Nostr notes by Sarah Jamie Lewis

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@cwtch/117158538584742155 Hybrid groups ...

2026-08-25T22:45:58Z

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@cwtch/117158538584742155

Hybrid groups (i.e. Cybernaut (npub1hhm…cn0z) peer to peer groups where one peer acts as a semi-trusted "host" permitting more flexibility/functionality/efficiency than the existing untrusted infrastructure groups ) has been one of those long running projects for us.

We finally had the ability to focus on it this summer, and I am really excited by what are have put together.

Watch this space 💜

quoting
note1uyz…p84t

A little sneak peek of the next Cwtch release.

We've been hard at work and hybrid groups are finally coming very soon!

Took some time this holiday monday to play with #blender and make ...

2026-08-04T01:18:18Z

Took some time this holiday monday to play with #blender and make some art.

Very happy with how this little scene came together.

Do I love the existence of an barely documented binary blob in an ...

2026-07-29T21:02:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…af3x
_________________________

Do I love the existence of an barely documented binary blob in an open source browser project attached to "filtering" functionality?

No, I can't say I do.

According to contemporary reports and discussion, this filtering functionality was first added so that such sites were not displayed next to "commercial partners".

So that's fun.

TIL Deep within the firefox source tree, there is a binary file ...

2026-07-29T20:48:36Z

TIL Deep within the firefox source tree, there is a binary file called adult_set.bin, it's a set of md5 hashes for "adult sites"

https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/third_party/application-services/components/filter_adult/src/adult_set.bin

Most of these were previously stored in the firefox source code as base64'd hashes, and have been reverse engineered (https://gist.github.com/roycewilliams/04ed6eb9509b83ce4d85873861c7f7b4) (thanks for documenting that Royce Williams (npub1d9j…7m3z))

As far as I can tell, there is a single new entry in the list :

df26afcce27598ce38a4e4852cbb3380 (whose domain is documented here https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D15915)

This has been a very useful and cathartic exercise for me, if ...

2026-07-29T17:34:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…k8hc
_________________________

This has been a very useful and cathartic exercise for me, if only in the sense that I now have a much better idea of which parts of Firefox I wish to be different, how big those parts are, and the extent to which they are integrated with the rest of the browser (the fact that we are now over 1.25 million lines still hasn't settled in my brain yet)

I have a few more patches I'd like to sketch out, my plan is to keep chipping away at this in whatever spare time I can find.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116994970688711387 A ...

2026-07-29T17:24:49Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116994970688711387

A big thank you to everyone who has started discussions / reaching out / testing patches.

I've updated the AI removal patch to purge a few more files that I missed the first time around.

There is also a new patch, that removes the newtab sponsor heavy/widgety home (808 files , 420419 deletions)

There is also a PR open to document testing instructions for the curious.

And I've opened some issues for discussions to each patch to collect any feedback from testing / open questions etc.

quoting
note14tw…rexk

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116967027925557386

To follow up on this, I have pushed an initial, experimental, exploratory patch to https://codeberg.org/basebrowserproject/organization

This patch removes (not just disables) many AI features from desktop Firefox including: smart windows, model chat, link previews, smart tab groups, semantic search, on device model integration (translations) etc.

1605 files changed, 98 insertions, 852297 deletions

I've tested that Firefox builds, and runs, and overall doesn't complain, but it's far from complete, hic sunt dracones etc.
note1a4m…ft9w

I understand politically/organizationally why this module exists, ...

2026-07-28T23:11:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…mrmr
_________________________

I understand politically/organizationally why this module exists, and I understand that Mozilla's priorities will never be my priorities.

But given the number of conversations/messages I've had in recent days on the topic of "how many lines of code browsers have / how complex they are."

I would just like for it to be understood that much of that complexity isn't inherent to the nature of browsers, it doesn't need to be there (or in many cases, anywhere)

Plenty of discussion to be had about what should belong in the ...

2026-07-28T22:56:12Z

Plenty of discussion to be had about what should belong in the core of a browser, and what should be relegated to outside of the main source tree.

And I think reasonable people can disagree about certain features.

But can we all agree that the world would be a better place if the Firefox source tree did not have a module that cares about when the 2026 World Cup began?

100% agreed this is an absurd project, but on the other hand...at ...

2026-07-28T02:19:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…w4xg
_________________________

100% agreed this is an absurd project, but on the other hand...at some point I think there is an argument to be made that the risk reduction obtained from removing hundreds of thousands of lines of code from a code base outweighs the effort to track other fixes...

Oh I forgot to mention, If you would like a number which I think ...

2026-07-28T01:51:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…kg5e
_________________________

Oh I forgot to mention, If you would like a number which I think epitomizes the scope and scale of these AI features e.g. if you are at all concerned with how complexity of software relates to maintainability or security...

The size of the *patch* that I produced (whose sole purpose to to remove AI related features) is 37 megabytes.

For those wondering: I did this by fucking hand, it took me ~5 ...

2026-07-28T01:34:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…u57y
_________________________

For those wondering: I did this by fucking hand, it took me ~5 hours.

I tried to be as surgical as I could with the removal, so there ...

2026-07-28T01:25:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…hkjq
_________________________

I tried to be as surgical as I could with the removal, so there is likely still a fair amount of vestigial code that I didn't notice or overlooked.

