NetJunky Research - Latest Comments

Re: Python URL mangling

terry — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 02:26:31 -0000

you know, i bought an Ipad that's locked and at first i was quite mad. i thought that is the most stupid thing anyone has ever come up with. i have heard every side on the table and see it both ways. it really does has its great qualities about it and you guys deserve a great big pat on the back for it. however, you also need to realize that there are some real live circumstances in the real world that DO come up that has legitimate reasons why someone would have a locked I device. such as the owner died suddenly, should they just throw his stuff in the trash? a person may unlock it in front of you get the money and as soon as you walk away set off the lost device. ha bet you never thought of that? i know its for the consumers safety and that's awesome. i have 4 i devices, i lovem. but you need to work on the being a bit more understandable in certain situations when the registered owner will confirm he dosnt still own it or the can fax in a death certificate or something.

Re: Software Estimation is Hard

hemp — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:39:26 -0000

"only someone with experience building many products can tell up front which type of project it is"

I would venture that only someone with experience building *similar* products can have any justified confidence up front about which type of project it is. Your example of the iPhone toolbar is a good one because a person may have decades of experience building a wide array of mobile apps, but if you've never done iPhone development using the stock controls, a small thing like that which would be relatively painless in most environments may catch one quite off guard.

Re: Sendai Tsunami Evacuation Simulations

Erick — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:08:08 -0000

Hello Jonathan, I was looking for more information on your simulator. I am interested also on teh development of such tool. The link for Daily Planet was not available anymore. Do you have any other publication available? thank you

Re: Data Protection

Jonathan Karon — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:41:46 -0000

I've had good luck on the Mac using user folder encryption. It makes Time Machine backups less flexible and you spend a lot of time waiting for the backup to finish after logging out or shutting down, but it takes care of making sure your local DropBox data is secured.

You're right that there just isn't a good method of storing encrypted data in DropBox, hence my caveat on what you should feel safe putting in there.

User authentication is a very hard problem. I hear rumors that Google is adding one-time-PIN via text message support to Apps. That, in my opinion, mashed up with OpenID and SSL-everywhere would make life a lot better. But it would also make life a lot more annoying. ;)

Re: Geometry

John Metta — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:27:52 -0000

I know you've seen this. The value pi times the square of the radius equals the area of a circle, right?

Pi*z*z=a?

#justsayin

Re: Data Protection

John Metta — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:21:21 -0000

I've had some initially positive experiences with Espionage for the Mac- individual file/folder encryption. Last I heard, PGP wasn't playing nicely with Snow Leopard, and there are actually few directories that I honestly need encrypted- Encrypting /usr or /lib is, for the most part, overkill.

One strategy that you left out is basic organization. Putting everything into a DropBox folder is good, but I've been organizing my files in such a way that the sensitive ones are confined to a relatively small area (number of upper level folders)- that allows me to use a directory-based encryption strategy.

DropBox: Love it, hate it. Really wish there was a better way to combine DropBox with encryption. Currently, an encrypted directory on DropBox is fragile and then unaccessable from other systems. An encrypted folder on your local system to sync with DropBox is similarly fragile. Seems like whole disk encryption is the best way to encrypt DropBox, sadly. Am I wrong there?

Also, I don't use the Keychain or any other password storage system. I've been trying to avoid single point failure systems (one password gets all passwords). I've actually been experimenting with the concept of having a repeatable password generator- nothing is stored, but with relatively simple knowledge, strong passwords can be repeatably generated- so it's like storage without the storage part. Been wanting to talk to you about the proof of concept, actually: http://github.com/mettadore...

Overall, the foundations of a data protection strategy are probably based more in organization than in any software or guidelines. The more organized you are, the easier to protect yourself and recover.

Re: Designing For Your Audience

Jonathan Karon — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:03:18 -0000

Many thanks for the feedback!

Controlled access to YouTube is definitely a big issue. Our whole premise in building WeetWoo was to get closer to a safe, guided environment suitable for all kids. The limitations of the iPhone OS have made it harder to get to a perfect solution, but we keep trying to improve.

The challenges in a school -- web filters, bandwidth constraints, liability, teacher-specific content -- pose a different set of limitations that we think we have an answer for. If you email feedback@weetwoo.com we can get you on the beta tester list -- I'd love your feedback.

Re: Location Staycation

hemp — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:52:46 -0000

Doesn't work in the Chromes..

Re: Designing For Your Audience

J. Dillingham — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:33:37 -0000

I love Weet Woo and your filtering of content for our children. But, as a teacher of iPods in the schools and recognizing the safety issues for our children, access to You Tube is blocked. Do you plan for a version for schools addressing this issue? I hope so, so I can offer WeetWoo to my students and teachers who will as a result undoubtedly use your app at home, too.
J. Dillingham

Re: Designing For Your Audience

hemp — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:02:20 -0000

What's an editor? There are no editors in Blogville. :p

Re: Designing For Your Audience

Jonathan Karon — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:57:08 -0000

For the same reason that it sometimes takes a ridiculous amount of prose to say something simple until an editor steps in and tears your heart out. We grow very firmly attached to our beliefs.

Re: Designing For Your Audience

hemp — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:49:02 -0000

Why did that take an entire 5K run to figure out? Pull your head out, man! j/k

Sometimes the most obvious solutions are the hardest ones to identify. Same goes for the simplest solutions, unfortunately.

Re: Age

Jonathan Karon — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:55:09 -0000

Unless, of course, you are Karl Lagerfeld. Then you hire a curator for your iPod collection to ensure each one of your dozens of iPods are fully loaded with the bleeding edge of hip.

Re: Those clever DARPA chaps

Mettadore — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:31:00 -0000

Oh my god, this post is totally, like, a month old in, like, two days! Where's my pithy content?

Re: conversation.

Mettadore — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:51:29 -0000

Sweet! Nice post- forgot how quiet your writing style was. Although I'm still waiting for the cool "Hipster girl vs. Booky girl" posts :)

Re: Why I’m voting this year…

Mettadore — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:19:09 -0000

Nice thoughts. I agree with you that often, compromise is necessary and that the strive for the highest ideals is often lost in the strive to just get the damn job done. It's rare that a leader can be found who- at the very least- tries to remember that humans are individuals and empathy is critical.