NOTRECOMMENDED: Any KINDLE or ebook “purchased” from AMAZON

Monday, October 6, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/amazon-kindle-e-books-drm-harder-to-backup-3601341/

Your Kindle e-books just got locked down even tighter
With stricter DRM in place, your Kindle library is now even harder to back up.
By Matt Horne aka @SalvaCash
September 25, 2025

*** begin quote ***

For Kindle owners, this continues a pattern of losing personal control over purchased books. Earlier this year, Amazon removed the ability to download titles for local transfer via USB. Old versions of the Kindle Android app also no longer support downloads, which cut off another method people used for saving e-books. With this latest move, the company has tightened its grip on Kindle e-books even further.

*** end quote ***

As much as I linked my old Kindle, which I have misplaced, I can’t understand why AMAZON has locked it down even more.

Until the Gooferment cracks down on AMAZON for its FRAUDULENT practice of “SELLING” books when it’s really just delivering a “LICENSE” to you, we’re stuck with a BIG BROTHER “librarian”.

I’m tired of what I call “CONTENT FRAUD”.  I don’t know how many times in the past I’ve had to rebuy content.  Paper books, books on cassette tapes, books on CDs, and “audio” books are all the same content that we’re stuck buying and rebuying,

Never mind that Disney and Amazon do a big business in “SELLING” streaming content that you don’t have control over.

Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon, but I’m now at the point where I’m not BUYING content where I don’t control the MEDIA that I’ve purchased.

I want my CONTENT without DRM so I can put it in CALIBRE and enjoy it anywhere anytime.  I want to burn that into a MEDIA that is virtually eternal and that I control.

Sorry, but I’m not LICENSING anything anymore.

# – # – # – # – #

P.S.: While on the topic of really free “BOOKS” I use:

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RECOMMENDED: I am moving from LASTPASS to BITWARDEN

Monday, August 25, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/lastpass-password-manager-alternatives-3587020/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyauthority&utm_term=Daily%20Authority

5 password managers you should use instead of LastPass

  • Tired of security scares? Ditch LastPass and switch to a password manager you can actually trust.

By Karandeep Singh  —  August 17, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Bitwarden is my default recommendation to anyone looking for a reliable password manager. It has everything you’d expect from an app built to handle your most sensitive data. Its free tier is one of the most generous out there, it’s available across platforms, and it even offers self-hosting if you’re feeling adventurous. The premium individual plan costs just $10 a year — an easy recommendation for the extras it brings.

Even if you stick with Bitwarden’s own servers for storage, you know your data is safe because it’s open source and independently audited. Plus, migrating your data from LastPass is a breeze using the included tools. The interface might not be as slick as its pricier alternatives, but it’s perfectly functional, and its safety upsides far outweigh any minor aesthetic caveats.

 *** end quote ***

I agree.

What more needs to be said?

One “feature” that’s a negative is that if you rerun an import, then you’ll gt duplicates.  With no easy way to delete except one at a time.

Argh!

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Don’t buy “gift cards” throught zillionsgift offers on gift card racks in Walgreens

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Don’t buy “gift cards” throught zillionsgift offers on gift card racks in Walgreens.

They are counting on you to become frustrated trying to transform them into a useable gift card for so site you like.

My experience:

  • The fine print says the card can only be redeemed at their website
  • Took several tries to get to the website “zillionsgift.com”; the fine print isn’t easy to read; mistakes take you to cyber squatters waiting for you to fall into their trap
  • Getting the card info in and verifying your humanity took three tries
  • After getting thru that hurdle, you need to select values for your favorite destination site that work (i.e., 40$ gift card must be taken as two 20$ Amazon gift cards)
  • Then it says “tilt” and an obscure error message
  • Try that twice, then give up at call their 1-833 (?) number
  • After a brief hold, you get a call center fellow (Philippines?) who makes your repeat all your info and then tells you to try a mobile or another browser (Hey, I’m an IT pro. Already did that!  Argh!)
  • Then he graciously agrees to send you a paper check to your home address in 3 or 4 weeks
  • Argh!  I’m saving all the papers and card in an envelope with 8/15/25 on it

Feel free to check back for my update.  Argh!

