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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • So if I understand it Signal has your phone number but only logs sign up date and last activity date. So yes they can say this person has Signal and last used it on date X. Other than that no information.

    Matrix doesn’t require a phone number but has no standard on logging activity so it’s up to the server admin what they log, and they could retain ip address, what users are talking in what, rooms, etc. and E2EE is not required.

    I think both have different approaches. I’m just trying to understand. On one hand you have centralized system that has a standard to minimize logs or decentralized system that must be configured to use E2EE and to remove logs.


  • I’m not an expert but I’ll use this analogy.

    Signal is you meeting a person who gives you secure devices. This person then can only ever provide the following information to someone else. From Signal website. “The phone number. the date and time a user registered with Signal and the last date of a user’s connectivity to the Signal service.” Only your device and your friends device can read the messages. It goes direct from you to them. The only way to read any message is having the device.

    Telegram is like you making an agreement with another person. By default messages are encrypted but go to the other person for decryption before going to your friends device. This other person Telegram has and will give the phone number, messages, serverlogs, dates to legal entities by request. Now there is an option to bypass this person by using “secret chats” . This will make it so the message is directly from your device to their device. Telegram can’t read messages but as I understand they can still potentially have metadata, server logs of when messages are sent, how many, what device they are sent from. Bottomline is they have activity logs Signal can only provide the date you signed up and the last time you used the app. Not only that but just being on the Telegram platform which allows bots makes you a target. Bots will contact you like spam. Sending you harmful links, etc.

    Almost every security person I’ve ever read says. “I use Signal”. Why wouldn’t you go with the service that by default has end to end encryption? Telegram makes it a option you have to select for each person. Both use your phone number.

    These are very basic descriptions. I’m Happy to remove or update if I got anything wrong.

    More signal encryption info









  • Games that assume I want to play online or be “connected” are the problem. I don’t want any of that. I want to pay for a game with my Steam or Microsoft account and play it offline with that one service I bought it from. At first it was annoying to make one new account but OK well not that bad. Now every developer has some sort of required “get connected”. F that. It provides no benefit only added barriers for a game they should be happy I even bought in the first place. Online games sure I get it, mixed should be optional but offline. No absolutely not.





  • Punk on a budget? I can’t tell if this is a joke. Every punk I’ve ever known buys or steals from thrift shops, military supplies, and dumpsters behind clothing stores. It was all out of rejection of social norms and creativity of discarded materials. Duct tape, paint, spray paint, stencils, cardboard, safety pins, chains, ropes, needle and thread are all cheap. Egg whites or Elmers for hair spikes.



  • Twin Peaks season 3 episode 8 comes to mind. It might not be something I want to watch over and over but it’s probably the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen on broadcast TV. A surrealism short film in the context of a series that both has a self contained story and speaks to the broad narrative of the series. Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Nine in Nails, The Platters’ “My Prayer” on the soundtrack? Amazing! Still to this day I can not believe the artistic freedom allowed by Showtime to create this. Jaw was on the floor for the entire episode. I’ve felt for a long time that nothing could actually be new/shocking/different on broadcast TV. This changed my mind. Nothing has even been close imho.