Signal

Today I set up a Signal account on my phone. It was interesting to read the following from this source:

... what most people don’t realise is that Signal “phone numbers” are not really phone numbers. They are more like numeric user names.

Contrary to popular belief, your Signal account is not linked to your phone number, but rather to an automatically generated number called a private key. In order to make the app easy to use, this private key or cryptographic identity is then associated with some arbitrary other number that again, for convenience’s sake, just happens to be a phone number. The reason it’s a phone number is so that the Signal service can send you a verification code in a text message during the sign-up and account registration process. But there’s no reason you have to give Signal your real phone number.

By providing Signal with any phone number at which you can receive an SMS or text message, you can register a Signal account at that other phone number. For example, you can create a pseudonymous Google account, register a Google Voice VoIP number, and use that as your Signal number. Or you can even use a free throw-away SMS account and use that number when you sign up for your Signal account instead of your real phone number. The Signal service will happily send the throw-away number a text message with the verification code, letting you complete the account sign-up process.

I had tried to register using my Australian Skype number only to find out that such numbers can't receive an SMS. This was news to me and so I promptly cancelled my Skype number. The reference above to Google Voice VoIP number caught my attention but that's currently only available in the USA. 

Here is some more information about Signal:

For the past few days, WhatsApp is hitting the headlines as it is updating its terms of use and privacy policy. As it appears to be a concern for many, people are talking about the alternatives to WhatsApp. One of the most secure options available out there is Signal. Well, WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app that comes with features such as end-to-end encryption, video and voice calling support, simplified file transfer in just a single click and much more. However, it is not the only one offering such capabilities to users. There are a slew of messaging apps such as Telegram, Line, iMessage and more that provide similar benefits. 

Having said that Signal is a secure alternative to WhatsApp, let's take a look at the details of the app. 

What Is Signal? 

Signal is a messaging app with a great focus on privacy. Its tagline is 'Say Hello to Privacy'. It is an end-to-end encrypted service just like WhatsApp. Signal is available on Android, iOS and Chrome platforms. It is free of cost and comes with same features as any other messenger apps. While it exists for quite some time, the app has gained traction since the recent privacy policy change announced by WhatsApp. It received too much influx from new registrations across the world and crashed. Now, Signal is back in action and it accepts new registrations.  

Who Owns Signal? 

Signal was developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC and it is a non-profit company. Signal was created by Moxie Marlinspike, American cryptographer and currently CEO of Signal Messenger and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton. 

Which Country Does Signal Belong To? 

The Signal app's origin is California, USA. This rules out the confusion that many might have as it is speculated to be a Chinese company. Notably, the company has been termed Limited Liability Partnership. 

Is Signal Safe? What Data Does It Collect? 

While WhatsApp and many other instant messaging apps collect a lot of user data from your device such as performance data, device ID, advertising data, product interaction, payment info, location data, search history and more, Signal is claimed to be a secure app. We say so as the app does not collect any user data. It is claimed that Signal will ask only for your mobile number for registration. Apart from this, the app won't ask you to link your number to your user account.

Read more at: https://www.gizbot.com/apps/news/signal-messaging-app-who-owns-signal-which-country-does-telegram-belong-to-071992.html

Now what about Moxie Marlinspike whose real name is Matthew Rosenberg? Here is a link to a profile of the man. He is Jewish but I don't know if he has dual nationality (with Israel). The reality is that no United States software developer is allowed to rise to prominence if they don't acquiesce to the installation of NSA backdoors in the software. The richest man in the world recommending Signal should be a signal in itself that something's not right here. It's as if we are all being herded toward Signal but any hope of genuine privacy is a forlorn hope. End-to-end encryption of communications is not the future that is being planned for us. This article explores the issue in more depth.

Hand Idioms

I write an article now and then, just to keep my hand in.The Cambridge Dictionary had a useful blog post on January 6th 2021 relating to idioms that involved the word hand. Here are examples of the phrases that were described:

• Like all parents, I want to know that my child is in good hands.
  
  
• The new director is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands.
  
  
• We’ve got to do something to calm these kids down or we’re going to have a riot on our hands!
  
  
• Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about the matter now. It’s out of my hands.
  
  
• I thought I might try my hand at baking.
  
