Category: Tech

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Is Your “Smartphone” Spying On You?

Maybe.

Well, no: probably. If you use it to access social media sites (FarceBook, et al) or any Google service, almost certainly. Heck, there are growing claims that smartphones “listen in” to conversations happening within access of the phone’s mic, like so-called “smart” TVs do.

So?

I’ve worked with computers/networking, etc., for ~30 years and am certainly no Luddite, but my phone stays OFF (and usually in another room) when I am not making calls. I check it now and again for messages from any whitelisted folks, and (very rarely, and only when I’m away from a desktop/notebook/large format tablet–which is very, very rarely, since I almost always have one of the three at hand) I might use it to check something on the web, but only when locked down fairly well and using a strong VPN, while on a local network I trust to be well locked down, as well. I see no reason to let a phone run my life or be connected to any old whomever who might want to contact me.

Other phone “tracking” things?

I don’t need GPS. I’m not helpless or “directionally challenged.” I know how to read a map, can navigate with or without (usually) a compass, and check my routes before heading out anywhere I’ve not been before.

Yes, I got lost once (on an overcast day, on a system of rural gravel roads and two-tracks in rough terrain, off my projected area of travel for that day–no excuse, since I simply left my compass and map for the area behind that day). I stopped and asked directions (because I’m also not completely stupid).

I like the convenience of having computers, tablets, cell phones, etc., but unlike many I know nowadays who would probably be pleased as punch to have their dumb “smart” phone embedded in their body, wired to display in their field of vision, etc., I think I can handle a lil disconnection now and then.

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Drawbacks of a Long Infancy

Infant product class, that is. eBooks. I read a lot of ’em. So far, very few eBooks seem to take advantage of the medium to expand beyond print format, and many are weaker products than hardcopy books. Here’s a brief blurb of my consumer-of-print viewpoint.

Many books can benefit from maps, tables and other reference materials. With hardcopy books, these are often included, and if not I often have the material to hand (or nearby) to fill the gaps. eBooks that can benefit from such addenda need them even more than print works, because they’re often read in locales where such things are unavailable even to someone like me who has a wide-ranging reference library at hand. Such things should be included in eBooks that would benefit from them, and they should be, at the very least, context sensitive. For example, when maps are called for, scalable, zoomable satellite or aerial maps (with helpful labeling, perhaps) could be included with little more trouble than simple line-drawing maps. Use your imagination to supply supplementary materials lists eBook authors should include. You’ll have to, though, because so far very few authors have used theirs in that manner.

As to those eBooks that are weaker products than corresponding print works. *sigh* One of the worst examples I can think of offhand was a novel written by a very good writer before eBooks had really taken off. I read it expecting not great but good fun. The story was OK, as were the characters, descriptive narrative and dialog, but… he’d apparently just scanned it–or had it scanned–and converted to electronic format and apparently had not even had it proof read. Too many obvious scanning errors ruined enjoyment of the book. But that’s just one of the worst. Self-published, author edited or proofread (or author edited AND proofread) eBooks seem to be about 85% POORLY edited and proofread. Good lord, folks! Execrable grammar, spelling and punctuation just barely scratches the surface of many crap-laden plots, dialog, descriptive narrative and characters crudely drawn in crayon from B-movie central casting descriptions!

Yes, there are a lot of well-written, well-edited/proofread “Indie” published books available, but the numbers of well-written “Indie” books is only because so very much chaff is out there to winnow the well-written books out of. It’s a real pain in the neck (although the pain’s really quite a bit further south of there) to be reading along thinking, “Interesting story–OH CRAP! GETCHER SYNTAX OUTA YOUR ASS!” or “SPELLCHECK, DUMBASS, SPELLCHECK!!” or “WTF! YOU DIDN’T JUST ‘THERE’S’ ME AGAIN! over and over again.

I’m sure both the crap writing and the features blocks will work themselves out in time, though. eBooks are still in a development phase, and some writers, at least, seem to be thinking seriously about some of these things. Thank heavens. *sigh*

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A Little Give, A Little Take

Overall, the Amazon Kindle Fire announced today (available November 15) is net positive on the give/take from what was leaked and speculated about before the release announcement.

Minuses:

Amazon Prime membership is just the one month trial, instead of the rumored year. Add $80 to make it stay (for a year).

Rumored to possibly be available next month. Nuh-uh. November, as stated above, IF one gets in line now.

Pluses:

$200, not $250

Dual core, not the rumored single core

Email app (designed to import email from Gmail, Yahoo!, etc.); was thought that would be missing.

Also, net pluses (with a couple of privacy cavils) for the Amazon Silk Browser. Overall, probably a Very Good Thing for what the Kindle Fire will be asked to do by most users.

All the rest as rumored/leaked pretty much spot on. Tempting, very tempting.

Real cost for optimal use:

$200 for Kindle Fire
$80 for a year’s “membership” in Amazon Prime (something I have already been seriously considering anyway)
$30 for a zip sleeve (why pay $200 for a techie toy and transport it w/o some sort of protection? Yeh, I know people do dumb things like that all the time, but I expect my equipment to last until I tire of it. *heh*)

So, about $310 real up front costs. Back end costs for apps are an unknown at this point. Some will be free, of course; others? No real idea at this point. Books and other Amazon product orders are more than likely just stuff I’d be buying anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUtmOApIslE

Mini-update: While reading a Kindle edition of a David Weber book referenced in a later post, it came upon me again just how handy reading ebooks can be. While I prefer reading books in my web browser, the Kindle app for PCs is Good Enough, and does have the added advantage of slightly easier referencing (and syncing across devices), which I imagine would also hold true for any physical Kindle. For example, just now I ran across a word whose root I knew and which, from context and root, I was sure I understood; even so since I had never actually read this particular word before, I I CLICKed on it and immediately had the definition verifying my understanding. That’s slightly more convenient than my old practice of keeping a dictionary handy for similar use, although it doesn’t afford the enjoyment I frequently had from continuing to read on down the page in the dictionary (sometimes for pages and pages… ), etc. *heh*

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Tech Lust Drool

Update: While I’m not exactly holding my breath in anticipation of the presser this A.M. (just 5 or so hours away at this time), I do eagerly anticipate getting some hard news on this device. Of course I’ll at least wait until the first revision hits sales (by some reports already semi-halfway scheduled for Q1 2012), V.1 of almost any new hardware is a silly purchase, IMO. And again, maybe this is not the tablet I have (not) been looking for… *heh*

Amazon has been holding its cards pretty close to its vest, as these things go, but Amazon isn’t exactly Secret Squirrel, now it it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXZNkxJFiQ0

This could be just the thing to get me to change some priorities (including sadly consigning my lust for the Notion Ink Adam’s transflective screen to the back burner *sigh*).

The Kindle Tablet will sell for $250, much cheaper than competing tablets. It will come with an Amazon Prime membership which provides free shipping on some Amazon purchases, a $79 value. Amazon will likely tie other purchase incentives to the Tablet, and will likely integrate Amazon’s Kindle library book service.

*feh* That’s just $60 more than the 3G Kindle. Of course, the Kindle Tablet is Wi-Fi only making a comparison to the $140 Kindle more proper, but still… It also has no eInk capabilities, but still…

*heh* The feature list and description here does make the ole tech lust saliva run.

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Temptation

I’ve recently become intrigued by this:

Unlike the iPhad, this holds some attraction for me. Check the basic specs to see some of the appeal:

Not too shabby. The features that appeal to me are obvious: the ports and connectivity, the screen and the enhanced functionality of a dual core nVidia processor. Taking the last first, full multitasking and 1080p video processing? Very cool. The ports? 2USB and one mini-USB, an HDMI port (how about that? a real media portal!), and 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth and 3G built in (just add your own sim card). And the screen. Wow. A transflective screen that can do full color (with, as I said full 1080p video) AND automatically adapt to lighting conditions or be switched to an epaper mode for ebooks or full sun display that still can do 64fps video even in epaper mode. (And yes, there does appear to be a compatible Kindle app for Android. :-))

Oh, and the first production run has already sold out at about $350 U.S.

Yep. A real feature-full product that’s also a price-beater. By feature comparison, the iPhad is looking more and more like a typical, over-hyped and under-featured Apple fanboi honeypot.

Adam: Very, very nice. Tempting. (Singing a verse or two of “Yield not to temptation” *heh*)

Check it out for yourself.

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Again With the Idiots at Customer “Service”

ISP went down again last night. *sigh* Did all the normal stuff can do from my end, up to and including replacing the cable “modem” with another, known good, unit and some lil “tricks” the local cable tech clued me in on that are not included in SOP.

