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The Woman Whose Phone 'Misdiagnosed HIV' (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report on BBC about a woman in Kenya, who downloaded a prank app that noted that she has HIV simply by "analyzing her fingerprint." While many people would have not trusted an app for such kind of diagnosis in the first place, and some would have figured that something is amiss about the app, the story tells the tale of people who are increasingly finding it hard to deal with the technological advances they see. From the report: Esther sells water on the side of the road in Kenya for a few dollars a day. She also owns a smartphone and ownership of such a device should, according to most of the received wisdom, empower its owner. But in fact it did quite the opposite for her when she acquired an app. It claimed to diagnose HIV simply by analysing her fingerprint on the touch screen. When researchers met her at her roadside workplace, she was worried. "She did not know if it was true and she was panicking," said researcher Laura de Reynal, who worked on a year-long study into the experiences of first-time smartphone users in Kenya. "And she wasn't the only one, there were others that came to us worried about this app and those were just the ones that were willing to speak out." The app was in fact a prank and anyone reading the comments on Google's Play Store would have seen that. However, many first-time smartphone users in Kenya get hold of apps via a friend's Bluetooth connection, rather than downloading them via the net, in order to save data. But the prank would not have been apparent via a Bluetooth share. "People are not able to understand the limits of the technology," said Ms de Reynal. "They think, because it was on a smartphone, it seems real and credible."

166 comments

  1. Any sufficiently advanced technology... by swb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

    I also don't think this woman should be criticized. When I see the stupid things people who have grown up with technology do (as opposed to growing up dirt poor in Africa), she's no worse off than they are.

    1. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 1

      Fair call: although she didn't know the technology's capabilities at least she didn't walk out into traffic as though a set of earbuds provide an impenetrable force field.

      Which gives me a great idea for an app...is there a "herd culling" category?

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    2. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Well, it's a relief to me. I've been in the closet ever since that "Gaydar" app detected me. Now that it turns out that these apps don't really work, I can stop hiding.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      If this is the dumbest thing that this person does for the rest of her life; then she got off pretty damn lucky. But the irony is, "was the phone app wrong?"

    4. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by es330td · · Score: 2

      Which gives me a great idea for an app...is there a "herd culling" category?

      I think one searches for "Darwin effect."

    5. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 1

      Thanks, I'll give that a...wait, this is a trap, isn't it?

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    6. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by sjames · · Score: 1

      Agreed. Before anyone in the U.S. criticizes, they should think back to the '70s (if they remember the '70s) when the computer couldn't be wrong. When any dispute with billing could be shut down by "well the computer says...". When any thing the computer was hard coded to print was taken to be some sort of mysterious process where people wondered "How could it possibly know that?" People even fell for "computer dating" where because computers were amazing and super smart they obviously could choose the best match for you.

    7. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by David_Hart · · Score: 1

      Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

      I also don't think this woman should be criticized. When I see the stupid things people who have grown up with technology do (as opposed to growing up dirt poor in Africa), she's no worse off than they are.

      However, the technology that is being misunderstood isn't the app or the smartphone, it's how HIV medical tests are conducted. If you know that a HIV test requires drawing blood (and lab testing) and all the app does is scan your finger then you should be able to reason out that the app is utter crap.

      People will forever do stupid things. Technology just makes it easier and has the potential for a wider spread.

    8. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

      I also don't think this woman should be criticized. When I see the stupid things people who have grown up with technology do (as opposed to growing up dirt poor in Africa), she's no worse off than they are.

      It's on the Internet - it must be true!

    9. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Obligatory Little Britain

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    10. Re: Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's actually not entirely true. There are some fairly newer HIV detection methods that are quite quick, accurate and can be done cheaply ($40) at home with a simple oral saliva sample kit (see "Oraquick")--no blood needed.

      Even in early viral acquisition, detection works quite well, though blood based antigen tests are still the gold standard and capable of detecting HIV earlier than the oral method (a PCR based method being one of the quickest).

      Functionally speaking, I'm not sure why the oral test should be used in developed countries since you'll still end up getting an antigen test and should most certainly see a medical professional if you believe you had a real risk of HIV contraction. It's not something to guess around with as early detection and treatment are really critical.

    11. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Matheus · · Score: 1

      Yeah... I had *numerous friends duped by the various varieties of apps that claim to allow your phone to charge off of solar via the screen... You don't have to grow up without technology to not understand what it is (currently) capable of.

    12. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

      Especially in Africa. ;)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    13. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      The culling you talk of being the difference between believers and those that understand. Contrary to marketed belief, belief is not the higher form of humanity bit tied directly back to primitive mind function. Animals do things because they believe they work and are easily trapped when someone who understands that belief manipulates it to their own advantage because the animal can not understand the trap. The more evolved the intellect the more it is based upon understanding and the more it questions everything. People who tend to believe, tend to be extremely disruptive to society as a whole because they can believe anything, no matter how crazy and carry out extremely anti-social activities based upon those beliefs. Although reproduction is heavily tied to belief, which is clearly demonstrated by the religious out breeding others and by their violent and extreme desire to control reproduction and everything associated with it (the more shallowly the belief, the more violence they feel free to use to control reproduction ie Isalm as it currently expresses itself including extreme violence against minors http://metro.co.uk/2017/04/06/... this an extreme example of the publicly accepted violence in those communities).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    14. Re: Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with highly-sensitive "early detection" ELISA tests is that they ALSO have a higher rate of false positives... which often, can't be confirmed OR refuted by a second ("western blot") test AT ALL until 4-6 weeks later, and can't be CONFIDENTLY refuted until 2-4 months later.

      Imagine being told you got positive results, but they wouldn't know for sure for another 2-3 months.

      Or worse, if you understand how HIV works, being told you have to wait 2-4 months for confirmation before starting meds. Why? If you started immediately, you might not detectably seroconvert for months or years... but if you discontinued the meds after years of continuing to get negative western blot tests despite being infected, you'd still seroconvert within a few months of quitting... possibly, developing resistance to those meds in the process. Basically, the 3 meds in a usual combo have active metabolites that don't all fade away quickly or at the same rate... so you might have a few weeks where the lingering metabolites of tenofovir are still suppressing SOME of your hiv virions, while the ones with resistance to it flourish & become dominant. Then, when you had to resume the meds after being confirmed poz, you'd be told you had to take a combo that *wasn't* as nice, convenient, and tame because you NOW had strains resistant to your original meds.

