Doerk

https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@NebulaTide

Cybersecurity enthusiast, working in ITsec. Open source aficionado and privacy evangelist.
Using Linux and BSD since end of 90's

I believe in everyone's right to privacy, just as I believer in the right for everyone to live the way that makes them happy and that everyone deserves respect and acceptance.

Posts will be deleted after four weeks.
#freebsd #privacy #cybersecurity

pronouns: he/him

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nebulatide_at_mastodon.bsd.cafe@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-08-16 18:58:05 UTC

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Did they cause any damage or were you busy with defending and patching?

2026-08-12 09:25:41 UTC

Software development has changed dramatically over the past 40 years and we all are facing changes that aren't necessarily good. I remember, a few years ago I met a software developer – an acquiantance I knew only distantly. He told me that he is happy to work in software development instead of IT administration because he can still use his knowledge from 15 years ago because the tools were mostly the same as the were then – unlike in system administration, where everything seems to change constantly. But this doesn't seem to be true any more.
I found this interesting thoughts shared by software developer James Randall. Quite depressing, but so true...
https://www.jamesdrandall.com/posts/the_thing_i_loved_has_changed/

2026-08-09 17:20:59 UTC

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Summer Games.

2026-08-08 13:26:15 UTC

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Sounds encouraging. More than 10 years ago I moved my email to one of these large internet providers. Mainly because it was cheap. At the beginning, they charged less than 12€ per year and I got 5 GB per mailbox and up to 25 mailboxes. But slowly they increased their prices, from 12 to 19€ per year, from 19 to 36 and now it’s 5€ per month. The emails are not encrypted, there is literally no support (Which I never needed, tbh) and if they want to, they can say: Hey, our prices stayed the same for more than four years now, so we have to increase again. Not that I can’t afford it, but I don’t like the feeling of not being in control.

2026-08-08 12:55:23 UTC

Ever heard about Qubes OS?
If not, it might be worth watching this video made by David Bombal. As usual, skip the Protonmail ad and take everything with a grain of salt. The rest is a real good description of how it is to work with Qubes.
Qubes OS isn’t for everyone and it’s very likely that it isn’t for you. But if you are a journalist, activist or just a person interested in highly secure operating systems, it could be worth a look. I tried it from time to time, but I think it doesn’t match my thread scenario. It causes a lot of friction, requires a different approach in doing your stuff and it eats your RAM.
But for those who aren’t scared:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Ce09mQfOg&ra=m

2026-08-08 12:33:10 UTC

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Great documentation. Thank you for sharing.
The only thing that prevents me from self hosting is that you can’t afford any mistakes. And Microsoft and Google make it nearly impossible for small mail servers to deliver their emails.

2026-08-07 17:24:09 UTC

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Thank you, Stefano. That’s exactly what I planned next with my FreeBSD Homeserver. How did you know?

2026-08-06 06:52:13 UTC

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For me, this is just another reason not to trust Revolut.
At least it looks like there’s another plan behind this than just making their app more secure. (Please correct me if I’m paranoid…)

2026-08-04 13:45:39 UTC

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At least when enough people are using GrapheneOS and write emails to those parties who don't support it. Sometimes it works – unfortunately not always.

2026-08-04 11:35:41 UTC

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117036967116010552
Looks like another bad move from Apple. Removing ICE Block from their App Store, an app which was designed to alert people when there is an ICE mob nearby, just to protect their relationship with their government sounds questionable to me.
#note1cg3…8c3y

2026-07-29 15:42:40 UTC

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booked!

2026-07-29 14:39:29 UTC

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maybe I shouldn't and just book....

2026-07-29 08:25:32 UTC

Anyone here attending this year’s EuroBSDcon as an ordinary visitor? I’m still unsure whether I should go this time.

2026-07-23 16:47:55 UTC

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@npub1avz…k7jt
I’d really like to hear what convinced you to move to snac. I’ve heard a lot about it and I thought several times about self hosting an instance.

2026-07-18 08:15:50 UTC

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Great response. I’m quite sure Julia didn’t expect this reply.
And no, I didn’t use any AI or translation software to read your message 😉

2026-07-07 20:01:51 UTC

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Ja, das hab ich schon verstanden. Die Frage ist, was wir jetzt noch tun können. Ich habe den Abgeordneten geschrieben und eine einzige Antwort erhalten.
Ganz offensichtlich wird hier mit miesen Tricks gearbeitet, indem die Abstimmung kurz vor die Sommerpause gelegt wird, damit möglichst viele Abgeordnete, die dagegen stimmen könnten, schon im Urlaub sind. Das hat für mich mit Demokratie nichts mehr zu tun.

2026-07-07 13:55:19 UTC

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Und jetzt???

2026-06-27 09:56:33 UTC

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I used to use K9 back in the days when I was using Android and it wasn’t Thunderbird.
Now, as surveillance is growing, I’m considering getting a Pixel with GrapheneOS installed. FaiEmail could be an option. I always liked Homer‘s car 😉

2026-06-27 06:15:20 UTC

Folks in Europe, here we go again. Hydra has grown new heads. If you haven’t already, now it’s time to reach out to your MEP as I did yesterday.
https://fightchatcontrol.eu/
#chatcontrol #surveillance #freedom

2026-06-26 21:03:01 UTC

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Me too

2026-06-21 20:48:07 UTC

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I can’t stress it out enough, but I really hope this influencer and content creator bubble will collapse rather sooner than later. No you one needs these influencers and this sort of content they create. I’m afraid it’s an indicator for the general mental state of the average internet user.

2026-06-21 06:39:19 UTC

RE: https://mas.to/@OrionKidder/116784450648079807
Couldn’t say it better…
#note1vwv…ru5p

2026-05-20 07:18:00 UTC

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Android Auto is my biggest concern. I need it for my job. I have to make and take phonecalls when I’m driving and I need working navigation. Unfortunately the best navigation still is Google maps (hate saying this). And I‘m also flying a lot. It regularly happens that gates change, flights are delayed, I get booked on another flight. In these scenarios you need something that just works. You want to get your notifications without delay.
And since I trust Apple at least a bit more than Google (although I don’t like any of them), I’m still using an iPhone. Because it simply works. Not because I am an Apple fan. I dived very deep into GrapheneOS during the last years and I think it’s a superior concept, but I’m still not sure if it works for me. And to be honest, owning two phones is not an alternative for me.

2026-05-20 05:11:59 UTC

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Would really like to hear your thoughts on GrapheneOS and replacing an iPhone by it. Or - the other way around - why preferring an iPhone over GrapheneOS.
I know some people who run an iPhone pro 17 as their daily driver and have a Pixel with GrapheneOS in their drawer, most times an older model. When I ask them why they don’t replace their iPhone with the Pixel, I never get a clear answer. So I can just guess… is it convenience? Are there some important things not working on GrapheneOS? Is it because their total ecosystem relies on Apple? Or are there really issues which make it impossible to use GrapheneOS as a daily driver in business?
E.g. push notifications when the gate changes at the airport are really important to me.

2026-02-18 09:41:56 UTC

Sign the KISS (Keep It Safe and Secure) Petition of EDRi now.Let’s fight together for encryption and against spyware!
https://crm.edri.org/kiss
#privacy #platformregulation #eu #digitalcourage #activism

2026-02-16 07:45:15 UTC

The situation with AI is getting worse.
Mrinank Sharma, former lead of Safeguards Research Team at Anthropic resigned and announced at X that he is deeply concerned about the current state of the world. Instead - he announced, he plans to go to the UK to focus on poetry and writing, which might be a good idea for everyone who can afford it.
And he is not the only one. Zoe Hitzig also resigned at OpenAI because of her deep reservations against OpenAI's plans to introduce advertising.
#AI #aisafety #techEthics #aialignment
More details can be found in this BBC article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62dlvdq3e3o

2026-02-13 11:17:59 UTC

This morning I promoted nolto.social, a platform that was made - at least I thought so, to be a Fediverse based alternative to LinkedIn. As I'm getting more and more annoyed by LinkedIn and all the useless posts over there, I was happy to find an independent alternative.
nolto.social still worked this morning, but when I came back later; i found the project deleted and at least when you are viewing the website from your smartphone, you see a message from the developer of nolto.social where he states that this project was never meant to grow. Obviously this was just a one person project who became overwhelmed by the success of the platform and by the fact, that companies started creating profiles and nearly 1000 people joined within a short time period. But now it seems that this project ran out of control and the maintainer decided to pull the emergency break. He is also talking about negative feedback he received for the platform and even personal harrassment.
It is sad that a promising project like this had been terminated, but I can understand what made the maintainer doing so. Managing a business platform can become a fulltime job quite fast and it also requires technical ressources and money to run these resources.
I firmly believe that we need an alternative to LinkedIn. I believe that people don't want all this bullshit posts just created to please the algorithm and to generate likes and feedback. And I believe that people would like a business network which is nothing else than a business network - no space for bursting egos and self promotion, but a space for connection and serious discussion.
Fediverse would be the ideal space for this. But as we know, if business networks are successful, they require more and more attention, more ressources, more money. And at this is the problem. When you need money to run your social network, it's tempting to ask yourself how you could generate money by using the ressources you already have, which are user data...
I don't see a solution for this now, just sharing some thoughts.
#shutdown #activityPub #fediverseMoments #digitalCommons
https://media.bsd.cafe/bsdmmedia01/media_attachments/files/116/063/059/862/753/282/original/b07164b7f2e66990.jpeg

2026-01-03 10:06:21 UTC

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I would say that even though GrapheneOS requires hardware made by Google, it can be called „degoogled“. Why? Because the phone itself doesn’t use any Google services. It doesn’t phone home and it doesn’t share any data with Google. It’s just a bloody good piece of hardware and currently the best platform for a save and security mobile OS.
But when you consider that degoogling isn’t just stop using any Google services and sharing data with them, but also not buying anything from Google, then it’s probably not degoogling.

