Just Computers

Lately, my interactions with the net have been very variable - slow, dropped connections, all sorts of things. I was blaming Optimum (Cablevision), but I decided today that maybe the bloatware associated with Chrome has some part in it. So I'm posting this from the Ghostery Dawn browser. So far, so good. Let's see if the improvement sticks.

I'm replacing my 6-year-old iPad with a new one, thanks to Joe Biden.

The Apple store said the problem was non-Apple charging cables. They even said non-Apple cables can bend the pins inside the iPad.  But there are no "pins," the inside of the port is smooth if you look with a flashlight.   Last week they sold me two new 2-meter cables (at $30 apiece) but they only work for a minute, and then they stop charging also.

Meanwhile, the same 3rd party cables I have always used have always worked fine on my iPhone, which is older than the iPad.  I explained all this my my Apple Store Genius... so she finally checked my battery.

Yup, battery is failing.  Tolyaso!

And of course, they're not replaceable so its new iPad time.

Huh.  Four things:

1. Moving all data/settings from the old one to the new was dead easy: turn on both units.  Old one recognizes the new one, puts an icon on its screen.  Point the camera on the new one to the icon on the old one, enter a password, and away she goes.  Wow.
   
   
2. Erased my old iPad so I could return it to the Apple Store for an $85 credit
   
   
3. Putting the old one back in its original box, I discovered the receipt.  I paid $499 for it.  The new one is twice the memory (64Gb) for $100 less
   
   
4. The protective cover from the old one is just 1/64" too small for the new one.  I didn't realize they'd changed the size.  Oh well, it was getting a bit tatty anyway.  Time for a new one!
   

5.  Surprise surprise surprise!  Non-Apple charging cables work just fine with the new iPad.

You Seriously Need to Update Your iPhone Right Now

Quote :

Apple users are already pretty quick when it comes to downloading new OS updates, but anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch need to be even more proactive about installing iOS 14.4.2 and watch OS 7.3.3 as quickly as possible to address an active security threat.

In preparation for making a bunch of music USB sticks for my sister, I bought some on sale at the local OfficeDepot: two packages of 3 sticks each, each stick 32Gb. Each package was $15. Also bought two 64Gb sticks they had on markdown for $10 each. DIRT cheap. Most 64s go for about $40, and you can get 128s for about a hundred.

Went through my cup of old USB sticks and erased the ones I wasn't using anymore. Had some 500k, 1G, 2G, 12G and 32G sticks. All are workable and empty now. The older ones run really slow though -- maybe USB2.0 and USB3.0 are much faster standards. Doesn't seem to be a problem playing back music, the throughput on USB1.0 is more than sufficient.

Noticed an odd thing: all sticks, regardless of age or size, show a "creation date" of December 31, 1969 at 4:00pm. That must be some sort of software zero point in my software?

I loaded about 20 hours of Baroque music on the first 32G stick for my sister. It took up 3.84G. Yikes -- this is a FUCK of a lot of storage!!!!

I usually check Google News in the morning, just to see what's happening in the world. They have, though, a nasty habit of listing Fox News stories under news, and stories about Kim Kardashian every single day. I do not read the tabloids in the supermarket, and I don't want this shit in my news feed.

Went to Google News Settings, found a lot of complaints about the same issue. Apparently Google News removed the option to "hide sources" -- although that option is still listed, but it no longer does anything. I'm all for avoiding confirmation bias, but there are certain sources and subjects I really don't care about.

Guess I'm SOL.

Hmmmm, I wonder if Fox News et al are PAYING Google News for visibility?

The owners manual to my sisters new receiver says it is limited to 500 files on any one USB stick, including any folder structure.

The Beatles USB I made a couple years ago was 384 songs.

The Gregorian Chant USB I did last week was around 300.

The Pat Metheny one I'm working on now could probably exceed 500 by a factor of 2 or 3.

I'm pretty sure the USB sticks themselves have no such limitation.

The new iPad has an app on it called "measure." It uses the camera to measure distances between any two points you indicate, using parallax to gauge distance.

The thing is, it's wildly inaccurate. It says my coffee table right in front of me is 3'8" across. It's four foot.

It says my speakers are 8'1" apart. They're twelve foot two.

Why release an app that's so far off base?

The Metheny USB ending up having 461 songs in 53 albums.  That should test the 500 file limit.  I elected not to include any "challenging" Metheny songs or much of any live recordings.  

My sister has yet to test it. It played fine in my car.

Oh the tangled web we weave. I’m sitting out on the deck reading, and  can barely hear the music that’s playing.

So I grab my wireless headphones, and plug the Bluetooth adapter into my stereo to send the signal.

Then I realize I’m listening to a Portland radio station, coming in via wi-fi from the Internet to my iPad, where I’m Bluetoothing it to the stereo.

So this Beethoven I’m enjoying has taken three wireless hops to get to me. Kinda surprised it works.

The description of Apple's update process isn't very comforting.

Apple products hit by fourfecta of zero-day exploits – patch now!

