Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | f-serif's commentslogin

PIN to wipe seems suspicious. How about a PIN where it login to a patriotic profile and phone looks like normal android.


This is exactly my setup with GrapheneOS. The default / main profile is patriotic, with a sterilized Telegram account, state-adjacent banks and apps, etc. The second profile (that uses a separate PIN) is not so patriotic: it has foreign bank apps, crypto apps, password manager, 2FA app, personal records, and an alternate Telegram account that I use to discuss any potentially unpatriotic topics with potentially unpatriotic people.


It would be cool if there's a third PIN that can wipe the unpatriotic profile whilst showing the patriotic one.

So you use 1st pin for normal use, 2nd for downloading your flight details on patriot mode, and 3rd for unlocking to patriot mode whilst silently nuking unpatriotic data.

Or a PIN that just nukes the data for certain apps (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, E-mail) etc. Feds can read my Slack messages all day.


Regarding Signal, Telegram, and WhatApp:

1. Never ever have Signal installed on the phone during border crossing. The presence of the app itself may trigger them (speaking from first-hand experience).

2. Having an empty Telegram account may look suspicious. My recommendation is to have two separate Telegram accounts, with the "unpatriotic" one in the separate profile only.

3. Never ever use WhatsApp for anything "unpatriotic". It's way of deleting messages leaves traces ("This message has been deleted") which may rise suspicions.

As for email, I just don't have any email clients installed on my "patriotic" profile. They all go to the "unpatriotic" one.


On Whatsapp, you can "Delete this message for everyone", then "Delete this message for me" and it removes the "This message has been deleted" remnant.


There's no PIN for deleting a particular profile, but you can quickly delete it manually, assuming that you have some private time available – for example, when you are stopped at passport control and told to wait in the waiting area.


They would like to but it's not possible to make a robust feature like that because of low-level architecture of SSDs. Implementing a detectable solution would give people a false sense of security.

Also they can plant evidence if you unlock the phone.

https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/2081471477174456340#m


It would be cool if there's a third PIN that can wipe the unpatriotic profile whilst showing the patriotic one.

So you use 1st pin for normal use, 2nd for downloading your flight details on patriot mode, and 3rd for unlocking to patriot mode whilst silently nuking unpatriotic data in case of seizure.


It's absurd that you have to do this and/or be so careful. But if you live in Russia, China, or another dictatorship, then I understand.


Yep, full agreement here. The amount of hoop-jumping is ridiculous. However, I live in Russia so I have to do all that, plus some more (e.g. the work to protect my own self-hosted VPN after Roskomnadzor issued the recommendation for big Russian online services to sniff out and report user's VPN settings).

I spent two weeks thinking about my new setup on Graphene OS and Windows, but it was time well spent. Before that, my checklist for pre-border-crossing cleanup required about 8 hours of work. With the new setup, I can complete the cleanup in about an hour, and restoring takes even less.


This is extremely hard to implement in a non-superficial way that would be hard to detect.

Android switched from block device encryption to filesystem-based encryption (with encryption data and metadata). This provides many security improvements, such as per-file encryption keys and per-profile keys.

However, this also means that the main file system is readable and you could enumerate the available users. If you would encrypt/obscure that information, you could still infer the presence of other profiles from file system block allocations.

(Disclaimer: not an expert, but I read the relevant Android docs at some point.)


I had this on a Xiaomi, maybe 10 years ago? Very cool feature! I hope they still do it. I think the wipe feature is also very cool, but not used in this way.


They would like to but it's not possible to make a robust feature like that because of low-level architecture of SSDs. Implementing a detectable solution would give people a false sense of security.

Also they can plant evidence if you unlock the phone.

https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/2081471477174456340#m


Fascinating. It seems the feature is called "Second Space"

https://www.mi.com/global/support/faq/details/KA-492586/


Profiles are a standard Android feature, nothing special to Xiaomi. GrapheneOS even extends and improves them in a lot of ways.

It's just not possible to hide them in a good way that would faze knowledgeable people or software.


Ok so what you're saying is Android doesn't have this feature. Xioami does. Type in a different pin and access a second space. Not the same as profiles, obviously


not accessible just by typing another pin on stock Android though.


They would like to have something like that but it's not possible to make a robust feature like that because of low-level architecture of SSDs. Implementing a detectable solution would give people a false sense of security.

Also they can plant evidence if you unlock the phone.

https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/2081471477174456340#m


Impossible to implement securely, so they chose not to


And wipes the main partition in the background at the same time

Also too patriotic is sus. Better to keep some minor offenses (that give you a fine or a week of jail at most) on that partition so they will think that this is the thing that made you so nervous during the search


It is in there nature. They (specially zig creator) were so jealous about about vlang getting traction and getting $800/month donations, they made it their core mission to attack vlang and spread hate.


