Zak

9 ms·

151.
by Zak 6mo ago
The OS ought to let you deny internet access to an app entirely, but DNS-based adblocking might solve your problem: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
152.
by Zak 6mo ago
Photoshop does that voluntarily; it's not required to by law. GIMP doesn't do it. This is akin to trying to require all image editors to detect currency and refuse to process images of it. Making open source image processing softw
153.
by Zak 6mo ago
I don't like this. The Right Thing is for camera apps to not add location metadata by default. If you go in and turn location on (which should have a warning on it), then you're the sort of person who changes defaults, a more soph
154.
by Zak 6mo ago
It looks like you can't revoke the internet permission, but you can use the firewall via ADB. Settings are lost on reboot, but you can use an automation with Tasker or similar to set them on boot: https://www.reddit.com&#x2F
155.
by Zak 6mo ago
It's theoretically possible to just keep an app running in the background all the time and periodically poll a server. That's unreliable though since some OEM Android builds will kill it for that even if the user disables battery
156.
by Zak 6mo ago
It doesn't. The API for displaying a notification is purely local. Receiving a ping from Firebase Cloud Messaging triggers the app to whatever it does in order to display its notification. In the case of Signal, that probably means som
157.
by Zak 6mo ago
This assumes a high level of technical skill and effort on the part of the stalkerware author, and ignores the unlocked bootloader scare screen most devices display. If someone brought me a device they suspected was compromised and it had a
158.
by Zak 6mo ago
A computer that can run arbitrary programs can necessarily run malicious ones. Useful operations are often dangerous, and a completely safe computer isn't very useful. Some sandboxing and a little friction to reduce mistakes is usually
159.
by Zak 6mo ago
Open source helps, but if you didn't build it yourself, you'll need to trust whoever did. F-Droid reproducible builds help in that you only need to trust either F-Droid or the developer, not both. The browser tends to be safer bec
160.
by Zak 6mo ago
That, but with a little more ceremony. It gets treated as a separate app by mobile OS app switchers and doesn't show the browser's chrome or other open tabs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app
161.
by Zak 6mo ago
I imagine usage patterns vary greatly. For me, most of the time, I have it set to only allow messages from contacts, and I usually handle those immediately.
162.
by Zak 6mo ago
Android modes provide control over notification display. Modes control which people and apps can trigger a sound/vibration, but also offer the option to hide the silenced notifications from the status bar, pull-down shade, and dots on
163.
by Zak 6mo ago
Pointers are famously difficult to learn and reason about even though the basic principles are simple. Programming in a style that requires direct manipulation of pointers when it's not actually necessary is usually regarded as unwise
164.
by Zak 6mo ago
Phones are perfectly capable of accessing websites. I think a lot of the shift here has to do with companies aggressively pushing apps because apps are more profitable, which in turn trains users to expect apps.
165.
by Zak 6mo ago
I leaned on Claude Code quite a bit resurrecting Clojure on Android[0] and got good results with it. Using the Clojure REPL MCP works especially well for about the same reasons I find developing with a REPL myself important: it can query th
166.
by Zak 6mo ago
This comment assumes both that Reddit is harmful and the outcomes were predictable. The former is debatable, but I am sure the latter is not true; the founders of Reddit didn't know what they were building. They thought it was a social
167.
by Zak 6mo ago
Early Reddit had a recommended tab, but that didn't last long. The current recommendation features are relatively recent - this decade at least. It would surprise me if the winner in that space didn't have a public voting mechanis
168.
by Zak 6mo ago
What traits specific to Reddit as opposed to a hypothetical generic alternative forum platform do you think are major contributors to those social trends?
169.
by Zak 6mo ago
I think when making the claim a company is a net negative, it's necessary to explore what would have happened if the company hadn't been founded. I find it unlikely, for example that there would not be a dominant centralized forum
170.
by Zak 6mo ago
I think we're on the same side in principle. The ability for people to interact with the wider world using general purpose computers that they fully control should be sacrosanct, and attempts to interfere with that such as remote attes
171.
by Zak 6mo ago
Saying that computer/OS manufacturers should prevent malware is effectively equivalent to saying that they should not sell general purpose computers to the public. A general purpose computer is one that can run any program the users te
172.
by Zak 6mo ago
It's pretending to address a serious issue while giving Google significant power to limit distribution of apps Google doesn't like, which could sometimes include legal apps that certain governments don't like such as the rece
173.
by Zak 6mo ago
Singapore is not big enough to dictate terms to Google. If Singapore wanted this change and Google didn't, Singapore's most extreme option would be to ban the import of standard Android phones to a market of a few million people.
174.
by Zak 7mo ago
It's a very small concession. The high initial friction still means when someone comes to me with a problem and I tell them the solution is in F-Droid, they have to wait a day. Most give up and pick a different, less trustworthy soluti
175.
by Zak 7mo ago
It seems to me that "no and don't ask again" should be a possible outcome of a vote on proposed legislation. Without going into full detail on the procedure I'm imagining, such an outcome would bar consideration of equiv
176.
Show HN: I resurrected Clojure-Android – native Clojure on your phone over nREPL(github.com)
18 points by Zak 7mo ago|0 comments
177.
by Zak 7mo ago
The victim also can't be on the phone with the scammer using that device during the setup process. We're talking about a very high-friction scenario.
178.
by Zak 7mo ago
> I don’t know where this fascination with getting everyone to download your app comes from. I do. I once read that app users are seven times more profitable than web users on average. That number isn't current, and I don't k
179.
by Zak 7mo ago
Some is, some is optional, some isn't. I'm sure there's a hypothetical scenario where someone successfully runs a scam that way, but there's also a hypothetical scenario where a 24 hour wait doesn't succeed at inter
180.
by Zak 7mo ago
That wipes all the data on the device and requires logging back in to accounts. It seems to me that's high enough friction to resist most coercion.

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