@Wander@packmates.org avatar

Wander

@Wander@packmates.org

:therian: Grey Wolf Therian, he/him, 30ish y.o.
Running packmates.org and yiffit.net fediverse instances.

:vlpn_happy_heart: Interests: Tech, therianthropy, furry/feral art, animal books, shamanism & animal-influenced spirituality, SFW & NSFW petplay

I sometimes post or boost NSFW content.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Neverfadingwood, to random
@Neverfadingwood@lingo.lol avatar

It me.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@Neverfadingwood I'm doing this right now!

Wander, to random
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

Hooray! We now have the whole suite of @volpeon emojis at packmates.

Thanks to @chirpbirb for sending me the source <3

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@anthropy @volpeon @chirpbirb

inside the live folder just create import_emoji.rb with nano and copy the contents of the file in the repository.

Execute as instructed in the repository.

you can do this if you want:

bundle exec rails runner import_emoji.rb mastodon packmates.org

This copies all of our emojis which you're more than welcome to do if you want.

You can go here to examine instances and their emojis:

https://emojos.in/

Note, they're not categorized when you copy them. I had to go into the database to categorize them in an efficient manner.

Wander, (edited ) to selfhosted
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

The future of selfhosted services is going to be... Android?

Wait, what?

Think about it. At some point everyone has had an old phone lying around. They are designed to be constantly connected, constantly on... and even have a battery and potentially still a SIM card to survive power outages.

We just need to make it easy to create APK packaged servers that can avoid battery-optimization kills and automatically configure an outbound tunnel like ngrok, zerotrust, etc...

The goal: hosting services like , , !? should be as easy as installing an APK and leaving an old phone connected to a spare charger / outlet.

It would be tempting to have an optimized ROM, but if self-hosting is meant to become more commonplace, installing an APK should be all that's needed. can do SSH, VPN and other tunnels without the need for root, so there should be no problem in using tunnels to publicly expose a phone/server in a secure manner.

In regards to the suitability of home-grade broadband, I believe that it should not be a huge problem at least in Europe where home connections are most often unmetered: "At the end of June 2021, 70.2% of EU homes were passed by either FTTP or cable DOCSIS
3.1 networks, i.e. those technologies currently capable of supporting gigabit speeds."

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/broadband-coverage-europe-2021

PS. syncthing actually already has an APK and is easy to use. Although I had to sort out some battery optimization stuff, it's a good example of what should become much more commonplace.

cc: @selfhosted

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@leggylav @selfhosted OMG, yes, thank you <3

I finally feel understood now :vlpn_cry:

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@AMS @selfhosted yes, hopefully we'll see an explosion in self-hostable alternatives that can be installed as easily as syncthing.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@ahoyboyhoy @selfhosted Nice. I remember trying it out once. Actually I might use that to follow my own advice and self-host at home once I retire my current phone.

True, I haven't had the need because I know how to run stuff on a server, but for personal files it's probably better to host things at home.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@ahoyboyhoy @selfhosted How old is the phone and what version of the OS are you using? I was under the impression that modern phones bypass the battery when connected to the charger and having full charge.

Regarding limiting the charge, I believe there's some software calibration you can do which would allow you to set it to 50%. I'm no expert in battery or repairs at all, so someone else might have a better idea.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@Omniraptor in theory Mastodon will show a "read more" button for longer comments. Top level posts sent from Lemmy often require clicking the link to view them in full and content isn't ordered by votes because they don't exist.

So, it's a bit messy to read Lemmy from Mastodon, but posting something and then replying to comments on that thread is really easy.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@TCB13 I'm not an expert in the matter but I wonder how large the attack surface actually is for a web service that has a single port exposed via a tunnel which can even contribute to doing some security filtering.

The application / server component can actually be updated since it's just an APK. And someone else in this thread actually linked to whole linux distros that can be installed and run without root. In theory even if the underlying OS is insecure, more secure OSes can be installed on top, or risk can be severely limited by only exposing a single port.

