#network location server

[co-locationracks]

Benefits and challenges of co-location in a hybrid cloud architecture

The IT infrastructure is evolving at a rapid pace with each passing year. Here, the concept of co-location has become a boon, which emerged as a critical factor in hybrid cloud architecture. It is the bridge that connects the best of both worlds in hybrid cloud environments, enabling businesses to leverage the scalability of public clouds while maintaining complete control of access to critical data and applications and making them secured from cyber threats.

Benefits of co-location racks in a hybrid cloud architecture

Co-location houses private servers and networking equipment in a third-party data center. This is both beneficial as well as challenging considering the evolving data center ecosystem. In this regard it must be mentioned that Netrack being the pioneer in rack manufacturing, designed and manufactured high-quality rack enclosures as per the requirement. In fact, Netrack understands the need of the hour and hence manufactured co-location racks that offer efficiency and sustainability to modern data centers.

Co-location racks are a cost-efficient solution that reduces the burden of maintaining individual data centers by enterprises. Such a shared facility reduces the overhead costs associated with power, cooling solutions, and physical security. Netrack’s co-location racks are designed in such a way that it offers secured multi-compartment designs to accommodate multiple users without any security concern.

Co-location facilities are beneficial due to their consistent power supply, advanced cooling systems, and robust security measures. Hence, Netrack ensured that the co-location racks are designed with vented top, bottom, and side covers, along with fan mounting options to prevent overheating. This ensures reliability.

Scalability is one of the advantages of co-location racks. It empowers a business to upscale without any significant capital investment. To enhance this feature, Netrack’s modular co-location racks can be customized at the time of deployment to enhance compartment space, making them ideal for medium-density data centers and server room applications.

Co-location facilities provide multiple layers of security, including access controls, surveillance, and biometric systems. Netrack’s co-location racks comes with unique and certified lock features to meet the quality and security standards, such as UL, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, and ISO 45001:2018.

Netrack showcases its commitment to environmental sustainability through ISO 14001:2015 certification for Environmental Management Systems. Hence, the co-location racks are designed to enhance sustainability by increasing the cooling efficiency and managing the airflow efficiently within the data center.

Challenges that cannot be overlooked

All good things come with a price, similarly these co-location racks too have challenges which need to be addressed to enjoy its benefits.

Data storage in third-party facilities can be concerning. However, enterprises must ensure that this co-location solution complies with standard regulations.

Again, any sort of latency can impact the performance of applications and services, especially if the co-location facility is far away from the company’s operation center. Hence, detailed and careful planning of connectivity and network architecture will mitigate such risk.

Managing relationships with co-location providers can be complex. Hence, clarity in contracts and SLAs can help to manage expectations better while ensuring reliability of service.

Security concerns are common and can be addressed by implementing robust security measures and continuous monitoring.

Netrack’s comprehensive offering to reduce the challenges

Netrack’s co-location racks are designed to mitigate many of the above-mentioned challenges associated with co-location racks. The multi-compartment racks designed by Netrack offer enhanced security features, efficient cooling, and modular configurations to support scalability and sustainability. By adhering to stringent quality standards and certifications, Netrack ensures that their racks meet the highest levels of security, reliability, and performance.

Co-location rack – the game changer!

Despite the challenges, the benefits of these co-location racks often outweigh the risks, especially when leveraging advanced solutions like Netrack’s co-location racks. As data centers continue to evolve, the demand for innovative co-location solutions will undoubtedly grow, making companies like Netrack crucial players in shaping the future of IT infrastructure.

[onionsites]

ONİONSİTES - DRAGON+

Onion sites, also known as Tor sites, are a unique type of website that can only be accessed through the Tor network. The term "onion site" specifically refers to websites that are exclusively accessible via Tor, distinguishing them from traditional websites that can be reached through standard web browsers. These sites utilize a special-use top-level domain name.onion, which designates them as anonymous onion services previously known as "hidden services". The Tor network, short for The Onion Router, is a free and open-source platform that enables users to browse the internet anonymously and access content not typically available through conventional means.

The functionality of onion sites is based on the encryption and routing protocols of the Tor network. When a user attempts to access an onion site, their connection is routed through a series of volunteer-operated servers, or nodes, to conceal their identity and location. This process helps to protect the privacy and anonymity of both the user and the site they are visiting. Onion web list offer enhanced security and privacy compared to traditional websites, making them attractive to individuals seeking to safeguard their online activities from surveillance, censorship, or tracking.

What are onion sites presents both benefits and risks for users navigating the dark web. Understanding the potential advantages and drawbacks is essential for making informed decisions about online activities. Some key points to consider include: Benefits:

- Enhanced privacy and anonymity

- Access to content not available on the clear web

- Protection against surveillance and tracking Risks:

- Exposure to illegal or harmful content

- Potential security vulnerabilities

- Increased likelihood of encountering malicious actors

By weighing these factors and exercising caution while browsing onion sites, users can leverage the unique capabilities of the Tor network while minimizing potential risks to their online security and well-being.

[worldofstoriesanddreams]

Isn't there an age limit?

The Justice League gathered in the meeting room to deal with yet another potential world ending threat. On the screen was a projection of an incoming alien armada. The invaders were as numerous as the stars. Each spaceship looked like a skull with many tentacles.

“These mechanical ships harvest a world’s resources, destroying all life, while terraforming the planet into servers which become part of Brainiac’s interstellar network,” Batman explained.

“We don’t have sufficient numbers to take them all down,” Martian Manhunter pointed out. “Is there a weakness we can target? Or do they have a leader we can capture to force the entire fleet into submission?”

“We need to locate Brainiac and infiltrate the ship he’s on.” While Batman spoke, a hush silence fell on the entire room. Everyone stared at the screen behind him, with mouths wide open.

Turning around, Batman stared in unbelief.

A massive sphere - a dead star, moved between Earth and the alien army. 

The cameras zoomed in on a red dot pushing it - Fawcett’s new local hero with the demeanour of a golden retriever - Captain Marvel. 

Gripping the titanic star like an oversized plastic ball, he swung it forward, hitting the incoming spaceships out of the galaxy.  

The Herculean man’s face lit with childish glee as he pumped his fist in the air. 

Grinning like an idiot, he carted the unimaginably heavy celestial object away, while whistling a ditty. 

How powerful was that man? 

More importantly, does he have any weakness in case he needs to be taken down?

“Phew,” Flash was the first to get his voice back. “The new guy took care of that. So can we go home now?”

“No,” Batman raised his hand. “Change of agenda. It’s time we expanded our membership.” Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. What better way to keep an eye on the new guy than to bring him into the fold.

Superman had a silly hopeful grin on his face. “I vote we invite Captain Marvel to join the League.”  The Last Son of Krypton must suspect that the new hero is a fellow Kryptonian.

“We don’t know anything about him,” Green Lantern cautioned.

“Better get him on our side than have him join our enemies,” Batman replied as the screen showed photos and articles about Captain Marvel gleaned from the internet for all to study.

“He’s clean.” Cyborg ran his checks on the man. “He’s a boy scout. Half of all the footage I have found — and I mean exactly half — shows him rescuing cats from trees or helping little old ladies cross the road while carrying groceries for them.”

“Cast your votes,” Batman ordered. “Do we want Captain Marvel to be a member of the Justice League?”

*

The decision was unanimous. Captain Marvel has a place in the Justice League, that is, if he wants it. With his power set, he would be a valuable asset to the team. All appearances of the new hero have shown that he is one of the good guys.

“I’ll ask him,” Superman volunteered. He was dying to meet the new guy. He had to be a fellow Kryptonian. Though he must have a chat with The Captain about Bat-paranoia, to hide how much Kryptonians can really do. Otherwise Bats might break out his Kryptonite stores to hit them both.

For example, while pushing a titanic star, for goodness sake, please make it look a lot more challenging.

According to Cyborg, Captain Marvel would appear in Fawcett right after a massive lightning strike from the clear, cloudless sky. The hero tended to patrol Fawcett for an hour before seven in the morning and for an hour after three in the afternoon on weekdays. His schedule was more unpredictable during the weekends. 

Clark was a reporter. 

Could The Captain be an elementary school teacher in his civilian identity?

It was a quarter past three on a Wednesday afternoon. Superman hovered four hundred feet above Fawcett’s busiest square, drawing a curious crowd while he waited for Captain Marvel to make his appearance.

Lightning struck an alley near a local elementary school.

“S-superman!” Captain Marvel hovered in front of him. 

The man’s brilliant blue eyes brimmed with excitement as he stared at Superman with an open-mouthed grin. 

“What brings you to Fawcett?” The Captain’s cheeks flushed as he stiffened, arms crossing his heavily muscled chest. If Superman didn’t know any better, he’d think Captain Marvel was starstruck.

“Captain Marvel,” Superman began, feeling a little self conscious.“I come on behalf of the Justice League. We’ve seen what you can do and want you to join our team.”

“You want me to join the Justice League?” The big guy was practically bouncing with excitement. If he were a golden retriever with a tail, he’d be wagging it.

Just as abruptly, he looked down, slouching as if trying to shrink his large frame. “But isn’t there an age limit to join the League?”

“We don’t discriminate against anyone based on their ages.” 

Superman whispered conspiratorially. “I don’t even know how old I was when my ship landed on earth. For all you know, it could have taken lightyears to get here.”

“Hmm,” Captain Marvel rubbed the back of his neck. “If you say so.”

“Take your time to think about it,” Superman handed him a League communicator. “This is for you. If you want to talk to us, just press this button,” he showed The Captain how to use the device.

“For me?” The guy looked as excited as a kid who had received a shiny new toy. 

“Yes, for you,” Superman replied. “Call us when you’ve decided.”

“I want in,” Captain looked up, grinning from ear to ear.

“Then, welcome to the Justice League!” Superman shook his hand. “Come with me to our headquarters.”

*

The flight to the Justice League’s Headquarters with Superman was fun. 

That giant satellite that Cap often flew past when he left earth’s atmosphere was the Justice League’s Watchtower -  a secret meeting place for Justice League members.

Billy was flying with Superman. 

Elated.

The SUPERMAN!

How cool was that?

His hero was a lot chattier in person. 

Superman talked about Krypton, his home world. His dad uploaded all Krypton’s history and knowledge into the A.I. of the spaceship that brought Kal-el to earth. 

Kal-el was Superman’s birth name.

“What’s your birth name?” Superman asked?

“William,” Cap replied.

“Wil-em,” Superman looked deep in thought. 

“The Ems — I think I know your bloodline.”

“You do?” The thought that Superman even cared about Billy’s family warmed him like a cup of hot chocolate. But as far as Billy knew, he was a Batson, not an Em. He was four when he lost his family. It’s been three years since. His memories of Daddy, Mummy and Mary were beginning to fade.

“Come with me to my Fortress of Solitude after your induction and I’ll show you Krypton’s records about the Ems,” Superman grinned as he tapped on the satellite.

A panel slid open.

“Where is it?” Cap asked as he flew into the airlock.

“In the Arctic,” he accompanied Cap in the dock.

“Are there polar bears?” Cap felt giddy with excitement.

“Plenty,” Superman laughed as he walked Cap through the massive hall. It was like nothing Billy had ever seen. 

“I can introduce you to a family of friendly bears,” Superman grinned.

“I would love that,” Billy’s heart did flip flops over the thought of getting to meet polar bears who were friends with Superman. Cap could speak all languages. He’d have a great time chatting with Superman’s bear buddies.

“Holy Moley,” Captain Marvel exclaimed as he walked through the security checkpoint. The doorway opened into futuristic corridor with interactive walls and holographic displays. 

Announcing the arrival of Superman and his guest Captain Marvel, a tinny voice rang out.

“Brace yourself,” Superman whispered. “The rest of the League is waiting for us in the meeting room.”

A metallic panel slid open revealing a grand meeting room. Batman sat at the head of the long table. Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Aquaman sat around it. There were two empty seats.

All eyes were on Captain Marvel.

“Holy Moley,” Cap whispered. He couldn’t help himself. It’s a bad habit he picked up from his late father.

