PayPal cut a secure email project's funds
Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Miscellaneous, Grumble
It should be no news that PayPal have made an habit of opposing to projects that fight for the respect of freedom and democracy by cutting their funds. Anyway, they have just provided us another example of such an abuse, against the ProtonMail project.
Pure Sensia digital and Internet radio receiver: good idea, bad design
Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Miscellaneous, Grumble
Thanks to a corporate reward program, I just got a Pure Sensia digital and Internet radio receiver: basically, it is a device able to play streams from FM, DAB, HTTP and USB sticks. In overall, it works fine, and it has a remote controller, so it makes a nice addition to my home equipment, but it has what I consider a major flaw, which I suspect to have been designed on purpose.
Read more Pure Sensia digital and Internet radio receiver: good idea, bad design
Google, your IPv6-related email restrictions suck
After years of waiting, Google has finally enabled IPv6 for their email service Gmail. And a few weeks ago, they updated their policy, adding one specific rule: reject email from IP addresses with no reverse name:
% nc -Cv gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com. smtp Connection to gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com. 25 port [tcp/smtp] succeeded! 220 mx.google.com ESMTP bz2si13656083wjc.108 - gsmtp HELO boo.example.com 250 mx.google.com at your service MAIL FROM: <me@example.com> 250 2.1.0 OK bz2si13656083wjc.108 - gsmtp RCPT TO: <you@gmail.com> 250 2.1.5 OK bz2si13656083wjc.108 - gsmtp DATA 354 Go ahead bz2si13656083wjc.108 - gsmtp Subject: Test From: Me <me@example.com> To: You <you@gmail.com> Test. . 550-5.7.1 [2001:db8:8e3f:43c7::12 16] Our system has detected that this 550-5.7.1 message does not meet IPv6 sending guidelines regarding PTR records 550-5.7.1 and authentication. Please review 550-5.7.1 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=ipv6_authentication_error for more 550 5.7.1 information. bz2si13656083wjc.108 - gsmtp
Encryption without a certification layer is (partly) useless
With the PRISM scandal, there has been some talk about encrypted communication systems. For instance, BitMessage is often introduced as an easy and secure message system, that would allow you to communicate with no possible eavesdropping. Apple is also making similar claims about their systems iMessage and FaceTime.
This is a good time to remind this: without direct contact or a certification layer, encryption systems are not secure! Or at least, not as secure as you would expect, as they do allow some kind of eavesdropping.
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Do not reCAPTCHA!
Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Miscellaneous, Grumble
You probably know reCAPTCHA already: for the webmasters and the end user, it is an antispam system which asks you to read distorted words in order to prove that you are a human and not a spamming bot. This service has another end: instead of generating its distorted texts, it takes them from printed books to help digitalizing them.