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.

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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 ***

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Yelp replaces restaurant phone numbers

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/jurn6l/lpt_yelp_replaces_restaurant_phone_numbers_with_a

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.

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TECHNOLOGY: What are we “buying” or are we “renting”?

Saturday, April 24, 2021

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.

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TECHNOLOGY: EV cars seems to have some BIG problems — with recharging

Sunday, April 18, 2021

https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2021/04/15/sans-garage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EricPetersAutos+%28Eric+Peters+Autos%29

Sans Garage
By eric-
April 15, 2021

*** begin quote ***

There are many obvious problems with electric cars as mass-market cars, most of which have been discussed. But there’s one that’s regularly overlooked:

The lack of mass-garaging.

Having a garage, of course, is not a necessity. But without one, owning – charging – an EV becomes more . . . problematic.

Without a garage – and the electrical outlets most garages have – where do you plug the electric car in overnight to recharge? An extension cord can be run from an outlet inside the house sans garage to the car parked outside – assuming you have a long enough cord.

*** end quote ***

As a fat old white guy “e-leck-trick-cal” injineer, I know a little bit amount moving electrons.  Clearly recharging is going to be an issue in several ways.  L think that this point about recharging infrastructure is a killer.  Anyone who has recharged a phone or laptop knows how long it takes,  Now imagine if your car is unusable while you’re waiting.

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SOFTWARE: EVERNOTE can’t sort the contents of a note.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Earl John S. (Evernote Help and Learning)

Apr 9, 2021, 10:04 PDT

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting Evernote Support.

I understand that you are unable to find an option to sort the contents of a note, and if it is not possible, you want to know why it isn’t.

In Evernote, you can sort your notes but not its contents. This feature is not yet built in the Evernote app. However, thank you for sharing this good idea with us. It’s super valuable in helping us build the best Evernote we can. I’ve gone ahead and made note of this for our development team. While we can’t commit to getting all feature requests into the product, we do rely on our community to tell us what they’d like to see in the future. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other ideas.

Your ideas and feedbacks are incredibly valuable to us so we built a new “Share Feedback” button into the app to make it quick and easy for you to send us your thoughts. If you are using a Mac, you can find the “Share feedback” by clicking the “Help > Share feedback” in the menu bar (Please see attached image). The comments go directly to our product team. I encourage you to use the button to submit your feedbacks and ideas.

I hope this helps.

Please message us again if you have any outstanding concerns.

Best Regards,

Earl John S.
Customer Support Representative

# – # – # – # – #

Seems like a simple straight forward function to have?

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TECHNOLOGY: Digital services ARE “common carriers”

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/thomas-scotus-twitter-trump-ban

BULLETINS Justice Thomas argues for making Facebook, Twitter and Google utilities
Thomas argues that some digital platforms are “sufficiently akin” to common carriers like telephone companies.
Issie Lapowsky
April 5, 2021

*** begin quote ***

Thomas argues that while private companies aren’t subject to the First Amendment, common carriers are unique to other private businesses in that they do not have the “right to exclude.” Thomas suggests that large tech platforms with substantial market power should be bound by the same restrictions. “If the analogy between common carriers and digital platforms is correct, then an answer may arise for dissatisfied platform users who would appreciate not being blocked: laws that restrict the platform’s right to exclude,” Thomas writes.

Such a restriction would substantially curb tech giants’ ability to moderate content, a proposal that both tech giants and those on the left who want to see more aggressive content moderation online would almost certainly reject.

Thomas goes on to describe the sheer scope of Facebook and Google’s market power, citing Facebook’s roughly 3 billion users and Google’s 90% market share in search. “It changes nothing that these platforms are not the sole means for distributing speech or information. A person always could choose to avoid the toll bridge or train and instead swim the Charles River or hike the Oregon Trail,” Thomas writes. “But in assessing whether a company exercises substantial market power, what matters is whether the alternatives are comparable. For many of today’s digital platforms, nothing is.”

*** end quote ***

And, as I have often posted before, if they want to moderate content, then they should be responsible for ALL content!

