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  • Hacking Attack Woke Up Dallas With Emergency Sirens, Officials Say

    Eli Rosenberg and Maya Salam: Security officials have warned for years about the risks that hacking attacks can pose to infrastructure. The number of attacks on critical infrastructure appears to have risen: to nearly 300 in 2015 from just under 200 in 2012, according to federal data. In 2013, hackers tied to the Iranian military…

    Eli Rosenberg and Maya Salam:

    Security officials have warned for years about the risks that hacking attacks can pose to infrastructure. The number of attacks on critical infrastructure appears to have risen: to nearly 300 in 2015 from just under 200 in 2012, according to federal data. In 2013, hackers tied to the Iranian military tried to gain control of a small dam in upstate New York.

    That’s a stark increase and as good as any other reason for the government to put security of these systems at the forefront. But, and I know it’s not really the same thing, this seems a lot like pulling the fire alarm in a building. Illegal, yes, but still pretty rare.

    That said: please secure the fuck out of that dam.

  • San Francisco cost of living pricing out tech companies, workers

    Michelle Castillo: One alternative for tech companies is to build out in other cities like Seattle, Austin or Chicago that offer a fun lifestyle but might not be as expensive. Not only are salaries cheaper, office rent and other expectations are lower as well. (The only exception was New York, which was mostly on par…

    Michelle Castillo:

    One alternative for tech companies is to build out in other cities like Seattle, Austin or Chicago that offer a fun lifestyle but might not be as expensive. Not only are salaries cheaper, office rent and other expectations are lower as well. (The only exception was New York, which was mostly on par with San Francisco according to the companies surveyed.)

    The median home price in Seattle now: $700,000. As my wife commented the other day: “I don’t understand how someone who does not already own a home in a big city, will ever afford to own a home in a big city.” Which is also the problem of why talent isn’t leaving San Francisco. Because once you have a stable place to live in a city like that, should you leave, it is likely that you would have a lot of trouble affording to move back. A bit Hotel California-ish. It’s not likely to change unless everyone goes remote.

  • iPad Productivity Report — 4/10/17

    The big ass iPad Pro is the best and only one you need.

    In my attempt to figure out if it is better to use one iPad, or two, I pared back my usage to just the 12.9″ iPad Pro. This included two long plane flights and some on-site client time with just the larger device — as well as over a week of working solely on the larger iPad.

    And my take away from all of that is: this isn’t so bad at all. My biggest fear is that multi-tasking would suffer, as I tended to use my 9.7″ iPad Pro as a secondary display. My ancillary fears were around how well I would like using the larger iPad Pro as my couch computer — a role which had been solely taken up by the smaller iPad.

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  • Walt Mossberg is retiring in June

    A big thanks to Walt Mossberg for his tireless work. Mossberg was one of the reasons I started this site. Both because I loved reading his takes, and because I (naturally) thought I could do it better.

    A big thanks to Walt Mossberg for his tireless work. Mossberg was one of the reasons I started this site. Both because I loved reading his takes, and because I (naturally) thought I could do it better.

  • Back to Safari Reading List

    Hey look, it works everywhere and all the time, how novel.

    When Instapaper shit the bed a while back I left for greener pastures of Pinboard — but for whatever reason I began having a ton of issues with the API not working, and thus not being able to update the apps which I rely on for reading.

    This is all maddening. And before you ask: I do not like Pocket.

    (more…)

  • Ulysses 2.8

    Ulysses has released version 2.8 and it has a feature I have been waiting for: Touch ID support. Now you can secure your entire Ulysses library with Touch ID and keep prying eyes out of your stuff. I feel strongly that every app should have this option, so it’s great to see the best iOS…

    Ulysses has released version 2.8 and it has a feature I have been waiting for: Touch ID support. Now you can secure your entire Ulysses library with Touch ID and keep prying eyes out of your stuff. I feel strongly that every app should have this option, so it’s great to see the best iOS app gain it too.

    Additionally this release adds some new filtering options and some much welcomed new group icons.

    What a great app. Be sure you own a few dozen copies.

