Hacker News Reader

frankacteron How to brick Samsung phones

You're right, it is not bricking since the device is still bootable and somewhat usable, just locked as a result of the application running.

Just rebooting the phone won't clear it up, however, it would be a little more complicated than that. The use case this dev is presenting is that they have somehow gotten a user to install this malicious app and approved it for the permissions it requires.

Once it locks the device you don't even need to wait for the battery to die, you can simply hold down the power button and it will power off after a few seconds.

The issue is that the app sets to auto run on boot which means you would have a small window to uninstall the application before it locks the device again.

So if you were lucky enough to have enabled USB debugging prior to installing this app you could run an adb command to uninstall it. If you're technically savvy enough you could load a custom recovery and delete the malicious app from there.

..or, simply, you could just factory reset the device and the malicious app would be erased as part of the profile reset.

frankacteron How 8chan Finances Itself via Amazon

This is the story link:

Can we update this post to reflect please. Thanks.

frankacteron $200 retail whole genome sequencing now available

Compared to services like 23andMe, how much more informational or actionable would a whole genome sequence be in comparison?

frankacteron Show HN: I am bootstrapping a video-based Duolingo competitor

What is the plan for scaling additional languages?

frankacteron Update: Looking Glass Add-On

Unless you believe they are lying, it specifically states in the blog post:

>we developed an unpaid collaboration to engage our users and viewers of the show in a new way

frankacteron Casper went to war with popular mattress review site, then financed its takeover

Here is the original motivation:

https://ideamensch.com/derek-hales/

Here is a cache of his perspective:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:F3VoYT...

“Casper filed the lawsuit against me in April, 2016, on the same day that it sued two other websites that review mattresses. The suit makes a number of different allegations, but they are primarily focused on my Casper mattress reviews and how I inform my readers about referral links. I am currently fighting the lawsuit and pushing for it to be dismissed with prejudice.

It is my opinion that this lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to silence my voice and infringe my first amendment right. When my lawyer asked Casper what it would take to resolve the case, Casper’s settlement demand was that I take down my reviews of Casper’s mattress and never write about Casper again. I don’t think Casper is concerned about my referral link disclosures at all – they just don’t like criticism of their product.”

frankacteron Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

Not OP, but this is probably it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidbit

frankacteron Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

Specifically indicated on their site:

>2). NO WAIVER OF RIGHTS FOR THIS CYBER SECURITY INCIDENT In response to consumer inquiries, we have made it clear that the arbitration clause and class action waiver included in the Equifax and TrustedID Premier terms of use does not apply to this cybersecurity incident.

frankacteron HN: List of April Fools' Day Announcements (2017)

apparently so:

http://koditips.com/kodi-domain-seized-homeland-security/

Using http://www.kickasstorrents.com/ as a reference, they use an image instead of text for the seizure notice.. oh, and they don't use CloudFlare and Google Analytics on sites they seize.

frankacteron Show HN: I made a match game to propose to my girlfriend

Did she say yes?

frankacteron Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

Hey Rajiv, I just ran a 4 hour set of interviews through Scribie and have nothing but great things to say about the platform, the staff and most importantly the results. Great job and continued success.

frankacteron Drip Acquired by Leadpages

Yes

https://www.getdrip.com/about

frankacteron Introducing Soylent 1.6

of specific note:

>In addition to sensory and macronutrient improvements, Soylent 1.6 is the first powder iteration to use whole algal flour and high oleic algal oil - innovative ingredients that are yet another step toward sustainable food production.

frankacteron In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

Not stating support one way or the other, just an alternative perspective to this situation. While they may not be in support of aspects of certain lifestyles, they do seem to be in support of the individuals and community around it:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/14/chick-fil-a-o...

frankacteron Why Are Americans Not Included in the Panama Papers?

https://twitter.com/mathewi/status/716771686482202625

> The Editor in Chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung responded to the lack of United States individuals in the documents, saying to "Just wait for what is coming next".

frankacteron Show HN: Convenient web rss-reader

Another enthusiastic vote for Digg Reader.

frankacteron Apple’s Privacy Fight Tests Relationship with White House

"I have no clue where they got the idea that changing SPE firmware will destroy keys. SPE FW is just a signed blob on iOS System Part" - John Kelley (Embedded Security @ Apple)

https://twitter.com/johnhedge/status/699882614212075520

frankacteron Apple Is Said to Be Working on an iPhone Even It Can’t Hack

> Farook disabled the iCloud backup six weeks prior to the attack

http://6abc.com/news/senior-official-stresses-feds-need-to-u...

frankacteron Ask HN: Why are comment trees not collapsible yet?

Are you on FireFox?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hn-utility-su...

frankacteron Ask HN: Why are comment trees not collapsible yet?

There is also one for FireFox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hn-utility-su...

frankacteron Music Memos

Remember back in 2009 when Microsoft released SongSmith?

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/song...

frankacteron Ask HN: Is TechZing podcast coming back?

Well there you go, new episode posted today:

http://techzinglive.com/page/1567/291-tz-discussion-no-brain...

frankacteron Facebook has given some developers access to an unannounced Chat SDK

I'm seeing a fbchess option. @fbchess help returns:

@fbchess help Start game with random colors: @fbchess play Pick the colors: @fbchess play white/black Pick the opponent: @fbchess play white John

Make a move: use Standard Algebraic Notation @fbchess e4 or @fbchess Pe4 moves pawn to e4 Nbd2 to move knight from b-file to d2 B2xc5 to take on c5 with 2nd rank bishop e8=Q to promote pawn to queen 0-0-0 or O-O to castle

Claim draw (e.g. 3-fold repetition): @fbchess draw claim Offer a draw in the current position: @fbchess draw offer Offer an undo of the last move: @fbchess undo

Resign: @fbchess resign Show current position: @fbchess show Show stats between current players: @fbchess stats Continue a game from another conversation: @fbchess continue From 1:1 conversation, @fbchess continue with [friend] From group chat, @fbchess continue from [thread name]

@fbchess play actually initiates a game including a picture of the active chess board within the chat window.

frankacteron Ballmer Chides Microsoft Over Cloud Revenue Disclosures

from the article:

"Ballmer, who is the company’s biggest individual shareholder"

frankacteron Ask HN: What podcasts are you listening to?

Chasing Product

Rocketship Podcast

Startup School Radio

Startups for the Rest of Us

TechZing

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

frankacteron Mozilla fixed a 14-year-old bug in Firefox, Adblock Plus uses less memory

ensure you are using uBlock Origin, not just uBlock.

frankacteron Ashely Madison Hackers

They did deliver. They deleted everything on their servers related to that customer that they claim to. It seems unrealistic to expect them to purge third party services as well.

The wording on the $19 service [1] is very clear to the extent of the services they are providing, specifically:

* Removal of profile from search results

* Removal of profile from site

* Removal of messages sent and received

* Removal of messages from recipients mailbox including winks and gifts

* Removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site

* Removal of photos

While the second to last bullet is a bit ambiguous and you could make an argument that billing information is personally identifiable, this specific indication of "from the site" implies (to me at least) that it is referring to Ashley Madison servers and not third party credit card processors.

[1] http://i.imgur.com/YXc0RfU.png

frankacteron Ashely Madison Hackers

There has been a lot of talk about the "Delete All" paid option being a scam because they did not remove billing information. This Q&A, however, seems to indicate that the billing information was retrieved from a third party processing company. While the hack exposed the password, the non-deleted information was not stored on AM servers.

frankacteron Firefox, you're supposed to be in my pocket, not the other way around

Your search comparison is a good one. The bundled search providers are installed as removable. If Pocket was distributed in this manner (as an extension that was enabled by default, but removable via standard UI) there would probably be less of an uproar.