Move blog to WriteFreely

archetypes/posts.md

@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
----
-draft: true
-date: {{ .Date }}
-title: {{ replace .Name "-" " " | title }}
-description:
-authors: []
-tags: []
-series: []
----
-

config.yml

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ menu:
       url: keys/
     - name: Blog
       weight: 4
-      url: posts/
+      url: https://write.data.coop/sam/
     - name: Privacy Policy
       weight: 5
       url: privacy/
@@ -71,11 +71,6 @@ params:
       icon: fa fa-2x fa-git
       url: https://git.data.coop/samsapti
       rel: noopener noreferrer me
-    - name: RSS
-      icon: fa fa-2x fa-rss
-      url: posts/index.xml
-      rel: alternate
-      type: application/rss+xml
     - name: Onion service
       icon: fa fa-2x fa-tor-onion
       url: http://mldhltdackluvnqso7vk2azcg3ghjxbpw4im6alubymqkonb4kppqcqd.onion

content/posts/im-back-on-mastodon.md

@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
----
-draft: false
-date: 2023-07-16T16:52:06+02:00
-title: I'm Back on Mastodon
-description: In this blog post I describe why I decided to get back on Mastodon.
-authors: ['Sam Al-Sapti']
-tags: ['decentralization', 'privacy', 'fediverse', 'social media']
-series: []
----
-
-May 1, 2023 marked one year since I deleted my Facebook account. That was the
-last account I had on the Big Tech social media platforms that all compete for
-our attention and behavioral data (technically I'm still on LinkedIn, although
-I rarely use it). How has it been? To say it mildly, liberating.
-
-Last summer, after reading *Digital Minimalism* by Cal Newport (fantastic book
-by the way, you should give it a read if you haven't), I also deleted my
-Mastodon account. At the time, I thought to myself that I really only used it
-as I used to use Facebook, wasting my time, and I probably did. Thinking back,
-I did really need a break from social media in general in order to get my mind
-back on track, and I'm glad I made that decision. I was still too used to
-Facebook and the likes. After deleting everything, I used the extra time I
-suddenly had to focus on life and finish my bachelor's degree. Now a year
-later, I decided to join the Fediverse again, so I created a new [Mastodon
-account](https://social.data.coop/@sam). I did so for a couple of reasons.
-
-The primary reason is that I felt a bit too disconnected from the online world,
-and since my career and interests are in IT, that didn't work for me. It is
-true that the best form of social interaction is outside the screen. But in the
-modern world we live in, technology can add substantial value to your life,
-**but only if you use it properly**. The book *Digital Minimalism* taught me
-what "properly" means (again, read it). By not being on any form of social
-media, I wasn't able to keep track of what the latest trends are and what
-people are talking about at the moment (in general but mostly regarding IT).
-But also just when it comes to meeting new people, or maintaining a network, or
-finding out about events happening near me. By using technology in a way where
-it enhances my life, instead of the opposite where the technology uses me, I
-can actually get some value from it. Although I'm back on social media, I
-believe I have the tools and the knowledge necessary for maintaining a healthy
-relationship with social media and my usage of it. For this reason, I've also
-decided that I won't ever support the attention seeking social media platforms,
-that is social media owned by Big Tech. Because let's face it, we can't really
-have a healthy relationship with a social media platform if it keeps trying
-with all its power to get us hooked onto it and get us sucked into its reality,
-it's simply not possible.
-
-This leads me to my second reason. In order to support the world-wide migration
-to decentralized alternatives to Big Tech, I need to be on there myself. That's
-the best way to show my support for the Fediverse. Looking at the recent
-conflicts with Big Tech platforms, such as the changes in the Reddit API or
-Elon Musk buying and basically destroying Twitter as we know it, this is the
-best time to do so. I want to be a bigger part of that movement. Right now is
-the time where most people are starting to realize, that big centralized
-platforms maybe aren't the best option out there, and that decentralization is
-the better way.
-
-So, to summarize, did I regret leaving Mastodon? No, I didn't. But I'm glad
-that I'm back in the Fediverse, and I'll continue to support the move towards
-decentralized platforms. I truly believe that this is the right path forward.

