Posts by JohnFen

Re: Collateral Damage

The only type of damage Trump cares about is damage to himself.

Re: The basic idea may be sound

It's actually a pretty good idea. The bad part is the involvement of Comcast. The even worse part is the involvement of insurance companies.

It also strikes me that a lot of, if not most of, the monitoring and analysis of sensor data could be done entirely locally rather than sending it all off to a third party. If the local monitoring system detects a potential problem, then it could do something like notify that person's physician directly.

Re: Your rules can be gamed

They could just stop with the "surge pricing" nonsense. That would make it impossible to game.

Re: Here in the UK

I had a similar experience with a real cab company in the US a couple of weeks ago -- I watched the cab driving around trying to find me before giving up and driving off. Fortunately, since this was an actual cab company, not only did I not get any sort of fine but when I called them up to complain, they were very apologetic and had another cab to me in less than 10 minutes. Mistakes happen, and how companies handle those mistakes means everything.

Re: Fraud

If the drivers are intentionally doing things prohibited by their contract, and are attempting to hide that activity, then that's clearly fraud.

Re: Google to host videos ...

"The problem with rooting the device and installing a custom OS is that very few phones are supported"

There are lots of supported phones, but you're right that not all are (and newer ones are less likely to be). Each time I've replaced my phone, though, I've selected it based on whether or not I can replace the ROM. If I can't, then I don't consider the phone at all. As a result, I've used a replacement ROM on every smartphone I've ever owned.

Re: Google to host videos ...

I've been running rooted for almost a decade, and have never noticed my phones becoming unstable because of it. As to apps that refuse to run on rooted devices, I simply don't run them -- but there are countermeasures you can install that will make those apps think that your device isn't rooted.

Re: Cloud Storage

Not really, those computers are the size of an average smartphone, and only slightly thicker.

Re: Phone case???

Perhaps so (I have no way of knowing), but I was talking about the smartphone market as a whole.

Re: Cloud Storage

I had a lot of fun with with the Tandy PC-1! But no, I have a couple of Pi-based pocket computers sitting around. I'll use one of those.

Re: Google to host videos ...

That's bizarre. Different people will have different responses, of course, but I wouldn't be willing to work at a place that had this requirement.

Re: Google to host videos ...

"I need a smartphone because my employer's MFA application requires one"

If a piece of equipment is required to do your job, it's your employer's responsibility to supply it, not yours.

Re: Cloud Storage

"The phone is a cloud node."

That's a big part of why I don't consider this phone worth buying.

Re: Cloud Storage

"Being cloud connected is fine if you're solely an urbanite."

I'm an urbanite, but I don't find relying on cloud services to be fine at all.

Re: Cloud Storage

I have an ongoing project to build my own smartphone, but if my current one stops working before that's complete, I'll just start using an old-school feature phone and carrying a pocket computer separately, instead.

Re: Phone case???

I think that most people don't care about keeping them pristine for the next owner. Most smartphone users aren't even a little bit worried about resale value.

Re: So

OK, but to the same degree, you can't get rid of Google either, and it collects data on you whether or not you use Google services. There is no daylight between Facebook and Google on this.

Re: more convenient that having it on the front.

I sorta agree, but not in the way you mean. I read that as "which is actually more convenient", stating the fact that the reviewer finds it more convenient. The larger statement is an opinion statement.

Re: more convenient that having it on the front.

I read it again. In one place, he said

"this $400 phone has a fingerprint reader. And it's on the back which is actually much more convenient that having it on the front."

and in another place, he said

"Like the fingerprint detector on the back this is something that this reviewer started using almost immediately and felt very instinctive."

Both of those read as opinion to me, in part because of context (product reviews -- like movie reviews -- are opinion pieces by definition) and in part because phrases like "more convenient" are opinion statements, as how convenient something is is an inherently subjective thing.

Re: So

" (but it somehow still snoops on you)."

Serious question: why would that be something that you call out, when you've written at length about how you love being snooped on? What's the difference?

Re: Cloud Storage

"Therefore the phone makers don’t need to satisfy a few stick in the muds."

I was agreeing with your statements up until this. Why do you have such a dismissive attitude towards people who aren't being well-served by these devices?

But you're right, removing useful features doesn't appear to have hurt sales. It does mean, though, that I'm not likely to be buying more smartphones. At least not until/unless I find one that serves my needs.

Re: Compromises

" But 64GB is enough for a decent amount of music and photos,"

Not for me, it's not, particularly if I'm sharing that space with everything else (apps, etc.).

Re: more convenient that having it on the front.

The person who wrote that article was expressing his own personal opinion. In a piece like that, his view really is the only one that counts.

Re: Cloud Storage

"You know it's 2019, and not 1997 right?"

So, it being 2019 means that we have to do without useful features?

Re: In other words...

"Most of them stopped when it became clear that those agencies sometimes had trouble separating complete b0770cks from real spy chatter,"

That's not why people largely stopped spookfooding. Everyone doing it was hoping that those agencies would have trouble separating spook food from the real thing -- that was the whole point. People stopped doing it because most people became aware that it was ineffective.

Re: Start offering evidence

"I collect evidence of China's hacking crimes against the world every day by simply watching for it across the Internet."

Sure, but that isn't evidence that the devices in question are compromised, and if their hacking crimes mean that none of their equipment can be trusted, then no equipment from any nation can be trusted.

"It's my documentation of the behavior of a totalitarian, 'communist' nation."

Sure. But again, that's not evidence about the equipment in question.

"As such, it's impossible to believe that any Chinese company would NOT bow down to the surveillance demands of its government. "

Agreed. But yet again, this is true for every nation.

Your points are valid as far as they go, but in total, if that's the evidence then the US (and every other nation) should not be buying any equipment or chips made in any nation that isn't theirs.

Singling China out on this stuff, barring actual evidence that the equipment is compromised, really only makes sense in the context of war -- the trade war and/or preparation for a shooting war.

Re: Start offering evidence

"how do i untether it and make it my OWN controllable camera?"

I think the best solution is to not use that camera, and put together one that isn't locked into an ecosystem.

But, barring that, you'll need to do a little reverse-engineering. Identify the motor driver control lines, the video signal line, etc. Cut the traces that go to the microcontroller, and then install your own microcontroller that runs the thing instead.

Re: GDPR

This 'murcan doesn't.

Re: Start offering evidence

100% this. I have internet access to a whole bunch of things in my home, but none of them require the use of third-party servers or communications to or from any machine or software outside of my control.

Re: Wait a second...

"and may not even have the support of many people in the legislature at all."

I'm not sure this part is true. Since Congress can straight-up tell the FCC what it can and can't do, the implication is that Pai has plenty of support there.

Re: Wait a second...

"This is the second piece of consumer friendly, anti-big business legislation (the other being the Anti-Robocall one) to come out of republican senators in the last week!"

The world hasn't gone crazy. This is the second piece of legislation that will have no actual effect other than to convince some people that these politicians are "doing something". It's a con.

Re: Bad comparison

"It will at best be [...]"

In other words, it will be completely useless.

"5G is something we rural people look at with disgust"

This urban person doesn't hold it in very high regard either.