      For me personally, being forced to do nothing & wait for 1-3 months before starting meds would drive me mad knowing that I had millions of virions wrecking my immune system & inflaming nerve cells that I wasn't ALLOWED to suppress because their existence was merely suspected rather than proven.(*)

      ---

      (*) For those who don't know, modern HIV meds are pretty tame & devoid of the awful side effects older drugs had. Most have fewer real side effects than ibuprofen or Claritin (and most of their reported side effects are really due to the HIV infection itself, and would exist with OR without the meds). In the first world, at least, AIDS basically *has* been cured... with modern meds, you can eliminate most HIV from your blood within a few months & keep it that way forever (as long as you keep taking your meds). If someone in a first-world country actually progresses all the way to actual AIDS *now*, it's arguably their own stupid fault for neglecting to take their meds. In the US, most people with actual AIDS are either black (social stigma means they "don't want to know", so they don't get tested until they show up at the hospital with pneumonia & no immune system to speak of) or homeless AND crazy (even homeless people with HIV can get free meds if they make half an effort to try... but crazy people tend to not take their meds unless someone's standing over them to MAKE them take them).

    15. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One app told me I was trans, now I have to cancel my sex change.

    16. Re:Any sufficiently advanced technology... by thesandtiger · · Score: 1

      In general, people in Africa probably have a lot more understanding of HIV/AIDS and the testing procedures than people in the West do. For example:

      You say that HIV testing requires drawing blood and testing at a lab. Nope - HIV testing can now be done with saliva, in a cheap ($40) device, and give you results in about 15 minutes. A person in a country with a high rate of infection would very likely be at least somewhat familiar with such a thing considering that those tests are vastly cheaper than the old blood tests. Moreover, as far back as 2015, there was a smartphone dongle that came out that can test for HIV.

      Given that we have gone from tests that required a doctor visit, could take days for results, and required blood to tests that can be done anywhere, require a little spit, and 15 minutes to get results, it absolutely wouldn't surprise me that someone would think that advances made it so that perhaps sweat from a fingertip could be analyzed to give a diagnosis. Given that we have gone from gigantic, hideously expensive satellite phones that didn't do anything but allow you to (barely) make and receive calls, to tiny, dirt cheap, and ridiculously capable smart phones, it absolutely wouldn't surprise me that someone might think that a phone could now be capable of performing that analysis.

      And finally, she probably knows many, many, many people who have HIV or have died from AIDS. In many countries in Africa, HIV/AIDS is a common, everyday thing that many people deal with, either as having it or having people close to them who have it. To say someone is stupid because they allow a prank app that's just shy of feasible and that preys on an omnipresent threat - that's not just ignorant, but cruel.

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
    17. Re: Any sufficiently advanced technology... by thesandtiger · · Score: 1

      We used Oraquick as part of a study of high-risk individuals, and would confirm positive results. It's also a fairly economic way to do quarterly screenings for people who are in high risk categories. Of course, an individual with the means, would opt for a full screening if they were worried about exposure from a particular event.

      It's used in developed nations primarily in the same way it's used in developing nations - for people who do not necessarily have the resources for and access to medical care. Inexpensive and better than nothing.

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
  2. It does "empower her" by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ownership of such a device should, according to most of the received wisdom, empower its owner

    The smartphone did "empower her." It turns out that life does not work in dichotomies the way binary thinkers assume it must because, for whatever reason, that is all they can see. Did this new tool result in a net loss of capabilities for her? No, it just introduced a nasty unintended side effect based on her ignorance and a particular method of app distribution.

    1. Re:It does "empower her" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You avoided it, I'll say it: With great power comes great responsibility.

    2. Re:It does "empower her" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ownership of such a device should, according to most of the received wisdom, empower its owner

      The smartphone did "empower her." It turns out that life does not work in dichotomies the way binary thinkers assume it must because, for whatever reason, that is all they can see. Did this new tool result in a net loss of capabilities for her? No, it just introduced a nasty unintended side effect based on her ignorance and a particular method of app distribution.

      What a brilliant way of saying "she's ignorant".

      But, although you won't get modd'ed down by the SLWs, you won't get mod'ed up either because your comment is too obfuscated. I had to read it a couple of times before it sank in.

      I applaud your post. You must be an academic or work in government. If not, you are naturally talented in PC speak: say the truth but in a way that doesn't piss anyone off.

      If I had your talent, I would be doing much much better than I am.

    3. Re:It does "empower her" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you meant "With White Power come White Responsibility."

    4. Re:It does "empower her" by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 1

      You avoided it, I'll say it: With great power comes great responsibility.

      Smartphones are low power devices. This is why people stare at them while walking, driving, etc: with diminished power comes diminished responsibility.

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    5. Re:It does "empower her" by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      The problem is that there are people who have no idea what some idiot f***ing bastard somewhere in the western world thinks is "funny". The idea that someone would tell you that you are suffering from a most likely lethal disease and consider that a "prank" wouldn't occur to them.

      I'd suggest that the author of this app travels to Africa and tells these people in person what was so funny. If he doesn't come back alive, all the better.

    6. Re:It does "empower her" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think what you meant is that GP is less of an ass than you clearly are.

    7. Re:It does "empower her" by religionofpeas · · Score: 0

      The real problem is her ignorance.

    8. Re:It does "empower her" by fedos · · Score: 1

      Which isn't her fault. This is a case of she doesn't know what she doesn't know. No one buys a phone and then says "gee, I better study up on the past 3 decades of the collective thought of another country."

  3. Understanding limits of technology ... by Alain+Williams · · Score: 3, Insightful

    well, this sort of machine is seen in films and on TV (think: Star Trek, ...), obviously all of Star Trek is not true, but which bits are and which are not? Then there is an X Prize competition to make a Medical tricorder, so think before you laugh at her.

    1. Re: Understanding limits of technology ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you read that thread you'd realize they didn't make a medical tricorder. They made an app that can only diagnose 32 disorders.

    2. Re: Understanding limits of technology ... by Alain+Williams · · Score: 1

      My point is that the woman did not understand what the app's capabilities/limits were. To her: the ability to diagnose HIV seemed reasonable and given what she might have seen on TV/.. entirely possible.

    3. Re:Understanding limits of technology ... by SumDog · · Score: 1

      I knew someone who was stationed in various African countries. I can't remember which country it was, but he said people didn't distinguish what was on TV and what was real. They thought Star Trek actually happened. It's on TV; it must be real.

      There are tribes in Brazil who do not have words for colour or numbers. The adults can never be taught basic math skills; or even in the case where they can learn them -- they never apply them to their daily lives. Language has a large impact on our perception of the world.

    4. Re:Understanding limits of technology ... by nealric · · Score: 1

      Given that animals have been taught basic addition, I'm somewhat skeptical that any human is incapable of learning or applying basic math.

  4. Magic by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

    Someone once said that any technology advanced enough will appear as magic to someone who isn't used to it. (I'm sure if I weren't lazy I could google-fu who said that).

    There are places around the world where economics and science dictated they skipped over the computer generation. They went straight from disconnected villages to smart phones. A lot of the tech and what can and can't be done with it was never learnt. The lady in the summary wasn't necessarily gullible, or stupid, nor did she believe the phone was "magic" I'm sure. However, how the phone worked was probably almost magical, with an unexplained technology she couldn't fathom how it might work.

