Welcome to 1984

[W5BRM]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/09/samsung_listens_in_to_everything_you_say_to_your_s mart_tellie/

What the FUCK is wrong with companies who make stuff like this??


“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.”


3rd party? Gee i wonder who that could be?

Of course you can turn off the VR but basically hobble you set in doing so.

Its shit like this that makes me not wanna live on this planet anymore

[kb2vxa]

It started with Kelli, now there are two. I've been thinking about it for years so let's make that three. The New World Order first revealed in a speech by FDR would like us to think they're a load of conspiracy theory BS but proof of their existence is all around and adding up. What more proof do you need Big Brother lives in Japan?

[ad4mg]

Seriously...

Samsung openly announces the caveat to the voice activation feature:

The section on voice recognition kicks off with the anodyne: “To provide you the Voice Recognition feature, some voice commands may be transmitted (along with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third-party service that converts speech to text or to the extent necessary to provide the Voice Recognition features to you.”

Options to wrapping your head in tin foil and hiding under your bed screaming about conspiracies:
1. Don't buy a Samsung TV with the voice activation feature.
2. If you fail at #1, turn off the voice activation feature and push the goddamned buttons on the remote to change the channel.
3. Stand in front of a Best Buy and threaten to set your hair on fire while holding a blowtorch next to your head.

I grew up having to actually walk across the room to the television set and manually *shriek* turn the volume up or down and/or change the channel.

To those still having an aneurysm over this, I suggest option #3 above. Your story will headline at slashdot for months.

That is all.

[KK4AMI]

I can't keep up. I'm still terrified about "Smart Phones". I don't want to carry one, but does anybody notice how everything operates off cell phones now? Shopping, garage doors, home security systems, navigation and paying for things. It's like they are forcing everybody to carry one. Just so they can track you and listen in. :shifty:

[NQ6U]

I can't keep up. I'm still terrified about "Smart Phones". I don't want to carry one, but does anybody notice how everything operates off cell phones now? Shopping, garage doors, home security systems, navigation and paying for things. It's like they are forcing everybody to carry one. Just so they can track you and listen in. :shifty:

I've got news for you, son: even dumb phones can be tracked. By law, they all have a GPS chip embedded for 9-1-1 call tracking and even if they didn't, they can track you by the location of the cell towers that are picking up your phone's signal.

[WX7P]

I can't keep up. I'm still terrified about "Smart Phones". I don't want to carry one, but does anybody notice how everything operates off cell phones now? Shopping, garage doors, home security systems, navigation and paying for things. It's like they are forcing everybody to carry one. Just so they can track you and listen in. :shifty:


You got phone problems, I feel for you son but
I got 99 problems and the switch ain't one.

[KK4AMI]

Sorry, I wasn't referring so much to the type of phone as the fact that the manufacturer is developing applications because he wants you to carry it around full time and never let it out of your sight. I don't carry any cell phone unless my wife sends me out as "Remote Control Shopper" or if I'm out hunting in the woods or fishing on the water.

[KC2UGV]

Meh... This is why I'm 2 gens behind in every technology lol

[KG4NEL]

Sorry, I wasn't referring so much to the type of phone as the fact that the manufacturer is developing applications because he wants you to carry it around full time and never let it out of your sight. I don't carry any cell phone unless my wife sends me out as "Remote Control Shopper" or if I'm out hunting in the woods or fishing on the water.

In ten years, landlines will be dead, and the "debate" over carrying a cell phone will be a quaint memory.

Like anything, it's only as intrusive as you let it be.

[KG4NEL]

Besides, considering the FCC's HFDF can (supposedly) get a reasonably-accurate fix on your location anyway, this hardly seems like the hobby to be complaining about concealing your location...

[KK4AMI]

Meh... This is why I'm 2 gens behind in every technology lol

I'll admit that I have a Flip Phone that does not even "Text". It is because I'm cheap!

[KK4AMI]

In ten years, landlines will be dead, and the "debate" over carrying a cell phone will be a quaint memory.

So what is your point? Probably so will I, but that still makes it a viable discussion in my lifetime! ;)

[n2ize]

I've got news for you, son: even dumb phones can be tracked. By law, they all have a GPS chip embedded for 9-1-1 call tracking and even if they didn't, they can track you by the location of the cell towers that are picking up your phone's signal.

