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kogir

7,770 karma · joined April 6, 2007

Interested in computer security and privacy. Likes hardware hacking, orchids, and good sci-fi books.

Personal email is my first name (nick) at my username (kogir) .com

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kogir··on VPNs on iOS are a scam
I think Apple is transparent about Always on VPN (blocking traffic except over the tunnel) requiring provisioning using MDM tools. Apple Configurator is free and allows anyone to set this up.

Any other VPN is just best effort.

https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/vpn-overview-depa...

kogir··on Airbnb will up its penalty for hosts who cancel last-minute from $100 to $1k
The host should pay the same penalty as the guest if they cancel. No refund policy for me? Then pay the full amount to me when you cancel.
kogir··on EU is going to require interoperability between messaging platforms
I’ll wait to see the details but modern messaging apps are super complex and have tons of features. The odds of a third party implementing them all (and correctly) is low. Instead it’ll be like how iMessage “interoperates” with SMS, where non-native users are shunned for breaking everything for the group.
kogir··on HN ran on a single box in 2018 has anything changed?
That’s just the API. I no longer work on HN, but as of 2016 it was still flat files (s-exprs) on a ZFS dataset.
kogir··on Show HN: Login with HN (Unofficially)
Just pick a good password and don’t reuse it elsewhere. HN is super aggressive about rate limiting attempts, so brute force isn’t really a risk.
kogir··on Using HTTP Basic Auth in 2022
My big problem with HTTP basic auth in 2022 (squints at Netgear router) is that in Edge/Chrome 1Password can’t auto complete it. It gets really annoying really quickly.
kogir··on How to automatically close those annoying “Launch Meeting” tabs from Zoom
If you refuse to install the desktop client, and just take calls in the browser, then you can close the tab when the meeting ends.
kogir··on Show HN: Display a bell emoji on HN comments you haven't read yet
Comment item ids are sequential (unless that’s changed since I last looked). You can perform relative ordering operations using them just like you could dates.
kogir··on Travel planning software: The most common bad startup idea (2012)
Instagram and Trello seem to be doing ok.
kogir··on Solving the double (quintuple) declaration Problem in GraphQL Applications
It’s been interesting to see the ecosystem around GraphQL experience the same problems and finally reach parity with oData.
kogir··on iOS 14 and Facebook Pixel causing increase in PSL inclusion requests
Isn’t the easiest solution here for companies to register their own domain? Why be company.service.tld and not just company.tld? What are these businesses doing for email?
kogir··on Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface
Ubiquiti has really fallen far. The 5.x series of controller with the AP AC (S)HD was great, but everything since has been hot garbage. The 6.x series of controllers is still basically a public beta and riddled with bugs.

The newer MediaTek based APs have constant problems with client device compatibility, and can’t even reliably support DHCP on the newest official firmware and controller versions (or any of the last 10 releases).

I strongly advise you to look anywhere else for your WiFi needs unless they really turn the ship around somehow.

kogir··on Fairphone suggests Qualcomm is the biggest barrier to long-term Android support
I’m going to reply to a few sibling comments at once:

Yes, they could upstream drivers, but they won’t. It’s not in their best interest. I’m taking about what could be done in spite of this.

Given that they won’t upstream drivers, if the blobs they release keep working for the reasonable life of your device, your phone can get other software updates, including major OS updates. I don’t expect or need the camera or radio driver to change across various android versions. The hardware is the same!

And if you want a newer phone, you’re free to buy one! It’s just sad that you can’t safely use older devices just because the blobs break compatibility with OS security and feature updates. This need not be the case.

kogir··on Fairphone suggests Qualcomm is the biggest barrier to long-term Android support
Qualcomm is only able to obstruct in this way because Linux doesn’t keep the kernel driver ABI stable for any fixed period of time.

If Android used FreeBSD and Qualcomm shipped drivers for the latest build when the SoC was released, you’d have up to five years of support from that kernel release.

Windows Phone 10 was actually in a position to support phones for years and even got Qualcomm onboard. It’s a shame the platform was never competitive, and they’d burned all their goodwill on the 7 and 8 fiascos.

kogir··on Oakland bans the use of combustion engine-powered leaf blowers and trimmers
Will this play out like it did in Palo Alto? There, the landscaping services switched to small generators on little carts, pulled behind the new, electric leaf blowers.

Still gas, still loud, still polluting - just one layer of indirection.

kogir··on Fake_contacts: Android app to create fake phone contacts, to do data-poisoning
Can't strip it if it's not there. Everything after my name is the comment, and you have no way to know.
kogir··on Fake_contacts: Android app to create fake phone contacts, to do data-poisoning
If you control your own email routing, by using your own mail server, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc, you can choose whatever convention you want.

How would you know to strip everything after my first name?

kogir··on [dead]
If you use a product from the marketplace the vendor of the product gets your contact information. This doesn't seem controversial.

Was contacting the user a bad call by Ubuntu? Maybe, but I bet they track this kind of thing.

kogir··on Racket Compiler and Runtime Status
If HN ends up moving to the CS runtime I'd love to hear a high level summary of what work it required and how the new runtime performs.
kogir··on If it will matter after today, don't talk about it in a chat room
Or, discuss in chat but make sure to end with a summary email detailing the relevant decisions. Maybe include a link to the chat so you can find it in the future.
kogir··on Vons, Pavilions to Replace Drivers with Independent Contractors
I don’t see how this is a bad thing? Albertson’s, a national grocery chain, goes all in with a single vendor (instacart) of an ancillary service (delivery) for efficiency.

It’s frustrating to see this portrayed as some local chain responding to local laws when it’s just natural streamlining after a business sale.

kogir··on AWS Goes After Microsoft’s SQL Server with Babelfish for Aurora PostgreSQL
To get the best performance and proper lock ordering for concurrent updates I usually need to resort to using a variety of MSSQL only SQL extensions. (Lock hints, isolation levels, specific join methods, etc)

Is there a list of exactly what coverage this has? Does it support pinning execution plans?

Here’s an example of the crap I had to resort to in my last big project: https://github.com/realartists/shiphub-server/blob/master/Re...

kogir··on An iOS zero-click radio proximity exploit odyssey
It’s less insane than you might think:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_(operating_syste...

I agree rust is probably better suited. Or Apple could make their own memory safe language. They’re clearly capable.

kogir··on OpenZFS 2.0
zfs send supports a resume token (-t) to resume interrupted streams received with (-s). Just use normal send/receive until you have the full stream sent.
kogir··on Don't use third party auth to sign in
I was my own OpenID Provider for a while, but quit because nobody supports it anymore. It was great for power users but super confusing for laypeople.
kogir··on About the security content of iOS 12.4.9
Ha, I’m dumb and can’t read. You’re entirely right.
kogir··on About the security content of iOS 12.4.9
I’d guess it’s because the individuals worth using a targeted exploit on are more likely to be carrying iPhones.
kogir··on DKIM: Show Your Privates
DKIM makes no assertions about the timestamp. It can be anything you want, just as in any other email.

The signature can confirm parts of the email were not edited after it was signed, not that any of the contents were ever true or correct.

kogir··on .NET Orleans
I used Orleans for my last startup and really enjoyed it. The dev team is active and responsive to the community, as evidenced by Reuben Bond and perhaps others appearing in this thread.

You can read a bit about my use of it here: https://www.realartists.com/blog/ship-20.html

All the code is in GitHub, if anyone wants to take a look.

kogir··on A hypothetical learning project might evolve
I’d actually love to encounter something like this process in an interview, ideally mirroring how a product or feature the organization has already shipped came to be.
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