Web Excursions 2021-07-21
How to install the beta firmware on AirPods Pro; How to learn technical things quickly; and how to detect whether your device is spied with Pegasus.
AirPods Pro Beta Firmware Now Available
AirPods Pro firmware beta one features FaceTime Spatial Audio and Ambient Noise Reduction.
Apple made the announcement that beta firmware for AirPods Pro would be available to developers earlier this year
but it did not originally give a timeframe for its release.
Installing the beta firmware is more laborious than most other Apple Developer betas.
It requires an AirPods Pro configuration profile to be installed on an iPhone,
AirPods Pro to be connected to the iPhone,
the iPhone to be connected to a Mac running the Xcode 13 beta,
iPhone Prerelease Beta Firmware settings to be turned on,
AirPods Pro automatic beta software updates to be turned on, and then
an on-screen process to be followed.
once installed, there is no way to roll back to a non-beta version of the AirPods Pro firmware. The only option is to turn off further updates and wait for a non-beta release.
How To Learn Stuff Quickly
Two categories of learning:
Guided: Reading a tutorial, taking a course, watching a YouTube video. Anything where you're following a guide.
Unguided: Creating your own projects from scratch, extending a tutorial, looking things up in the docs. Anything where you aren't following a guide.
We want to walk the tightrope between these two extremes, using guided and unguided learning together.
If you only follow guided resources, you'll wind up in tutorial hell.
You won't develop the problem-solving skills needed to succeed as a developer.
When you try to build your own project, you won't know where to start.
It will feel like you've spent so much time practicing without developing any tangible, practical skills.
If you focus entirely on unguided learning, it'll take forever.
Making intentional mistakes
With software development, though, mistakes are free
Instead of copy/pasting the provided code verbatim, try experimenting with it:
what happens if you omit one of the lines?
Or if you change some of the values?
I try and act like a scientist.
If I have a hypothesis about how this code is supposed to work, I test that hypothesis by changing the code, and seeing if it breaks in the way I expect.
When I discover that my hypothesis is flawed, I might detour from the tutorial and do some research on Google.
Or I might add it to a list of "things to explore later", if the rabbit hole seems to go too deep.
The tutorial fade
Follow a tutorial verbatim, going through it step by step.
When you've finished, reset the code to the initial state, and minimize the tutorial.
See how far you can get without looking at the tutorial.
When you get stuck, pull the tutorial back up, but minimize it again once you've unblocked yourself.
Repeat this process until you can complete the tutorial start-to-finish without looking at the instructions.
Extending tutorials
This strategy is nice because you avoid the stress of a blank canvas. You already have a fully-functional, well-understood project. You're adding bricks to a solid foundation.
Building related projects: Before hopping onto another tutorial, it might be a good idea to try building a similar project from scratch.
Finding the right balance
When I'm at the very beginning of a learning journey, I tend to focus primarily on guided learning.
As I become more comfortable, though, the balance shifts.
Mindset cultivation: If you want to learn new skills quickly, it's critically important that you cultivate the right mindset.
Goals and motivation: it's important that you have a goal in mind, something you're truly excited about. Otherwise, it'll be hard to sustain the motivation required after the initial novelty wears off.
Remembering things: spaced repetition.
Building a daily habit
Learning in public: by publishing what we learn, we help our future selves. When we discover something new, we should create an artifact that documents it
A network of skills
E.g.: 3D illustration isn't a single skill; it's a collection of dozens of individual skills.
Some of them are part of a constellation the author have experience with.
Years ago the author learned about composition, how to arrange elements within the viewport for compelling shots.
This tool tells you if NSO’s Pegasus spyware targeted your phone – TechCrunch
Amnesty’s researchers showed their work by publishing meticulously detailed technical notes
and a toolkit that they said may help others identify if their phones have been targeted by Pegasus.
The Mobile Verification Toolkit, or MVT, works on both iPhones and Android devices, but slightly differently.
Amnesty said that more forensic traces were found on iPhones than Android devices, which makes it easier to detect on iPhones.
MVT will let you
take an entire iPhone backup (or a full system dump if you jailbreak your phone) and
feed in for any indicators of compromise (IOCs) known to be used by NSO to deliver Pegasus,
such as domain names used in NSO’s infrastructure that might be sent by text message or email.
If you have an encrypted iPhone backup, you can also use MVT to decrypt your backup without having to make a whole new copy.
[Note: The statement is somewhat misleading becuase it seems to suggest that MVT can scan an encrypted backup without a password. That’s not true. You still need to provide the password to decrypt. See MVT’s documentation]
the toolkit scans your iPhone backup file for any evidence of compromise.
The process took about a minute or two to run and spit out several files in a folder with the results of the scan.
If the toolkit finds a possible compromise, it will say so in the outputted files.