This is Probably Me
Month: June 2020
Life Tip
My friend and fellow podcast creator Joe Guzman posted this on his facebook page. So true…
New York Times Leaving Apple News+
…and I say, so what?
I’m fairly certain that Apple will be around a lot longer than The New York Times. Legacy newspapers are dying. Having said that, I don’t think snubbing your nose at Apple is helping your brand stay afloat.
Subscriptions are down. They will continue to do so.
Article and links are over at Six Colors.
Even More on TikTok…
Now, banned in India along with 58 other apps.
Vacation End
I barely knew ye…
More on TikTok…
I found this on slashdot. If you don’t read slashdot, you are missing out. The comments have been known to make my coffee flow out of my nose. The original article was posted on reddit.
So I can personally weigh in on this. I reverse-engineered the app, and feel confident in stating that I have a very strong understanding for how the app operates (or at least operated as of a few months ago).
TikTok is a data collection service that is thinly-veiled as a social network. If there is an API to get information on you, your contacts, or your device… well, they’re using it.
Phone hardware (cpu type, number of course, hardware ids, screen dimensions, dpi, memory usage, disk space, etc)
Other apps you have installed (I’ve even seen some I’ve deleted show up in their analytics payload – maybe using as cached value?)
Everything network-related (ip, local ip, router mac, your mac, wifi access point name)
Whether or not you’re rooted/jailbroken
Some variants of the app had GPS pinging enabled at the time, roughly once every 30 seconds – this is enabled by default if you ever location-tag a post IIRC
They set up a local proxy server on your device for “transcoding media”, but that can be abused very easily as it has zero authentication
If true, this is damning evidence.
Using Chinese applications can be dangerous. Android users have it worse than Apple users. Apple is actively working on security. They also care about it. In Android’s case, having a platform that is more open to do what you want on it may sound great. You also leave yourself wide open for security breaches.
WidgetKit
John Sundell has a pretty cool post over at his WWDC website about how to use Apple’s new WidgetKit.
Working Apps Listing
Chinese Apps
Great short article about TikTok misbehaving. I didn’t know this was a Chinese company but after discovering that, the article makes sense.
I recently signed up for a webinar for Postman. When I got the invite, I noticed it was a Zoom link. I did NOT attend. I don’t care how secure they say they are. The TikTok story just reinforces the reasons why you cannot trust Chinese based apps. Especially, the apps that have been “state sanctioned.”
From John Gruber at Daring Fireball…
TikTok, I probably don’t need to remind you, is a Chinese company whose popularity algorithm is a black box. If you use TikTok you should assume they’ve stored a copy of anything and everything you’ve had on your clipboard while using the app. Their slogan might as well be “Chinese state-sanctioned social media” — which to me says don’t use them, but maybe that’s just me.
Daring Fireball
Here are some known Chinese based apps via IndiaTVNews…
| Kwai |
| LiveMe |
| Bigo Live |
| Vigo Video |
| BeautyPlus |
| CamScanner |
| Clash of Kings |
| Mobile Legends |
| ClubFactory |
| Shein |
| Romwe |
| AppLock |
| Club Factory |
| VMate |
| Game of Sultans |
| Mafia City |
| Battle of Empires |
Preachy Writing
I try to stray away from telling anyone what they should do. I realize that this is an opinion piece but it still is basically telling you what to do.
I think most people who are smart enough to watch WWDC are also smart enough to make up their own minds about when to buy a new Mac.
And, so it begins…
WWDC 2020 First Impressions
Wow! I have to admit that my expectations were slightly lower due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. I just didn’t think Apple was going to get as far as they may have planned because Corona happened.
I could not have been more wrong in my initial assessment. I am thrilled with what they presented. The presentation was absolutely wonderful and I’m sure a bunch of presenters were relived that they didn’t have to appear in front of a real crowd. I know I would be.
All of my devices are running the BETA software because I am insane and I like it that way. The look and feel, icons, and speed is just wonderful for the 1st version of the software. I usually have a lot more trouble.
The only casualty is something that always seems to break. My IBM iSeries software. It is java based and still manages to break with every upgrade.
There are so many other websites that are offering details this evening so I won’t add to the mix. I’d just like to say to Apple…well played!
The move to your own silicon…well, I won a bet from 5 years ago. I knew it was coming. They did not. I win. Hell, everybody wins!
Headphone Debacle
I washed my Apple headphones. Ok. I also dried them as well.
They still work. Because. Apple.
Telling Apple What They Should Do
I believe I have commented on this subject before somewhere on this blog but I recently had the opportunity to post a comment to the article’s author. I can’t remember which website this was because there are so many. I saved this to my desktop and forgot about it.
COPS versus Terminators
I absolutely LOVE the Terminator franchise. All of it. I found this by way of Daring Fireball. Read the whole thing. If you are a Sci-Fi junkie, you’ll appreciate the message.
By now you’ve probably heard the news that a Terminator has killed another innocent civilian just days after the last innocent civilian was killed by a Terminator. This unfortunate incident has led to renewed calls to divert funding from the Terminator program and reallocate it into other services that would prevent Terminators from being necessary in the first place. But just because a growing number of Terminators have ignored their AI programming and begun slaughtering humans left and right doesn’t mean we should take the dangerous and radical step of defunding the Terminator program.
via McSweeney’s
Pinouts
Why Aliens Won’t Visit Us
This is a pretty cool article about a subject I most certainly have an opinion on. My idea about this is simple. If alien life can grow to the point that they are traveling among the stars, they have probably gotten to a point where they’ve killed themselves off. I don’t believe we’ll ever see interstellar life that isn’t in fossilized form. By the time we can travel the stars (assuming we haven’t killed ourselves by then) alien civilizations have probably risen and fallen. Use Star Wars as an example. The story takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I’ll add, and then they all died.
This article isn’t quite as grim as that.
As Berezin explains, this doesn’t necessarily mean a highly developed extra-terrestrial civilisation would consciously wipe out other lifeforms – but perhaps “they simply won’t notice, the same way a construction crew demolishes an anthill to build real estate because they lack incentive to protect it”.
ScienceAlert
Happy Birthday!
You know who you are.
Common Sense
I believe it ok to protest something you feel very strongly about.
I believe that is NOT ok to damage other people’s property because you feel strongly about something.
People that damage other people’s property in the name of social injustice have a much bigger problem than their strong feelings about a particular subject. Their moral compass is obviously absent, damaged, or is currently rotting away. The only “justice” these types of people deserve is jail time.
I’m including something I found on Twitter…
— Kirkland (@KirklandYuknis) June 1, 2020