skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
As far as I can tell Apple has never complied with a request for what the FBI is asking for here. It has complied in cases where the phone was not encrypted, or where a backup in iCloud could be made available to law enforcement, but Apple has never actually produced, signed and installed a custom "this phone only, and only so law enforcement can brute-force it" version of iOS.

And given that we're talking about a federal government that was perfectly happy with pictures of the TSA's master luggage key being published in newspapers, I don't fault Apple one bit for being scared of handing over what are basically the keys to the kingdom.
The Master Algorithm – Pedro Domingos [video]
In a certain way, isn't that like saying BestBuy spend $X billion on storefront real-estate and made $0 in people paying in "walk-out-the-storefront-with-your-item" charges?

Shipping revenues will never cover shipping costs as long as they provide even one free shipment a year (and don't overcharge people paying for shipping). Shipping is one of those costs that you have to pay like having storefronts. The goods have to actually be purchasable by customers somehow. Retail shops sink costs in their stores. It's made up for by the margins on the items they sell.

I'm not saying that Amazon shouldn't try to minimize their losses on shipping just as stores should figure out whether having one retail presence in a city is more cost effective than having two. But I think a more interesting piece for me would be a comparison of Amazon's shipping costs to other retailers' storefront costs. If the $5B in shipping subsidies is way lower than what Walmart or BestBuy are paying in "storefront subsidies", it isn't necessarily something so outrageous. It's a cost of doing business.

$5B sounds like a lot of money (and indeed it is), but what is it compared to the storefront costs of competitors? How much does Amazon save by having highly-productive warehouse workers as opposed to lower-productive retail employees?* Maybe $5B is huge compared to what Walmart spends on its retail presence. Maybe Amazon warehouses aren't much more efficient than BestBuy stores. Or Maybe this is simply a move that Amazon is making because it thinks it has gained enough market power (and enough buy-in to Prime) to start making anti-consumer moves rather than a cost that's unsustainable compared to the costs of retail.

Walmart's revenue was $485.7 billion in 2015. Amazon's revenue was $107B last year. Spending less than 5% of revenue on getting the products to the customers doesn't sound outrageous. Does it seem likely that Walmart spends $24B on store-front costs that Amazon doesn't have to get their revenue?

You're not wrong that companies will try to cut costs. I guess my question is simply: is this really an onerous cost compared to revenue (as judged by what competing retail firms pay)? If it's par for the course (or less), it feels like Amazon flexing its market power against consumers. If it is an onerous cost compared to what Walmart or BestBuy have to spend, then life has crappy trade-offs that need to be made to make things reasonable.

*This isn't a dig at retail employees. It's just pointing out that when customer traffic is low at a retail venue, they're around with less to do. By contrast, warehouse workers can be utilized more efficiently.
What makes you think the US Gov't can't break in and take this, once Apple has built it? They'll have to QA it, it'll be on at least a handful of machines---and the order requires it be network connected.

At that point we should expect more world governments to get the key. Where does that end? Maybe with more companies having to demonstrate that they defend against their own subversion.
Even if it was open source, they couldn't install it on any iOS device without a signature from Apple, tailored specifically to the device being updated and the software version being signed.

You can't even downgrade to an old iOS version, because Apple won't sign them anymore.
compete at www.kaggle.com
defeat is the best teacher.
There is an excellent book, written at the height of the Cold War and now sadly out of print (http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-After-World-War/dp/0670258806), that goes into great detail about lots of these types of questions.

On the specific question of how to keep policymakers aware of the gravity of the nuclear decisions they could make, it notes there was a proposal floated at one point (half-jokingly, but only half) that the launch codes for American nuclear missiles, instead of being carried around in a briefcase, should instead be surgically implanted under the skin of one of the President's aides. That aide would then be responsible for carrying a butcher knife on their person at all times.

Why? That way, for the President to be able to launch the missiles and kill millions of people, he'd have to be willing to kill one person with his own hands first.
> compsci n. (pl. compscises) a small compartment in a ship’s compass.
I don't consider using Prime to be abuse...but I also place a preference on buying locally when I can.
I thought it was going to be a music player with a backdrop of Google Street View that is specific to the music. You go to a street corner in NY and listen to Jazz, another is with R&B, etc.
If by 'high density', do you mean a town of about 12,000? Because there are Argos shops here in Ireland in towns with populations like that out in the west coast where the population density is relatively low.
Encryption could also help obstruct justice and let criminals get away with things. Most people won't understand till it impacts them personally but imagine if you are robbed of all your money and the answer of who did it lies in a computer you are able to get your hand on. Wouldn't you love it if the police had a backdoor now.

