Category: Technology

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No Technology Weekend

Yeah, Yeah

I’m using technology now. But I’ve been offline most of the weekend. It’s been nice and quiet.

This started accidentally but eventually because something that I preferred.

Here’s the story:

I was looking at and writing what should have been a short piece about the Google / Apple Coronavirus tracking application.

I have reservations about the app for privacy reasons. I get that the app is supposed to help health departments react quickly and efficiently to potential outbreaks. It also makes sense that an app, as an extension of our technology would be the first thing that anyone thought about. 

My concerns about the app go deeper. When does the app go away? Who sees this information? Who could see this information? With the inevitable feature creep that all applications undergo, how long would it be before the app would be tracking other public health concerns?

What might that look like? Would we suddenly be tracking Measles, Smallpox, hepatitis? Admittedly this on the surface would seem like a good idea. But what happens when other diseases or conditions are being tracked?

We’re seeing authoritarian behaviors “For the Public Good”. It’s reasonable to ask just how long it would be before the authoritarianism pervaded all aspects of everyday life. Imagine the possibilities.

Your phone could automatically warn you that you were entering a hotspot. (That might be good.) But what happens if your phone informs authorities that you were in a no-tell motel with someone who had VD? Does that mean that you could be met by police at your home?

See, abuse of information is a simple thing and it’s deceptively easy to move from “Good” to “Evil” in just a step or two. Look at Google. They used to be the “Don’t be evil” company and  now… Well it was a short road wasn’t it?

This led me to wonder what applications on my phone are currently requesting to transmit location data. 

What I found was amazing and disturbing. A ton of my application are asking for access to GPS data and often a lot of them are transferring that data as well.

So I started thinning out the applications by turning off their access. What this will do to the day to day operations of these applications I have no idea, time will tell.

Then I realized that these apps existed on all my devices. Phone, pad, watch, computer and  each device had to have each application’s access turned off.

Why for example, does a drugstore app need to know where I am?

Then I noticed that Siri was also asking for location data. Why? Siri shouldn’t need access to location. Then as I was looking at Siri’s settings I realized that Siri was listening on all my devices all the time. On the one hand Siri listening is convenient. On the other hand Siri is listening all the time. Is that something that I really want?

PrivacyAfter several hours and shocks, I came to the conclusion that the most expedient way to deal with what was becoming technological overload was to power the tech down.

That was when I made another interesting discovery. If I powered down the phone and watch, then applied power, these devices powered back up. My watch couldn’t be powered down at all while it was on its charger. Hmmm, interesting.

I grabbed my nice automatic winding watch and powered everything down.

This let me process on the rabbit-hole I’d been sucked down, without the distraction of the technology asking for my input or reminding me of stuff. It was nice to breathe.

Now that I’ve gotten past the tons of SPAM and the missed messages I’ll make choices about applications and move forward.

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Abracadabra Alakazam Your online security is all a Big ‘Ol Sham

Just like the TSA waving their hands and muttering incantations when you try to board a plane.

10 years ago, I moved my checking and savings accounts away from Wells Fargo.

Recently I had need to speak with them and got the usual “you can get faster service by going to our web site”

During the course of the conversation, the representative, a lovely lady from Virginia told me that my records were very out of date. (I rarely have need to do business with them.) 

I told the lady that I knew that. And then told her that the reason for my call was that I couldn’t do what I needed to do online because the online system wouldn’t let me update the account profile.

The reason is this, I needed to change the phone number and the email address, but in order to do that I had to have access to one or both. Since I have access to neither, the system wouldn’t allow a change.

This was compounded by the fact that they didn’t have a cell phone number on file with which to send me a verification code.

Okay say I, “Since I’ve given you all the verification information and was able to tell you what the old number was, can you just make the changes? And can we proceed from there?”

Her answer is yes, “but we’ll have to add your cellphone number and then you’ll have to wait for us to send you an email telling you your number has been accepted, so that when you call us back to actually do what you needed to do, we can send you a verification text, so that we know it’s you…”

This somehow seemed totally logical to her.

She followed up by telling me it was for my security.

Sigh…

If I were a nefarious person, I could just as easily play along with this game, having changed the cellphone and email addresses, and I’d have access to do what I was trying to do in the first place, It would only take me keeping track of stuff for 24 hours and then calling back.

What exactly does the bank think is going on? Do they think that criminals have some kind of short attention span?  Are they thinking a criminal is going to forget about the score they were working on, over the course of 24 hours?

By the way this is the sort of thing that has turned me off traditional banks. Credit Unions seem to be a little more direct about getting the job done. 

The banking and insurance systems seem intent on making things so secure… That ONLY criminals will be able to access our data, because they have the time to commit to accessing the accounts.

40 minutes on the phone, and I still have not accomplished what I set out to accomplish.

So now I’m waiting on an email… 

I’m thinking that it’s not worth it. A far more direct method would be to keep my money in my mattress and eschew traditional banking institutions altogether. The problem is that  gold is heavy, and hard to store or move. Diamonds on the other hand are small, light, and easy.

Hummm I wonder…

Perhaps it’s time to close this last bit of business with Wells Fargo. To do that I’ll have to be in a bank branch sooo that’s on my TODO list.

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It’s that time of the month

No! It’s not what you’re thinking. Pigs!

It’s the time of the month when I cycle all the batteries in my devices.

IMG 1065I run the phone, pad, computer, watch, and finally the Goal Zero down to nothing then recharge ‘em. 

Right now my Watch, Computer, Pad and headphones are recharging from the Goal Zero so I’m almost at the end of the cycle.

