Reliable devices have open schematics and, when possible, are physically transparent to make it easy to notice foreign components. The microphone and camera are turned off electrically, not via software.<\/p>\n
If some code isn’t being used, it needs to be removed. The simpler the software, the fewer the bugs & vulnerabilities, and the higher the likelihood of detailed external audits.<\/p>\n
Technologies should be built in ways that make surveillance impossible, with data being processed only after the user’s conscious consent. It’s preferable for all new technologies to be backwards-compatible: this makes their adoption easier. Optional privacy is no privacy at all, as it divides people into normies and “those with something to hide” — that’s why Monero rules and Zcash drools.<\/p>\n
The zero-trust model is a good way to enhance security. In an organisation, this means embedding multi-level access control: each person can only access the data needed for the time needed. Accepting that anything can leak leads to minimising data collection and storage; accounts are not created without good reason.<\/p>\n
Zero-trust can also be implemented on a local level via sandboxing. This means isolating browsers, ecosystems, and devices: using one for the personal, another for work, and a third for the alter ego. Access to one account or device will thus never be enough to paint a full picture of someone’s life.<\/p>\n
Tips to enhance privacy and security<\/h2>\n
As many interactions as possible should happen anonymously or at least pseudonymously. To make identification more difficult, one can reduce the amount of static data by constantly changing IP addresses with a VPN, randomising MAC addresses, preferring IPv4 to IPv6<\/a>, spreading disinformation about identity. It’s harder to identify a person whose name isn’t tied to a device.<\/p>\n Browser-level protection is not enough: it’s not the only program communicating with the internet. Also, the more a browser is configured, such as with installed plugins, the easier it is to identify the person through metadata. Restrictions, such as those related to scripts, should be set on the system or router level.<\/p>\n Authentication should consist of multiple factors: what a person knows and what a person has. Emails and SMS messages should not be obligatory factors because of their low privacy. There also should not be any shared secrets: many people are unable to follow instructions and keep passwords in a safe place.<\/p>\n As much as possible should happen locally: the cloud is just someone else’s computer, while trusted third parties are security holes. However, if an interaction requires the internet, a web app is safer than a local app: a closed browser tab guarantees absence of background communications.<\/p>\n Almost everything should be encrypted, but it’s important to remember that malware (and on-device AI) can gather data before encryption and after decryption.<\/p>\n It’s best to avoid passing SSDs onto others: the only way to truly ensure the absence of previously “deleted” data is to smash the disk.<\/p>\n To completely exclude remote attacks, a device should not have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microphones, and cameras; any connections should happen physically. Such devices are typically kept in hard-to-reach places. If such a device were to be accessed, it should notify about this, both on the software and hardware levels. The most advanced devices use deniable encryption, fooling potential extorters into believing that the little data they manage to retrieve is all there is.<\/p>\n Certain kinds of digital threats can be prevented only with transparent technological measures.<\/p>\n However, a system can never be fully secure — this would make it inoperable. Tradeoffs are unavoidable; security measures should be chosen based on threat model, threat probability, objective limitations, long-term goals, and budget.<\/p>\n As of today, network effects continue to sway people towards centralised messaging apps, many sites needlessly require registration, hardly any devices have open schematics, and decentralised domain protocols are still uncommon. There is great room for improvement — let’s get to it.<\/p>\n",
"date_published": "2024-07-29T13:11:19+05:00",
"date_modified": "2025-08-27T17:20:53+05:00",
"tags": [
"decentralisation",
"Europe",
"legislation",
"privacy",
"programming",
"software",
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"strategy",
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"url": "https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/",
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"url": "https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/all\/tech-talk\/",
"title": "Tech of freedom and of slavery",
"content_html": " I will be giving a talk about the state of modern technology at Villa La Brise<\/a> in Sanremo.<\/p>\n Saturday 9 September, 17:30.<\/p>\n",
"date_published": "2023-08-22T19:15:27+05:00",
"date_modified": "2024-11-28T19:10:02+05:00",
"tags": [
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"freedom",
"Italy",
"my events",
"privacy",
"Sanremo",
"tech",
"undertakings"
