floof.org
It’s Time for Furries to Stop Using Telegram
I have been a begrudging user of Telegram for years simply because that's what all the other furries use. When I signed up, I held my nose and expressed my discontent at Telegram by selecting a username that's a dig at MTProto's inherent insecurity against chosen ciphertext attacks: IND_CCA3_Insecure. Art: CMYKat I wrote about Furries and Telegram before, and included some basic privacy recommendations.
http://soatok.blog/2024/05/14/its-time-for-furries-to-stop-using-telegram/
I have been a begrudging user of Telegram for years simply because that’s what all the other furries use. When I signed up, I held my nose and expressed my discontent at Telegram by selecting…Dhole Moments
I just tried it! The one you linked to creates an entirely separate profile, with its own settings, it's own wallpaper, its own apps, and its own notifications, and requires manual switching.
You can use the Shelter app artemist mentioned and it does work like I'd expect (its just a separate copy of the same app)
In general, this does exactly nothing for me, as I primarily use an iPhone, which gets a generally barely-MVP experience, primarily lacking the ability to backing up or restoring messages. (backup is only supported for Android-to-Android, and only backs up to the local storage, which I guess you could get yet another app to sync that to the cloud but that's not something I expect the average user to do, when they can just continue to use Telegram, which I mean, sure the owner is a right twat but the app is generally pretty good
(*issues with MTProto etc side)
Former Irish president and Ban Ki-moon say fossil lobbying is hampering climate progressFiona Harvey (The Guardian)
Blue Blizzard 🦊❄
Commission for KetsNobra on Twitter! :3
Higher res version, time lapse video, and drawing stage snapshots on my Patreon!: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104176770
#Vulpera #WorldOfWarcraft #Warcraft #Furry #FurryArt #FurryArtist #MastoArt #Commission #ArtCommission
A couple of weeks ago I posted about the pernicious influence of lobbyists for the petrochemical industry, doing their best to derail a treaty aimed at limiting the tremendous global amounts of plastic production, use, and disposal.
See -- https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/112377162225459307
Now here's more on the story...
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When I registered to attend last month’s United Nations conference in Canada, organizers insisted it would be a “plastic free meeting.” After all, representatives from roughly 170 countries were gathering to tackle a crisis: The world churns out 400 million metric tons of plastic a year. It clogs landfills and oceans; its chemical trail seeps into our bodies.
Delegates have been meeting since 2022 as part of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in hopes of ending this year with a treaty that addresses “the full life cycle of plastic, including its production, design, and disposal.”
The challenge before delegates seemed daunting, especially when representatives from fossil fuel and chemical companies would be vigorously working to shift the conversation away from what scientists say is the only solution to the crisis: curbing plastic production.
But when I got to the meeting, I discovered that those industry reps were not a sideshow; they were welcomed into the main event.
They could watch closed-door sessions off-limits to reporters. Some got high-level badges indistinguishable from those worn by country representatives negotiating the treaty. These badges allowed them access to exclusive discussions not open to some of the world’s leading health scientists.
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This is not a surprise. Capitalists will stop at nothing to keep polluting, keep destroying, and keep killing — as long as they can make a profit.
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Attached: 1 image For the last two years, activists and anti-plastic campaigners have pinned their hopes on an effort made by the United Nations to negotiate an effective international treaty aimed at reducing the tremendous global amounts of plasti…Climate Justice Social
The Guardian asked 843 climate scientists how the effort to limit average global temperatures is going. Here's what they had to say.Steve Hanley (CleanTechnica)
When #Copernicus published its update "April 2024 was warmer globally than any previous April in the data record" I heard it in a casual radio message, followed by an update on football.
Even though I have to deal with #ClimateChange professionally, the realization that we are in an uncharted climate territory does not make it any less mind-boggling. Casually mentioning this unfolding threat to our civilization in between the really relevant news and sports borders with denialism.
#DontLookUp
A policy on use of Generative AI has been accepted by the Minecraft Wiki community.
