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The Changelog

The Changelog
Censorship Is Complicated: What Internet History Says about Meta/Facebook In light of this week’s announcement by Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc), I have been...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
In light of this week’s announcement by Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc), I have been pondering this question: Why am I, a person that has long been a staunch advocate of free speech and encryption, leery of sites that talk about being free speech-oriented? And, more to...
The Changelog
Review of Reputable, Functional, and Secure Email Service I last reviewed email services in 2019. That review focused a lot of attention on privacy. At the...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
I last reviewed email services in 2019. That review focused a lot of attention on privacy. At the time, I selected mailbox.org as my provider, and have been using them for these 5 years since. However, both their service and their support have gone significantly downhill since,...
The Changelog
Photographic comparison: Is the Kobo Libra Colour display worse than the Kobo Libra 2? I’ve been using E Ink-based ereaders for quite a number of years now. I’ve had my Kobo Libra 2 for a...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
I’ve been using E Ink-based ereaders for quite a number of years now. I’ve had my Kobo Libra 2 for a few years, and was looking forward to the Kobo Libra Colour — the first color E Ink display in a mainstream ereader line. I found the display to be a mixed bag; contrast seemed …...
The Changelog
Facebook is Censoring Stories about Climate Change and Illegal Raid in Marion, Kansas It is, sadly, not entirely surprising that Facebook is censoring articles critical of Meta. The...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
It is, sadly, not entirely surprising that Facebook is censoring articles critical of Meta. The Kansas Reflector published an artical about Meta censoring environmental articles about climate change — deeming them “too controversial”. Facebook then censored the article about...
The Changelog
The xz Issue Isn’t About Open Source You’ve probably heard of the recent backdoor in xz. There have been a lot of takes on this, most of...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
You’ve probably heard of the recent backdoor in xz. There have been a lot of takes on this, most of them boiling down to some version of: The problem here is with Open Source Software. I want to say not only is that view so myopic that it pushes towards the incorrect, but also it...
The Changelog
Live Migrating from Raspberry Pi OS bullseye to Debian bookworm I’ve been getting annoyed with Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) for years now. It’s a fork of Debian, but...
a year ago
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a year ago
I’ve been getting annoyed with Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) for years now. It’s a fork of Debian, but manages to omit some of the most useful things. So I’ve decided to migrate all of my Pis to run pure Debian. These are my reasons: Raspberry Pi OS has, for years now, specified...
The Changelog
Consider Security First I write this in the context of my decision to ditch Raspberry Pi OS and move everything I possibly...
a year ago
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a year ago
I write this in the context of my decision to ditch Raspberry Pi OS and move everything I possibly can, including my Raspberry Pi devices, to Debian. I will write about that later. But for now, I wanted to comment on something I think is often overlooked and misunderstood by...
The Changelog
The Grumpy Cricket (And Other Enormous Creatures) This Christmas, one of my gifts to my kids was a text adventure (interactive fiction) game for them....
a year ago
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a year ago
This Christmas, one of my gifts to my kids was a text adventure (interactive fiction) game for them. Now that they’ve enjoyed it, I’m releasing it under the GPL v3. As interactive fiction, it’s like an e-book, but the reader is also the player, guiding the exploration of the...
The Changelog
It’s More Important To Recognize What Direction People Are Moving Than Where They Are I recently read a post on social media that went something like this (paraphrased): “If you buy an...
a year ago
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a year ago
I recently read a post on social media that went something like this (paraphrased): “If you buy an EV, you’re part of the problem. You’re advancing car culture and are actively hurting the planet. The only ethical thing to do is ditch your cars and put all your effort into...
The Changelog
How Gapped is Your Air? Sometimes we want better-than-firewall security for things. For instance: An industrial control...
a year ago
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a year ago
Sometimes we want better-than-firewall security for things. For instance: An industrial control system for a municipal water-treatment plant should never have data come in or out Or, a variant of the industrial control system: it should only permit telemetry and monitoring data...
The Changelog
A Maze of Twisty Little Pixels, All Tiny Two years ago, I wrote Managing an External Display on Linux Shouldn’t Be This Hard. Happily, since...
a year ago
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a year ago
Two years ago, I wrote Managing an External Display on Linux Shouldn’t Be This Hard. Happily, since I wrote that post, most of those issues have been resolved. But then you throw HiDPI into the mix and it all goes wonky. If you’re running X11, basically the story is that you can...
