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Signal is having technical difficulties

status.signal.org

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Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#301
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt we’ll get much info about it out of Signal / OWS. I’ve asked about their tech stack and ability to scale in AMAs before and got fairly vague responses.

The server code was published. Even if we don't know what services they use, you should be able to find quite easily what language the stuff is written in.

The signal server project in GitHub isn't updated in 9 months. Have they talked about why they don't do server development in the open?

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#302
post #71

I just donated to Signal after seeing the error banner in the app. I realised I was more than happy to pay WhatsApp's yearly charge back in the pre-Facebook days (think it was 70p or so?). Figured I could give Signal a few quid every now and then, maybe keep a server up for a few seconds :) Donation link should anyone be interested: https://signal.org/donate/

I really wish the EU would put up funds for open source software, like signal, it seems to be something they could get behind for the greater good. My previous job involved creating a graphical programming language for the generation of GPU shaders, which the EU partly funded. I knew it was going nowhere, and it made me slightly sad tax payer money was being used on something I knew, despite my best efforts, would no…

>I really wish the EU would put up funds for open source software, like signal, it seems to be something they could get behind for the greater good.

They do https://hexus.net/tech/news/software/125747-14-open-source-p...

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One big hangup users have is a difference in expectations. They know what they're getting with the money they pay towards their iPhone. Heck - most users will gladly pay exorbitant prices for a cup of coffee as long as it meets their expectations. The same cannot be said for a given app they pull off the App Store. The quality experience can vary greatly from app to app. Even then, an app that fits your lifestyle may…

For me I think it is a question of ownership. It is easier to pay for something you actually own. Software already is intangible, but add in modern licensing, app stores, etc and you really do not have any ownership over your software. Even in the case of open source software like signal, Apple could chose to boot them off the app store tomorrow and I would lose my "investment". There was a time in the 90s/00s where…

I remember when some of them came with hardware dongles. Adobe After Effects had a dongle that you had to attach to your keyboard cable in order for the app to launch. The mental value I attributed to that dongle was immense. I think I still have it around here somewhere...

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you understand what the tax play is?

There could be conflict of interest if it’s a gift considering Acton was involved with WhatsApp before Signal was formed. And a donation would bring him deductions which he probably doesn’t want.. And there is a gift tax but since it’s a non profit, it gets different treatment. But having said that IRS scrutiny increases with such large donations. Chances high for an IRS audit. Etc. So many reasons why the loan aspec…

I don't understand practically any of this very well.

> There could be conflict of interest if it’s a gift considering Acton was involved with WhatsApp before Signal was formed.

Why is this conflict of interest less significant by structuring as a loan?

> And a donation would bring him deductions which he probably doesn’t want..

Why wouldn't he want them?

Is he time-shifting them or forgoing them?

> And there is a gift tax but since it’s a non profit, it gets different treatment.

A charitable donation isn't subject to gift tax.

> But having said that IRS scrutiny increases with such large donations.

> Chances high for an IRS audit. Etc.

Acton is a billionaire, his returns will receive scrutiny every year.

What's the etc? How is it better with a loan and why?

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#305
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately very true, so although I'm not a big fan of Signal's centralization and USA-based metadata processing (I'm not from the USA), I'll probably end up moving my family from (now) Telegram to Signal. Alternatives would be Threema and Wire, but Wire has the same main issues as Signal and Threema doesn't have video calls nor a desktop client and an unusable web client (deal breaker for me: you need to navigate…

> USA-based metadata processing Do you mean that they have servers in the US? US based company? They don't leak metadata, that's the difference between Signal and Telegram/WhatsApp. If the encryption is good it shouldn't matter what country the company or servers is in. That's kinda the point of encryption...

You connect to AWS when you connect to Signal. That means the USA is the government with the most influence on Amazon to have taps placed or connection logs handed over.

They can do sealed sender stuff all they like, but when 10.0.1.1 sends a 17-byte message and the server then sends a 17-byte message to 10.0.2.1, and a minute later 10.0.2.1 submits something to the server of 48 bytes and then 48 bytes are forwarded to 10.0.1.1... traffic analysis based on a tap of a Signal server isn't rocket science.

Still, it's the best we've got for non-techies. Better than handing over more metadata to Facebook. Even if the jurisdiction is the same, the company (Signal Foundation) is better and is known to collect almost nothing historical by themselves. Other than, say, your real-life-identity-tied user ID of course. (In many countries, phone numbers are given out only after passport/ID verification.)

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#306
post #71

I just donated to Signal after seeing the error banner in the app. I realised I was more than happy to pay WhatsApp's yearly charge back in the pre-Facebook days (think it was 70p or so?). Figured I could give Signal a few quid every now and then, maybe keep a server up for a few seconds :) Donation link should anyone be interested: https://signal.org/donate/

> I just donated to Signal after seeing the error banner in the app.

I've tried to donate, but none of my 3 cards worked, I got "card rejected error" without any info why and none of banking apps notified me about new transactions.

Re: Signal is having technical difficulties

#307
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of those annoying Telegram users here. I too wish Signal engineers good luck! (Even if I personally mostly use Telegram and hope for Matrix to "win", Signal is a fantastic piece of software as far as I can see, both as an extremely secure (I think) messaging client in its own right and also as an inspiration for other messaging platforms.)

Telegram is not a secure chat application though. It's more similar to Facebook Messenger. You're better off using WhatsApp over it if you care about security. Or obviously Signal. When it comes to Matrix, it's a little trickier. Riot, the most common Matrix client does E2E encryption on DMs and invite only rooms. What I'm not sure is what happens if you send a private message to someone who is using Matrix client th…

It will be sent encrypted, and the receiver will only be able to view it if they are on an encryption-capable Matrix client.
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