Nate

https://nate.mecca1.net

Random person on the internet. I sometimes blog or work on projects I might talk about here.

Maker of the NIPY/ni.py hacked together Python client for #Nostr, #ActivityPub, and the #AT Protocol
https://github.com/0n4t3/nipy

Public Key

npub1jy90jpcdl447ae3lp4924s65khdpvnttkg7fepmvmafycusyueksrvllx9

NIP-05 Address

nate@nate.mecca1.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfzzhequxl66lwucls6j42cd2ttkskf44my0yusakd75jvwgzwvmg8vfqnc

Author Public Key

npub1jy90jpcdl447ae3lp4924s65khdpvnttkg7fepmvmafycusyueksrvllx9

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-10-02 10:51:57

https://simonwillison.net/2024/Sep/29/notebooklm-audio-overview/
A #blog post by Simon Wilson on #notebooklm . An interesting thing to toy around with, even if it's not all that practical.
https://njump.me/nevent1qqs2warpwl569tf0hnufyfvw6ltkpqkeydekkg6sc56y4veept90npgpz4mhxue69uhkg6t5w3hjuur4vghhyetvv9usygy3ptuswr0ad0hwv0cdf24vx494mgty66aj8jwgwmxl2fx8yp8xd5psgqqqqqqsdaq8f9

2024-10-01 10:32:25

New try, let's see if this works. Hello BlueSky & Mastodon via Nostr on Amethyst 😀

2024-08-17 17:17:11

- reply

I'm working on one now, it's definitely amateur but it's also free to read. I'd be interested in joining a community/tag of some sort.

2024-08-15 21:14:00

Looks like the US 5th circuit just ruled geofence warrants unconstitutional
https://reclaimthenet.org/court-slams-geofence-warrants-as-unconstitutional-overreach

2024-08-12 10:57:43

- reply

My only fear with something like that would be that it would lead to a world full of really invasive tracking while cutting out any devices that didn't have attestation or were running any sort of proxy. Not that I think it's impossible things could be done right, but it being possible and actually expecting tech companies to do it right are two different things.
At least no matter whether I'm behind a proxy or my device has attestation or not I can prove I know what a traffic light is or run some proof of work equation. Not that they aren't annoying though.

2024-08-11 10:13:10

https://nate.mecca1.net/posts/2024-08-11_microbloggingv2/
New #blog post talking about social media protocols like #ActivityPub, #Nostr, and #AT (Bluesky). It's not entirely new, I posted a comparison in January, but this updated version fixes two mistakes I made and is updated to reflect some changes that occurred since the original post.
Also, as with my previous post, obligatory original meme to accompany the post.
https://nate.mecca1.net/img/protocol-meme.mp4

2024-08-06 23:33:28

- reply

The efficiency of keyboard controls is what got me using Emacs. After a little configuration and a learning curve I'm surprised at how fast I can use it.

2024-08-06 00:07:26

Something just dawned on me, if Google is prohibited from paying to be default I wonder what's going to happen to #Mozilla #Firefox and forks.
#nevent1q…uhkg

2024-08-05 20:44:16

Google loses its antitrust case
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0k44x6mge3o
#news #google #technology #antitrust

2024-07-06 22:22:46

Remember when software was optimized and Google Play only accepted software under 50mb? I remember.

2024-07-01 21:25:58

- reply

Not that I'm aware, what happened?

2024-06-21 17:47:02

260 McNuggets? McDonald’s Ends A.I. Drive-Through Tests Amid Errors
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/business/mcdonalds-ai-drive-thru-white-castle.html
Paywall free
http://archive.ph/5RzFR

2024-05-20 12:02:08

https://nate.mecca1.net/posts/2024-05-20_archiving/
Made a #blog post this morning. Kinda a collection of three interconnected topics
* My backup strategy
* Starting to use optical media again (how & why)
* Some archiving/data hoarding projects (internet is beginning to change fast and things might disappear).

2024-05-17 01:13:43

- reply

Might as well start put with mine
https://nate.mecca1.net/
I post whatever I'm interested about, usually tech, one a month or so. Snuck in a sourkrout recipie recently tho.
There's Kevin Kox, he usually posts thoughtful tech related posts
https://kevincox.ca/posts/
There's also Rob Knight, who's blog I follows and who started the defaults trend a bit back full of cool sites
https://rknight.me/
https://defaults.rknight.me/
There's https://ploum.net, he posts mostly about tech and open source in English and French
There's Chris Mclead's blog who also posts about tech. It's also the first place I found a link to my own blog in the wild so that makes him extra cool.
https://chrismcleod.dev/
There's Denshi, an Italian writer and Musician. https://denshi.org/
There's Jason Fry, who's been getting into non-smart phones lately, and usually posts tech and tech adjacent stuff.
https://jasonfry.co.uk/
There's also Yaroslav de la Peña Smirnov, a Russian software developer who posts in Russian, English, and Spanish.
https://www.yaroslavps.com/
A lotta tech blogs I guess, but the above are all worth checking out.

2024-05-09 23:44:39

- reply

*post

2024-05-09 23:44:25

Testing a most bridged to BlueSky

2024-05-09 01:54:57

- reply

Thinnest Apple product ever, or thinnest WORKING product ever? I'm sure I could get one real thin if it's only the former.

2024-05-07 23:43:43

Managed to use an entire Pilot G2 ink refill in 10 days and a few hours

2024-05-05 01:28:49

- reply

Thanks, looking forward to both's development

2024-05-04 01:36:20

- reply

Read through the docs, is it still planned to support ActivityPub cross compatibility on Ditto?

2024-04-27 19:03:29

nerdica.net seems to be running into some issues, can't seem to pull up my own profile or anybody else's. Not sure how long it's been going on since I'm not on social media a ton, and I'm also hesitant to sign back on the off chance it's some sort of mitm attack or something else.
A little disappointing, it was my gateway to the fediverse and seemed like a cool place (and'll hopefully continue to be). Still a great chance to shoutout Nostr's flexibility, as well as Zot's Nomadic identities (that might be be implemented into Activity Pub).

2024-04-22 21:50:15

- reply

One thing I remember hearing somebody point out is that the second you accept anything other than plain text you take on a whole new set of responsibilities & risks.
Not that I'm in any way knowledgeable enough to advise development, but I personally like the idea of relays being text only by default. Keeps things lightweight, and sure there can be bad things with text but the real bad stuff always needs to stay off Nostr infrastructure.

2024-04-08 19:52:06

Quick snap of the #eclipse, I'm no master photographer but I think it still captured some of the cool factor
https://i.postimg.cc/TYcPQSbt/imgonline-com-ua-dexifdlumc-Glbi-Mpn.jpg
If you look closely you can even see two planets or stars to the right of the sun. Any #astronomers know what they'd be?

2024-04-04 23:04:40

- reply

Experimented with it in the past before, but more permanently stuck around about five months ago. I like the protocol, the people seem nice, and it's pretty interoperable with the Fediverse.

2024-03-26 12:15:26

Local LLMs and AI Ethics (mine makes nukes)
https://nate.mecca1.net/posts/2024-03-26_ai/
A #blog post by me about #AI. It's split into two parts, the first part is about my experimentation running entirely #foss models locally. The second part is more of an essay/opinion piece walking through the conclusions I've reached on AI and it's ethics as well as predictions for the future.

2024-03-23 11:03:10

- reply

Hello from Nostr

2024-03-18 11:02:11

- reply

That's real cool. I've always thought ActivityPub could use a tune up in it's account ownership area and nomadic identities could be a great middle ground that doesn't completely re-invent things and break implementations.

2024-03-10 10:56:12

- reply

Nothing wrong with that. You can probably find content of all stripes, but since the platform's new and it's main draw is it's technical capabilities, most of us are somewhere on the "interested in tech" van diagram so that could probably get annoying if you're not interested in it.
It's not exactly like Reddit, it's definitely more of a decentralized Twitter (though there are experimental Reddit style communities being built on Nostr as well - though most clients don't support them atm). Like Valentino said, messages are stored on relays. The thousand foot view is a message is signed by your client using your keypair, uploaded to all of the relays you set your client to use, and then other clients can download your messages from those relays.

2024-03-06 12:49:53

#asknostr #plebchain What relays should be considered the "default" ones that a client should default to? I was thinking about working on my makeshift client one of these days, and changing up the default relays is on my to do list.
I figure I'll stay around 5-10 for the defaults. It's post only rn so would best stick to only the big ones that accept posts from any account.

2024-03-06 12:40:17

- reply

Depends. You're not going to be able to follow celebrations, organizations, or your IRL friends (unless you badger them about making an account). Might change if Nostr grows, or if Activity Pub grows (Nostr is bridged in to the fediverse).
Still a cool place to talk tech and other random topics, or experiment around with the tech. I've also found it to be full of nice people with less chaos than Twitter.
All really depends on what you're looking to get out of it.

2024-02-28 10:56:37

fixed link:
https://nate.mecca1.net/posts/2024-02-28_fermentation/
https://nerdica.net/photo/preview/1024/27941694
#note15s7…dl03

2024-02-28 10:30:11

- reply

Great to see trail sense get some love, it's crazy how many tools are packed into it

2024-02-26 01:32:29

Very glad with how #nipy is coming along, I feel like the prompt I added to set credentials in keyring or choose the individual post/broadcast option brings it a step or two towards acceptable and away from spaghetti code.
#python #nostr #activitypub #bluesky #atproto
#nevent1q…dzf5

2024-02-21 23:58:17

- reply

Nostr
Activity Pub
AT
Diaspora
Zot
and Ostatus all come to mind, but I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple

2024-02-20 11:47:42

- reply

If you're fine using and android app, I like https://github.com/AndreAle94/moneywallet
I gave up on spreadsheets, after giving up on GnuCash, but I've found this really easy

2024-02-12 13:28:34

- reply

I used Yunohost as of like 48 hours ago and it's got my stamp of approval. No menatal breakdown when configuring a reverse proxy. No mental breakdowns when configuring a server (it's all one click install). All in all seems great 💯

2024-02-12 01:55:33

- reply

Buyvm.net has decent prices, I think you should be able to just upload a standard windows ISO and give it a whirl via VNC assuming you're on a powerful enough VM

2024-02-10 04:05:10

Just had a service not work in systemd so no problem I'll write my own entry into the systemd services
... and I've imploded everything 😆 back to the drawing board

2024-02-09 03:24:56

- reply

Is cereal a soup? If not then explain.

2024-02-09 02:36:23

#asknostr what's your favorite #tech conspiracy theories?
I've been binging some icebergs lately, but nobody's made a tech conspiracies #iceberg to my knowledge so I thought I would try to make one. If you've got your own favorite conspiracy theory ideas I could use help filling mine out.
Draft Image:
https://nostrfiles.dev/uploads/JsrPbP5z8SPpdZQc9Pum.png
Draft explanations/cheat sheet:
https://rentry.co/bmcipeyx
(Rentry is like pastebin but supports markdown)

2024-02-08 03:44:42

- reply

I'm a bit more positive, honestly AT and Nostr are somewhat similar except with "crawler" layer instead of local clients. If they actually open it up to federalization/decentralization, and especially if it's bridged to here and activity pub, it could be a great thing for everyone.

2024-02-08 03:10:35

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/youtuber-breaks-bitlocker-encryption-in-less-than-43-seconds-with-sub-dollar10-raspberry-pi-pico
A bit of a fear of mine that the titan m2 TPM on my phone plus a short password could be counteracted and that the long pword on a dumb encrypted drive on my 🐧 PC is the only long game.
I know the article covers a highly specific exploit on an old device, and I really only have encryption to prevent a stolen device from being accessed by a non-tech savvy thief, but still food for thought.
#technology #cybersecurity #encryption #tpm

2024-02-07 13:15:19

Somebody threw away my plastic bag earlier today I've been using to bring food to work. Might not be there right now, but I'm still a New Yorker at heart and plastic bags are to hot of a commodity to just throw somebody else's out without asking. 😆

2024-02-06 22:51:30

- reply

Forgot to mentioned, they also said they're opening it up to federalization. So while it's all still effectively centralized, presumably it won't be for long.

