astebbin

Similar relay attacks have been made to work over longer distances and through various obstacles, like exterior walls and locked doors. From 2015:

“Mr. Danev said that when the teenage girl turned on her device, it amplified the distance that the car can search, which then allowed my car to talk to my key, which happened to be sitting about 50 feet away, on the kitchen counter. And just like that, open sesame.“

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/style/keeping-your-car-sa...

Ah, good eye. IANAL, and I missed that part.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration has written their own argument for jurisdiction [0]. Having flipped through it, I don't have the legal background to form a strong opinion in light of China's declaration.

I'd lean towards "don't build on reefs in another country's Exclusive Economic Zone," but I'm neither a court nor plaintiff with standing :)

[0] https://www.pcacases.com/web/sendAttach/1503

>It gave the impression that China is defying the UN, not saying that China wouldn't do something like that, but they didn't in this instance.

You're right that they _would_ do something like that! ;) In fact, they did in this case. I'll explain below.

>And because it is a court of arbitration, both sides have to agree to have their dispute resolved by arbitration in the first place. China did not agree to it.

Not quite. China has ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) [0], which designates the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague [1] as the default means of dispute resolution between parties. China knew this going in, and agreed to it when they signed the treaty. This court ruled against China on the matter of the Nine-Dash Line [2]. By defying the court's ruling, they defy the UNCLOS, and thus the UN.

You're technically right that in the case of the Nine-Dash Line, China did not agree to participate in arbitration. However, arbitration was allowed to proceed without their cooperation according to the rules of the UNCLOS, which China had already signed. Treaty law doesn't only apply when it's convenient.

[0] https://pca-cpa.org/en/services/arbitration-services/unclos/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Court_of_Arbitration... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-Dash_Line#Arbitral_tribun...

In American high school I learned not just about Nathan Hale and Martin Luther King Jr., but also about Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Sophie Scholl. These figures are famous for the strength of their moral beliefs, the brutality they endured as a result, and their perseverance despite such adversity.

On these points, I think Liu Xiaobo is of equal merit. This would explain his visibility in the West. If students in China aren't taught similar stories or values, then I could understand the difficulty to relate.

Despite the many upvotes, numerous comments, and recent post time, this submission no longer appears on the front page. I don't see a "submission flagged" or "removed" indicator. Would a moderator be able to tell us what's up?

For home defense, it is possible to keep a gun in a safe space that is both toddler-proof AND accessible when necessary. I'm talking about bedside electronic safes, commonly available with combination [0] or biometric [1] locks, always with a physical key fallback. These solutions reduce unnecessary coupling between access control technology and the gun itself. At the very least, this means the (well-maintained) gun will 100% go "bang" when you pull the trigger.

[0] https://lowes.com/pd/Barska-Compact-0-36-cu-ft-Electronic-Ch... [1] https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/biometric-gun-safes

I've found Vice News to be great for firsthand reports, but lacking on background material.

For example, they did a segment [0] on brown coal strip-mining in Germany. The reporter examined the stark human and environmental toll of the mining, but failed to address why such a dirty form of energy was in demand in the first place. I had to do my own research to find out.

What I found, in part because I knew some of the background already and was confused by the Vice report, was that Germans chose to abandon nuclear power - a cleaner, safer form of energy - in the wake of the Fukushima disaster [1]. This boosted their dependence on coal, and was a direct cause of the increase in strip mining portrayed in the Vice report. The devastation caused by mining to the landscape and nearby villages took on a different meaning for me with this information.

Overall, I enjoy and appreciate the out-there, unfiltered style of journalism that Vice sells. However, I'd encourage you to do your own research and not rely on their reporting to capture the bigger picture.

[0] https://youtu.be/xCrVYd3aKcA [1] https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/10/26/green-germa...

If someone is jailed for their speech, I wouldn't call it free. But perhaps I don't understand what you mean. Could you elaborate?

One might argue that Yugoslavia, then recently emerged from decades of dictatorship and still a communist Eastern European country, was not part of the ideological West at that time.

I personally doubt this will help solve the problem. Reminding a restive population that you dominate and scrutinize every aspect of their lives, even those of people who follow the rules, is a great way to build more resentment against a state. It also instructs the real terrorists to avoid the publicly-compromised communication channels.

How is pervasive, compulsive surveillance at all comparable to redirected search queries for extremist content by a private business?

I think forced, public smartphone surveillance is absolutely worse than secret surveillance, in two ways. First, it has a strong chilling effect on free speech and free thought. In a country where the rule of law is not well-established, you can never be sure what the local officials consider "bad" speech. As a result, you keep your mouth shut more often, just in case. This takes a psychological toll on everyone surveilled, not just criminals.

Second, dedicated criminals will now actively avoid the compromised smartphones and seek alternate means of communication. As others have noted, the current surveillance malware seems easy to circumvent. This is why spy agencies don't generally advertise their sources and methods.

Besides being (in my opinion) incorrect on many levels - for instance, Western countries continue to rescue and provide for NEMA refugees, if not granting them residency - the parent comment is a great example of "Whataboutism," a classic logical fallacy and Soviet propaganda technique:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

Can Facebook and other US tech companies move in WeChat's direction successfully, in the West? Why did WeChat take off as such an everything-application in China? Do the same necessary motivations and trends exist elsewhere?