2025-11-20 21:33:00 UTC

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And I’m quite sure that even after this no one will care. There might be a handful of people who are switching to alternatives, but most will simply not care.

2025-11-18 21:09:13 UTC

Wow, Vienna scientists received the complete WhatsApp member directory, containing 3.5 billion user entries. Yes, it’s just the directory, no messages, but the whole directory was available online - totally unprotected.
Any more reasons for not using WhatsApp required
#whatsapp #dataleak #privacy
https://www.heise.de/en/news/3-5-Billion-Accounts-Complete-WhatsApp-Directory-Retrieved-and-Evaluated-11083244.html

2025-10-25 15:18:09 UTC

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I might be wrong, but it seems to me like Google is attempting, at least indirectly to make it more difficult to use their camera system on Google-free setups. Maybe another move to force users into their ecosystem.

2025-10-10 16:08:03 UTC

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RAM 16 - 96 GB, CPU depends on Machine between 8 core CPU and 20 cores. I am only minimalist regarding simplicity and ease of maintenance. I use the large machine also for virtualisation, lab works, testing etc.

2025-10-10 08:04:01 UTC

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I am using Wayland with Sway. Works quite well and Wayland is the better solution for me when using a 4K display.

2025-10-09 16:16:12 UTC

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It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but also a question of philosophy. Is it a bad thing to use a full blown desktop environment? No, but if you prefer a more minimalist approach and want to stay in control, you might probably be better off with i3wm, Herbstluft or sway, or even xfce.

2025-10-09 12:58:24 UTC

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Just change a few pixel and the hash is completely different. And it would also only work with already known material which can be easiliy modified.

2025-10-09 09:10:57 UTC

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systemd became a monster. Initially it was just used to start and manage services in the background, but nowadays it does a lot more like logging, timesync etc. so it’s quite monolithic. Also looking for errors can be difficult, because it’s very complex (compared to SysVinit or OpenRC) and has a lot of dependencies. If you’re just using it and never have to debug, you’re fine, but debugging can be a pain.
Personally I also not a fan of Poettering who was also responsible for Pulseaudio, which also tries to do everything and adds another layer between application and hardware which comes with the price of latency.
These reasons might not fit for you, but that’s why I avoid both.

2025-10-09 07:49:23 UTC

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Sounds very good. I’ll give it a try. My main goal is to become independent of the big players like Apple, Microsoft and the large webhosters. And to avoid systemd and Pulseaudio wherever possible.

2025-10-09 07:32:58 UTC

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I see the same here with my MacBook. I would really like to run FreeBSD on my Thinkpad and use it as a daily driver, but it’s sometimes really hard, as it requires a lot of effort to set up and full blown desktops like Gnome and KDE don’t seem to work 100% as they are designed for Linux. And I see that these environments are more and more relying on systemd. That’s why I’m staying with Sway, which is not bad btw. but also requires a lot of background configuration to get a working environment.
Do you think OpenBSD could be a better alternative on a laptop regarding power management? I only used it for firewalls, where it does a pretty good job.

2025-09-28 13:28:43 UTC

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Totally agree. Gemini helps us to focus on the essentials instead of getting lost in bazillions of formatting features. Reminds me a lot about how the internet used to be back then, before they introduced colours and animated gifs.

2025-09-24 10:18:59 UTC

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Done!

2025-09-24 08:57:53 UTC

Some days ago I found on LinkedIn somewhere deep burried a comment of a person working at Volla bragging that they "reached out" to GrapheneOSl for a cooperation. I'm not sure what to think about this. Personally I trust GrapheneOS way more than I trust Volla, not because I think they are bad or evil, but because I know that GrapheneOS takes privacy and security really serious without any compromises like no one else does. And I appreciate GrapheneOSs approach of freedom without any commercial interests behind it. But as said that's my personal opinion. So I would e.g. not like to see Graphene OS running on a Volla phone.
@npub1kwa…e0nj guys, I really hope you find an alternative OEM vendor who builds devices according to your strict security requirements in case it becomes impossible to support Pixel hardware any more. And meanwhile I'm hoping that the Pixel 10 will be soon supported by GrapheneOS.

