graystevens
LidLayer – Preserve MacBook Stickers
Re:Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?
on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @03:47PM (#36606077)
https://grh.am
A combination of cyber security, project ideas, and general ramblings.
Re:Apple Announces New MacBook Air with 15.3-Inch Display and M2 Chip
on Monday June 05, 2023 @01:23PM (#36199667)
After years of mulling over my LidLayer^ idea, to preserve laptop stickers on MacBooks with an invisible (non-shiny) vinyl layer (originally posted on HN many moons ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20405957), I finally managed to bring it to fruition earlier this year. I’ve been working to cover the entire MacBook lineup over the last few months, successfully fulfilling it with the 16” in April.
Looks like I need to start working on the 15” pretty sharpish, as the Air is a very capable machine these days. At least they’ve stuck to their traditional colours, rather than bringing something new out to painstakingly try to match against.
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2023)
on Monday May 01, 2023 @01:42PM (#35776403)
A project I posted a few years back on HN for an invisible full-lid sticker for MacBooks, so that you could both protect them _and_ keep your stickers once you get a new laptop. I finally found a cost effective manufacturing solution, so setup a shop for them!
LidLayer - https://lidlayer.com
Re:Show HN: LidLayer – Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks
on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @04:00PM (#34602014)
Some of you may remember something similar from a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20405957
Well, I'm back, and this time I've managed to turn this into an actual physical product! It all started with a simple blog post back in 2019, which gained enough traction on various websites that it seemed worthwhile pursuing. So, a Kickstarter[0] was, well, started – but it never gathered enough momentum to get it across the line (and looking back, rightly so), and so everything got put on hold.
Then the pandemic happened, and I’m kind of glad the idea hadn’t taken off. I did however continue to get a trickle of messages and DMs asking what happened to LidLayer, and if there were any plans for the future…
Fast-forward a year or two, and I get the opportunity to go to a conference for work – the beautiful Objective by the Sea (ObtS)[1], where I am surrounded by stickered MacBooks! The idea of LidLayer immediately pops back into my head, and I can’t help but take another look at it, to see if I can make it work (it must be good if I keep coming back to it, right?).
So, I managed to find a supplier who can accurately cut the LidLayers way more cost-effectively than I ever could, meaning I could finally bring this whole thing back to life. And, what that also means is that because the cost of producing these has gone down, I can pass that saving on to you! Win win win!
[0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grham/lidlayer-protect-...
Show HN: LidLayer – Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks
Re:CanaryTrap: Detecting data misuse by third-party apps on online soc...
on Friday July 03, 2020 @02:42PM (#23726379)
We started something similar with BreachInsider (https://breachinsider.com) to allow businesses (or I guess individuals?) to do this themselves with minimal overhead or resources. The idea being that they sprinkle these ‘users’ throughout their databases and see where they show up, and be alerted if they ever get contacted or show up somewhere unusual (Pastebin etc.)
We ran something similar, firing ‘insiders’ across many of the top 100 sites and services, to spot breaches (either in the traditional sense of security incidents, or lapses in privacy for end users).
Preserving Laptop Stickers – A Post Factum
Show HN: LidLayer – Protect and Preserve Your Laptop Stickers
Re:Preserving Laptop Stickers – A Post Factum
on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @01:56AM (#20504730)
This is a retrospective on the original post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20405957
It got enough attention that it only seemed fair to give this a real chance, and for that, I decided to try out Kickstarter.
Preserving Laptop Stickers – A Post Factum
Re:Preserving Laptop Stickers – A Post Factum
on Monday July 22, 2019 @04:07PM (#20501821)
Fixed, nice spot
Re:Preserving Laptop Stickers – A Post Factum
on Monday July 22, 2019 @03:48PM (#20501625)
This is a retrospective on the original post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20405957
It got enough attention that it only seemed fair to give this a real chance, and for that, I decided to try out Kickstarter.
Preserving Laptop Stickers – A Post Factum
Re:Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks
on Wednesday July 10, 2019 @06:31PM (#20407282)
3M 1080 is great stuff - I avoided clear vinyls however as i found they lost the metallic look due to them being a little too glossy, even with the matte ones.
Re:Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks
on Wednesday July 10, 2019 @05:51PM (#20406981)
So it remains sticky when removed, but I certainly wouldn't expect it to fit quite as snuggly the second time around. Interesting idea though, but my initial reaction would be no, not re-applicable.
Re:Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks
on Wednesday July 10, 2019 @05:48PM (#20406966)
I think that might work for certain popular brands - Dell XPSs certainly crossed my mind, as well as the Lenovo Thinkpads. Both are likely to have a vinyl equivalent available that could be used, although I'd want to thoroughly QC how the Thinkpad lid holds-up with the residue on removal.
Preserving Laptop Stickers on MacBooks
Monzo Is Launching in the USA
Re:Wireguard-docs: Setup, usage, configuration, and a full example
on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @03:47AM (#20037679)
Looks like a great write up, very thorough. I wrote up a quick guide how to make the mobile setup a little easier with QR codes within the WireGuard mobile apps - when I get the time I’ll submit a pull request to get something included. https://grh.am/2018/wireguard-setup-guide-for-ios/
Re:How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]
on Sunday December 30, 2018 @06:29PM (#18791977)
I have heard people use pihole linked with a VPN to act as a way of minimising tracking whilst on 3G/4G. It acts as a DNS server, so you could tweak your VPN config to run all queries through your pihole instance.
