Day 15 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

No, I am not writing an analysis on humans and trust (although that would be interesting). Rather, I am talking about the software we trust. I am not a security professional by any means, but I am able to learn more! These are some thoughts I have on the subject.

Day 14 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

I do not know why, but I have recently stumbled across many personal wikis/digital gardens. I have known about the concept (first learned it from Nikita Voloboev's), and always wanted to have one, but never went through with it. I fairly recently started this blog, too, and I felt the need for a “notes” section. The wiki is the perfect solution.

Day 13 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

I am a heavy user of MacOS and iOS (I have no shame in admitting my love for the Apple ecosystem). Although I frequently fanboy about Apple's hardware and software, for a long time I always used another browser. No matter how many times I “browser-hopped,” I never seriously considered Safari. Oh boy was that a huge mistake.

Day 12 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

A few days ago the power went completely out for a while. Plus, it was not just a small area. It was unexpected (duh), and lasted for a little while. Plus, the outage was not confined to a few blocks, a large area got knocked out

Day 11 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

Recently, I have been posting less frequently than usual and thought I was behind on my #100DaysToOffload participation. Before this post, I was actually keeping an average of 1 post every 3 days, which was under the approximate 3.5 days. Surprisingly (at least to me), I had maintained a steady pace. This post is coming out a day later than I had hoped, but that delay gave me more to write about, so maybe it was for the best. Now, I am at 1 post every 3.4 days, so still under but definitely cutting it close.

Day 10 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

I somewhat-recently setup a Matrix, Element, and Jitsi server to use with a friend of mine. It's awesome having this self-hosted, federated, and E2E-encrypted chat. Matrix is not just about direct messaging one or two people, though. Matrix also has rooms, their version of Discord servers. Furthermore, you can use it as an IRC client/bouncer. So far, I have had excellent experiences.

Day 9 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

This will be a shorter post than usual, but no rules, remember? Anyways, I have recently set up semiephemeral by Micah Lee to selectively delete my own tweets. This is an awesome product, and something I have been waiting for.

Day 8 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

This will be a more rant-y post than usual. Oh well, there are no rules in #100DaysToOffload anyways. I recently updated to the iOS 14 beta (see some thoughts here) which had a huge change to the home screen and app organization. There is now an “App Library” with all your apps pre-sorted into folders. I did not care for it to much, until I realized that meant you can remove apps from your homescreen, but still have it installed (Android users: I know you guys have had this for...ever? Apple has finally caught up!). I care a lot about how my phone is organized, and this change was a blessing. While I went to remove apps, I came across my “Communication” folder, which in addition to calling (Phone, Linphone, Jitsi Meet, FaceTime, etc.) apps, contained all my “messaging” apps. I stopped for a bit and thought how ridiculous it is with all these apps.

Day 7 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

I am an iOS user, and today Apple released the public betas for iOS. The developer betas have been out for a bit, but I do not posses a developer account. Even if I did, those are developer betas for a reason. I watched WWDC live this year, and I got super excited for iOS 14, and I now can finally try it out and use it. It is almost as good as I imagined.

Day 6 in #100DaysToOffload

Introduction

Recently, Karan Goel posted a thread about a PGP-alternative for file encryption (that was not Veracrypt which is better suited for drives). He linked an article on why PGP should be phased out (and it should by the way). While we discussed file encryption in that thread, the article also mentioned signify, an awesome alternative to PGP signing.