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"author": {
"name": "Robert",
"url": "https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/",
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{
"id": "121923",
"url": "https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/all\/environmentalism\/",
"title": "Environmentalism has been hijacked",
"content_html": " Eliminating waste and pollution is a noble cause. But environmentalism today has been almost completely taken over by climate alarmists. They are quite the hypocrites — yelling about rising sea levels while buying beachfront property.<\/p>\n Quoting Carl Sagan, we live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.<\/p>\n I’m not worried about rising temperatures. The extent of Arctic sea ice is the highest in decades. Antarctica just had its coldest winter with more ice than ever. Natural disasters are less frequent, and deaths related to them have fallen from 500 thousand a year in the 1920s to 14 thousand a year now. The weakness of the latest solar cycle might actually lead to global cooling.<\/p>\n About half of today’s land-surface temperature measurements are fraudulent: they are taken next to airport runways with hot jet engines and tarmac. TV channels are manipulating viewers by spicing up temperature colors: I’d expect that Birmingham black to visualise 45 °C, not just 33!<\/p>\n But if Earth is actually warming, it’s a good thing: 10 times fewer people die from heat than from cold. Sweat is a blessing: it excretes toxins, increases blood flow, and opens up the skin. I want extra summer!<\/p>\n Chemtrails, sun-blocking, and similar geoëngineering must be banned constitutionally.<\/p>\n There is no historical relationship between atmospheric CO2<\/sub> and temperatures on Earth. Atmospheric C<\/b>arbon dioxide is in fact at a 300-million-year record-low because of natural fluctuations in the Sun’s energy output. Today it makes up just 0.042% of Earth’s total atmosphere.<\/p>\n Earth was way more biodiverse when it had ten times today’s CO2<\/sub>. An atmosphere richer in C<\/b>arbon leads to plants producing more O<\/b>xygen, and forests and grasslands spreading to places previously too cold to support them. It would also mean more food for everyone and a subsequent drop in poverty. Greenhouse growers buy CO2<\/sub> generators to double plant growth.<\/p>\n Cow farts cannot be worse for the environment than factories spewing chemical waste all day. Besides, the world-round cattle population has fallen by at least 100 million over the last 30 years, and this did not stop greenhouse gas emissions from going up.<\/p>\n C<\/b>arbon is the foundation of organic chemistry and a building block of life. Something we emit when breathing cannot be bad for the environment. Restrictions and taxes on CO2<\/sub> emissions must be banned constitutionally.<\/p>\n The real problem is actual air pollution, which kills 7 million people every year. Particles less than 0.1 micrometres in diameter — especially from diesel fuels — cause premature births, asthma, cancers, and mysterious illnesses. Boogers of a color other than white are a sign of dirty air.<\/p>\n Fireworks frighten birds and animals, while contaminating air and earth. Banning them, along with limiting car use in cities, will largely solve noise pollution.<\/p>\n Clean spring water should be easy to access straight from the tap. It’s scary how a tiny minority of people using Teflon pans for the last 30 years made rainwater no longer drinkable.<\/p>\n It is sensible to minimise waste, pollution, and plastics. But rarely should something be done at all costs: absolutist approaches almost always lead to disasters. Good transitions are Tarzan-like: not letting go of the old before the new can replace it. Every policy decision must go thru a cost-benefit analysis.<\/p>\n Clearly-defined property rights can help reduce pollution: a property owner has a natural incentive to take good care of his land. A neighbor’s cigarette smoke reaching my house should be considered a property violation.<\/p>\n Most environmental calamities have been caused by governments and corporations. That’s why BP coined the term “climate footprint” in 2005 to try to pass its responsibility onto the individual. Big Energy uses another trick too: taking bribes to consider corporations users of 100% “clean energy”, thus turning regular people into users of “dirty energy”. The artificial legislative construct of limited liability lets companies destroy the environment for a fixed price — it must be abolished!<\/p>\n Government agencies should be required to assess critical habitats affected by their projects and always choose the most environmentally-friendly option.<\/p>\n The EU plans to exempt private planes from jetfuel tax despite them emitting the most pollution per person. Government employees except for the president and a few key ones should be obliged to fly only commercial; this will also reduce corruption.<\/p>\n The EU is also now forcing manufacturers to use USB-C as their devices’ charging port. I doubt that this will help the environment in any way: some upgraders will now have to throw away existing chargers and buy new ones. This law is also an infringement on freedom that will raise production costs and stifle technological progress.