    Going from simple life to smart phone life, it's easy to see how someone can be fooled by what exactly is possible.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Magic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone once said that any technology advanced enough will appear as magic to someone who isn't used to it. (I'm sure if I weren't lazy I could google-fu who said that).

      There are places around the world where economics and science dictated they skipped over the computer generation. They went straight from disconnected villages to smart phones. A lot of the tech and what can and can't be done with it was never learnt. The lady in the summary wasn't necessarily gullible, or stupid, nor did she believe the phone was "magic" I'm sure. However, how the phone worked was probably almost magical, with an unexplained technology she couldn't fathom how it might work.

      Going from simple life to smart phone life, it's easy to see how someone can be fooled by what exactly is possible.

      To be fair the reality is that most technology from about the level of a baking soda/vinegar volcano on up is in fact indistinguishable from magic except to professionals or hobbyists who need the understanding for their work and nobody actually understands everything they interact with on a daily basis to a particularly deep level.

      For example: a medical doctor is unlikely to have any idea how a defibrillator actually produces the electric charge, or an EKG translates detected pulses into the readable graphs they're used to. You could probably replace those devices with equivalents operated by gnomes without them noticing as long as they functioned the same externally.

       

    2. Re:Magic by Kenshin · · Score: 1

      People in developed countries can be easily tricked, too.

      Remember all the idiots who were fooled into believing that installing iOS 10 would make their iPhone waterproof?

      --

      Does it make you happy you're so strange?

    3. Re:Magic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "skipped over the computer generation"

      While it may be more prevalent in areas where this happened this kind of ignorance is hardly limited to developing areas. On many of the "Newscaster fails" videos on YouTube there are several instances of newscasters trying to "demonstrate" a "new app" that purports to let you do something that you would think no one who grew up in an area with technology would fall for but they do (usually smell/taste something).

    4. Re:Magic by kyrsjo · · Score: 1

      Or have read /r/talesfromtechsupport? An M.D. who was touching his monitor to open a fingerprint-unlocked USB drive (but accepted that it would not work "because his computer didn't have a touch screen) comes to mind in this case. And that was without deliberate misdirection - the program was simply showing a picture of the USB stick and an animation of how to touch it.

  5. Soemthing I'll never understand about human nature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you had the ability and talent to code an app, why waste it on a prank?

    What the hell is wrong with people?

  6. Fear Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry, you can cure it with another app.

    1. Re:Fear Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Available for purchase from the Play Store.

    2. Re:Fear Not by PIBM · · Score: 1

      In app purchase, straight from the diagnostic app!

  7. lawsuit? harm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if there is a civil claim that could be made here. The software was claiming to perform a medical task and did so in the most snake-oily of manners. In the US those who dispense fraudulent medical advice can be subject to lawsuit, fines, and imprisonment. There should have been some disclaimer that the device was not actually medical. Has anyone had this app and killed themselves because of the diagnosis? Has anyone applied it to their child, and killed the child based on the diagnosis? Would someone in a 3rd world country that receives such a diagnosis from a "high cost / high value" device such as an iPhone consider saving their child from a life of suffering after such a diagnosis? Extreme poverty can strongly enhance acts of desperation. It might be easier to sell the child. If the child is going to die anyway, why not move that death away from the home early?

    There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.

  8. Reminds me why I don't donate to moz://a. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This was the most interesting part of the article (ignore the "Firefox operating system" error):

    Commissioned by Mozilla - the organisation behind the Firefox operating system - the study was designed to find out what it is that limits people in the developing world from grabbing the opportunities offered by the web.

    This is a great reminder of why I won't donate to moz://a.

    Instead of spending money to improve Firefox, which badly needs some real improvement, moz://a squandered money researching the gullibility of third-worlders.

    With Firefox now only around 5% of the browser market, and having only 0.03% (yes, a very small fraction of just 1%!) of the mobile browser market, wasting money on nonsensical "research" like this is the very last thing they should be doing.

    Moz://a won't be able to have any influence on how third-worlders use the Internet if these third-worlders are using Chrome or some other non-Firefox browser. Since most third-world Internet users use a mobile device, Firefox's 0.03% of the market already means they're irrelevant.

    Improving Firefox's performance, and reducing its memory usage, would be a lot more beneficial for these third-worlders than doing more "research" like this into their gullibility.

    1. Re:Reminds me why I don't donate to moz://a. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Improving Firefox's performance, and reducing its memory usage, would be a lot more beneficial for these third-worlders than doing more "research" like this into their gullibility.

      Not to mention the user interface and the privacy options. There used to be clear and easy ways to disable javascript, java, cookies and the user agent. All that stuff help with browser fingerprinting and those options should be very accessible. Plus these days ads are basically attacks, where's the privacy conscious ad blocker? It should be installed and enabled by default.

      There's a privacy tab but it has more to do with managing your locally stored browser history than actually web privacy.

      There's a "crash reporter" that phones home to mozilla, enabled by default. It expects you to sign in to a mozilla account and "sync up with the cloud". Dear god why would anyone?

      Know your audience. We're real paranoid. Firefox is getting more and more intrusive and less and less configurable. Bad move.

    2. Re:Reminds me why I don't donate to moz://a. by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      moz://a squandered money researching the gullibility of third-worlders

      It's called market research. They're looking for a potential growth market where people may be gullible enough to use Firefox and believe it's good.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
  9. Trusted Technology. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    Part of the problem is in order to get trusted software, you need to have some sort of review process like the Apple Store, where only approved software is placed in, while this is good to make sure harmful or just bad taste software doesn't get placed in. It also creates a freedom issue, because like the Apple Store perfectly valid apps get rejected just because it may affect someones sensibilities, or step into Apples domain and they don't want to compete with your app.

    The HIV app is in Bad Taste to a point that could be considered dangerous, but that would require a judgement call, which is faulty.

    Just like passengers making jokes about having dangerous material in the airline terminal.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  10. lol by drew_92123 · · Score: 0

    Retards make me laugh...

    1. Re:lol by banjonz · · Score: 1

      Hmm - yes - you made me blow coffee through my nose.

  11. It's not just first time users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I've had a smartphone for years. I'm an IT professional in a first-world country. And even I have difficulty at times discerning what's legit and what's not. Spammers are getting better and better, and if it weren't for the fact that I use a unique email address for every company with which I do business (something not accessible to the vast majority of computer users), I'm not sure that I wouldn't have been taken in a time or two.

    This is an interesting sociological issue, and I think it's likely to get much worse before it gets any better, if it ever does get better.

  12. you've been infected by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

    It seems we've gone full circle from browser hijacks with computer virus scares, to apps with human virus scares.

    Gives new meaning to 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'.

  13. Android phone by Kohath · · Score: 1

    They should say Android phone and not smartphone. Android's competition has built in safeguards against malicious apps.

    1. Re:Android phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you can say Apple, its ok. Fandroid fundamentalists will always find something to rail at, regardless.