content/posts/why-i-switched-from-proton-mail.md

@@ -1,97 +0,0 @@
---- 
-draft: false
-date: 2022-05-29T16:10:46+02:00
-title: Why I Switched From Proton Mail
-description: This blog post explains why I chose to switch away from Proton Mail.
-authors: ['Sam Al-Sapti']
-tags: ['cryptography', 'decentralization', 'email', 'pgp']
-series: []
----
-
-I wanted to write this blog post (and by the way, this is my first) to shed
-some light on my recent choice of email provider. You see, Proton Mail is a
-great email service, and I've used them for years, but it just doesn't fit my
-needs anymore. This is due to a number of reasons, but it's primarily due to
-some issues with external PGP handling (I'll talk more about this later on) and
-their recent change of direction.
-
-## Centralization and Proton's new direction
-
-One of the main reasons I chose to switch, is the new direction Proton is going
-in. Recently, they've revamped all of their products and their website, to make
-it more clear that both Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar and Proton
-Drive is under the same family/suite (notice how there's a space now in their
-product names, that's one of the changes). All of this is great for many
-reasons, now it actually feels like an alternative all-in-one solution to
-something like Google's, and I'm sure this will benefit them in the long run
-and appeal to more people. A lot of people like these kinds of ecosystems,
-because it usually increases ease of use and convenience. In fact, this change
-now allows Proton to better integrate their products together. For example, you
-can now easily send large attachments via email, by letting Proton Mail
-automatically upload the file to Proton Drive and send a share link in the
-email, instead of attaching it in the email itself. All of the changes are
-outlined in [this article](https://proton.me/news/updated-proton) by Proton's
-CEO, Andy Yen.
-
-Personally though, this does not appeal to me. I'm not a fan of ecosystems and
-having all my eggs in one basket, and I'm a huge fan of self-hosting. You see,
-I'm a big proponent of decentralization. One aspect of decentralization is to
-not have everything in one place, when you don't control that place. For
-example, I wouldn't have both my email, calendar, contacts and cloud storage
-with Google, and neither would I with Proton. Instead, I self-host my cloud
-storage, calendar, contacts, to-do lists, and notes with the help of
-[Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com) at home on a Raspberry Pi. This way, even
-though it's all in one place, I'm the one in control of the server hosting it
-and what happens with it.
-
-I can definitely see why Proton chose to go in this direction, and I fully
-support them. But they should also expect, and I'm sure they did, that some of
-their customers wouldn't want this change of direction. I have nothing against
-Proton as a company, but having my digital life centralized with one company is
-just not my cup of tea.
-
-## The way Proton Mail handles PGP
-
-Proton Mail offers zero-access encryption of your inbox, meaning all of your
-emails are encrypted, and only you have access to read them after unlocking
-them with your password. Behind the scenes, this works by each customer having
-a PGP key pair stored on their servers, with the private key being encrypted by
-the customer's password. This means that not even Proton themselves can read
-your emails, and this is great for privacy.
-
-PGP has been a standard for email encryption for many years, and it's widely
-used for sensitive communication via email. Proton has taken PGP and integrated
-it into their email service, automatically providing end-to-end encrypted
-emails between Proton Mail users (it also works with other email providers, but
-it requires some setup by the communicating parties). The thing is though, that
-you're not in control of the private PGP key when using Proton Mail's PGP
-integration. Even though it is encrypted on their servers, and only I can
-decrypt it, I want to be in control of my private key myself. This also relates
-to the centralization problem I described above. By using Proton Mail, I
-entrust my email security with a central entity.
-
-This one is more on the technical side of things. I've had some not so great
-experiences when trying to use my own PGP key on top of Proton Mail's
-encryption. For example, my signatures wouldn't be recognized by the
-recipient's email client, due to the second layer of encryption that is Proton
-Mail's PGP integration. Because I want to use my own PGP key, that I'm in
-control of myself, this doesn't work for me.
-
-## Conclusion
-
-With all that said, I want to end this blog post by saying this: Don't go ahead
-and delete your Proton account solely based on what I'm saying. This is my own
-personal opinion. If you're someone who's not very technical and/or are
-satisfied with what Proton is offering, then stay. I'm not here to trash talk
-Proton and tell everyone to abandon them. I think Proton offers some great
-privacy preserving services and their line of products is perfectly suitable
-for a lot of people, and their work is important in the privacy world. I'm just
-someone who's a bit more technical than the average person, and because of
-that, Proton Mail is just not a fit for me personally. For the average person,
-Proton is fantastic, and I can only recommend them if you're wondering which
-email, VPN, calendar or cloud storage provider to use.
-
-You might be asking, what am I using now then? I'm now a happy customer over at
-[mailbox.org](https://mailbox.org), and if you're like me, you should totally
-check them out. If not, go ahead and keep your Proton account (you have one,
-right?).