“Guys,” Superman announced. “Captain Marvel has agreed to join the Justice League.”

The room broke into applause.

“Welcome to the team,” Flash whooped.

“Let’s celebrate,” Aquaman tilted a large bottle of whiskey, filled a glass and slid it across the table to Captain Marvel.

Cap looked at the glass in front of him and back at Aquaman. “Isn’t there an age limit?”

[gothhabiba]

@ anon

I think it might be actually dangerous to publish your ask, but I'm sure from my response people will be able to tell what it's about anyway.

You're full of actual, absolute shit if you're pretending not to know by now that verification processes to ensure the legitimacy of Ghazzawin's fundraisers have been undertaken, and that details about what these processes entail have been shared by several people. Several people, some of them currently in Gaza, put themselves through countless hours of work video-calling people, judging their knowledge of dialectical Arabic, seeing their faces and their children's faces and their living conditions, seeing IDs and bank information, asking invasive, personal questions that they didn't want to be asking & that the people responding probably didn't want to be answering, and physically visiting people in Gaza and video-recording their interactions, just so that people like you could be sure that these fundraisers were legitimate. If you're ignoring all of the blood & tears that went into that process just so you can hand-wring about scams, no one needs to be concerned with convincing you of the legitimacy of anything, because you were never going to donate to these people anyway. You are just looking for any plausible-sounding excuse not to do what you already didn't want to do.

If, by some miracle, you actually didn't know about the verified fundraiser spreadsheet (which is frankly still blameable bc, where on earth have you been?), then there it is. The post of mine that you're referring to never even mentioned responding to asks; using this spreadsheet is an absolutely valid, reasonable way of donating directly to families.

Now let me treat some of your statements as though they were questions (which, they were not).

How do people in Gaza have internet access?

Internet infrastructure in Gaza is very robust (e.g. in what cables are made of, how deep they're buried, amounts of redundancy in the system, &c.) because they have been getting bombed by Israel all the fucking time for decades, so they expect this infrastructure to be put through a lot. There have still--if you've been following the situation at all--been several outages caused by damage that Ghazzawin have needed to repair. Though I do have to say that I find it odd that you doubt Ghazzawin have internet access, but also say that you buy eSims...?

A lot of people right now are indeed connected via eSim, which to my understanding only need to connect to wifi once, right when they're activated. People put themselves at risk to connect to eSims because they need to get a good wifi signal, which usually means walking for several miles trying to find high ground. One of my contacts once urgently called me (this is the only time he hadn't just texted) because he had been told his friend had found a signal and so they needed an eSim right then, before they went back to their tent.

I've been trying for some time to connect another of my contacts in Gaza to an eSim, but we're not having success. At Crips for eSims for Gaza they / we (I'm on the server getting advice and helping out but I'm not using their funding; I'm using what people on tumblr have given me to purchase eSims with) keep a constantly updated sheet of which eSim providers use which networks and which networks work in which areas--because the situation is constantly changing. Because my contact doesn't have an eSim on a personal phone, she has to go to a central location to be allotted three hours of internet access from someone who has managed to get connected. Lots of people, on their fundraising posts and pages, specify exactly how they've gotten internet access, how difficult it's been for them to get it, and how stressful it is to be relying on this tenuous connection, spending hours away from their families (at high risk of being shot at by IOF soldiers the whole time), just to message people for hours straight and then go home again.

2. How do people in Gaza have tumblr accounts?

This is a stupid question. Anyone with an email address who is capable of picking a username and password can make a tumblr account. I have personally helped several of my contacts in Gaza with the process.

3. How do people in Gaza know to come into people's tumblr accounts?

This is also a stupid question. I don't really see how you could ask this question if you saw Palestinians as, like, real humans beings. You understand that people talk to each other, yes? Like with words? As soon as a few people had success fundraising to evacuate Gaza on tumblr (nearly a year ago... this news has had a lot of time to spread), obviously they told other people about it.

One of the ways that Israel conducts its genocidal war is through the destructiveness of frustration and boredom. It's a strange situation because everything is extremely dire, urgent, terrifying, and dirty, but there's also seldom anything to do. People are singing, telling stories, going to the beach, inventing games and contests, to entertain children, but also to entertain themselves. And this is the situation--with a bunch of desperate, bored people packed into a tiny piece of land--this is the situation that you think it's impossible for people to talk to each other in? Come on.

If you want to donate to Anera and World Food Kitchen and buy eSims, that's fantastic. Please do that. But if you are as ignorant of the particulars of what this situation is like as your ask makes you appear, then I hope you refrain from speaking on what the situation is like.

I've been nattering on for a long time so here's my call to action:

Decide what you're capable of giving right now, or the next time you get paid

Scroll down on the vetted fundraiser spreadsheet and find someone very low on funds, or with injured children who urgently need treatment or evacuation, and give that money.

AND / OR give it to the PCRF or the IRW

[todays-xkcd]

Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.

Neutrino Modem [Explained]

Transcript

[Cueball and Ponytail are inside a large white circle on a black background. Cueball is at a workstation typing on a computer keyboard, floating above a wheeled desk chair behind him. Ponytail is floating in the air up and to the right of him. Attached to Cueball's computer by cables are a second monitor or a tower unit floating to the left, and a large device labeled "Neutrino Modem®" below and to its left. A logo on the modem shows circle with five horizontal lines entering from the left; the fourth line from the top stops within the circle, while the others pass through to the right; this presumably represents neutrinos passing through a planet or other object.] Cueball: Check it out—45ms ping times to every server on Earth! Ponytail: That 99.999999999999% packet loss is pretty bad, though.

[Caption below the panel:] Networking tip: You can minimize worst-case latency by locating your node at the center of the Earth and communicating with the surface using neutrinos.

[petebarton]

VPN Guide

I’ve been asked to put together a VPN guide, especially since Emmerdale episodes are being uploaded to YouTube. This guide will also works perfectly well for accessing ITVX and the BBC iPlayer.

What is a VPN?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a service that helps you stay private and secure online by creating a secure, encrypted connection between your device and the internet. For this purpose, we're interested in the fact that VPN's can bypass geo-restrictions and allow you to access things you wouldn't normally be able to.

