Linked List: January 4, 2018

Thursday, 4 January 2018

Apple: ‘About Speculative Execution Vulnerabilities in ARM-Based and Intel CPUs’ 

Apple:

Update: Apple Watch is unaffected by both Meltdown and Spectre.

Security researchers have recently uncovered security issues known by two names, Meltdown and Spectre. These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all computing devices and operating systems. All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time. Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store. Apple has already released mitigations in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against Meltdown. Apple Watch is not affected by either Meltdown or Spectre. In the coming days we plan to release mitigations in Safari to help defend against Spectre. We continue to develop and test further mitigations for these issues and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, and tvOS.

Correction of the Year 

From a Politico report by Eliana Johnson on the rupture of Donald Trump’s relationship with his former campaign chairman and his preferred pick for original chief of staff, Steve Bannon:

Since then, however, most of the fights that Bannon has engaged in have pitted him against the Trump White House. Though he has cast himself as the ultimate loyalist — an indispensable translator of the political sentiments of the Trump base — it became increasingly clear, in recent months, that he and the president had different interests and that Bannon would, when necessary, work to thwart the president, and vice versa.

Back at the helm of Breitbart News, for example, he endorsed Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate primary while the president backed appointed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange. He blamed the president’s decision on lobbying efforts by Kushner, whom he privately referred to as “Fredo,” the traitorous brother of The Godfather.

Josh Rogin:

FUNNY CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story misidentified the fictional character name Bannon uses to refer to Jared Kushner as Frodo, a “Lord of the Rings” reference, rather than Fredo, a reference to “The Godfather.”

It’s hard to overstate the gaping chasm between Frodo — a noble, heroic figure — and Fredo Corleone. Describing Fredo merely as “traitorous” is euphemistic — Fredo was weak, ineffective, oblivious, and stupid, too.

Fans of the Fat Nano Unite 

On Tuesday, in an aside regarding Rick Tetzeli’s description of the original iPod click wheel as “clunky”, I wrote:

Also, a personal niggle: I don’t think there was anything “clunky” about the original iPod scroll wheel. In fact, I liked the original iPod’s mechanical scroll wheel, which physically spun, better than the capacitive touch scroll wheel that replaced it. From a Mac user’s perspective, the original iPod was an amazing device. If you want something from iPod history to cite as an example of questionable Apple design, I suggest either the 2007 “Fat” Nano or the 2009 iPod Shuffle that literally had no playback buttons at all.

I heard from a bunch of readers — including good friends — who objected to my disparagement of the Fat Nano. I didn’t mean to imply no one loved it, though. Only that it was widely criticized on aesthetic grounds, and wound up lasting for just one year. Someone must have liked it at Apple too, otherwise it wouldn’t have shipped. I even heard from at least one reader who liked the no-button Shuffle. The iPod line was so good, and so well-designed, that it’s hard to say any of them exhibited “bad design”.

Even the much-derided 1998 hockey puck mouse that debuted with the original iMac has fans (including my wife).

The Verge: ‘Chrome Is Turning Into the New Internet Explorer 6’ 

Tom Warren, writing for The Verge:

Whether you blame Google or the often slow moving World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the results have been particularly evident throughout 2017. Google has been at the center of a lot of “works best with Chrome” messages we’re starting to see appear on the web. Google Meet, Allo, YouTube TV, Google Earth, and YouTube Studio Beta all block Windows 10’s default browser, Microsoft Edge, from accessing them and they all point users to download Chrome instead. Some also block Firefox with messages to download Chrome.

Good story, but I think it’s a little weird to tell the history of Chrome without mentioning WebKit until late in the story.

Excerpts From Michael Wolff’s ‘Fire and Fury’: Inside Trump’s White House 

Michael Wolff, in an excerpt from his upcoming new book Fire and Fury, published by New York Magazine:

On the Saturday after the election, Trump received a small group of well-wishers in his triplex apartment in Trump Tower. Even his close friends were still shocked and bewildered, and there was a dazed quality to the gathering. But Trump himself was mostly looking at the clock. Rupert Murdoch, who had promised to pay a call on the president-elect, was running late. When some of the guests made a move to leave, an increasingly agitated Trump assured them that Rupert was on his way. “He’s one of the greats, the last of the greats,” Trump said. “You have to stay to see him.” Not grasping that he was now the most powerful man in the world, Trump was still trying mightily to curry favor with a media mogul who had long disdained him as a charlatan and fool.

From the same excerpt, what Murdoch thinks of Trump:

On December 14, a high-level delegation from Silicon Valley came to Trump Tower to meet him. Later that afternoon, according to a source privy to details of the conversation, Trump called Rupert Murdoch, who asked him how the meeting had gone.

“Oh, great, just great,” said Trump. “These guys really need my help. Obama was not very favorable to them, too much regulation. This is really an opportunity for me to help them.”

“Donald,” said Murdoch, “for eight years these guys had Obama in their pocket. They practically ran the administration. They don’t need your help.”

“Take this H-1B visa issue. They really need these H-1B visas.”

Murdoch suggested that taking a liberal approach to H-1B visas, which open America’s doors to select immigrants, might be hard to square with his promises to build a wall and close the borders. But Trump seemed unconcerned, assuring Murdoch, “We’ll figure it out.”

“What a fucking idiot,” said Murdoch, shrugging, as he got off the phone.

Regarding Trump’s mental health:

Jim Baker, chief of staff for both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and almost everybody’s model for managing the West Wing, advised Priebus not to take the job. Priebus had his own reservations: He had come out of his first long meeting with Trump thinking it had been a disconcertingly weird experience. Trump talked nonstop and constantly repeated himself.

“Here’s the deal,” a close Trump associate told Priebus. “In an hour meeting with him, you’re going to hear 54 minutes of stories, and they’re going to be the same stories over and over again. So you have to have one point to make, and you pepper it in whenever you can.”

A 71-year-old man who tells the same stories over and over: a narcissist in the early stages of dementia.