2018 Engineering Gift Guide
engineering.purdue.edu
engineering.purdue.edu
The game feels like a physical version of The Incredible Machine or Zachtronics games. It's essentially a marble run on a board which you can add logic gates to. There are two different colours of balls which serve as input, and the puzzle specifies what output you require.
The later puzzles in the book are much too complex for my daughter but she has actually been able to solve the easy ones on her own. She uses it creatively too, making machines which she likes to show off to her mum and I.
Even without my daughter enjoying it I'd keep it at home because I've found the puzzles really fun and is satisfyingly tactile. I'm hoping they create a community puzzle repository for people to contribute to - might be a good project idea for people if they don't though. Highly recommended.
https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/
(saw mozilla post one recently too)
[1] https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide....
> given iOS is one of the hardest targets from a security perspective with a comprehensive guide on techniques used [1] and offers an excellent overall user experience.
Cool, but none of that matters for the purpose of the FSF. That's not the reason for their existence.
For example, it lists Adware Doctor under MacOS, which seems unfair, but the context is that its #4 in the app store at the time of the article:
"Researchers allege the developers of Adware Doctor, the 4th highest ranking paid app in the Mac App Store, have found a way to bypass Apple restrictions and collect sensitive user data."
Some of the headlines could definitely use rephrasing though.
> Adware Doctor, an ad blocker for MacOS, reports the user's browsing history.
This isn't macOS's issue. This is Apple having a poor App Store review process/sandboxing holes/whatever. This is the same as saying "malware exists on macOS, even on the App Store" (which I would have accepted as a valid point), but without this context it's misleading.
> Apple admits the spying in a search facility, but there's a lot more snooping that Apple has not talked about.
The "spying" mentioned has since been fixed; Spotlight searches now send a generic location to Apple. The "more snooping" link has its own, similar issues.
> Various operations in the latest MacOS send reports to Apple servers.
Same issue with Spotlight, from Yosemite, being called "various operations in the latest MacOS".
> Spotlight search sends users' search terms to Apple.
…how else would it search the web? Also, the same issue.
> The DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive make it illegal to study how iOS cr…apps spy on users, because this would require circumventing the iOS DRM.
Not true. The DMCA (which is not Apple, mind you!) does not restrict me from inspecting applications (which is mentioned in the linked article)–I just can't distribute my methods to other people.
> In the latest iThings system, “turning off” WiFi and Bluetooth the obvious way doesn't really turn them off. A more advanced way really does turn them off—only until 5am. That's Apple for you—“We know you want to be spied on”.
…this is literally what it sounds like. It's stretching "automatically reenabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if you forget to do so" to "Apple is doing this so they can continue spy on you".
> Apple proposes a fingerprint-scanning touch screen—which would mean no way to use it without having your fingerprints taken. Users would have no way to tell whether the phone is snooping on them.
This thing doesn't even exist, and fingerprint data never leaves the device anyways.
> iPhones send lots of personal data to Apple's servers. Big Brother can get them from there.
This is saying that iOS devices send call logs to iCloud, which it uses to keep it in sync across devices. The argument is that Apple doesn't let you turn this off if you use iCloud, which is valid, but it's disingenuous to say that "Big Brother" can now access this information because there are dozens of other parties that have this information as well.
> iThings automatically upload to Apple's servers all the photos and videos they make…The iCloud feature is activated by the startup of iOS..
If you enable iCloud Photos. The "activated by the startup of iOS" means that the daemon handling this launches when the phone boots, not that it instantly enables when you set up your new iPhone.
> Unknown people apparently took advantage of this to get nude photos of many celebrities.
…this was straight up spear phishing.
> Apple can, and regularly does, remotely extract some data from iPhones for the state.
This is a twisting of words in the article, which states that Apple turns over things on their servers that they have the keys to. They are not remotely pulling information off of iPhones.
> This may have improved with iOS 8 security improvements; but not as much as Apple claims.
Article tries to argue that people who have a 4-digit PIN, which is used to encrypt data on the iPhone, can be hacked if the PIN is bruteforced.
> Users cannot make an Apple ID (necessary to install even gratis apps) without giving a valid email address and receiving the verification code Apple sends to it.
You can do this with a phone number now, AFAIK. Mostly because not everyone has a email address.
Although Exapunks is on there, which is still on my wishlist.
Anyway, wooden Bi-Plane on p.19 would be awesome gift!
Not only have you saved yourself some time you would have otherwise wasted on that site, you saved some energy too by downloading fewer bits. The planet thanks you.