I also didn't intentionally remove any of the AI-related code in the android source, in an attempt to minimize the scope.

If you are interested in this absurd project and are comfortable with building firefox from source, feel free to test it out and report any issues.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116967027925557386 ...

2026-07-28T01:19:39Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116967027925557386

To follow up on this, I have pushed an initial, experimental, exploratory patch to https://codeberg.org/basebrowserproject/organization

This patch removes (not just disables) many AI features from desktop Firefox including: smart windows, model chat, link previews, smart tab groups, semantic search, on device model integration (translations) etc.

1605 files changed, 98 insertions, 852297 deletions

I've tested that Firefox builds, and runs, and overall doesn't complain, but it's far from complete, hic sunt dracones etc.

quoting
note1a4m…ft9w

This evening I spent some time going through the latest firefox HEAD, with the idea being to catalog how many files/lines of code could be removed solely on the basis that they only exist to power the built in llm / chat / local ai stuff.

I am currently at 136000 lines of code, a number so absurd that I have forced myself to triple check it - and I'm pretty sure I'm barely half way through this patch.

The security auditor in me weeps.

This evening I spent some time going through the latest firefox ...

2026-07-23T02:53:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…xnve
_________________________

This evening I spent some time going through the latest firefox HEAD, with the idea being to catalog how many files/lines of code could be removed solely on the basis that they only exist to power the built in llm / chat / local ai stuff.

I am currently at 136000 lines of code, a number so absurd that I have forced myself to triple check it - and I'm pretty sure I'm barely half way through this patch.

The security auditor in me weeps.

I've started unloading some notes from conversations I've ...

2026-07-23T00:43:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…66t7
_________________________

I've started unloading some notes from conversations I've had, and some stuff that was previously in my head.

If you are looking for a place to start, how about recommending the "features" that would need to be removed from any good base: https://codeberg.org/basebrowserproject/organization/issues/3

Bootstrapping a project like this is a daunting task. But we are ...

2026-07-22T23:21:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…cz9v
_________________________

Bootstrapping a project like this is a daunting task.

But we are where we are.

I am almost certainly not the right person to manage this, but I believe this needs to be done enough to try and get the ball rolling.

I've setup https://codeberg.org/basebrowserproject/organization/issues/1 as a place to start to gather notes/issues/ideas and connect people - if you have some skills or any other ability to help, and want to help, then get in touch.

Based on the response to my thread yesterday, and the fact that I ...

2026-07-22T22:24:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…q49c
_________________________

Based on the response to my thread yesterday, and the fact that I have been having conversations along this line for a year I really believe that there is demand for such a thing (and IME with doing non-profit dev work for the better part of the last decade: demand is not uncorrelated with the ability to long term fund a thing).

People want free and independent browsers, unencumbered with non-consensual bullshit, built by humans.

I don't think that is the most efficient way of bootstrapping ...

2026-07-22T22:17:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…d8hq
_________________________

I don't think that is the most efficient way of bootstrapping this thing - given the amount of effort these projects are already expending purging the same garbage functionality from Firefox release after release I think there is a world where a joint effort results in more-capacity (especially if committing to developing that base independently after a point)

But I have no way of proving that, and thus a new project might be the only practical way of bootstrapping this thing.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116959309031485270 ...

2026-07-22T22:12:59Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116959309031485270

Many have asked: "Ok, this sounds great, how on earth do we get there?"

From the few conversations I have now had: no single project believes they will ever have enough capacity to do browser dev v.s. patch work.

And no one will commit to exploration without some assurance that the base will receive long-term active development.

Absent some leap of faith, it's likely up to a new project to commit to building that base, and getting it to a stage where those projects feel like it can happen.

quoting
note1n9a…e5cd

If the independent, non-slop web has any future at all, then now must be the time for every firefox fork to commit to working together to maintain a hardfork isolated from Mozilla.

It's a project that is too large to be handled by any small project alone (and maybe even all of them combined), but one that is too important to left under the guidance of an organization like Mozilla.

Without such bold co-operation I fear we have already lost.

Folks, if your personal outlook is "this is too hard / it ...

2026-07-21T19:45:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…c6vk
_________________________

Folks, if your personal outlook is "this is too hard / it will never happen" - that's great, I have that voice in my head too and I also believe it occasionally.

But sometimes you have to tell that voice to shut the fuck up, and actually try to do something that seems hard or difficult or even impossible.

Especially when the other choice is to do nothing and watch the world rot.

You are, of course, free to do that but I am not, and I'd prefer you did it somewhere not in my replies.

But that plan only works if enough soft forks come together and ...

2026-07-21T19:18:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…3td6
_________________________

But that plan only works if enough soft forks come together and commit to it - it will take serious combined effort (and a lot of community support and funding) to redirect the future of the web.

I still have enough hope and optimism in me to believe that might be possible.

By uninformed I mean that I've been thinking about this path ...

2026-07-21T19:12:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…etj8
_________________________

By uninformed I mean that I've been thinking about this path for over a year, and I honestly believe it's the only way forward

https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/114088612358750696

quoting
note1h3q…5ctl

I've been playing around with using "base browser" as a stopgap and it's really all I want in a web browser - no branding, no labs, no telemetry, a few sensible safety defaults, but nothing that degrades general experience (and with the ability to go hyper restrictive if desired)

The one downside is that you have to compile this browser from source, and its not a standalone project - its the firefox fork that serves as the pseudo-base of the Tor and Mullvad browser.

