THE WRITER MUST EAT -> patreon.com/trn1ty <- | \ | | blah! |\ | `\|\ | the rantings and ravings |/ |(_|| | * of a depraved lunatic <^> 2022-07-06 Duo, most lingual I today managed to bring my Duolingo "streak" (being a marker of how many days in a row I've used the app) to 14 - two whole weeks. Duolingo is proprietary software and not even very good for accurate language learning but I enjoy it. I have a new phone: the Punkt MP-02. I purchased it from monado for $180 with shipping which is a good deal on the manufacturer price of $379 (seriously). I couldn't recommend this phone to anyone. The "Pigeon" Signal messenger client, which is a direct fork of SignalApp's official Android app, is a poor experience that so far has been unuseable for me and is far out of date from the current application. You can see for yourself the source code for Pigeon, which legally has to be provided by Punkt as requested as per the terms of the GNU Public License under which the original Signal app is allowed to be modified and distributed. Six git commits change a hundred thousand lines of code put together and the commit names aren't really relevant to the changes - which makes me think this was a hasty legal compliance rather than any actual development of Pigeon in the open. This repository is available here: <https://github.com/Punkt-Tronics-AG/Pigeon> I planned to modify the client to make it work for my uses but learned this phone uses Android (based on the Android "Open-Source" Project) which is based on archaic Java technology, and indeed Pigeon is written in Java. Setting up the build environment isn't worth my time - I would just use the official app but it isn't useable [without modification]. From the official Pigeon manual, available here: <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 unkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%20Pigeon%20User% 20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf> (I took the liberty of adding actual hyperlinks because the URLs are so long they wrap lines. The Internet Archive link is there because I expect Punkt to eventually get rid of and bury Pigeon when they're embarrassed enough.) >When the request is received by Signal, there may >be a requirement to negotiate a 'Captcha' test in >order to demonstrate that it is a bona fide >registration attempt. The test requires the >registrant to select from a range of images, >according to a specific instruction. Use the 2, 4, 6 >and 8 numerical keys to a) locate all the images >that have been sent (not all will be visible on the >screen at once) and b) highlight an individual >image so that it can be selected by pressing the >Punkt. key (or the 5 key). If the images fail to load, >press the 0 key to refresh. (This can also be done if >a 4x4 image test is loading; there is a possibility >that the replacement will be the easier 3x3 format.) >When all the required images have been selected, >press the 6 and 8 keys to move down to highlight >what may either be 'Verify' or 'Continue' >(depending on which version of the Captcha test >has been sent) and press the Punkt. key This is verbatim from page 7 (item 6 in "Installing the software and registering with Signal"). In practice the items are not highlighted (so you have to remember where your cursor is - hopefully your keypad keys are responsive, which is an uncommon but recurring issue with many of the phones) and maybe half of the images show up because the phone doesn't have enough memory. So getting through Google's ReCAPTCHA requires a lot of effort and usually at least three tries. I should know. I've done this half a dozen times trying to use Signal. Even when I get through it won't even connect to the network! I've given up. Damn Pigeon and damn Punkt for making this the selling point of their phone. I have other complaints but I'm going to go to sleep again and save them for another, grumpier time. <^> No rights reserved, all rights exercised, rights turned to lefts, left in this corner of the web.