The Changelog
For the First Time In Years, I’m Excited By My Computer Purchase Some decades back, when I’d buy a new PC, it would unlock new capabilities. Maybe AGP video, or a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Some decades back, when I’d buy a new PC, it would unlock new capabilities. Maybe AGP video, or a PCMCIA slot, or, heck, sound. Nowadays, mostly new hardware means things get a bit faster or less crashy, or I have some more space for files. It’s good and useful, but sorta… meh....
The Changelog
Try the Last Internet Kermit Server $ grep kermit /etc/services kermit 1649/tcp What is this mysterious protocol? Who uses it and what...
a year ago
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a year ago
$ grep kermit /etc/services kermit 1649/tcp What is this mysterious protocol? Who uses it and what is its story? This story is a winding one, beginning in 1981. Kermit is, to the best of my knowledge, the oldest actively-maintained software package with an original developer...
The Changelog
Backing Up and Archiving to Removable Media: dar vs. git-annex This is the fourth in a series about archiving to removable media (optical discs such as BD-Rs and...
a year ago
12
a year ago
This is the fourth in a series about archiving to removable media (optical discs such as BD-Rs and DVD+Rs or portable hard drives). Here are the first three parts: In part 1, I laid out my goals for the project, and considered a number of tools before determining dar and...
The Changelog
Using dar for Data Archiving This is the third post in a series about data archiving to removable media (optical discs and hard...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is the third post in a series about data archiving to removable media (optical discs and hard drives). In the first, I explained the difference between backing up and archiving, established goals for the project, and said I’d evaluate git-annex and dar. The second post...
The Changelog
Using git-annex for Data Archiving In my recent post about data archiving to removable media, I laid out the difference between backing...
a year ago
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a year ago
In my recent post about data archiving to removable media, I laid out the difference between backing up and archiving, and also said I’d evaluate git-annex and dar. This post evaluates git-annex. The next will look at dar, and then I’ll make a comparison post. What is git-annex?...
The Changelog
Recommendations for Tools for Backing Up and Archiving to Removable Media I have several TB worth of family photos, videos, and other data. This needs to be backed up — and...
a year ago
11
a year ago
I have several TB worth of family photos, videos, and other data. This needs to be backed up — and archived. Backups and archives are often thought of as similar. And indeed, they may be done with the same tools at the same time. But the goals differ somewhat: Backups are...
The Changelog
Martha the Pilot Martha, now 5, can’t remember a time when she didn’t fly periodically. She’s come along in our...
a year ago
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a year ago
Martha, now 5, can’t remember a time when she didn’t fly periodically. She’s come along in our airplane in short flights to a nearby restaurant and long ones to Michigan and South Dakota. All this time, she’s been riding in the back seat next to Laura. Martha has been talking...
The Changelog
Easily Accessing All Your Stuff with a Zero-Trust Mesh VPN Probably everyone is familiar with a regular VPN. The traditional use case is to connect to a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Probably everyone is familiar with a regular VPN. The traditional use case is to connect to a corporate or home network from a remote location, and access services as if you were there. But these days, the notion of “corporate network” and “home network” are less based around...
The Changelog
Using Yggdrasil As an Automatic Mesh Fabric to Connect All Your Docker Containers, VMs, and Servers Update 2023-04: The version of this page on my public website has some important updates, including...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Update 2023-04: The version of this page on my public website has some important updates, including how to use broadcast detection in Docker, Yggdrasil zero-config for ephemeral containers, and more. See it for the most current information. Sometimes you might want to run Docker...
The Changelog
Music Playing: Both Whole-House and Mobile It’s been nearly 8 years since I last made choices about music playing. At the time, I picked...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
It’s been nearly 8 years since I last made choices about music playing. At the time, I picked Logitech Media Server (LMS, aka Slimserver and Squeezebox server) for whole-house audio and Ampache with the DSub Android app. It’s time to revisit that approach. Here are the things I’m...
The Changelog
Building an Asynchronous, Internet-Optional Instant Messaging System I loaded up this title with buzzwords. The basic idea is that IM systems shouldn’t have to only use...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I loaded up this title with buzzwords. The basic idea is that IM systems shouldn’t have to only use the Internet. Why not let them be carried across LoRa radios, USB sticks, local Wifi networks, and yes, the Internet? I’ll first discuss how, and then why. How do set it up I’ve...
The Changelog
Flying Joy Wisdom from my 5-year-old: When flying in a small plane, it is important to give your dolls a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Wisdom from my 5-year-old: When flying in a small plane, it is important to give your dolls a headset and let them see out the window, too! Moments like this make me smile at being a pilot dad. A week ago, I also got to give 8 children and one adult their first ever ride …...
