Julian Oliver

I help NGOs, defenders of human rights and the environment off big tech and onto sovereign, self-hosted platforms and server infrastructure. I also teach people how to do the same for those important to them | https://nikau.io

I make and teach tech/media/electronic art, exhibiting internationally since the late 90's | https://julianoliver.com

Big tech & AI free. Local rainforest conservation when I can.

Aotearoa New Zealand, Pākehā, Tangata Tiriti, he/him, herbivore

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Last Notes

2026-08-13 04:59:24 UTC

In less than 12hrs I'll be taking graduates of the Tunnel training into another edition of Fortress. 4x6hrs, followed by 2 weeks of supported service deployments and experimentation.
I'm excited about every part of it (esp to see what participants build up), except the 1am starts, in my, umm, challenging timezone.
It'll be coffee black as midnight for a bit.
https://courses.nikau.io/fortress/
#sysadmin #education #infrastructure #floss

2026-08-01 01:11:16 UTC

This needs to be said in a loop until it sticks.
"What people are not getting is that we can’t turn this back – the CO2 to a large part remains in the air for thousands of years,” said Rahmstorf. “Some people think we can wait and, when it gets too bad, then we reduce emissions and things will get better again. People don’t realise that we can’t make it get better again. We can only prevent it from getting much worse.”
- Stefan Rahmstorf, Climatologist.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/30/europe-wildfires-climate-crisis-heat-summer
#climate

2026-07-13 11:35:06 UTC

A great article on Microsoft's shady GDID, a device fingerprint snuck into Windows 11 that can and has already been used to track with precision, activity reports sent back to the mothership indefinitely.
https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/07/10/you-cant-fully-disable-microsofts-gdid-windows-11-tracker-but-these-settings-limit-what-it-captures/

2026-06-13 05:25:59 UTC

An interesting piece on the circular, self-perpetuating and reflexive irony of mass surveillance by Benoit Fage, entitled 'The Interminable Whac-a-Mole: Virilio, May, and the Politics of Perpetual Hide and Seek'.
It features a mention of my Transparency Grenade (2012) project, Hito Steyerl's How Not To Be Seen (2013).
The piece is published on the HfG Karlsruhe's blog, a uni I was guest professor at some years back.
https://umbau.hfg-karlsruhe.de/posts/the-interminable-whac-a-mole-virilio-may-and-the-politics-of-perpetual-hide-and-seek

2026-06-08 19:24:17 UTC

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(Yes, there's also Ansible etc. I'm old school)

2026-06-08 19:22:31 UTC

Yesterday an old friend asked me of the impact AI is having on my #sysadmin work, whether I was using it. I responded that it was not, & that using it would be unproductive as I'd lose so much time auditing deployments by an agent I cannot trust for slop, bloat & flaws.
What I didn't have time to add was that I already have v low carbon, 100% sovereign automation I can trust: shell scripts. I know exactly what they do, when & why, because I wrote them. Such value & confidence is irreplaceable.

2026-03-31 03:53:48 UTC

I accidentally made art while working on this node in the studio. By pure chance I unplugged it right after this message came over the local mesh.
Now it is haunted and I want it on my wall.
#meshtastic
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/321/718/202/420/468/original/5a6a468c51fe4351.jpg

2026-03-29 21:28:38 UTC

Depicts him better than any photo
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/314/562/317/891/198/original/a7d68d75a992abaf.jpg

2026-03-26 20:23:53 UTC

Revealing piece on the scale and scope of AI-induced psychosis:
"There seem to be three common delusions [..]. The most frequent is the belief that they have created the first conscious AI. The second is a conviction that they have stumbled upon a major breakthrough in their field of work or interest and are going to make millions. The third relates to spirituality and the belief that they are speaking directly to God. “We’ve seen full-blown cults getting created”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/mar/26/ai-chatbot-users-lives-wrecked-by-delusion
#ai

2026-03-23 20:25:09 UTC

This image came up in my feed, I thought it was art, possibly a painting. Beautiful, I'd have it on my wall, I thought.
Turns out it was the header image of an article about roads in Japan suddenly collapsing due to undetected cavities.
I still want it on my wall.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/280/314/186/600/051/original/e52e6fa771d1ddc4.jpg

2026-03-20 06:09:12 UTC

My biosphere bucket was filled today with this news. 10 Kiwi are being finally released into the forests of the Karioi Rāhui (Ruapehu) region. They were welcomed by local iwi (tribe) Ngāti Rangi before release into the land of their ancestors.
They come from a population of over 3000 at the Maungatautari predator-free sanctuary, a number brought up from just 8(!) breeding pairs over 2 decades. I did not know this wonder, despite living on the same island.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/590181/kiwi-come-home-taonga-return-to-ancestral-forest-after-30-year-effort
#conservation

2026-03-18 22:12:47 UTC

I have been teaching (remote) a workshop on sensor networks to architecture students at Carleton University, in Canada, and just now was introduced to a project worked on by a team there.
Behold the beauty of Silanga, an Inuit-led weather station network spanning the vast Nunavut Territory in Northern Canada
https://silanga.ca/

2026-03-03 23:38:30 UTC

We keep hearing that only 'AI', whose profound ability to grasp complex systems, could solve a problem as wicked, entangled and multi-dimensional as global warming.*
This report details not only why that has no basis in reality, but that this fairytale is part of an industry campaign to make BigAI look like it's part of a habitable future, covering the tracks for genAI's massive footprint.
https://ketanjoshi.co/2026/02/17/big-tech-greenwashing-report/
* Turns out the trick is not spewing CO2 & CH4 into the air
#ai #climate #genai

2026-03-01 19:04:41 UTC

Condemnation of the illegal attack on Iran is complicated by some Iranian people celebrating it as the beginning of liberation. An Iranian activist tells me this is further muddied by the fact many monarchists in Iran want to see the regime toppled so that the monarchy can be reinstated.
For others it will understandably seem a release from captivity.
But 'liberation' may not age well amidst a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz & Iranian oil, US-appointed leadership etc.

2026-02-28 01:32:18 UTC

Aotearoa NZ emergency services switching to Scribe AI, so now reliant on servers hosting LLMs far far away, and so out of our control, and leaking what will at times be intensely personal information. A critical dependency on an offshore hyper-complex infrastructure that will work while it does, until it doesn't.
Can only hope they have routine fallback training and upkeep for human only processes & direct to human calls.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/588244/ai-scribe-tool-being-used-in-emergency-departments

2026-02-27 21:06:12 UTC

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It's here too that without some rigour and vigilance the beast can get fed on the sly. It is great to see folk depopulating BIgTech for small companies providing managed alternatives, a fine start, but don't get cosy until you know who they themselves host with.
Ask them "where will my data be stored?". Make them say it
Some, many, are hosting on AWS, for instance. So when you move to their shiny new free and open source alternative to toxic tech, you've left the cell but you're still in jail.

2026-02-27 20:33:24 UTC

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I'm not saying "don't buy the US things", rather, don't invest in the enormously powerful planet-engulfing tech corporations that are openly partnering with the current US administration on their hideous projects.

2026-02-27 20:11:22 UTC

Every server deployment on Amazon's AWS, Google's GCP and MS Azure feeds the beast.
Not only do they reinforce pathways of centralisation in the topological sense, but they also invest in US supremacy geopolitically. That supremacy now openly includes a theocratic & racist, war-mongering & imperialist movement.
Every server you spin up at home or on a smaller DC, like every abandoned Google, Twitter or FB account, slows the beast down.
The 3D's:
Depopulate. Defund. Disempower.
#bigtech

2026-02-25 19:00:27 UTC

For the record, no, I don't use 'AI' in any aspect or component of the trainings I give, whether for Nikau, festivals and confs or any of the uni teaching. It is all entirely human made, from documentation, to image and video generation and comms. Always will be, even if supposedly less 'productive' one day, by some empty metric.
I personally don't use it at all.

2026-02-24 20:47:37 UTC

This is a good overview on the recent 'AI Doomsday' scenario from Citrini Research doing the rounds. Take with a grain of salt, however the notion of negative self-reinforcing feedbacks from the removal of productive 'friction' from the economy is especially interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/24/feedback-loop-no-brake-how-ai-doomsday-report-rattled-markets

2026-02-24 07:43:47 UTC

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@nprofile…v9wr Thanks Dave! Mailman 3 is ginormous, many-tentacled, but surely both flexible & capable. I have rolled it out for a couple of groups. Post handover one junior sysadmin was a little overwhelmed by the complexity and got cold feet.

2026-02-24 07:25:44 UTC

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Oh yep, here's a shiny new list (#selfhosted of course) for those that would like to be updated about the trainings - dates, new courses, etc.
https://lists.nikau.io/subscription/form

2026-02-23 08:03:44 UTC

On the back of a very successful 2nd edition, I'm pleased to announce the date for Cloudbreak 3.
Learn how to build-up & secure your own sovereign cloud infrastructure, with powerful alternatives to Google Docs & Drive, Zoom & more, using best practices refined from over 2 decades of server administration.
No engineering or comp-sci background needed.
This is an ideal opportunity to become part of the movement away from BigTech.
Seats are limited.
https://courses.nikau.io/cloudbreak
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/117/968/921/507/984/original/ca4dd5634e087e02.jpg

2026-02-02 00:14:43 UTC

As we guessed, it seems that despite Google saying they were not making recordings of people's voices and mining them for advertisers, they were doing exactly that.
If it was a colleague caught wiretapping the workplace, we'd have them sacked and never speak to nor trust them again. In the case of Google, it's even more personal.
No Google service is free. We are the terrain they extract from. We always pay.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-voice-assistant-lawsuit-settlement-68-million/
#bigtech

2026-01-22 20:33:10 UTC

If you are in the US and have an Amazon Ring camera, disconnect it. The camera may be being used by ICE, by way of its participation in a Flock AI surveillance network.
Or sure, smash if it feels better.
https://futurism.com/future-society/amazon-ring-cameras-ice
https://www.404media.co/ice-secret-service-navy-all-had-access-to-flocks-nationwide-network-of-cameras/

2025-12-20 06:41:47 UTC

Pleased to report I'll soon be announcing new Q1 2026 dates for Tunnel and Fortress (fully-coached #selfhosted system administration training) alongside a brand new course for newcomers to the art, helping get them and those they care about off #bigtech.

2025-11-04 07:08:15 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 Good words.

2025-11-04 04:32:50 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 @nprofile…sn2h
Getting pretty OT, but the global population is not the problem. Our grotesque consumption habits are, especially in rich countries like ours Strypey. Looking at warming alone, the per-capita CO2e emissions of one adult here in Aotearoa are equivocal to 12 in Nigeria (7.22 vs 0.58).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
We could 4x the population if we were to switch to plant centered diets, and a renewable centered energy system, stopped our binge-consumption. And yes, a loaded "if"

2025-10-21 20:41:59 UTC

I've been studying the chat app SimpleX (I have to keep abreast of these things for work) & was so over focused on the tool I did not see the hand that made it.
Thanks to a prompt from @nprofile…f3zv, I looked into the political leanings of the developer.
The author indeed appears to be hardline, highly vocal, conspiratorial extreme right, even so far as drumrolling racist party ReformUK.
https://x.com/epoberezkin (trigger warning)
So it follows I will not be using or further supporting SimpleX Chat

2025-10-21 00:25:19 UTC

For a really long time I have wanted a world with this in it:
- Self-host Signal server under my desk or in a network-near dc (https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server)
- Install Signal app from whatever store
- Open up app and select my alternative server
- Ask friends/family/colleagues to open up their apps and do the same

2025-10-07 21:58:51 UTC

How the cookie we knew would crumble, has actually crumbled
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/335/107/101/490/876/original/2667d01e3d4583f3.jpg

2025-09-10 10:00:08 UTC

Any know of self-hosted alternatives to SoundCloud, ideally a la PeerTube but for sound art, samples, music?
FYI SoundCloud seems to have gone all in on 'AI', however "ethical" their claims may be.
There are other reasons they may not be a good fit, for instance:
"In January 2023, SoundCloud removed Taiwan's status as a country from their website and listed Taiwan as a "Province of China."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundCloud#cite_note-73

2025-08-11 23:26:48 UTC

Great audit and PoC by @nprofile…ajfu, detailing over-the-air exploits of #Meshtastic: https://meshmarauder.net/
Some thoughts
1/ Meshtastic has never had strong security model (even since PKI)
2/ Always been irresponsible to promote MT for sensitive comms
3/ Primary use case for MT is as emergency comms fallback
4/ It could be as insecure as walkie talkies or HAM & people would still use it for (3).
5/ Let's hope MT devs adopt the excellent recommendations by the PoC author(s)
#infosec (via @nprofile…wq2c)

2025-08-07 21:47:25 UTC

I watched the Swedish-Danish sci-fi film 'Aniara' (2018) two weeks ago and am still thinking about it, feeling it through. A film for our time, even though based on an epic poem from 1956.
I could care less for the ratings, I see how some would find it too bleak. I hold it as one of the best sci-fi films ever made.
#film #scifi

2025-08-01 05:07:59 UTC

A couple of #meshtastic node hunters ready for tomorrow's Radio Cartography session, at Critical Signals https://criticalsignals.nz/programme/radio-cartography/ #radio #infrastructure
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/951/761/090/244/857/original/f666344f00705bf9.jpg