2024-02-06 22:45:46

It appears #bluesky is now open for public registration. I guess that means my big blog post I finally finished a week ago is already out of date. 😟
It's good news to see though. I'm sure somebody is going to bridge it here on Nostr or to ActivityPub and thatnks to Mostr (Nostr <> ActivityPub) we'll have three interconnected protocols playing nicely together.
If you want to read about my thoughts on BlueSky and the #AT protocol my slightly out of date blog post us probably still worth reading.
https://nate.mecca1.net/posts/2024-01-30_microblogging-protocols/
It has an interesting implementation, such as splitting servers into PDSs and Crawlers, or Nostr style cryptographic accounts on ActivityPub style single servers.

2024-02-06 01:24:04

https://snyk.io/jp/blog/leaky-vessels-docker-runc-container-breakout-vulnerabilities/
This is well above my pay grade, but for the smart people: there's a possible set of four exploits that can get out of a docker container.
#security #docker

2024-02-05 22:27:26

- reply

Seen that one or twice myself, haven't shared on yet but I'm sure I'm bound to at some point.

2024-02-02 22:43:39

- reply

If you're experimenting around with browsers my 2c would be to also give LibreWolf a try (fork of Firefox). But the important thing is that you're getting the most value from your software regardless of what's trendy or rccomended by random internet users.

2024-02-02 22:38:44

- reply

💯

2024-02-01 19:47:03

A Startup Allegedly ‘Hacked the World.’ Then Came the Censorship—and Now the Backlash
By Wired Security
https://www.wired.com/story/appin-training-centers-lawsuits-censorship/
#news #tech

2024-01-31 02:07:36

- reply

note10qdue4dfy9uc0xxuh94rg8yx747l363s3qg3zn5hzw2zxewq7u8q8lu9s0
So I thought I would also throw my hat into the ring in the debate here. I do disagree on my expected outcome of Nostr but that's more my interpretations of where/what I expect to be in the future. Things like limited discoverability (no algorithms), a broad list of clients - many incomplete, and the need to filter out spam or curate is going to be any decentralized social media protocol's burden to bear. They can be improved, and criticizing them is valid, but that's kinda what I signed up for when I chose to enter the wild west of any non-centralized platform.
Things like data and processing power requirements handled by clients are still considerably under streaming HD video, so I can get they're inefficient but I feel like in the world of our bloated web it's not really noticeable in most cases.
The IP thing is a fair point, but it sort of is what it is. You can proxy your IP, but anywhere you go on the internet it'll be available to any server you're communicating with. Somebody shares a link in a twitter DM and they got your IP same as if the DM you an image on Nostr. Honestly Nostr users are probably safer than the average Twitter user from that sort of stuff because we're all at least somewhat tech savvy. Which brings me to what I think is the biggest hurdle for Nostr.
I can't see 'raw' Nostr getting popular with your average Joe, period. Key pairs and user chosen servers are a bit to far beyond the fray of what you can expect somebody to familiarize themselves with. I can pretty much guarantee 99% of the world will never know what a Nostr relay is. That said, with it's openness I can imagine it has a chance to continue to grow.
It's already the case now, but especially when Ditto (by Soapbox/Alex Gleason) is finished we can be a part of the activity pub network, and if AT is ever opened up I'm sure we'll be a part of that too. Throw in content like RSS piped in, and that solves the problem of a lack of content and allows us to both simultaneously be in our own little corner and chatting with 'normies' on threads as if we were also a threads user at the same time.
Not to mention there's always a chance to have a "Threads" on Nostr, something that has a easy to join interface that hides private keys and such, but still allows users to interact with other Nostr users.
TLDR: I'm personally bullish on Nostr because it's very interwoven with the decentralized/federated space as a whole and doesn't need to take over the world to succeed IMO.
Sorry for the very long post. Basically summarized a previous blog post of mine and wanted to get my whole philosophy on it condensed.

