Notices by Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net), page 17
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Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Thursday, 27-Sep-2018 10:04:55 EDT 
Bob Mottram π§ β β
I don't use Macs, but I can identify with this problem.
http://fabiensanglard.net/bloated/index.php -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 24-Sep-2018 18:37:07 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@freakazoid @aussierockman
Snowden's motivations don't really matter. He himself said early on that he could be the worst person imaginable, but that's beside the point which was the content of the disclosures and the huge gap in public understanding of how governments use bulk surveillance against their own populations.
It's easy to do lazy character assassinations on Wikileaks people. Assange himself seems like a dubious sort of character. But Wikileaks at its height around about 2010 did contribute something to public understanding which didn't exist previously. They also probably saved Snowden's life.
If there are lessons from Wikileaks it's that:
* The wiki idea didn't work. It's hard to wikify investigative journalism, which it turns out is an actual job and not easy to do on a voluntary basis.
* Transparency of institutions is good but on its own is not enough
* Revealing the dubious characteristics of governments does not necessarily change their behavior. There is not necessarily any democratic leverage from data availability.
* Creating a celebrity figurehead for your organization is a losing strategy which creates more problems than it solves. It would have been better if the figurehead of Wikileaks had been an anonymous-style computer animation of some harmless looking news reader. You can't imprison or character assassinate an animation. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Sunday, 23-Sep-2018 04:48:06 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
So the RockPro64 is partially spectrified. The A72 is spectre vulnerable. The A53 isn't. -
Jase (jason@thesocialmedia.feedbackloo.pw)'s status on Saturday, 22-Sep-2018 08:22:52 EDT 
Jase
@fenny
@cult @kel @aral
Mozilla are like a good prestidigitator on the surface they appear as bastions for an open, private and free internet, however contrary to this image they have complex contracts that offer use of their platform and partner access to the telematics data through the use of the APIs
Firefox collects telemetry data by default, which has value increased when combined with other information, mozilla can do this as even under the GDPR telematics on its own is not specifically personally identifiable as it is data you generate from your interactions with the internet using their browser
Telematics can however reveal times, browser tab information ,histograms, events (clicks, mouse movements etc) the nearest access points (like WiFi and mobile / cell towers) placing you at a location
While this information does not seem that important it is valuable to third parties that already hold personal information, it also enables the tracking of non internet real world purchases that started with a search for a product
Google uses this type of data to track real world purchase on credit cards (an agreement with MasterCard has been confirmed)
Full detail on the telematics that mozilla can share can be located here
https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/toolkit/components/telemetry/telemetry/index.html
I'm sure if I have misunderstood any of the detail above someone will correct me.
When it comes to the "sale" of telematics Its not so much sold like a bottle of milk but as part of the contracts they have with their "partners" like the search engine companies, who can do a lot with the generated data.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/
If you look at the end of year filings for mozilla (published on there website) the bulk of their income is generated by the (unpublished) contracts they make with search engines companies
(Yahoo are still realing from the financial cost of dealing with mozilla along with all the shady shit they have been up to - different story)
Btw Privacy Aware = we know the (monetary) value of your privacy
But its not just at the monetary and privacy level that mozilla have deviated from their claims but also in their dealings within the w3c
Publicly they denounce DRM and cry out for a free internet (its in their mission statement) yet they were pro DRM and implemented EME within the Browser before it was officially adopted, there is nothing free about DRM and EME
And then there was that time they forcefully hijacked Firefox browser installs with a remotely installed advert -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Thursday, 20-Sep-2018 08:37:41 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
Briar and Bramble: A Vision for Decentralized Infrastructure https://dymaxion.org/essays/briarvision.html -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 19:19:24 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@Wolf480pl @anathem @Shamar The Linus apology is welcome and I hope he does change his behavior. But the CoC change is a different kind of issue. It gives wide latitutde to the technical board to decide who's hot and who's not, regardless of patch quality or other technical issues. It's the last rule listed. I call it a gotcha clause, because it's anything the board considers reasonable. This certainly could be abused in future. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 15:36:20 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@Wolf480pl @strypey @Shamar
As I see it with the new CoC wording it's only a matter of time before Linus breaks one of the rules. He can change his outgoing email filter and maybe take a meditation break or an anger management course, but sooner of later he's going to slip up. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 15:25:49 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@Wolf480pl @strypey @Shamar
This might be a way for Microsoft or Google to have "their man" maintaining Linux.
If after some CoC drama Linus was replaced by a Microsoft guy I'd do a lot of laughing...and then maybe some crying. It would be the ultimate coup. But then of course it's just GPL. There would be a fork and maybe a split from the Linux Foundation. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 14:23:12 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
Red Desert - Slow Kill https://reddesertmn.bandcamp.com/track/slow-kill -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 12:00:58 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
Adding the web UI translations system for #freedombone. The idea is to make it easy to create translations or to customize any of the text. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 11:53:39 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@ajroach42 It's called "soft power" -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 10:48:31 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@strypey
"Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks" -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 10:34:29 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@forteller
Specifically, I think they should remove the "political attacks" wording, or be more specific about what that means.
There's also a gotcha rule "Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate" which could mean anything. It gives the Advisory Board wide latitude.
Otherwise I think what will happen in future is that there's going to be some politically contentious patch from one of the Linux Foundation members, Linus is going to call bullshit on it (very predictably) and then they will say he's making a "political attack" which draws his maintainership into question because it violates the CoC. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 10:19:59 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@thegibson Gotta take time out to attend the interview I suppose. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 09:23:16 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@bewitchyourmind Use your elder status wisely -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 09:08:23 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@aral And they'll now have more power than Linus in terms of enforcing standards of behavior via the CoC.
Expect more:
* Professionalism
* Corporatism
* Lack of criticism of certain politically contentious patches -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 09:05:52 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@aral
You got it :thumbsup: -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 08:42:49 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@catdad The Linux project has problems at multiple levels and the white dudes from $questionablecompanies are just one of them. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 08:36:10 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
@strypey It is, but I don't think that's what this is actually about. That's just the PR.
It's going to be difficult for Linus not to say anything which qualifies as a "political attack" the next time the NSA tries to get some more broken crypto into the kernel, or Microsoft starts playing its usual games.
It would be relatively easy to plant someone, or manufacture a situation which will then inevitably trigger Linus' well known personality flaws, and a governance crisis commences. -
Bob Mottram π§ β β (bob@soc.freedombone.net)'s status on Monday, 17-Sep-2018 08:31:10 EDT
Bob Mottram π§ β β
What's the betting that the Linux Technical Advisory Board mentioned as enforcers in the new CoC will be stuffed with the usual suspects?
No wait...
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/technical-advisory-board
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