The General thread for Computers And Internet

[RTH10260]

I use Picture This app (free on Android) to identify plants, trees, etc.

I'd never get close enough to a bird to take an identifiable photo.

I'm good at sneaking up on plants and trees.

A rooster not getting near his flock of hens That must be the definition of an incel

[p0rtia]

I just learned the coolest iPhone (it works with iPads too) feature yesterday (Android phones may offer this same feature, I don't know.) Anyway, if you want to know what a plant is, what kind of bird you see, what a landmark is, etc. take a picture of it. Then bring up the picture in Photos. The info icon - an i in a circle - will have a little star on it indicating there is more information available. Click on the i and it will tell you what that plant is, what breed of dog it is, etc. Rather than running out now to try it out, look in the photos you already have on your device. If you're like me, you have photos of flowers or wild turkeys or whatever. Check them out. The information is there.

Well I didn't know that, and now I do, so thanks!

[northland10]

I'd never get close enough to a bird to take an identifiable photo.

A Canon Powershot (or other camera with a good zoom) works way better than a phone, which does not work worth a crap unless you are taking pictures of hens at your feet or door.

chicken at feet.jpg (140.9 KiB) Viewed 2212 times

chickens at door.jpg (107.47 KiB) Viewed 2212 times

[John Thomas8]

I sometimes see this in my nightmares

[Mr brolin]

I sometimes see this in my nightmares

Al it needs is the squawk n squeal of the 56k US Robotics modem dialing into CompuServe or AOL to make it complete...,

[northland10]

I sometimes see this in my nightmares

Al it needs is the squawk n squeal of the 56k US Robotics modem dialing into CompuServe or AOL to make it complete...,

I was thinking exactly the same. The CompUSA sign on the wall is a nice touch.

[bill_g]

I have a Toshiba luggable that uses the NEC equivalent to an 8086 that still works. I like to fire it up once a year to show the younguns at work what it was like in the olden days. The boot up can take a whole 2 minutes or more. The BIOS check is done in a few seconds. Then the harddrive turns on - rrrRRrrrRRrrrrrrrrRRRRrrrrRRRRRRchucka-chucka-chuck-chucka-chucka-chucka-chuckchuck-chuckchuck-chuck .... all that noise is background to the scrolling LCD screen. It tamps down to a low rrrrrr.... of the harddrive once we reach a white DOS C:\ prompt on a dark blue background.

640K of RAM, a 10Mb harddrive, a 720K floppy, an integrated 2400 modem, and a convenient carry handle. I paid $750 for it in 91 or 92. Used it at work and at home. Eventually it became the first interation of TIDR (The Information Dirt Road). It was pressed back into service as a data logger capturing NEMA gps in a moving vehicle to troubleshoot snap-to-position issues (vehicle traverses the distance between two points instantly meaning the gps receiver briefly lost lock (LOL)). I wanted to know when and where the LOL occurred.

And that led to some exciting stuff. A story for another day.

PS - one of my neighbors rents out her third bedroom to college students. Her current boarder is an engineering student from Nigeria getting a degree in solar and wind power generation. 20 something, thick accent, and there is a bit of a language barrier, but there was no mistaking his astoundment when I fired up this old toshiba. hehehe

[Mr brolin]

Daaaaaamn this taking me back to setting up my first company network with a big ole Compaq tower with a cutting edge 486DX50 processor and 16 Mb of RAM, running Novell 3.12 over a desktop Windows for Workgroups 3.11 platform running over coax.

The tower had an EISA bus with the drives hanging off a SCSI card.... So you actually had to play with physical jumpers and a swathe of config.sys files to get the hard drives to work. I think it also required a fistful of pixie dust and occassional human sacrifice to consistently be configured.

There was one time I had the whole server disassembled to play with the SCSI card, powered it up and these beastly 2 pounds weight hard drive promptly started to vibrate and dance across the work table as they spun up ....... then promptly fell off the table. No damage, the drives laughed at puny gravity then continued to attempt to escape until they got to the end of the cable slack and actually pulled the cable out....

[Foggy]

Black Myth: Wukong [new computer game] is "one of the fastest-selling games of all time," beating Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy with 10 million copies sold in just 4 days.

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action ... st-4-days/

[bill_g]

Daaaaaamn this taking me back to setting up my first company network with a big ole Compaq tower with a cutting edge 486DX50 processor and 16 Mb of RAM, running Novell 3.12 over a desktop Windows for Workgroups 3.11 platform running over coax.

Welcome to geezertude!

Living here near Intel, I get a chuckle every time I drive past EXIT 286. There isn't enough North left in Oregon to squeeze in exits 386 or 486. Seattle WA is in the way. I don't think Intel will ever quit making the 286. It's in too many PLC panels around the planet providing fresh water and electricity, entry control systems, etc. It's their version of the MC68000.