You are wrong in framing the debate as security vs security. Its like everything else when it comes to liberty and protection. The question is how much liberty are we willing to give up for protection. We can't let a corporation or the government anchor our opinions on the left or right.
Not the same as Prime Now (which offers one or two-hour delivery). Prime Same Day is an in-by-noon, arrives by 9pm service; if you order later than noon, you get next-day service. It covers a larger selection of items than Prime Now, and seems to be delivered by traditional courier services rather than Amazon Flex contractors. Apparently only available in 16 metro areas[1].

[1] http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8729023011
Exactly. From the public and its representatives' view, the matter is settled. But the FBI keeps saying "we need more debates on this" because it didn't go the way it wanted it to go.
dude, you're an amazing person for saying this. Thank you.
Clang also has them: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/LanguageExtensions.html#builtin-f..., under the heading "Checked Arithmetic Builtins".
It can't be installed on any iOS device without Apple signing it at the time of installation. The software is useless without Apple's signing keys.

Apple could sign it offline when installing to the device.

The signature is customised to each device it's installed on, and has a nonce so it can't be saved.
> I just read their summary of TE Lawrance's article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_and_tactics_of_guerri.... . Shame the original is paywalled

Wow, I'm amazed to see it cited. I assumed it was a long-forgotten treasure (and it is a treasure; it revolutionized my understanding of irregular and asymmetric warfare, plus he writes exceptionally well).

To be clear, I don't know that the original is available anywhere online, paywalled or not. I think britannica.com (which has enough free articles that I rarely worry about the paywall) only has current articles, but I could be wrong.

EDIT: It is online, apparently:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11147725
I don't have Prime, none of my immediate family members do, and most friends don't.

I'd say a fair amount still don't use it.
How to Overcome Barriers of Communication
Cook responded before there was much public discussion on the issue, and may have framed it in these terms thinking they would garner support (I never agree with those decisions, but it seems likely). He may also be under obligations to refrain from discussing certain aspects of the FBI's work or may for legal purposes not have been willing to make accusations (they only want this for precedent) that aren't possible to back up. He may even have his own motivations that diverge from those of the public (gasp). Regardless, we as tech-literate folk can understand that this isn't a master key but would be unprecedented (and therefore create new legal precedent).
That's extremely disingenuous.

Yes, the particular OS image they produce would only work on that phone. But all of the work they did to enable the hack would work on every iPhone in the world, and the work necessary to take this OS image and use it on another device is effectively zero. As such, you can be absolutely certain that the FBI would start demanding Apple do this for other phones. And it's not just the FBI, every repressive regime in the world would start demanding this same capability. And Apple would have no grounds to deny it at that point.
The criticism makes no sense...just because one isn't "forced" to work doesn't mean protections from employer abuse or misconduct suddenly don't matter if someone decides to take the work.
I think that was his point. If he can't pass a law through the People's representatives, then he shouldn't be using mental gymnastics with one of US's oldest laws in existence to force a company to hack its own device...

And no, "Congress gridlock" is not a good response to abusing existing laws.
Except the American People also gave him the job to following any and every possible lead.

There is a fundamental conflict with how law enforcement and intelligence does it's job and the way people communicate today. Period.

If people want more secure communications they are going to have to tell the FBI in no uncertain terms "we are ok with you dropping leads."

Apparently in this specific case that has happened as a mother of the slain said:

“This is what separates us from communism, isn’t it? The fact we have the right to privacy,” Adams said to the Post. “This is what makes America great to begin with, that we abide by a constitution that gives us the right of privacy, the right to bear arms, and the right to vote.”

Now, is it up to this mother to make that case? Yea, if the director is to be listened to. After all that is who he invokes when appealing his reasoning. So based on this statement it seems like they should back off, say shit happens, lets mourn our dead and move on.

We need more of the victims to speak out and tell investigations their true thoughts.

[1]http://fortune.com/2016/02/19/victim-apple-fbi/
I absolutely love not having to ever plug my phone in.

Plugging a phone in on a daily basis is a workaround for flawed phones.
What are the best desktop email clients for Mac?
The problem with being the Internet Portal for Old People is that old people have a bad habit of dying. So unless you're also the Internet Portal for Middle-Aged People and the Internet Portal for Young People, when the current crop of old people bites the dust, they get replaced by a new cohort who bring along whatever habits they developed while you were ignoring them.
Relevant article expressing the same sentiment: http://blog.metaobject.com/2014/04/cc-osmartass.html
I was suggesting following the rule of law. Congress passes laws when they get around to it. I'm not in any way advancing that we should ban encryption or support backdoors (effectively banning encryption). I will not however pretend that I have exhaustively considered all legislation that would allow the FBI to open this phone without setting dangerous precedents.

