Category: Apple

Posted on

Ah Ha! I knew it…

Warning: Geeky Stuff ahead.

Yesterday, I updated to the latest operating system offering from Apple.

IMG 2867

There haven’t been a lot of issues yet.

But there has been one, and this issue is across iPad, iPhone, and the Mac OS. 

Some websites will completely fail to display user credentials stored in Apple’s Password Management System.

After you get over the initial panic that the IOS or OS upgrade has wiped the thousand or so passwords and IDs that you’ve become so dependent on…

Your head will clear and then you’ll go look at passwords. As your heart rate slows, you’ll notice a curious thing. Some websites still work. But other websites act brain dead. Instead of Safari offering to fill in your password and id from Apple’s password management system you’re presented with nothing.

Even typing the first few characters of the user ID will not give you the familiar prompt for face, touch, or master password verification.

Locating the entry containing the user ID and Password and telling your device to open the website, from the password entry itself will open the site BUT WILL NOT autofill the user ID and Password, so you’re on a site, but you’re not logged in.

It’s in Safari, and it’s not technically a bug.

Safari’s security protocols have been updated which is good. But if you log  into web sites that are not using HTTPS with the new versions of Safari, it will look like the upgrade has flushed the login credentials.

The issue is HTTPS versus HTTP. Since the entirety of the internet is supposed to be using HTTPS (For your comfort, safety, and protection,) Apple apparently decided that it’s unsafe to allow the password management system to serve up a user ID and Password to a lowly HTTP site.

On the one hand I can see it. On the other hand there are corporations where their internal HTML pages may require a user ID and Password, BUT where they are not using HTTPS inside the corporate defense ring. This may or may not be good security, but that’s not the issue. The issue is the confusion caused by the way Apple has implemented this change.

Since there’s absolutely NOTHING, no message, no reaction, no indication, no clue, whatsoever about what is going on, it could leave customers badmouthing Apple, and the new OS. 

Not because what’s been done is wrong, but because it’s inconvenient! Apple already has trouble in corporate environments due to IT departments inherent Pro Windows bias. They needn’t add any fuel to that fire.

I haven’t found the setting to turn this feature off yet. Instead, I just enabled HTTPS on my site. If I find more sites that give me issues, I’ll go digging around to see if there is a setting.

I’d been holding off because I DONT WANT TO PAY FOR THE SECURITY CREDENTIAL!

Oh yeah, it costs… which leads me to begin contemplation about continuing to maintain my own hosting site. Or should I park the unused domains and transfer the live domains to another hosting service.

Truthfully, I’m becoming less and less pleased with my current hosting provider. I’ll take a look at the contract and decide if I want to continue doing business with them.

They’re pretty inexpensive if you select longer contract terms, but their quality of service is becoming questionable. Talking to them and solving problems is getting to be just like every other business. You end up talking to someone outside the country who doesn’t really understand what your issue or question is.

For the moment this HTTP/HTTPS issue is solved. I’m sure there will be other interesting issues popping up soon enough.

Posted on

I broke a rule today.

It is one of my internal rules.

I updated the OS of my Mac on the first day of the new OS being available.  I haven’t done something like this for years… There’s always something that screws up!

But while I’m sure I’ll be annoyed in the coming weeks, I thought, “Why Not? I’m bored and If I do it now, then I don’t have to worry about it later, especially if there’s something that demands me & my computer being up to date.”

Something insane like a job… for example. At this point if I were to get a job I’d probably have a heart attack and keel over from the shock.

Thus far the OS seems to be smooth and working as expected. I’m using my big monitor right now. I gotta admit, much as I like having the small light laptop, I really do like using the big monitor, especially with the color depth this thing is capable of.

This monitor could also be used as a gaming monitor, it’s a bit small but serviceable. So the monitor goes in the box of Tech that moves with me into whatever temporary housing situation I find myself in, moving forward. That’s actually funny this is a 27” and I can remember when that was a big monitor. 

I’ve seen some computer/gaming monitors 36” and above. I’d have to have a large desk to have something that big in proportion. I guess you could hang it on the wall of your cubicle or cubby.

The last place I worked at, they gave us dual 15” monitors which was really more annoying than helpful given the amount of data and application windows we were supposed to be juggling. The Windows desktops were under powered, in terms of CPU, memory, and hard drive space, to be pushing that amount of data but as is typical of Corporate America, if the computer crashed, it was the employees fault. 

I’ll take my 27” here at home with a computer that could drive two 30” 4K monitors (I think) and not worry about crashing. Come to think of it, I don’t think this computer has crashed on me since I got it. Either I’ve lost my touch, or this machine has more than enough horsepower to do whatever I ask. 

Let’s just hope it doesn’t become sentient! That could be a real problem…

I’ll continue playing with this new OS. There are some new features, but none I’m likely to be using immediately.  But I’ll poke around to see what the new stuff is all about.

BTW this qualifies as interesting and entertaining for me.

I hope your day is as amusing.

Posted on

What? Brain rebooted….

Yesterday while I was on hold with Apple, I was scanning news articles and one from Bloomberg caught my attention. The headline was a jaw dropper.

Is it me, or are the titles of officials sounding more and more like the stupid titles of drooling inbred Barons and Dukes who were 6th cousins to the king from old Europe?

Here is the persons’ title, “White House Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security”  what the fuck? The translation of this title is, another cocksucking bobblehead yes person.

I’m gonna call him “Bobblehead” Amos Hochstein.

This person actually said publicly, “one reason why oil prices have surged and gas prices is that Bidenomics works.” Then started blaming OPEC for decreasing supply.

WHAT? 

OPEC wouldn’t have the ability to fuck with global oil prices if Biden hadn’t within days of his inauguration screwed domestic oil production and caused oil prices to jump, not due to constraint… but due to Biden’s actions destabilizing oil futures.

As I theorized before, Bidenomics may indeed be working exactly as designed. Bidenomics isn’t to help the country, it’s to help the filthy rich and punish any and all Americans who might not be marching in communist lockstep with the Democrat party. A.K.A. all those who disagree with the direction the country is moving in, and are therefore domestic terrorists.

I’m predicting it here and now. It is going to be a very cold expensive winter for the average American Family. Because Biden’s energy policies will continue to drive up fuel prices. Don’t forget it’s not just gasoline.

Diesel fuel is what runs the container ships, the 18 wheel trucks, the farm equipment, the construction equipment, and petroleum byproducts go into almost everything else throughout our product and supply chain. So when fuel gets or remains expensive… the average American Family takes it in the ass.

An Interesting side note, Biden and his bobblehead staff all say repeatedly that The President is very concerned that the American Family doesn’t have undue hardship.

When you run that statement through the Democrat/Biden translation matrix… You get “The President want to make sure the American Family is hungry and cold.”

After all if you keep people cold enough, hungry enough, poor, and hopeless, long enough, then offer them free shit and relief if they vote for you, or if they’re asked to offer up their first born to be slaves, most of ‘em will say “yes”.

There’s a story about Vlad Țepeș of Romania inviting the poor, homeless, and destitute, of the town to his castle for dinner. He asked them what they wanted of him, they replied, “give us money, give us food, end our suffering.” At which point he ordered the palace guard to slaughter everyone in the dining hall.

VladIII

He ended their suffering right then and there.

I don’t know if that is a story that actually happened or if it was a teaching tale.

I do know, that every time I see people with their hands out to receive “Free” stuff. I always think of Vlad Țepeș and his “Solution”.

“Free” in politics is just a word that obfuscates the actual price. If more people knew that, politicians would have a lot less power.

Vlad Țepeș actually Vlad III,  had quite a life. Wars, imprisonment, loss of a throne and regaining it.

Stories about his “Unheard of cruelty” were circulating in his lifetime. Note we’re talking in the fourteen hundreds. By todays standards just living in that time would have been considered cruel and unusual punishment. This guy was considered unusually cruel then.

… Turkish messengers came to [Vlad] to pay respects, but refused to take off their turbans, according to their ancient custom, whereupon he strengthened their custom by nailing their turbans to their heads with three spikes, so that they could not take them off.

— Antonio Bonfini: Historia Pannonica

The pope was informed of Vlad’s methods. A Poem about him was performed at the court of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor during the winter of 1463.

While the story of him slaughtering all the poor from the town near his castle might be apocryphal, given the other stories about Vlad III I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually did it.

Interestingly, stories about Vlad III were some of the first best sellers to be printed with moveable type.

Bram Stoker did a great job of romanticizing Vlad III. As the source of all the vampire myths, in my Goth phase I was curious about Vlad III so I found out a about the real person.

I think he was an Arch Villain. This is certainly true through the lens of todays standards. It’s probably true through even the lens of the fourteen hundreds. But there was a lot of political intrigue and a lot more involved in keeping his kingdom together. Perhaps his cruelty was justified, perhaps not.

For some reason, Vlad III always pops into my mind whenever I hear Biden or his bobbleheads speaking. I think Biden and his administration are cruel and they call it “kindness”. They call failure, “success”. They call crime and criminal behavior, “Righteousness”.

By the way…. 

I did not preorder the new iPhone after all. 

Apple wouldn’t allow me to preorder it and use their interest free financing without me declaring which cellphone carrier I was going to use. In other words they wanted me to buy a carrier locked phone and I won’t do that.

They didn’t make me declare my carrier when I purchased my iPad with cellular capability. Nor did they ask for me to declare a carrier when I purchased my Apple Watch. Yet I was allowed to put those items on their interest free financing.

For some reason, they wouldn’t allow me to do the same with a new iPhone. 

I’d actually filled out the Pre Preorder forms that was supposed to make the preorder easy this morning. I stopped when I realized that for me to have the phone I’d have to put it on my card at whatever the interest rate is. Since the Apple Card is among the highest interest rate cards I have, that was a big RED NO GO!

Who am I kidding? All credit cards have nightmare interest rates these days!

The Apple Card is convenient, but it’s not something you carry a balance on unless it’s interest free. To be honest, I’m questioning keeping the Apple Card moving into the future. I don’t like the way they handle some things. The question is, does my dislike outweigh the convenience? It’s about neck & neck right now.

I’ll wait on the new iPhone. Maybe, I’ll wait until the next iPhone, or the next… I can wait, the battery on my phone isn’t that weak yet.

Sure there are things I’d like to have, but do I need them?

Maybe not…