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BoyWizard

89 karma · joined February 25, 2013

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BoyWizard··on Feds, We Need Some Time Apart
>but rather low ranking analysts whose job at the conferences are to assess the material presented and report back

So? I work for a private company. I 'report back' on the cool shit I saw, let people know what was around, what was popular, etc. It's a learning experience. Saying they 'report back' is useless. If you go to a con and don't talk with other people about the stuff you saw there it's almost wasteful.

I think I know what you meant though - they go and see what all the 'underground hackers' are up to.

BoyWizard··on Ask HN: Why aren't we using paired keys instead of passwords for authentication?
Handling them in the browser is a good idea, but still needs a lot of work to make it workable:

- What happens when their computer crashes?

- How do they transfer these certificates to other devices (multiple computers, phones, tablets, etc)?

- How do they keep them in sync across multiple devices if they need to regenerate the certificate?

- Certificates would be super easy to steal once you get access to a device (arguably easier to steal than installing a keylogger to get passwords)

The only way I can see it working for most users is through a third-party management solution (Google, iCloud, whatever).

BoyWizard··on "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23
> If there really is a problem, it may be worthwhile to move it to an "advanced settings" panel, but removing it entirely is a terrible idea.

Is this not the equivalent of 'about:config'? In reality it is the advanced settings panel, just without the pretty dialog to go with it.

BoyWizard··on When Are the Intelligent Aliens?
> break the laws of thermodynamics as we know it

Not a giant leap to imagine for a species that's been able to construct a Dyson Sphere in the first place ;)

BoyWizard··on "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23
> This destroys a non-technical user's grasp of the differences between static HTML and programatically manipulated HTML. It hides the setting amidst hundreds of other obscure settings, and does not emphasize the extremely powerful tool that JavaScript is, and the fact that it is optional.

Most 'non-technical users' don't have a clue about HTML, Javascipt, static features, etc. To them the internet consists of Facebook, Google and Youtube.

Arguably users who want to disable Javascript could be classified as 'technical', at least enough to be able to Google either a) how to do it from within Firefox, or b) install a plugin such as NoScript to do it for them.

BoyWizard··on Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?
> in spite of there being laws banning the transfer of personal data outside Australia, most people are quite lax about the issue and take the view that the risks are too small to be counted.

I can tell you from working in the finance industry in Australia and APEA, larger companies/banks take this very seriously due to compliance obligations with regulators (APRA, MAS, HKMA, etc).

BoyWizard··on Transfer your Spotify Playlists to Google Music: All Access
Google Music is available in Australia (as of last month or so), but the All Access streaming is not.
BoyWizard··on Amazon India is now live
This is true for places that have good conditions and internet. You have to remember, power outages are a daily occurrences in even built up places such as Bangalore, and internet connectivity isn't crash hot anyway. Latency of the website won't have as much of an impact in these conditions (IMO, anyway)
BoyWizard··on Secure Boot isn't the only problem facing Linux on Windows 8 hardware
Not even EFI, just regular BIOS...
BoyWizard··on Student's self-driving car tech wins Intel science fair
> Let's say that a software bug results in someone getting hit and injured by a self-driving car. Who's liable?

The same person who is liable if your current car has a fault tomorrow that causes you to crash, presumably.

BoyWizard··on Google engineers: We're trying to fix Android fragmentation
FYI the Browser on 4.2.x has been replaced with Chrome.

I'm eventually hoping that everything can be updated through the Play store, and the only reason to do an OS update will be for kernel updates.

BoyWizard··on Leaving Google’s silo: Alternatives to Gmail, Talk, Calendar, and more
I used Zoho for a while in the place of Google Apps, and migrated back to Google Apps after about 9 months as I absolutely hated Zoho Mail. Webmail interface was awful, and it didn't play nicely with the POP client on Android.
BoyWizard··on How often do iOS users update? - The Pareto Distribution
Gotcha. I foreground == can't use the phone while the app is updating. Seems like it uses a similar mechanism to Android app updates then.
BoyWizard··on How often do iOS users update? - The Pareto Distribution
Having not owned an iPhone, I just want to clarify: when you update an app, it does so in the foreground? That seems like an odd design decision. Would there be any reason for that to happen, as opposed to in the background (a la Android)?
BoyWizard··on Google+ Games is shutting down
One thing that's missing from the timeline is equivalent services that Google have launched/purchased. For example, Google Video didn't so much 'shut down' as merge with (the arguably better) Youtube.
BoyWizard··on Send money with Gmail
Until a new payment provider can match Paypal for non-US payments (https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/) then Paypal will be the leader.
BoyWizard··on Dribbble offline due to Postgres problem
Who's to say they aren't? Spending 10 seconds asking on Twitter, and getting an 'oh yeah, I had that and fixed it with x, y and z' in response sure beats staying up until 2am fixing it.
BoyWizard··on Linux local privilege escalation 0day, 2.6.37 - 3.8.10
Same on Ubuntu 13.04 w/ 3.8.0-19-generic.
BoyWizard··on Twitter's odd use of the word 'followed'
Wait... they crowdsourced the translation of their Terms and Conditions? That seems like, I don't know, a bad idea. For user content or interfaces sure, but T&Cs are essentially a legal document.
BoyWizard··on Twitter's odd use of the word 'followed'
Translation is one of those things where crowdsourcing makes sense - there's not always a 'right' way to translate a particular phrase, so a consensus between multiple people helps.
BoyWizard··on Google Glass: An Etiquette Guide
The people who have reservations about insulting random people on the street, or farting loudly on a crowded bus, are likely going to have reservations about recording people whether there's a light on or not!
BoyWizard··on My Credit Card is Less Secure than my Facebook
'Charge Notifications' do exist. Your bank may/may not offer them.
BoyWizard··on Ask HN:why do titles get changed?
But they should give context, which is often

a) purpose for posting (ie 'I like the design of this site', or whatever), or

b) context that is inherent in the article but not obvious as a submission (ie the topic of a blog).

BoyWizard··on Path fined $800,000 by FTC
I'm not an expert, but I imagine there's something in there about if you know people under 13 are using your product and they shouldn't be, you have to proactively do something about it. Facebook delete accounts belonging to minors, perhaps Path weren't and this played into it?
BoyWizard··on Google Glass - Innovating A Social Failure
Try to get within 2 feet of a stranger while pointing your smartphone at them. Expect a backlash.
BoyWizard··on An Alternative to Stand-up Meetings
I feel the thing that many people are missing is that 10 minutes 'stand-up' meetings every morning are important because they encourage 'accidental communication'. You might be debugging something that just broke, and remember, 'Oh John said this morning that his main priority today was to add some code to XYZ, which affects this, so I'll just check with him'.

Contrary to popular opinion on HN, regular communication is important for most (if not all) business activities.

BoyWizard··on So, I tried Dwolla
The problem is, payment processing is hard. Fraud is a real problem, that costs real money and takes a massive amount of effort to prevent. You can limit your exposure (eg Stripe) by placing limitations on your solution (limit by country, by transaction types, etc), but there is no fix for it.

Big banks don't do much better than Paypal in regards to fraud prevention, the major difference is that they are regulated more tightly so they can't just freeze your money without recourse.

BoyWizard··on Google scraping local webpages viewed in Chrome?
They don't scrape local pages, they analyse your search and browser history.

Been to Fedex to track a package? They'll note that and popup a card. Looked up a particular coffee shop on Google Maps? A card will popup with directions to said coffee shop.

BoyWizard··on The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment
>>It's funny that two out of the three things you said are additional expenses that the house enables.

Those same two things may also be valuable to the owner, regardless of expense. Expand my basement so I have room to continue working on the hobby I love? Sounds good.

BoyWizard··on Google Glass API Documentation

  The Google Mirror API allows you to build web-based services, called Glassware, that interact with Google Glass. It provides this functionality over a cloud-based API and does not require running code on Glass.
This API is focused on pushing info to Glass, rather than interaction (which I assume will be later)
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