y.st./source/pages/en/weblog/2015/12-December/02.xhtml

<?php
/**
 * <https://y.st./>
 * Copyright © 2015 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
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 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
**/

$xhtml = array(
	'title' => "Endless loops, Facebook policies, and a letter from our $a[ISP]",
	'body' => <<<END
<p>
	Last night, I could not get this website to compile.
	It seemed to be caught in an endless loop somewhere in one of the scripts.
	It seemed to somehow be tied to yesterday&apos;s weblog entry file, though it did not contain any loops or call any functions that do.
	This morning, I had time to actually sit down and debug, and it seems that the issue was not caused by any of the content of yesterday&apos;s weblog entry file, but rather by its presence.
	The script used to build the weblog index pages calls <code>\\st\\y\\calendar()</code>, a looping function, in order to build the $a[ASCII] calendars with the hyperlinks to individual entry pages.
	The function stops looping when it comes to the end of a week in which the next week is part of a month that is of a higher month number than the intended month.
	This was meant to make the function terminate when reaching the next month, but caused a glitch when dealing with the month of December.
	$a[PHP] treats December as month twelve and January as month one, so for the loop to terminate, the loop would need to reach the nonexistent month number thirteen.
	I speculate that this same issue may have caused a bug in $a[ASCII] calendars representing January as well, causing the loop to terminate prematurely due to the preceding month having a higher month number than the intended month.
	I have now corrected the bug by having the function take into account both the month and the year when deciding when to terminate.
</p>
<p>
	Speaking of the calendar pages, the script that I use to build them will need to be adjusted next month.
	When I built it, I set it up to use the page at &quot;/weblog/2015/&quot; as the main index page knowing that come 2016, I would want to create a more inclusive index at &quot;/weblog/&quot;.
	I later moved the weblog index to <a href="/en/weblog/2015/">&quot;/en/weblog/2015/&quot;</a> when I moved everything to to &quot;/en/&quot;, but the plans for a more inclusive index have not changed.
</p>
<p>
	Even once I had my SRV records set correctly, <a href="https://hosted.im/">Hosted.IM</a> was still having trouble seeing that they resolved to the addresses that they wanted them to.
	It has been several days now though, so they have cleared out the stale records from their system and performed a fresh query.
	I am now available over <a href="xmpp:y@y.st">$a[XMPP]</a> for anyone that would like to contact me that way.
</p>
<p>
	I applied for work at the local convenience store.
	My mother would not like if I went to work there, but I am running out of options and there is no harm in applying.
	If I get the interview and they end up wanting to hire me, I will discuss it with her and and decide whether or not to take the position.
	After registering an account with the convenience store job website, they sent me a link to register for some sort of Employer collective.
	I do not know how effective this was though, there seem to be no login credentials associated with the accounts there, so I cannot check on the status of my application.
</p>
<p>
	<a href="https://wowana.me/">Wowaname</a> told me today that Facebook&apos;s policies regarding legal names have changed recently, saying that they now make exceptions.
	However, when I asked about it, she said that to get an exception, you must first go against the policy, then get caught and make an appeal explaining why you did not use your legal name on your Facebook account.
	This is not good enough; one must be allowed to create an account under their preferred name instead of their legal name, knowing that this will be fine from the start.
	I did a little research on Facebook policy, and while I did not find any information about this appeal process, I did find information on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/159096464162185">proving your identity to Facebook</a>.
	It appears that it is possible to use your real name even if it is not your legal name, though you need to cough up more personal information than I care to.
	First of all, this does not get you out of Facebook&apos;s date of birth requirement.
	As far as I am concerned, Facebook does not need this information.
	Second, you need three forms of identification.
	The first two forms of identification must have your preferred name on them.
	The third can have a different name, such as your legal name, but must have either a photograph of you or have your date of birth.
	I could easily meet these requirements.
	I receive my mail under the name Yst Dawson and my credit card is under this same name.
	Both of these are listed as valid forms of identification.
	As for the third item, I could submit my government-issued identification card that instead of having my real name, has my legal name.
	However, I again feel that this is going too far.
	If Facebook wants my legal name, they will have to put in the minimal effort needed to run a whois query on my domain.
	(Further reading revealed that Facebook allows the covering up of extra information present on the identification documents that are not needed for verification.
	The examples mentioned included covering up your Social Security number or credit card number, but as the state-issued identification card contains a legal name, date of birth, and photograph and only one of these is needed, the photograph and legal name can be covered up.) Besides, registering a Facebook account over $a[Tor] seems to require verification of a telephone number these days, and I absolutely refuse to give Facebook a telephone number, even just a burner number.
</p>
<p>
	Our $a[ISP] wrote today that someone in our household downloaded something illegally.
	They did not say what that illegal thing was though, so we were unable to determine which of us downloaded it.
	I know that it was not me for two reasons.
	First, I only download things that are under licenses that allow redistribution.
	Second, my traffic is behind three or seven encrypted proxies at all times, so the $a[ISP] does not see what I am doing.
	One good thing did come of this though: I managed to talk Cyrus into routing his Web traffic though $a[Tor].
	Vanessa is still convinced that using $a[Tor] is incredibly difficult, despite my repeated reassurances, but once Cyrus sees how pretty much nothing has changed over $a[Tor], he can help me convince Vanessa.
	I will not even try with our mother though, at least for now.
	She is far too against pretty much anything relating to anticensorship, online privacy, and freedom.
	If the $a[ISP] is going to be this way though, there is no way that I can run a $a[Tor] exit node here.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
END
);