IPFS (Inter-Planetary File System)

I was reminded today of the Inter-Planetary System or IPFS today when I viewed this tweet shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1

I installed the IPFS desktop on my Mac and Figure 2 shows a screenshot of the about file:

Figure 2

It's important to maintain familiarity with this sort of technology as a future means of communication and file sharing when the Internet becomes totally balkanised and controlled. Here are some excerpts from the IPFS website:

Today's web is inefficient and expensive

HTTP downloads files from one computer at a time instead of getting pieces from multiple computers simultaneously. Peer-to-peer IPFS saves big on bandwidth — up to 60% for video — making it possible to efficiently distribute high volumes of data without duplication.

Today's web can't preserve humanity's history

The average lifespan of a web page is 100 days before it's gone forever. It's not good enough for the primary medium of our era to be this fragile. IPFS keeps every version of your files and makes it simple to set up resilient networks for mirroring data.

Today's web is centralised, limiting opportunity

The Internet has turbocharged innovation by being one of the great equalisers in human history — but increasing consolidation of control threatens that progress. IPFS stays true to the original vision of an open, flat web by delivering technology to make that vision a reality.

Today's web is addicted to the backbone

IPFS powers the creation of diversely resilient networks that enable persistent availability — with or without Internet backbone connectivity. This means better connectivity for the developing world, during natural disasters, or just when you're on flaky coffee shop wi-fi.

As I said, I've installed the IPFS Desktop:

Once installed, the interface is also accessible via http:\\localhost:5001\webui. Figure 3 shows the desktop interface:

Figure 5

It can also be added as a browser extension called IPFS Companion, which I've done using the Chrome browser. 

There is an IPFS tutorial on ProtoSchool that can be worked through for the more motivated.

Of course, most people do not have IPFS installed on their computers and so content can only be made available to them by using an IPFS gateway, defined as follows:

The ipfs.io gateway makes it possible for Internet users to access and view data hosted by third parties on the IPFS network. The ipfs.io gateway is a community resource run by Protocol Labs to help developers build on IPFS. Source.

Another important concept is pinning, explained as follows: 

Pinning services

To ensure that your important data is retained, you may want to use a pinning service. These services run lots of IPFS nodes and allow users to pin data on those nodes for a fee. Some services offer free storage-allowance for new users. Pinning services are handy when:

• You don't have a lot of disk space, but you want to ensure your data sticks around.
• Your computer is a laptop, phone, or tablet that will have intermittent connectivity to the network. Still, you want to be able to access your data on IPFS from anywhere at any time, even when the device you added it from is offline.
• You want a backup that ensures your data is always available from another computer on the network if you accidentally delete or garbage-collect your data on your own computer.

Pinata is one such service that provides one gigabyte free to new users.

The Brave web browser now natively supports IPFS:

Brave has integrated IPFS into its desktop web browser for Windows, macOS, and Linux. When Brave detects an address which is an HTTP gateway URL to IPFS content, or a native IPFS address such as ipfs:// or ipns:// it will prompt the user to install and enable the native IPFS node, or to use an HTTP gateway. The default gateway used is dweb.link, which is run by Protocol Labs. Users can also specify a gateway of their choice in the browser settings. You can access the IPFS administrative UI at brave://ipfs,, or enable IPFS Companion and select “My Node” button in the main menu. Source.

(opens new window)

Woke

It's only now, after hearing the term used repeatedly in recent weeks, that I've come to understand what is meant by "woke". Here is what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary had to say about the word (that was added in September of 2017):

If you frequent social media, you may well have seen posts or tweets about current events that are tagged #staywoke. Woke is a slang term that is easing into the mainstream from some varieties of a dialect called African American Vernacular English (sometimes called AAVE). In AAVE, awake is often rendered as woke, as in, “I was sleeping, but now I’m woke.”