An uninformed plan: - Take Tor's base Browser, the one they ...

2026-07-21T18:34:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…53hs
_________________________

An uninformed plan:

- Take Tor's base Browser, the one they use as a branding-neutral base (very clever name) for the privacy-focused soft forks Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser (i know, i know - but they already paid for the work, so some good might as well come out of it)

- Rebase your soft forks on Base Browser, and benefit from that work

- Form a working group to co-manage base browser

- Hard-fork from firefox as you reject future rebases in favour of privacy and humanity.

Mozilla and, by extension, Firefox have laid out the direction ...

2026-07-21T18:21:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…euwa
_________________________

Mozilla and, by extension, Firefox have laid out the direction they want to go - and have consistently moved in that direction. There is no redemption arc there, they are not going to turn the ship around - and every week and month that goes by, Firefox gains more slop and drifts further from the visions that founded it.

Projects like Tor Browser and Waterfox are painstakingly disabling / patching out the worst - but every release becomes more expensive, and things do slip through.

If the independent, non-slop web has any future at all, then now ...

2026-07-21T18:10:25Z

If the independent, non-slop web has any future at all, then now must be the time for every firefox fork to commit to working together to maintain a hardfork isolated from Mozilla.

It's a project that is too large to be handled by any small project alone (and maybe even all of them combined), but one that is too important to left under the guidance of an organization like Mozilla.

Without such bold co-operation I fear we have already lost.

It has always made me uncomfortable when privacy projects align ...

2026-07-21T14:40:18Z

It has always made me uncomfortable when privacy projects align themselves with VPNs.

VPNs are, at best, a tool for rerouting traffic. There are a few good reasons
for choosing to reroute traffic but none of those reasons are about privacy.

And all of those reasons are predicated on an ability to trust the new provider *more* than the default/another.

I'm skeptical of that trust in the best cases, I have no idea how it can be justified when/after a provider actively supports authoritarianism.

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@cwtch/116898036909989089 Nothing quite ...

2026-07-10T23:00:19Z

RE: https://fosstodon.org/@cwtch/116898036909989089

Nothing quite like getting everyone in a room and throwing problems around until solutions appear.

Feels good to do this again.

quoting
note10p0…sfxh

Wrapping up a very exciting week as we close out the 2026 Cwtch Hackathon!

This week we made amazing progress on a new iteration of peer-to-peer groups, and tackled some long standing maintenance tasks in preparation for the next version of Cwtch.

It has been a long time since the core team got together in person to hack on cwtch, and we leave this week feeling very excited about what happens next.

💜

Boiling it down, every single request stemming from "age ...

2026-06-08T20:54:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…68r9
_________________________

Boiling it down, every single request stemming from "age assurance" / "age verification" / "identity verification" is part of the slow but persistent fight against general purpose computing (itself but one front in the never ending struggle for human freedom)

The idea that you should be able to do anything without seeking permission from someone else is so abhorrent to some people they demand reality twist itself into absurdities to satisfy their need for authority.

I was aware that reason and competence had long left the halls of ...

2026-06-08T20:27:57Z

I was aware that reason and competence had long left the halls of UK governance but "We need the software to prevent camera operators taking nude images" is remarkable in its ridiculous dystopia.

My goal this morning was to beat my previous 1.5 mile run attempt ...

2026-04-08T17:00:23Z

My goal this morning was to beat my previous 1.5 mile run attempt which stood at 19:00 minutes - with an optimistic target of 18:00.

Final 1.5 mile time: 17:46!

Slowly getting faster.

Testing out a new telescope camera, chance encountered a bird ...

2026-04-05T20:22:27Z

Testing out a new telescope camera, chance encountered a bird catching a ride on a thermal.

"we are cancelling the free open source project tier ...

2026-03-23T21:05:30Z

"we are cancelling the free open source project tier you've been using for years, to be considered for the replacement tier you will need to post the following statement of partnership on your website about that is focused on how great our new AI features are"

Oh...we're in *that* stage of the hype decline.

The extent to which core linux projects are laying the groundwork ...

2026-03-21T16:15:20Z

The extent to which core linux projects are laying the groundwork for age verification is very concerning.

I understand why some believe they are compelled to do so, and why others feel that it may be better to implement the most minimal conforming implementation in the hopes of fending off something worse.

But the line must be drawn such that no threat can obligate an OS to collect/store personal information - without that freedom, we face an uphill fight to protect general purpose computing.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116161459299855467 ...

2026-03-05T19:58:26Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/116161459299855467

Something I want to make clear:

The "age verification" bit of the CA/CO laws are not the bit I care about i.e. a law that requires an operating systems to implement some kind of parental control feature is...whatever.

The bits I care about are the obligations on developers to call APIs and then that invocation being taken as evidence of knowledge.

Specifically, I think a -legal- requirement to:

- make any kind of call is an attack on speech
- know a users age (bracket) is a privacy violation

quoting
note1u7x…3jug

The California age verification law imposes behaviour of application developers that I consider morally absurd.