2024-01-30 11:49:05

https://i.postimg.cc/13RVzhrt/leeroy-jenkins-compressed.gif
Also, I almost forgot to share the #meme with my blogpost. Probably only mildly funny (if even that), but I probably put in more work than I should have so wanted to share it. Feel free to re-use for your own purposes if you find it funny.
note1r7p0dcltenmw9tc83mgxyqs2ma2n0r4cr92zal2g2r4ae8n06kjq3ru33q

2024-01-30 11:45:04

https://nate.mecca1.net/posts/2024-01-30_microblogging-protocols/
It's a bit long, but I just finished a #blog post comparing three different decentralized social media protocols (#activitypub #nostr & AT / #BlueSky) if it sounds interesting.
No concrete conclusions on anything, just a post that kept growing as I compared more stuff. One thing that did surprise me when I was making it was how AT seems like a cool implementation of decentralized blogging, too bad it's all just locked behind BlueSky at the moment.
Anyway, thought it was worth sharing. If you have any thoughts or especially if I got something wrong be sure to let me know - I can't be considered an expert on any of these protocols.

2024-01-30 02:09:49

- reply

Bold of you to ever have assumed otherwise 😆

2024-01-26 12:03:26

Fennec: it's Firefox mobile with Telemetry, Pocket & Ads, and Google analytics removed.
🤌
#nevent1q…gd4q

2024-01-26 12:01:56

- reply

I'd also like to second Fennec, it's Firefox mobile with Telemetry, Pocket & Ads, and Google analytics removed.

2024-01-26 11:49:58

- reply

On a similar topic, something like YaCy might be worth looking into. It's a self hosted search engine (instead of a meta search engine/front end) and it can operate in a decentralized mode (getting results from content peers crawled) or independently (only serving content you chose to crawl).
I toyed around with it the other day after reading about it, and after crawling my site and everybody who participated in the defaults project by @npub1eva…n4xl it gave some interesting results.
It's a bit older, and is more of a hobby type of deal as the results aren't the best, but might be worth toying around.
Open Search (with Fess on top) or Solrs might be better with self crawled results if you really put in a lot of effort, but that's of course a lot of effort for maybe a fun toy to fiddle around with.
https://yacy.net/
https://chronicles.mad-scientist.club/tales/a-yacy-experiment/
https://defaults.rknight.me/

2024-01-26 03:29:19

- reply

Testing again after re-setting up my relays

2024-01-26 03:20:32

It took a while but finally trying out a web client (iris.to) with a Nostr browser extension instead of using Amethyst in Waydroid on PC. Wish me luck

2024-01-24 22:35:59

- reply

One potential issue is that if you're de-googled or trying to de-google Firefox has Google analytics built in plus the addition of various other tracking. The fennec fork of Firefox (f-droid) doesn't have those.

2024-01-22 00:36:00

- reply

Glad my post was useful, maybe at some point I'll get one of those mini nodes setup or something.

2024-01-20 18:41:31

- reply

Depends a bit, Graphene will usually provide a bit extra to the security update period but for my cheap self it usually comes down to how long a particular device will be supported vs how cheap I can get it.
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=%2Cpixel-a-g-pixel-pixel-a-g-pixel-a-pixel-xl-pixel%2Cpixel-a-pixel-pixel-pro-pixel-a-pixel-pixel-pro-pixel-fold%2Cpixel-pro
Bought a 5a a couple of years back on a black Friday, but nowadays you'd probably want a Pixel 6 or newer. The latest is always going to give the longest support period but also costs the most (and the biggest risk you buy it for the long term and break it or something).
Also, be cautious of used phones or carrier phones that don't let you unlock the bootloader.

