glyn @underlap@qoto.org

This is brilliant and much-needed. I particularly like "Explanation" with its context, alternatives, and discussion. I have tried to include that sort of thing in my projects, e.g. https://github.com/pivotal/image-relocation

> If you use GitHub, consider SourceHut3 or Codeberg. If you use Twitter, consider Mastodon instead. If you use YouTube, try PeerTube. If you use Facebook… don’t.

(via @NicolasConstant)

I got around to reading the ActivityPub spec. and it's pretty nice! I'm wondering how implementations decide when to create a shared inbox. Seems like a potentially interesting algorithm.

#activitypub #sharedinbox

@cwebber

@freemo or anyone: I'm trying to find out how connected the graph of fediverse nodes is. For instance, if it's fully connected (every node connected to every other), that might imply a scalability limit to the number of nodes.

I guess another way of framing the question is whether two nodes A and B are necessarily directly connected because a user in node A follows a user in node B.

#fediverse #graph #connectedness #topology #scalability

The UK government ignored the advice of their scientific advisers on 15 December (https://t.co/JgCt5ZsJXK). They are now preparing for hospitals to be overwhelmed by building field hospital in car parks, but without sufficient medical staff to run them. It's high time scientific advice is taken more seriously.
#COVID #govuk

I wrote an article, "So you want to be a software developer?": https://wordsmith.social/underlap/how-to-become-a-software-developer

#software #softwaredevelopment #softwareskills

Agreed!

Just ran into some anti-vaxxing toots. What's the approach to fact checking in the #fediverse? The usual tools of replying or quoting are unhelpful as they effectively promote problematic toots.

Twitter is able to label fake news as such, especially in relation to #COVID19: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52632909

It appears that #keyoxide claims can only be added for a fixed set of "platforms" and the keyoxide code needs to be modified to add further platforms. This seems inherently centralised. I wonder if it would be feasible to support a more generic approach to claims which would not need to be hardcoded into keyoxide? I guess the platform-specific aspect is being sure that a particular URI points at something which is owned by a user who may be asserting the claim.

Keyoxide allows me to prove that I own certain email and other accounts by building up a relationship between each account and a public/private key pair. This enables a third party to check that two accounts are owned by the same entity. I say "entity" because it is *possible*, although highly dubious, for someone to share their private key with others. So the proven relationships are really between accounts and a private key. I'm still fuzzy how this relates to an individual's identity, unless that is somehow inferred from a "convincing" collection of accounts.
#identity #fediverse #keyoxide

What's the state of the art of identity in the fediverse? [This blog](https://mattball.io/2018/09/18/fediverse-identity/) is a decent problem statement.
#identity #fediverse @freemo

The James Webb telescope was successfully launched today and should reach its location (L2, orbiting the sun) in about a month. Astronomers are looking forward to seeing more light from the early universe.

Meanwhile, billions of people celebrate the light coming into our dark world some 2000 years ago.

#lightinthedarkness #jameswebb #christmas #jesus

Five ways to spot fake news online https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1473997317330161664/vid/720x720/vYnoj8HwENug6T_I.mp4?tag=14 #factcheck #fakenews #OxfordUni

When I post a link to a post here on Twitter, it shows my profile picture, part of the link, and not much else. Can this be improved or is Twitter deliberately making Mastodon links unpalatable to its users? #twitter #interoperability #adoption

Just posted a Mastodon invitation link (available on the server's home page) on Twitter and Facebook. Feels a bit like when I WhatsApped my relatives asking them to join me on Signal. Expecting #tumbleweed ...

I should add that the team was distributed across Europe and the US.

@life Greetings from another follower of Jesus. This vlog from Simon Guillebaud is very encouraging https://standrewsbookshop.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=973a2057ae42a17f46ac9d1c5&id=08c9074a72&e=fa7fe1bc1c