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GrifMD

387 karma · joined October 26, 2018

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GrifMD··on Omega Swatch Speedmaster
I have a two nice mechanical watches, one which used to be a daily wear. Once I got my Apple Watch I just never wear them anymore. The few times I'm at a black tie event and wear the nicer mechanical one I feel slightly limited. It's a dumb little problem, but I kinda feel like my Apple Watch ruined other watches for me.

I've got a few bands I rotate on it to make it feel a little more special though.

GrifMD··on A professor who beat roulette
I wish I could get into that, but apart from poker with friends, gambling and losing isn't fun.
GrifMD··on Neutral Swiss poised to freeze Russian assets – president
After all this, I really hope not. I really hope that this is enough to push over a large enough majority of Russians to force him out.
GrifMD··on Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)
That’s inaccurate. You do still need to run a client side GTM script that adds event listeners for specific actions (like “clicks purchase button”). This is then sent to a server side container with whatever first party identifier the site may have (3rd party IDs aren’t supported as there’s no 3rd party cookies from Facebook and the like). From there a server to server network request is made to whatever tracking platforms (GA, Google Campaign Manager, etc).

Most of the tracking script these days is well written, at least the Google and Facebook libraries, so they generally don’t affect page performance, but some of the smaller players have script that can slow down performance.

With server side GTM, only it’s client side component needs to run, everything else will be server side.

GrifMD··on Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)
I’m actually in this industry! So Server Side GTM (SS-GTM) is still relatively new and a bit limited in the number of integrated partners.

GTM in itself doesn’t do any tracking, not even Google tracking, its just a manager. So hypothetically you could use GTM or SS-GTM to listen for clicks on a purchase button and then send a hit to your own URL with your own user identifier (or none at all). Google wouldn’t record this anywhere. If you add Google Analytics or Google Marketing tags into your GTM container, then Google would store that data in their platforms.

The real concern with privacy advocates is that you lose transparency with SS-GTM. When you run client side GTM, you can see hits going off to Google Marketing, Facebook, etc when a site has implemented those tags, and you could use ad block to prevent those network requests.

SS-GTM would only show a request going to client.com/track (or wherever GTM has been set). The privacy benefit is that Facebook and the like cannot set their own 3rd party cookies to track you across the web, however Facebook allows advertisers to pass in hashed PII (like email addresses) to match with users in their database, so if you’re logged in via email, hypothetically Facebook could be linking interactions to you. I have seen very few companies do that yet though, as it’s more complicated to setup that most things and marketing teams aren’t usually made up of engineers.

GrifMD··on How to commit murder inside a locked room
That's basically Kindle book samples, you get the first chapter or so free and then hit a purchase button.
GrifMD··on Resurrecting the old Wordle for procrastinators
I copied the index.html and main.js file, threw them on GitHub Pages, and shared it with a few friends. It's an easy and cheap way to keep it old school.
GrifMD··on Thousands of Mazdas in the Seattle area are stuck on a single FM radio station
For those curious, I skimmed the transcript and basically a "%" followed by a "I" in an audio file name cause a weird shutdown behavior on the infotainment system.
GrifMD··on Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone
This is an interesting to think about. Say you're at an ice cream stand that has a Square Reader (the little square hockey puck reader) that's paired with an iPhone running Square's payment reader.

The merchant rings you up for $5, shows you the phone in their hand indicating the cost, and the Square Reader lights up to show it's ready for payment. You pay via inserting your credit card, which processes in a few seconds, and then the payment is complete. The merchant is no longer showing you the phone, and presumably hits "No Receipt".

However, the merchant actually has a second out of sight device that is set to charge $500 and is actually paired with the Square Reader. Because you've paid with a physical card, there's a good chance you won't notice the charge till you go to pay your credit card or check your bank account.

This would probably be a short-lived scam, as the merchant's malicious Square account would have to be linked to a bank (I think this is the only option), which would identify them. I'm pretty sure Square requires ID verification of some sort as well. So reporting this malicious transaction to your bank/credit card would flag them.

Additionally, if you're paying via a mobile wallet, you'll likely get an immediate notification saying "You paid $500 to Malicious Ice Cream Vendor".

Now let's think about Apple's new plan. It could be that Apple layer's it's own mandatory interface that shows "Pay $5 to Ice Cream Vendor" regardless of the app being used. Maybe this is actually the employee's phone instead of the company's device, but that's the same as the employee stealing cash out of the register, so not really your issue.

Or Apple could not layer it's own UI, and just open up the radio as an API. Apple could require that apps that use this API to have some additional verification to prevent someone from making an app that displays "Charge $5" when it's really charging $500.

All that being said, I only see smaller merchants using iPhones + Square Readers. Maybe some boutique stores, food trucks, etc. Once a store gets large enough, they usually want dedicated hardware, even if it's a Square Stand.

---

Here's Square's hardware page if you want visuals: https://squareup.com/au/en/hardware

GrifMD··on Ask HN: What do you use for your personal document hell?
I personally store everything in I cloud following a similar directory structure as tacostakohashi (elsewhere in the thread), though it seems like Google Drive might work for y'all as your split across iOS and Android.
GrifMD··on I hacked SONOS and YouTube the same day
A Sonos 5 is $100 AUD more expensive than the Port and has a line in.

https://www.sonos.com/en-au/shop/five

The Port and Amp are definitely aimed at the very high end consumer who wants a whole wireless system in their house and wants to connect to non Sonos speakers.

