Keith Whyte @keith@tic-ac.org

Oh! the irony.

#Kingsnorth has a new piece out called The Trap - A conspiracy theory.

From the introduction it appears to be about building a "great mind" through data harvesting -

"...We need the people to tell us everything. We need them to tell us every day, in a continual flowing stream...."

🙂
And you can read it for free; - if you add your data to the machine.

We might assume he's choosing to end the publicly readable intro here in order to make a point?

https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/the-trap

I've found myself in situations recently where this has come up, and as it is more than once, I will speak out.

Despite a feeling that there is in general a more laissez faire attitude in Latin America - maybe among younger people*, I would still consider that it is NOT ok to #film or take #pictures of people without their #consent. - for so many reasons!

If you make an invite (via an open public invitation) to an event and then you film the public without consent or any previous notification of filming, and when I (personally) ask you why you are filming me, your response is because you are filming and when I enquire about your intentions with what has been filmed, you first shush me, and finally you tell me that you are live streaming via #facebook, you CANNOT expect me to be polite in my response.
That said, I always regret loosing my cool, but I do not feel apologetic.

- Now, I have never been a huge fan of #CoC for events as I suppose maybe I have always assumed somewhat innocently that certain things are just no-brainers. But it seems not.

* It is, at the same time, a testament to the sense of freedom that people currently feel; to be openly filmed and archived, and fascinating that sometimes these very same people are so highly critical of some Latin American Government's policy.

#ElDosdeOctubreYaSeOlvidó

DNS Libre - at https://dnslibre.com.mx/ is offering #DoT, #DoH and clear #DNS lookup (UDP port 53) - and they also offer "noads" protection option at DNS lookup level.

Open Root DNS at https://dns.open-root.net is offering a plethora of #TLDs (65 to be precise) including .mexico

The catch? None of this is "authorised" by the masters of the corporate Internet, so it won't work unless client software is configured to use DNS servers that are participating in alternate root DNS.

You know... this is something that's been an issue for decades!

I'm old enough (watch me dox myself) to remember registering a free handle at the original network solutions*, before DNS became the virtual real estate it is today, peddled by money spinning sales sharks, and doing enormous damage to self hosting - nudging people to maintain their "web" presence purely on walled gardens controlled by Meta Platforms Inc.

And despite this issue being decades old, not ONE single NGO in the democracy and connectivity promotion business has EVER mentioned it.

Yes, I'm aware there are issues, but a bit like the SSL cert business was an insane money spinner - again selling virtual worthless nothings for a absolute fortune, until #EFF's LE came along, there is ZERO barrier to a technically and socially better DNS, or something altogether superior.

* dot com was free (as in beer) until about 1995. Did you know that? I'm geniunely interested to get an idea of how many people know that.

#DecentraliseNow

#HoyNoLlegaElAgua 😞

#Oaxaca
#México

I might add that #AltanRedes lack of IMS over IP is also lamentable, but we might give them the benefit of the doubt here and assume they have been busy with other priorities and will eventually get around to it, then we'll see if they geo-restrict access.

Of all the weirdo decisions taken in the #telecoms industry, I can't fathom the logic behind #Telcel blocking access to #VoWifi from #Starlink terminals.

In rural #Mexico there has been a massive uptake of starlink, such that in areas where there is a lack of direct mobile coverage from #2G, #3G, or #LTE towers, the most likely alternative is going to be a starlink.

So why then deny access to service for those customers connected in this way? After all, VoWifi calls are charged at the same rates as those routed over the mobile RAN (even as they don't actually use any resources on it)

Usually, #MNOs (#Mobile #Network #Operators) are blocking access to their #IMS over IP from outside the home country - in order, we presume to not have customers avoid the industry's outlandish "#roaming" charges. (there are some notable exceptions)

But in the case of Starlink, (as far as I can make out) - all the terminals in a national territory are routed via the ground station in that country. - I sort of understood this may be a requirement for operation?

So why not add starlink's #Mexican IPs to a whitelist for telcels?

Of course... we could all have been doing something else since long ago; #VoIP is a thing, VoWifi is just glorified VoIP, just as IMS is a glorified #SIP server.

But then there would not be so much #control...

@mez

You nod here at something else related, which I experience, (but I have no idea if it is for the same reasons); I've switched code repos to private.

For me, on one hand it's a very simple way to get rid of the barrage of scrapers "indexing" a repo, (yes I know, there is other tech out there I can learn, install, configure and maintain) - but it's also.. I dunno, I think maybe FOSS was a very good thing at some point in the past, and may be a good thing again in the future. Right now though, working alone or in small groups is OK.

There's also this: https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum/blob/master/This%20Is%20Not%20a%20Teahouse.md
(ironically the easiest link here is to github, although that document is part of the repo and thus is also available elsewhere, including on #reticulum itself.)

@JulianOliver

Working with a community network installation that has their own fibre, I wanted to help get connectivity to some people who are beyond the reach of the current fibre rollout.

I decided to grab some #Ericsson #RBS equipment that was gathering dust at the TIC-AC offices and at the same time, install another site that would make use of tic's #900Mhz band concession for social use.

In order to temporarily install the #LTE unit; while a new hilltop tower is in the works, some members of the radio station committee kindly converted a disused toilet room adjacent to the studio into an Ericsson cabinet :-) with some makeshift but sturdy shelves made from fresh pine, which is getting warmed slightly by the equipment, and it smells great!

Oh. It's been "fixed".
so it was an error.

It is not clear to me (I have not bothered to dig that much and I don't use either service), but it would appear that #facebook or #meta or whatever it is call today have implemented a requirement to identify with an account on "facebook" in order to use the #whatsapp service on the web*

This kind of action on their part is to be applauded fervently!

Any and every move that might persuade even a small amount of people to consider using any of the far superior messengers out there is to be welcomed.

If even just one more person abandons meta platforms, then today was a good day for humanity. If that person happens to be in #Mexico, all the better, as #whatsapp absolutely has Mexico by the balls.

So.... Well done Facebook, More of this kind of thing!

* There is a redirect happening, it is initiated presumably by some JS (obfuscated) running on web.whatsapp.com.

The login link on the facebook service, includes a parameter called "next" set to point back to whatsapp web. So from this one could assume that the redirect is intentional.