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<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title>Ali Murteza Yesil - Tech</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/" rel="alternate"></link><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/feeds/tech.atom.xml" rel="self"></link><id>https://murtezayesil.me/</id><updated>2020-08-03T15:00:00+06:00</updated><subtitle>Blog</subtitle><entry><title>Digital Cleansing - Music</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/digital-cleansing-music.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-08-03T15:00:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-08-03T15:00:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-08-03:/digital-cleansing-music.html</id><summary type="html"><p>There aren't many options to buy DRM free music, are there!</p></summary><content type="html"><p>I like listening to musics and I am not the only one. Just look at how many people are listening to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A" title="lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to on YouTube">LoFi music with the study girl</a> or look how many views <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ">this song</a> has. As a young adult, I remember the times the CDs were the king of music distribution. But they are long gone. Thanks to internet, digital music stores and music streaming services replaced CDs.<br>
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So here I am, looking for the best music listening solution I can get. After a little search on the internet I came up with the below list of music stores or streaming services.</p>
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<table>
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th>Online Music Stores</th>
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<th>Music Streaming Services</th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://www.apple.com/itunes/" title="DRM">iTunes</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://music.apple.com/" title="DRM">Apple Music</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://bandcamp.com/">BandCamp</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://bandcamp.com/">BandCamp</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://amazon.com" title="DRM">Amazon Store</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://music.amazon.com/" title="DRM">Amazon Music</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://www.emusic.com/" title="Limited selection but may use">eMusic</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.spotify.com/" title="Not available">Spotify</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://bleep.com/" title="limited selection">Bleep</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://us.napster.com/" title="DRM">Napster</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://killedbygoogle.com/" title="Killed By Google - December 2020">Google Play Music</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://music.youtube.com/" title="Not available">YouTube Music</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://www.jamendo.com/">Jamendo</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.jamendo.com/">Jamendo</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://www.beatport.com/" title="not my jazz">BeatPort</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://tidal.com/" title="DRM">Tidal</a></td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<p>There are many options and above isn't an exhaustive list. Thankfully I have constraints to help me make more educated choice.</p>
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<ol>
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<li><strong>Availability</strong> (in my region) : Even though I can use VPN to appear on some other location on the face of Earth, my bank card will give my location up or won't be accepted 👎️</li>
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<li><strong>DRM</strong> : I want to put music on my phone, computer and even my NextCloud to listen from anywhere. When I spent money on music, I don't want to stuck with whatever the vendor supports. I want no vendor lock-in or any other limitation. Those limitations are pushing many people to pirate 😥️</li>
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<li><strong>Discoverability</strong> : Whenever there is a new music, I want to be able to find it.</li>
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<li><strong>Options</strong> : Does it even has my jazz!</li>
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</ol>
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<h1>Finally here are my options</h1>
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<table>
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th>Online music stores</th>
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<th>Streaming services</th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://bandcamp.com/">BandCamp</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.jamendo.com/">Jamendo</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><a href="https://www.jamendo.com/">Jamendo</a></td>
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<td><a href="https://bandcamp.com/">BandCamp</a></td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<h2>Why BandCamp</h2>
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<p>DRM free songs and musics to purchase and download in high quality. I skimmed over the Term of Services and I dind't notice any red flags for my privacy. It isn't the perfect service. Every artist isn't there and only some of the new songs appear there. But its ToS and Privacy Policy is one of the best ones I skimmed through in a long time.</p>
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<h2>Why Jamendo</h2>
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<p>Musics licensed under Creative Commons licenses* are available to listen without an account and available to download in high quality with an account. There almost isn't any popular song on Jamendo. But that is an oppportunity to discover new talents. It also has a nice ToS and Privacy Policy.</p>
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<h3>I love DRM-free stuff</h3>
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<p>As a student living on pocket money, I don't have much of a budget for purchasing music. I am planning to spend 5$ every month on DRM-free musics instead of a streaming service with DRM. I like DRMless content because I know vendor is trusting me. Whenever a platform emposes DRM, I feel treated like a pirate who is expected to steal. No thanks to digital content pirates, I understand why a vendor would put DRM and it is sad that this is the reality. I just am happy that there still are DRM-free alternatives 🙃️</p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Why not pirate <img height="25em" width="auto" src="https://fosstodon.b-cdn.net/custom_emojis/images/000/083/931/original/a43b334e1ab006d2.png" alt="funny shaped thinking emoji"></h2>
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<p>I don't believe pirating is ethical. Someone spent hours coming up with a poem or lyrics, someone else composed music for it, and someone else (probably) drank raw eggs to maintain her/his voice. I wouldn't want people get my hardwork for free unless I put it out there as a demo or as open source. Some people act like pirating is okay if the singer or band is rich. It isn't okay to pirate and I am not giving up on my principles to enjoy some music for free.</p>
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<hr>
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<p>* Most of the musics on Jamendo are licensed under Non Commercial licenses, such as <a href="https://www.jamendo.com/legal/creative-commons" title="read a little description here">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0</a>. You need to purchase a commercial license to play them in your restaurant, bar, cafe, clothing store, convenience store, market, shopping mall, advertisement, podcast, YouTube/Vimeo/PeerTube video, movie, etc.
