It's not like they said nobody else could use those wires on telephone poles. No, they invented the technology, patented it, it turned out to be the one everyone wanted, and they got rich.
I'm OK with this "we spent money on R&D, you didn't, fuck off" attitude. I'm not OK with the local telecom saying "who you gonna call? Ghostbusters was a movie, twit" and jacking up my fees while reducing my service.
Did I mention Qcom puts a ton of money into R&D every year, while your local monopoly puts a ton of money into politicians every year?
To reply to my own comment, I've got an LG and it seems to get an update a couple times a year. Takes a long time to port/test your stuff to the new Android, so I'm OK with a 6-12 month lag in Android versions.
I know this is normal in Android land, but I don't understand why people are OK with it.
What choice to we have? I don't want an iPhone, nor a Windows phone. I want a droid. They all come with old software, preinstalled crap you can't uninstall, etc etc.
Best I can do is ensure it's got a headphone jack and SDCC slot, and I can afford it.
I'm a 60 something guy. From the day I figured out what a telephone was my conversations were always of the "hey Joe. Good, Good. McDonalds at 3? See ya then" sort.
What's changed is that conversation now happens via text messages, the only phone calls I get are scammers.
At least 3 federal agencies (NSA/CIA/FBI) have long lists of vulnerabilities to break into systems. Who wants to bet they'll share any info with this new agency?
Satellite is not a viable replacement for many high-speed internet needs.
A) Gaming, or anything where lag is an issue.
B) Rain. I was on vacation one night in our hotel (in the middle of nowhere) got caught in a rainstorm. Their satellite TV and internet went straight to hell.
Seriously. What do bots do? They help you make reservations. They frustrate you going through tech support. They help you jack off thinking some hottie is on the other end. They feed you fake news that anyone with half a brain would know is fake.
Oops, there we have it. They spread fake news via ZuckerFuck, and the users of ZuckerFuck don't have half a brain.
Downloading updates isn't the problem. Rebooting my laptop when I step away to pee is.
What's wrong with downloading the updates, then telling me you want to reboot and letting me decide when the reboot happens? Yeah, I get some people will never reboot. Fuckem. I'll reboot, but it might take me 3-4 days depending on what I'm doing.
Of course, then MS will have to grow a set when users complain they got hacked. They'll have to say "that got fixed 6 months ago and we've been asking permission for a reboot for 6 months. Go away."
But I was president of my HOA for 12 years back when I was much younger and naive. Get 3 bids for something. Toss out the lower one if it's too much lower than the other 2. Make a choice on the other 2.
Stuff goes wrong, doesn't it always? Sue the contractor's company.
The contractor's company goes out of business with no assets left, while the contractor has another business he's running under.
I'm guessing vendors of these IoT PoS run under the same rules. You can sue the fuck out of them, win, and get some dust bunnies and used condoms nobody on the cleaning crew wanted to touch.
is for public officials to be forced to use "private" apps that include a backdoor, like the fibbies want. Soon as these "public" oficials realize that not only can some pimple farm in Sumfukistan access that backdoor, but so can some reporter looking for a story, maybe things will change.
Nahh, I'm kidding myself. Soon as they realize the plebes can access the security backdoor they'll demand encryption without that backdoor. Only available to them of course, the plebes don't need that kind of privacy.
You're burning gasoline, which dumps stuff in the atmosphere. You're using public roads, which are heavily subsidized. The people who work at WalMart are also getting food stamps or other welfare. All that for a $1.39 tube of toothpaste.
Face it, we're connected as hell. Everyfuckingthing we do has hidden costs. Get over with it, it's called modern living.
I have a Roku talking to a Pi 3B+ and a 2TB NAS. Buttons the remote needs: FF 30 seconds, rewind 10 seconds, mute (I see the same damn 2 ads every 10 minutes, they got old fast).
Buttons they could repurpose? Netflix, Sling, Hulu, and Amazon.
There. That's 3 buttons that would make my Roku experience 100% better, with no loss of quality (I don't subscribe to any of those channels, the buttons are useless).
And yeah, I have a Sony TM-VX320 universal remote. I found a Roku code (or maybe it was plex), but controlling my Roku from my universal remote makes less sense than driving a DVD in my PS3 with a PS3 remote. In other words, none at all.
Around Christmas I wore my PS3 controller out, and bought one from Amazon. It's a perfectly cromulent controller (hard to find with all the astroturf reviews), and I gave it a 5 star review.
Got email today implying I'm getting a free PS3 controller Any Time Now (tm), and asking me to review it.
Slashdot Mirror
They launched it at night. Cue Polish/Italian/$downtrodden joke here.
It's not like they said nobody else could use those wires on telephone poles. No, they invented the technology, patented it, it turned out to be the one everyone wanted, and they got rich.
I'm OK with this "we spent money on R&D, you didn't, fuck off" attitude. I'm not OK with the local telecom saying "who you gonna call? Ghostbusters was a movie, twit" and jacking up my fees while reducing my service.
Did I mention Qcom puts a ton of money into R&D every year, while your local monopoly puts a ton of money into politicians every year?
To reply to my own comment, I've got an LG and it seems to get an update a couple times a year. Takes a long time to port/test your stuff to the new Android, so I'm OK with a 6-12 month lag in Android versions.
I know this is normal in Android land, but I don't understand why people are OK with it.
