lattrommi

This was first published in 2021. There are some interesting points made.

https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html

It has had a few updates since, then but I cannot vouch for its accuracy.

It doesn't cover audits per sé, but I feel there is important information that is tangentially related, since security audits become kind of moot if some of the items mentioned are true (i.e. CIA funding and US govt. tactics).

Full disclosure, I still use Signal for a family group chat. I have very little economic value, thus my threat model is minimal. It mentions cats several times. I neither have cats, nor interact with them frequently enough to warrant their inclusion in a threat model.

I use Proton mail for a mailing list that's hosted and managed by a local linux users group. The messages from the mailing list arrive as .eml files, with each message as an attachment. the native web browser cannot read the attachments. I have to download each message, either individually or all of them as a single zipped file. It might be the fault of the admin of the mailing list and not Proton's fault. I'm not sure. It's not very active so I never bothered to look into the issue. it's a hassle but not a problem. I thought .eml was a standard email format so it seemed odd that the web client could not read it.

i also occasionally use proton drive to back up my plaintext journal every 3-6 months. i backup to mega as well. proton drive has 2 gb of storage on the free plan. mega has 20gb. my journal is 6.9 MiB across 166 files. i have plenty of storage for my use case. i do not store anything sensitive. so that's not a concern.

I believe the ublacklist extension can do it if you use firefox or one of its forks.

My dad calls himself a BuJew Cath, which is Buddhist, Jewish and Catholic. "How does Jewish and Catholic work together?" you might ask. The answer is, it doesn't. My dad is insane. He does it to prevent people from accusing him of being close-minded and so he can claim he's a minority. It's pretty sad.

Me personally, I follow my own even stranger belief system, which I haven't defined fully and hopefully never will, because definitions turn into rules and rules are too binary and create impossibilities. I like to believe that anything and everything has already happened, is currently occuring and will do so constantly for all time. There's a pseudo-solipsist angle as well, where my reality is created by me but others do the same, so as to allow for all believe systems independently. If two individuals have conflicting views, their own truths are true for each of them but not the other. Those with similar beliefs are then drawn to each other and those with dissimilar beliefs are repelled, like a type of magnetism. That's the simple version.

"How to Invent Everything" by Ryan North.

I'm hesitant to suggest it because it is not exactly a 'history' book per se. It might not have the specifics, depth, breadth or even content you are looking for but I found it to be very, very engaging.

From the website for the book: It’s a (fictional) time machine repair guide that (non-fictionally) explains how to reinvent civilization from scratch.

https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/

A tattoo that works like a sign on the forehead that says "warning: grumpy" that lights up accordingly, would be useful for all of society in my opinion.

a pair of working wings like a bat, a prehensile tail like a monkey that is strong enough to pick stuff up equally as my arms can, skin like a chameleon that can transition to the color and texture (visually) of my surroundings and regenerative cells like those immortal octopuses.

that's just for regular life, my ultimate fantasy version would have all that but also an improved ass, that sits in an office chair more comfortably so i can write TPS reports more efficiently and with better clarity.

a HUD would be cool with a bionic eyes I think, so i could 'see' a list of stats. temperature, barometric pressure, direction of sound origin, my to do list, personal vitals like BP and heart rate, I could go on.

that would unfortunately have the same inherent trust issues as any company that made them would surely try to phone home with that data and probably try to insert ads and shit too.

I believe the first part is already occuring, it's the last half that I hope is wrong.

Something my grandpa said, sometime around 2006-2007 I think.

"The next world war, will be between the rich and and the poor, and the rich will win before the poor knows there's a war."

Threat plan.

Ask yourself the following:

What do you have that you want to protect?

Can be a person, place, thing, animal, mineral or vegetable.

A hierarchy of importance is good to develop.

    Is your wife more important than your cat? 

    Is your fireproof safe full of legal documents more important than your computer?

Who do you want to protect it from?

Threats 

    Consider:

        Actions taken by humans

        Acts of nature (acts of your god?)

        The passage of time

How likely is it that you will need to protect it?

Remember:

    Privacy is important

    Everything breaks down eventually, both man and machine, society and civilization

        Will a hurricane demolish your mountaintop resort? 

        Will a landslide destroy your yatch? 

        Will looters ransack your home during an insurrection?

    Historical weather and earthquake data is useful to know

How bad are the consequences if you fail?

What do you have to lose beyond possessions and people?

    Reputation, freedoms, integrity, etc.

How much trouble am you willing to go through to prevent these consequences?

Will you go through worse if you don't prepare?

Will you have the courage to act when the time comes?

How many security cameras are needed to track a single cat? What about a married cat?

After you feel you have answered these sufficiently, you can begin to prepare to protect yourself!

The black lines used for borders could be that. I'm not saying it is, just that it might be close to the amount used by roads other than rural highways.