hansw

Ausgangssperre ...

Jaja, het is zover. Ze zijn gezwicht in Nederland voor iets dat nog veel mensen zien als een probleem uit de oorlogstijd. Is dit terecht? Ik vermoed dat het terecht zou zijn als je dat ook als argument zou gebruiken. Als mensen wiens ouders de avond zien als iets dat heilig is voor het wandelen, het sporten en vooral als iets waar niemand aan mag komen omdat ze dan terug moeten denken aan de oorlog.

Zit me wel af te vragen hoe dat nog een probleems kan zijn voor iedereen behalve de jongeren. Die komen dit voor het eerst tegen en zullen zich inderdaad eenzaam voelen. Best wel naadje natuurlijk. We hopen dat ze het begrijpen en zich niet helemaal verloren voelen.

Maar laten we nu eens even praktisch zijn en bedenken wat we nu kunnen ten opzichte van normaal.

1. naar de winkels en benzine pompen.
2. ..... naar de arts of een medische dienst.
3. Alleen naar opa en oma
4. Niets...

Laten we er eerlijk over zijn. 1 en 2 zijn prima overdag te doen, zeker op het weekend. Er is nog steeds ruimte om ook in het begin van de avond wat te doen.

Toch is men er totaal tegen. Als dit nodig is om straks een echte lockdown te voorkomen (je mag 1 keer per dag naar de winkel en voor de rest ben je binnen) dan denk ik dat dat prima te doen is. Ja het is bagger, maar het er op aan laten komen is nog veel erger.

Signal, an alternative to Whatsapp?

The last 3 years or so people started to recommend Signal, It is a chat app that is more secure and able to protect your privacy is the general statement people use.

I installed it several times and found to be harassed by sms spammers the day after I installed it. This happened to me three times over the last years. So when Facebook stated it will change how it will be used in order to integrate it more into Facebook itself a lot of people spammed me to change to Signal again. I did, and this time there are not sms spammers yet after a day.

One posting on a German security blog pointed me to the fact that Signal is using Google storage for its group functions. I do see that those messages are encrypted between every reader and the poster. That is good, but does that mean we all need to be a contact of each other to achieve this? And why is Signal using the Google storage?

Another issue, it only runs on Android instances that use the Google store. It is not listed in alternatives like F-droid or other stores. Therefor Google is able to see where and when you use Signal since it uses the Google Play services or it's successor. When you visit the Signal site you will be tracked by Google analytics

So, the basic question is... can you live with Facebook or with Google when it comes to a chat app on your phone? I will delete it again simply since I see them both as a bad alternative. I will keep Whatsapp to make sure family can reach me.

When I want to chat encrypted it will probably simply ask for someones public gpg key so we can use an encrypted chat where the meta data is visible but where there is real encryption. If you do not want or understand it then please let's just chitchat about laughing goat movies.

Being impatient ....

The Dutch are weird, really weird. In the last year I learned more about them then in the last 40 years. Yes, I thought I knew them, I thought I knew how they think, how they act, etc... I was so wrong. It might explain why I left the Netherlands and why I thought about leaving years before I did. In this post I will try to explain it.

I did spend some time in other Countries. I enjoyed it and wondered why. Is it my open nature, or my closed nature that stops me from getting my feet wet? I now assume it's neither.

Once Corona, Covid-19, made a mess of the world I noticed that the Dutch started to look for ways to simply ignore rules. The sad thing is that we are not the only ones but for now I will concentrate on the Dutch since I was able to look at them from the outside.

What happened? Well, I did know the Dutch are able to nag about anything they do not like, I'm Dutch too, I should understand. So once the rules for closing down parts of the system the Dutch started to find loopholes. They simply started to state it is impossible to work with the rules since it will take away peoples freedom. He, hello, we have a pandemic, act like we have it.

No, the Dutch started to ignore it.

“We can go to Austria, we simply are on the Hills with lot's of good air”. “It isn't worse then the flu” “People died due to the flu too” “I can't breathe with a mask” “I simply need a party” “I am a student, I need people around me”

It goes on and on and on and on .....

And then there are commercial broadcasters. Every morning they start with statements that sector xyz are having a bad time. Hairdressers are going broke, Bars and Restaurants will not survive...

To be honest, all those companies are getting money, well, most of them. Fact is that we simply are in a lock-down for nearly a year and we will need to avoid contacts for the near future. Yes, kaboem, companies will not survive. It is hard but it are facts. There is a world wide crisis and we need to adapt. The Dutch are looking differently towards failure, we can, in this case, learn from other countries. Stop your business and start over when you can. Sure, it is hard, but can your customers help? Hardly, try to understand that good things sometimes stop

Blocking on social media

If you are not living under a rock, like I sometimes try to do, you might have noticed that the so called free speech fighters are trying to convince people about how bad the social media is acting. We all know it started when Twitter and Facebook deleted the Orange Guy.

The people opposing the actions on social media state that there are worse people who are not blocked. That might be true, sure. But maybe these people do not call for actions like the Orange Guy did a.f.a.i.k. If they do then people should report it i.m.h.o.

Facts.... every time someone starts to use a service they are bound to act within the borders of what is granted by the platform they are using. If someone gets kicked from it due to violating the rules then a user can simply go elsewhere. Public or Commercial services have the full right to do so. I even worked with customers for the company I worked for that had to agree they would be blocked if they acted illegal or would be loud mouthing to specific groups.

What does worry me is that Google and Apple both kicked apps like GAP or whatever they are called on which a lot of right winged people are gathering. This is not a service I would use but we are now getting in a situation where those networks are replaced by others where there is no grip on what people are planning there. What is next, kicking Signal offline since governments are not able to control it? I.m.h.o. it is better to know what these people are up to. Sure, I do not mind if they get kicked from Facebook or Twitter, it might make the network more user friendly. But let's not make those people find the dark sides of the internet where there is no control.

The Trump era.... it's ending, Fake news and Trolls

For me it started as soon as he won the elections. It is not so much that he is a republican but more the fact that I had the idea he was not someone who was able to work with others. I placed some filters on Social Media that allowed me to simply enjoy the media without getting a heartburn every time I opened it. No, not possible on the main stream platforms but on Mastodon and Hubzilla it was very much possible to simply ban it.

Sure, turning on the news-shows or reading the papers did make me aware of his existence and the foolish, maybe even more idiot decisions he made.

They are now trying to make sure he will never again be able to run Office but he left a nation divided into two sides that simply seem to hate each other. I know it should not be a problem for me since I am not living in the US and I was not born there. I do care due to relatives living there and having friends who live in parts of that Nation.

The real question should be, how to go and fix what the Orange guy did. Some might state he did some good like lowering taxes but then there are also people who lost their jobs due to his ruling. I will be an awful difficult job to bring sides together and unite again to a more normal situation.

Getting back into social media we know that this played a giant role. Fake news, not the news Donald mentioned, is alive and kicking. It will not stop in the main stream media since people gain (votes, money, influence) power using it. The users of that media will more and more see info that might be right but it is conducted due to the tools Facebook and Twitter use it. Sure, they play nice now but let's be honest, they gained from all of this (money).

I am slowly seeing this more and more on the Fediworld networks. Trolls are using bots to create new accounts and people are in fights since Twitter and Facebook kicked the orange guy. There are a lot of people who simply want to troll or influence the communities. What can we do about it?

A lot, the first rule is one that is very simple. Do not get your feet wet in responding to them. That is about all they want. Do not give them any ground to start a discussion that will end badly.

Blocking people, or simply ignoring them, or simply filter messages. Yes, I know that can be hard on certain platforms but on Mastodon, Hubzilla and other platforms it is easy. I case of the Orange guy I simply see a yellow button (Hubzilla) that shows the word that is filtered. I do not see the article unless I click on it. This helped me to still connect to contacts (friends) without discussing floods of posts about the Orange guy. I can still talk to them and discuss other topics. To be honest that is, for me, the most valued tool. On Mastodon I can even use my favorite firewall rule by simply blocking posts on predefined words.

Ignoring people (not ignoring their posts or responds to topics). This is a tool that simply allows me to stop following people if I somehow do not like them in general but I want them to be able to respond to something I write. Together with the filters this is very powerful. I can be in a discussion on subject xyz, the the ignored person answer and not feel bad about it. They can respond to my situation/posts too if they want but I simply do not follow them.

Blocking on a user level. This can be done on Hubzilla and on Mastodon. You simply do not see posts from those people, nor any responses. This should, in my opinion, only be used for Trolls or people where you absolutely have problems with.

Blocking on the server level. This is what is left if the above does not help. Blocking a server (as a user) means that all other users on the blocked server is not shown anymore. Use it with care. If needed a podmin (admin) can block a server too. It should be used with great care.

This might have been a more negative post but it isn't meant to be. I described how to be able to handle situation X and I only used the orange guy as an example. If you simply want to enjoy social media then think about what you post, what your response is and make sure we all have a bit of fun too.

Over the years I took on Photography as a hobby. Started out with a point and click Camera from Olympus. Nice thing and I enjoyed it a lot. I 2018 I switched to a Nikon D3200 and bought a Tamron lens to get more close to far away items I wanted to shoot.

Some examples of the far away pictures:

It also makes better pictures from flowers.

For more pictures you can view my Pixelfed account

There we go, a new challenge to explore, as a writer.

No, not a book but just plain articles. Trying to maybe find a new addiction where I can share my thoughts and findings. Nothing great, nothing exciting, maybe even boring, who cares.

Let me start by introducing myself. I am a, currently, 60 year old dad, husband of a lovely lady and the father of two sons. We where originally living in the Netherlands in one of the youngest towns of that country named Zeewolde. After nearly 30 years we moved to Germany. We live in a small town called Neuenhaus, located in the 'Grafschaft Bentheim'. A relaxed area where people have an eye for theirs and ours, where they great you with 'Moin' in some cases or just with 'Gutentag'. A friendly town.

I used to work in the IT area as a coder/engineer/database/learning dude, I did what was needed with a preference for nix based systems. I stopped supporting MS Windows years ago since I simply did not like the closed environment that is used to sell their software. Currently I am not working anymore and I spend my time using open-source, enjoying Photography and our Garden. I try to do my best in the Kitchen to prepare some meals, bake some bread and other treats.

This account will not be used to discuss politics, pandemics or other news where I am not able to change what is happening, it will be more or less of a personal blog.

I can also be found at the following fedi sites.

Mastodon:

https://qoto.org/@hansw https://mastodon.social/@hansw

Pixelfed:

https://pixelfed.social/hansw

Hubzilla:

https://hub.libranet.de/channel/hansw