The Changelog
Dead USB Drives Are Fine: Building a Reliable Sneakernet “OK,” you’re probably thinking. “John, you talk a lot about things like Gopher and personal radios,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
“OK,” you’re probably thinking. “John, you talk a lot about things like Gopher and personal radios, and now you want to talk about building a reliable network out of… USB drives?” Well, yes. In fact, I’ve already done it. What is sneakernet? Normally, “sneakernet” is a sort of...
The Changelog
The PC & Internet Revolution in Rural America Inspired by several others (such as Alex Schroeder’s post and Szczeżuja’s prompt), as well as a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Inspired by several others (such as Alex Schroeder’s post and Szczeżuja’s prompt), as well as a desire to get this down for my kids, I figure it’s time to write a bit about living through the PC and Internet revolution where I did: outside a tiny town in rural Kansas. And, as...
The Changelog
The Joy of Easy Personal Radio: FRS, GMRS, and Motorola DLR/DTR Most of us carry cell phones with us almost everywhere we go. So much so that we often forget not...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Most of us carry cell phones with us almost everywhere we go. So much so that we often forget not just the usefulness, but even the joy, of having our own radios. For instance: When traveling to national parks or other wilderness areas, family and friends can keep in touch even...
The Changelog
I Finally Found a Solid Debian Tablet: The Surface Go 2 I have been looking for a good tablet for Debian for… well, years. I want thin, light, portable,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I have been looking for a good tablet for Debian for… well, years. I want thin, light, portable, excellent battery life, and a servicable keyboard. For a while, I tried a Lenovo Chromebook Duet. It meets the hardware requirements, well sort of. The problem is with performance and...
The Changelog
Lessons of Social Media from BBSs In the recent article The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong, I was somewhat surprised to see...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
In the recent article The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong, I was somewhat surprised to see the argument that BBSs are a part of the Internet origin story that is often omitted. Surprised because I was there for BBSs, and even ran one, and didn’t really consider them part...
The Changelog
Pipe Issue Likely a Kernel Bug Saturday, I wrote in Pipes, deadlocks, and strace annoyingly fixing them about an issue where a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Saturday, I wrote in Pipes, deadlocks, and strace annoyingly fixing them about an issue where a certain pipeline seems to have a deadlock. I described tracing it into kernel code. Indeed, it appears to be kernel bug 212295, which has had a patch for over a year that has never...
The Changelog
Pipes, deadlocks, and strace annoyingly fixing them This is a complex tale I will attempt to make simple(ish). I’ve (re)learned more than I cared to...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This is a complex tale I will attempt to make simple(ish). I’ve (re)learned more than I cared to about the details of pipes, signals, and certain system calls – and the solution is still elusive. For some time now, I have been using NNCP to back up my files. These backups are...
The Changelog
Really Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS Documentary Like many young programmers of my age, before I could use the Internet, there were BBSs. I...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Like many young programmers of my age, before I could use the Internet, there were BBSs. I eventually ran one, though in my small town there were few callers. Some time back, I downloaded a copy of Jason Scott’s BBS Documentary. You might know Jason Scott from textfiles.com and...
The Changelog
Visiting Germany: Reflections on Schloss Charlottenburg 200 years ago, my ancestors migrated from Prussia to Ukraine. They left for many reasons, many of...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
200 years ago, my ancestors migrated from Prussia to Ukraine. They left for many reasons, many of which boiled down to their strong pacifism in the midst of a highly militarized country. Last week, my wife, the boys, and I walked through the favorite palace of Friedrich Wilhelm...
The Changelog
Fast, Ordered Unixy Queues over NNCP and Syncthing with Filespooler It seems that lately I’ve written several shell implementations of a simple queue that enforces...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
It seems that lately I’ve written several shell implementations of a simple queue that enforces ordered execution of jobs that may arrive out of order. After writing this for the nth time in bash, I decided it was time to do it properly. But first, a word on the why of it all....
The Changelog
Tools for Communicating Offline and in Difficult Circumstances Note: this post is also available on my website, where it will be updated periodically. When things...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Note: this post is also available on my website, where it will be updated periodically. When things are difficult – maybe there’s been a disaster, or an invasion (this page is being written in 2022 just after Russia invaded Ukraine), or maybe you’re just backpacking off the grid...
The Changelog
KDE: A Nice Tiling Envieonment and a Surprisingly Awesome DE I recently wrote that managing an external display on Linux shouldn’t be this hard. I went down a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I recently wrote that managing an external display on Linux shouldn’t be this hard. I went down a path of trying out some different options before finally landing at an unexpected place: KDE. I say “unexpected” because I find tiling window managers are just about a necessity....