  • Smart TV hack embeds attack code into broadcast signal—no access required

    Dan Goodin: TVs and other Internet-connected appliances almost universally lack application sandboxing and other exploit mitigations that are a standard part of computer and mobile operating systems. Even worse, most devices run old versions of Linux and open source browsers that contain critical vulnerabilities. While patches are generally available on the Internet for the individual…

    Dan Goodin:

    TVs and other Internet-connected appliances almost universally lack application sandboxing and other exploit mitigations that are a standard part of computer and mobile operating systems. Even worse, most devices run old versions of Linux and open source browsers that contain critical vulnerabilities. While patches are generally available on the Internet for the individual components, manufacturers rarely give customers a way to install them on the devices in a timely way.

    This is not a great hack (broadcasting malicious code over TV signals), but even worse is that unlike your other devices most IoT devices never see an update. It’s like people didn’t even think they might need to update these TVs at any point. FFS.

  • The Best Everyday Backpack Is the GORUCK GR1

    I don’t often agree with Lifehacker, but they sure got this one right.

    I don’t often agree with Lifehacker, but they sure got this one right.

  • Samsung’s Android Replacement Is a Hacker’s Dream

    Kim Zetter on Samsung’s Tizen OS: But the operating system is riddled with serious security vulnerabilities that make it easy for a hacker to take control of Tizen-powered devices, according to Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman. “It may be the worst code I’ve ever seen,” he told Motherboard in advance of a talk about his research…

    Kim Zetter on Samsung’s Tizen OS:

    But the operating system is riddled with serious security vulnerabilities that make it easy for a hacker to take control of Tizen-powered devices, according to Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman.

    “It may be the worst code I’ve ever seen,” he told Motherboard in advance of a talk about his research that he is scheduled to deliver at Kaspersky Lab’s Security Analyst Summit on the island of St. Maarten on Monday. “Everything you can do wrong there, they do it. You can see that nobody with any understanding of security looked at this code or wrote it. It’s like taking an undergraduate and letting him program your software.”

    JFC.

  • Wrights Notes

    That thing where someone allows me to be overly specific about what I might want to see in my notebook.

    At the end of January a new notebook company launched, with the idea that they would allow you to specify exactly what you want the notebook to be. I was poking around and noticed that they have a custom option for what is printed on the page.

    (more…)

  • The iPad Turnaround Is Coming

    Jean-Louis Gassée: As hoped for in this space, it’s part of a shift that partially explains Cook’s fervor for the iPad: iOS, not macOS, will be the software engine of Apple’s future. Mac fans, I’m one of them, might disagree with Apple’s strategy, but here it is in plain view. Sure is a lot of…

    Jean-Louis Gassée:

    As hoped for in this space, it’s part of a shift that partially explains Cook’s fervor for the iPad: iOS, not macOS, will be the software engine of Apple’s future. Mac fans, I’m one of them, might disagree with Apple’s strategy, but here it is in plain view.

    Sure is a lot of smoke around the future of the iPad for there not to be big things in store.

  • Samsung Galaxy S8 facial recognition tricked with a photo

    Steve Kodachrome reporting: “Facial recognition is a convenient action to open your phone – similar to the ‘swipe to unlock’ action,” the spokesperson said. “We offer the highest level of biometric authentication – fingerprint and iris – to lock your phone and authenticate access to Samsung Pay or Secure Folder.” “We know it sounds like…

    Steve Kodachrome reporting:

    “Facial recognition is a convenient action to open your phone – similar to the ‘swipe to unlock’ action,” the spokesperson said. “We offer the highest level of biometric authentication – fingerprint and iris – to lock your phone and authenticate access to Samsung Pay or Secure Folder.”

    “We know it sounds like it would be secure, but really we just want to save you from swiping…” Shakes heads and walks off.

  • Cars and second order consequences

    I love articles like this, as I keep in mind that as wild as the thoughts are around the future of transportation I remember: What Evans says in this post is likely only scratching the surface. I highly doubt my two kids will ever need to learn to drive.

    I love articles like this, as I keep in mind that as wild as the thoughts are around the future of transportation I remember:

    1. What Evans says in this post is likely only scratching the surface.
    2. I highly doubt my two kids will ever need to learn to drive.

  • iPad Productivity Report — 4/3/17

    Web design on an iPad Pro, and maybe two iPad Pros wasn’t the right thinking?

