trx302's BestNetTech Profile

trx302

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  • Sep 04, 2020 @ 10:57am

    Re: Assumptions and Trust

    Some colleges are already requiring smartphones for tracking attendance, for small payment transactions, student ID, and access control. And it's becoming common for colleges to demand complete health records, even for adult students. Which they absolutely have to have for... no reason that makes sense.

  • Dec 27, 2019 @ 11:14am

    It's not fraud because the terms were laid out in the contract you signed.

    That makes it all legal. The fact you didn't want various services and can't get the ones you do want without them is not relevant.

    It's dirtbaggery, but I assure you their corporate attornies have all the bases covered there.

  • Dec 18, 2019 @ 01:18pm

    lacks salt

    Where are you, that salt is even a thing?

    In my area the little salt/pepper stands in restaurants only have pepper. If you want salt, you have to get a waiter, who will eventually return from the kitchen with two or three shopworn packets containing a small pinch of salt in each.

    Heroin or cocaine, the other white powders, are marginally acceptable, but SALT... only a lunatic would use that.

    When eating out we usually bring our own, now.

  • Dec 07, 2019 @ 09:32am

    Re: Re: Re: Fingerprint scan a spot not on your fingertip

    Yeah, at least Maxwell Smart didn't have to take his sock off when he answered his shoe phone...

  • Nov 24, 2019 @ 05:23am

    Re:

    Also went on a Two-factor authentication spree.
    If "two factor" meant "SMS to your phone", you probably got the opposite of what you expected as far as security.

  • Nov 19, 2019 @ 11:01am

    Interpol: a security organization that wasn't able to find its own chief when he went missing.

  • Oct 29, 2019 @ 08:39am

    An investigation by USA Today shows the creation and maintenance of Brady lists appears to be another thing law enforcement considers to be optional.

    If true, even a minimally competent lawyer would start his cross examination with "Have you ever been found guilty of [specific actions covered by Brady]?" and then move to have the testimony struck from the record.

    Yes, the prosecutor gets to present it to the jury anyway, but having his witness discredited moments later isn't going to help his case much.

    The bigger issue is prosecutors who make a practice of withholding exculpatory information during discovery. [the law says they must share it with the defense] Not only does the practice rarely result in official censure when discovered, even the various Bar associations don't seem to consider it to be noteworthy.

  • Oct 04, 2019 @ 09:37am

    Re: Re: Re: Internet of things

    Set up a Pi Hole and keep an eye on the logs for a while whenever you add a new device to your home network. Heck, set up a Pi Hole anyway; it's pretty much point-and-click even for a non-techie. Even with a tuned hosts file and a decent ad blocker running, it's not unusual for a Pi Hole to block a quarter of all DNS requests.

  • Oct 04, 2019 @ 09:30am

    exploited children

    You know, I'd place a lot more credence in their concern for online child exploitation if they weren't so busy ignoring Epstein's crimes.

    "Nothing to see here, move along. Look! A squirrel!"

  • Oct 04, 2019 @ 09:26am

    requirement that officers receive the names of individuals and organizations requesting their files.

    Why, shore, pardnuh!

    Someone who could use a few extra bucks could put up an ad on Craigslist or Facebook offering their services as a proxy. "Will place FOIA request for $5, confidentiality guaranteed."

    Doesn't have to be in California. For that matter, I doubt there's a legal reason they'd even have to be in the USA.

    Go for it! And you're welcome.

  • Sep 11, 2019 @ 05:28pm

    Google and Apple are in the BUSINESS of selling that very information. The only difference is, the Fed wants it for free. But if $RANDOM_NUTTER_CO met the price, Google and Apple would provide it without a problem... as they do to thousands of other marketing companies.

    There's NO expectation of privacy with anything you do with a smartphone. Even if it's laying there turned "off" on the table.

  • Sep 10, 2019 @ 05:09am

    this makes literally no sense at all.

    Sure it does. "It looks there might be evidence of preference or prejudice in our hiring system, so, 'Oops, computer problem!' will dispose of the evidence."

    There are multiple Federal guidelines for computers, backups, data retention, accountability, and so forth, all of which had to be violated for something like that to happen by accident... or one person doing it deliberately. Occam's Razor favors the simplest theory.

  • Aug 28, 2019 @ 09:52am

    these and another memo were "accidentally" revealed to Backpage's defense lawyers, but then the judge sealed them and ruled them off-limits for the defense, despite their exculpatory nature.

    Well, so much for that whole "discovery" concept.

  • Aug 25, 2019 @ 10:25am

    I haven't read anything about it for some years now, but back in the 1990s Microsoft used to use local police to serve warrants for "suspected license violations" of Microsoft products. Microsoft investigators rode along with the police, and Microsoft "reimbursed" or "contributed to" the PDs involved.

    Widely reported in the industry newspapers like Inforworld and PC Week at the time; Google isn't turning anything up with various combinations of keywords. Interesting.

  • Aug 16, 2019 @ 12:42pm

    My 12-year-old dumbphone will quit working in a few months, when Verizon shuts off 3G service. I might use the phone two or three times a week... enough that I'm strongly tempted to just drop the phone in the trash when it stops working and tell Verizon to cancel my account.

    I wasn't real happy with Verizon selling my tower location information to third parties (my phone just barely predates GPS); the mass of spyware built into modern smartphones makes them too much of a security problem to consider, and frankly, I suspect the same chipset is inside the cheap "feature phones", just not brought out with a fancy touchscreen. It would be crazy to develop a less-featured chipset just for a tiny portion of the market.

  • Aug 06, 2019 @ 05:49pm

    Hey! The TSA paid tens of millions for tools to do the same basic thing. They could be repurposed for "social media" easily enough.

    They didn't work for the TSA, but face it, that's not their purpose anyway...

  • Jul 23, 2019 @ 09:29am

    Hm?

    When were the last times the "fascists" got together, rioted, blocked roads, beat up old people and reporters, or wore masks and used bike locks on anyone they didn't like? Any time in the 21st century will do.

    Can you even name any fascist groups in America? Okay, you might know about the American Nazi Party, which occasionally issues press releases and sells pamphlets. They're probably the largest outfit, with perhaps a few hundred members nationwide. Without resorting to a search engine, can you name another? Hint for cheaters: most of the ones you'll find listed by the SPLC have literally dozens of members, or have been defunct since the 20th century.

    The only people out there who are a problem are... the pantifa.

    So, if you're a PD trying to keep tabs on potential rioters and civil unrest, where are you going to put your limited resources?

  • Jul 23, 2019 @ 09:14am

    The use of geofenced location data certainly isn't new

    Back when "smart" phones were being developed, this was specifically what the inclusion of GPS hardware was for. Rapturous articles were written about it in the communications and computer industry magazines.

    "The system is working as designed." Too bad so few people paid any attention...

    That "911 locator" stuff? That was later.

    Even before that, the "phone company" - all of them - would sell you a "reverse directory" with all the land lines near any given physical location. Political campaigns were major users of those, too.

  • Jul 17, 2019 @ 02:20pm

    Re: Don't throw pain patients under the bus

    In America the modern attitude is "suck it up, pain is good for you." So you have people with terminal cancer, multiple compound fractures, or open-heart surgery given Tylenol or placebos and told "that's all we're allowed to give you." There's also the problem that for surgery, American anesthetists may be trained to use various drugs, but in practice they only use IV Demerol or morphine and are very reluctant to use anyting else, even when a patient has a documented history of bad reactions from them.

  • Jul 13, 2019 @ 11:13am

    didn’t result in any arrests.

    Which isn't the same as "no packages were stolen" or "the cameras didn't show anyone stealing packages."

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