The Changelog
Make the Internet Yours Again With an Instant Mesh Network I’m going to lead with the technical punch line, and then explain it: Yggdrasil Network is an...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’m going to lead with the technical punch line, and then explain it: Yggdrasil Network is an opportunistic mesh that can be deployed privately or as part of a global-scale network. Each node gets a stable IPv6 address (or even an entire /64) that is derived from its public key...
The Changelog
Managing an External Display on Linux Shouldn’t Be This Hard I first started using Linux and FreeBSD on laptops in the late 1990s. Back then, there were all...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I first started using Linux and FreeBSD on laptops in the late 1990s. Back then, there were all sorts of hassles and problems, from hangs on suspend to pure failure to boot. I still worry a bit about suspend on unknown hardware, but by and large, the picture of Linux on laptops...
The Changelog
Facebook’s Blocking Decisions Are Deliberate – Including Their Censorship of Mastodon In the aftermath of my report of Facebook censoring mentions of the open-source social network...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
In the aftermath of my report of Facebook censoring mentions of the open-source social network Mastodon, there was a lot of conversation about whether or not this was deliberate. That conversation seemed to focus on whether a human speficially added joinmastodon.org to some sort...
The Changelog
Facebook Is Censoring People For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon Update: Facebook has reversed itself over this censorship, but I maintain that whether the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Update: Facebook has reversed itself over this censorship, but I maintain that whether the censorship was algorithmic or human, it was intentional either way. Details in my new post. Last November, I made a brief post to Facebook about Mastodon. Mastodon is an open-source and...
The Changelog
Excellent Experience with Debian Bullseye I’ve appreciated the bullseye upgrade, like most Debian upgrades. I’m not quite sure how, since I...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’ve appreciated the bullseye upgrade, like most Debian upgrades. I’m not quite sure how, since I was already running a backports kernel, but somehow the entire system is snappier. Maybe newer X or something? I’m really pleased with it. Hardware integration is even nicer now,...
The Changelog
Distributed, Asynchronous Git Syncing with NNCP I have a problem. I have a directory that I use with org-mode and org-roam. I want it to be synced...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I have a problem. I have a directory that I use with org-mode and org-roam. I want it to be synced across multiple machines. I also want to keep the history with git. And, I want to use end-to-end encryption (no storing a plain git repo on a remote server), have a serverless...
The Changelog
Roundup of Unique Data/Storage Hosting Options Recently I have been taking another look at the services at rsync.net and it got me thinking: what...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Recently I have been taking another look at the services at rsync.net and it got me thinking: what would I do with a lot of storage? What might I want to run with it, if it were fairly cheap? Backups are an obvious place to start. Borgbackup makes a pretty compelling option: very...
The Changelog
Recovering Our Lost Free Will Online: Tools and Techniques That Are Available Now Note: This post is also available on my webiste, where it will be periodically updated. As I’ve been...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Note: This post is also available on my webiste, where it will be periodically updated. As I’ve been thinking and writing about privacy and decentralization lately, I had a conversation with a colleague this week, and he commented about how loss of privacy is related to loss of...
The Changelog
A Simple, Delay-Tolerant, Offline-Capable Mesh Network with Syncthing (+ optional NNCP) A little while back, I spent a week in a remote area. It had no Internet and no cell phone coverage....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A little while back, I spent a week in a remote area. It had no Internet and no cell phone coverage. Sometimes, I would drive in to town where there was a signal to get messages, upload photos, and so forth. I had to take several devices with me: my phone, my wife’s, maybe a …...
The Changelog
The Hidden Drawbacks of P2P (And a Defense of Signal) Not long ago, I posted a roundup of secure messengers with off-the-grid capabilities. Some...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Not long ago, I posted a roundup of secure messengers with off-the-grid capabilities. Some conversation followed, which led me to consider some of the problems with P2P protocols. P2P and Privacy Brave adopting IPFS has driven a lot of buzz lately. IPFS is essentially a...
The Changelog
Roundup of Secure Messengers with Off-The-Grid Capabilities (Distributed/Mesh Messengers) Amid all the conversation about Signal, and the debate over decentralization, one thing has often...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Amid all the conversation about Signal, and the debate over decentralization, one thing has often not been raised: all of these things require an Internet connection. “Of course,” you might say. “Internet is everywhere these days.” Well, not so much, and it turns out there are...