I can't think of any at the moment but I don't think anyone in a position to do anything with an answer is trying. The issue is too good a political bludgeon to bother even seeking some creative solution to the problem (again, not that I am 100% sure there even is a legislative solution that wouldn't be a vastly undesirable and possibly unconstitutional blow to encryption).

It is not a good starting presumption that no reasonable answer can be reached, especially when the topic under discussion isn't a core issue like "backdoor all encryption" but rather "is it possible to pass reasonable and generally acceptable legislation such that Apple can legally be compelled to aid this decryption effort without setting a terrible precedent?" There may be no solution to that problem, which is fine, but don't suggest that I was endorsing some vaguely Orwellian shit because I don't presume as a given that our opponents on the general issue of encryption have malicious aspirations of tyranny.
Fuck da poh leece
Of course the FBI will ask again and again. And Apple could be compelled to comply each and every time.

The slippery slope argument being applied here is that FBI search warrants will now work on phones less than the iPhone 5S from now on (until Apple closes the iOS update backdoor I guess). This is far from "China will be able to mass-hack into iPhones from now on"-style comments I've seen from others.

The fact is that Apple left a backdoor in their phones and are now being told to exploit it. An argument against having the backdoor in the first place.
There's nothing to argue. Apple's key is a designed-in backdoor, and this case is about whether they can be compelled to use it.

The right thing would have been for Apple to unlock the phone in question, and issue a security advisory for the longstanding but newly-relevant vulnerability. Then, if they want their devices to be secure against USG, actually fix their security model to remove their own privilege. Instead, they walked right into the FBI's trap on a completely unsympathetic case. They're setting us up for a horrible precedent simply to continue pretending they can provide a level of security that they didn't actually build.
They've already raised the price of Prime
Advanced Airflow (Lesson 1): TriggerDagRunOperator
It's not a good excuse to abuse existing law but it seems like a likely explanation.
I played combat ... With my mother. The day we got our 2600. It was accessible, simple, and as a child, made me see my mom in a whole new light. I'm 40 now, but feel like a little boy realizing that his mom is fun whenever I see that game come up.

Thanks for the memory :)
Likely. Amazon seems to have made it clear that if you don't have Prime, they'd :RATHER: you shopped somewhere else. Arbitrary sets of items like certain Blu-ray discs or even like... razor blade replacements and diapers will randomly get set as "Prime exclusive items" for no reason with no warning.

Suddenly, buying a $10 Blu-ray requires you buy a $100 Prime subscription to go with it. And customers have found that usually, Target or Best Buy's websites offer the same products at the same price with free shipping... without Prime.

Here's a thread with 248 people complaining, and Amazon definitely not caring: http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_pg_oldest?_enco...

Amazon is very quickly turning into the online version of Costco, and I think they've decided they're okay with that.
There is a probability that it may not contain anything, but this fact doesn't disprove the notion that encryption can be used to obstruct justice in future cases.

(What the probability is though is hard for me to predict as I don't have enough information, but assuming he didn't have any slip ups on his work phone is a bad assumption. If there is a 1 percent chance that future attacks of similar scope could be prevented by knowledge gathered about this case, is it not our obligation to find out? Its a complex issue that the courts and media will play out over the next few months)
Counterpoint: Just going out on a limb here, but I'm pretty sure James Comey isn't leafing through Hacker News reading our arguments. If he'd like to have a civil discussion, I'd be more than happy to bring the civility.

Second, our system is essentially set up to make me powerless. It's actually engineered that way. I do what I can to educate people around me, but when it comes to voting or having any control over who's in office or who officiates our most important government positions, the ball's not just not in our court, it's on another planet.

Technology, as you said, will continue to get much more advanced. I reckon at some point, literally every moment of our lives will be perfectly catalogued, from birth to death. This is why what Mr. Comey wants scares me so much, because you can practically hear him salivating in that letter.

We have guarantees built into our constitutional freedoms, and one of the most important guarantees is that the government can't compel us to do things. Sure, there are laws to maintain the peace and common order, but you don't have to house or attend to military in your home, you don't have to testify against yourself, you're not compelled by police to follow their wishes until you're under arrest (which they ostensibly can't do without probable cause), and you don't have to aide in an investigation if you're not involved. These are vital because the moment we're legally compelled to aide investigators, all bets are off. We are no longer able to even protect ourselves against undue search and seizure.
Few people may _need_ for a phone to stay on while changing the battery, but is a huge plus. I spent over a year on a phone that could hot swap a battery if you do the swap smoothly, and avoiding the need for a reboot was definite pleasure.
It also locks out well-off people with credit cards - they can't possibly subscribe to everything.
The owner of the phone is San Bernadino County, which gave the FBI permission to search the phone. Pretty sure probable cause is a moot point when the owner of the phone grants you permission to search it.
No, but I'd bet they used to be able to before it turned into a nice commuter suburb for lawyers. Which was the point of the post you responded to - that this used to be possible and isn't now, and you attempted to say that something completely different was actually never possible.
Thanks, I just came up with a syntax that solved the problems I had with CSS and hired a brilliant JavaScript programmer, Maxime Euziere, to build me a plugin so I could use these features in my work :)

If this plugin can help others too, that makes it all the more worthwhile!
Yup, I also cancelled my prime subscription, for the exact same reasons as you. Their prices aren't as good as they used to be -- I shop around now.

