> We DO have laws against these sorts of spam calls in the US. We also have laws against people sending email spam too. Actually managing to enforce these laws is a different matter entirely.
No, it's really easy when it comes to phone calls - Got an illegal spam call? Report and person gets a hefty fine. Can't identify caller? Move punishment to the company that provides the call. Done. There is no reason for someone dialling YOU to be anonymous to your telcom provider. And no, there is no reason to make exceptions for any category of calls, be it political or non-profit.
Aside from the political and charity calls, the vast majority of the remainder are from call center operations outside of US jurisdiction. The operate from Canada, India, etc.. any where with good internet connectivity ( VoIP service ) and simple pick currently unassigned phone numbers to spoof (some of the really evil ones will use the number they are calling for the caller id).
So what you have is a situation with many, many technical workarounds and very little legal recourse. There isn't an international treaty that bans unsolicited phone calls , just like their isn't on that bans unsolicited email. Its all local or national which is simply avoided by working from outside the jurisdiction.
If the telcos were on the hook for unidentified spam callers, they'd wouldn't allow it to be so easy to spoof caller iD.
Spammers / scammers seem to like to use the same area code and first 3 digits to make calls appear local
I'm a big fan of that "feature" of spam callers -- I haven't lived in the area code of my cell phone number for over 10 years, so when I see a caller with that area code and prefix, I'm nearly 100% sure it's a spam caller.
I assume what happened was they triggered the "send a voice message" function in their conversation and their Echo device's volume was turned down and didn't hear the Echo activation beep or see the light. Based on this guide, all you have to do is say something that sounds like "Alexa send a voice message to XXX" and if XXX is a unique contact id, then the Echo sends it without further confirmation.
To send a voice message using a supported Echo device
1 - Say, "Send a message to [contact name]."
2 - If the name is similar to other contacts in your address book, Alexa repeats the name back for you to confirm.
3 - Once you confirm the name, Alexa prompts you for the message.
4- When you've finished talking, Alexa sends your voice message.
Unless you buy something that is legitimately defective, there is no reason to return it. I'm pretty old and I can count the number of times I've returned something on one hand, and have fingers left over.
There are lots of legitimate reasons to return a product that's not defective -- maybe you don't like the size, or the color, maybe it doesn't work well for the intended purpose, maybe it came in too many pieces and you don't feel like assembling it, maybe it's not compatible with the accessory you were going to use it with, maybe you just bought the wrong product (or made a duplicate order) and didn't realize it until it arrived.
The drawback of online ordering is that you don't always know what you're buying until it arrives, so Amazon has to expect a certain level of returns.
You'd think that as a self-professed "businessman", Trump would understand how demand curves work -- if you double the price of a product, demand decreases, if other suppliers (UPS, Fedex, Ontrac, Amazon's own service, etc) can deliver for less, then the postoffice loses out on income for a business that costs very little to provide when they are already sending workers out to every address.
Though I'd be happy to see Amazon stop using the USPS -- they are the least reliable of all of the other services Amazon uses, packages sometimes show up days after they were marked "delivered", or don't show up at all. I fairly often get packages meant for neighbors, I assume this is the source of the delayed packages.
Fedex and UPS are the best, packages show up on time. Amazon's own delivery service has been ok, but seem to have a high number of rescheduled deliveries when they've run out of time to deliver. Maybe I'm on the end of the route.
That's irrelevant. The idea has been conceived and disseminated. The initial dissemination was among people with the power and the resources to make it a real-world experiment. Do you really Google doesn't have the arrogance, the hubris, and the power-lust to start implementing this?
They have pretty much all the data they need to do this for some people. They have your search history, your email history, your SMS history, your phone calls and voicemails (google voice), your detailed location history, your purchase history, (google wallet) every photo you've taken in the past N years, all of your files in Google Drive, and more.
In my country its up to the parents to buy textbooks and materials for their children. Why isn't it like that in the USA? Or do only rich White or Asian parents do that, not the poor or Black or Hispanic parents?
That's what college students do, and book publishers realized that they have a captive audience of consumers that *have* to buy books every year (thanks to (often) unnecessary to book editions that ensure used book are nearly useless), and books end up costing over $1000USD/year.
It turns out that when a business is faced with a consumer that *has* to buy their product, they don't have any incentive to keep prices low.
One big issue Checkmarx faced is that on Echo devices a shining blue ring reveals when Alexa listens
I'd be more worried about it if they could listen without the indicator light on.