With development of new tools and technology, wikis have to keep up and evaluate risks and effects of those on the wiki and their communities. This policy is a result of exactly those evaluations.
You can see the new policy in here: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Minecraft_Wiki:Wiki_rules/Generative_AI_policy
#GenAI #AI #MinecraftWiki
This policy prohibits the usage of generative AI on the Minecraft Wiki, and defines exceptions where the usage is allowed. Generative AI includes (and is not limited to) large language models (LLMs, e.g. ChatGPT) and text-to-image models (e.g.Minecraft Wiki
as a security practitioner, i can no longer legitimize telegram given their latest behavior of attacking actual legitimate secure messaging tools
i was already planning to delete my account at the end of the month over the nazi thing, but i am not going to tolerate a bunch of useless rich-ass techbros (durov and musk in this case) bullying @Mer__edith who is one of the most empathetic people in this industry and who runs an absolutely solid team who cares extensively about the safety and security of the users of their product
i don't care if "all the furries are still there" anymore. i won't be. i'm done with this.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Return-to-office mandates at some of the most powerful tech companies -- Apple, Microsoft and SpaceX -- were followed by a spike in departures among the most senior, tough-to-replace talen…it.slashdot.org
"We do not live in a system governed by people who are prepared to plant a tree in whose shade they will never sit. We are governed by people who inherited a shady grove built by labor, fired the gardeners and commodified the shade which they believe is generated ex-nihilo by market forces; 'trees' are a completely unrelated externality that can be acquired fully grown by suppliers and if a thought catches anywhere in their mind, it's only to recognize that every time a tree falls, the remaining shade gets more valuable"
- @beej, on this weeks Microsoft studio closures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSHsw9TYN3M
Stories on: SMT V: Vengeance, Nintendo World Championships NES Edition, Helldivers 2, shutting down a bunch of studios, and Pokemon GO.Support LRR: http://pa...YouTube
So…there is a concerted campaign, with Musk as its mouthpiece, to discredit Signal and get people to switch to Telegram. It’s disinformation, but there’s also useful information in it. The useful information is that a hideous, powerful, right-wing crank — or whoever’s yanking his chain — really, really wants people to use Telegram.
We’ve long known Telegram’s security is weak. But now, in light of this new information, we should move forward assuming that Telegram is actively compromised.
Lest it get lost in that longer post:
Assume Telegram is compromised. Not just vulnerable. Compromised.
Released 11/05/2024 at X2024 and came 1st in the C64 Demo competition.Credits:Code & Directing : TridentGraphics & Art Direction: The SargeMusic & Sound Desi...YouTube
Content warning: CW: very long post, mental and physical health, big moan about life
Software and data are the same thing to a computer.
On a disk or RAM or L1/L2 cache, it's all 1s and 0s. Your data and code sit next to each other, not special in any way to the computer.
Most programmers act like they are somehow different in nature, like oil and water.
It's a useful separation, but one that occurs only in the mind.
As programmers, we get to say, "Let's pretend there is a thing called X."
And because we do this, we get 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 benefits from them.
Before I watched this clip I didn't believe non-human animals had the capacity to be massively passive-aggressive.
A lyrebird at Sydney's Taronga Zoo has been caught mimicking the evacuation alarm a week after five lions escaped their enclosure.Subscribe: https://bit.ly/P...YouTube
"Children raised under UK austerity are now smaller in height at age five than their European counterparts, with tooth extractions among five- to nine-year-olds in poorer communities..."
We know about the hardship of ‘Thatcher’s children’, but a new generation of Tories has raised inequality to even higher levels, says the former UK prime minister Gordon BrownGordon Brown (The Guardian)
Record heat waves all across the planet. Extreme storms and floods. More and more deaths.
The destruction from climate change is everywhere you look. And what causes climate change?
Excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide…
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The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.
The global average concentration of CO2 in March 2024 was 4.7 parts per million higher than it it was last year, which is a record-breaking increase over a 12-month period.
