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valverde

489 karma · joined September 20, 2010

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valverde··on Google wins U.S. approval for radar-based hand motion sensor
It's a custom-built chip according to https://atap.google.com/soli/
valverde··on Intel Proposes to Use USB Type-C Digital Audio Technology
The signal has to make its way to a speaker in analog form, eventually. In a way, analog output will always be supported.
valverde··on Google has quietly launched a CDN
Ah, sorry, I misread your comment. Indeed, a browser that doesn't respect cross-domain restrictions is a poorly written browser.

My point still stands, though: the point of cookieless domains is not security, but bandwidth. And there are legitimate reasons to have top-level domain cookies - sharing authentication state between subdomains is a common example - which would prevent a subdomain from being used as a CDN, without receiving cookies.

valverde··on Google has quietly launched a CDN
There are many high profile websites that use the cookieless domain approach: Google, Facebook, and Reddit off the top of my head. I wouldn't say they are poorly written - it's more of a design decision to have cookies in the top-level domain.
valverde··on Google has quietly launched a CDN
It's not about the security of the cookies, it's about the bandwidth you save by having a separate domain for static content, because the client does not have to transmit the cookies for each request.
valverde··on Why has WhatsApp accessed my contacts 23,709 times?
Because WhatsApp uses your phone book as the only way to interact with its contact list. You can't add someone to directly to your WhatsApp contact list.

It could probably access it less often by only sending deltas, but that would mean their servers would have to store your whole phone book. I don't think that's any better from a privacy perspective.

Of course Facebook Messenger doesn't do the same, it has its own contact list coming from Facebook.

valverde··on DIY 2880x1800 projector
Yes. Much like many consumer projectors.
valverde··on Foursquare Now Tracks Users Even When the App Is Closed
They have been doing that for a while.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7037575

valverde··on Foursquare constantly tracking users' locations
Tap and hold your Wi-Fi network, then select "Modify network". The proxy options are under the advanced options.
valverde··on Foursquare constantly tracking users' locations
Making it impossible is impossible. They might make it more difficult.
valverde··on Foursquare constantly tracking users' locations
Thanks! I added that to the article.
valverde··on Foursquare constantly tracking users' locations
I had Facebook installed while investigating for this article, and could not identify a similar behavior.

Google, on the other hand, did the exact same thing, but I remember explicitly agreeing to that.

valverde··on Foursquare constantly tracking users' locations
Thank you for the feedback. That was my original intention, but seeing the constant location updates from Foursquare while writing the article surprised me (admittedly not too much).
valverde··on Foursquare constantly tracking users' locations
Interesting. I created a test account just to be sure I hadn't accidentally opted in before and, sure enough, it was enabled.
valverde··on How I reverse engineered my bank's security token
I recognize this as a possibility and I would definitely take it down if the bank requested it.

On the other hand, if anything, I exposed that they did a good job. They could have rolled out their own crypto, or some flawed form of code generation, in which case I would have disclosed it to them through proper means. But they adhered to standards (TOTP, RFC6238) and protected their data as well as possible. This article should be seen as praise.

Then again, corporations aren't always that understanding, which is why I would be happy to comply.

valverde··on How I reverse engineered my bank's security token
This specific token is time-based, so a clone would not be detected.

On the other hand, counter-based tokens as you described them do exist, and it would indeed be simple to detect if one of those was cloned.

I wouldn't even call this an attack, given that you would need physical access to a rooted device to carry it out.

valverde··on Show HN: Get a Server Instantly
Don't forget bandwidth costs. I could get about 100mbps to an external server. At $0.12/GB, 100mbps * 35 minutes = 25GB = $3. Most clicks won't cost you this much, but you should definitely keep an eye on this. Maybe set a bandwidth cap somehow.

Also, I noticed a public key in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. Is that intentional or just part of how EC2 APIs work?

Other than that, great job. I would definitely use this service.

valverde··on Copy, a competitor to Dropbox, launches today
It seems to be appropriate.
valverde··on I'm Pirating the Next Version of Windows
"Why do pirates have a better experience than customers?"

This pretty much sums it up. I couldn't agree more.

valverde··on Feedback on start-up web app
Please don't e-mail me my own password in plaintext when I sign up. Other than that, looks pretty promising :)
valverde··on Digg censors saltwater
Ah, the clbuttic mistake.
valverde··on Ask HN: What is :(){ :|:& };:?
Take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb#Examples
valverde··on iOS GameCenter hacked
This probably means that jailbroken iPhones will be banned from GameCenter soon. Too bad.
valverde··on Show HN: Network geographic activity visualization, made with Processing
I tried to use some of the more advanced OpenGL stuff, but in the end I used the standard P3D canvas (which is part of Processing's core).

I used the "Video" library to make a video out of the animation, and Maxmind's Java library for geolocation. Other than that, it's pure Processing.

>what platform did you do that on?

The video was rendered on a Mac. Is that what you meant?

valverde··on Coffee shop WiFi for dummies
This brings up a more interesting question: how would you provide encrypted free Internet access in a coffee shop?

Giving out passwords to customers is the most common approach, but there must be a way to provide encrypted access without a shared key.

valverde··on Show HN: Network geographic activity visualization, made with Processing
Clickable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ehmI2YVdQ
valverde··on Build the #LAMP stack in 5 minutes
Step 5 does more harm than good, IMHO. In most LAMP scenarios, you don't want your MySQL server to be facing the public.

The default, on the other hand, is pretty secure, and I recommend it (unless you have a really good reason to do otherwise).

valverde··on India to build cyber attack proof operating system
Security through obscurity will not solve their (or anyone's) problems.

Also, someone claiming a system to be "cyber attack proof" is clearly misguided.