Question is, 1) how noticeable is the blue ring, and
Quite noticable if you're looking at the device, and it doesn't have to be noticed by everyone, just enough people that say "Weird, after I installed the "fart sounds" skill, the blue light stays on all day", and report it.
Your TV has a battery that you can pull? Mine is plugged in all the time, and if not, then the hidden supercapacitor to run the surveillance when it's unplugged.
Its manufacturer, Janssen and Pharmacyclics, has decided on the basis of the doctors' interest in smaller dosages to reprice all sizes of the drug to the price of the largest size.
The company made all doses the same price. You can buy the four times stronger pills, cut them in four parts and save yourself 75%.
That doesn't work with all drugs - for example, some drugs have an enteric coating that prevents it from dissolving in the stomach, others may have a time release coating, etc.
It ran for a number of months and was clearly well-managed as the group was able to open an office and appear at multiple events.
If this is the kind of due diligence people do before investing(*) in crypto-currency, I see why so many people get scammed. "Well, they have an office, this company is clearly well-managed, must be legit".
(*) And when I say "investing", I mean in the same way that someone feeding their paycheck into slot machines is "investing"
The choice will be more like a 35mpg Honda and 25mph Ford that costs $2000 less, has a more powerful engine
Many people will take the cheap, faster car
After about 6000 miles you've spent the $2000 you saved making the Honda cheaper within the first year. As for the speed both cars are going to reach the speed limit and the difference in acceleration isn't going to be that great unless you're talking about a sports car so it won't actually save you much time by being just a little bit faster.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, but I assume it's that Americans can't do simple arithmetic? The difference in fuel consumption for 6000 miles between 35mpg and 25mpg is 68 gallons, or around $275 dollars if gas costs $4/gallon.
So set ceilings for emissions, then tax gas. Manufacturers will be forced to work within the emissions standards and increase efficiency, maybe by (OMG!) selling smaller/lighter cars. Your average hausfrau doesn't need to drive a 18mpg Silverado.
Why not do both? Set emission and fuel efficiency standards? Forcing efficiency through fuel taxes turns into a regressive tax on the guy that can only afford a 10 year old 22mpg sedan instead of a modern 45mpg hybrid. And the guy with the $100K 14mpg BWM doesn't care. But tell BMW that they need a fleet average of XX mpg, and they'll be forced to sell afforable high MPG cars to offset the expensive low MPG cars.
Couldn't California accomplish almost the same effect by raising the gas tax? That will give residents an incentive to buy more efficient cars, as well as cut down on miles driven by existing cars.
A gas tax doesn't magically make cars reduce emissions -- it can have the opposite effect where manufacturers sacrifice emissions for efficiency. Otherwise we'd all be driving diesels.
Really? So if Ford was offering a 10mpg car and Honda was offering a 35mpg comparable car, you gonna buy the Ford? How many car manufacturers are out there? You are free to buy from the most fuel efficient car maker. And buying a more fuel efficient car saves you money, so why would you need a law to force you to buy the more fuel efficient model? Why not a law to force CPU makers minimum flops? Or RAM makers minimum Ram speeds? Or hard driver makers minimum terabytes?
That's a strawman.
The choice will be more like a 35mpg Honda and 25mph Ford that costs $2000 less, has a more powerful engine, but also emits a *lot* more pollutants of all types, not just CO2, but the smog inducing pollutants that have a direct link in killing people.
Many people will take the cheap, faster car even if it kills children since that killing is an indirect link, which is why the regulation is needed.
It's the headline that says that the telcos will sue states that enact Net Neutrality. That's not what the telcos are saying, it's the flamebait headline... and you fell hook, line, sinker.
Then what did they mean by "we will aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts..."?
Slashdot Mirror
> We DO have laws against these sorts of spam calls in the US. We also have laws against people sending email spam too. Actually managing to enforce these laws is a different matter entirely.
No, it's really easy when it comes to phone calls - Got an illegal spam call? Report and person gets a hefty fine. Can't identify caller? Move punishment to the company that provides the call. Done.
There is no reason for someone dialling YOU to be anonymous to your telcom provider.
And no, there is no reason to make exceptions for any category of calls, be it political or non-profit.
Aside from the political and charity calls, the vast majority of the remainder are from call center operations outside of US jurisdiction. The operate from Canada, India, etc .. any where with good internet connectivity ( VoIP service ) and simple pick currently unassigned phone numbers to spoof (some of the really evil ones
will use the number they are calling for the caller id).