Very true. I can even track my Android phone. I have an app which enables me to locate the whereabouts of the phone on a map in the event I should lose the phone and want to geolocate it. I can also tell the phone to sound a visual and audible alarm to assist in locating it should I accidentally leave it somewhere or drop it in a hard to spot location.

The fact that I can be tracked when i am carrrying the phone is a tradeoff that I make. To me the convenience and features of the device outweigh any apprehension of being tracked. And, in the event I am going somewhere and don;t want to be traced I have the option of either shutting down the phone or, leaving it at home.

[n2ize]

In ten years, landlines will be dead, and the "debate" over carrying a cell phone will be a quaint memory.

Like anything, it's only as intrusive as you let it be.

POTS landlines pretty much are dead. Most people seem to have switched over to VOIP phones. Despite cell phones I still like the idea of having a dedicated landline home phone. But instead of POTS I use a phone adapter and VOIP. All the phones and extensions in the house are basically the same ones that were wired up for POTS service over copper many decades ago with the same ancient wiring and all. Only difference is that the phone network is tied into the adapter instead of the old POTS block and go via the internet through fiber. However, to anyone picking up a phone to make or answer a call the difference between VOIP and POTS is transparent to the end user. . Still get the same old classic dial tone, etc.

[KG4NEL]

It is because I'm cheap!

And now the real reason appears :-P


So what is your point? Probably so will I, but that still makes it a viable discussion in my lifetime! ;)

There are long-term electronic privacy issues that scare the crap out of me. Whether or not Facebook uses me as a data point for liking someone's cat meme isn't one of them.

I guess I can understand people being set in their ways, but I'd rather see more emphasis on the political side of this and less on worrying whether or not Amazon knows what I buy.



The fact that I can be tracked when i am carrrying the phone is a tradeoff that I make. To me the convenience and features of the device outweigh any apprehension of being tracked. And, in the event I am going somewhere and don;t want to be traced I have the option of either shutting down the phone or, leaving it at home.

Essentially, this...

[KG4CGC]

Location tracking is as easy as driving by a Micky D's or a Starbucks if there is no signal whether you choose to turn on wifi, gps, bluetooth or not.
Want to keep your conversations private while you visit your supplier of illegal drugs?
Use telepathy.

[W2NAP]

I'll admit that I have a Flip Phone that does not even "Text". It is because I'm cheap!

I don't even have a phone!

if I was somehow forced by a job to have one. well then, they better be paying for it. and none of this texting shit ether. if you are too lazy to dial a number and actually use the voice you have then piss on ya I ain't wasting my time.

And yeah Im cheap as well. don't own a phone AND I don't even own a TV.

[K7SGJ]

I don't even have a phone!

if I was somehow forced by a job to have one. well then, they better be paying for it. and none of this texting shit ether. if you are too lazy to dial a number and actually use the voice you have then piss on ya I ain't wasting my time.

And yeah Im cheap as well. don't own a phone AND I don't even own a TV.


You probably wouldn't get a signal in the cave anyway.

[W2NAP]

You probably wouldn't get a signal in the cave anyway.

they would have to run a long run of 3" heliax down.

[NQ6U]

You probably wouldn't get a signal in the cave anyway.

Assuming that there's anyone who'd want to call him in the first place.

[WX7P]

ssssssssssssssssmack!

slapped down like a Kaepernick incompletion....

[n2ize]

You probably wouldn't get a signal in the cave anyway.

You mean under a rock ??

[n2ize]

I don't even have a phone!

if I was somehow forced by a job to have one. well then, they better be paying for it. and none of this texting shit ether. if you are too lazy to dial a number and actually use the voice you have then piss on ya I ain't wasting my time.

And yeah Im cheap as well. don't own a phone AND I don't even own a TV.

I don't own a functioning TV either. My entertainments is old movies and old TV shows from the 1950's and there is plenty of that stuff on the Internetz. I do have a smartphone though, And I like it.

[W2NAP]

Assuming that there's anyone who'd want to call him in the first place.

Actually it is rare that i ever talk on a phone. maybe twice a year.


I don't own a functioning TV either. My entertainments is old movies and old TV shows from the 1950's and there is plenty of that stuff on the Internetz. I do have a smartphone though, And I like it.

Movies and such to me died when all hollywierd could do was just remake old stuff then make remakes of the remakes.

[KG4NEL]

Movies and such to me died when all hollywierd could do was just remake old stuff then make remakes of the remakes.