    2. Re:Android phone by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      an Android smartphone with one setting lets you download and install APKs without a store. Something youcan't do with an iPhone.

      yes the sharing of apps via bluetooth is the cause of this woman's distress but it's also enabled her to use her phone. She got burned one time but she's also been living with this arrangement for presumably a while now. It's enabled her to do many thing that she wouldn't otherwise be able to do because of data limits. It's a bit like the cuban intranet. Or even the idea of selling water in plastic baggies. It's rather ingenious in some ways and the fact that she got burned by it doesn't mean the system is a bad idea. it means there needs to be better education, perhaps better APK checking than just permissions. Stuff that makes sense in a world where we have access to a large amount of data doesn't necessarily make sense in a world where people live on shoestring budgets of data.

      --
      Just another second banana
  14. Re:Everyone has AIDS! by bickerdyke · · Score: 1

    Thanks for wrapping up the story of "Rent"

    --
    bickerdyke
  15. Only apps can app apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The app actually diagnosed her as having LUDDITEIS , which can only be cured by apping apps while apping other apps!

    Apps!

  16. valuable life lesson by ooloorie · · Score: 2

    "People are not able to understand the limits of the technology," said Ms de Reynal. "They think, because it was on a smartphone, it seems real and credible."

    Well, she'll "understand the limits of the technology" a lot more now. That's how humans learn: through experience.

    1. Re:valuable life lesson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not sure if that is true. She may have learned that something was wrong with the app in questions. She ma have learned that fingerprint is not enough but does she know now what is needed? What about future tech that can actually do such or similar miracles?

  17. Re:Everyone has AIDS! by MightyYar · · Score: 1

    You would probably appreciate "Avenue Q".

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  18. People have blind trust into technology by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

    "They think, because it was on a smartphone, it seems real and credible."

    This is no different from "but I have seen it on TV, so it must be true.

    Or any media that has been invented. The most memorizeable instance is probably the panic during "War of the Worlds"

    --
    bickerdyke
    1. Re:People have blind trust into technology by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have seen it on TV, so it must be true.

      Psychologically, it's a "voice of authority". Humans seem to be hard-wired to accept authority. It's a good idea for keeping kids from being eaten by lions.

      By adulthood, humans should learn to reject arbitrary authority. But it seems to be very easy for people to delay that maturation by decades or even forever - they accept gods, presidents, and televisions as "voices of authority" and obey their commands.

      It's really not good for anybody to have adults thinking and behaving like children, except for those who wish to control them.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:People have blind trust into technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "panic" over War of the Worlds is largely mythical.

    3. Re:People have blind trust into technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is no different from "but I have seen it on TV, so it must be true.

      Or any media that has been invented. The most memorizeable instance is probably the panic during "War of the Worlds"

      Are you ironically citing yourself as an example of "seen it on X so it must be true"? Because I'm sure someone who knows not to just believe anything they hear would be fooled by the war of the worlds "panic" may have never happened:

      "Historical research suggests the panic was far less widespread than newspapers had indicated at the time."
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)#Public_reaction

      Maybe a few people freaked out but it certainly shouldn't be cited as a reference...although is easy to memorize!

  19. Re:The Real Evil Here by bitoffish · · Score: 2

    I'm sorry that you feel so insecure about your own intellect.

  20. Dr. Lexus will be with you shortly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Uh, this goes in your mouth. This one goes in your ear. And this one goes in your butt.
    All right, so that'll be... this many dollars.

  21. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if someone can't demonstrate the knowledge required to design and build a thing they shouldn't be allowed to utilize that thing.

    That's the dumbest thing I've read in quite a while. I can't build or design a car. Should I not be allowed to drive a car then? I bet you don't have the ability to build your own fully fledged computer if I handed you a bag full of electronic components, a blank PCB and etching chemicals, therefore, by your own logic, you should not be allowed to utilize a computer.

  22. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So just to confirm, you're claiming to be capable of designing and building (assumedly from scratch, which includes sourcing the raw materials and constructing the tools with which to obtain said materials) every single component of the incredibly advanced computer from which you're browsing and posting to the global network known as the internet?

    Within a generation we'd have fully reverted to a very basic pre-industrialization society, and 90% or more of the Earth's population would have died horribly. I'll put up with some simple minded people occasionally getting confused with the "magic" of new technology to avoid that, thank you very much.

  23. Re:Soemthing I'll never understand about human nat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't need "ability" and "talent" to code a simple app. Any idiot can make a simple app.

    That's like saying, "If you have the ability and talent to microwave some ramen, why waste it on ramen?"

  24. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real evil here is the clickbait article here. I saw it on the BBC this morning read it, and only the first paragraph is about what the article is about. I actually spent time on the BBC webpage looking for a link I could click to complain about the article. It's about people not knowing how to use technology, not an app that attempts to diagnose HIV.

  25. Outbreaks of "Genital Retraction Syndrome". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In all seriousness, this really has little to do with technology.

    Into the 1990s and even the 2000s we've seen numerous outbreaks of "Genital Retraction Syndrome" in various African nations.

    In essence, these outbreaks are cases of mass hysteria where people mistakenly think that their genitalia are shrinking or even being "stolen".

    This is how the Wikipedia article currently describes it:

    In the 1970s and early 1980s, newspapers reported incidents of genital shrinking in Western Nigeria. Since late 1996, a small-scale epidemic of genital shrinking was reported in West African nations. Victims in the African outbreaks often interpreted the experience as genital theft, accusing someone with whom they had contact of "stealing" the organ and the spiritual essence, causing impotence. The perceived motive for theft was associated with local occult belief, the witchcraft of juju, to feed the spiritual agency or to hold the genital for ransom. Social representations about juju constitute consensual realities that propose both a means and motivation for genital-shrinking experience.[45]

    The epidemic began in Nigeria and Cameroon, and spread to Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal by 1997.[45] Cases were reported in Cotonou, Benin where mobs attacked individuals accused of the penis theft and authorities ordered security forces to curb the violence, following the deaths of five people by vigilantes.[58] Later reports of outbreak suggest a spread beyond West Africa, including the coverage of episodes in Khartoum, Sudan in September 2003;[59] Banjul, Gambia in October 2003;[45] and Kinshasa, DR Congo in 2008.[60]

    Unlike AIDS, this is something that men who think they're affected can check for themselves. All that a man needs to do is check if his penis is still present, and that its size is remaining consistent.

    Even without cell phones and technology, we'd still see misdiagnoses in Africa, even when this misdiagnosis can easily be proven to be wrong or nonsensical like in the cases of "Genital Retraction Syndrome".

    1. Re:Outbreaks of "Genital Retraction Syndrome". by Jawnn · · Score: 0

      Interesting. Kind of explains the popularity of jacked-to-the-sky pickemup trucks.