2025-09-21 12:48:30 UTC

Am I the only one who's got the impression that font rendering looks smoother and crisper under Wayland than it does under Xorg? I think Xorg meets more the BSD-spirit, and I would really prefer using it, but epecially when it comes to HiRes displays advantage seems to be on Wayland's side.
I tried both several times but found that most fonts and apps look better on Wayland when upscaling than they do under Xorg. And getting good results seems to me more cumbersome on Xorg than on Wayland. Still looking for the ultimate howto that tells me how to get perfect results on 4K displays by tweaking the configs.

2025-09-14 13:26:30 UTC

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Lucky you! My provider is still not supporting IPv6 since they have the monopoles for fibre connections where I live. So no need for “new” technologies 🙄

2025-07-02 17:04:39 UTC

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The original post seems to be a classical FUD campaign. The thread opener is pretending to just asking a question about something he claims to have heard about. And sometimes just saying that you have heard something without any proof can be enough to sow doubt. The fact that this kind of posts showed up several times makes me think.

2025-06-30 19:58:43 UTC

One of the best things at Mastodon is the fact that your timeline stays as it is. Read an interesting Article this morning and want to look at it again? No problem, just scroll down and there it is. Try this on Instagram or LinkedIn…

2025-06-30 04:52:49 UTC

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There are some apps which actively prevent running on GrapheneOS . Some providers of apps blindly rely on Googles API to grant security, ignoring that GrapheneOS is much more secure than the Android variants of other vendors.

2025-06-24 20:45:30 UTC

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I think there is no perfect solution for this. Even in Fediverse an admin can decide from one day to another to remove accounts or to completely stop the service. The only thing that prevents you from this is running your own instance.

2025-06-09 13:49:50 UTC

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I can recommend the manual. And @npub1wft…s0mg ‘s website is also always a good source of knowledge.

2025-06-09 13:21:58 UTC

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This is the big disadvantage of Apple hardware. At a certain point it becomes useless, not because it actually is useless, but because Apple decides that it’s time for you to buy a new machine. Fortunately the hardware quality of Apple is (mostly) excellent, so there speaks nothing against installing FreeBSD on it.

2025-06-09 13:14:51 UTC

A few days ago I talked to someone about FreeBSD and the advantages I see in using it. He answered that he tried it some years ago, but once installed, he didn’t know what to do with it.
So I asked why didn’t you know what to do? It’s an operating system and you can do everything you want. I told him about jails and he replied that Linux has docker, so he sees no reason in switching to FreeBSD. I told him above bhyve and he responded that he used KVM. I told him about the licensing model and the freedom it provides but he just shrugged. I told him about the freedom of choice you have as it comes as an OS only and he told me that he doesn’t want to decide everything by himself, he wants something like Ubuntu that makes decisions for its users.
Sometimes we just have to accept that FreeBSD is not for everyone. Or are there any better arguments I should have brought to the table? And yes, I also talked about FreeBSDs init system, but he said he is happy with systemd as he never touches it. You are probably better off with an OS that decides everything for you when you just want to use it like windows.
#freebsd

2025-04-19 22:03:55 UTC

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This is something I’ll never understand, why „attacking“ other OSs? Of course, I can say I prefer X over Y because of xyz, or I can say that in my opinion what X is doing is wrong because of zzz. That’s okay. But attacking a project or even worse, people who are working for this project is definitely not.
Keep on going, you’re doing a great job!

2025-04-19 21:30:38 UTC

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It’s a shame. But for me GrapheneOS is the only OS I would trust on smartphone. And everyone who has been diving a little deeper into the topic should know that there are no real other options that can be compared regarding privacy and security.

2025-03-20 06:55:43 UTC

Is there any other way to keep a FreeBSD workstation free from Poettering-software than building your own packages? Stuff like Pulseaudio seems to find always it’s way to sneak on my computer. So I went to build my own packages with Poudriere. This works well, but is also quite time consuming. Would appreciate any suggestions.
#freebsd #poudriere #packages #bsd

2025-02-28 08:12:48 UTC

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What I am really concerned about is, that no one really seems to care. People read the news, shrug and go on with whatever they are doing. No protests, no people on the streets, just acceptance.

2024-12-05 19:49:17 UTC

A number of EU governments are constantly trying to impose chat control on us. They have failed in the past, but they are not giving up on forging their sinister plans in the background and are constantly making new attempts to impose total surveillance on the citizens of Europe. It appears that Poland is currently wavering in its rejection of chat control. It's time to sound the alarm in Poland and to wake up! The threat is reall and it's right in front of us all!
#chatkontrol #surveillance #EU
https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/