“It’s really significant to see the pace of the increase over the first four months of this year, which is also a record,” said Ralph Keeling, director of the CO2 Program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We aren’t just breaking records in CO2 concentrations, but also the record in how fast it is rising.”
__________________________
I said above that excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere cause climate change, and that’s true, but what’s the cause of all those greenhouse gases?
It is the unrelenting senseless drive for economic growth at all costs. In other words, capitalism.
We need system change.
FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/09/carbon-dioxide-atmosphere-record
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Experts issue warning after finding global average concentration in March was 4.7ppm higher than same period last yearOliver Milman (The Guardian)
You'll be unsurprised that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has confirmed 'extra' NHS spending promised by the Tories was eaten up by inflation;
this is what happens when the focus is no nominal not real (inflation-adjusted) values.
Its been obvious that the defunding of the NHS was at least partly achieved by being publicly obscure (with media collusion) about inflation-adjusted funding & instead trumpeting absolute/nominal funding increases.
#NHS #health #austerity
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/14/nhs-spending-rise-lags-behind-tory-funding-pledges-ifs-finds
Thinktank says extra funding eaten up by higher inflation despite greater demand with service in poor state of repairLarry Elliott (The Guardian)
Is this a safe space to point out that the largest direct air capture plant in the world — designed to remove 36,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year — is a time machine that takes us back 28 seconds in a year? 🥲
The model they made of Block 4 is incredible.
What people didn’t realize was that not only did the explosion blow the lid off, it also blasted the bottom of the reactor down almost four meters - allowing the molten core to spill out.
Thinking back to the “inferno” scene in HBO’s Chernobyl, that violent graphite burning would make sense if the bottom of the reactor was completely blown out. Path for air to flow through like a fireplace.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chernobyl_Reactor_4_model_inside.jpg
Banks are propping up the fossil fuel industry to the tune of €6.5 trillion, new report finds.
Barclays, Santander and Deutsche Bank were among Europe’s biggest fossil fuel financers in 2023. #ClimateChange
At work, challenge Three Letter Acronyms (TLA) at every opportunity.
* They are a barrier to entry for those who don't live in your work
* People are embarrassed to ask, so at best they are distracted Googling. Mostly they are now just not understanding
* When used in combinations they make sentences difficult to parse. "We're targeting key SLOs as a way to maintain our SLAs as one of our OKRs for EOW".
I freaking hate them
The Guardian has a piece well worth reading. It turns out we are doing all the right things for our gut health and it doesn't include kombucha.
The article does not mention steel cut oats - but I would recommend them. And you may not be aware that most brie, camembert and feta are not pasteurized but are legal in Canada!
There’s more to looking after your internal microbiome than stuffing down the four Ks. Here are some cheap, readily available alternativesClare Finney (The Guardian)
Oh look, it's people discovering why we were yelling about DRM all those years ago and got ignored and now corporations just delete all the movies and TV you 'bought'.
Ownership rights are buried in the fine print and downloading or buying physical copies may be the only ways to keep your favouritesJosh Taylor (The Guardian)
Yeah that's what I meant by a toss up. I imagine the smirking video landlords twisting their handlebar moustaches and saying "ha ha, now we'll change the encryption keys every time, and the world will have to give us money for doing nothing... forever!" and just then the dopey faced lackey rushes in and shouts, "Boss! We can't change the encryption keys or the discs won't play on players people already bought." And he's all "Don't they all have 5G so we can take control of their players?" And the lackey's all, "5G sucks, boss! Not even your consumer slaves will buy it."
"Curses!"
Of course then they got y'all on Netflix and now they get tons of money for nothing anyway.
Sh*tf*ck 😳🔥😔
#ChatGPT consumes 25 times more #energy than #Google
"Energy consumption by Artificial Intelligence (#AI) is rising rapidly: AI is predicted to consume twice as much energy as the whole of France by 2030, according to some calculations."
https://www.brusselstimes.com/world-all-news/1042696/chatgpt-consumes-25-times-more-energy-than-google
"The negative impact of AI needs to be mitigated. Business leaders should be aware of the growing environmental impact of AI and take action."www.brusselstimes.com
Apparently Adam Lambert (no relation) has re-recorded an early song (14 years old) (from P!NK no less) in order to change a word.
