Nostr Web Client

It's interesting to see such a mixed bag from someone claiming to be an independent thinker.

I agree with most of what they wrote, but there are also so glaring problems.

I agree with the editor's choice of omitting what are essentially personal attacks. In the case near the end, about growing food, it didn't even seem relevant to the points being made.

Next, hacking and 2600 in particular, has always been political. From the issue of being able yo hook up you're own equipment to the phone lines in yhe 80s to, PGP debate in the 90s, to protesting Carnivore and Echelon, or opposing the corporate big data collection and exploitation.

Many of the sources of information they suggested block Tor, which is especially ironic since the author specifically suggested using Tor.

Perhaps more importantly, Zerohedge in particilar tracks SO MUCH of their readers' data and sells it to SO MANY people, it boggles the mind. It should be clear to any free thinker that they are going to say outrageous things to get clicks so they can sell the information they harvest. This is the exact type of exploitation that the author is accusing the mainstream media of doing (and I don't disagree, they have an incentive to do whatever sells).

ShadowStats at least seems good on the privacy front, and the content looked reasonable at a glance, but I have not dug into it in any detail to figure out if I can trust them.

I couldn't get to most of the other sites on account of blocking Tor.

Also, the article was too long. The same points could have been made much more succinctly. At a minimum it would have made sense to break them up into more focused pieces.

I understand the author's decision to not debate the topic with trolls, but I would hope they do not shrink from legitimate debate. I guess time will tell.

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Delta Charlie 2y ago

Thanks for the well thought out input. I'll try to comment in the order you wrote them.

The personal "attacks" were intentional because 2600 operates under the authoritarian dictatorship of one person.

Growing food is an act of self-reliance, which aligns with my own personal philosophy, but more importantly rebels against government grown and controlled resources, like food.

Hacking can be politically motivated. But a hacker magazine should focus on simply hacking the technology, not the reasons the politically motivated hacker is doing it.

I do suggest Tor, but there are many other ways to be private even in the clear web.

Zerohedge can be used with proper privacy and security practices, so the data tracked is garbage anyway. The essence if that point is Zerohedge goes against the grain with what they report. The fact that they track the users isn't something I agree with, but the users are smart enough not to be tracked. The content is still good.

Shadowstats is about understanding the theft the government performs by debasing the currency, and the lies they tell the Americans. Privacy practice can be applied here too.

Using Tor is only one way. Firefox can be hardened, a VPN can be used, and the clear web can be browsed privately. The situation will dictate.

The article was meant to be long. I received direct emails from readers of the print magazine with much support. The reason it was one long article was because it is a quarterly magazine, and your article gets printed in the next next issue, so 6 months later.

I have had legitimate debate. The magazine actively censors, so the debate wasn't really a debate, rather an orchestrated propaganda campaign crafted to appear as a debate. See the letters section, and the following printed issue. Also, not all my responses get printed in the magazine because they censor.

If you'd like to schedule a call, I'd be glad to elaborate on everything. You can even make a podcast out of it. Thank you for the well thought out responses.