Which VPN should I use?

There are plenty of VPNs out there. I'll be giving three options. Everything I mention here is something I’ve personally used or that my partner's used and tested. While there may be other great options available, I won’t recommend anything I can't vouch for.

As far as I'm concerned, if you can afford to invest in a VPN, I would because I think it's worth the money. I use it alot while out in public, when accessing public wifis, such as in cafe's and airports to protect my data. It does a lot more than just bypass geo locations.

ExpressVPN

I've been using ExpressVPN since 2014, long before I moved to the UK. This is the VPN I used during 2014-2019 era to watch Emmerdale. While it's not the cheapest option out there, I think it's worth every penny because the customer support is great.

Pricing: Starts around €6.40/month (billed annually)

Pros: Fast, reliable, great customer service

Cons: Pricier than others

ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN offers both a free and paid plan. While the free version is useful, it's very limited, you can't choose your server location, which makes it tricky if you're trying to access specific content. For streaming or location-specific browsing, you'll need the paid plan.

Pricing: Paid plans start around €4.99/month

Pros: Strong privacy reputation, has a free option

Cons: Free plan is very restricted

Surf Shark

My partner swears by Surf Shark. It’s the most affordable of the three, with plans starting at just €1.99/month. Despite the low cost, he’s never had a single issue with it so far.

Pricing: From €1.99/month (with long-term plans)

Pros: Budget-friendly, reliable performance

Cons: Slightly fewer server options than premium VPNs

** add on **

Windscribe

@srtazombie has recommended Windscribe, which has a free version, that let's you use up to 10GB monthly.

Tutorial

For this tutorial I'm going to use Surf Shark because it is the cheapest of the three options.

Open your browser and go to: https://surfshark.com

Click on “Get Surfshark” on the homepage.

You’ll see 3 plan options. The 2-year plan (€1.99/month) is the cheapest.

Click “Select” under your preferred plan.

Enter your email address.

Choose a Payment Method. You can pay with: Credit/debit card, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Enter your payment details.

Click “Complete Purchase”.

You’ll get a confirmation email right after purchase.

After payment, you’ll be directed to a page to download the Surfshark app.

Choose your device: Windows / Mac / Linux, Android / iOS or browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Edge). You can also find Surfshark in the App Store or Google Play Store.

Open the Surfshark app.

Enter the email and password you used when signing up. If you didn’t set a password during checkout, check your email, Surfshark will have sent you a link to create one.

Connect to a Server. Inside the app, click “Connect” to use the fastest server. Or choose a country from the list (e.g., US, UK, Germany, etc.).

For the UK you can pick from: London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Then try it out and go to YT and see if it works. If one server is down, just change between them until one works.

Personally, I haven’t come across any free VPNs that work well for changing your geo-location to stream regularly. Most either don’t let you choose the country, or they have extremely limited monthly data, making it impossible to watch shows like Emmerdale, which airs five days a week. For that reason, free VPNs just don’t cut it for daily streaming.

I’ve also heard that Mullvad is also good and affordable option. However, I can’t personally recommend it since I haven’t tried it myself. If anyone has experience with Mullvad and wants to share more info, please feel free to add to this post! Also, if there are free VPNs which work, please let me know!

[amischiefofsharkrats]

Monday, June 23rd, 7:00 PM EST (NA Servers)

Welcome, one and all, to the Monthly Multi-Krewe Mixer, sponsored by the three esteemed colleges of Rata Sum!

Taking place in a lovely space in Soren Draa, this mixer - sponsored by the deans of the three colleges of Rata Sum - invites asura of all krewes (and megakrewes) to a social mixer to make friends, network, and more. With a strict "no recruiting" policy, the hope is for asura of all ages collegiate and up to make connections that will benefit them moving forward in life.

This event is being held by the [RATA] Guild! Location details and rules below the cut!

Rules

As this is an "all krewes" event, there is to be no recruiting. This is for interpersonal networking as opposed to recruiting for krewes.

No asura supremacy, asura master race, etc jokes. We know the origin of those.

This is an all-ages players event, but alcohol may come up. Keep it clean with everything else.

No phobes in general- [RATA] is an LGBTQIA+ friendly guild and that behavior won't be tolerated.

Please leave OOC conflict at the door. If you have an issue with someone present, please don't bring it public as long as they are not actively harassing you.

Above all, have fun! This even will last 2-3 hours depending on attendance, and host will bring feasts and drinks.

[tomorrowusa]

Microblogging platform Mastodon is taking steps to make sure it never falls into the hands of some MAGA billionaire like Zuck or Musk.

Founder Eugen Rochko is transferring ownership to a nonprofit entity based in Europe. It is already located in the EU where it is free of any political or legal pressure from a Trump administration. Becoming nonprofit is a poison pill to deter any broligarchs who bend the knee to MAGA.

Mastodon announced Monday that it's shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization—"affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual." This takes control of the social network away from its previous "ultimate decision-maker," Eugen Rochko. As founder, Rochko initially took the reins to ensure the decentralized platform would never be for sale and "would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual." His grand vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears in their timelines. The news comes after leaders of other social networks, like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have sparked backlash over sudden changes to popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter). For years, Musk has drawn criticism for changing Twitter's hate speech policies through his X rebranding. And more recently, Zuckerberg this month defended Meta's decision to relax hate speech policies (permitting women to be called "property" and gay people to be called "mentally ill") by calling bans on such speech "out of touch with mainstream discourse." Mastodon is hoping to provide an alternative social network for users who are potentially frustrated with their lack of control over their timelines and content on other networks.

Mastadon is part of the Fediverse – which takes a little getting used to. And while not small, it doesn't yet have the enormous volume of broligarch-owned social media; though Elon Musk's transformation of Twitter/X into a playground for Nazis and Trumpsters has sparked growth at Mastodon.

Mastodon appears to be betting that even more users will seek alternative social networks in the future as popular apps enact unpopular policies. The blog discussed progress on a "privacy-respecting search tool" that could be used to explore the entire Fediverse, a collection of independent social media networks that Mastodon connects to. That could make it possible to discover more content without depending on a "For You" algorithm mining user data. And perhaps in a nod to Meta's recent changes, Mastodon also vowed to "invest deeply in trust and safety" and ensure "everyone, especially marginalized communities," feels "safe" on the platform.

