Alexandre Oliva

https://snac.lx.oliva.nom.br/lxo

Main interests: Free Software, Neurodivergence, Veganism, Marxism, Politics, Social Justice, Environment, Vocal/Choir Music, Walks in the park; Affiliations: GNU, FSF, FSFLA, 0G, Linux-libre, GCC, glibc, Libre-SOC, AdaCore; Languages: Português; English; Español; learning Esperanto, French, Ukrainian, Japanese;
formerly Alexandre Oliva (moving to @lxo@snac.lx.oliva.nom.br) (npub1eh2…e9l4) @lxo@gnusocial.net @lxoliva@diasporabr.com.br
@lxoliva@identi.ca

Home: https://www.lx.oliva.nom.br/
Blog: https://blog.lx.oliva.nom.br/
GPG Key: 0xC338CAA4FA700A3A

Public Key

npub1da4jxqcdsvzg06laqsjzngwhr438wkndq32e32zdftsz94a36vhqnfhflj

NIP-05 Address

lxo_at_snac.lx.oliva.nom.br@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsx76erqvxcxpy8a07sgfpf58t36cnhtfksg4vc4px54cpz67caxtsprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt5s6kse

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1da4jxqcdsvzg06laqsjzngwhr438wkndq32e32zdftsz94a36vhqnfhflj

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-03-30 02:34:38 UTC

- reply

I'm afraid it's not paranoia. I'm in the future, so to speak, and I can tell what they're trying out here in Brazil: it's labeled age verification, but it actually forces tracking of everyone's identity (because you have to associate children with parents, and parents have to authorize children's communications), it normalizes the use of biometrics (even if the law doesn't mandate it, but the market wants it), and it prohibits software freedom (because software that must disobey the user cannot be under the user's control).
CC: @npub1gdp…53ua

2026-03-18 17:11:31 UTC

- reply

eu destrinchei a lei inteira, com advogados
quem falou isso pra você está tentando minimizar o impacto da lei, ou não sabe de tudo que acontece na wikipedia, ou não percebe que coisas que acontecem lá violam dispositivos da impensada lei
abração pro demi
CC: @npub1ys4…8jg0

2026-03-18 01:47:10 UTC

- reply

que não foi a intenção eu até posso concordar tentativamente, mas na prática é uma das implicações.
tampouco foi intenção da lei exigir o bloqueio da Wikipedia, mas se seguirem o que está escrito, assim deverá ser feito, ou crianças só poderão acessá-la com autorização dos pais
o adolescente só vai conseguir acessar o gov.br com autorização dos pais
a vida do menor emancipado vai virar um inferno de bloqueios indevidos
a lei foi empurrada às pressas, evidentemente sem preocupação com os terríveis efeitos colaterais que vai trazer
não é tudo conspiração das big techs. é só uma parte. a pandemia de verificação de idade nas app stores parece ter origem na Meta, para se eximir dessas responsabilidades e empurrar o problema pras lojas de apps e sistemas operacionais, mas diversas legislaturas estenderam o escopo a pontos que nem a Meta gostou.
mas a criação da estrutura de controle que obriga todos os computadores ligados à internet, mesmo os que jamais tenham crianças como usuárias, a carregar cavalos de troia de controle, ficou.
era tema de sonhos molhados das Big Techs
agora é lei
CC: @npub1ys4…8jg0

2026-03-17 18:26:38 UTC

- reply

ué, mas fizeram uma lei que proíbe a liberdde de software, e é a gente que tá fazendo FUD?
explica aí, como faz pra ter algo que veda o acesso do usuário às coisas no próprio computador sem tirar do usuário o controle sobre o próprio computador?
CC: @npub1ys4…8jg0

2026-03-10 16:35:35 UTC

- reply

huh, is Guix doing Rust? aren't they aware of the trademark problems that likely make the compiler nonfree?
CC: @npub1shv…rctv @npub19rt…42z9

2026-03-10 16:29:35 UTC

- reply

while that is true, it, erhm, used to be truer
I recall having a conversation with a former customer about that some 20 years ago, when ICC was aiming at GCC compatibility to be able to compile Linux, and that wasn't even close to viable, to the point of looking impossible
yet now clang, that came into existence later than ICC, has caught up with all that baggage that used to be GCC only
besides, a number of features that used to be GCC extensions have been standardized and can now be taken for granted with many more compilers
it makes for a much more interesting and competitive landscape
CC: @npub19rt…42z9 @npub1326…gzqx

2026-03-10 09:11:14 UTC

- reply

I'm told it's not quite there yet, but... for bootstrap of what?
CC: @npub19rt…42z9

2026-03-10 08:53:28 UTC

- reply

I agree that by integrating slop into GPLed codebases, there are risks of adding code that could be derivative of GPL-incompatible code, and that would spell trouble to that who integrated it and to everyone downstream.
I expect that, if it happens, we (Linux-libre) would be in a position of unintended infringement, we wouldn't be hit first, and as soon as Linux puts its act together, we'd inherit the fix.
if third parties go about notifying us and terminating our licenses over infringement of the integrated bits, they will apply to those bits, not to the fixed upstream version.
if Linux copyright holders go about notifying and terminating licenses over the unauthorized combination with GPL-incompatible code, we'd get the grace period that the Linux community imported from GPLv3 to inherit the fixed codebase, so we should be fine.
overall it doesn't strike me as intolerable legal risk
it sucks to carry slop though, but as sally said, our goal is to make minimal changes to Linux to get an FSDG-compliant kernel. if it brings slop in it, it would only be of concern if that turned out to be nonfree (no license or incompatible license) or otherwise FSDG-incompliant. the former case would likely be handled upstream before we even knew about it. the latter would be up to ourselves, but it's hard to even imagine something like that coming up from slop.
CC: @npub19rt…42z9