<\/p>\n Today’s financial system is a wasteful scam of pointless public companies, stocks, derivatives, and banks. It requires constant economic growth (which is impossible) and prints endless money to make prices go up forever. ESG ratings are not about corporate responsibility, but about woke greed. Taxes, inflation, and patents disincentivise innovation.<\/p>\n GDP shows not the true wealth of a nation, but its reliance on the external economy; absolute self-sufficiency has a GDP of zero. Two quarters of negative GDP growth does not imply recession.<\/p>\n It’s time to switch to hard, disinflationary currencies like Monero: their appreciating value incentivises buying only high-quality, long-lasting, and useful items. The world will become a cleaner and healthier place once the economy of single-use crap declines.<\/p>\n Renewable energy is a nonsensical term. The sun may always be around, but solar panels and windmills need materials to be built. Moreover, solar and wind farms take up lots of land and destroy its landscape. The German Green Party invades forests to replace trees with windmills — clown world at its finest.<\/p>\n Rapidly changing energy production methods is wasteful in itself, as it requires manufacturing thousands of solar panels and windmills. Manufacturing one<\/i> EV battery requires digging up 226,000 kilograms of the earth’s crust for metal-processing.<\/p>\n Nuclear power is the most energy-dense fuel of all, is quite cheap, and saves lives by avoiding pollution that would have come from burning coal. Infinite nuclear energy means infinite fertiliser, food, productivity, and opportunity for an even larger population.<\/p>\n The cruel Klaus Schwab and his Young Global Leaders of course desire the opposite — energy scarcity — to amass more control and win the spiritual war. Energy independence is a national security priority; European nuclear power plants should be restarted as soon as it is safely possible to do so.<\/p>\n The chance of a nuclear-plant accident happening in peaceful times is yoctoscopic: today’s plants are built unlike Chernobyl. Should we strive to abolish hazards completely, we should start by dismantling all nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n Hydro and geothermal are also good energy sources. Solar energy makes sense at the level of individual buildings — but installing panels should never be mandatory! Using rainwater as greywater in individual buildings makes sense too.<\/p>\n Mainstream soyentists call petrol “dinosaur sauce”. But I find the abiotic origin theory to make more sense: it says that petroleum is formed by magmatic C<\/b>arbon reäcting with H<\/b>ydrogen beneath the earth’s crust. If this is correct, the peak-oil narrative will be defenestrated and fuel prices will fall. Using petroleum for energy is fine if done without excessive pollution, fracking is okay if local communities support it.<\/p>\n Biofuel is made of viable crops. Its low energy density is never worth the rise in food prices.<\/p>\n The city of Augsburg is switching off façade lighting on historic buildings and evaluating the shutdown of some traffic lights, while France is turning off street lights completely and limiting illuminated advertising at night. I support these initiatives: they will save taxpayer money and improve citizens’ eyesight & circadian rhythms. I would even take them a step further by banning fluorescent lighting in government buildings and public spaces.<\/p>\n It is sensible not to condition air in the summer and not to heat homes too much in the winter: large temperature differences between the indoors and outdoors are bad for health. But such restrictions should never be forced upon people (looking at you, Spain).<\/p>\n Plastic is a petroleum-derived industrial material that was never intended for day-to-day use and only became widespread because of corrupt scientists. Bisphenols, PBDEs, phthalates, microplastics, and other forever-chemicals are messing with our hormones and making us sick.<\/p>\n We are meant to lightly live next to nature, and not in a densely-populated industrial wasteland. Avoiding “soakproof paper”, polyëster clothing, synthetic tyres, wood glues, chemical-laden fabric softeners, and all other plastics is much smarter than buying an EV “to save the planet”. I own only 20 things made with plastic — 20 too many.<\/p>\n The same governments that couldn’t stop screaming about the environment led an epidemic response that created loads of waste in masks, gloves, bags, tests, and vaccine vials. To this I say: governments must be banned from using plastic in non-critical situations. Fake grass should be banned completely.<\/p>\n Environmentally-friendly objects are frugally designed with universality in mind, and thus cost little both to buy and to maintain. They don’t need constant cleaning & lubrication, and instead resist erosion, self-heal, & generally become better with age. They are easy to repair, often without special tools. They honor their material by avoiding dyes and embracing natural forms. Stapleless staplers are a brilliant item designed to avoid depleting resources.