No joy. *sigh* Called customer “service”. Doubleplus nojoy. Idjits. The BEST response I got from two first level “service” people was a proposal to schedule an appointment for a tech to drop by sometime on September 13. September 13?!? Ten whole calendar days?!? *feh* After stressing and re-stressing (thus distressing *heh*) to the customer “service” cubicle serf that such a “service” was no service at all, and certainly showed no evidence of good faith, I managed to finally, after repeated “requests” (read, “demands”) that my call be escalated to someone who could deal with the issue properly, I reached someone who noted that my cable “modem” was online, but was “not communicating with the server”. Right. Not at my end. From her end, she could–and did–reset the server’s connection with the modem (I had already been through several reboots of my whole network, in whole and incrementally, in those steps noted in paragraph 1 above), whereupon everything was working again.

Why the first two “service” serfs couldn’t or wouldn’t correct things at the ISP end, I don’t know, but the first rule of dealing with such “service” came in handy again: always escalate until you get someone who can at least find their own backside with a mirror on a stick and full directions written in monosyllabic words.

Now, it’s not barn-burning speeds, but at least it approaches what the ISP advertises:

I can live with that, although my cable “modem” can handle much greater speeds than that.

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A Nice Idea, But…

…some of the talking points are Greenie Gobbledegook.

What am I talking about? This:

The talking points about “zero emissions” and “cleaner air” are hogwash, though. “Zero emissions”? Not at all. Where does electricity in the U.S. come from? Over 70% is from fossil fuels. Acceptable “greeniee weenie” methods of producing electricity are way, way down the line, about 13% of what is produced by another minor player (nuclear power generation). So “zero emissions” from an electric car is just a flat out lie.

“Cleaner air”? Well, perhaps. That would depend on where you got your electricity. Live near a nuclear power plant or a hydroelectric (still just 29% of nuclear) power plant and perhaps driving a Tesla would result in “cleaner air”.

Selling the thing using Greenie Gobbledegook is just silly, if anyone were to look at the facts.

Still, if I had an extra $50K sitting around, I’d find the idea of ordering one attractive, even though I found the early prototype of the Tesla sports car more attractive for its “infinite range” option–a towable electric generator that would kick in when the charge got low on the battery pack.

Still, the “S” car seems nice.

Deliveries start in 2012.

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Windows users: you got this security advisory, right?

Gee. The hits just keep on coming in…

*sigh*

Posted yesterday by Micro$oft:

Microsoft Security Advisory (912840)
Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
Published: December 28, 2005

Yep. eWeek says,

Microsoft Corp. has issued a security advisory for what Secunia is deeming an “extremely critical flaw” in Windows Metafile Format (.wmf) that is now being exploited on fully patched systems by malicious attackers.

Websense Security Labs is tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code from a site called iFrameCASH BUSINESS. That site and numerous others are distributing spyware and other unwanted software, replacing users’ desktop backgrounds with a message that warns of spyware infection and which prompts the user to enter credit card information to pay for a “spyware cleaning” application to remove the detected spyware…

Fortunately, malware detection companies (AV/Spyware) seem to be reacting to this pretty quickly. Update your AV software NOW. You heard me. If you don’t, then come crying to me only if you bring some of the big green with you. 🙂

Gotta love Micro$oft. Full employment for techies.

Oh, there’s a workaround for folks here, in case you’re ionto the “belt and suspenders” approach to securing your computer.

Pegged to Ferdy’s Bulletin Board (by linking his “NSA Cookies” post—a “TWC must-read” 🙂 at Conservative Cat.

Posted on

Windows users: you got this security advisory, right?

Gee. The hits just keep on coming in…

*sigh*

Posted yesterday by Micro$oft:

Microsoft Security Advisory (912840)
Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
Published: December 28, 2005

Yep. eWeek says,

Microsoft Corp. has issued a security advisory for what Secunia is deeming an “extremely critical flaw” in Windows Metafile Format (.wmf) that is now being exploited on fully patched systems by malicious attackers.

Websense Security Labs is tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code from a site called iFrameCASH BUSINESS. That site and numerous others are distributing spyware and other unwanted software, replacing users’ desktop backgrounds with a message that warns of spyware infection and which prompts the user to enter credit card information to pay for a “spyware cleaning” application to remove the detected spyware…

Fortunately, malware detection companies (AV/Spyware) seem to be reacting to this pretty quickly. Update your AV software NOW. You heard me. If you don’t, then come crying to me only if you bring some of the big green with you. 🙂

Gotta love Micro$oft. Full employment for techies.

Oh, there’s a workaround for folks here, in case you’re ionto the “belt and suspenders” approach to securing your computer.

Pegged to Ferdy’s Bulletin Board (by linking his “NSA Cookies” post—a “TWC must-read” 🙂 at Conservative Cat.