Letters: Sleep Week, iPod Hacking, and the Internet of Broken Things

Hi Motherboard readers! This is Jason Koebler, you may know me from such films as "Bad Stagediver Gets Overshadowed by Worse Stagediver" and "Bad Drone Pilot Crashes Drone Into Stop Sign in a Mild Blizzard."

Speaking of blizzards, we're ALL GOING TO DIE this weekend so hopefully you've got enough #content to weather the Class Three Kill Storm. Speaking of films, I tried to buy Motherboard editor-in-chief Derek Mead a frog for secret santa earlier this week and it did not go very well. Here's a short film we made about it:

OK, enough of that. Hopefully you've been enjoying You'll Sleep When You're Dead, which is about all things sleep. If you don't know what I'm talking about then why are you here!? Go read about polyphasic sleeping, working the night shift, bad dreams, sleep tech's impact on inequality, cryosleep, weighted blankets, and the man who turned night into day. Also, listen to the Radio Motherboard episode about how to sleep hack your room and subscribe to the podcast. I swear we are fun to hang out with.

That's what we were thinkin' about this week, how about you? Your letters:

Do We Have Free Will Because God Killed Himself?

Siliva wrote to us in Italian about Zoltan Istvan's story hypothesizing that God is a superintelligent artificial intelligence that killed itself. I Google translated it, which I hope is OK with you guys.

My name is Silvia, I'm 20 and I state that I study architecture, then the content of this letter is the result of an argument purely intuitive and not at all theoretical. The title of the article by Zoltan Istvan caught my attention, so I read it, and very carefully.

There is talk of a hypothesis which in my eyes is flawless. Only, I was wondering if you could - as it has been written by the author - praise the superintelligence that is supposed to have self-destructed to deny anyone else achieve omnipotence and, conversely, ensuring forever free will. Let me explain: if you become omnipotent implies the dissolution of consciousness, how can the singularity in question have tried (I seemed to understand) suffering for his state of alienation and deprivation interactive intelligence? Perhaps, rather than an act ethically, his suicide would be the natural point of conclusion of a life that has gone up to more refined evolutionary phase. The moment in which the variables are in order and there is nothing more to move, to change or improve, and no one to live for, the superintelligence may have committed suicide, because he would not have ontological value.

Although not an expert I wanted to expose my point of view, more than anything else-if possible to have a clarification.

I would also like to thank you, because with your articles fascinated me every day. And for the time that you spent reading this short letter.

- Silvia Funari

Meat Labeling

Howdy,

I noticed your article and how you had not looked into this issue at all. Unless you did and decided not to disclose that the WTO ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico in their suit to bring $3 billion in sanctions. Is it not your job to report what is going on in our nation not what you perceive it to be?

- Alvin York

How to Learn How to Learn C

Thank you Michael.

This article went a long way in helping me explore a topic I've always been intrigued with but could never find the right entry point to explore further.

I took a tech course that had some programming in it and although it was way over my head, it didn't mean I wasn't interested or didn't want to learn it.

(I also later tried a VB course at University level and lasted one class – it was embarrassing to say the least.)

Your simple explanations of the inherent differences and syntax helps pull the curtain back on a world that I'd love to manipulate the levers in.

so thanks

Bruce W

Bruce, I'm always super impressed with Michael's work. I too once dabbled with programming in high school. I loved it and then a bad experience in class led me to drop it entirely. Now I'm a journalist and I know very little about programming and feel very bad about it. Michael's articles about programming always make me want to get back into it, and ya know what, I think I just might.

- Jason

The Internet of Things Needs Redundancies

Hello,

I just read your article, The Internet of Things Isn't Ready for Babies

May I suggest that you include this link so that the people who agree with your point of view can vote on a feature request to Nest? It was created in August 9, 2012, I just voted in support because I also agree that there should be a backup in place in case Nest's infrastructure goes down. So far, 642 people voted on it and it is not yet planned for development. Perhaps if more people vote on it, they might consider.

Thanks,

Leandro Coelho

Thanks for writing, Leandro. The more we learn about the Internet of Things, the less I'm convinced any of them are going to work!

-Jason

Save Your Old iPods!

Thanks for the story about refurbished iPods. I'm a music journalist and my desire for a high-capacity player is is more for practical purposes than entertainment. I often need to reference music, some quite old or obscure, and do t always have access to my computer. Cloud storage isn't an option because of the cost and spotty service. I have had an old iPod services several time at great expense and recently discovered it won't sync withy new laptop. I have heard rumors that one can replace the old HD with a flash drive but reading it is actually being done gave me some hope. I've been told by repair people that this is simply not possible when clearly it is. Now I'm on the hunt for someone who can convert what I've got or. At the least, instructions on how to do it at home.