    I am in the middle of a site redesign and after posting a teaser image on Twitter, more than a few readers sent in the same question: how are you doing that on an iPad? It’s actually pretty easy to design a website on an iPad — since there is no build or compile times you have to worry about. However, people still don’t believe me, so I am going to go over how I do this on an iPad Pro. And in the last part of the update this week, I want to talk about how I am consolidating back down to one iPad Pro.

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  • Bose QC35s

    There are good headphones, and then there are QC35s.

    My last pair of noise cancelling headphones was the Bose QC 19s, and I wore them so often that not only was the pleather earpad disintegrating, but I had zip ties holding together various other broken parts. They were a pair of headphones which seemed amazing to me.

    Though the sound isolation, the noise canceling, was never great, it was good enough that I was fine with it. Now fast forward to Christmas 2016 and my father gifted me a pair of QC35s, which is only appropriate since I got the QC 19s from him way back when. I put them on right away and was astonished at how quiet the room was, I didn’t believe it. My dad and family were also impressed.

    (more…)

  • Right, About VPNs

    What if ISPs spent all this money to be able to sell our data, but then we encrypt it all. Suckers.

    If you haven’t heard, the Republican Party pushed through a change which removes the FCC from its ability to oversee how data is used from ISPs. Effectively, this would allow someone like say, Comcast, to legally sell your internet traffic records. Things like: the sites you visit and where you visit them — anything you are doing on the web which isn’t HTTPS will be known and able to be sold. Even with HTTPS where you go is still known by the ISP.

    This is clearly very bad. The only way to now truly maintain internet privacy (once 45 signs this into law) — even at home — is to use a VPN. This fact has not slipped through the eyes of VPN providers.

    Having spent some time using VPNs full time, I need to tell you right now: it sucks. Doesn’t matter what service you use, it’s a lessened experience. The connections are choppy at times, slow at others, and never as fast as your internet connection.

    (more…)

  • Stormcrow

    Jared Sinclair: If you’ve ever wanted an easier way to write a properly-threaded tweetstorm, my new app Stormcrow can help. Type all your tweets into a single text view. Stormcrow will automatically separate your paragraphs into a thread of automatically-numbered tweets. Great little app.

    Jared Sinclair:

    If you’ve ever wanted an easier way to write a properly-threaded tweetstorm, my new app Stormcrow can help. Type all your tweets into a single text view. Stormcrow will automatically separate your paragraphs into a thread of automatically-numbered tweets.

    Great little app.

  • Fastmail

    Life is too short to worry about whether your email will work or not.

    From the first day I had the brooksreview.net domain name, I’ve hosted the email myself in various forms — which has been about 7 years now. At first, I hosted with with Media Temple using their built in tools, then as I moved hosts through the years I moved the email hosting with it. Each move was a royal pain in the ass, and typically resulted in at least a long stretch without working email in some way, shape, or form.

    About 5 times a year my email would also shit the bed in ways I didn’t comprehend. Plainly put: the advantages of hosting and “owning” my email system was far outweighed by the fact that my email was insanely unreliable.

    (more…)

  • iPad Productivity Report — 3/27/17

    Future iPad sizes make the decision of which to buy easier, maybe.

    I want a to play a little what if, rumor speculation, this week — as it specifically relates to iPad Pros. If we make the assumption that at some point in the next year we will get two new iPad Pro models: one in the 10.5″ configuration, and another in 12.9″ — both with a reduction of bezels overall. The 10.5″ effectively is the 9.7″ model footprint, with smaller bezels to get the larger screen. The 12.9″ model is the same screen size, but reduction of the device footprint to be tighter to the screen edges.

    Or, put another way: we get a smaller iPad with a bigger screen, and a smaller bigger screened iPad — though I am not sure that is any less confusing…

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  • Burned once, publishers are wary of Medium’s new subscription offering

    Kelley Calkins, as quoted by Poynter, on Mediums continued fuckery: “Initially, it was a lot of swearing,” she said. “Then came the tears. And the cheap beer.”

    Kelley Calkins, as quoted by Poynter, on Mediums continued fuckery:

    “Initially, it was a lot of swearing,” she said. “Then came the tears. And the cheap beer.”