Respect your elders

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I’ve probably talked about this before, but it’s something I keep coming back to. When I was younger, I thought age was just a number. I figured I knew more and understood things better than a lot of older people. Turns out, I was wrong.

Now, even though I’m still pretty young, I get that older folks have a ton more experience than I do. They’ve been through things I haven’t, and they’ve learned stuff that I just can’t pick up without living more of life myself.

I used to think respect had to be earned, but now I feel like everyone deserves respect by default—unless they give me a reason not to.

Especially when it comes to my elders, I really should show respect. They most probably have wisdom and life lessons that I don’t, and even if they aren’t always perfect, I want to approach them with respect because there’s a lot I can learn from their experiences. Their choices come from real-life stuff, and listening to that can really help me out.

Back online

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It’s been weeks and I’m finally back online. Been a weird experience being this much offline but I’m finally here. Too much to catch up. Thanks a lot to any and all of you who messaged me. I’m truly grateful for your companionship.

Cheers.

Help people bypass censorship: Run Snowflake

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Snowflake is a tool designed to help people bypass Internet censorship. It works by connecting users in heavily censored regions to the open Internet through volunteers who run Snowflake on their devices—either as a browser extension or a standalone proxy. If you’re in a country where Tor is accessible, you can run Snowflake and act as a bridge for those who can’t access the Internet freely.

I’ve been trying to publish this post for two days. That’s how severe the current Internet blackout and censorship is here, given the current situation with war. Tools like Snowflake are often the only way people like me can connect to the outside world and access uncensored information, or contact their loved ones.

The easiest way to help is by installing the Snowflake browser extension. Once it’s enabled, you’ll see a green icon when someone connects through your relay. It’s simple, safe, and takes less than 3 minutes to set up—but it can make a world of difference.

By donating a small portion of your bandwidth, you help others communicate with loved ones, access crucial information, and stay connected—especially during crises like the one currently in the Middle East.

Start now: snowflake.torproject.org

Please spread the word. Every person counts.

The war

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It’s now the eighth day of the direct war between Iran and Israel. For nearly five days, we’ve been living under a complete internet blackout. Today, a few VPNs have started working again, giving us limited access to the outside world and letting us reconnect with family and friends abroad.

My email is still unreachable, so if you’ve tried to contact me recently, I apologize for not responding. I’m safe, and so is my family — something we’re grateful for.

To those of you who reached out in the early days: thank you. Your messages, your care, and your words meant a great deal. I’ve read them while I’ve been able to, and they’ve reminded me how lucky I am to have such awesome people in my life.

Thanks a lot and best of luck.

Free software is needed for security

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Micah Lee has been working on recent controversies around TeleMessage. If you’re not familiar with the topic, here’s a small backstory:

Some time ago, Mike Waltz and several senior U.S. government officials were caught discussing military plans on the messaging app Signal, after someone mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to the conversation. Later, Waltz was seen using TM SGNL—a clone of Signal developed by TeleMessage—that includes features like cloud message archiving.

Micah recently created a program called TeleMessage Explorer, designed to simplify the investigation of TeleMessage dataset (provided by him and available to journalists and researchers) and published it under GNU AGPL v3, a free (as in freedom) license. It made me think about the importance of software freedom to achieve security and privacy. And it certainly made me appreciate Micah’s program more, as it didn’t refuse me my digital rights.

The license ensures users can run, study, modify, and share the program, as they wish. It ensures people own their copy of the program, rather than giving power to the developers to control what users can do.

Continue reading →

AI and software freedom

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I’ve been using generative transformers (so-called AI, such as ChatGPT) for some time now, and I’ve found them to be pretty useful. Whether I need a brief summary of an article or a quick one-sentence explanation of a blog post, they deliver it as I wish.

If I need a guide on setting up a secure system for managing my SSH keys, I can get a detailed step-by-step process. Or if I want help creating a cartoonish avatar for a friend’s daughter, that’s done in few seconds. They are doing an impressive job, and I genuinely appreciate the technology behind them.

However, I do have some concerns. Above all, I value my privacy. I don’t want any corporation creeping on my private conversations, nor do I want them tracking what and when I think about certain stuff. The size or structure of the corporation doesn’t matter to me—it’s my personal information, and I want control over it. That’s why I avoid sharing any sensitive data with these services. And if I do, I try my best to anonymize it.

The ChatGPT app from OpenAI states that when you delete a chat, it will be removed from their servers within a month. If they stick to this promise, they’re doing more than many other companies. Still, it doesn’t go far enough.

Real privacy and security are comes with free (as in freedom) software. Free software gives me the ability to modify and control the program, ensuring it works exactly how I want it to, not how a corporation dictates.

With free software, I have the power to take control of my computer. If the program compromises my personal data or violates my rights (online or offline) I can stop it. I’ll be the one in control.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found an so-called AI tool that is both free (as in freedom) and provides an openly accessible language model for public use. But I’m hopeful that this will change. As the free software community continues to grow (as it always has), I’m confident we’ll soon see generative transformers that respect freedom and privacy.

Logging off more

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I’m also trying to read more books instead of constantly checking the web. I used to read Wikipedia pages about topics I’m interested in, or watch some of my favorite shows on video platforms but now I try to carry a book with myself and read it. I used to read a lot but now I find less time in my schedule, mostly because of the internet. It’s time to log off more and read some good books I have in my reading list.

Oh, I’ll treat RSS feeds the same as books.

Detoxing

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If you’re reading this through your RSS feed reader, you’re my good friend. After all ups and downs and mood changes, I could say you should have deleted this blog from your feed but if you didn’t, I want to know you more. Please message me.

I still have a lot of mixed feelings about this. Writing feels good but sharing and caring about this blog, or any other online presence, is hard for me. It makes me feel overexposed, makes me feel vulnerable, or even pointless. But I decided to continue writing and sharing, for my own mental health and benefit.

While this web site was down, I took the opportunity to do more digital detoxing. Deleted more and more online accounts, making the number under a hundred, and did some steps to achieve more security and privacy.

I did a mistake of publishing this blog on a personal domain for a while, and I regretted that decision, making my domain public opened doors to spam emails and attracted unwanted attention, and this conflicted with the need to keep the domain and email private. So I moved the private email to another domain, and the change is in process.

I also did some organizing to separate my online identities with ones I share publicly, and did my best to have the best possible approach towards it, respecting my privacy and security.

I tried to explore new things. Eating new food, trying new fashion, using technologies I haven’t tried, playing some board games, and enjoying awesome music. Simone, as generous as always, gifted me his music and I’ve been enjoying them on my last two road trips.

I also been watching two new series lately, bringing back family movie/series nights just like how it was 20 years ago. I still get the same feeling, and it’s very joyful.

It’s spring and we have been enjoying greengage for the last month. They are one of my favorite fruits, and I had a lot of them lately, more than I should have. Definitely worth it though. I waste a lot of money on stupid things but this one I’m not ashamed and I don’t regret it.

Work has been good. I’m learning a lot and my co-workers are super nice. I respect them a lot and they respect me. It’s still a new experience for me and I’m thankful for the opportunity I have. It has its ups and downs but it’s all for my own good, I believe.

Tired

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I’ve been blogging here for over five years, and now I find myself somewhat tired of it. It used to be fun and helped me take my mind off things, but now I feel like it’s becoming a burden.

It’s the last place I’m online, the last place I regularly update, and the only place I share my ideas. However, I have a strange feeling about it—a sense of disappointment and discouragement.

I feel like I have nothing valuable to share with others anymore. It seems pointless to share my political views, ideological beliefs, and understanding of the world. Apart from free software, I don’t think there’s anything anyone would find useful to read here. I’m empty of new ideas, tired of sharing them, and too busy to curate any meaningful writing.

I’ve thought hard about deleting this blog. I did it some time ago, but I later regretted my decision and brought it back. Now, I’m considering purging everything again. I’m even thinking about removing the DNS records so that there would be no web page, not even an error page. However, I know I’ll miss it. I find something interesting to share, and I regret that I don’t have a place to put it. I’ll have something to say, and I’ll feel sorry that I purged the only place I could say it freely.

I know it’s my safe haven, and I mostly write for myself rather than for readers. I don’t try to attract people; my goal is to express my thoughts and feelings freely. I’ve thought about deleting this blog, it’s been on my mind for a long time, and I find it too difficult. Mostly because I feel a sense of security and belonging here. I feel there’s somewhere I can talk when there’s nowhere else. I think I can be useful, I can teach something and learn more from others.

I’ve found friends through this blog and I intend to find more. I’ve learned a lot from them and I enjoy their messages now and then. So I’ll keep it alive for another day. Tomorrow, I hope to decide to keep it for one more.