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Liberty Mutual Insurance — tech support

Monday, June 30, 2025

Couldn’t logon for several days.

First call into them; they changed UserIds to emails. Argh!

Second call into them; send us a screen shot.

Sent it in and then they said: “three to five business days”.

Argh!

I fail to understand how they are going to diagnose and fix this. And, five days, someone must be INSANE!

Nevermind that no one is interested in WHY I need to get on their website.

Argh! Argh!

Maybe I need to change?

— 30 —

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RECOMMENDED: Netflix Siege of Jadotville or why politicians leave soldiers out to die

Thursday, June 12, 2025

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3922798/

Siege of Jadotville

1961 Irish UN troops defend against attack by Belgian and Kanganese soldiers

The siege of Jadotville was a major battle during the Congo Crisis, that began on 13 September 1961, lasting for five days, where a small contingent of the Irish Army’s 35th Battalion serving under the United Nations Operation in the Congo, designated “A” Company, were besieged at the UN base near the mining town of Jadotville by Katangese forces loyal to the secessionist State of Katanga. The siege took place during the seven-day escalation of hostilities between ONUC and Katangese forces during Operation Morthor. Wikipedia

# – # – # – # – # 

Amazing that the Irish took no casualties.  

IF THE MOVIE IS TRUE … … and that’s a big if … … the (French mercenaries) were poor strategists.  They must have studied the tactics of the Napoleanic period, the British during the American Revolution, the Union / Southern Armies, during the War of Northern Aggression, or WWI.  Lining troops up and having them advance and attack against modern weapons and machine guns is suicidal.  I’m surprised that they only suffered 1300 KIAs.

The lesson for soldiers is that the politicians and bureaucrats will always betray you and leave you to die.

So sad.

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RECOMMENDED: MOSUL on NETFLIX

Saturday, May 3, 2025

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=mosul&jbv=81041495

# – # – # – # – #

“War movie” with violence, language, and heave forbid smoking!

Gives one a feel for the trauma of all these wars.  If you weren’t just a plain old hippie anti-war type after this, then you have no empathy for those poor unfortunates in the middle. 

Note the scene of the child just sitting along side the alley.  Or the final conclusion!

Dona Nobis Pacem

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RECOMMENDED: Write In Private: Free Online Diary And Personal Journal | Penzu

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Write In Private: Free Online Diary And Personal Journal | Penzu

https://penzu.com/journals/3256620/107022325

Remember Star Trek and “Ship’s Log”?

I do the same thing, sort of in Penzu.

I find it pretty robust and useful.  Since 12/2021!

YMMV FWIW faiwwypfi (Free Advice Is Worth What You Pay For It! ?zero?)

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NOTRECOMMENDED: LASTPASS no longer recommended; Use BITWARDEN instead

Sunday, April 6, 2025

LASTPASS has dropped support for Mac OSX application.  

No appologies; just dropped.

Sigh!

I’m testing BITWARDEN and Apple’s PASSWORD app.

Not that I’m an “influencer”, but I have RECOMMENDED LASTPASS for a long time.  Removing it’s availability from a key computer platform is short sighted at best and dumb at worst.

IMHO

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RECOMMENDED: Netflix’s ‘Number 24’ asks you the question “what would you do”?

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

https://www.netflix.com/title/81664509

Netflix’s ‘Number 24’

*** begin quote ***

Netflix’s ‘Number 24’ transports the audience to 1940s Norway, where the German occupation incites the Norwegians to form a resistance. While a lot of people join it to fight the Nazi regime and free their country, Gunnar Sønsteby is one of the few who leaves an indelible mark in history with his many acts of sabotage. The film begins with a 90-something Gunnar appearing for a lecture to the youth, who have several questions about his story, which has now become somewhat of a legend in the country. He starts with the times before the war and how drastically everything changed once the Nazis set foot on the streets of Norway.

*** end quote ***

I’m not sure I could have done a fraction of what he did.   I can understand how after the war his comrade became an alcoholic and eventually suicided. 

