• 5 Posts
  • 54 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 10th, 2023

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  • Kinda. I think it’s definitely true that docker is used as a distro-agnostic package manager for services, and if we only had one distro we might not need that.

    It should be noted that projects like cosmo attempt to make things portable to and across BSD’s as well as Linux’s, so people definitely want distro agnostic packages (or a package manager), even on the BSD operating systems.

    However, on the other end, docker is also powerful because it (and tools that use docker containers, like kubernetes), orchestrate services and allow people to bring them up very, very quickly. Like, to bring up a service called pairdrop, I just take this file:

    ---
    services:
      pairdrop:
        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/pairdrop:latest
        container_name: pairdrop
        environment:
          - PUID=1000
          - PGID=1000
          - TZ=Etc/UTC
          - RATE_LIMIT=false #optional
          - WS_FALLBACK=false #optional
          - RTC_CONFIG= #optional
          - DEBUG_MODE=false #optional
        ports:
          - 3000:3000
        restart: unless-stopped
    

    and type docker-compose up -d. And it’s really quick, and arguably only possible due to the way containers are isolated and it’s easy to create and destroy them. There exist solutions for automation and scripting like ansible, but they just aren’t as good as the container solutions for automatically putting services up.



  • Here’s my main argument for more private services (I try to make all my arguments short).

    According to a study done by proton, a single company makes a minimum of $200 dollars off of each person, each year. Of course, they probably gain more money via clandestine deals or the government buying data directly to get around the 4th amendment.

    But that money, doesn’t go solely to the companies dedicated to collecting data, or those parts of other companies. It goes to lobbying the government to strip away privacy further.

    And then I have two endings, depending on the situation:

    1. Of course, I recognize that in today’s connected world, I can’t get privacy unless I go live in the woods. But I can decrease the amount of money companies make off my data, which I do like.

    2. Organizations like the EFF, lobby on the other side, for more privacy for us. But they are opposed by when massive companies like google also lobby. So when I deny google $100, that’s money they can’t use to lobby anymore. Rather than thinking of it as denying google money, think of it as making a donation to the EFF, that they use to ensure our rights are in place.


  • Along with the other bits that people like and dislike about it, I have another problem with it.

    In order to deploy software in a manner that is resilient, it’s necessary to deploy it in a “High Available” manner. This usually involves duplicated the service across multiple machines, and then automatically switching from one server to the next if one machine goes down. I consider this necessary for something to be a true alternative to the big proprietary software like discord/slack/etc, for smaller groups or nonprofits who want more reliability. Someone losing internet at their house should not result in the whole service going down. A datacenter going up in flames should not result in that lemmy instance going down (forgot which one this happened to, but I’m referencing a real thing).

    The most common way (and arguably, one of the easiest) to do high availability is Kubernetes. Kubernetes has a sort of package manager, called helm where you can quickly spin up services in a highly available manner. Many services offer official helm charts (Unofficial ones are not going to be maintained reliably, so I don’t like them).

    The helm chart for Synapse and the rest is enterprise only meaning you have to pay. Discovering this is what finally really soured me on Matrix as using it as a discord alternative.

    Of course, I never really considered Matrix a discord alternative. It lacks certain features that people want, mentioned below, like voice rooms (although voice rooms are by definition, metadata leakage, meaning people who dislike matrix for the metadata leakage would dislike voice rooms lol).

    Rocketchat appeals to me because of this. Kubernetes/helm, single sign on, and interestingly, it seems to be able to federate with matrix (although I don’t know if it supports e2ee with matrix). It seems that rocketchat has it’s own e2ee, though I don’t know how it works (or if it’s any good). It also seems to support matrix clients, but doesn’t seem to actually be based on matrix.

    But otherwise, rocketchat seems like a much better discord alternative.


  • This is so horrifically wrong, I don’t even know where to start.

    The short version is that phone and computer makers aren’t stupid and they will kill things or shutdown when overheating happens. If you were a phone maker, why tf would you allow someone to fry their own phone?

    My laptop has shut itself off when I was trying to compile code while playing video games, while watching twitch. My android phone has killed apps when I try to do too much as well.










  • You’re probably going to end up on Jitsi meet, but I’m also going to drop a recommendation for bigbluebutton.

    I recently noticed that it was integrated into the open source Learning-Management-System Canvas, which every school I have gone to so far uses.

    Although bigbluebutton doesn’t seem to explicitly support e2ee (but maybe this counts for something), if you are already using Canvas, BigBlueButton definitely worth looking at.

    I really, really wish people at my school would use the integrated bigbluebutton instead of using zoom, especially given I’ve seen people occasionally have issues with authentication for zoom, but all of that stuff is handled with bigbluebutton because it’s fully browser based and integrated into Canvas.





  • https://help.kagi.com/orion/faq/faq.html#oss

    We’re working on it! We’ve started with some of our components and intend to open more in the future.

    The idea that “open-source = trustworthy” only goes so far. For example, the same tech company that offers a popular open-source browser also has the largest ad/tracking network in history, with that browser playing a significant role in it. Another company with a closed-source browser (using WebKit like Orion) is on the forefront of privacy awareness and technologies in its products.

    So, does anyone here remember when all chromium browsers had a secret api that sent extra data to google? Brave, Opera, and Edge got hit by this one, but I think Vivaldi dodged it. They all removed this after they found out, but still…

    When it comes to things like browsers, due to the sheer complexity and difficulty to truly audit chromium, I don’t really consider chromium to be “open source” in the same sense as many other apps. Legally, you can see and edit the code. But in practice, it’s impossible to audit all of it, and the development is controlled by a single corporation who puts secrets in it, or removes features that harm their interests (manifest v3). Personally, I consider Minecraft Java to be closer to open source than chromium is.

    To say that:

    The idea that “open-source = trustworthy” only goes so far

    is really just a cop-out and excuse for not being transparent with their code and what they are doing.



  • Yeah. this was in high school, in my math class, and we were playing a math game.

    The way it worked, was that every table was a team, and each team had a “castle” drawn up onto the whiteboard. A random spinner was used to determine a team, who would then solve a problem the teacher assigned. If you successfully solved the problem, you could draw an X on another teams castle. 3 X’s mean that you are out.

    My team was out. But, since this was a class, we could still solve problems, and still draw X’s. Our table got selected to solve a problem, and I did successfully. I looked at the board, and realized that only two teams had a single X, every other team had either two or three. In other words, I could choose who won the game, even though I could not win.

    So, I started trying to get bids. I tried to get real money, but someone tried to scam me with some “draw the X first” nonsense. But, the other team offered to pay me four of the school’s fake money, and I accepted that and allowed them to win.

    I may not have won the game, but I certainly felt victorious that day.