3 ms·

It's amusing to hear of a software developer just beginning to block ssl.gstatic.com in 2025 when other folks have been denying access to ssl.gstatic.com and va

It's amusing to hear of a software developer just beginning to block ssl.gstatic.com in 2025 when other folks have been denying access to ssl.gstatic.com and various other unnecessary domains for many years, years before Little Snitch even existed. The author confesses he did not know about his web browser phoning home to ssl.gstatic.com but titles his blog post about Little Snitch with the phrase "that nobody knows about" insinuating that he now knows about something that others do not. Funny.

fragmede 2y ago
https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
lapcat 2y ago
> years before Little Snitch even existed Little Snitch was first released in 2003. Unfortunately, your comment is a stereotypical example of the worst of Hacker News, both condescending and ignorant. In any case, it's unclear exactly which version of Safari and/or macOS started the specific behavior noted in the blog post. Moreover, as the blog post also notes, it's problematic to deny ssl.gstatic.com across the board, because that causes website breakage. > The author confesses he did not know about his web browser phoning home to ssl.gstatic.com but titles his blog post about Little Snitch with the phrase "that nobody knows about" insinuating that he now knows about something that others do not. This is a gross mischaracterization of the blog post, the title of which literally starts with "Little Snitch feature". I'm certain that nobody knew about the feature (matching an associated process with "via"), because the Little Snitch developers themselves weren't aware of it until they reviewed the implementation.
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
Correction: Little Snitch was first released in 2003. The domain gstatic.com has been in use since at least 2008. It appears that Little Snitch was first mentioned on HN somewhere around 2013. This blog appeared somewhere around 2007 the same year than HN launched. To be sure, no one was blocking ssl.gstatic.com before Little Snitch existed, i.e., pre-2003, because the use of the subdomain began about 5 years after the software was released. Apologies for the error and thank you for the correction. Little Snitch has remained closed source for over 23 years. As such, there will always be things about it that its authors know that "no one else knows", unless they choose to share. Why this non-transparency might matter to some computer users is a question left for the reader.

fragmede 2y ago

https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/

lapcat 2y ago

> years before Little Snitch even existed Little Snitch was first released in 2003. Unfortunately, your comment is a stereotypical example of the worst of Hacker News, both condescending and ignorant. In any case, it's unclear exactly which version of Safari and/or macOS started the specific behavior noted in the blog post. Moreover, as the blog post also notes, it's problematic to deny ssl.gstatic.com across the board, because that causes website breakage. > The author confesses he did not know about his web browser phoning home to ssl.gstatic.com but titles his blog post about Little Snitch with the phrase "that nobody knows about" insinuating that he now knows about something that others do not. This is a gross mischaracterization of the blog post, the title of which literally starts with "Little Snitch feature". I'm certain that nobody knew about the feature (matching an associated process with "via"), because the Little Snitch developers themselves weren't aware of it until they reviewed the implementation.

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

Correction: Little Snitch was first released in 2003. The domain gstatic.com has been in use since at least 2008. It appears that Little Snitch was first mentioned on HN somewhere around 2013. This blog appeared somewhere around 2007 the same year than HN launched. To be sure, no one was blocking ssl.gstatic.com before Little Snitch existed, i.e., pre-2003, because the use of the subdomain began about 5 years after the software was released. Apologies for the error and thank you for the correction. Little Snitch has remained closed source for over 23 years. As such, there will always be things about it that its authors know that "no one else knows", unless they choose to share. Why this non-transparency might matter to some computer users is a question left for the reader.