Dominic Preston at The Verge writes...

“When founder Eugen Rochko started working on Mastodon, his focus was on creating the code and conditions for the kind of social media he envisioned,” Mastodon says. “The legal setup was a means to an end, a quick fix to allow him to continue operations. From the start, he declared that Mastodon would not be for sale and would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual, and he could ensure that because he was the person in control, the only ultimate decision-maker.” In the short term, nothing should change for users. Mastodon will continue to host the mastodon.social and mastodon.online servers and support its federated network. Routine code development and bug fixes are ongoing, though the announcement adds that “changes are definitely in the pipeline.” “Our core mission remains the same: to create the tools and digital spaces where people can build authentic, constructive online communities free from ads, data exploitation, manipulative algorithms or corporate monopolies,” Mastodon says.

What's not to like about a platform for Twitter refugees which doesn't Zuck?

[blatentmisinformation]

Though commonly misunderstood to be a vast decentralised network of computers, the Internet is actually contingent on a single server room from 1989 located somewhere in Missouri. Though access to this central server has since been lost due to a bug causing the old software to not recognise the input of any passwords.

[maureen-corpse]

All the news that's fit to print from r/fountainpens

So, I alluded yesterday to drama about fountain pen retailers and then I promised in the notes that I might write about the drama. And by golly, I'm going to do that!

First, caveats: I am not deeply involved in r/fountainpens (I only read and never post). I have seen some people talk about a related Discord server, which I am also not a part of. I am generally not deeply involved in the fountain pen community at large. I did join Fountain Pen Network at some point but I haven't posted in years. So, I was not involved in any of the interactions I'm going to talk about, and because some things have been deleted or only talked about, I'm going to be going off of my recollections. Remember, witness testimony is not always reliable! And witness testimony of witness testimony? Goodness gracious.

Also, this may get long, so buckle up.

Now, let's get started.

This is about the Goulet Pen Company. The Goulet Pen Company (GPC or Goulet) is a Virginia-based online seller of fountain pens and related paraphernalia: ink, paper, accessories, some glass dip pens, an occasional rollerball, etc. GPC also features a lot of useful educational tools, such as videos about pens and their various types and the handy Nib Nook, where you can compare the writing of different nibs with most variables removed. Goulet isn't really unusual for this; JetPens, for example, has guides as well. English does love alliteration, though, it has to be said. Go read Beowulf.

Goulet has also been producing a podcast, or as it is more commonly known, the Goulet Pencast, for some time. The main face of the Pencast is Drew Brown (along with Brian Goulet). Now, here's the big thing: Drew is no longer with GPC. The Pencast took a brief hiatus, and people who follow it were concerned, and the most recent episode confirmed that Drew would no longer be a part of the Goulet Pen Company or the Pencast. Drew is a much beloved figure. I personally never got into the Pencast (listen, the episodes are long!), but I saw him in product videos and never saw a reason to dislike him, so I'm sure that the Pencast was a way people really got to know and love him.

Now, Brian and Rachel Goulet, in the most recent episode, did not go into detail about why Drew was no longer with GPC; they confirmed his departure and expressed their sadness. Many r/fountainpen users would like to know more, and so they began speculating. Some came up with benign or not actually that fun for subreddit drama reasons: maybe Drew just moved on. Maybe there was a dispute over pay. Maybe Drew or a family member had a health issue he needed to leave to focus on. Other things were proposed: maybe it was actually a difference of political opinion--Drew seems to lean more liberal whereas the Goulets seem to lean more conservative.

At some point, someone pointed out this portion of a Goulet newsletter that had been sent out (apparently in August):

(transcription in alt text)

I admit: To me, this reads like a pretty typical "Hi we are a small business in the southern United States so here are three vague paragraphs about our life so that this marketing material we're sending has that personal family touch" thing.

However, some redditors latched on to the bit about them being on the startup team for a new church, and that fueled some of the speculation that Drew left Goulet because of political differences.

Now, here's where the Lockening began: someone figured out what the startup church was, probably using known facts about the Goulets (their location in Virginia and the date of the first service noted by Rachel above), and they found the startup church's parent church. And they found a podcast put out by that parent church and they hurried to r/fountainpens to post screenshots of a transcript from that podcast where the speaker compares homosexuality to murder. In the sense of "glorifying sins" or whatever, not saying "killing a man is the same as fucking him." This is the kind of rhetoric I see a lot, so I don't really get surprised and appalled by it the way some folks do. Anyway, the issue then became: do the Goulets espouse these beliefs?

Well, not to worry: someone else found a statement of belief from one of the churches and posted that! (No, I don't recall if it was the parent or the startup, and sadly, I don't have a screenshot.) Anyway, yes, they weren't big on homosexuality, and they were fans of male headship of the family. So fun. There was, interestingly, a line about how complete agreement wasn't necessary for membership in the church.

We don't actually know, still, if the Goulets espouse these beliefs. They're part of the launch team for this church, but I've seen people go to pretty big extremes for churches they don't share beliefs with simply because they like a style of worship better. People put blinders on all the time for things. (Am I making excuses for the Goulets here? I don't know. Maybe I'm trying to be a North Carolinian saying something nice about Virginians for once. I still don't like how they drive.)

Someone also pointed out that fairly recently GPC did advertise products in Pride Month. I don't think it's something they do consistently and the instance someone referenced was in 2022 or something, but that's not a long time ago.

Anyway, that thread was quickly locked, and as far as I can tell, has been deleted. This has not stopped other redditors from making new threads to try and discuss the Goulet Problem further, or to decry the actions of the mods, or to recommend queer-friendly fountain pen stores. These threads are also being locked.

An added bonus is that now without that thread for easy reference--even if it's just locked that means it can't stay at the top for discussion--some people now think Brian was on a podcast saying homosexuality was identical to murder. So! It's a mess! The fountain pen users are pretty cranky. I think that's where we are now, and I think that sums it up, for the most part. I welcome corrections and additional screenshots if people have them. 🫡

And I have not even gotten into the Noodler's thing here. And you know what? I don't think I will.