So what you have is a situation with many, many technical workarounds and very little legal recourse. There isn't an international treaty that bans unsolicited phone calls , just like their isn't on that bans unsolicited email. Its all local or national which is simply avoided by working from outside the jurisdiction.
If the telcos were on the hook for unidentified spam callers, they'd wouldn't allow it to be so easy to spoof caller iD.
Spammers / scammers seem to like to use the same area code and first 3 digits to make calls appear local
I'm a big fan of that "feature" of spam callers -- I haven't lived in the area code of my cell phone number for over 10 years, so when I see a caller with that area code and prefix, I'm nearly 100% sure it's a spam caller.
I assume what happened was they triggered the "send a voice message" function in their conversation and their Echo device's volume was turned down and didn't hear the Echo activation beep or see the light. Based on this guide, all you have to do is say something that sounds like "Alexa send a voice message to XXX" and if XXX is a unique contact id, then the Echo sends it without further confirmation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help...
To send a voice message using a supported Echo device
1 - Say, "Send a message to [contact name]."
2 - If the name is similar to other contacts in your address book, Alexa repeats the name back for you to confirm.
3 - Once you confirm the name, Alexa prompts you for the message.
4- When you've finished talking, Alexa sends your voice message.
Unless you buy something that is legitimately defective, there is no reason to return it. I'm pretty old and I can count the number of times I've returned something on one hand, and have fingers left over.
There are lots of legitimate reasons to return a product that's not defective -- maybe you don't like the size, or the color, maybe it doesn't work well for the intended purpose, maybe it came in too many pieces and you don't feel like assembling it, maybe it's not compatible with the accessory you were going to use it with, maybe you just bought the wrong product (or made a duplicate order) and didn't realize it until it arrived.
The drawback of online ordering is that you don't always know what you're buying until it arrives, so Amazon has to expect a certain level of returns.
Amazon is a horrible monopoly and is killing small businesses. It needs to be trust-busted.
That's a slippery slope and there are a lot of monopolies and oligopolies that need to be broken up if you really want a fair market place.
But if you really think Amazon needs to be broken up, you don't break up a monopoly by forcing one of their shippers to raise rates.
You'd think that as a self-professed "businessman", Trump would understand how demand curves work -- if you double the price of a product, demand decreases, if other suppliers (UPS, Fedex, Ontrac, Amazon's own service, etc) can deliver for less, then the postoffice loses out on income for a business that costs very little to provide when they are already sending workers out to every address.
Though I'd be happy to see Amazon stop using the USPS -- they are the least reliable of all of the other services Amazon uses, packages sometimes show up days after they were marked "delivered", or don't show up at all. I fairly often get packages meant for neighbors, I assume this is the source of the delayed packages.
Fedex and UPS are the best, packages show up on time. Amazon's own delivery service has been ok, but seem to have a high number of rescheduled deliveries when they've run out of time to deliver. Maybe I'm on the end of the route.
Probably because this was a thought experiment.
That's irrelevant. The idea has been conceived and disseminated. The initial dissemination was among people with the power and the resources to make it a real-world experiment. Do you really Google doesn't have the arrogance, the hubris, and the power-lust to start implementing this?
They have pretty much all the data they need to do this for some people. They have your search history, your email history, your SMS history, your phone calls and voicemails (google voice), your detailed location history, your purchase history, (google wallet) every photo you've taken in the past N years, all of your files in Google Drive, and more.
They know more about you than Facebook.
In my country its up to the parents to buy textbooks and materials for their children. Why isn't it like that in the USA? Or do only rich White or Asian parents do that, not the poor or Black or Hispanic parents?
That's what college students do, and book publishers realized that they have a captive audience of consumers that *have* to buy books every year (thanks to (often) unnecessary to book editions that ensure used book are nearly useless), and books end up costing over $1000USD/year.
It turns out that when a business is faced with a consumer that *has* to buy their product, they don't have any incentive to keep prices low.
Looks like the logo of a transit agency... or maybe a gas station.
Question is, 1) how noticeable is the blue ring, and
Quite noticable if you're looking at the device, and it doesn't have to be noticed by everyone, just enough people that say "Weird, after I installed the "fart sounds" skill, the blue light stays on all day", and report it.
This hack isn't very well hidden:
One big issue Checkmarx faced is that on Echo devices a shining blue ring reveals when Alexa listens
I'd be more worried about it if they could listen without the indicator light on.
What if I pull the battery?
