Ketil Froyn @kefir@qoto.org

There’s been a lot of discussion about a rule we recently instituted regarding security testing on the infosec.exchange instance. I understand the value or pen testing as much or more than most people, and I’m fully cognizant that pen tests are happening all the time and I’m not getting the report. I get it. But there are now 28,000 people using this service to communicate. I know there are vulnerabilities waiting to be discovered. Finding blog post fodder by fuzzing instances that are already running hot due to explosive growth is not super helpful. But at the same time, I WANT that testing to happen.

As a result, I am going to set up two instances tomorrow that only federate with each other. This is where I’d prefer legitimate security testing be performed. I’ll also be using it as the QA environment to test new updates and settings prior to deploying to the production instance. I’ll moderate signups because I don’t want it accidentally becoming fediverse 2.0 in the ongoing rush for the doors at twitter, but will accept anyone who wants to join, with clear indications that it’s a sandbox and should not be considered safe.

Thanks for patience as we continue to find out way.

Oljeleitinga kan ikke fortsette, skriver Rasmus Hansson og jeg i Trønderdebatt.

https://www.tronderdebatt.no/oljeleitinga-kan-ikke-fortsette/o/5-122-58267

How do algorithms decide what content you see online? Is there really no way to prevent the misuse of social media to spread disinformation and hate?

Online platforms must be transparent and accountable for what their algorithms decide to promote. It's time we make this happen.

Starting today, we're setting up a European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency in Sevilla, Spain. This is one of the many measures in our new #DigitalServicesAct.

More info: https://algorithmic-transparency.ec.europa.eu/index_en

#DigitalEU

Hi all, here is a curated lists of academic accounts on Mastodon by discipline. Kindly spread the word.

https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon

#phdlife #academicchatter #academia #education #research

@phdstudents

Babe, wake up, a new #JWST image just dropped.

Light from the protostar L1527 escapes above and below an edge-on protoplanetary disk (the dark line at the center of the image), creating an hourglass shape. This illuminates the cavities carved as ejected material from the star collides with the surrounding, dusty nebula.

Dust scatters shorter wavelengths of light, so blue areas are where the dust is thinner and orange areas are where the dust is more dense.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-055

#astronomy

As long as American bathroom stalls look like this, I have grave worries over what they think privacy means:

@Sheril and when we realize the vertical axis isn't linear, we see how bad for the climate beef really is. #MeatlessMondays aren't enough.

A new PNAS paper estimated the environmental impact of 57,000 #food products and the results favor chips.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2120584119 #science

This week, the world’s human #population is expected to reach 8B. About 109B people have lived and died. Each grain of sand represents 10M.

Spectacular #data visualization of human life on Earth by Max Roser #science

Er på forsiden av kode24 med artikkel om hvordan vi jobber #remote og #hybrid i #nav https://www.kode24.no/artikkel/rumper-i-stoler-har-aldri-vaert-en-god-malestokk-sann-jobber-nav-utviklerne-hjemmefra/77717066

I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:

So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.

Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.

The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.

This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.

I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.

In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.

Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,

#mastoadmin

Er det fordi de drukner i den våte jorda? Eller fordi regndråper som dunker ned skremmer dem opp?

Det mest sannsynlige er ganske enkelt at meitemark trives i fuktig miljø, og de vandrer naturlig dit de trives. Når det er tørt mistrives de oppå bakken. Når det er vått ute trives de bra på bakken og kan bevege seg fritt der også.

Så markene du ser oppå bakken i regnvær er nok bare en brøkdel av alle som finnes i jorda der!

#norsktut #markkompost

”Global Witness found more than 600 people at the talks in Egypt are linked to fossil fuels.
That's more than the combined delegations from the 10 most climate-impacted countries.”

"If you want to address malaria, you don't invite the mosquitoes”
#COP27

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63571610