Category: Annoyances

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There’s no such thing as a backdoor that only works when ‘good guys’ use it.

Brief: A cyberattack tied to the Chinese government penetrated the networks of a swath of U.S. broadband providers, potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests.

Source: Exclusive | U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack – WSJ (archived due to paywall)

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In a recent MIT experiment, three student teams were asked to write software code in Fortran, a programming language none of them knew. The results were pretty interesting:

The team using ChatGPT finished the fastest
The team using a specific AI coding assistant (Code Llama) came in second
The team using just Google search finished last, breaking down the task into comp`onents and solving it the old-fashioned way.

However, when tested on their ability to recall the solutions from memory, the situation was reversed. The ChatGPT team remembered nothing and failed, while half of the Code Llama team passed, and every student in the Google Search team succeeded.

The conclusion from this experiment is simple: there is no substitute for hard work Don’t just rely on AI tools; learn to code, crash, debug, and repeat.

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I believe there are several vulnerabilities in our election process and there are several obvious solutions. Unfortunately, neither party is interested in fixing the obvious issues, making it patently obvious (to me) that the system is designed to be gamed and both sides are gaming it.
I don’t believe this is a partisan issue.

Here are some ideas for fixing the obvious vulnerabilities in our voting system:

  1. Voting day should be a national holiday – no one should have to work on election day. This allows everyone to go in person to vote.
  2. Voting should be done in person on paper with proof of Id/US citizenship. If you need to vote remotely it should be done in advance so that there will be time to tally remote ballots in time for the actual election day. There is no late or last minute remote voting permitted. If you can’t vote by the deadline then you missed your chance to vote.
  3. Anyone needing to vote remotely must have a valid reason for doing so such as being stationed overseas in the military or being physically disabled and unable to attend a vote in person. Those who claim to be physically disabled will have to provide certified evidence/documentation of their disablement.
  4. All voting places will have at least 2 observers, representing the interests of each party. The observers would have full access to the entire voting process from end to end, from the ballots used to the actual tallying process.
  5. Voting ballots from each voting location will be preserved until the election has been certified as valid by both associated observers.
  6. Registering to vote requires showing an ID that proved citizenship. Non-citizens are not permitted to vote.
  7. The format and wording of the ballots will be identical across all states. If ballots need to be translated into other languages these translations will be observed and approved by the observers. The wording and structure of the ballots will be approved by both parties at least a month in advance of election day. Printing and delivery of ballots needs to be completed at least 2 weeks prior to election day. Voting locations will have the ability to print out additional ballots if needed in front of the observers if they run out of ballots. The ballots will be in a protected format, preventing them from being modified prior to printing. The number of times additional ballots are printed will be tracked and a justification for printing additional ballots must be provided and approved by the observers.
  8. Each voting location is required to make their final tallys available by the end of the day, preferably by the end of the business day. Any additional auditing will be done and observed by both parties. Any questionable ballots will be reviewed and approved by both observers. Any ballots that cannot be agreed upon will be discarded – if it’s not abundantly clear who the voter was voting for the ballot should not be counted.

These are some very simple steps to take and would remove much of the fraud that, in my opinion, continues to happen in each election. Of course none of these things will happen and we will continue to limp along with the existing system we have in place.

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Last year Amazon announced they would start running ads on Amazon Prime Video starting in early 2024.

If you are still subscribed to Prime, contact your credit card provider and ask for chargebacks extending back to March 2024. This should be possible because Amazon violated their customer contract and is no longer providing the service you originally wanted. They shouldn’t be charging the same price while providing a lower grade of service. You deserve a refund.

“To continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time, starting in early 2024, Prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements.”

Source: Amazon shares an update on Prime Video, introduces limited ads

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UPDATE: The issue with the dropping connection appears to have been fixed.

Make sure you:

  • update to the latest version of Phone Link on your PC (run Windows Update)
  • update to the latest version of Link to Windows (app & service) on Android (update from Play Store)
  • grant necessary permissions to Link to Windows (app & service) on Android
  • ensure Link to Windows (app & service) on Android are not battery optimized

You might need to remove and add back your PC to Link to Windows (app & service) on Android.

———

I love accessing my Android phone apps from my PC but the screen mirroring option kept dropping, making it unusable. After trying many things I finally uninstalled the latest update fom Android and it is now working again. No more disconnections. The version I’m using on Android is shown above.

Update: 

Link to Windows seems to have been automatically updated on my Android and the connection started dropping again.

Follow these steps  to re-install the (as of now) working version of Link to Windows (as referenced in the post above):

  • First, a bit of clarification:
    • “Phone Link” is the Windows app that runs on your PC.
    • “Link to Windows” is the Android app that runs on your phone.
  • Uninstall Link to Windows updates on your Android phone by going into Link to Windows and selecting the Uninstall Updates option from the menu in the upper right corner.
  • Unlink your Android device (see here for directions).
    • You might also need to stop and wipe the storage on the Link to Windows app and service on your phone. To do this go into each one’s properties, stop the app or service, click Storage, and wipe the cache and storage for the Link to Windows app the Link to Windows service.
  • I was unable to find the Android version mentioned in the post above from Microsoft so I re-installed it on my phone from this link.
    • Note: the source for this link is obviously not Microsoft so please take appropriate precautions by running virus scans before installing (I do this for things I install from Microsoft also – trust but verify).
    • After installing from the link above, go to Link to Windows app properties on your Android device and ensure all necessary permissions are added back. Link to Windows will not work until you do this (you’ll have to log back into the Link to Windows Android app again).
    • If your PC is still showing up in the Link to Windows Android app you might need to stop and wipe the storage on the Link to Windows app and service on your phone.
      • To do this go into each one’s properties, stop the app or service, click Storage, and wipe the cache and storage for the Link to Windows app the Link to Windows service.
  • Re-link your phone back to your PC using the Link to Windows app (you’ll need to scan a code that Phone Link will generate on your PC).
  • At this point the connection should remain stable when you view your Android screen from your PC.

If you need to remove and re-install the Phone Link app on your PC follow these directions:

  1. Open PowerShell as Administrator
  2. Run this command: Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.YourPhone -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
  3. Phone Link will be removed from your PC.
  4. Re-install Phone Link from the Microsoft Web Store – this link will pull up Phone Link in the web Store experience.
    • NOTE: Clicking install from the web Store experience will invoke the Store client in Windows, enabling you to re-install Phone Link on your PC.  I’ve tried searching for Phone Link directly in the the Windows Store client but I’ve never been successful in finding it. So annoying.
  5. At this point the Phone Link app should be fully re-installed on your PC. Now follow the instructions above to re-install the working version of Link to Windows on your Android phone and get things reconnected.

Oy, what a pain in the tuchas.