Basically, while flashing a new ROM would be ideal, I think there's likely a way in which a sandboxed and possibly even updated environment with updated TLS cyphers, CA stores, etc... can be run in a secure manner on top of a stock Android ROM.

Furthermore, developers packaging their apps into APKs could run security checks and by the time it says "your OS is insecure" you're already on your third phone and can host stuff on your second. I mean... Android phones are in their prime for two/three years at most in my experience :P

Wander, to random
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

Oh, look at that.

I don't know who mentioned this the other day, but I'm happy to see this is actually a thing now.

When an admin tries to block another whole instance it gives a summary of how many connections will be severed, which is good because domain blocks are a nuclear option. In this case it was warranted though since that instance openly allowed harassment.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@philpem not sure, but I don't think so.

Tutanota, (edited ) to random
@Tutanota@mastodon.social avatar

It's !

Time to remind everyone that a backdoor "for the good guys only" is simply not possible.

By demanding encryption backdoors, politicians are not asking us to choose between security and privacy. They are asking us to choose no security. 👇

https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/why-a-backdoor-is-a-security-risk

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@Tutanota you simply can't but controlled selective access into math. It's as simple as that.

RiverSongFox, to random

How about you collar and chain this fox, so that its wet maw and warm tail hole are always there at your convenience? :blobfoxpleading:

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@RiverSongFox people should install a small D-ring on the underside of their desks so that they can easily clip your leash to it and keep you busy beneath it.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@gray @RiverSongFox like this.
Source: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/6470537/

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@noxypaws @RiverSongFox @gray where's 14 werewolves when you need them?

Wander, (edited ) to meta
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

Announcing status.packmates.org and status.yiffit.net

Heya everyone!
I've been mostly silent for some time, but it's all with good reason (I promise!)

Over the last few days I've spent a lot of time on server maintenance. Many of these changes will be invisible to you as users (such as getting a /48 ipv6 range, setting up SLAAC/DHCPv6, reviewing security and firewall rules, etc...)

But today I set up something that I can share: status pages!

Head over to:

(they're the same page actually, but the different domain is to make it easier to remember if you're a user of one site and not the other).

There's a slight caveat in that the status page is hosted on the hypervisor itself, so if that goes down, everything goes down but you'll at least know by not being able to load the status page itself!

Ideally I would host this somewhere external but we're not there yet. One day I hope to even have a server cluster for redundancy, but we'd have to host many more services to be able to justify this.

cc: @meta

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@LittleFox I am officially your fan now, then. Because I would like to do overkill stuff as a hobby as well.

Wander, to fediverse
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

In the wake of and controversy, I would like to highlight the existance of the approach.

Remember , ISPs being common carriers and them not meddling with the pages users want to see? This is similar.

Under a "remote neutral" approach each instance leaves the tight opinionated moderation policies to their own users users and the content their users generate or share with the aim of running a safe and welcoming instance for their members that's safe to federate with.

However, remote content is only moderated whenever there is a report and only blocked if it's straight out illegal to host / cache or constitute unsolicited spam/harassment. Otherwise objectionable remote content is limited at most and users can block it if they want.

I can't stress enough the benefits this has:

  1. It makes moderation feasible for small instances

  2. It does not fracture the fediverse unnecessarily

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

By limiting remote content at most (unless illegal) I protect our users while also avoiding overzealous domain blocks which can be problematic as we've seen over and over again.

If the is split on whether project A is good or bad, has good intentions but bad execution or good execution but bad intentions... it doesn't matter too much. There is no need for us to position ourselves or try to learn about a new controversy that has recently popped up.

If it could impact the user experience by appearing in our federated timeline, we'll limit them but we avoid jumping the gun or causing irreversible damage by avoiding remote blocks whenever possible unless this remote content is evidently illegal to host / cache or constitutes spam / harassment.