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APPLICATION: Gmail can’t use different stars in filters; frustrating to me

Monday, April 5, 2021

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/become-a-gmail-pro-with-these-10-tools-and-tips/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+cnet/NnTv+(CNET+River+RSS)

Become a Gmail pro with these 10 tools and tips
Check out these Gmail tips for accessing multiple accounts at once, setting up filters and more.
Shelby Brown  
April 2, 2021 9:41 a.m. PT

*** begin quote ***

Labels

Labels can make your inbox way more manageable. They’re kind of like filters (and you can set up a filter to send an email to certain labels). Labels live in the sidebar where you’ll find Inbox, Sent, Junk and other folders. Scroll down at click Create New Label. From there, you can name your label as well as group labels.

*** end quote ***

A filter can only yellow star a message.

I haven’t been able to figure out a work around.

Eventually this may “cook GMAIL’s goose” with me.

Maybe it’s time to move on?

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: Do as I say; not as I do

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Argh!

OK, I have put my coffee tray on my truck set many many times.

Today, it cost me when I spilt two large DD coffees on my seat.  

So was my laptop.

It appears that I now have a problem or three — sticky keys, a partially damaged screen, and some power issues.

New machine comes in tomorrow.

Reminds me of why I like CHROMEBOOKS.  Cheap and cloud based.

If only MARSEDIT would run on the CHROMEBOOK, then I’d have migrated completely years ago.

Oh well, live and learn!

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: Take Control of Your Online Presence

Saturday, March 20, 2021

https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2021/March/anti-vaxxers-list.jpg

‘Digital Anti-Hate’ Group Puts Dr. Mercola on Hit List
Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola
March 17, 2021

*** begin quote ***

For example, free-speech alternatives to Facebook and Twitter include Gab, MeWe, Minds and Parler. Uncensored alternatives to YouTube include Bitchute, Rumble, Brighteon, Banned.video and Thinkspot.

*** and ***

Take Control of Your Online Presence

Beyond that, consider safeguarding your own online privacy if you haven’t done so already. To encrypt your text messages and keep them from becoming data mining fodder, download the Signal or Telegram app and/or use a virtual private network (VPN) on your desktop, laptop and mobile devices.

Telegram has grown in popularity as many who have been banned on other social media platforms have migrated there. In addition to encrypting your text messages, the app also allows you to subscribe to channels. Read-only messages (although some also have the ability to comment) are sent to your phone from any channel you subscribe to.

Lastly, if you care about privacy and free speech, stop using any and all Google products, including its search engine, browser, email service, Google docs, Google Home devices, Fitbit and Android phones. There are alternatives to all of them.

For search, check out DuckDuckGo and SwissCows. For a browser, consider Brave or Opera. From a security perspective, Opera is far superior to Google Chrome and even includes a free VPN service. For encrypted email, sign up with ProtonMail, which is based in Switzerland. As for online document sharing, Digital Trends has published an article listing a number of alternatives to Google Docs.

*** end quote ***

I think this is an excellent list of alternatives.

And, I’m on many if not all of his suggestions.

You should be too.

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TECHNOLOGY: The shopping and delivery trend

Thursday, March 18, 2021

https://www.cnet.com/news/streaming-shopping-and-delivery-why-covid-may-have-changed-our-habits-forever/#ftag=CAD590a51e

Streaming, shopping and delivery: Why COVID may have changed our habits forever
The pandemic made subscription services like grocery delivery and streaming part of daily life. We examine what’s changed and what it means for the future.
Shelby Brown  
March 17, 2021 4:00 a.m. PT

*** begin quote ***

“I’ll likely go out to stores I enjoy browsing in, but I doubt I’ll go back regular grocery shopping. It’s just too convenient,” she said. “At the end of the day, I’ll pay a little more to have it delivered so I can spend some extra time with my daughter at home than spend 2 hours at the grocery store, shopping.”

*** end quote ***

Out of a sample size of two young women grocery shoppers, I know one who is NOT going back to the old way of schlepping to the grocery store.

The other is a tactile strap of consciousness lady who wants to see and feel stuff.

But I do think the author has identified a trend.

In my case, I’m lazy and, as a child, my sainted Mother used to drag me to go shopping many Saturdays.  Hence, I HATE it.  So for as much as like the power of Big Tech, I’m a keyboard warrior when it comes to shopping.

No going back for me unless I’m dragged into it.

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