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Neo-[Tech Thread] for the cyberpunk present where Net Neutrality has been murdered
BahamutZERO
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It was nice not having your SSN and all your personal identifying information out on the black market while it lasted, wasn't it? That period of history is over now though, unless maybe if you've literally never been involved in a non-cash financial interaction in your life, such as opening a bank account or getting a loan or credit card. Even then, I wouldn't be too sure. Thanks, Equifax, for making the dystopian cyberpunk future a lot more real. Bowen made a good thread about what little you can do about it in H&A: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/213835/the-equifax-consumer-information-leak-and-you
So how about those phones, no headphone jack, am I right? Ha ha.
Edit 11/21/2017: ok Net Neutrality is fucking dead, stealing some posts from D&D:
Ajit Pai is a stooge for the telecom companies, ushered into power by Trump, whose mission is to ignore all political pressure and public outcry and kill the FCC's net neutrality regulation, in order to allow Comcast, AT&T and Verizon to use their ownership of the wires to block consumers' access to content and services from their competitors and generally fuck over the internet as an institution. There's not really anything elected officials other than Trump can do about it as the head of the FCC is a position appointed by the president and not under the oversight of congress, and Trump doesn't give a shit. But you can still let your representatives and senators know that this is bullshit to create a groundwork for changing the regulations back the next time someone competent is in the white house, or even hypothetically someday when congress is less fucked they could pass some regulations to enshrine net neutrality in law beyond the executive branch's power to arbitrarily change.
So how about those phones, no headphone jack, am I right? Ha ha.
Edit 11/21/2017: ok Net Neutrality is fucking dead, stealing some posts from D&D:
F.C.C. Announces Plan to Repeal Net Neutrality https://nyti.ms/2hR0P1k
Looks lie we're going forward with this nightmare.
Edit: this outcome was never really in doubt. Even with the big boys like Netflix, eff, google etc... Against it it's still going forward.
The chairman was hand picked to get this done and no matter the political backlash it's going to get done if he's still there.
I'm usually not doom and gloom but as soon as this guy got put in that chair it was over.
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fcc-plans-to-vote-to-overturn-us-net-neutrality-rules-in-december-sources-2017-11The head of the Federal Communications Commission is set to unveil plans next week for a final vote to reverse a landmark 2015 net neutrality order barring the blocking or slowing of web content, two people briefed on the plans said.
In May, the FCC voted 2-1 to advance Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to withdraw the former Obama administration's order reclassifying internet service providers as if they were utilities. Pai now plans to hold a final vote on the proposal at the FCC's Dec. 14 meeting, the people said, and roll out details of the plans next week.On Thursday the FCC will vote on Pai's proposal to eliminate the 42-year-old ban on cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV station in a major market. The proposal would make it easier for media companies to buy additional TV stations in the same market.
Pai is also expected to call for an initial vote in December to rescind rules that say one company may not own stations serving more than 39 percent of U.S. television households, two people briefed on the matter said.
Here we go again everyone, only it's extra shitty this time around.
Everyone, please call your representatives because the shit is increasingly closer to hitting the fan. The FCC is not backing down from getting rid of net neutrality and we need all hands on deck to stop this shit.
Contact info for your government can be found in the links below.
https://www.house.gov/representatives
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
Ajit Pai is a stooge for the telecom companies, ushered into power by Trump, whose mission is to ignore all political pressure and public outcry and kill the FCC's net neutrality regulation, in order to allow Comcast, AT&T and Verizon to use their ownership of the wires to block consumers' access to content and services from their competitors and generally fuck over the internet as an institution. There's not really anything elected officials other than Trump can do about it as the head of the FCC is a position appointed by the president and not under the oversight of congress, and Trump doesn't give a shit. But you can still let your representatives and senators know that this is bullshit to create a groundwork for changing the regulations back the next time someone competent is in the white house, or even hypothetically someday when congress is less fucked they could pass some regulations to enshrine net neutrality in law beyond the executive branch's power to arbitrarily change.
BahamutZERO on
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I probably should at some point huh?
I don't know what I can do though, I don't have any extra money very often to spend on a credit freeze.
My only anecdote with respect to this is about my father -- who is 70 years old, and is really otherwise amazingly tech savvy for someone from his generation. He just happens to exhibit a certain amount of brand loyalty.
So one day he calls me up and asks for helping ordering his Windows Phone. I come over and he says he can't purchase it on the Microsoft Store... Sure enough I can't seem to access the cart on their store website.
My solution? I close his Microsoft Edge browser, open Chrome which works that website just fine and he buys his Windows Phone without a hitch.
I might look into getting one eventually then in that case.
You can at least sign up for something like Credit Karma and try to keep tabs on any new accounts opened that they monitor so you know if someone tries something using your information, hopefully.
Yeah I have an account there.
I'll keep an eye on it thanks.