As an application developer, I will never request any information from the OS or any other place to gather personal information about a user - especially if the act of that request has legal implications on what I am deemed to "know".

I simply won't.

Any system that enforces such a check, is a system I will not support.

The California age verification law imposes behaviour of ...

2026-03-02T20:26:44Z

The California age verification law imposes behaviour of application developers that I consider morally absurd.

As an application developer, I will never request any information from the OS or any other place to gather personal information about a user - especially if the act of that request has legal implications on what I am deemed to "know".

I simply won't.

Any system that enforces such a check, is a system I will not support.

With all the discussion around detecting when a code repo ...

2026-02-26T23:31:15Z

With all the discussion around detecting when a code repo contains commits authored by an LLM, I think it is important to note commits like the following in Mozilla Firefox from 2 weeks ago:

"Bug 2011195 - When an agent commits, don't add itself as author"

https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/71cc24b6a400dbd434e4df37087960d94b764791

I don't think it's a good thing that Mozilla seem to be explicitly encouraging unattributed LLM code in Firefox.

Update: Lacking any evidence that Signal considers sender ...

2026-02-05T19:14:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…rdcf
_________________________

Update: Lacking any evidence that Signal considers sender consistency a security sensitive property - and given the limited impact I decided to just report this as a UI bug.

tl;dr you can trivially make signal polls that only members using Signal Desktop group can see/interact with/react to.

This allows you to basically hide messages from certain other members. Not great in principle, not very useful in practice. Might have it's uses when combined with other vectors.

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/14583

Context: I found a bug, the bug can be exploited such that ...

2026-02-04T23:23:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…p4z2
_________________________

Context: I found a bug, the bug can be exploited such that different members of a group see different conversations.

There are plenty of contexts where I would consider this a (low-medium) security issue, and given the nature of the bug I expect there might be additional security considerations.

But before spending time writing up the issue I'd like to confirm that this is something that Signal considers security-sensitive / or i'll just dump it on github eventually.

This is an honest question that I could not find the answer to. I ...

2026-02-04T22:45:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…08z3
_________________________

This is an honest question that I could not find the answer to.

I *think* users implicitly expect transcript consistency.

I know that at one point transcript consistency was a property that was discussed as being desired, and then I think I remember a point at which transcript consistency was technically weakened?

But github timed me out for loading too many pages in the hunt for any kind of confirmation.

Does @npub1rkw…5q62 consider violations of group transcript ...

2026-02-04T22:30:14Z

Does Signal (npub1rkw…5q62) consider violations of group transcript consistency (i.e. different members of a group seeing different messages/different order of messages) to be security issues?

RE: https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115849251057488746 I ...

2026-01-06T21:20:48Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115849251057488746

I find the "trained on open data" line of reasoning really weird.

The datasets behind these models are from web scrapes, containing many sentences clearly taken from news websites that don't appear to have licensed their IP for that purpose - I don't see a difference between that and AI companies scanning in copyrighted books or art.

(Note: I'm not making a judgment either way on this, but if you are branding yourself on AI ethics, I think you need to be consistent in how you talk about this)

quoting
note1jmh…3rw7

Firefox uses on-device downloaded-on-demand ML models for privacy-preserving translation.

They're not LLMs. They're trained on open data.

Should translation be disabled if the AI 'kill switch' is active?

Practically every tangentially related to work external meeting I ...

2026-01-03T20:25:02Z

Practically every tangentially related to work external meeting I have had with other Canadians in the last year has included a segue where all parties discussed taking steps to diversify away from US infra/software/orgs.

It's the kind of activity where nothing seems to be happening, until it happens all at once.

e.g. We began researching, negotiations, and planning early in 2025 and only actually started migrating systems in December. We will begin cancelling contracts later this month.

I also feel that this is our only viable defense against the ...

2026-01-03T03:51:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…ydkv
_________________________

I also feel that this is our only viable defense against the double impact of the generative AI onslaught i.e. the mass pollution, and the systematic DoS, of research sources.

I fear the impact of both will only worsen with each passing month.

Because of that, the best time to do that documentation was decades ago, the second best time was yesterday, the next best time is now.

Both my artistic and technical interests have resulted in a ...

2026-01-03T03:37:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…pxvj
_________________________

Both my artistic and technical interests have resulted in a renewed appreciation for both niche contemporary documentation and the historical archives that they become.

And also a firm belief that there is nowhere near enough writing or drawing or pictures on any subject.

Think back 10-20 years ago, pick any mundate aspect of your life, fully inspect it in your mind and attempt to determine how it came to be exactly that way, what forces led to that, where did they go?

And document it.

Memories and Ink fades, links rot, collections cycle, and censors ...

2026-01-03T03:28:20Z

Memories and Ink fades, links rot, collections cycle, and censors edit and rewrite.

Building archives, even if only in private, is both a defensive and optimistic act.

Make copies of artifacts and please write about them excruciating detail, document from weird angles, note the obvious, and the absurd.

Presuppose a future where someone else wants to know that artifact as you know it.

No one person, or org, can hold back the fog of time forever, but consider giving history a helping hand.

A quick reminder of a few things Mozilla/Firefox have done in the ...

