Monthly Archives: February 2022

Discord phishing attempts are getting ridiculous

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I am now at the point where I get messages from people I have never met on Discord every day. The platform is a great breeding ground for phishing and scams and the company isn’t really doing anything about it.

I was just messaged by another person wanting me to “test their game”. They always follow the same pattern, asking the same things in order:

  • “Hi”
  • “How are you today?”
  • “Can I ask you a question?”
  • “Will you test my game?”

At that point I either outright block them or tell them off. Once you mention “token” they know that you’re completely aware of the scheme and won’t try any further.

Last week I talked to somebody for around 2 hours and only then I realized that they were trying to get my account. We talked about games, movies and other stuff and then they tried to get me to enter my account credentials on their weird phishing form site. I am absolutely tired of it.

I also use Discord for work and I think I just have to make it clear to everybody not to contact me through Discord anymore, but just through e-mail. It’s such a waste of time for me to try and discern who is a scammer and who isn’t.

I honestly am not a big fan of Discord anymore. The platform has been degrading in quality for years and is ready to be replaced by something else. I wish we could just all return to IRCs honestly.

Goodbye, LastPass

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(this is not a sponsored article, I wish it was)

I have just officially ditched LastPass for Bitwarden. As a Software Developer I always advocate the use of password managers to everybody and I think with Bitwarden I have found the perfect one.

I originally started with Dashlane in 2016 and then switched to LastPass around 2019, mainly since LastPass allowed me to sync my passwords across devices for free. However, around a year ago LastPass updated their pricing model to force users to pay for device sync as well. Originally, I caved and simply paid for the subscription. I was pretty much happy with LastPass so I thought well, whatever.

Today my LastPass subscription expired and I did not renew it. A friend has told me about Bitwarden a while ago but I never took the time to take a look at it, until I got a reason to just now.

Bitwarden immediately has a great argument with the sheer amount of clients available. Browser extensions, desktop clients, mobile clients, command line interfaces, a web app. Bitwarden is pretty much available anywhere with an internet connection. I downloaded the Windows client, the Chrome extension and the iOS app for my setup.

Bitwarden also has an amazing import tool. After exporting a csv file from LastPass I could simply upload it to Bitwarden and specifically select that the format was coming from LastPass. Bitwarden accepted the file perfectly and I had no hiccups when importing. I remember that my move from Dashlane to LastPass was very complicated since there was no format standardization.

The iOS app also seems very good. It’s compatible with the iOS password autofill, allows me to use Face ID for unlocking and has free autosync.

So far this seems like the perfect password manager and the best thing of all: It does not cost me a cent. Bitwarden is also fully open-source which surprised me.

I will never accept digital video games

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So the 3DS and Wii U Nintendo eShops are shutting down and of course I’m mad about it, and not just because I only bought a Wii U last year.

I was sort-of ok with the Wii Shop Channel shutting down in 2019 because most of the big titles of interest were available on other platforms, especially the Wii U Nintendo eShop. A lot of WiiWare titles are pretty much lost now which really stinks, though.

The Wii U and 3DS are pretty much the prime method for playing classic Nintendo games. I have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription but only because I want to play games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online, not because of the NES games on the service. Plus, I will never cave and buy the Expansion Pack for N64 games, but that’s a different story. I prefer buying the game I want and just having it over the monthly or annual subscription. On top of that, NSO is missing a huge number of games which are more accessible on Wii U and 3DS so they really are the platform you want to go with for older titles.

There’s also digital-only content which will soon be lost. Just today I remembered Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation which was the digital-only DLC/third route for Fire Emblem Fates on Nintendo 3DS. That’s something else that will soon be gone. In 2020 I was considering picking up the Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition on eBay for around 150 euros and I kind of regret not doing it now. (If you don’t know: There was a Special Edition released for Fire Emblem Fates which had all the routes on one cartridge and I assume it is going to absolutely explode in price very soon.)

It seems like every time Nintendo does something right they have to ruin it for me. We got an absolute amazing Nintendo Direct earlier this month with a ton of big JRPG announcements and now they’re killing the 3DS and Wii U eShops way too early. Is it because maintenance cost is not profitable or is it because they’re trying to push NSO? I don’t know. What I do know is that the number of hacked 3DS and Wii U units out there is probably rising right now.

I hope Nintendo ports Xenoblade Chronicles X, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD to Nintendo Switch this year since these are the only major titles not on Nintendo Switch. Either way this situation is kind of forcing me to go through the eShop and pick up anything I might want before I can never get it again. Maybe this was also part of the reason Nintendo did it? Scaring people into buying your products might not be the best business practice …

This entire situation once again confirms to me that digital-only games are not a replacement to physical games and, at least to me, they never will be. I am ok with having a few games digitally but around 90% of my collection will always be physical.