Gruselbauer

That is the weirdest ebay listing I saw in a while. Also I want to have one super-badly now. Thank you :)

These are hilarious, thanks.

> to the HAL by the NT god. Hail Caesar!

I'm a fan of the nested poultry approach to scalability. The Turducken setup as described in Advanced Festive Food Editing by Fritjof Dogemann provides excellent carbohydrate-to-weight ratio and its uncommon architecture frequently amazes clients. The high cost and complexity are drawbacks I'll admit to, but can be mitigated by going for SaaS (Slaughter as a Service) models.

It's cool! I've been wondering too, since it's been an eye opener without equals finding out just how wrong I was. I think there were multiple lines of reasoning going on:

- "I don't even use that many logins." I do. I just abused 'reset password via email'.

- "I distrust the cloud provider's opsec." Seriously? I'm a self taught amateur. Get a grip guy.

- "What if they give my passwords to the NSA?" ... at this point I want to slap myself.

- "How can it be secure if it's easy to use?" I blame PGP for this one...

So I guess many things. In the end it was the usual mix of uninformed bias, weariness against third parties in security, being very wrong and the assumption that security needs terrible UX.

As I said, I never looked back. I've even sat down with friends and family, explained the concept and turned their '$catsname$birthyear' passwords they used for absolutely everything into security they wouldn't ever hope to achieve otherwise. And they're all so freaking happy, too.

For their master passwords I used the 'correct horse battery staple' approach and nobody has a problem remembering one of those, especially if it's in their native language.

So, yup, you're right in every way. I didn't know better.

I'm probably the least knowledgeable person on HN so please understand these as questions more than objections, okay?

I would think the first link doesn't affect me since I use a fairly strong unique master password and haven't set an insecurity question.

As for the second link, much the same. I mean I'm fairly certain I can create an encrypted plaintext file that withstands extensive cracking attempts with standard Linux tools. These kinds of attacks would suck for people using 'lastpassword' as their master, if the stored vaults were unhashed and unsalted. Even then, how would that circumvent 2FA? Without my phone or Yubikey or whatever, you still don't get in.

As for the last one, and generally for most criticism: these tools give you the means to be more secure, they even encourage you by asking things that must annoy the average user. There's no unlimited trust for devices or browsers, the security checker is actually quite helpful in identifying possible problems - like my banking password being capped at five digits by design... sigh - and telling you when you're getting dumb ideas, like permanently storing your master password on your phone. So in the end, it's up to the user isn't it?

It's not using it by itself that makes the concept an increase in security, it's using it thoughtfully that is.

I couldn't agree more. Getting smart but non-nerd friends set up with OpenPGP is truly an eye opener. The rate of adoption is terrible because of that and nothing else.

Even with a GUI like Enigmail, I needed hour long explainathons to make it work for these friends. Smart, borderline brilliant folk.

The same people now use WhatsApp with encryption and don't even know it. That's what a good crypto UX looks like.

I'd love for a google-free, proprietary-free, facebook-free alternative to exist but if the alternative is painful hours of setting up encrypted mail only to have it cease working after two weeks because the user forgot their passphrase, I'm gonna say I don't care too much.

For me it was a case of thinking I know better. As in, "no way I'm giving you my passwords" and "who knows how tight their opsec is" ... never even tried anything like LastPass or 1Password until six months ago.

Now I cannot imagine going back. My LastPass subscription is among the most vital services I pay for and the sheer freedom of having to remember one diceware-style master password instead of maintaining my own local database is just too nice.

I'm using banking software with a HBCI card and have set reasonable limits on all things like PayPal. So if you cracked my LastPass vault - good luck with that, 2FA considered - you'd be well able to ruin my digital life. But you would not get much out of it.

The attack surface I offer in total has shrunk a lot, too. Unique, maximum allowed length passwords for every unimportant little account and no need to memorise a single one.

It's to Web logins what pubkey auth is to ssh for me personally. Just such a freaking blessing.

Recently build myself a home box from Ebay parts. Two four core Xeons, 72gb DDR3 memory and six onboard SATA ports. Two 120gb SSDs running Proxmox on that for virtualisation and a 2tb drive for misc storage. Bought an LSI 9211 HBA with another eight SATA ports for fifty euros, which gets PCI passthrough'ed to a FreeNAS VM. Four cheap 2tb drives for the initial pool.

Another VM provides an instance of NextCloud locally and that's pretty much it. Works, feels secure enough and didn't cost more than 500€ total. A four disk Synology Home NAS with drives would cost more and offer significantly less.

As for online backup, being on satellite internet makes uploading pretty much anything too painful to even consider.

That might be the first hardware crowdfunding I ever buy into. I've got a seething rage at just about every aspect of current phones and a huge nostalgia for Nokia's early smartphones.

Physical keyboard? Yay. Messages in natural language are one thing, ssh'ing into a machine or writing code is an entirely different topic.

Open systems thrive with exactly the kind of software I use almost exclusively. I can live without any mobile games - srsly, get a handheld or build one yourself[1] - and I don't use many other services I couldn't find alternatives for.

I like 'post-truth' seems to imply a different past, one of truth and objectivity and noble deeds. I don't believe that actually ever existed or that things are better or worse now. You might say Watergate, I could reply Snowden.

I do believe we're making it easy for people to get only the 'news' they agree with, read only the op-ed that spells out their thoughts.

But it's just as easy to tap into voices of dissent, to find views that are radically foreign to one's own. Maybe even easier and less stressful than it was in other ages.

I think blaming the media or age for intellectual laziness and corporate/political disinformation is neither fair nor productive.

I do pretty much everything wrong in terms of ergonomic working. No wrist rest, no typing technique, sit however fits the day. The only thing I don't have in common with the OP is that I'm constantly hot. Sitting in a room with no heating at 1000m above sea in the Alps right now, wearing a light track suit and only registering a mild cold. I haven't turned on heating in ages, actually.

The article does suggest psychosomatic causes more than anything, imho. Especially people with neither medical training (me included) or prior contact with that phenomenon (me excluded) often seem to think about this as a question of willpower, a conscious decision or a few sessions with a therapist. I beg to differ. If your hands pain you to the point of forcing you to change careers and there's no physiologically pinpointable reason, I don't see how the most complex parts of our bodies could not play a leading role.

I'm npt a CS major, and I also don't have the slightest idea what that formula is about. Don't even know half of the symbols.

Granted, my bachelor's isn't even a scientific degree, I'm an ex-addict turned sysadmin recently turned programmer, self-taught entirely. But I'm freaking sad I was a dumb kid who thought math was stupid once and that our school system (Germany) made it so easy to use my talent for language to average out my dare-I-say intentionally bad grades in the subject.

It's not even that I was bad at it. What drove me to computers, to code or crafting ridiculous zsh scripts in the first place was formulating my own approach to solving a problem. As much as I sucked at "solve these twenty equations like this", I used to love problems stated in natural language and coming up with a solution. Should've built on that.

Anyway, besides the late night regret... Can anyone of you recommend a book for me? Think little to no familiarity with the terminology, many years of only using what math a supermarket or insurance situation entails, eagerness to learn and fascination with the subject. No delusions about becoming a regular mathlete in my early thirties, I just want to fix a lack of knowledge caused by pubescent idiocy.

Thanks!

Thanks for clearing that up. Latency is another of these things currently, pings below 800ms are a rarity for me. Very noticeable and pretty annoying.

I'm not presuming I know better than a bunch of SpaceX engineers.

Am on satellite internet. When it works, it's kinda okay. 25mbps down are possible and sometimes achieved. On a Friday evening though, the shared medium hits hard. Last week an 'aptitude update' took an entire business day.

So, yeah, I'm gonna assume people who're by every definition smarter than me aren't going to try this kind of 'meh' technology for their own Google Fiber like plans. Ground based RF networks make a lot more sense imho.

I connect out of tradition, too. Nobody uses it anymore but damn it if I didn't have many contacts.

Memory lane, eh?

D2 LoD Bots paid my high school addiction to Magic trading cards. That I ever convinced a girl to touch me will never cease to amaze me.

That's what I am currently going for. Took a job that I cannot afford to lose, doing something most people on here would accomplish in an afternoon tops.

I guess your stance is right. You don't grow unless you're challenged.

I know what you mean. Talking to people about things like, say, government surveillance. I have strong opinions on that. Nothing that this crowd wouldn't agree on mostly, but I'm the only IT guy in my life and generally encounter infuriatingly simple minded positions with this topic. Nothing to hide, nothing wrong with ogling your data.

I tried to explain. Edward Snowden said to ask people to give you their phones unlocked for half an hour. I extend the metaphors, I give concrete examples, but emotional bias trumps anything I bring up. I get angry, nobody wins anything.

That is a concise, interesting read topped off by some Gibson quotes. Thanks.

This looks hella useful. Checking it out today. Thanks!

From the site, it seems to be a Web version of mc on JS base, making file management outside of trusted ssh devices less of a nuisance. Fairly straightforward imho.

Isn't it more so it is readable inside a phone display to an ssh session as well as a fat 4K screen? That's my reason at least. Can always scale up something, but line breaks I didn't make myself make me want to commit unspeakable atrocities in the name of a demonic deity taking the earthly form of a little girl. Or, you know, angry.

Any recommendations as for investigating your last point? What would constitute a truly modernist design in your view? Good food for thought, thanks.

Got some kind of build recipe for that? A mobile ssh station that doesn't suck would be worth my enternal soul to me. Or two of those!

I loved Nokia's smartphones so much. E70, E61, N900... Those were the pinnacles of smartphoning for me. Their successors somehow manage to fall short in vital aspects every single time, it's beyond frustrating.

Same here. Obviously you're 100% right in how little of a target demographic we are, but I'll never forget the sheer joy of finally saving up the money for the n900 and getting it.

As mentioned, it'd be a usable device on its own to this day. If newspaper sites hadn't become unusable without an adblocker, if I didn't need browser updates every nanosecond and if the latest memory-hogging web trend language wasn't, well, what it was. I'd still use it.

Now I own two mobile devices. A BlackBerry Passport. Great UI, physical keyboard, indestructible. Dead software ecosystem, horribly closed source, last of its kind and while there's a lot to love It's not hard to see why. Then there's a rooted HTC phone. Great choice of software (termux alone makes up for so much). Hate hate hate ssh'ing with a touchscreen. Typing generally. Terrible battery life. Seems like it'll die from one harsh drop.

If my social life would not force mobile messengers on me, I'd have gone back to 20€ dumbphones and text/voice only. Though I bet even those come with a horrible browser and the accompanying remotely exploitable holes now.

All in all? Wonderful project. I'm very much hoping for a third player in the mobile game.

Such balls. Much chest hair. Amaze.

Also not everyone is working in the valley, or even the US for that matter. My German income would allow for a nice life in Thailand, but by no means indefinitely and not to a much higher standard than I have here.

Still, I'm going to be travelling a lot next year since I a) just did get laid off and b) get 80% of my last wage as unemployment bonus for a year.

Anyway, thanks Jason for this blog. I've recently turned thirty and feel like you have listed all the right reasons to just go for it.

I really want to stop procrastinating and use a tool like a this, but in the end I just can't be arsed.

Currently offline until the satellite bidirectional dish arrives - yes, that remotely ;) - but once I'm back, I'll gladly share. Gonna comment here again then.