activistPnk

Two Cloudflare-free tor-reachable articles:

① Australia gives millions of workers 'right to disconnect'
② Australia gives workers right to ignore bosses’ after-hours calls, emails

Those links are also popup-free (at least in my config). But note that ② is a little more junked up and has some video (but my image and autoplay blocking config seems to work).

The wording of the new law sounds flimsy.. leaves it to employers to define whether an interruption is “reasonable”. But nonetheless it’s a step in the right direction.

I just discovered it’s possible to edit the last msg that was sent over XMPP.

Dino

Has the capability. But it does not give you a record of past versions. It would be useful if Dino would still show you your past versions because you cannot know if the other party saw the uncorrected version. So you should have a record of those erroneous payloads.

Profanity

Has the capability. But it cannot correct a msg that you composed in another client. That may be a protocol limitation. Maybe they don’t want the complexity of having edited versions signed by a different key.

Strangely, Profanity only updates the display if an inbound correction (e.g. from Dino) is minor. Dramatic edits in Dino seem to be ignored by Profanity. Also strange that when Profanity accepts an inbound update from Dino, the existing msg text is updated. One might expect text in a TUI to not be altered in place. It’s an IRC-like interface.

Snikket

Does not have the capability of making corrections. But it fully accepts inbound alterations no matter how dramatic the change is.

Had a quick look at Poezio and Libervia while I’ve been using Profanity for a couple years now.

Libervia

• OMEMO is integrated. OMEMO is important enough that it should be a highlighted feature when looking at the pkg description (apt show libervia-backend) not something we dig for.
• It tries to be everything, like having games. That broad focus is a bit worrying because so many comms apps screw up at just exchanging e2ee messages that you really don’t want other things competing for maintenance effort. But OTOH it could be quite useful that the backend can interface with a mail client like mutt. And has an activitypub gateway which could have some interesting obscure uses.
• Docs are in a quite bad state. Man page references broken URLs and the websites that are up point to other broken links. The page with content is https://goffi.org/ and it’s got some bizarre problem where it tries to refresh the screen every few seconds. Really hard to read when it keeps refreshing. /usr/share/docs/libervia-* is also useless. References to broken URLs there too as well as mentions of non-existent files. Docs say to run the daemon you need to execute eval [tic]dbus-launch --sh-syntax[tic], which is baffling as it does not actually refer to the libervia backend. There must be more to it than that.
• Man page makes no mention of a proxy option.
• It’s a good design to have a backend and different frontends that can connect to it, generally, but the lack of proxy option complicates that. If the backend has to run on torsocks, will the frontends be able to connect to it locally?

Poezio

• Well packaged and documented. /usr/share/docs includes an HTML tree of well presented docs. Really seems well organised.
• Bit alarming and unconventional that when you launch it that it automatically connects to servers even if you never supply a server to connect to. Security feels like an after-thought. I had to run it in a firejail sandbox first just to make sure it generated the config file that I could modify before putting it to use. Docs say the connection it tries to make is “anonymous”, but they use that term overly loosely. There is no mention of Tor. I want to be in control of what connections are made and it’s a bit off that a sandbox is needed to force it to run offline.
• There is no proxy config option. So unless it looks at undocumented env vars, it should be run on Torsocks.
• OMEMO is not built-in. There is a separate OMEMO plugin out in the wild, not packaged on Debian. That’s not ideal for Debian users because we have to wonder what quality standards did the plugin not satisfy, and the fact that upgrades can break part of the pkg when only part of the tool chain is in the official repos.

So I think these two apps need to evolve more. Profanity has issues but it seems I’m better off trying to struggle through those.

PGP email in the 1990s was so much more reliable and usable. It’s bizarre how in 2024 e2ee comms have become such a shit show. Most people are using tech giants and not encrypting, which is exactly what the tech giants want. I will not, so I’m out of reach to most people. I won’t touch Signal either because that’s garbage. Maybe Delta chat is worth a look since it claims to do PGP over email in a way that normies can deal with.

