News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

tomswartz07

I appreciate the Good Place reference in the name.
Re:PostgreSQL 13 Beta 1 Released on Thursday May 21, 2020 @10:24AM (#23258707)
depesz has a great tool that highlights the changes.

Even going from latest 9.6 to latest 12 gives a huge number of fixes and changes and features.

Can't recommend this tool enough :)

https://why-upgrade.depesz.com/show?from=9.6.17&to=12.3

Re:Deprecating the GitHub Developer Program on Thursday December 05, 2019 @07:22PM (#21718194)
It's 2019, for pete's sake and other empty management-type neologisms!
Hypothetically, When you buy an iPhone, do you expect to also get the latest model when it is released?

That being said, Apple also releases iOS updates to previous phones, even after they've been paid for.

If this doesn't seem strange to you, then perhaps the same thought process of buying a specific version of software with the expectation that it will work for several years is not unreasonable.

I see no need for a subscription model on every type of software. I pay you once, you ensure that it's written in a way that will continue to work for years to come. End of transaction, as far as I'm concerned.

Presently? None of which I'm aware.

I'm very much hoping that we could resolve the issue with SMSBackup+ for the time being, but that's mostly up to the project owner.

I did hear of some folks using their own IMAP server and CALDAV service to target instead of Google, but I have not tested it.

I see this as a double-edged sword.

1. It makes sense that Google wants to stop apps from abusing their storage platform. There are a lot of projects that abuse the data storage capacity. There was that one app that converted files to Base64 or something and was storing files that way as email text. Obviously not cool. However, Google needs to be explicitly clear on expectations and throw some people-power behind the reviews, since many are being denied by (seemingly) some automated process.

2. The second issue I see is that it will encourage less secure methods of using these apps. SMSBackup+ in particular is discussing the possibility of moving to "App Passwords" to bypass 2FA and provide the app access it needs to upload and store the data. Issue being, App Passwords are incredibly fragile, they provide near-unfettered access to IMAP and other account features with no auditing. Caveat emptor and all that.

I think SMSBackup+, specifically, has a bit of a gray line as SMS messages can technically be sent via email and vice versa, (among other similarities). It's a shame that Google is becoming so draconian about their data storage uses.

Current SMSBackup+ user here.

I agree with your sentiment, but part of the key difference for me is that SMSBackup+ is open source. I've been building the app myself and using it for years, so I'm very certain what it's doing and not doing.

This may or may not apply to the other apps being affected by this ban.

My 'blanket statement' specifically says 'a structure like this', meaning an old structure.

But sure, go ahead and retroactively correct yourself.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

The facts stand, as have been reiterated in the thread above:

- Firefighting airplanes can effectively spray in a way that doesn't harm trees (by releasing the 12,000+ gallons over a very large area)

- Buildings are fine in extended substantial downpours (which is significantly less water per second than an air-tanker dump)

To your thought's end:

- Spraying a building with a plane in such a configuration would not collapse it

Yes, it's possible to spray the cathedral with water in such a way that it will not collapse it, but that configuration is that very little water gets on the cathedral, and is instead spread over pretty much the entire island in the Seine.

At this point in time, however, it likely doesn't matter. Since most of the building has collapsed already, due to the fire. Like we said it would.

Water has a mass of ~8.3 lbs per gallon.

A DC-10 Air Tanker carries 12,000 US gallons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC-10_Air_Tanker

All said, that's 45.4 metric tons.

Go ahead, stand under one and let us know how it goes.

Water is heavy.

If you drop water on a structure like this, you end up having a collapsed building that is also on fire.

Given the leaps and bounds of development in this area recently, I wouldn't call HackRF a go-to device anymore (compared to the more recent devices) but yes- any of them totally would be able to pick this up.
>I sent him a link to Mouser, a catalog where you can buy a 0.006 x 0.003 inch coupler. Turns out that’s the exact coupler in all the images in the story.

I did a super quick search, and sure enough, yep- the images in the article are most likely a $0.38/each 0603 coupler.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TDK/HHM2510B1?qs=sGAEpi...

I'd imagine it's mostly for illustrative purposes, but Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect in full force here.

With my small touchpad on my laptop, I was unable to even get past the first entry. Closed the tab instantly after that.

I'm sure the info was enlightening, but totally unreadable to me.

Re:Arch Linux AUR Repository Found to Contain Malware on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @07:25PM (#17503089)
Honestly, I don't see this happening.

Many packages use rolling versions from git commits, so while the PKGBUILDs don't get updated, any time a user re-runs makepkg on that PKGBUILD the latest commit is pulled and built.

In those cases, a PKGBUILD might be months or years old, but still consistently up to date and valid.

Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user on Thursday June 14, 2018 @02:15PM (#17313966)
I have no idea on the implementation, but it seems that they resolved it with 'CPU loading' optimizations: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...
Re:Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user on Thursday June 14, 2018 @02:08PM (#17313867)
The new BIOS updates addressed the whine issues I had. Might have been worth checking out before just taking it back :)

EDIT: To be clear, my issues were resolved after an update back in Dec 2017: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...

"Optimize CPU loading to Improve EE noise" is specifically one of the issues that BIOS update addresses.

Not sure if you've checked out Sigrok, but it does work well for screenshots.
Agree, a Rigol 1054z is easy to come by inexpensively, and it can be software modded to unlock some extra features.

The scope also works great on Linux with Sigrok.

Re:An Update on Our Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebook on Wednesday April 04, 2018 @03:16PM (#16757953)
Assuming that they have the info on the accounts to make that number estimate, are they going to contact those who were affected?

I mean to say, if- for example- my mom was one of the facebook users who had their information taken/used by CA, what should she expect?

Re:Hacking a $30 IoT camera to do more than it’s worth on Wednesday April 04, 2018 @08:41AM (#16754140)
Or, it's more likely that they only pay workers a few dollars a day to crank this stuff out.
I think what's so attractive about the RTL-SDR devices is that they're so cheap and have such a huge variety of applications.

With a $10 dongle, you can go from tracking airplanes, to reading your wireless electric meter, to listening to local amateur radio, and then to an additional entropy source.

I double I'll ever get tired of playing with this little radio.

My previous job was in K-12 tech, and I still keep in contact with my old boss.

When I started at that position, the school district (~5k students) was nearly 100% Apple. Nearly every device was the low-cost polycarb Macbook. The district purchased them with a heavy investment from "Classrooms for the Future" program, which covered a large portion of the cost.

Since that time, Apple retired the less expensive model and (same as they still are) trying to position the iPad as a replacement.

Here's the problem though: Students are never going to be effective at long-term use on a tablet. Can you imagine writing a grade 12 level book report on a touch screen? Budget-wise, the district would only be able to purchase the iPads, a case, and that's all. Bluetooth keyboards would not be able to fit in the budget.

Compared, feature for feature, and price- Chromebooks and other traditional low-cost laptops are much more effective to the success of getting technology into students' hands.

In fact, they currently run one of the largest 1-to-1 Linux laptop deployments in the eastern US: https://technology.pennmanor.net/11-laptop-program/

I mean, you still have issues like wildlife on the roadway.

It's impossible to fully remove the issue. Vehicles still need to react to and reduce accidents, but they will absolutely never eliminate them.

> The people leading the development of these horse-drawn carriages should demonstrate that they can stop for pedestrians by jumping in front of them on a closed test dirt-path. If they're not able to demonstrate this, they shouldn't be putting them on public carriageways

Sounds silly when compared against old tech.

Accidents happen, best we can do is try to prevent them.

Re:Turn Prisons into Colleges on Friday March 09, 2018 @03:28PM (#16554707)
$10k/year? Probably not.

A slightly more amount of taxes than I currently pay? Sure; if it's for the betterment and reformation of the worse-off in our society, I'd gladly pay a bit more money.

Re:Turn Prisons into Colleges on Friday March 09, 2018 @01:37PM (#16553809)
What if, hear me out, we make basic education free for everyone, including those in prison?
Re:Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017) on Friday March 09, 2018 @01:26PM (#16553713)
Adjusted for inflation, that $700 in 1978 is $2,661.15 in 2018 money.

The latest-and-greatest KENWOOD TS-990S is going for ~$7,979.95 (according to HRO)[1]

I'd say you got a deal back in the day. :)

[1] https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-011672

Re:Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017) on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:54AM (#16552095)
I see your point, but the argument is that if you're just getting started, $30 is a much easier pill to swallow.

As for your tests on the Baofengs, I'd be interested to see your sources and the exact models tested.

As a counterpoint: Here's a video of an Official Baofeng UV-5R being stress tested, and demonstrating how resilient the front-end is: https://youtu.be/KqVq2G9dY5Q

I don't think that a Yaesu HT would continue working after running without an antenna, but I wouldn't want to try it myself.

Older »