2021-Jul-23 2148
Texts have been really screwed up on the TMobile network. All sort of weird crap going on. Texts to and from TMobile are just going into the bitbucket.
My work around is just to use the damn phone as a voice call.
All communications protocols SHOUD BE authenticated and error-resistant!
Argh!
—30—
Leave a Comment » | 
Technology | Tagged: Altice, AT&T, MMS, SMS, text, texting, TMOBILE, Verizon | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://www.eff.org/effector/33/4
Supreme Court Says You Can’t Sue the Corporation that Wrongly Marked You a Terrorist
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court barred the courthouse door to thousands of people who were wrongly marked as “potential terrorists” by credit giant TransUnion. The Court’s analysis of their “standing” —whether they were sufficiently injured to file a lawsuit—reflects a naïve view of the increasingly powerful role that personal data, and the private corporations that harvest and monetize it, play in everyday life. It also threatens congressional efforts to protect our privacy and other intangible rights from predation by Facebook, Google and other tech giants.
# – # – # – # – #
Seems like they made big mistake on this one.
Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats are immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. As well as untrustworthy.
Argh!
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/does-the-two-year-phone-upgrade-still-make-sense/#ftag=CAD590a51e
Wait a second, does the 2-year phone upgrade still make sense? I think not
Commentary: Flagship phones are giving us only incremental improvements, and our upgrade culture makes less sense than ever.
Sareena Dayaram
July 7, 2021 5:00 a.m. PT
*** begin quote ***
Smartphone innovation has stagnated, and this is not a knock against the consumer electronics companies or the tech giants that design them. Maybe we’ve reached peak smartphone, and this is as far as it needs to go. It could well be part of the reason why the race to upgrade your phones is slowing.
*** end quote ***
I have a “broken” iPhone 10 (some broken glass on the back?) and pristine iPhone 7 (I brought to one of the cable companies cheap plans)..
Ever since I’ve found that there was no real reason to upgrade the 10 to the 12.
While I like technology, a $1,000 is an expensive “want”; not “need”.
Then I read about that NBA star from a third world country who uses a broken screen phone explaining that he can use the money for helping his people. I guess that really shamed me. If he can do it, so can I.
So I guess we have reached “peak phone” for me UNLESS there is some striking each-shaking feature “I just can’t live without”.
Sigh! But upgrading was fun!
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://www.makeuseof.com/google-products-discontinued/?utm_source=MUO-NL-RP&utm_medium=newsletter
Google Fails: 10 Google Products Discontinued in 2021
BY JOY OKUMOKO
*** begin quote ***
If you have used some of the above Google products in the past, you will agree that some will be missed. We hope that Google will shape the lessons learned from these failures into better products in the future.
*** end quote ***
Unless YOU can see the “value equation” (i.e., how does a service pay for itself), do NOT commit yourself to using it.
Perhaps, it’s unique or serves you well, then just make sure you can get your data “out”!
Note how many of the ten “products” just “silently” disappeared!
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://theconversation.com/apple-threatens-to-upend-podcastings-free-open-architecture-160318
The Conversation – Articles (US)
Apple threatens to upend podcasting’s free, open architecture
by John Sullivan, Professor of Media and Communication, Muhlenberg College
*** begin quote ***
A medium that exploded due to the lack of institutional gatekeepers is now seeing big tech companies act like traditional media networks, signing popular hosts and shows to exclusive contracts. Of course, other publishers like Slate and Stitcher have offered subscriptions to their shows via their own websites and mobile apps. But the m
uch larger audience share of Apple Podcasts and Spotify has much greater potential to move the podcast ecosystem in the direction of premium paid content.
This presents a potential long-term threat to the free, open architecture of podcasting, though projects like The Podcast Index are aiming to preserve the medium as platform-agnostic.
One thing is for certain: Apple and Spotify have given us a glimpse of a podcasting future where the walled gardens of platform-exclusive, premium content become the norm.
*** end quote ***
The Podcast Index are aiming to preserve the medium as platform-agnostic.
Guess that’s all that can save us from paywalls and the Apple Tax?
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: APPLE, iPod, ITUNES, Media, open architecture, Paywalls, platform-agnostic, podcasting, Podcasts, Radio, RSS, Slate, Spotify, Steve Jobs, Stitcher | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Researchers hack into a Tesla from an aerial drone
This one is material for a scene in a cyber-thriller: a Tesla speeds down the highway carrying “The MacGuffin” in the trunk…. suddenly a scary looking drone with spikes and a razor teeth paint job zooms out of the sky, falls into pace above the car, our hero takes evasive actions but no, the drone has put the vehicle into autonomous mode and veers it… off a cliff… the hero bailing out just in time (or a red-shirt unceremoniously disposed of)… an LED lights up on the drone and trunk pops open, it zooms in, scoops out The MacGuffin and soars away, as the Ian Fleming-esque music begins rolling….
Well we’re not there yet. But security researchers did hover a drone over a parked Tesla, and used a weakness in the vehicle’s WiFi to take control of the onboard infotainment center and make changes to the vehicle’s internal settings, including unlocking the doors and moving the seats (perhaps in our cyber-thriller the drone ejects the driver at accelerated force through the front windshield).
The duo of researchers work for a German cyber-security research firm called Comsecuris GmBH and they’ve dubbed the security flaws “TBONE”
Read: https://futurism.com/the-byte/hackers-tesla-drone
# – # – # – # – #
Seems like an obvious hack. What about the important controls?
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
“Wise guy figures out a way to park free on college campus but it’s kind of a d-ck move.” In short: guy buys a fake charger plug to make his Jeep look like an EV to get free parking. It’s sadly a total d-ck move because he’s leaving EV owners without a charger, but …I offer a respectful nod at the hustle (Jalopnik).
# – # – # – # – #
Funny but immoral?
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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—
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—
Leave a Comment » | NOTRECOMMENDED, Technology | Tagged: intellectual property, legal threats, never-use-what3words, Open-Source Alternatives, what3words, WhatFreeWords | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
LPT: Yelp replaces restaurant phone numbers with a special number that charges that business a marketing fee. If you find a good restaurant on Yelp Google their phone number instead so they don’t lose any money.
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22387601/smart-fridge-car-personal-ownership-internet-things
The erosion of personal ownership
Everything from your fridge to your tractor can change without your permission.
By Dan Greene Apr 21, 2021, 9:20am EDT
*** begin quote ***
These dual trends — the rise of purchased and subscription-based non-physical media — are driven by the benefits such consumption provides, chiefly convenience. Digital and streaming media generally offer minimal effort to access and strong portability without physical degradation or the constraints imposed by taking up physical space (say, in a box on a TV stand). But such benefits do impose costs, like streaming’s aforementioned unending billing cycles and lack of library control, or the limits a digital purchaser faces when trying to lend or resell their wares. In fact, as some digital consumers have found out firsthand, they may suddenly no longer have their purchases at all.
*** end quote ***
Sounds like the “consumer” is getting screwed.
I look at my collection of Iomega Zip drive media and say “WTH”.
No sense saving them or the data on them.
I don’t even know what I have lost.
—30—
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
You are currently browsing the archives for the Technology category.
-
-
FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
Reinke Faces Life 
You must be logged in to post a comment.