APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
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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Don’t be a dick
In a recent post on device identifiers, I wrote a guideline that I’ve previously invoked when it comes to sharing user data. Here is, in both more succinct and complete form than in the above-linked post, the Don’t Be A … Continue reading
Posted in Data Leakage, IANAL, Policy, Privacy
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So you don’t like your IDE
There are many different tools for writing Objective-C code, though of course many people never stray much beyond the default that’s provided by their OS vendor. Here are some of the alternatives I’ve used: this isn’t an in-depth review of … Continue reading
Posted in code-level, tool-support
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On device identifiers
Note: as ever, this blog refrains from commenting on speculation regarding undisclosed product innovations from device providers. This post is about the concept of tracking users via a device identifier. You might find the discussion useful in considering future product … Continue reading
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