“Profanity” is an XMPP app. (For those who got the wrong idea about the title)

What I use:

• Debian with Profanity (preferred for the proper keyboard and TUI)
• Android with Snikket

What my low-tech comrades use:

• iOS with Snikket

It’s a bit of a disaster. One iOS-Snikket user gets my msgs but never a notification. Another iOS-Snikket user is plagued with that error msg (some bogus msg about OMEMO being unsupported). My comrades are at the edge of sanity since I’m the one who imposed xmpp+omemo on them, and they have little tolerance for all the problems.

I’m not sure what to try next. I would hate to replace Profanity because it’s the only decent text based option with official debian support. Would it help if the iOS users switch from Snikket to Monocles?

1. The right to be unplugged includes the right to be free from banks as banks increasingly force customers online. There is also a #WarOnCash underway. So even if you make the ethically absent minded decision to pay for your food electronically, the least you can do is pay the tip in cash. (the war on cash is war on privacy)
2. Electronic tips are also subject to siphoning off by banks. When you tip by card, you also tip Visa, Mastercard, or whatever scumbag credit network is in play because their fee is a percentage of the whole transaction. The electronic transaction may be free to you but it’s not free to the business. I don’t know if the restaurant pays the whole fee and transfers 100% of the tip to the server, or if the server shares the hit. But if this is not McDonalds but some small local business, it’s better to give the full amount to the business anyway.
3. Data protection: when you tip electronically, that creates a record not just attached to you but to the server. If you respect /their/ privacy by way of data minimization, you tip in cash.
4. Environmental protection: banks are lousy for the environment. (ref: Banking on Climate Chaos, bank blacklist and Wired article)
5. Terminal tipping is a swindle (esp. in Europe). Tipping is not only optional in the most pure meaning of the word (not expected), but tipping amounts are lower in Europe meant purely to indicate service quality. Even a tip of €1 is a complement. But terminals suggest American proportions (e.g. 20%). It’s a scam. I think I’ve only seen this in tourist traps. The ownership is happy to make their staff happy by pushing a tip request in a way that deceives the public into thinking it’s out of their hands.. that the technology is asking for the tip. This fucked up scam is training restaurant patrons to overtip w.r.t. the culture (a culture that the locals don’t want to drift into Americanism). In the US it’s not exactly a swindle, but you have less control over the amount nonetheless. Sure most people like the math-free convenience but IMO that does not justify it. And certainly the ~15—25% amounts are excessive when there was no table service.
6. Sometimes servers pool their tips to then tip a portion to the kitchen staff who did well enough to make the servers look good. Cash tips make that go smoothly. I was once in a rare situation where I needed to pay by card and I also wanted cash back. The server explained to me they do not give cash back because of that tip pooling that they do, saying that sometimes they do not get enough cash tips to properly treat the kitchen staff.

I’ve been boycotting PayPal for at least a decade, so I am somewhat out of touch with how they operate. Out of the blue, I received a call at a phone number paypal would not know I had. A bot said:

“This is Paypal calling to confirm the purchase of an iPhone. Press 1 to confirm this order or 2 to cancel” (paraphrasing)

Is that normal? Of course what I would like to know is whether my number was entered by someone as a typo, or whether this signals a malicious act. Or whether the whole call was fabricated and Paypal does not do this. And if it’s a malicious act, am I the victim, or was my phone number randomly entered with someone else as the victim?

If #paypal were on the ball, there would be 3 choices (confirm, cancel [customer changes their mind], or transaction unexpected [i.e. fraud]).

#askFedi

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7480359

There are now two BifL communities in the free decentralized world:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Perhaps each wants to mention the other in the sidebar?

There are now two BifL communities in the free decentralized world:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Perhaps each wants to mention the other in the sidebar?

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/3235018

A new bike has been recently introduced which is designed with the goals of products in the 1960s-- rugged, simple, built to last. Nothing is flimsy on this bike. Even the fenders and sprockets are thick. The design focus was two main goals: robustness and simplicity so owners can fix it themselves. The gears are internal, which seems to reflect ruggedness being prioritized over self-repairability. Derailers are inherently fragile and cassettes wear down relatively quickly and also would impose a thin chain. The internal gears enable the chain to be thick and wide.

