Month: July 2015

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The Case against “The Internet of Things”

SatelliteDishstylized

I’m a technowhore. I admit it, even though as time goes on, I’m becoming more resistant to things like FaceBook, Twitter, and all that stuff.  

When It comes to machines being smart I think it’s cool. At least I did…

Then I started adding up all the devices in the house that are updating all the time. You really don’t think about it until you’re trying to track down how 15GB of data can disappear in one day. Then you start counting up the devices and checking their auto-update settings.

I started, figuring that it would only take a minute or two, then had the sobering realization that I have a LOT of devices that connect to the internet.

Two Physical computers, one virtual machine. (3 Computers)

Two iPads, Two iPhones, Two Apple TVs, the Xbox (Which sits turned off most of the time), The DirectTV box, The Television, Two DVD players, A Nest Thermostat, Two Network Drives, and a Printer.

45 Minutes later I finished checking all the settings.

All these devices have the ability to grab software updates from the internet and it isn’t until you fire each one up to turn off the auto-update feature that you realize just how much data our technology can consume while we’re not looking.

donkey

Any of the devices that are multifunction computational devices (Computers, iPhones, iPads) will update the myriad applications we all load, in addition to their own Operating Systems. All of this happens even if you’re not using the applications.

How many of us have “forgotten” applications which are updating regularly on our computers, phones, or tablets? With services that have no real data-cap you don’t think about it. But when you’re trying to figure out where, how, or if, your’e hemorrhaging data, suddenly you tune into the minutiae.

Even though I’ve turned all the auto-updates off, I’m still at a loss as to what’s going on because all the logs say no update was greater than 500MB in the past 60 days. The grand total of data that I can account for is a little over 3GB.

Hughes has claimed that their premium plan is having problems because of a server migration. Well, that migration has been going on now for 4 weeks. I’ve come to believe there’s nothing wrong other than their service sucks diseased donkey balls. 

Since we’re now spending more time in the “Crippled” mode with Hughes than we are in the “working” mode I’ve decided that I’m not going to bother fighting a losing battle anymore. I told the other half that we were not going to keep playing the plug / unplug,  reconfigure your network game that Hughes keeps wanting to play each and every time we’re trying to get an answer to if they’ve fixed their premium plan.

devices

I’m done, we’re downgrading Hughes to the absolute minimum and we’re just not going to stream anything. No video, no music and if I need to actually do something like real work or retrieving email I’ll head to a library, or Starbucks, or just use my phone hotspot. We’ll simply get used to and accept the crippled mode as “normal” much the way we accepted the shitty Verizon service as normal. (At least with Hughes we can actually control the amount we choose to spend on internet, unlike Verizon.) As soon as something else comes along that’s better we’ll drop Hughes like the steaming pile of elephant shit they are and move on with life.

This whole debacle points to another issue.

The more connected our devices become the more ISP’s will have an opportunity to screw us all. Unfortunately, that opportunity will be handed to them on a silver fucking platter by the FCC and the morons in Congress.

If these ISP’s manage to institute data caps, and then get away with crippling the service, or charging premium rates for each megabyte of data above some arbitrary limit, The Internet of things is going to become very expensive.

I think in the future I’ll be looking very carefully at what the machines I buy actually need. If the device can’t be started without an internet connection I’m going to pass on it. Eventually, I wont be able to avoid these devices but I’ll hold out as long as I can.

I’ve got an old flip cellphone around here somewhere… I wonder if I can get that puppy unlocked and go back to “StupidPhone”

flipphone

I know I can put the IMEI number in a website somewhere and …

SHIT! I still need the damn internet even to “Go Stupid”

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It must be the apocalypse…

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But if it’s the apocalypse… I’d have expected less traffic!

In the course of one day sitting here minding my own business I’ve seen alerts for Flash Flooding, The sky is clear and blue.

CajonFire

Then we’ve had a big fire. Which went from 50 acres to over 2000 acres and which our amazing firemen have taken care of.

The I-15 was closed north and south for several hours. I’m really glad that I didn’t go off the mountain today.

And THEN I got my first Emergency Alert EVER on my cell phone. BOY that is A LOUD sound if you’re not expecting it!

smoke

But the real kicker is what the alert is about.

I’d have maybe expected something about the fire. I might even have been good with something about the potential for flood.

But this one… I have no clue, where am I? The Sahara???

All is fine, there’s nothing anywhere near us.

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There’s not even any wind to speak of. I don’t even want to think about what you get if you mix brush fire with dust storm.

I suppose it would be…

Apocalyptic!

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OMG! You don’t suppose…

Texas

I got a call from a young man this morning about a job opportunity in Dallas.

While I know there are a lot of folks that have problems with Texas, I’m not one of them. Every time I’ve been in Texas, I’ve found the people to be very nice and I’ve always been treated very well. So I’m up for moving to Dallas or pretty much any place in Texas. 

The young man is in Ohio and speaks with a very heavy Indian accent. Not unusual these days; we talked about my experience, and my expected salary range. All good.

Although, I must admit I wan’t able to get the guys name or his company name via the phone conversation.  That aside, it was when the young man sent me the job description that I found myself doing the Scooby Do “Whut Ro”.

There is only one company dealing in technology, in Dallas that matches the three letter company name… Wait for it, They’re another Indian headhunting firm! 

The Lion in Winter.

I’m reminded of a quote from The Lion in Winter. 

I wonder if that’s the way this works. One Indian Firm sells me to another Indian Firm to another and another and so on, each of them making money for selling a qualified lead but the “Lead” Me… gets nothing except spinning my wheels editing and revising resume after resume for nothing.

I’m beginning to think that’s the way of this particular encounter.

I just got a request from our young man to modify my resume to include something that IS listed in my skill set but which IS NOT part of my current unemployed life. He seems to think I should say that I’m using this particular bit of software which costs 5K a seat in my daily unemployed life.  I’ve already filled out his little checklist which DESCRIBES when and where I’ve used that particular bit of software last.

YouTrustThis

How can I take this seriously? This person has my resume in front of him, he found me through linkedin, he’s spoken with me and now has in front of him all the details and yet clearly he doesn’t have a clue.  So out of curiosity I go to his linkedin profile… WOW! The guy looks like a thug. Is this someone I want representing me?

Is this a scam, a spear phishing expedition, or simply some guy who’s fresh off the boat and has no idea what he’s doing? I think asking for my date of birth and SSN is not appropriate in an initial contact. It would be appropriate if a company was making an offer contingent on a background check but we’re not there yet, not even close.

Am I too suspicious? Perhaps.

But then again look at the Office of Personnel Management breach, or the Anthem, or Chase, or, or, or, or…