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Oh it's compressed on tumblr too. And Reddit can delete my account at any
time, just saying. I don't trust Facebook to fare any better...
I tried to put it on my neocities website so I could just put a link here.
Nevermind the fact that most people see a link they don't recognize and
completely glaze over it. Guess what? Compressed there too. The file is fine
on my PC, so how about I give a download link? Well, where should I host it?
Dropbox or Mega I guess, but they locked my account for inactivity. I don't
really like having other people in control of my data either. Maybe I can host
it on my website, like a file server? Well, the browser intercepts the file
somehow and I can't get it to automatically download to the viewer's computer.
Maybe I'm just completely average and representative of the base population
but I just can't figure this darn thing out. Alas, if only it was the modern
era where things make sense and not the ancient days of 2023.
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--- #18 fediverse/2062 ---
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Society has never been secure. Literally all someone has to do is place
documents alleging that you sold all your shares or refinanced your mortgage
or signed a new will and BAM suddenly the rug's pulled out from your feet. I
don't get why people trust their neighbors so much? You don't know them!
well, I guess it'd be hard to function as a society if you didn't. Sure would
be nice if we had like, a communal Mastodon server run on public
infrastructure owned only by the people who lived in the closest 70 houses.
Sure would be nice if you could connect to one of like, 4 in your area. Then,
if they each held communal events where they meet and hang out with each
other. Only like, 2 or 3 though so you can get a solid grasp of what their
culture's like.
... like imagine if every address had an IP, and every IP address had an HTML
index. We could do whatever we wanted, especially if
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--- #19 fediverse/1329 ---
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║ @user-941 │
║ │
║ well, your computer only has so many 1s and 0s that it can use at once. Like, │
║ having a trillion hands that can each hold a single grain of rice. Every │
║ character in that txt file would be like, 8 grains of rice, minimum, meaning │
║ you'd need at least 8 "hands" (or spots to put a zero or a one) for each │
║ letter! │
║ │
║ Hmmmm that's a lot of bits and bytes if everyone's writing to the same file. │
║ Maybe if we split the file up into smaller sections, then we could just read │
║ part of it at once. Then we could "scroll" through it to make sure we've read │
║ the whole thing, starting from the top and going to the bottom. │
║ │
║ ah but if everyone's SSHing into the same computer and reading it there, then │
║ that computer will have to present different parts of the file at different │
║ times to different people, as they read from the top to the bottom. Maybe we │
║ could just send them the file, so they can read it at their leisure? │
║ │
║ Yeah! And we could use tags to organize it and make it look pretty, like an │
║ HTML file except... wait hang on │
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--- #20 fediverse/2055 ---
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║ I wish we could put our friends on social media into directories │
║ │
║ like on IRC how you have chat servers, except unfortunately they're owned by │
║ another and sort of a common space. │
║ │
║ why don't we just host our own IRC servers and only publish what WE SAY. NOT │
║ WHAT OTHERS SAY, NOT A CHATROOM, but a BULLETIN BOARD. Like a Facebook │
║ timeline before they wrecked it. │
║ │
║ something you subscribe to │
║ │
║ and ping for updates │
║ │
║ every time you turn your computer on │
║ │
║ or every 15 minutes. │
║ │
║ unless, of course, you leave your IP address, │
║ │
║ in which case the boardcaster can ping you. Just a simple package saying "hey │
║ I got news for you" and they could ping back and say "yo what's up" and │
║ download whatever you had in mind. │
║ │
║ or, wait 15 minutes. Either or. Both would work, especially if the user's not │
║ reading through their social media feed. │
║ │
║ ... anyway by putting friends into directories, you could categorize them │
║ according to project. Like various group chats in your team-of-team's room. │
║ Various different threads you could follow if you │
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