Mackaj

https://mastodon.me.uk/@mackaj

Husband and dad to a son, two cats and a dog. Living in Northern Ireland.

Work as a Staff SRE for Proofpoint.

Interests: Reading about Science and Tech. I dabble at gardening (badly).

Favourite books: The Commonwealth Saga and The Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton.

#linux #dns #cockerspaniel #atheist #humanism #bev #renewableEnergy

Public Key

npub1v3njmqpeye7rlk65fm7s9rn4axk53e6yp0zdnx84ek2e0jzpee4scnpwm6

NIP-05 Address

mackaj_at_mastodon.me.uk@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxgeedsqujvlplmd2yalgz3e67nt2guazqh3xenr6um9vhepquu6cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsc4zfmq

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1v3njmqpeye7rlk65fm7s9rn4axk53e6yp0zdnx84ek2e0jzpee4scnpwm6

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Last Notes

2026-08-25 17:45:03 UTC

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(1.) Not the mainland, just a couple of islands off the coast.

2026-08-25 16:08:55 UTC

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No one was trying to invade the US at the time though.

2026-08-24 07:44:05 UTC

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Zelenskyy is right; this is normal during war time.
General elections were suspended in the UK during World War II. The general election scheduled for 1940 was postponed, resulting in a ten-year gap between the 1935 general election and the next one held in July 1945.

2026-08-14 07:11:27 UTC

Over one in four people in Clacton would rather have Count Binface as their MP than the leader of Reform UK. 100x more votes than he got against Andy Burnham. 👍🏼
Farage was so scared of being photoed next to a 🗑️ he didn't even turn up for the count results. Count Binface had his say though ⬇️
#uk #ukpol #clacton #byelection
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/117/092/555/303/025/338/original/48b3cb24d1459547.png

2026-07-11 13:47:20 UTC

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I'd forgotten YourParty even existed. Seems to have all but vanished from public discourse.

2026-07-04 08:13:32 UTC

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You're not understanding the technology. Either that or I'm doing an awful job of explaining this 😞
Are you familiar with how SSL certs work and their role in making HTTPS web connections secure? The bank, in this context, is the equivalent of an SSL CA (Certificate Authority).
Maybe I should have titled this from the start as Anonymous Authentication, because essentially that's what it is.

2026-07-03 23:48:24 UTC

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The government doesn't have to be involved though. Let's assume my bank is allowed to issue digital age certs (they already know who I am). I store that cert in my phone wallet. When a website issues an age challenge, ZKP on my phone pulls the cert from my wallet, computes a proof and sends it. They validate using the bank public cert and I'm in. The bank has no visibility of how/when it's used, nor the government, and the website doesn't have to inform them either.

2026-07-03 23:10:46 UTC

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Yes, I'd rather walk away in most cases than risk handing over personal data when I've no control over how it's used afterwards.
But that's why ZKP is such a good tool. I can prove I am what I say I am, without having to give any information away about myself. It's bloody clever 🙂

2026-07-02 19:00:41 UTC

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Yep. Not logging into or using services that demand age verification is definitely a "choice".

2026-07-02 17:54:35 UTC

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Well, the world is changing and it's happening, whether you or I like it or not. In which case we're better off using tech that gives away as little as possible.

2026-07-02 17:28:36 UTC

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The whole point of a ZKP challenge is you can prove you're 18+ without giving away your identity or any personal information. No passport, no pictures, no digital ID, nothing.

2026-07-02 16:38:30 UTC

Google open sources their Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) libraries to support age ID verification.
1. Authenticate your birth date with a trusted authority (the Issuer) and receive a cryptographically signed digital certificate.
2. A website requiring an age ID sends you a random maths puzzle.
3. The ZKP library solves the puzzle with your digital cert and replies with the proof.
4. Using the Issuers Public Cert the website validates the proof.
#security #ageID #ZKP
https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/opening-up-zero-knowledge-proof-technology-to-promote-privacy-in-age-assurance/

2026-06-30 15:26:04 UTC

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oh I totally missed that lol

2026-06-30 15:24:05 UTC

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Can we search exclusively for collections? If not what's the best way to discover them?
Can we follow collections or use them to make lists?

2026-06-29 18:12:24 UTC

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Not sure I did. Interesting story though nevertheless.

2026-06-21 17:50:29 UTC

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Should that happen it would be better if the UK adopted the euro, purely from a psychological view. It'd help cement the move in the eyes of the public as something meant to be permanent.

2026-04-26 07:03:19 UTC

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Balanced? He set his stall in the first paragraph when he referred to the bill as "assisted suicide".
To cast 1280 amendments as "scrutiny" beggars belief. For context, that is more amendments than were tabled for the massively complex, 855-clause Companies Act in 2006. And this wasn't a broad rebellion of the whole House. Over 800 of those amendments originated from just seven peers.
#AssistedDying

2026-04-03 15:14:45 UTC

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They've branded his goings on a "criminal enterprise". Was he just reporting, or more involved than that?
I've a colleague who'll be emigrating to Vancouver in a few months. If this is a high crime area I'm sure she's not aware of that.

2026-02-25 21:08:47 UTC

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What a surprise.

2025-08-13 07:00:20 UTC

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Oh man, I remember that. Caught a cold one time when my back had gone. Sneezed and ended up on the floor.
Try using an ice pack wrapped in a cloth on your back where it hurts for as long as you can take, then apply ibuprofen gel afterwards. Another thing both my wife an I have used in the past are back braces like these. Really helps ease the pain and gives you some mobility back.
https://amzn.eu/d/c0k9s0U

2025-07-21 07:28:46 UTC

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Don't know anything about the Japanese political system. Is that good or bad?

2025-02-26 11:40:04 UTC

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Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't "NHS England" a management arm (subsidiary with 13k employees) of the wider NHS (1.5m employees)?
If the goal is to eliminate duplication of resources, effort, and conflict in NHS England (as the article says) to speed up decision making and improve how the NHS as a whole functions, isn't that a good thing ?
@npub1m3w…f6sd

2025-02-26 01:48:38 UTC

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The guardian offers a more nuanced view.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/25/wes-streeting-to-axe-thousands-of-jobs-at-nhs-england-after-ousting-of-chief-executive

2025-01-01 21:01:22 UTC

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So it indexes everything your server sees on its federated feed then?

2025-01-01 16:20:16 UTC

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How does search on Akkoma differ from Mastodon?

2024-12-02 12:07:26 UTC

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Disagree. If Hunter's father was anyone else none of those convictions would have happened. They were #MAGA revenge for Trump's prosecutions because they couldn't get at Joe directly.
None of this will have any impact on the way Trump behaves in office. He's going to pardon who he wants regardless and won't be guided by any moral choices #Biden makes.
This way Joe corrects a miscarriage of justice, protects his family, and (bonus) pisses off the MAGAs to boot 👍🏻
#HunterBiden

2024-11-13 16:46:27 UTC

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If I want to see what you're seeing and any conversation I might be missing then I select "Open original page" from the post menu and that takes me to your server.
At least I think that shows me everything.

2024-11-10 09:42:16 UTC

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If that's likely to be a regular occurrence then maybe maybe they'd benefit from adding a battery to the setup as well.

2024-09-06 20:09:51 UTC

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Weren't you involved with Calckey / Firefish at one point?

2024-09-01 08:55:48 UTC

Random thought of the day.
Do dogs or cats ever burp? Can't remember ever seeing mine have a belch. Maybe it's just a vertical windpipe thing 🤔
#cats #dogs #burp