Tag: Modern Problems

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And the hits just keep on coming.

There was this lovely article yesterday on Breitbart. The original article is linked here. I’ve copied the article below.

I submit that this data breach is a direct result of Amazon Web Services negligence. This data wouldn’t have been exposed if they 1) Hadn’t de-platformed Parler. 2) Had provided reasonable notification and time to Parler to remove their data from AWS servers.

I won’t be surprised if the leaked user data ended up on one of The Lincoln Projects communistic hit lists.

Now, I as one of the class of individuals potentially affected by AWS and Twilio’s negligence DEMAND restitution.

I’d like to see a class action lawsuit against AWS and Twilio on the part of the verified members of Parler.

Parler said they verified members for security. Part of the Terms of Service, If I recall correctly, was that if you engaged in unlawful behavior as a verified user, that Parler could and would provide your information to appropriate law enforcement. I personally had no problem with that. It seemed reasonable and correct.

I do have a major problem with my data being scraped and distributed across the internet. It’s one thing to provide information as a law abiding citizen in exchange for access and posting privileges on a site. It’s quite another thing to have my data made public in an age of cancel culture and rabidly communistic behavior on the part of a specific party within our own government.

Parler Suffers Massive Data leak

Recent reports claim that 70 terabytes of user data from social media network Parler have been leaked online.

CyberNews reports that self-drscribed security researchers performed a massive data scrape of the social media network Parler before it was taken offline by Amazon Web Services. The data scrape captured user profile data, user information, and other private and administrative information.

A Twitter user going by @donk_enby announced the scrape, claiming that over a million video URLs had been collected. Twitter itself suffered a massive hack of prominent accounts in 2020.

I am now crawling URLs of all videos uploaded to Parler. Sequentially from latest to oldest. VIDXXX.txt files coming up, 50k chunks, there will be 1.1M URLs total: https://t.co/YUl8CtoeEA

This may include things from deleted/private posts.

— crash override (@donk_enby) January 10, 2021

The Twitter account claims that the posts are linked to accounts that posted them and some of the video and images contain location information. It’s also said to include data from Parler’s “Verified Citizens,” which are users of the network who have verified their identity by uploading photographs of government-issued IDs such as a driver’s license or passport.

The data scrape also appeared to include deleted posts which would mean that Parler kept user data after users attempted to delete it.

a sample of what’s in there pic.twitter.com/5o8CBRrmgc

— crash override (@donk_enby) January 9, 2021

Parler has previously claimed to have over 10 million users but was shut down after google and Apple removed the website’s smartphone apps from their app stores. A short time later, Amazon Web Services announced they would be removing the site’s hosting services, alleging that Parler failed to properly moderate its platform.

Some Reddit users allege that the user data scrape was made possible due to Twilio, an American cloud communications platform that provided Parelr with a phone number verification service and has since cut ties with the company.

In a press release announcing plans to cut ties with the platform, Twilio revealed which services Parler was using which allowed hackers to determine that it was possible to create users and verified accounts without actual verification.

Once the was discovered, they were allegedly able to get behind the login box API that is used for content delivery, allowing them to see which user shad moderator rights and in turn allowing them to reset passwords of existing users. As Twilio was no longer authenticating emails, hackers were able to access admin accounts easily.

Breitbart News has reached out to Parler for comment on this story.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com

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Sometimes I ask Questions I’m not supposed to…

ADT security and I parted ways yesterday. Another divorce and another reduction in mothly expenses. They’ve been replaced by a Simplisafe system and thus far I’m far more impressed with the Simplisafe than I ever was with ADT.

The sensors are smaller, the control pad is smaller, the installation or removal of sensors is a snap, and doesn’t require arcane incantations like the ADT did. The price for monitoring is about 1/2 what ADT was charging.

There’s the rub.

When I called ADT to tell them, “You’re outta here,” suddenly they were interested in me. In the 10 years we’ve been ADT’s customer, we’ve had 4 service calls. 1 Installation, and 3 repair calls. The bill has been paid on time, and for many years they took the cash directly from the account and all was well.

Then I noticed the price going up. I didn’t think much of it. I figured inflation, and cost of doing business. Then the monthly price went up sharply and around the same time due to various human errors on our part we had a couple of false alarms. Both of which we canceled with the appropriate codes and countersigns. But the police still showed up 3 -4 hours later, after we’d been assured by ADT dispatch that they’d cancel the police call.

