Erin 💽✨

immigrant | software engineer in card payments
liker of ISO 8583, the 8051, ASN.1, SS7 and EBCDIC.
30-something who's grew up online and has seen it all. sometimes an optimist, sometimes nostalgic.

I wrote the ActivityPub initial draft, so this social network is in some way my fault. These days I spend a lot of time studying social dynamics and thinking about how we build social systems which foster a healthier culture.

Profile Picture is FALKE from Signalis (you should play it). See also: @erinfluorescent

Public Key

npub12fwzd4u7n0jj8wpk4encf3qsjmxayqzq4znd8qnvg79mj7j4thyspxxddv

NIP-05 Address

erincandescent@akko-erincandescent-net.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9yhpx670fhefrhqm2ueuycsgfdnwjqpq23fknsfky0zae0f24mjgdmu0t0

Author Public Key

npub12fwzd4u7n0jj8wpk4encf3qsjmxayqzq4znd8qnvg79mj7j4thyspxxddv

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Last Notes

2025-02-23 09:54:17

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@nprofile…leww surely the answer here is to find a girlfriend with a piss kink...

2024-12-20 09:42:47

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@nprofile…85f4 @nprofile…m709 Huh they were basically always single home HE in the past but today their block seems to be upstreamed by Cloudflare

2024-11-16 11:53:47

Half Life 2, the first game I ever pre-ordered, is 20 today.
Please excuse me while I go and shrivel up into a cabbage.

2024-11-09 16:36:53

Long ago Mastodon made the design decision to send likes just to the author of the post (and GoToSocial decided to copy that behaviour); and meanwhile Pleroma and Misskey made the decision to send emoji reacts to ~the same audience of the post
Anyway a side effect of this is that when scrolling through my timeline I see likes and reactions on other people’s posts by my Pleroma/Akkoma/Misskey/Sharkey/Iceshrimp/etc using friends (and only them), and feel (tangibly) more digitally connected with them

2024-09-20 23:12:18

I want a good open ecosystem chat protocol with end-to-end encryption to exist but I also don’t think I’d convince anyone to switch and even if I did I don’t want yet another client to run

2024-09-01 09:15:41

I want to play with SEV-SNP but gestures at cost of EPYC 7003 machines

2024-08-27 11:38:21

Periodically people talk about fediverse link previews DDoSing things and like. Yes, this is something that should be fixed
But
When people give numbers they’re generally less than 10 requests per second.
Is DDoSing your average website really this easy?

2024-07-23 09:19:59

OH: “Why is Zitrone Heiße Getränke packaged like a condom”

2024-06-16 17:20:09

TIL: Scaleways’ instance metadata service requires your source port for the HTTP request be <1024 and
This is actually a big security improvement over everyone else’s because now your instance metadata (potentially containing secrets or credentials) is only accessible by root on the VM and not by any random process, and
This is just about the only valid use of the root port restriction I’ve seen since 1990

2024-06-06 22:46:05

I was talking to someone at #emf2024 who was talking about making a LoRa hexpansion, but I'm terrible with names so have forgotten who it was. Does anyone know? 😅

2024-06-06 10:29:51

Wandering around Europe with an Aranet 4 to and from EMF and a few other places, my experimental train ventilation findings:
Good (700ppm or less):
* DB Regio Dostos
* NS IC (locomotive hauled)
Reasonable (less than 1000ppm)
* NS IC (double decker EMU)
* BR Class 165 Clubman (Chiltern Railways) (n.b. much worse if stationary)
Bad (Up to ~1500ppm)
* DB ICE (all varieties)
* TGV Duplex
* Thalys PBA and PBKA
* Eurostar e320
* BR Class 80x Hitachi IET
Apocalyptic:
* West Midlands Trains BR Class 196 CAF Civity (3300ppm recorded)

2024-06-05 17:49:01

Pros of traveling with a big hiking rucksack: lots of luggage capacity
Cons: feeling paranoid that I'm gonna turn around and annihilate a shelf full of glass bottles when you need to visit a store

2024-05-20 22:58:24

I work for a French company, which means I get reminded yearly about the existence of the concept of the Solidarity Day, and I do not understand how the French people not only allowed the government to take away one of their public holidays a year (which will vary based upon employer) and replace it with a day where you have to work, but to go as far as to replace it with a day where you have to work but do not get paid for doing so :afloofLoad:

2024-04-26 17:57:40

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@npub108e…nss3 oh yeah that's how I learned my first IXP port had been turned on
I managed to beat them to sending the peering request for the second port though >:)

2024-04-26 09:32:20

:neocat_surprised: glasgow real!!!
https://erincandescent.catgirldelivery.network/db3510d80d02442c7f3eae3a886c615e34bfaac80b98f690eb3d2c1452c6f6d2.jpg

2024-04-25 12:12:34

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@npub108e…nss3 oh god frr all my homies hate frr

2024-04-16 13:06:17

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@npub108e…nss3 uh you have blanking panels over the rear fan intakes for the switches?

