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mox

@ mox @lemmy.sdf.org

Posts
27
Comments
421
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Rockstar has some of the most restrictive mission design I've ever experienced

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  • I loved the environments in RDR2, but holy hell, the missions' persistent denial of player agency drove me up a tree. Railroading is annoying in the best of cases. I could tolerate it in The Last of Us, which limited the places I could go but offered a wonderfully engaging story in those places and never dropped a 10-ton FAIL anvil on my head for trying something creative. In an open world game (a genre that I like because I'm encouraged to find creative solutions) I find it unforgivable.

    Kingdom Come: Deliverance drove me away for similar reasons. I like games where the challenge comes from learning how to work with available tools and moves, developing my skill with them, and figuring out how to use them most effectively. Making progress that way is satisfying. KC:D chose the polar opposite of that, interfering with my ability to control my character until I slogged through seemingly endless time sinks thinly disguised as "training" sessions. This mechanic had nothing to do with developing my skill as a player, but instead just arbitrarily denied me agency. I hated it, and since the reports I've read suggest that the sequel does the same, I won't be buying it or anything else from those game designers.

    I guess my point is just to let you know that you're not alone. :)

  • Bank account requiring Google play account, how to bypass ?

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  • If you can’t do everything on the web, change bank.

    And to be clear, make sure you can do everything on a web site. Not a Chrome site.

  • Bank account requiring Google play account, how to bypass ?

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  • "my concern about leaving my abusive partner is what if after all the hassle the next one pulls the same act ? and the next one !"

    There are many banks and (better yet) credit unions. Not all of them are awful. Be brave. Take action.

  • private ways to buy music?

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  • +1

    In case you don't have an optical drive, new ones cost only slightly more than a CD these days.

    Here's some guidance on which models are especially good at audio ripping:

    https://pilabor.com/blog/2022/10/audio-cd-ripping-hardware/

    (Note that the best ones cost a bit more and don't come with a USB enclosure, but could be mounted in one.)

  • Opinion on the Matrix protocol

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  • Matrix literally syncs the entire data/metadata history to all other servers where someone pops in

    How else would you expect a decentralized and persistent chat room to work? If that stuff wasn't synced among the servers that were invited to participate in a room, then it wouldn't be decentralized; one server going down would kill the room (or at least lose data).

    The only way I can think of is not to use servers at all, but go fully peer-to-peer. Matrix has done some proof-of-concept work toward this, but I'm not aware of any service that does it successfully while being practical for most people, yet.

    chat is meant to have an ephemeral aspect to it.

    There are use cases where that makes sense, but for general use? No thanks. When I lose my account password or my phone breaks, I want to be able to sign in on another device and still have my message history.

    It sucks so much RAM, so much storage,

    Synapse is indeed a heavy server implementation. Several lighter ones are in development, some of which people are using already.

  • Opinion on the Matrix protocol

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  • encryption regularly breaks in weird ways, usually you see a message that you can’t read

    This was once common, but it's somewhat rare now in my experience, and the upcoming Matrix 2.0 apparently addresses most (all?) of the remaining causes.

    if you enable encryption in a chat room you cannot disable it

    I consider this a good thing, for the sake of the people who joined or wrote in the chat with the understanding that what they write is and will remain encrypted. If you want to abandon encryption, you can always create a new room.

    we now have two official clients for Android (Element and Element X) in the first one encryption breaks in weird ways, in the later there is no way to use Spaces properly

    No, there is one officially released client for android: Element. Element X is in beta. When it leaves beta, it will take over as the one officially released client.

    direct messages between people don’t work well - it is like they are a room with the two people

    It works well for me. How is it a problem for you? It looks just like the person-to-person chats on other platforms I use, including SMS.

    privacy wise matrix is weak,

    Privacy of message content is not weak at all.

    leaks metadata,

    It's true that some metadata can be read by admins of the servers that have been invited into a chat. Given all the features that Matrix uniquely offers, that's an acceptable tradeoff for many of us. Also, the developers have stated that moving most of that metadata to the encrypted channel is planned.

    attachments are not encrypted, etc.

    This is just plain false.

    https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/#sending-encrypted-attachments

  • Opinion on the Matrix protocol

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  • Matrix is good for private general messaging. The fact that it's decentralised means it can also withstand things like government-ordered shutdowns or back doors, since there is no central point that controls the whole network.

    Two things to be aware of:

    • Some non-message bits (e.g. room topic text and membership) have not yet been moved to the encrypted channel, so those could be read by the administrator of a homeserver that participates in your chat room. Since most people care primarily about keeping the message content private, this is an acceptable trade-off to get all the things that Matrix offers.
    • The upcoming Matrix 2.0 features and design choices simplify the UI and fix some occasional errors. It might be worth waiting until this stuff officially lands in the client apps before bringing your contacts to Matrix, for a better experience all around.

  • Gaming on Linux, How openSUSE Stacks Up for Gamers

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  • I bet someone can cook up some edge cases where the newer kernel might matter.

    What desktop distro doesn't have a new enough kernel available? Even the current Debian Stable, which is nearing the end of its run, has a recent backport (currently at 6.12.9).

  • What Gamepad do you recommend?

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  • I have been happy with the Sony controllers. They're comfortable, have relatively small dead zones, and are still working well after more than a few years of use. Both the DualShock 4 v2 and the DualSense are supported by Steam Input, can be used on Windows, and have native support (from Sony!) in the Linux kernel.

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    Linux Software to pirate

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  • Someone ported Discord to Windows 95, because why wouldn't you

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  • To answer the question: I wouldn't port Discord to anything, because it's a mediocre chat service with no real privacy, run by an invasive company that imposes itself as gatekeeper of other people's discourse and creative work.

  • YSK: There's a protest today at noon at your state capitol.

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  • Most people don't live in their state capitol, and have no hope of attending something there that they learned of at the last minute. They should have been informed of this days ago.

  • F-Droid has received funds from US Congress (via OTF), just like Signal

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  • Huz-fucking-zah. Independence from corporations like Google in the technologies we depend on is important, and F-Droid provides an unmatched service in support of that goal.

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  • In matters where a server is needed, you generally have three options:

    • self-host
    • get a friend/colleague/employer to host
    • pay for a host
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  • Is using an Matrix account from matrix.org private and secure enough to talk with my family members and people in general?

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  • How would the sender prevent messages from going to the admin user that joined the room?

    It wouldn't matter if a rogue admin eavesdropped on an E2EE room, because they would see encrypted blobs where the message content would be. That's what E2EE is for.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-to-end_encryption

    How would the sender prevent messages from going to the admin user that joined the room?

    You're conflating multiple things. Merely joining a room does not grant access to message decryption keys.

    I respect your curiosity, but I think you're going to have to familiarize yourself with the software and concepts to get a detailed understanding of how all this stuff works. If you're technically inclined, I suggest reading the protocol spec, or at least the parts that interest you. You could also drop in to the public chat room and ask more questions there: #matrix:matrix.org

  • Is using an Matrix account from matrix.org private and secure enough to talk with my family members and people in general?

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  • SimpleX has some interesting ideas, but also some shortcomings for people who want a practical messaging service. For example:

    • It is funded by venture capital, which calls into question its longevity, and even if it does manage to stick around, suggests that it will be leveraged to exploit people once the user base is large enough.
    • Its queue servers delete messages if they are not delivered within a certain time frame (21 days by default). Good luck if you take a vacation off-grid for a few weeks.
    • No multi-device support. (This means a single account accessed concurrently from multiple independent devices.) The closest it comes is locally tethering a mobile device to a computer.
    • Establishing new contacts requires sharing a large link or QR code, which is not always convenient.
    • No support for group calls.

    I would not recommend it for talking to family members and people in general, which is what OP requested.

  • Is using an Matrix account from matrix.org private and secure enough to talk with my family members and people in general?

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  • But who/what gets to decide who the intended recipients are?

    The sender, of course.

    Can’t the homeserver admin just join the channel and then the other members would exchange keys automatically and now they can see what people say?

    No. Verification prevents that.

  • Is using an Matrix account from matrix.org private and secure enough to talk with my family members and people in general?

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  • a compromised or hostile home server can still take over the room

    A compromised server could affect a denial of service attack against its users, of course. The attacker could do the same thing by simply turning off the server. That's true on all platforms that use servers. A reasonable response would be to switch to a different server.

    That admin (or even a newly minted user) can then send events

    Exactly what events do you think would be dangerous?

    or listen on the conversations.

    No. End-to-end encryption ensures that only the intended endpoints can read the messages. Older Matrix clients have a setting to block the user from sending messages to unverified devices/sessions, in case they somehow don't understand the meaning of a bright red warning icon. I think newer ones (e.g. Element X) enforce that mode; if you're concerned about this, you could check for yourself, but...

    not everyone will pay attention to unverified warnings

    ...unfortunately, there are no guarantees when trying to fix human behavior. If you need a messaging app to make it hard for your contacts to do something obviously foolish, then I suggest waiting until Matrix 2.0 is officially released and implemented in the clients. The beta versions of Element X, for example, look like everything is locked down to avoid human mistakes like the one you're describing.