timorl @timorl@qoto.org

LOLOLOL DDoSCoin is a Cryptocurrency that pays you when you contribute to a Distributed Denial of Service attack.

Thats basically like paying 1,000,000 men a penny each to send dick pics to your ex.

I'm done!

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/12/ddoscoin_cryptocurrency/

#cryptocurrency #blockchain #hacking #DoS

It's the end of 2019 and there still is no decent, usable, #PGP-enabled e-mail client that I could roll-out to regular, non tech-savvy users without feeling bad.

10 years ago that would have been #KMail. But KMail shot itself in the foot, knee, and hip with Akonadi.

#Thunderbird is... Thunderbird.
#Mailpile doesn't do writes to IMAP, so you either use *only* it, or not use it at all.

#Kube just crashed on me because I tried to reply to a signed e-mail.

Anybody any other suggestions?

> Writing a Formally-Verified Porn Browser in Coq and Haskell

https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/10/12/against-against-autism-cures/ is definitely an interesting read

@amdt
@gueorgui
The quality of OSM data depends on how active the local community is. Google maps is no comparison to OSM in central Europe. Google lacks everything but paved roads for cars. It is absolutely unusable as a cyclist.

France proposes upload filter law, “forgets” user rights

https://juliareda.eu/2019/12/french_uploadfilter_law/

Unreal. People in the federated timeline are debating whether or not to vote because “voting supports capitalism”. I do understand that there are a lot of anarchists on the fediverse, but not representing your own interests in the legal construct that you have to live under is, well, crazy. Otherwise, you end up looking like a “sovereign citizen” (for entertainment, look that up on YouTube) and no one takes you seriously.

Become informed and vote. Encourage others to do the same.

Interesting fact of the day: Webster's Dictionary in 1828 defined gender in much the same way as modern liberals define it, that being, ones expression of pronouns and does not strictly adhere to any sense of sex. In fact the dictionary definition at the time goes into some detail on that point.

So strictly speaking assigning ones gender based on preferred pronouns or expression of femininity/masculinity is in fact the traditional and historic usage of the word.

Here is a word-for-word copy of the text of the definition for gender in Webster's 1828 dictionary:

In grammar, a difference in words to express distinction of sex; usually a difference of termination in nouns, adjectives and participles, to express the distinction of male and female. But although this was the original design of different terminations, yet in the progress of language, other words having no relation to one sex or the other, came to have genders assigned them by custom. Words expressing males are said to be of the masculine gender; those expressing females, of the feminine gender; and in some languages, words expressing things having no sex, are of the neuter or neither gender

http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/gender

#gender #english #grammar #lgbt #lgbtq #equalrights #trans

#PaperbackCLI is a #paper-based #backup system.

Paperback-cli is a tool which encodes any file into a very large 2D #barcode which can be decoded back into the original file. The encoded barcode is resilient to error and can be printed onto a piece of paper to later be scanned and decoded. Paperback-cli can encode upwards of 500 kB of raw data per laser printed page.

Website 🔗️: https://git.teknik.io/scuti/paperback-cli

#free #opensource #foss #fossmendations #security

I officially nominate @mngrif in the moderator election

https://discourse.qoto.org/t/nomination-for-moderator-nov-2019/92/5

#QOTO

At the moment, my view is something along the lines of:

- Do what you can as an individual, to the best of your ability
- Don't be overburdened by guilt if you can't do it all
- Be very conscious that not everyone is in a position to do what you think is 'doing the right thing' (including yourself)
- The system is pretty rigged against doing the right thing, so ultimately the system is the one that needs to change
- Individual behaviour change is probably a part of bringing about system change

Good news as EU formally adopts Ecodesign measures:

- As of 2021, all TVs, monitors, fridges, freezers, washing machines, washer-dryers, dishwashers and lighting products on the EU market will have to meet minimum repairability requirements
- Manufacturers will have to ensure easy disassembly with commonly available tools.
- Spare parts and repair information will have to be made available to professional repairers for a minimum number of years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49884827
https://www.coolproducts.eu/news/eu-to-pull-plug-on-wasteful-unrepairable-products

Floating-point rounding errors as an energy source: In one simulation, robots learned that small rounding errors in the math that calculated forces meant that they got a tiny bit of extra energy with motion. They learned to twitch rapidly, generating lots of free energy that they could harness. The programmer noticed the problem when the robots started swimming extraordinarily fast.

https://aiweirdness.com/post/172894792687/when-algorithms-surprise-us/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Just re-upping this offer: because being comfortable with git is a barrier to entry to many FS/OSS projects, and because I care deeply about lowering those barriers, I will tutor anyone who asks for help with git, and/or connect them with any mentor(s) they might prefer.

I'll do this while I put energy and work into making the tool more approachable, and into making better tools and learning paths.

Boosts gratefully appreciated.

#gittutors