I know children having phones can be problematic, but my granddaughter just had her first video call with my sister's granddaughter yesterday and me, my sister, & my son were just overwhelmed by the adorableness, plus the opportunity for them to make friends. (These cousins are only a year apart but live in different states & had only met once--about 2 years ago on my phone)
Plus, just to brag, my granddaughter knew enough NOT to answer a strange number until Dad told her it was okay. 😍
#PhantastikPrompts 14.12.:
Gibt es Tiere in deiner Geschichte? Wenn ja, welche?
Ja. Sie spielen eine wesentliche Rolle in meiner mittelalterlichen Fantasiewelt, deren Fauna und Flora mit den europäischen Wäldern vergleichbar ist. Es gibt blauäugige Grinwölfe, größer und gefährlicher als unsere heimischen Wölfe, die aber in einer besonderen Beziehung zu bestimmten Völkern/Individuen stehen. Pferde als Reittiere kommen vor mit eigenen Marotten. Thornläufe, eine Art Botenhund.
Here are the four paragraphs of conclusion from that clickbaity piece ("Is Signal safe?") by @protonprivacy about @signalapp that is doing rounds.
1. "Signal remains widely regarded as the gold standard for secure private messaging for very good reasons. The Signal Protocol is extremely secure, and unlike most other apps that use the Signal Protocol, Signal collects almost no metadata from the Signal app."
1/🧵
Je l'ai diffusé dans 2 after-cours, sur la censure, vers 2012. J'avais écrit à René V. pour l'inviter à causer, et sa fille Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier m'avait expliqué qu'il n'était plus en mesure de se déplacer. Alors
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#ScribesAndMakers 14Dec—Shameless promote someone else day!
Just one? Nah. Let's choose two who aren't (I don't think) on Mastodon.
1. Tim Wilbur. He just published the second book in his Nexus Chronicles. Haven't read it yet, but the first was fantastic! Check out the series here: amazon.com/dp/B0DXGS8VNQ
2. Tasia Timm. She writes more spicy romance, which isn't for everyone. I just read her book, The Fake Date, and found it so endearing! Check out that book here: a.co/d/4FrxhLa
Many people can’t donate, and I understand that.
But even sharing my link helps me reach someone who can support my education ❤️
Link: gofund.me/17427d76c
Sharing is also helping ❤️
#Share #Gaza #Students #GoFundMe
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Have a safe, good day, all!
Shameless someone else promotion day!
I keep thinking about @joyce two medieval mystery series - Matthew Cordwainer and Gavin Rownt.
I've read the beginnings of both and need to spend some more quality time with these stories. Joyce has a way of bringing the past to life, immersing my in the time before pretty much everything I know but reminding me that people are still people whenever they are.
European Union imposes a three-euro fee on orders arriving via online commerce
EU countries agreed this Friday to impose a tax of three euros from July 2026 on orders worth less than 150 euros that arrive, mainly from China, throughBYTESEU (Bytes Europe)
Am I right? - All For Gardening
I think I have my first Edge of Darkness bloom (Lyndon and Lyon) beginning to rear it's head.Gardener (All For Gardening)
14. Are your characters incapacitated by injuries, or do they brush them off as flesh wounds?
One of the characters got shot with a poisoned arrow, and he was very incapacitated by both, the poison, and the antidote. Bodily functions are mentioned...
My MC loses a finger and yes, apart from the pain, that incapacitates her.
It depends on the circumstances and injuries whether they brush them off or not.
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •2. "Signal is therefore vastly more private than any of its mainstream competitors, and with easy contact discovery and a wealth of advanced features, you might realistically convince your friends and family to actually use it."
2/🧵
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •3. "However, being hosted on AWS servers remains a concern in light of Signal’s reliance on SGX. There are a number of open-source encrypted messaging apps like Threema that try to address this and other perceived issues with Signal — such as its reliance on a centralized server and the need to supply a real phone number— some of which show great promise."
⚠️ Warning, this one is not true – Signal does not actually rely on SGX for its privacy; see: hachyderm.io/@dalias/115718139…
3/🧵
Cassandrich (@dalias@hachyderm.io)
Cassandrich (Hachyderm.io)Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •4. "But none of these have undergone the same level of rigorous external scrutiny as Signal, and all of them have tiny user bases by comparison to Signal, which limits their practical usefulness."
4/🧵
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •The piece itself is relatively ok, apart from the SGX thing.
The problem is the clickbaity title suggesting Signal might not be safe.
Most people only read headlines and the first few paragraphs of articles, and so what they might incorrectly take away from this piece is that Signal's safety is somehow suspect.
It's not. Signal is safe.
This is outright *dangerous* at a time when effective, usable privacy and encryption tools are more important than ever – and under attack globally.
5/🧵/end
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iwein and C++ Wage Slave reshared this.
Michael W Lucas
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •one reason I don't write articles for outside places:
even if they take my article as-is, voice and all, the headline is always written by the editor.
So, this is a policy set by the site, not the individual author.
Every sensible author knows to put a summary sentence near the top, so I suspect that the editor cut that as well.
Samat Sattarov
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
in reply to Samat Sattarov • • •@SamatSattarov
There are also a bunch of good reasons to criticise Signal, but this kind of piece and the recent marketing nonsense by some DeltaChat folks hides those criticisms.
I don’t recommend Signal because it’s perfect, I recommend Signal because it’s better than the alternatives. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement.