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Comment: Re:Think that's bad (Score 1) 234

by adolf (#48570261) Attached to: Uber's Android App Caught Reporting Data Back Without Permission

That is what it is being used for in your use-case.

Looking around in the Worx Gallery (which, I must say, the very concept of which sours my mouth), it looks like it can also do just about everything else, too.

Hence, why it needs all of the permissions in the world (or at least enough of them that arguing otherwise is a moot point).

If you don't like it (and I certainly don't, don't get me wrong), there's Xposed modules that can fix it. (And Xposed modules that defy root-detection. And, and, and. See also: Cat and mouse, Tom and Jerry, and DRM wars going back decades before DRM was even a TLA.)

Or, do it the old-fashioned way: One device for work, one device for other. Power off one or the other when not needed.

Comment: Re:Not about rap (Score 1) 436

by adolf (#48494653) Attached to: Supreme Court To Decide Whether Rap Lyric Threats Are Free Speech

If a woman has had a violent boyfriend and he leaves Eninem's "Smack my bitch up" on her answering machine, that's a pretty blatant threat.

That wasn't Eminem. That was the UK-based group called The Prodigy.

(srsly. If you want to name names, please at least make sure that the names are correct.)

Comment: Re:It DOES have permission (Score 1) 234

by adolf (#48477197) Attached to: Uber's Android App Caught Reporting Data Back Without Permission


Chances are good that Google already knows everything about your contacts. Google wholly owns Waze.

What is the difference?

Comment: Re:Think that's bad (Score 3, Informative) 234

by adolf (#48477173) Attached to: Uber's Android App Caught Reporting Data Back Without Permission

That, actually, doesn't look all too onerous for such a product.

Of course I want my fancy remote-everything program to be able to manage the network, see the status of the network, use the network, vibrate, pair with devices, manage shortcuts (shortcut to email on the homescreen?), change settings (so that the remote apps can, you know, do their thing), draw on top (notifications), take pictures, use a microphone, use the camera, access files (do you like attachments with your email?) and read phone status and identity (it knows you're on the phone, just like every other app that handles audio).

I don't know why it needs precise location, but sheesh. At least it's not like Pandora, which is just a bloody streaming music player:

        find accounts on the device
        read your contacts
        test access to protected storage
        modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
        view Wi-Fi connections
        read phone status and identity
        receive data from Internet
        install shortcuts
        run at startup
        full network access
        pair with Bluetooth devices
        connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
        change network connectivity
        access Bluetooth settings
        view network connections
        prevent device from sleeping

Comment: Re:Li-Ion batteries aren't good for this role (Score 1) 41

by adolf (#48388423) Attached to: Facebook Testing Lithium-Ion Batteries For Backup Power

Because nobody at Facebook is an engineer with enough knowledge to be capable of thinking of such things before endeavoring on a scaled test, right?

Oh, and by the way, maximizing the lifespan of a lead acid battery is a wee bit more complicated having them "fully charged and kept that way, and discharged infrequently."

But I'm sure you already know that.

Comment: Re:Manufacturers can help make this better (Score 1) 321

by adolf (#48337779) Attached to: Website Peeps Into 73,000 Unsecured Security Cameras Via Default Passwords

It's more convoluted than that.

In order for these cameras to be accessible on the Internet in a world of NAT and deny-by-default inbound firewall rules, someone (at the home) MUST have set up port forwarding explicitly...unless the cameras are shipped with UPnP enabled.

I've got mixed thoughts on UPnP (I both loathe and utilize it for different things), but I'm firmly of the opinion -zero- cameras should come with it enabled.



To further muddy the waters, DropBox supports (under Windows, at least) what it calls "LAN sync," with the goal of having data traverse LAN-WAN only once, no matter how many LAN clients want that data.

I do not know if it is default behavior. But I've seen it work just fine.

Comment: Re:No. (Score 1) 291

by adolf (#48213491) Attached to: Will Fiber-To-the-Home Create a New Digital Divide?

When the price differential between 2Mbps and 75Mbps is large, some people elect the cheaper option.

I write this from a 2Mbps connection. It works well, even with Steam, blizzard, and who knows what, all at the same time, while running BitTorrent to get the newest Linux ISOs, and remote backing up my computer.

Sure, it's slow. Downloading those ISOs requires patience.

But it's responsive. Interactive things happen quickly, and that's what matters most for the user experience. Games work fine. Netflix works. Pandora works. Youtube works. Skype works. Throw random workloads at it, and it works.

How? Using the perhaps-poorly-named QoS adjustments in Shibby's build of Tomato-USB on an old WRT54G.

Light and interactive and latency-sensitive things get the first dibs at bandwidth (both headed out, which is easy -- and coming in, which is much less straight-forward). Progressively more-intensive things get pushed to the back of the bus.

My Linux ISO torrents get whatever is left after these other more-important tasks (as defined by me) get their share.

So, either $20/month with an old freebie router, or $100+ per month for enough bandwidth to do what I describe without perceived lag.

Some people are more willing to put a little bit of effort into such things, some people are more willing to open up their billfold a little wider. (And some people manually micro-manage what they do, and when, to keep latency low, but that's the path of madness and a generally unfulfilling Internet experience.)

Comment: Re:Why a government site? (Score 1) 120

by adolf (#48201701) Attached to: Overwhelmed By Recall For Deadly Airbags

You cant trust a manufacturer to be truthful











Comment: Re:Why a government site? (Score 1) 120

by adolf (#48200363) Attached to: Overwhelmed By Recall For Deadly Airbags



Which of the following is more accurate:

A. A group of people reading the same newspaper
D. absurdum

Comment: Re:Why a government site? (Score 2) 120

by adolf (#48196979) Attached to: Overwhelmed By Recall For Deadly Airbags

OP's question, stated differently:


Your response:


My thoughts:



