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Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

knocktounlock.com

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Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#101

Post by pornel »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #72
mikeash wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree on the zip. dmg used to be the preferred format for reasons I never entirely fully understood, but that ship has sailed, and I think for the better. Zip is much more convenient. You can, of course, sign the app within the zip.

You can sign the app within the zip, true. The advantage of using a dmg is to control the presentation, which seems like a strong desire for this particular product. Downloading a file named "latest.zip" that had an unsigned binary in it was by far the worst part of the excellently designed experience of installing the software. Apparently the iTunes link thing is a bug https://twitter.com/jschloss/status/39778394974…

Please, don't use DMG. Just .app in a plain .zip please.

The nifty "presentation" adds a several needless steps and pitfalls to running an application:

• Mounting and verification of DMG is slow (Zip CRC and Developer ID signatures give you verification too).

• "Nothing happens" after clicking DMG — user has to find DMG mount on a cluttered desktop.

• Clicking app icon in the DMG window is tempting, but generally it's a no-no (some apps don't mind, but some ask to be moved to Applications, and some throw "error -13 read only volume" kind of errors).

• User is expected to copy the app to Applications folder, with instructions given in form of non-localizable non-accessible text-in-image, and it's trickier when sidebar with shortcut to Applications folder is hidden (and remember "Applications" folder name is localized and sounds nothing like it in many languages).

• User has to unmount and delete the DMG, but that gives non-obvious behavior when the app is running off the DMG.

• It gets super confusing when user has pinned app in the Dock while it was running off the DMG

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#102

Post by codex »

karzeem wrote: post #61

The negativity in this thread is a perfect exemplar of the say-anything-critical-to-look-smart, "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.", poisonous middlebrow dismissal that pg complains about. This is an amazingly light convenience, with really solid, streamlined execution. People, it's ok to think something is good.

I like your point and it is a valid critique of HN commenting. Many dismissals are perfunctory and incorrect.

All the same, though, it is expected that almost all new startups will fail and most products will not be "the best" or even original. That's the nature of competition; only the top products get any traction at all. Given that, I would expect critiques of most new ventures.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#103

Post by mikeash »

mbreese wrote: post #99
mikeash wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree on the zip. dmg used to be the preferred format for reasons I never entirely fully understood, but that ship has sailed, and I think for the better. Zip is much more convenient. You can, of course, sign the app within the zip.

And I disagree on the disagreement. :) If I download a dmg file, I assume the author knows how to write software for a Mac. If I download a zip, I assume they don't. At least they need to change the name from "latest.zip" to "Knock for Mac.zip" or something like that. Even better would be having it in the Mac App Store. Since you need to download the iPhone version from the App Store anyway, it would be better to kee…

Right, companies like Rogue Amoeba, Flying Meat (Acorn), and Running with Crayons (Alfred) don't know how to write software for a Mac. Sure!

I'd buy the argument five or ten years ago. But times have changed.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#105

Post by mronge »

joshstrange wrote: post #31
joshdance wrote: post #4

This seems like magic. What method does it use to unlock your Mac with no password?

It doesn't actually unlock your machine. If you lock your computer it will not work. What it does is put up a page that looks nearly identical to the login page with small changes. It's a cool app (I tried it) but I'm disappointed that I can't find a way to toggle the lock via Alfred/Keyboard shortcut. I can get in the habit of hitting a key combination/alfred command when I get up but having to click the icon in the…

That is NOT true. It does in fact use the real login window

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#107

Post by derefr »

jcutrell wrote: post #80

Dear HN. Please stop making a big deal about how you don't like hipster beards. It really makes HN look like pretentious douchebags instead of intelligent thinkers. It makes HN people look like the have no understanding of marketing. If you're going to criticize the marketing, do it from a metrics perspective, rather than being exactly what you're claiming to hate by telling people to stop being hipsters - arrogant.…

> Let people be who they are. Measure them by their output and their product, and the effectiveness of their decisions. Not on whether or not they conform to your taste/style.

I would guess that the true point being made is that these people are not "being who they are," because someone else has caused them to "conform to [their] taste/style."

Your reaction is actually pointing out exactly the same thinking on their part as you're using to criticize it: hackers don't like it when someone has forced their idea of aesthetics on them--because hackers are, fundamentally, aesthetes--so we get vicariously offended when they see a trend of some group "forcing" their idea of aesthetics on some other group.

This applies even if that "force" is just the majority declaring some particular style to be "objectively fashionable." Hackers don't like the idea that things can be "in vogue", because it coerces their ability to self-style down set paths they might not want to have gone down. Even if they would have liked a particular style, having it be popular means it's no longer their creative idea to choose it--so it doesn't demonstrate their creativity, and that's all they cared about doing in the first place.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#108

Post by Segmentation »

karzeem wrote: post #61

The negativity in this thread is a perfect exemplar of the say-anything-critical-to-look-smart, "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.", poisonous middlebrow dismissal that pg complains about. This is an amazingly light convenience, with really solid, streamlined execution. People, it's ok to think something is good.

Ugh.

Just people you disagree with someone doesn't make them negative.

It's critique. HN is a place of dissenting opinions.

It's ok to have an opinion different than yours.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#109

Post by jcutrell »

derefr wrote: post #107
jcutrell wrote: post #80

Dear HN. Please stop making a big deal about how you don't like hipster beards. It really makes HN look like pretentious douchebags instead of intelligent thinkers. It makes HN people look like the have no understanding of marketing. If you're going to criticize the marketing, do it from a metrics perspective, rather than being exactly what you're claiming to hate by telling people to stop being hipsters - arrogant.…

> Let people be who they are. Measure them by their output and their product, and the effectiveness of their decisions. Not on whether or not they conform to your taste/style. I would guess that the true point being made is that these people are not "being who they are," because someone else has caused them to "conform to [their] taste/style." Your reaction is actually pointing out exactly the same thinking on their…

That makes sense.

However, there's one problem.

> these people are not "being who they are," because someone else has caused them to "conform to [their] taste/style."

This is assumption based on cultural hints. There have been quite a few times on HN where hackers have proven to indeed not be aesthetes, because hacking marketing requires aesthetic. This goes down to whether or not you appreciate aesthetics of your own appearance, as well.

I don't see anyone making the claim that this is "objectively fashionable". What I see is a bunch of people who rage against a marketing decision because it bastardizes their seemingly misguided need for aesthetic "purity" (whatever that means).

The criticism I'm offering isn't to stop liking your aesthetic preferences. If you don't like beards, don't grow one.

But someone posts a link on HN, and people bitch and moan because the primary subject of marketing is sporting a beard. It really misses the point of HN discussion. Again, I understand if the conversation is centered around the marketing (or other) implications of the decisions made by those who created the product and the site. But the conversation doesn't revolve around that at all. Instead, it's a bunch of "get off my lawn" and raging against trends without any particularly discernible purpose.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#110

Post by monkeynotes »

hartator wrote: post #74
monkeynotes wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But having a car stolen is way less of a problem than all your personal data being stolen. If my car is stolen because someone stole my bag with the keys in it then all I lose is my insured car. If my laptop is stolen with the 'keys' to the laptop also in the bag, my life could become very difficult very quickly taking me years to recover from. I think the point is you don't want to have the same paradigm as car + ke…

Do you use full disk encryption? A lot people don't and it's easy to get your data when you got logged in as another user.

I use FileVault built into OSX.
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