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jonquark

776 karma · joined September 4, 2013

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jonquark··on IoT Smart Lock Vulnerability Spotlights Bigger Issues
> as soon as I see MQTT (or any other abstraction layer above UDP or TCP/IP) I know that doom follows.

As someone who works on MQTT server technology, this opinion surprised me - it's a lot easier to get the security right using an MQTT server - user credentials are part of the protocol where as you have to build it yourself if you start at the TCP/UDP layer.

The problem in this example wasn't that they were using MQTT it's that there was no authentication/authorisation checking done - normally achieved by configuration - that would be possible in TCP as well - by not implementing it ;)

jonquark··on Declining eyesight improved by looking at deep red light
The closest I could easily find in the UK is this rather dubious looking website: https://www.funkylighting.com/deep-red-led-flashlight-torch-...

Still, if it doesn't help my eyes it'll be useful for my paranormal investigations ;)

jonquark··on Solving the chaotic three-body problem using deep neural networks (2019)
I think there is quite a large overlap in audience - quite a few of the readers here will have PhDs in physics in a way that few internets forums will.
jonquark··on Linux Mint drops Ubuntu Snap packages
I can see why Snap is like it is from Canonial's perspective - but from the User perspective it seems like FlatPaks[1] are much better and address the issues that this article raises

[1] https://flathub.org/home

(Disclaimer: I'm talking in a personal capacity but the company I work for in my day job now owns Red Hat - I don't work on Linux Operating Systems).

jonquark··on CERN approves plans for a $23B, 62-mile long super-collider
The Higgs was discovered at the LHC. Before that there had been theories with no experimental evidence.
jonquark··on Microsoft: Rust Is the Industry’s ‘Best Chance’ at Safe Systems Programming
I had to Google to find out... Rust Evangelism Strike Force https://twitter.com/rustevangelism
jonquark··on Show HN: Kosmi – Hang out with friends and family online
Ah to answer my own question. I wasn't logged in and created then left/rejoined and was no longer an admin.
jonquark··on Show HN: Kosmi – Hang out with friends and family online
Interesting!

I started a room, then started a video chat in it. Is there a way to do something else (e.g. play poker) without having to create a new room?

jonquark··on UnDraw: Open-source illustrations for every project you can imagine and create
A few details about freesvg rising from the ashes of the Open Clip Art Library are here: https://opensource.com/article/19/10/how-community-saved-art...
jonquark··on UnDraw: Open-source illustrations for every project you can imagine and create
There are lots here: https://freesvg.org/ (It has the archive from the now-defunct (temporarily?) openclipart.org)
jonquark··on MQTT: A Conceptual Deep-Dive
A QoS 2 flow is 2-phase (Publish and PubRec being the first phase and PubRel and PubComp being the second).
jonquark··on MQTT: A Conceptual Deep-Dive
I'm not sure this statement is accurate. Certainly the MQTT broker I work on (IBM WIoTP Message Gateway) and a number of our competitors support QoS 2 in production (though I am aware a number of brokers don't support it).
jonquark··on Software on Librem 5 and PinePhone Linux Phones Is Progressing Nicely
The Wayland based Jolla phones are very responsive in my opinion (uses Android and Jolla regularly)
jonquark··on Grandpa's Beer
I'm English. A lot of beer here was traditionally served at cellar temperature even though today, most beer is served cold. I've been known to complain about the temperature of beer too.

This well-written tale should be a salutary lesson to me about getting too fixed in my opinions :)

jonquark··on The maturing of the smartphone industry is cause for celebration
There is a related story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18895064

I think (as I said in the previous discussion) that the key issue with the lengthening phone upgrade cycle is security patches.

Manufacturers are trying very hard to have built-in obsolescence: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/31/dutch_court_says_sa...

Unless this fundamentally changes, most non-techy users will have to needlessly upgrade perfectly good devices, run insecure software or become much more savvy about which manufacturers are better in this regard - and the outcome is likely to be some malware has a very large distribution followed by a lot of press.

jonquark··on A decade-long boom is ending as consumers hang on to devices for longer
I'm surprised that the comments don't focus much on security patches. Manufacturers are trying very hard to have built-in obsolescence: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/31/dutch_court_says_sa... Unless this fundamentally changes, most non-techy users will have to needlessly upgrade perfectly good devices, run insecure software or become much more savvy about which manufacturers are better in this regard.
jonquark··on Google Earth for live radios
Really impressed with this. It's something I would never have known I wanted until I saw it. I'm happily scrolling around different countries to get a taste of what they are playing.

I only speak English fluently but I've been learning some French and I can see this helping.

jonquark··on IBM acquires Red Hat
An an IBM employee, I definitely hope that some of the RH culture rubs off on us, but I also hope that RH retains its own distinctive identity and isn't altered very much by the deal aside from having access to IBM's resources such as the scale of the sales organisation.
jonquark··on A tour of JavaScript timers on the web
From the title, I thought this was going to be a collection of Javascript based count down timers like: http://coralbark.net/javascriptTimer/

(It describes ways of timing things in Javascript code).

jonquark··on Zipf’s Law Arises Naturally When There Are Underlying, Unobserved Variables
Number in the list. So the first item in the list occurs roughly twice as often as the second item and roughly 9 times as often as the ninth item.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, I looked at the Wikipedia page in response to this story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf's_law

jonquark··on Perspectives Project: Connect securely to https websites
I think it predates CT (note that the papers linked on the website are from 2008).
jonquark··on Perspectives Project: Connect securely to https websites
I like the idea and I've installed the add-on, but at the moment the notary servers are too unreliable. The default list of notary servers fail quorum as most don't seem to respond/be up to date. I've seen other lists of servers (e.g. in the comments on the Firefox add-on page) but again, the servers listed there aren't consistently responsive.

It does occur to me that I could be being Man-In-The-Middle'd but I don't think so (well I would, wouldn't I ;)

I'm currently using this list instead of the default list:

perspectives1.schulte.org:8080 -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIHKMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4G4ADCBtAKBrAF9YhEaUx+MR/9dw/ceF5+DAmTm KRylGYKz+rfLSKMS1PMfkGiXVB12qkGOj321PrphLs2s9KWLcxHnCwJdQWcg2xIA VQbZ2I5me2PEJNC+1Y9nqPR6AeKEljDPK/A1KiTjwDGjpvru8Djp25q++VJjhUZG y0Wq845LMMUbQGefh05IL4Y9vuMWRUjs0C6enkI5CnCcMIFD1uY5+rsqknw1Nthn 2ZhTVfcjxTsCAwEAAQ== -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

perspectives2.schulte.org:8080 -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIHKMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4G4ADCBtAKBrAGcQwe1IeEnF/ZobSywrpzbv6Uw sZyxU7WThAaJ1EKy7UIYSrcJ6v/qurFwn9DwR8hxpXCgE8MRZdfVi99z69VE0Nmw 6vHLuC0PKQ/m3Gc+4LzfEyJ/fsPFsTsSqwog+ys8ehvCifoazewyLAZvVfBW3TVZ uv7REooR5rWVrkI05z/VLpY9eSanWxaBJikHE3AnfOocI60ZIvq2eftIkpqCppwr AZtwGtmxHa0CAwEAAQ== -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

perspectives3.schulte.org:8080 -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIHKMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4G4ADCBtAKBrAG0L5/mnLvIjQbD6yazszjVBWCb K7iUiav/M/9qoph2s1Nd2HSbEa2pZsNTtRrPNd2uPkYPGjkuhv5Ba3AMezN4eeEJ pxa0wBSuYX7deUcQCu+0W/tLXZ61ny/Ezu/mnAQ10HIiO7mQnDTliF4ReSWC9TuR axLr1tEh3i/pRoSOCtcWIR5y59BYu+GiPHl9IDOBraTG0R9ph+3fDVtf+kd+WUVv /d0tWI0UmGsCAwEAAQ== -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

perspectives4.schulte.org:8080 -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIHKMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4G4ADCBtAKBrAF+1OV01dpujDpFoUtld37Pgy4/ 67E7EFB7YyHkfQbTuPnfZ2+UNScl80vcmN1hym8XJ0icPahah+SXMLq81UNxO6Xq 4s/41C5IxjnZN2Ij3EvhSPQ9HrK9+CVUmLWTWQRG7t5JaKGdlmYc5Fou1/SMoURZ z4LWWGwcYH5/DcBt64XL5c87v4g3mfCDptmFMg5Cy34uG+XEh0obvp5S+uuORwn1 agGH5DYpR1sCAwEAAQ== -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

notary2.qabs.cz:8080 -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIHKMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4G4ADCBtAKBrAGYNrXeOuExUPjrwisreOZ67ZTT xaPVLncYrVrvE2Q3KzAqVvGlhyxZMnSLlHlHD5BJsA3bM/15ForpH/dJL+GnONZY sQdgVdDXH30231bImuOzqBNCqMsTB4hxg9U6a1J4h7sa1eOn5Zz1EbDGuW2+jEcE 0MjqpaYEEW7FZiZOIJQRz4jX26zfGGhtd7txfkZQ26lhiibo9auCxp1tnVJmBX2S VisNlAuuLM8CAwEAAQ== -----END PUBLIC KEY-----

Edit: removed servers that I just noticed were usually dissenting in the quorum. - So an attacker wouldn't have to MITM many extra domains with that list.

jonquark··on I was forced to shut down Lavabit (2014)
I know it's an old article but re-reading it is worthwhile; it is short and chilling - how have we ended up in a dystopian present where the ability to perform bulk surveillance is demanded and ruled upon in secret court rooms (in the UK where I am based the situation is even worse!).

I have never found myself in the situation that Ladar Levison describes but I wonder (and fear) whether I would have the courage to shut down my business on a matter of principle like that.

jonquark··on The NSA Is Hoarding Vulnerabilities
Aren't they literally "making us less secure" by keeping records of vulnerabilities on computer systems but not disclosing them?

This means they can't be fixed by the software company but as this data dump shows, shady characters might be able to discover these vulnerabilities by (illictly) accessing computer systems used by the NSA.

Edit: Yes the shady characters might be able to independently discover the vulnerabilities if they are not "NOBUS" but this is another avenue.

jonquark··on Intel knows it's no longer inside
I agree that consumer-facing IoT devices are a single vertical in a long list of verticals (many of which are more mature) but I really wanted to mention that IBM also has a platform in this space that was omitted from your list: Watson IoT.

(Disclaimer: I work on the MessageSight messaging engine used in Watson IoT)

jonquark··on Model 3 Unveiling [video]
I got the same in Firefox (on Linux with a therefore out-dated flash). It worked fine in Chrome.
jonquark··on Model 3 Unveiling [video]
It's a mix of steel and aluminium (source: Tesla employee in their Periscope Test Drive: https://www.periscope.tv/TeslaMotors/1dRKZyRkpgNxB )
jonquark··on He Always Had a Dark Side
No - I read it like that too - before a double take. Now that would be a story :)
jonquark··on Political scientist Nolan Dalla claims to be “push polled” by Clinton’s campaign
I agree with you that the tone of the article distracts from the allegation that is being made.
jonquark··on Political scientist Nolan Dalla claims to be “push polled” by Clinton’s campaign
Do you think it is inconsistent to be in favour of policies "for the working class" and have issues with someone doing something you think is reprehensible if that person is on minimum wage and they were "just following orders"?
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