2022-07-06
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				@ -16,6 +16,78 @@ ideas' witlessness;
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ideas' witnesses;
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ideas-
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2022-07-06
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	Duo, most lingual
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	I today managed to bring my Duolingo "streak" (being a marker of how
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many days in a row I've used the app) to 14 - two whole weeks. Duolingo is
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proprietary software and not even very good for accurate language learning but
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I enjoy it.
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	I have a new phone: the Punkt MP-02. I purchased it from monado for
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$180 with shipping which is a good deal on the manufacturer price of $379
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(seriously). I couldn't recommend this phone to anyone.
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	The "Pigeon" Signal messenger client, which is a direct fork of
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SignalApp's official Android app, is a poor experience that so far has been
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unuseable for me and is far out of date from the current application. You can
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see for yourself the source code for Pigeon, which legally has to be provided
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by Punkt as requested as per the terms of the GNU Public License under which
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the original Signal app is allowed to be modified and distributed. Six git
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commits change a hundred thousand lines of code put together and the commit
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names aren't really relevant to the changes - which makes me think this was a
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hasty legal compliance rather than any actual development of Pigeon in the
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open. This repository is available here:
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		<https://github.com/Punkt-Tronics-AG/Pigeon>
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	I planned to modify the client to make it work for my uses but learned
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this phone uses Android (based on the Android "Open-Source" Project) which is
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based on archaic Java technology, and indeed Pigeon is written in Java. Setting
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up the build environment isn't worth my time - I would just use the official
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app but it isn't useable [without modification]. From the official Pigeon
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manual, available here:
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		<<A HREF="https://www.punkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%20Pigeon%20User%20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf">https://www.punkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%
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		 20Pigeon%20User%20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf</A>>
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		<<A HREF="https://web.archive.org/web/20220707011516if_/https://www.punkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%20Pigeon%20User%20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf">https://web.archive.org/web/20220707011516if_/https://www.p
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		 unkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%20Pigeon%20User%
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		 20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf</A>>
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(I took the liberty of adding actual hyperlinks because the URLs are so long
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 they wrap lines. The Internet Archive link is there because I expect Punkt to
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 eventually get rid of and bury Pigeon when they're embarrassed enough.)
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>When the request is received by Signal, there may
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>be a requirement to negotiate a 'Captcha' test in
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>order to demonstrate that it is a bona fide
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>registration attempt. The test requires the
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>registrant to select from a range of images,
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>according to a specific instruction. Use the 2, 4, 6
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>and 8 numerical keys to a) locate all the images
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>that have been sent (not all will be visible on the
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>screen at once) and b) highlight an individual
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>image so that it can be selected by pressing the
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>Punkt. key (or the 5 key). If the images fail to load,
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>press the 0 key to refresh. (This can also be done if
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>a 4x4 image test is loading; there is a possibility
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>that the replacement will be the easier 3x3 format.)
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>When all the required images have been selected,
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>press the 6 and 8 keys to move down to highlight
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>what may either be 'Verify' or 'Continue'
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>(depending on which version of the Captcha test
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>has been sent) and press the Punkt. key
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This is verbatim from page 7 (item 6 in "Installing the software and
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registering with Signal"). In practice the items are not highlighted (so you
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have to remember where your cursor is - hopefully your keypad keys are
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responsive, which is an uncommon but recurring issue with many of the phones)
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and maybe half of the images show up because the phone doesn't have enough
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memory. So getting through Google's ReCAPTCHA requires a lot of effort and
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usually at least three tries.
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	I should know. I've done this half a dozen times trying to use Signal.
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Even when I get through it won't even connect to the network! I've given up.
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Damn Pigeon and damn Punkt for making this the selling point of their phone.
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I have other complaints but I'm going to go to sleep again and save them for
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another, grumpier time.
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2022-06-30
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	O, posts unwritten
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