Roger Stringer


<figure class="wp-block-mamaduka-bookmark-card is-style-horizontal"><a class="bookmark-card" href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/3/22654197/apple-app-store-editorial-scams-refunds"><div class="bookmark-card__image"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z2JHdaaNX1lXyTyGIjdeq4bkwtE=/0x170:2040x1190/fit-in/1200x600/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22817752/acastro_210831_1777_0001.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1" data-recalc-dims="1"/></div><div class="bookmark-card__content"><div class="bookmark-card__title">Eight things Apple could do to prove it actually cares about App Store users</div><div class="bookmark-card__description">Mind the store</div><div class="bookmark_card__meta"><img class="bookmark_card__meta-icon" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21956592/favicon-96x96.0.0.ico"/><span class="bookmark_card__meta-publisher">www.theverge.com</span></div></div></a></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>When&nbsp;you spend money in Apple’s App Store, the company generally takes a 30 percent cut — one that adds up to an estimated $19 billion per year. Apple’s currently in the fight of its life to prove to judges, government regulators, and its own developers that it deserves those dollars, but not everyone’s buying it anymore.</p><p>Over the past seven days alone, South Korea declared its disbelief on the global stage,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/31/22643800/apple-google-south-korea-app-store-payment-legislation-passes">passing a landmark bill</a>&nbsp;that could keep Apple and Google from directly collecting their 30 percent cut, and may inspire other governments to do the same. Developers also expressed their rage at an Apple press release, where the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/26/22643807/apple-developer-class-action-lawsuit-collect-information-ios-apps-anti-steering">spun its agreement to settle a lawsuit for $100 million as a $100 million fund for developers</a>&nbsp;— while quietly promising 30 million of those dollars to the lawyers and enacting no truly significant changes. The CEO of Hopscotch&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SamJ0hn/status/1431001795904561160">shared her story</a>&nbsp;of how Apple’s App Store review team repeatedly gaslit her, insisting there was an issue with the well-liked kids coding app that didn’t actually exist.</p><p>On Wednesday, Apple made&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/1/22653264/apple-reader-app-exception-anti-steering-signup-page">a slightly more significant concession for (big) developers</a>, and as Nick Heer writes,&nbsp;<a href="https://pxlnv.com/linklog/reader-apps-external-subscriptions/">the company seems to have momentarily dropped its smug tone</a>. But we don’t need to get into complex developer negotiations to point out the head-bangingly obvious ways Apple is falling down on the job.</p><p>While the company claims the App Store is “curated by experts,” that it is “a safe and trusted place to discover and download apps,” and that it holds apps to “the highest standards for privacy, security, and content,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/22611236/epic-v-apple-emails-project-liberty-app-store-schiller-sweeney-cook-jobs">the company’s own emails</a>&nbsp;paint a different picture. They show that Apple&nbsp;<em>knew</em>&nbsp;<em>for years</em>&nbsp;about the exact kind of egregious scams that bilk iPhone users out of millions of dollars, long before&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/21/22385859/apple-app-store-scams-fraud-review-enforcement-top-grossing-kosta-eleftheriou">our report</a>, and yet they keep failing to stop them from invading the App Store.</p><p>It bears repeating:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/22639629/tim-cook-apple-ten-years-decade-steve-jobs-legacy">Apple is the most valuable and profitable company in the world</a>. The company currently makes $10,000&nbsp;<em>every second</em>&nbsp;on average, $3,600 of which is profit, a large portion of which comes from the App Store itself. (The App Store alone has been a bigger business than the Mac or iPad since 2016,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/22611236/epic-v-apple-emails-project-liberty-app-store-schiller-sweeney-cook-jobs">see #10 here</a>.)</p><p>If Apple wanted to change this system, it could. But I expect Apple will only be dragged kicking and screaming into a world with a more functional App Store, because it seems incapable of taking the blindingly obvious steps that might better protect its users — again, despite being the most valuable and profitable company in the world.</p><p>Here are eight to start.</p></blockquote>



<p>I&#8217;ll leave it to you to go read the 8 things but I agree with all 8, Apple needs to do some damage control and build better relations.</p>


Eight Things Apple Could Do to Prove It Actually Cares about App Store Users


<figure class="wp-block-mamaduka-bookmark-card is-style-horizontal"><a class="bookmark-card" href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/12/22621957/facebook-giphy-deal-blocked-uk-regulator"><div class="bookmark-card__image"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TmJzOhC_yO1QMKFEF8NklGKwmDo=/0x170:2040x1190/fit-in/1200x600/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/11936573/acastro_180806_1777_facebook_0001.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1" data-recalc-dims="1"/></div><div class="bookmark-card__content"><div class="bookmark-card__title">Facebook shouldn&#8217;t be allowed to buy Giphy, says UK regulator</div><div class="bookmark-card__description">Facebook’s deal to buy the GIF search engine Giphy should be unwound due to competition concerns, according to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.</div><div class="bookmark_card__meta"><img class="bookmark_card__meta-icon" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21956592/favicon-96x96.0.0.ico"/><span class="bookmark_card__meta-publisher">www.theverge.com</span></div></div></a></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>15 months ago, Facebook <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/15/21259965/facebook-giphy-gif-acquisition-buy-instagram-integration-cost">said it was buying</a> the popular GIF search engine Giphy for about $400 million. Now the acquisition may be a bust, thanks to an antitrust probe by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/facebook-s-takeover-of-giphy-raises-competition-concerns">preliminary findings report</a> published Thursday, the CMA said the deal should be unwound because it will “negatively impact competition between social media platforms.”</p><p>The CMA’s reasoning for wanting to block the Giphy deal is as follows:</p><p><em>“Millions of posts every day on social media sites now include a GIF. Any reduction in the choice or quality of these GIFs could significantly affect how people use these sites and whether or not they switch to a different platform, such as Facebook. As most major social media sites that compete with Facebook use Giphy GIFs, and there is only one other large provider of GIFs – Google’s Tenor – these platforms have very little choice.</em></p><p>The CMA provisionally found that Facebook’s ownership of Giphy could lead it to deny other platforms access to its GIFs. Alternatively, it could change the terms of this access – for example, Facebook could require Giphy customers, such as TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat, to provide more user data in order to access Giphy GIFs. Such actions could increase Facebook’s market power, which is already significant.”</p><p>Putting aside the logic that someone would switch to using Facebook because of GIFs (I love GIFs as much as the next person, but come on), the CMA argues that Giphy was in the process of building up an ads business that would have competed with Facebook. It claims that Facebook made Giphy end those plans after it announced the deal, thereby reducing competition in the marketplace.</p><p>Facebook has refuted this idea in past submissions to the CMA, citing internal documents it and Giphy both submitted to the agency for the probe. In May, Facebook wrote in <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60c34db5d3bf7f4bcee709a0/_Non-Confidential_-_Facebook_GIPHY_Main_Parties_Initial_Submission_19_May_2021_.pdf">a filing to the watchdog</a> that Giphy had “no meaningful audience of its own” and was already “reliant on Facebook for a significant proportion of its user traffic.”</p><p>[…]</p><p>Whether Facebook is allowed to buy Giphy or not, the scrutiny on this deal shows how Facebook’s era of social media-related acquisitions may be over. Its more recent <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-nears-purchase-of-startup-in-deal-that-values-it-at-1-billion-11606750196">$1 billion acquisition attempt for Kustomer</a>, a customer service platform for businesses,<strong> </strong>is under antitrust review in multiple countries and could also be blocked. The only types of acquisitions that Facebook has been able to get away with in the last few years are <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22537795/is-facebook-cornering-the-vr-market">related to its augmented and virtual reality efforts</a>.</p></blockquote>


Facebook shouldn’t be allowed to buy Giphy, says UK regulator


<p><a href="https://drewdevault.com/2021/08/05/In-praise-of-Postgres.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Drew Devault</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>After 25 years of persistence, and a better logo design, Postgres stands today as one of the most significant pillars of profound achievement in free software, alongside the likes of Linux and Firefox. PostgreSQL has taken a complex problem and <em>solved</em> it to such an effective degree that all of its competitors are essentially obsolete, perhaps with the exception of SQLite.</p><p>For a start, Postgres is simply an incredibly powerful, robust, and reliable piece of software, providing the best implementation of SQL.<sup><a href="https://drewdevault.com/2021/08/05/In-praise-of-Postgres.html#fn:2">2</a></sup> It provides a great deal of insight into its own behavior, and allows the experienced operator to fine-tune it to achieve optimal performance. </p><p>It supports a broad set of SQL features and data types, with which I have always been able to efficiently store and retrieve my data. SQL is usually the #1 bottleneck in web applications, and Postgres does an excellent job of providing you with the tools necessary to manage that bottleneck.</p></blockquote>


Drew Devault: “In praise of PostgreSQL”


<p>Fish and Brewis is a favourite traditional dish from Newfoundland <em>(my home province)</em>, it’s a dish that combines Fish, Potatoes, pork, Hardtack, onions, butter and salt.</p>



<h3>What you need</h3>



<ul><li>4 loaves hard bread</li><li>2 lbs cod fish</li><li>6 -8 potatoes</li><li>1 cup salt pork<em> (or pork belly)</em>, finely diced</li><li>2 cups onions, diced</li><li>1⁄4 cup butter</li><li>2 medium onions, chopped</li><li>2 tablespoons flour</li><li>1 cup water</li><li>Hardtack:<ul><li>4 -5 cups flour</li><li>2 cups water</li><li>3 teaspoons salt</li></ul></li></ul>



<h3>How to make it:</h3>



<p>We’ll start with the hardtack as that has to be made first:</p>



<ol><li>Mix the flour, water and salt together, and make sure the mixture is fairly dry.</li><li>Roll it out to about 1/2 inch thickness, and shape it into a rectangle. </li><li>Cut it into 3×3 inch squares, and poke holes in both sides.</li><li>Place on an un-greased cookie or baking sheet, and cook for 30 minutes per side at 375</li><li>When it’s done, you’ll want to let it dry and harden for a few days, just out in the open. When it has the consistency of a brick, it’s fully cured. Then simply store it in an airtight container or bucket. </li></ol>



<p><em>To prepare for eating, soak it in water or milk for about 15 minutes, and then fry in a buttered skillet. You can eat it with cheese, soup or just plain with a little salt added. Any way you do it, it’s delicious!</em></p>



<p>Now, let’s make the rest:</p>



<ol><li>Soak hardtack overnight in cold water </li><li>Soak cod overnight in large pot of water as well.</li><li>In the morning, drain cod water and soak with fresh water.</li><li>Once you are ready to cook, place potatoes in the same pot as the cod and simmer gently until cooked </li><li>Remove from heat and drain.</li><li>Heat hardtack slowly until it comes to a boil and drain.</li><li>There are two toppings with Fish and Brewis: Drawn butter and Scrunchins </li><li>Drawn Butter:<ol><li>Melt butter</li><li>Add onions and fry until soft </li><li>Add Water, bring to a boil and then add flour to thicken.</li></ol></li><li>Scrunchins: <ol><li>Place salt pork (or pork belly) in frying pan.</li><li>Heat over medium heat until grease is drawn from the salt pork.</li><li>Add onions and then cook until tender.</li></ol></li><li>Serve and enjoy.</li></ol>



<p></p>


Fish and Brewis


<figure class="wp-block-mamaduka-bookmark-card is-style-horizontal"><a class="bookmark-card" href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/28/22598316/google-vaccination-requirement-return-offices-covid-19-delta-variant"><div class="bookmark-card__image"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PJEGiP9pgqBJD5477J7K1XWXw8g=/0x170:2040x1190/fit-in/1200x600/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10745895/acastro_180427_1777_0001.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1" data-recalc-dims="1"/></div><div class="bookmark-card__content"><div class="bookmark-card__title">Google will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to offices</div><div class="bookmark-card__description">Starting with US workers &#8220;in the coming weeks.&#8221;</div><div class="bookmark_card__meta"><img class="bookmark_card__meta-icon" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21956592/favicon-96x96.0.0.ico"/><span class="bookmark_card__meta-publisher">www.theverge.com</span></div></div></a></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Google will require that employees be vaccinated before they’re allowed to return to the company’s offices, CEO Sundar Pichai announced today in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/business/google-return-to-office-masks.html">letter obtained by&nbsp;<em>The New York Times</em></a>.</p><p>The announcement marks Google as one of the first major technology companies to require that employees be vaccinated before they return to work. The news comes as part of a new wave of vaccination requirements this week, spurred by the Biden administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/27/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-employees/">reportedly planning to announce a requirement</a>&nbsp;for federal workers to either be vaccinated or face frequent testing for COVID-19 sometime on Thursday.</p><p>Google’s vaccination requirement will reportedly apply to workers at US offices “in the coming weeks” and to other regions “in the coming months,” per the&nbsp;<em>NYT</em>.</p><p>Additionally, Google will be delaying its official return to offices from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/14/22175150/google-return-office-september-flexible-work-week-coronavirus-pandemic-sundar-pichai">sometime in September</a>&nbsp;to October 18th, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spike across the United States. It joins Apple,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/20/22584761/apple-return-to-office-delayed-covid-delta-variant">which also postponed</a>&nbsp;the end of its remote working policy to “October at the earliest” over similar COVID concerns.</p></blockquote>



<p>This isn&#8217;t really a surprise, it&#8217;s really only a matter of time before other companies follow the same decision before going back to offices.</p>


Google will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to offices


<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You can permanently disable any iOS device&#39;s WiFI by hosting a public WiFi named %secretclub%power<br>Resetting network settings is not guaranteed to restore functionality.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/infosec?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#infosec</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/0day?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#0day</a></p>&mdash; Carl Schou (@vm_call) <a href="https://twitter.com/vm_call/status/1411630091038203909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>A few weeks ago, Schou and his not-for-profit group, <a href="https://secret.club/">Secret Club</a>, which reverse-engineers software for research purposes,<a href="https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/19/a-specific-network-name-can-completely-disable-wi-fi-on-your-iphone/"> found that if an iPhone connected</a> to a network with the SSiD name <em>%p%s%s%s%s%n</em> it would cause a bug in iOS’ networking stack that would disable its Wi-Fi, and system networking features like AirDrop would become unusable.</p>



<p>A possible explanation for this bug from <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/19/a-specific-network-name-can-completely-disable-wi-fi-on-your-iphone/"><em><em>9to5 Mac</em></em></a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>the ‘%[character]’ syntax is commonly used in programming languages to format variables into an output string. In C, the ‘%n’ specifier means to save the number of characters written into the format string out to a variable passed to the string format function.</p><p>The Wi-Fi subsystem probably passes the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) unsanitized to some internal library that is performing string formatting, which in turn causes an arbitrary memory write and buffer overflow.</p><p>This will lead to memory corruption and the iOS watchdog will kill the process, hence effectively disabling Wi-Fi for the user.</p></blockquote>


Roger Stringer

Roger Stringer

Latest Posts

Eight Things Apple Could Do to Prove It Actually Cares about App Store Users

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Fish and Brewis

Google will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to offices

Careful with WiFi names on your iPhone.