Re:WireGuard for iOS
on Thursday December 20, 2018 @05:47AM (#18723850)
Depends on the country I am in as to whether or not I want to VPN whilst on a mobile connection (whether that is for just having an IP in my home country or don’t fancy my traffic going over their wires).
It is primarily for public and/or untrusted WiFi connections, or so that I can take packet captures of iOS applications easily without a jailbreak or connecting the phone via USB to a Mac.
Re:WireGuard for iOS
on Thursday December 20, 2018 @04:30AM (#18723533)
I’ve been using the TestFlight beta for a while now - since it was first announced - and it’s been a great experience so far. The recently added option to activate on-demand is great, as it means I can now force VPN for any WiFi and/or mobile data connections.
The primary niggle I came across was transferring the keys between my host and the client, however after a bit of tweaking I found it far easier to just utilise the QR codes option. For those interested, I wrote about my experiences on my blog[0]
Re:A blogging style guide
on Friday December 07, 2018 @04:54AM (#18626321)
Well timed – I’ve been trying to get back into blogging, as a way of sharing and giving back, as well as improving my personal ‘brand’.
I was never really happy with the visual format of my site, which I think put me off writing at times - “if it were me, I’m not sure I’d read this in this format, it’s too visually taxing”. However with a quick style change to something much more basic, I’m feeling much more confident.
I think my final hurdle, which this article may help with, is my writing style. I get the impression that my ‘style’ changes fairly regularly, or depending on the topic or post I write for a different audience. This likely doesn’t matter too much for those visitors who come for a single post and move on, but anyone who would like to peruse around may get a slightly jarring experience.
Re:Cathay Pacific flags data breach affecting 9.4M passengers
on Thursday October 25, 2018 @05:00AM (#18299499)
Reposting from the other thread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18299015*
It is unclear from any reporting as to how this technically happened, which is a shame but hopefully that will be made public in the coming days. Some other outlets[0] have an interesting statement:
> The breach also included details about where each passenger had traveled and any comments made by customer service representatives. The amount of data accessed varied among passengers.*
Based on those details, and the mention of 'no passwords were compromised', chances are this breach has come from an internal helpdesk type system, or possibly CRM. If however the statement around the passwords changes, that opens up a few other possibilities.
What this doesn't sound like, are the attacks we saw on British Airways[1] and Ticketmaster[2], where javascript was injected into the payment pages to vacuum up payment details from customers.
The statement around "The company has no evidence that any personal information has been misused" is always an interesting one, and is one of the many reasons I created my startup Breach Insider[3], so that data breaches like this could be detected much sooner (not 7 months later, as we have seen here), with minimal false positive alerts, and definitive evidence if any data has been misused. By using real email addresses that are unique to each company/business, you can be sure to find out if that data ever leaks & is abused for things like spam or phishing.
[0] https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019958/cathay-pacific-...
[1] https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/da...
[2] https://www.riskiq.com/blog/labs/magecart-ticketmaster-breac...
Re:Cathay Pacific data hack hits 9.4M passengers
on Thursday October 25, 2018 @04:56AM (#18299480)
It is unclear from any reporting as to how this technically happened, which is a shame but hopefully that will be made public in the coming days. Some other outlets[0] have an interesting statement:
> The breach also included details about where each passenger had traveled and any comments made by customer service representatives. The amount of data accessed varied among passengers.
Based on those details, and the mention of 'no passwords were compromised', chances are this breach has come from an internal helpdesk type system, or possibly CRM. If however the statement around the passwords changes, that opens up a few other possibilities.
What this doesn't sound like, are the attacks we saw on British Airways[1] and Ticketmaster[2], where javascript was injected into the payment pages to vacuum up payment details from customers.
The statement around "The company has no evidence that any personal information has been misused" is always an interesting one, and is one of the many reasons I created my startup Breach Insider[3], so that data breaches like this could be detected much sooner (not 7 months later, as we have seen here), with minimal false positive alerts, and definitive evidence if any data has been misused. By using real email addresses that are unique to each company/business, you can be sure to find out if that data ever leaks & is abused for things like spam or phishing.
[0] https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019958/cathay-pacific-...
[1] https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/da...
[2] https://www.riskiq.com/blog/labs/magecart-ticketmaster-breac...
NVMe SSD Upgrade Guide for an Early 2015 MacBook Pro
Re:Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it cool?
on Saturday October 20, 2018 @07:21AM (#18262748)
Not yet, still gauging interest (and trying to find a reliable source for the vinyl). I’ll be sure to tell HN when that becomes a reality.
Re:Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it cool?
on Friday October 19, 2018 @03:00PM (#18259085)
I personally really liked how the PoC went – I plan on doing a full write up in the next couple of days, which will outline what I did, start to finish.
Here is an example of the sticker/skin and the finish. Excuse the slightly 'off' cut on the corner – I'm looking to produce a highly accurate template for each of the various models. https://imgur.com/FfQ3XQs