    2. Re:Outbreaks of "Genital Retraction Syndrome". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Unlike AIDS, this is something that men who think they're affected can check for themselves. All that a man needs to do is check if his penis is still present, and that its size is remaining consistent.

      Even without cell phones and technology, we'd still see misdiagnoses in Africa, even when this misdiagnosis can easily be proven to be wrong or nonsensical like in the cases of "Genital Retraction Syndrome".

      If you think penis and testical sizes remain constant under fluctuating environmental conditions you must not have any significant experience with them.

    3. Re:Outbreaks of "Genital Retraction Syndrome". by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

      Genital Retraction Syndrome involves a distinctly more...extreme version of shrinking--the expectation is more along the lines of 'extreme feminizing' or 'will end up with an infant boy's twig and berries.' The interesting thing is that men with it genuinely percieve that this level of shrinkage is happening--and very little will convince them that there is anything to be done except to go find and kill the black magic user who inflicted this upon them, because that's what they believe the cause of the (nonexistent) retraction.

  26. Re:Soemthing I'll never understand about human nat by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    App development is probably the only kind of development more lowly than web development. It doesn't take skill, just knowing whatever backwards system (they all are) you're building an app on. Good developers have an options of what to work on, and none of them choose a platform with extreme limitations, lack of control over content, massive privacy concerns, or a generally shit development environment. Most certainly none would choose Java or Window Universal.

  27. Fake Apps! by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    The only way to avoid this happening again is to have a government fake apps investigation department to save stupid people from themselves. Sort of like what's proposed for "fake news".

  28. Re:The Real Evil Here by SirSlud · · Score: 2

    Congrats, you win the dumbest comment of the day award.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  29. Stop picking on this woman... by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    I know of well paid americans that would do the exact same stupid mistake. Most of them get their computer infected with malware by being that uneducated.

    The problem is to safely and correctly use technology requires a high level of education that most people do not get. Most degree holders in the USA are dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to technology.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Stop picking on this woman... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know of well paid americans that would do the exact same stupid mistake.

      You must be acquainted with some dumb motherfuckers then. I don't know a single person who would seriously believe they could take an HIV test by pressing their finger on a smartphone screen.

    2. Re:Stop picking on this woman... by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

      You should read the reviews for flashlight apps for your phone.

      "5 stars, very bright!"

  30. You can't fix stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the most depressing thought I have.

  31. Not really by s.petry · · Score: 1

    The problem is that is that giving people technology does not make them smarter. While certainly tech can be used for the purposes of education, it can not replace education. This is a chronic problem with people of all sorts. People in power want an ignorant populace because they are easier to control. People sitting in a different country with education can't understand why their magic bullets never hit a target. Lastly, the ignorant populace does not know any better and nobody will educate them.

    The only people innocent are the ignorant masses.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  32. News flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uneducated people are gullible.

  33. Re:Soemthing I'll never understand about human nat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you have the ability to read & write, why waste your talent on slashdot?
    Because it is so easy and so little effort, perhaps?

    Coding up "an app" is trivial. You need to install some development software first. With this comes a "template app", that doesn't do anything but it is a convenient starting point. If you add the text "You have AIDS" to the template, you basically have this prank app.

    Yeah, some people are ignorant and have no idea what a phone can or cannot do. These days they are learning that. while in the west,some people get worried when they get chain email. Can't break the chain . . .

    You can't just "trust" an app. Fortunately, this app only caused some worry - it did not trick people into doing dangerous things. (Such as recommending crazy ingredients for medicines)

  34. Third world meets smart phone by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    Pretty sure this has less to do with direct access to the Play Store and more to do with people from the third world, who for all intents and purposes view technology as magic, getting access to smart phones. And who was the friend who shared the app with her? One would think that friends would be even better sources for information on an App that they use and have on their phone than the play store's faceless reviews.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    1. Re:Third world meets smart phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This story reminds me of the beginning of the movie: 2001 A Space Odyssey.

    2. Re:Third world meets smart phone by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      Pretty sure this has less to do with direct access to the Play Store and more to do with people from the third world, who for all intents and purposes view technology as magic, getting access to smart phones. And who was the friend who shared the app with her? One would think that friends would be even better sources for information on an App that they use and have on their phone than the play store's faceless reviews.

      you're wrong. This has everything to do with no access to the play store. This woman lives a life where she doesn't get her apps from the play store because of the cost of data. Were that not the case there wouldn't be an alternative economy of bluetoothing apps in a peer to peer manner. She would have gotten the app from the play store and it would have been much more obvious it was a prank.

      These are first time smart phone users. Not people who grew up in homes with phones. Poor Kenyans who are getting their first phones as adults. They don't have the same phone culture that we do. Heck there are people in America who believe the things they see phones do in Law and Order. These people don't even have that level of sophistication with regards to cell phones. They have no background on expectations. They need education to avoid these common traps and they don't have the time to get the education. You're calling out the friend as if they should know better... why? how? because the friend was super tech savvy? they probably weren't. They might have gotten the same panic and didn't know what to do as well except share the app because "better to know than to be ignorantly infected". It's an entire culture of people who don't know better. They weren't around during the email forward years of the 90s when we learned slowly but surely that gangs never initiate by flashing headlights.

      It's insultingly over simplistic to pull out "they view it as magic". That is not what's happening here. There are just people who are like grandparents when it comes to smart phones but they learn faster. They find their own shortcuts. All the checks and balances of modern phones are based on users being relatively similar to the designers. If you go thru the google store and you speak or read english you're not going to have an issue with fake apps but for each of those that don't apply to you that increases your risk and when you don't even understand that it increases your risk even more.

      But the industry doesn't consider that. They don't design the OS to consider Kenyan women who are poor and controlled by the men in their life. They don't design handsets for people who buy a phone the way we would buy a car saving for months to buy it. Simply accusing them of seeing it as magic drastically misunderstands the situation.

      --
      Just another second banana
  35. Re:The Real Evil Here by CrashPoint · · Score: 2

    Is allowing morons to use technology. It's the source of virtually every issue on Earth, and the solution is simple: if someone can't demonstrate the knowledge required to design and build a thing they shouldn't be allowed to utilize that thing.

    Cool, get back to us when you've figured out how you teach someone how to design and build a device that they're not allowed to use.

  36. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry that you feel so insecure about your own intellect.

    Certainly not in contrast to someone who would use an argument such as that.

  37. Unemployed Africans using their phones to gamble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was surprised to learn that moz://a was involved with this research.

    The article says:

    Commissioned by Mozilla - the organisation behind the Firefox operating system - the study was designed to find out what it is that limits people in the developing world from grabbing the opportunities offered by the web.

    And what did this research discover?

    That unemployed Africans use their smart phones for gambling and for defrauding financial lenders:

    Nairobi resident Evans has no regular employment and the money he does earn is used for betting.

    His smartphone became a tool to research and improve his betting techniques.

    He bet on football matches and used the phone to research the teams and their statistics.

