spenvo

Homebrew disclosure: https://brew.sh/2021/04/21/security-incident-disclosure/

The title was slightly altered because the original was too long. Unfortunately it misses the part that may be particularly interesting to HN:

"The donation was made by Tim Sweeney ..., the founder and CEO of Epic Games, who is also a conservation philanthropist who has purchased many large tracts of land across WNC to be forever preserved."

I'm saying it turned me off to iOS programming b/c it made it feel out of reach, regardless of whether it was true or not. Regardless of language, when you list all the reasons it is difficult to program (the things you may have spent years getting past/overcoming) it's going to turn new people away from it

That's true, by leaps and bounds, really

The article has a good message overall but I think this title works against it. A much younger and more impressionable version of myself heard Marco Arment on a podcast around 2010 saying how difficult iOS programming was, and I kind of believed him at face value. It was 9 years before I gave iOS/macOS programming another shot, and I was more productive than I'd been in any other programming language. I agree with the article that telling people programming is "easy" is probably not a good idea either.

Thanks dang, sorry—I blanked out on that rule and will try to remember moving forward (I think I’ve made this mistake before). Cheers

CNAME-tracking is a relatively new phenomenon, where ad marketing firms (led by Salesforce and Adobe) are convincing sites to tweak CNAME records in order to get browsers to send a domain's cookie data (yes, security implications here are severe). This tracking method has become increasingly popular with tens of thousands of high-traffic sites utilizing it, and browsers have no built-in defenses against it. A more at-length layman's explanation can be found here, starting on page 8 https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-808-notes.pdf

But as the title hits upon, there is one countermeasure that uBlock Origin has implemented for its Firefox extension. But unlike Firefox, Chrome does not provide robust enough extension APIs for the countermeasure to work there. Chrome users are currently completely susceptible to having private cookie data stolen on thousands of high-traffic sites. Even in the case of this countermeasure though, it does seem insufficient as it's essentially a whack-a-mole game. Browsers must prioritize shutting this down in a more foolproof way, and I can't imagine an easy way to do that.

Companies hoping to avoid the shame of answering the questions truthfully have allegedly misled users about their collection practices, according to the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/29/apple-p...

Check out this infographic that illustrates the frequency of Google app updates before and after December 8 https://twitter.com/Thomasbcn/status/1356645088697454596

After seeing that, one can not help but to assume that 1.) the lack of updates are related to the privacy label deadline and 2.) that most of its apps are in need of bug fixes and aren’t receiving those updates.

ah ok, i never cited the thought as anything other than speculation, but I'll still unquote you in my article.

If you're referring to possible justifications for the delay on app update releases, I really like (and want to believe) this angle and will update the article to include the thought. If it is indeed the case - then it shows that Apple's privacy labels are having a powerful pro-consumer effect on major app developers

Hm, I don't think I said that. I think this is more of PR issue than anything else

it's not a big deal, it just highlights that Google has stalled over 2 months on pushing out updates for its flagship apps, because it seems they don't want to add iOS privacy "nutrition" labels. Like Facebook did (and suffered some[0] pushback[1] for). Edit: interesting that this is getting downvoted.

[0] - https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1339174301564604418 [1] - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1347165127036977153

Yup, just did. Thanks for the tip

Author here: I can't reproduce it any longer either, seems they have pushed a server-side fix out for this issue

This is a really good read that examines how immunocompromised people are more likely to be chronic victims of various viruses, and how said viruses can evolve more quickly in that environment.

Mac users upgrading to Big Sur are affected by this bug, and user reports about it have existed since July on Apple's developer forums. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/651131 If you use external displays, I'd hold off upgrading

As a developer who makes an app that specifically places windows on external displays, i have to disagree with you(r level of confidence). MacOS's APIs have become unreliable on external displays in 11.0.1

That sounds awful. I can say the situation gets more hopeless in 11.0.1. I'm a Mac developer so have tested this behavior side-by-side with Catalina and even Mojave, and Big Sur has unique problems

PSA: Big Sur forgets where apps' windows are when plugging back into an external display

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/651131?answerId=64... https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/jt0gjk/big_sur_forge...

I've been on the public beta of Big Sur for months (and issued Feedback Assistant bug reports on this). As of 11.0.1, there's still a dealbreaker bug for people who use external monitors.

If you unplug an external display and then plug it back in, none of your apps' windows (which were on the external display’s Space beforehand) are visible or where they used to be. The external monitor’s Space usually appears completely empty.

I genuinely hope Apple fixes this ASAP.

I can confirm that the bug exists in the Big Sur Release Candidate 11.0.1. This is a basic, dealbreaker bug for anyone who uses multiple monitors.

If you unplug an external display and then plug it back in, none of your apps' windows (which were on the external display’s Space beforehand) are visible or where they used to be. The external monitor’s Space usually appears completely empty.

Nine years ago, I stumbled across this book and finally learned enough about programming to be able to make useful things. It really levelled up my life, and was a great onboarding experience to the language. The book takes on one concept at a time and has some exercises at the end of each chapter that you can do in your command line. Because it focuses on concepts, I felt like I could immediately branch out to other languages (which I did). If you have friends or kids who want to get into programming, I'd put this on the list. What are your favorite intro to programming books?

Oh yeah - my jogs are weird in that I'm treating them as brainstorming sessions. Most people probably listen to music or podcasts when they get out and about.

I'd refer you to this, where they ignored conclusions from internally commissioned research into how their platform was divisive. https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-it-encourages-di...

You should have a way for people to know when it comes to their city, maybe via an email waitlist.

Thanks, I like this breakdown. It was why it was a big deal last week when Apple was trying to get 30% of WordPress hosting fees and then backed down and apologized.

Where it all falls apart: Apple recently targeted 30% of Airbnb's (and ClassPass') virtual experiences revenue. These experiences do not make the app itself better (others were saying here these are done via Zoom). It's a transaction to set up people performing for others (not a purely digital good) in another app like Zoom. It doesn't really change/improve the Airbnb app. ... But Apple aims to treat it as an in-app-purchase...

Unlike with the Wordpress controversy, Apple has not backed down or apologized to ClassPass/Airbnb, demanding both still comply with the 30% rule by year's end.

Using that analogy, it would be like if Netflix let you sign up in its app (purchase the subscription without leaving the app). (The FB ads manager app let's you "place" ad orders on iOS.) Instead, Netflix doesn't let you make that sign up transaction in-app. In fact, it doesn't even link out to a web site where you can, because Apple limits Netflix's speech in that regard.

Create a Facebook page and download the Ads Manager app

I can digitally purchase an ad. I am a user. I don't have to own a business to buy an ad. So... ads and digital purchases made by users are one and the same, as far as I'm concerned

(Also, I haven't "asked this around several times", and I won't edit my posts, you goofball!)

Eh, I guess? It involves people essentially performing for each other in their own physical spaces. It's not a purely digital good like ads though.

On the other hand, you can buy a Facebook ad in its iOS Ads Manager app that only targets iOS devices, right?

All of this is to say Apple has arbitrarily picked winner and loser categories of digital app businesses. Meanwhile it sticks to the line that the store is an even playing field. I'd love it if it were!