Quote :

iPadOS 14.6 adds support for AirTag and introduces separate skin tone variations for emoji with couples. Siri adds more diverse voice options

My 3Tb backup drive is acting up, won't back up, can't reformat it, it appears full when it shouldn't be.

Oh well. It's about 5 years old now and backs up every hour(?) so it's had plenty of life.

Went online for a replacement. 4Tb same model $76. Astonishing.

Swapping the bad 3Tb for the new 4Tb was complicated by the fact that I wasn't sure which of my three identical 3Tb drives was the backup.  There are no lights that come on when it's accessing.  I tried to feel for vibrations -- was able to positively identify my Music drive -- but the old Backup drive and the drive holding everything else didn't vibrate enough to be sure.  I chose one of them at random.

And chose wrong.  My other good drive disappeared from the desktop.

So I swapped the other one, & everything came up unaided. Told my backup drive to delete the old drive (which was now no longer connected) and instead connect to the new 4Tb, which I renamed "Backup."  It's backing up now.

Sheet.  Remember when it took all day to swap a drive out?

Main computer (32% full): 3Tb
Music drive (71% full): 3Tb
Everything else (6% full): 3Tb
Backup (will be 25% full): 4Tb
Old drive (0% full): 1TB
Removable drive (47% full): 100Gb
___________________________
Total: 14.1Tb (8.881Tb available)

If I can reformat the dying 3Tb that'd give me 17.1Tb.

Well this is fucking charming.

The Latest T-Mobile Data Breach Affects Everyone, Not Just Customers

Quote :

According to the hackers selling the database, it includes first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers of over 7.8 million postpaid subscribers, 850,000 prepaid customers, and more than 40 million “past or prospective” customers—plus account PINs for some of the 7.8 million postpaid subscribers.

Cryptocurrency doesn't look all that secure, does it.

Japanese cryptocoin exchange robbed of $100,000,000

Quote :

Another week, another cryptocurrency catastrophe.

Last week’s story was about Chinese cryptocoin smart contract company Poly Networks, which was robbed of about $600 million’s worth of various cryptocurrencies.

Quote :

This week, sadly, it was the turn of cryptocoin trading platform Liquid to get hit by hackers.

I had heard of this, but had never seen the research paper before.

Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They are From Nigeria?

You gotta love a responsive company.

Pwned! The home security system that can be hacked with your email address

Quote :

The first bug, reported back in May 2021 and dubbed CVE-2021-39276, means that an attacker who knows the email address against which you registered your product can effectively use your email as a password to issue commands to the system, including turning the entire alarm off.

The affected product comes from the company Fortress Security Store, which sells two branded home security setups, the entry-level S03 Wifi Security System, which starts at $130, and the more expensive S6 Titan 3G/4G WiFi Security System, starting at $250.

Quote :

According to Rapid7, Fortress decided not to respond to these bugs, closing the report back in May 2021, and didn’t object to the company’s proposed disclosure of the flaws at the end of August 2021.

Thus it looks as though the company isn’t planning any sort of firmware update, whether for its control units or keyfobs, and therefore that these vulnerabilities will not be patched, at least in systems that have already been sold.

Yesterday, all the icons on my desktop disappeared (except the drives). I had a half-dozen saved files and shortcuts. I tried everything I could think of to figure out where they'd gone, all to no avail. I didn't delete them.

This morning, after a brainstorm, I rebooted. My computer, that is. Yep, they all came back.

Computers are weird.

My new iPad, which I just got in March, has been having problems typing the past couple of weeks.  Dunno if you've noticed all the typos (I've tried to go back and correct them when I see them) but the letters in the center of the on-screen keyboard -- t, h, g, b, y, n -- have not been registering when I tap them.  Auto-correct then goes nuts trying to make sense of my typing, and I've gotten some howlers out of it.

On a whim I decided to shut down the iPad, for the first time since I got it, and then hit the screen with Windex electronic wipes while it's off.  Accumulated finger grease, I figured.

You know what?  Seems to have fixed it.  Incremental wiping with a soft cloth / tee shirt / blanket apparently isn't enough. Even though the screen LOOKED clean the capacitance-touch screen didn't see it that way.

richard09 wrote:

I had heard of this, but had never seen the research paper before.

Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They are From Nigeria?

Quote :

By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible, the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor.

Same reason Fox News features so many supplement, vitamin, ED, pillow and home refinance ads.

Hmmm, I might be looking at a new desktop computer this year. My existing 27" iMac was bought April 2015. They don't make a 27" right now, I think all the iMacs are 24". But supposedly "this spring" (2022) they're coming out with an all-new model which will be 27" and won't use the Intel chipset anymore.

Mine is getting somewhat balky: not recognizing drives sometimes, I had to reboot it 4x this evening to clear a freezing problem, and hell it's seven years old. The new ones are faster with more memory and more storage.

Hopefully I can limp along until the new one's out.

An old story in many ways, but with some interesting aspects.

Wormhole cryptotrading company turns over $340,000,000 to criminals