It’s funny though because one of the things I worry about while I’m doing this… What happens if the house power goes out?

Silly, I know. It’s happened before, once. In that case I broke out all the big solar panels and was able to keep things running. 

It’s funny when I think about it, the time of year most likely to lose power here, is Winter. Rarely is the power outage attributed snow or a severe storm. Almost always it’s because a skier’s snowboard was better prepared than the vehicle that was taking them to the slopes.

They lose control on the icy road, take out a power pole and plunge the whole town into darkness. The last time it happened, we were without power for 36 hours. The power company simply couldn’t get the appropriate equipment up the hill to make the repairs.

IMG 1064That alone should tell you the obvious. The skier from “Down Below” shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place because the storm was such a big deal the roads were being closed all the way down to the freeway. 

To top it off, the skier tried to sue the town for poorly maintained roads. He was laughed right out of the courtroom for two reasons. 1) He had bald tires, no chains  and 2) His friends testified that he’d been in a hurry to get to the slopes before the road closed.

Judge says… “You’re out of here! Please take your lovely parting gift from the clerk and I don’t want to see you, or your attorney in my court again.“

It is nice to have CHP & Sheriff’s officers as neighbors. You get all the best gossip.

Nonetheless I guess it’s about being vulnerable. During this time If the power goes out I might find myself with dead equipment, at least until I’m able to get enough sun on the panels to power back up. 

Call it routine maintenance. As with any routine maintenance, you run the risk of causing bigger troubles. It’s a sunny day, so going solar wouldn’t be that big a deal. The plus side is that it’s about 35F outside so I wouldn’t have to worry about the battery packs overheating during charging.

I may break out the panels just to have the whole cycle “Green” it would give me something to do.

Oh yeah, gotta check the charge on the HAM radio too.

No, I’m not a “Prepper” but I do like being somewhat prepared.

Okay, off to handle some other things around the house. I’ll also continue the job search. 

I’ve gotten into the habit of blogging when I need a break from the frustration.

Have a great weekend

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When I buy a Season Pass from iTunes…

I expect that for the price of that Season Pass, I won’t have to watch a bunch of commercials.

I’m even less interested in seeing a bunch of commercials for shows that I’ve shown absolutely zero interest in watching.

Really? 2 to 5 minutes of commercials embedded in the episode download? That’s not what I paid for. Worse yet, the commercials are for the same un-interesting FX productions over and over again, and will become outdated in six months.

Screen Shot 2019 11 16 at 11 27 54 AMI expect Season Passes to be commercial free.

FX obviously didn’t agree. 

None of the rest of the Archer seasons have commercials.

It’s annoying.

I’ll also be weighing the purchase of any future FX season passes because of this experience.

It’s a pity because there are a couple of other FX shows that I actually would be interested in owning. But not with commercials.

So If you’re buying television season passes from iTunes, you might want to check with other folks to find out if the seasons meet your particular preferences.

I hope this isn’t a trend, if it is I’ll go back to purchasing seasons on Blu-ray.

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I’m thinking it’s a spell …

Airpods pro PDP US 1 grandeI think that all of us can agree that Apple Stores are dangerous. 

No, not in the sense of personal safety but to the safety of our wallets.

I went to the Apple store to pick up my order of nifty new AirPod Pros.

They are very nice, comfortable, and have some really good sound along with the #1 thing I wanted, Noise Cancelling.

While I was there, I asked for the Apple folks to take a look at my series 3 Apple watch.

Nothing major, just a couple of issues that cropped up after the latest upgrade. I’d tried everything I could think of to resolve the issues and figured I’d see if they could point me in the right direction.

After the Apple folks poked around in my watch and my phone a bit, they came to the same conclusion that I’d come to. I was going to have to unpair and repair my watch & phone.

No big deal. We initiated the backup procedure so that the watch would be backed up to the cloud and I wouldn’t lose any data.

Backup completed normally, then unpaired and well, things were suddenly different on my phone. I hadn’t lost any data on the phone (all the health data that had been recorded was still there) but what had been two watches paired to my phone (I only have had one Apple watch) was suddenly no watches paired. The backup data was now gone after saying that the backup was corrupt.

My old watch was not wanting to pair with my phone and the Apple folks and I were confused. While I’d been waiting for the backup to complete I’d been playing with the new Series 5 watch and I’d been jonesing for one since they were released. 

Apple-Watch-Series-5-2019.jpgIt occurred to me that if I was going to have to download a new operating system to a watch and pair it… It might as well be to a New Watch.

They traded in my Series 3 got me a Series 5 and we started the setup process. Easy! Too damn easy!

That ladies and gentlemen is how I walked into an Apple Store for a new set of headphones, and walked out with new headphones, a watch, and a couple of cables I’d forgotten I needed.

Sometimes all I need is the slightest excuse to do something crazy. Thank god I didn’t look at iPhone 11 pro!

On the plus side, while I was waiting for the watch to do it’s thing I sat in on an iPhone training session and learned some nifty things that I didn’t know my phone could do. So that’s a win. 

I like the Series 5 a lot. I’m still getting used to the “Always On” feature and thus far my battery life has been good. Not yet the two days of my Series 3, but the battery is still young and does seem to be lasting longer each day. I suspect this is, in part because I’ve finished tweaking the watch and now It’s presenting information as I prefer it and I’m not in configuration all the time.

The only thing I wish the Watch would do is when my phone goes into “Night – Do not disturb” that the watch would turn off it’s display as well. Maybe I’ll send that as a suggestion to Apple.

The Apple Store magic is strong.  Make sure you’ve got the ability to counter it before you walk inside.