I am thinking to make the font size of this blog bigger. In my browser, I do that anyway, and I find that I like the look of blogs with a large font size.
The trend in countries all around the world, despite reversals, seems definitely to be towards more autocratic leaders. Jonathan Freedland [1] in the Guardian has an article about Putin lovers in the west. Orban was just re-elected. Marine Le Pen is inching towards leadership. Trump is still skulking in the background, as is Netanyahu. I’m not optimistic. Altogether the dunia is in such a sad state, it’s funny.
I looked again at Delta Chat [2], which tries to use traditional email as a secure messenger, and makes a convincing case for it. I think the fragmentation of communications into proprietary services, Matrix, XMPP, etc. is really unfortunate. Email is/was a good format; it is decentralized and amenable to encryption. Why can’t it be fixed and reused also as a messenger? Why do we need so many formats and different ways to communicate? Who profits from this fragmentation? Not us.
Links of the day
- Putin still has friends in the west – and they’re gaining ground | Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/08/vladimir-putin-viktor-orban-eu-marine-le-pen
- The e-mail messenger – Delta Chat
https://delta.chat/en/
Michael Moorcock: “I think Tolkien was a crypto-fascistâ” https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2015/07/michael-moorcock-i-think-tolkien-was-crypto-fascist I think he’s right about that.
Is this how Russia ends? – by Anand Giridharadas – The.Ink https://the.ink/p/is-this-how-russia-ends The title doesn’t do justice to this important article – it’s bursting with incites and deserves to be read.
Sri Lanka facing imminent threat of starvation, senior politician warns | Sri Lanka | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/sri-lanka-facing-imminent-threat-of-starvation-senior-politician-warns
‘We’re finished’: Sri Lankans pushed to the brink by financial crisis | Sri Lanka | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/sri-lanka-financial-crisis-protesters-call-for-gotabaya-rajapaksa-resignation-please
Sri Lanka is such a dire situation, under yet another corrupt autocratic. I still remember Paul Theroux’s comical description of this tropical paradise, which is so fertile that even furniture comes alive again and starts to sprout leaves. Only a really bad leadership could produce starvation in such a place.
Pakistan is similarly in a state of deep crisis:
Pakistan parliament ousts Imran Khan in last-minute vote | Pakistan | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/pakistan-on-brink-of-crisis-as-imran-khan-blocks-no-confidence-vote
La Quadrature du Net https://www.laquadrature.net/en/ an interesting privacy oriented site that I hadn’t heard about.
A fantastic directory of programs and services to help everyone de-google https://githubhot.com/repo/obeho/degoogle
LibreDNS https://libredns.gr/ Publicly available encrypted DNS service, alternative to what Firefox is now offering I wasn’t aware of encrypted DNS services, which some people see as an alternative to VPNs. But the following article argues that they should not be seen as such:
DNS over HTTPS (DoH) – A Possible Replacement for VPN? https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/replacement-for-vpn/