Watch this if yo9u want to understand what true patriotism means.

Can’t imagine being in those circumstances.

Can you?

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RECOMMENDED: Netflix’s ‘Number 24’ asks you the question “what would you do”?

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

https://www.netflix.com/title/81664509

Netflix’s ‘Number 24’

*** begin quote ***

Netflix’s ‘Number 24’ transports the audience to 1940s Norway, where the German occupation incites the Norwegians to form a resistance. While a lot of people join it to fight the Nazi regime and free their country, Gunnar Sønsteby is one of the few who leaves an indelible mark in history with his many acts of sabotage. The film begins with a 90-something Gunnar appearing for a lecture to the youth, who have several questions about his story, which has now become somewhat of a legend in the country. He starts with the times before the war and how drastically everything changed once the Nazis set foot on the streets of Norway.

*** end quote ***

I’m not sure I could have done a fraction of what he did.   I can understand how after the war his comrade became an alcoholic and eventually suicided. 

Watch this if yo9u want to understand what true patriotism means.

Can’t imagine being in those circumstances.

Can you?

—30—

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Apple AirPods2Pro for the hearing test

Saturday, December 28, 2024

After a very frustrating day of “escalations”, broken return calls promised, and countless connect / disconnect / in case / out of case / reconnect, I gave up.

This product is not ready for prime time,  I felt like an alpha tester.

Argh! ** 3

They hyped the “hearing test” so much I really wanted it to work. 

Frustrated to the full extent.

—30—

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RECOMMENDED: Read “Starship Troopers” for yourself; I loved it

Saturday, November 30, 2024

https://boundingintocomics.com/tv-shows/tv-show-news/starship-troopers-star-casper-van-dien-says-franchise-should-be-revived-as-tv-series-why-wouldnt-you-make-this/

‘Starship Troopers’ Star Casper Van Dien Says Franchise Should Be Revived As TV Series: “Why Wouldn’t You Make This?”
Jorge Arenas   |  Nov 21, 2024

*** begin quote ***

Amidst the ongoing trend of Hollywood remaking and rebooting fan-favorite franchises, the star of the first Starship Troopers film, Casper Van Dien, thinks now is as good a time as any to send the troops of the United Citizen Federation on a new TV-specific deployment.

*** and ***

Working against this idea is the fact that thanks to director Paul Verhoeven’s decision to turn Robert Heinlen’s military novel into a biting satire of such concepts as propaganda and societal control, the film has a divided reputation among audiences, with some believing it to be a straight-forward war tale, some unsure of what to make of the subversion, and fans of the source material dismayed by the sheer amount of liberties taken with the original story.

Adding to this lack of a consensus is the fact that Verhoeven was unfamiliar with the property he was attempting to subvert, with the actor telling Empire in 2012 that he never finished reading Heinlen’s book because he found it “boring and depressing”.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

This is the book that I read as a teenager that turned me into a little L libertarian.  The VietNam war was happening and, even then, I thought the politicians and bureaucrats were full of “Barbara Streisand”. 

There are so many of Heinlein’s moralisms in it that I don’t understand HOW anyone could consider it “boring”.  

In light of VietNam, the line “men aren’t potatoes” certainly drove home the POW / MIA issue for me.  When I learned that we left men behind in WW2 and Korea, I became incensed.

The topic cam up in USAF survival school and you could see it was a “sore spot” for all involved.

I have a literal slew of Heinlein quotes just from Starship Troopers alone,

  • “Because revolution—armed uprising—requires not only dissatisfaction but aggressiveness. A revolutionist has to be willing to fight and die—or he’s just a parlor pink. If you separate out the aggressive ones and make them the sheep dogs, the sheep will never give you trouble.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “When you come right to it, it’s a lot easier to die than it is to use your head.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “I told you that ‘juvenile delinquent’ is a contradiction in terms. ‘Delinquent’ means ‘failing in duty.’ But duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a ‘juvenile delinquent.’ But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents—people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail.”  ― Robert A. Heinlein,  Starship Troopers  
      
