Skip Navigation

Mikina

@ Mikina @programming.dev

Posts
16
Comments
1020
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • What open-source Android apps should people know about?

    Jump

  • Someone once posted here in a comment an app they are working on that is an K2K (keyboard to keyboard) encrypted keyboard app for android

    I don't remember how it worked and only skimmed the repo, since I didn't think I'd need it, but given recent developments it might be good to have.

    Does anyone remember what it was?

    IIRC the idea was that you have a separate input box, and encryption keys saved in the keyboard app, and it just does I assume PGP before pasting the text into the app your inputing into. I'm curious how it did key exchange and how usable it was, but I lost the link and couldn't find it.

  • Berlin: Police can secretly enter homes for state trojan installation

    Jump

  • People whose thread model requires high stakes and serious encryption are probably using PGP with hardware keychain, with Tails or something similar on a live USB.

    Adding a high-profile law like this will probably just cause them to increase their op-sec and make it even harder to actually get any evidence where it really matters, while having a huge PR cost and abuse potential. But it's very probably not about catching criminals anyway.

    Also, it's kinda funny that they moved from SS to AA :D

  • A Month of Chat-Oriented Programming - CheckEagle

    Jump

  • If I understood it right, one of the projects he was working on as part of the experiment was the website.

    Figures.

  • Looking for a federated alternative to Signal as they might have to comply with ChatControl, I tried SimpleX, XMPP, Matrix, NextCloud Talk and DeltaChat. It was quite a ride

    Jump

  • I've been using Matrix for a few years by now, mostly only for the bridges, and the setup experience was actually way more straitforward than I expected.

    Did you use the matrix ansible project for setting it up? Enabling bridges was just adding like two lines of config parameters per bridge max, and adding my accounts was just like two back to back messages with a bot and it worked. The whole server setup with the ansible took like an hour max, including getting hosting (I used Hetzner for like 8$ a month) and domains.

  • Zig: Migrating from GitHub to Codeberg

    Jump

  • I was planning to look into Zig for this year's Advent of Code. Haven't really looked at it yet, but I've heard good things about it. Nowadays I mostly write in C# or Python for smaller scripts, so I kind of expect getting back to C-style code might have some friction, but it's about time to refresh my memory. I had a pretty good time with Rust for AoC in the previous years (not that I ever used it for anything else), but I guess it's time to try something else.

  • Thank Mozilla for Killing Localization on Support Mozilla (And Replacing Human Contributions With AI Bots)

    Jump

  • I'd say that's because here on Lemmy, we already don't give a fuck about and wouldn't touch Chrome or Edge with a ten foot pole, but some of us trusted Mozzila, which is now starting to do dumb AI shit. And having your trust broken hurts.

    Astroturfing would not be recommending LibreWolf as an alternative.

    If you look into alternatives, Brave is one that's usually mentioned but there's always someone quickly posting all of the dumb shit they did.

  • Affinity for Linux? Canva's next big move could reshape the desktop software market

    Jump

  • If you mean PhotoGimp, it's just a config file thst rebinds keybinds and sets up UI layout, like location of tools and windows, to be similar to photoshop.

  • Following the "voluntary" scanning added in the latest EU Council Chat Control vote, what is a realistic option for a family/friends chat? Is self hosting your own Matrix/DeltaChat server the only opt

    Jump

  • To be honest, I'm only using Matrix for the bridges into every other service, so I can talk to people on messenger, signal, telegram, discord and whatsapp through a single app, the Matrix client, so I at least don't have spyware on my phone, even though they'll get my messages. And E2E encryption doesn't apply in that case, so I never had to deal with it.

    With self-hosted solution, your main advantage is that you can simply create the accounts on the server side, and don't need any verification. After the first login, it usually asks for every new device, that you have to confirm the session on a device that's already confirmed, but I never had issues with that.

    But I don't have experience with actuall Matrix to Matrix communication, I just used the bridges. Haven't tried DeltaChat yet, but tbh I've just given up convincing people to switch and am glad I can at least have the bridges working, so I never have to login or use any apps or websites of FB/Discord/whatever.

