dewme
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Apple's private Wi-Fi MAC addresses were security theater until iOS 17.1
Nope.chris-net said:dewme said:The term “security theatre” is kind of hip and making a comeback of late, but it’s debatable whether Apple truly intended to promote this feature as a security benefit to the public at large when they knew very well from the start that it had little to no real value and was simply performance art.
It’s equally probable and I believe even more likely that this is simply a case of a pathetic level of security software implementation. The reason I say this is because the vast majority of Apple’s customers know little to nothing about this feature-fail and have no idea what a MAC address is, well, other than to think that a MAC address corresponds to the location of their closest McDonald’s restaurant. Plus, nobody was ever asked to remove their shoes.Security theatre is when someone makes a big deal out of something which proves to be ineffective, this is a classic example.
Apple told us it’s safer to have it enabled, turns out a miscreant could get the actual Mac by probing a port on the device.
I’m a network engineer, have been for 23 years, when the manual says something specific you need to be able to trust it. Apple would have known about this “feature” I’m sure others that needed to know knew about this feature too.
the truth is you can’t trust anyone.
if available, it’s time to install a 3rd party firewall on your devices.Reason is Apple have proven to be deliberately dishonest and misleading about their products capabilities and features.Every software vendor has at one time or another made a big deal out of something which turned out to be a failure or mistake because they designed or implemented it poorly or injected a bug that crippled the usefulness of the feature. This is a failure in technical engineering.Security theater is human engineering. It’s often used when there is no obvious or practical technical solution. It’s performance art, which often involves audience participation, like taking off your shoes to go through airport security checkpoints.Apple’s extremely sluggish responsiveness in fixing this bug is embarrassing, but they never engaged in performance art, they simply failed to perform.
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FCC permits consumer products to utilize more of the 6GHz band, benefiting Apple
I think Apple has firmly decided to leave the conventional home networking business behind. That doesn’t mean they can’t deliver a networking product of a different kind, one that delivers all of the capabilities of a conventional router, WiFi access point, etc. But whatever they built would have to have to have a strong tie-in with one or more elements of Apple’s product portfolio and ecosystem.But I could see Apple doing something like a multi-node mesh system that includes both Ethernet and WiFi plus all of the gateway functions needed to support the full range of networking technologies supported by HomeKit including Thread, Matter, ZigBee, and Bluetooth. Apple could update their HomePod and HomePod mini to act as range extenders for WiFi access (and Matter as already supported). Amazon’s latest Echo Dot products act as range extenders and nodes for Eero WiFi mesh systems.Apple could even incorporate some sort of Apple proprietary security & privacy gateway that adds additional protections to your home network from external security and privacy threats. As much as I’d love an Apple security & privacy gateway to also perform ad blocking, like a PiHole does, I doubt they’d go there. But they certainly could incorporate network level content filtering with tie-ins to Focus modes, for example to limit certain content when in certain Focus modes. They could also use the network device for pay-per-view services on Apple TV+, which nobody but Apple would love.In any case, I think the go/no-go decision on any new Apple branded network product would be based on Apple’s ability to use it to create tie-ins with other Apple products and services. Just like Apple has done with HomePod, which has never been just another Bluetooth speaker. Simply being easier to configure and manage isn't enough, it has to open up, enhance, or extend an existing revenue stream beyond the sale of the device itself.
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Swift creator brings new AI programming language to the Mac
coolfactor said:sloth77 said:Fantastic. Because what the world needs is Yet Another Programming Language.Yah, I've had it on my bucket list to learn Objective-C for 20+ years, and still haven't. And then along came Swift and it's still untouched. Python is interesting, and to know that there's a variant of it specifically for AI programming... Mojo will become a very popular language, since Python was already the go-to language for AI programming.I think it comes down to deciding whether you want to dabble in multiple programming languages or try to become proficient in one or two programming languages. Heck, being proficient in any one language is a huge undertaking and nearly unattainable if you try to stay up to date with all of the derivations of the language you started with. For example, if you came into programming through K&R C whose reference manual looks like a pamphlet compared to the monstrosities associated with modern languages like C++, Java, C#, or Swift, each of which can trace their language lineage back to C, trying to keep up with each of these derivations, all of which have grown to be massive with their plethora of libraries, is a monumental task.Today, being proficient in a just a single language is nearly impossible when you consider all of the runtime dependencies, operating system dependencies, specialized silos of libraries that address specific domain requirements, like SwiftUI, and of course the constant growth, scope creep, and language extensions that keep being added by the language standardization bodies. Once one language settles on a clever new way to improve a language's capability or improve programmer productivity, every other language that is still being maintained will come up with a way to achieve the same gains within their language's scope. It never ends, unless you as a programmer decide to park yourself in a functional area or job that doesn't feel compelled to keep chasing all of the shiny new things. For example, some embedded programmers can limit their experience and knowledge to something like C++ or even C.Being very good at one thing is better, in my opinion, than being average or mediocre at several things. Humans are in fact, lousy multitaskers, despite what some folks claim to be. Don't overfill your bucket.
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iPhone 17 could be first to get new thinner & lighter motherboard tech
What do you mean by "make room for" with respect to noninvasive glucose monitoring? There is a small army of companies that have been working on this problem for more than a decade. If only if was a matter of finding more real estate inside the iPhone's chassis. If Apple had a working and approved version that required them to put a humpback protrusion on the iPhone like the old iPhone battery cases they would have already shipped it and reaped the massive rewards.badmonk said:Maybe it will allow Apple to make room for noninvasive glucose monitoring by 2025.
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Microsoft hammered with $29 billion back-tax bill
IRS: “C’mon MSFT, just write us a check. Just think about what it will do for your country.”
MSFT: “Ok, we thought about it. The US government has spent about $5,495,977,156,207 USD this year, so far. We’re at day 285. This means you guys spent about $19,284,130,373 USD per day to keep everything going in the US so far this year. You know, just to maintain the status quo, keep the lights on.”
MSFT: “Tell you what guys, Microsoft will fork over the $29 billion. You’re welcome. This will keep the lights on in the US government, and especially in that dark stinky black hole of incompetence called the US Congress, for about 1.5 days at your current spending rates.”
IRS: “Thanks, MSFT. Much appreciated.”
IRS: “Oh crap, now all we have to do now is figure out who is going to pay for the other 363.5 days.”
IRS: “Hey Tim Apple, let’s have a little chat.”
