Late Night Blog

Here to share things I think about late at night.

See what’s changing in Firefox: Better insights, same privacy

“Better insights, same privacy” “Innovation and privacy go hand in hand here at Mozilla”

  • Beyond the built in Google Analytics
  • Beyond the on by default telemetry
  • Beyond the ads
  • Beyond Pocket collecting your browsing history
  • Beyond upcoming Fakespot collecting your location
  • Beyond laying off their developers while giving millions to fringe political activists

Now we can have our searches tracked too.

Bite the bullet. Install LibreWolf.

#firefox #librewolf #privacy


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The Socials NostrFedi

This is an addendum to my previous post philosophy of my alt.

Pseudonymous discussions have played a significant role in shaping the society we live in today. In earlier times, anonymous pamphlets, coffee shops, and taverns were bustling hubs of intellectual discourse, where people discussed everything under the sun. These conversations led massive societal changes and the overthrowing of many kings.

All manor of fun hyjinks

Fortunately there aren't kings to overthrow at the moment. However pseudonymous speech continues to hold value in today's world. I recall all the large platforms banning individuals for expressing ideas that were later endorsed by the government (example: the lab leak theory).

There are increasing instances of harassment and doxing on both sides of the political spectrum. Strict laws concerning speech and expression are also being enacted across Europe as the world's tensions continue to rise.

Also the life expectancy of a Russian or Chinese journalist is not the highest.

I still believe psudononymous speech has value today. This does not mean one should be an ass and the worse should be shunned to their respective corners like Gab and Tanky Mastodon instances. But it's still important to be able to discuss all manor of things. That's yet another philosophy behind using my alt/pseudonym.


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Recently I posted Bread to cheer me up and it has got me thinking about pseudonyms in general. This one's new but all my life I've been on some forum or social media under some form of pseudonym.

Sometimes the platform went kaput and sometimes I just stopped using it because I got busy or bored. I can't say how long I will stick around here.

My reasoning is everything I post is partitioned off into my own nom de plume. While a criminal investigation would probably link me to my account, anybody with a search engine or even who gets my IP won't be able to find me from my account.

In reality I'm fairly uncontroversial. I may have re-posted a slightly edgy meme. I also said that people having a meltdown over bridges over on fedi are being overly dramatic. But that's about it.

Like excuse me? You're talking about calling a lawyer because somebody made an instance on a federated network. Yes it's copying your posts like literally everything else on fedi. If being on fedi isn't legal consent to federate then fedi itself is illegal. Get off of here and go talk to yourself on an unfederated instance you dufus.

Okay I was a little nicer than that when interacting with others. Funny tangent aside time to get back on topic.

In one way writing microblog posts and regular blog posts is just easier when you're under a pseudonym. I can talk about my feelings and share wacky articles with the confidence of psudonymity. Even talking in person with people you totally trust there's always a hint of ego or fear of judgment.

There is also the lack of repercussions to things I do or say. This is not to say I intend to be mean or hateful. I still want to bring value, or at least indifference, to those I communicate with online. Still I have a few ways in which there could be trouble.

Talking about feeling down is a good way to get a firearm possession/carry permit revoked or have current or future access to sensitive technological systems reconsidered. Likely not the mundane “Bread to cheer me up” but there are always outlier cases.

Or perhaps a future potential employer see a slightly edgy meme and is unhappy about it. Younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha will be the first to have an entirely online life. Who knows how it will turn out but I intend to avoid that.

Or perhaps future ideas change. If meta becomes the next gab to the fediverse could I end up on some eternal blocklist for supporting federation? Fedi citizens are sometimes overly dramatic like that. Refer to tangent above.

Precautionary as apposed to a specific need to hide my thoughts. But still peace of mind and insurance against a touch employer or friend with a search engine. I might be an anonymous troll demon according to Jordan Peterson. I might also be doing something that should be illegal according to Nikki Haily.

In reality? I'm just a dufus sharing feelings and half baked philosophies on the internet.


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The Socials NostrFedi

A personal post tonight.

I been in sort of a rut lately. Personal stuff. I would hesitate to call it depression, if I did it would only be the garden variety. Calling it anything more would be an insult to people suffering from the real deal.

If it was caused by things I could fix (or at least mitigate) then I would be doing something about them. In my experience distracting yourself from problems you can fix leads to more trouble down the line. But it's not unfortunately.

So as the title states I plan to make some bread tomorrow night. I already added chocolate chips and raisins to my shopping list and I plan to make probably three or four big loaves with different flavors.

Can't have too much bread in the freezer and multiple loaves decreases the work to bread ratio. Besides cooking is always more rewarding when you plan to drop some off with family or friends.