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You can't play songs from your Spotify account either. Songs on Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube Music and other popular services are for personal listening only too, unless they specifically mention that it is okay to play a song in a venue in music's license. Pijama parties are okay I guess.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="digitalcleansing"></category><category term="music"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Swap on SSD done right</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/swap-on-ssd-done-right.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-08-01T12:00:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-08-01T12:00:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-08-01:/swap-on-ssd-done-right.html</id><summary type="html"><p>SSDs are fragile and swaps can be damaging. But they can live happily together.</p></summary><content type="html"><p>TL;DR : If you have SSD and need swap, you should use swapspace daemon for healthier SSD. Btw, you want SSD and you need swap.</p>
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<p>Note: I expect you to be familiar with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory">RAM</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging#Unix_and_Unix-like_systems">swap</a> and concept of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging">paging</a>.</p>
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<p>Here is the short edition:<br>
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<strong>RAM</strong> is fast memory for currently running programs.<br>
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<strong>Swap</strong> is kinda like backup RAM. In case of RAM is filling up, swap will be uyilized to move less often accessed data off the RAM.<br>
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<strong>Paging</strong> is moving data between RAM and swap memory. It occurs when RAM is close to full and needs emptying into the swap or when a data in swap is needed in RAM.</p>
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<p>Since swap is located on HDD or SSD, it is much slower than RAM and we want to utilize RAM as much as we can. But sometimes RAM fills up and computer runs into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_memory" title="Out Of Memory"><strong>OOM</strong></a> state. Even though it is slow, swap can be a life (or work) saver in such cases. </p>
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<h3>Estimated Memory Speeds</h3>
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<table>
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th>Device Type</th>
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<th>Speed (MB/s)</th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>HDD</td>
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<td>100</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>SSD - SATA</td>
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<td>560</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>SSD - NVMe</td>
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<td>2000-3000</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>RAM DDR2</td>
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<td>3000-8000</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>RAM DDR3</td>
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<td>8000-12000</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>RAM DDR4</td>
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<td>19000-35000</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<p>Data of RAM speeds is from <a href="https://www.crucial.com/support/memory-speeds-compatability">this article of Crucial</a>. HDD and SSD speeds are commonly observed speeds. Not from the Crucial's testing.</p>
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<p>You definitely want swap memory to avoid possible OOM issue. You also may want to use SSD for swap memory since it is much faster than HDD or your computer only has SSD. But SSDs have one weak spot. Storage blocks of the SSD that is being read and wrote 100s of times will fail. Thankfully SSDs got smarter. Instead of using a single block too often and causing it to die early, SSDs tend to utilize every block equally. This is called Garbage Collection. And together with <a href="https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=Q15wN8JC2L4" title="Techquickie video on overprovisioning">overprovisioning</a>, they increase longevity of the SSD.</p>
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<p>I don't think fixed swap partitions and files are good for SSD's health. We need a system to dynamically allocate swap. So that swap file will be erased when notneeded and created in lesser degraded blocks when needed.</p>
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<h1>Meet Swapspace</h1>
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<p><a href="http://manpages.org/swapspace/8" title="read manpage">Swapspace</a> is a background service that understands swap needs and either creates or removes swap files on the fly.</p>
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<p>Swapspace is available on many <em>local repos</em>, <em>AUR</em> and on <a href="https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace"><em>GitHub</em></a>. </p>
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<hr>
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<p><strong>Note</strong>: How aggressively the Kernel should use swap memory can be controlled via a value called swappiness. Read about <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/449691/what-is-swapiness-on-linux-and-how-to-change-it/">changing swappiness</a> for better RAM utilization.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Decentralized Internet is More Reliable</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/decentralized-internet-is-more-reliable.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-28T12:00:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-28T12:00:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-28:/decentralized-internet-is-more-reliable.html</id><summary type="html"><p>Every system is prone to failure and will face down time. Decentralization avoids total system failure.</p></summary><content type="html"><h1>Introduction</h1>
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<p>I was looking for a way to explain decentralized internet to my family. Then Yarmo Mackenbach came up with the idea of <a href="https://yarmo.eu/post/eliuf" title="Explain Like I Use Facebook">ELIUF</a>. A decentralized attempt to explain concept, advantages and disadvantages of decentralized internet to people using centralized platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, etc.</p>
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<p>From power surge to aged hardware, bug in software to cyber attack, there are many reasons a system may fail. Neither centralized or decentralized systems are %100 safe from failures.</p>
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<hr>
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<h1>System failure</h1>
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<h2>Centralized Systems</h2>
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<p>There is a central server that stores every data required to offer a service. Any failure in the central server may cause it to go out of service. Any maintenace such as updating software or replacing aged hardware may require powering server off thus putting it out of service. </p>
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<h2>Decentralized Systems</h2>
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<p>In a decentralized network, there are multiple servers and each of them store only the data for their own clients. Servers communicate with each other if they need to get data stored in some other server. If any server fails or goes to maintenance, only the clients connected to that server will lose service. Rest of the network will continue to function as usual. That being said, any attempts to communicate with failed server will fail too.</p>
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<hr>
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<h1>Cyber attacks</h1>
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<p>User credentials (such as emails, passwords, bank card numbers) and user data (such as profile pictures, birthday videos, phone numbers) uploaded to server are stored by the server and they make an attractive target for cyber criminals.</p>
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<h2>Centralized Systems</h2>
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<p>All the data is available from central server. Cyber attacks put every single user's data in danger.</p>
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<h2>Decentralized Systems</h2>
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<p>There is no server that has access to every data of every user. When servers are communicating, they only share minimum amount of data required. User credentials (email and password) are only known by the server user is connected to. If a server is attacked by cyber criminals, only the users of that server will get affected. Users on the other servers of the network won't be affected by the attack. That being said, all the communications made to attacked server may also be visible to attackers.</p>
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<hr>
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<h3>Redundancy isn't decentralization</h3>
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<p>Both centralized and decentralized platfroms may utilize redundancy servers to avoid going entirely out of service in case of server failure. Facebook for instance deploys multiple data centers in different countries. So if one of the data center goes to maintenance, users connected to it will be routed to other data centers and continue to receive the service without down time.<br>
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Redundancy is a good way to ensure reliable network but also costly one.</p>
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<hr>
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<h1>Conclusion</h1>
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<p>Decentralization doesn't make a server more durable or secure. Every server, regardless of whether a part of centralized or decentralized network, is prone to failures and cyber attacks. Decentralization reduces the impact and limits the number of users being affected.</p>
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<hr>
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<h2>ELIUF posts elsewhere on the internet</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://yarmo.eu/post/eliuf">ELIUF: Explain Like I Use Facebook</a> by <a href="https://yarmo.eu/">Yarmo Mackenbach</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://www.garron.blog/posts/eliuf.html">How to decentralize the Internet</a> by <a href="https://www.garron.blog/about.html">Guillermo Garron</a></li>
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</ul></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Digital Cleansing - Mastodon</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/digital-cleansing-mastodon.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-24T15:23:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-24T15:23:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-24:/digital-cleansing-mastodon.html</id><summary type="html"><p>Centralized microblogging platforms are rich in user data and attractive to cyber criminals. I recommend decentralized alternatives.</p></summary><content type="html"><h2>Microblogging</h2>
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<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging" title="Read in more details on Wikipedia">Microblogging</a> is blogging smaller but usually more frequent updates. Microblogging platforms put some limitaions like the number of characters, photo size and video length in their platforms. Constraints make people to get creative to craft short and brief posts.<br>
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These platforms take away the hustle of maintaining your blog and reduce the friction to start writing/sharing.</p>
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<p>Do you know someone who uses a microblogging platform?<br>
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I guess you do. I will go as far as saying that may be you are using a microblogging platform.<br>
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Surprised? Don't be.<br>
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Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, VK, Fediverse are just a few.</p>
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<p>Every microblogging platform implements it differently.<br>
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Twitter is a place where everybody can see everybody else's posts.<br>
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Facebook is for only reading posts from people you know in real life.<br>
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Instagram is for posting photos and short videos.<br>
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Tumblr is for normal blogging first and microblogging in form of comments.<br>
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Reddit is similar to Tumblr except that it is more categorized and structured imo.</p>
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<p>All of the platforms I just mentioned, except Fediverse, has something in common. <strong>They are centralized</strong>. Centralized means aech of these services have their own data centers where they aggregate credentials and data of their users. These data centers are rich in user data and appealing target for cyber criminals. Adding fuel to the fire, some of those companies put weak cyber security systems in place and couldn't very large data breaches.</p>
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<h3>Fediverse is different</h3>
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<ol>
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<li>
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<p>Fediverse is decentralized. There are many small servers (aka instances) communicating with each other. They collectively form Fediverse.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>Instances forming the Fediverse can run as different platforms. Therefore Fediverse isn't only about microblogging.</p>
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</li>
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</ol>
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<hr>
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<p>Even though I said Fediverse is different from other microblogging platforms, threat of cyber attacks are very possible. Every instance carries user credentials and user data of its own users. If an instance was to be cyber attacked, only the users of that particular instance would be affected while rest of Fediverse function unaffected.</p>
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<hr>
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<h2>Mastodon</h2>
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<p>I heard about Mastodon in a <a href="https://irlpodcast.org/season4/episode6/" title="Decentralize It - S4/E6">IRL Podcast</a>. I just wanted to try that twitter like thing that somehow didn't have a central place to collect all the tweets everybody was posting. I created an account on some instance and tried it for few days.<br>
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What I understood at the time was that, there are servers running Mastodon system and Mastodon systems on different servers can communicate with each other to inform about cross platform messages. Fediverse is formed when instances start sommunicating with each other.</p>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<iframe id='ivplayer' width='640' height='360' src='https://invidio.us/embed/IPSbNdBmWKE?autoplay=0' style='border:none;'></iframe>
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</div>
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<p>For example: I am @murteza on strawberry.garden instance and I need help to collect strawberries. When I post "We need @batman@gotham.city to help us collect strawberries🍓️", @batman from gotham.city instance will receive a notification from @murteza@strawberry.garden. </p>
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<hr>
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<h1>Deploying a Mastodon instance for my family</h1>
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<p>I want to become a SysAdmin and know all about this server stuff. So I decided to deploy servers that I will need to maintain and learn about system administration during the process. I believe this is a good excuse to stay indoors during pandemic 😷️ (Emoji doesn't imply that I am sick, I am not. I also don't want to become one)</p>
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<p>I deployed a NextCloud server for my family and a Jitsi server too. Why not add Mastodon to do pile as well. I rented a 5$/month server and a 100GB storage for database and user uploaded content for another 5$/month.</p>
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<p><a href="https://docs.joinmastodon.org/" title="What is Mastodon?">Mastodon's documentation</a>'s installation guide part expects a SysAdmin to know more than I do. I also got help from <a href="https://computingforgeeks.com/install-mastodon-on-ubuntu-with-letsencrypt-ssl-certificate/" title="Install Mastodon on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 With Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate">another guide</a>. But after try installing Mastodon twice and rollback once, <a href="https://yesil.club/">I got a working instance</a>. Since it is an instance for my family. I am not allowing account creation from outside, but only via invite.</p>
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<p>Next piece of the puzzle will be backuping database and user data. I don't know what is the best way to approach this but we shall see.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="digitalcleansing"></category><category term="privacy"></category><category term="fediverse"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Digital Cleansing - Jitsi</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/digital-cleansing-jitsi.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-18T00:00:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-18T00:00:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-18:/digital-cleansing-jitsi.html</id><summary type="html"><p>My family and relatives live different countries and make good use of video calling services regardless of who is offering the service</p></summary><content type="html"><p>My family is spread into 3 countries in 3 different continents. If we include my close relatives too, these numbers go even higher. It is important to stay in contact with your family and relatives in Turkish culture and we try to do that. Let it be weekend Zoom meetings (in 40 minute chunks :) or phone calls on WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), we heavily rely on third party services for communication. After launching NextCloud for my family to use, I what I wanted to tackle the <strong>Communication</strong> problem.</p>
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<p>We have 3 kinds of communication needs in the family:<br>
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1. Text messages<br>
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2. Voice Calls<br>
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3. (Mostly group) Video Calls</p>
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<hr>
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<h3>Text Messaging &amp; Voice Calls</h3>
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<p>I have been usign Telegram wherever I can for few years. Its UI is very similar to that of WhatsApp which I hope will ease the transition for my relatives. Since it also has voice calling, I don't need to look for another service for that. I love hitting two birds with one stone (only in metaphor) 😄️ <br>
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That being said, I won't actually talk much about WhatsApp. Facebook bought WhatsApp back in February 2014. I believe that was a great deal for Facebook and a terrible deal for users.<br>
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I know I mentioned Telegram but there is one more great alternative to WhatsApp (or even Telegram). It is called <a href="https://signal.org/" title="Official page">Signal</a> and it is developed by a non-profit founded by Co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton. It is one freaking secure messaging app 😎️</p>
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<hr>
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<h3>Group Video Calls</h3>
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<p>My families' and relatives' current choice of Group Video Calling service is Zoom, just like millions of other people who needed a video calling service for remote work, distance education and calling their loved ones. But Zoom seemingly popped out of nowhere for many people. I wanted to learn more about who Zoom is and how trustable it is. I hope my findings will help you to make educated decisions.</p>
|
||
<p>Zoom was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_(software)#History" title="History of Zoom on Wikipedia">launched in September 2012</a>, reached <a href="https://www.tmcnet.com/topics/articles/2013/05/23/339279-zoom-video-communications-reaches-1-million-participants.htm" title="Zoom Video Communications Reaches 1 Million Participants - TMCnet">1 Million user base in January 2013</a> and rapidly grow during global quarantine to a point that Zoom got <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200422125131/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/31/zoom-booms-as-demand-for-video-conferencing-tech-grows-in-coronavirus-outbreak" title="Zoom booms as demand for video-conferencing tech grows - The Guardian [archive]">2.13 Million downloads on March 23rd 2020</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>After some research (reading Wikipedia) I found that Zoom had many wounds that hurt many of its users. Given that Zoom reached 1 Million userbase 5 months after launching (from September 2012 to January 2013) and they were charging 9.99$/month, I expect Zoom to invest into infrastructure and app security. I am saying this because they clearly had time to fix issues in their apps before the pandemic arrived. Here are few examples to show how Zoom messed up:<br>
|
||
<strong>Windows</strong> : <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/04/unpatched-zoom-bug-lets-attackers-steal-windows-credentials-with-no-warning/">Attackers can use Zoom to steal users’ Windows credentials with no warning - ars technica</a><br>
|
||
<strong>MacOS</strong> : <a href="https://threatpost.com/zoom-zero-day-mac-webcam-hijacking/146317/">Zoom Zero-Day Bug Opens Mac Users to Webcam Hijacking - threat post</a>. This prompted Apple to use its MRT (Malware Removal Tool) to remotely delete Zoom from Mac computers.<br>
|
||
<strong>MacOS</strong> : <a href="https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/zoom-zero-day-4-million-webcams-maybe-an-rce-just-get-them-to-visit-your-website-ac75c83f4ef5">Zoom Zero Day: 4+ Million Webcams &amp; maybe an RCE? Just get them to visit your website! - InfoSec Write-ups</a> allowing Zoom to reinstall itself after being uninstalled and join a video call with camera activated without user's permission.<br>
|
||
<strong>MacOS</strong> : <a href="https://nitter.net/c1truz_/status/1244737672930824193">Zoom App installation uses the same method used by malwares to gain root priviledges - Twitter thread on Nitter</a><br>
|
||
<strong>iOS</strong> : <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/k7e599/zoom-ios-app-sends-data-to-facebook-even-if-you-dont-have-a-facebook-account">Zoom iOS App Sends Data to Facebook Even if You Don’t Have a Facebook Account - Vice</a><br>
|
||
<strong>Android</strong> : I didn't find any news about Zoom Android App vulnerabilities. But if they used Facebook tracker in iOS app, I don't see any reason why zoom wouldn't use the same on Android
|
||
<strong>Linux</strong> : No vulnerability was found YET. Remember that <a href="https://netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?options=%7B%22filter%22%3A%7B%22%24and%22%3A%5B%7B%22deviceType%22%3A%7B%22%24in%22%3A%5B%22Desktop%2Flaptop%22%5D%7D%7D%5D%7D%2C%22dateLabel%22%3A%22Custom%22%2C%22attributes%22%3A%22share%22%2C%22group%22%3A%22platform%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%7B%22share%22%3A-1%7D%2C%22id%22%3A%22platformsDesktop%22%2C%22dateInterval%22%3A%22Monthly%22%2C%22dateStart%22%3A%222019-08%22%2C%22dateEnd%22%3A%222020-06%22%2C%22plotKeys%22%3A%5B%7B%22platform%22%3A%22Linux%22%7D%2C%7B%22platform%22%3A%22Mac%20OS%22%7D%2C%7B%22platform%22%3A%22Chrome%20OS%22%7D%5D%2C%22segments%22%3A%22-1000%22%7D" title="Less than 4%">Linux desktop has a small marketshare</a> and apps for it are less likely to be targeted by hackers.</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p>"Zoom has just had so many missteps."
|
||
- Patrick Wardle, Jamf</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>You can read about Zoom's vulnerabilities on MacOS and iOS in detail in <a href="https://objective-see.com/blog/blog_0x56.html" title="The 'S' in Zoom, Stands for Security - Objective-See">this blog post of Objective-See</a>. </p>
|
||
<p>These issues were <strong>FIXED</strong> by Zoom. But Zoom took long time to responde some of the cyber security personel as if it didn't care about the user privacy and security. I only mentioned the vulnerabilities in Zoom's apps. Zoom also <a href="https://www.axios.com/zoom-closes-chinese-user-account-tiananmen-square-f218fed1-69af-4bdd-aac4-7eaf67f34084.html" title="Zoom closed account of U.S.-based Chinese activist “to comply with local law” - Axios">contributed to censorship</a> by closing human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo's paid account and closing Social activist Lee Cheuk Yan's account upon China's request.</p>
|
||
<p>👉️ Since those vulnerabilities are fixed it should be safe to use Zoom, right?<br>
|
||
Unfortunately, NO. Even if apps became less vulnerable, users still are through weak privacy practices and use of third party trackers. Zoom's Privacy Policy is <a href="https://zoom.us/privacy#_Toc44414842">not assuring enough</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>👉️ They introduced end-to-end encryption, E2EE. Is it insecure encryption?<br>
|
||
AES-256 ECB algorithm used for E2EE is one of the greatest encryption algorithms out there. But it isn't enabled by default and enabling E2EE disables many features such as screensharing, which doesn't incentivise people to use E2EE. Both enterprise customers and teachers would want to use screensharing, thus not using E2EE.</p>
|
||
<p>👉️ They say Zoom encrypts every meeting by default. Are they lying?<br>
|
||
No, they are not. But they aren't telling the whole story either. When you start a Zoom meeting, your device establishes a connection to Zoom over <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Https#Security">HTTPS</a>. Meaning data is encrypted during transmission between you and Zoom. Data gets decrypted in Zoom and encrypted again before it goes to whoever you are meeting with. This is done because everybody in the meeting has different <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_key">session key</a> for encryption. Your meeting is apparent to Zoom, not hidden from it.</p>
|
||
<p>👉️ Zoom has faced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-day_(computing)" title="Learn about zero day attacks on Wikipedia">0-day attacks</a> which weren't fair.<br>
|
||
Not a question but I get your point. When a cyber security personal discovers a vulnerability, (s)he informs the vendor about the vulnerability in disguise and asks for bounty. Vendor checks if that is a legit vulnerability or a scam. Then they work together to fix the issue and vendor pays the bounty. Many companies have a <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/bug-bounty-program.html" title="Intel offers upto 100,000$">bug</a> <a href="https://hackerone.com/verizonmedia?type=team" title="Verizon offers upto 15,000$">bounty</a> <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/bounty" title="Microsoft offers upto 100,000$">program</a>.<br>
|
||
A cyber security personal may choose to release the vulnerability to public for it to be exploited by other people, which turns a vulnerability into zero day attack. This action incentivises vendor to fix that issue immediately since issue became well-known.<br>
|
||
Zoom had time since 2013 for testing its softwares properly. Proper testing would uncover those bugs before hackers did. Any company that is careless about security and privacy of its customers' deserves to be pinched to start acting.</p>
|
||
<p>What if I am forced to Zoom by my employer/school/family?<br>
|
||
Desktop/laptop users:<br>
|
||
1. Windows: Use virtual machine and apply one of the below Linux methods<br>
|
||
2. MacOS: Use virtual machine and apply one of the below Linux methods<br>
|
||
3. Linux: Install Linux Live image on a USB and boot into it everytime you need to Zoom. Install Zoom into that Live environment. Zoom will only be able to access what is in that Live environment. Shutting down a Live environment deletes everything that was installed in that session.<br>
|
||
4. Linux: <a href="https://ar.al/2020/06/25/how-to-use-the-zoom-malware-safely-on-linux-if-you-absolutely-have-to/" title="How to use the Zoom malware safely on Linux if you absolutely have to - Aral Balkan">Install Zoom into a firejail</a>, greatly limiting what it can reach.<br>
|
||
Mobile users:<br>
|
||
1. Android: <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/333484/how-to-set-up-multiple-user-profiles-on-android/" title="This process maybe different for different brands">Create a restricted user</a> on your phone and install Zoom there. Not in your main user.
|
||
2. Android: If you can, use Zoom on Linux as described above.
|
||
3. iOS: Don't give it permissions if you don't need them. Don't let it run in background. Uninstall after using.
|
||
4. iOS: If you can, use Zoom on Linux as described above.</p>
|
||
<p>PS: I don't own a Mac, iPhone or Windows PC. But since Zoom on those platforms seem to be the affected most, I recommend everybody to use Zoom on Linux in a firejail if you absolutely have to.</p>
|
||
<p>I also wanted to read articles <a href="https://medium.com/@rowantrollope/beyond-the-noise-7-reasons-its-safe-to-run-zoom-9a2e639b13ec">that</a> <a href="https://blog.prialto.com/3-reasons-why-zoom-provides-the-best-video-conferencing-software">defend</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccabellan/2020/03/24/what-you-need-to-know-about-using-zoom/#3cee9d0d3284">Zoom</a>. But they are mostly talking about Zoom's E2EE feature (that is not default), how people got creative with Virtual Background feature, Zoom's clean UI, ability to fake paying attention and its price. They either say nothing about Zooms privacy policy or even if they say something, it is not assuring in my opinion.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<h1>Jitsi</h1>
|
||
<p>Jitsi is an open source alternative to Video Calling (Conferencing) services. I will prove that Jitsi is much better than Zoom with only 1 sentence.</p>
|
||
<h1 style="text-align: center;">You can host Jitsi on your own server without relying on another entity</h1>
|
||
|
||
<p>You want more?</p>
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Jitsi has Clean UI that is familiar to that of Zoom. </li>
|
||
<li>Jitsi <strong>doesn't</strong> have looping video feature which helps students or emplyees fake paying attention. </li>
|
||
<li>Jitsi is <strong title="Free Open Source Software">FOSS</strong> developed by <a href="https://8x8.com">8x8</a>. </li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<p>Hosting Jitsi doesn't require a server with powerful CPU or GPU. Important resource is bandwidth. </p>
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<p>Jitsi doesn't have virtual background but it instead has background blurring in development.</p>
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<p>👉️ Is it truely E2EE?<br>
|
||
<strong>This is what I understood from reading <a href="https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet/issues/409#issuecomment-260652107">this threat</a>. Please correct me if I am wrong</strong><br>
|
||
Short answer is No.<br>
|
||
Long answer is: Just like in Zoom's case, connection between users and Jitsi VideoBridge (server) is encrypted. Server decrypts and encrypts everybody's stream for everybody else. But by having the control of Jitsi VideoBridge (server) by hosting it on your own server, you can assure that no other company/organization is holding your plain data except the recepient you are meeting with.<br>
|
||
That being said, Jitsi can establish P2P connection in rooms where there are only 2 people. This is a feature of WebRTC that Jitsi is built upon. It still <strong>isn't</strong> true E2EE.</p>
|
||
<p>👉️ Do anyone even use it?<br>
|
||
Glad you ask. Many companies banned use of Zoom and switched to alternatives such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Hangout Meet and Jitsi. You probably won't see Jitsi's UI very often in the wild, but many companies use Jitsi VideoBridge as their backend for video conferences. Out of all the alternatives, only Jitsi allows self-hosting of server (Jitsi VideoBridge) AFAIK.</p>
|
||
<h2>How to install Jitsi server?</h2>
|
||
<p>I followed <strong>Nerd on the Street</strong>'s <a href="https://invidio.us/watch?v=IQRwtUamHQU">Host a Jitsi Meet Server</a> installation tutorial. It took about 30 minute of my time (I am a noob) to get the server running. It takes another 10 minutes to secure it.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>When I started this blog post, I expected to list 2 reasons not to use WhatsApp and Zoom then start talking about why Jitsi is the answer to my family's Group Video Calling needs. To fact check what I knew about about them (Zoom in particular) I searched them on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_(software)" title="Read more about Zoom on WikiPedia">Wikipedia</a>. I learned much more than I expected. I am sorry for turning this post into "Rant of Zoom". I hope you learned a thing or two too.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<h3>Other side of the coin</h3>
|
||
<p>If you think I would be better of sticking to WhatsApp or Zoom, tell me more. Even though I read many negative things about Zoom, I will try my best to keep an open mind and hear people seeing other side of the coin. I am a human and can make mistakes. If there is something important I should know to better understand what is going on, please reply to comment toot linked below.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="digitalcleansing"></category><category term="privacy"></category><category term="jitsi"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Digital Cleansing - NextCloud</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/digital-cleansing-nextcloud.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-16T10:00:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-16T10:00:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-16:/digital-cleansing-nextcloud.html</id><summary type="html"><p>NextCloud has 4 things going for me. It is FOSS, it gives me control, it is convenient and it works.</p></summary><content type="html"><p>This article reflects my opinions and experiences with few file server services.</p>
|
||
<p>TL;DR : I think NextCloud is a far superior product for the price.</p>
|
||
<p>Digital cleansing is about reowning personal data and regaining control over how it is processed. When I started digital cleansing, I wanted to start from where the most of my data is stored. There are 2 such services, Google Drive and Photos. I started by looking for <a href="https://alternativeto.net/software/google-drive/">alternatives</a>. OwnCloud and NextCloud seemed like <strong>affordable</strong> and <strong title="Free Open Source Software">FOSS</strong> alternatives that allow <strong title="Can be hosted on personal (or home) computer/server without relying on another service provider">self-hosting</strong>.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<h2>Owncloud</h2>
|
||
<p>I started my journey by renting a VM on Digital Ocean, droplet. I installed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)" title="Minimum set of softwares needed for a working web service">LAMP stack</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OwnCloud" title="File server service">OwnCloud</a>. As a new comer to OwnCloud, I started to click every button in every menu to discover and learn more about OwnCloud. <a href="https://marketplace.owncloud.com/">Marketplace</a>, a feature manager to add/remove more features, has many stuff that can appeal to enterprises and teams working from home. Next, I browsed the <a href="https://search.f-droid.org/?q=owncloud" title="Apps for OwnCloud on F-droid">available Android apps for OwnCloud</a>. To my surprise, there aren't many. I expected niche apps on Android for using niche features on marketplace. Instead, I would run into more <a href="https://search.f-droid.org/?q=nextcloud" title="Apps for NextCloud on F-droid">apps branded for NextCloud</a>. Meanwhile I updated the droplet, because updates are important, but ran into "kernel updates rendering server unbootable" kind of issues, I switched to Linode and NextCloud after strugling on Digital Ocean for a week.</p>
