rloc

An AI agent that answers Airbnb guests so you don't have to. No software required. Gets knowledge from a modern digital guide.

Same here. Everything in my 2016 MBP (with touchbar) has been replaced : keyboard twice, full motherboard, screen and one fan recently.

I still own a MBA from 2011 in its original state (0 repair).

HLS, Smooth streaming, MPEG-Dash are all designed for streaming and that's what we use with Elastic Transcoder today. Used in conjunction with Amazon Cloudfront, I thought it was perfect for streaming content.

Does that mean we'll need to manually transition to the new services ? Are you planning a bridge or something ?

What about the cost of transcoding everything a second time ?

I really liked the "income growth" animated graph. Does someone know if the nytimes used a specific library ?

Yes.

Xcode was hacked not so long ago. The malware could remain invisible even to the creators of the app. Although it's less likely to remain unnoticed with open source projects due to the visible nature of it.

On desktop, Mac OS and Windows now provides official stores where apps are verified and signed.

On Android I remember Google added an app scanner in order to detect infected apps even when the security setting is disabled. On windows there is defender.

At the end of the day it's all about trust. Be very careful regarding where you download the software from.

So in order to track the phone he had to:

1) Get physical access to the phone and be able to unlock it.

2) Manually disable the Android setting so that non verified apps can be installed (the setting is enabled by default on almost every Google Android phone to protect users). By doing so a clear message warns the user that the phone will become vulnerable to attackers.

3) Install an obscure apk on the phone (side load or via link) outside of the Play Store.

I would call this just installing an app that is designed to track you. Such an app is trivial to code.

When you decide to set your OS free to make it possible to install anything then obviously you can install anything on it, including a spyware.

It makes no sense to compare this to iOS because iOS doesn't allow 2) (walled garden). Android leaves it up to you and thus provides more "freedom" to users. Freedom comes with additional risks. The equivalent is jailbreaking on iOS (unofficial).

I like to compare this with someone being locked in a room. This person is obviously less likely to die from a car accident than a free one. But does that mean you want to live locked in a room ?

Why not switch to "let's encrypt" for SSL certificates. It's free !

Cool I applied with a French website. Happy to help you guys test it.

Does it work with French websites ?

Happy to contribute :

You can't customize the app buttons unless it allows you to which is not the case with Spotify.

1/ display the same touch bar UI when the app is in the front or background otherwise it's confusing.

2/ keep the spotify controls visible when using chrome for example (chrome doesn't have any touch bar controls yet). Right now I have to click the newly added spotify shortcut all the time. Maybe a way to decide which app should be displayed when the space is unused would help (in the OS settings).

I like the song play progress bar, it would be even better with the current and next artist/song names and covers.

Yes but then you loose the app dynamic controls and the benefits of having a dynamic touch bar.

Yes I noticed it and that's great but it doesn't give you audio play/pause shortcut. It doesn't work on the expand arrow for example (that's an idea for Apple !).

I have to make compromises if I want the play/pause control then I'll loose the brightness or volume because the shortcuts are limited to 4 max even if the touch bar is mostly unused black space on the left most of the time.

I bought one when it was announced. I desperately needed to replace my 13', 128G MBA (couldn't change the disk).

My major concern about the touch bar is that it really makes things worse. I second the author opinion.

I use Spotify a lot. Before, on my MBA, I could change the volume or hit play/pause with one key tap, straightforward and easy.

Now I have to hit the tiny expand arrow to display these keys and then hit play/pause etc.

It could get even worse because Spotify added their own touch bar buttons when you use the mac native app. But the dynamic display is different depending on whether the app is the front or in the background. When in the background it becomes a shortcut you have to click to make a different set of keys appear. You get lost very easily, plus it becomes redundant with Apple native play/pause keys... So I'm always confused when I just want to hit pause/play.

From the settings, if I'd like to fall back to the always on standard set of function keys then I lose the dynamic app keys. Which is weird. The OS should be clever enough to expand the function keys when nothing else is available instead of a black unused zone and a tiny shortcut zone on the right.

The esc key (as mentioned in the article) is really hard to reach most of the times because you have to quit the current display (cross) before it becomes available. Why not keep it always on the left ?

It feels like the touch bar hasn't been thought through very much. It needs some more work... The good news is that it's mostly software improvements so let's hope Apple / App developers can fix that quickly.

Funny thing is that I installed ubuntu on my parents very old laptop (from 2001) that lost Windows XP support and it works really well. No virus until now.

I replaced the Graphical User Interface with a lighter one though to maintain decent performances.

Security fixes and improvements should be made at the OS level. And it is: Microsoft, Apple and Linux receive fixes very quickly. No software editor will be able to do better than the OS to fix and stop threats.

I stopped using AV softwares a long time ago for the following reasons:

- It slows down your device (memory, cpu, disk access, etc.).

- It annoys you a lot more than it stops or solves any security concern. I've yet to hear from someone telling me their AV software saved them from an actual real virus... If this ever happens it's probably a damn advanced attack that even the AV software doesn't know about.

- It's extremely hard to remove, especially when pre-installed as a bloatware on a PC. Sometimes it's also installed as an extension of other software (browser, etc.).

- It usually takes wrong decisions (false positive) that lead to broken web pages, legitimate software that stops working, etc. And unfortunately the "standard" user has no way to figure out it's due to the AV. I can't count the number of times I had to work with my customers on figuring out what was making my website or software not run (or even not to install) on their machine. One time I had to write to an AV editor in order for my browser extension to be whitelisted. Never got any answer...

AV softwares can be easily replaced with common sense and a set of very simple rules.

- Have a hardware/software firewall that blocks everything expect what's required (allowing only web when initiated from the machine is enough in 99% of the cases). Every major OS now comes pre-configured with a software firewall which removes 90% of the threats.

- Use a strong email service or software (gmail, etc.). This way you reduce the likelihood that a virus, spam, or fishing email passes through.

- Don't open email attachments coming from unknown or non trusted senders. Even when the sender seems legitimate, double check that the email makes sense (not an unusual behavior), pay close attention to URLs, written language and words. Don't click links without knowing where it goes (domain name, https, etc.). Email remains the most simple way to install a virus or a trojan on someone's computer so be very very attentive when acting upon an email. If you use an email provider (like gmail), report the spam or phishing attack very quickly so that 1/it can be stopped quickly for others and 2/it teaches the Machine learning to do better next time.

15 years I've been applying these rules and I never got any virus without using any AV software. My devices run like a charm (PC or Mac).

While I'm a big defender of freedom and open source, I can easily understand and forgive proprietary OS providers choices with regard to the AV editors.

so does OS X if you can replace the wifi card

How do you install OS X on this machine ? Any tutorial you can recommend ?

Mmmm interesting. I have servers there: http://www.iliad-datacenter.com/ in DC3.

This is great. I operate a French website targeted to French customers, this will improve latency compared to Ireland.

This might also allow for mixing critical server roles hosted in other Paris data centers with AWS.

I'm thinking about connecting a web server (in AWS) with a DB server (in another Paris DC) while keeping the latency at a low level.

Thanks, a lot of content there.

Yes I use Zapier but I feel like I'm not using it at its full potential.

The only thing to do if you haven't already. uBlock is open source and does the job.

This all adBlock making money by blocking ads and then showing their own ads is becoming ridiculous and unethical.

So what does Adblock stand for now ?

It's paid by the state while you look for another job (national employment agency). If your plan is to create a new company instead of looking for a new job you can get the aid as well. They'll usually leave you (almost) alone as long as you prove that you created a company and that you're not getting any salary of course.

It's great and something that doesn't make the news so much. It could be viewed as a state funding program. The state will get back much more in taxes and employment when and if the startup takes off.

I was employed by a big US tech company in France (8+ years). I left a few months ago to grow my own startup.

I've been working on the side project for 3 years before that. It's a SaaS web + mobile app. I worked on this project in my spare time (nights and sometimes during weekends). It was solving a problem that I was dealing with personally and I bet I was not the only one. The great thing with a side project is that you have no pressure and you can code features fast at the beginning. It was still a lot of work though but you don't feel it when it's your baby.

When it started to get traction (feedback from users is critical at this point) and some healthy revenue, I decided to take the plunge. France give you the opportunity to continue to earn something like 70% of your previous revenue (estimation, there are calculations rules) for 2 years in the case you create a new business.

I believe I found the motivation because my daily job was project manager but my side project was more of a developer job. Coding your own product without all the pain that a PM needs to resolve was a breath of fresh air. Combining the two competencies was also an advantage for learning to be an entrepreneur (even though I was more of a newbie as a developer compared to the devs I was working with in my previous company).

Now I'm enjoying it, I hired a few interns and joined an incubator in Paris.

Unfortunately in the music business there is only one business model. The one the labels command (with very minor differences between each service). Apple business model for streaming is the same than the spotify one except they don't have to pay the 30% tax.

The only way to command the labels is to control the market. Apple did it with the iPod and iTunes. They were able to set the .99c price for any song. The labels were upset about it.

Apple is trying to reproduce that with streaming. They're initial goal was to release a cheaper suscription ($7.99/month).

The two statements are related, the source being the second one. The first one is just a PR strategy. I wrote my first post too fast.

> "He really said that?"

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/05/08/beats

"The problem with this theory is that those licenses (to my understanding) aren’t transferable in the event of an acquisition. Music label executives may be dumb, but they’re not that dumb."

> "They're not approving it because supposedly Spotify built in their own payment system which is a clear violation of App Store guidelines. Could be wrong but that's what I read."

Maybe but I think it was a strategy. Spotify wanted to grab attention. The origin of the issue is really the fact that Apple is not releasing the 30% tax for music streaming services. This is unsustainable in the music business where there is close to 0 margin. The labels take most of the revenue.

I remember when Gruber was telling us that Apple was not buying Beats for the streaming service and its associated contracts. The truth is Apple acquired Beats almost solely for this asset.

This move makes totally sense if you consider that Apple is trying to control the streaming market the same way it controlled the download to own one. I'm sure the labels will do whatever they can to avoid it.

Spotify is a (big) thorn in Hook's foot and Ek would die rather than sell Spotify.

That also explains why Apple is not releasing the 30% tax for music streaming and why Spotify released an app with its own payment system to grab attention. It's war.

Apple is A/B testing if it's the right time to make macOs even more like iOS with this change (small radio button but huge consequence). Looks like people are not happy with it so they'll probably roll it back but until when ?

This is huge.

As an ex-Microsoft, I really don't understand that move. It doesn't make any sense. If the goal is to compete with the like of Facebook, I don't think it'll work as Linkedin is a business network. It makes me want to sell my stocks (-3.63% pre-market).

If I were MS I would have bought slack to replace both Sharepoint and Yammer.

Right, I didn't notice at first. http://introjs.com/#commercial

Looks like if you use it as part of a commercial product, you have to pay the license.