An Overlooked Security Feature of iOS /  by Muhammad Amir Ayub

If you use an iOS device, read on.

Apparently there was a setting in the Touch ID & Passcode section that I never realize existed: "Erase Data - Erase all data on this iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts" 

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At first glance, this sounds like a scary setting. Any parent has experienced times when you're locked out of your phone because your young child tried to unlock your phone and mashed some buttons, hopefully not followed by smashing of the said phone. Nevertheless, the outcome is a locked phone. And such a thing would be bad if once repeated enough times, your phone is wiped clean by your children, and not privacy-intruding authorities.

John Gruber found out that wiping out the phone is not so easy, as the timeout period becomes longer and longer, and hopefully you'll be holding your phone by then:

“I had no idea until I looked into it last weekend, but it turns out this feature is far more clever than I realized, and it’s highly unlikely that your kids or jackass drinking buddies could ever trigger it. After the 5th failed attempt, iOS requires a 1-minute timeout before you can try again. During this timeout the only thing you can do is place an emergency call to 911. After the 6th attempt, you get a 5-minute timeout. After the 7th, 15 minutes. These timeouts escalate such that it would take over 3 hours to enter 10 incorrect passcodes.”

I've turned it on and so should you. Especially in this age where privacy is more and more a concern, with multiple battlefronts and multiple viewpoints everywhere.

On Making Deliveries /  by Muhammad Amir Ayub

When doing sales, personally, getting the deliveries right is among the most frustrating aspects. 

In the past, people would simply depend on the address given and then have to look at a map to find that road and house manually, which is laborious. If you don't know the area, you're just screwed.

Probably not easy.

Probably not easy.

With the advent of smartphones, people could then look it up though their map apps, which made things easier in some ways. But it wasn't always perfect. Some dumb apps (I'm looking at you Apple Maps) tends to have a hard time with abbreviations (think Jalan versus Jln) or slight misspellings and it tends to wrongly label the road maps.

With the chat apps, now everyone is sending their location, which helps a lot by sending the area. Note the specific term used. It's less useful if you're sending just your location when you're living in a neighborhood, and even so if you're living in a high-rise; how the hell would I know which unit you are in? And many are not patient when sending their location, not letting their geolocation enough time to get the location as accurate as possible. There's a big difference between a 32 m and 8 m radius.

So when giving me your location, preferably give me both your location and exact address. If not, just give me your address, which will usually do under most conditions. Telling me just the location is usually useless, unless if you're going to wait near the roadside and not have me (or anyone) look for your exact house. That, and your phone number.