I don’t use iCloud in any way. I don’t have anything to sync as this is my only Apple device. I don’t let my Mac store things in its Apple key chain. So I block connections to iCloud, there is no reason known to me for them to exist other than Apple being overly eager in collecting data.

This results in my Mac doing 16 attempts per second in reaching iCloud on a keychain related domain. Over 10 million times this week. I allowed it this week once to see if it would shut up consequent attempts, but the crazy speed of trying to connect resumes not long afterwards. At 16Hz it’s just a few attempts per second shy of being within hearing range, otherwise I’d hear my Mac doing it 😉

Little Snitch showing what’s going on. Click to enlarge.

We’re clearly not the only ones enjoying the apples from our tree.

Wanted an apple.
Opened the kitchen cupboard drawer,
Saw the store bought apples were all gone.
Turned around, saw the solution through the window.
Got up on the garden bench.
Picked an apple.
Ate apple

Apples

Posted on 15 September, 2018

by Ton Zijlstra

Today is national apple picking day. We had a tree full of apples this year. We ate a few apples during summer, but the drought, wasps and birds took most of them. So despite the many apples the tree carried early in the summer, the harvest in the end was smaller than last year.

The apples are very tasty though. Just the right mix of sweet and tangy. And Y was rather impressed one day sitting at the table in the garden, when she asked for an apple, and I simply reached above me and picked one.

I spent more time pruning the tree, then picking the few remaining unspoilt apples today.

Pruning the tree

The very limited remaining harvest

Suggested Reading: Barcelona, LETS, Freedom of Speech and more

Posted on 23 May, 2018

by Ton Zijlstra

Some links I thought worth reading the past few days

CTO Francesca Bria says “We are reversing the smart city paradigm”, creating “a new social pact — a new deal on data”: Fighting back against surveillance capitalism in Barcelona (leading the ‘fearless cities’ network)
I had to miss it at the time itself, but enjoyed watching it afterwards, part of my braintrust Bryan Alexander hosts a Future Trends Forum with Cory Doctorow on Walkaway: Talking education and technology, the Walkaway perspective.
The first example I’ve come across that looks at using blockchain for a local exchange and trading system (LETS), a local currency. Not sure why fiat currency related fears like ‘managing supply and demand’ of coins are mentioned, when you tie creation to a transaction like they describe: Hullcoin: can blockchain unlock the hidden value in Hull’s economy?
Dealing with asymmetries in power over transmission, gatekeeping, scoring: Nibbling away at The New Octopus
Last month XML-RPC was 20 years old. I should not be surprised Dave Winer helped create it. Twenty years on my webhoster blocks it to prevent brute force attacks on my blog: Dave Winer looks back on 4 years of XML-RPC in 2002.
Trolling Trump with the US Constitution: Twitter blocking violates First Amendment
Once more a way how geo data is part of privacy discussions: Open Street Map preparing for GDPR

Suggested Reading: Censorship, Fake News, Signal and more

Posted on 8 May, 2018

by Ton Zijlstra

Some links I thought worth reading the past few days

Bought the book. Experienced how it looked from inside the region after MH17: The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder review – chilling and unignorable
Straight out of Doctorow’s Walkaway, drones as counter measures: Criminal Gang Swarmed FBI With Drones
“The very act of constructing an archive is a form of power,” says Cairo-based writer Amir-Hussein Radjy (ht Gerrit Eicker): Information ephemerality, and our lack of a model for noncorporate control of digital information
What’s a fish to do when the water it swims in might change to another liquid?: Mark Bernstein and Dave Winer are Dependent Developers
Signal circumvents blocking in Egypt and Iran by domainfronting. Google and Amazon aren’t having it: No more routing around internet damage