The clever ways that service providers will encourage a secure by default web
In a post shared by Google’s Ilya Grigorik – on Google +, of course – news broke on the imminent release of Chrome’s new compression algorithm, Brotli. Grigorik didn’t mention the estimated 17-25% performance improvements over gzip that it’ll bring to Chrome, instead choosing to comment “p.s. yes, HTTPS only.”
More information can be found on the intent to ship report.
This is the same tactic that Mozilla is taking up, whereby new features to their products are only available to environments running solely https, or secure http. While it’s nice clickbait to say that they will “hold features hostage“, it makes a lot of sense for an organization that prides itself on responding to the community, who spoke out in favor of the change at the organization, which produces the Firefox browser, among other things.
The future, faster, web protocol HTTP/2 is also going this route, indicating that those who build the web are placing high priority on a feature that they think is important for all users. Movers and shakers on the web like the Electronic Frontier Foundation build tools to make the change a reality, and well-backed non-profits like Let’s Encrypt are working to make the process less painful than it currently is, and free for website maintainers to boot.
This makes sense if it all comes together. There will surely be some hiccups along the way, but most major web services do a good job of hiding technical speed bumps from their users through the exact kind of careful planning and road-mapping that is being done here. These are useful services and tools using their clout to be opinionated on behalf of their users. Maybe you don’t notice or even care if there’s a lock in the corner of the address bar of your browser, but the good that it does you is clearly worth the effort that it’s taking the stanchions of the web to pull it off more effectively.
Is this the first Instagram masterpiece?
Alastair Sooke, Telegraph
Artist Amalia Ulman debuted one of her latest projects, Excellences & Perfections, over the course of several months via Instagram. Being billed as a performance in three episodes, “inspired by stereotypes of how young women present themselves online”, Ulman’s Instagram feed was supposedly a play on the behavior of her peers and how it’s enforced by society.
Call it what you will, but she chose to use the same platform that she was satirizing for her creation, which is more and more how younger users are defining themselves and their lives. The blending of fact and fiction, earnestness and sincerity, is going to be even harder to discern, like a Snopes article run amuck. Remember Zola and #TheStory this fall?
Enter the Grief Police
Megan Garber, The Atlantic
When our interactions become more and more virtual, how will that affect some of the more human interactions that we have, like the grief process? Do light posts to Facebook walls indicate that virtual friends aren’t differentiating when your status change isn’t felt day to day?
Garber doesn’t think so, instead positing that we’re returning to a pre-WWI sensibility of communal mourning, where we aren’t subject to keeping our emotions in check for the satisfaction of those around us wanting walls around feelings.
Of course, not everyone feels this way. I guess grief policing is a form of emotional control as well, though not as welcome when you’re trying to force control onto others.
Steam’s Atari Vault Package Brings Back 100 Classic Games
Chris Kohler, Wired
If it’s true that the trackball action is coming to the Atari Vault when it’s released on Steam, then it might be a good way to test out the haptics on my Steam controller. Either way, who’s ready for a Centipede-off?
Researchers have developed an extremely effective “sarcasm detector”
Ian Kar, Quartz
If you put out lots of tweets like I do, then it’s becoming even easier for computers to learn more about you. The next great divide of man and machine, sarcasm, is being conquered with deep learning.
The 25 Most Popular Passwords of 2015: We’re All Such Idiots
Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo
As usual, based on analysis of leaked passwords, there are some passwords that are just far less secure than others. If you spot one of your passwords on that list, maybe change it? Maybe use LastPass or 1Password to handle this for you in the future? At least, as Wired pointed out, the most common passwords are getting less common year over year.
As passwords get stronger, it may only take ten people out of a million using the same password … to push it to the top ten.
Inside Facebook’s Ambitious Plan to Connect the Whole World
Jessi Hempel, Wired
Think what you may of the motives of one of the most powerful men on the planet, Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission. His mission, as he’s stated repeatedly through the years, is to connect the world. 2016 is shaping up to be a big year for Connectivity Lab, his research wing at Facebook designed to do just that, with AI, drones, and satellites being tested for their ability to improve accessibility to all in the world.
NSA Chief Stakes Out Pro-Encryption Position, in Contrast to FBI
Jenna McLaughlin, The Intercept
This one is a last minute add that I had to put in. I just want to assume that National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers is just clawing for a bit of good publicity for his agency that is in sore need of it, but maybe there’s another ploy here. Either way, I can rally behind the sentiment, as suspicious of the motives I may be.
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