Technology Blogs (216)

This is really a continuation of a blog I posted in December 2013, (no doubt still available on Amazon,everything else seems to be these days) In it we discussed the demise of Windows XP various options were put forward by bloggers, I of course swung straight into action and thought about it for 4 years ok so I like to take my time, there are some things that shouldn't be rushed

So I've missed the excitement of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 & now we have 10, do tell us what you think of 10 not that it'll make a jot of difference to me as I've gone alternative

In the past year we've heard from Pres Trump on how he intends to put America first, great if you happen to be an American but most of us aren't, American corporations have taken a similar stance, just this week an American site I use has advised me the cost of an ad this year is to go up 60% that's outrageous but totally expected, the plan seems to me to be, buy up the opposition, achieve world domination, then hit em with the cost I'll have to pay the 60% extra because they now own all the sites in that field & I have no choice but to use them

So how are you Windows 10 (or spyware as it's known on the net) users feeling confident the cost you've already paid is all you're going to pay, or are you seeing the rumours of it becoming a subscription based product and becoming concerned, or maybe you'll only have to pay extra if you want it do something, who knows.

For me the solution was easier than I'd anticipated, that dread of stepping into the unknown with a new operating system, but what's to think about, it's free, easyish to install, you can have dual boot & keep Windows just in case you don't like it, it's secure so you don't have spend extra each year on security products you only need because Windows has more holes than my socks, used by just about every major server in the world and is as easy to use as any Windows product, so what is to think about

Of course for every rule there's an exception, whilst extracting the most bucks from everyone on the planet seems to be the norm for most American Corps, there are exceptions, CS being the only one I can think of at the moment

Hello,

As you are all aware, we launched new pages several months ago. It was an expensive design by a large well known company (PSD2HTML.com) that came with promises of being user friendly and responsive. Needless to say it turned out to be neither. :(

Soooo, we are working on new pages to replace them.
We are going to launch 1 page sometime today as a test... the All Blogs page.

Changes include:
-The main change is it's responsive so will look better on your cellphone, ipad or desktop
-We replaced the icons at the top of the table with buttons that make their purpose more obvious
-We made the background light gray to be easier on your eyes
-We made the entire cell clickable (instead of just the Blog Title in the blue link)

After we launch the page, we welcome your constructive feedback on this page as we work to improve the blog section.

Perfect Woman

Creating a database of phone numbers, profile pictures and status information of almost all users of WhatsApp turns out to be very easy . The user doesn’t even have to be added to your contacts.  This should raise at least some privacy concerns and hopefully a lot more. Let me explain how it works.

A few years ago WhatsApp made it possible to use WhatsApp in your web browser. That is good for user experience because composing a message on your keyboard is a lot easier than using those tiny touch screen buttons. It also makes copying/pasting and adding attachments easier. So much for the good news. The bad news is that it’s technically possible to use the WhatsApp Web interface to create a huge database of all possible WhatsApp users. There’s only a small group of users not affected: the users who have changed their privacy settings. Unfortunately, most users don’t change those privacy settings and WhatsApp doesn’t encourage it very much. These facts open up the possibility of collecting huge amounts of interesting data which i’m going to show you nowExplanation for normal users
Web WhatsApp connects to the WhatsApp servers by using your phone. In a nutshell the browser instructs the server to send back all the information for a certain phone number. Some of the information that’s being sent back include the following:
The profile picture
The status text or about text, the default texts is the famous ‘Hey there! I am using WhatsApp’
The online/offline status of the user
It turns out that the above information can be requested for every phone number. As said, it’s not necessary that the phone number has been added to your contact list. And because there is no such restriction, it’s possible to create a complete database of phone numbers, profile pictures, about texts and online/offline statuses. The database may be setup in such a way that complete timelines of phone numbers can be reconstructed. That answers questions like: when was the user with phone number xxx-xxxxxx online and offline?Almost all web sites that are being send to your browser, contain specific software that determines how the web site will function in your browser. Such software is written in Javascript. The software determines what happens when you click a button or move the mouse. But the software may also connect to a server to request certain kinds of information. The software in Web WhatsApp does that too. It sends a phone number to the WhatsApp server and in a few milliseconds it receives the information about that phone number. One of the nice things of that software is that everybody can take a look at the source code. That’s not all, you can also use the software by yourself by using certain parts of it stand alone. I’ve used that possibility to develop a script to request information from a huge range of phone numbers. That information contains the profile pictures, about texts and online/offline statuses. Everyone can create such a script.So, what can anyone do with al this information? First of all, again, imagine that anyone can create a database with the above information that contains all phone numbers for a certain country together with the profile pictures, about texts and online/offline statuses. This is in reach for a country like the Netherlands. The database kan be queried in such a way that it tells me when a phone number was online and it tells me what profile picture belongs to the phone number. After a few months it can tell me how often you have changed your profile picture and into what pictures. And how about facial recognition? Those techniques haven been improved over the last years. Imagine this, I take a walk and take a picture of some stranger. Now I feed the database that picture and in a few minutes it tells me which phone number belongs to the picture. Now that is quite scary, isn’t it?

Sure, many say it's fun and costs nothing. But really? Facebook and most others ask quite a bit of us to join up. Huge personal info market for governments, businesses, scammers, etc. Why I avoid most of SM, and more and more folks are doing so. Family I know have a daughter with blood cancer. Good news--- most (85+%) of these tumors these days, with modern treatment, are fully treatable. Bad news---the treatments can make one sick as a dog. Hair loss and nausea seems worst for many kids. To learn more about their kid's treatment, family went on line, including much SM, for medical info. Began getting adverts for wigs and over the counter treatments for vomiting. Coincidence? Perhaps. Aa.

Life inside the bubble of a virtual reality world

You know - like that legendary T.V. guy who can make/fix anything with nothing but a hairpin.

My house was built circa 1890.
Many of the fixtures are original - 125 years old.

A while ago, an original door lock went hawire.
I figured it was busted, so taking it apart couldn't hurt...what the hell, I might even be able to fix it.
Also, I'm rather fond of old things & like to keep them functioning.

A flat spring in the mechanism had broken.
I figured going to a hardware store asking for a spring for an antique lock would result in...
So I laid it aside for the time being.



A few days ago, I figured I might be able to cobble in a spring from a ballpoint pen.
Rummaging through an odds 'n ends bin, I found (are y'all ready for this?)
a...HAIRPIN!
Yes. Really!!

I figured it was just springy enough, and exactly the right size to snip & bend into a suitable flat spring.

VOILA!

Yep.
It fit just like it was custom made for the mechanism...which I guess it was, come to think 'bout it.

As long as it was disassembled, I also oiled up the whole mechanism.
It now works like everything's moving on jeweled bearings...far(!) smoother than it ever did since I've owned it...probably smoother than it has in fifty years.
Maybe a hundred years, even.

Pretty cool, huh?

Mic Guyver

what is this " I'm not a robot" deal now when logging in? someone please explain ! studecar

YOUR LIFE IS A COMPUTER SIMULATION