Tag Archives: Security

Gruber On Apple Advertising

Posted on 2026-07-13 by jcs

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has an excellent article about the slippery slope Apple is on with their embracing of advertising. I’ve written about this before. For a company like Apple, advertising is deeply corrupting and inevitably ends with … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Linux Removes Strncpy

Posted on 2026-07-06 by jcs

Back when I learned C, people were still using strcpy and even gets. After a while, people started saying that strcpy wasn’t safe and that you should use strncpy instead to avoid buffer overruns, either accidental or deliberate. Those days … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Thompson’s Reflections on Trusting Trust revisited

Posted on 2025-10-27 by jcs

As Irreal oldtimers know, My absolute favorite Computer Science paper is Ken Thompson’s Reflections on Trusting Trust. It is truly a thing of beauty. This is a beauty that should be appreciated in stages. In the first stage, we’re introduced … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Vacuum From Hell

Posted on 2025-10-15 by jcs

I really like the idea of a smart home. The Irreal bunker hasn’t gone crazy but we do have our TV, many of our lights, our security camera, and our front door locks integrated into the Apple Smart Home environment. … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Wages Of Complacency

Posted on 2025-08-04 by jcs

I tell you and tell you and tell you but you don’t listen. “Don’t entrust the only copy of your data to a third party”, I say. “But I’m a good guy and I’m not doing anything controversial. Besides, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

The UK Is Seeking A Way To Back Down On Encryption

Posted on 2025-07-23 by jcs

As I reported 5 or 6 months ago, the UK decided to issue an order to Apple mandating a backdoor to all their users’ data. Apple responded by simply withdrawing their encryption services from the UK. At the time I … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Posted on 2025-07-15 by jcs

Every year or so, Irreal publishes a list of the most popular passwords as determined by those found by exploits. It’s always exciting to see if the perennial favorite password or the hometown favorite (and frequent winner) 123456 will win … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

France Makes The Right Choice

Posted on 2025-03-31 by jcs

Some Americans like to make fun of the French but they’ve recently shown that they’ve got it together a lot more than many governments. The EFF is reporting that France recently rejected a backdoor mandate greatly desired by the Interior … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | Leave a comment

Age Verification

Posted on 2025-03-09 by jcs

I often say on Irreal that any time you hear the phrase “think of the children” you should check to make sure you still have your wallet. It’s a favorite locution of scoundrels who want to steal not your wallet … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Is Emacs Privacy Friendly?

Posted on 2025-03-03 by jcs

Over at the Emacs subreddit, Tb12s46 asks if Emacs is privacy friendly. By that he means does Emacs collect telemetry or otherwise spy on its users. On its face, the question has an easy answer. Of course Emacs doesn’t do … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment