misc

docs/names/multisignature.md

@@ -218,6 +218,9 @@ do not get all of it, they can calculate the signature.
 
 # Threshold Signatures
 
+FROST is an algorithm that produces a regular schnorr signature, and allows a quite large number of unequal shares. 
+
+
 A threshold signature has the interesting feature that it is a randomness
 beacon. If there is one honest participant party to the signing it generates a
 random value unpredictable to all participants,  This has obvious utility in
@@ -243,6 +246,10 @@ clean, simple, and easy to understand.
 [FROST algorithm for Schnorr distributed key generation and signing]:https://suredbits.com/schnorr-applications-frost/
 "Schnorr Applications: FROST"
 
+[FROST with unequal shares]:https://github.com/Trust-Machines/frost
+
+Source code for [FROST with unequal shares] is available on github, implemented for the bitcoin elliptic curve.
+
 Each of the participants acts as the trusted dealer for his own share, hands
 out shares in it to everyone else, and the final key is the sum of everyone's
 share.

docs/recognizing_categories_and_instances.md

@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ preserve distances within twenty five percent, in which case we need two
 hundred and fifty six dimensions.   So a dimensionally reduced point is not
 necessarily reduced by a whole lot.
 
+Two hundred and fifty six dimensions is still an impractically large
+dimensionality, albeit an improvement on what was likely a near infinite
+number of dimensions.
+
+To reduce it to something actually useful, need principal component
+analysis.  If non linear methods required, as likely they will be, neural
+network methods.
+
 For spaces of dimension higher than fifteen or so, clever methods of
 nearest neighbour search generally fail, and people generally wind up with
 brute force search, comparing each point to each of the others, and then

docs/setup/contributor_code_of_conduct.md

@@ -92,13 +92,6 @@ the (possibly quite lengthy) merge message.
 Thus all changes should be made, explained, and approved by persons
 identified cryptographically, rather than through the domain name system.
 
-It is preferable to simplify the history recorded in git by rebasing the
-changes in the branch that you want pulled to the most recent version
-signed by the puller of the branch that you want it pulled into.  This
-produces an artificially linear history, which is likely to be more
-intelligible and informative than the actual history.  In particular, more
-intelligible to the person who has been requested to pull.
-
 # No race, sex, religion, nationality, or sexual preference
 
 ![On the internet nobody knows you are a dog](../images/nobody_know_you_are_a_dog.webp)
@@ -107,6 +100,10 @@ Everyone shall be white, male, heterosexual, and vaguely Christian, even
 if they quite obviously are not, but no one shall unnecessarily and
 irrelevantly reveal their actual race, sex, religion, or political orientation.
 
+Unnecessarily informing people one is female or Jewish or nonwhite
+should get similar treatment to unnecessarily informing people one is a
+pure blooded Aryan.
+
 All faiths shall be referred to respectfully. Even if they happen to be
 making war on us, this software may not be very relevant to that kind of
 warfare, in which case that discussion can be held elsewhere.

docs/setup/set_up_build_environments.md

@@ -312,6 +312,8 @@ systems,with the same UUIDs to the same sata controller while powered
 down, big surprise is likely on powering up.  Attaching one of them to
 virtio will evade this problem.
 
+If you amend file system UUID's referenced in fstab and boot, have to amend `/etc/fstab` and `/boot/efi/EFI/debian/grub.cfg`, then rerun `update-grub`.
+
 But a better solution is to change all the UUIDs, since every piece of software expects them to be unique, and edit `/etc/fstab` accordingly.  Which will probably stop grub from booting your system, because in grub.cfg it is searching for the /boot or / by UUID.
 
 However, sometimes one can add one additional virtual disk to a sata
@@ -3229,6 +3231,7 @@ not signing code, though that will be our first use of it, but to enable
 [sovereign corporations] to act through remote employees and safely use
 servers in the cloud.  Information wants to be free, but programmers want
 to be paid.
+
 ### Phabricator
 
 Server Size : 2GB Ram – 1 CPU Core – 50GB SSD
@@ -3455,11 +3458,34 @@ name](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/13530).
 
 ## coupling to the desktop
 
+ [base directory specifications]:https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/
+
+[Linux desktop standard]:https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/
+
+[Desktop Application Autostart Specification]:https://specifications.freedesktop.org/autostart-spec/autostart-spec-latest.html
+
 To couple to the desktop requires a pile of information and configuration,
 which most people ignore most of the time.  To the extent that they provide it,
 they seem to write it for the Gnome based desktops, Cinnamon and Mate – more
 for Mate because it is older and has changed less.
 
+An install program should use `desktop-file-install` which is presumably
+customized for each desktop, 
+
+The autostart directory `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME /autostart' is a part of the
+freedesktop.org/XDG [Desktop Application Autostart Specification].
+
+`$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` is seldom set, in which case it is equal to `~/.config`, hence the autostart directory is nearly always `~/.config/autostart`
+
+The desktop specification is chock full of references to `$XDG_foo_bar`,
+which is confusing because these are environment variables that no one
+ever sets, and which should never be set, which means that their default
+values *almost* always apply.  Further, many of the directories are not
+default created, so the first program to write a file into them has to create them.  Which is likely to be your program, because superuser is likely to
+ create a user specially for your program.
+
+ This mysterious usage is explained, cryptically, in [base directory specifications]
+
 Since wxWidgets is written for GDT in its linux version, it is written for Gnome.
 
 Gnome3, the default Debian desktop, is broken, largely because they refuse to
@@ -3476,10 +3502,10 @@ Linux has its command line features polished and stable, but is still
 wandering around somewhat lost figuring out how desktops should work.
 
 Under Mate and KDE Plasma, bitcoin implements run-on-login by generating a
-`bitcoin.desktop` file and writing it into `~/.config/autostart`
+`bitcoin.desktop` file and writing it into `~/.config/autostart` (`$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart`).
 
 It does not, however, place the `bitcoin.desktop` file in any of the
-expected other places.  Should be in `/usr/share/applications`
+expected other places.  Should be in `/usr/share/applications` (`$XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications`).
 
 The following works
 

docs/setup/wireguard.md

@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ apt install -qy wireguard wireguard-tools linux-headers-$(uname -r)
 On the server
 
 ```bash
-mkdir -p /etc/wireguard
+sudo mkdir -p /etc/wireguard
 wg genkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/server_private.key | wg pubkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/server_public.key
 sudo chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/ -R
 ```
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ sudo chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/ -R
 On the client
 
 ```bash
-mkdir -p /etc/wireguard
+sudo mkdir -p /etc/wireguard
 wg genkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/private.key | wg pubkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/public.key
 sudo chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/ -R
 ```

docs/social_networking.md

@@ -371,7 +371,7 @@ power, and their failures rather too great consequences.  But, following the
 way that git is designed and in practice  used, we do not have to give them
 unlimited power, nor allow them to be a central point of failure.
 
-### runningt in schism, with many approximately equal branches
+### running in schism, with many approximately equal branches
 
 Centralized databases are a single point of failure.  They are also extremely
 convenient, because they enable many humans to leverage the judgment of
@@ -385,7 +385,7 @@ Under attack, the system may well schism, with no one source that lists all
 or most Zooko identities that people are interested in contacting, but it
 should, like Git, be designed to schism, and work well enough while
 schismed.  That is what makes Git centralization truly decentralized.
-Sometimes, often, there is no one authoritative branch, and things still work.
+Sometimes, often, there is no one authoritative branch, and things still work well enough.
 
 The messages of the people you are following are likely to be in a
 relatively small number of repositories, even if the total number of
@@ -429,7 +429,6 @@ The metadata in the feed sharing reveals what network addresses are
 following a feed, but the keys are derived from user identity keys by a one
 way hash, so are not easily linked to who is posting in the feed.
 
-
 ### Replacing Kademlia
 
  [social distance metric]:recognizing_categories_and_instances.html#Kademlia