zer0x4d

Billing in general is very hard. Especially subscription billing. Just from my experience in building billing and also later on using a third party system for another projects, I can mention so many edge cases:

1. Grandfathering

2. Upgrading across different length memberships (monthly tier 1 to yearly tier 2)

3. Crossgrading across different lengths (monthly tier 1 to quarterly tier 1)

4. Offering free trial to tier 2 when user has tier 1.

5. Promotional offers to non-paying users (half off first month)

6. Downgrades

7. Applying coupons to accounts (customer support wants to offer a specific user a free month of service when user has a quarterly subscription: billing schedule change)

8. Differences in tax regulations across countries (VAT vs whole value tax)

9. Differences in display prices (in some countries displayed prices should include tax)

10. Handling currency exchange rate changes.

The author is wrong about this.

Banks don't choose to accept incorrect name, invalid CVC, invalid exp date or wrong billing address. It's up to the user (in this case him) to enable CVC Check and AVS in his payment processor to fail payments that don't pass this check. It's also up to him/Stripe to implement 3D secure and trigger it.

https://stripe.com/docs/disputes/prevention/verification#cvc...

Dealing with iMessage threads during Discovery was a nightmare. I wish I knew about this tool when I needed it

It's not far fetched to argue that content recommendation algorithms are protected under 230, but I do recall Twitter sidebar during the 2020 elections featured original commentary under the trending tags, which definitely is speech by Twitter. Stuff like "x wrongly claimed y" or "people are protesting z due to..."

Anyone else notice how inaccurate the iOS weather app has gotten in iOS 16? It used to be very accurate in terms of rain/snow in California, but recently it's just completely wrong. I end up going to weather.com to get an accurate report.

It just depends on what you have. I did get 20% right off the bat with RDS just buying no-upfront RIs. I could have probably gotten around 30% if I did upfront and longer commitment.

I recently found out that I was overpaying by about 20% by just looking at "Recommendations" tab in AWS Console and buying RIs. It was mostly RDS.

I would love a product that automatically manages the RI renewals (ex. every year) and instance type changes.

How is this any different than a mature tool such as SWIG (https://www.swig.org/)?

I've used SWIG extensively with Python to call C code and import C headers for testing/tooling purposes.

>I run my own VPN and share it with a few other people.

How confident are you in your VPN server configuration skills? Gaining access through mis-configured self-hosted boxes is the easiest attack vector usually as most people who self-host aren't experts in the software they are using leading to leaks. Besides that, do you keep a list of packages installed on your box, open ports, etc? How about security patches and regular updates as well as auditing access logs to ensure no one gained access to your box?

From my experience, people who do take this type of an exaggerated approach often end up exposing themselves more in ways that they don't even realize...

How do you pay for jmp.chat? Do you trust their code to be bug-free and without possible exploits? Do they do regular security audits and code reviews? Do they have enough users and maintainers to be able to quickly detect and address security issues? Are you sure Airplane Mode turns off the baseband and cuts off all cellular communication? It doesn't, you can still emergency receive alerts in Airplane Mode. Your phone can tell exactly where you are by comparing your wifi search results + RSSIs to known public databases without even having to use GPS. How much do you trust your VPN provider to keep no logs? How do you pay for VPN?

I visited a few European countries this past summer and Paris was definitely not the best in terms of public transport tickets. I had to buy the paper 3 day visitor pass from Orly after finding no way as an iPhone user to purchase a ticket on the Île-de-France Mobilités app or their website. Constant fear of losing my $50 euro investment that's a mere 6.5cm x 3cm rectangle.

Some cities had the tap to pay gates which were by far the most convenient option as an Apple Pay user. Others like Berlin or Wien had working mobile tickets.

Are we sure this guy didn’t

1. Copy/paste the link and send it to himself over iMessage from his laptop, perhaps to test it out on his phone or vice versa?

2. Send the QR code itself from his phone to his laptop or vice versa perhaps to test out scanning?

The fact that the user agent matches that of iMessage screams that the code is somehow in a iMessage thread and iMessage is trying to refresh a preview thumbnail, detect an app clip, or make sure a url is accessible. Add to that the fact that this requests came in the morning suggesting they happened when he turned his laptop on or unlocked his phone to check messages, etc.

I moved out of Iran about 10 years ago, but when I was there you couldn't purchase internet plans faster than 128kbps unless you had a legitimate reason such as being a reporter, business, etc. There was, however, no special license needed for any computing equipment. I purchased very cheap VPS and other resources without even having to submit any personal info.

Nowadays, the limit is gone and there is faster internet access but the issue of filtering still exists. When a service doesn't work in Iran it's either due to sanctions, the government blocking access to some domain/ip, or a combination of both. The user is left wondering which one it is and how they can get around it