2025-12-18T23:22:33Z

A quick reminder of a few things Mozilla/Firefox have done in the last *checks notes* ~year that I hope highlights that this is not a case of bad messaging but a consistent pattern of hostility:

- "Mozilla is going to be more active in digital advertising."

- "privacy preserving" Advertising telemetry enabled by default

- New T&C demanding a worldwide license (rolled back) & weakened privacy policy to support the above expansion (active)

- ""[Firefox] will evolve into a modern AI browser"

My issue with firefox soft forks is that even in their most ideal ...

2025-12-17T21:09:24Z

My issue with firefox soft forks is that even in their most ideal form, they can only be reactive harm-reduction, and any reasonable fork necessitates compromises that introduce some amount of risk (delayed security updates, compromised trust anchors etc.)

Perhaps that is the best anyone can do within reasonable costs.

Perhaps the only affordable proactive actions we can take is to reinforce that front against future inevitable assaults.

Perhaps that must be enough. I wish it were not so.

Mozilla insist that people trust them. I assume they have insight ...

2025-12-16T16:15:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…nuzy
_________________________

Mozilla insist that people trust them. I assume they have insight and metrics that reinforce that view.

Perhaps I am getting old and this truly is the only path forward to maintain an independent browser.

I continue to feel that this is a terrible idea that has likely irrevocably jeopardized the future of firefox and, by extension, the open web.

Mozilla has a new CEO. Once again iterating that the future of ...

2025-12-16T15:54:20Z

Mozilla has a new CEO. Once again iterating that the future of Firefox is AI first, AI by default:

"Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software"

"It will evolve into a modern AI browser"

"AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off."

Source: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/leadership/mozillas-next-chapter-anthony-enzor-demeo-new-ceo/

Let's say I have a collection of documents (pdf or images ...

2025-11-21T18:06:08Z

Let's say I have a collection of documents (pdf or images etc.).

For each document I have the original, for some I have transcribed text (and for some of those an additional layer featuring translated text if the original was non-English).

On top of those I have my own semi-structured notes regarding the document (context, source, links to other documents, meaning).

Does there exist a (foss) file format/program that I can use to view/structure/store/edit those various semantic layers?

My new hobby is attempting to reverse engineer how something ...

2025-11-04T04:23:41Z

My new hobby is attempting to reverse engineer how something worked from rare archives of building plans, second/third hand interviews, and the occasional archival photograph.

This has reaffirmed my belief that people are really bad at determining what information is worth documenting.

For the future of the humanity, please consider taking photos from more than one angle.

If any developer of any software I use to write/review code ...

2025-10-06T19:32:46Z

If any developer of any software I use to write/review code announced they were going to put logic in that software to extract/send/train on my code - **even if it was opt-in/disabled by default** - that software would be uninstalled and that developer blacklisted from any system I had any control over for the rest of time.

Without hesitation or delay. Even with the best of intentions and security practice I could simply never trust that piece of software again.

Of course none of this is actually about developer verification, ...

2025-08-25T19:18:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…ax46
_________________________

Of course none of this is actually about developer verification, I would be deeply shocked if Google gave a single fuck about the safety of the apps you install.

This is entirely about increasing control over avenues available for distribution of software.

There are a growing number of people in governments and corporations around the world that really would rather you did not have the ability to freely choose which software you use.

There were exception requests filed, emails sent, forms filled ...

2025-08-25T19:12:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…dd6e
_________________________

There were exception requests filed, emails sent, forms filled out, actual wet signatures required.

Finally at some point updated information started appearing so we were able to do things like "attest that the address they had on file was ours"

In that sense "developer verification" works, because no one else would bother jumping through that many hoops.

Google is once again ratcheting up control over the android ...

2025-08-25T19:03:26Z

Google is once again ratcheting up control over the android ecosystem I'd like to raise a point about what "“developer verification" means in practice:

It took us (well [@dan_ballard](https://kolektiva.social/@dan_ballard )) months to go through the verification flow because the company google uses to "verify" organizations had gathered a whole load of data about us that was just wrong; really wildly wrong, "annual sales numbers" and "number of employees" plucked from lalaland, incorrect addresses etc.

It's just a farce.

I spent a large chunk of my early career in organizations that ...

2025-08-20T20:12:10Z

I spent a large chunk of my early career in organizations that were very document-focused.

It was expected that you would write documents.

It was expected that you read the documents that others wrote.

It was expected that time be scheduled during meetings to ensure the document was read.

It was understood that in order to arrive at the intended understanding that you read all the words.

If a short summary could have conveyed the same information, the author would have written that instead.

we are aware of this issue, but don't currently know the ...

2025-08-09T16:15:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…vsnp
_________________________

we are aware of this issue, but don't currently know the cause. Need some better logs/someone to dig into it.

The logs we do have indicate the error occurs in libgojni which is an artifact produced by gomobile. The issue might be there or somewhere in the interface handling between the go code and java/kotlin.

There is also the db lib that has some C that could be the culprit, we have funds set aside to replace/upgrade that entire dependency but it's a bigger task.

This morning I ran 5km of alternating slow/fast/slow/fast ...

2025-08-04T16:41:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…80z7
_________________________

This morning I ran 5km of alternating slow/fast/slow/fast intervals, followed by a 5km cool down run.

The fast intervals were fast, between 4% and 12% faster than my current 5km pace.