The original lyrics used 'he' which they changed to 'they' to make it more palatable for 2010 radio from a male singer... Now, they're wanting to switch back to 'he' because the environment is so much better...
Except, I can't help but think nowadays it would be problems about using 'they' and getting pronouns all over...
Adam Lambert's official music video for 'Whataya Want From Me'. Click to listen to Adam Lambert on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/AdamLSpotify?IQid=AdamLWWFMAs ...YouTube
YouTube and music videos are not my normal method of consuming music, plus I was unaware of this until just now, but how hot?
This is a great cover of Holding Out For A Hero 
The official music video for Adam Lambert's Holding Out for a Hero, taken from the brand new album High Drama. Order limited edition and signed copies now: h...YouTube
Quinn Dunki's clean-room reverse engineering of Dan Gorlin's Choplifter for Apple II.
"The source code here is fully documented and will build and run to a version of Choplifter that is binary-identical to the original..."
https://github.com/blondie7575/ChoplifterReverse
A full reverse engineer of Choplifter, the Apple II game written by Dan Gorlin - blondie7575/ChoplifterReverseGitHub
Autumn Adventure
A YCH completed for Latharn ^^ I wonder where he's going?
#UnasArt #furry #furryart #furryartist #furryartwork #UnaPanthera #commission #illustration #characterillustration
According to my original research (AKA Googling as fast as I can) TNG wins this.
TNG:
S6.E8 -A Fistful of Datas
Episode aired Nov 7, 1992
Red Dwarf: Episode no: Series 6; Episode 3
Original air date: 21 October 1993
I'm impressed. I had no clue which way it would go. Well done.
Quite close to be honest.
Fun Fact: That Red Dwarf episode was Patrick Stewarts introduction to the series.
When he saw it, after flicking through channels, he thought it was ripping off that TNG episode, and immediately called the TNG shows lawyers in anger...
...but, while he was on the phone, watching the episode, he realised it was a spoof/comedy, not a rip off.
The call ended with no action needed, and Stewart's been a big fan of Red Dwarf ever since.
I watched the 4K77 fan release of Star Wars last night. Basically the movie exactly as it would have looked in theaters in 1977, scanned from original 35mm prints at 4K.
It was glorious. It had this wonderful analog feel to it, with real film grain and everything.
I literally had never seen Star Wars *properly* before. Only pan & scan blurry VHS in the 80s, and occasionally it would end up on TV with commercials and edited for time.
By the time I saw it widescreen in decent quality it was the fucked-with "special editions".
So yeah, that was amazing.
>It’s Time for Furries to Stop Using Telegram
In fact, this also holds true when you s/Furries/People/ !
> Finally, it’s trivial to setup a second Signal account using Twilio or Google Voice, so you can compartmentalize your furry posting from the phone number your coworkers or family is likely to know.
>
> The last two considerations were really what stopped furries (or queer people in general, really) from using Signal.
This! But also, you don't need to strictly speaking use a second phone number if you're fine with only using usernames, since Signal allows you to disable finding via a known phone number!
Settings -> Privacy -> Phone number -> Who can find me by my number
Huh, isn't that what I meant? To be clear, there are two toggles:
1. Who can see my phone number if we're already Signal contacts
2. Who can find my Signal by my phone number if they have that number already
@ljrk Honestly that's a big part of why I've avoided so many of these services. The older IM networks didn't require a phone number (they also worked with third party clients, some of which had E2EE options).
And living in Canada, most of the options people recommended for getting a second phone number were unavailable, or designed to be temporary.
Shelter | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
f-droid.orgyeah I'd love to set up secondary accounts but i can't set up google voice here in germany
@mortonfox
Delta Lab supports Telegram stickers but if you need good moderation tools you are out of luck (but if you have a trusted community, maybe you don't need this?) Also you can't see content posted to a channel before you join the group. You might need to download the stickers you want.
