
2018 Engineering Gift Guide - wallflower
https://engineering.purdue.edu/INSPIRE/EngineeringGiftGuide
======
beefsack
Turing Tumble[1] is wonderful, happy that it got a mention. I thought it'd be
a great idea for our office as we've got a lot of staff here who love logic
puzzles, but my 4yo daughter at home had the first try and she won't let it
out of the house now.

The game feels like a physical version of The Incredible Machine or
Zachtronics games. It's essentially a marble run on a board which you can add
logic gates to. There are two different colours of balls which serve as input,
and the puzzle specifies what output you require.

The later puzzles in the book are much too complex for my daughter but she has
actually been able to solve the easy ones on her own. She uses it creatively
too, making machines which she likes to show off to her mum and I.

Even without my daughter enjoying it I'd keep it at home because I've found
the puzzles really fun and is satisfyingly tactile. I'm hoping they create a
community puzzle repository for people to contribute to - might be a good
project idea for people if they don't though. Highly recommended.

[1]: [https://www.turingtumble.com/](https://www.turingtumble.com/)

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jammygit
A bunch of gift guides are coming out lately. Here's the fsf one:

[https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/](https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v8/)

(saw mozilla post one recently too)

~~~
nixgeek
“Stay away from iPhone”. Predictable behavior from FSF but still disappointing
to me in 2018, given iOS is one of the hardest targets from a security
perspective with a comprehensive guide on techniques used [1] and offers an
excellent overall user experience.

[1]
[https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide....](https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf)

~~~
saagarjha
Others have mentioned why iOS is not on the FSF's list of good holiday gifts.
However, I did find their "Proprietary surveillance" page to be hilariously
bad: [https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary-
surveillance.html](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary-
surveillance.html). There are a couple of good things on there, but the
majority of it seems like it was written by a 12-year-old who searched Google
for "[thing] is spying on me" and took bullet points on what showed up.

~~~
jammygit
Can you give a more specific example? I found some of the sillier inclusions
had some decent information behind them, after poking around.

For example, it lists Adware Doctor under MacOS, which seems unfair, but the
context is that its #4 in the app store at the time of the article:

"Researchers allege the developers of Adware Doctor, the 4th highest ranking
paid app in the Mac App Store, have found a way to bypass Apple restrictions
and collect sensitive user data."

Some of the headlines could definitely use rephrasing though.

~~~
saagarjha
I can go over macOS and iOS, since I actually know about most of the issues
raised:

> Adware Doctor, an ad blocker for MacOS, reports the user's browsing history.

This isn't macOS's issue. This is Apple having a poor App Store review
process/sandboxing holes/whatever. This is the same as saying "malware exists
on macOS, even on the App Store" (which I would have accepted as a valid
point), but without this context it's misleading.

> Apple admits the spying in a search facility, but there's a lot more
> snooping that Apple has not talked about.

The "spying" mentioned has since been fixed; Spotlight searches now send a
generic location to Apple. The "more snooping" link has its own, similar
issues.

> Various operations in the latest MacOS send reports to Apple servers.

Same issue with Spotlight, from Yosemite, being called "various operations in
the latest MacOS".

> Spotlight search sends users' search terms to Apple.

…how else would it search the web? Also, the same issue.

> The DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive make it illegal to study how iOS
> cr…apps spy on users, because this would require circumventing the iOS DRM.

Not true. The DMCA (which is not Apple, mind you!) does not restrict me from
inspecting applications (which is mentioned in the linked article)–I just
can't distribute my methods to other people.

> In the latest iThings system, “turning off” WiFi and Bluetooth the obvious
> way doesn't really turn them off. A more advanced way really does turn them
> off—only until 5am. That's Apple for you—“We know you want to be spied on”.

…this is literally what it sounds like. It's stretching "automatically
reenabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth if you forget to do so" to "Apple is doing this
so they can continue spy on you".

> Apple proposes a fingerprint-scanning touch screen—which would mean no way
> to use it without having your fingerprints taken. Users would have no way to
> tell whether the phone is snooping on them.

This thing doesn't even exist, and fingerprint data never leaves the device
anyways.

> iPhones send lots of personal data to Apple's servers. Big Brother can get
> them from there.

This is saying that iOS devices send call logs to iCloud, which it uses to
keep it in sync across devices. The argument is that Apple doesn't let you
turn this off if you use iCloud, which is valid, but it's disingenuous to say
that "Big Brother" can now access this information because there are dozens of
other parties that have this information as well.

> iThings automatically upload to Apple's servers all the photos and videos
> they make…The iCloud feature is activated by the startup of iOS..

If you enable iCloud Photos. The "activated by the startup of iOS" means that
the daemon handling this launches when the phone boots, not that it instantly
enables when you set up your new iPhone.

> Unknown people apparently took advantage of this to get nude photos of many
> celebrities.

…this was straight up spear phishing.

> Apple can, and regularly does, remotely extract some data from iPhones for
> the state.

This is a twisting of words in the article, which states that Apple turns over
things on their servers that they have the keys to. They are not remotely
pulling information off of iPhones.

> This may have improved with iOS 8 security improvements; but not as much as
> Apple claims.

Article tries to argue that people who have a 4-digit PIN, which is used to
encrypt data on the iPhone, can be hacked if the PIN is bruteforced.

> Users cannot make an Apple ID (necessary to install even gratis apps)
> without giving a valid email address and receiving the verification code
> Apple sends to it.

You can do this with a phone number now, AFAIK. Mostly because not everyone
has a email address.

~~~
jammygit
Thanks for the details, i will reread some of those links

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nik_0_0
Great list - "fun toys, games, books, and applications to engage girls and
boys ages 3-18"

Although Exapunks is on there, which is still on my wishlist.

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app4soft
So many (LEGO® clones) building bricks in this catalog...

Anyway, wooden _Bi-Plane_ on p.19 would be awesome gift!

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xchaotic
Marble run is a safe bet for a surprising range of ages

~~~
wbeckler
Are you talking about Turing Tumble or a different marble game?

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Eire_Banshee
Boiler Up

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notimetorelax
I’m getting a Proxy Error, is it one of the gifts?

~~~
glitchc
The best kind of gift is a proxy error from a website.

Not only have you saved yourself some time you would have otherwise wasted on
that site, you saved some energy too by downloading fewer bits. The planet
thanks you.