|
||
<p>Just like Owncloud's marketplace, NextCloud has its own "app store", I'd like to them "feature manager" instead because both marketplace and app store are used for en/disabling features on the platform. But NextCloud has niche apps for Android and I believe this provides more convenience to mobile users like myself.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<h2>NextCloud</h2>
|
||
<p>Since NextCloud is a file server in its core, it was the drop-in Google Drive &amp; Photos replacement I needed. It also has built-in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV" title="Protocol for using remote file system over HTTP">WebDAV</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CardDAV" title="vCard (contact info) extension for WebDAV">CardDAV</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV" title="Calendar extension for WebDAV">CalDAV</a> support, which means I can use NextCloud as Google Contacts &amp; Calendar replacement as well and access files in native file manager as if it was a USB drive 🎉️</p>
|
||
<p>After enabling more services from feature manager (yes, I am sticking with this name) it also became my notes, tasks, bookmarks manager as well. All powered by a VM that costs 5$/month to run, +2$ for backup.</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p>One who loves roses should endure thorns - Turkish Proverb</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>NextCloud is great. But just like every other artificial thing in this world, it isn't perfect. The biggest problem I face with it is the <strong>performance</strong> of web interface. It is written in PHP and being not compiled program is not doing any favors. Image preview loading can be called sluggish by many. Since I use mobile app most of the time which caches the previews, user experience isn't bad in my opinion.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p><a href="https://kevq.uk" title="his blog">Kev Quirk</a> wrote a blog about his opinions and experiences with <strong title="My current choice of file server solution">NextCloud</strong> and <strong title="His choice of home server solution">Synology</strong>. This is my answer to <a href="https://kevq.uk/synology-vs-nextcloud-which-is-better-for-a-home-server/" title="Synology vs Nextcloud – Which Is Better For A Home Server?">his blog</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Synology's home server sound like a great product. I am happy for you and your family that your data is safe and accesible without giving up your privacy. After reading your blog, I wanted to try Synology as well. Upon seeing the price for <a href="https://www.newegg.com/synology-ds420/p/N82E16822108744" title="4 HDD bay NAS for home/small business use (disks not included)">Synology 420+</a> is 500$ and another 400$ for 4x <a href="https://www.newegg.com/seagate-ironwolf-st4000vn008-4tb/p/N82E16822179005" title="SeaGate NAS HDD">4TB HDD</a> for RAID 6, I believe NextCloud is the best choice I have. I am 1 student who has no movies, musics, 4K family photos or video project for YouTube channel to utilize TBs of storage not do I have budget for it. Under these requirements and constraints, I want to offer an alternative to Google to my family. Since I can't just ask for ~900$ for Synology, NextCloud on a VM is the best option I have. I still have option of increasing VM disk size or mounting external block storage as our storage needs grow.</p>
|
||
<p>It is nice that we have different perspectives on same topic. I wrote this answer because I wanted you to see from the eyes of a student living on pocket money and still afford for privacy of his and his family. May your Synology system last long and serve your family well 🙂️</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>If you think Google services aren't that bad and I would be better off keep using Google services, <a href="https://tosdr.org/#google">here is my reasoning #1</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-privacy-lawsuit/google-faces-lawsuit-over-tracking-in-apps-even-when-users-opted-out-idUSKCN24F2N4" title="Google faces lawsuit over tracking in apps even when users opted out - Reuters">#2</a>. But if you still think that I should use Google services, tell me your reasoning and help me see your side of the coin. I would like to stay open minded.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="digitalcleansing"></category><category term="privacy"></category><category term="nextcloud"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Digital Cleansing - Identifying services we use</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/digital-cleansing-identifying-services-we-use.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-14T03:40:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-14T03:40:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-14:/digital-cleansing-identifying-services-we-use.html</id><summary type="html"><p>Step 1 of digital cleansing is identifying services I want to drop</p></summary><content type="html"><h1>Digital Cleansing For Better Privacy</h1>
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li><em>Identifying products and services we use</em></li>
|
||
<li>Finding/Offering alternatives</li>
|
||
<li>Moving to alternatives and helping my family to move as well</li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<p>I will make a list of services I use or used in the past but didn't delete my account. For each service, I will look for alternatives, move my data to alternatives or deploy an instance of alternative on my server. I will use the alternatives for a while and learn more about how to use them properly. This way I will be able to help my family have a smooth transition. </p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>Here is my list. This list may be different for you, therefore you should make your own list.<br>
|
||
This list may get longer as I remember services I subscribed to but didn't use in a while.</p>
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Gmail</li>
|
||
<li>Google Drive</li>
|
||
<li>Google Photos</li>
|
||
<li>Google Contacts</li>
|
||
<li>Google Search</li>
|
||
<li>Facebook</li>
|
||
<li>Instagram</li>
|
||
<li>WhatsApp</li>
|
||
<li>WhatsApp (Voice/Video Call)</li>
|
||
<li>Zoom</li>
|
||
<li>Windows OS</li>
|
||
<li>Stock Android ROM (due to embedded Google services)</li>
|
||
<li>Mi account (because I used MIUI Android ROM)</li>
|
||
<li>...</li>
|
||
<li>Note to self: Check archieved emails to find services you stopped using and request account deletion</li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>Now I have a "list of service to opt-out from" to help me focus better. That being said, I started to de-google a while ago and replaced Gmail with Protonmail already. If you think Google is privacy friendly and no need to avoid Google services, <a href="https://tosdr.org/#google">here is why I decided to de-google</a>.