    In Kenya, mobile phone Sims are often tied into mobile money providers, such as M-Shwari, and this offered Evans another way to borrow money other than from his friends and neighbours.

    Unlike a personal loan, which he tends to repay to prevent fights, he is much more blasé about online loans.

    "He was defiant of strict loan repayment rules, which may have landed him on a financial blacklist," said Ms de Reynal.

    "He felt that as long as he threw away the Sim, he could buy another with no consequences," she added.

    And I suppose it also found that some Africans are gullible enough to fall for obvious prank apps.

    Still, I'm not sure what's stupider, this research or moz://a's disastrous $35 Firefox OS phone.

    I can't believe how badly moz://a screws up any time they try to get involved with third-world regions.

  38. Re:lawsuit? harm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.

    Yeah, let's be damn sure to dumb every single thing in existence down until it is idiot proof from the lowest common denominator. I'm sure that'll go real well.

  39. Good, we need more of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe if enough of these sort of incidents occur, the developing world will start to realize that all these first-world flashy gizmos and gadgets aren't all they cracked up to be, that way when the Google Van drives by on another "silicon valley has come to save the brown people!" campaign, pulls up and begins asking villagers "who wants a shiny new phone loaded down with advertisements and privacy-eroding pseudo-malware?" the villagers might just turn around and say "no thanks, how about some industrial-grade irrigation equipment instead?"

    1. Re:Good, we need more of this by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 1

      Ah, the old "developing countries need running water, not computers" trope. Is this /. myth ever going to die? Look at how India's economy has been transformed by embracing the tech industry and get a clue about how things work.

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
  40. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Daddy, can I have a bike for Christmas?"

    "I don't know, son. Can you design and build a bicycle?"

    "...I'm six."

    "The law's the law, junior. Now here's a coloring book. Ha ha, just kidding. You don't even know how to use a simple wax mold, let alone manufacture paper!"

  41. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    It's about more than "simple minded people occasionally getting confused." Before we started "helping" the third world with food and resources there were millions of starving impoverished people suffering under brutal social structures. Now there are billions of starving impoverished people suffering under brutal structures effective enough to bubble over into the civilized world. It may sound harsh, but letting them starve is a mercy as the growth rates mean there will be billions if not trillions more suffering over multiple generations while dragging the rest of the world with them vs 1 generation which starves once and is done. There is nothing good about helping people in a way which leads to suffering of a greater number of people, it's just evil.

  42. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    Wow, amazing argument, I have become convinced by your superior rhetorical skills.

  43. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    Cool, get back to us when you've figured out how you teach someone how to design and build a device that they're not allowed to use.

    I'm sure you thought that was a really intelligent argument. Funny that you failed to consider a plethora of industries where that is exactly the case.

  44. That Clarke quote applies to other fields too by Solandri · · Score: 2

    The last millenium of technological and economic progress has been driven by specialization. Instead of everyone having to learn how to grow crops, hunt for food, dig a well, weave clothes, build a home, etc. we've all specialized. One person learns how to grow crops. He sells it to someone who hunts (or grows) livestock. Who hires someone to dig a well. Who buys clothes pre-made by someone else. Who hires people to build their home. Because each individual can concentrate on a small field of human knowledge, we've been able to increase the depth of knowledge in those specific fields by leaps and bounds - much faster than when everyone was a generalist who had to know how to do everything.

    A side effect of this specialization is that everyone is pretty ignorant of fields they did not specialize into. To poke fun of people for not knowing as much as you in your chosen specialization is very immature, small-minded, and hypocritical. This app is basically the equivalent of jocks beating up nerds for being bad at sports. Or your friend who is hip with fashion telling you that the bowtie is back in style and you should totally wear it to the frat party. It's a mean-spirited prank which tries to cast as stupidity the ignorance via specialization that is essential to a modern functional society. Shame on the tech guys who thought this would be funny.

    1. Re:That Clarke quote applies to other fields too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A side effect of this specialization is that everyone is pretty ignorant of fields they did not specialize into. To poke fun of people for not knowing as much as you in your chosen specialization is very immature, small-minded, and hypocritical.

      This is what happens when you are so open minded that your brains fall out. Either that or you are just really fucking stupid. The woman believed that she could press her finger on the phone and it would tell her if she had HIV or not. And you are saying this should be excused due to "specialization". Let me ask you something. If I told you to press your finger against a kangaroo's ass and you it would tell you if you had genital warts would you believe that? No? Is that because you are a fucking kangaroo-ologist?

    2. Re:That Clarke quote applies to other fields too by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      No, but in 2001 the web firm I worked at created a prank hand scanner app. It told people to press their hands to the monitor and let it scan their hand. Nearly everyone we showed it to went along, thinking somehow a 2000-era CRT could be converted into a scanner, "because internet."

      Ours just concluded with "your screen is dirty" and then people got it.

      You say "stupid," but if it's new and people don't know how it works, practically anything is possible, or will seem like it to them.

  45. Re:Everyone has AIDS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the hell does 'hasa diga eebowai' mean? Like 'no worries for the rest of your days?'

  46. And what POS writes such an app? by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Seriously, I would say 1000 hours of social work for the "nice" person that wrote this and, say, 100M fine for Google to allow this in the app-store in the first place would be a good first step. Not everybody gets a good education when they grow up, and it usually not not their own fault. This also has nothing to do with IQ. Camouflage it a bit better and you find supposedly educated people fall for the most obviously stupid things. Examples: Religion, Trump promises, Erdogan promises, human-like AI, etc.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:And what POS writes such an app? by religionofpeas · · Score: 0

      And 100B fine for giving that lady a smartphone that she couldn't handle.

    2. Re:And what POS writes such an app? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have better examples: public education, global warming, promises from any politician, lawyers, college professors

    3. Re:And what POS writes such an app? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      You miss the point.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:And what POS writes such an app? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Global warming and that a large part of it is human-made is a solidly established scientific fact. This is not a matter for amateur opinions. You might as well claim the world is flat and have about the same level of insight. Obviously, you are one of those that never managed to take anything worthwhile out of your educational opportunities.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    5. Re:And what POS writes such an app? by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      in a third world country without a culture of technology that we have they developed their own economy of peer to peer app distribution. That's pretty impressive. That shows a pretty hefty degree of ingenuity

      --
      Just another second banana
  47. Wait by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    ...so you're suggesting that taking a person from roughly a 15th century existence and handing them a smartphone doesn't immediately make them a sophisticated, worldly Western-world consumer?

    Well hell, why didn't someone say that before?

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:Wait by ghoul · · Score: 1

      ...so you're suggesting that taking a person from roughly a 15th century existence and handing them a smartphone doesn't immediately make them a sophisticated, worldly Western-world consumer?

      Well hell, why didn't someone say that before?

