Hacktivismo launches ScatterChat 121
un1xl0ser writes to tell us Hacktivismo has released a new chat program known as ScatterChat. It is a friendly fork of GAIM that "provides end-to-end encryption, integrated onion-routing with Tor, secure file transfers, and easy-to-read documentation." This announcement was made at HOPE, where CDs were distributed. A torrent and several screenshots are also available."
Not as plugin(s)? (Score:5, Interesting)
Gaim is quite modular and allows plugins to do a lot. The base Gaim with no plugins supports zero IM protocols and does not even show a system tray icon. (It comes with those plugins.) Why could this not have been implemented as a plugin? I already have twoend-to-end encryption plugins installed (gaim-encryption and gaim-otr). I would not expect secure file transfers to be difficult to do as a plugin. Really, I am just not sure about TOR, but that should be submitted as a patch to the offical Gaim source tree (or, at least a patch for a way for plugins to add proxy options).
I've got the CD (Score:4, Interesting)
One small concern (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't often flame people who do this kind of work. On the contrary, I admire, support and participate in online activism in places where dissent can be uncomfortable, to say the least. I'm normally the first to applaud and embrace these technologies. BUT:
I hope their code is better than their understanding of HTML. Their User's Guide [scatterchat.com] goes miles out of its way to break basic web functionality. It's like they're punishing the reader for not choosing PDF in the first place.
Seriously, this is more than a nitpick. If I'm going to trust these folks with information important - possibly dangerous - enough that I have a serious need to protect it, then for heaven's sake I want to know that they know what they're doing. I mean, honestly, this is emphatically not the place where anyone should tolerate hand-waving and pooh-poohing of 'minor' details.
In their own words:
If you really mean this, don't you think you should fix your documentation?
I made something like this about a year ago... (Score:5, Interesting)
It is more like jabber. It uses
Re:What About Semaphore? (Score:2, Interesting)
Lots of people use OTR or other IM-encryption to keep their local net nazis from showing up at their desk because they said "b00bs" in an IM conversation with a friend. I'm not particularly worried about the government; in spite of being a political radical, I really don't present much of a threat. The local yokels, on the other hand, are positively *dying* for an opportunity to prove the value of their hand-dandy new sniffer.
Re:So basically, it's gaim-encryption and tor (Score:1, Interesting)