It can be hard to trace slang back to its origins since slang’s origins are usually spoken, and it can be particularly difficult to trace a slang word that has its origins in a dialect. Woke’s transformation into a byword of social awareness likely started in 2008, with the release of Erykah Badu’s song “Master Teacher”:

Even if yo baby ain't got no money

To support ya baby, you

(I stay woke)

Even when the preacher tell you some lies

And cheatin on ya mama, you stay woke

(I stay woke)

Even though you go through struggle and strife

To keep a healthy life, I stay woke

(I stay woke)

Everybody knows a black or a white there's creatures in every shape and size

Everybody

(I stay woke)

Stay woke became a watch word in parts of the black community for those who were self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better. But stay woke and woke became part of a wider discussion in 2014, immediately following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The word woke became entwined with the Black Lives Matter movement; instead of just being a word that signalled awareness of injustice or racial tension, it became a word of action. Activists were woke and called on others to stay woke.

Like many other terms from black culture that have been taken into the mainstream, woke is gaining broader uses. It’s now seeing use as an adjective to refer to places where woke people commune: woke Twitter has very recently taken off as the shorthand for describing social-media activists. The broader uses of woke are still very much in flux, and there are some who are woke to the broader implications of woke:

“Woke” feels a little bit like Macklemore rapping in one of his latest tracks about how his whiteness makes his rap music more acceptable to other white people. The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation.

—Amanda Hess, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2016

This excerpt from a Signs of the Time article puts it well:

The woke dictionary is a way to soften speech in our "fear of offending" culture. Calling out others for using "dated" and "problematic language" is how students can virtue signal by showing off how sensitive they are. If you prequel anything slightly controversial with "speaking from a place of privilege," there's a better chance your peers won't label you a racist. 

The term "virtue signalling" is described as:

the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.

"it's noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things" Source

The term woke is included amongst "24 phrases millennials use all the time but no one else gets" and these phrases are certainly worth a look.

PRODOME

I came across an article today discussing whether some dreams can provide early warnings of physical problems in the body. Such dreams are described as prodromal and so I thought I'd create a post centred around the use and etymology of this word. As an adjective, it derives from the word prodrome that the Online Etymology Dictionary describes as:

1640s, "a forerunner" (a sense now obsolete); by 1834 in pathology, "a prodromal symptom;" from French prodrome (16th century) and directly from Modern Latin prodromus, from Greek prodromos "a running forward, a sally, sudden attack," from pro "forward" + dromos "a running".

In fact, words built from dromos include:

• hippodrome: horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words hippos and dromos. The term is used in the modern French language and some others, with the meaning of "horse racecourse". Source. In modern use, "circus performance place" (mid-19th century), and thus extended to "large theater for stage shows."
  
  
• aerodrome: a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither. In American English, the term is airdrome. Aerodromes include small general aviation airfields, large commercial airports, and military air bases. It's use has now been largely replaced by the word "airport". Source. The word derives from the Greek aerodromos meaning "a running through the air."
  
  
• palindrome: "a word or line that reads the same backward and forward," 1620s, from Greek palindromos "a recurrence," literally "a running back." Second element is dromos "a running" and first is palin "again, back". Source.
  
  
• velodrome: a track for bicycle racing, usually with curved sides that go up steeply. Source. The term derives from "a building for bicycle races, 1892, from French vélodrome, from vélo, colloquial abbreviation of vélocipède + drome". Source.
  
  

• dromedary: "thoroughbred Arabian camel," late 13c., from Old French dromedaire and directly from Late Latin dromedarius "kind of camel", from Latin dromas (genitive dromados), from Greek dromas kamelos "running camel", from dromos "a race course". Source.

• syndrome: a group of symptoms that collectively indicate or characterise a disease, disorder, or other condition considered abnormal. Source. It's etymology is:

"a number of symptoms occurring together," 1540s, from medical Latin, from Greek syndrome "concurrence of symptoms, concourse of people," from syndromos "place where several roads meet," literally "a running together," from syn "with" + dromos "a running, course". Source.

Figure 1 and 2 show visual examples involving the use of the word prodome.

Figure 1: source

Figure 2: source

Finally, Figure 3 shows an image of a seadrome:

Figure 3: source