MaxRedline

Rot

I've owned a Laserdisc player and a CD player for years. And I have bad news: the media, touted as high-definition and lasting for decades, don't.  Depending on how and where they were manufactured, disc pressings can begin to degrade in a decade or less; a phenomenon known as rot.

Often, it looks like a coffee stain—a noticeable discoloration that for whatever reason you can’t get rid of. Sometimes, it looks like tiny pin pricks on the surface. And there are other times when the whole thing changes color. In any case, when you run into what’s known as “disc rot,” you’re out a great album or an interesting movie.

And you're out the money you paid for the item.

 

Bye-Bye, Passwords

This is going to make the folks who produce password-storage apps pretty unhappy:

First Firefox, now Chrome: Users can now log in to websites and online services without entering a password. The new standard, called WebAuthn, will be enabled in Google Chrome's version 67. It is already supported by Firefox, with Edge likely to follow in the coming months.

Instead of using a password-based system, which has many security risks, WebAuthn allows users to log in to online services with a fingerprint scanner or a special USB security key (token).

I'm guessing you'll still need a password to log into the OS itself, at least for now. There's even a helpful picture of what a USB stick looks like.

 

New On The Market

The new Skydio R1 uses computer vision and other types of artificial intelligence to fly itself, follow and record a subject down below-- no piloting or camera skills required.

You launch it using a phone app, and once airborne, you target your person of interest. From there on, everything is done autonomously. The drone can dodge any obstacles, so you can film a person running through, say, a forest, and retrieve high-definition footage.

Fortunately, governments, corporations, and malicious individuals won't use the technology, because why would they? Obviously, they'll just be used by ranchers to check out how their cattle are doing, researchers doing mapping projects, and the like.

Sleep well, Citizen.

 

Eye Spy

How reassuring!

Department of Homeland Security has just announced that it intends to compile a comprehensive list of hundreds of thousands of “journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc.”, and collect any “information that could be relevant” about them.

This is to say that DHS may not have a clue as to what could be relevant, so just to be on the safe side, they'll note everything they find about you. The motivation for constructing the monstrosity known as DHS was portrayed as necessary for fighting terrorism in a post-9/11 world, but these programs have nothing to do with terrorism; you are now the enemy.

Makes you want to run right out and order an Alexa, doesn't it? There's a reason why DHS built that huge server farm in Utah a couple of years ago.

 

Wiener Exposed

I know he spells it Weiner, but he'll always be a wiener to me.

A district court judge ordered the release of the Weiner laptop. This is the same laptop the James Comey FBI buried under mountains of sealed “protection” to keep secret. The laptop that had the entire Obama intelligence apparatus (and the Clinton Machine) in a panic shortly before the 2016 Election.

Things just got a lot more interesting.

 

No Worries

So you closed a browser tab unintentionally. Mistakes happen. Easy enough to recover, though:

Ctrl + shift + T.

And, you don’t need that stinkin’ mouse. You can skate back and forth from one page to the next using just two keys: Delete to go back, and Shift + Delete to go forward. It’s such an easy and satisfying shortcut that it’s actually kind of addictive.

For a fairly comprehensive look at keyboard shortcuts, check this out. Most work with Chrome and Edge as well.

Happy browsing!

 

King Bluetooth Of Denmark

A 13 year-old kid and an amateur archaeologist were out with their metal detectors on the northern German island of Rugen and they happened across this stuff.

Braided necklaces, pearls, brooches, a Thor’s hammer, rings and up to 600 chipped coins were found, including more than 100 that date back to Bluetooth’s era, when he ruled over what is now Denmark, northern Germany, southern Sweden and parts of Norway.

Apart from the pearls, the loot mostly consisted of silver. So how did it end up there?

The oldest coin is a Damascus dirham dating to 714 while the most recent is a penny dating to 983.

The find suggests that the treasure may have been buried in the late 980s – also the period when Bluetooth was known to have fled to Pomerania, where he died in 987.

Bluetooth unified Denmark during his reign, and introduced Christianity to the people. Unfortunately, his son Sven ultimately led a rebellion against him, leading to his hasty departure.

