The man in charge of all the apparati of power in the US never finished a construction on time *or* paid his subcontractors the full amount agreed to. What could possibly go wrong?
Đe English language once had an alphabet đat actually represented its sounds. It's past time we fix this. I propose the letter Đorn ("Thorn", Đ, đ) as the first back-substitution.
Is Fairphone available in the US? If you’re wondering where to buy the Fairphone (Gen.6) in your country, here are good news for you: The sustainable, repairable, and privacy-focused Murena Fairphone (Gen.
Learn for free on Brilliant for a full 30 days: https://brilliant.org/matthewlim/You’ll also get 20% off an annual Premium subscription!📂 Patreon project fi...
Me: I made chicken fried rice from sctratch using a recipe from an actual chinese chef. In a real wok! Kids: Oh Wife: I kinda like it better than the stuff from our regular place. Me: My work's done here...
For pity's sake, software people, PLEASE put back the boundary markers around windows, between frames and so on! I just spent five minutes trying to resize a window. Light gray and light gray on light gray, with not a single line.
Attorneys for a couple charged with driving to a police station with an HSI agent in their car dispute the government’s account of the incident. A judge released both from jail pending trial.
They went into schools looking for "illegal immigrants", armed and ready for violence. In a school. While the kids were there. So they could be hurt or killed should violence have occurred.
One of these days they're going to get people killed doing this shit!
ICE descends on my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, hitting K-12 schools and immigrant neighborhoods. Update: ICE reportedly arrested two Dublin Scioto high schools students today.
They terrorize the populace by stomping into homes and schools, wearing in many cases no identification or uniform, and often masked to conceal their identities. They are literally Stasi.
TFW you game the company's systems and find the actual direct phone number of the IT guy who has been ducking your messages for 3 freaking days via the "approved" method instead of just clicking a button to approve the request.
Millions of people all over the world looked at each other and went "My life is shit. So instead of voting for someone who could actually make it better, I'll vote for someone who'll make someone else's life even worse!" and then proceeded to vote for their local fascists.
It feels almost like a biblical morale that the president who mocked another president for being sleepy, is now filmed every week falling asleep at meetings.
The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very thing he called “deceitful and potentially criminal.”
his every accusation is a confession. Sleepy, crime family, hiding in basement, stealing, high treason, war criminal, betrayal, tax evasion, ... I wouldn't be surprised, if he was actually born in Germany and falsified his birth document.
When the time comes, they are going to try to "Weekend At Bernie's" Trump's arse, you watch. Occasionally, he'll be out on the golf cart somewhere riding around.
I don’t think he is well and stress has definitely gotten to him. It’s not a job where you can relax and Trump’s age, diet and health has worked against him.
For them, politics is just a game where the only goal is to win. For them, there are no morals in politics, and it would be as absurd to them as applying morals to winning in a board game.
They can still accuse their opponents for moral failings, because that’s part of the game.
Shit people, idioms only work if we all agree on the definitions!
After nearly 200 years of "Out-Of-Pocket" meaning "Paid for it yourself", some ignorant bonehead mashed "Out of office" together with it, and now all of corporate America says "Out-of-pocket" when they mean "unavailable".
Culturally it important? No, of course not. Am I irrationally furious every time I spend time during a meeting looking like an idiot because I have to translate before I can reply to your ignorant ass? Yes.
Am I the only one who gets a little subversive thrill every time I type in my unnecessarily required birthdate as January first, 1970, knowing that somebody, somewhere, someday, maybe an AI, is going to expend a lot of effort trying to determine if a) that's my actual birthday, b) there's a bug in their signup processing, or c) I somehow hacked the web form to let me submit it without the date filled in?
Why do hundreds and hundreds of websites all incorrectly, and wierdly using identical phrases, insist that the the term 'blog' is short for 'web log' (True), "which was originally a record of server requests" (False)?
I’ve been blogging for over a year now, which is a big exciting accomplishment for me! And yet, it wasn’t until this week that I stopped and thought about how weird the word blog is. It…
Why do hundreds and hundreds of websites all incorrectly, and wierdly using identical phrases, insist that the the term 'blog' is short for 'web log' (True), "which was originally a record of server requests" (False)?
Raw numbers are perhaps not enough to get across just how bad the centralisation of the Fediverse by mastodon.social is. I've done a chart to show this visually, hopefully this will make the situation clearer?
Given the circumstances, getting people to join *any* other server except mastodon.social would greatly help decentralise the Fediverse. It's no longer big vs medium vs small, it's more like supergiant deathstar mastodon.social vs everyone else 😞
p.s. For anyone wondering why this centralisation is a problem, here's an in-depth look at why mastodon.social's increasing percentage of the Fediverse is dangerous: fedi.tips/its-a-really-bad-ide…
p.p.s. If anyone currently on mastodon.social wants help moving to a different server, there's an easy-to-understand step-by-step guide at fedi.tips/transferring-your-ma…
Let me know if you have any difficulties with any particular step 🙂
Hi there - I’ve just joined the Mastodon team full time, and part of my role is working on mastodon.social and mastodon.online. I’m just getting started and still in learning mode, but I want to say that I’m aware of this issue and the team is actively discussing how we can evolve in a way that both delivers on #Mastodon’s promise of decentralization, and provides a “safe landing place” for new users. I’m grateful for all the ideas and writing you’ve shared. I’m listening, and thank you.
I think one of the main problems is you can't transfer your posts to a new account. But I heard that @jonny was maybe working on finding a fix for this! So, one can hope that if this gets fixed it will be much easier for people to move out of mastodon.social.
I mean, for me #Mastodon is #microblogging first and foremost. And in microblogging, posts are ephemeral and soon forgotten. Personally, I don't really _care_ what I posted a year ago - unless I bookmarked it. And even then, the old posts arent even _gone_ unless the old instance closes down.
But evidently, a very large number of Mastodon users feel very differently about this.
@juergen_hubert I see! Indeed I am more on the side of "permanent repository of my thoughts", I often search my old posts for some link, poll or info that I know exists in the past. I wouldn't want to migrate instances if it meant loosing my post history. I'd rather loose my follows / followers - you can always find then back - than my posts.
I guess I probably also have some trauma from when I had to leave twitter to join mastodon and had to say bye-bye to all my precious tweets.. Not ready for that to ever happen again!
i've moved and deleted thousands of old posts. it doesn't bother me, i think like juergen. but also, i never quote post, and don't see the point: just reply to the person
but i appreciate some people want to keep their posts forever, and like quote posts. it's not like someone else having another option hurts me in any way
but moving posts is *hard*
if you reply to 1,000 comments on 500 servers, then move, every database on every server needs an extensive update
@elduvelle @juergen_hubert That’s the exact dividing line between the two opinions: some people feel that their posts are precious, others that they are naturally ephemeral. Personally I think anyone in the “precious” camp needs to have their own website. It is easy and inexpensive, and you are not subject to losing everything just because a random individual server owner quits (or sells out to someone terrible).
