Huh??
Zoom Acquires Keybase
391–400 of 751 posts
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been looking into Matrix as a "personal IM bridge" and I'm thinking this could be a way for Matrix to get traction. Let's say you're in a position that I think may here are: You would prefer to use IM in a secure way. Let me qualify "secure" for this purpose meaning: Encryption of communication in rest and transit; not relying on a single infra/network/service provider; being able to communicate with new peers e…
We're working on making bridges better integrated in Matrix to help with this use case - it's certainly a good way to drive uptake. On the other hand, bridges are always an impedance mismatch - you have to keep up with new features on both side of the bridge, and the system you're bridging into doesn't always want to be bridged. So, we think bridges are a key thing for Matrix (it's where the name comes from - matrixi…
On feature-mismatch, I don't think it has to be that big of a deal - as long as
* delivering messages and file/image attachments work reliably in both directions
* stickers and other native attachments (location, audio clips, etc) can be received, not necessarily sent
Reactions and sending of stickers etc optional, but if that's there, that's basically full parity of what anyone in the target audience mentioned above could expect. Actual parsing of non-plaintext data is obviously up to clients and should be approachable for the average casual contributor.
> the system you're bridging into doesn't always want to be bridged.
This should be the crucial and challenging part to maintain.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. I've turned quite a number of non-technical friends/family into Signal users, just by telling them, "Here's the messaging app I'm using if you want to talk to me..." without mention of encryption until they're already hooked. Uniformly comments have been favourable concerning ease-of-use and quality of voice/video calls (at least compared to what they're already used to -- generally Zoom or Skype), and s…
Ease of use is the big elephant-in-the-room issue for Matrix. The only way I've found to join a room is the `/join` command. There's a GUI search, but it doesn't work. Users have to pick their identity provider, their home server, etc. Lots of choices, scary messages, and generally annoying to set up. Services that depend on someone who is technically inclined setting things up never become widespread outside technic…
The GUI search should work fine these days. (It was broken about 6 months ago due to the room lists getting too big, but was fixed in https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/6019).
It's true you have to pick a server to use, but we try to provide decent defaults (although it's true matrix.org has been overloaded recently).
We're trying to simplify onboarding via P2P Matrix - by default, you'd start off entirely P2P, and only pick a server if you want to 'anchor' your account somewhere.
I have a feeling you may be going off outdated impressions here; we've been desperately trying to improve UI/UX (as per https://blog.riot.im/e2e-encryption-by-default-cross-signing... and https://blog.riot.im/e2e-encryption-by-default-cross-signing...).
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Zoom is based in California’s Silicon Valley, but it owns three companies in China that develop its software. The Citizen Lab said the structure allowed the company to lower its development costs, but added “this arrangement may make Zoom responsive to pressure from Chinese authorities.”" https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/24/uk-governmen... The implication is that China is hostile and leverages their powe…
I don't think it's true that Zoom has its "entire dev team in China"; doing some research myself reveals Zoom definitely has engineering operations in the US[0][1]. I'm not disagreeing with you on the implications of having engineering teams in China, I think you would like to put that paragraph in your original post to give some context. [0] Tech job postings in US: https://zoom.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/Zoom/0/refreshF…
Thanks - I edited it to soften the language a bit.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi! I use Matrix a lot, but a privacy-sensitive group of my friends recently switched to Keybase largely due to the per-room/per-message retention policies. This might be a good opportunity to convince them to jump ship, and I know something similar has been in the works for Matrix, but do you know where it is on the list of priorities? (Congrats on the cross-signing release though, it's been a long time coming and i…
Hijacking this: Does anyone know if there’s a Matrix client (out or in dev) that has the UI/UX of old 1on1 messengers (ICQ, MSN) and not chatrooms (IRC, Slack)? Specifically not the weird list of bubbles on the side, but instead a list of accounts/rooms and a window per chat.
I guess Pidgin has that UI, although its Matrix support is alpha sadly. Not aware of anyone else who's done that sort of UI yet, but it's only a matter of time.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems that we live in an era where if you made bad decisions in the past, you can never be trusted to make good decisions ever again. Even if you own your bad decisions and show lots of improvement. Nope. Once a pariah, always a pariah.
Organizations are not people. It is very straightforward for an individual to change their ways from bad to good. We should have mutual empathy and forgiveness towards each other. Conversely, it is typically very difficult for organizations to change course (keep in mind the spokesperson has no real power and a strong incentive to lie) and there is zero reason to feel bad if people abandon them. The people who work t…
It is possible for organizations to change course, but it usually requires a crisis or disaster to occur which pushes the drive for change.
The book "The Power of Habit" has some good examples of large organizations changing course.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://pgp.mit.edu/
That doesn't tie identity to keys. Not to mention it's notoriously slow and has been shown to be an insecure method of distributing keys (due to the fact that anybody can upload any key).
Anyone can upload a key to keybase dot com too. You should never trust a key belongs to someone unless you have verified the fingerprint by other means e.g. speaking to them. This is basic security we have known since the 80s. Keybase dot com is a step backwards if anything because of the false sense of security it creates, as if they don't have a giant attack surface.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
> until the day that product updates and analyses reveal otherwise. The product (and their poor installer practice) has been updated several times in the past few months alone, and each move has made Zoom a more secure product, with the vast majority of the hubbub having been addressed. So are you simply ignoring that, or are you setting your own personal goalposts?
I'm doing neither. I'm pointing out a logical fallacy in the parent comment. Hiring people part-time and buying a company does not, on its own, convey anything about improvements to product quality, security, or the corporate culture of either. I can only infer from your comment that you might think I have some beef or issue with Zoom. I said no such thing.
Sure, but it's not "on its own", it's in the context of the investment in security mentioned by the parent comment.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#399For years people have been begging Keybase to allow them to pay them for the service and Chris Coyne always refused. Now they've lost their independence and they're owned by a communication company that has [edit: the majority of] its dev team in China. I use Keybase to talk to my friend in China since it's one of the few services they don't block. This is a pretty disappointing outcome.
Very disappointed indeed. Keybase is one of the ones I actually used.
Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
Need to keep in mind we now remember this endeavor as ethically challenged, but was it literally 100% for money or did want of these goods play a role: > cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. Surely access to those provides some benefit other than making money, which it also did for them. Also worth noting that not every company is ... that one .
> was it literally 100% for money or did want of these goods play a role: > cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. Surely access to those provides some benefit other than making money, which it also did for them. This is an utterly meaningless distinction. Money is fungible with all of those goods.
I am not sure you are using fungibility completely correctly because the goods have a condition, are perishable, they can be bartered or traded or maybe are fungible with respect to each other but are not literal money and literally interchangeable with money.
Anyway, if you want to go down that path you can easily conclude that literally any good or activity is just money, that you live a money-dominated life and we all exist for money all the time and while useful in some contexts I don't think it's particularly apt, but I hope you enjoy it.