The Changelog
Remote Directory Tree Comparison, Optionally Asynchronous and Airgapped Note: this is another article in my series on asynchronous communication in Linux with UUCP and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Note: this is another article in my series on asynchronous communication in Linux with UUCP and NNCP. In the previous installment on store-and-forward backups, I mentioned how easy it is to do with ZFS, and some of the tools that can be used to do it without ZFS. A lot of those...
The Changelog
The Good, Bad, and Scary of the Banning of Donald Trump, and How Decentralization Makes It All... It is undeniable that banning Donald Trump from Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites is a benefit...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
It is undeniable that banning Donald Trump from Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites is a benefit for the moment. It may well save lives, perhaps lots of lives. But it raises quite a few troubling issues. First, as EFF points out, these platforms have privileged speakers with...
The Changelog
This Is How Tyrants Go: Alone I remember reading an essay a month or so ago — sadly I forget where — talking about how things end...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I remember reading an essay a month or so ago — sadly I forget where — talking about how things end for tyrants. If I were to sum it up, it would be with the word “alone.” Their power fading, they find that they had few true friends or believers; just others that were greedy …...
The Changelog
More Topics on Store-And-Forward (Possibly Airgapped) ZFS and Non-ZFS Backups with NNCP Note: this is another article in my series on asynchronous communication in Linux with UUCP and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Note: this is another article in my series on asynchronous communication in Linux with UUCP and NNCP. In my previous post, I introduced a way to use ZFS backups over NNCP. In this post, I’ll expand on that and also explore non-ZFS backups. Use of nncp-file instead of nncp-exec...
The Changelog
Airgapped / Asynchronous Backups with ZFS over NNCP In my previous articles in the series on asynchronous communication with the modern NNCP tool, I...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
In my previous articles in the series on asynchronous communication with the modern NNCP tool, I talked about its use for asynchronous, potentially airgapped, backups. The first article, How & Why To Use Airgapped Backups laid out the foundations for this. Now let’s dig into the...
The Changelog
See The World Through the Eyes of a Child, and You Are Free Because we see things so often, we see them less and less. Those who live in thanksgiving daily,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Because we see things so often, we see them less and less. Those who live in thanksgiving daily, however, have a way of opening their eyes and seeing the wonders and beauties of this world as though seeing them for the first time. – Joseph Wirthlin Today is about dirt. I had to...
The Changelog
Asynchronous Email: Exim over NNCP (or UUCP) Following up to yesterday’s article about how NNCP rehabilitates asynchronous communication with...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Following up to yesterday’s article about how NNCP rehabilitates asynchronous communication with modern encryption and onion routing, here is the first of my posts showing how to put it into action. Email is a natural fit for async; in fact, much of early email was carried by...
The Changelog
When You Think You’re At the End, You’re At the Beginning Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. –...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. – Fred Rogers This is sunrise over Kansas. Or maybe sunset. I’m not going to tell you this time, because it doesn’t matter all that much. I love that it (if you don’t over-analyze it)...
The Changelog
Rehabilitating Asynchronous Communication with NNCP: A Cross Between Tor, ssh, and UUCP Have you ever been traveling, shot a ton of photos and videos, but were annoyed to find it was...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Have you ever been traveling, shot a ton of photos and videos, but were annoyed to find it was saturating the terrible wifi you had access to? Maybe you’d wish the upload to pause until you get somewhere else, but then pausing syncing on your Nextcloud/Syncthing/Dropbox would...
The Changelog
So Many Caring People In This World When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that...
The Changelog
Joyful is the Dark “Joyful is the dark   coolness of the tomb, waiting for the wonder   of the morning. Never was that...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
“Joyful is the dark   coolness of the tomb, waiting for the wonder   of the morning. Never was that midnight   touched by dread and gloom; darkness was the cradle   of the dawning.” – Brian Wren Most of us are not personally experiencing symptoms of a pandemic virus, but with all...
The Changelog
O, Sunlight! “O, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.” – Roman Payne There is much beauty in...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
“O, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.” – Roman Payne There is much beauty in this world, much hope, much life. All we need to do is pause, breathe, and take a moment to see it. It might be as simple as the gift of sunlight. I hope you all have … Continue...
The Changelog
How & Why To Use Airgapped Backups A good backup strategy needs to consider various threats to the integrity of data. For instance:...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A good backup strategy needs to consider various threats to the integrity of data. For instance: Building catches fire Accidental deletion Equipment failure Security incident / malware / compromise It’s that last one that is of particular interest today. A lot of backup...