2026-03-04 04:11:58 UTC

- reply

*nod*, but how do you define blocks? 🙂
CC: @npub1d93…cnl2 @npub1p02…ecmj

2026-03-04 00:34:55 UTC

- reply

but then, we already have a term for linked lists, and we also have a term for append-only logs, so perhaps under that light it might makes sense to define blockchain more narrowly. I'd rather refer to the one with cryptographic hashes and distributed consensus as crypto block chain 🙂
CC: @npub1ekj…wjxt @npub1p02…ecmj

2026-03-03 23:51:42 UTC

- reply

my understanding is that a blockchain is defined by the property that each block "contains" its predecessors by carrying a cryptographic hash of its immediate predecessor. IIUC this encompasses SSB logs, and perhaps git commits as well (though they don't necessarily form a chain in the presence of merge commits). I suppose you associate blockchains strictly with cryptocurrencies or something that excludes various other kinds of blockchains, or perhaps with those that involve proof of waste... I can't see a reason to constrain a term that sensibly and naturally refers to a more general concept, that makes sense on its own, to have it refer to a limited subset thereof.
CC: @npub1ekj…wjxt @npub1d93…cnl2

2026-03-03 16:56:05 UTC

- reply

the jami network has a single blockchain for name registration, and you don't even have to run it on your computer
in ssb, every user runs their own blockchain. yes, it is a blockchain.
with Jami, every conversation gets a git repo. how cool is that?
(a git branch is arguably a blockchain too 😉
not a distributed-consensus blockchain, though
CC: @npub1ekj…wjxt @npub1d93…cnl2

2026-03-03 16:39:31 UTC

- reply

GNU Jami
CC: @npub1p02…ecmj @npub1d93…cnl2

2026-02-28 20:27:22 UTC

- reply

is there anything concrete besides the same person in both cases? it's a wild guess, but it could even explain the cancellation of people who were close to him at the time, to discredit them ahead of time in case they knew something
CC: @npub1d2k…t7aw

2026-02-23 14:05:37 UTC

- reply

knowing that the hypervisor and virtual machine boundaries are porous, with or without the fixes to already-published problems, you realize it's insecure to allow untrusted others to run untrusted software on your machine, even within a virtual machine. javascript virtual machines are an example that I explicitly mentioned, but the same logic applies to other cases.

2026-02-22 21:34:16 UTC

another blog post: stricter is less popular
https://blog.lx.oliva.nom.br/2026-02-22-stricter-is-less-popular.en.html

2026-02-22 21:04:39 UTC

- reply

that's missing the point. auditability alone is already quite a deterrent. that some of us actually engage in auditing is a bonus that benefits everyone, even if it doesn't happen very often. it's kind of the panopticon effect, but for the better.

2026-02-22 20:41:46 UTC

- reply

I don't have to. that's the power of community.
security doesn't work in absolutes, and auditability is an imperfect deterrent, but it's infinitely better than the moves to prevent auditability that hostile vendors adopt
I do audit the rare cases of web blobs that are imposed on me, because I can't count on community for those, and my security depends on it even when my freedom has been unjustly taken away

2026-02-22 19:48:07 UTC

new blog post: security and blobs
https://blog.lx.oliva.nom.br/2026-02-22-security-and-blobs.en.html

2026-02-22 14:57:13 UTC

- reply

typo alert: where you wrote "running", you misspelled "ruining" 🙂 😞

2026-02-22 12:23:59 UTC

- reply

yeah, please rise up against such TRApps
https://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2023-03-TRApps.en.html
CC: @npub16s7…h4nc @npub1m96…ag4y

2026-02-22 11:55:42 UTC

- reply

Mandatory JavaScript turned the Web into the WWWorst App Store
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/wwworst-app-store.html

