Amusing that the chosen illustrative homograph is "i" and tirith has two...
They do provide installation commands for every platform that aren't vulnerable to homograph attacks due to GitHub not allowing Unicode characters in user/repo names :)
Readit NewsDownrightNifty commented on The browser catches homograph attacks, the terminal doesn't github.com/sheeki03/tirit... · Posted by u/MrBuddyCasino
The whole point is that someone could put a Cyrillic "i" in "github" and your eyes can't tell the difference. The actual GitHub link might be real and valid and you checked; you might still hit "g[cyrillic i]thub.com" and not the real GitHub.
But as the title of the post says, browsers already solved this problem.
https://www.xudongz.com/blog/2017/idn-phishing/
It does make running commands from an untrusted website a little safer, which is nice. I imagine it's not uncommon to copy installation scripts from random StackOverflow comments or blog posts, for example. But that's still not safe even with this tool. Homograph attacks aside, how can you tell if a URL you're pasting into your terminal is the official source for something? It's trivial to create fake GitHub accounts or organizations.
A simpler solution: examine the URL displayed in the browser window before copying terminal commands from the page. E.g. "starts with github.com" -> "trusted GitHub UI indicates the repo is the official one for this project" -> "URL points to the official project README" -> "terminal commands are most likely not malicious, and if they are, there's a bigger problem here".
Of course, more secure installation methods should be preferred, but those are not always available. I am simply comparing the provided solution to homograph attacks with another solution to the same problem.
DownrightNifty commented on Android’s desktop interface leaks 9to5google.com/2026/01/27... · Posted by u/thunderbong
Elements on the top of the screen have virtually infinite height, and elements in the corners have infinite height and width. You can't aim "too high" for something at the top of the screen.
Status bars on top don't make sense if you have tabs on top. Now your tabs are infinitely smaller, and aiming at them requires a lot more effort.
Mac's original design had the menubar on top, and its windows didn't have tabs, so it all worked fine together. That's not the case for browsers with tabs on top.
Along the way, it seems most designers have forgotten about Fitt's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law#Implications_for_U...
The linked article seems to imply that this remains a good design choice even today:
> The use of this rule can be seen for example in MacOS, which always places the menu bar on the top left edge of the screen instead of the current program's windowframe.
I guess now that the browser is the one app you probably spend the most amount of time in, it might make a little less sense? Android's lack of a menu bar system makes it make very little sense there.
DownrightNifty commented on Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone · Posted by u/kylemacomber
Wow, this is great. Would you mind if I reached out over email?
DownrightNifty commented on Build iOS Apps on Linux and Windows forums.swift.org/t/xtool-... · Posted by u/plurby
> To install your own personal homebrew apps without Apple's approval, use AltStore (Windows) or SideStore (Linux)
It works by signing the build with your personal Apple ID, using Apple servers.
True, it's far from ideal, and not entirely without Apple's approval. You need an Apple ID, to accept Apple's EULA (which probably forbids such activities), to accept the risk of your Apple ID being banned [1], to accept the risk of Apple breaking things (intentionally or not), and to continue asking Apple's server for new signatures every week into the foreseeable future.
Still better than nothing, for those already fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem, with no hope of escape? (I still use and recommend Android, but I have a spare iPad to play around with, so I enjoy seeing stuff like this come out.)
[1] They recommend using a secondary Apple ID, which eliminates most of the risk: https://swiftpackageindex.com/xtool-org/xtool/1.10.1/documen...
DownrightNifty commented on Build iOS Apps on Linux and Windows forums.swift.org/t/xtool-... · Posted by u/plurby
Mega cool!
We should all be taking full advantage of the amazing capabilities of the pocket supercomputers we all carry around with us at all times (even if the companies who make them don't want us to or don't care about us). Anything less would be silly! Now Linux and Windows users (the majority of iPhone users) can do easily do so, and that's great.
To install your own personal homebrew apps without Apple's approval, use AltStore (Windows) or SideStore (Linux):
https://faq.altstore.io/altstore-classic/how-to-install-alts...
Most laptops run Linux, but few provide official support for it. The Gen 12 and 11 did, and you could get Linux pre-installed. But there's no "Linux" option on the Gen 13 store page.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/t...
The latest model X1 Carbon (Gen 13) doesn't appear to officially support Linux at this time, unfortunately.
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