Sarah Jamie Lewis / is on Nostr

Cryptography and Privacy Researcher. President @ Open Privacy Research Society (Open Privacy Research Society (npub1w9d…7r3s)).

Founder @ Blodeuwedd Labs (npub1xwlrr9hg8s70xgjlefpswyu42jeuf06uflktwzjl3v7g6j7ahjzq6cxhrm (npub1xwl…xhrm))

Building free and open source, privacy-enhancing, surveillance-resisting tech like Cwtch (Cwtch (npub1w58…w8vf))

website: https://sarahjamielewis.com/
donate: https://openprivacy.ca/donate/
cwtch: icyt7rvdsdci42h6si2ibtwucdmjrlcb2ezkecuagtquiiflbkxf2cqd
get cwtch: https://cwtch.im/download

Last Notes

2024-08-17 02:49:10

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Even in a world where we conquer every abyss cycle; In what is likely a personal failing, I don't think I will ever find happiness in a system critically dependent on multiple versions of perl, all autogenerating scripts that autogenerate more scripts that ultimately all produce the same 20 line makefile.

2024-08-17 02:43:04

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I admire guix for the work they've done on full source bootstrapping, fixing problems like "to compile gnu grep you need gnu grep" and other such thorns.
Though, having recently spent time in a related abyss, I walk away with the feeling that undertaking all that work to keep those abyss cycles may be long-term detrimental to the tree.

2024-08-17 02:36:11

Once you account for the inherent complexity of build systems, the beautiful notion of a dependency "tree" shifts and mutates, ejecting you from the world of platonic forms and into the depths of cyclic abyss graphs.

2024-06-20 17:37:58

"it's a protocol" in the historical sense: there is an agreed upon written that details packet structure, packet flows and expected participant behaviour. There are a myriad of independent implementations.
"it's a protocol" in the modern sense: a very active repository containing a "reference implementation" that serves as a de-facto common dependency because whatever it does is the correct behaviour, and it's far too complicated for anyone to consider maintaining an independent implementation.

2024-06-04 18:37:59

After writing this note on Recall (https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/112482021770758791) a few weeks back, I've received many messages under the assumption that I don't understand how DRM / OS interaction works.
As if the integration of a broken, backwards technology into the core of our computing systems happened by accident.
"No, you see the OS doesn't get to see those bits of the screen, so it totally makes sense why the system scraps your financial documents and passwords but not netflix" - utterly unhinged worldview

2024-06-03 05:11:08

The thing about chat control / upload filters / client side scanning, whatever it's being called now; They are responses to an old generation of technology - one of an internet governed by centralized corporations.
Anonymous, peer to peer, file sharing exists. No centralized place to subvert - except the software running locally. Imperfect now, but intrinsically extant.
What proponents of these laws really want is to roll back the clock; something that is, fundamentally, not possible.

2024-05-22 01:05:45

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I find it equally fascinating that in order to get anywhere near an integrated computing experience in 2024 we apparently need constant recording and transformer models.
No structured file systems, no permission models, no shared stores, no capabilities - just firehose the display output and hope for the best.

2024-05-22 00:57:23

"Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers."
The computer, however, will stop you from recording DRM'd content.
Find it fascinating that when faced with drawing safety and security boundaries, the primary beneficiary is not the owner of the device, or the person using it, but random corporations who control the intellectual property rights.
The system doesn't work for you.

2024-04-25 06:30:49

People have a right to access and use secure tooling that enables them to leverage modern cryptography.
The alternative is absurd. A demand to deliberately subvert foundational economic infrastructure. A position that should be laughed out of any sensible room.