[tek]

Because of some licensing 'stuff' both Intel and AMD made the 186.
I designed an Am186 into a product in 1992 (DECtalk-PC II).
LOTS of embedded stuff has one or more (we didn't really call it embedded back then)

[RTH10260]

California’s Digital Plates Plan Raises Privacy Fears

Cindy Harper
August 20, 2024

California is one of the US states that have introduced digital license plates, amid opposition from a number of rights advocates.

Now, there is a legislative effort to have GPS location tracking embedded in these, to all intents and purposes, devices attached to the car.

Sponsored by Democrat Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, Bill 3138 is currently making its way through the state’s legislature. It refers to “License plates and registration cards: alternative devices,” and the bill has another sponsor – Reviver.

The company was founded by Neville Boston, formerly of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and promotes itself as the first digital license plates platform. It has made its way to both this proposal, and the law the current draft builds on – AB 984 (also sponsored by Wilson) – which was signed into law two years ago.

The problem with Reviver is that it has already had a security breach that allowed hackers to track those using the company’s digital plates in real-time. It doesn’t help, either, that the company is effectively a monopoly – the only one, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes, “that currently has state authorization to sell digital plates in California.”

Meanwhile, the key problem with AB 3138, warns EFF, is that it “directly undoes the deal from 2022 and explicitly calls for location tracking in digital license plates for passenger cars.”

The deal in question refers to the way AB 984 eventually managed to become law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom: a provision that would have allowed for location tracking of private vehicles was removed at the time.

But clearly, that was just a temporary move to pacify opponents, and now Wilson – and Reviver – are back to “complete” the original effort.

EFF is urging the legislature not to approve AB 2138 and is choosing to highlight those scenarios where such GPS tracking would be detrimental to those who are ostensibly among the voters or sympathizers of Wilson and her party.

Thus, the digital rights group speaks about those seeking abortion traveling (and being tracked, unawares) from state to state, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) using the tech, etc.

However, it’s difficult to see how adding another way for the authorities to track vehicles in real-time is not potentially detrimental to any person, as a form of invasive mass surveillance.


https://reclaimthenet.org/californias-d ... vacy-fears

[bill_g]

Manufacturers have already been building navigation systems into their cars for years. It's just a matter of time before these new vehicles trickle down and spread out into the general population through used car sales to people with a personal tracking device integrated into the phone in their pocket. Not only is the barn door open, it's been taken off its hinges.

[Foggy]

Manufacturers have already been building navigation systems into their cars for years.

Not just navigation. A dealership I've never visited called me to tell me my change oil light was on, and demanded to know when I was bringing my car to them. Does never fit your calendar?

[bill_g]

Not just navigation. A dealership I've never visited called me to tell me my change oil light was on, and demanded to know when I was bringing my car to them. Does never fit your calendar?

IOT (internet of things) is great for fleet managers, but most individuals don't want it.

[Foggy]

Off Topic

Yes, well, the lady simply assumed that if she told me to bring my car to some dealership I never heard of before, that I'd follow instructions.

I'm afraid I was a little grumpy. Hay nao, I'm the chief of the Grumpy People!

You may recall, at the tender age of 17 I was arrested for being "Out of Parental Control".



I'm still hard to control, you can ask ol' Wifehorn.

[bill_g]

Off Topic

Yes, well, the lady simply assumed that if she told me to bring my car to some dealership I never heard of before, that I'd follow instructions.

So, was your oil light on, or was she just taking a stab in the dark with cold calls to random people?

I still get calls from the Toyota dealer for Mrs' Corolla even though I notified them of her current condition, and that the car now belongs to my nephew.

[Foggy]

So, was your oil light on, or was she just taking a stab in the dark with cold calls to random people?

No, the light was on, and I had been procrastinating about taking it to Jiffy Lube. I had put it off for a week, I wasn't driving much last summer, so I didn't think waiting would damage the car.

No, Toyota clearly has a satellite connection to my car somehow, and it tattled on me for ignoring the change oil light, and they picked a dealership to farm out the appointment.

I just thought it was weird that the lady didn't want to take no for an answer.

"I'll get the oil change on my schedule, where I always go."

"Well, where do you usually go?"

"That's none of your business. Don't call this number again."

And they haven't, so that's nice. I love happy endings!

[northland10]

I suspect my car can no longer have Jeep/Chrysler or some dealer know if I need an oil change. AT&T shut down their 3g network, and I think that is what is used for over-the-air stuff like updates and such even if you decide not to pay for the extras. Maybe it uses the satellite connection.. who knows.

I ignored them when they said it was time to replace my vehicle though sometimes I think I should have probably done it when the new ones were on a previous model. I could have probably hit them heavy on the trade. Not so much now since my other stuff is out of date.

I never replace early and often.

[keith]

My Mom's Chrysler used to tell her her oil pressure was low.

I tried to tell it that engine wasn't running yet but it just wouldn't stop.