2024-04-08 10:29:36

I like how the breakdown of law enforcement requests sent to RIPE is basically
189 requests where the answer was “use whois and ask the people that returns”
7 requests where the answer was “use whois”
1 request where the answer was “use another bit of our public database”
3 where the answer was “this is entirely outside of our remit wtf”
#note1y9x…5nqu

2024-04-07 12:11:21

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@npub198t…hasj this is less of an issue when buying used ex-business laptops to be fair, because the worst 1/3rd is generally already trashed by that point >_>
but i don’t think i’d ever buy a new Lenovo

2024-04-07 11:59:40

Dear Lazyfedi,
I'd kinda like a good 2in1/convertable laptop/tablet. 13"ish, lightweight, probably Intel (since the Linux driver situation with AMD laptops still seems to be quite variable), doesn't need to be massively high performance
Somewhat ambivalent between detachable and fold back keyboard
Do any of you have a device you like?

2024-04-05 14:43:41

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@npub108e…nss3 I refuse to write LOAs for anything other than fiber cross connects
For IPs we've got fucking RPKI and whois

2024-04-02 22:30:59

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@npub108e…nss3 I don’t see any fiber there, just copper twinax :drgn_3c:

2024-04-01 20:25:15

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@npub108e…nss3 btw expect that any ipv4 block you lease will be unusable for e-mail (its 99% certain it was previously leased by a spammer)

2024-03-28 09:49:24

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@npub1ysu…2jyl I find it funny that every wordexp implementation I'm aware of other than glibc implements the logic by
... Wait for it ...
Shelling out to /bin/sh
(Or, incomprehensibly, perl on macOS)

2024-03-24 00:41:11

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@npub1ysu…2jyl @npub1a7t…wwdr Did I need to acquire an ASN, some IPs, a 1U server, a half-rack at a local DC, a transit provider, and a connection to the local major internet exchange point?
No
Is it a money pit?
By gods yes
Is it the most fun way to do things?
The vast majority of the time, Hell Yes!

2024-03-24 00:28:10

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@npub1a7t…wwdr i’m doing my bit :drgn_3c:

2024-03-22 20:24:11

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@npub198t…hasj To connect to the OpenBanking APIs, you need an AISP license (so no, there isn’t open source software to ocnnect to any bank via the OpenBanking APIs)

2024-03-20 19:06:10

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@npub17qe…v7la @npub142j…sefh @npub1r9s…xge4 there should be more transparency logs down the back of sofas IMO, this has been a critically underserved market for several years

2024-03-19 17:03:51

Today was going better before the palm of my hand and the serated end of the bread knife explored each other

2024-03-07 16:30:59

Tomorrow is International Women's Day, which is clearly why Deutsche Bahn has decided to enforce my internationality by cancelling my trains home

2024-02-21 20:53:22

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@npub108e…nss3 i consider having never had to use a crash cart one of life’s small mercies

2024-02-21 09:57:26

I feel it might be suboptimal/not intentional that my route to foo.github.io is going via Singapore
https://erincandescent.catgirldelivery.network/525b03f1e1d4aedf8408553299cf77381943c2d12b1c184c0a51dc116e13f3ac.png

2024-02-20 00:43:31

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@npub175x…2fat I’m not sure that’s a good idea - you might move your account personally away but still participate in mod work.
Certainly for my scenario over the last week it would have deeply complicated things if I lost access to the admin tools when redirecting an account

2024-02-17 14:17:13

I think theres a good argument that making a bridge opt-out means that - for policy reasons - many instances will have to defederate it; while making it opt-in allows them to leave it federated and means that their users can choose to use it.
But more than anything that’s an argument for better controls in the software we use (some very simple things, like can you imagine instance blocks which a user could opt out of them?)
But public is public. The controls you want? They should be built into the protocol/implementations.
Anything else is security theatre, and it is very unwise to give people a sense of security that is enforced only by hopes and prayers.
#note1lkm…tfyg

