u/LeadingSuspect5855

Maybe you have heard of it? A lot of services are now obligated to provide means to make sure they only let grown-ups use their service, most likely done via credit card I suppose. Discord will do exactly as I just described.

For those using Discord - there is a very good alternative: a federated app called Armada.

It is federated amongst nostr user over relay server, that share nostr messages together (acronym stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays). On top of that it uses a giftwrap protocol, that means every message is not only signed by the user, but then also encrypted), for calls and screensharing Armada uses the same service as the app "signal" does - the one that famous whistleblower Snowden recommend for daily use (instead of whatsapp).

What is this nostr anyway? Signed messages in a agreed upon format (so called NIPs, with NIP-0 being mandatory, it must be signed!) Normally if you use a web service like Reddit or Google you have to make an account and give them your credentials, mail, phonenr etc. In Nostr you don't. In fact all users sign-in but they never sign-up (NIP-7), because the initial sign-up is done at home, in a so called noster-signer program (ios/android app or browser extension), not unlike digital wallets, for those familiar with cryptomoney.

Those nostr signer extensions and apps give you an asymmetric keypair (public/private key pair) that stays on your computer and every post is signed using that pair, representing your digital identity. Any Nostr relay will accept messages coming from you, when you talk with them according to nostr protocols, they don't check whether it's you, no you signed it using a nearly unbreakable process as long quantum computer are no reality, of course it's you!

Best part: It is dead-simple to join. You install a nostr signer on your phone or if you are a keyboard-warrior like me you install a browser extension. And then you can use ANY app! Music or Video, Fileservers**,** 1001 twitter clones as long as the implement the protocol you can try them out by just telling your signer, that it is ok to communicate with that URL.

What nostr signer then?

Amber is top on android (use f-droid appstore). On PC I have the Plebeian or the Soapbox signer (browser extensions that are NIP-44 capable): both excellent, stay away from nos2x (from the designer of nostr): it works too, but it is klonky. On IOS use nostash.

So you are three klicks away from trying out nostr, will you install an extension? With it you can create quickly random keypair, which you can throw away and never use again, or stick with it like me, because it is definitely the easiest way to avoid state nor corporate censor-ship and if you use apps that implement NIP-44 (encryption), then you don't make it easy to read your messages as is the case of Armada.

the armada app is packaged for several platforms:

• you can always stick with the webbrowser: http://armada.buzz
• or use App on many Platforms, but IOS,  https://gitlab.com/soapbox-pub/armada/-/releases

Join (public invitation link) the shorthand concorde community!

https://preview.redd.it/7xgg6y11zzhh1.png?width=952&format=png&auto=webp&s=2c571f2d26f2b3fe60b4aed3cc3620ba62f47981

Maybe you have heard of it? A lot of services are now obligated to provide means to make sure they only let grown-ups use their service, most likely done via credit card I suppose. Discord will do exactly as I just described.

For those using Discord - there is a very good alternative: a federated app called Armada.

It is federated amongst nostr user over relay server, that share nostr messages together (acronym stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays). On top of that it uses a giftwrap protocol, that means every message is not only signed by the user, but then also encrypted), for calls and screensharing Armada uses the same service as the app "signal" does - the one that famous whistleblower Snowden recommend for daily use (instead of whatsapp).

What is this nostr anyway? Signed messages in a agreed upon format (so called NIPs, with NIP-0 being mandatory, it must be signed!) Normally if you use a web service like Reddit or Google you have to make an account and give them your credentials, mail, phonenr etc. In Nostr you don't. In fact all users sign-in but they never sign-up (NIP-7), because the initial sign-up is done at home, in a so called noster-signer program (ios/android app or browser extension), not unlike digital wallets, for those familiar with cryptomoney.

Those nostr signer extensions and apps give you an asymmetric keypair (public/private key pair) that stays on your computer and every post is signed using that pair, representing your digital identity. Any Nostr relay will accept messages coming from you, when you talk with them according to nostr protocols, they don't check whether it's you, no you signed it using a nearly unbreakable process as long quantum computer are no reality, of course it's you!

Best part: It is dead-simple to join. You install a nostr signer on your phone or if you are a keyboard-warrior like me you install a browser extension. And then you can use ANY app! Music or Video, Fileservers**,** 1001 twitter clones as long as the implement the protocol you can try them out by just telling your signer, that it is ok to communicate with that URL.

What nostr signer then?

Amber is top on android (use f-droid appstore). On PC I have the Plebeian or the Soapbox signer (browser extensions that are NIP-44 capable): both excellent, stay away from nos2x (from the designer of nostr): it works too, but it is klonky. On IOS use nostash.

So you are three klicks away from trying out nostr, will you install an extension? With it you can create quickly random keypair, which you can throw away and never use again, or stick with it like me, because it is definitely the easiest way to avoid state nor corporate censor-ship and if you use apps that implement NIP-44 (encryption), then you don't make it easy to read your messages as is the case of Armada.

Join (public invitation link) the shorthand concorde community!

https://preview.redd.it/wiygicmwvyhh1.png?width=952&format=png&auto=webp&s=66d36b746dc353462a6fff71bd1c4622a9342d82

Shorthand aficionados like us know it for a long time, that cutting unnecessary vowels and stripping the silent and unnecessary double letters is a nobrainer and this very simple Orthography Reform (thanks u/fdarnel to bring it to my attention), does just that (and gives you a browser extension to get used to, when surfing online). Why should orthography still be dominated by Norman French rule and why should orthography be made by typesetters from belgium, that were paid by length :-)

One specific rule to exemplify how cutspell works: unstressed vowels before l,m,n,r (e.g. symbol » symbl, lemon » lemn, permanent » permnnt, churches -» churchs, edible » edbl.

Cutspell in Action

Modrn English spelng developd from about 1350 onwards, wen—aftr thre centuris of Norman French rule—English graduly became th oficial languaj of England again, altho very difrnt from befor 1066, havng incorporated many words of French orijn (batl, beef, butn, etc.). Erly riters of this new English, such as Chaucer, gave it a fairly consistnt spelng systm, but this was soon diluted by th Chancery clerks ho re-spelt words based on French orthography. English spelng consistency was dealt a furthr blo wen Caxton brot th printng press to London in 1476. Havng lived on th Contnnt for th preceding 30 years, his grasp of th English spelng systm had becom uncertn. Th Belgian asistnts he brot with him to help him set up his busness had an even poorer comand of it. As printng developd, difrnt printers began to develop individul prefrnces or “house styls”. Furthrmor, typ-setters wer paid by th line and wer fond of making words longr. Howevr, th bigst undermining of English spelng consistency occurred between 1525, wen William Tyndale first translated th New Testament, and 1539, wen King Henry VIII legalized th printng of English bibles in England. Th many editions of these bibles wer al printed outside England by peple ho spoke litl or no English. They ofn chanjed spellings to mach ther Dutch orthography. Exampls include th silent h in gost (to mach Dutch gheest, wich later became geest), aghast, ghastly and gherkin. Th silent h in othr words—such as ghospel, ghossip and ghizzard—was later removed.

Pure, raw energy that crackles throughout and sometimes practically explodes, taking possession of the crowd and the dancer alike! I have never seen something better!

Two clients already available:

Armada - https://armada.buzz

Accordion - https://accordion.chat