2025-07-27 19:42:37 UTC

Missionaries have been secretly and illegally placing small devices on the lands of isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon in an attempt to convert them to their faith
The 'In Touch' devices - made by a Baptist group in Atlanta, Georgia USA - play out passages of the Bible. Weatherproof and fitted with solar panel, they run indefinitely.
The devices have been found scattered throughout the Javari region, near Brazil's border with Peru.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/27/missionaries-using-secret-audio-devices-to-evangelise-brazils-isolated-peoples
#colonisation
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/926/826/414/136/057/original/4b521e1291c7f69c.jpg

2025-04-08 05:26:18 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p Good overview here
https://exploit-notes.hdks.org/exploit/container/docker/docker-escape/
Fun and frightening to try such techniques on your own containers. Thank goodness for Alpine, stropping things back. Bugs me when there's no basic GNU stack in a container when I need to debug, no less, curl, netstat, ip, dig etc, but you see why

2025-04-08 05:12:31 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p only thing I'd add is perhaps a SHA on that NC tarball/zip, running wget as www-data or similar, and some gapping from root on those docker commands. I tend to create a depriveliged user and add it to a docker group, run compose etc as such. Helps mitigate for certain container escapes which escalate to root. Eek. Docker is a nightmare in this respect. Personally, all my containers run in KVM jails.

2025-04-07 23:15:37 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p @nprofile…ud6s Cryptpad's showstopper bug used to be randomly zeroing pads. Second was client-side load time on a clean cache. But these have been resolved since, & today it is very good. They have a calendar too, teams and kanban, all elbowing into Nextcloud's all-in-one strategy. However Cryptpad does not do syncing, which some demand. Naturally any sensitive data on an endpoint is an OpSec fail for the at-risk, so Cryptpad fills a niche there, and atop a zero-trust admin relationship

2025-04-07 23:05:42 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p @nprofile…ud6s very quick and nicely done, but no good for the tech-phobic IME, or those wanting a path from GG docs

2025-04-07 23:03:39 UTC

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@nprofile…ud6s @nprofile…s06p Fair points. I think Collabora is fine at small scales, but unfortunately have seen users turn their back on it by the thousands. Even small things like the active editor cursor grabbing and 'jumps' were intolerable for folk. I have put a lot of time into trying to get equivocal performance out of it, but watched as the crowds shifted to my Cryptpad deployments, or even went back to Etherpad. Of those favouring Etherpad, their migration request is for Hedgedoc or similar.

2025-04-07 22:46:56 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p It has not improved much, no. For convenience, you can run the Collabora doc server containerised on the same host, and feed it through your rev proxy but really it's best native on its own metal to eke out the performance. People expect client-side these days, the way it's all going, so I don't think that Collabora has much of a future. It will fade as perf expectations grow with the times. OO (licensed) will dominate in the NGO and gov sectors.

2025-04-07 22:36:14 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p great howto BTW.

2025-04-07 22:35:52 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p Thanks, I've been using OnlyOffice for years, but since they started setting arbitrary simultaneous user limits (20, last time I looked) I got tired of patching and workarounds each update. Some groups have dozens working on a doc at once during campaigns, project development. Nextcloud slowly started steering away from OO anyway, and so when doing deployments for orgs/groups it started to become too nonstandard and hairy for junior sysadmins to manage.

2025-04-07 22:18:04 UTC

In the activist space I'm consistently seeing Nextcloud lose out to Cryptpad and the likes of HedgeDoc where collaborative document editing is of primary importance to the group. Nextcloud, excellent in so many ways, has the dependency of a separate document server for Collabora if it is to come close to other alt document editors whose code runs client-side. Nextcloud's own 'Office' solution looks great but is not meeting the needs of groups collaborating around a document, even at small scales

2025-03-30 20:52:53 UTC

Fascist groups have been predating on vulnerable boys in Sweden, recruiting as young as 10. Lately, there has been an increase in interest:
"Lars Stiernelöf says he has noticed a worrying new trend among young boys. Since the inauguration of Donald Trump in January, after which the US president’s top adviser and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, gave two fascist-style salutes, there has been a rise in children using the Nazi salute in schools in Värmland."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/30/violent-far-right-groups-sweden-recruit-boys-trump-musk-manosphere

2025-03-26 21:48:56 UTC

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I get it why not flying over oceans is sometimes not an option. Funeral, essential work thing, very sick relative.
But it's worth saying that the final and very best mitigating control for safety at the US border is just to not cross it at all. Don't go there.
The US should be considered hostile territory right now, especially for those vocal about human rights and environmental defense, not to mention those critical of the Trump administration.
Just one social media reckon can be enough.