GrifMD··on I hacked SONOS and YouTube the same day
The lack of audio input's is driving me bonkers. I have a record player and Sonos Beam. To use it, I have to plug in a mic adapter into my MacBook and connected that to the record player, then use Loopback Audio to redirect the input audio as Airplay audio to my Sonos Beam. Truly how "analog" audio was supposed to be listened to.

I've tried getting a Raspberry Pi and following some guides to turn it into an internet radio broadcaster that I can then pipe into Sonos, but the audio quality was always atrocious and the case that came with my Pi kit has a fan that is super loud.

I could get a Sonos Port for 700 AUD and do it the official way... but my record player is only like 300 AUD so it doesn't seem worth it. Here's hoping I can find a cheap used one.

Sonos needs to add an analog audio in port on more of their devices.

GrifMD··on The New York Times buys Wordle
You just need the index.html file and the main.[bundle_hash].js file. You can scrape out the Google Tag Manager import from index.html if you want, though I didn't check to see what tracking it was importing (probably basically analytics).

But so long as you have those two files in a folder, you can open index.html and it'll work fine. My friends and I have been putting in joke words in a shared clone for each other and hosting it on GitHub Pages.

GrifMD··on A UX designer walks into a Tesla Bar
Is it really hidden that deep?
GrifMD··on Show HN: Looptap – A minimal game to waste your time
This was delightful, and now I will get no work done today.
GrifMD··on Example Domain
http://captive.apple.com was my go to just because I'd see it flash in the url bar before redirecting when connecting to airplane wifi. I like the subdomain, it's an apt description of the state your in before passing through the login/payment flow for these kinds of networks.
GrifMD··on Ask HN: Do you still use Clubhouse app?
I've never really been a fan of synchronous online experiences, so I didn't jump on it. Even group video calls with friends can be tedious.
GrifMD··on Introducing the Icelandverse [video]
I'm surprised this hadn't already been posted here! Iceland really does have a great marketing department.
GrifMD··on The American prison system’s war on reading
That doesn't explain the cost for use of e-books, especially the public domain books under Project Gutenberg, nor does it really explain the banning of book donations from registered non-profits. If the issue you describe is prevalent, then I could see the need for vetting non-profits before donation, but not outright blocking them.
GrifMD··on Books I loved reading this year
I somewhat agree, though I did finish the book and enjoyed it despite its flaws. The Martian was a delight, and Project Hail Mary follows in a similar vein.
GrifMD··on Californians Flee the Coast to Inland Cities in a Mass Pandemic-Era Exodus
Every time I see an article like this, all I can think about is how a robust rapid transit system could ease so much of this. I know I'm oversimplifying it, but a bullet train could operate between SF and Sacramento in ~30 minutes. Everything on the other side of the hills of the East Bay feels inaccessible when it should be integrated.
GrifMD··on Jony Ive’s first major design since leaving Apple
I really liked the iPhone 5c's design. The colors were fun, and the case options weren't super bland. The 5 was there to fill in the need for more traditional iPhone design, but the 5c felt like a little throwback to when phones were a little more fun and weird.
GrifMD··on [dead]
I'm seeing an unusual amount of reddit style small comments on this outage, which I find strange. They're short and in the vein of "Facebook is down: good" or "Facebook is back up: damn nothing good lasts forever"

I understand the distain for Facebook as a business, but still this is pretty low effort.

GrifMD··on Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”
I assume this kind of behavior helps with the "Elon" brand surrounding his companies, but it just feels so overdone, unnecessary, and, as another person said in this thread, cringeworthy.

I saw the iPod nano announcement clip this morning, where Steve Jobs has a camera zoom in on his jeans pocket, talks about how the Mini fit in you regular pocket, then pulled the Nano out of his coin pocket. It's a little silly and got a laugh, but it had a purpose. It showed how small the iPod was and felt, maybe not natural, but at least tasteful.

GrifMD··on Netflix intensifies VPN ban and targets residential IP addresses
I feel your pain. I'm an American living in Australia, so I'm not as significantly affected. Still my Google account and Apple accounts are all US based. My Apple account is tied into a family account I share with my US based family. I cannot download specific apps that are only on the Australian Apple App Store. My Sony Android TV cannot download some Australian television apps.

I cannot purchase Audible audiobooks without VPN'ing back in to the US, even with credits I've accrued.

GrifMD··on Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]
Definitely not Sydney! We just hit a record median of $1,410,133 AUD https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-house-prices-reach-rec...
GrifMD··on King County, WA bans facial recognition software
That's essentially the plot to Tomorrowland (2015). Images of the dystopian future are broadcasted from "Tomorrowland" (sort of a different universe) back to ours as a warning to prevent it. Instead we fetish these images in pop culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(film)#Plot

The movie isn't great, but it's critique of pop culture isn't wrong. We have very little hopeful science fiction these days apart from Star Trek.

GrifMD··on Show HN: I made a simulator for personal finance
Lunchmoney is a good multi currency financial analysis app that's been shown on Hackernews a bit

http://lunchmoney.app

GrifMD··on CDC panel recommends resuming use of Johnson and Johnson vaccine
That’s fair, but I’d prefer to get the vaccine over something developed by bats https://xkcd.com/2397/
GrifMD··on The Hotdog web browser and browser engine
Isn't that Brave's niche?
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