Damnit! I’ve been using it wrong the whole time!

Where’s the crowd? Are they all on strike?

Wonder if this has anything to do with windows telling me there was a problem with my Microsoft account, then making a mockery of the reset process.

Now we find out if linking all of the software into a single user id/ password on the Microsoft services was such a good idea.

Oh, and I can’t pay you up front, but you may use me as a reference for any future opportunities you may have.

Like my USB mouse working with any computer, I used to be able to pick up a phone and text anyone on the planet without having to check which app they’re on. Sure there are the ‘de facto’ apps, but these vary by country and social group. The reason for the proliferation of the third party apps lies squarely on the proprietary, ckosed protocols by each of them and viral growth during the early days when the telcos were still figuring out data-based text and voice - players were playing up their features like ‘security’ and ‘privacy’ and creating the walled gardens as you mentioned. The current leaders grew due to rapid adoption and a person’s social clout. Just try dating nowadays in Asia, where multiple texting apps reside on a typical phone. Don’t kid yourself - the messages mentioned earlier serve only the marketing goals of each app and just lock you in with FOMO or the hassle of switching. The companies don’t give a shit about your privacy, as long as they can monetize your data, feed and activity.

RCS, to me, wants to take us back to industry standardization, so any provider can follow the standard and immediately be connected to everyone, instead of having to deal with different platforms, protocols. An iphone should be able to communicate with an Android and all the flavours without degradation or the color of the bubbles. Sure, the current implementation of RCS is google’s, but the standard is not. Hopefully, managed by a (neutral) standards body, the shortcomings people point out will be patched and adopted by the app developers. Desired featured will be folded into the standards and make their way into then apps. This, again to me, while slower, is preferable than being tied to the whims of a provider, e.g. Whatsapp, iMessage and telegram, does away with the market fragmentation (not competition) and gets rid off all the artificial bullshit like blue/ green bubbles, security lapses and image degredation between apps.

Just my 2c. Do with it as you will.

I used to work in MNC consulting (big-5, tier-1 clients), but started a side gig for a friend’s sme company on weekends - it kinda grew from there. I had an opportunity to get into pretty much the entire business and mess around/ optimize different aspects of it, and built systems where they were needed, and as a nice side effect developed an intimate knowledge of said business aspects. End result? I have deep knowledge of particular niche segment and in my country at least, in this segment, I can confidently say I service, or have serviced the majority of companies.

Tl;dr: keep your ears open, find a friendly opportunity and work it hard. It gets easier as you go along.

This is unfortunate, but all to common. The joy of coding gets lost in politics, deadlines,.documentation and process. If this is you, you might want to give gig process work a shot. As a developer, you’re actually intimately familiar with how systems work and interact, abstraction, and the interactions between the boxes. I’m pushing 50, have 4 consulting retainers going that have been with me for over 10 years each, and I’m still feeling the same buzz of figuring out my customers processes, developing a solution and seeing it implemented as I designed. Coding is the drudgery, but when you’re playing a meaningful part in effecting company wide change, it’s something else.

E2ee, except when we have to switch protocols. Trust us bro.

If the internet has succeeded in anything, it’s that the illusion of competence is worth more than the thing itself. Until someone calls you out, that is.