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Mega has launched

mega.co.nz

171–180 of 272 posts

Re: Mega has launched

#171
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't this allow MEGA to also get a copy of the key so they can decrypt your data?

Mega would be storing copies of the key that can only be decrypted with a password.

But when someone uploads the same file with a different password, if they want to de-duplicate on content alone, they need to be able to put that new encrypted file hash alongside the original.

One solution to that would be to have two hashes of the file, and to use one as the key and one as the index.

Re: Mega has launched

#172
I think maybe Kim is a little smarter this time by not having his servers easily accessible by the US authorities, exactly where those servers are remains to be seen.

For me, mega.co.nz is at 154.53.224.166, which is Africa allocated, administered by afrinic.net who seem to be on a small island off the coast of Madagascar.

Re: Mega has launched

#173
The Javascript for Mega looks very messy; all resources loaded via XHR, loading jQuery but using `document.getElementById` all over the place, using client-side Javascript to validate the integrity of all these XHR-loaded resources...

They say that this is their first Javascript coding; they should really get some talent on board to clean this up.

Re: Mega has launched

#174
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Not using Gzip is obviously a big part of his marketing plan. I think this is the only time I would use the words "FTFY" on HN, but I do think it's obvious, that with kim's bragging about bandwidth usage, gzip has been disabled intentionally.

What a ridiculous statement. He could just as easily make up a fake bandwidth usage number for marketing purposes rather than actually put unnecessary load on his servers by not using Gzip. It's most likely down to him hiring sloppy developers. And judging by the source code on the site this is exactly the reason.

Agreed. Very sloppy code.

Re: Mega has launched

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox public folders?

If they're of any appreciable size, they're paid for by the people hosting, not downloading. You do know this, right?

Of course.... but who pays (and for what, exactly) is somewhat immaterial. You're able to post public links to files and get (effectively) unlimited downloads via Dropbox too. It was a counter-example to your Google.com/yourdesiredfile

Re: Mega has launched

#176
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MEGA servers store the hash of the password, not the password itself. Unlocking a key requires a real password but the server knows only the hashed version. This way they can't capture the real password to unlock. The trick would be to make sure server always gets only the hashed password. Even at website login, the password must be hashed before sending! We used similar crypto for http://timegt.com product where eve…

As long as the logins go via normal web page hashing the passwords before sending them does not really add that much security. If the security of the server is somehow compromised, it would be trivial to put up new Javascripts that send the cleartext password to server. Users are not likely to go through the Javascript to check what it is actually doing.

Fully agreed on the server compromise risk. Fortunately this attack vector would compromise only users who log in after the attack. Users who don't are still safe.

Improving this situation could involve keeping a browser extension that takes care of the hashing algorithm and makes sure the real hash is sent. As long as the extension is not updated, the hashing would be safer.

Re: Mega has launched

#177
post #166

That loading/cloud symbol reminds me of something... ( https://stripe.com )

Comparison ( http://i.imgur.com/BZeGm1H.png ) Definitely a rip-off, and not a particularly well executed one.

It is a super generic icon in any case.

Re: Mega has launched

#179

To everyone asking about the encryption, it isn't really about protecting your data its about protecting themselves. They have created a service that is billed as a drop box competitor but it's not. This is megaupload2, they just need it to not look like they are marketing it as that. They needed a way to deny any knolage of file sharing and have found a two pronged attack. The encryption means they can deny any know…

That doesn't mean you can't use it like a Dropbox service with more free space, surely? Dropbox also doesn't encrypt your data to any meaningful degree AFAIK.

Re: Mega has launched

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do I want? For him to be thrown in jail. I honestly don't care about people swapping media between themselves. But setting up an exchange to do that, and paying for it by selling space to advertisers? That's not "sharing". That's business. And that business would collapse if he had to pay the copyright holders he depends on. In general, audiences have NO idea how much time, effort, etc. it takes to produce decen…

For what it's worth, I also have a much bigger problem with commercial copyright infringement than non-commercial copyright infringement. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084439 I can see how the Daft Punk thing would get on your nerves. It seems like all this man does is use people.

"Uses" people by creating products other people are willing to pay for. Just like your local pig farm "uses" the animals to provide you food you are willing to pay for.

Mega is just being a midleman here. What's so wrong about it, really? If an industry goes down because it can't compete with "free", then maybe it should go down because technology makes the business model unprofitable? Big players go down and small ones come to rule the game, it's not like people stop caring about entertainment. But of course this all whining about piracy is exactly about securing people's own position and ability to survive in the competitive market. After all, an industry-wide collapse could very well mean loss of a job(not for a single person, but also for co-workers etc) or at least huge cut in income.

In the end it's just everyone playing for themselves. Hopefully in a few decades we have machines creating superior content for us(at least to some degree), so we can finally start getting rid of the publishing/content providing industries which hinder technological progress and start to focus on consuming whatever we find most suitable for us, without legal or ethical barriers. Everyone wins if we don't let bullshit legislation hinder the progress.

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