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I've been researching why my cities public transport isn't available in Google Maps. Turns out that the (mostly public) transport company assumes itself in competition to app vendors such as Google Maps and Citymapper; the bus company "doesn't own the whole experience anymore". So, while they give access to static routes with some delay, real-time data or accurate data is out of reach.

How do companies like Citymapper approach that issue? Do they usually pay fees to the transport companies, or do transport companies in the supported cities all give API access?

A proper app would definitely benefit public transport in my area.

(word has it that my area's transport tariffs are way to complicated to be mapped onto Google's API)

[Edit: to be more concise; the transportation company doesn't want 3rd parties to offer an app. How does Citymapper approach that?]

The university website mentions student ID cards with chip. Is that not sufficient to provide strong authentication towards a self-service portal for password reset?

Thanks to the tremendous efforts! Whenever the GBoard is updated (on Android; the iOS version is just a subset), you can feel the progress that has been made.

If I remember correctly, cellphones with radio receivers tell you to plug in headphones whenever you're tuning in. My guess is the headphones cables act as the antenna.

[Edit: TIL AM stations seem to transmit at frequencies way smaller than FM]

That's one of the things that need to be solved, rather than celebrated. Commuting -- no matter which transport you're using, is a waste of time and energy.

Assuming you're in a city made for humans:

You pass by the bakery. You're not hungry… but it does look delicious. You go back, look through the windows again -- and decide you are hungry!

If you're in a car, you don't stroll around. You drive where you want to drive. Even discovering new things is hard since the people behind demand you don't slow down.

(this is loaded with personal experience and preference, I can perfectly understand this doesn't match yours.)

It's a difference if you make a 30 min walk, pass by a bakery in the morning and the supermarket or a restaurant in the evening. You can't have that in the car, or train.

The "Too Good To Go" app became quite popular in Germany now. Restaurants, hotels and alike offer leftovers for a dime. You buy a voucher and collect a meal usually just after closing time.

Besides, we use "to container sth." for grabbing good food from the supermarket's trash. Is that something common in the US?

The Food Runners do a great job :-)

I’ve used non-Google devices most of the time, now trying out an iPhone.

Just did a factory reset and restore via iCloud. My fear of loosing my phone, incomplete backups and messed up restore is gone. Works.

Might be possible with Google phones, too. For all the others it’s just messy.

(I‘d agree with you, until I tried it three weeks ago. Working with computers all day, I need others to take care of my personal and pocket computers...)

Have you tried using the Google Keyboard on Android recently? It will distinguish between several languages.

Have a look at the Google article. I presume they do some research when claiming that keyboards aren't what a significant portion of humankind needs.

But indeed not only programmers rely on keyboards.

If you were talking about yourself only, I'd agree. But since you name humanity, one thing must be very clear: most people don't like keyboards. That's something that holds in "the developed world". Outside of the ASCII-world, that might be even more so.

Smartphone keyboards with glide typing function very well for language (i.e., no passwords and no programming). They have an important feature: they provide the input you want, not exactly characters for the keypresses you did.

If you consider the Chinese language, many people use the input either by drawing (elderly people) or with Pinyin, a phonetics script. In both cases there's a lot of software involved to figure out what people want.

The point is: programmers are a tiny minority who need exactly the characters for the keys they presses. Most other people just need text in their native language.

Google wrote about reaching "the next billion users": https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/next-b...

The authors mention the headline attacks in a side note only. Their paper is about formal verification of the standard. That is indeed something new. Their framework finds a couple of new issues -- and also old ones, which made it to the headline.

Do you know if the ancient Linux kernel on your router has any security issues?

Do you receive any notification if there's ever an issue found? Is there even a centralised tracker for security issues affecting the router software?

Sometimes, things need to be updated. And consumers can't be bothered to flash a firmware image.

That's a different concept, though.

With contactless payments, you share your payment information with the point of sales. You do not get the opportunity to check what's going on (and it will never be due to the awkward position you have to hold your phone to get within NFC range).

For QR code payments, the point of sales generates all the information (how much money to which merchant) and encodes it at QR. You scan the code and confirm the information, which results in a payment.

That's the case for any software that accepts any kind of input.

Your browser, your PDF viewer, your messenger are just more popular, but not fundamentally different from a QR reader application.

Now we have APIs for 2FA tokens in place.

When will we get an API for password managers? That'd enable effective domain name checks and such.

Their website is down.

Security could be one of the reasons -- 2G is the only technology remaining with no authentication of the network, and plenty of other issues.

But I agree with you.

I'm pretty sure firefighters could get such a license in the event of emergency -- or just operate without such a license.

[Edit: or you ask some technician of your local operator to bring the system up :)]

Firefighters (or others) could set up a "no-frills" base station on their truck.

These systems include a power generator, servers, and a 2G GSM base station for ranges of about 10km.

They don't even require any Internet connection, since their only purpose is to allow emergency calls and SMS. Any cell phone can set up an emergency call then - no need for a special SIM card.

Vodafone has a humanitarian mission that sets up these systems all over the world. (They're using Huawei, though)

https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/mobile-n...

I'm sure it's somewhat hard to change the system once deployed. They could just get a cheap global tariff -- but the eagles won't swap SIM cards themselves.

How is it cool when people steal scooters and the companies ultimately stop to offer rental scooters?

Nobody will maintain the scooters just because cool and cyberpunk and viral.

[Edit: do I misinterpret your post?]

At the DB counter or online? The website never shows prices for me. The DB assistants couldn't tell me why -- yet, within the next month, the booking will be available online /only/ :-)

Have a look at all the ancient Linux routers everywhere. They have all kinds of nasty security issues up to RCE. Linux and open source doesn't solve anything by itself. It must be brought to the customer -- without interaction.

Security must be the default. Automatic updates, sane default configuration. And a user interface that supports security.

TGV tickets are sold there, but separately - without any liability for missed connections.

Even with the current train connections, it would be a great improvement to book a single ticket for multi-country journeys.

Right now, I need a ticket for Germany, France and Spain to get to Barcelona. If any of the trains runs late and I miss a train, I'd have to buy a new ticket for the connecting train.

So a single booking agency with guaranteed connecting trains would be great.

Disk encryption protects you from somebody who steals your switched-off laptop.

This discussion is about the permissions that applications get. Desktop Linuxes don't have such an permission system in place - "just run as root" with ultimate trust in the application is quite common. Sandboxing isn't a thing either.

The author doesn't really take into account that many people seek stability, not maximum profit. The article is out of scope for most who consider a house in favor of renting.

There are other things under the hood. Things that a desktop OS can't do anymore, not today.

Your password manager kWallet is, once unlocked at system start, an unencrypted file where any application can access any password.

If kMail fetches a signed mail in background, you'll be unexpectedly prompted to accept the certificate with no indication where the pop-up came from.

Password dialogues have no priority whatsoever. When a password dialogue pops up just before another application starts, you're likely to enter your password into the wrong dialogue.