Notices by Terence Eden (edent@mastodon.social), page 9

Nerdy #ActivityPub and #oEmbed question.

Why can't I send an "Accept: application/json+oembed" request to a URl to receive the oEmbed version?

Instead, I have to request the full page, look for the <link>, parse that, then request the oEmbed.

Seems inefficient - but am I missing something?

People rightly criticise Cryptocurrency projects for "speedrunning why we have financial regulations".

The same is also true of #Fediverse projects when it comes to decades of knowledge about community management and moderation.

https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/lemmy-image-problem/

🆕 blog! “Updates to ActivityPub in a single PHP file”

A few weeks ago, I built an ActivityPub Server in a Single PHP File. It's a proof of concept showing how easy it is to turn a website into a full-featured Fediverse participant. After a bunch of feedback and testing, I've added a some features to make it slightly more useful. A single PHP file […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/updates-to-activitypub-in-a-single-php-file/
⸻
#ActivityPub #php

By popular demand, my demo ActivityPub server now also shows how to attach images to a Note.

Follow @ example @ example.viii.fi for an example.

Get the code at https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file/

OK! My tiny #ActivityPub server can now follow users from other instances!

Still under 40KB of well-documented PHP.

https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file/

You can follow and message the test user a @example

I've now added HTTP Message Signature verification to my demo #ActivityPub server.

https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file/-/commit/8a7544e5bbb9bd401e1c2bc65ac57e1aca077559#bb6499b8e938f92a3695fff1afe57edea4b9efb7

Currently the entire server is a 32KB single PHP file.

Feedback welcome! It is designed to be a learning tool to show how all the different parts of ActivityPub work.

This is based on the theory that it is easier for an advanced civilisation to adjust the orbit and/or rotation of their planet than it is to program computers to correctly deal with fucking leap-years.

SETI is the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. They use massive radio-telescopes to search the sky for signs of intelligent life. But the sky is big. Where should we point the telescopes to improve our chances of detecting a signal?

Rather than point at random stars, or promising looking constellations, I propose a more scientific approach:

Find a planet where the length of the year is an integer multiple of the length of the day.

1/2

M*A*S*H Intro - despecialised!

This sort of shows you how much more you lose with the 16:9 crop.

Sure, there is a bit extra from the left and right of the frame - but not masses.

Interestingly, the scaling of the 16:9 version doesn't seem linear.
But here's a quick mock-up in GIMP to show what the *full* frame would look like.

This restores the extra picture at the top of the 4:3 version, and the extra picture at the sides of the 16:9 crop.

I can turn this into a video - but it's hard syncing to different video sources.

Idly looking at the difference between the original 4:3 release of MASH and the new widescreen version.

The newer version looks so much better - but crops a fair bit from the top and bottom.

But the original version is missing a bunch of stuff from the sides of the images.

Now wondering if I can correct the scaling of the 16:9 version and overlay it on the 4:3 to get the maximum amount of image 😆

@Gargron oh yeah. And every time they say sorry and pay it a few days later.
I don't need the hassle, so will drop them as a client. Life's too short to work with people who aren't professional.

@Gargron once is a mistake, twice is a coincidence, three times is <del>enemy action</del> incompetence.

@Gargron Printed very plainly on the invoice. And on the emails. And the contract!

🥰 I have a client who pays me on time *every* month.

😡 And every single month I have to remind them to pay the VAT.

I suspect I will not keep them as a client for much longer.

@evan thanks! I've just finished writing a PHP parser for verifying signatures. And I have Some Thoughts!

🆕 blog! “HTTP Signature Infinite Loop?”

I'm trying to get my head round HTTP Signatures as they're used extensively in the Fediverse. Conceptually, they're relatively straightforward. You send me a normal HTTP request. For example, you want to POST something to https://example.com/data You send me these headers: POST /data Host: example.com Date: Sa…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/http-signature-infinite-loop/
⸻
#ActivityPub #CyberSecurity #encryption #fediverse #http

Woo! #Matter plugs have arrived.

Plan is to connect them to a domestic appliance to see if I can use the power monitoring to detect when they have stopped.

Has anyone here used a #Matter smart plug to detect when an electrical appliance has *finished* doing something?

For example, I want to plug in my rice cooker and get an alert on my phone when its electrical use drops to zero.

Ideally using something like #HomeAssistant - but I'm not fussed.

(Looking for people with direct & personal experience; I know how to use Google. Also, not looking for your criticisms of #IoT.)