The police told us that ADT almost never contacted them to cancel a call and that they (the police) hated ADT for that and other reasons.

While speaking to the ADT Customer Service person I mentioned the rise in fees and falsehoods that ADT dispatch had engaged in. I also mentioned that the system was exactly as it was when it had been installed and that didn’t make sense to me.

You’d have thought that when the last technician was out here to replace the cellular communication module he’d have mentioned that there were newer improved systems that we could upgrade to. Those systems being more capable, efficient and lower cost to maintain and work with.

Suddenly, the Customer Service person said we could reduce your monthly fee to about 1/2 of what they’d been charging me. I told the person, “thank you.” but it’s too late. Then she got a bit miffed.

Whatever! Within an hour of that phone call I’d disabled the system, and removed all the sensors. Now, I’m patching the holes in the wall from the 10 x 8 control pad.

While I was scraping off all the leftover glue from the entry sensors, it occurred to me that if ADT could offer me 1/2 price reduction, that the price they were charging could always have been at the lower rate.

Then I remembered that Cox Cable had played the same game. They raised the rate per month gradually until I called them and told ’em I wanted to cancel service. Suddenly the price could be magically reduced by a substantial amount.

This indicates that these companies at least are charging much more for their services than they are actually worth.

Which leads me to the question:

Why not charge a fair price for your service in the first place?

I know that it’s a money making process to increase the rates yearly, regardless of actual need. I wonder if corporations would find it more profitable in the long run to just be honest.

If they’re going to raise rates, explain to their customers that costs have increased by X and that rates will be increased by Y to facilitate continued good service and provide for expansion to increase service levels. Most customers, myself included would understand that.

But customers like me tend to get very annoyed when we reach our breaking point, and during our cancellation call, suddenly find that, for who knows how many years, we’ve been ripped off.

The ADT Divorce is final. I save 1/2 on the monthly security bill with Simplisafe and have a smarter more adaptable system too.

I’m just working on simplifying my world and reducing the costs too. If you’ve had services in place for a long time. Maybe it’s time to call ’em up and see if they’re ripping you off.

I’ll grant you, you shouldn’t have to do it, but rattle their cages and see if discounts fall out.

Have a great day.

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Okay I like the look of the new MacOS

It’s almost intangible, meaning it’s tough to describe with words. But the overall effect is visually, the information on the screen “feels” lighter and more open.

Even on my 10 year old 20″ Samsung display the icons and text are crip and clear. On the Retina display of my laptop itself, things “pop” and the OS appears to be as fast as the previous version. Upgrades always worry me because there comes a time when the OS begins to exceed the hardware capability of the computer. In this case, it looks like the improvements haven’t created any noticeable lags or issues.

That may change as I get further under the covers of the system. I know there will be something I use regularly that will be odd or slow, but I haven’t stumbled upon it yet.

The unwritten law of computers is that the problem will not rear it’s ugly head until you’re in a time crunch.

For reference, I’m running on a late 2019 MacBook Pro 13″. While I am interested in the new M1 apple chip Macs, I’m probably going to stick with Intel for at least a couple more generations of the M series. I don’t have the cash necessary to go buying a new Mac every year. The current machine is a replacement for my 6 or 7 year old MacBook Air (It may be older than 7, I honestly don’t remember.)

For me, that’s the beauty of my Mac. They typically have long lives and provide me with great service over their life spans.

Hmm, I just noticed something very neat. it’s a detail, but a nice one.

My Mac changes the background screen image every hour. I’ve had that setting on, on Mac or Windows systems for years. The transparency and tint of the menu bar changes automatically to ensure best readability of the menu based on the background image.

Unlike Windows 10 where the menu bar at the bottom of the screen changes based on the theme (sometimes with unexpected results), this seems to be based on something other than an arbitrary color pallet selection.

I’m just getting to play with the OS this morning. We had a scheduled power interruption last night and by 10:45 PM I’d shut down all the electronics at their surge bars. It was probably un-necessary but I didn’t want to risk my rotating drives getting partial power then power loss, then partial power, then powering up again.

