Notices by Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz), page 147

@HerraBRE @hexmasteen @alexl @Blort we can design perfect information security, in theory, if we don't engage with the messy reality of how users actually use computers in the field. But outside of writing computer science papers, what good does that do?

@HerraBRE @hexmasteen @alexl @Blort
> why doesn't it just ship with your distro?

For the same reasons everything went into the web browser in the first place. Many people (maybe even most) don't have the privilege of being able to do all of their work on one computer, that they own and administrate. When they do, they lack the skills / resources needed to manually backup all the data on that computer. But web-based services can work consistently on any PC with the net and a browser.

@mlg @TheGibson "Marxists think we should be bossed by bureaucrats. Libertarians think we should be bossed by businessmen. Feminists don’t care which form bossing takes so long as the bosses are women. Clearly these ideology-mongers have serious differences over how to divvy up the spoils of power. Just as clearly, none of them have any objection to power as such and all of them want to keep us working. "

@lwflouisa but capitalism isn't a living thing that can die. It's a system of relationships between people, that determines the relationship between people and the rest of the planet (other living things, materials etc), a system we've all been manipulated into depending on for our day-to-day needs. We need to replace it with something else, and agreeing on what how that replacement might work, is possibly the biggest challenge in itself.

I heard on #RadioNZ today that the Fijian government are planning to pass laws forcing FB and other online platforms to crack down on "#FakeNews". So ... who gets to decide which news is fake? Governments? Tech companies? There's no doubt the internet, like all media, is subject to misinformation and disinformation. But scientists and other scholars don't find truth by consulting central authorities, they do it by #PeerReview. Isn't that the way to do it with news?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/375771/fiji-warned-about-fake-news

I don't usually go down the 9/11 rabbithole, but this review of '9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation' by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth caught my attention. Particularly because it doesn't focus on claim and #CounterClaim, as so much online "911 Truth" discourse tends to do, but on the research *methods* necessary to actually find the truth:
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/09/the-fakest-fake-news-the-u-s-governments-9-11-conspiracy-theory/

@TheGibson #BobBlack was ahead of his time?
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work

It's pretty damning that instead of being able to confidently describe how "Electionz dot com" secures the online elections it runs, the best it's boss can come up with is lame comparisons between computer security professionals criticizing online elections, and the general moral panic about the introduction of cars
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366877/plans-for-online-voting-at-local-govt-elections-dangerous

#TradeMe is an auction site used almost exclusively by kiwis, but owned by overseas corporations like Fairfax. Imagine if it was a #PlatformCooperative, owned by it's users.

Something to think about in the context of the news article I recently posted about the Australian government's new law that any and all technology creators must give them a surveillance backdoor.

'Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it', a #TEDTalk by Yuval Noah Harari:
https://invidio.us/watch?v=xHHb7R3kx40

@kosebamse not any more, homepage appears to be down too. I guess the person who set up the project got too busy with their new job and had to abandon it? Or it was #vapourware all along ...
@rapnie

@mike_hales by the time I got to the end of the presentation I could definitely see why you propose that the P2P/ commons movement is the "third movement", it definitely represents a turn towards #CitizenResearch and #CitizenScience, just as much as it does a participatory approach to software development or design. #Wikipedia is the archetypal early example, but there are so many others, like #SourceWatch, #Appropedia, #PlantsForAFuture, even more rebellious sites like #Erowid.

I think it's pretty clear who the real threats are to basic freedoms and human rights like privacy for people in anglophone countries, and it's not Huawei or ZTE:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/new-fight-online-privacy-and-security-australia-falls-what-happens-next

New #Disintermedia blog post, 'Open letter to the admins of #ibiblio.org':
https://www.coactivate.org/projects/disintermedia/blog/2018/12/11/open-letter-to-the-admins-of-ibiblioorg/

@jeffcliff CoActivate is having some server wobbles today, so if that link isn't working for you, maybe try again tomorrow? Sorry :-{

@jeffcliff there's not much to read yet. I had planned to develop it more, but so far political events in Aotearoa (eg the rise and fall of the kiwi Pirate Party) have kicked it onto the backburner:
https://www.coactivate.org/projects/disintermedia/privacy-not-privatization

@botherder @rugk it could also redirect YT to #PeerTube

This presentations is fascinating @mike_hales , although I have very little familiarity with any of the academic history it covers, so I'm having to paddle hard to keep up ;-)

@jkb I'm not talking about behaviour experiments on rats either, I don't consider such vivisection to be scientific at all, let alone produce results that can be applied to humans. I'm talking about decades of clinical observations and social science research on the experiences of people using different drugs, and trying to stop using them.