I read this article today and was pretty shocked at the recommendations and viewpoints of the author. I felt it was not only fear mongering, but uninformed fear mongering (i know, what fear mongering is informed) but this was shocking in terms of the advice given.
Taping over your camera is like taping over the check engine light. You aren’t really solving the problem, just ignoring it and hoping it won’t get worse.
The article states that most of hackers get on your PC when you click on email links or website links. So maybe we need to teach kids in school a computer safety education (since it seems like kids get laptops in grade school now) like we do (or should do) with sex education. Don’t click on emails from people you don’t know, how to read email headers to make sure its coming from the right person, don’t punch the monkey, don’t send personal details/images etc.
The more prevalent technology is in society, the more infrastructure we need to support it. and that include education on how to interact with it safely
Guess who got a new car seat!!! You guessed it – the kitties!!! Part of this is because I was reading online about pets who became bullets who flew threw the windshield in accidents, the other part is because I am slightly a crazy cat mom. The best benefit though is that it keeps all the nervous shedding and accidently bathroom breaks confined and off my car seats.
Pothole is a great passenger, she does fine even without a car seat so this was more of a test of the seat itself. I hope that the other cats do just as well in it. Although I have an image of Brutus jumping out of the seat and hanging over the front by his harness…..
In other news, we got the update to the Tesla with auto-pilot. The car seriously drives itself now!!! It steers and changes lanes and stops and goes. Its amazing, and scary, but mostly amazing. Here is a video of the car set on cruise on the highway following the cars in front of it. I then activate the turn signal so the car changes lanes on its own. so cool.
So I finally bit the bullet and bough a Vitamix. Let me tell you its just as great as everyone says. It crushes ice like a Yeti making sno cones.
I have spend the last week having a delicious fruit smoothie for breakfast and its really helping to start my day off right. I will also admit to making some “adult beverages” in it and they were amazing. I might even have to have a frosty drink themed party!
[If you want to know my favorite frozen drink its a BBC. Here is the recipe. ProTip – add rum!]
I know there are other things it says you can do with it (make soup, use it as a food processor, etc) but I just wanted a good blender that can crush and blend frozen fruits and ice without whining about it. This totally does the job!
So I was watching a compilation of BattleBots on YouTube tonight and realized that the “wedge” is pretty much unbeatable. It’s almost not fun to watch – there should be a wedge only league or no wedge allowed or something. At one point it just turned into a fight of wedges….
The second most powerful the spinner – usually a spinning blade but sometimes the whole body spins. The problem with these is that once your spinning part stops, and usually it does, you got nothing.
So if I was gonna battle bot I would make my entire robot a magnet, then all I have to do is run into the other robot until it sticks to me, then bash it against the wall or into the area hazards. Problem solved. ALL HAIL MAGENTA (no relation to Magneto, a copywrite of Marvel comics) Years of Loony Toons has taught me this is a viable plan
That or I would just get the Honda Asimo robot to pick it up and smash it. That’s a good plan too.
Or better yet, one of those scary ass Boston Dynamics/DARPA big dog robots. Nobody is gonna fuck with that thing. Look at it! Imagine you are taking a hike though the forest and these things are around the next bend in the trail. I would wet myself, I’m about wetting myself now just thinking about it…
On a side note, while searching for images I learned that during the height of the Battlebot craze in 2002, McDonalds included Battlebots in happy meals. There were a total of 7 licensed robots, plus 1 fictional robot McDonald’s created themselves. I hope those Battlebot organizer’s invested their money wisely.
Yup, I got a Google Glass – and I couldn’t be more excited about it!! I have so many ideas in my head of what I am going to do – and I won’t lie, most of them involve the kitties….
I just got it today but I have spent pretty much the whole day playing with it – so much so I ran out the battery! The obvious things are to take pictures and movies on it, but it can also send messages, make phone calls, play music, post to Facebook and YouTube and of course play games. It’s still technically in beta so there isn’t much “Glassware” (that’s what they call the apps) yet.
Taken #ThroughGlass !
One of the apps I got was a compass – now it will make sense when you give directions like “go west on Main St”! I also got an app that will translate signage by looking at it – no more confusion here:
I also got a field trip app that will tell you interesting information about the sites you are visiting. And another that will check your calendar for upcoming appointments then display an instant dossier about the people I am meeting. I’ll be like a spy! There are also fitness and food apps. I plan on trying to use this a lot more to post things here too. I can’t say enough how excited I am about this!!
I got a new TV this week and in the process of setting up the smart apps I logged in with the wrong Netflix account. I tried to logout but there was no option to do so from the app. I tried various troubleshooting – turning the TV on and off, trying to uninstall the app (which I couldn’t do either), pressing various menu buttons, etc.
I also did some google searches and found nothing on Samsung’s site and the any other info was from a site called “Ask me fast” or links to that site from others. The advice was terrible – on your remote press up up down down left right left right – which as most of you should know is the Konomi code for old Nintendo games so I thought it was bullshit advice.
This went on for sometime and eventually I got frustrated enough to try resetting my TV to clear out the Netflix app. However Samsung locked me out of a full TV reset – which almost resulted in a ranting phone call to Samsung telling them that I should be able to reset my TV whenever I wish! At this point though I smartly decided to take a break and snuggle Brutus.
This is actually my old TV (the one the new one replaced) but unless this was another expertly orchestrated misinformation the Konomi code might work. I was defeated enough at this point to try anything so I started up the Netflix app on my tv, held up the remote, and proceeded to press on the arrow pad up up down down left right left right up up up up and OMFG it worked!! The TV asked if I wanted to deactivate the app, I said yes, then went back in and typed in the correct credentials!
Yet another example of why video games are good for kids
As awesome as this video is – and it is truly amazing! – it makes me both proud of and sad for the human race. There are so many people out there who shun “western medicine” in favor of folk lore, unproven and dangerous procedures, myths and downright bullshit. Science is fantastic – we would not be where we are today without it. Depending on energy, magic, prayer or whatever isn’t going to save lives. Science is.
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