|
||
I will start with looking for alternatives to Google Drive.</p>
|
||
<p>If there is any other service you think I should stay away from, you can write to comment toot.<br>
|
||
If you have written a blog post as an answer, mention that too.<br>
|
||
If you think some of the services or softwares I mentioned here aren't that bad and I would be better of keep using them, please share why you think so. I want to keep an open mind and look at those services from your perspective too.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="digitalcleansing"></category><category term="privacy"></category><category term="100daystooffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Resizing 2500 photos</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/resizing-2500-photos.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-13T07:19:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-13T07:19:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-13:/resizing-2500-photos.html</id><summary type="html"><p>We needed to resize 2500 photographs for a website. There is a shell script for that.</p></summary><content type="html"><p>I was asked to write a program to resize thousands of images which were gonna be uploaded to a website. Images had to be the same height for them to look organized in gallery. I remembered how I used <a href="https://imagemagick.org/">imagemagick</a> to write <a href="https://gitlab.com/murtezayesil/student/-/tree/master/sh/desktop-clock" title="use imagemagick, figlet and feh for tty-clock on wallpaper">desktop-clock</a>, immitate tty-clock on wallpaper. That experience helped me to design the program in my mind as we continue to speak on the phone.</p>
|
||
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code>/‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾<span class="se">\ </span>
|
||
<span class="p">|</span> <span class="k">for</span> each image <span class="p">|</span>
|
||
<span class="p">|</span> <span class="k">do</span> resize to <span class="nv">height</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="m">800</span> <span class="p">|</span>
|
||
<span class="se">\_</span>__________________________/
|
||
O
|
||
o <span class="se">\_\_</span> _/_/
|
||
. <span class="se">\_</span>_/
|
||
<span class="o">(</span>oo<span class="o">)</span><span class="se">\_</span>______
|
||
<span class="o">(</span>__<span class="o">)</span><span class="se">\ </span> <span class="o">)</span><span class="se">\/\</span>
|
||
<span class="o">||</span>----w <span class="p">|</span>
|
||
<span class="o">||</span> <span class="o">||</span>
|
||
</code></pre></div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<h1>This is a learning opportunity</h1>
|
||
<p>Since I don't have much of an experience on shell scripting, I was <a href="https://start.duckduckgo.com/" title="DuckDuckGo">Duck</a>ing everything. I learned to do few things during this task.</p>
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=for+loop+shell+script" title="There are many tutorials">For loops in shell script</a></li>
|
||
<li>Getting <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2437452/how-to-get-the-list-of-files-in-a-directory-in-a-shell-script" title="I didn't know how to use asteriks 😅️">list of files</a></li>
|
||
<li>Correct syntax for <a href="https://imagemagick.org/script/convert.php" title="It ain't magick but it quiet is 😉️">resizing with ImageMagick</a></li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<p>After reading tutorials and looking at examples everything felt as simple as lego. I just needed to put them together. </p>
|
||
<p>Here is <code>image_shrinker.v0.1_alpha.sh</code> :</p>
|
||
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="ch">#!/bin/sh</span>
|
||
mkdir ../output
|
||
<span class="k">for</span> image in ./*
|
||
<span class="k">do</span>
|
||
convert <span class="nv">$image</span> -scale 1000000x800 ../output/<span class="nv">$image</span>
|
||
<span class="k">done</span>
|
||
</code></pre></div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p>This version has problems which I can't call "feature" 😁️ :</p>
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Resolution is hard coded. Btw, only way to define resolution is in WIDTHxHEIGHT format AFAIK.</li>
|
||
<li>Script must be in same directory as images</li>
|
||
<li>PWD must point to the directory where script is</li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<h2>Adjustable resolution</h2>
|
||
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="ch">#!/bin/sh</span>
|
||
mkdir ../output
|
||
<span class="nv">WIDTH</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nv">$1</span> <span class="p">;</span> <span class="nv">HEIGHT</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nv">$2</span>
|
||
|
||
<span class="k">for</span> image in ./*
|
||
<span class="k">do</span>
|
||
convert <span class="nv">$image</span> -scale <span class="nv">$WIDTHx$HEIGHT</span> ../output/<span class="nv">$image</span>
|
||
<span class="k">done</span>
|
||
</code></pre></div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p>This fixes the hard coded resolution problem but new problem is that the user has to know that WIDTH and HEIGHT must be given. I fix that by showing correct syntax to the user and then exiting :</p>
|
||
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="ch">#!/bin/sh</span>
|
||
|
||
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="o">[</span> <span class="nv">$#</span> -lt <span class="m">2</span> <span class="o">]</span>
|
||
<span class="k">then</span>
|
||
<span class="nb">echo</span> <span class="s2">&quot;USAGE:&quot;</span>
|
||
<span class="nb">echo</span> -e <span class="s2">&quot;\t\$IMAGE_DIRECTORY/image_shrinker.sh WIDTH HEIGHT&quot;</span>
|
||
<span class="nb">exit</span> <span class="m">1</span>
|
||
<span class="k">fi</span>
|
||
|
||
<span class="nv">WIDTH</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nv">$1</span> <span class="p">;</span> <span class="nv">HEIGHT</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nv">$2</span>
|
||
mkdir ../output
|
||
|
||
<span class="k">for</span> image in *
|
||
<span class="k">do</span>
|
||
convert <span class="nv">$image</span> -scale <span class="nv">$Resolution</span> ../output/<span class="nv">$image</span>
|
||
<span class="k">done</span>
|
||
</code></pre></div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p>Here is some other attempt to make code a bit more flexible in terms of where images can be and where output can go. Actually no but that is what I was going for 😜️</p>
|
||
<div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="ch">#!/bin/sh</span>
|
||
|
||
<span class="nv">DIR</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="sb">`</span><span class="nb">pwd</span><span class="sb">`</span>
|
||
|
||
<span class="k">for</span> image in ./*.*
|
||
<span class="k">do</span>
|
||
<span class="c1"># Below code will scale images to 800px height without breaking aspect ratio</span>
|
||
convert <span class="nv">$DIR</span>/<span class="nv">$image</span> -scale 10000x800 -write <span class="nv">$DIR</span>/../output/<span class="nv">$image</span>
|
||
<span class="k">done</span>
|
||
</code></pre></div>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p>It is hard to ask for help (especially after torturing with my code) but if you would like to give me feedback and advice, reply to toot of this post.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="code"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Digital Cleansing For Better Privacy</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/digital-cleansing-for-better-privacy.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-12T00:07:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-12T00:07:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-12:/digital-cleansing-for-better-privacy.html</id><summary type="html"><p>I am documenting my journey to claiming my digital freedom. Previously called "My Master Plan For Privacy (of my family)".</p></summary><content type="html"><p>I previously wrote about <a href="privacy_for_the_whole_family.md" title="Privacy For The Whole Family">how I got became more privacy caring individual</a> and I tooted about <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@murtezayesil/104480280886518081">My Master Plan for Privacy of My Family</a>. As I grew up, I came to realize how much we gave up on privacy for the convinience and "free" services. We are social creatures. I was using Google Photos, WhatsApp, Youtube and Instagram as much as I could and my family is doing the same. We are putting each other's privacy at stake by uploading data about each other without knowing. I decided to change that either by finding privacy focused alternatives to digital services I was using or by build server system to offer alternatives myself.</p>
|
||
<p>I am not the first to do this. There are many privacy friendly alternatives developed by people who care about privacy. It isn't hard to find those <a href="https://alternativeto.net/" title="Crowdsourced Software Recomendations">alternatives</a>. Many people went through this journey, which I call "Digital Cleansing For Better Privacy". During my journey, I will document the steps I have taken and write my thoughts about the alternatives I tried.</p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<h1>Digital Cleansing For Better Privacy</h1>
