7 ms·

And speaking of user-hostile, locked-down phones... a galactic irony that Ben Wiser, the Googler who posted this proposal, has a blog where his most recent pos

And speaking of user-hostile, locked-down phones... a galactic irony that Ben Wiser, the Googler who posted this proposal, has a blog where his most recent post is a rant about how he's being unfairly restricted and can't freely run the software he wants on his own device. https://benwiser.com/blog/I-just-spent-%C2%A3700-to-have-my-own-app-on-my-iPhone.html https://benwiser.com/blog/I-just-spent-%C2%A3700-to-have-my-... https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity

NetOpWibby 3y ago
Haha, that’s incredible.
userbinator 3y ago
It's not clear when his most recent post is; the server says "Last-Modified: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 06:00:31 GMT" but I believe I saw references to this post before that in the current discussion. (What's with the trend of completely omitting any dates on a blog?)
- Groxx 3y ago
  the RSS feed says 2022-03-04 fwiw: <item> <title>I just spent £700 to have my own app on my iPhone</title> <link> https://benwiser.com/blog/I-just-spent-£700-to-have-my-own-app-on-my-iPhone.html </link> <pubDate>2022-03-04T11:30:34.067Z</pubDate> </item>
  - jwilk 3y ago
    That's when it was submitted to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553448 (5 comments)
- Andrex 3y ago
  > (What's with the trend of completely omitting any dates on a blog?) I hate it so, so much. But it's been a thing for at least 5 or so years.
  - ranting-moth 3y ago
    In uni the mantra from the professors was "put a date and version on everything you write for others". Students still forgot in the first year but got heavily marked down for it. It quickly got etched into your brain to date and version just about anything you did. Today when I see an undated blog entry it seriously affects my perception of the writers integrity.
    - ethbr0 3y ago
      > Today when I see an undated blog entry it seriously affects my perception of the writers integrity. Yes, but you see it. The canonical reasoning I've heard for missing dates is that it avoids SEO penalties for old content.
      - agentgumshoe 3y ago
        Hooray for SEO once again enriching our experience! I await the realisation of the Hitchhiker's guide's remedy for the Marketing department...
      - philipov 3y ago
        Can SEO algos read it if you put the date in an image?
        ethbr0 3y ago
        I'm sure they could, but it's probably not efficient at web scale, so I'd hazard "No."
- lvncelot 3y ago
  I hate that trend as well, especially if the post is meant to be instructional. Bonus points if they don't include version numbers as well. I think it's so that your blog does not run into the risk of looking inactive when you might stop posting for a while.
- agentgumshoe 3y ago
  I can't stand it. Slightly more than I can't stand old articles that show in recent searches because "last updated July 26th."
  - deaddodo 3y ago
    Inversely, I hate trying to search for old articles and being unable to find them because something about the websites metadata says a blog from 2004 is from 2018. It makes Google's time window search (and general, research for contemporary views) almost impossible.
lern_too_spel 3y ago
Not the same thing. Attestation doesn't mean you can't run software you want on your own phone, which Android allows despite having build attestation APIs.
- simbolit 3y ago
  Not the same thing. Still close enough to trigger irony detectors.
- userbinator 3y ago
  It means you can, but may then be ostracised from services for having an "unsupported" environment, which is in many ways even worse because it's leveraging peer pressure.
- tehbeard 3y ago
  > Attestation doesn't mean you can't run software you want on your own phone, I couldn't run my bank's app on an up to date and security patched lineageOS ROM Thanks to safetynet, even trying the hack around approaches. They'd happily accept the out of date, CVE riddled official ROM however as it had the "popes blessing" from Google.
- rcxdude 3y ago
  It means there's enough software I can't run that its a problem for me. Banking apps, for example.
- thefurdrake 3y ago
  It is my understanding that attestation could be used to control which software is running on the client's computer prior to granting access to a web service, yes? Otherwise, what would the point be of using to, say, protect DRM content on a webpage if I can just attach a debugger to the process in question? Is this not how WEI works?

NetOpWibby 3y ago

Haha, that’s incredible.

userbinator 3y ago

It's not clear when his most recent post is; the server says "Last-Modified: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 06:00:31 GMT" but I believe I saw references to this post before that in the current discussion. (What's with the trend of completely omitting any dates on a blog?)

Groxx 3y ago
the RSS feed says 2022-03-04 fwiw: <item> <title>I just spent £700 to have my own app on my iPhone</title> <link> https://benwiser.com/blog/I-just-spent-£700-to-have-my-own-app-on-my-iPhone.html </link> <pubDate>2022-03-04T11:30:34.067Z</pubDate> </item>
- jwilk 3y ago
  That's when it was submitted to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30553448 (5 comments)
Andrex 3y ago
> (What's with the trend of completely omitting any dates on a blog?) I hate it so, so much. But it's been a thing for at least 5 or so years.
- ranting-moth 3y ago
  In uni the mantra from the professors was "put a date and version on everything you write for others". Students still forgot in the first year but got heavily marked down for it. It quickly got etched into your brain to date and version just about anything you did. Today when I see an undated blog entry it seriously affects my perception of the writers integrity.
  - ethbr0 3y ago
    > Today when I see an undated blog entry it seriously affects my perception of the writers integrity. Yes, but you see it. The canonical reasoning I've heard for missing dates is that it avoids SEO penalties for old content.
    - agentgumshoe 3y ago
      Hooray for SEO once again enriching our experience! I await the realisation of the Hitchhiker's guide's remedy for the Marketing department...
    - philipov 3y ago
      Can SEO algos read it if you put the date in an image?
      - ethbr0 3y ago
        I'm sure they could, but it's probably not efficient at web scale, so I'd hazard "No."
lvncelot 3y ago
I hate that trend as well, especially if the post is meant to be instructional. Bonus points if they don't include version numbers as well. I think it's so that your blog does not run into the risk of looking inactive when you might stop posting for a while.
agentgumshoe 3y ago
I can't stand it. Slightly more than I can't stand old articles that show in recent searches because "last updated July 26th."
- deaddodo 3y ago
  Inversely, I hate trying to search for old articles and being unable to find them because something about the websites metadata says a blog from 2004 is from 2018. It makes Google's time window search (and general, research for contemporary views) almost impossible.

lern_too_spel 3y ago

Not the same thing. Attestation doesn't mean you can't run software you want on your own phone, which Android allows despite having build attestation APIs.

simbolit 3y ago
Not the same thing. Still close enough to trigger irony detectors.
userbinator 3y ago
It means you can, but may then be ostracised from services for having an "unsupported" environment, which is in many ways even worse because it's leveraging peer pressure.
tehbeard 3y ago
> Attestation doesn't mean you can't run software you want on your own phone, I couldn't run my bank's app on an up to date and security patched lineageOS ROM Thanks to safetynet, even trying the hack around approaches. They'd happily accept the out of date, CVE riddled official ROM however as it had the "popes blessing" from Google.
rcxdude 3y ago
It means there's enough software I can't run that its a problem for me. Banking apps, for example.
thefurdrake 3y ago
It is my understanding that attestation could be used to control which software is running on the client's computer prior to granting access to a web service, yes? Otherwise, what would the point be of using to, say, protect DRM content on a webpage if I can just attach a debugger to the process in question? Is this not how WEI works?