Posts

• Sep 18, 2012

  Whatsapp is Insecure

  fileperms.org:

  Until August 2012, messages sent through the WhatsApp service were not encrypted in any way, everything was sent in plaintext. When using WhatsApp in a public WiFi network, anybody was able to sniff incoming and outgoing messages (including file transfers). The company claims that the latest version of the software will encrypt messages [but] their encryption is broken.

  As I public service announcement, I hope you haven’t been sending anything private or confidential through Whatsapp. If you need to send something secure, consider using iMessage (for now, until proven otherwise), otherwise, consider using GPG encrypted email.

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• Sep 6, 2012

  Virus scams and social engineering

  Troy Hunt:

  One of the things I often hear is “Wow, you’d have to be stupid to fall for that”. By the same token, people who do fall for it often talk about how foolish they feel. The latter may be true, the former is not and that’s because this is a case of very clever social engineering.

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• Sep 4, 2012

  Fixing Broken iPhone USB Tethering on OS X

  Somewhere either between upgrading OS X from 10.7 (Lion) to 10.8 (Mountain Lion), or installing the iPhone Configuration Utility, you might have noticed that your iPhone USB tethering has stopped working (Wifi and Bluetooth methods still work). Similarly, you might also have had the iPhone USB entry within Networking Preferences deleted and never been able to have it back.

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• Aug 13, 2012

  Olympic opening ceremony: Ai Weiwei's review

  Guardian:

  Brilliant. It was very, very well done. This was about Great Britain; it didn’t pretend it was trying to have global appeal. Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn’t need a monumental Olympics. But for China that was the only imaginable kind of international event. Beijing’s Olympics were very grand – they were trying to throw a party for the world, but the hosts didn’t enjoy it. The government didn’t care about people’s feelings because it was trying to create an image.

  In London, they really turned the ceremony into a party – they are proud of themselves and respect where they come from, from the industrial revolution to now. I never saw an event before that had such a density of information about events and stories and literature and music; about folktales and movies.

  Personally, I felt that it was artistically splendid. There was ordered-chaos, imperfections, acceptance, and a strong will to showcase the people of London, especially on the individual level.

  The Chinese ceremony, on the other hand, was a sculpted show. An illusion of grandeur:

  The Chinese ceremony had so much less information and it wasn’t even real. It wasn’t only about the little girl who was miming – which was an injury to her and the girl whose voice was used – but that symbolically showed the nation’s future. You can’t trust or rely on individuals or the state’s efforts.

  Ultimately, I am thoroughly impressed by London’s efforts. They succeeded in responding to Beijing’s showcase, but in their own personalised terms—terms that Beijing is most ashamed of.

  That being said, this Quora question highlights some of subtle details from the London opening that viewers may have missed.

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