This weekend I read this excellent article by Alex Gaynor responding to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s remarks on encryption to two different audiences last week. Please do go and read it when you get a chance, as it delves into the sadly common tactic of pointing to a bunch of scary criminal incidents, then saying… Continue reading "Responsible Encryption" – what does that mean?
The "Just Smart Enough" House
Less Architectural Digest, more “This is our home” We’ve been doing some remodeling on our house, and the overarching theme of the renovations has been “make this house convenient for real humans to live in”. When we bought the house, it was “perfect” in one sense – the house is broken up into two sections,… Continue reading The "Just Smart Enough" House
Follow up: LockState security failures
I wrote a blog post last month on what your IoT startup can learn from the LockState debacle. In the intervening weeks, not much new information has come to light about the specifics of the update failure, and it seems from their public statements that LockState thinks it’s better if they don’t do any kind… Continue reading Follow up: LockState security failures
A short rant on XML – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
[editor’s note: This blog post has been in “Drafts” for 11 years. In the spirit of just getting stuff out there, I’m publishing it basically as-is. Look for a follow-up blog post next week with some additional observations on structured data transfer from the 21st century] So, let’s see if I can keep myself to less… Continue reading A short rant on XML – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Post-trip review: Telestial “International Travel SIM”
For our recent trip to Europe, Yvette and I tried the seasoned-traveler technique of swapping out the SIM cards in our phones, rather than paying AT&T’s fairly extortionate international roaming fees. It was an interesting experience, and we learned a few things along the way, which I’ll share here. We used Telestial, which is apparently… Continue reading Post-trip review: Telestial “International Travel SIM”
A brief history of the Future
A brief history of the Future Lessons learned from API design under pressure It was August of 2009, and the WebOS project was in a bit of trouble. The decision had been made to change the underlying structure of the OS from using a mixture of JavaScript for applications, and Java for the system services,… Continue reading A brief history of the Future
What your Internet Of Things startup can learn from LockState
The company LockState has been in the news recently for sending an over-the-air update to one of their smart lock products which “bricked” over 500 of these locks. This is a pretty spectacular failure on their part, and it’s the kind of thing that ought to be impossible in any kind of well-run software development… Continue reading What your Internet Of Things startup can learn from LockState
Why I hate the MacBook Pro Touchbar
Why I hate the MacBook Pro Touchbar The Touchbar that Apple added to the MacBook Pro is one of those relatively-rare instances in which they have apparently struck the wrong balance between form and function. The line between “elegant design” and “design for its own sake” is one that they frequently dance on the edge… Continue reading Why I hate the MacBook Pro Touchbar
Rogue One: A Star Wars Review
Spoiler-free intro If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to not read past the spoiler alert warning below. So, you’ve no doubt seen reviews that say Rogue One is the best Star Wars film, and reviews that claim it’s utterly disappointing. I liked it a lot, and I think it’s a movie… Continue reading Rogue One: A Star Wars Review
Apple vs the FBI
What’s up with Apple and the FBI? Several of my friends and family have asked me about this case, which has been in the news a lot recently. A whole lot of news stories have been written trying more-or-less successfully to explain what’s going on here, often with ill-fitting analogies to locks and keys, and… Continue reading Apple vs the FBI
