Posts by JohnFen

Re: "Only if you enable it"

My position is coherent and consistent -- Android is an OS that uses Linux. Linux is just the kernel, after all.

But my point is that even if we (incorrectly) call Android "Linux", it's still true that the parts that are slurpy are the applications and services that Google layers on top of that. You can absolutely have a non-slurpy Android installation.

Re: Linksys WiFi Router (Retail Product)

Yeah, I recommend against using Linksys products unless you're replacing the firmware with something trustworthy (like dd-wrt or equivalent). Even then, Linksys hardware tends to be pretty bad.

Re: "Only if you enable it"

Don't confuse Google's stuff with Android. I run an phone with Android that doesn't engage in this stuff at all -- because it omits Google's software.

Re: If you're upset at Ubiquiti

"They ALL call home."

This is not true in the sense that you're implying, and even if it were, it's beside the point. A lot of those do, of course, but a lot of them do the right thing and get your informed consent first. Mobile devices aside, very few of them engage in sneaky and mandatory reporting.

"What's more important is what information is being carried"

What's even more important than that is getting informed consent before doing data collection. I don't care if the data collected is actually 100% innocuous, if you're doing it without my informed consent, you deserve to be widely condemned.

Re: A lot of pissed-off people

They're not talking about opt-in, they're talking about opt-out. Opt-out is better than nothing, but it's not wonderful.

Also, El Reg linked to their statement where they said this.

Re: Once more, with feeling

"hopefully they will learn from this"

I was looking at the more general history of the behavior of this company, and it looks like they've long been sketchy. I personally doubt that they will learn the sort of lesson we would all hope they'd learn. Because of that history, more than this particular instance, I have them on my "never do business with" list.

Re: Once more, with feeling

"Unifi hardware doesn't auto install updates."

I never said it did. My comment was addressing the world beyond Ubiquiti.

"It’s a sad indictment of the modern world of technology that I made that assumption"

It's really the only reasonable conclusion, though. There is nothing about WiFi that inherently requires the internet to be involved, so there must be another reason.

Re: I have been removing these for a while now for other reasons

"It is rather odd that the range on these is quite good but the throughput is pants."

I don't know the details of how these devices are implemented, but generally speaking this makes sense. If you reduce the transmission rates, then you increase the ability to deal with radio noise. That means that the radio signal can be usable at lower power levels, which means that the radio signal is usable at a greater distance.

Re: Tech Intensity is nearly always 1

Yes, this equation is rigged. My trust in Microsoft is zero, so a resulting "tech intensity", whatever that means, is 1 -- which seems far too high to me.

Re: Lag Behind?

"So what is 5G going to give me that a decent 4G signal wold give. Please don't say downloading a movie in seconds. "

In your home? You won't even be able to download a movie in seconds. That speed requires using the millimeter band, which won't penetrate most walls, thick foliage, rain, etc. If you haven't set up a suitable antenna for it outside your home, you're going to be using the Khz frequencies, which aren't substantially faster than what 4G gives you.

Re: I still don't understand

Yeah, of all the ridiculous "benefits" of 5G that I see around, enabling driverless cars is perhaps the most transparently ridiculous. The existence of 5G will neither hinder nor help that development.

Well, it might hinder it if it encourages people to think that the cloud is necessary for driverless cars, because making them dependent on the cloud in any core sense is a safety disaster waiting to happen.

That's funny -- I've been doing exactly what karlkarl describes for decades, and am no worse for wear because of it despite being well beyond 40.

Just a little nitpick here -- the overwhelming majority of open source software is not in the public domain. It remains under copyright and is issued under a license.

Re: Is there someplace I can go ...

"Is there someplace I can go to donate to a fund to eliminate the menace of website scripting -- not just Javascript, but ALL web scripting -- from humanity's future?"

Oh, how I wish!

"If a developer feels that donations are a form of "compensation", then they are not open-source developers."

What? Whether or not something is open source is unrelated to whether or not compensation is involved.

Re: How do they get away with not complying with legal orders

" but the people in it are all but immune unless they commit a real crime"

This is overstating things a bit. The "corporate veil" is a real thing, but it's not exactly impenetrable. Here's a reasonable, although brief and simplified, discussion of this: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2014/03/27/the-three-justifications-for-piercing-the-corporate-veil/

Re: Not All Bad

It's not that it's a bad thing. The issue is that it's not the most urgent thing, and Facebook is using it as a distraction for what actually is the most urgent thing -- Facebook's own data collection.

Re: Linux for the win

I agree. Given the direction that the offerings from Microsoft, Google, and Apple have gone or are going, I'd go with one of the unices (using the generic because I've begun transitioning from Linux to BSD) even if they weren't otherwise the best fit for my needs.

Fortunately, they are the best fit for my needs anyway!

Re: Quite...

You do? I never have when I've placed the stands -- I just slide them in from the side. Very little of my body is under the car doing that, and only for a second.

Re: And there you have it...

"I see two solutions"

Neither of those solves the problem I have with all of this: consent. If I don't consent to having my data slurped, it should not be slurped. End of story.

Re: @AC - Businesses worried about getting in trouble

As A.P. Veening said much more succinctly...

It doesn't matter even a little how much your data is actually worth to companies. What matters is how much it's worth to you.

Re: Hmm

We don't all choose to give them data. I don't choose to do that -- they just take it.

"while a lot of what they do might be useless or a minor irritant it is the good that makes the difference."

I don't really agree, but I'm not going to make that argument here. Instead, I'll just point out that whether or not the good outweighs the bad is up to us each to decide individually. What needs to happen is that there is an effective way that people can stop the spying if they choose.

The GDPR is a good first step in that direction, and that companies are limiting their collection/use of data as a result confirms that.

Re: Money can't buy you love

Or make the fines large enough that they actually hurt the company and its shareholders.

Re: Money can't buy you love

I love your optimism. I wish I could share in it.

From where I sit, this looks like AT&T pretty much got off the hook with little more than a stern scolding.

Re: Doom and gloom and somewhat slanted

True, the article didn't mention that, but I don't think that the DISH involvement "gets in the way" of the criticism of the FCC around this.

Judging by the commentaries I've seen from the various analysts, the ones who think the DISH involvement is a real mitigating factor are the ones who have been in favor of the merger anyway, and the ones who have been against the merger don't think the DISH involvement really matters.

I'm no expert, so I can't really determine who is more likely to be right. But I do know that the FCC has been making a lot of decisions that harm the citizenry, so it seems justified to look at this decision with an extreme degree of skepticism.

Re: Seems fine to me

"I have never found a property which has sockets where one would actually like them."

My mother once completely renovated her house, and while the walls were all opened, she had an electrical outlet installed on literally every stud along the walls. As she put it -- once the walls are open, it's cheap and easy to install the things, so why not ensure that you always have enough?