2024-02-16 13:08:32

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Vulnerable:
Mastodon (< 4.2.7)
GoToSocial (< v0.13.3)
Pixelfed (< v0.11.12)
Misskey (< 2024.2.0)
Sharkey (Unpatched)
Firefish (< v20240217-1)
Iceshrimp (< v2023.12.4)
Probably others!
Confirmed (by inspection) Not Vulnerable:
Pleroma (Reported and fixed in 2020)
Akkoma

2024-02-16 11:54:07

The latest Mastodon security vuln (GHSA-jhrq-qvrm-qr36) appears to be an exploit that can be used against instances that host their media on the same domain as the Mastodon instance itself
Reminder: It is best practice to put user uploaded media on a different hostname - ideally, a separate domain name entirely, but if not possible a subdomain will suffice.
(Note: Even if you do this, you still need to upgrade; the exploit is against remote instances0

2024-02-15 22:32:19

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@npub108e…nss3 ..jeez, this gave me a momentary panic until I realised my next VAT return was due in April

2024-02-15 21:50:48

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@npub108e…nss3 Well filled though (and supremely neatly)

2024-02-15 21:11:12

It’s 21U 😏
https://erincandescent.catgirldelivery.network/d3414c3f6c44ddba157729773babe19876f1afa36cfb6682f4d769363a803edd.jpg
https://erincandescent.catgirldelivery.network/3a8aaf769c246e4cca11296d12ce04c4ff3aa17627104d9c8b866318726f43cf.jpg

2024-02-15 20:53:41

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@npub1ysu…2jyl @npub1cnz…ur7k The worst thing about SocialWG was all the factions
The best thing about SocialWG was that it was a closed working group, keeping noise down.
Something like that is really missing (of course, with note that assembling such a thing is hard given the amount of beef that exists between various implementers!)

2024-02-15 10:41:51

There are two types of network protocol:
Ones with a single implementation
Ones people hate (ActivityPub, DNS, SMTP/email, BGP, …)
This is slightly facetious but non the less broadly true

2024-02-13 09:16:32

So since we're all talking about the Bluesky bridge: does it have any instance blocklist of it's own, or is it ensuring that the first places that bsky.social federates with are poast/baest/the most annoying corners of fedi?
(FWIW: I don't really think it should have a blocklist; as a principle, for these types of things, I think you should either do fully open or allowlist. That's orthogonal to whether it should be opt in, of course; IMO it should)

2024-02-12 22:11:35

Oh god, it’s hit the verge

2024-02-12 18:00:23

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Besides, how often does someone write a news article about a 50 person instance shutting down?

2024-02-12 17:52:27

To the people who are like “What did you expect to happen when you picked a .af domain, are you idiots?”
Yes, we were aware of the possibility of suspension from the start
Yes, we were aware that political circumstances could change
But thumbing your nose at conservative autocrats as an even minor form of protest is fun
In the end pretty much everyone has migrated out successfully (and I’ll continue to help anyone who remains)
We’ve all gotten a fun story out of this
I’ve been signalling the probable demise of queer.af to my followers for the past year. We knew the end was coming; we just anticipated it to take a little longer
So long; it was fun while it lasted.

2024-02-12 11:12:33

That final e-mail before your domain does dark at the regsitry:
Afghanistan ccTLD Network Information Center ( af NIC )
queer.af has been suspended in the registry and will no longer be included in zone file generation. This means that any services connected with this domain, such as websites or email addresses will cease working shortly.
Please contact your registrar if you have any questions about this process. Your registrar's details are as follows:
Name: Gandi SAS
Website: https://www.gandi.net
Email: support-en@support.gandi.net
Phone: +33.(1)70.37.78.80
Fax: +33.(1)43.73.18.51
Address: 63-65 boulevard Massena
Paris 75013
Ministry of Communications and IT
Mohammad Jan Khan Watt
Kabul
Afghanistan

2024-02-12 09:50:20

Hello fellow admins!
It would help users migrating from queer.af if you would temporarily add the following to /etc/hosts:
65.108.48.233 queer.af
The domain was suspended this morning without warning.
For users attempting to migrate, there’s an alias domain for the UI setup at: https://queer-af.alioth.systems
Thank you everyone for flying queer.af; sorry for the abrupt end, but it was out of my control, and you were all (hopefully) aware of this possibility anwyay.