Hacker News Reader

andreasleyon Eco disaster at Kamchatka peninsula with mass death of sea animals

From https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/332810-behind-ecological-disa...:

According to local media, there have already been leaks from buried pesticides. Regional agronomist Anatoly Fedorchenko said in 2006 that “this amount [20 tons of arsenic] is enough to poison the entire northern Pacific Ocean.” Although the landfill was mothballed in 2010, additional checks are now due to be carried out.

andreasleyon Next-Level SSD Performance – Samsung 980 Pro 1TB Review

They have: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16087/the-samsung-980-pro-pci...

andreasleyon Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

Or microwave ovens posing as astronomical objects [1].

[1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/astrophysics/m...

andreasleyon I overslept because iOS 14 disabled my alarm

Definitely not great, but if that's the main problem of this iOS update, I'd consider that a huge success.

andreasleyon Apple Tried Charging the Price of a New MacBook Pro for a Screen Replacement

Actually, loud fans are a regular occurrence when using external displays with current high-end 15" MacBook Pros. It gets hot fast, especially when driving a 4K display and charging at the same time. The 13" MacBook Pro on the other hand is basically silent in most circumstances.

andreasleyon Apple: Person-to-person experiences do not have to use in-app purchase

Here you go: https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/dev7ccaf4d3c

Ad Hoc provisioning profiles are usually only used for testing, since all of the target devices have to be registered in your developer account before signing the app. Also, Ad Hoc profiles expire after 12 months and the app needs to be re-signed and installed again.

You can install the signed app by using Xcode or Apple Configurator or "over the air" (see https://dev.to/gualtierofr/ad-hoc-distribution-for-ios-1524 for an example).

andreasleyon AMD Announces Ryzen “Zen 3” and Radeon “RDNA2” Presentations for October

You do GPU-accelerated 3D rendering. [1]

You do GPU-accelerated video editing. [2]

You do GPU-accelerated machine learning. [3]

[1] https://home.otoy.com/octane-x-pr1/

[2] https://www.apple.com/de/final-cut-pro/

[3] https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10677/

andreasleyon AMD Announces Ryzen “Zen 3” and Radeon “RDNA2” Presentations for October

Apple Silicon will contain an Apple-designed GPU, so it might soon be irrelevant for Mac users what AMD has to offer.

andreasleyon Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

Apple Silicon will use an Apple-designed GPU.

andreasleyon Stealing local files using Safari Web Share API

"Apple replied asking not to publish the details as they plan to address the issue in the Spring 2021 security update"

Besides the fact that I'm always torn if vulnerabilities should be published if the vendor has committed to fixing them: I don't quite understand why a fix can't make it into the next big release that's around the corner (macOS Big Sur and iOS 14). Do large vendors really have such long development pipelines that changing anything is impossible for months? Or do they just have thousands of similarly serious issues and need to prioritize?

andreasleyon Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

Epic Games has filed a lawsuit [1] and published a Fortnite-themed parody of Apple's "1984" [2] to get some publicity for it.

[1] https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4

andreasleyon Adding a fiber link to my home network

Unfortunately, these maps are neither complete nor very accurate. For example, smaller ISPs and networks (like LiteXchange) are usually not included. :(

andreasleyon When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]

Ah, the ad thing makes sense. It's technically true but the meaning conveyed in the statement is quite different.

As for the subscription model, I've thought about that but developers that aren't huge companies have a hard time NOT integrating in-app purchases for cloud services (see "Hey", which had to use social media to get their update approved [1]), so it couldn't be the "vast majority of apps".

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/18/21296180/apple-hey-email-...

andreasleyon When a customer refunds your paid app, Apple refunds its 30% cut [edited]

A Statement of Tim Cook for the House of Representatives claimed that "For the vast majority of apps on the App Store , developers keep 100% of the money they make." [1]

How can this be even remotely true if Apple takes a 30% commission for every sale in the App Store?