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Identifying products and services we use</li>
|
||
<li>Finding/Offering alternatives</li>
|
||
<li>Moving to alternatives and helping my family to move as well</li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>After identifying the products and services that needs replacing, I will loop step 2 and 3 for each product and service. This way I will be introducing only 1 service to my family at a time. I am planning to give them enough time for learning each alternative and understand why they should use it instead. Else, this would get overwhelming very quick.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="digitalcleansing"></category><category term="privacy"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry><entry><title>Privacy For The Whole Family</title><link href="https://murtezayesil.me/privacy-for-the-whole-family.html" rel="alternate"></link><published>2020-07-10T11:18:00+06:00</published><updated>2020-07-10T11:18:00+06:00</updated><author><name>Ali Murteza Yesil</name></author><id>tag:murtezayesil.me,2020-07-10:/privacy-for-the-whole-family.html</id><summary type="html"><p>My story of learning about wounds in my privacy and my first steps to cure it, helping my family for the same too.</p></summary><content type="html"><p>According to my mother, we had internet in our house while I was a baby. Internet back in the day used to make iconic dial sound, was slow and would lose connection whenever someone called the landline. I grew up seeing webpages full of GIFs (I won't argue about its pronounciation, it was decided long ago) and banner ads injected by adwares. Flash and Shockwave were the fundamental building blocks of interactive webpages with animations.</p>
|
||
<p>All those colorful flash games sites were offering tones of free games in exchange of distributing adverts and malware in their websites. As a child attracted by colors, I believed that those games were actually free. Some of those "free" game sites are still around and powered by Google AdSense. Others moved to Facebook and started earning from Facebook Ads and in-game currencies often called "gems". Around that time my classmates started to talk about Facebook and I had to go there too.</p>
|
||
<p>I grew up since then. I came abroad to study computer science. I have my own laptop and smartphone. I was using my devices and all those free services to talk to my family from thousands of kilometres away. I was using those sweet and free services for backing up my data, photos, documents, contacts and more. These services are free for us because all those wonderful advertisers are paying them off their goodwill ...</p>
|
||
<h4><em><strong>So I thought</strong></em></h4>
|
||
<p>I was naive to upload my and my family's photos to Google Photos. I was naive to tag my friends in photos on Facebook. I was naive to use Amazon instead of taking a walk in tech market and support the independent sellers. I was feeding tech giants for convenience and damaging local economy without knowing. I didn't know any better and I confussed giving up my privacy with convenience. I am not that naive kid anymore. I learned English Language in Kenya and I learned to harness the knowledge in the internet. I learned that there are alternatives that I can use.</p>
|
||
<h4><em><strong>I learned that there is a way to gain my digital freedom</strong></em></h4>
|
||
<p>My first action was to switch to <a href="https://duckduckgo.com"><img alt="DuckDuckGo logo" src="https://fosstodon.b-cdn.net/custom_emojis/images/000/010/368/static/duckduckgo.png"> DuckDuckGo</a> from Google Search. I found that the most widely adopted service of Google is a text box for us to write our most intimate secrets in plain text.</p>
|
||
<p><img alt="Google wants user data. Users use Google Search for sensitive personal issues. Google says &quot;It's Free Real Estate&quot;" src="https://murtezayesil.me/images/it_is_free_real_estate_1.jpg"></p>
|
||
<p>Dropping Google Search wasn't gonna cut it though. I still was relying on Google Contacts, Photos and Drive to backup my data. I needed something that could backup my phone properly while not giving up my data to data hungry companies.</p>
|
||
<h1>NextCloud to the rescue</h1>
|
||
<p>NextCloud is a file hosting service with built-in CardDAV (contact sync), CalDAV (calendar sync) and WebDAV (file sync) servers. Not to mention, it supports adding more features by installing modules from its <a href="https://apps.nextcloud.com/">apps library</a>. It is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software" title="Free and Open Source Software">FOSS</a> free as in freedom for everyone and int this case free as in price for non-enterprise users. Nice thing about NextCloud is that it offers <em>all of its features</em> to both its enterprise and home/personal users. Enterprise users also benefit from technical maintenance support direct from the NextCloud.</p>
|
||
<p>The way I deployed my NextCloud instance was to rent a remote VM. I am a student who can't afford to buy a machine and run it 24/7. Renting a server seemed like the most affordable and logical idea to me. Rent costs $5/month for the cheapest tier. I am careful with my pocket money and after cancelling my Netflix subscription, I had more than enough to pay $5/month.</p>
|
||
<p>After renting a server, I started experimenting with different OSes. I tried Debian but its php packages were old. I tried CentOS based NethServer but default user credentials for NextCloud were wrong and I couldn't use it either. I finally settled at Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I followed few tutorials before I found Kev's tutorial. I deviated from those tutorials because I am young and ... nevermind. I finally found Kev's tutorial and </p>
|
||
<p>There still was a problem though. I am not he only one sharing data about me. My family can do that too. And I felt responsible for helping my family with claiming their digital freedom too. I decided to create accounts for them and help them migrate to my NextCloud instance. It turns out my family acknowledged the privacy they were giving up for the convenience. But they didn't know any alternatives. When I invited them to use my NextCloud instance they were excited. But moving from Google Suite to NextCloud isn't done yet. It takes time to learn new systems and their quirks.</p>
|
||
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
|
||
<p>I think this was a successful attempt. Of course I am not done here. I may need to introduce my family to Fediverse, free social media powered by voluntaries, or Jitsi, Open Source alternative to Zoom and WhatsApp video calls services. But for now we all made good progress I would say. I will let some time pass until they get more comfortable at using NextCloud. I don't want to overwhelm them and make them regret switching. I don't want to be another reason they stay on Google. </p>
|
||
<p>Meanwhile, why won't you make an attempt to gain your own digital freedom ?<br>
|
||
I see many ways this can be achieved (numbers in front suggest how difficult I think they are, rated out of 5):<br>
|
||
3 - Manually install NextCloud on a remote VM<br>
|
||
2 - Install NextCloud via Snap Package on a remote VM<br>
|
||
4 - Manually install NextCloud on an old computer<br>
|
||
3 - Install NextCloud via Snap on an old computer<br>
|
||
1 - Purchase a <a href="https://www.synology.com">Synology</a> NAS to easily self-host data backup, sync and similar services<br>
|
||
2 - Purchase a shared hosting on one of many service providers tested by NextCloud company</p>
|
||
<h2>Tutorials</h2>
|
||
<p><strong>Installing on own server</strong>: Kev beautifully explains both Snap Package way and manual way of installing in his <a href="https://kevq.uk/how-to-setup-a-nextcloud-server-in-ubuntu/">tutorial</a>.<br>
|
||
<strong>Installing on shared hosting</strong>: But if you are intimidated with the idea of setting up your own server and managing it, you can use a shared hosting instead. Kev has a <a href="https://kevq.uk/how-to-install-nextcloud-on-shared-hosting/">tutorial</a> for that too, albeit it aged a bit old. <br>
|
||
<strong>Repurposing old hardware</strong>: If you have an old computer gathering dust in a closet, why not use it as a home server! You will find many tutorials on the internet on <a href="https://lbry.tv/@TheLinuxGuy:d/How-to-Install-Ubuntu-Server-20.04-LTS:5">how to install Ubuntu server</a>. </p>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>The only reason I followed manual method was some rookie mistake I made that caused Let's Encrypt HTTPS script to not work properly 😬️ I highly doubt you will face the same issue if you follow the tutorials carefully. Even if you do face some problems with <a href="https://certbot.eff.org/">getting HTTPS certificate using <code>certbot</code></a> command isn't difficult at all.</p></content><category term="Tech"></category><category term="privacy"></category><category term="nextcloud"></category><category term="self-hosting"></category><category term="100DaysToOffload"></category></entry></feed> |