@Moss @juergen_hubert A website is really not the same purpose as an interactive communication platform like Mastodon / Fedi though. It doesn't have the same reach - people have to go and read your website. The interest of the posts on here is not just the posts content but the discussions that come with them. It's also not that easy to set up, you have to figure out a host, make the website, regularly update the website, probably pay for the domain name etc. (I never made a website, there are probably a lot more steps). It's a good thing to have but certainly not a replacement for social media.
It's possible to split the middle, though. For instance, I am running a #WordPress site - and turned it into a #Fediverse server with the #ActivityPub plugin.
Now people can search for individual blog posts on their Fediverse instance, and read it and comment on it as if it was a Mastodon post (for instance).
There are also quite a few other Fediverse-based blogging solutions that allow people to blog right into other people's feeds.
@juergen_hubert @elduvelle I also have a Wordpress site, with a “post to Mastodon” plugin. Anything I post there gets posted to my masto account, and also stays stored on my own site. It doesn’t go both ways, so any replies stay on fedi. But if there is a conversation I want to save, I can copy the posts and manually add them to my site. That way you can preserve the context for later reference.
@juergen_hubert @elduvelle Yeah, there are definitely very different ways of seeing this. I also see my old posts as irrelevant and have set them to auto-delete. Of course, having my history reset to 0 on a move is a little annoying, so I guess a way to move say up to 5000 posts (or some cap selected by the server admin) would make sense?
@juergen_hubert @me @veronica I also spend hours (days?) figuring out how to get a twitter archive working.
Do I go back to it sometimes? Yes! I would say once every few months to try and find something that I posted. Unfortunately it couldn't archive other people's posts, or even poll results, so it's not that useful.
I also used it to (re-)make some of my pinned posts on here, e.g:
Hi there - I’ve just joined the Mastodon team full time, and part of my role is working on mastodon.social and mastodon.online. I’m just getting started and still in learning mode, but I want to say that I’m aware of this issue and the team is actively discussing how we can evolve in a way that both delivers on #Mastodon’s promise of decentralization, and provides a “safe landing place” for new users. I’m grateful for all the ideas and writing you’ve shared. I’m listening, and thank you.
@haubles Instead of considering mastodon.social as a “safe landing place,” we should consider it as a “safe launching place.” In other words, accounts on mastodon.social should be considered starter accounts, and the job of mastodon.social should be helping new arrivals learn enough about the fediverse to decide where they want to land.
Just to push back against this concept of a "starter server" or "launching place", that doesn't really exist. There are just well-run servers and badly-run servers.
There's nothing easier or safer or tutorial-like about using mastodon.social than other reputable servers, and if there was it would simply encourage even more people to join mastodon.social and stay there 😦
@haubles Currently, yes. I am talking about what I would like to see mastodon.social become, not what it has been. I had other thoughts (e.g., recurring tutorial messages, time-limited accounts, countdown reminders) for features that could help implement the concept of a safe launching place, but I edited them out as they were insufficiently cooked. My thought is that mastodon.social should enforce its role as a launching place by not allowing anyone to stay there long term.
Think it has merit. Another way to think about this concept would be to take a page from role playing computer games. When you start you arrive on "newbie island" when you walk through a few simple tasks that familiarize you with the UI and your various server options. But pretty soon you have to (get to!) move off into the real game equipt with some knowledge, the choices you've made, and a modicum of skill.
I feel like this is really easily solvable by just having the apps randomly cycle which server is selected by "default" when people are signing up. Obviously still give the option for people to manually select their preferred network, but by having the default random.
Just limit the random server selection to something like 10-20 reputable instances that have a track record of quality administration. That would avoid sending people to an instance that is unsupported and at a higher risk of shutting down.
Please: Everywhere. Not just all social media. Especially needed with web search engines where it must be in effect not only on search terms but on the results, too!
We really need to re-brand this domain "NI", as in "No Intelligence". Artificial Stupid Slop would be more accurate, that's ASS. Suck ASS if you want to, I don't.
This idea should be taken seriously. What if it was added as a consent popup like the cookie consent popups? It would be a drag of course, but if the consent was stored in the "for operational purposes" cookie, it would be fine.
Shame for firefox to add opt-OUT AI that can only be disabled in about:config You meant to just be a simple browser. Just browse the internet and don't bother me with stuff nobody asked for.
Also can we have decent checkboxes / switches that don't rely on position for on or off, true/false. Current so-called "modern" GUI elements are garbage. Why a slide switch image for enable/disable checkbox? You tap or click!
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why do you all want a button to exclude AI? In that way you accept this kind of intusion in a passive way. It's like a trojan horse/virus - take it or die.
That is NOT acceptable.
The correct way should allways be the other way around: If someone wants to use AI, he/she/they could actively turn it on. That will be a way to speak with customers on eye level. I know, it is hard to understand, but that is how it is.
Please think extra long and extra deep about these Standards and come to your own conclusion 😉
Today I am stepping down from my role as the CEO of #Mastodon. Though this has been in the works for a while, I can't say I've fully processed how I feel about it. There is a bittersweet part to it, and I think I will miss it, but it also felt necessary. It feels like a goodbye, but it isn't—I intend to stay on and continue to advise the new leadership and contribute, because Mastodon—and the fediverse—is one of the very few beacons of hope for a better web.
A sincere "thank you," Eugen, for everything that you've already done and will continue to do, I'm sure. I'm glad to hear that you'll still be around! If I may, here's a warm🫂 from me. I'm grateful.
Wow. Letting go is always kind of hard. Thank you for giving us a truly social platform and designing a whole part of the fediverse that's – hopefully – here to stay. I'm very much willing to do my part in maintaining this beacon of hope for the free and democratic world and do my humble steps – way behind you. Thank you and very much looking forward to keeping in touch here.
Yes, #fediverse is the last bastion for community platforms against the corporate model that eventually, and inevitably, devalues into a self-sustaining greed cycle.
I truly appreciate all the work you put into initiating this effort. Mastodon will undoubtedly evolve into the platform we all hope for, and you will be a key figure in its development.
thanks Eugen, sad to see you go, especially since you are not the typical tech billionaire kind of guy and always had a very healthy, down to earth approach to this crazy project... can't thank you enough for all you've done for Mastodon and the Fediverse, hope to still see you around and good luck for whatever lies ahead for you now
"The fediverse is an island within an increasingly dystopian capitalist hellscape. And from my perspective, Mastodon is our best shot at bringing this vision of a better future to the masses."