  • Following the "voluntary" scanning added in the latest EU Council Chat Control vote, what is a realistic option for a family/friends chat? Is self hosting your own Matrix/DeltaChat server the only opt

    Jump

  • By the way, if you are using Gmail for Email, have files stored on GDrive, OneDrive (Documents are by default in OneDrive on Windows) or iCloud, use Messenger, Whatsapp, Skype, Snapchat, Xbox or Instagram to communicate, your files and messages are already being scanned for the last 5 years, since 2021.

    ChatControl was already voluntary, and the products I mentioned villingly joined and are already doing it. For most of the people suddenly complaining, not much actually changes. They could do something about it for the past 5 years - not use the apps that do it, but "I don't want to install another chat apps, I have everyone on messenger" have been forcing people like me to choose between privacy and having a way how to contact friends and familly. And I'm 90% sure that most of them vouldn't switch even if this new law did not pass.

    Anyway, if you haven't already, look up "Matrix ansible project", it's an extremely easy way how to set up a server, with awesome guides and actually a very robust implementation. It will save you a lot of time. I"m just paying 6$ a month for Hetzner cloud, and setting it up took like an hour tops.

    Self-hosted open source solutions will always be an alternative, the major problem is that they will soon ban side-loading of apps to phones, so you won't be able to install a FOSS messenger that connects to your solution, or a browser that doesn't scan you, unless you have something like GrapheneOS.

  • Anti-masturbation DLC

    Jump

  • To be honest I never really looked into Budhism, but my only experience with the practice is from the amazing Mind Illuminated book, which I think is loosely based on their practice as far as meditation goes, while providing a reasonable context and arguments about why it works. Learning to consciously control your subconsius feels kind of reasonable, and I highly recommend the book to anyone interrested in that.

  • ChatGPT firm blames boy’s suicide on ‘misuse’ of its technology

    Jump

  • This has literally happened to my colleague's teen sister two days ago...

    She fortunately survived the attempt, but chatgpt advice did play a role in it. While the familly knew she wasn't ok and they were actively working on trying to solve her problems and getting help, she had a second unmonitored chatgpt account hidden (actually encrypted on a hidden drive) on her phone that she used to hide her conversations, and from what I've heard the messages they found were extremely unsettling. She managed to get advice on how to painlessly do it using medicine they had at home, and was able to get tips on self-harm that accompanied it, beyond other things.

    Sure, I realize it's not only ChatGPTs fault, but it's clear that it fucking helped. The fact that a child can talk about their suicide and self-harm plans with anyone who replies with compassion and actually offers tips how instead of immediately calling help is an extreme problem.

    She could've just google it, sure, but google won't have a conversation with you and is not designed to agree with whatever you say, thus confirming your plans.

    Fuck unregulated AI, seriously.

  • Anti-masturbation DLC

    Jump

  • Tbh I've never really looked into or talked with almost anyone who's into oculltism. I do know a few friends who are heavily into the unformalized new-age stuff, and they are definitely not ok to the point it controls their life, but I realize that it's a spectrum (and I don't mean it as "it's autism" way, but that the way people approach even to the new-age stuff can be a spectrum of reasonable-dangeeous). I'm mostly sad because you can't really talk to people like that, and share cool lore on a topic most people consider downright crazy, because there isn't any or they haven't done any research. Even astrology has some cool lore and manuscripts, but they usually don't care.

    I just think it's cool, and reading about the practices of different cults and orders is extremely interresting.

    I'd vager a guess that "chaos magick" has a similar problem to LaVeye's Satanism, where you get a lot of edgy people researching the bare minimum, if even that, and just being edgy. Not that it wasn't edgy, it's one of the few movements that was downright off-puting for me due to how extremely selfish and arogant it is (IIRC it's basically "I m a massive dick and walk over anyone"), but people who don't even know what they are subscribing to are worse.

    I never got that feeling from chaos magick, it felt just like you said - extremely rational, and was actually the first movement that made sense, as in "I can imagine this actually working", with the argument "rituals work by nudging your subconsciousness to the direction you need".

    That's basically the same as Budhissm does, just by hacks and symbols instead of just sheer practice and will. And we kind of have a proof that budhism works.

    And even for someone who doesn't really believe in magic, this makes sense and I can imagine it actually working.

    Plus, doing rituals is fun, and a little faith gives a pretty fun amount of LARPing into your life, as long as you don't let it control you and are reasonable about it.

