mat's recent activity
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Comment on RCS — SMS via the internet — is good, but it doesn't matter in ~tech
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Comment on RCS — SMS via the internet — is good, but it doesn't matter in ~tech
mat Link ParentYou don't need a Meta account to use Whatsapp and having recently installed it myself on brand new hardware (rather than transferring data/settings from my old phone), it won't even ask you to...You don't need a Meta account to use Whatsapp and having recently installed it myself on brand new hardware (rather than transferring data/settings from my old phone), it won't even ask you to create one, let alone force the issue.
I'm sure there are other reasons people might choose not to use it, of course.
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat Link ParentI think the barrier for a lot of people is actually having spare money lying around to turn into gold in the first place. That you can buy small bits of gold doesn't change that. The smallest gold...I think the barrier for a lot of people is actually having spare money lying around to turn into gold in the first place.
That you can buy small bits of gold doesn't change that. The smallest gold bar my supplier sells is 1g, as of time of posting, £156. That's a pretty hefty barrier for a lot of people.
You can put £1 in an investment fund if you want. But you still need £1 which isn't earmarked for food or rent or energy bills or or or all the other myriad of ways money evaporates before the end of the month.
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat Link ParentBe fair, I never said anything about eating the rich. Also, eeeuuw. I'd go as far as compost the billionaires because they're better being turned into tasty mushrooms than greasy Elon-steaks. But...Be fair, I never said anything about eating the rich. Also, eeeuuw. I'd go as far as compost the billionaires because they're better being turned into tasty mushrooms than greasy Elon-steaks. But there's a huge tranche of people who sit near the top of the inequality pyramid through no direct fault of their own. I don't know how we solve that issue.
If your parents are no longer hoarding precious metals then they're clearly not part of the problem. Or at least they're not part of my problem.
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat Link ParentYeah sorry your parents are rich. Well, not sorry. I mean, that is genuinely nice for them to be in that situation. I don't wish poverty on anyone! But if you can spare money to turn into gold,...Yeah sorry your parents are rich. Well, not sorry. I mean, that is genuinely nice for them to be in that situation. I don't wish poverty on anyone!
But if you can spare money to turn into gold, you're rich. Not just on a global scale either. Over three quarters of Americans live paycheque to paycheque. A majority don't have emergency savings, let alone have money spare to invest in stuff.
I'm still blaming all investors. I think that is fair. I don't think they're all evil (some of them definitely are, of course), and I'm sure your parents are just doing what they think is best for themselves. But that's still hurting me.
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat Link ParentI appreciate you taking the time to offer your thoughts on this. The problem is that "ordinary" in the sentence above actually means "rich". Ordinary people - by which I mean the majority of...Tldr: don't blame the ordinary scared people, blame the fools creating this unnecessary situation.
I appreciate you taking the time to offer your thoughts on this. The problem is that "ordinary" in the sentence above actually means "rich". Ordinary people - by which I mean the majority of humans on the planet - don't have spare cash to store as shiny metal.
I do already know why people are doing it - apart from the unknown proportion of predatory investors who are in it to profit from other people's worries - but ultimately dragons are dragons are dragons. That they're burning down everything outside to get more gold in order to make themselves feel safer doesn't help put a roof back over the local villager's heads. This metaphor is getting a little strained at this point but I can see the sky through the smoking roof of my business so I hope you'll excuse me a little poetic latitude.
I'm afraid that the people I'm blaming are all the people buying gold as an investment rather than as a material to use. Scared people - and I do appreciate why rich people are scared - could choose to hide their money somewhere else. Yes, the US is a shitshow and it's making a lot of mess on the global stage right now, but the US is not the whole world.
Back in the days when I was a rich person and could afford savings, I had some African and Indian development funds which did very nicely, both in terms of returns and making my money do actually good (albeit tiny) things for the world. Renewable energy is profitable and no matter what the US gets up to will remain so. It's not really hard to find somewhere safe, sustainable and beneficial to invest. I know next to nothing about it and I managed fine. If someone is lucky enough to have spare money and they can't be bothered to put in a small amount of effort to be responsible with it then I'm afraid I do not have much sympathy for them.
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat Link ParentI don't believe in gold as an investment. I don't believe in people who have money now being able to get more money for free later just because they have money already. I think that's profoundly...I don't believe in gold as an investment. I don't believe in people who have money now being able to get more money for free later just because they have money already. I think that's profoundly antisocial behaviour. Investing their spare money in businesses, sure, ok. I'd rather that's not how things work but ethically it is just about tolerable. Money making things where previously no things is less bad. But "investing" in the finite assets our planet came with? The things that should belong to everyone? That's hoarding. That's literally what dragons do. It's almost as bad as being a landlord, although at least nobody needs pretty shiny jewellery to stay alive.
The idea that something might be more valuable in the future doesn't pay bills now. If someone, perhaps younger couple getting married (lots of my customers are that), don't have the money available to spend on rings which cost nearly twice what they would have cost less than a year ago, then they don't have the money. Framing it as "an investment" doesn't change that.