<\/p>\n I avoid buying whenever I can, and instead build, borrow, or rent. If buying is inevitable, used items are worth taking a look at: preowned classics are better than unproven novelties; old does not mean obsolete. I use everything that I own, even every corner of every sheet of paper!<\/p>\n Appropriate technology is smol-scale and not organisation-dependent. Mechanical devices such as counterweights, pedals, magnets, and simple machines are more reliable than electricity-consuming alternatives.<\/p>\n Speaking of electronics — buried components, omnipresent glue, and proprietary screws are a disgrace. Devices with interchangeable parts allow upgrading without replacing, either via hot-swap modularity or custom improvements such as retrofitting. Refinement culture has a certain charm to it. I like the concept of scavenger electronics: building tech with spare parts lying around. Openly available schematics allow more people to repair instead of discarding and replacing.<\/p>\n The best packaging is as little packaging as possible. It is beautiful, reusable, and easy to open.<\/p>\n Localising production will reduce transport-related pollution, reliance on the failing global supply chains, as well as the impact of foreign crises. Countries should strive to have vast resources (including sovereign fishing waters), zero debt, and no need for imports. Exports are okay, but they should not be the economy’s backbone.<\/p>\n Recycling is a last resort, a sort of defeat in fact. Most unused things can be kept and turned into something else: old computer chips make for nifty fridge magnets. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!<\/p>\n Dying in nature should not harm it. Compostable (not simply biodegradable) items are great as long as they do not self-destruct while in use.<\/p>\n The term conservative<\/i> derives from the word conserve<\/i>. Real conservatives protect the environment.<\/p>\n Good knowledge of biology and ecology is a superpower. Nature should be left alone when it does not threaten our infrastructure.<\/p>\n As such, natural extinctions and wildfires exist to rejuvenate Earth. Stopping them from happening only creates imbalances.<\/p>\n Banning hunting endangered species makes each kill more profitable, bringing the animal even closer to extinction. If the ban is strictly enforced, people will find similar species to poach, creating more endangered species in the process.<\/p>\n Putting plants in solo pots makes them lonely, because they lose the possibility to exchange substances thru their roots.<\/p>\n Eating an animal means killing that animal. But being vegan and vegetarian is still deadlier than being carnivore: birds are shot to protect crops, insects are pesticided to produce oat, moles and frogs are killed by plowing fields, habitats are destroyed by flattening rainforests to plant avocados, and thousands of other animals are massacred to operate soybean farms. It’s easy to cause collateral damage when one does not witness the impact that his decisions make. PETA — People for the Ethical<\/i> Treatment of Animals — Being vegan and vegetarian is wasteful, too. A single glass of almond “milk” takes 61 litres of water to produce. Monocrop farming takes up lots of land and destroys its N<\/b>itrogen-rich topsoil. Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, and Imperial China all plowed their way to demise.<\/p>\n Cows, on the other hand, are upcyclers who turn greens inedible by humans into our most bioavailable and nutritious food, while their poop regenerates the soil. They, along with other ruminants, have the organs to eliminate heavy metals, carcinogens, pesticides, glyphosates, and other poisons they’re exposed to. Pigs are recyclers who turn what we don’t eat into something we do. Humans can digest almost all animal parts; the few outliers can be used as quality material.<\/p>\n Yes, animals don’t want to be eaten: they defend themselves by kicking, biting, or running away. But they know we will eat them anyway: their breeding habits and evolutionary development “priced in” many of them being hunted by us.<\/p>\n Humans are not meant to digest large quantities of plants: phytochemicals inflame us when we try to. Plants also often contain pesticide and glyphosate residues. Veganism leads to infertility, disgusting skin, and weakness in joints. The best way to receive plant nutrients is thru other animals breaking them up for us.<\/p>\nFinal thoughts<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/pictures\/sep-9-talk.png.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\nGlobal warming<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/pictures\/temperature-colors.png\")
\n<\/div>\nC<\/b>arbon dioxide versus actual pollution<\/h2>\n
Free markets and the role of government<\/h2>\n
Electric energy<\/h2>\n
Plastic<\/h2>\n
Better ways to build things<\/h2>\n
Natural conservationism<\/h2>\n
Food<\/h2>\n
kill<\/s> euthanise animals when running out of place to keep them.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/robertblinov.net\/blog\/pictures\/crossbreeding.png\")
\n