[canmom]

Hypothetical Decentralised Social Media Protocol Stack

if we were to dream up the Next Social Media from first principles we face three problems. one is scaling hosting, the second is discovery/aggregation, the third is moderation.

hosting

hosting for millions of users is very very expensive. you have to have a network of datacentres around the world and mechanisms to sync the data between them. you probably use something like AWS, and they will charge you an eye-watering amount of money for it. since it's so expensive, there's no way to break even except by either charging users to access your service (which people generally hate to do) or selling ads, the ability to intrude on their attention to the highest bidder (which people also hate, and go out of their way to filter out). unless you have a lot of money to burn, this is a major barrier.

the traditional internet hosts everything on different servers, and you use addresses that point you to that server. the problem with this is that it responds poorly to sudden spikes in attention. if you self-host your blog, you can get DDOSed entirely by accident. you can use a service like cloudflare to protect you but that's $$$. you can host a blog on a service like wordpress, or a static site on a service like Github Pages or Neocities, often for free, but that broadly limits interaction to people leaving comments on your blog and doesn't have the off-the-cuff passing-thought sort of interaction that social media does.

the middle ground is forums, which used to be the primary form of social interaction before social media eclipsed them, typically running on one or a few servers with a database + frontend. these are viable enough, often they can be run with fairly minimal ads or by user subscriptions (the SomethingAwful model), but they can't scale indefinitely, and each one is a separate bubble. mastodon is a semi-return to this model, with the addition of a means to use your account on one bubble to interact with another ('federation').

the issue with everything so far is that it's an all-eggs-in-one-basket approach. you depend on the forum, instance, or service paying its bills to stay up. if it goes down, it's just gone. and database-backend models often interact poorly with the internet archive's scraping, so huge chunks won't be preserved.

scaling hosting could theoretically be solved by a model like torrents or IPFS, in which every user becomes a 'server' for all the posts they download, and you look up files using hashes of the content. if a post gets popular, it also gets better seeded! an issue with that design is archival: there is no guarantee that stuff will stay on the network, so if nobody is downloading a post, it is likely to get flushed out by newer stuff. it's like link rot, but it happens automatically.

IPFS solves this by 'pinning': you order an IPFS node (e.g. your server) not to flush a certain file so it will always be available from at least one source. they've sadly mixed this up in cryptocurrency, with 'pinning services' which will take payment in crypto to pin your data. my distaste for a technology designed around red queen races aside, I don't know how pinning costs compare to regular hosting costs.

theoretically you could build a social network on a backbone of content-based addressing. it would come with some drawbacks (posts would be immutable, unless you use some indirection to a traditional address-based hosting) but i think you could make it work (a mix of location-based addressing for low-bandwidth stuff like text, and content-based addressing for inline media). in fact, IPFS has the ability to mix in a bit of address-based lookup into its content-based approach, used for hosting blogs and the like.

as for videos - well, BitTorrent is great for distributing video files. though I don't know how well that scales to something like Youtube. you'd need a lot of hard drive space to handle the amount of Youtube that people typically watch and continue seeding it.

aggregation/discovery

the next problem is aggregation/discovery. social media sites approach this problem in various ways. early social media sites like LiveJournal had a somewhat newsgroup-like approach, you'd join a 'community' and people would post stuff to that community. this got replaced by the subscription model of sites like Twitter and Tumblr, where every user is simultaneously an author and a curator, and you subscribe to someone to see what posts they want to share.

this in turn got replaced by neural network-driven algorithms which attempt to guess what you'll want to see and show you stuff that's popular with whatever it thinks your demographic is. that's gotta go, or at least not be an intrinsic part of the social network anymore.

it would be easy enough to replicate the 'subscribe to see someone's recommended stuff' model, you just need a protocol for pointing people at stuff. (getting analytics such as like/reblog counts would be more difficult!) it would probably look similar to RSS feeds: you upload a list of suitably formatted data, and programs which speak that protocol can download it.

the problem of discovery - ways to find strangers who are interested in the same stuff you are - is more tricky. if we're trying to design this as a fully decentralised, censorship-resistant network, we face the spam problem. any means you use to broadcast 'hi, i exist and i like to talk about this thing, come interact with me' can be subverted by spammers. either you restrict yourself entirely to spreading across a network of curated recommendations, or you have to have moderation.

moderation

moderation is one of the hardest problems of social networks as they currently exist. it's both a problem of spam (the posts that users want to see getting swamped by porn bots or whatever) and legality (they're obliged to remove child porn, beheading videos and the like). the usual solution is a combination of AI shit - does the robot think this looks like a naked person - and outsourcing it to poorly paid workers in (typically) African countries, whose job is to look at reports of the most traumatic shit humans can come up with all day and confirm whether it's bad or not.

for our purposes, the hypothetical decentralised network is a protocol to help computers find stuff, not a platform. we can't control how people use it, and if we're not hosting any of the bad shit, it's not on us. but spam moderation is a problem any time that people can insert content you did not request into your feed.

possibly this is where you could have something like Mastodon instances, with their own moderation rules, but crucially, which don't host the content they aggregate. so instead of having 'an account on an instance', you have a stable address on the network, and you submit it to various directories so people can find you. by keeping each one limited in scale, it makes moderation more feasible. this is basically Reddit's model: you have topic-based hubs which people can subscribe to, and submit stuff to.

the other moderation issue is that there is no mechanism in this design to protect from mass harassment. if someone put you on the K*w*f*rms List of Degenerate Trannies To Suicidebait, there'd be fuck all you can do except refuse to receive contact from strangers. though... that's kind of already true of the internet as it stands. nobody has solved this problem.

to sum up

primarily static sites 'hosted' partly or fully on IPFS and BitTorrent

a protocol for sharing content you want to promote, similar to RSS, that you can aggregate into a 'feed'

directories you can submit posts to which handle their own moderation

no ads, nobody makes money off this

honestly, the biggest problem with all this is mostly just... getting it going in the first place. because let's be real, who but tech nerds is going to use a system that requires you to understand fuckin IPFS? until it's already up and running, this idea's got about as much hope as getting people to sign each others' GPG keys. it would have to have the sharp edges sanded down, so it's as easy to get on the Hypothetical Decentralised Social Network Protocol Stack as it is to register an account on tumblr.

but running over it like this... I don't think it's actually impossible in principle. a lot of the technical hurdles have already been solved. and that's what I want the Next Place to look like.

[aequorin-fr]

About Account Closures, Banxiety, etc

Good morning, Flight Rising Tumblr!

I posted a reblog not that long ago (this morning) responding to banxiety concerns. It appears to have been eaten by Tumblr, which happens; but I know a lot of you are concerned and there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings flying about. So I'm going to go ahead and repost this directly to the tags so anyone with concerns or anxiety can see this <3 (06:47 Flight Rising server time: Title edited to be clearer.)

—————

Oh dear, there's been quite a misunderstanding. What you've described here isn't true and likely to send our players into a banxiety panic. I'm sure that's not what you meant to do and I'm happy to clarify where I can!

We're fully aware people can change physical locations throughout the day which means their IPs will change. Some folks play or check in from home, school, work, a friend's house, etc. That means their account will log multiple IP addresses on any given day, sometimes within a thirty minute period.

Example: Player accesses on their school network —> School lets out —> They access via mobile data on transit —> Player then logs in on their home network

Closing accounts for having multiple IP addresses associated with them—especially in the mobile era!—would be wrong. And, frankly, absurd.

Account closures are based on activity data and reviewed by staff. Do we always get it 100% right? No, of course not. We're human. We make mistakes. Sometimes we do close an account in error and upon review, reopen the account. And sometimes it even means an account we're almost certain is cheating stays open a bit longer, because of that chance we're wrong.

Unless by "moving stuff over" you mean funneling to a new account, because our Terms of Use are clear that players agree to register only one account per individual. Multiple accounts provide a player not only with multiple opportunities for dailies and Roundsey, but access to various Flight Forums (including private Flight Dominance planning!) not just their original Flight, ways around our block feature, and the means to scam players during trades, giveaways, etc. The above ranges from cheating and gaining an advantage over others to outright harassment.

Now, there is also friend and family member funneling, where someone stops playing for themselves and just starts sending the earnings from their dailies or festivals to their friend or family member. That's still cheating and we've been clear about that for some time now.

Finally, we don't discuss account actions with third-parties and we don't discuss them publicly for privacy, security, and safety reasons. Even when the player who lost their account takes to the forums or social media with claims that are untrue, exaggerated, or minimize/downplay the violation that lead to the closure of their account. Unless they've taken the extra step to alter a screenshot as "proof" we said or did something we didn't do, we can't engage with their claims. This means the community will only see one side of the story, one version of events.

And as a note for anyone following along and concerned about their account, we do have an article in our Knowledge Base that explains account penalties: Account Penalties Explained.

I hope this helps clarify the confusion and concerns surrounding account closures! You don't have to worry about logging multiple IPs, moving, playing with your friends or family, etc. <3

[girlactionfigure]

Now this is a victory👇

After being exposed for encouraging, facilitating, and even participating in the murderous Hamas invasion of southern Israel, UNRWA has been forced to close its headquarters in Jerusalem.

UNRWA shutters eastern Jerusalem headquarters The agency’s exit from Jerusalem is a “historic moment” and “the end of the era of disgrace,” said Knesset member Dan Illouz. By Israel Today Staff • November 27, 2024 On Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced the closure of its headquarters in eastern Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The move, which marks a significant shift in its operations, comes in the wake of the Israeli government’s decision to sever ties with the agency and recent legislative action banning its activities within Israel. According to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath network, UNRWA is transferring key departments, including legal, communications, external relations and the commissioner-general’s office to locations outside Israel. The relocation affects Palestinian employees at the Sheikh Jarrah facility, who have been given 12 months to find alternative employment. The closure follows the Israeli Knesset’s approval in October of a law prohibiting UNRWA’s operations in Israel. Knesset member Dan Illouz, one of the law’s co-sponsors, celebrated UNRWA’s departure, stating, “The evacuation of UNRWA offices from Jerusalem is a historic moment. This is the end of the era of disgrace in which Israel allowed an anti-Israeli organization to operate in the heart of our capital.” The Israeli legislation followed revelations that a number of UNRWA personnel were deeply involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. UNRWA has consistently denied accusations of ties to terrorism, asserting its neutrality and humanitarian focus. The agency was established in 1949 with the mission of providing education, healthcare and social services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. However, critics, including Israeli officials and watchdog groups, have long accused the agency of perpetuating the refugee issue decades after the Palestinians should have been settled, as well as of being thoroughly infiltrated by terrorist groups. David Mencer, the spokesman for the Public Diplomacy Directorate of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told reporters, “We have provided much evidence that UNRWA works hand-in-hand with Hamas,” referring to the Hamas server farm found under UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters, the UNRWA staffers who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre and the tunnels found underneath UNRWA schools in Gaza. “UNRWA is useless at aid distribution. UNRWA is useless at education, except glorifying suicide bombers and encouraging Jew-killing, and Israel sees no role whatsoever for UNRWA in Gaza after this war en

[thaenad]

do u have any advice for building feedist community? esp a queer/trans one. i’ve been lurking for ages but i think it’d b really fulfilling to actually do something about it

