spinning_disk_engineer

This exists in Canada, and it's called jmp.chat. They use jabber, rather than simpleX, but they will optionally provide a server, which you could then bridge to your own server without needing port forwarding or anything like that.

They do take payments in monero, but for some reason you can't create an account with only monero unless you contact support first…and they don't do support by email, only phone/sms and jabber. There are public jabber servers, so it should be entirely possible, just inconvenient. They also take payment by mail, which I think includes cash.

I'm not sure the logistics of using jmp.chat outside of Canada, but I know it is somewhat possible to do in the US. Of course, there's nothing forcing you to actually be in the same area as the service, but people who live in the same area as you might question the +1 phone number, and might get charged more by their provider.

The thing is, trusted computing as a security feature isn't useless. For the particular case of phones, people generally use relatively low entropy passwords, because it's impractical to do otherwise. The Titan chip uses trusted computing technologies to ensure that an attacker with physical access cannot bruteforce the password, which it does by forcing a timeout between successive attempts. It might do other things too, this isn't my area of expertise, but (I believe) it isn't needed for the general functioning of the device, as opposed to e.g. the intel ME.

Of course, a security chip that you have the power to control would be better, and no less secure, but that doesn't exist. However, neither the OS itself not the apps directly depend on trusted computing. Otherwise GrapheneOS couldn't exist in the first place.

Note that this problem doesn't exist on desktops or laptops: it is entirely possible to memorize a passphrase around 96 bits of entropy, which is high enough that it can't practically be bruteforced, especially if the algorithm to check if it is correct is computationally slow.

So, you lost a bit of sovereignty for your phone in the interest of security, but phones aren't private to begin with: the actual modem also uses trusted computing. The devs behind GrapheneOS considered this the best solution to the problem, after weighing the pros and cons. Personally, I'd be happy to have a flip phone which has no password, and then do everything of significance (possibly including call and SMS) on my laptop. That is to say, I'd rather I didn't have to use GrapheneOS, but it's compromises align well with my own for now.

Does it count as 5 squares away if its 4 in one direction and 3 perpendicular to that?

Is there a good one for Canada in specific though? As far as I can tell the Orbic only works in the US, and as a result I'm not sure if I can trust the other devices, even if they're the same ITU region. Would the TP-Link work? The docs suggest it should work in the US as well as Europe.

Space travel in general isn't very realistic: the distances are way too short, the max speed depends on width and not mass, and you lose your speed if you stop the engines. I'm considering trying to make a mod to improve some of these things, since I couldn't find one on the portal, but I haven't got around to it yet.

I think the difference is, your phone is encrypted. In order to access any of the data, an attacker has to brute force your password (unless you left it powered on and it hasn't run out of battery yet), which means a clear security boundary that had to be broken.

Of course, banning circumvention is clearly bad in lots of other contexts (DMCA), but I think that a phone dropped in an emergency is a pretty good case. There's maybe even an argument than an unencrypted drive should be protected in that context, though I'm not sure it's my position.

Aren't AI tools supposed to be bad with adversarial examples? Someone could make an app that generates an image which (independently) appears to be you and also appears to be old enough.

I'm glad they at least tried to make an alternative to the stupid AI estimation. Even if this is hardly any better. I wonder if a VISA Debit card would pass muster, or do they have those in the UK.

Of course, the primary harm of kids not being able to use social media is also pretty significant—but there's only so much you can do when you're actually breaking the law. Except switch to dread, I guess.