I'd speculate not, at least not in the US. Here, more people have different types of computers (laptops, desktops, tablets, phones, set-top boxes) which are all united mainly by Web browsers / technologies. The Web is naturally - or at least, has been historically - more open and less conducive to walled gardens. Consequently, I think US consumers are used to the experience of getting news from (for example) the Washington Post, shopping on Amazon, and checking email on GMail, while navigating between these sites without too much hassle. This experience has largely been replicated on mobile devices, at least for me, despite the best efforts of Facebook and others to keep me locked in their app outside of mobile Chrome and Safari.

Since the Chinese government won't allow strong foreign competitors to penetrate their domestic market, I have to assume that Facebook, Google, and so forth are targeting other countries with these all-in-one messaging apps. Perhaps India would most resemble China's mobile-dominated market?

As a Silicon Valley software developer, I haven't seen many credentialed engineers. The vast majority of my colleagues in software have a degree or two in Computer Science, but no formal engineering certification. The few I've met I would describe as "incidentally" credentialed, meaning they went to a school (commonly Waterloo) where it was a requirement for graduation.

It's far easier and less risky to update, not to mention roll back, code on servers than it is on embedded devices. If you break the updater on a server, you can SSH in to fix it "manually" get a tech to replace the machine. If you break the updater (or WiFi driver, or bootloader, or...) on embedded devices in the field, you're up Product Recall Creek without a paddle.

In practice, this means that many companies prefer the less-risky approach which still lets them iterate rapidly on feature development, and fix bugs in production without weeks of QA.

> a $5 microprocessor with just enough intelligence to connect to the internet and send me an email or a push notification if the buzzer on the washer goes off

You have essentially described the Protect. Its brain is a cheap little MCU with 128kB RAM. The author, had he read an actual teardown [0], should have realized this. Instead, he made false and confusing claims about Linux.

Certainly other companies put grossly-overspecced hardware in their "Smart" devices, but Nest's Protect isn't one of them.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nest+Protect+Teardown/20057

I have 2 first-gen and 2 second-gen Protects in my home. I've never had any false alarms. The newer model has 4.7 stars (out of 5) on Amazon with over 5000 reviews, so I think my positive experience is the norm.

I'm not sure why you've been downvoted, as your question looks like an honest one, and the answers are very informative. I certainly learned something new from the replies. Thanks for asking!

Could it be this one [0], or its predecessor [1]?

[0] http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lockheed-martin-aircra... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_P-791

Same here. I have a Windows PC which I use only for games and media processing. Steam for Mac isn't bad, but the vast preponderance of popular new (and old) games remain Windows exclusives.

Most people sounds like overstatement. Personally the idea, "to give your child any money as a loan and then let the child claim those assets as his or her own income or saving [...] in support of a loan application," strikes me as obvious fraud. Without data, I would doubt that most homebuyers follow this practice.

I think the author's argument wasn't that this practice is not or should not be a crime, but that the potential criminal penalty - 30 years! - is far too high.

Hey, just saw your comment. I agree with your reasoning and am happy to comply. I assume you will pass the same message along to users who start such discussions in the first place.

I generally only comment on issues I know about. Outside of technology, history and civics is a focus of mine, hence the comments.

Perhaps deleting comments like the parent (made on a throwaway account, apparently) would be a good idea. It would stop folks like me who feel compelled to reply to perceived propaganda from doing so.

The alternative is for everyone who feels strongly about political issues to create throwaways for such HN discussions (see parent), to avoid retribution on their main accounts. I doubt that's a world you'd want to moderate, or that I'd want to live in. (Not suggesting I'd go in for such sock-puppet account shenanigans, but it's the limiting case that comes to mind.)

Anyway, I suspect political stories will always provoke political discussion. If you'd prefer not to have this on the site, I'd humbly suggest flagging and removing such stories.

EDIT: Your point about flame wars is well-taken, however. I could certainly have highlighted the history and facts of American press freedom in a more constructive way here.

Here is more context, found via Google:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/6c3mnv/amazon_...

Where in the TOS is rclone's behavior prohibited?

EDIT: "You may not use the Service to store, transfer or distribute content of or on behalf of third parties, to operate your own file storage application or service, to operate a photography business or other commercial service, or to resell any part of the Service." I imagine "your own file storage application" is at issue here.

But if customers should only use the (reportedly awful) official app to sync files, why offer an API at all?

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/TxRNQX3SWVLUYC/Amazo...

What absolute falsehoods. Ask Woodward and Bernstein if they got "suicided." America has not yet fallen to China or Russia's level of cynical censorship acceptance.

They've changed policies for now. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, however, so we'll have to hope these changes stick with the next ruler.

>I think people in China are happy to have this huge level of economic improvement for now, and will deal with the civil freedoms later.

I think you're right about the current attitude of people in China. Unfortunately, as I have experienced in software development, often "later" (e.g. the Jira label "Future") means "never."

Thanks for the link, I'm a huge fan of Frontline. I'll give that episode a look!

We've heard this story before. In the West, the line (for years!) was that China's economic growth and foreign trade would _inevitably_ lead to democratization and widespread human rights improvements. That didn't happen -- the Communist party adapted quickly. They learned how to use economic growth as the base of their continued legitimacy, and as a fig leaf for continued political oppression (Internet censorship, jailing human rights activists, intimidating journalists, etc). With China as their mentor, I don't have high hopes for a different scenario unfolding in North Korea.