All this stupid "add-on" shipping stuff is silly and was making my life a bigger hassle. I like Amazon because it was quick and efficient to buy, but that seemed to cause unnecessary friction.

And the real reason is that they made it very difficult to cancel Prime! 5 months into my membership, there was no way to cancel at the 1 year mark. They would only provide the option to cancel NOW, which is ridiclous. I actually had to put in a special request to customer service to do this. That was ridiculous and really changed my opinion of Amazon as a customer-focused company. It was like AOL tactics from the 90's.
New possibilities for fusion plants: cheaper sunlight generation per lumen.
A five-dimensional black hole could 'break' general relativity
To me, a lot of his support is rooted in those who are sick of career politicians. Career politicians who expect to be put on a pedestal because their party affiliation.
Except it isn't.

I could press a glass against the wall and listen to people having a private conversation. Does that make their conversation public "like shouting it across the room"? No. Of course it doesn't.

Get your analogies straight.

I could use my zoom lens to spy over your shoulder as you type your message into your super-encrypted phone. I will now publish the video on youtube, your private message now public. Serves you right for "shouting your message across the room".
Sorry, this is really emotional topic for me. Many Indians die every year from Pakistan sponsored terrorism.
The hypocrisy is only superficial. It seems at first thought that the government (being owned by the people) would be more trustworthy. But...

Based on incentives, the government is incentivized to put as many people in jail as possible. Apple is incentivized to make people's phone/laptop experience as good as possible.

Based on worst-case actions, Apple can use your data to 1) sell you more devices, 2) generally reduce your consumer purchasing power, or unlikely 3) sell/share your data and seriously compromise your privacy. The government, on the other hand, can throw you in jail, for life.

Based on history (Germany, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, ...), governments have demonstrated real threats with user data in hand that corporations have never really come close to competing with.
Samsung Galaxy S7 will be shipping with Android 6.0 and Vulkan API support. Exciting to see how Vulkan performs on mobiles.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Galaxy-S...
The example of sudo is not a good one. Sudo actually has an incredibly large feature set, most of which is related to it having fine-grained access control. Things like "sudo -e" allow a sysadmin to allow a user to only modify certain files using their editor (while the editor itself doesn't run as root so it can execute malicious code as root). Sudo is a very cool program (there's even a book on it buy the OpenBSD guy who maintains it IIRC). The point being there's a reason for the complexity, and pretending that the solution to making secure programs is to make them simple is ignoring the constraints of the real world. We need complex programs that are also secure. Yes security is hard, if it wasn't lots of people I know would be out of a job.
Wow, that's a shame. I've had quite a different experience with my devices, so much so that I went from a Nexus back to a Samsung device (note 4) for the extra perks and have been very happy with it.
Combine this with Google Shopping Express (next day on my doorstep) and you have a lot of reasons to not use Amazon anymore.

Amazon Prime is still pretty awesome but I've had 3 returns in 4 months for incorrect or broken items (on Fulfilled by Amazon), and the pricing is not competitive with local retail (which Google Shopping matches for the items it does carry).

For example, recently I tried to buy a toy etcher/engraver so I could carve initials on my kids toys. Only place I could find it was locally or through e-bay... Amazon did not have that.
This request is materially different. The actions requested in the SB case and the NY case involve engineering around the way that older devices implement the newer iOS's security (they don't have the physical secure enclave so with engineering it's possible for Apple to get through a device). In previous instances Apple was either handing over copies of data or helping the FBI use a piece of software that could read unencrypted sections of the hard drive even if the phone was still locked.

I think Apple's got a strong position that this is a stretch of the AWA.
Please, it is a free stock image.
It's a real media posturing war going on right now. I wish Apple would win the argument on merits of the argument alone, but it's obvious with this the FBI thinks it can rely on the terrorism argument alone.

Notice that Comey doesn't even bother to refute the technical and legal precedent arguments that Apple and other privacy advocates raise in the media.

Google or Facebook have to get involved and put something on their homepages; else, I think that the FBI wins this.
Is that really only a Slashdot question?
Not an IPA text version, but I've heard that this is a reasonably good attempt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHxO0UdpoxM