  
• Bored with journalism, he’s now hoping to turn his hand to politics.
  
  
• Just think of the suffering that animals endure at the hands of humans.
  
  
• We can’t ask Tom to help out. He’s got his hands full setting up the cafe.
  
  
• I mean, I’ll put my hands up. I’m not always the best at helping around the house.
  
  
• Suddenly, everyone wanted to buy their products and they were making money hand over fist.
  
  
• If you played her at tennis, you’d win hands down! 
  

I'd thought I'd add a few more to the list, not necessarily idioms but also aphorisms and compound words. Here they are:

• 
  The family was so poor that all the younger daughter's clothes were hand-me-downs from her older sister.
  
  
• The extra manpower ensured the project was completed on time. It was a classic case of many hands make light work.
  
  
• The two rivals agreed to discard their swords and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
  
  
• In golf, Ben has a handicap of twenty two.
  
  
• All Saul's business dealings were underhand and shady.
  
  
• This burglary is the handiwork of a professional.
  
  
• He's a real handy-andy when it comes to repairs around the house.
  
  
• "Why, you don't look your age at all!" came Gladys's deliberately back-handed compliment (or left-handed compliment).
  
  
• It's in God's hand now, there nothing we can do.
  
  
• Because of his former hubris, Alex blamed the hand of God for his accident.
  
  
• The family had little money and led a hand to mouth existence most of the time.
  
  
• He was caught with his hand in the till so to speak when discovered rifling through the pockets of coats that were hanging near the entrance to the house.
  
  
• Joe Biden is a hands-on type of guy where young girls are concerned.
  
  
• Life had dealt him a seemingly bad hand and so he was always disgruntled.
  
  
• "Look, hand on heart, I don't know anybody called Gemma", said my boyfriend.
  
  
• The nurse's hand-off at the end of her shift was rather long-winded. It seemed as if she didn't want to leave the ward.
  
  
• The handover of power following Trump's electoral defeat has not gone smoothly.
  
  
• "All assignments must be handed in by Wednesday", said the lecturer.
  
  
• 
  It was interesting to hear a first hand account of what had happened from an eyewitness. 
  
  
• Some of the guests drank too much and suddenly things got out of hand.
  
  
• I got the news second hand from my friend who knows somebody who was there.
  
  
• Information received third hand should not be counted on as reliable.
  
  
• "He wouldn't do anything like that. I know him like the back of my hand", said my friend reassuringly.
  
  
• Do you have anything on hand could serve as a leash for our dog?
  
  
• He was very off-hand in his reply to my question and this annoyed me.
  
  
• Can you give me a hand? I can't lift this by myself.
  
  
• If you want to succeed in politics, you'll have to get your hands dirty.
  
  
• The censorship was rather heavy-handed and there was an inevitable backlash.
  
  
• His wife waited on him hand and foot but he was never appreciative.
  
  
• I've washed my hands of the whole, sordid business.
  
  
• You take your life in your hands when you drive with him.
  
  
• If the police don't do something soon, I'm going to take the law into my own hands.
  
  
• The artefact was made by hand, there was no machining applied at all.
  
  

Pinterest is a good source of visual material illustrating many of these idioms. Figures 1 and 2 show two examples:

Figure 1

Figure 2

Indonesian Vocabulary: Present for the Missus

I watched a YouTube video containing spoken Indonesian in an effort to improve my listening ability. Below is the dialog relating to the purchase of a necklace together with my commentary.

Seorang laki-laki sedang mencari hadiah ulang tahun untuk istrinya di toko perhiasan. A man is looking for a birthday present for his wife in a jewelry shop.

I was unfamiliar with perhiasan meaning jewelery but also embellishment and adornment. However, the term toko perhiasan is reserved for a jewelry shop. Words related words to perhiasan are:

• perhiasan emas --> gold jewelry
• hias --> ornamental or decorative
• hiasan --> decoration
• hiasan dinding --> wall decoration
• hiasan natal --> Christmas decoration
• hiasan kepala --> head accessories

Kalung yang mana yang akan dibelinya? Which necklace will he buy? Literally, which necklace will be bought by him? 

 

I need to remember that yang mana means which one, something I knew but when listening it's easy to get confused. The word kalung meaning necklace I didn't know.

