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tankm0de's comments

tankm0de | 10 years ago | on: WhatsApp Encryption Said to Stymie Wiretap Order

In end-to-end encryption the private keys are on the user's phone. The point of a wiretap is not to let the target know you're listening. Having the code source + user's public keys from WhatsApp is of no help in decrypting.

tankm0de | 10 years ago | on: WhatsApp Encryption Said to Stymie Wiretap Order

The long term problem for broad adoption of end-to-end encrypted mobile messaging is closed software ecosystems; the government will just pass a law to force Apple & Android App stores to stop distributing apps like WhatsApp that facilitate it. Game over.

add:

I suspect that code itself and the act of posting it on the internet could be interpreted as free speech. Even if not, it would difficult to stamp it out from international sites or bit-torrent. Distributing via an App "Store", even for free, could be more likely to be construed as commerce, which is already heavily regulated and for less important reasons than criminal/terrorism investigations. Google and Apple as large public corporations have fiduciary duty to their stockholders to protect their profits, which the US government can easily threaten. So there's a big weak link (and an easy lever for government to pull on) in the closed distribution of secure communications code.

tankm0de | 10 years ago | on: The Melting of Mark Zuckerberg’s $100MM Donation to Newark Schools

There was long-form about this awhile back. Interestingly the blame for waste seemed to lay with both teacher's union and pro-reform consultants demanding a big piece of the action. When teacher's union didn't get what they wanted they manipulated the community of parents against the deal, which also ensured the politicians/bureaucrats would not be held accountable for the squandered opportunities and wasted money.

In short, it seems like places like Newark have bad schools because of bad governance and rent-seeking behavior running rampant at the local level. The state should be more firmly involved to police these issues.

tankm0de | 10 years ago | on: Why Many Computer Science Programs Are Stagnating

this is a pretty naive viewpoint probably written by someone early in their career. CS programs should be teaching fundamental skills - algorithms, software design and engineering, computer theory. In industry it's much better to have a team member with a firm grasp on fundamentals than not, even if the later is an expert on framework du-jour. The one with with strong fundamentals will grasp the framework in matter of weeks. Not so much for the reverse ... additionally the poor-fundamentals programmer will pollute the shared codebase with bugs and performance gotchyas for years.

The greater problem for CS education is improving the curriculum and outcomes for incoming students who haven't already been coding since youth. Women and minorities often don't have that advantage. In my undergrad, I saw tenured research profs catering courses to top of the curve, mostly privileged males already with a strong background in STEM fields & programming.

tankm0de | 12 years ago | on: Good Samaritan Backfire

this dude. by his own admission he, 1. had been drinking, was potentially drunk 2. disobeyed police officers at scene of accident 3. provoked the guards of the holding cell

police can be thug-ish but this guy is not exactly a posterchild for innocent bystander. I find his thinly veiled sense of entitlement ('I can't have done anything wrong... I work for a non-profit!') pretty obnoxious. There are many victims of police or prosecutorial misconduct out there far more deserving of attention or sympathy. sadly they don't blog.

https://www.aclu.org/donate/join-renew-give

tankm0de | 12 years ago | on: What the Heck is Happening to Windows?

this is spot on. The only thing I would add is to point out how meticulously little has changed in the Apple OSX over the years. It's mostly carefully vetted polish & performance improvements. Microsoft tries to reinvent the wheel with every other release when what people really want is something stable, fast, simple & familiar, with tasteful updates so that nothing feels stale. The last few OSX releases, WinXP and 7 were in the sweet spot.

When Apple added touch-sized icons to the Application menu in dock and eventually Launchpad, Microsoft and Canonical saw it and just completely jumped the shark on device/OS convergence. Meanwhile, Apple has tip-toed with the changes, to the point that they're not really moving forward with touch UI on OSX because it seems the value-add is not really clear for the end-user.

tankm0de | 12 years ago | on: Making a Living Collecting Cans

I lived 1 block from this recycling center for 4 years. It attracts nefarious sort of homeless who among other pleasantries, defecate on sidewalks, break-in to parked cars, yell violently at each other and passerbys (probably due to mental illness of varying severity), and maintain packs of un-domesticated pit-bulls. I am pro-recycling but the patrons of this center are a danger to the community and that is why it is closing and should be closed. NIMBYism takes on a different meaning when your city allows violent, mentally-ill homeless to do as they wish on the streets w/o proper care. I think the recycling policy issue here is sort of tangential.
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