Most of Pomerania is today part of Poland, although its westernmost portion - including this island - is in eastern Germany. It was there to which King Bluetooth fled.

Today, the wireless technology that allows computers and smartphones to communicate (effectively unifying the devices) is named after him.

King Bluetooth's first name was Harald; the Bluetooth symbol is composed of two merged Nordic runes, H and B. A popular implementation in vehicles today for enabling hands-free operation of cell phones when driving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tech News

In addition to shutting down the "Backpage" website and its affiliates, the feds are taking legal action against the owner and staff:

Seven individuals affiliated with the website, including 69-year-old Backpage founder Michael Lacey, have been charged in a 93-count indictment with a range of money-laundering crimes as well as facilitating prostitution using a facility in interstate or foreign commerce, and conspiracy to do so.

Also charged are Backpage employees James Larkin, Scott Spear, and John E. “Jed” Brunst of Arizona, and Daniel Hyer, Andrew Padilla, and Jaala Joye Vaught of Texas.

From Huffington Post:

“For example, for several years, Backpage’s official policy, when presented with an ad featuring the prostitution of a child, was to delete the particular words in the ad denoting the child’s age and then publish a revised version of the ad. Such editing, of course, did nothing to change the fact the ad featured the prostitution of a child ― it only created a veneer of deniability and helped Backpage’s customers (i.e., pimps trafficking children) evade detection.”

Yeah, those folks could probably do with some prison time. At 69, that Lacey fella could be in for some real trouble. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of folks.

Meanwhile the infamous "Craigslist" has decided to head off the feds:

“US Congress just passed HR 1865, “FOSTA”, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.

Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day."

The bill passed 94-1 with five non-votes. The only nay vote was Rand Paul.

Sex traffickers are bailing, and the apologists for "sex workers" are really unhappy.

 

Tech News

A lot of people don’t realize that Amazon Prime members also get unlimited photo storage, plus 5 gigs of cloud storage on Amazon Drive. Gmail users can also snag 15 gigs of free cloud storage on Google Drive—saving you the paid iCloud subscription. So if you're a Prime member and/or have a gmail account, you can save a little cash on data storage.

And more overdue but good news came today:

I've read a lot about this sleazeball site and its affiliates over the years, and have been wondering why little was being done about online sex trafficking. Finally, something has; although the CEO was busted in October 2016, it didn't seem to slow the sites down. Until now.

The chief executive officer of Backpage.com, a portal for adult classified ads, was arrested yesterday on charges of pimping, pimping a minor under 16 years of age, and conspiracy to commit pimping, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

CEO Carl Ferrer was arrested in Houston, Texas, after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam.

Backpage.com is owned by a Dutch-based limited liability corporation, but its main place of business is in Dallas, Texas, according to the report. Last month the company told the U.S. Supreme Court, after being subpoenaed, that the Backpage.com itself is a victim, of an overreaching government that is not respecting First Amendment rights.

Ferrer now faces 22 years in prison. In a statement provided to the Chronicle, Ferrer's lawyer said the charges are "trumped up."

People like Carl need to be put away. And thankfully, the site and its affiliates are all offline at last.

 

 

Uber Fail

(Bloomberg) -- Uber Technologies Inc. disabled the standard collision-avoidance technology in the Volvo SUV that struck and killed a woman in Arizona last week, according to the auto-parts maker that supplied the vehicle’s radar and camera.

“We don’t want people to be confused or think it was a failure of the technology that we supply for Volvo, because that’s not the case,” Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv Plc, said by phone. The Volvo XC90’s standard advanced driver-assistance system “has nothing to do” with the Uber test vehicle’s autonomous driving system, he said.

Uber’s system failed to slow the vehicle as 49-year-old victim Elaine Herzberg crossed the street pushing a bicycle.

On the other hand, Elaine wasn't in a crosswalk in a well-lit area; worse yet, she was dressed in dark clothing. Still, the active radar that Uber disengaged likely would have picked her up in time to slow or halt the vehicle.

Uber: not ready for prime-time.