What choice to we have? I don't want an iPhone, nor a Windows phone. I want a droid. They all come with old software, preinstalled crap you can't uninstall, etc etc.
Best I can do is ensure it's got a headphone jack and SDCC slot, and I can afford it.
I'm a 60 something guy. From the day I figured out what a telephone was my conversations were always of the "hey Joe. Good, Good. McDonalds at 3? See ya then" sort.
What's changed is that conversation now happens via text messages, the only phone calls I get are scammers.
At least 3 federal agencies (NSA/CIA/FBI) have long lists of vulnerabilities to break into systems. Who wants to bet they'll share any info with this new agency?
Satellite is not a viable replacement for many high-speed internet needs.
A) Gaming, or anything where lag is an issue.
B) Rain. I was on vacation one night in our hotel (in the middle of nowhere) got caught in a rainstorm. Their satellite TV and internet went straight to hell.
I see 2 big problems:
A) At those speeds you can hit your monthly bandwidth cap in an hour or so.
B) The frequencies involved kinda suck outside of line of sight
I see 2 reasons for the interest
A) Bragging rights
B) Big $$$ on people going over their bandwidth cap.
Mostly because I get 0.0% of my news from Social Media. And it will stay that way until some pissed off relative signs my corpse up with Facebook.
Every friday I get some cash, and I can spend it as I please over the next week. When I'm out of cash I'm out of fun for the week.
Contrast that to a credit card. My CC has a limit of about 50% my annual salary. God hope I don't keep spending that until the card is rejected.
I'm sitting in my La-Z-boy, cat in lap, in the comfort of my apartment. You say it's hot outside? Why would I go outside, I got air and a fluffy cat.
Someone actually went to bat for us plebes. Way to go!
Then again, my 60 y/o cynical self thinks it's more like they didn't grease enough palms.
Seriously. What do bots do? They help you make reservations. They frustrate you going through tech support. They help you jack off thinking some hottie is on the other end. They feed you fake news that anyone with half a brain would know is fake.
Oops, there we have it. They spread fake news via ZuckerFuck, and the users of ZuckerFuck don't have half a brain.
Downloading updates isn't the problem. Rebooting my laptop when I step away to pee is.
What's wrong with downloading the updates, then telling me you want to reboot and letting me decide when the reboot happens? Yeah, I get some people will never reboot. Fuckem. I'll reboot, but it might take me 3-4 days depending on what I'm doing.
Of course, then MS will have to grow a set when users complain they got hacked. They'll have to say "that got fixed 6 months ago and we've been asking permission for a reboot for 6 months. Go away."
But I was president of my HOA for 12 years back when I was much younger and naive. Get 3 bids for something. Toss out the lower one if it's too much lower than the other 2. Make a choice on the other 2.
Stuff goes wrong, doesn't it always? Sue the contractor's company.
The contractor's company goes out of business with no assets left, while the contractor has another business he's running under.
I'm guessing vendors of these IoT PoS run under the same rules. You can sue the fuck out of them, win, and get some dust bunnies and used condoms nobody on the cleaning crew wanted to touch.
My nearest drugstore is 2 miles away. My nearest liquor store is 0.25 miles away. Guess which country I live in?
is for public officials to be forced to use "private" apps that include a backdoor, like the fibbies want. Soon as these "public" oficials realize that not only can some pimple farm in Sumfukistan access that backdoor, but so can some reporter looking for a story, maybe things will change.
Nahh, I'm kidding myself. Soon as they realize the plebes can access the security backdoor they'll demand encryption without that backdoor. Only available to them of course, the plebes don't need that kind of privacy.
You're burning gasoline, which dumps stuff in the atmosphere. You're using public roads, which are heavily subsidized. The people who work at WalMart are also getting food stamps or other welfare. All that for a $1.39 tube of toothpaste.
Face it, we're connected as hell. Everyfuckingthing we do has hidden costs. Get over with it, it's called modern living.
Quit fucking rebooting my fucking laptop without fucking asking me, fuckhats!
It's the tech that makes US voters stupid.
No, the tech just makes the stupidity more visible.
My bad. This backwards country has oil we need. So they're good, all good. Swallow your vomit and repeat after me: "Saudi Arabia is our friend".
An iOS clone, with nothing added, just different listeners for the data....
I have a Roku talking to a Pi 3B+ and a 2TB NAS. Buttons the remote needs: FF 30 seconds, rewind 10 seconds, mute (I see the same damn 2 ads every 10 minutes, they got old fast).
Buttons they could repurpose? Netflix, Sling, Hulu, and Amazon.
There. That's 3 buttons that would make my Roku experience 100% better, with no loss of quality (I don't subscribe to any of those channels, the buttons are useless).
And yeah, I have a Sony TM-VX320 universal remote. I found a Roku code (or maybe it was plex), but controlling my Roku from my universal remote makes less sense than driving a DVD in my PS3 with a PS3 remote. In other words, none at all.
Around Christmas I wore my PS3 controller out, and bought one from Amazon. It's a perfectly cromulent controller (hard to find with all the astroturf reviews), and I gave it a 5 star review.
:)
Got email today implying I'm getting a free PS3 controller Any Time Now (tm), and asking me to review it.
I think I could learn to like this new economy
Every time. The question should have been "How often do you change a password",