Month: February 2014
Member Content:
Newsletter:
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Secure Messaging
I mentioned Threema in another post and talked about how there is a lot to do with key exchange that can make such apps insecure. In reading more about Threema in their FAQ, it appears that the app servers can either facilitate the key exchange or it can be done in person via QR codes.…
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‘iPod mini’
Andrew Kim on the iPod mini: This is it. The greatest thing mankind has ever made. Great read, this is the one iPod I never owned.
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‘The problem with WhatsApp’s privacy boasts: They’re not true’
Yasha Levine takes Whatsapp's security claims to task: WhatsApp might have played fast and loose with the security of its hundreds of millions of users up to now, but that’s about to change. After all, if there’s one company WhatsApp users can trust to safeguard their privacy, surely that company is… uh… Facebook. I don't…
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RAW versus JPEG
Dan Bailey, in his XT-1 commentary: Remember, when you’re shooting JPEG, you’re basically taking the 4,056 levels of color and brightness information that are captured by the sensor and letting the camera’s image processor compress it into an 8-bit file that only contains 256 levels of color and brightness information. Wow.
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Cowork Spaces
Shawn Blanc on work: Well, that got me thinking… perhaps working out of my home office isn’t the best setup for me? I’ve long been leaving the house once a week to work from a coffee shop, but what if it should be more? When I lived in Seattle my commute to work was 45…
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‘Comcast’s Deal With Netflix Makes Network Neutrality Obsolete’
The best article I found on the Netflix-Comcast agreement. It’s troubling, and one area where I actually think Google can help by way of Google Fiber. Make something like Google Fiber popular enough, and open, and you start to take away the power from the idiots running Comcast/Verizon, et al.
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Chrome and Security
Alex Heath: Gotofail is limited to Apple’s apps and services, like Safari and Messages. So third-party browsers like Chrome should be fine. I’m not sure how reassuring it is that Chrome is using it’s own set of security tools. On the one hand, they likely don’t have this bug, on the other hand… Well, I’m…
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‘On the Timing of iOS’s SSL Vulnerability and Apple’s ‘Addition’ to the NSA’s PRISM Program’
This is a pretty nasty bug, and it still isn’t patched on OS X. Gruber does a good job of going through the likely scenarios. Personally I’d go as far as #4 on his list, if only because I believe that the NSA has good reason to usurp security on the iPhone.
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blackphone
Interesting new security minded cell phone from (in part) the Silent Circle team. Seems like a good deal, but I am far more interested in how much more annoying it is to use than an iPhone. The crux of most privacy things, is that they are substantially more annoying to use than the non-privacy minded…
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‘Sit More, And You’re More Likely To Be Disabled After Age 60’
Linda Poon: Researchers at Northwestern University say that for people 60 and older, each additional hour a day spent sitting increases the risk of becoming physically disabled by about 50 percent — no matter how much exercise they get. I am now wondering how long it is before we see more of those articulating wheelchairs…
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‘The Problem With The Focus-Recompose Method’
James Brandon: If you stand 4 feet from your subject and point the camera up at the subjects face, then you are no longer 4 feet away from what you’re focusing on. If the length from your camera to your subjects chest is 4 feet and the length from your subjects chest to their eye…
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‘Department of Homeland Security cancels national license-plate tracking plan’
Ellen Nakashima and Josh Hicks: Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of a plan by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to develop a national license-plate tracking system after privacy advocates raised concern about the initiative. Color me surprised.
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‘Verizon’s changing their privacy policy (again)’
Now Verizon wants to sell your desktop history. Luckily Bryan Clark made a guide on how you can opt out.
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‘Reader Supported for Three Years (And Counting…)’
Shawn Blanc: In that vein, I consider shawnblanc.net a success. There isn’t a specific website, blog post, ebook, or podcast episode, that I would point to as being “it”. But that’s the point. I hope that over the past three years, I have contributed a little bit to the ever expanding and ever improving creative…
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‘On Patience’
Khoa Tran has a great guest post talking about patience in photography to get a great shot, but also how a small camera system (like micro four-thirds, Fuji, or Leica) helps the more impatient people get the shot.
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UV Filter vs No UV Filter [YouTube]
Good video in support of my philosophy that you shouldn’t waste money on a UV filter. (Linked to the mobile site as the desktop version is Flash only for some idiotic reason I don’t care to know.)
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Notes on Fujifilm Lenses
I’ve used just a small portion of the lenses available for the Fuji X-system, but I wanted to share a few thoughts for those interested on the lenses I have tried. XF 23mm f/1.4 R This is the widest lens I have, and also one of the biggest. The pros of the lens for me…
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Crazy fast deadlines for Olympic Photographers
Jeff Cable: When I photographed the Summer Olympics in London, my deadline was shortened to 2 hours. That means that I would have to go through thousands of photos, pick the best, edit them and submit them to the team within a couple of hours. Now, with the ever increasing immediacy of the Internet age,…
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The Fujifilm Philosophy?
Patrick La Roque, while reviewing the drool worthy Fujifilm X-T1, had this excellent point to make about Fujifilm: I had a girlfriend way back when who used to always leave one plate or utensil at the bottom of the sink when doing dishes, just for the sake of balance, of keeping the world just a…
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‘iPad: Air or mini?’
Shawn Blanc: When reaching for an iPad around the house, I grab the mini. The mini goes with me when I’m traveling with my laptop. And I bring the mini when I don’t expect to need an iPad for anything but want to bring one anyway just in case. That’s the iPad Air for me.…