Mostly today was about proving to myself that I can run that fast for significant periods and still have energy to run at my easy-run pace more-or-less indefinitely afterwards.

Feeling good.

Somehow matched my fast run (~5.3km) PB this morning; despite my ...

2025-08-01T15:34:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…x08k
_________________________

Somehow matched my fast run (~5.3km) PB this morning; despite my body still feeling Wednesday's 10km run.

Which is a great way to start off August.

Accidentally ran 10km this morning. I've never been fit ...

2025-07-30T16:28:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…z356
_________________________

Accidentally ran 10km this morning. I've never been fit enough to accidentally run 10km before...

(The path is newer and marked as "about 4km" but where the path begins and ends, and occasionally goes is still a little under specified...so there and back came out to 10km instead of the ~8km planned)

It was an easy/long run day and I ran it at pace, ecstatically happy.

This morning I was just happy I finished the run. A little over a ...

2025-07-28T17:32:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…3s6f
_________________________

This morning I was just happy I finished the run. A little over a minute slower than my previous PB, went off way too fast - somehow faster than last Wednesday. Need to learn not to do that.

The 3-4km was very difficult, and getting through that was mostly psychological. Finished strong on the last 1.3km though; looking forward to checking out a longer, flatter run later this week.

Easy/long run this morning, was incredibly happy with my pacing - ...

2025-07-25T16:27:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…0ghz
_________________________

Easy/long run this morning, was incredibly happy with my pacing - hit every lap on pace, except the last one which I finished out 45 seconds faster.

Took another 1 minute 46 seconds off my run this morning. The ...

2025-07-23T15:52:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…lxef
_________________________

Took another 1 minute 46 seconds off my run this morning. The weather was on my side, and was aiming to take off about a minute more (~2:44 target) but my first ~1.3k was 30 seconds over my already ambitious target pace, and then I spent the rest of the running attempting to actively recover from that.

Very happy, but can definitely do better.

This morning was a challenge run morning and I cut 3:25 off my ...

2025-07-18T15:50:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…4puk
_________________________

This morning was a challenge run morning and I cut 3:25 off my (~5.3k) run time!

Definitely in that period where gains are coming in fast. Form is improving etc.

(It also definitely helped that it was a good few degrees cooler today)

Cut ~2 minutes off of my 5km time this morning!

2025-07-14T15:33:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…3mh7
_________________________

Cut ~2 minutes off of my 5km time this morning!

This morning I ran non-stop for a little over an hour. I ...

2025-07-11T16:09:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…e2fk
_________________________

This morning I ran non-stop for a little over an hour. I don't think I've ever been able to do that before. Wild.

To give some context to this post: Back in 2018 I had some health ...

2025-06-28T18:35:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…c49w
_________________________

To give some context to this post:

Back in 2018 I had some health issues related to loss of blood, followed by severe anemia - at the worse point I could barely walk and that basically reset my fitness to zero. It sucked.

It took many years (and obviously other events happened), but last July I decided to start running again;

Back then, a few hundred metres were a struggle.

And I've been steadily building up from there (minus a fall and related rib injury).

And today, I ran 5km. Fuck yes.

This morning I ran 5km! Outside, with hills, non-stop. My first ...

2025-06-28T16:38:47Z

This morning I ran 5km! Outside, with hills, non-stop. My first 5k in a long long time, my first ever where I felt I could keep going afterwards.

The shoes I bought at the start of this running journey have officially worn through, but they got me to that 5km.

In other legal news, sometime between May 15th and June 12th ...

2025-06-17T16:34:04Z

In other legal news, sometime between May 15th and June 12th (effective June 10th): Mozilla seems to have quietly removed the grant of a worldwide license to content from their Firefox terms of service: https://web.archive.org/web/20250612224408/https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/terms/firefox/

If you are maybe interested in a tiny activity pub service for ...

2025-06-08T21:47:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ttw
_________________________

If you are maybe interested in a tiny activity pub service for managing posting for a small handful of accounts then now is a good time to tell me if there are any features that you would really really like/need.

My goal with the review/refactor stage is to clean up and collapse any remaining complexity that I can.

OK. Implementing share and like tracking in my tiny activity pub ...

2025-06-08T21:40:33Z

OK. Implementing share and like tracking in my tiny activity pub implementation went well: https://tap.resistant.tech/sarah/posts/1749417193

Sitting at just under 1700 lines of code, I have now implemented all the features I wanted to for an mvp (managing multiple accounts, accepting followers, posting, liking, tracking likes/shares, rss, and a simple web interface)

Next steps:

- a little more functionality testing
- a round of review/refactor
- open source it
- setup an instance for some org accounts to migrate to

a few phone facts an active phone, with or without a sim card, is ...

2025-04-05T03:17:20Z

a few phone facts

an active phone, with or without a sim card, is trivial to identify both actively, passively, and post-hoc

a phone and many modern accessories (e.g. watches, headsets) are basically a nicely packaged collection of sensitive antennas - while most require power to operate efficiently, they are still antennas with a variety of well characterised physical properties.

There are some really cool decades old papers developing radar systems based on those properties.

A reminder to donate directly to all the crucial projects ...

2025-03-18T20:23:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…sr09
_________________________

A reminder to donate directly to all the crucial projects building and maintaining privacy preserving tech, monitoring censorship, and working with people on the ground.