I can share how I did it! before starting anything, I named the group (abundance), created a poster with a cute logo on it, and marketed it as a LGBTQ2IA+ and fat liberationist group. I mostly took to feabie, I posted the flyer, put it in my bio description, and then using the location search, I began following people in my area. feabie actually allows you to search by gender and sexual orientation, so I did seek out some queer people in the beginning. I regularly posted messages to the timeline advertising my group with a link to a screening application - a google form with screening questions asking potential members what they want to get out of the group, what would make them feel safest to take part in it, as well as some questions regarding privilege, fat liberation, and consent. this is just a precaution to make sure everyone joining has a mutual understanding of how to participate in a group setting with safety and respect, and consideration for our most vulnerable community members (bc goodness knows there are some creeps on feabie). once folks pass the screening, I email them with a link to our discord server in an initial welcome message describing my intentions for the group and why finding community and spreading fat liberation is so important to our lives. the discord server is where we all communicate and plan events. the first event I planned was a potluck in the park, which took place last may. I highly recommend starting events in the summer where folks can hang out in a safe public space for free. as the group was expanding, I did a lotta reblogging on tumblr, including sharing it to my @fatliberation blog which has way more traction. I also created a group on the queer app lex which brought in a few members as well! HOWEVER. I do live in chicago, where there is a high concentration of feedists. if you aren't near a big city this might be more difficult, but I would encourage starting an online group if that's the case! also, it may surprise you just how many feedists live in your area. I thought that I would be lucky if I got close to 15 people to sign up, but as of today, there have been 58. not only from chicago, but all over the midwest. out of those 58 applications, 45 joined the discord. out of those 45, only 20ish people are active, and out of those 20ish people, usually less than ten people show up to events. but that smaller core group has become an amazing group of close friends. It will take time. so many months of preparation and networking. I think it took close to 7-8 months to get enough interest for that first meeting in may, and since then it has taken almost another year to get into a groove and get to know each other. but after that initial potluck, the ball kept rolling so easily. feedist community is life-changing magic. I had a dream that someday I could have that, so I took a lot of risks to make it happen - all while alone, lost, anxious, unsure if any of it would come together or if I was going about things the right way, just flat-out raw dogging it and carving a path. and it was the best risk I've ever taken. I feel overwhelmingly supported by my peers. I sincerely wish you the best and hope with all my might that you find your community. let me know if I can answer any questions you have along the way.

[oh-no-its-dragons]

Malware Detected

the challenge was to write a short fic, ideally between 500-600 words, about an obscure Basgiath job that included a guest appearance by Silver and also Broccoli in a basket riding a gryphon.

it is not particularly safe for work due to the discussion of the sorts of web searches that create malware issues for your local IT department. no other content warnings. 554 words.

--

I waved at the scribe cadet watching the door as I stepped into the Archives for my workday. Fortunately it was one of the usual cadets, one who knew me and didn't ask questions about why a rider worked in the Archives.

I work in the Archives because that's where the servers are, and IT goes where the servers are.

On a good day, I log in and there's a few new tickets about password resets, maybe some new equipment in the healers quadrant that needs to get on the network, maybe a request to set up credentials for replacement staff.

On a bad day, well… today I logged in to see sixty nine new alerts, each helpfully letting me know there was MALWARE DETECTED.

"Nice," I mumbled out of habit, looking at the number, but it was not nice at all.

I pulled up the login history and started looking at the access logs to find the location. Oh, look, it was the riders quadrant. How shocking, by which I meant it was not shocking at all. There's a reason the riders have their own firewall, and it's not to hold back the dragonfire.

Let's narrow it down… not Panchek's office this time, not the library (thank Zihnal, malware on the public devices was easier to fix but harder to solve the problem), so I started narrowing down the dorm IPs until I found the right one and then I pulled up the website history in question.

Well, fuck, this was going to need some discretion. It was one of the new flier cadets' dorm, and it looked like he'd been searching for photos of their new favorite flier, that cat Broccoli riding in a basket on a gryphon, but their Navarran could use a little work. Instead of a cute kitten in flight goggles, the cadet managed to search for 'new pussy riding gryphon'.

I sent an email off to HR before settling in to wipe all of the malware the porn site had managed to spew onto our network and I was almost done when my phone rang.

"Basgiath IT," I answered, hitting the speakerphone button. Through my office window, I saw a scribe make a face at me, but if they didn't like it they should soundproof the damn office.

"I got your email," came the more-familiar-than-I'd-like voice of the local HR director. "I know I said I wanted to handle anything related to the fliers after the fight club riot-"

"And yet you're calling me, Major Silver, so I must have missed something."

"I just wanted to check… are you certain the flier was searching for… those search terms by accident?"

"Not at all," I answered cheerfully. "It's entirely possible he was genuinely looking for gryphon porn. But based on my experience with rider cadets and unfortunate searches about hemipenes, I find it's easier for everyone if we all pretend it was an accident."

"Hemi- oh dear." I could hear a soft thunk, presumably Major Silver letting her head hit the desk in frustration.

"You said the fliers were your problem, so enjoy your problem," I tried not to smile as I said it. "Let me know when you've talked to the flier and then I'll restore his computer."

"Of course," Major Silver sighed. "Have a good morning, Lieutenant."

[aimportantdragoncollector]

Some information on werewolf internet and how they prevent information from escaping! I came up with this based on some fast research into how the internet works. If I'm wrong about anything then let me know. For now I will handwave it as "alternate universe, alternate technology."

The Lupercal Empire operates on an entirely separate internet--not only using different fiber optics but also slightly different technology. It is completely disconnected from human internet. To connect to werewolf internet, you must be located in Lupercal. VPNs work by routing through another location but human can't have a VPN pretend you are in Lupercal because Lupercal is not part of the network. (Similar to how in our world, there are no VPNs pretending to be from North Korea because that would require the VPN company to have physical hardware in North Korea and no commercial VPN servers have that.) This makes Lupercal internet nearly impossible to hack by humans. At home, werewolves openly talk about their plans to invade. They very carefully restrict the flow of information out of Lupercal to avoid tipping their hand to humanity about their long-term world domination plans.

Werewolves have very tight security to prevent anyone from sneaking into Lupercal, whether physically or virtually. They can smell anyone who tries to invade their territory, whether human or stray. But their security is very lax on the inside because werewolves all trust each other. Werewolves will casually chat online about invasion plans in detail. Even an ordinary citizen has access to critical military information because they make decisions by group consensus. Werewolves don't even bother to lock their doors or put passwords onto their phones.

Many human governments have tried to infiltrate Lupercal, sometimes sending stray werewolves as spies. But it's harder to get out of Lupercal than in. The werewolves can tell the difference between a pack and a stray wolf. They can smell fear. Borders are tightly locked down. No spy who entered Lupercal territory has ever left without becoming part of the pack.