From 105131d131c9ff14e7315bdddeb054a02355b19e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Duncan Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2022 19:17:52 -0500 Subject: content/posts: add egrep-fb and odroid-n2l drafts --- .../posts/2022-11-23-egrep-fb-face-etc-hosts.md | 144 +++++++++++++++++++++ content/posts/2022-12-01-odroid-n2l.md | 43 ++++++ 2 files changed, 187 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/2022-11-23-egrep-fb-face-etc-hosts.md create mode 100644 content/posts/2022-12-01-odroid-n2l.md diff --git a/content/posts/2022-11-23-egrep-fb-face-etc-hosts.md b/content/posts/2022-11-23-egrep-fb-face-etc-hosts.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d839aa4 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2022-11-23-egrep-fb-face-etc-hosts.md @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +--- +slug: social-media +title: "Social Media" +date: "2022-11-23T12:03:11-04:00" +draft: true +--- + +I've had these entries in [/etc/hosts][] on my personal laptop for +years, but they seem germane and prescient in light of the [latest +social media privacy fiasco][]: + +```sh +> egrep 'fb|face' /etc/hosts +127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com +127.0.0.1 facebook.com +127.0.0.1 m.facebook.com +127.0.0.1 fbcdn.com +127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net +``` +  + +I realize this isn't a viable option for most people, but it works for +me because I don't have a Facebook account. At a minimum I recommend +that everyone install [uBlock Origin][]. + +I had a Twitter account several years ago, although I haven't touched it +in a long time. It's unlikely that I will, given the recent change in +ownership, content moderation deterioriration, user exodus, and [likely +impending collapse][]. + +In general I have a fairly dim view of centralized, ad-supported social +media. Social media is: + +* **Predatory**: Social media users' personal data and their + relationships are the *product*, not the customer. The actual + customers are advertisers, [data brokers][], [oppressive + regimes][facebook-abortion], and other [malign interests][]. +* **Inflammatory**: Ad-supported social media algorithms are tuned to + prioritize engagement rather than curate interesting content (more + eyeballs = more ads). Our brains are [hard-wired to react + strongly][tfas] with inflammatory content or when [someone is wrong on + the Internet][xkcd-386]. +* **Toxic**: Fertile ground for disinformation, misinformation, + harassment, abuse, and fraud. + +None of these observations are novel, and they're not limited to social +media: + +> Currently, the predominant business model for commercial search +> engines is advertising. **The goals of the advertising business model +> do not always correspond to providing quality search to users.** For +> example, in our prototype search engine one of the top results for +> cellular phone is “The Effect of Cellular Phone Use Upon Driver +> Attention”, a study which explains in great detail the distractions +> and risk associated with conversing on a cell phone while driving. +> This search result came up first because of its high importance as +> judged by the PageRank algorithm, an approximation of citation +> importance on the web [Page, 98]. +> +> It is clear that a search engine which was taking money for showing +> cellular phone ads would have difficulty justifying the page that our +> system returned to its paying advertisers. **For this type of reason and +> historical experience with other media [Bagdikian, 83], we expect that +> advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards +> the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers. ... +> Furthermore, advertising income often provides an incentive to provide +> poor quality search results. … In general, it could be argued from the +> consumer point of view that the better the search engine is, the fewer +> advertisements will be needed for the consumer to find what they want. +> This of course erodes the advertising supported business model of the +> existing search engines** +> +> [The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, Appendix +> A: Advertising and Mixed Motives][google], Sergey Brin and Lawrence +> Page (h/t [The Age of PageRank is Over][]). + +So what's the solution? My personal preference would be: + +* **Federated**: Distributed, no central authority, and based on open + standards (like web, and email). +* **Non-commercial** or at least, users are the customers rather than + advertisers. +* **Identity Portability**: Users should be able to migrate to a + different provider and retain their post history, identity, and social + network. +* **Strong Encryption**: storage, transport ([TLS 1.3][]), and + end-to-end for direct messages. +* **Data Privacy**: The industry has repeatedly demonstrated it's + inability to properly handle personal data, so this needs to be + regulated by something comparable to [GDPR][], enforced by a strong + federal agency with harsh fines for non-compliance. + +[Mastadon][] looks promising. I haven't used it, but I have read through +the [ActivityPub][], [WebFinger][], [Activity Streams][] specifications. + +1. scalability +2. discoverability +3. weak encryption +4. complicated specification +5. no end-to-end encryption + +### Further Reading + +* [Weapons of Math Destruction][] +* [Thinking, Fast and Slow][tfas] + +[/etc/hosts]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file) + "Operating system file that maps hostnames to IP addresses." +[latest social media privacy fiasco]: https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/22/23471842/facebook-hr-block-taxact-taxslayer-info-sharing + "Tax sites sharing tax information with Facebook" +[xkcd-386]: https://xkcd.com/386/ + "Somebody is wrong on the internet" +[tfas]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow + "Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman" +[facebook-abortion]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/11/sneaky-ways-cops-could-access-data-to-widely-prosecute-abortions-in-the-us/ + "Ars Technica: Sneaky ways cops could access data to widely prosecute abortions in the US" +[data brokers]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_broker + "Company that specializes in collecting personal data." +[malign interests]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica#Data_scandal + "Cambridge Analytica" +[likely impending collapse]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/22/twitter-advertiser-exodus-musk/ + "Washington Post: Advertisers are dropping Twitter. Musk can’t afford to lose any more." +[weapons of math destruction]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Math_Destruction + "Weapons of Math Destruction, by Cathy O'Neil" +[google]: http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf + "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page" +[the age of pagerank is over]: https://blog.kagi.com/age-pagerank-over + "The Age of PageRank is Over" +[ublock origin]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin + "uBlock Origin: Browser extension for content filtering, including ad blocking" +[gdpr]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation + "General Data Protection Regulation" +[tls 1.3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security#TLS_1.3 + "Transport Layer Security, version 1.3" +[mastadon]: https://joinmastodon.org/ + "Federated social media." +[activitypub]: https://activitypub.rocks/ + "ActivityPub specification and implementation details." +[fuck-rsa]: https://blog.trailofbits.com/2019/07/08/fuck-rsa/ + "Trail of Bits: Seriously, stop using RSA" +[webfinger]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7033 + "RFC7033: WebFinger specification" +[activity streams]: https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-core/ + "W3c Activity Streams specification" diff --git a/content/posts/2022-12-01-odroid-n2l.md b/content/posts/2022-12-01-odroid-n2l.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2638b5c --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2022-12-01-odroid-n2l.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +slug: odroid-n2l +title: "Odroid N2L" +date: "2022-12-01T19:11:45-04:00" +draft: true +--- +Since [Raspberry Pis][pi] are essentially unobtainable for several more +months due to supply chain disruptions + +got an odroid n2l + +setup notes: +- tried dietpi, won't work at the moment (n2l has different memory + than the n2 and n2+, so n2 images won't boot on it. if you try an + n2 image the n2l won't even power on; ask me how i know...) +- installed ubuntu minimal from the odroid wiki.. problems: + us west link had tls error and 404 + us east link was a 404 + KR link worked + no way to set up headless wifi from boot like pi, so i need a keyboard + and monitor and it's late + +... + +- tried to set up wpa_supplicant (ala raspbian), but it wouldn't + cooperate +- followed nmcli instructions at this url: + https://wiki.odroid.com/troubleshooting/minimal_image_wifi_setup_nmcli +- set hostname to "pizza" +- adduser pabs, added pabs to sudo group +- set root password to "ohn8uD/ishohha8h" + (default is root/odroid) +- in /etc/ssh/sshd_config + - disabled PermitRootLogin + - disabled PasswordAuthentication +pabs@pizza:~$ sudo apt install vim git screen ruby man + (ruby installs some buillshit like jquery and fonts-lato) +- installed bin/{acs,acsno,agi,agr,agdu,agu} +- noticed that openssl does not seem to take advantage of the + crypto acceleration yet + + + -- cgit v1.2.3