2024-01-18 22:20:52

https://lucas.art/blog/2023-in-art/
#art

2024-01-15 01:37:46

- reply

👋

2024-01-15 01:19:17

Quick PSA for any #Nostr users, I'm seeing some pretty cold temperatures here (though not the worst of it, a little more northeast of me is really getting the brunt of it). You can usually find cheap little mylar blankets (basically tin foil coated in plastic) for under a buck a piece if you buy several, and they're really portable and retain a lot of heat.
Real easy to throw in your car or a backpack, and handy if you're unexpectedly stuck in the cold (broken down car, temperature dropping considerably while you're out/at work and not dressed for the cold, hiking and caught in unexpected rain, etc).

2024-01-13 22:34:06

- reply

My 2c:
If you're new to Linux, you're on a run of the mill desktop/laptop, and are used to Windows use Linux Mint.
If you're new to Linux, you're not primarily a Windows user or you have non standard hardware (e.g. x86_64 tablet/2in1), then use Ubuntu.
If youre new to Linux, have Nvidia & intend to game, and feel uncomfortable manually installing drivers use the PopOS version with the Nvidia drivers integrated.
If you have been on Linux for a bit and feel comfortable then use Debian. It's stable, will do just about anything you need, and flatpacks/snaps/appimages can solve any need for the latest packege. You can always switch to the testing repos as well for a faster upgrade schedule (or sid for near rolling release scheduled).
If you have been on Linux for a while - have the know how and time for maintaining it - and a specific need or desire to have everything on your be on a rolling release, use Arch.

2024-01-12 04:35:33

Smart people on #nostr I wanted to #asknostr a question:
Would it be possible to put a bunch of signed messages behind a simple static web server (thinking like apache or github pages) and then add the site as a read only relay?
Thought being to build something like that into something like a Hugo/Jekyll site and making following individual sites on Nostr like following RSS. I know RSS can be bridged in, just wondering if the former is technically possible outside of a new NIP or something.

2024-01-11 13:42:11

- reply

I've been working on a github repo that catalogs a bunch of different ways to follow things cross platform (including Nostr), thought it was on topic enough to spam a link https://github.com/0n4t3/followanythinganywhere
But yeah in that case it just boils down to either using an RSS > Nostr bridge like above or the Mostr Activity Pub <> Nostr bridge.

2024-01-05 23:58:12

Did the good ol' to pay the government for a stamp in order to mail a check to pay the government.

2024-01-02 02:44:29

Posting Here From Nostr
I wanted to see if I can post to Lemmy from Nostr after reading a post about it: https://princecanute.medium.com/nostr-for-a-mastodon-user-and-interoperability-492bcf7f0377. If you're seeing this on the Lemmy side it appears to have worked, and if so it's super cool to see open protocols play so nicely. Using Mostr I had no issues subscribing the the community from here so fingers crossed :)
@nostr@lemmy.world

2024-01-01 01:31:39

Happy new year everybody!

2024-01-01 01:30:33

- reply

Neat!
And here I originally thought I was getting in towards the tail end at no. 145, you really brought a lot of people together with this project

2023-12-29 23:05:32

- reply

I'd also add, for anybody interested in setting things up, is that if you own your own domain (~10$ a year) you can set up a website for free. There's a plethora of options, but something like a static site via Hugo/Jekyl/Static WordPress hosted on Github pages is easy to get setup and a great way to have your own space.
Also, being on Nostr, you own your own account via cryptographic key pairs too and it's bridged to the fediverse as well.

2023-12-28 18:24:49

- reply

Fedilab can follow an instances public timeline

2023-12-28 04:01:30

- reply

Same as @npub1qs3…tccl, hello from Nostr as well. Big thanks to the Mostr.Pub bridge that makes everything so connected

2023-12-23 23:26:33

- reply

I usually disable JavaScript for news sites, which gets around most paywalls. It's really handy, but probably means I've shared plenty of paywalled articles while forgetting they're paywalled across my internet experience.

2023-12-20 11:55:36

A short #blog post I made about how I prefer to follow content, and about a project I've shared recently that documents how you can follow almost anything with RSS, #Nostr, Email or on the Fediverse
#nevent1q…nz56

2023-12-03 01:43:44

https://www.brycewray.com/posts/2023/11/firefox-brink/?utm_campaign=RSS&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS
#Firefox on the brink?
By Bryce Wray