I think there's two main reasons why it never took off - one is that it has Microsoft written on it so people are already predisposed to dislike it, but mostly because Windows 8 (quite rightly) soured people on the metro design language. If Windows 8 had been more like Win 10 with the live tiles in the start menu but still being a start menu kind of thing, there might have been less general disdain for the platform.
Anyway, RIP Windows Phone.
Thoughts and prayers.
At the advisement of my last job I’ve been using Last Pass. Are they good? Is there a better service?
I’ve been using KeePass for a few years across various platforms and I quite like it. I tend to go more for open source stuff when it comes to privacy/security software.
Anyone have recommendations for a VPN? Traveling out of town for a week and my dad wants one for the hotel wifi
I’ve been using Private Internet Access for my VPN. It’s pretty affordable and easy to set up.
Satans..... hints.....
Used IVPN for all of 2016 and been using AirVPN since the start of 2017. Both have been pretty good, though I'd more recommend AirVPN - run by privacy wonks, has good speeds and has a wide selection of countries and regions.
I'd love to get a Vega 56 (because NVIDIA has been actively trying to fuck open source development for as long as I can remember) but bitcoin miners...
I think 1password is subscription based now, which makes it a far less attractive option in my mind now.
Yep. Pop the cooler off your video card every so often and give it a thorough clean, then re-mount with new thermal paste. It can make a huge difference, especially if your case doesn't have intake filters.
A few people I know are adamant that software VPN services are pretty much useless because the VPN provider can still see and track all of your traffic. I've been told the only way to really protect yourself is to purchase a VPS and set up your own private network yourself.
Hell, if you're that paranoid then you shouldn't trust your VPS provider, either. And if you run your own metal, you then can't trust who is providing you the pipe. Etc.
A VPN can protect at a few layers. It'll keep coffee-shop wierdos from sniffing your plaintext or hijacking your DNS lookups. Just because it can't protect you from all possible threat models doesn't make it a bad idea.
Yeah if you put your traffic on the internet it is going to pass through multiple parties no matter what, VPNs give you slightly more control of who sees what
If you're that paranoid may as well fall off the grid and not have human contact ever. TRUST NO ONE
Do they keep records of activity?
Yup - and it also protects you from your ISP selling your browsing data to advertisers, or worse, having that data stolen from your ISP by hackers. A good VPN service has a financial incentive to handle your data more carefully, because their entire value proposition is built around it. In most places, ISPs have a near-monopoly on their area, and selling your data is just good business.
When it comes down to it, if your threat model includes sufficiently motivated & funded attackers (ie nation-state level), there is literally nothing you can do to be perfectly safe. You can run your own Tor exit relay and exclusively use Tails and only connect from public Wi-Fi locations and it still doesn't matter, because nation-state level attackers have the power to attack Tor, they have 0-days to attack any site you're connecting to, and they have agents who can follow you in person and snoop your passwords by listening to the sound of your typing.
Luckily for the average internet user, nation-states don't care about what you're doing. The threat model is more like 'random hacker gets a database dump from an insecure site and cracks all the passwords en-masse to re-sell on the darknet'. This is the kind of threat that is reasonable to guard against. It's always a trade-off between convenience and security, and it's quite reasonable to set your threshold pretty low (ie, using a password manager and reviewing your credit card statement each month). If you're not a government whistleblower or deep-cover operative, this is probably fine.
I use proxy.sh. It's a non-logging VPN service with pretty good worldwide coverage. It's also based in the Seychelles, which has a reputation as internet privacy haven. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think its government mostly ignores requests from law enforcement agencies in other countries, including DMCA takedown requests.
Proxy also publishes a monthly "transparency report" in which they list all the of the law enforcement and DMCA requests for information that they receive.
Satans..... hints.....
You might want to investigate getting a VPN-capable router or else installing VPN-capable firmware on your existing router. That would keep your downtime to a minimum.
I'm using Google Calendar for my library scheduling. I add something on the computer and it seems to take forever to reach my Apple Watch. It almost seems like I have to go into my phone and get it to refresh before it shows up but even then it doesn't show up right away.
Is there something I can change or do to make them refresh quicker?
I wish Google Calendar itself had a watch app. The phone app seems to update far quicker than the apple calendar it is piped though to my watch.
*edit* I think I fixed it? Looks like they added an Automatic option to 'Fetch' in settings and an addition showed up much quicker in the apple calendar.
Satans..... hints.....
Google accounts can only fetch or manual in iOS. However I think I fixed it as it looks like an automatic option was just added in iOS 11 for fetch. The updates showed up much quicker. It was previously only seeming to update every 15 minutes.
*Edit*
Yup that fixed it. Took about 15 seconds to update instead of 15 minutes.
Still wish there was an official google calendar app for the watch. That iphone app looks much better than the apple one.
Also 3D touch combined with iOS 11 seems to have a lot of useful shortcuts.
I am looking forward to the speed if I can manage to get an X. Assuming the X doesn't have some other major design flaw or problem or something since it is so different for apple.