I actually pay money to see about one movie a year. There are gems still out there, you just have to know where to look.

[kb2vxa]

And have the patience to wait for them to come out on DVD so you can watch them on your screen big as Texas in the comfort of your home. Why pay to sit in a tunnel with sound like in a tunnel with a bunch of brats raising hell? When they split comfortable theatres with great acoustics and kids that behaved themselves into multiplexes you get lost in going to the bathroom and prices through the roof it was the last time I went to the cinema.

You can listen or watch, even download interesting stuff all quite legally for free here: http://www.archive.org/index.php One thing though, if you're already on the internet like here on the Island open the link in a separate window if you want to download, for some strange reason it's slower than molasses uphill in January.

[n0iu]

Seriously...

I grew up having to actually walk across the room to the television set and manually *shriek* turn the volume up or down and/or change the channel.


We got out first TV with a remote in 1963'ish or some time around then. It was an big RCA color console where if you jingled your keys in front of the TV it would change the channel! Until that time, I was the remote for my Pop!

[WØTKX]

http://youtu.be/hHkvpZ1HiCM


http://youtu.be/hHkvpZ1HiCM

[K7SGJ]

http://youtu.be/hHkvpZ1HiCM


http://youtu.be/hHkvpZ1HiCM

And I remember what a total pain in the ass it was trying to fix those sub-audible door bell transmitter/receiver units, and get them aligned and working properly. Not to mention the extra weight they added to portable units. Kind of like putting a handle on a VW and calling it "portable".

[NQ6U]

And I remember what a total pain in the ass it was trying those sub-audible door bell transmitter/receiver units aligned and working properly. Not to mention the extra weight they added to portable units. Kind of like putting a handle on a VW and calling it "portable".

When I was a kid, I took one of those remote units apart and was surprised to find that it was a completely mechanical device—a series of metal (aluminum, I think) bars and spring-loaded strikers. The thing was essentially a nineteenth century door bell.

[KK4AMI]

When I was a kid, I took one of those remote units apart and was surprised to find that it was a completely mechanical device—a series of metal (aluminum, I think) bars and spring-loaded strikers. The thing was essentially a nineteenth century door bell.


I guess if you had to repair them, you called a piano tuner? I was my fathers remote tuner on a little B&W Magnavox Entertainment set. I was probably the first to perfect "Speed Dial", but eventually it cost my Dad a new tuner and me my job. We didn't get color TV until late. My brother and I had to embarrass my Father at a 4rth of July celebration. My brother and I waited to see Lassy (the Dog) come up on stage. When the dog did, it was of course a tri-color collie. My brother and I at the age of about 6 and 7 both jumped up in the bleachers and shouted "That's not Lassy, Lassy is black and white!" I didn't see what was funny, but the whole bleacher section started roaring in laughter. Well the deprived kids got to meet Lassy personally. My Father went and bought a color TV set so his kids could see the real world.

[n2ize]

We got out first TV with a remote in 1963'ish or some time around then. It was an big RCA color console where if you jingled your keys in front of the TV it would change the channel! Until that time, I was the remote for my Pop!

We didn;t get color TV until the 1970's. Maybe that's why I still like watching all those B&W TV shows from the 50's. Anyway round 63 we got a compactl B&W RCA "portable" which was forever breaking down. Most of the time it was the horizontal sweep tube, the clamp tube, or the flyback xfmr. Since it was small and compact with a metal top and sides and a plastic back, inadequate ventilation, and at least a dozen tubes it used to get hot as hell. I once accidentally left a crayon on top of it and it melted and flowed into the set. Thing was probably a fire hazard. I inherited it when my folks got a new set and I kept it running well into the 70's.

[KG4NEL]

I do remember the one tubed TV I ever saw, a 19" monochrome. Used to be able to receive cell phone signals on it before they went entirely digital...

[kb2vxa]

We went one better using a UHF tuner as a converter ahead of a scanner tuned to the IF output frequency. There were cordless phones and baby monitors too but eavesdripping is all wet and gets boring pretty quick.

Before cell phones there were AT&T mobile phones around 151MHz and the Marine Operator on HF, that's when things got interesting. We Phone Phreaks knew all about psychological engineering, calling internal telco numbers posing as employees and getting them to do our bidding. Having built a rather elaborate phone patch system I rolled tape on calls with cheating husbands living locally and since they gave their home numbers on the air I called their wives posing as a phone company employee testing the radio system and played the tapes to them. The usual response was along the lines of "I'll KILL that $^(&%# when he gets home!!!" In the words of Bugs Bunny "Ain't I a stinkah?"