2026-02-22 11:28:40 UTC

#caminhada estressante. domingo a rua em torno do parque costuma ser bloqueada para carros no sentido horário, para uso dos muitos pedestres. cheguei ao parque, a rua estava aberta. segui por ela, passei por pessoas que caminhavam na rua aparentemente sem saber que ela não estava bloqueada para carros hoje e estacionei no estacionamento que mais gosto.
ao longo da voltona por fora do parque e da praça, fui vendo pontos de bloqueio e me preocupando com a encrenca em que eu me meti: se o trecho da rua daquele estacionamento tiver sido bloqueada depois, como vou fazer pra sair do estacionamento? vou voltar pra casa a pé? a que horas poderei voltar pra resgatar o carro?
pouco antes de completar a volta, passei a pé pelo ponto em que antes a rua estava liberada e constatei que já estava bloqueada e com bem mais gente caminhando, patinando, pedalando... fui procurando mas não achei alguém que pudesse me orientar. cheguei ao estacionamento, vi que a saída do estacionamento não tinha bloqueio algum, que havia bastantes clareiras entre os transeuntes e resolvi arriscar.
aguardei abrir uma clareira grande pra eu entrar na rua e fui trafegando lentamente, no ritmo dos pedestres (um desafio, porque têm ritmos diferentes e até vão em sentidos opostos). devo ter recebido (merecidamente) alguns olhares tortos, mas ninguém me xingou (ou pelo menos não ouvi), e minha cara de preocupado e cuidadoso talvez tenha mostrado que não era alguém completamente sem noção, só um pouco.
chateado de ter atrapalhado a caminhada dominical alheia por um vacilo, agora vou ficar esperto pra não cair mais nessa armadilha: nos domingos que eu for caminhar de manhã cedinho, mesmo que a rua ainda esteja aberta, saberei que ela provavelmente será fechada em breve, e por isso devo estacionar na rua, ou nos outros estacionamentos que têm sinalização com saída permitida para a pista no sentido contrário. (só o que eu mais gosto que não, olha que injustiça! 🙂 ou deixar pra caminhar de noitinha, quando a rua já estiver liberada novamente. ou quem sabe planejar de terminar a caminhada antes de fecharem aquele trecho (puxado!, é bem cedinho)

2026-02-21 18:19:16 UTC

- reply

you seem to have got the wrong idea that I was making fun of something.
I'm very serious about the fact that there is a giant conspiracy underway.
dismissing it as psychological disorder is not cool at all.
now of course there are people who imagine other conspiracies.
but one of the oldest tricks of population control is to label worries about conspiracies as conspiracy theories.
it didn't look like that was what you were doing, but your unreasonably hostile response got me wondering why...
CC: @npub1326…gzqx @npub1ls4…7vtk

2026-02-21 15:59:41 UTC

- reply

lembrei da zebrinha que anunciava o resultado da loteria esportiva no final do fantástico
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebrinha
coluna 1, coluna 2 ou coluna do meio?
CC: @npub1sxd…cqw0

2026-02-21 15:42:04 UTC

- reply

last I looked they'd added a written offer for corresponding sources for the kernel. but that's the one we know about. there may very well be others... who knows?

2026-02-21 15:39:46 UTC

- reply

video doesn't really work for me. can I have a transcript? 🙂

2026-02-21 15:12:35 UTC

- reply

I get what you mean and I largely agree, but... when the surveilling parties profit at our expense, they are in a way part of a massive conspiracy to ruin our lives, aren't they? just because they're ruining everyone's lives doesn't mean they're not ruining ours too.
CC: @npub1326…gzqx @npub1ls4…7vtk

2026-02-21 14:18:21 UTC

nossa, mas como esquentou! comecei a #caminhada a 28°C, terminei a 35°C. fiz a voltona por fora do parque e da praça. achei que o sentido anti-horário seria melhor pra ter uma sombrinha na segunda metade da volta, mas nem, o sol judiou dos dois lados. melhor teria sido acordar mais cedo, ou deixar pro fim da tarde...

2026-02-21 01:12:27 UTC

on this evening, 18 years ago, the #Linux-libre project was launched.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140203134408/http://lists.autistici.org/message/20080221.002845.467ba592.en.html
before that, every distro that wanted to respect its users' freedom had to remove itself all of the binary blobs that were distributed as part of the kernel Linux's so-called sources
it took a little while for Linux to react to being so called out, by first making those binary blobs loadable separately, and then moving most of them to a separate subproject.
that didn't really solve any freedom issues, given that the drivers still demanded users to install and run those blobs.
Linux-libre joined the #GNU Project a few years later.
the set of blobs demanded by Linux has grown out of control, much faster than Linux itself. nowadays there are even binary blobs that contain a binary copy of Linux!
you might think that, after the split, the kernel Linux became entirely Free, and that the only remaining problem are the demands for binary blobs and the documentation that directs users to install them.
unfortunately, not even that is true. Linux still carries a few binary blobs disguised as arrays of bytes in what was supposed to be source files. there have even been recent additions to this wall of shame.
so it doesn't look like we'll be able to retire GNU Linux-libre any time soon.
when you're ready to try software freedom for real, we'll be here for you
https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/

2026-02-20 11:01:39 UTC

#caminhada de 2 voltinhas na lagoa hoje quase não aconteceu
tentei sair bem cedinho, ainda estava bem escuro na garagem do prédio.
meu carro não estava na garagem onde normalmente deixo.
eu sabia que a família da filha, que são nossos vizinhos, tinha usado o carro.
normalmente deixam o carro noutra vaga quando usam, então lá fui eu à outra garagem.
estava bem escuro, mas lá estava o carro branco na vaga.
só que o controle pra abrir o carro não tinha efeito. tentei por a chave na porta e não consegui.
dali a pouco apareceu o porteiro oferecendo ajuda, acendeu as luzes da garagem, e só assim pude reconhecer que era o carro da esposa, também branco mas de marca e modelo diferentes, que estava ali.
finalmente fui até a vaga em que normalmente fica o carro dela, encontrei o meu e pude ir até o parque caminhar.
não foi a primeira vez que tive surpresas estressantes com chave de carro:
https://blog.lx.oliva.nom.br/2024-04-24-bateria-um-descontrole.pt

2026-02-19 11:17:15 UTC

- reply

you may be happy to know that 6.19.2-gnu is already available, even if you didn't hit upstream's 6.19.1 showstopper
CC: @npub1t87…hv9u

2026-02-19 11:08:22 UTC

- reply

pronto, #caminhada com duas voltinhas na lagoa, pra não perder a invencibilidade. as duas no mesmo sentido, por motivo de sol na cara se fosse no sentido oposto. curioso como o posicionamento das árvores ao redor da pista e da lagoa favorece o sentido anti-horário pra evitar sol na cara tanto de manhã cedo quanto no fim da tarde. não são as mesmas árvores, claro.