This morning it was like Christmas with me running round flipping on surge protectors and waiting with anticipation as everything came on. Then finally powering up the Mac to make sure all the drives were happy.

It was only after I’d powered the Mac up, that I remembered I had a new OS too.

The Mac startup “Chime” is back. I was like, “Oh, Hello!”

Neat thing was that all the stuff I needed to get done was normal and the OS wasn’t bugging me about all the new features. I finished what I needed to do and when I paused for a bit there was a nice polite notice asking me if I’d like to review the new stuff.

“Good Minion!” My computer is my minion and there’s nothing worse than a minion that gets in the way while you’re trying to accomplish something.

Apple Mail is completely redesigned. It’s going to take some time to get used to that. It’s not bad, just different and when I opened it, the change was a bit jarring. That’s not a criticism, just an observation that the look is very different. I think everything I’m used to is still there just moved around and I’ll have to take some time to find the new locations.

I’m off to find other new features and then to clean the house a bit.

We have a new arrival due later today. There was a young dog we heard about at a shelter. Went down to meet him yesterday and he’s moving in today. He’s probably not going to be feeling all that well when he gets here but over the next few days I’m sure he’ll be entertaining and entertained. Have no idea what his name is, I guess he’ll tell me in due time.

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Grrrr. Some People & Their Cell Phones!

Speakerphone cellWe’ve all seen them.

People wandering around having conversations on speaker phone assaulting everyone around them with both sides of the call. The person you can see screaming into the little device and the person you can’t see blaring their responses in a overly loud tinny little voice back. Then the offensive person gives you a dirty look and cranks the volume even higher when you raise your voice to place your coffee order. As if you’re the one being rude because you’re interfering with their conversation.

One of these days Alice… Pow! Zoom! Right to the Moon!

Or I’ll just slap the phone out of their hand and stomp it into the ground. Probably to applause from everyone else!

That’s annoying as hell in a public setting & oddly seems to be something that happens a lot on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic spectrum. Although my next door neighbor likes to sit on her patio having similar conversations. In her defense, I think she’s actually doing other things and is legitimately using the hands free speaker phone option because she’s got her hands full.

dnd iphone.pngBut there’s another class of folks that can be just as annoying.

They’re the people you sleep with every night, or the people that you may sleep with occasionally.

These folks don’t seem to understand that there’s a nifty little function called do not disturb on their phone. They also don’t seem to understand that some of us can’t sleep with their phones lighting up every 5 minutes. After all who can sleep with a disco ball flashing in their bedroom?

I’m one of those people that often has a hard time sleeping.

As long as it’s dark, and quiet I can stay asleep, but any state change in the local environment will wake me up. The refrigerator changing it’s normal rhythm is often enough to wake me. The power going off in the middle of the night will wake me because of the sudden silence. Even things like the A/C or heater switching on at more irregular intervals than “normal” will wake me.

So you can imagine what it’s like for me if there’s someone obsessively checking their phone for a message or reading new emails. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve got great night vision and can see well in nothing more than starlight.

It’s because of this that I am appreciative of DND and more so of the “Bedtime” settings on my phone. After about 10:30 my phone goes into DND automatically. By 11:00 my phone is in bedtime mode (so is my nifty watch). This means that no lights, whistles, or bells are flashing through the night. Unless you’re on a very short list of people, you’re not going to be able to reach me until morning, after all that’s why God made voice mail! Hell, my phone doesn’t come out of DND until after 7:30 am. I prefer to have my morning coffee in peace, thank you very much!

Sleep Schedule.pngI hit the DND button at dinner, before a Doctors appointment, during meetings, massages, or even drinks with friends (back when we actually had dinners or drinks with friends).

Now imagine me laying in bed asleep with a person next to me who refuses to activate these features.

The light from the phone penetrates my eyelids, and I’m awake. I open my eyes to see if there’s something going on. Nope, their phone is sitting on the nightstand but illuminating the walls & ceiling. Okay, I close my eyes again and go back to sleep.

This cycle is repeated 20 or 30 times (due to notifications, email, occasional text messages, etc.) each night. Add in almost incessant snoring, mumbling in their sleep, trips to the bathroom, and it shouldn’t be any wonder that I generally liked living alone in a tiny little apartment. Even though some of the neighbors were completely out of their damn minds and their personal issues sometimes robbed me of a decent night’s sleep.