  • Remember Heinlein’s Starship Troopers’ universe? One does not merely have the right to be a citizen and vote by virtue of what Heinlein called the mere accident of birth; rather, one has to earn this right through Federal Service that tested one’s ability and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of the polity. Bet not a lot of vets would vote for all the undeclared wars the USA has been in since WW2?
  • “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “A soldier accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not.” — Lt. Col. Jean V. Dubois (Ret.) and student, p. 26 Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein 
  • “Cast me into a dungeon;, burn me at the state, crown me king of kings, I can ‘pursue happiness’ as long as my brain lives — but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “Peace” is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story prominence—unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly . . . it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. —Thomas Paine” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
  • “The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

How could anyone of these be “boring”?

I find them thought provoking and of incalculable worth as a guiding principles.

I especially thing that vet only voting is an absolute must.  Right along with the Taxpayers should have their own “house” in Congress.

Argh!

—30—

 

 

 

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POLITICAL: Eliminate DOEd, FEMA, and the FBI

Monday, November 25, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/11/d_o_g_e_is_a_wonderful_concept_and_here_are_some_ideas_to_get_it_started.html

D.O.G.E. Is A Wonderful Concept, And Here Are Some Ideas To Get It Started
By Gregory McCants

*** begin quote ***

With Donald Trump’s election win now a few days behind us and the GOP all but confirmed to have swept both houses of congress as well it would appear that at least for two years we should have a truly unique and remarkable opportunity to make meaningful change in a variety of areas. Of highest priorities would be the economy and border security, both of which were clearly the major issues the American people looked to when deciding their next government.

Within that discussion of economic improvements, Trump has now tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head an informal operation to be known as the Department Of Governmental Efficiency (with the excellent acronym of D.O.G.E.)

*** and ***

FEMA probably just wrote its own obituary with the revelation that a FEMA official in Florida told workers to “avoid houses with Trump signs” in the wake of Hurricane Milton, leading to loud calls for defunding the agency. The truth is that emergency disaster relief should not be handled by yet another agency with large layers of bureaucracy.

Instead, states should be able to request emergency disaster relief funds directly from Congress, with the appropriations then used to purchase necessary resources and materials, ideally from private vendors who can compete for the contracts. This would lead to increased efficiency and better prices for the taxpayer. This would also allow the government to engage in strict accounting to ensure federal funds go where they are supposed to go.

*** and ***

The DOE is on Donald Trump’s list of agencies that should be removed, and it’s been on Republican lists back to the Rick Perry days. The Department of Education (“DOE”) has long been a target of many who feel the government’s meddling in education, and its one-size-fits-all approach is ultimately detrimental. To quote Reason, “Take, for example, federal grants to state education departments. Federal aid incentivizes schools to shift their priorities to meet federal grant requirements rather than local educational needs.”

*** and ***

The FBI, originally created as an “emergency agency” in response to organized crime during the Prohibition era, has become a bloated, redundant, and ultimately useless organization that essentially serves as the outdated grandfather of other agencies conducting operations on the ground, such as the U.S. Marshalls or the Drug Enforcement Agency. One of my personal favorite YouTube commentators did an excellent video on the topic. 

*** end quote ***

As always, the Gooferment “Swamp” is a “target rich environment”.

But I hope that DOGE doesn’t get confused and jump from target to target.

Best focus on these three and drive to completion.

Don’t just trim around the edges; axe them.

If, for example, the FBI’s labs are “valuable”, then transfer them to some “technical organization” like NIST,

—30—

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Putting a child on an andriod phone

Monday, November 18, 2024

Tried to put him on two different android phones.

Apparently, “FAMILY LINK” doesn’t work.

I wind up with a device that constantly reboots.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — attributed to Einstein, Ben Franklin, and Rita Mae Brown

I now have two devices that just reboot over and over again.

Maybe I’ll just buy him an obsolete iPhone.

Argh!

—30—

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NOTRECOMMENDED: LULU open source firewall

Thursday, October 24, 2024

While I like the idea of having a firewall to protect me from the likes of ISPs and Applications, I tried LULU and could get through the install.  Maybe I’ll try again when I have time to waste.