2026-02-19 04:33:07 UTC

- reply

hey, that kind of speed could conceivably exceed the speed of light!
CC: @npub1ppe…qv2g @npub1zkj…jt8t

2026-02-19 04:28:34 UTC

#caminhada de honjem ficou pra amanhoje de manhã. quando fui dormir, no início da tarde, pensava em tentar ir duas vezes no mesmo período de vigília, uma ao acordar e uma ao amanhecer, mas acordei tarde demais pra ir ainda de noitinha 😞

2026-02-19 04:24:24 UTC

será só impressão minha que quem está usando o desfile de carnaval em homenagem ao lula pra fins eleitorais é principalmente a oposição?

2026-02-19 04:04:23 UTC

- reply

make it CROW cawutils, please! licensed under the CROW GPL, and part of the CROW operating system, that is most used in combination with the Pigeon kernel.

2026-02-19 03:49:09 UTC

- reply

, here's some hopeful evidence to counter a hopelessness thread you started the other day

2026-02-18 13:29:23 UTC

- reply

john mastodon is decent-
ralized
CC: @npub1xw7…r9m5

2026-02-18 13:23:32 UTC

- reply

if we control the server that sends javascript to our browser, there's no loss of freedom involved, so no objection from me.
holding issues and PRs locally sounds great, I look forward to it.
I'm curious about the data model that will enable seamless merges as multiple users update issues without coordination.

2026-02-18 02:10:33 UTC

- reply

right (really)
the problem is that the solution is not to give the aggressors more of what they want from us (our personal data), but to deny them an audience. any audience, not just children, because they're abusing and harming everyone, not just children. and then, once you rule out abuse of anyone, you no longer have to force everyone to give up very personal data to participate in digital life.

2026-02-17 23:09:42 UTC

- reply

o estrago da tempestade não foi pequeno 😞
já no início da minha #caminhada ao redor do parque e da praça, contornei o estacionamento que vira extensão da lagoa quando chove. havia 5 caminhões-guincho em atividade, e mais uns 15 a 20 outros carros com capô aberto, famílias consternadas e sintomas visíveis do alagamento. três dos carros estavam encostados em cima da ciclofaixa e outro na calçada, mas incrivelmente nenhunzinho parado no meio do caminho dos outros carros, porque afinal assim não pode, né? 😕
minto, chegou outro carro de alguém conhecido do que estava na calçada e estacionou próximo ao meio fio bem na rotatória, em vez de usar uma das vagas livres e já desalagadas do estacionamento. já o respeito, que é bom, devem ter esquecido em casa 😕
depois de caminhar por mais uma hora, voltei pro meu carro, e boa parte do caminho pra casa estava às escuras.
se houve algo de bom, foi que ficou um pouco menos quente: dos 35°C que devia estar antes da chuva, caiu pra 28°C quando comecei a volta e 24°C quando voltei pra casa.

2026-02-17 20:44:41 UTC

- reply

and then, 10 minutes after writing the above, I set out to catch up with @npub1fdr…lvhs and realize he had joined our conversation ahead of time in the first part of https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/11/post-dollar-world/ 🙂
CC: @npub1sxf…3pl3 @npub159p…dhu3 @npub1j8v…ld5q

2026-02-17 20:34:27 UTC

- reply

Ablated Imagination may also work as a parody backronym
CC: [@iron_bug@friendica.ironbug.org](https://friendica.ironbug.org/profile/iron_bug ) @npub1jgs…ft7z @npub159p…dhu3

2026-02-17 20:29:51 UTC

- reply

I particularly loved the imagery of a blended salad. I've seen people refer to LLM slop as word salad, and adding the notion of blending to it makes it even more appropriate. and you know what, Blended Salad has the same initials as Bull Shit, which gives a new twist to BS generators (GenBS for short)
CC: [@iron_bug@friendica.ironbug.org](https://friendica.ironbug.org/profile/iron_bug ) @npub1jgs…ft7z @npub159p…dhu3

2026-02-17 20:25:26 UTC

- reply

well, yeah, businesses that exploit art tend to destroy art as a matter of business.
there's this children's tale about killing the goose that lays golden eggs that fits the pattern.
we'd get so much more great art if artists didn't have to waste time playing business or worrying about earning a living
CC: @npub159p…dhu3 @npub1j8v…ld5q

2026-02-17 20:09:26 UTC

baita chuvarada com ventania e granizo. foi tão súbita que, quando cheguei ao quarto pra fechar a janela, já tinha molhado tudo. se não fosse uma reunião, eu estaria no meio da #caminhada.
passei o feriadão todo me preparando pra reunião, que acabou não acontecendo, mas dadas as circunstâncias, nem sei se fico aborrecido, aliviado, ou os dois.