I hope this exemplifies a little the concept of , while focusing moderation on local users and content.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

In practice if there's a new 'anti-lgbt' instance users at packmates.org could read their posts because we wouldn't block them... but in practice this never happens and our server doesn't know these instances exist since none of our users would follow these accounts anyways.

Essentially we need to remember that every remote account is technically 'blocked' by default, in the sense that its content won't even reach your server unless your users are interested in it.

Thus, I believe that my focus should be on moderating the content that our userbase publishes and shares while I couldn't give a flying fuck about the droves of objectionable content there's on remote instances. I don't have the energy nor do I need to care about it until it somehow reaches my instance in which case I'll block it if it's illegal or limit it if objectionable but not illegal.

Wander, to privacy
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

Federated wireguard network idea
Any feedback welcome.

Let's keep things stupidly simple and simply hash the domain name to get a unique IPv6 ULA prefix.

Then we would need a stupidly simple backend application to automatically fetch pubkeys and endpoints from DNS and make a request to add each others as peers.

Et voilà, you got a worldwide federated wireguard network resolving private ULA addresses. Sort of an internet on top of the internet .

The DNS entries with the public IPv4 / IPv6 addresses could even be delegated to other domains / endpoints which would act as reverse proxy (either routing or nesting tunnels) for further privacy.

Maybe my approach is too naïve and there are flaws I haven't considered, so don't be afraid to comment.

Exact use cases? Idk, but it sounds nifty.

cc: @fediverse

Wander, (edited )
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@breadsmasher I have no idea how Tor works. In this case I would say most peers would have no problem disclosing a public IP, but it could have benefits in making resources in a private network accessible and as long as the endpoint can be reached those resources would be hosting provider agnostic.

I would say this is less about hiding user activity than it is about logical networks, abstracting away the hosting provider and allowing to knit together self hosted services, regardless of where they are hosted.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@despotic_machine thank you. This sounds interesting!

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@nysepho @fediverse there would be routing without being peered directly by delegating your endpoint to another peer you trust (this can create an infinitely long routing chain depending on where you latch on so to speak, but you would be in control)

Wander, (edited ) to chat
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

Never have I ever... Furry +18 edition! (art by shinigamigirl)

The rules are simple:

  • Everyone who's a furry and reads this thread needs to add a comment. Write about something that you haven't done yourself, even though it might be common, you're interested in it, or curious about it. For example:

"Never have I ever had sex in a fursuit"

Anyone who has done it, will leave a reply to that comment with the text "*drinks*" or similar. Make sure to check back in later to see new messages and reply to them.

You can also reply to each other to ask questions if there's something you're curious about.

Feel free to bring up both SFW or NSFW topics. Please be respectful and don't bring up NHIE statements that are malicious, political or divisive.

((By the way, thank you for your suggestions on the ideas thread for conversations topic the other day!))

cc: @chat
Artist: https://www.weasyl.com/~shinigamigirl/submissions/1734213/drinkies

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@chat I'll start:

Never have I ever had sex at a convention room party. (Been to too few conventions, but I need to make up for it somehow).

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@Tahssi glup glup glup I've been way too horny sometimes.

Wander, to chat
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

I got a MASSIVE headache. How's your day going so far?

cc: @chat

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@CaleBuns @chat thank you so much <3

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@mdwalters @Wander because he's got a huge ego

Wander, to lemmy
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@lemmy I just realized that you can submit posts to any lemmy community from any mastodon / fediverse account. This is pretty cool!

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@csolisr @lemmy the post is the title. It's one and the same, I believe. It also added a weird link at the beginning as seen from lemmy.ml but maybe I should have added the mention at the end instead of at the beginning.

Wander,
@Wander@packmates.org avatar

@gzrrt @dl007

The biggest problem with GPT-4 is that it's severely restricted.

I believe that AI's next big change will be model optimization and open source models will be able to catch up.

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