spinning_disk_engineer

joined 10 months ago

I generally agree, but I'd avoid gmail with very few exceptions. They are going to read your email, so whether your solution as another protonmail account, an alias, simplelogin, or another service entirely, it's almost certain to be an improvement. Keep in mind that you can tell gmail to forward your emails, for anyone who hasn't updated their address book yet.

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It is an option, but not a particularly good one seeing as it's run by amazon. I personally use Signal just because it's popular, but Wire seems equally good, and I'm glad they exist to provide competition.

The server is physically connected to my laptop with only a switch in between. However, my Qubesos config has two routers (one of which is a firewall) between the hardware and what I'm actually working on. I checked with curl, and I have access to ports 2049 and 111, as well as the webui on 443.

 

I am trying to mount an nfs share from my local network using qubesos. I know that the same configuration works on a different debian machine, but it doesn't work under an app VM, creating the following error:

$ sudo mount -t nfs -o nfsvers=4.2 -o sec=krb5p <nfs share> /mnt/removable/ -vvv
mount.nfs: timeout set for Sat Mar 14 16:35:14 2026
mount.nfs: trying text-based options 'nfsvers=4.2,sec=krb5p,addr=10.206.0.206,clientaddr=10.137.0.9'
mount.nfs: mount(2): Invalid argument
mount.nfs: an incorrect mount option was specified for /mnt/removable

Is this a firewall issue somehow? I don't see how that would happen, since nfs should work over the internet. I have installed nfs-utils to the template, but I'm not completely certain that's actually what's being used.

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The one problem I have with VLC is that it waits to read the next file from disk until it's time to play it, which can be disconcerting when switching from one track to the next.

If you use cue/flac, then you don't need to worry about this. VLC 4.0 will fix the problem, but until then I find strawberry to be an adequate solution.

Strawberry is paywalled on windows, but WSL would be worth a try, and clementine, which strawberry is based on, is not.

Edit: Oops, I assumed an Earth day is 1 second instead of 86,000 seconds

I don't think that one's been made for Youtube yet.

 

I'm looking for an alternative to signal-desktop, with the following conditions:

  1. Designed for desktop (GUI or TUI, notification support, runs in background)
  2. Runs as main device, not requiring a linked signal app
  3. Supports most of the signal features (group chats, disappearing messages, usernames)
  4. Preferably integrated with pidgin, thunderbird, or another gui that I'm already using.

Does such an app exist? I have seen many forks of Signal, but most of them also seem to be for android. Previously, I had used signal-cli with an official copy of signal-desktop, but this is not satisfactory for a few reasons, mainly about the "remember to connect on your phone before 30 days" error.

 

I'm installing Qubes OS for the first time, and I was wondering if there is any disadvantage to installing librewolf (or something similar) as my primary browser instead of default firefox?

If I do want to do this, is there a recommended method beyond "install it as normal in the template"? I notice that when creating a new qube, there is a menu for additional applications; how exactly does that work?

For practical reasons I might also want to install some kind of chromium based browser (probably helium), but I wouldn't expect to use it much.

You can daisy chain displayport, as long as you have the bandwidth for it. I think the real issue is not how many monitors, but just how many pixels you're trying to drive. Since secondary monitors are typically 1080p, the whole collection of them should be the same as a 4k main monitor.

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Are you talking about business email or personal email. For myself, I use mailbox.org, which is based in Germany (relatively good in the modern world). They also provide encryption at rest by pgp if you request it, which isn't nothing I guess.

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This template I got from the internet does, though this file is almost certainly not the problematic part.

Source

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% This CV example/template is based on my own
% CV which I (lamely attempted) to clean up, so that
% it's less of an eyesore and easier for others to use.
%
% LianTze Lim (liantze@gmail.com)
% 23 Oct, 2022
% 24 Aug, 2024 -- Updated X (Twitter) icon
\documentclass[a4paper,skipsamekey,11pt,english]{curve}

% Uncomment to enable Chinese; needs XeLaTeX
% \usepackage{ctex}


% Default biblatex style used for the publication list is APA6. If you wish to use a different style or pass other options to biblatex you can change them here. 
\PassOptionsToPackage{style=ieee,sorting=ydnt,uniquename=init,defernumbers=true}{biblatex}

% Most commands and style definitions are in settings.sty.
\usepackage{settings}

% If you need to further customise your biblatex setup e.g. with \DeclareFieldFormat etc please add them here AFTER loading settings.sty. For example, to remove the default "[Online] Available:" prefix before URLs when using the IEEE style:
\DefineBibliographyStrings{english}{url={\textsc{url}}}

%% Only needed if you want a Publication List
\addbibresource{own-bib.bib}

%% Specify your last name(s) and first name(s) (as given in the .bib) to automatically bold your own name in the publications list. 
%% One caveat: You need to write \bibnamedelima where there's a space in your name for this to work properly; or write \bibnamedelimi if you use initials in the .bib
% \mynames{Lim/Lian\bibnamedelima Tze}

%% You can specify multiple names like this, especially if you have changed your name or if you need to highlight multiple authors. See items 6–9 in the example "Journal Articles" output.
\mynames{Lim/Lian\bibnamedelima Tze,
  Wong/Lian\bibnamedelima Tze,
  Lim/Tracy,
  Lim/L.\bibnamedelimi T.}
%% MAKE SURE THERE IS NO SPACE AFTER THE FINAL NAME IN YOUR \mynames LIST

% Change the fonts if you want
\ifxetexorluatex % If you're using XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
  \usepackage{fontspec} 
  %% You can use \setmainfont etc; I'm just using these font packages here because they provide OpenType fonts for use by XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX anyway
  \usepackage[p,osf,swashQ]{cochineal}
  \usepackage[medium,bold]{cabin}
  \usepackage[varqu,varl,scale=0.9]{zi4}
\else % If you're using pdfLaTeX or latex
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[p,osf,swashQ]{cochineal}
  \usepackage{cabin}
  \usepackage[varqu,varl,scale=0.9]{zi4}
\fi

% Change the page margins if you want
% \geometry{left=1cm,right=1cm,top=1.5cm,bottom=1.5cm}

% Change the colours if you want
% \definecolor{SwishLineColour}{HTML}{00FFFF}
% \definecolor{MarkerColour}{HTML}{0000CC}

% Change the item prefix marker if you want
% \prefixmarker{$\diamond$}

%% Photo is only shown if "fullonly" is included
\includecomment{fullonly}
% \excludecomment{fullonly}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


\leftheader{%
  {\LARGE\bfseries\sffamily Your Name Here, Ph.D.}

  \makefield{\faEnvelope[regular]}{\href{mailto:example@gmail.com}{\texttt{example@gmail.com}}}
  % fontawesome5 doesn't have the X icon so we use
  % the simpleicons package here instead; but some 
  % font size adjustment might be needed
  \makefield{{\scriptsize\simpleicon{x}}}{\!\href{https://x.com/overleaf_example}{\texttt{@overleaf\_example}}}
  \makefield{\faLinkedin}
  {\href{http://www.linkedin.com/in/example/}{\texttt{example}}}

  %% Next line
  \makefield{\faGlobe}{\url{http://example.example.org/}}
  % You can use a tabular here if you want to line up the fields.
}

\rightheader{~}
\begin{fullonly}
\photo[r]{photo}
\photoscale{0.13}
\end{fullonly}

\title{Curriculum Vitae}

\begin{document}
\makeheaders[c]

\makerubric{employment}
\makerubric{education}

% If you're not a researcher nor an academic, you probably don't have any publications; delete this line.
%% Sometimes when a section can't be nicely modelled with the \entry[]... mechanism; hack our own and use \input NOT \makerubric
\input{publications}

\makerubric{skills}
\makerubric{misc}

\makerubric{referee}
% \input{referee-full}

\end{document}
[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)

For the sake of accuracy: Incoming emails from external services are initially not encrypted. It's only truly zero knowledge for either emails sent by another tuta user, or for emails that have already been received.

That being said, they don't record this information unless specifically required by a court order, which to my knowledge has never happened. I understand that they make the decision of whether your account is spam within 48 hours, and after that it is in the clear. I created my account over Tor, didn't use it much at all for the first few days, and have been using it fine since. That's only one data point of course.

 

I recently decided that I want my resume to look better than the result of libreoffice. I installed texlive from the default trixie repository, and it works for the very simplest cases. However, trying to render a template which depends on CurVe resulted in an error about missing sty files.

By installing texlive from source, and installing CurVe to the working directory, I was able to fix that problem. However, there is still an error, and it appears to be an error in apa.bbx, a downstream dependency that comes with texlive. The error is

Package keyval Error: usenarrator undefined.

I'm not sure what I can do about this. I'm not very experienced with latex, mostly just using the default style as a convenient way to format math. Would swapping it for html be a recommended solution? Is there a good way from the command line to export html to pdf?

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 months ago

Interesting that this happens in Ireland, which is known for capitulating to big tech (because they're a tax haven). Almost like this is not actually about restricting the ability of big tech to cause damage.

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say here. To clarify, telegram uses a store-forward architecture, meaning that it deletes messages from the server once they have been received by everyone. Until that time, the messages are stored on the server in plaintext, unless you're using a secret chat. They do this to avoid having to exchange keys between different clients, but what that really means is that it isn't actually private most of the time.

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

By default, yes. It is possible to create a so-called secret chat, which is standard for signal and similar, but that's something you have to manually do. Furthermore, it's not even possible to make secret chats for groups. When it was initially released, I was cautiously optimistic that it could turn into a good, secure application, but knowing it's been this long and it hasn't, I wouldn't consider that likely.

9
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

I use mailbox.org. Mailbox.org provides an "encrypted mailbox" feature, which PGP encrypts incoming unencrypted emails. The server can of course intercept incoming messages, but it can't look at the entire backlog unless it was compromised the entire time.

Alternatively, using POP3 instead of IMAP (at least with the default settings) deletes emails from the server after downloading, whenever my laptop is connected. Thus, the server can intercept incoming messages, but not the entire backlog.

Of course, both of these have downsides. The encrypted mailbox is PGP, so it misses important details like the subject lines and source addresses. Meanwhile, POP3 can leave my mail entirely unprotected for as long as I'm offline, and it also means that I can't access it from anything other than my laptop, and means that I have to do manual backups.

Which is more important in terms of security, or should I use both? I'm looking for the legal perspective of law enforcement (In Canada and Germany, home to myself and my email provider respectively), but also that of some hacker who's trying to get into my (and everyone else's) accounts.

Would there be a server software that I could use to download emails from mailbox.org over POP3 and then provide them to all my own devices over IMAP? That might, in some sense be the best of both worlds. Right now, I am using both POP3 and the encrypted mailbox, but convenience is definitely not optimal, so I'd like to change if it can be done safely.

 

Jmp.chat provides an adapter (a eUICC device?) that can be used to store an eSIM on a physical card. I have such an adapter that I have already used for a plan tied to my identity. Is it safe to purge the chip, and then to reuse it for anonymous communications?

 

I'm looking into getting some domains for email, so I don't need to use the same few addresses for everything. In doing this, the domain name itself becomes the identity, but it's also entirely arbitrary.

What is a good method to choose domain names so that they look more or less normal? Catch all addresses can of course be detected in SMTP, but the idea is just to not look suspicious. Would anyone be comfortable sharing the constructions they use? (though not the domains themselves, for obvious reasons) Should I use subdomains for the things that can safely be correlated, (as spam defense) or is it better to only use different mailboxes on one domain?

16
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca to c/android@lemmy.world
 

What part of an android device is responsible for carrier locking? I understand that custom ROMs can sometimes be used to bypass a carrier lock, but how might I go about making such a ROM from stock?

This is complicated somewhat by the fact that the actual device I have, an Orbic Speed RC400L, isn't technically an android device; it runs busybox/linux, but its bootloader, adbd, and cellular systems seem to be android-like. I'm happy to experiment if someone can provide resources for the general android case.

14
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

I am trying to get rayhunter, but I am confused about a few things. What kind of hardware may be used? The Orbic RC400L advertises itself as being for Verizon network only, which I am not going to use. Does the rayhunter software allow it to work on arbitrary networks?

Furthermore, I don't see a good way to acquire such a device. They aren't sold locally as far as I can tell. On amazon they are available, though expensive. However, that would mean losing any form of privacy. I don't need it to be completely anonymous—someone looking at the location could probably see home and work easily enough—but better than amazon would be much preferred.

Are there any alternate devices that are known to work well in Canada? I will be keeping the device powered off most of the time anyways, (so as to hide my location) but it must be reliable when I need it.

EDIT: eSIM support is a plus, but not required

 

I store playlists as m3u files, but sometimes I want to play it on an external device or send it over the network. The playlist references files using absolute paths, and they have various formats (wav, flac, mp3, ogg).

I would like to convert it into a single cue/flac, as if it were an album that I just ripped from CD (though it may be longer than 80min.) It would be acceptable to create a directory full of uniform flacs with appropriately adjusted metadata, again as if ripped from CD.

I would like to avoid writing intermediates to disk unnecessarily, and I would like to avoid GUI if possible, but the only hard requirement is that it run quickly (that is to say, faster than realtime.)

1
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca to c/privacy@lemmy.ca
 

Since laser printers all encode metadata into the printed image, and handwriting is unique to the writer, I was wondering if a typewriter would provide a more anonymous form of paper communication.

I expect it would be possible to determine the model of typewriter, but would it be possible to tell if two samples were made on the very same machine? Are electric typewriters better or worse than manual? (assuming the same operator) What about Selectric or Wheelwriter – would frequently swapping out the typing element help?

 

I would like recommendations for a set of wireless headphones. I already have a set of headphones which are of the overhead style, but those cannot be used in all situations, so I would like to get a backup set of in ear headphones. I have a budget around $150-$200, though that isn't hard and fast.

My criteria are as follows:

  • Comfortable, inconspicuous
  • Good passive noise isolation. Active noise cancellation is a potential asset, especially if it can distinguish speech from other sounds, but passive properties must hold up.
  • Wireless, preferably with an open standard (e.g. Bluetooth)

Audio quality is not the highest concern, as I already have a set of wired headphones. I'm just looking for something to play music when I am working.

I already have a transmitter for bluetooth, if the wireless protocol is anything different I would have to buy that. Additionally, I might in the future buy an MP3 player, and some of those come with bluetooth support. If you have any specific suggestions for small MP3 players, put them also in the comments. That's definitely a more long term idea though.

Recommendations?

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