As an aside, since moving back to my house I’ve lost about three hours of solid deep sleep a night. It’s not uncommon for me to be sleeping on the couch or floor in another room.

However there’s another factor in this that you may not have considered. Those times when the other person is actively checking their mail, messages, or notifications. They’ll be laying there reading things, and because the phone is like a damn searchlight in my face I’m awake and reading their phone too.

Then I get in trouble because I know stuff that I wasn’t supposed to know. I get accused of going through their private messages. I don’t… That would imply that I care. Nope, I’m just reading what’s on their display over their shoulder because they’ve woke me.

I guess there are those who might think I should politely not read the information but here’s the thing. You know that I’m going to wake up, if you really wanted privacy, you’d get up and go elsewhere to read rather than shining it in my face.

All this is to say; use the features on your phone!

On the iPhone just open the conveniently located control center and tap the little half moon. That will turn on “Do Not Disturb”. If you’re using a later version of iPhone that has the bedtime reminders, set it up. You can even schedule automatic DND between certain hours.  Another helpful thing that used to work, is that just putting your iPhone face down would silence it and even if it doesn’t completely silence it, at least the phone won’t be lighting up the whole room.

I can tell you, it will be appreciated by your other half or just your guest for the night…

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As I suspected…

This is such a first world problem, I’m laughing at myself.

In August, a year ago I got laid off from my job. That afternoon after all was said and done, I went home and opened my trusty 6 or 7 year old MacBook air and was greeted with a display that wasn’t working properly.

I looked at my watch, and buzzed out to the Apple Store, (God I miss being able to do that without the hassle we have to go through today,) to see if they could give me any help.

touchid.pngTechnically they were helpful, but not with the display in my poor computer. I walked out of the store with a brand new MacBook Pro with the nifty touch bar. I really like it even today.

At the time, sitting on the couch in my apartment I pondered the functionality of the fingerprint scanner and the fact that it could be used to authenticate transactions. I distinctly remember thinking that could be trouble.

I mean, you see something online, and there’s the nifty button saying…

Press me and your hearts desires can be yours…

I set it up to handle authenticating my passwords for websites and added one debit card to it.

My iPhone tried to helpfully add other credit cards. While I appreciate the assistance and the Apple ecosystem, there are times when you can be a bit too helpful!

I’ve been very good about using that nifty button. Or rather I should say not using that button.

The first time you use it, you’re not sure that it worked. It’s special, you’re excited about using something new. After you use it a few times it’s not so new or exciting, it’s still special, but it starts to become “ho hum”.

There’s the danger! Next thing you know, you’re tapping that little button all over the place and it’s very easy to become disconnected from the concept that each time you press that cloying little fingerprint, you’re spending yourself into the poor house.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s very cool and very convenient.

BUT if you’re unemployed, essentially locked down and bored you’re potentially in trouble!

Thankfully I’ve had decent self control but over the past week or so, It seems that I’ve been hitting that button a lot. Not so much that I’ll need to have it replaced, but much more than usual.

To be honest, I’m a little terrified with the holiday season coming up.

Me, bored and holiday depressed with super easy online shopping is a really bad combination. I tend to get a bad case of consumerism.

In my defense, I do need to buy some shirts, the ones I’m wearing, I’ve been wearing for 10 years. Yes, they’re starting to get threadbare and the collars are fraying. That being said, it seems that the shirts have been at the bottom of the list this week and (ahem) haven’t been the recipients of the touch button love.

While in Florida, I watched my brother place an order for gun parts on-line and get them the next day UPS. OMG! That was a revelation!

Living in California I assumed that just wasn’t possible, my Brother looked at me like I was crazy. Differences between the California gun legalities and living in the real world astounded me. And I thought to myself, “Probably just as well the little button and I would get too familiar,” Not that I’m a gun nut or anything, but guns like any other hobby can get expensive.

Luckily, most dive gear sites aren’t using “The Button” I’ve noticed that some travel sites are using the button though, that could be dangerous too.

My weaknesses seem to be in the area of movies, TV shows, music, electronics, and software. Guess what? Amazingly, those sites all use “The Button”.

I’m soooo screwed! But I’ll have plenty of entertainment, and a house that is smarter than I am… At least until the power gets turned off.

Have a great week!