  • I wasted all my generational luck for this

    Jump

  • I was doing cybersecurity for a few years before I moved to gamedev, and I vaguely remember that at least the older versions of GUID were definitely not safe, and could be "easily" guessed.

    I had to look it up, in case anyone's interrested, and from a quick glance to the GUID RFC, it depends on the version used, but if I'm reading it right, 6 bits out of the 128 are used for version identification, and then based on the version it's some kind of timestamp, either from UTC time or some kind of a name-space (I didn't really read through the details), and then a clock sequence, which make it a lot more guessable. I wonder how different would the odds be for different versions of the UUID, but I'm too tired to actually understand the spec enough to be able to tell.

    However, for GUID version 4, both the timestamp and clock sequence should instead be a randomly generated number, which would give you 122 bits of entropy. It of course depends on the implementation and what kind of random generator was used when generating it, but I'd say it may be good enough for some uses.

    The spec also says that you specifically should not use it for auth tokens and the like, so there's that.

  • Russia’s new state dictionary calls authoritarianism the ‘most effective’ form of government and bans the word ‘ass’

    Jump

  • I'm not really surprised that they are using it as a manual.

    It's still so absurd, like how can someone with a straight face and seriously say "BTW, " good" and "hope" ale no longer a valid words The State recognizes". Totalitarian regimes are seriously fucked, not that I didn't know that before, but little things like this really drive the point home.

  • Russia’s new state dictionary calls authoritarianism the ‘most effective’ form of government and bans the word ‘ass’

    Jump

  • You can't make this shit up :D

    That's so absurd level of cartoon villianly it can't be real, right?

    Meanwhile, it omits some words entirely — from “Gulag” and “Stalinism” to “faith,” “hope,” “good,” and “truth.”

  • Anti-masturbation DLC

    Jump

  • That's actually exactly how the 70s "chaos magick" (I.e Peter J. Caroll or Phill Hine, to list some authors) occultism works. If you get past the cringy name, it was one of the more interesting occultistm movements which actually kind of make sense even to me, as someone who's not really into esoterism (or rather - I like researching it because it's extremely interesting - the actual formal occultism, not new age bullshit, but would feel dumb practicing since I'm skeptical)

    Their core idea is that all of the other occultist movements and orders are basically all the same - through belief, rituals and symbols you affect your subconscious to manifest change (in your subconscious behavior, not "summoning money" or "cursing my ex"), and it doesn't matter what "flavor" / dogma / lore you choose to believe in. What matters is that you really truly belive.

    So, a wiccan making circles in a forest while invoicing spirits or someone making a pizza pentagram while invoking Garfield is the same,as long as he believes into it.

    The only thing that matters is that it works for you, and to find what does and what doesn't they work with "paradigm shifts", where you decide that " I"m going to try wicca for a year", and then you delve deep into that practice, trying to trully accept it and go all in, noting your experience and results, to see if it works for you. Some even suggest throwing a dice each morning to see what you'll do today.

    After a year, you review your results, and move on to other practice, I.e "I'll be a christian for a year", and you really get into it, going to churches, practicing all the daily prayers and rituals, and the like.

    It's my favorite occultism movement, because it's one of the few where I can imagine that it actually makes sense and could work for making your life better, if you have grounded expectations of course. Having an open mind and just experimenting, as long as you are safe and don't let it control your life, should mostly be just a net-positive, plus it's actually fun

  • What are some of the worst code you have seen in a production environment?

    Jump

  • I wasted all my generational luck for this

    Jump

  • Aren't UUIDs designed to prevent collisions, rather than be cryptographycally secure? Not that it's doing a great job here :D

    Edit: Nvm, that was guid.

  • Wisconsin VPN bill is 'going to be a disaster for everyone,' says online privacy nonprofit

    Jump

  • They already do that. I can't watch YT, Reddit and have trouble logging in to FB. Cloudfare sometimes hits me with a endless captcha too.

    I use Mullvad. Nothing of value was lost, and it has tremendously help me with finally stopping waating my time on those services.

  • The increase in literacy rates around the world is perhaps one of the most beautiful occurance of the past 100 years, perhaps the most beautiful thing in the entire history of humanity.

    Jump

  • It's sad to see that we're heading towards a future where people can't read a text longer than one summarized paragraph, and write anything longer than a sentence without using LLMs.

    Children are already skipping learning of very important skills by offloading it to AI in school.