APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
On standards in free software engineering
I have previously written on the economics of software insecurity, and I quote a couple of paragraphs from that post below: One option that is not fully explored in the book, but which I believe could be worth exploring, is … Continue reading
Posted in Business, software-engineering
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On the economics of software insecurity
This post is mainly motivated by having read Geekonomics: the real cost of insecure software, by David Rice. Since writing the book Rice has apparently been hired by Apple, though his bio at the Geekonomics site doesn’t mention that (nor … Continue reading
Posted in software-engineering
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These things are hard
Mike Lee recently wrote about his feelings on seeing those classic pictures from the American space program, in which the earth appears as a small blue marble set against the backdrop of space. His concluding paragraph: Life has its waves. … Continue reading
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On explaining stuff to people
An article that recently made the rounds, though it was written back in September, is called Apple’s Idioten Vektor. It’s a discussion of how the CCCrypt() function in Apple’s CommonCrypto library, when used in its default cipher block chaining mode, … Continue reading
Posted in books, Crypto, documentation, Encryption, iPad, iPhone, Mac, PCAS
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On SSL Pinning for Cocoa [Touch]
Moxie Marlinspike, recently-acquired security boffin at Twitter, blogged about SSL pinning. The summary is that relying on the CA trust model to validate SSL certificates introduces some risk into using an app – there are hundreds of trusted roots in … Continue reading
Posted in code-level, iPad, iPhone, ssl
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A bunch of monkeys with typewriters
As with many of the posts in this blog, this one originally started as a tweet that got too long. With the launch of Path 2, a conversation about Atos ditching email for social media and Yammer posting a video … Continue reading
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Mac App Sandboxing: it may not be for you (but that’s probably OK)
The MAS section of devforums is, along with a healthy subsection of the rest of the interwebs, aflame with the news that the deadline for sandboxing store-delivered apps is further away than it used to be, but still too close … Continue reading
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Android: the missed opportunities
There are a few Android devices I have respect for: the Amazon Kindle Fire is one, the B&N Nook another, and the Cisco Cius is the third. To a lesser extent, the Sony tablet also fits this category. I don’t … Continue reading
Why your security UI sucks
The principle recurring problem in user experience is creating a user interface that supports the user’s mental model of how an app works, while simultaneously enabling the actions that are actually supported by the implementation’s model of the problem domain. … Continue reading
Posted in software-engineering, UI, user-error
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On Windows 8
Right from the beginning, you have to accept that this analysis is based on the presentation of Windows 8 shown at the //build/windows conference. I’ve watched the presentation, I’m downloading the developer preview but I’m over an hour away from … Continue reading
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