Amazing 🤩 Wishing you all the best best, Eugen and thank you for everything you have done 🙏🏻
that’s a very difficult step to take, and the fact that you’ve taken it speaks really well about you. Thanks for so you’ve done so far, for contributions still to come, and all the best!
I am passing the torch to @mellifluousbox, who will be the new Executive Director. Felix has been involved with #Mastodon since 2020 and has been instrumental in evolving the organization, raising funds, and growing the team to get us to where we are now. With @haubles and @renchap by his side, and the team we have assembled over the years, I have faith that the new leadership will do a stellar job.
Hi! Today is my first official day as the Executive Director of Mastodon, replacing @Gargron as CEO. I joined the Mastodon team more than 5 years ago, mostly working for Mastodon in the evenings on top of a 120% day job. I was the driving force behind the incorporation of the German non-profit, am a co-founder of the US 501c3 non-profit, and I have contributed to most of the fundraising success, which allowed us to expand the team. (1/13)
And thank you for what you've done for this platform - and again for helping me out the other. Of course, we expect even more pictures taken by you now you have time to spare! 😉 🙏🏾 @mellifluousbox @haubles @renchap
Mastodon is the only social media I use, and I'm grateful both for the philosophy behind it and for the work you've done to build an application the supports this philosophy. Thanks for everything you've done and for all of your hard work.
Vielen Dank, dass Sie diesen Weg eröffnet und das Fediverse zu einem Netzwerk der freien und respektvollen Meinungsäußerung gemacht haben! Viel Erfolg für Ihre neuen Projekte!
Mastodon specifically has had a character that I really appreciate, and it brought me to the Fediverse after I’d abandoned all the commercial platforms.
Ganz vielen Dank für dein Engagement und dafür, was du für uns alle ausgebaut hast! Ich bin schockiert zu lesen, wie du von manchen Menschen und Medien angegangen wurdest... Jetzt wünsche ich dir Kraft und die Möglichkeit, etwas Abstand zu bekommen. Dein Beitrag zu unserer Gesellschaft ist IMO gar nicht zu unterschätzen. DANKE!
Thanks for al your hard work for Mastodon. You can be proud of the platform you and your team has build. Wishing the best of luck to you and of course to Felix and his team! @mellifluousbox @haubles @renchap
(late to your news here so you're probably tired of talking about it but I still wanted to say) well done for making the decision it sounds like you were needing to make and also have you given yourself time recently to be like "look at this crazy thing I did" because wow, who knew this kind of thing was even possible for a real human with empathy etc
thank you for all your work, and for getting Mastodon to where it is.
And thank you for making the hard decision to step down and pass the torch. I have seen too many organizations hobbled by the Founder's Syndrome, it is very good to see Mastodon is taking steps to avoid that.
I thank you for all you've done to create Mastodon, and though I know you will still have an influence I wish you well on your new endeavours. As you step away somewhat, I just want to say this: As a senior citizen, a non-tech person, someone who through the years opened various social media accounts then feeling dissatisfied for the many reasons most are here, closed each one and ultimately decided to stay off of social media platforms, I am thankful I found Mastodon. This space, Mastodon, the fediverse, is unique because of diversity --people of differing opinions, ways of life, genders, education levels, cultures, geographical location and so on...and sure little conflicts arise, often heated discussions, once in a while hate slips in and moderators take action...but overall I think the concept behind Mastodon/Fediverse is what unites everyone. I think most people I know here would agree, our time here is well spent because we learn from each other. You facilitated this, the creation of a unique place, and for that this old person sends a big thank you.
"I have so much passion for Mastodon and the fediverse. The fediverse is an island within an increasingly dystopian capitalist hellscape. And from my perspective, Mastodon is our best shot at bringing this vision of a better future to the masses."
Thanks for all that you've done (which I believe your above comment summarises the most key part of, IMHO), and I wish you all the very best for a happy (and less stressful) future in every way!
It was a bright and bold idea, and a great tool! It is also one major proof that the Fediverse concept can thrive, and often serves as the first introduction to that decentralized "movement" for many, such as myself.
I hope you'll take some time off to rest and come back stronger to the project!
Farewell, Eugen. This might be a good time to express my gratitude for what you have created. Such a wonderful space. Thank you so much! And please remain part of this amazing (ad)venture.
Thank you for all your work 🫡, Thanks to your platform, I have experienced a very pleasant and helpful place on the Internet. Good luck on your next chapter, and Godspeed
I've always found you to be a very thoughtful and intentional, authentic human, and that means a lot. Thank you for what you made for everyone! Glad to get to continue to work with you.
Your blog post makes it clear that this is the right move. I’ve really admired the thoughtful leadership you’ve demonstrated. Thanks for all the amazing work.
Many thanks for all the hard, early work. And some more for stepping down when you know you are not the best fit anymore. It takes humility and leadership.
Your analysis of who you are, why you did what you did, and where you want to go are the signs of a wise man (there are so few among famous people of the Internet) . Thank you for your contribution to our liberties and take care of you.
Thank you for everything - and hope your recovery from burnout is swift and painless. Look forward to hearing from you about your next thing, whatever it is & whenever it is.
you created something nice. This is the correct nice step. Good for the community, hopefully good for you. Way better than what other founders did, ultimately ending up so often in forks, feuds and anger.
Thank you for your dedication and excellence in being able to keep the project faithful to its original ethos. It is a very rare thing to see in the environment of digital products of that kind of scale, and I hope this will inspire others to follow that direction. Especially in our troubled times. Thank you again and I can't wait to see how it's going to evolve! Good luck to @mellifluousbox @haubles @renchap and the whole crew and contributors! 💫
Thinking of what to say, apart from THANK YOU, best wishes, and congratulations, I have just learned that the etymology of pachyderm says "'thick skin', from the Greek παχύς, pachys, 'thick', and δέρμα, derma, 'skin'", so...
Here's hoping your skin can get softer and thinner now, if you so wish!
Thank you, Eugen! Recently I heard the saying: "Hoffnung ist eine Praxis, die mensch am Leben halten soll." - Thank you for making a dream come true and for nurturing the hopes of many people.
your childhood project has grown into one of the few places left on the internet which feels like it was built with actual human interest in mind. Thank you for this respite from the screaming online advertising overload.
Thanks a lot for creating this space. It has truely been a haven in the chaos of exploitation that commercial social media has become. I've had accounts on here since some time in 2019, because I tried every new platform that was built. I'm glad Mastodon got to be the one that made it work. I donate monthly to the organisation, and there are few places on the internet where I get as much for my money as on here.
Bravissimo Eugene! Every founder's dream should be to build an organisation that can be run by others: this is, surely, the best mark of maturity.
Mastodon is a truly wonderful - and exceptionally important - creation. Traditional investors and business folk might lament lack of (even) faster growth, and urge the raising of much more capital to 'leverage' what you and the team have built so far.
But, as you obviously know, that type of investment sows the seeds of enshittification.
Eugen you've been a personal inspiration to me and offered me and so many others a viable digital space grounded in civil society values, I am incredibly grateful for everything you've done to build and nurture this space.
Whatever else comes next, you've had a significant impact on the Web, something I hold very dear, and I know from experience how hard it is to take a step like this with something you've created and grown.
On behalf of the Tŵt community, diolch yn fawr iawn!
Thank you so much for all you've done! Without Mastodon I would have almost no hope for what's become of the Internet. Best of luck to you in anything you do!
Thank you for all your work on building this place, especially your prioritising of non-technical people who want to use decentralised social networks. Mastodon being aimed at a general non-technical audience was a real breakthrough, as was curating instance lists, the covenant etc.
And thank you especially for putting the project's non-profit status first when you turned down buyouts in 2022, this was a crucial moment that showed real integrity.
You’ve done a great job and should be very proud of what you’ve built. Coming here after Elon destroyed Twitter was bittersweet but I found it refreshing, safe and inviting. At the Iconfactory we’ve done our best to help promote Mastodon ourselves and wish all of you nothing but success. Good luck in your future endeavors, whatever they may be.
The fact that you’re stepping down rather than becoming a neurotic megalomaniac is the very proof that you were the right person for the job. Prioritising yourself as a human being is a great example for a safe and sane Internet.
Thanks for all you’ve done and welcome on the Fediverse’s backseat. It ain’t that bad. You can see the driver while enjoying the view!
Thanks a lot Mastodon. Have a good time away from tge helm and being an informed observer. May be difficult to let go but hat one point someone else should take over.
thank you and the Mastodon team for evolving an idea into something @trumpet can delight us with. And to all other admins for actually creating and maintaining the federation.
I think this is a great step. Not because you did bad work, to the contrary! You did amazing work but at some point it feels inevitable that one burns out with such responsibility and things take a turn for the worse. Even with best and friendliest of people. Stepping down before that happens is a humbling move.
Thank you for the time you served as CEO and looking forward to your future contributions as an advisor!
I suppose this is a little like when your child grows up and goes out into the world on their own. While you're still around for advice, there's a lot less input on the day-to-day stuff and you just hope that the values you tried to instill will guide them well on their journey. Thanks for all your work!
Thanks to all you have done for Mastodon to thrive into something awesome, it truly became my home on the social web after the dumpster fire that is Twitter…
I’m glad you’ll still be providing input in some capacity, while taking care of your mental health.
Well said, and thank you! "The fediverse is an island within an increasingly dystopian capitalist hellscape. And from my perspective, Mastodon is our best shot at bringing this vision of a better future to the masses"
You are correct that #Mastodon and #Fediverse success has lifted a huge responsibility to "sanitize" what is the internet today.
Can I ask if you personally have a desire to advocate for a foundation type of organization that will work as a Non Government organization and lend your expirience and all the people who have worked around the Fediverse and FOSS, in order to create better legislation? Have you spoke about this before and I missed it?
even though I haven’t agreed with all your decisions, I think you’re making the right choice here, and I say that in the sense of you deserving to work on what feels comfortable for you. Some people have made a lot of assumptions about what your priorities are and why m.s has had problems, without ever having tried to do anything like what you’re doing. Even if I would still have gone about stuff in a different way from my own experience, I respect your efforts and wish you well.
well done Eugen, first for everything mastodon, but also for being brave enough to take that step aside and let the team take it forward. It’s one of the hardest things for founders to do. ❤️
Much like the Dread Pirate Roberts, the name "John Mastodon" is movable and can be assigned to anyone suitable at a given moment.
But you'll always be the real John Mastodon! Thank you for starting this thing and helping to realise the #ActivityPub potential as envisaged by @cwebber , @evan and all the others.
When I learn that someone like you--who has done such wonderful work for so many people--has personally suffered, I feel truly painful and sad. No one would ever be happy to be unfairly oppressed. I sincerely hope that you, just as you are, can continue your calm and positive path (with your wonderful wife by your side!).
Thanks Eugen. I've read a lot of CEO goodbyes in my day, but this was one of the most humble of them. Good luck with your next chapter. Thank you for your service.
Thank you, Eugen, for all you have done to help create these spaces for us. Thanks for holding on to your vision and having firm boundaries, too. It's refreshing to have web space like this that isn't manipulated by algorithms and billionaires. Stay rooted and get some rest if you can! Hope you'll still stop by and toot. 🐘
As a grateful recipient of the light from our beacon of hope, thanks for all the good work you’ve done to give us this refuge! I think your wisdom will play out well over the long run.
thank you Eugen, for indeed "The #fediverse (i.e. #Mastodon) is an island within an increasingly dystopian capitalist hellscape." Letting go of your baby is never easy, and I, like many, wish you well!
thank you for your hard work and best of luck with your future endeavors. Thanks to mastodon I've felt like I can return to social media empowered by my own self hosted instance. It's something I never thought possible at this level of engagement and scale of community. Welcome @mellifluousbox and I look forward to seeing your direction take shape! Bravo to the whole team for getting this far and still pressing forward 🎉
I'm sorry to see you leaving your position Eugen. You built a platform that has more value than money. I do; however, understrand the importance of self-care and what stress can do to a person. So, with that, "good on you". Take good care of yourself, you are a great human being and an awesome contibutor. I'm also glad to see you will still have a hand in the project. (Keep then honest)!
thank for for everything you've done, and for the pressure and criticism you've had to put up with. You handled it better than most imagine they would I suspect.
That hit hard... "The fediverse is an island within an increasingly dystopian capitalist hellscape. And from my perspective, Mastodon is our best shot at bringing this vision of a better future to the masses."
Link text color is #f1ebff, surrounding text is #ffffff. They have a contrast ratio of 1.2:1. Not only is hard to see links that are so close in color to the text, they also require a pointing devi...
Thank you for everything you've done, and will do. We're all so lucky that you saw a better future for the internet, then stepped up, built it, and inspired so many of us.
Thank you Eugen! I respect the hell out of anyone with the humility you have to step down and pass on the torch of such a big project. You did a great job and I hope you succeed in your future endeavors : )
keep cool. You made the right choice. Such an ambitious project is not sustainable if one way or another it relies too much on one ´s shoulder. I am sure your choice will be rewarded both for you and for Mastodon
Thank you for everything you've done to create a better web. Mastodon became a solid app and a nice community under your leadership. Best wishes for you on your new path forward
It's sad to see you step down, but I understand completely. Thanks for creating something amazing! Mastodon is by far my favorite social media platform.
I don't know if you'll read this, but thanks for truely great work which has brought some little hope into my heart in this age of full speed enshittification.
I am sorry to read comments have chipped things away from your inner self. And, you are right that you created something that is bigger than yourself, but for a better part.
So, I hope you get well in your feelings again. Thanks again for creating Mastodon ❤️💪🏾
Thank you for providing a safe space for us. I hope it stays this way. And I am so glad you’re taking the advice of Kenny Rogers- knowing when to hold ‘em, knowing when to throw ‘em, knowing when to walk away and knowing when to run. Take care!
What does this mean "...I intend to stay on and continue to advise the new leadership and contribute...", what will your role at the gGmbH be now? Will you be fulltime employed or act as an independent consultant? And (since your toot sounds like it) what is your next project?
I landed on Mastodon from a referral by a satirical account of John Fetterman's dog on twitter. Thanks for all you've done and for all this has become!
.@Gargron por mi te puedes ir lejos y no volver- #Mastodon no es mas que otra red de las redes del fediverso que desaparecerá y surgiran de nuevas al lado de las que ya hay, mastodon se metió en el fediverse, siendo una calcomania de Twitter y wsin #GNUsocial nunca hubiera sido nada, sin el #fediverse y ahora parece ser segun ustedes que mastodon hizó al fediverse y NO-
Let's make social media free, federated and fun! Fediverse.Party is your guide into the world of decentralized, autonomous networks running on free open software on a myriad of servers across the world. No ads and no algorithms.
you accomplished something monumental here, Mr. Rochko.
You helped give the world back control of their social media, their very memories, from the clutches of the multinational corporations.
You've helped to rebuild a decentralized internet - the way it was always meant to be.
Someday, your name will be up there with Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Wozniak, and Larry Page, as one of the visionaries that helped connect the world together.
... we're just not there, quite yet.
But your work, here, will pave the way for that to happen. You've helped DEMOCRATIZE the internet. Now any schlub (like me) that's half-competent with computers and can get their hands on an old "throw-away" hunk of metal and plastic can spin up their own little server and connect to a larger social world.
And be found.
Thank you, Mr. Rochko, for helping free us, and for helping connect us.
Well done @Gargron for everything you've achieved in the last decade! Your principles set you far above certain others in the social media space and I really appreciate your integrity and drive. It's a good decision to change roles and I'm optimistic about the future of Mastodon with you still around for guidance. I hope you take this opportunity for some well-deserved rest and recreation. Finally: thank you!
Thanks for all the f̵i̵s̵h̵e̵s̵ code, and sorry to see that fedizens' aggressiveness was what lead you to step down... Many of your decisions can be criticized, as can most human beings', but you had to take decisions and critic should not come from a position of entitlement nor go beyond what's fair.
Mastodon soll künftig von einer gemeinnützigen Organisation nach belgischem Recht entwickelt werden. Zudem tritt Eugen Rochko ab, verlässt Mastodon aber nicht.
hey Eugen, what you have done with Mastodon is awesome. So thank you a lot for this achievement. Sometimes things are not easy as a founder, especially when it grows fast, but you definitely deserve recognition. I think many of us in the open source, privacy and other communities owe you a big THANK YOU for creating a "social media" that is fully independent from the big techs, and with fair values by design. Good luck with your future projects!
Thank you for your hard work and impressive integrity to keep this place as a bastion against enshittification. You deserve some time to just enjoy the fruits of your labour after all you have done for the internet and its denizens
thanks for being awesome. You were so hands on with an issue, minuscule issue that I had related to Mastodon. You replied and took care of it right away.
Thank you for what you have done and looking forward to the next things you’re working on.
Just a quick reminder that we've had so much of our freedom taken, and gotten literally *nothing* in return. No peace of mind, no extra safety, no societal value of any kind.
So now, the US is the dictatorship that its stupid, power-mad, corrupt, game-playing political parties have made it, and no one will even admit what they've lost.
A newly disclosed DHS document, for instance, shows how the lack of ISIS attacks in the U.S. is not something the intelligence community can take credit for.
At this moment in time I am more pissed than when Trump won his second term.
I'm a supporter of third parties because I have felt for decades that neither the Democrats or Republicans have our interest in mind. When the that of Trump emerged, especially in the second term, I bought into the "Democrats care more at least" narrative. For the first time I was motivated against the evil more than I was voting for what I believed.
And here I am watching the people who are supposed to "be a little better" completely throw America under the bus after paying lip service and having people go without pay and go without food assistance and then throw that away despite those people sending a clear message that they were behind the fight.
Trump is evil and he wears that on his sleeve but it's the Democrats who are saying they care but still just throw America under the bus. Please explain to me how the wolf in sheep's clothing is better than the wolf that makes it's self known.
Sadly, it's incredibly simple. It is virtually impossible to get elected without lots of money. Big corporate donors to the Democrats were fine with this until their CEO's faced the prospect of not being able to fly their jets home without delays, so they called the party up and said "fix this or I'm not sending you any more money!" And then the Dems caved.
In the US, if you try to run on just your principles, you're almost assured to be in a third party. Bernie Sanders might be the only one who manages to escape this trap.
@alan On Saturday I would have said OK.... But today, fuck that. It's not the people dumping money into campaigns but the people like you saying "it's impossible" because if every person that ever said that voted for a third party then we would be seeing a real revolution right now.
The Democrats just spoke loud and clear that they don't give a shit about us. Why should I keep voting for people that don't care?
Two things, I wasn't saying it's impossible. Second, not quite "people like me" though. I live in a country where money is less important, but still we have at most three viable choices, thanks to the first past the post voting system. I've voted for my second or third choice more than once because in my location, opposition to the right is split among several parties, so it's a case of "pick the person on the left who is most likely to win, independent of party". That's worked, but only one time out of three.
You guys really don't have a Left. Up here the Dems would be seen as right wingers who lean slightly toward the centre. Then again, here most voters know the difference between a socialist and a communist.
The US needs to both fix the funding model and the way votes are tallied, and nobody is holding their breath on that one.
Were I a US citizen and in a democratic or swing state, I'd be working to get the person most like Bernie or AOC elected in the primary. Were I in a red state, I'd be working to get the GOP candidate least like Trump elected. In both c
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Two things, I wasn't saying it's impossible. Second, not quite "people like me" though. I live in a country where money is less important, but still we have at most three viable choices, thanks to the first past the post voting system. I've voted for my second or third choice more than once because in my location, opposition to the right is split among several parties, so it's a case of "pick the person on the left who is most likely to win, independent of party". That's worked, but only one time out of three.