Vlang is a ridiculous project that was entirely driven by hype that should have been easy for all to see straight through. It is ridiculous that it got $800/month with nothing to show for it. I haven't seen any hate spread for it by Zig.


> Vlang is a ridiculous project

With over 37,500 stars, over 2,300 forks, 826 contributors, books written on it (in Japanese and Portuguese, besides English), and a Wikipedia page; vlang is clearly a significant and successful open-source project.

> entirely driven by hype

People can plainly see Zig (and other HN pushed languages) directly engaging in marketing propaganda and hype (with HN accounts clearly stating they are from those projects) using social media (including HN) at levels way beyond anything anyone could accuse the V project of doing. The creator of vlang is also not a native English speaker, where the creator of Zig (and other competitors) have no such excuse. They know exactly what they are saying, the connotations of it, the cultural nuance surrounding it, and what it means in English.

> ridiculous that it got $800/month with nothing to show for it

Jealousy over vlang getting as much (or more) donation money (in 2019) from its supporters was a central theme in numerous social media and website posts made directly by Andrew Kelley[1]. Even to the extent he and the Odin creator[2] were asking people to give them money, instead of to the V project. Many would consider such behavior as extremely bad and unprofessional. Also note, there is no reverse of such behavior to be seen by the V community at them, instead we see uncalled for conduct and statements being directed by them towards the V project.

Donations that vlang had received and continue to receive, is from their supporters. Some of these paying supporters have even come to HN, to publicly express their support[3][4][5] against competitor false accusations and disinformation. Competitors should have nothing to do with someone else's supporters giving donations, in the same way that vlang's creator does not speak on who donates or supports their projects.

> I haven't seen any hate spread for it by Zig.

It is documented, on HN no less (and elsewhere), where people can see Zig's creator directly slandering vlang's creator[6] and this kind of unprofessional behavior encouraged followers to do similar.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39495369

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20231704

[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31801287

[4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31801262

[5]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31812189

[6]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20230351


I don't see any hate in these references. Perhaps just truths you don't want to hear. I've seen your name pop up multiple times in past conversations about V in response to anything less than positive. What's your involvement with the language to watch its discussions so ardently?


Yeah this is why Vlang is banned from discussion on HN; any time it comes up people have a critical thing to say about Vlang, these guys descend with paragraphs, links, and a list of grievances about how their language is slandered and hated by people fueled with envy. Doesn’t matter if it’s buried in a thread in a comment section in an unrelated story, these guys rush in to defend the honor of Vlang.

Meanwhile, years later Vlang still have not delivered on the initial claims that made the language even remotely interesting.


> I don't see any hate

People know what jealousy, slander, and unprofessional behavior are. Including how the V project is treated, regardless if certain others pretend not to or try to blank out others for noticing.

> What's your involvement with the language

Just responding to the comments of others, like the truthful one made by f-serif.

Not part of any V organization, just use the language (and some others). Which is more than I can say for a number of accounts where their profiles clearly say they are directly part of or work for the Zig organization.


I tried to use baseUI and gave up. Forms are a bit different and I can't no longer copy/paste similar form code between projects (unless I migrate everything to baseUI).


Bangladesh is one of the best example of it.

People usually don't want to follow traffic laws on road. Now that we have AI camera recording and AI fine system, people try their best to follow traffic laws. We are becoming Japan following traffic laws in certain areas.

Police usually were scared to fine million dollars cars (because the car owner might be part of something higher power and they could lose their job). Now they gossip on roadside and let AI do it's job.

To HN people surveillance is scarry. But to us, surveillance is blessings.


Oh wow I went and looked that up after reading your comment. Launched less than a month ago! Incredible that you're seeing such impact already


Yay lazy cops who never did their jobs anyway??


Where does it end? What if it hallucinates you robbing an old lady but you just walked past her? Have fun getting swarmed and dragged away. Etc. when will it be used to frame political dissidents?


Bangladesh is interesting because of serious support for automated anti-blasphemy.


Yet it is inevitable that people that are "part of something higher power" will abuse this system for various reasons that have nothing to do with traffic. No thanks. Slippery slopes abound.


Maybe, maybe not. South Asia has a history of very weak government and I'm not sure it will ever, culturally, be able to stomach something stronger. From a Western perspective having experienced authoritarian states, it's understandable to be more hesitant but South Asia has just historically had very few rulers that rule through heavy-handed edict.


The subtlety I rarely see discussed is that:

- privacy is fantastic in a society full of good people

- surveillance is the best defence against shit people


The problem is conditions are the main reason for shit people. so its kind of a chicken and the egg problem. Its a both and problem.


Arguably, the shittest people are the ones pushing the surveillance, whilst making a big deal about how minor crimes are destroying us, rather than the billionaires destroying democracy.


Unfortunately, this is the truth.

I want surveillance cameras everywhere except my home (We have American surveillance at home :D ).

I don't mind surveillance + Dystopian Sci-fi movie like automatic action.

