media technology – Evolvemind

CryptPad vs Nextcloud: Privacy & Security Comparison Matrix

Category	CryptPad	Nextcloud
Primary Purpose	Encrypted collaborative office suite	Private cloud storage and collaboration platform
Self-hosting	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Hosted Option	✅ Yes (cryptpad.fr and others)	✅ Yes (nextcloud.com or third-party providers)
End-to-End Encryption	✅ Default for all content (zero-knowledge encryption)	🔶 Partial (not default, limited to client-side encryption app and some external tools)
Zero-Knowledge Server	✅ Yes	🔴 No (admin/server can access unencrypted content unless encryption is explicitly enabled)
Default Encryption Scope	✅ All documents, messages, and files are encrypted end-to-end	🔶 Optional encryption, limited in scope (E2EE not applied to calendars, contacts, search, etc.)
User Authentication	✅ Pseudonymous accounts possible; no email required	✅ Full user management; integration with LDAP, SSO, etc.
Account Recovery	🔴 Not possible without backup keys	✅ Password reset and admin recovery options
Document Types	✅ Rich suite: Rich text, code, markdown, kanban, whiteboard, poll, slideshow, spreadsheet	✅ Rich suite via Collabora, OnlyOffice, Text, Markdown, Draw.io, etc.
File Sync & Storage	🔶 Limited: some file upload support	✅ Full file sync (desktop & mobile), sharing, versioning, previews
Collaborative Editing	✅ Yes (real-time)	✅ Yes (via plugins like Collabora or OnlyOffice integration)
Chat & Messaging	✅ Built-in encrypted chat	✅ Built-in Talk app (not end-to-end encrypted by default)
Calendar & Contacts	🔴 No	✅ Yes (CalDAV, CardDAV support)
Federation	🔴 No	✅ Yes (federated sharing across instances)
Offline Access	🔴 No	✅ Yes (via mobile apps and desktop sync clients)
Mobile Apps	🔶 Limited mobile usability via browser	✅ Full-featured iOS and Android apps
Plugins & Extensibility	🔴 Not extensible; limited to included tools	✅ Highly extensible: large app ecosystem
Granular Permissions	✅ Share per-document, read/write settings	✅ Granular permissions per file/folder, group access controls
Audit Logs	🔴 No	✅ Yes (with Audit Log app)
Data Residency Control	✅ Full control if self-hosted	✅ Full control if self-hosted
Third-Party App Access	🔴 No (privacy-first: closed system)	✅ Yes (API, OAuth, WebDAV, etc.)
Security Design Philosophy	🟢 Maximum privacy, minimal trust—even the server can’t read your data	🟡 Flexible sharing and access with admin and plugin extensibility, but less private by default
Compliance	🔶 GDPR-friendly, but limited enterprise features	✅ GDPR, HIPAA (with setup), enterprise features
Codebase	✅ Open source (AGPLv3)	✅ Open source (AGPLv3)

AI-enables creation of 3D face model from single image

If you’re not sufficiently concerned about people using AI tools to create convincing fake audio and video, now the Computer Vision Lab at Nottingham University has developed an AI system capable of creating fairly accurate 3D faces from single photographs. I uploaded one of my own to the demo tool and a few seconds later it produced the following model (a GIF of captured screen video of me rotating the 3D model):

Imagine what AI can do with multiple images and videos of you (from your social media posts, mobile phone’s images and videos library, surveillance images, etc.). Among other possible take-aways is the need for vigilance and cynicism. If you see or hear something in digital media (online or in media sent to you via email, IM, etc.) that is too terrible, wonderful or just shocking to be true, it probably isn’t. For now, at least, it’s still possible to detect forged media (and fake news, but you probably don’t want to) but soon it will require AI tools to spot the work of other AI tools and we’ll then have to decide which AIs to believe. The make/detect forgeries arms race is accelerating.

Okay, still smarting from me suggesting you may not want to detect when the news you enjoy and agree with is fake? Check out the following video and exercise your media literacy by researching cognitive biases.

Frontiers in Communication: Memes are effective political tools

The following is the abstract for this article. “Internet memes are one of the latest evolutions of ‘leaflet’ propaganda and an effective tool in the arsenal of digital persuasion. In the past such items were dropped from planes, now they find their way into social media across multiple platforms and their territory is global. Internet memes can be used to target specific groups to help build and solidify tribal bonds. Due to the ease of creation, and their ability to…

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Atlas Hugged

The renowned evolutionary biologist DS Wilson discusses his novel Atlas Hugged refuting Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I have an e-copy if anyone wants a copy. An excerpt: “My sequel to Atlas Shrugged is titled Atlas Hugged and its protagonist is John Galt’s grandson. Ayn Rand was not a character in her novel, but since anything goes in fiction, I could transport her into mine as Ayn Rant, John I’s lover and John III’s grandmother. Rant’s son, John II, parlays her Objectivist philosophy into a world-destroying libertarian media empire….

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Human large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups

Article in Nature Communications, February 2020. Since this topic repeatedly comes up in our discussions. The abstract: “A fundamental puzzle of human evolution is how we evolved to cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers in transient interactions. Group-level selection on culturally differentiated populations is one proposed explanation. We evaluate a central untested prediction of Cultural Group Selection theory, by assessing whether readiness to cooperate between individuals from different groups corresponds to the degree of cultural similarity between those groups. We documented…

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Clinical studies of vitamin D and Covid-19

See these studies that indicate vitamin D deficiency makes for worse results and recommend taking a supplement as a preventative and treatment. “Analysis of vitamin D level among asymptomatic and critically ill COVID-19 patients and its correlation with inflammatory markers.” Scientific Reports 10, November 2020. “Effect of calcifediol treatment and best available therapy versus best available therapy on intensive care unit admission and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: A pilot randomized clinical study.” The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and…

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Evolutionary processes work at multiple levels

To shape whole communities. Article at Phys.org. The introduction: “Evolutionary theory has long held that natural selection largely operates at the level of individuals. Findings from Northern Arizona University researchers, recently published in the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, suggest that selection can also occur at multiple levels to shape whole communities. This multi-level selection arises from the interactions of key species that cascade to alter communities and ecosystems.”

Related links (interesting examples of cognitive bias and trolling in many of the comments)