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RECOMMENDED: The Electronic Frontier Foundation gets my financial support

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

This is a friendly message from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

*** begin quote ***

Membership Update

Dear Ferdinand,

Thanks to you, EFF championed aggressive efforts to protect user rights and secured significant victories in the last year. We wanted to let you know that your annual Sustaining Donor contribution is scheduled to be charged next week. Thanks for continuing your support for the coming year!

If you donate using a credit card on file and wish to update or change your recurring payment information, visit eff.org/recurring. If you donate using PayPal, please log into your PayPal account to make changes.

Please reply to this email if you would like assistance or have any questions about your recurring donations.

We can’t express how much we appreciate your commitment to supporting digital civil liberties and human rights. Sustaining donors help EFF continue to spot and thwart threats to online freedom wherever they arise, and it’s only possible with your ongoing support.

Thanks again, 

Christian Romero

EFF Membership Team

P.S. EFF is a member-supported U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a top rating by Charity Navigator. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

*** end quote ***

I put my money where my mouth is.  Not a huge amount, but every little bit helps to steer the ship.

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Napoleon (2023)

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Napoleon (2023)

# – # – # – # – # 

Save your money and wait for it on free tv.

The only thing good was the costumes.

And, if you weren’t anti-war before the movie, you would be after it.  Marching lines of people into cannons is the height of stupidity.  And, why would Joe Grunt do it?

Argh!

Dona Nobis Pacem

—30—

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RECOMMENDED: Diana Nyad movie

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5302918/

It tells the remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.

# – # – # – # – # 

I’m not a big fan of movies that don’t make me laugh.  

However every once in a while, one comes along that I feel is a “must see”.

I’d make it required watching for every student in the world.

Overcoming obstacles. Exponentiated.

Hard to say enough good things about this movie.

On a personal note, I didn’t recognize Annette Benning until I went to write this post.

I’d put this in my “Rudy” file of “motivational” musts.

Unlike the trash that Hollywood usually produces, there was a tasteful nod to sexual abuse and lesbianism.  But didn’t detract from the message.  If anything, it focuses on the hidden obstacles that one would never know about.

—30— 

 

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NOTRECOMMENDED: DRIZLY is unreliable

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Took my order and never delivered. I had to make three phone calls and two emails to find out.

Argh!

—30—

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Facebook’s Portal product

Friday, July 16, 2021

I need a YouTubeKids app and the portal to interoperate with non-messenger contacts.

# – # – # – # – #

It’s great for an old relative but imho it’s too tightly tied to Facebook Messenger ands very limited apps.

With a toddler, it’s too hard to restrict him to YouTubeKids. 

Argh!

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RECOMMENDED: Coming 2 America (2021) corny but fun

Thursday, May 13, 2021

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6802400/

Coming 2 America (2021)
PG-13 | 1h 50min | Comedy | 5 March 2021 (USA)

# – # – # – # – #

Yeah, there are a lot of errors and inconsistencies.  But if you relax and suspend belief it was corny and funny.

I think Leslie Jones and Wesley Snipes steal the show.

# – # – #

I watched on Prime Video and got some random German subtitles.  A quick search reported that this was not unusual error.

—30—

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TECHNOLOGY: WHAT3WORDS may not be suitable for the task? NOT-RECOMMENDED!

Saturday, May 8, 2021

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/05/03/1538256/what3words-sends-legal-threat-to-a-security-researcher-for-sharing-an-open-source-alternative

What3Words Sends Legal Threat To a Security Researcher For Sharing an Open-Source Alternative (techcrunch.com) 133
Posted by msmash on Monday May 03, 2021 @11:38AM from the how-about-that dept.

*** begin quote ***

A U.K. company behind digital addressing system What3Words has sent a legal threat to a security researcher for offering to share an open-source software project with other researchers, which What3Words claims violate its copyright.

