Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

This is an old project, but by some miracle it's still working and I woke up this morning wanting to celebrate the things I love more.

This Inkplate e-ink screen shows Conway's Game of Life, seeded from tarpits I have on the Internet. The tarpits are programs on my computer that superficially look like insecure Telnet and Remote Desktop services, but actually exist to respond super slowly and make bots scanning the Internet 'get stuck'.

When a bot connects to the tarpit, the data it sends gets squished into a 5x5 grid and 'stamped' onto a Game of Life board. Data from a bot at the IP address 1.1.x.x will get stamped on the top left corner, data from a bot at 254.254.x.x will get stamped on the bottom right corner.

Conway's Game of Life, a set of simple rules that govern whether cells should turn on or off, updates the display once per second. The result is that bot attacks end up appearing as distinct 'creatures', that get bigger and more angry looking over time (as their centre is updated with new data). After the attack finishes, the 'creature' eventually burns itself out.

Despite that description, it's a really chill piece of art that doesn't draw too much attention but I can happily watch for a long time.

Credit for the idea goes to @_mattata, I had been wanting to make a real-life version of XKCD #350 for years before seeing his Botnet Fishbowl project.

#projects #inkplate #esp32 #eink #infosec #tarpit

I'm no Stephen Hawking, but I think what happens is that they cancel each other out.

Scam Alert!

If you receive an email or response on Mastodon like the following, DO NOT click the link. It is a scam fishing for login details at the very least.

"Mastodon has detected botting malware on your PC that is congesting the Mastodon network. All affected accounts will be suspended within 24 hours unless removed. _https://REDACTEDLINK"

I’m giving a talk on #AIart today at an advertising agency and sometimes I have to pinch myself, because people let me talk about my special interests. They have no idea they’re watching an autistic person info dumping about their spin and everyone seems to enjoy it because they invited me to do it 😂😂😂 I feel like I’m exploiting a weird loophole where the NTs call it a talk and I get to unmask a bit on my spin. #actuallyautistic

🤯 "Tory peer Michelle Mone secretly received £29m from ‘VIP lane’ PPE firm"
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/23/revealed-tory-peer-michelle-mone-secretly-received-29m-from-vip-lane-ppe-firm

@giandujakiss @tomtomorrow

There's a bit of CSS code floating around that will change the "Publish" button to "Perish" on mouseover. Designed for the academic community.

I hesitate to boost this, because people only reading the headline might misread it as "someone is accusing Eugen of *being* a Nazi, which is either true or a melodramatic Godwinization" or "Mastodon is full of Nazis".

TLDR:

1. Our instance, qoto.org, came under attack by an actual, swastika-waving Nazi. Mastodon is by no means full of such bad actors, but they do exist. Freemo provides evidence and history of the attack.
2. This bad actor created enough disinformation noise that Eugen chose to delist qoto from joinmastodon to protect the reputation of Mastodon. This was a win for the baddies.
3. Debates over proper moderation and federation policies are complicated and can grow heated.

@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird #qoto

(Interesting thing I learned when autocompleting those tags: there are several accounts impersonating Eugen.)

The German football team protesting against being silenced by FIFA ✊ #WorldCup2022

#Introduction time!
I'm a published, Ringo Award nominated comic writer & artist. I work in both the fantasy genre and autism acceptance advocacy.

#art #mastoart #actuallyautistic #autism

Some autistic people are incredibly good with time and memory--to the point where it has become a popular trope. But is that true for all of us?

Let's talk about the topic of time perception!

#ActuallyAutistic #Autism #Neurodivergence #MastoArt #Comic #Comics

#IndyRef2

UK Supreme Court unanimously holds that #IndyRef2 is NOT possible without Westminster/Whitehall consent.

Scottish government defeated.

Supreme Court (SC) judgment on #IndyRef2 is expected today around 9.45 am.

The question is, in effect, whether the Scottish Parliament legislate for a (non-binding) referendum on independence.

See: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2022-0098.html

There are at least three possible outcomes:

1. SC says it cannot determine the questions at this stage.

2. SC says Scottish Parliament can legislate for such a referendum on independence.

3. SC says Scottish Parliament cannot legislate for a referendum on independence.

The #IndyRef2 case this morning is fascinating in many ways.

It is not an appeal - it is a rare example of the UK Supreme Court (SC) acting as a court of first instance - which it can on certain devolution issues.

This means today's judgment, in turn, cannot be appealed.

I am full of admiration for the legally ingenious way in which Scottish government framed this case so as to get it before the SC.

I was also impressed by the advocacy of Scottish government's Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC

Ooh, I would so go to this! Didn’t know it existed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63716637

new cartoon, about a blithering idiot https://thenib.com/the-blithering-idiot/

Disturbed by reports of Black Mastodon users—Black women in particular—having negative experiences on this app, including being randomly banned for discussions of racism. Some of these users will not come back. All will share their experiences. The answer is not to condescendingly lecture them on “how the fediverse works,” as if their experiences are inevitable, nor to swear to do better next time. (There may not be one.) It’s to do better now lest the reputation of this app be cemented.