SimpleX Chat can send stickers using the keyboard but stickers are not built into the app.
Element | Secure collaboration and messaging
element.io>"Elon Muck"
rf lol, rf lol !
for those who do not use android or ios, https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli . it is a console program where you can link desktop app.
GitHub - AsamK/signal-cli: signal-cli provides an unofficial commandline, JSON-RPC and dbus interface for the Signal messenger.
GitHub"Finally, it’s trivial for Americans to setup a second Signal account using..."
Nope, stop right there. If it's a solution is only viable in the States it's not a solution. The fandom has no borders, but Signal's suitability evidently does.
You're listing many good and compelling technical details, but that isn't what moves the needle.
I've had Signal for years, and exactly zero people are on it. Just like any social platform, how technologically "good" it is has no bearing whatsoever on its adoption. Ironically, Mastodon is a perfect example of this, too.
Just like Mastodon, Signal lacks three critical things to get people to move over to it:
1) Simplicity - The ability to create multiple accounts and manage your contacts without non-embedded ”tutorials”
2) Reliability - Signal has frequently failed to deliver or receive messages from new contacts, and even failed to add new contacts for me, and without any hope of troubleshooting why. (Mastodon servers going ‘poof’ meaning mandatory migrating)
3) Community - Even the fur who recommended I use Signal never responded to any of my messages there, so I pinged him on Telegram: "Oh yeah, I don't really use it since no one is there.” :(
Molly
Molly Instant Messenger(Might pay to mention people absolutely need to set a PIN on their signal account, especially with a temp phone number)
https://www.reddit.com/r/furry_irl/s/6wN4O5IlC1
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com@ljrk This. Exactly.
Telegram requires a phone number, and yeah... you can't use a phone number from GV or Twilio. This means I have to use the phone number hooked to my everything and I somehow have to trust friends (who knows y phone number) to be secure about thier hookup to Telelgram (sharing contacts).
Signal seems to require a phone # also. Is there any way around that?
Even people recently having their Telegram accounts hacked en-masse didn't move the needle, because no real alternative to Telegram truly exists yet.
I can't help but point to Mastodon’s failure. People either went back to Twitter, or chose BlueSky instead because both were superior in usability despite their known problematic factors. Another example was Weasyl, an objectively a better furry community website than FA. Everyone either went back to FA or switched to Twitter because not enough of the community saw a benefit to the heavy lift of moving.
In order for history not to repeat itself, three things need to happen:
1. Signal’s UX needs to be at least as good as Telegram, which it's not. People will see it as a step backwards, not forwards, and not want to bother.
2. There needs to be an effortless way for people to migrate their existing experience and data.
3. Signal needs equivalent community sharing such as broadcast channels.
Signal uses, requires, and exposes phone numebrs. Some of us don't want the people we meet through the internet to have our actual phone numbers.
Use matrix instead! It's decentralized (like the Fediverse), end-to-end encrypted by default, and has bridges to "legacy networks" like Telegram, Discord, Signal and the like so that you can basically migrate you're whole messaging life onto Matrix without having to force your contacts to all do the same.
I would recomend Beeper.com as a public homeserver for new users, but it's new Android app makes actually doing Matrix to Matrix communication a hassle... As in, impossible if you don't also have access to matrix through another device. But for those who don't plan on actually using the matrix part of matrix yet, or are down for a bit more tinkering (though not as much as self-hosting) then by all means, I've been on Beeper full time for months now, and it's great. I love Matrix!
With the second copy of Signal do both receive push notifications at the same time? I assume yes for Samsung's secure folder thing?
The vanilla Android solution it looks like one has to switch though I haven't tested. I've been using Signal since I succumbed to smartphones, and I use a separate telephone number for furry Telegram things but I don't have a solution for furry signal on my phone at the same time.
https://social.sdf.org/@indrora/112440840280512872
[Signal does not make it easy to share porn]
It's the ol' "But Betamax is a better technology!" "Doesn't matter, it's not moving tits" conundrum.
