Ad Blocking in a nutshell

I block ads and you should too, and I will until the following changes:

1. Third party Ad networks contain malware
1. That, combined with bugs in browsers, means your system is wide open to fake ads that can take over your system
2. There's nothing the web site I'm visiting can do about it if the ads are served by a network
3. There's no excuse to get cryptolocker from the Huffington Post
2. Ad content takes up too much bandwidth
1. All my connections have data limits.  I do everything I can to control that data, and ad blockers it only one thing in my list 
3. The size of the ad content takes too long to load
1. Ad blockers noticeably speed up the web browsing experience 
2. It's not right that I think my connection is down because I'm waiting for a flash video
4. The latency of ads slows down the whole site
1. As above, but this happens for different reasons 

See all this?  They are Objective reasons that the advertising model is harmful to consumers.  I said nothing about the aesthetics, where the images don't match the content, or whether the colors in the ad clash with the site, or whether I'm interested in Ashley Madison, or clothes for "big and tall" men,  or colostomy bags, for that matter.

I don't care about the ads themselves, you gotta pay for the web, it's the networks that are ruining the experience, and people will block until the networks get their act together.

Yeah, about Windows 10 Privacy, 7 is likely my last windows OS :-(

I haven't talked about it yet, but Microsoft considers Windows 10 a "service", meaning theirs, not yours, and they can monitor anything they want.

As a result, people are panicking and accusing them of all kinds of things like reading your emails which they apparently don't do, according to their blog or TechNet - either in consumer or  enterprise versions.

According to techdirt though, and Ars Technica they don't address other things, like Cortana (Microsoft Siri), remain on and collecting data, and aren't disabled when a user or admin disables telemetry.

As a result, I, and other people a lot more Microsoft-centric than me are moving toward Linux.

:-(

Thanks techdirt!

ATM Advice to keep your card safe - check Bluetooth for "Free2Move" before using the machine

First (Honest!) Make sure your card is linked to a small bank account, not your investment account - now!

And debit cards are more dangerous than credit cards if they get cloned

Now, pull out your phone if you're using an ATM away from home, especially if it's in a tourist area and not physically attached to a bank - check if there's a bluetooth signal called "Free2Move" - if so DON'T USE THE ATM, it's likely been compromised.

If you want to find out more, read Krebs article here:

Tracking a Bluetooth Skimmer Gang in Mexico

or here

Tracking Bluetooth Skimmers in Mexico, Part II

There are $5 Wifi buttons that can automatically order from Amazon. Who knew? Well they're hackable for your own evil purposes

From The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9174595/amazon-dash-buttons-hack

It was only a matter of time before someone discovered how to hack Amazon’s dash buttons, the tiny, Wi-Fi enabled devices you can use to buy more detergent or toilet paper at the literal push of a button. As cofounder and CTO of software firm Cloudstitch Ted Benson discovered, with some basic programming skills, you can hack them to do almost anything.

Yeah... Tile... It helps you find things... or others find you...

I want one, but it's scary. The new one even has batteries.

From the Verge article above:

Tile was an early Kickstarter success story and now it's hitting the big leagues. Starting today, there's a new version that will be available both online and in retail stores. The Tile is designed to help you find your keys — or purse, or basically whatever else you can attach it to. That remains unchanged — pair it to your iPhone or Android device and you can tap a button on your phone to make the little square dongle beep. Tile says that said beep is three times louder now and will work within 100 feet — both claims ring (ahem) true in my testing. Tile also has another clever feature — if you lose something, you can tell the Tile hive mind and every Tile user's phone will start looking for it. If it's detected, you'll get an alert on your phone — but the user who came near it won't know, protecting your privacy and your stuff.
Every phone can become a Tile now

Tile has also updated its app, now it lets the Tile system ring your phone if it's lost, effectively creating a backup find-my-phone system

And if there's any doubt about how it works, and how much it lives in the background...

On Android, one sort of annoying thing about the system is that you can't quit the app if you want it to work. That does mean you can kill it and save battery, but it seems like the sort of thing that ought to live in the notification tray.

 Welcome to the unwelcome part of the future...

Ex-Employees Accuse Kaspersky of creating false positives in their database so competitors flag harmless files

In what can easily be described as "Byzantine", Engadget reports on Reuters story that:  

Reuters reports that a pair of former employees have accused Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs of building malware to trick its competition into flagging and quarantining important, non-viral, files on customers' computers. Basically the malware would inject malicious bits of code into important PC files -- like, say, your printer's .ini files -- which would then be flagged as a false positive and quarantined or deleted.

 Awesome!  People that say anti-virus companies write viruses are being way too one-dimensional

Ohhh, maybe there WAS classified email on that server after all...

According to WashTimes, there WAS classified material on Hillary's server
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/1/state-dept-admits-dozens-hillary-clintons-emails-c/?page=all

Isn't it the case that the president is the ultimate classification authority?  So that settles it - it wasn't classified, the president did nothing wrong

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."

Quoted in Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries (p. 368), James B. Stewart, December 1993