You guys really don't have a Left. Up here the Dems would be seen as right wingers who lean slightly toward the centre. Then again, here most voters know the difference between a socialist and a communist.
The US needs to both fix the funding model and the way votes are tallied, and nobody is holding their breath on that one.
Were I a US citizen and in a democratic or swing state, I'd be working to get the person most like Bernie or AOC elected in the primary. Were I in a red state, I'd be working to get the GOP candidate least like Trump elected. In both cases I might vote independent anyway.
@alan I didn't catch that you weren't a US citizen so apologies for that.
We have a very broken system here and the reality is ranked choice voting (combined with strong third parties) is likely our only hope but I fear it's too late for that. Democrats really did rally and earn the centrist and independent vote and today they shot that all to hell.
Most of all what happened today is the Democrats ripped hope away from people... A hope that grew so much last week.
I hate to say this, but it was always a false hope. As your closest partner, we've got a massive interest in seeing the US have a viable democracy and honestly it's been looking less and less viable over the past few decades. I wish I knew what the answer was, but whatever it is we all hope it can be achieved peacefully.
A wave of independents would be great but I really don't know how you overcome the "my granddaddy's granddaddy was a Republican, and so am I, so even if their platform explicitly says they'll cut my arm off and feed it to me for breakfast I'm voting for the GOP" problem.
As for voting systems, I'm leaning more toward proportional representation than ranked choice, but I'll take anything other than FPP. Let the house be full of a cacophony of voices where meaningful compromise is the only way forward.
@alan Ranked choice basically gives people the option of voting for a third party while not letting "the bad guys" win because you can say "I like third party but if they don't win then I like Democrats" so it takes away the biggest obstacle to getting people to vote for a third party.
As for generations I live in West Virginia and the whole state basically swapped a decade or so ago so change can happen (though I wish WV went the other way).
8 Democrats, voted in by voters in their states -- find better Dems to vote in when you can, because the Repubs are not going to suddenly care about us
To be clear, I don't know how I'll vote. Maybe the Democrats will do something (boot Schumer?) to turn this around. I doubt it.
The thing is last week I actually felt good about getting behind the Democrats... Hell, I actually had a little hope for our country. What they did today has just made me feel horrible and all the hope that I actually had is gone.
It's really hard to get behind a group of people that just completely shattered what little hope I had. Watching people I supported stand aside and let an authoritarian party walk all over them isn't exactly people I *want* to vote for....
I don't want to have to tell future generations that I voted for the party that rolled out the red carpet for evil.
In order to report my phone as lost, I have to log in to the carrier's website. In order to log in to the carrier's website, I have to type in my password as usual, and *then* I have to type in the 9 digit code they sent to my phone... My lost phone.
2-factor authentication has never *once* done me any good, but it sure has fucked up plenty of significant events in my life! Good job, Comp. Sci., you made everything suck.
@titanmanfred just to amplifiy this point. Nearly all internet connected devices have a kill switch.
Teslas have a kill switch Your ISP supplied router has a kill switch Your phone has a kill switch Your Windows computer has a kill switch Your programmable bed has a kill switch Your robot vacuum has a kill switch Your MS Mail account and your Bank account has a kill switch (ask ICC judges) Your data in the US owned cloud (even if hosted in Europe) has a kill switch F35 planes, NATO donated to Ukraine, have a kill switch. Your Polish locomotive has a kill switch (activated if you try and use an independent repair shop). All these have been mentioned in the news and in the Fediverse recently.
Most of these are controlled by US or Chinese companies. Particularly with Trump in charge and alll the tech Billionaires subbing him are you sure that the American ones are less lilkely to be used against you by the USAian companies than the Chinese companies to disable your kit and maybe your life?a
@DrEdBridges @titanmanfred @marjolica you should probably save that one for when linux isn't just mentioned in passing and also relevant to the discussion.
US made John Deere tractors also have a kill switch and it has been used to disable some of them (in this case tractors stolen by Russian troops) remotely:
To be honest: I'd love a broad scale analysis of this. Few days ago it as a vacuum cleaner, now buses...
Test this in all things. From mobile phones to cars (don't care if Chinese, US or German), smart beds (well... actually leave these ones out. Who buys a bed that needs internet?!), switches, routers, water pumps, ....
there is a little thing called a specification when you buy something. You need to be absolutely sure you have full control over your technology you own. Some people might find open hardware and open source guys annoying but this what they talk about.
For decades, American farmers have been at the mercy of agricultural equipment manufacturers, who have locked down their tractors with proprietary software, restricting repair options and forcing owners to seek expensive, manufacturer-approved servic…
@thierry_van_kerm for instance, systems that download software updates, could potentially download a software update which deliberately contains errors.
@thierry_van_kerm which is also a risk even if the supplier is honest. It's how the Russians destroyed a whole load of satellite kit just before Ukraine kicked off. Compromise the vendor downloads and ship firmware that physically burns the flash memory. At that point it's probably a PCB swap to restore for most users. A PCB that won't be stocked in bulk, probably uses components no longer manufactured and cannot trivially be mass manufactured again.
Die Verkehrsbetriebe der norwegischen Hauptstadt testeten im Sommer neu angekaufte Fahrzeuge. Auch in Dänemark und in Niederösterreich fahren die Busse
with reference to some comments below, the USA is far worse on this topic. They call it intelectual property rights. Which makes you hand over all the sensor data of the John Deer plough, seeder or harvester to the USA mothership. Which is then sold to hedge funds to hedge against the price of the harvest you as a farmer have invested in and worked hard for. So your farm data is used by biljonairs to increase their wealth at the expense of the farmers doctorow.medium.com/about-thos…
The existence of a kill switch is one thing, but what's more fundamental here in the case of a bus is why on earth it has to be connected to the public internet in the first place?
This is not a China phenomenon but a greed one. Not to say that Chinese government doesn’t enjoy the results, just that I doubt they had to actively instruct anyone to include these kill switches.
A week ago we covered the story of a Polish train manufacturer who was caught using software to brick their products after they had been repaired by in independent railway workshop. Now 404 Media h…
Chinese electric buses have independent outgoing Comms that are used for navigation and OTA updates.
These updates could be designed to disable the vehicle (or they could do it by accident).
As others have noted, pretty much all electronic devices (from doorbell cams and printers to trains and combat aircraft) from all manufacturers (western and Chinese) have this issue.
Good to check and worthwhile developing processes to firewall, monitor and control this access.
"The extensive network of IVECO BUS and IVECO service points guarantees support wherever a vehicle is operating worldwide. The manufacturer employs more than 5,000 people and has five factories, located in Annonay and Rorthais in France, in Vysoké Myto in the Czech Republic, and in Brescia and Foggia, in Italy." ivecobus.com/france/La-Marque
Sad story, Alstom Aptis was manufacturing good electrical buses in Alsace, France, but due to low demand, they cease activities in 2021. European Union countries should give priority to EU products so that OUR companies don't close and to prevent sad surprises.
A Norwegian bus company wants to know if their buses could be abused by China in the case of war. in the mine, investigators discover a Chinese kill switch which could destroy all Chinese buses.
BOLLOX
Thank you for replicating the ridiculous accusations. A sim card and update box was found. That system is used in thousands of buses, trains, cars, tesla for example can be switched off from usa as can john deer tractors.
I think @65dBnoise has a point. I’m pretty sure the same sort of feature is built into nearly every “smart” lightbulb and “smart TV.” The issue is not the nationality of the software developer. It’s the whole notion of being dependent on some cloud service, generally.
If the authors think war is the only reason the company would use that kill switch (or even the most likely reason) try repairing a bus with unapproved parts or trying to make unauthorised modifications to the software running on the bus. Or maybe just try not paying the bill. @randahl
@shelldozer C’mon. Be realistic. If the Danish rep in the UN condemns the treatment of Uighurs in China, the Chinese bus manufacturer is not going to retaliate by bricking a bunch of buses in Denmark. The diplomatic fallout would be extreme.
The point is well taken that once it’s possible to brick these buses at all, it is possible to do that for a trivial reason. And what they discovered is that it is possible. But that doesn’t make it likely that they would do this for a trivial reason.
Sadly, I can’t figure out how to pass that article through a translator so I haven’t read it. When I hand it to google translate on my phone, Danish still comes out. @65dBnoise @randahl
The most thought-provoking thing about this article is that it highlights the absolutely wild level of sinophobia in scandinavia.
My wife's Volvo has remote firmware update functionality, is that a Swedish killswitch? Every one of the tens of thousands of Teslas in Denmark has remote update functionality, is that an American killswitch? Modern BMWs have remote update functionality, are those German killswitches?
I personally hate the techbroization of modern cars, and I believe that every one of these features should be regulated out of existence, but
it's amazing how this kind of stuff is accepted and normal in every part of our lives until a company based in China does it, and suddenly it's "😱 THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT HAS KILLSWITCHES IN OUR BUSSES 😱"
@Tak Not wanting remote kill switches in products has nothing to do with sinophobia. I am against ALL remote kill switches from ANY country that my country could potentially go to war with.
After Donald Trump has threatened to invade Greenland, I find it deeply problematic that Danish politicians continue to use American iPhones. That does not make me anti-American. It just makes me conscious of the very real security risks Donald Trump represents.
I think the point is that every device that supports OTA updates has this sort of "remote kill switch". If Apple or Google wanted to disable your phone remotely, they could push out an update that did that. Same with Volvo, Tesla, Rivian, Chrysler, HP, Roomba, Sony... If it can be updated remotely, it can be disabled remotely.
@Tak the article doesn’t claim to have found a “remote kill switch” but rather posits that OTA updates could be used as such. Which is almost certainly true. But did the Norwegian government want a different arrangement? did they ask for the opportunity to audit OTAs and sign them for distribution to their fleet? Because big municipal buyers could almost certainly work with these companies to get these things. It’s just not a priority for most government purchasers to add complexity and would be an ongoing expense in IT infrastructure
@Tak Apart from the security risks, it started, I think, with greed - greed by companies who say: you may think you own that device, but no, we control it, we tell you how to use it. It's as simple as software as a service so instead of buying Word or Excel once, you have to pay for it every year. And it's how HP can decide to brick your printer if you put in any brand of ink except theirs. How software companies can force you to buy a new phone just to use basic functionality.
Engineers have discovered 'kill switches' embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or 'physically destroy' grids across the US, UK and Europe.
I read the article - they did not find an actual kill switch. They found that it could be updated remotely, to install a kill switch - not quite the same thing
others are correct saying that this seems to be common practice, but it's not good and we shouldn't just take it. We, no matter if a country or a person, should OWN what they buy, without the possibility of the seller to change that after the fact!
well, translation does not sound that scary and specific:
> " The Chinese electric bus contains a computer that, among other things, controls the bus's battery and engine, so the bus can most efficiently drive around Oslo. And this computer is – via a small sim card – on the Internet, so it can send information and sometimes retrieve an update back. For yes, a bus can be updated in exactly the same way as your phone."
TL;DR: remote tracking and updates which can be used maliciously
Sorry, unless we suddenly start to take non-elective OTA updates without safeguards such as independently reviewed, reproducible source code builds as the theoretical but very possible general threat that they are, I fail to see how this is special. Even more so because @briankrebs boosted it.
Vendor-forced OTA updates are an accepted practice. Attack the practice, not the practitioner.
@briankrebs point taken, but the article is baity to the point of being false. They did not find a backdoor, unless all auto-OTA devices are considered backdoored (which is an assumption most of us professionals work under, but not the articles' general public audience). With a headline like this, I would expect an actual remotely triggerable reverse shell tbh.
@shironeko @danimo I think the honest answer to your question is the entire industry is a race to the bottom, and comparing the relative security of devices does not offer a very wide range. That said, not all router makers, e.g., ship devices w/ years-old Linux vulnerabilities, or make major updates but use the same revision numbers etc. Or have a history of including undocumented user accounts, etc. Not saying TP-Link is guilty of all that, but the truth is most consumer-grade devices are best wiped and equipped w/ open source firmware. It's a horrible market all around.
@danimo I think you are missing a crucial point: Over-the-air updates is a general practices, yes, but there is a vast difference between getting over-the-air updates from allies, and getting over-the-air updates from a country which supports Russia's invasion of Europe. @briankrebs
Honestly, with the Cloud Act and similar laws in place and tech companies obediently submitting to the Trump Administration, I don't really trust any product from the US, and I am saying this with a lot of US tech on my desk. I don't see why I should trust US products any more than I trust Chinese ones.
If it would serve his purpose, Trump would jump in Putins' lap in a heart beat and abadon Kyjiw. Right now, he's just heartbroken about his imaginary best buddy.
@shironeko very true. But that is not the point. From a security perspective, it is more likely that NATO could end up in a military conflict with China which could lead to kill switches being engaged, than for example NATO ending up in a war with Germany, and Volkswagen disables all cars in NATO countries.
To be fair: All Tesla's, and probably many other EV's on the market today have this same functionality.
It's not a "kill switch" directly, it's that the busses support OTA with full admin-rights directly from the manufacturer without user envolvement that could theoretically be used as a kill switch.
Now, if you read further on the "Lion Cage" project, that is scary shit.
