Update: note1urv:6skyheem
Hope you all had a good week. One activity that I did was to publish my updates on pubstr, which includes a SOCKS5 proxy option and the generation of NIP-19 entities for events. Yes, it’s the script I mentioned in my previous update: https://github.com/straumer/pubstr
Update: note18km:esdhjsat
I made nec, a small cli tool to convert between json and bech32 representations of NIP-19 Nostr entities. It’s a more complete alternative to the key-convertr tool that I was using before. I used nec in a script to create more useful Nostr links on my website: https://github.com/straumer/nec
Update: note17g9:jszm6lgl
About 6 months ago I had made my own rudimentary static site generator that generated my website with blogging functionality. Then I started learning more about Nostr and figured it would be more empowering to instead use Nostr as my single source of truth. I still needed a website, so I made some basic tooling and workflow to statically generate a website from my Nostr events. This time I opted to use Hugo for the site generation. Making my own generator was a nice learning experience though and definitely gives me more appreciation for the heavy lifting that Hugo can do for me now. I was also conscious that an easy and flexible way to generate a website from Nostr events is something that doesn’t exist yet, so I’m making a reusable Hugo module along with the development of my site: https://github.com/straumer/hugo-nostr
Update: note1c4e:kqgcc460
Following up on my update from a month ago, I ended up getting one of those V54 NovaCustom laptops: https://novacustom.com/product/v54-series/. I had 4 possible OSes in mind for this laptop, ordered by priority as OpenBSD > Void Linux > Parabola Linux > Archlinux. The hardware is newer than that of NV41, so there was a good chance some of those OSes wouldn’t run on it, but I was sure at least Archlinux would, which I consider good enough until the others catch up. The OpenBSD installer froze on startup and Void and Parabola have their officially supported kernel versions below the required version of 6.9, so Archlinux, which I’ve used since 2011 is the choice for now.
Update: note1etn:mskpwt33
Added an atom feed for the frontpage of each language version of my website in the footer.
Random password memorization with PAO
As a person who’s quite interested in information security, I like to play mental games that involve the imagination of threats and how one could establish and improve one’s defenses against them in case they materialize. One important case to consider is: What would happen if one loses all one’s possessions to the point of being practically naked in the street or wherever. In this case, all of our data outside of our minds, be they digital or written, would disappear. We want to make sure that the response to this question is that nothing would happen and that we would stoically continue on like a recently arrived Terminator. Normally it’s possible to leave data backups with third parties, but here I talk in the context of individuals that want maximum security, where they are the only ones that should have the power to access the contained data. This case requires the encryption of the data with a random password that is difficult to remember without memory techniques. To this purpose I dedicate this article where I explain my application of the PAO memory technique for readable ASCII symbols.
Update: note1snx:4s5mj40d
I find it important to continuously refine my laptop’s security posture for myself and by extent the security of the projects that I work on for my clients. Recently I’ve been keeping an eye out for a new laptop. Last time I did so, in 2021, I ended up with a Thinkpad X200: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_X_series#X200_and_X200s. The reason I did was that it was one of the few available RYF certified laptops that Libreboot could run on, and those laptops don’t have any Intel Management Engine (a security concern) on their chips. One reason to look at other options is that the laptop shuts down due to overheating or freezes sometimes when it’s working hard. I could put in time to try to fix it, but it’ll be hard to reach 100% confidence that it doesn’t turn off in important video calls. Another reason is to get a higher end CPU, GPU and RAM capacity for local AI training that I may want to do. I still got my Thinkpad T440s for when it’s important the computer doesn’t crash. It’s however not ideal for AI workloads, contains working IME and its firmware is locked with Intel Boot Guard so I can’t replace it with a free alternative. Long-story short, I narrowed my laptop search down to NovaCustom: https://novacustom.com/cat/custom-laptop/. They have the option of disabling the IME and run Coreboot which seems like it could be an acceptable compromise. I want to try running OpenBSD as my main OS (I’m currently on Parabola) and I saw a positive review on running OpenBSD on the NovaCustom NV41 laptop which bodes well: https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2024-01-03-laptop-review-novacustom-nv41.html#_OpenBSD. I’ll mull this over some more before making a decision.
Update: note1kk5:nsf0tc6z
Almost finished defining my PAO memory system for all readable ASCII characters. I’ll use it to remember random ASCII passwords for my encrypted data backups. Been meaning to complete that for a while now. More on that later.
Read chapter 11 of the Rust book.
Update: note1k2u:xqgaed8v
I went to a network security conference of the Electronic Communications Office of Iceland. I got some insight into what companies in Iceland are dealing with in that area nowadays as well as the new NIS2 EU directive that they are expected to need to comply with. Disconnect between company leadership and their IT departments was a big topic and the need for deeper collaboration between them to improve the company’s information security posture. I think IT people really benefit from knowledge of business administration in this regard. It lets them recognize the responsibilities and perspective of the leadership in order to effectively communicate security risks and lets the leadership take responsibility for them.
Update: note1dky:3s4ykwsl
Added Services and Updates sections to this site and updated the About section.
I decided to learn Rust programming, since I would like to participate in various projects that use it. Finished reading chapters 1-5 of the Rust book: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/.
Free software comes first
All of us use electronic equipment to interact and let information flow between us for our benefit. The more we depend on that equipment in our activities, the more important it is to understand some fundamental aspects of the digital world in order to stay empowered in the long run. One very important aspect, the one I talk about in this article, has to do with our choice of software with respect to its license and the accessibility of its source code. Software includes applications, operating systems and other digital tools. Once we are concious of certain human dynamics in the creation of software, we can adopt principles and practices to live more empowered. This article is for users of software, not software developers, but it is necessary to mention important points from the perspective of the software developer in order to better choose our software.