y.st./source/pages/en/weblog/2015/04-April/10.xhtml

<?php
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 * Copyright © 2015 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
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$xhtml = array(
	'title' => "The $a[ISP]s are at it again...",
	'body' => <<<END
<p>
	<a href="https://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/internet-providers-sue-to-kill-net-neutrality-20150323">USTelecom and Alamo Broadband are now suing the $a[FCC]</a> to once again try to overturn net neutrality.
	USTelecom claims that they are only trying to restore things to the way they were before, when the $a[FCC] had a lighter touch in regulating them.
	However, it is important to note that the $a[FCC] <strong>*had*</strong> issued strong regulations in the past.
	It was only once Verizon sued the $a[FCC] that these rules were deemed unenforcible.
	By reclassifying Internet service as a Title II service, the $a[FCC] gained the legal foothold to enforce the net neutrality rules that had been in place all along.
	The $a[ISP]s aren&apos;t trying to regain something lost.
	They are trying to take what was never theirs and charge websites exorbitant fees to avoid being slowed way down.
	They claim that they had not slowed down websites before the reclassification, but the reason they had not is because the existing regulation at the time prevented them from doing so.
	The telecoms are worried that they have been reclassified as public utilities, but here&apos;s the thing: they&apos;ve been public utilities all along, whether technically classified as such or not.
	Internet access is a public right, and they have no right to break our access to this global network of information exchange.
</p>
<p>
	AndStatus doesn&apos;t crash as soon as it opens the way that Twidere does, but instead it crashes the whole device a few seconds after opening the application.
	That doesn&apos;t seem like much of an improvement to me.
</p>
<p>
	It seems the local part of an email address is restricted to sixty-four characters.
	This poses a potential problem when trying to use a spam trap address with services that use a longer domain name, but hopefully this won&apos;t be too big of an issue.
	Most people try to use domain names with a length well under that limit.
</p>
<p>
	I have contacted GitHub support for the fourth time.
	There is a chance that my invalid email address format was preventing them from receiving my pleas for help, but we&apos;ll see if that actually makes a difference.
</p>
<p>
	Discover accepted my old invalid email address, but does not seem to accept valid addresses with plus signs.
	As a result, I substituted a tilde, though as my new email address was accepted, Discover quit accepting valid addresses with tildes as well.
	I think their system is broken.
	While I was on their site, both before and after updating my email address, I tried to update my user name and password.
	No dice.
</p>
<p>
	Finally, I figured out why <code>~/bin</code> shows up in my \$PATH when I am on a $a[TTY] but when I am using the regular terminal window from the graphical desktop.
	For login shells, <code>~/.profile</code> is executed, but for non-login shells, it is not.
	Instead, <code>~/.bashrc</code> is executed.
	Finally understanding the pattern, the fix was easy.
	<code>~/.bashrc</code> looks for <code>~/.bash_aliases</code>, and if it exists, executes it.
	<code>~/.bash_aliases</code> seems to therefor act as a place to put your own customizations.
	This file did not exist, so I created it with the following content, which I copied from the default <code>~/.profile</code>:
</p>
<pre><code>#!/bin/sh<br/>
# set PATH so it includes user&apos;s private bin if it exists<br/>
if [ -d "\$HOME/bin" ] ; then<br/>
    PATH="\$HOME/bin:\$PATH"<br/>
fi</code></pre>
<p>
	Now, the <code>~/bin</code> directory is added to the \$PATH as it should be.
	The obvious down side though is that <code>~/.profile</code> executes <code>~/.bashrc</code>, meaning that login shell now have <code>~/bin</code> in the \$PATH twice.
</p>
<p>
	I finally started using a client certificate for authenticating on $a[IRC].
	Doing so on most networks was straitforward once I figured out how to make client authentication work at all, though on <a href="ircs://irc.volatile.club:6697/">Volatile</a>, you have to use a command not listed by the bot when you ask it for help: <code>/squery sv allow add certfp</code>.
	This command adds the fingerprint of the client certificate that you are currently using to the access list.
	One problem though is that HexChat uses the client certificate even for networks that you have not told it to.
</p>
<p>
	Certain people, wowaname especially, get annoyed with the fake lag set by default by many clients.
	She looked up the command to disable it in HexChat, which is <code>/set net_throttle off</code>.
</p>
<p>
	After a few hours of banging my head on my keyboard, I finally managed to implement typing quirks in a HexChat module.
	In short, what this means is that I can type the way I normally do, but to everyone else, it will look different.
	If I can codify the mannerisms and typing style of the characters I pretend to be, I can more easily wear them as masks.
	Before I dive too deeply into codifying the typing style of my characters, I want to implement a special phrase that, if my client hears, will pull off my mask.
	Something like &quot;I know you are Yst.
	I read about your script on &lt;https://y.st/&gt;.&quot;, which when said, will force my client to change my nick to <code>Yst</code> and disable the typing quirk.
	This phrase will be case sensitive and punctuation and spacing will count.
	So if you are reading this and think I am among you secretly, give me a shout-out!
</p>
<p>
	I am <a href="/a/canary.txt">still able to speak freely</a>, both as myself and as any of my practical joke characters.
</p>
END
);