The website is in French but I machine-translated the “about” section:

A Bruxellois, magnet to travel by bicycle in town, activist in several environmental associations and working in the design and manufacture of cycles since 2014, established the SUGG srl in 2021 to provide simple, solid, practical, fast, fun, designed and assembled bicycles in Brussels with high quality components often produced in Europe.

The SUGG bikes are aimed at young people from 9 to 99 years of age who wish to move by bike without assistance and prefer to exploit the powerful resources often ignored whose nature has given them. Indeed, with no electric assistance, SUGG bikes are more economical, light, ecological, simple, reliable, durable and fun. At SUGG, the efficiency and ascent qualities of the bike are optimized by the choice of geometry and components. It's fun!

A few objectives of SUGG: to contribute to the improvement of life in our cities thanks to less air and noise pollution, calm and friendly streets, intelligent and respectful traffic, efficient, beautiful and funny movements; to participate in the fight against unemployment in our regions, on the one hand by repatriating the design and assembly in us and on the other hand by procuring the parts with manufacturers not too far away from us

I don’t have one myself but if I wanted a bomb-proof bike that would last my whole life, this is probably what I would get.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/4160051

There are several DiY communities in the fedi but if we ignore the big centralized instances, there is:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Perhaps each would consider mentioning the other sister community in the sidebar?

A new bike has been recently introduced which is designed with the goals of products in the 1960s-- rugged, simple, built to last. Nothing is flimsy on this bike. Even the fenders and sprockets are thick. The design focus was two main goals: robustness and simplicity so owners can fix it themselves. The gears are internal, which seems to reflect ruggedness being prioritized over self-repairability. Derailers are inherently fragile and cassettes wear down relatively quickly and also would impose a thin chain. The internal gears enable the chain to be thick and wide.

The website is in French but I machine-translated the “about” section:

A Bruxellois, magnet to travel by bicycle in town, activist in several environmental associations and working in the design and manufacture of cycles since 2014, established the SUGG srl in 2021 to provide simple, solid, practical, fast, fun, designed and assembled bicycles in Brussels with high quality components often produced in Europe.

The SUGG bikes are aimed at young people from 9 to 99 years of age who wish to move by bike without assistance and prefer to exploit the powerful resources often ignored whose nature has given them. Indeed, with no electric assistance, SUGG bikes are more economical, light, ecological, simple, reliable, durable and fun. At SUGG, the efficiency and ascent qualities of the bike are optimized by the choice of geometry and components. It's fun!

A few objectives of SUGG: to contribute to the improvement of life in our cities thanks to less air and noise pollution, calm and friendly streets, intelligent and respectful traffic, efficient, beautiful and funny movements; to participate in the fight against unemployment in our regions, on the one hand by repatriating the design and assembly in us and on the other hand by procuring the parts with manufacturers not too far away from us

I don’t have one myself but if I wanted a bomb-proof bike that would last my whole life, this is probably what I would get.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/2475061

I went to a cafe in Amsterdam which turned out to not only be cashless, but their payment processor was “Zettle”. Zettle is owned by #PayPal (who shares customer data with over 600 corporations).

So my question is, apart from the expected privacy consequence of your bank & the recipient’s bank recording your transaction, what does Paypal walk away with? Paypal is a data-abusing US-based company. But OTOH the shop is in a #GDPR region. Does the GDPR give any protection in this case?

IIUC, customers consent by default to their data being processed by the merchant & whoever the merchant hires (Paypal), and from there whoever paypal shares with & on down the endless chain. The only notable GDPR protection I can think of is that the data must remain in the EU. So the transaction data cannot be sent to Paypal’s servers in the USA -- correct?

BTW, I asked the owner why he trusts Zettle & also why he does not accept cash. He conceded right away that he didn’t like it either. He said he’s cashless for security and that when he looked at a number of electronic payment systems, Zettle was the cheapest. For me, “cheapest” is a red flag. It’s probably cheap because the data is probably being monetized.

Concrete question: if an American feeds a US-issued credit card into a #Zettle terminal to buy a creme-filled artery-hardening pastry in Amsterdam, is there anything to stop Paypal from doing the processing on the US-side of the transaction before selling that info to a US health insurance company?