And it's aggravating precisely because lots of people have been asking for better low friction social features and searchable chat-sync in signal but signal has been dismissive about it.
Thus everyone always uses telegram because it's an alternative to Discord and Facebook.
Signal always strikes me as more of the "This is what you really want to use over Whatsapp/Messenger/SMS/iChat If you want to have a chat about something the government may want to subpeona" software while telegram strikes me as the "This is where you can semi-anonymously discuss/share your kinky art without accidentally forwarding it to the family group chat" software.
Morgan Gangwere (job-seeking) (@indrora@social.sdf.org)
SDF Socialoh if you needed a pointer here you go
0x7fffffffffff
Don't worry about that one - I have a whole stack of them :3
not only is that article 2 years old, but was resolved before the end of that year. Most of the 'vulnerablities' posed assume a malicious homeserver and a reliance on the Javascript SDK, neither of which happen in a Synapse environment with a trusted homeserver operator.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/matrix-patches-vulnerabilities-that-completely-subvert-e2ee-guarantees/
I'll give you that Signal doesn't need phone number exposure anymore. But honestly, just like with telegram, it's a hassle to need one in the first place, and discourages folks who are trying to keep themselves protected from unwanted connections to different parts of their lives. Whether that be work-life balance, being in the closet, having a public persona, or just not wanting your family to see your furry pornographic profile picture, phone numbers are not good account id's. And that's not even beginning to take the inherent security issues of phone numbers. SMS is not a secure way to MFA or verify an account.
Serious vulnerabilities in Matrix’s end-to-end encryption have been patched
Ars TechnicaIf you want to help push #Signal to support multiple accounts on same phone so you can have one account with your real name and picture, and another account with another name and picture, all within the app like you would with Telegram please like the first post and add feedback:
https://community.signalusers.org/t/multiple-separate-user-profiles-multiple-identites-for-example-but-not-exclusive-to-dual-sim-phones/
If we have this feature, it will be more easy to convince communities like furries to switch to Signal I feel. ٩(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و
Multiple separate user profiles / multiple identites! (for example - but not exclusive to - dual sim phones)
Signal CommunityAlso because I haven't seen it brought up as reason to leave Telegram despite being recent, Telegram has used Nazi symbology in their marketing material:
https://plush.city/@PsyChuan/112336464469767051
Psy Chuan :therian:
2024-04-26 08:00:15
@rkniner
XMPP is still alive and well, Matrix also most times works
@soatok @ljrk
just saying, its not only Furries
The same is for Kinky people, they also have the recent years decided that Telegram is THE ONE app and dropped anything else, and anyone not on TG
Unfortunately, in most countries you legally and practically have no way to get a "burner" phone, a SIM card is always tied to a verified person
@kib48 @ljrk
i mean, the problem there is that this only works with people who use Samsung phones in US/CA.
Use an iPhone or any non-Samsung android? you're out of luck, the Signal app doesn't even have a sign out button, and if you're anywhere except US/CA hope you like paying to keep a second SIM alive (which you needed for telegram setup, but i don't think you ever need it after your account is created)
i haven't used android in any major capacity in years so this may have changed, but AFAIK stock android doesn't have the "secure folder" feature, and switching between work profile essentially "reboots" the phone into a separate "partition" (which i don't think notifications cross that gap)
and that's not even talking about iPhone users, which i mean, you can sideload a secondary copy of the app, but that won't update itself and you'll need to sign up for a ADP membership if you don't want to have to reload it every 7 days
Thats why i try to explain the situation
Here in Europe, a SIM card and therefore the mobile number is a much more personal thing as its per law referenced to an verfified person
Therefore "burner phones" are impossible, you can not "just" sign up to services and espically not have the options for a second or more accounts, to keep work; family; kink and other parts of your life seperated
So signing up to Signal would require to create the highest level of metadata
@kib48 @ljrk