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    • New note by bobjonkman 19 March 2023
      A very thoughtful analysis. I've been on the side of "peace from both sides", but I can see the progression that you lay out.
    • bobjonkman repeated a notice by lnxw48a1 19 March 2023
      RT @lnxw48a1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64986744 [www bbc co uk] #Turkiye leader Erdogan signals approval of #Finland joining #NATO ... still hesitant on #Sweden's application After the fall of the USSR, I was in favor of abolishing NATO. Frankly, I was too idealistic. I imagined Europe becoming a sort of demilitarized zone but without conflicting armies on each […]
    • Favorite 19 March 2023
      bobjonkman favorited something by lnxw48a1: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64986744 [www bbc co uk] #Turkiye leader Erdogan signals approval of #Finland joining #NATO ... still hesitant on #Sweden's application After the fall of the USSR, I was in favor of abolishing NATO. Frankly, I was too idealistic. I imagined Europe becoming a sort of demilitarized zone but without conflicting […]
    • New note by bobjonkman 19 March 2023
      There's a natural spring just a short distance from here. Sometime about 30 years ago some kind of piping was added to it, so now the water comes out of a pipe a distance above the ground. People would fill their water cooler bottles there. About 10 years ago a sign was put up "This […]
    • bobjonkman repeated a notice by lnxw48a1 19 March 2023
      RT @lnxw48a1 Behind this laundromat there is a pipe that continuaously spews water. People drive up and fill bottles, then leave. Trusting. I naturally assume that there is some contaminant and I therefore avoid drinking water from mystery pipes.
    • New note by bobjonkman 19 March 2023
      Why we need elastomeric clothing.
    • New note by bobjonkman 19 March 2023
      The only reason I have a Github account is to provide bug reports and feature requests to projects I want to support. I don't code much, but anything I want to be publicly available is on my own website. Although not in a code repository, which is probably a good idea.
    • bobjonkman repeated a notice by steve 18 March 2023
      RT @steve From https://t.co/Ljk2FwSC2I on Mastodon: In the spirit of deepening the open federated social web, this blog is now powered by ActivityPub, the open federated social standard. This is thanks to the WordPress plugin “activitypub”. You c... https://mastodon.cooleysekula.net/users/steve/statuses/110044125471741899/activity
    • Favorite 18 March 2023
      bobjonkman favorited something by steve: From https://t.co/Ljk2FwSC2I on Mastodon: In the spirit of deepening the open federated social web, this blog is now powered by ActivityPub, the open federated social standard. This is thanks to the WordPress plugin “activitypub”. You c... https://mastodon.cooleysekula.net/users/steve/statuses/110044125471741899/activity
    • Favorite 3 March 2023
      bobjonkman favorited something by clacke: Re: nu.federati.net/notice/3422215@LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} A lot of people move to Fedi from Twitter, in Fedi numbers.Not a lot of people move to Fedi from Twitter in Twitter numbers.

Preparing for the Keysigning Cryptoparty, 2 Dec 2013

Posted by Bob Jonkman on 24th November 2013

Key Pair

Cryptoparty like it’s 31 December 1983!

At the next KWLUG meeting on Monday, 2 December 2013 I’ll be demonstrating how to do e-mail encryption with Thunderbird and Enigmail. If you’ve never used e-mail encryption before then bring a laptop, and we’ll create keys and learn how to use them. We’ll save the lesson with pointy sticks for another day.

For those people who already have GnuPG/PGP keys I’m also hosting a Formal Keysigning. Participants will introduce themselves, read their GnuPG key fingerprint, then anyone else is invited to vouch for that person:

Bob: “I’m Bob Jonkman, and my GnuPG fingerprint is 04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA”

Andrew: “I’ve known Bob since the early days, and that’s really him”

This is a great way to expand your Web Of Trust to include people whose keys you might not otherwise sign (because you don’t know them very well, or they only have ID issued by an authority you don’t like). With all these introductions and vouchings the chance of someone misrepresenting their identity is vanishingly small, so you can trust that the key fingerprint they read is really associated with that person.

