Shamar @Shamar@social.cleverlibre.org

@fffitalia

Leggendo l'articolo appare chiaro che avete dei token da vendere prima che il prezzo crolli e cercate dei polli che li acquistino.

Definire "inutili" le criptovalute è come definire "inutili" gli strozzini.

Qualcuno ci fa GRANDI utili.

Certamente inquinano molto, ma anzitutto la #blockchain è una scam-factory su scala globale.

@minimalprocedure@mastodon.uno

```
More interesting in is the "real code" that handles English but it doesn't seem to be available.
```

What do you mean?

The code is available in the zip: "the compiler" + "the noodle" that is a sort of portability layer.

Unfortunately, it's neither free software or opensource...

```
I don't have particularly care about it on any educational or practical level, actually.
```

I find it very through provoking: it's not just a DSL for a specific purpose, it's a turing complete programming language that can be used for anything and is very readable on first sight (to anyone who knows the language).

The problem is that it would be perfect if all we wanted from informatics was to program computers.

But I think we should use programming/debugging like writing/reading, to enhance human communication and thinking ability.

@rysiek@mastodon.technology

It's not that simple.

In the article you liked #OCCRP explains

```
This is normally done through the target’s mobile operator, which some governments can access or control.
```

How many CA are state-run agency? How many CDNs (behind HTTPS) can be subject to similar impositions?

If a state can impose to a mobile operator to track a citizen, why do you think it cannot impose to serve certain DNS records, certain TLS certificate and so on to certain people only?

Also, HTTPS leaks a lot of information about every visitor to the site owner (IP, cookies) and you are assuming the hosting/cloud provider is not malicious, while often it is.
And these leaks apply to everybody, not just to targetted victims.

You just need to control/compromise a single hosting/cloud provider and attract the victim on one of its HTTPS websites to install the same malware without the website owner knowing anything AND without the victim suspecting anything (it's HTTPS, so it's safe, isn't it?)

On the other hand, HTTP proxies can cache requests and hide you from the server.

It's dumb to blame http website owner for the victims killed by criminals and governments: it's the whole Web that is broken and insecure at heart, HTTPS or not.

We need people to understand how it works in depth so that they can foresee the risks.

A false sense of security is MORE dangerous than a known state of insecurity.

@rysiek@mastodon.technology

I mostly agree about what you wrote (see http://www.tesio.it/2020/09/03/not_all_hackers_are_americans.html for another non-US perspective on #hacking).

Note however that hacking INCLUDES, sometime, violating the law (think about Phineas Fisher, for example https://www.exploit-db.com/papers/41913 ).

The fundamental difference between #hackers and data burglars (either private or governs' ones) is the reason behind their actions: hackers follow their own #curiosity and look for new knowledge to share, data bulgars look for power (either directly or in monetary form).

@minimalprocedure@mastodon.uno

is it?

if you have a windows machine at hand (or maybe even just a working wine setup) you might give a look at this archive of Plain English prototype kindly provided by Osmosian: http://www.osmosian.com/cal-4700.zip

Note that there is no License, so it's basically all right reserved: I cannot even legally send you it by email, since it would be a way to distribute it: you can only download it from their website.

Anyway, even if you don't have a windows machine to run the exe, you can read the source code of "the compiler", "the desktop", "the finder" and so on. These are the name of the file containg the actual sources.

Also you can give a look at the instructions.pdf in documentation folder.

I do not think it has anything to do with AI or people commanding to computer.

It's simply a programming language with a sentence based syntax that is a proper subset of English.

There are two main aspects of it that I find VERY mind challenging:

1) the readability: anyone who can read English can read the compiler

2) the design choices

I don't know if this readability can be surpassed (while I'm sure that the tradeoff between readability and write-ability CAN be largely improved).

4389 lines for a compiler (or eve ~20000 if you include the noodle) proves that the language is NOT verbose as it looks.

No nested loop, nested if and no variable names sounds crazy design choice and yet... somehow they works.

I don't know.

@minimalprocedure@mastodon.uno

The problem I see with this approach is that the Plain English approach might be too simple.

Probably, it would be perfect to democratize computer programming (the more I think about it, the more it makes sense) but ONLY computer programming.

I mean, perfect to command computers to execute tasks, but it would limit their educational potential, to teach people rational and critical thinking.

It's something weird to say.

No nested loop.
No nested conditional.
No named argument.
No objects or classess.
No macro.

Design patterns?
Probably not many.

I don't know.

This approach is perfect to program, it turns computer programming into a trivial task, but it might remove most of the potential of Informatics.

What do you think about this?

@minimalprocedure@mastodon.uno

Much less impressive in my humble opinion.

The Plain English's approach does not try to compile plain English but to compile a simple imperative subset of it that is enough to actually program a computer.

Its procedures really resamble recipes, it doesn't support nested loops or conditional and not even need variable names!

In a way, it somewhat remember a forth (but it's completely different).

FIM++ and other natural language pl are too convoluted because they try to be MORE flexible.

Holy SHIT!

Plain English Programming... for true!

And nobody told me!
IMPRESSIVE ! ! !

https://osmosianplainenglishprogramming.blog/

@ekaitz_zarraga