Hacker News Reader

BoringCodeon Autopilot: an open source driving agent

IANAL (can we get a real one in here?), but it depends heavily on your jurisdiction.

BoringCodeon Add-ons in 2017

As an addon developer, this annoys me. I've had to port my addons to different APIs twice in the last couple of years. Hopefully this is the end for a while.

BoringCodeon How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?

I'm sorry, but saying without the wars there would be no terroism is just bullshit. Even saying that they were the primary cause is misinformed.

BoringCodeon How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?

In one sense, yes. After every terrorist attack there is always public outcry for intelligence services "to do more."

But, unfortunately the general public rarely thinks about the consequences and trade offs of increased surveillance powers.

BoringCodeon Why we need the best tools on Chromebooks and Raspberry Pi

Nitpicking, but there is no inherent quality about "open-source" that makes software support the Pi.

BoringCodeon Show HN: Blink Shell for iOS, an Open-Source, Mosh and SSH Terminal for Pros

It appears to be open source. https://github.com/blinksh/blink

BoringCodeon Spaceship Engine “EmDrive” Actually Works, Leaked NASA Report Reveals

Garbage article. Just a clickbait review of the paper over at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7kgKijo-p0ibm94VUY0TVktQlU...

BoringCodeon Microsoft Says Russian Hackers Exploited Flaw in Windows

There are other kinds of intelligence besides computer forensics. So, attribution is not impossible if you are a nation state with other resources.

BoringCodeon The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

> I live in a major city and I don't have a car. Parking is no issue for me at all :)

So do I actually. But a lot of people do and for that reason it would be far too idealistic to think about removing cars from American cities.

BoringCodeon The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

So where should the cars park then? Parking is a real issue in large cities and we won't solve it by removing even more spots. Other solutions (which are potentially more expensive) should be looked into before we consider removing street parking.

BoringCodeon Show HN: I built a website that simplifies Congress and its activities

https://4us.com/Explore

Seems like I can access the content there just fine?

BoringCodeon Command and Control [video]

As someone who hasn't read the book or heard about the incident for that matter, I thought it was an interesting trailer. I certainly want to see the film now.

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

Both organizations focus on similar concepts (after all exploitation and attack are two sides of the same coin). But there is a legal distinction which is important. NSA legally cannot do all that CYBERCOM can do.

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

Here's the kicker, technically NSA can't even do offense (attack). That's what US Cybercom is for. The NSA primary missions are SIGNIT and IA as a combat support agency. So they can gather information on foreign adversaries (and defend DoD networks), but they don't have the mandate to actually perform cyberwarfare. Or for that matter defend civilian networks against attack.

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

Exactly, they simply have never had the institutional knowledge required to secure government networks.

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

> Nobody seems to be in charge.

That's indeed the problem. There was a strong push for a while to put NSA in charge of civilian infosec infrastructure. But Congress didn't really want to put a combat support agency in that role. So DHS is technically in charge of that. But we still have the majority of federal agencies stuck fending for themselves when it comes to securing their networks. Without stronger action from Congress, this may never change.

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

I disagree. If you're going to say "But the authors of this document had a job to do: portray administration appointees in the worst light possible." then you need to at least show some examples of that.

You're not making an argument. You're trying to pass an opinion as a fact. You need to back up statements like that.

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

Is there something in this document that you can point to as being inaccurate or obviously exaggerated?

BoringCodeon The OPM Data Breach [pdf]

One of NSA's primary missions is information assurance. I'm sure they have blue teams. But their mandate is pretty limited in regards to what they can do with civilian infrastructure.

BoringCodeon Crockford

There's the old idea of "you judge your actions by your intentions and others intentions by their actions."

I think culturally we've entered into this weird area where we're not even judging people so much by their actions but rather by how their actions make some people feel. There is nothing wrong with being mindful of how your statements and actions are perceived. Communication is always a two-way street where what is heard is sometimes more important than what is said. It's just too bad that we're shifting so far away from being able to understand the intentions of the speaker. Fear of saying the wrong thing never teaches someone why and what is wrong to say.

BoringCodeon Mac OS/X Security Tips

Reading the description seems to imply the author is confusing plugins and addons. Either way you're still installing executable code written by people using those evil pseudonyms.

BoringCodeon Mac OS/X Security Tips

Some of these rules are oddly contradictory.

> 4.2. Do not use unofficial Firefox plugins.

Ok, fine.

> 4.13. Install an ad blocker if available. Firefox does not have an ad-blocker built in. Most people use Ad Block Plus, which is a Firefox extension.

Instructions unclear.

EDIT: This one made me laugh:

> 3.4. Turn off your home Wifi router at night and when you are not at home. At night, or whenever you are not at home, there is no need for your router to be powered up. Having it on means that someone can theoretically hack into the router itself from anywhere on the planet.

Leaving it on while I'm home and awake will keep me safe though.

BoringCodeon Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

People in the IC often "jump ship" to private contractors. Be it for better pay, hours, or whatever. I don't find it hard to believe that Snowden would go to a private contractor. No conspiracy there.

BoringCodeon Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

Both are absurd points to make. Just because something is theoretically possible in some version of the universe doesn't mean it's worth discussing without any real evidence. Tinfoil hat or not.

BoringCodeon Snowden: Hack of an NSA server is not unprecedented, publication of the take is

It's also entirely possible that unicorns are real.

BoringCodeon Moving 12 years of email from GMail to FastMail

Not necessarily true. A well configured mail server should be just fine. I personally use https://mailinabox.email/ to handle configuration for me and that works great.

BoringCodeon Firefox’s latest Test Pilot: No More 404s

The article (and the screenshot) seem to imply that it doesn't actually check with the Wayback Machine to see if the URL exists. It only displays a prompt telling you that you can try to view it there. So theoretically it would only send the URL to the Wayback Machine if you chose to use its service.