The General Technology Thread

[jamil]

I think the liberals on the court have this one right. It should take a warrant to get people's historic location information. This goes far beyond just surveillance.

 

[KLB]

I think the liberals on the court have this one right. It should take a warrant to get people's historic location information. This goes far beyond just surveillance.

I agree. I hope they carry this forward to other areas.

 

[KLB]

The decision in case someone wants a quick link.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf

Maybe we need a general SCOTUS thread.

I would like that. I have really been following them a lot more than I ever have before.

 

[KLB]

I think the liberals on the court have this one right. It should take a warrant to get people's historic location information. This goes far beyond just surveillance.

I went and read Gorsuch's dissent. The more I read of his, the more I really like this guy.

He basically is saying that this case should have been a simple 4th Amendment case. Forget all about this reasonable expectation of privacy. He is telling lawyers in the future to come loaded with that argument.

Before the district court and court of appeals, Mr. Carpenter
pursued only a Katz “reasonable expectations” argument.
He did not invoke the law of property or any analogies
to the common law, either there or in his petition for
certiorari. Even in his merits brief before this Court, Mr.
Carpenter’s discussion of his positive law rights in cell-site
data was cursory. He offered no analysis, for example, of
what rights state law might provide him in addition to
those supplied by §222. In these circumstances, I cannot
help but conclude—reluctantly—that Mr. Carpenter forfeited
perhaps his most promising line of argument.
Unfortunately, too, this case marks the second time this
Term that individuals have forfeited Fourth Amendment
arguments based on positive law by failing to preserve
them. See Byrd, 584 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 7). Litigants
have had fair notice since at least United States v. Jones
(2012) and Florida v. Jardines (2013) that arguments like
these may vindicate Fourth Amendment interests even
where Katz arguments do not. Yet the arguments have
gone unmade, leaving courts to the usual Katz handwaving.
These omissions do not serve the development
of a sound or fully protective Fourth Amendment
jurisprudence.

 

[bwframe]

John McAfee posts bizarre tweet, says his enemies are trying to kill him | Fox News

 

[ArcadiaGP]

So I just noticed this today...

Not sure who to blame yet... Chrome or Dropbox. Username and password clearly shown in URL.

 

[jamil]

So I just noticed this today...

Not sure who to blame yet... Chrome or Dropbox. Username and password clearly shown in URL.

What's chrome got to do with it? Login should be a HTTPS POST. Posted information is transmitted w/SSL. Information passed in the URL is not encrypted. URL rewriting should be disabled on their server. That's like OWASP 101. I'll play around with it when I have some spare time. I have dropbox too, and I probably won't for long if they're doing that ****. Holy crap.

 

[WebSnyper]

So I just noticed this today...

Not sure who to blame yet... Chrome or Dropbox. Username and password clearly shown in URL.

Damn, that's jacked up.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

What's chrome got to do with it? Login should be a HTTPS POST. Posted information is transmitted w/SSL. Information passed in the URL is not encrypted. URL rewriting should be disabled on their server. That's like OWASP 101. I'll play around with it when I have some spare time. I have dropbox too, and I probably won't for long if they're doing that ****. Holy crap.

Here's some more info. Happening with IE, as well... but it may be due to a problem we're having. The page isn't fully functional, not loading correctly. First image below is what it looks like... and the second image is the URL after I type anything into the username/password fields and hit enter or "sign in".

It's a routing or ISP issue that we're working on... works just fine outside of our domain. I'm sure on a fully-functional Dropbox site... this isn't an issue.

.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Samsung phones are spontaneously texting users' photos to random contacts without their permission

 

[jamil]

Here's some more info. Happening with IE, as well... but it may be due to a problem we're having. The page isn't fully functional, not loading correctly. First image below is what it looks like... and the second image is the URL after I type anything into the username/password fields and hit enter or "sign in".

It's a routing or ISP issue that we're working on... works just fine outside of our domain. I'm sure on a fully-functional Dropbox site... this isn't an issue.


.

CSS apparently isn't loading. Probably neither is javascript. It works fine for me.

I inspected the login page and the form's "method" attribute is not set to POST, so default is GET. That means the form's data will be submitted via GET request in the URL. That's bad practice for login pages because the password would be transmitted in the clear in the URL. I did see that there are javascript events set for submits, so I'm pretty sure under normal circumstances, it's submitted as a POST via javascript, and there fore encrypted via ssl.

Since it looks like from the image you posted that it's not loading CSS, and probably not javascript, that's likely what's going on.

 

[jkaetz]

CSS apparently isn't loading. Probably neither is javascript. It works fine for me.

I inspected the login page and the form's "method" attribute is not set to POST, so default is GET. That means the form's data will be submitted via GET request in the URL. That's bad practice for login pages because the password would be transmitted in the clear in the URL. I did see that there are javascript events set for submits, so I'm pretty sure under normal circumstances, it's submitted as a POST via javascript, and there fore encrypted via ssl.

Since it looks like from the image you posted that it's not loading CSS, and probably not javascript, that's likely what's going on.

Might still be worth a note to Dropbox letting them know that they have an issue when things don't go as expected. 90% of development is handling things that don't go as expected and it's impossible to predict everything.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

So.... is a bag of rice the best option when your Galaxy Note 5 takes a dip in a pool?

 

[jamil]

So.... is a bag of rice the best option when your Galaxy Note 5 takes a dip in a pool?

Well. Maybe. If your phone isn’t waterproof the battery may be toast either way. And then there’s the rest of it. The rice thing is hit or miss, but it needs to be done pretty quickly. My iPhone 6 took a swim. It got warm so I was pretty sure it was ruined, but I had to try anyway. I have an iPhone 8 now.

 

[jkaetz]

So.... is a bag of rice the best option when your Galaxy Note 5 takes a dip in a pool?

Just make sure it is uncoiled

 

[IndyTom]

So.... is a bag of rice the best option when your Galaxy Note 5 takes a dip in a pool?

It has to be uncoi....

Just make sure it is uncoiled

Dang it.

 

[jkaetz]

It has to be uncoi....



Dang it.

too slow.

I suppose if you want a real answer to the question, water in and of itself isn't really a problem for electronics. Pure distilled water would cause no issues. Of course we're never usually dunking devices into distilled water. The minerals and other things in the water that are left behind after the water is gone cause the problem. That said, I always wondered if taking a recently submerged device, submerging it in alcohol in an attempt to displace the water and minerals would work. Also, freezers and refrigerators make good dehumidifiers as well if you want to try that. On the other hand its easier to replace most devices that attempt to save them.

 

[BugI02]

So.... is a bag of rice the best option when your Galaxy Note 5 takes a dip in a pool?

A tasteful memorial ceremony and a Note 9

Chlorinated water is bad juju

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Two Men Sentenced to Jail For Selling ‘Ooberstick’ Kodi Devices

 

[jkaetz]

Two Men Sentenced to Jail For Selling ‘Ooberstick’ Kodi Devices

Interesting, they successfully charged them with "money laundering" to stop them from selling devices that made it easy to play pirated video content. Certainly shows the state of things, provide people with an easy means of getting entertainment and you'll get put in jail for a couple years. Kill someone and you'll be out in a few months. Purple only partially needed.