Internet of Bings

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

<snip>
After describing the dramatically larger "attack surface" for hacking and surveillance attendant to 5G, MIT Tech Review attempts to assuage our worries with "oh, brother"-worthy "perfectly safe if used perfectly correctly" verbiage:

So it's the same old story - the technology is great in theory, the problem lies in the praxis.
<snip>

Sort of puts the drive to shut down the WWV radio stations in a whole new light. I mean -- if you have to replace these time signals, what are your options? GPS? Something with an Internet connection? Definitely something you'll have to pay extra for. And less reliable, possibly less secure, and definitely a lot less universally accessible than the WWV time service.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Sort of puts the drive to shut down the WWV radio stations in a whole new light. I mean -- if you have to replace these time signals, what are your options? GPS?

I'm currently having to try to manage a similar thing in a group I am currently working with.

The same person who is advocating 5G is arguing that low-frequency photons will give us all cancer.

He presents no evidence, and doesn't even seem to understand that 5G involves "pico cells".

[retina]

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/...mbed&ref=share

I made the mistake of adding an August Home Smart Lock to my front door. It's an Apple HomeKit device so it requires a hub for Siri; either an AppleTV or iPad. I use an iPad Pro in the living room for this purpose. I was showing off my home automation setup to a neighbor a few days ago, he's cool techy guy like myself. Fast forward to this morning, I'm pulling out of my driveway and he runs up and asks to borrow some flour to fry wings for an office wing party/contest; dope. So I put the car in park and to go back inside and he's like "I'll let myself in." I'm stunned, like what the f*ck. Dude walks up to my front door and shouts, "HEY SIRI, UNLOCK THE FRONT DOOR." She unlocked the front door.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by chalsall

The same person who is advocating 5G is arguing that low-frequency photons will give us all cancer.

He presents no evidence, and doesn't even seem to understand that 5G involves "pico cells".

Good God -- pico cells??? Doesn't he know that they emit picowaves -- which are gamma rays? What's he trying to do, sterilize the lot of you?

[retina]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

... picowaves ... gamma rays ... sterilize the lot of you ...

Quick! Make a WP page for it. And that way everyone will know that it is all true. 5G will make the human race extinct with its sterilising waves. OMGWTF!

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by retina

Quick! Make a WP page for it. And that way everyone will know that it is all true. 5G will make the human race extinct with its sterilising waves. OMGWTF!

Hmm. It seems picowave is still only used as a verb. It means, of course, to irradiate food with gamma rays (most online definitions add "to kill insects or worms" although the FDA page on irradiation lists destroying Salmonella and E. Coli as applications).

Picowaving was dreamed up as a euphemism for irradiation of food years and years ago. I am shocked -- shocked -- that the obvious analogous noun form has yet to see common usage.

[retina]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-you-go-to-bed

It's not a request ...

The tech giants are demanding a continuous stream of customer information from smart-home manufacturers, prompting privacy concerns.

Comply or ...

... Amazon and Google will use their central position to muscle out rivals and dictate terms to the rest of the market.

As Amazon.com Inc. and Google work to place their smart speakers at the center of the internet-connected home, both technology giants are expanding the amount of data they gather about customers who use their voice software to control other gadgets.

For several years, Amazon and Google have collected data every time someone used a smart speaker to turn on a light or lock a door. Now they’re asking smart-home gadget makers such as Logitech and Hunter Fan Co. to send a continuous stream of information.

In other words, after you connect a light fixture to Alexa, Amazon wants to know every time the light is turned on or off, regardless of whether you asked Alexa to toggle the switch. Televisions must report the channel they’re set to. Smart locks must keep the company apprised whether or not the front door bolt is engaged.

Welcome to the panopticon.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by retina

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-you-go-to-bed

It's not a request ...

Comply or ...

Welcome to the panopticon.

What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?

With the advent of wider networked systems, heralded by the likes of Google’s Brillo and Apple’s HomeKit, everything from washing machines to sex toys will soon be able to communicate, creating a vast amount of data about our lives.

[retina]

https://mashable.com/article/nike-ap...-shoe-bricked/

... who could have ever foreseen the possibility that a needlessly complicated app-connected and battery-powered shoe might fail?

Yes, indeed. No one could have ever seen that coming.

And why would I ever want someone else in control of my shoes? Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot. They wouldn't be my shoes.

Now please excuse me while I lace up my decidedly not app-connected shoes and run as fast as I can away from this nightmare future we've brought upon ourselves.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Self-lacing shoes. They must be for people who are too fat to reach their own feet.

Maybe it's time to start a new thread about convenience decadence run amok. Because it's not just IOT items...

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by retina

https://mashable.com/article/nike-ap...-shoe-bricked/ Yes, indeed. No one could have ever seen that coming.

And why would I ever want someone else in control of my shoes? Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot. They wouldn't be my shoes.

You're just so strait-laced, retina!

I fwded the Nike link to Naked Capitalism, where it graces today's daily Links page, and one of the local wags had rather a bit of fun with it.