2025-03-26 21:28:54 UTC

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A good 'cloudless' fall back when crossing the border is to backup to an encrypted external SSD or even better a USB stick and stash it in your checked-in luggage. A stick can be hidden inside something else, overlooked if your baggage is searched. You can also encrypt a stick and put it in the post, to send it to your destination before you fly.
Another is to fly with a burner phone, faux social media, faux email account. Your daily driver laptop and phone are powered off in checked in luggage

2025-03-26 21:15:29 UTC

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3) Never say "I will not give you the password to this device", as that can be construed as obstructing an investigation and shift your legal outlook for the worse. Just request a lawyer and stay mute.
As a last resort, if held and with no legal counsel, you can lean on Plausible Deniability, but only if pressed. Say you don't remember setting a password, that you planned to reinstall the device, and that they can have it.
Do not fight them taking the device(s). Act like you don't care.

2025-03-26 20:52:11 UTC

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2) The article suggests backing up to the Google, MS, Apple etc cloud services before hitting the border. This is poor advice, especially for the at-risk. The process for being awarded a warrant to search these services is quite streamlined on US soil.
If you do not have the luxury of a self-hosted or community-run cloud, then it's saner to ZIP up crucial data and encrypt the archive. Then, upload that to your BigTech cloud of choice. 7zip, FossZIP and WinZip all use AES-256, strong encryption

2025-03-26 20:25:53 UTC

An ok overview of security considerations & mitigating controls to protect privacy and reduce risk of harm when crossing the US border.
The author misses some utterly crucial details however.
1) When your encrypted device is on, it is in an *unlocked* state. Only by powering off such a device is it in an encrypted state. Further, MicroSD cards are often unencrypted. Check before you fly, and power off before the border.
2) (next post)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/26/phone-search-privacy-us-border-immigration
#privacy #infosec

2025-03-24 20:06:59 UTC

When your encryption is sober but your opsec is drunk https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/us/politics/hegseth-classified-war-plans-group-chat.html
#infosec #opsec

2025-03-13 06:41:05 UTC

Soon, all human rights and environmental protest in the US may be deemed illegal. Universities may be purged.
https://gizmodo.com/state-department-will-use-ai-to-search-for-pro-hamas-students-to-deport-2000573143
The machine has been started. It will now follow its own logic.

2025-03-11 07:14:42 UTC

Woke up here again today, a deep tissue off-grid massage. Heard a brown Kiwi (endangered incredible flightless bird species) call out in the night. A big sound, reverberating in the mountain valley. Morning, I met a Ruru (named 'Morepork' by European settlers) shortly after dawn. We chatted for a good 5 mins.
Big bushpigs (invasive, often dangerous introduced species) were munching on rainforest roots near the tent, fighting each other nearby. Had to scare them off to get some sleep. #aotearoa
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/142/524/003/499/513/original/ac77378a821ab6f3.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/142/531/778/508/762/original/2a5804c50cf19c89.jpg

2025-03-11 06:56:45 UTC

Architecture from a dropped rock
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/142/482/493/674/434/original/9e41af017cddc1fe.jpg

2025-03-06 04:45:20 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p Still a bloody mess. MailTrain surged ahead with Reason and Sense a few years back, but no commits in a couple of years now. Sniff.

2025-03-06 04:41:58 UTC

When system administration is not like gardening, it is because I am deploying MailMan. Then, it is wrestling a tentacular sea monster while being mumbled to by a venerable and inebriated UNIX programmer from the barnacled bow of his adrift Sun-2 machine.
#unix #sysadmin

2025-03-03 06:46:52 UTC

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@nprofile…stvl Unfortunately it is very difficult. But in my OpSec training I do cover a system for flagging certain behaviour patterns that can help identify and isolate an infiltrator before harm is done. But one has to be careful as false positives, and associated paranoia, can also do much harm.
I recommend studying social engineering techniques used by spy cops such that one can identify when being played. A good book on this is 'Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking' by Hadnagy.

2025-03-02 23:23:02 UTC

Guardian article in advance of forthcoming series on UK spy cops. It details how 1/5th of those sent to infiltrate political movements ended up in intimate relationships with women therein, some even fathering children while using fake identities.
In my work for defenders of human rights & the environment I hear many awful stories as regards infiltration - the worst of social engineering. Arguably the UK has among the lowest, most disgraceful history within this space
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/02/revealed-at-least-25-uk-spy-cops-sexual-relations-deceived-women

2025-02-22 21:14:03 UTC

Starlink became a geopolitical lever, just as we knew it would https://www.reuters.com/business/us-could-cut-ukraines-access-starlink-internet-services-over-minerals-say-2025-02-22/

2025-02-22 20:52:21 UTC

Very good read, however largely framed around the US experience.
https://maxmurphy.xyz/p/goodbye-surveillance-capitalism-hello
I will say his 3 solutions at the close of that piece overlook what self-hosted community-centred infrastructure can bring, and is already bringing, to the table. I don't think switching to dumbphones is the way.
But it is good to be clear with ourselves, that breaking from the toxicity and building & using the digital surface we want won't come without some degree of initial pain.
(Thanks Mix for link)

2025-02-22 07:01:17 UTC

Collapsible is down. Looking into it.

2025-02-21 20:32:29 UTC

Apple finally caves to pressure from UK, drops the end-to-end encryption tool ADP used with their iCloud service.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/apple-pulls-icloud-end-to-end-encryption-feature-for-uk-users-after-government-demanded-backdoor/
#infosec #privacy

2025-02-19 08:43:31 UTC

One wonders if this local post-capitalism conference couldn't have benefitted from having a French speaker on the team
https://proutresearch.nz/conference/post-capitalist-aotearoa

2025-02-18 20:49:43 UTC

Lawyers caught citing 'AI hallucinated' cases.
"Our internal artificial intelligence platform ‘hallucinated’ the cases in question while assisting our attorney in drafting the motion [...]
This matter comes with great embarrassment and has prompted discussion and action regarding the training, implementation, and future use of artificial intelligence within our firm."
https://www.courtwatch.news/p/lawyers-caught-citing-ai-hallucinated-cases-say-it-s-a-cautionary-tale-for-all-law-firms
(TY @nprofile…6v3t)
#ml #ai

2025-02-17 23:06:13 UTC

"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall."
- E. O. Wilson

2025-02-08 00:47:55 UTC

"Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them"
- CEO of Palantir, Alex Carp
https://gizmodo.com/palantirs-billionaire-ceo-just-cant-stop-talking-about-killing-people-2000560597
(Thanks @nprofile…6v3t)
#infosec #surveillance

2025-02-06 22:55:03 UTC

Still doing the rounds, the so-called 'de-anonymisation attack'/'0day' against Signal, Discord etc is an exaggeration. It is however totally valid as a loose/vague geo-location discovery vector by way of CDNs.
I note that claims it's the work of "a 15-year-old high school junior" (https://gist.github.com/hackermondev/45a3cdfa52246f1d1201c1e8cdef6117) also should not be repeated too much, given that HackerOne said a bug reported by them (Adobe) was resolved 8 years ago. They would have been 7 years old at the time.
#infosec

2025-01-23 22:56:42 UTC

Rafah, Gaza, Jan 20, 2025.
Photograph: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu/Getty Images
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/880/127/001/324/899/original/1acfab816264941c.jpg

2024-12-05 03:47:35 UTC

"Claude Shannon's 1950 paper Programming a Computer for Playing Chess was a seminal work in the field of Artificial Intelligence [...] In this paper, Shannon employs the Minimax Algorithm, which takes as its premise that your opponent will always choose the move that is best for them, and worst for you."
The Unimax Algorithm is a cooperation-centric alternative to this foundational yet adversarial paradigm in #computation.
https://unimax.run/
#ai #ml

2023-10-29 06:58:40 UTC

Incredible landscape. Hotels and high rises in the seaside resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, after Hurricane Otis hit.
Photo: AFP/ Rodrigo Oropeza
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/316/986/924/093/349/original/8b5d69904d67a999.jpg

2023-09-20 06:18:14 UTC

Because there is still life. A lot of it.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/096/006/032/502/755/original/9216a1a51e0fc705.jpg

2023-07-20 22:19:03 UTC

New Oxford Uni research on the environmental impacts of dietary choices, the most comprehensive to date, finds plant-based/vegan diets have 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use than diets in which more than 100g of meat a day was eaten. Plant-based diets also also reduced the destruction of wildlife by 66% and water use by 54%.
The research drew upon data taken from 38,000 farms - from 'organic' & grass fed to industrial - in 119 countries.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/20/vegan-diet-cuts-environmental-damage-climate-heating-emissions-study