*** and ***

But security researcher Andrew Tierney recently discovered that What3Words would sometimes have two similarly-named squares less than a mile apart, potentially causing confusion about a person’s true whereabouts. In a later write-up, Tierney said What3Words was not adequate for use in safety-critical cases.

*** end quote ***

Maybe Google’s system is better?

40.48453468598731, -74.42346811440515

As opposed to:

safety freed solo

AKA https://w3w.co/safety.freed.solo

WhatFreeWords should NOT be suppressed.

—30—

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210430/22510246716/what3words-sends-ridiculous-legal-threat-to-security-researcher-over-open-source-alternative.shtml

What3Words Sends Ridiculous Legal Threat To Security Researcher Over Open Source Alternative
(Mis)Uses of Technology
from the never-use-what3words dept
Mon, May 3rd 2021 10:47am — Mike Masnick

*** begin quote ***

The only proper response to this is never, ever use What3Words for anything that matters. Beyond not giving in to censorial, abusive bullies, their legal reaction to a security researcher doing reverse engineering work to help find potentially dangerous problems with What3Words screams loudly to the world that What3Words has no confidence that it’s products are safe. They’re scared to death of security researchers being able to really test their work.

Both of these reasons means that What3Words should be remembered as little more than a failed.dumpster.fire rather than the cool.mapping.idea it could have been.

*** end quote ***

—30—

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NOTRECOMMENDED: HOME DEPOT online purchase

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

FROM HOME DEPOT

# – # – # – # – #

How many stars would you give your recent online purchase?
View as web page
 
RATE & REVIEW
YOUR HOME DEPOT PURCHASE
 
Ferdinand, How many stars would you give Kidde Pro 340 3-A:40-B:C Fire Extinguisher?

# – # – # – # – #

A used old and discharged one was delivered. Of course, it was returned and I will not be ordering online from Home Depot again!

—30—

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RECOMMENDED: Queen’s Gambit

Thursday, April 22, 2021

For anyone with Netflix, I recommend Queen’s Gambit. and not just because it was my favorite opening during my chess playing games. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

But that women are not big into chess is a sad fact of-life and I wonder why?

—30—

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Google Pay

Friday, March 12, 2021

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/the-new-google-pay-repeats-all-the-same-mistakes-of-google-allo/

PLEASE STOP —
The new Google Pay repeats all the same mistakes of Google Allo
For P2P users, the new app has fewer features, is less convenient, and has more fees.
RON AMADEO – 3/7/2021, 9:30 AM
 

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For long-term Google users, the new Google Pay is yet another annoying transition they’ll have to explain to friends and family. This is an occurrence that’s getting more frequent and more annoying in recent years, thanks to similar Google shutdowns of Google Play Music, Cloud Print, Inbox, Works with Nest, the ongoing Hangouts situation, and many others. That’s to say nothing of the crazy history of this payment service, which used to be Google Wallet, then Android Pay, then Google Pay, and now it’s a totally different Google Pay. Just like we’ve been through a million times now, some people won’t think this is a big deal because their use case is supported on the new product, while for other people, the new Google Pay will be a much bigger deal, because their use cases will be ripped-out from under them and no longer supported.

The worst part of it all is that, like the move from Google Music to YouTube Music, there is no reward at the end of this transition. Google is blowing stuff up and making users switch apps and set things up again only because of internal politics and infrastructure concerns. There aren’t any great new features to sell people on—it’s just Google’s constantly shifting priorities reaching into your life to remind you, “This is what being a Google user is like now. You’d better keep up!” It gets exhausting.

There is one new feature in the new Google Pay. I swear I’m not making this up: new Google Pay is yet another Google messaging app! Once you add someone via their phone number, the three options are “Pay,” “Request,” and “Message.” The “Message” option will bring up a full messaging app with the usual back and forth replies, push notifications, and emoji support. You can even start a group chat!

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Luckily, I never got into Google Pay. And, I dropped Google Fi for Altice’s unlimited mobile offering.

YMMV

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NOTRECOMMENDED: Paytrust sucks

Thursday, March 4, 2021

Just nuked my paytrust account!

… … due to the lousy Use interface.

And they don’t forward the mail.

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