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ickwabe | 8 years ago | on: Skype Vanishes from App Stores in China, Including Apple’s

Perhaps but at that point the US (or whoever) can counter with their own rules/laws. Might lead to manufacturing balkanization but I'd prefer the US not the one to step over the line first in the same way I'd prefer the US not be the first to use nukes (although I guess that's a bit hyperbolic).

ickwabe | 8 years ago | on: Skype Vanishes from App Stores in China, Including Apple’s

My take away from this is quite different. Or at least tangential.

I expect Apple and any other company to have to comply with local laws in various countries. It's unavoidable. What else could they do? Refuse and loose access to that population?

But right now, as regards device encryption and back doors, there is a sort of mutually assured destruction. A MAD that the US law enforcement (e.g. FBI et al) are constantly trying to undermine. Right now Apple claims the iPhone is designed such that they cannot unencrypt it. The FBI wants to force them to create a method.

Regardless of the technique used that then will make every similar device world wide subject to the whims of local law as regards allow that country access.

What would stop any country from then demanding blanket access to devices? But at the moment this doesn't seem happen because there's an unspoken detente among adversarial countries to not demand such back-doors.

This situation reminds me of that. Since it is possible for Apple and others to block things on their app stores, countries demand it.

It's a cautionary tale of why it's important for companies to design certain things from the bottom up to prevent bad behavior.

ickwabe | 9 years ago | on: Losing a dog can be harder than losing a relative or friend

"Can" is the operative word there. I have had experiences similar to your own and for me, the death of my father was much more devastating. But I can imagine less socially connected folks or folks with poor family relationships being utterly devastated by the loss of a pet that is providing unconditional acceptance and companionship.

ickwabe | 10 years ago | on: Security of critical phone database called into question

The "database computer code" they are talking about is not the actual database software (e.g. oracle, postgres, or whatever). It's the proprietary code used to keep the data in the database accurate, up to date, distributed, etc. And the code used for communicating with the service providers, co-ops, LSMSs, etc.

This may seem a small thing and may be somewhat conceptually similar to DNS. But in reality it is an entire ecosystem of it's own with complexities that are not readily apparent. The incumbent (Neustar) has no obligation to share it's IP with Telcordia.

"The database is significant because it tracks nearly every phone number in North America, making it a key tool for law enforcement agencies seeking to monitor criminal or espionage targets."

This statement is potentially very misleading. The NPAC does not "live" route telephone calls. The NPAC is the database of ported phone number and various characteristics about them. The database is replicated to LSMS databases at the service providers. When you make a call it does not route through the NPAC. It routes through the service providers, period.

While the NPAC could be helpful to law enforcement for knowing which SP manages a particular number and various other characteristics about that number, it would not be helpful as some sort of one-stop shop for wire tapping.

From the NPAC site: "LSMS (Local Service Management System): The system owned by a service provider and which receives data broadcast from the NPAC/SMS. The LSMS provisions the service provider's downstream systems, such as its LNP call routing database. The LSMS is a mechanized system used (primarily) to receive data broadcasts from the NPAC/SMS."

ickwabe | 10 years ago | on: Colorful Image Colorization

Yes of course and I appreciate that. Just my opinion but in that case I would not have used images with such artistic weight. There certainly plenty black and white images to choose from.

ickwabe | 10 years ago | on: Colorful Image Colorization

This is very impressive but I'll be that person.

I shudder when I see someone/something colorize the works of masters of black-and-white like Ansel Adams or Henri Cartier-Bresson. Just a horrible mangling of their work.

Adams for example could have used color, and did take many hundreds of color photos[1]. But in his work for display he deliberately and consciously chose black-and-white and put in much effort in the lab to get the final images just they way he wanted them.

So while I truly appreciate the technological achievement here, I still cringe at the what I see as distorting the artists' work.

[1]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/ansel-adams-in-co...

ickwabe | 10 years ago | on: The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp

What are we to make of these sorts of comments from Obama and Feinstein? It seems like there is strong backing by certain political interests to make it impossible for the average phone user to encrypt their own devices in such a way that the providers cannot access certain data. This dove-tails nicely with what some consider a war on general computing...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-obama-idU...

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/262658-feinstein-vow...

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