Much like my previous post, this is to announce my recent appearance on a microblogging service. This one, however, isn’t the often failure-ridden twitter, but a new contender called identi.ca. The main differences: Jabber posting ACTUALLY WORKS, although SMS is not yet an option; more importantly, identi.ca is completely open-source; the source code of their backend software (called Laconica) is released under the terms of the GNU Affero Public License, version 3.0. For those that might not have understood that: that’s good.

Anyway: find me at identi.ca/ianmcorvidae, and I’d love if you’d join me! Send me a message there or here if you do!

Categories: Uncategorized, tech | Tags: FOSS, identica, tech, twitter by Ian McEwen
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As the title may indicate, the article below is about an interesting new form of social commentary, or marketing, or annoyance, or all manner of other things. “Shopdropping” (also known as “Droplifting”) is the act of putting new stuff into a store (as opposed to shoplifting, which is taking things out). Documented uses include marketing one’s own product, social commentary, blunt illegality, and so forth (the article has lots of cool images and videos).

My own take on this would probably be technological; I’d very likely drop something like Ubuntu CDs in pretty packaging, for the sake of spreading usage of the OS; or even something like The Open CD (even though it’s no longer in active development), for incurable Windows users. In any case, enjoy (and include me on any good ideas… the Contact page is a great place for this)!

WebUrbanist » Shopdropping aka Droplifting: Beginner’s Guide to the Subversive Art of Reverse Shoplifting

Categories: irrelevant, pingback/trackback, tech | Tags: FOSS, pingback/trackback, tech, ubuntu by Ian McEwen
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IM

• Preferred: Jabber/Google Talk — ianmcorvidae@gmail.com
• ICQ/AIM — 306375398
• MSN/Windows Live — ian-mcewen@cox.net
• Yahoo — ianmcorvidae
• Skype — mcewen.ian

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: tech by Ian McEwen
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Just in case you happen to need it, here’s my PGP (or GPG) key: http://www.ianmcorvidae.net/mcewen.ian.pgp (Also available on keyservers everywhere).

For those of you that know nothing about PGP and GPG (likely many of you), PGP is really short for OpenPGP, which is an RFC (Request for Commands; essentially, a document on new research and innovation) that was made into a standard by vote of the IETF. GPG is a shortened version of GnuPG, a free and open implementation of the OpenPGP standard. PGP originally stood for “Pretty Good Privacy;” it is one of the more-used standards on the internet (and, contrary to its ironic name, is one of the better systems out there) for encryption and information privacy.

The key I share above is the public half of a two-part key that is necessary to encrypt and decrypt messages and files, or simply to sign email. The public key allows decryption of a signature or email or file, but not encryption, which requires the private key in addition; therefore, it can be safely determined that the email or file originates with the owner of the key if it has the proper text included. I sign all my email with GPG; this does not require my recipients to use any OpenPGP implementation, but does ensure the email comes from me to those that do; in addition, should I need to encrypt emails, by exchanging public keys with the person with whom I would like to exchange encrypted emails, I can safely create safely encrypted messages.

If you’d like more information on OpenPGP and GPG, or would like to start using OpenPGP to sign and encrypt your messages, look around on Wikipedia or the respective sites of implementations for information or contact me using the Contact page. Some commonly-used email clients for OpenPGP are Mozilla Thunderbird with the Enigmail extension, or Hushmail, an online provider. However, most clients have some form of support for PGP, so if you are interested in using it, google is likely to have an answer.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: GPG, PGP, privacy, tech by Ian McEwen
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Ian McEwen (the person writing this blurb and this blog) is an 18-year-old student currently living in Tucson, Arizona. Ian has some writerly aspirations that might well be blogged about here; other likely topics include various computer geekery, linguistics, books to read, sleep habits, or just about anything else. Stop by occasionally or often, or hook yourself up with the RSS feed, and enjoy! Ian is not the famed Ian McEwan of Atonement fame; you can find him here.

The picture you see on this page is a year or so old but mostly accurate; though I no longer sport that variety of disgusting goatee, and though I do not actually own any of the specific clothing in that picture, most everything else in terms of appearance is correct, and the picture quite accurately portrays my character. Background: My kitchen. Context: My section in choir wanted to do some variety of initiation, and this was my toll. Universal agreement: I needed to shave my legs, but other than that looked absolutely fabulous in a dress.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: books, linguistics, tech, website, wordpress, writing by Ian McEwen
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