[K0RGR]

We didn't get RELIABLE color TV until Dad and I built our first Heathkit set. Dad had a moonlight job at a TV repair shop, and he had an RCA color set that he acquired for next to nothing because nobody could fix the thing. The color sync was almost always screwed up. You got tired of looking at blue or green faces all the time. It also had a nasty habit of frying a selenium rectifier from time to time, filling the house with noxious fumes for days (we didn't know than that they were deadly, either).

Anyway, we built three Heath sets. My little brother built his own. Unfortunately, the Heath sets were designed by Zenith, and had some reliability issues. But the good news was that we could always fix them ourselves. Fortunately there was a Heathkit store nearby that had all the parts on hand. I think my brother still has his Heathkit somewhere.

[n2ize]

We didn't get RELIABLE color TV until Dad and I built our first Heathkit set. Dad had a moonlight job at a TV repair shop, and he had an RCA color set that he acquired for next to nothing because nobody could fix the thing. The color sync was almost always screwed up. You got tired of looking at blue or green faces all the time. It also had a nasty habit of frying a selenium rectifier from time to time, filling the house with noxious fumes for days (we didn't know than that they were deadly, either).

Anyway, we built three Heath sets. My little brother built his own. Unfortunately, the Heath sets were designed by Zenith, and had some reliability issues. But the good news was that we could always fix them ourselves. Fortunately there was a Heathkit store nearby that had all the parts on hand. I think my brother still has his Heathkit somewhere.

One evening I was testing out an old radio on the bunch and I started noticing a very foul odour and I started looking under and behind the bunch for something that must have died and was rotting away. Then I noticed an old selenum rectifier was starting to glow red and was hot as heell and I knew where that stench was coming from. One of the most putrid odors around.

[kb2vxa]

I'm surprised the Heapshit TV was a Zenuts in disguise, most of their stuff had Hazeltine aka RCA, DuMont and Electrohome patented circuits. I had an RCA floor model with a 25in round CRT and classic CTC chassis in my basement shop inherited from grandma I spent more time fixing than watching but it was fun, I learned that chassis inside and out. That came in handy in the shop downtown I worked for, lots of those chassis to fix. I saved a 19in square tube Zenuts in a metal tabletop cabinet from the scrap heap downtown, put a new CRT in it and with Superman's help lugged the beast home. Then it followed me around for years working like a champ until finally giving up the ghost, the magic smoke. Then I bought a Toshiba badged RCA in a clearance sale, it's till running fine 20 years later.

You buy Japanese if you please,
You buy Japanese if you don't please.
American TV boorsheet
Yankee dog you die chop chop!

[suddenseer]

On a tangent: This morning, I just might have developed a respect/fear of my so called smart phone. I own a samsung galaxy S III. I had earlier plugged in my work location to find alternate routes if the interstates where clogged. 90% of my trip is on two interstate highways. I am off work for at least 4-5 more weeks on another medical leave. This morning, the phone informed me that it was "time for work". It had never done that before. It displayed my main, and alternative routes and eta's. I have never programmed my departure, or arrival time into this phone. This is some very smart intuitive programming. I have to wonder how much information on me does this damn thing share with 3rd parties? I have clicked "accept" on more TOS agreements than I care to remember, including the 80 page Apple volumes. I am like everyone else, I am not a lawyer, and did not read all of the agreement. Maybe I agreed to relinquish my soul to Satan to down load that app that I just had to have.

[PA5COR]

^accept that you are screwed.....;)

[kb2vxa]

It's about damn TIME you realized I invented the telephone (for women) and keeping abreast of technology the cell phone. I have made them smart, smarter than YOU and my minions (you call them lawyers) came up with the EULA beyond the understanding of mere mortals and way too long for them to bother reading. Since you have discovered the tip of the iceberg (I invented them too, remember the Titanic) you have been promoted to a position on my list just under the last name in a long list of politicians. I'll be seeing you soon... HAHAHAHAHAAAaaaa.

Your loving master,
Satan

P.S. If you haven't guessed by now I'm a woman.

[KG4CGC]

On a tangent: <snip> Maybe I agreed to relinquish my soul to Satan to down load that app that I just had to have.

Yeah, for iTunes you do.