byron @byronalley@mastodon.social

If it weren't for closed source software x86 would no longer exist. Backwards compatibility and the massive overcomplexity that comes with are unnecessary when you build everything from source.

some of the most prolific books of our time are aimed at younger audiences but still cover mature topics and there's good reason for that

kids desire more serious topics, problems to solve, and more juicy information to learn and absorb. adults desire more imagination, fun, adventure, escapism.

combine the two and you've got something that near anyone can enjoy. general audience media is often the best from what i've seen.

Self-destructing #messages received on 'Signal for Mac' can be recovered later #hackers https://thehackernews.com/2018/05/signal-secure-messaging.html

@byronalley, I've ended up using my FB account to publicly post links to political and climate change news/articles... just a few each week though - no point annoying people.

Aside from that I almost never post "private" stuff on FB any more.

I s'pose encouraging people to think about news is a bit subversive these days ;)

A funny thing is, I haven't lost FB friends since starting to do that - but I have gained random followers who comment on the news items. So I guess it's worthwhile.

Any time you stumble on to some Great Insight that changes how you do things, consider why they weren't already done that way. It may not be that no one already thought of it.

See also: Chesterton's Fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fence

I hope we are all appreciating what @switter is doing. We are all witnesses to something incredible happening.

Shoutout those who put through FOSTA/SESTA - here's a big bag of dicks love from all of us at Switter We've just hit 70,000 members

If you use Microsoft software, or even work for them, you support a corporation which just had a man sent to prison for extending computers' lives using *valid Windows licenses*. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-microsoft-copyright-20180426-story.html

I bought a t-shirt yesterday saying "Dance like no one is watching, encrypt like everyone is".

Gamers Rejoice: Steam Is Having A Sale This Week On 50 Pounds Of Hot Salad For Only $5 https://www.clickhole.com/gamers-rejoice-steam-is-having-a-sale-this-week-on-50-1825721519 #incredible #hotsalad #hogsafe #gaming #steam #wow

The CW feature on Mastodon makes it basically THE BEST social media platform for talking about movies and TV and not spoiling anyone.

If you have friends who complain about having to leave social media when a new movie comes out, perhaps this feature could convince them to try masto.

Almost like having a few companies produce a resource that is really needed today is a bad idea

> Class Action Suit Alleges Samsung, Micron And Hynix Colluded On DRAM Supply Causing Price Inflation

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davealtavilla/2018/04/27/class-action-suit-alleges-samsung-micron-and-hynix-colluded-on-dram-supply-causing-price-inflation/#48d34e6717ce

#MASTODON POST PRIVACY - who can see your post?

PUBLIC 🌏
Anyone can see and boost your post everywhere.

UNLISTED 🔓
✅ Tagged people
✅ Followers
✅ On your profile
❌ Local and federated timelines
✅ Boostable
✅ Visible to admins

FOLLOWERS ONLY 🔐
✅ Tagged people
✅ Followers
❌ On your profile
❌ Local and federated timelines
❌ Boostable
✅ Visible to admins

DIRECT MESSAGE ✉️
✅ Tagged people
❌ Followers
❌ On your profile
❌ Local and federated timelines
❌ Boostable
✅ Visible to admins

#FAQ

RT @panlepan@twitter.com: (a+b)²=a²+2ab+b²

The funniest thing about GDPR panic is that the European Parliament voted on it more than two years ago..

while #telegram is down (at least for some) take this as an oportunity to reflect:
- do you rely on a centralized service
- telegram runs on proprietary software
- it can't federate and creates by that something known as 'walled gargen'
- there are great alternatives you might like

#matrix (federated protocoll) -> https://about.riot.im/
#xmpp (federated protocoll) -> conversations.im/ , #jabber ...

for future use:
briar (in beta) has p2p
https://briarproject.org/index.html

Everyone should try creating an anonymous online identity at least once.

This has been the default in the 90s - it's becoming more challenging every second.

To fight for #privacy one has to notice it's being taken away. We are being boiled like frogs, wake up and see what changed.

What's a good podcast app for Android? I know Play Music does podcasts, but my mid-term plan is to detach myself from Google as much as possible.

Two great things you can do to make the fediverse more diverse and interesting:

1) USE LOTS OF HASHTAGS. It's not spammy! It helps people find stuff they're interested in, since the search is intentionally limited to tags to prevent abuse.

2) BOOST THE GOOD STUFF. It gets it into new federated timelines, which is vital for smaller instances with fewer connections. It also helps with hashtag searches, since they only bring up toots known to your instance via follows and boosts.

#mastodon #meta

**Biometric Apps Will Soon Be Pushed Across the Web**

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xkvb3/webauthn-google-chrome-microsoft-edge-mozilla-firefox

This is a bad idea:

1. You can't "reset" your biometrics like a password.
2. Biometrics aren't hashable. The end result is they're less secure than other forms of authentication. (If you don't understand what this means, you're not qualified to have an opinion on this matter.)
3. You can't control what happens to your biometrics once they're in the hands of a 3rd party.

Please re-Toot.