Also what kind of person would buy rings which are symbolic of their eternal love as something they plan to sell later? Ugh. I'd sell them some, of course. Because bills. But still.
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat Link ParentYes I'll definitely do that with all the spare money I've got lying around. I'd been wondering what I should do with that, it's been cluttering the place up something awful 😂 More fundamentally,...Yes I'll definitely do that with all the spare money I've got lying around. I'd been wondering what I should do with that, it's been cluttering the place up something awful 😂
More fundamentally, even if it was an option, I don't want to be part of the problem. I don't think hoarders are good for society, so why would I choose to be one myself?
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Comment on Gold tops $4,900/oz; silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally in ~finance
mat (edited )LinkMarvellous. I've lost so much business over the last nine months because of the price of gold going insane. I use gold. I don't trade it or hoard it, I melt the stuff down and I make things from...Marvellous. I've lost so much business over the last nine months because of the price of gold going insane.
I use gold. I don't trade it or hoard it, I melt the stuff down and I make things from it. Mostly wedding rings. Y'know, perhaps the most important and significant piece of jewellery many people will own. For some people, the only piece of jewellery they own. But as in so many other spheres, the rich idly gambling on the future "value" of stuff are ruining things for the rest of us. So many potential customers are right now, unhappily, telling me they can't afford rings which would have cost £600-700 a year ago and are now £1000+. I've cut my margins back as far as I dare and I'm still losing business.
Throw in the US's stupid fucking tariffs turning off American customers (I sell, or rather used to sell, a lot to the US) and I'm out thousands of pounds in potential business over the last year.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
mat Link ParentI didn't say more private. I said more secure. They're not quite the same thing. If I undress behind a locked glass door I'm not being very private but I'm still secure. Whatsapp has a...I didn't say more private. I said more secure. They're not quite the same thing. If I undress behind a locked glass door I'm not being very private but I'm still secure.
Whatsapp has a fractionally better key verification system so it's slightly 'better' at being secure than Signal is (not really in a mathematical sense, more of a user-level one). The underlying cryptography is the same for both though, so in almost all situations they're essentially identical.
Meta has contributed to the Signal Protocol over the years, especially Sender Keys which secures group chats.
Obviously none of this applies to the unencrypted bits of WA, of course. And yes, as I've said elsewhere, Meta could just be lying because closed source. But the evidence doesn't seem to support that.
I mean sure, I'd probably prefer it if my entire friend and family groups used Signal (they do not), but I'm not mad at having to use Whatsapp like I would be about using SMS or FB Messenger or something actually insecure.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
mat Link ParentSignal/WhatsApp doesn't work like Matrix. Private keys are generated on the device and don't leave it. Restoring backups in WhatsApp is a different operation to securing messaging (and to be fair,...Signal/WhatsApp doesn't work like Matrix. Private keys are generated on the device and don't leave it. Restoring backups in WhatsApp is a different operation to securing messaging (and to be fair, for quite a few years WhatsApp created a clear text backup file, although it wasn't stored at Meta so it wouldn't have helped them)
Although even if this weren't the case and Meta was keeping a database of everyone's private keys - which is very likely illegal in quite a few places anyway - I'm fairly sure they still can't use that initial private key to decrypt your messages because ephemeral keys are created/exchanged/authenticated between users for each messaging session. That's how you get forward (and reverse) secrecy.
Again, caveat here is Meta could be lying about their implementation. But again, someone would have noticed by now. Three billion users, someone's going to.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
mat Link ParentMeta can't read Whatsapp messages. Because Whatsapp uses the Signal Protocol. Moxie was not messing about when he designed it, it's properly secure from end to end. Signal is not as secure as...Meta can't read Whatsapp messages. Because Whatsapp uses the Signal Protocol. Moxie was not messing about when he designed it, it's properly secure from end to end.
Signal is not as secure as Whatsapp, but it's only really on a technicality about key verification systems. They're both genuinely secure. Unless Meta are lying about their crypto protocols, of course. Which someone would have almost certainly noticed by now (like people did with the obvious backdoor in Telegram, for example)
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
mat Link ParentWhatApp messaging is encrypted using the Signal Protocol. It arguably has a marginally better key verification process than Signal, so could be said to be even more "properly" secure. (caveat is...WhatApp messaging is encrypted using the Signal Protocol. It arguably has a marginally better key verification process than Signal, so could be said to be even more "properly" secure. (caveat is that Signal may have since adopted a similar process to Whatsapp for key verification, my info could be out of date)
SMS isn't just insecure by being plaintext and easy to spoof and so on, SMS infrastructure has backdoors built into it by design. Even I avoid SMS and I'm extremely cavalier about privacy by tildes standards!
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Comment on UK Conservative party would ban under-16s from social media in ~society
mat Link ParentI would be happy with it just being a checkbox, like it currently is for under-13s. That way I don't have to be the Bad Guy when I tell Kid they're not allowed on the socials. "Sorry kiddo, it's...I would be happy with it just being a checkbox, like it currently is for under-13s.
That way I don't have to be the Bad Guy when I tell Kid they're not allowed on the socials. "Sorry kiddo, it's the law, just like how you have to go to school."
That's assuming they will be interested when the time comes anyway, most of the current teenagers I know do not care about traditional social media in the first place - The Kids tend to use private discord and whatsapp groups and sometimes instagram, they're not on facebook or twitter or whatever. (btw, Meta are v worried about this trend)
Then I can enforce it myself because until Kid is an adult I will have admin privileges over their internet devices. But I also hope we can have a proper conversation about it anyway.
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Comment on UK Conservative party would ban under-16s from social media in ~society
mat Link ParentSpeaking as someone living in the UK who occasionally wishes to access legally-required-to-be-age-gated adult content I can assure you that there's no need for an "or" in that sentence.very intrusive data collection or being completely ineffectual.
Speaking as someone living in the UK who occasionally wishes to access legally-required-to-be-age-gated adult content I can assure you that there's no need for an "or" in that sentence.
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Comment on The "why does this movie exist" scene in ~movies
mat Link ParentEh, the Hero's Journey is a little more involved but basically, yes. There's only eight stories anyway so y'know. Not much to be done. btw if you liked Kick-Ass and you want a non-Hollywood...Eh, the Hero's Journey is a little more involved but basically, yes. There's only eight stories anyway so y'know. Not much to be done.
btw if you liked Kick-Ass and you want a non-Hollywood action-buddy-love-musical-drama-comedy-thriller to try, check out RRR. It's three hours long and easily one of the best films I've seen this century.
I mostly prefer TV to movies these days. I like longer and more complicated stories, which TV can do in a way movies just don't have time for.
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Comment on The "why does this movie exist" scene in ~movies
mat LinkIn the specific case of Kick-Ass, the movie is adapted from a comic, which I haven't read but almost certainly has a more complex and involved story than the film. Mark Miller wrote the whole...In the specific case of Kick-Ass, the movie is adapted from a comic, which I haven't read but almost certainly has a more complex and involved story than the film. Mark Miller wrote the whole thing himself, no writer's room involved (I'm sure there was for the movie adaptation, as well as various script doctors and rewriters and so on).
Fun fact, Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are both in the same universe as Kingsman!
The mechanics of how different writers create stories are many and varied. Some create characters and put them in situations and see what they do, some come up with situations and work backwards, some do a bit of each and so on and so on.
fwiw none of the handful of people I know who work in TV or movies as either producers or writers is involved with taking fun substances at work. Not to say it doesn't happen, of course!
If you enjoy spotting patterns in movie narratives, just wait until you find out about The Hero's Journey because you will see that everywhere
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Comment on Hacktivist deletes three white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference in ~tech
mat Link ParentThe article linked is not very in depth. Try this one and also watch the videos Martha Root put out. There's more information out there. A signal group is how you organise an existing, small,...The article linked is not very in depth. Try this one and also watch the videos Martha Root put out. There's more information out there.
A signal group is how you organise an existing, small, group of people, sure. A social network with thousands of users is a whole different thing. To put it in black hat terms - a signal group is C&C, the dating site is the botnet. Memetically compromising thousands of people to effect low-level societal influence is not that far off running a botnet tbh. Also I didn't say it was a well executed plan. Rather the opposite. Don't forget these people are largely absolute fucking idiots. They are not thinking this through. The owner of WhiteDate et al lives at home with her parents. There was a public-facing url on her website to download all user data. You know, morons.
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Comment on Hacktivist deletes three white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference in ~tech
mat Link ParentI believe the hacker in question is under the impression, apparently with some evidence, that these are more than just simple dating sites. It's an attempt to build a grassroots neo-Nazi network...I believe the hacker in question is under the impression, apparently with some evidence, that these are more than just simple dating sites. It's an attempt to build a grassroots neo-Nazi network which can be mobilised for... well, Nazi shit. Y'know, all that actual real-world harmful stuff they like to do.
Taking this network down and exposing it's members is worth celebrating. It is protecting people from harm.
I'm not sure what being on a different "level" would achieve. Just letting these chucklefucks carry on while we occupy the moral high ground has so far led to.. well.. look around you. There are fascist scum crawling all over the place these days.
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Comment on Hacktivist deletes three white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference in ~tech
mat LinkThere's a deeper dive into this, including some video from CCC hereThere's a deeper dive into this, including some video from CCC here
Whatapp accounts are phone numbers. They don't know my name (other than what I chose to enter) or address or even have an email for me. They can't use that number to contact me, I guess they might be able to see if I enter it into certain forms on the internet, but that's likely approaching some serious data protection laws.
Anyway, even if what you say is accurate, and I don't believe it is for me because where I live GDPR is a thing, I don't care. Really could not care less. This "massive surveillance apparatus" has no noticable impact on my life. Meta have almost 20 years of my "data" at this point and what's my Facebook feed full of ads for? Tobacco and alcohol. I haven't smoked or drunk for longer than they've been harvesting information about me!
99% of my messaging is done via Whatsapp. I might prefer Signal but I don't care enough to try, especially because I will never get enough other people to use it. Also Signal's desktop app was pretty bad last time I used it. My phone doesn't seem to require significant resources to run Whatsapp, at least not enough for me to notice.