Monthly update #0276 • April 2013
Monthly update 276 • April 2013 • 2013-04-01 - 2013-04-30
Monthly Updates
2013
109 posts
Privacy Roundup #0081 • April 2013
April 2013 was dominated by the fight over CISPA, a run of retail and social breaches, and fresh signs that encryption and surveillance were on a collision course.
Privacy
MKLocalSearch
MKLocalSearch lets your app search for places (restaurants, shops, etc.) using normal language, all powered by Apple’s own data.
Development
What is secd?
If you see secd in Activity Monitor, here is what this macOS process does and why it is running.
Mac
Eurobloat #0035 • March 2013
The month Brussels reached into ordinary savers' bank accounts in Cyprus, told eurozone capitals to hand over their budgets for marking, and fined Microsoft half a billion euros over a missing menu.
Eurobloat
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 (2013), directed by Shane Black, follows Tony Stark after the events that nearly broke him. Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony, who suffers from panic attacks and buries himself in building suits he cannot stop making.
Movies
Useful macOS defaults: Disk Utility
Handy defaults write commands for com.apple.DiskUtility, controlling what Disk Utility shows.
Mac
What is findmymacmessenger?
If you see findmymacmessenger running on your Mac, here is what this Find My messaging process does.
Mac
NSSecureCoding
NSSecureCoding is a protocol from iOS 6 / OS X Mountain Lion. It adds the class method supportsSecureCoding.
Development
Monthly update #0275 • March 2013
Monthly update 275 • March 2013 • 2013-03-01 - 2013-03-31
Monthly Updates
De Cock en kogels voor een bruid by A.C. Baantjer
De Cock suspects a link between the murder of a young woman and the disappearance of a former colleague who had been threatened.
Books
Privacy Roundup #0080 • March 2013
March 2013 mixed fresh breaches and denial of service floods with a wave of corporate transparency, as regulators, courts and campaigners pushed back against everyday surveillance.
Privacy
Happy Easter
Easter continues to shape my adult life. The events of that first Easter weekend bring lasting peace.
Christianity
Good Friday
Good Friday continues to shape my adult life. The events of that first Good Friday bring lasting peace.
Christianity
Eurobloat #0034 • February 2013
The month Brussels invented a brand new EU-level tax, dreamed up a fingerprint database for every visitor, and discovered there was horse in the lasagne it had spent decades regulating.
Eurobloat
Borgen
Borgen is a Danish political drama series. It aired on DR1 with three seasons from 26 September 2010 to 10 March 2013. Adam Price created it. Sidse Babett Knudsen plays Birgitte Nyborg, a politician who becomes Denmark's first female Prime Minister by chance.
TV Series
What are the xpc system daemons?
If you see xpc.roleaccountd, xpc.smd, or xpc.uscwoap running on your Mac, here is what these XPC processes do.
Mac
Privacy Roundup #0079 • February 2013
February 2013 brought a wave of state-linked intrusions, fresh regulatory pressure on mobile apps, and hacktivists exposing corporate and government surveillance.
Privacy
De Cock en de dood van een profeet by A.C. Baantjer
De Cock looks into the murder of a failed theology student who had taken up the cause of young people with few chances.
Books
Monthly update #0274 • February 2013
Monthly update 274 • February 2013 • 2013-02-01 - 2013-02-28
Monthly Updates
NSAssertionHandler
In Objective-C, Foundation has macros like NSAssert for methods and NSCAssert for functions. They also have versions for parameters: NSParameterAssert and NSCParameterAssert.
Development
Eurobloat #0033 • January 2013
The month Brussels invented an eleven-country tax, a German Green tried to rewrite the internet, and frozen lasagne quietly turned into a horse.
Eurobloat
The Janus Reprisal by Robert Ludlum
In Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal, co-authored with Jamie Freveletti, Covert-One's Jon Smith survives a terrorist attack in The Hague and chases a Pakistani warlord across Europe.
Books
NSURLCache
NSURLCache is the built-in, automatic HTTP(S) cache used by NSURLConnection, NSURLSession (default/ephemeral configs), and WKWebView.
Development
Privacy Roundup #0078 • January 2013
January 2013 paired sweeping cyber espionage and breach disclosures with a wave of enforcement, transparency reports and the death of Aaron Swartz, which turned computer crime law into a privacy fault line.
Privacy