6000 childrens were raped in just first 3 months of 2026 in Bangladesh. This is just one example how bad the situation is.

AI traffic cameras proved, how civilized we can be, with proper treatment.


What AI have to do with this? Traffic cameras have been arround since 1834


> since 1834

That sounds correct :thumbsup:


I wish there were CLI preview command when making changes in Cloudflare.

I have few domains on Cloudflare and when making some changes, I wish there were a way to apply the same changes to multiple domains for consistency.

CLI preview for UI action will make it possible.


Not AI but perfect example is Cloudflare. They have implemented public suffix list (to check if a domain is valid) 10 different times in 10 different ways. In one place, they have even embedded the list in frontend (pages custom domain). You report issues, they fix that one service, their own stuff isn't even aware that it exists in other places.


Meta has four different implementations of the same page to create a “page” for your business… which is required to be able to advertise on any of their services.

Each one is broken, doesn’t have working error handling, and prevents you from giving them money. They all exist to insert the same record somewhere. Lost revenue, and they seem to have no idea.

Amazons flagship ios app has had at least three highly visible bugs, for years. They’re like thorns in my eye sockets, every time I use it. They don’t care.

These companies are working with BILLIONS of dollars in engineering resources, unlimited AI resources, and with massive revenue effects for small changes.

Sometimes the world just doesn’t make sense.


It's just lazy engineering. They get assigned a task, they must implement it or fix it to keep their job. Proper implantation takes more knowledge, more research and more brain pressure.

AI could play a big rule here. Husky (git hook) but AI. It will score lazy engineering. You lazy implement enough times, you loose your job.


I just can’t wrap my head around it.

Maybe there’s a reason Netflix makes you click on the ONE user profile on the account, repeatedly, even if it feels like sheer stupidity to their users. At least it’s not costing them revenue, directly.

Amazons ios app not properly handling state change after checkout, for years? Probably not directly costing them millions. Only second order disengagement.

But Walmart keeps pushing a thing you don’t want, because you looked at it once? Amazon solved this. It’s not a major fix, and it’s using a valuable slot that costs them money. Walmart just doesn’t fix it.

Meta refusing to take people’s advertising dollars because ALL of their page creation pages have unhandled breaking flows in them? That’s lost money for no reason at all. And you’re telling me they don’t realize how janky it is to try to maintain four implementations of that?

Apple App Store Connect and Ads platform? Don’t get me started.

Again, all with unlimited pools of the smartest people on earth, unlimited AI, and a billion people testing for them…


I mean, the core issue here is that proper engineering just isn't valued.

Social capital just isn't given out to people that fix things in a lot of these companies, but instead those who ship a 1.0a.

On the management/product side, the inevitable issues are problem for another quarter. On the engineering side, it's a problem for the poor shmucks who didn't get to jump to the next big thing.

Neither of those groups instructionally care about the mess they leave in their wake, and such guardrails they'd perceive as antithetical to releasing the next broken but new, fancy feature.


they prioritize bugs based on what impacts the largest amount ($) of customers — fixing every bug of a huge complex project rarely makes sense if the impact of the bug on revenue is tiny


Wow, this is pure gold. I skipped first time thinking it was just random page viewers from past.

This is impressive design, presentation and experience.

Thank you for the experience.


Yeah I'm really not sure why everyone is shitting on it so hard, I mean it is a cool interactive experience. I understand that present-day Opera has some serious problems, sold to a Chinese company, people feel like it's a separate thing from old Opera, that it's lost its soul, all very fair. But we should be able to evaluate this experience as a separate thing, and it's pretty slick!


A bit context if you are confused why Public DNS server blocking websites. 1.1.1.2 is Malware blocking DNS server similar to AdBlock DNS server. It is not 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

Here is the DDoS context https://gyrovague.com


And for parents: 1.1.1.3 blocks adult content :)


Yeah I only ever use 1.1.1.3. Of note is that 1.1.1.3 is like 1.1.1.2 but with know adult sites also blocked, in addition to malware.


For some reason I thought 1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1 already wouldn’t resolve archive.[today|is|ph] anyway



>10 minutes per drawing now takes 60 seconds. It can do 100 drawings in five minutes

bullshit story always leave something like this.


I also caught this but then figured 10m may not be the typical drawing time. 10m -> 1m means 10x faster. 5m = 300s alas 3s/drawing. So maybe it only tool 30s/drawing previously. (Unlikely.)

But even then, it also says 5m can save days of work. Days is minimum 2days, or 16h, or 960s. That’s not 10x faster as previously stated, but 192x faster.

So yeah, it doesn’t add up.


I don't understand why people uses such stupid font style -_-


uBlock origin has a convenient font blocker, for what is worth. Saves many kilobytes, and readability.


It's not going to do much for a PDF :)


Oh, shout. xD

Actually, I've seen uBlock Origin's font blocker actually break font rendering on PDFs in Firefox in the past (maybe still today?).


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: