Google on Patrol

Google on Patrol

I’m not sure how I feel about this one.

Google may have shared identifying information of certain users with law enforcement, according to a report from The Guardian. Leaked documents indicate that the company’s CyberCrime Investigation Group (CIG) has been forwarding data like real names, street addresses, credit card numbers, Gmail and recovery emails, as well as IP addresses from recent logins. In some cases, the CIG reportedly also included copies of comments made on Google’s platforms like YouTube, which include threats of racist and terrorist violence.

I like the idea of weeding these types of bad actors out but it comes with a price. The price is the perceived idea of personal privacy but the internet is not a private place.

If you don’t want someone to know something about you, don’t post it anywhere on the internet. It is literally that simple.

August 17, 2020 by Google

Uber’s One Finger Salute to California

I love the fact that Uber appears to be refusing to be bullied.

This all started last fall, when California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the state’s Assembly Bill 5 labor law. The legislation was meant to fix the gig economy by reclassifying workers as employees, but companies like Uber and Postmates quickly filed lawsuits calling the move unconstitutional.

Assembly Bill 5 was supposed to go into effect on January 1st, 2020. While Uber says it made changes and believes it’s in compliance, the state feels otherwise. Earlier this week, California won a preliminary injunction against Uber and Lyft. The court order could block the companies from classifying drivers as independent contractors. Uber and Lyft were given 10 days to appeal the ruling, and if things do not go in their favor, Khosrowshahi says Uber will temporarily suspend service in the state.

The whole story can be found here.

August 13, 2020 by News

Noise Pollution – Its a Thing

The sheer number of cars that pass my house on a daily basis is staggering. Most of them are relatively quiet but a bunch of them are downright loud.

Whether the noise is the engine or the loud music playing in the car the decibel meter gets pegged.

I have a problem with this when that noise makes it into my house. I don’t have single pane glass windows. I have triple pane windows and the noise still gets in. There was a car that passed by this morning with music so loud, you’d swear I was playing it myself inside my house.

NPR and WITF have an article about this very thing.

When I was 16, noisy cars were cool. Now that I am older, noisy cars make me dream of a personal EMP gun that you can aim at a vehicle and well, it dies. Something like this but bigger.

August 11, 2020 by Science Sh*t Mike Says

Germany Banning Single Use Plastics

I happen to agree with Germany on this one.

BERLIN — Germany is banning the sale of single-use plastic straws, cotton buds and food containers, bringing it in line with a European Union directive intended to reduce the amount of plastic garbage that pollutes the environment.

The Cabinet agreed Wednesday to end the sale of plastics including single-use cutlery, plates, stirring sticks and balloon holders, as well as polystyrene cups and boxes by July 3, 2021.

Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said the move was part of an effort to move away from “throw-away culture.” Up to 20% of garbage collected in parks and other public places consists of single-use plastic, mainly polystyrene containers.

I’m not sure if it the fact that I am getting older but this kind of thing makes sense to me. We’ve become extremely lazy as a culture and by doing so, we are ruining the planet. Instead of simply washing your utencils, we buy plastic forks and knives and then throw them into the Earth.

I bought a camping tool that acts like fork, spoon, and knife along with a few other uses and I try to use it when I can. I can always do better and I like that Germany is taking this type of thing seriously.

I don’t think the US will be that strict about this type of thing for a long time to come.

August 3, 2020 by Science

macOS Big Sur Issue

I would be posting more things but macOS Big Sur keeps reporting that the application is damaged and I keep having to re-install it. This has also happened with Filezilla Pro.

In the case of Filezilla Pro, by re-installing it, I lost all of my login information for a couple of different websites. I should have exported the list but I honestly didn’t expect that I would have to re-install everything.

I know. 1st world problems.

August 3, 2020 by macOS Big Sur

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Banshee's Last Scream

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Series: Tyrus Rechs: Contracts & Terminations

Authors: Jason Anspach and Nick Cole