I'm not exactly sure there's a moral to this post. Aside from me getting thoughts off my chest as a pseudonymous internet user. If there is it would probably be to try plan something if you're in a rut. Especially if you don't have a specific reason or do but can't do much about it.

If you can make your situation better then just a distraction is probably not ideal but an accomplishment of some form from cleaning to a walk has always been good for my mind. Same goes for a post like this I guess.

Hope you're all doing well internet strangers.


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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

Listen for free

^ YouTube via Invidious

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man paints a picture of the use of debt to extract value from developing economies. It covers John Perkins's claimed involvement in the process and his thoughts on the morality of such.

It is important to note some of the claims in the book cannot be verified. The book however offers a unique perspective not talked about in the North West and for that is still worth a read.


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Started by by RKnight's defaults.

📨 Mail Client Webmail

📮 Mail Server Proton

📝 Notes LibreOffice

✅ To-Do Text Files

📷 iPhone Photo Shooting Android Camera App (Android)

🟦 Photo Management Android Gallery

📆 Calendar none

📁 Cloud File Storage Proton

📖 RSS Feeder

🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts Android Contacts

🌐 Browser Brave

💬 Chat Signal

🔖 Bookmarks Brave

📑 Read It Later Brave

📜 Word Processing LibreOffice

📈 Spreadsheets LibreOffice

📊 Presentations LibreOffice

🛒 Shopping Lists Text Files

🍴 Meal Planning none

💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance none (previously used Gnu Cash)

📰 News Feeder

🎵 Music VLC

🎤 Podcasts Feeder


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Just heard another person share the semi recent incognito lawsuit Google settled and I'm going to do some complaining.

In the event you somehow made it to the fediverse or nostr without knowing: an incognito window allows you to browse the internet without saving cookies or history after you close the tab. It also does not use existing cookies saved from previous sessions.

What your browser cannot do, however, is hack into a server or ISP to change how it operates. Anything outside of that like IP logging is unaffected and cookies are still provided to your browser even if they are discarded when the window is closed.

This is was indicated by both the incognito page and in addition to being a fairly simple concept. I get that not everybody is interested in tech but what I'm really worried to see is the fact that Google was liable to the tune of $5bn because people didn't know what they were using.

I half expect to see another lawsuit against Google demanding $5bn because people bought Chromebooks and can't run Windows software.


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Gen Z doesn't understand file systems – Futurism

I may be 2 ½ years late to comment on this #news article but I thought it was worth a share after reading it more recently. It's as the title says, apparently a large number of Gen Z doesn't have a good grasp on aspects of #tech including how file systems work.

You're reading this on Activity Pub so regardless of your age I take it you understand how a file system works. But I didn't post this so we could feel superior or laugh at zoomers. Okay maybe a little bit. 😂😂😂

Outside of laughing and smugness it is a sign #technology is getting better. I can't do a complex repair on my car. Older generations could because their cars would break down a lot and they had to fix them. My car can go tens of thousands of miles with nothing but an oil change or three.

With that the article can be viewed in a positive light. Not everybody has the time or capacity to dive deep into technology. If better technology makes the hard stuff easy and the easy stuff effortless then we have gained something as a society.

Still it is probably good to understand the basics. I can also imagine none of us want a future when an entire generation can't do anything beyond install an app like TikTok that's been approved by our duel technocratic overlords Apple and Google.

Even the basics like knowing how to install an Android app outside of Google Play* or editing privacy settings would be a good thing to know. And being on the fediverse I assume that we all want to see it and similar technology grow.

And if people don't know what a file system is I doubt they can wrap their heads around a decentralized protocol with relays and asymmetric encryption.

So know that you've heard my ramblings what are your thoughts on the matter?

  • I am going to refuse to call it side loading. It's not side loading when you install an app outside of the Microsoft Store or your Linux Distro's repos. On Apple sure, but Android's package manager is built to handle multiple stores or manually installed apps so I refuse to cede the idea that it's some secret high tech thing.

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The Socials NostrFedi

If you are looking for something to read or listen to then I would like to recommend the 1973 book Rendezvous with Rama by the late author Arthur C. Clarke. Set around 100 years in the future it encompasses the discover and exploration of what first appears to be an asteroid, which is later found to be much more.

While it may be considered cheating to book lovers, I listened to an abridged audio book which provided a very interesting two hour listen.

The audio book I listened to was uploaded to YouTube (not by me) here. Consider listening to it here with piped or here with invidious.

Outside of the above Rendezvous with Rama is also available in book, ebook, or unabridged audiobook form in a number of places.


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