Ada yang bisa saya bantu? May I help you? Literally, is there anything I can help with? Saya sedang mencari hadiah ulang tahun untuk istri saya I'm looking for a birthday present for my wife. Apa saran kamu? What do you recommend. Literally, what (is) your suggestion? Nah, bagaimana dengan kalung ini? Well, what about this necklace?

It should be noted that here nah means well and not no as in English. Importantly, bagaimana dengan means what about which is a basic phrase to remember.

Hmm, kelihatannya terlalu panjang. Hmm, it looks a little too long. Bagaimana dengan ini? What about this? Kamu memiliki satu dengan liontin bunga dan satu lain dengan hati. We have one with a flower pendant and another one with a heart.

I wasn't aware that liontin meant pendant.

Saya mencari sesuatu yang lebih berkelas.  I'm looking for something a bit more sophisticated.

Whereas kelas just means class, berkelas means classy or sophisticated.

Berapa harga kalung mutiara itu? How much is that pearl necklace? Ini tigah jutah rupiah. It's three million rupiah. Hmmm, itu terlalu mahal. Hmmm, that's too expensive. Baiklah, saya akan ambil yang pertama. Okay, I'll take the first one. Boleh. Silahkan. Sure thing. Here you are.

Let's summarise the words and phrases to remember from what was said above:

• toko perhiasan - jewelry shop
• yang mana - which one
• kalung - necklace
• nah - well
• bagaimana dengan - what about
• liontin - pendant
• berkelas - sophisticated

The Spider Walk

I watched this YouTube video a couple of days ago from creativeguitarstudio.com that hosts an accompanying blog post whose author is Andrew Wasson. I hadn't visited this guy's channel before but the video, posted on September 1st 2019, has garnered nearly three million views so I figured it was worth watching.

To quote from the blog site:

The Spider Walk exercise is one of the most challenging finger studies known to guitar players. But, one of the problems with learning it is that this exercise is rarely ever shown to students correctly. In this post we're going to explain the proper way to study the Spider Walk and we'll discuss the benefits that it can provide within just 30 days of practice.

He begins with what he calls the "fixed finger approach". See Figure 1.

Figure 1

The accompanying comments are:

Keep the fingers "glued" to the neck, moving only one finger at a time onto the next adjacent guitar string. As you perform the exercise, be sure not to even flinch any of the other fingers from their fretted placement within the position.

He then goes on to what he calls the "single string" exercise. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

He has been posting on his blog since August 2009 with the following yearly totals:

• 2009 --> 35 posts
• 2010 --> 20 posts
• 2011 --> no posts
• 2012 --> no posts
• 2013 --> 278 posts
• 2014 --> 484 posts
• 2015 --> 498 posts
• 2016 --> 427 posts
• 2017 --> 322 posts
• 2018 --> 162 posts
• 2019 --> 121 posts
• 2020 --> 104 posts

Despite starting in 2009 and continuing into 2010, he had a hiatus of two years and then began in earnest. His phenomenal output for a three year period from 2014 to 2016 averaged more than one post per day. He output has been declining steadily ever since but even his 2020 output of 104 posts is impressive and averages exactly two posts per week. By comparison, my Mathematics blog is the blog to which I make the most posts and my record is 68 posts in both 2018 and 2020.

Andrew Wasson has another site, http://www.andrewwasson.com, that dates back to May 2010 but he says that "as of June 24, 2016, YouTube lesson Handouts are posted in the members area of CreativeGuitarStudio.com." Previously I've subscribed to the following YouTube guitar training or guitar playing channels:

• Paul Davids
• Rick Beato
• Mark Cirillo
• Guitar Jamz
• EricBlackmonGuitar
• Guitarist
• James Bartholomew
• LickNRiff
• Mary Spender
• Nail Guitar - Song Lessons
• Sammy Copley
• Tatyana Ryzhkova
• Walter Rodrigues Jr.
• John Fogerty

Of these channels, it's LickNRiff that I've viewed the most times. He has over half a million subscribers and his videos are both entertaining and instructive. I'm making this post in an effort to reinforce one of my New Year resolutions which was to improve the standard of my guitar playing. One last thing is that was mentioned in the Spider Walk video was the use of an online metronome that is available at this site for free.