why do people still use old ass communication methods

Personally, I always thought most people moved on from Teamspeak for several years now, and migrated to Skype or WhatsApp. At least, all my friends have. Teamspeak seems to have had its day, and is still in use for some things. Like, my guild for ESO used Teamspeak. I wondered if they were a much older crowd, purely because they used it. Could be wrong, I never asked ages since I never give mine.

I actually know someone that still uses AOL, but not AIM. I was kind of floored when I found out. I've long stopped using ICQ (2008?). I only ever used it for UO anyway.

Aye, I'll never use skype after seeing everything it does in the background.

It's kinda like playing a game with X-fire running in the background . Steams also not the greatest either. I won't skype for in game chatting. Teamspeak is just for me I guess.

Then maybe pretty much every physicist in the world needs to learn a bit more about the information that Edward Snowden and Glen Greenwald have released regarding the NSA and the surveillance grid:

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FWIW, TeamSpeak is still very popular in games that require large numbers of concurrent users.

In GW2's world vs world vs world ("realm vs realm" fights), before Anet screwed the pooch with their recent HoT expansion, it was common in higher tiers to have 50+ players in a channel following a commander during large 50vs50 fights. In these kinds of fights, quick and precise movement and the ability to react to the commander's directions (and stay on them) is vital to winning the fight.

TS is the superior VOIP client in this regard when compared to Skype (and other VOIP clients) for many reasons, including that it allows for interchannel chat between designated individuals. Allowing commanders on one map to communicate with leaders on another map was extremely useful because one commander could tell another that an important structure was in peril, or that an enemy zerg had moved to the other map, so if Commander A wanted fights, they'd have to move to the map where Commander B was to meet the enemy that had moved there (or was attacking a key structure).

Mumble, for all of its positives, does not offer the same kind of customized chat settings between a small subset of its users. Both, however, far exceed Skype's ability to host concurrent streams of users and their set up tends to funnel players toward Push-To-Talk setting or even a voice activated hot mic setting which, from my experience, is a million times better than what I've seen happen when multiple Skype users are all on the same conference call with hot mics and enormous amounts of background noise and cringe-inducing mouth-breathing (maybe this is not as much of a problem now... I haven't used Skype for a long time).

When it comes to security matters, I would guess Mumble is the best out of all of them (because it is Open Source and the code is out there are attainable by the broader community, so it's more likely that the userbase and IT security experts could detect built-in backdoors and other problems that proprietary platforms like Skype hide away from general view).

This is debatable though, and in all fairness, all bets about what is "secure" and what isn't are off after revelations broke in 2013 and 2014 about the NSA working to weaken and exploit various encryption protocols (including the SSL protocol, https, and potentially using a flaw in the OpenSSL protocol to their advantage).

While avoiding voluntarily spying on oneself like Facebook and Skype might be useful, it's really a brave new world out there in the realms of cybersecurity/surveillance and there truly is very little grounds to believe any such thing as "privacy" exists online or otherwise. Using ANY kind of proprietary service and expecting decent encryption/data security is foolish, however (especially so considering the above revelations about the NSA placing operatives on cybersecurity teams and corporate boards in major tech companies and literally bribing said commercial companies and IT firms to weaken their security and encryption protocols).

IDK where I'm going with all of this. Mostly wanted to point out that TS and other robust voice clients still have their place (especially in games where large scale battles and grouping takes place), and that Skype (like every other major service owned by a major company) is anything but secure. Heck, even Google was creeped out and angered by the extent by which the NSA was circumventing encryption (pot meet kettle) and they went to great lengths to secure their data centers in light of the info that the NSA had been tapping into them (and Yahoo's, and others...).

Seriously though, if some of the world's physicists who are concerned about encryption are even using Windows, or anything proprietary, they have no chance to survive... make your time. Even with Linux and open-source everything, I still suspect that eventually, All Your Base Will Belong to U.S.



P.S. it's not just privacy concerns for political or social reasons. There are indications the data collected from the surveillance grid is used for industrial espionage (including compromising secret marketing plans, technical documents/information, proprietary algorithms, etc.). From the TSA/DHS confiscating laptops and copying their hard drives, stealing trade secrets/etc. (which is why many companies won't send employees through the U.S. when they travel, or if they must, they cannot take laptops/etc with sensitive data on it anymore), to the dragnet surveillance of various forms of communication that extends well beyond the domestic USA and its various intelligence agencies, privacy is a thing of the past.

P.P.S. (recent stuff that's tangentially related to the above ranting, with ties to the Paris attacks):

Carnegie Mellon Denies FBI Paid for Tor-Breaking Research | WIRED

Tor is getting a major security upgrade | ExtremeTech

Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack

Intelligence agencies pounce on Paris attacks to pursue spy agenda | Trevor Timm | Comment is free | The Guardian

After Endless Demonization Of Encryption, Police Find Paris Attackers Coordinated Via Unencrypted SMS - techdirt

U.S. Mass Surveillance Has No Record of Thwarting Large Terror Attacks, Regardless of Snowden Leaks

Speaking of security issues, the US national laboratories did not get Windows 8 for their PCs. They stayed with Win7 because of all the spyware in 8. Plus Win10 is the WORST EVER for spyware/backdoors etc. Free?

My husband watched Snowden's documentary, Citizenfour, just last night, for free. I didn't watch it with him because it was dubbed German. I know some German, but not that complex.

Whilst I'm a believer in freedom and against what is happening and the lack of transparency / degradation of democracy, Snowden is a traitor and A grade piece of shit.

He has a lot of blood on his hands

And the soldiers who die?

fuck cal

you hate soldiers too?