[RTH10260]

NSA Releases Internal 1982 Lecture by Computing Pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

The Black Vault Originals
26 Aug 2024

Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) released a copy of an internal lecture delivered by Rear Admiral Grace Hopper from August 19, 1982. Known as one of the most influential figures in the development of early computing technologies, Hopper’s contributions have left an indelible mark on the field of computer science, particularly in the realm of programming languages.

The lecture, which Hopper delivered during her tenure at the NSA, provides a rare glimpse into the thoughts and expertise of a woman who played a pivotal role in shaping modern computing. As a pioneering force behind the creation of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages, Hopper’s work laid the foundation for software development practices that are still in use today. Her lecture covers not only technical aspects of computing but also her visionary ideas on the future of technology and its applications in various fields.

[tek]

When Adm. Hopper retired from the Navy, she joined the bestest computer company evah, DEC.. where I also happened to be working.
some tales:
https://www.redhat.com/it/blog/importan ... ace-hopper

Admiral Hopper was scheduled to speak in the late afternoon. I had been on the floor all day, but had arranged to sneak off to listen to her. I had no idea what to expect, all I really knew of her was that she was the COBOL pioneer. COBOL was the language of boring enterprise, while the cool coders wrote in C and Bliss and assembler.

And then appeared this thin little old lady in a Naval uniform, very formal in a room full of engineers, with sharp features and sharper wit. She immediately took charge of the room, commanding attention and telling first-hand stories of the events that had formed our world. Vibrant, irreverent, funny, passionate, she struck me as someone who could very logically dissect any request and make it concrete, a real engineer. Which was the highest praise I had.

From much earlier: https://www.decconnection.org/articles/ ... eKahle.pdf

By 1975 at the age of 69, Grace was still on active duty with the Naval Reserves and tasked with standardizing COBOL across the Navy. She was given a basement office in the Pentagon as the Director of the Navy Programming Languages Group. That same year, I joined DEC in Lanham Maryland as an Associate Software Specialist. I was 22 and just one month out of college, with very little computing experience, having only taken two computer classes at NYU writing programs for a CDC 6600 mainframe. I was assigned to support the RSTS/E operating system on DEC PDP-11 minicomputers, and was responsible for installing software on clients’ machines and providing post-installation support. Our office was close to Washington, D.C., so many of my clients were in the government. In March of 1976 I was tasked with installing RSTS/E on Grace Hopper’s PDP-11 minicomputer in the Pentagon, and later, installing a field-test version of our first COBOL compiler on that same computer.

I confess that, given my relative lack of knowledge of computer industry history at the time, I had absolutely no idea that Grace Hopper was anything other than just another customer. Still, it was my first visit to the Pentagon, so with some excitement I showed up at the front entrance and made my way down to the basement level, D Ring, to Room BD770 and Grace Hopper’s office.

When I first met her, she was dressed in her Navy uniform and looked to me quite stern and no-nonsense. However, as we started to talk, she was warm and cordial, and happy to answer the questions I had about two curious items in her office. On the wall in the outer office, near the PDP-11, was a clock that ran backwards. It told perfect time, you just had to accustom yourself to reading it counter-clockwise. When I asked about it, she told me the now oft-quoted anecdote about it being a response to people who insisted they have always done things a certain way, which is one of the things she hated most. In addition, in her inner office she had a huge wall map of the United States, with red and blue pins in every location to which she had traveled, with the blue ones representing the places she had been since being promoted to Captain in 1973. I noticed that only one state had no pins in it – I believe it was
either Idaho or Wyoming. When I asked her why she had never had a chance to visit there, she said she was convinced that the state didn’t actually exist; otherwise, why wouldn’t she have been invited there?

[RTH10260]

Uber fined in Netherlands for sending drivers' data to the US

By Reuters
August 26, 20248:09 PM GMT+2Updated 5 days ago

AMSTERDAM, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Ride-hailing platform Uber (UBER.N), opens new tab has been fined 290 million euros ($324 million) in the Netherlands for sending the personal data of European taxi drivers to the United States in violation of EU rules, Dutch data protection watchdog DPA said on Monday.

Uber has stopped the practice, the DPA added.

"This flawed decision and extraordinary fine are completely unjustified," Uber spokesperson Caspar Nixon told Reuters in an email.

"Uber’s cross-border data transfer process was compliant with GDPR during a 3-year period of immense uncertainty between the EU and U.S.," he added, saying the company would appeal and was confident that "common sense will prevail".

The DPA said Uber transferred personal data to the United States and failed to appropriately safeguard the data.

"This constitutes a serious violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)," it said.

Uber can appeal the decision with the DPA and if unsuccessful can then file a case with the Dutch courts. The appeals process is expected to take some four years and any fines are suspended until all legal recourses have been exhausted, according to the DPA.

The investigation was triggered after a French human rights organisation lodged a complaint on behalf of more than 170 taxi drivers in France with the country's data protection authority. However, as Uber has its European headquarters in the Netherlands, it was forwarded to the DPA.

French national data protection regulator CNIL said in a separate statement that it had cooperated with the DPA.



https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybe ... 024-08-26/