To make this process go smoothly I’d like to have a printout of all the participants’ keyIDs, UserIDs, and key fingerprints, which I’ll distribute at the keysigning. That way you can just check off each name/keyID/fingerprint as people read them, and then sign their keys later at your leisure. But to get that printout I’ll need the public key of anyone who would like to participate in the keysigning.

If you’re using Thunderbird and Enigmail then open the Key Management window, right-click on your key and select “Send Public Keys by E-mail”, and send it to me ( bjonkman@sobac.com )

If you’re a command-line weenie then use

gpg --export 0xYOURKEYID > 0xYOURKEYID-public-key-for-YOURNAME.pgp

and send that file 0xYOURKEYID-public-key-for-YOURNAME.pgp to me (substitute your actual keyID and actual name as needed).

Of course, I’d prefer signed, encrypted e-mail, but public keys are public (so encryption isn’t necessary), and public keys should already be self-signed anyway.

Unfortunately, if you’re creating your keys for the first time at the meeting you won’t be able to send me anything now. You can still participate in the vouching process, and we’ll have an informal keysigning after the formal keysigning, where all you need to do is read your fingerprint straight from your computer and those people who already know you can sign your key.

I’m still working on the procedures for the formal keysigning; you can see the work in progress (and contribute!) on the Formal Keysigning page on the Wiki.

Thanx, and hope to see you on Monday, 2 December 2013!

–Bob, who is the Keymaster. Who will be the Gatekeeper?

The Cryptoparty keypair logo from the Cryptoparty Artwork repository on GitHub is available in the CC0Public Domain.

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Posted in email, PGP/GPG, privacy | Comments Off on Preparing for the Keysigning Cryptoparty, 2 Dec 2013

Why I’m an E-mail Luddite

Posted by Bob Jonkman on 2nd October 2013

Statue of a Luddite

Luddite Memorial, Liversedge

The pervasive expectation of HTML everywhere came to light in a recent e-mail exchange:

Him: Bob, have a look at this video: LOLcats at work

Me: Did you intend to send a link with that?

Him: Yes, here it is: LOLcats at work

Me: Sorry, still no link. Remember, I don’t receive HTML e-mail…

Him: Wut? I’ve never heard of someone not receiving HTML e-mail!

E-mail was never designed for HTML; it is intended to be a plain-text medium. HTML is merely cobbled on, and mail clients have no standard way to render HTML messages, resulting in different displays on different mail programs. Some mail programs, especially those run from the command line, can’t show HTML rendered messages at all.

Although I use a graphical mail client (Thunderbird), I choose to not display HTML for two reasons:

1) Security: HTML mail can have Javascript code or other objects embedded. That’s a great way to get virus infections on your computer. I don’t want any code running on my computer that I didn’t put there myself.

2) Privacy: HTML mail that links to external images allows the owner of those images to track your mail usage: When you open the mail, how often you open it, the location you open it at, what computer you’re using, and whether you forward it to others (and then, when they open the mail, how often, their location, &c).

Not to mention that HTML messages are far bigger than text messages, especially when the HTML contains embedded images, fonts, and other stuff. Now, that’s not such a big deal with fast connections, unlimited download caps, and cheap disk drives, but it will still make a difference on small-format devices like phones and watches.

That said, if you do send me HTML e-mail, be sure to embed any images or LOLcat videos. That way I can still view them as static attachments, without revealing when, where, and how often I view them.

For more info have a look at the Wikipedia article on HTML e-mail

–Bob.

You can send HTML e-mail to Bob Jonkman at bjonkman@sobac.com

The Luddite Memorial, Liversedge by Tim Green is used under a CC-BYCreative Commons — Attribution 2.0 Generic — CC BY 2.0 license.

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Posted in email, privacy, security | 1 Comment »

 
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