Hypothetically, what is the benefit of airing out of all this information ?
Media attention. That seems to be all this kid has done is wave things at the media that the media themselves don't understand. Cryptocat is a javascript implementation of XMPP with OTR enabled. Snore... Hop on Google chat and click "Off the record" and you've done the same thing cryptocat does. Unlike google chat you have to load up yet another Chrome browser extension that will no doubt eat more memory.
The "anapnea" thing he was involved in looks like a joke as well. "Encrypted tunneling network"? You mean a VPS you give people SSH access to? Mind blowing.
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
Right, and cryptocat doesn't, 'cuz they said so on their website!
Inform yourself, ignoramus.
He is quite literally doing the same thing as I could do in setting us open fire on a box and inviting everyone to conne t and turn on their client side OTR. Just because it's a chrome extension and written in JavaScript somehow changes that? No.
No, it doesn't. That's not what "virtually" means. It's guaranteed, barring some unexpected advance against one of the cryptographic algorithms used. In cryptography you use words like "essentially" or "infeasible", not "completely" and "impossible," because at the end of the day you are just hiding behind hard math problems.
The whole point of OTR is that you don't have to trust the third party, and you obviously do not understand that. They are just a transport. The analogy you are making could just as well be applied to any ISP inbetween you and the person you are talking to. They are a transport. Don't trust the client? Use another. Or are you seriously suggesting writing your own? Then you're starting down a very long path: http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html
You also keep comparing it to Google's "no log" feature, but they have absolutely nothing in common. The "specs are not different"; they are completely different things.
It's disappointing that you're so stubborn, arrogant, insulting to the author, and wrong at the same time. OTR is a brilliant and fascinating protocol, particularly because it gives people who communicate deniability, which PGP, for example, doesn't. Cryptocat is helping popularize it, and that's good.
This is a point which a lot of people seem to overlook. Sometimes, non-repudiation is desirable. Sometimes it is not.
You realize it is impossible to talk to somebody over the Internet, or in real life except in person, without relying on a third party, right? You choose who to trust, and OTR, the protocol, makes it so you only have to worry about the software used, not about the communications channel and anyone listening in on it.
> The specs are not different. They are completely different things.
Do you not have any reading comprehension? That's literally what I said. I haven't said anything against OTR at all. I fully support the use of XMPP and OTR for communications. You can attack me all you'd like, it doesn't change anything I said.
This is literally what you said.
> You can attack me all you'd like
I don't think I'm attacking you, but after being this insulting to Nadim Kobeissi, in this thread and on Twitter, you don't get to play hurt.