Recent submissions

Comment · 3 years ago
Its not a fix, but whenever I have to travel I set up a "reading list" on my RSS feed. Between that and physical books, I tend to fill in the time.

Actually, in general I would like to see RSS (or even a more draconic, constrained form of RSS) be a relevant web standard for traditional information dense webpages.

Comment · 3 years ago
Arxiv is open access prepublication, and doesn't remove the need for peer review to get into actual journals. If you apply for a grant and you say "I was published on Arxiv" you are not getting that grant.

Additionally, Arxiv won't kick you off their platform if you post a preprint there, and then you get published in Nature.

In other words, the reason it does not change the point is that Arxiv does not weaken the publication process for the actual journals the preprint will be submitted to. You still need peer review to get published and you are still incentivised to do just that.

You could argue 'preprints ARE publishing' but I'd need to be convinced of that point because I don't agree for the reasons stated above.

Comment · 3 years ago
Doesn't change the point. Also doesn't refute the point.
Comment · 3 years ago
I can't post on the official website (not a US citizen) but I have thought about this question a fair bit and have worked in security adjacent tech in a past life.

An important note: my suggestions would make many business models unviable. I see this as a win-win because I think that profiting on bad security is extremely unethical and should be illegal.

My requests are as follows:

1. It must be at least a 1-year jailable offence without bail to sell an IoT device that does not have the software and firmware 100% open source. This is the absolute minimum and allows end user auditing. Implementing anything else before this is meaningless.

2. The company must pledge to provide security updates for at least 5 years for any device they sell (if there is no sale, this should not apply).

3. For a security update to be valid in the eyes of the FCC, the update must be signed by an existing employee (accountability must be assigned).

4. If an IoT supplier wishes to aggregate data to sell to 3rd parties, this MUST be optional and it MUST be opt-in.

5. Vulnerability detection and registration must be handled by a 3rd party with a lodgement portal, and companies should have at most 1 month to patch it once the vulnerability has been lodged in the 3rd party portal. Failure to fix in time should accrue exponentiating fines.

Comment · 3 years ago
Even in your framing (which I don't accept) it is a dark pattern because it constructs a bias of user behaviour that, statistically, will push users towards something that is both good for the company and not reflective of the user's goals. This IS a trick, because it relies on the user not knowing those incentives to be effective.
Comment · 3 years ago
Proving other theorems, which may themselves either prove further theorems or lead to direct applications. That's how the questions of "what to prove" often materialise.
Comment · 3 years ago
It really depends on what you mean by ease of use. It's about as hard as Gentoo to pick up, but it is the easiest one to maintain imo.

Looks wise, they're all the same (bar mint) since they all use stock GNOME and KDE.

Ecosystem, as in the specific tools available to make things a turnkey experience, I'd say NixOS takes care of you really well and is on par with arch and Debian.

All three of the above will vary with individual experience though.

Comment · 3 years ago
If I were recommending a distro today, I would say one of the following:

- Linux Mint (Debian version)

- Debian

- NixOS

Comment · 3 years ago
I'm no Casablanca, but this person does not seem to have the full picture.

"OK, but" does not always mean "put everything you just said to the side. Here is the REAL topic", it is quite literally adding stuff to consider to the discussion. And you can respond to it as such.

E.g. "yeah true there is more thought extended to it, but I think its a mixed message because its also kind of a waste. What do you think about that wastefulness anyhow?" Is completely normal and does what the article is implying, without it being TOO standoffish. You address what was said, then ask a specific question about your previous point(s). Its courteous but firm.

Obviously people who don't argue in good faith and try to talk over you won't let you get a piece in here, but that's a separate issue IMO, and those people aren't really worth the trouble.

Comment · 3 years ago
While I agree that there is an excess of evidence available to jail SBF with ease - and he should be jailed without question - I am bit unsure about your VPN comment.

Specifically, if Sam uses a VPN after having communication restrictions put in place around what he can say, is that inherently suspicious to a court? I would have assumed it is insufficient on its own but could be presented as the means for breaking court order if shown with other supporting evidence.

I'm not a lawyer mind you, so this is just me trying to understand it for myself.

Comment · 3 years ago
Not to be a grouch, but I'm sort of not surprised at this point.

The sheer volume that the big American units have been caught in over the last 5 or so years has really sobered me up on their supposedly high quality research standards.

That's not to say they're uniformly bad - just that they don't have an untouchable track record like they imply.

Comment · 3 years ago
It's arguably obvious to those with relevant training, so perhaps he didn't realise justification was needed.
Comment · 3 years ago
You're being downvoted for not liking Quanta, but if your original point was that Quanta is not a good reporter, you're right.

They frequently make subtle but impactful misinterpretations, or more outrageous redirections, such as the Quantum Gravity fiasco from earlier this year. To excuse that is to participate in Gell Man amnesia, in my view.

Comment · 3 years ago
It is certainly not as robust as MacOS or Windows protections, but I have been told it does provide a block to certain malware targeting the boot (though it is imperfect as you have pointed out).

In my case, I am not expecting total security. I just want access to be extremely inconvenient for opportunistic attackers.

Comment · 3 years ago
That makes much more sense, thanks.

Still a bit confusing that its not on by default, but also much more trustable.

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