Stigmata

Stigmata wrote (edited )

Reply to comment by alexayanchenko in by !deleted28804

I was discussing with some friends that a base model AR-15 costs about $600. Food for thought.

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Stigmata wrote

It really depends on the use case. The thing that Signal has that PGP does not is perfect forward secrecy, which prevents your messages from being read even if your private key is compromised by essentially frequently changing keys used in a conversation.

But that is not to say PGP is not secure, perfect forward secrecy makes very little sense in the use case PGP is targeting (it makes sense with instant messaging, but not things like email).

The bigger concern is really how the apps implement Signal, and who owns the apps. A chat app can have all of the security in the world, but if it is owned by Facebook or Google I would consider it effectively insecure. The official signal app is actually not my favorite because it had some major security holes a few years back and simultaneously tried to cause a panic by exaggerating the danger of a flaw in the implementation of PGP in a few email clients.

So TL;DR: This is not a replacement for things like PGP but it is good for instant messaging.

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Stigmata wrote

It’s frustrating as a gay dude when people, especially those not within the LGBT community come in and start policing my culture. I think people getting offended by terms like femboy fit into that category.

I’ve had straight people explain to me unironically that drag is offensive, and I have to hold back and not tell them to fuck off.

Most of the time people getting offended by this are getting offended on the behalf of others who they think are offended but probably are not. It’s like a competition to try and be more woke and it is super annoying.

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Stigmata wrote (edited )

It’s a bit annoying to say the least that it seems like older people don’t care at all.

I’m in university and everyone I know wears a mask and follows really strict rules so that we don’t get the virus and then spread it to high risk people (namely old people). Then I see the old people we are trying to protect running around going to parties and going about life like everything is completely normal.

The only reason they can act like the virus doesn’t exist is because everyone else is working hard to prevent the spread.

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Stigmata wrote

Wow; I watched the trailer and that was really offensive to me as somebody on the autism spectrum. I was hoping maybe people were overreacting but they were not at all. It was especially bad that the actor was not autistic, and the portrayal was not even an attempt at accuracy.

For some reason I was getting Tropic Thunder Simple Jack vibes the entire time.

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Stigmata wrote

I love how Biden literally said things would go back to the status quo. People are surprised but his whole platform was “I’m not Trump” and “Nothing will change”.

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Stigmata wrote

Reply to by !deleted20335

Finally, a good economic idea. It’s rare for me to find somebody I can agree with so wholeheartedly!

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Stigmata wrote

I actually am personally optimistic for the future regarding this. Post-quantum algorithms are slowly being tested and will eventually replace RSA and other large prime based algorithms.

It just takes time, it took forever to get RSA, and it’s going to take forever to get a new algorithm but that’s how things should be. This is one of those things that absolutely cannot be rushed.

Nobody I know in security R&D is complacent though when it comes to this problem.

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Stigmata wrote

I still like newspapers and magazines. I get most of my news from online sources, but for some reason I still like the smell and feel of physical print media. I probably read a magazine a week or so ago.

I also am probably a bit biased because I worked for a print magazine for a couple of years.

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Stigmata wrote

Disclaimer: I didn’t watch the video

A bit of an interesting take on the use of copyright law to stop farmers from modifying (and by extension repairing) certain farm equipment.

One popular modification to farm equipment is disabling the need for DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid), which is a chemical that is used to reduce emissions from equipment such as tractors.

Essentially farmers in this case are looking to cut costs by disabling this system, but this also increases the harm this equipment does to the environment.

I do think right to repair is important, but it is also important to understand all of the reasoning around the push for it.

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Stigmata wrote

For a while I was feeling really numb, just like I was living in some Franz Kafka fiction where there is no way to change the way things are, but I have been trying to change small things in my immediate community and I feel like I have regained some small sense of control. Accept you can't change most things, but work on things around you that you can change. Start working in your community, share your thoughts and ideas with your friends if you can, and if you really want, start learning how to defend yourself so you will be harder to victimize.

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Stigmata wrote

There are services out there where you can get a burner number, but they almost all giving out numbers that are blacklisted from most signup systems or are just already used.

Your best bet is to get a burner SIM and phone, it’s cheap, and will work on any signup like a normal phone.

You can try services like Twilio but their numbers will only work on really poorly designed systems.

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Stigmata wrote

The best thing you can do to protect yourself from law enforcement gaining access through technical attacks like this is set an alphanumeric password rather than a pin or other type of password. A strong password makes these attacks moot. There are still ways in (beating you for the password, or if you biometrics they can force you to unlock it) but this setup is a good step in the right direction.

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Stigmata wrote

I’m a gay dude, and I actually liked the process of coming out. Parts of it were really crap, but I feel like it was really empowering for me personally, being able to say “this is who I am and if you don’t like it you can leave my life”. I also felt like it was the culmination of many years of confusion and sometimes frustration where I came to terms with my sexuality and got comfortable with it. (I feel like a big part of it was coming out to myself).

That being said, there is no necessity in doing something related to coming out; it’s just one way of expressing your identity, and it may not be something everyone wants or feels they need. It’s just one path of many.

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