It was clear funding was going to be tight over the next few years, but the reality may be much worse.

I imagine public discussion is pending some kind of official ...

2025-03-18T20:17:37Z

I imagine public discussion is pending some kind of official statement (or its happening on bluesky?), but the private conversations that are taking place regarding the future of digital rights/privacy tech funding are pretty damn dire.

Request: Looking to connect with people who are thinking about ...

2025-03-11T19:01:54Z

Request: Looking to connect with people who are thinking about the future of software, specifically in the areas of:

- Diversification of large/core software development efforts beyond US/EU funding
- Post non-profit organizational frameworks (e.g co-op networks)
- Alternative funding paths (In wider context of the world at large)
- Responding to increasingly locked down operating systems

Very interested in talking to folks (esp. in Canada) who are taking or want to take action in these areas.

I also think there is a general trend of moving stuff off, and no ...

2025-03-11T17:51:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…0gxq
_________________________

I also think there is a general trend of moving stuff off, and no longer publishing, information openly - both because it's increasingly expensive to do so outside of centralized silos (try spotting the difference between a ddos and a web crawl these days) and because of the general sense that the primary consumer of such information will be the same AI models that make up concepts and spew them at you during search.

So more and more public information is silo'd and unsearchable.

A lot of older personal sites of academics are rotting, or simply ...

2025-03-11T17:37:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…uy9j
_________________________

A lot of older personal sites of academics are rotting, or simply gone - as people retire, and departments get renamed and rotated, many of those sites don't make it back online (or they do but all the links are broken), and all the old references no longer work.

And there is also a period where everyone in certain domains just uploaded postscript tarballs of slides/notes/etc. - good luck finding archived versions of those.

In the context of research, searching for anything on the ...

2025-03-11T17:30:44Z

In the context of research, searching for anything on the internet is terrible now - especially with the willingness of search engines to simply make up, and the run with, a concept from the query.

And if the thing you need was created more than a few years ago - especially if it was more ephemeral than a published paper (e.g. workshop slides, a blog post, uploaded seminar slides etc.) - you will almost certainly need to access an archived version of it because the original is long gone.

The current vibe in Canada is that every conversation thread that ...

2025-03-10T22:47:33Z

The current vibe in Canada is that every conversation thread that even remotely touches on future planning now contains the phrase "on the assumption that we're not at war with the US by then..."

I've been playing around with using "base browser" as ...

2025-03-01T18:34:30Z

I've been playing around with using "base browser" as a stopgap and it's really all I want in a web browser - no branding, no labs, no telemetry, a few sensible safety defaults, but nothing that degrades general experience (and with the ability to go hyper restrictive if desired)

The one downside is that you have to compile this browser from source, and its not a standalone project - its the firefox fork that serves as the pseudo-base of the Tor and Mullvad browser.

As I wrote yesterday, I don't think there is anything Mozilla ...

2025-03-01T00:12:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…672r
_________________________

As I wrote yesterday, I don't think there is anything Mozilla could say or do at this point to correct this. The events of the last week were simply the final straw, after years of charging down this path.

They have decided to be a different kind of organization, with a different mission; A mission that is taking them to places that I don't want to go.

Another update from Mozilla, well less of an update more of a ...

2025-03-01T00:04:36Z

Another update from Mozilla, well less of an update more of a statement that reaffirms the previous discussion:

- they really want you to understand that while they are not selling your data, they are legally not not selling your data
- they affirm they definitely still need that license for reasons otherwise how could firefox possibly work

This is just getting sad.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/

Mozilla's "don't be evil" moment. "Does ...

2025-02-28T18:19:56Z

Mozilla's "don't be evil" moment. "Does Firefox sell your personal data?"

From: "Nope. Never have, never will....That’s a promise."

To: "Mozilla doesn’t sell data about you (in the way that most people think about “selling data“), and we don’t buy data about you. Since we strive for transparency, and the LEGAL definition of “sale of data“ is extremely broad in some places, we’ve had to step back from making the definitive statements you know and love. " 

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/faq/

And that is why I've held on as long as I could have, beyond ...

2025-02-27T22:27:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…82yf
_________________________

And that is why I've held on as long as I could have, beyond what I rationally consider the breaking point.

Over the last few years I've been publicly critical of Mozilla while still urging people to use Firefox, but to make their voices heard.

That time is over. I can't agree to these terms, I can no longer condone the destructive path that Mozilla has chosen. This is the point where after more than 2 decades, I had to say enough.

And I need you to understand what that decision means to me. I ...

2025-02-27T22:23:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…7r99
_________________________

And I need you to understand what that decision means to me. I started using Firefox in the early 2000s - I honestly can't remember when but probably sometime in 2003.

I was one of the few people that had an actual Firefox phone in the early 2010s.

I donated time and money to Firefox and Mozfest and Thunderbird over the last two decades because I really believed in all of those projects.

I think Firefox has been incredibly important to what the web is and could be.

Over my career I've been involved in hundreds of contract ...

2025-02-27T22:13:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…ltdw
_________________________

Over my career I've been involved in hundreds of contract negotiations, many of them including stuff like software licensing. I've done this work for governments, and corporations, for myself, and for non-profits.

Which is to say, I know what words mean. I know what the legal norms are in multiple jurisdictions, and I know when someone is trying to bullshit me.

I have no doubt that Mozilla think they need this license and privacy policy. I'm concerened enough by the "why" to ditch firefox.

The language is clear, it is being criticised because it is ...

2025-02-27T22:06:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…0qqq
_________________________

The language is clear, it is being criticised because it is clear. No one is confused about anything. Except maybe Mozilla regarding how this will play out over the long term.

>> Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into ...

2025-02-27T22:00:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…nvar
_________________________

>> Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice

This part is entirely correct. And I really want you to understand that it is only so because of the end of that statement i.e. "other than what is described in the Privacy Notice"

The Privacy Notice, as outlined in my previous thread is incredibly broad.

>> "We've seem a little confusion" There is no ...

2025-02-27T21:58:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…tv7q
_________________________

>> "We've seem a little confusion"

There is no confusion, the usage and privacy policy are both incredibly clear and broad in what they say.

>> We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible.

They do not. This is incredibly condescending. Nothing about the "basic functionality" of a browser demands a "royalty-free, worldwide license". That is absurd.

Mozilla have published an update to this: > "UPDATE: ...

2025-02-27T21:51:24Z

Mozilla have published an update to this:
> "UPDATE: We’ve seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so we want to clear that up. We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice."

I want to break this down.

https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/114072293410465140

One thing I really want people to understand: regardless of the ...

2025-02-27T03:11:07Z

One thing I really want people to understand: regardless of the reasons for Mozilla introducing that ridiculously broad / privacy hostile terms of service / privacy policy; and regardless of their actual intent.

You should respect yourself, and your fellow humans, enough to not put up with that level of bullshit.

You deserve technology that works for you, technology that isn't built on shifting sands, whose behaviour doesn't radically change between minor updates; software that respects you.

For those asking what my current plan is: I'm going to push ...

2025-02-26T22:06:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…k2r3
_________________________

For those asking what my current plan is:

I'm going to push forward on migrating my use of more complex web apps to a standalone equivs where available (e.g. mastodon / rss readers)

In the short term, probably tor browser to do more general browsing. I trust that team to be able to strip out most of the bad, and keep the rest generally locked down.

Long term: It's time to really commit to building something better.

I need a web browser, I need it to be open source. I need it to ...

2025-02-26T21:55:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…v0f4
_________________________

I need a web browser, I need it to be open source. I need it to be secure and maintainable. I need it to work in my best interests.

Firefox is no longer that browser, I'll be working to move off of it. I don't think there is an obvious place to go, yet.

This is far from the start of this journey, Mozilla have been ...

2025-02-26T21:50:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…n83v
_________________________

This is far from the start of this journey, Mozilla have been working towards this point for many years.

A creeping corruption that I think has finally taken hold.

They themselves, say it best:

"Although we’ve historically relied on our open source license for Firefox and public commitments to you, we are building in a much different technology landscape today"

There is also the incredibly broad "To comply with applicable ...

2025-02-26T21:35:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…6j92
_________________________

There is also the incredibly broad "To comply with applicable laws, and identify and prevent harmful, unauthorized or illegal activity." in which Mozilla states they may gather "all data types" - among the defined types include: searches, browsing data (visited URLS), content and any other data.

In support of nebulously defined "identify and prevent harmful," and in response to law enforcement.

That "learn more about" link just goes to a list of definitions.

I'd specifically like to bring attention to the "To ...

2025-02-26T21:30:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…9kmg
_________________________

I'd specifically like to bring attention to the "To market our services." bases for data collection under which Mozilla now claim the right to gather, among other things, Unique identifiers and Browsing data - under which Consent is only considered if they have a legal obligation, and of course it's opt-out.

General rule of thumb: Every time an organization updates their ...

2025-02-26T21:24:23Z

General rule of thumb: Every time an organization updates their terms of service and/or privacy policy, it is never because they have your best interests at heart.

Specific thoughts on this latest Mozilla action (https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-news/firefox-terms-of-use/)

Setting aside the "worldwide license" bullshit, the privacy policy appears to have broadened both the classes of data Mozilla aims to collect, and the situations in which they collect them.

These are not the actions of an org that cares about your privacy.

Really, what I would love to see is a project with a vision and ...

2025-02-20T00:25:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…544y
_________________________

Really, what I would love to see is a project with a vision and principles.

Where is the browser with activity pub integration? Where is the browser with rss feeds? Where is the browser that doesn't have to disable the tracking crap, because it simply doesn't exist in the first place?

If we want a web that works for the people, we need to build a browser that takes responsibility for those values.

While understanding that that is a damn expensive thing to ask.

That or the dozen+ firefox forks agree to combine their efforts ...

2025-02-20T00:13:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…t4pc
_________________________

That or the dozen+ firefox forks agree to combine their efforts and maintain a shared hard-forked base.

That could work, but it might be a bigger ask.

I think Tor Project are probably best placed to do it - they are ...

2025-02-20T00:00:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…hdzx
_________________________

I think Tor Project are probably best placed to do it - they are already as close to maintaining a hard fork of firefox you can be without actually maintaining a hard fork. I understand why they don't - but, if anyone has a shot of making that path work, I think it's them.