Signal no longer requires a phone number. You can now create an account. Not sure if that helps your outlook on it, but yeah. It was a fairly recent update that this was rolled out.

Edit: being told we still do need numbers to register. I haven’t gotten a new phone since well before the change was made, so I haven’t actually created an account and gone through the process. It looks like I misinterpreted what was going on when I read the changelog.

Takin’ it back! ❤️

Here is a wiki source (insert error bars here) discussion of his stance on his work being officially licensed. He thought that use of his work outside of a comic strip would cheapen the value of the strip itself. This was frusterating as a child (who wouldn’t want a fucking Hobbes plushy) but now later I can see that it was at the very least a very defensible choice. Compare how people feel about C&H vs something that was commercialized to death like Garfield. Anyway, hope it’s useful.

Just looked it up, looks like it’s still Amazon. Could be missing something though.

Upvotes for Tali!

Always an upvote for Doom OST

Oh I see. Yeah that’s cool. I’ve seen several posts around the fediverse that take a real tsk tsk signal user kind of tone, So I responded to yours kind of defensively. As a person with middle of the road tech knowledge I also curious if how I think about it stands up to scrutiny (because people will tell me!). Didn’t mean to distract from the intent. Thanks for posting this in any case.

For me using signal wasn’t about becoming Jason Bourne, it was about changing the threat model. I don’t have any dilusions of grandeur that I can’t be owned if I’m targeted, but you know what? My calls and texts aren’t stored with my phone company with a direct link to the Government and advertisers. That may be low hanging fruit, but that’s dealing with most of the issues the average user is going to run into. I’d suggust that the step from SMS to Signal is of greater benifit to a normal user than from signal to something more advanced. And, fwiw it’s open sourced and audited, which gives me more confidence than something like imessage or WhatsApp, despite similarities im encryption schemes.

The other commenter is comparing FSA to HSA which is right I think. I think FSAs work for some people (I never understood who though) but there’s literally no downside to an HSA. It basically can end up as another tax sheltered investment account, if you have enough money/luck to be able to pay off your healthcare costs out of pocket.

Like everything in the US, it’s amazing for people with money. Less useful for those that don’t. But at the very least it provides a buffer for the insane deductibles that US persons need to pay to keep living.

I’ve seen this in banking too. I have my health savings account with a provider that charges a percentage of your holdings as the admin fee. That can add up. My old one is a flat rate per month. I have been transferring the money every year to the flat rate provider and the process is completely arcane.

1. Find the document on their site. The correct document isn’t named clearly like the document you use to pull other providers into your account.

2. You have to print it and write by hand (not an editable PDF)

3. Assuming you’ve done this correctly you must mail them the document, like he said, with a stamp like a fucking caveman.

4. Behind the scenes the process is even more arcane, because again they claim they PHYSICALLY MAIL A CHECK to the new provider like fucking cavemen.

It’s really clear that this is in bad faith. Banking “innovation” is a joke in the US. I know that everyone hates crypto up in this bitch (I get it), but a little self custody would go a long way in situations like this.

Is that Alan Tudyk?