[1] https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20200729/110883/HHRG...

andreasleyon Insecam: Directory of Unsecured Surveillance Cameras

A few years ago, while browsing the feeds from my country, I had spotted a camera showing a bedroom with a young child playing. The camera in question was using UPnP to enable port forwarding by default – with a standard password.

After looking up the ip address, I notified the ISP which in turn notified the customer and the camera was taken offline within hours.

While it may not be unexpected to us that such insecure cameras are sold, less tech-savvy users simply don't know about the risks.

andreasleyon Apple Acquires Fleetsmith

While Apple has been publishing their MDM Protocol Reference, the only implementation they ever offered was "Profile Manager", a limited, unreliable service that only runs on macOS Server. Apple never provided MDM as a cloud service.

andreasleyon 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge

With english subtitles: https://vimeo.com/425030709

andreasleyon Anders Tegnell defends Sweden's virus approach

Actually, both articles are based on the same quotes – just very different interpretations and headlines.

andreasleyon Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

It depends on the percentage. Dogs are considered suitable pets, despite some owners being mauled.

andreasleyon Notion for everyone

Correct, it's Electron. And yes, I wish it were native, too.

andreasleyon Notion for everyone

Accredited college or university only (e.g. no elementary or high schools). Also currently no discount for team plans.

andreasleyon Guitar – Git GUI Client

I actually didn't know that Fork can be bought! I installed a Beta version a while back, upgraded regularly and never have been shown a nag screen. Gladly paid for my license a few minutes ago.

andreasleyon Zoom consumes 4% of CPU as statistics shows. No way

Zoom doesn't have to do much computing while in a meeting – except for video encoding, which is usually handled by the GPU. That's why "GPU Time" is high (as shown in Activity Monitor) and why your MBP gets hot.

andreasleyon Zoom’s Use of Facebook’s SDK in iOS Client

The Advertising Identifier is app-specific, and if Limit Ad Tracking is enabled, it is set to all zeros. So it's not accurate to say that it's "your deanonimized identity".

andreasleyon Swiss government files criminal complaint over Crypto AG scandal involving CIA

That's a great question.

When swiss newspapers reported on it in 1994, the cold war was still present in the minds of my fellow citizens and the US was seen as an ally and friend, so the general public probably just didn't consider it to be that important if the CIA maybe bugged some conversations. Also, the swiss government "preferred not to know anything" and obstructed investigations, despite some employees of Crypto AG coming forward with information to the federal police.

The world (or rather our view of it) is quite different today. Hidden data collection is a popular topic and it's harder to pretend that there are only friends in the west and only enemies in the east. It's also easier to share information worldwide and media coverage was much larger this time.

andreasleyon Swiss government files criminal complaint over Crypto AG scandal involving CIA

> This should be embarrassing for the Swiss intelligence services whose job it was to detect and prevent these sorts of shenanigans...

Some alledge that the NDB/FIS (Federal Intelligence Service) knew about the operation. [1]

> The criminal case should be against the company executives surely, not "persons unknown".

At this point, it is not known who was involved in what way exactly. Some executives? Definitely. All executives? Maybe not.

A former employee believes that only 2-3 executives knew about the whole scheme and maybe 10-15 technicians put two and two together or suspected something. [2]

[1] https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/geheimdienstaffaere-cryptole... (german)

[2] https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/17-jahre-bei-der-crypto-ag-e... (german)

andreasleyon HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus vs. Gen10 Hardware Overview

For a powerful microserver, you might want to consider SuperMicro's E300-9D-8CN8TP. It's tiny, comes with an 8-core Xeon D, has an M.2 slot, 4 x 10GbE and is even ESXi certified.

andreasleyon Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

Yes, but that only works in local networks and after connecting via USB once – and the backup is always stored on a single computer. So it may be acceptable for personal usage, but not suited for an enterprise environment where you want to centrally manage hundreds of devices and provide some redundancy for your backup system.

andreasleyon Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

While Apple doesn't force its users to use iCloud, they also don't provide an alternative way to do full backups of iOS/iPadOS devices over a network. Yes, you can plug an iPhone into a Mac, but that doesn't scale.