[Mesh] Getting excited about patchwork

[Stuart Gathman]

I installed the [download a zillion unaudited 3rd party libraries from
random websites] internet generation package for patchwork in a Fedora
25 virtual machine to start using it (to get a feel for whether to keep
working on packaging).  I am actually getting excited about it.  There
are two components, a scuttlebutt server and a client.

https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/

The ssb (Secure ScuttleButt) protocol is pretty well documented, and the
reference implementations are in node.js.  The current full featured
reference GUI client is written in node.js on the electron platform. 
Electron is based on the open-source chromium browser and enables
standalone node.js applications.  Like other js platforms (cough, cough,
cinnamon, gnome-shell) it is kind of heavy and has to be restarted
periodically as memory use keeps growing.  But, it did the job of
enabling rapid development of a very usable and nice looking client. 

I created the identity CustomDesigned, and I'm currently subscribed to
#anarchitecture and #scuttlebutt (and #faq).  If nothing else, it cured
the temptation to keep wasting time on facebook (which makes things too
easy for NSA).  Of course, you have to remember that your public
comments are still, well, public - and FBI can read/misread them just
like anyone else.  But the private comments will require some actual
hacking of client machines as they are end-to-end encrypted.  Censorship
of the sort that facebook carries out is much more difficult. 

But the best feature, of course, is that you don't need a giant central
organization.  And people can ask who needs their driveway cleared
without talking to servers in California.

The getting started page above has a nice list of other dex
(decentralized) projects, including cjdns.

If you guys get up on cjdns and install linphone (or other sip client
supporting ipv6), you can call my laptop at:

"Stuart D. Gathman" <sip:stuart@[fc37:2c50:7583:e01a:8c69:8f50:8dcf:a076]>

Or send text messages.