Connecting, differently
Binning bookface has meant that I need to look at new ways to keep in touch with people. Well, different ways. The good news is that a lot has happened in the decade or so since my last determined foray. The bad news is that lots of the folks I want to hear from are happy in their bookface/Messenger bubble, and/or don't have much interest in technology beyond its immediate utility. Most of the stuff I've found is in its infancy; super cool, but niche (in the world of billion-users software, anyway).
It's been a fun day or so, blowing the dust off my key management skills — since all my old keys are no longer fit for purpose, it seems — and setting up accounts. I assumed Keybase was a keyserver, for example — a glorified one, at most — but it's a lot of more than that, obviously. And, thanks to @gray@fosstodon.org, I'm playing around with Matrix on Riot today. Feel like I'm twenty years older than the average user (given the bants), but it's neat, and exciting. The Terraform lobby on matrix.org has over 4000 members! Right on par with the official Hashicorp Discuss forums, and that's for all their products. Hashicorp don't even have a public slack, as far as I can tell, and the user groups (HUGs) organise on Meetup, of all things. Obviously you want quality over quantity when your code breaks, but, still, I'm hopeful.
Oh, and I've pointed my uni alumni 'email for life' account/alias at a new Protonmail account. Feels good, beginning to pull parts of my life out of the cloud. Well, that, and it's tough to feel like a proper IT security professional if you aren't clear-signing your communications to the world, inviting anyone who wants to have a private conversation to easily do so.
End of Day 12
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jlj #100DaysToOffload
I'm writing this as part of the 100 Days To Offload project; join us at: https://100daystooffload.com/