Your TV has a battery that you can pull? Mine is plugged in all the time, and if not, then the hidden supercapacitor to run the surveillance when it's unplugged.
>Even masking will only reduce the vibration, by the way, we can still hear you quite well. It does obscure the camera, however
Only the camera you can see, once you reach a certain level of paranoia, you realize that there are other, hidden, cameras in your devices.
The company made all doses the same price. You can buy the four times stronger pills, cut them in four parts and save yourself 75%.
That doesn't work with all drugs - for example, some drugs have an enteric coating that prevents it from dissolving in the stomach, others may have a time release coating, etc.
It ran for a number of months and was clearly well-managed as the group was able to open an office and appear at multiple events.
If this is the kind of due diligence people do before investing(*) in crypto-currency, I see why so many people get scammed. "Well, they have an office, this company is clearly well-managed, must be legit".
(*) And when I say "investing", I mean in the same way that someone feeding their paycheck into slot machines is "investing"
A highly clocked x86 is literally the opposite of what RISC designers actually thought was possible.
I thought CISC processors were essentially RISC processors, using microcode to execute the complex statement.
Is this figure correct:
Panagos, who seeks $15,000 in damages for physical and emotional injuries...
I'd imagine that any of the insurers would be happy to pay her $15K (or even more) if she'll accept that as their final liability.
The choice will be more like a 35mpg Honda and 25mph Ford that costs $2000 less, has a more powerful engine
Many people will take the cheap, faster car
After about 6000 miles you've spent the $2000 you saved making the Honda cheaper within the first year. As for the speed both cars are going to reach the speed limit and the difference in acceleration isn't going to be that great unless you're talking about a sports car so it won't actually save you much time by being just a little bit faster.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, but I assume it's that Americans can't do simple arithmetic? The difference in fuel consumption for 6000 miles between 35mpg and 25mpg is 68 gallons, or around $275 dollars if gas costs $4/gallon.
So set ceilings for emissions, then tax gas. Manufacturers will be forced to work within the emissions standards and increase efficiency, maybe by (OMG!) selling smaller/lighter cars. Your average hausfrau doesn't need to drive a 18mpg Silverado.
Why not do both? Set emission and fuel efficiency standards? Forcing efficiency through fuel taxes turns into a regressive tax on the guy that can only afford a 10 year old 22mpg sedan instead of a modern 45mpg hybrid. And the guy with the $100K 14mpg BWM doesn't care. But tell BMW that they need a fleet average of XX mpg, and they'll be forced to sell afforable high MPG cars to offset the expensive low MPG cars.
Only the united states and canada has those standards at all...
Kinda fucking stupid to be the only ones doing it.
What are you talking about? Nearly every country has emissions standards:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Even under the stricter Obama led standards, the USA still lags most of the world in efficiency standards:
http://www.biologicaldiversity...
Couldn't California accomplish almost the same effect by raising the gas tax? That will give residents an incentive to buy more efficient cars, as well as cut down on miles driven by existing cars.
A gas tax doesn't magically make cars reduce emissions -- it can have the opposite effect where manufacturers sacrifice emissions for efficiency. Otherwise we'd all be driving diesels.
Really? So if Ford was offering a 10mpg car and Honda was offering a 35mpg comparable car, you gonna buy the Ford? How many car manufacturers are out there? You are free to buy from the most fuel efficient car maker. And buying a more fuel efficient car saves you money, so why would you need a law to force you to buy the more fuel efficient model? Why not a law to force CPU makers minimum flops? Or RAM makers minimum Ram speeds? Or hard driver makers minimum terabytes?
That's a strawman.
The choice will be more like a 35mpg Honda and 25mph Ford that costs $2000 less, has a more powerful engine, but also emits a *lot* more pollutants of all types, not just CO2, but the smog inducing pollutants that have a direct link in killing people.
Many people will take the cheap, faster car even if it kills children since that killing is an indirect link, which is why the regulation is needed.
And Apple should counter that and resolve it by moving those jobs to another city
Your move, councilman.
Good luck finding a city that will tolerate thousands of bogus 911 calls -- they'll have to move out of the country to escape the problem.
Or, you know, just fix the problem.
Just send police for every call and charge a false alarm fee for false alarms.
Once it starts costing $1000 per false alarm, Apple will find it much easier to resolve the problem.
It's the headline that says that the telcos will sue states that enact Net Neutrality. That's not what the telcos are saying, it's the flamebait headline... and you fell hook, line, sinker.
Then what did they mean by "we will aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts..."?