They didn’t find a kill switch. What they found was a built-in SIM card - something that's legally required in some countries and present in most modern vehicles - and the ability to perform OTA updates, which is also standard today. And yes, any modern connected vehicle can technically be disabled through a software update if the manufacturer chooses to do so.
This is important - and is true for all internet connected tech.
Something I've thought a lot of lately because of our proximity to the US and reliance on US tech - in spite of the threats of annexation coming from Trump.
Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Most certainly - and the due diligence needs to be done to make sure critical hardware and services are hardened and impervious to such an attack.
Can they do the same thing with the other bus types they have? I don't see why a Chinese government having the ability to disrupt bus traffic is different from any other foreign government having the ability to disrupt bus traffic.
In early November, the Israeli Defense Forces made a decision that sent ripples through defense and cybersecurity circles worldwide: withdraw every In early November, the Israeli Defense Forces made a decision that sent ripples through defense and cy…
Ok I read the translated article and it seems that what they found was the computer that controls the battery and inverter had a sim card in to to allow for firmware updates.
In theory the firmware could be updated to kill the bus but I couldn't see any mention of a function in the existing firmware kill the bus.
This "update firmware to kill" vulnerablity is present in any hardware that can be updated.
Sometimes it happens inadvertently when apple/Google brick a load of phones.
And that is why being electronically independent make sense. Unfortunately not is not always possible but these tests are easy to perform by forensics. That being said, include a clause in the contract specifying remote kill switches, investigate the product you are buying and return them if you find something related.
One wonders if *any* modem vehicle is free of such controls. Multiple systems could each have one controlled by someone else. Who holds the kill switches?
@ScottMGS As 'alarmist' as the post sounds, there is reason to worry, of course - remote updates/command can be abused, and it actually does happen. I also recall the inverters used in many solar installations at one point could be accessed and shut down remotely, by the manufacturer. That definitely is a vulnerability. Shutting down all renewable power is an increasing security risk. tomshardware.com/tech-industry…
Article says that investigators found no spying functions and no kill switch.
They "discovered" auto update function. Described scenario is of course possible (for every device with auto update function), but this is not a kill switch.
But I guess any reason is good for anti-Chineese FUD?
@Joey Provolone @Randahl Fink I fear that it's not possible anymore - most if not all car manufacturers are now required to include certain hardware to abide car safety laws, so fully analog vehicles like the ones from the 80's or so have been gradually phased out.
saying they "found a kill switch" is a bit alarmist IMO.
They found that over the air firmware updates are supported. Yes the manufacturer could in principle ship broken firmware, but there's no indication they built functionality specifically to disable the buses - unlike, say, European and North American car manufacturers, which build in features specifically designed for dealerships to disable a car if the buyer misses payments, sold *as a feature* to dealerships.
These kill switches are likely embedded in every chip-enabled product.
It's a national security problem. Spyware, control, & sabotage all in one.
But it's also part of a fossil fuel disinformation campaign to undermine renewable energy.
It's for accelerated planned obsolescence in household appliances, phones, computers, routers, vehicles, satellites, home heating, public lighting, electric grids, and solar & wind electricity generation.
wow how many other products have imbedded kill switches? The hot rumour in #Canada is the #US has put a kill switch into the #F35 that we have purchased from them.
@jpmens hmm. Everyone knows the bus has a SIM card — just like literally every car these days. Over‑the‑air updates are standard (what do they think the SIM is for?). So why on earth would anyone drive into a mine for that? I mean, it’s probably even spelled out in the bus manual
@Winfried Angele 🇺🇦🇪🇺 @JP Mens @Randahl Fink They weren't looking for the SIM card, they were looking for *any* external communications. Every electronic device has the potential to carry a transceiver, whether for good or evil. They were going to a place guaranteed to have no other RF transmissions at all so that they could know that anything they detected came from the bus.
Afterward, having found nothing else, they examined the potential attack vectors exposed by the SIM card.
@blaise @jpmens then the toot was misleading imo. They found nothing! This OTA "killswitch" was already known. So there is no news at all. At least no bad news.
This clicks with my support for the right-to-repair movement here in the US and elsewhere...consumers should be able to repair their purchases, replace batteries, etc. themselves or by a third party, rather than being forced to go back to the dealer or simply discard it and buy a new product.
And related to that....the ability to turn off updates or sever connections should they see fit.
Public transport operator Ruter says manufacturer access allows buses to be stopped from China, prompting Norway to review cybersecurity risks in public transport - Anadolu Ajansı
Doesn't the SIM card have to connect to a specific, paid-for network? So who is paying for the network?
If there's a way to get a working SIM card without paying, I'm very interested.
I suppose the next step is that the Chinese will require the SIM card to be in place to operate. Which means the bus will stop if you drive through a 0-bar location. And the drive won't be able to call for help because her phone will also have no connection.
Now imagine the thousands of personal electric vehicules, with their camera, on board computer and network connection: how far are they from possibly remote controlled drones ?
per the article, there is no more of a kill switch than in any other electronic product that accepts updates over the internet. It is also not “Chinese” except that manufacturer is in China. In fact, the article even starts off with an example of a hypothetical US military ordering Apple to brick all Danish phones, an example which is different in no functional way than the bus scenario.
U.S. kill switches, Chinese kill switches, Russian killers (called "soldiers") are much scarier than the complete Cold War that our parents and our generation witnessed. Coupled with the rise of neo-Nazis around the world, this makes me think that the world is preparing for the next big war.🤔
Another Snowden moment. Meaning, another time that "ordinary people" realises something that tech people have known forever but was told "no, you're just being paranoid" 🫣
so they found out its like any other device with OTA updates. That an update can brick it. I remember reading that VW requires their ID car to be on flat ground for OTA update because of possibilty of bricking.
In Sweden they downplay the risks and say they are in discussion of what or what the manufacturer is allowed to do, like if they get in a contract, the Chinese wouldn't allow the ccp to control the busses...
It could be noticed by the manufacturer when in broad daylight (see the polish train story), which could trigger countermeasures. Blocking all possibilities for connections creates a reproducible environment. Quite standard stuff. You could also use a big enough faraday cage. @randahl
* Chinese power inverters, batteries and solar panels with undeclared radio receivers * Chinese cars and busses * Mobile phone monocultures * Web cams * Door locks * ...
Isn't it funny how the right constantly wrings their hands over how members of any societal group they don't like, be it trans people, gay people, or even just users of recreational drugs, need to lose a bunch of their rights because somehow, they are a danger to children?
And by "funny", I mean "infuriating", because so many of them are themselves the actual threat to children...
Unus Nemo
in reply to Blaise • •@Blaise
You are not even close to being an old man 😉