Oakland L. Childers

You asked the right guy as I'm currently obsessed with opening up electronics. Try the iFixit guide. You can do it! Let us know how it goes. -

Jason

Don't Cover the 'Teenage' Hackers

From an anonymous letter writer, regarding our stories on the "teenage" hackers—also known as Crackas With Attitude or CWA—who keep hitting government officials.

Don't cover these guys, hacking into a government officials personal account is hardly a feat of skill. Covering it only encourages this kind of thing. I just personally don't think it's news worthy and wanted to share my opinion with you.

Keep up the great work.

Thanks!

Thanks for reaching out. You do raise a very good point. And I have to say I have considered myself the implications of giving these guys coverage. Ultimately, I think that at least some of their exploits deserve coverage and are newsworthy because they underline how high-level government officials are so unaware of the risks of having personal information (such as their home address of telephone number on the Whitepages) exposed online.

That is the main reason I think they are worth covering: I'm hoping this raises awareness, not just among government officials, but also regular people. There's also the mystery factor: who are these guys? And why are they so hell bent on hitting government officials?

Thanks again!

- Lorenzo

More Sleep Week Fodder!

Have you guys thought about doing a story about eating before you sleep? I know a lot of people have the idea in their brain that eating in the hour or two before bedtime is a bad idea, but I've never seen any research to back that up.

- Josh Marsh

I've heard this as well! Unfortunately we didn't look into that this week. It's a good question, though! Maybe we can address it in the future.

- Adrianne

Bitcoin in Kenya

This email follows your article on Motherboard on Bitcoin use in Kenya. I am a law student at the Kenya School of Law who has been researching Bitcoin use in Kenya and the idea of its future regulation, that is despite the caution issued by the Central Bank Governor and the recent ruling of the court on its use. There is still possibilty of its regulation if there is ever widespread use and the reluctance to regulate it, is a similar problems that faced Mpesa at the onset.

It is my hope that continuous discussions on Bitcoin and more so discussions on the law on the same will help array fears by critiquing some of the myths attached to Bitcoin while looking for ways to solve possible problems.

So far there exist no published articles on the law in Kenya or a comparative with other countries and I hope that this could help look in detail at the recent ruling pitting Mpesa verse Bitpesa and Lipisha Corsortium.

- Eunice Mukami

This was one of my favorite articles we've published this month, I'm glad it's reaching readers in Kenya.

- Jason

On f.lux and the App Store

Hey, I just wanted to clarify something in your article on f.lux—so as we know Apple asked them to remove the app because it violated the developer agreement. And a lot of people think that means "oh, they used private APIs." Things that would get your app instantly rejected from entering the app store. Then Apple released Night Shift, so it seemed even more so that this was the issue. However, this isn't the case.

Last summer, Apple made it free to deploy apps from Xcode to a device, previously a feature behind a $99/year developer fee. This allowed for sideloading of apps, which I'm sure you're aware of. However, the issue with f.lux was not that it was available only via sideloading, or even that it used private APIs - the problem was that it used a precompiled binary - meaning they used some trickery to load a closed-source app onto your phone. Now, most people trust f.lux and assume they have our best intentions in mind. But other, more nefarious, people could technically do the same thing. And now that the official app is removed, if you do download a mirror there's no way to be sure what you're getting.

So that is the part where the developer agreement was violated. That is what Apple won't allow. They just can't set that precedent. There are tons of open-source apps on Github that use private APIs - an app called Provenance is a big example (it's a multiplatform game emulator). There's also an open source f.lux clone called GammaThingy that is still alive and well (albeit unnecessary when iOS 9.3 drops) on Github.

Apple knew full well when they removed the paywall on loading apps onto devices that sideloading would happen. The problem isn't sideloading though, it's the fact that f.lux wasn't open source. Which I think is completely understandable.

Anyways, sorry for the essay! I'm an iOS developer myself and just wanted to clarify things a bit. I love f.lux, been using it for years. I thought your article was super interesting.

Ellen Phillips

Thanks for reading, stay warm, and if you're stranded in the blizzard with 5 percent battery left, make sure the last thing you do is follow us on Snapchat. We're at Motherboard_TV.