2026-02-17 19:41:31 UTC

- reply

oh, nonfiction? I had assumed beautiful plausible verisimilar first-person fiction, but if it's nonfiction, that makes it even more awesome! please, please, pretty please, goddesses whose powers make the universe a more tolerable place, let it be nonfiction! 😉
CC: @npub1jgs…ft7z @npub159p…dhu3

2026-02-17 19:30:08 UTC

- reply

sorry, I somehow missed a blank after the link. fixed

2026-02-17 19:22:48 UTC

- reply

I think @npub159p…dhu3 made that first point very beautifully in https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/and I liked it so much I want to share it to no end
CC: @npub1sxf…3pl3 @npub1j8v…ld5q

2026-02-17 00:50:42 UTC

- reply

devia haver alguma lei que exigisse que cancelamentos não fossem mais exigentes que abertura.
tem uma xará da minha companheira que vive dando o email que a companheira usa pra compras e similares. aí quando ela quer se cadastrar nalgum lugar, o sistema não deixa porque o email já foi cadastrado, aí se recusam a corrigir o problema se ela não mandar documentos por canais inseguros. mas eles não pediram os documentos para fazer o cadastro, e o documento nem provaria que o email é dela.
aí, tendo o email, ela consegue obter nova senha, entrar no cadastro, pegar os dados pessoais de contato que o prestador não devia dar pra ninguém mais, e entrar em contato com a xará pra pedir pra ela deixar de usar endereço alheio. mas tirar o email dela do cadastro alheio, só se ela der mais munição pra eles violarem ainda mais a LGPD 😕
CC: @npub1hqw…xqel

2026-02-17 00:07:02 UTC

- reply

foi a primeira vez que fiz isso, e simplesmente dei meia volta. já vi uma porção de gente fazendo "retornos" com curvas mais abertas, normalmente correndo, então nem me ocorreu que alguém pudesse achar ameaçador. não consigo pensar em locais pra fazer um retorno mais sutil, então talvez melhor seja não fazer... a razão principal pra eu ter feito foi o sol: a pista é alongada na direção leste-oeste, e com o sol já próximo do horizonte, fica difícil de ver o caminho contra a luz, mesmo eu tendo lembrado de levar os óculos escuros. inverti o sentido porque um dos lados da lagoa tem um pouco mais de cobertura de árvores no caminho do sol poente, pra quando eu estivesse caminhando virado para oeste.

2026-02-16 23:39:19 UTC

- reply

wow, this was a wonderful piece to read, thanks for sharing, and for introducing me to this great artist
I was so moved that I cried with joy at various passages. thank you, Robert, for writing it
CC: @npub1jgs…ft7z @npub159p…dhu3

2026-02-16 22:06:42 UTC

- reply

a volta do parque incluiu imagens belíssimas de nuvens finas rosadas pela luz do sol poente. o jogo de cores me remeteu a imagens de auroras boreais. achei que fosse dar pra fotografar da janela de casa, mas tinha um prédio bloqueando o espetáculo.

2026-02-16 22:02:35 UTC

#caminhada com duas voltinhas na lagoa; uma pra cada lado, pra não prejudicar o equilíbrio do universo

2026-02-16 18:14:08 UTC

- reply

that who gives the computer the commands and the instructions it obeys and carries out controls it. even if you're running the program offline on your own computer, if it is nonfree, someone else controls it. it's not dynamic control (in that the program can't take further instructions from that who controls it), but it is static control (in that the instructions were given beforehand).
you may even have the illusion of control if you can give it some commands, but they will typically be narrow, among select choices determined by the instructions in the program.

2026-02-16 18:08:13 UTC

- reply

can't do it by themselves. just like companies can't really do anything whatsoever by themselves, they have to resort to hiring agents to do what they wish on their behalf. but they can choose whom to hire, they can replace agents who aren't doing well, and they can fare pretty well in advancing their agendas and getting their interests served through such indirect agency.
the only reasons non-coders think they don't benefit from software freedom is that they're propagandized into submission and helplessness from an early age. trying to make it by oneself instead of relying on communities can be quite self-defeating.

2026-02-16 18:02:43 UTC

- reply

we really can't. at best, we can find active backdoors (already in use, thus too late). finding timebombs and otherwise inactive backdoors requires pretty much knowing about them beforehand.

2026-02-15 21:45:43 UTC

- reply

I don't think I made a security argument here. the article is not wrong that transparency and auditability don't automatically make software secure, and that there are various approaches to investigating software for security flaws that don't involve the 4 software freedoms. but any decent security analysis begins by assessing the threat models, and it's quite evident, once you think about it, that software running under someone else's control doesn't and can't generally give you any security whatsoever from abuses by that who controls it. so even if it's true that free software isn't guaranteed secure for the mere fact of being free, it is true also that nonfree software is guaranteed insecure for the mere fact of being nonfree.
now, having the four freedoms also helps mitigate a number of risks, some of which have security implications. following scientific processes doesn't guarantee or prove that a theory is correct, but it can reduce the risk that errors or fraud go undetected and unchallenged, while also discouraging the most blatant forms thereof (that are commonplace in the darkness of nonfree software), because they'd be more easily detected. that's why cryptographers know that strong algorithms are not those that some very smart people come up with and keep secret, but rather those that very smart people come up with and publish so that other very smart people can more immediately try to crack them. the more they try and fail to crack it, the stronger the algorithm is presumed to be. algorithms kept secret are generally held to be insecure, because if they claim to depend on secrecy of the algorithm for security, they're typically fruit of amateur, inexperienced cryptographers' minds, and the secret will be revealed as soon as someone sets out to figure it out despite attempts to conceal it.

2026-02-15 19:01:56 UTC

- reply

it still gives you control, though you may have to exercise your freedoms through others of your choice, if you don't wish to learn how to exercise them yourself. you also enjoy collective benefits: the same way you don't need to publish on newspapers yourself to enjoy the benefits of freedom of the press, when it comes to software freedom the fact that others can audit published software that you end up relying on benefits you in that their transparency and quality improve. when users don't become prisoners of software, the software (or rather those who control it) cannot abuse users as easily. see https://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/#Unshittify

2026-02-15 02:14:59 UTC

#ilovefs
free software is a wonderful conceptual framework that enables users to have control over their digital lives, instead of being subjugated by others through the software they use
there's this one person who figured out the ethical, social and political problem with nonfree software, and showed us the path to freedom
it didn't make everyone happy, of course. those who wanted to keep their power and privilege first ignored him, then laughed at him, and then fought him in very very dirty ways.
a number of people fell for the lies used to attack him, and foolishly made the attacks against their own freedoms stronger.
others knew they were lies, but joined the lynching for personal advantage.
on this day of celebration of free software, I thank everyone who didn't join the lynching, and stood firm in defense of free software, even from these ad hominem attacks against our movement.
I also thank those who came to realize their error, publicly repented, and worked hard to undo the harm their error enabled.

2026-01-29 19:06:52 UTC

- reply

recebi notificação que já tá no ar: http://tubefree.org/w/faD93wn8B59HCsydCseVfN

2026-01-29 13:40:57 UTC

- reply

publica sim, mas acho que com algum atraso: os da semana passada parece que já estavam no ar ontem
eu achei bem divertido e proveitoso. é aquela coisa quando se pede (ou se permite) a um autista falar sobre seu hiperfoco 🙂

2026-01-29 01:36:00 UTC

- reply

pois é. espero que tenha emoji de pilha palito, porque vou precisar de vários
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! 🙂

2026-01-29 01:24:28 UTC

- reply

boa!
agora, sobre esse teclado aí, tá estranho, né?
me deu nervoso aqui de ver só grupos de 3 teclas pretas, em vez de alternar 2 e 3 😉

2026-01-28 21:22:49 UTC

- reply

ficou legal?

2026-01-28 21:21:41 UTC

- reply

this was great fun, I hope it was useful too, thanks for having me!

2026-01-28 19:18:31 UTC

voltinha na lagoa, com esticadinha por fora pra descer a escadaria #caminhada
tudo rapidinho pra não atrasar pra minha participação no podcast fireside fedi, que começa daqui a pouco

2026-01-28 16:36:57 UTC

- reply

*nod*, the best approach is indeed to *not* centralize the data nor legitimize its collection. we don't want to be at risk because of BigGov any more than because of BigCorp.
CC: @npub1wg8…q6l7

2026-01-28 05:49:26 UTC

- reply

ouvi falar de figo do amor na festa do figo e da goiaba de valinhos, sp
também sou fã de goiaba... será que rola goiaba do amor?

2026-01-28 05:46:28 UTC

- reply

*nod*
and enabling the government to get so much data about citizens may serve useful purposes as long as the government seems to be in good hands (*), but when it isn't, it becomes a serious problem. the smart policy way to avoid this is to limit the collection and the interconnection of databases. "write laws thinking they'll be used by your worst enemies against you when they're in power" the same goes for government databases. gov.br accounts are a huge liability and risk, and that's not just because they demand people to use tracking devices and to run invasive nonfree software.
(*) it never is, in most or nearly most people's opinion
CC: @npub1vph…8qt9

2026-01-28 01:37:22 UTC

- reply

🙂
isto é um teste 🙂

2026-01-28 01:13:52 UTC

- reply

erhm. the issue is not getting connectivity, but having to interact with parties that have power to impose their poor software choices on you
CC: @npub1jzv…fte0 @npub1lte…nuyv

2026-01-28 01:08:55 UTC

- reply

it's a podcast that interviews fediverse inhabitants
I think the URL to watch is https://firesidefedi.live/
it's live-streamed on peertube.

2026-01-27 19:56:55 UTC

tomorrow, Wed Jan 28, I'm going to be the fireside fedi guest, live at 20:00UTC

2026-01-27 19:53:39 UTC

fui me arrastando na #caminhada de hoje, voltinha na lagoa só pra não perder o costume, porque dormi pessimamente, estava exausto
tive um sonho tragicômico: fui a um restaurante (fictício) bastante conhecido noutra cidade, cheguei antes de abrirem, mas me receberam e pedi um lanche (noutros lugares chama sanduíche) e um copão de água. sentei num sofá, fui bebendo a água (era um copo gigantesco mesmo), aí outros fregueses foram chegando, fizeram seus pedidos, comeram, foram embora e nada de o meu lanche chegar. quando o garçon passou por mim indo embora eu perguntei do lanche, ele voltou afobado pra cozinha, depois saiu correndo, indo embora apressado, sem nem falar comigo. acordei com uma baita fome.

2026-01-27 16:25:12 UTC

- reply

lembro de pensar, ao assistir a'O Homem do Futuro' por acaso na TV, algo como "caramba! olha o nível dos filmes que tão fazendo no Brasil! não deve nada pra ninguém!" é um filmaço.
outro que fiquei muito bem impressionado, também assistindo por acaso, foi Romance, com Letícia Sabatela e também com ele, Wagner Moura. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(filme_de_2008)
algo me diz que vou gostar d'O Agente Secreto' quando assistir 🙂
CC: [@bug_elseif@bolha.us](https://bolha.us/users/bug_elseif )

2026-01-26 23:41:27 UTC

já zoei meu confuso horário de novo, não deu pra manter a #caminhada de manhã como eu gostaria. fui no fim da tarde, fiz uma voltinha na pista interna esticada com uma volta na praça. queria ter ido um pouco mais cedo, mas pessoal ia precisar do carro pra buscar a neta na escola. resultado: fomos juntos pra escola e pro parque. aí eu fiz minha caminhada enquanto eles ficaram na pista de patinação, pra netinha aproveitar o patinete.

2026-01-26 23:36:09 UTC

- reply

e nem é só questão de dor. um familiar está correndo sério risco de perder a visão num dos olhos por conta dessa doença.

2026-01-26 19:02:44 UTC

- reply

essa é só uma abordagem possível, que traz as coisas mais perto de modelos econômicos que me parecem desejáveis sem distanciar demais do modelo vigente. há muitas outras.
outra abordagem possível: não há razão estrutural para o governo não contratar pessoas (ao invés de terceirizar para empresas) para manter os sistemas que utiliza.
até mesmo a prática de terceirização para empresas não cooperativas poderia funcionar, com legislação e fiscalização para que os empregos não fossem precarizados. mas aí já fica mais difícil, porque os tecnofeudalistas intermediários iam ter que topar participar mesmo ficando com uma fatia menor do bolo.
CC: @npub1maf…seyg

2026-01-26 18:29:45 UTC

- reply

the "services" range from getting forms to pay taxes, starting businesses, getting health support, unemployment benefits, etc. depending on your privilege level, you may be able to give up rights and do without health support and various benefits, but if you try to go about without paying your taxes or fulfilling other legal obligations, you'd probably get in serious trouble. and then, when you get sued or even set out to sue the government to enforce your right to not have to use such surveillance devices, you find you have to use them to participate in the court audience (and if you don't show up you lose by default).
I regret having trusted things would remain reasonable and not acting sooner to preempt these moves
CC: [@iron_bug@friendica.ironbug.org](https://friendica.ironbug.org/profile/iron_bug ) @npub1lte…nuyv @npub1jzv…fte0

2026-01-26 17:39:47 UTC

- reply

o dinheiro pra pagar pelos serviços está aí, inclusive está inflacionado por monopólios. "basta" haver vontade política pra redirecionar esse dinheiro para sistemas que não gerem dependência, tirando os intermediários monopolistas do meio, e os trabalhos serão ainda melhor remunerados, especialmente se a mudança favorecer cooperativas.
se há um desafio aí é evitar que esses trabalhadores/cooperativas se tornem eles mesmos intermediários, que recebem pelo serviço sem colaborar com o desenvolvimento dos projetos. aí se perderia a oportunidade de aproveitar a migração para custear o desenvolvimento. talvez com cláusulas contratuais/licitatórias que prevejam a integração de funcionalidades nos projetos de origem e/ou a manutenção pública de forks comunitários
CC: @npub1maf…seyg

2026-01-26 16:26:52 UTC

- reply

my landline in a big Brazilian city was discontinued without warning in October. I heard people in the US got early warnings and had them discontinued as well. we can't count on their remaining available.
tracking devices that won't run random apps remain available AFAIK, and they can conceivably be left in place instead of carried around, but for how long? and they do have microphones (and cameras) that can be remotely activated without warning.
in Brazil, even in the absence of laws that mandate carrying such a tracking device, the federal government has an app/website that has become the single entry point for a growing number of government services, but the website limits access to many of the essential services, demanding access from a tracking device under remote control instead.
banking for regular people has recently become impossible, as banks discontinued their web-based services and now they're in a spree of shutting down branches, forcing customers to use apps to get any service whatsoever. despite my bringing banks to court and winning, the bank ignores the court order and discontinues access to services on the website for good. so I've become digitally excluded, and now I have to rely on family members to do my banking. but that won't last long: the banks are warning they're going to demand smartphone fingerprint biometrics.
I'm happy for you that your reality is not like this nightmare (yet?). hopefully we can reverse course before it hits you.
CC: [@iron_bug@friendica.ironbug.org](https://friendica.ironbug.org/profile/iron_bug ) @npub1lte…nuyv @npub1jzv…fte0

2026-01-26 06:19:47 UTC

- reply

it remains the same up to a point. since they have different goals, the framing ends up influencing the sort of contributors and contributions that it attracts, and that tends to reinforce the differences in goals.
that said, you're absolutely correct that licensing terms aren't determinant in their orientation between these two possibilities. but there's a remarkable correlation: those who aim for freedoms for users tend to favor strong copyleft, while those who aim for being welcoming to business exploitation tend to adopt pushover licenses.
CC: @npub1lte…nuyv

2026-01-26 04:14:35 UTC

- reply

it's not fair to blame individuals for social, systemic problems. you're right that it's kind of pointless to blame the companies, these psychopathic-by-design creatures, for doing something that we haven't made illegally costly; it would be sort of like being angry at bacteria for their making us ill. we shouldn't engage in victim blaming the users either. it's not lone action that can solve this kind of problem; we need collective action to promote social and political change, so that such abuses are understood and rejected by society at large, not just by a few. then businesses and governments wouldn't consider assuming or imposing such abuse on us, they'd take another path because ultimately they want our business and they wouldn't get it otherwise.

2026-01-26 04:03:40 UTC

- reply

there are numerous times in which a piece of imposed computer technology requires so much privilege to be able to reject it that the rejection becomes unachievable by most, and seems far more costly (not just money-wise) than tolerating the immediate abuse. it's not so hard to understand why people so often go along with what's imposed on them. it's not every day that we get a chance to e.g. reverse engineer the tax form filling program that we must use, and make a free version thereof, or to reject contemporary means of payment when the freedom-respecting ones are phased out, or to refuse to carry a tracking device when everything and everyone expects you to have one to take a bus or the subway, to get a parking spot for your car or your bike, to see the menu at restaurants, to place your order, to pay, to do your taxes, to schedule appointments, ... I've become digitally excluded for not carrying a tracking device, for not having a device that will run all of these proprietary apps that governments and businesses take for granted nowadays. so the problems I face for my conscious choice are the flip side of the coin of problems that most people face because they can't fathom going for the alternative that also sucks. the only way we could win AFAICT is for nearly everyone to realize that this sucks and demand a respectful alternative.
CC: @npub1jzv…fte0

2026-01-25 23:11:30 UTC

- reply

he's not wrong. I hope it's clear that there are plenty of social and political and even technological problems that one can solve once one undertakes control of one's own digital life.
what Schneier doesn't say or mean is that technology alone can't *make* security problems for you. it can, and avoiding that is what the article is about

2026-01-25 22:26:05 UTC

- reply

é que não basta construir as alternativas livres e querer usá-las
é preciso também atividade política para que não sejamos obrigados a abrir mão delas e a continuar ou voltar a ser prisioneiros
nas ondas de TRApps para tornozeleiras de bolso, muita gente tá caindo
e as tornozeleiras de rodas tão aí também
mas uma coisa é certa: se desistirmos, aí é que não tem jeito
não é pra ficar otimista, porque vamos precisar lutar muito mais, mas não é pra perder as esperanças
CC: @npub1l59…56yt

2026-01-25 22:21:04 UTC

- reply

há 42 anos vimos construindo alternativas em https://www.gnu.org/ e no contexto do movimento software livre.
fomos atropelados por uma dissidência muito bem sucedida que não persegue os mesmos objetivos, então ainda somos muito poucos.
mas toda ajuda para libertar os prisioneiros das amarras digitais é bem-vinda.
CC: @npub19tg…9nf5

2026-01-25 21:57:27 UTC

new blog post: compromising encryption keys
https://blog.lx.oliva.nom.br/2026-01-25-compromising-encryption-keys.en.html

2026-01-25 13:50:48 UTC

- reply

*nod*
remember when every gmail account got an associated XMPP account, and regular people would chat with other XMPP users until Google broke federation?
XMPP was already more than good enough back then. and the users were there.

2026-01-25 13:21:27 UTC

#GNU #Linux-libre 6.19-rc6-gnu is now available for testing from the git repository, with cleaning-up scripts updated for the upcoming 6.19 series

2026-01-25 13:17:36 UTC

- reply

some face difficulties, particularly from computer systems built to be intolerant to name changes
most don't need to force the matter, as most people will just happily accept their newly-taken name
CC: @npub1ryu…myy0

2026-01-25 12:59:02 UTC

- reply

vi. explicitar o uso da wikipedia aponta a contradição mais claramente. um desavisado poderia nem saber que grokipedia é uma versão deturpada e piorada da wikipedia, ou até supor que fosse algo melhor.

2026-01-25 12:04:42 UTC

- reply

... e treinada com a wikipedia

2026-01-25 11:58:15 UTC

fiz #caminhada em volta do parque e da praça, mesmo trajeto que eu fiz em ritmo puxado umas vezes durante a semana, só que hoje fui em ritmo normal, e no sentido oposto. surpresa: deu quase o mesmo tempo de volta! conclusão: meu ritmo normal aumentou?
hoje alguém passando por mim me chamou pelo (sobre)nome, mas não consegui identificar.
próxima vez que eu for caminhar no domingo de manhã, devo tentar ir mais cedo ainda. esse horário já estava bem movimentado.

2026-01-24 23:46:51 UTC

- reply

esse que evoluwill para 0% de liquidez e 100% de liquidação?

2026-01-24 22:27:21 UTC

- reply

sure, when you say no, they laugh at you, but they still have access to your keys just the same. even if they never choose to upload them.
CC: @npub1fne…87ll @npub1r90…e6eu

2026-01-24 22:00:43 UTC

- reply

a brecha precisa ser construída.
eu, como excluído digital por causa dessas exigências destrutivas modernas, adoraria ajuda para construí-la.
CC: @npub19tg…9nf5

2026-01-24 19:41:26 UTC

- reply

way to discourage or punish those who'd step on your toes