      Humans are adaptable. Prior to WW1 most Americans were farmers so you dont even have to go back to the 15th century. In fact Africa probably had a higher urbanisation rate than Americans 100 years back. If Americans can understand tech 100 years after coming off the farm so can Africans. Give them about 20 years and they will be kicking American tech ass as well as the Indians are doing now. Only hope is to go into their countries and create civil wars otherwise prepare for your new African overlords (same as the current Chinese overlords and the previous British overlords)

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    2. Re:Wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Give them about 20 years and they will be kicking American tech ass...

      This. Exactly this. The way the western world exploited China and actually ended up handing them everything they needed to become the manufacturing center of the world. Well the Chinese have already begun passing that same thing on to Africa. China has made incredible investments in various African nations, and are already starting to reap the benefits of those investments.
      Anyone who doesn't realize that the western countries are in decline isn't paying attention. It won't be long before the countries that think themselves world leaders are about as relevant as they currently believe the African nations to be.

  48. Re:The Real Evil Here by CrashPoint · · Score: 1

    I didn't fail to consider it. I'm just not stupid enough to buy the simplistic idea that it's a one-size-fits-all solution.

  49. Re:The Real Evil Here by Headw1nd · · Score: 2

    I don't believe you. Nor does, I imagine, anyone else. I would suggest you look up the Dunning-Kruger effect, as the mere fact that you are making these claims leads me to believe that you actually know relatively little about fabrication, otherwise you would realize how outlandish they sound.

  50. Funny apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Such apps are popular with many users here in Nairobi. Mostly, 'fresh from village' boys. They can be dangerous to some users.

  51. Re:lawsuit? harm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if there is a civil claim that could be made here. The software was claiming to perform a medical task and did so in the most snake-oily of manners. In the US those who dispense fraudulent medical advice can be subject to lawsuit, fines, and imprisonment. There should have been some disclaimer that the device was not actually medical. Has anyone had this app and killed themselves because of the diagnosis? Has anyone applied it to their child, and killed the child based on the diagnosis? Would someone in a 3rd world country that receives such a diagnosis from a "high cost / high value" device such as an iPhone consider saving their child from a life of suffering after such a diagnosis? Extreme poverty can strongly enhance acts of desperation. It might be easier to sell the child. If the child is going to die anyway, why not move that death away from the home early?

    There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.

    "For entertainment use only". You'd be surprised at how often that disclaimer crops up.

  52. The problem is trust by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    People assumed they can trust companies like Google and Apple to protect them from false information. And that the government might actually protect them from fraud, as they have done for generations before.

    But now, we've suddenly decided that the Internet and App stores are the wild west. And caveat emptor is the new religion of Internet business.

    It's all bullshit though, and it's bound to come crashing down .

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:The problem is trust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And that the government might actually protect them from fraud, as they have done for generations before.

      In Kenya? Seriously?

  53. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    Except there are dozens of readily accessible examples working in different ways.

  54. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    Don't let the UID fool you, I'm one of the people here who actually fit the target audience of this site.

  55. Re:The Real Evil Here by CrashPoint · · Score: 1

    Sure there are, and of course they're applicable to all technology and practical to implement and enforce. But I wouldn't know them. They go to another school. In Canada.

  56. Re:Unemployed Africans using their phones to gambl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact that you typed "moz://a" three times in one post irrationally infuriates me.

  57. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somehow I don't think any amount of argument could persuade you that you are in fact most definitely a jack ass. You have demonstrated that thoroughly by your commentary and further demonstrated your inability see the error in your logic. So yeah, your entire shtick could be summed up as "just another dumbass on the Internet."

  58. Where did it begin? by sentiblue · · Score: 1

    How did this app get on any appstore to begin with?

    1. Re:Where did it begin? by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      apps get on to app stores all the time, they just get removed fairly quickly. But copies can remain. Not that it would have been needed in this case. Someone could have coded it and injected it into the bluetooth economy from there it would spread.

      --
      Just another second banana
  59. Re:lawsuit? harm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.

    Yeah, let's be damn sure to dumb every single thing in existence down until it is idiot proof from the lowest common denominator. I'm sure that'll go real well.

    We already do - as the result of idiots.
    Do my christmas lights really need a warning saying "not for use underwater?" I guess someone tried it.

  60. Revenge of the nerds Anyone? by ghoul · · Score: 1

    Now that most jocks are addicted to their smartphones, nerds are going to get their own back

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  61. Is this restricted to Africa? by ruir · · Score: 1

    Some people should not have computers;
    Others obviously should not have smartphones
    Even others, supposedly educated, have the tools but do not know how to interpret them, and the biggest offenders are IT people.
    It is a shame that common sense seems to go out of the window for the majority when people start using technology; some people would not believe such a tale if they heard it from a stranger, however they believe in everything they hear in some shady email or site; some people would not expose their private bits on the supermakert, yet we already heard of the fappening with Holywood trash....and I bet it wont be the last time.

  62. IDIOTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are everywhere

  63. What is the point of these apps anyway? by kaizendojo · · Score: 1

    Anyone well informed enough to know that a smartphone can't diagnose an illness just finds them stupid and useless, and anyone NOT well informed enough could be caused great distress.

    And anyone who reads slashdot knows that the only real use for these apps are as ad or viral vectors. So why not just eliminate such apps from the market?

  64. From a fingerprint, no by phorm · · Score: 1

    Honestly, while it isn't possible for a smartphone to do a quick-and-dirty disease assessment from a fingerprint, I wouldn't be surprised if mobile devices in the future come with attachments or accessories that could do blood analysis or more given the right software.

    I'd imagine that a device that takes a sample and sends it to a medical professional for diagnosis isn't that far in the future at all, if it doesn't already exist.

  65. Re:IQ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Past attempts to educate people in Africa have also failed. It's like they don't want to learn or to improve their lives.

    The same is true in India, especially with Indian men. Lazy assholes.

  66. HIV by n329619 · · Score: 1

    She should learn from it (fake apps exist) and be empowered by the "ownership of such a device".

    she should also learn that "get hold of apps via a friend's Bluetooth connection" was a bad idea. It's just like spread HIV from person to person but with an app. OH Wait a minute...

  67. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    good thing no one gives a flying crap about your opinions besides for entertainment. the only real stupidity in the world is one person thinking they have any kind of power over another.

    but you don't do you.. in fact, just about everyone around you has power over you instead, and all of their opinions matter and step all over yours. you lack social skills, you're a coward with no balls, and you are afraid to talk to women.

    you should dream some more. live in your dreamworld buddy. you're a kid who's shit his pants in ours, and boy are your dreams stupid.

  68. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's as good an argument as the OP. And it is more succinct, so that's a plus.

  69. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't build or design a car. Should I not be allowed to drive a car then?

    Correct.

    Always fun to see someone double down on the stupid rather than admit they didn't think their statement through.

  70. Re:The Real Evil Here by fedos · · Score: 1

    So you're saying we shouldn't allow you to use technology?

  71. Lend an ignorant third worlder a phone by drewsup · · Score: 1

    and they will make a call...
    Give an ignorant third worlder a phone, and they'll use it to beat a monkey to death

    1. Re:Lend an ignorant third worlder a phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and they will make a call...
      Give an ignorant third worlder a phone, and they'll use it to beat a monkey to death

      Hopefully they'll use it to direct a hijacked aircraft into your office building.

  72. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    Looks an anonymous coward got offended.

  73. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    You're missing the very real implications of such a rule: idiots would be selected against and we wouldn't be barreling toward Idiocracy at 500MPH.

  74. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those aren't the real implications of that rule at all. You're fantasizing if you think that only "idiots" would suffer and die because of your moronic mandate - assuming you could even enforce it in the first place, which is itself a childish dream.

    And we AREN'T "barreling toward Idiocracy at 500MPH". That's an age-old lie that morons looking to appear fashionably world-weary have been telling each other since the dawn of time. You are nothing but the next insecure hipster baby shrieking because the world isn't oriented around what you want.

    And no, "just look at the news!" isn't proof that you're right, and yes that IS what you were about to say. It's what you retards ALWAYS say. No exceptions.

  75. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    And no, "just look at the news!" isn't proof that you're right, and yes that IS what you were about to say. It's what you retards ALWAYS say. No exceptions.

    It would be a lot easier to take your arguments at face value and address them if you had any, even more so if you presumed the people you spoke to were different. Though I guess in crazyland all the people who hold differing views to your own on the internet are the same person out to get you, huh?

  76. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why should I presume you're any different when you're singing exactly the same moronic song as the last thousand rubes, right down to the strawman arguments?

  77. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    So are you a bible thumper then? Seems odd to reject evolution's prime directive: selection criteria, seems even more odd if you accept it as real and presume modern society doesn't move us toward Idiocracy. No great wonder why we haven't had a ground-breaking physicist in about a century (Hell, most of them are still chasing dark matter/energy to fill mathematical errors.) Nobody said Idiocracy didn't have a transition period.

  78. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think evolution has a "prime directive", you don't understand evolution at all.

  79. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    Nice one-liner, unfortunately not based in reality. Without selection there is no evolution, even worse, when the selection criteria changes from "intellect" to "anything else" - you end up with "anything else." Evolution hasn't stopped, it just no longer requires high intellect and everything which isn't selected for is selected against over time.

  80. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A "prime directive" implies that evolution is an intelligent force with a goal. I'm not the one thinking like a "bible-thumper" here. You don't understand evolution and you don't want to. If you did, you'd have long since moved away from your childish view of it. Schoolchildren make models out of toothpicks and clay balls that model atoms more accurately than you describe evolution.

  81. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    Nice one-liner, unfortunately not based in reality. Without selection there is no evolution, even worse, when the selection criteria changes from "intellect" to "anything else" - you end up with "anything else." Evolution hasn't stopped, it just no longer requires high intellect and everything which isn't selected for is selected against over time.

  82. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    A "prime directive" implies that evolution is an intelligent force with a goal. I'm not the one thinking like a "bible-thumper" here.

    No, jackass, it implies evolution is a system with rules. If you select for one thing without selecting for others the others gradually decline. Mutation is largely random (there are some patterns, but they are beyond the scope of this discussion and largely irrelevant at the macroscopic scale anyway.) When everything is randomly mutating and you say "but give higher precedence to things with this mutation" (which, without an intelligent force is a thing that happens through any selection process) the chance of unfavorable mutations in other areas arising increases because you tend to have roughly the same number of mutations overall per generation (barring things like toxins, excessive radiation, viral exposure, etc in the environment) if they aren't happening in the thing you are selecting for they are happening in the things you are not selecting for.

  83. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah, people making fun of you must be doing so because you've offended them. not because they enjoy it or anything. did the bullies in highschool shove you into a locker because you offended them too?

    it is amazing the kind of clown bullshit a loser's brain comes up with to strafe off depression.

  84. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    So much projection from the anonymous coward.

  85. Hmmmm, by Meski · · Score: 1

    They aren't tricorders, yet...

  86. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, jackass, it does imply that. A directive is an order or instruction given to someone; it isn't like the laws of physics. You deliberately used that term in order to suggest that evolution carries with it some kind of moral obligation to force people to live the way you want them to. It's a pathetically clumsy attempt at demagoguery, whose only purpose is to excuse you from having to think through any of the retarded fantasies you concoct to cast yourself as one of the few worthy elite (which you are not in any way, nor do you have the potential to be).

    You're an idiot to think that it's in any way practical or desirable to enforce some kind of bizarre "you can't use any piece of technology you can't personally design and build" rule. And whether or not you ever gain the iota of self-awareness it'll take for you to admit it, you are joyful and thankful that you do not live in such a world and never will. Civilization wouldn't survive a generation like that, and you in particular wouldn't live a month.

  87. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    20 years ago, the projection was usually my fist towards the nose of a loser. now, I just come here, write a shitload of text dissing someone like yourself, and enjoy the short non-content replies. keyboard warriors who can't come up with content use empty sarcasm and convince themselves they've got upper ground, because sarcasm. of course, they only convince themselves. to everyone else, they're getting shit on and stand there taking it. much like 20 years ago. of course at that time, they didn't talk back, they just cried. let me ask you this - does it hurt your dick to jack off several times a day?

    I do love the fact that you think telling someone they're posting w/o creating an account is somehow a putdown. you see, creating an account makes you an alpha keyboard warrior. I'm definitely not one.

  88. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You deliberately used that term in order to suggest that evolution carries with it some kind of moral obligation to force people to live the way you want them to. It's a pathetically clumsy attempt at demagoguery, whose only purpose is to excuse you from having to think through any of the retarded fantasies you concoct to cast yourself as one of the few worthy elite (which you are not in any way, nor do you have the potential to be).

    Do you actually believe the idiotic things you type, or do you just hope others do?

  89. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you're saying you used to beat people up and now are too much of a coward to do so, got it.

  90. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your surrender is noted and accepted.

  91. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    So you've finally run out of things to trick yourself into believing?

  92. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Project a little harder, maybe someone will install you in a movie theater booth.

    But you will never be able to support the stupid things you've said.

    You will now prove me right.

  93. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    You will now prove me right.

    But you've said nothing of consequence worth addressing?

  94. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What you mean is that you know you're not competent to address what I've said, and are desperate for an excuse to avoid doing so. I've pointed out that your little fantasy of tech regulation is not in any way practical or enforceable. By failing to even attempt to defend it as being such, you have admitted that I'm right. You will now do it again. No other action on your part is possible.

  95. Re:The Real Evil Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Congrats, you win the dumbest comment of the day award.

    Most truthful comment of the day. (FIXED IT FOR YOU)

  96. Re:The Real Evil Here by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    lol, you keep talking. Hold on to that impotent rage and ego. When you're an old man on your deathbed it will probably be all you have left.