Geek Stuff category archive
Digital Piracy 0
No, no, no, not Napster-style piracy.
The traditional kind:
When one unnamed shipping company hired Verizon’s VZ, +1.14% security team to investigate, they learned the pirates had begun practicing another trade: Hacking.
The pirates are stealing computerized bills of lading so they can make sure they are hijacking the good stuff. More at the link.
When the FBI Wants To Look at Your iJunk 0
At the Boston Review, Neil M. Richards has a long and reasonably even-handed look at the legal struggle between the FBI and Apple over cracking the San Bernadino shooters’ iPhone.
It defies excerpt or summary. If you want a clear and level-headed look, free of polemic, at this issue, give it a read.
The Wormhole in the Apple 0
For those of us trying to understand the who-shot-john between the FBI and Apple over iJunk encryption, this article from the EFF is worth a read.
The Tech Trap 0
Nir Eyal tries to understand the forces that keep you staring at your screen. One of them he identifies as “The Tech,” that is ” Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Buzzfeed and the like.” Here’s a bit of what he has to say about that:
Follow the link for the rest.
Facebook Frolics 1
Facebook has “community standards.” Who knew?
Aside:
Like Republicans, Facebook seems preoccupied with sex, while giving a pass to general all-around garden variety nastiness.
No There, There, Geek Dept. 0
Nury Vitachi is skeptical that “virtual reality” gadgets can have any durable appeal.
I hesitate to hold myself up as typical, but I’ve not found any appeal in the prospect of putting on some kind of headset or helmet to fool myself into thinking I’m somewhere other. I’ve found this where quite enough, thank you.
Nevertheless, it is true that every virtual reality device so far (as opposed to simulators, such as flight and driving simulators, which are quite a different thing and have practical application) have flopped after the initial gee-whiz wore off.
Methinks Mr. Vitachi has a point. “Virtual Reality” may be another area where “because you can” is insufficient reason for “you did.”
Here’s one of his arguments (emphasis in the original):
5) We fail to realize that the wow doesn’t last.
Yes, there’s a big wow factor in trying out VR headsets, or reading reviews by people who have done so. But they have done so in trial situations, where people are demonstrating the equipment.
This doesn’t mean that the average person wants that experience several hours of VR a day every day of the week. We need to find a way to go beyond the wow.
Follow the link for the rest.
iJunk, Their Day in Court Dept. 0
This should be fun.
Law firm PCVA said on Friday that it had brought a class-action lawsuit in the US district court for the northern district of California in response to Apple’s “error 53” iPhone controversy.
(snip)
He (attorney Darrell Cochran–ed) dismissed Apple’s security argument as spurious. “If security was the primary concern, then why did the phones work just fine without the software update?”
Facebook Frolics 0
A Parisian protests the petty puritanism of prissy poseurs. A precis:
The ruling by the Paris appeal court could set a legal precedent in the country, where Facebook has more than 30 million regular users.
A court will now be entitled to hear the case of the 57-year-old Parisian teacher and art lover whose Facebook account was suspended five years ago without notice. It was closed on the day he posted a photo of Gustave Courbet’s 1866 painting The Origin of the World, . . . .
No Place To Hide 0
Just lie back on the couch. Let your thoughts roam free. Let your digital Candy Crusher tell the good doctor all about yourself . . . .
That information and more is then fed into a vast database containing details about nearly every adult in the United States to build psychological profiles that target individual voters with uncanny accuracy.
Cruz’s sophisticated analytics operation was heralded as key to his victory in Iowa earlier this month — the first proof, his campaign said, that the system has the potential to power him to the nomination.
You have been assimilated.
Afterthought:
Your smartphone is not your friend. It is your enemy, a tool of its corporate masters. Use it with caution.
Before you install an app, look at the permissions it requests. If they appear hinky in any way, don’t install that app.
And what the hell is the deal with Candy Crush anyway? Chess Checkers it’s not.
No Place To Hide 0
Can you really trust your thermostat?
Twits on Twitter 0
I think the judge is quite correct. If school administrators do one thing consistently, it’s overreact. They did it when I was in school and they will likely still be doing when my great-grandchildren are in school.
Facebook Frolics 0
I fear this horse is already out the barn door and into the next county.
The French order is the first significant action to be taken against a company transferring Europeans’ data to the US following an EU court ruling last year that struck down an agreement that had been relied on by thousands of companies, including Facebook, to avoid cumbersome EU data transfer rules.
Details at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
India refuses to be assimilated by the Zuckerborg (emphasis added–follow the link for the full article):
TRAI today ruled (PDF) that: “No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.”
(snip)
Facebook’s Free Basics project was ostensibly intended to extend some of the internet to those in the developing world – for free. It was billed as a charitable exercise by the Zuckerborg, but was met with considerably more hostility than charity usually is.
Critics have noted that the Zuckerborg’s curated collection of sites which were available distorted the view of the web for new netizens.
Afterthought:
My attorney will not be contacting El Reg over use of the term, “Zuckerborg,” because the comparison is so damned obvious that it’s public domain.
iJunk 0
Apple wants you to stay confined in their walled orchard.
Relatively few people outside the tech world are aware of the so-called “error 53” problem, but if it happens to you you’ll know about it. And according to one specialist journalist, it “will kill your iPhone”.
Droning On 0
The Empire states back.
The 29-year-old man was taken into custody after a small aircraft he was piloting struck the iconic building before coming to rest on the 35th floor on Thursday evening, the New York City Police Department said.
We are a society of stupid.