The Technology blog and podcast

Apple Releases iOS 9.1 with New Features, Enhancements and Some Bug Fixes for Blind and Low Vision Users

Hey folks,
Just came across this post via Apple Vis which I’m passing along. The post is entitled: Apple Releases iOS 9.1 with New Features, Enhancements and Some Bug Fixes for Blind and Low Vision Users and it includes bug fixes for us and maybe some new bugs. As usual, we should know what is up, and if you find something let apple know. I need to let them know about something I think, but now i forgot what it was. If it comes across, I’ll be sure to let them know. In the meantime, I think I’ll go for now, and we’ll see what happens.

Comments (0)

Newport restaurant first to become certified as deaf-friendly – Daily Pilot

This is a cool idea. I am going to post this to my other blog as well. I hope other restaurants can get something like this. I could imagine some difficulty where you would ask the deaf customer a question, and they couldn’t hear them. This is a cool idea.

On a recent afternoon at the new PizzaBar restaurant in Newport Beach, Tom Gruenbeck glanced down at a tablet computer and pushed a large green display labeled “interpreter.”

Source: Newport restaurant first to become certified as deaf-friendly – Daily Pilot

Comments (0)

Tech podcast 223 for October 16, 2015

Tech podcast 223 is now available Our RSS has the podcast.

---

Show notes

Podcast 223 covers Linked in, article of interest, and transit app.

Things to read

• the demise of a free lunch Shaun Everess

Apps

• Linked In itunes

Podcast is 1 hr 24 minutes. Enjoy!

Comments (0)

replys to all posts over the last week or so

Hi jared and all.
Well here are the replys and comments to the posts.
1. going back a bit, the credit card hack with chips.
I am sorry but you us guys seem to be lagging behind.
Chips have been round here in new zealand for at least 3-4 years well at least 2 anyway.
We are moving partly to low wave tech now up to 80 bucks and nearfield is coming on with a few extras though security has meant nearfield is not everywhere.
Chips are commenplace.
2. the obama article.
At least someone is seeing sence, I do realise the privacy for the digital age is mute and security is security everyone watches their ass and thats fine.
I can take it that every tom dick and agency will be looking through my mail, my texts, and even this blog to see if I am osama binladen and have a nuke bomb to chuck at some major city.
That I can take.
The selling of everyone’s info I can take that to.
But yeah at least someone shows sence much that others don’t care for it, that opening backdoors for themselves will allow hackers to get in.
On one side I’d much rather keep it closed.
But on the other hackers will get in anyway, if they do open back doors it means they will have to protect those enterances more vigarously and if something goes wrong its their ass, I can live with that.
I mean just about every day someone is virusing up things.
On the subject with accessable software, I just got a piece of software which sadly is not fully accessable as I’d like some of it isn’t.
however the free program I used, has just stopped being accessable so well go figure.
see my opencandy article for why I sort of are not going to even go the free approach anymmore.
Even though I know I can turn it off.
Yesterday saw updates released for web brousers,, script engines, windows, shell and kernal and office itself.
general office, office converters, and other programs within office notably excell and word.
Adobe flash player and reader dc annd 11.
These were to address a malware and some other stuff which was that us humans are still while tech savi quite dumb with email, we still click the attachments and the bad guys know this.
Heck I know this, the only reason I don’t worry so much is even if an add site comes up which it does I know I have noscript and so am protected for the most part.
On the access tech front.
I havn’t had any issue as such with companies however.
I wish they don’t use india or some other island country for their service.
I have nothing against any race or even call centers, its the rage and well its ok if this is managed right.
But I have had experiences where its not worked.

My mum works at a docters place and ofcause you do need from time to time an ambulance.
Due to abuse of the service its all on a call centre.
When you call you expect everyone to know what is what especially if you are in a specialised role.
Especially when someone is seriously injured or had an heart attack.
For privacy reasons I can’t quote the exchange word for word, I mean I shouldn’t have even heard it but the point is this.
You call the desk.
you say your issue.
The call desk op is not a trained pro.
He is a fucking aisian indian fuck that probably gets only 2 cents an hour.
He doesn’t know what to do just follow a script.
I may be a bit harsh but to commenly I feel that its all scripted.
All questions have to be asked, and if there is an issue you just like a computer with no ai does follow the script continously to the end.
We are using call centres to much.
I have had an issue with my isp some time ago.
me I have a problem with my router.
Person, ok, what do the lights say.
Me I am blind.
person can you get someone to read the lights I need the lights to tell me.
I think you need me to punch you in the lights.
I ok, I will see if I can access the web interface and pull the info myself.
Ok I have it here it is.
Person please run this website to check problems, I can’t read that site.
oh, can someone read it for you.
Me can I have another.
OPerson well try this one.
Me ok it worked.
Person can you test with this info and your info.
Me I have tested with my info and it works.
Person test with this info.
Me Ok.
Next day, me I have tested with this info but something broke my router.
I think your info broke it.
Person I don’t know much about that.
Me can I speak to your manager.
Person ok.
At this point I get someone who can actually speak english and is local.
Turns out that wile used the info is old and is no longer acurate for use.
A new router was previded free of charge but I ended up buying another router and I will never use isp routers again!

Neither will I use computers made by hp, or asia or others.
I had a job trying to get hp support to get my access questions sorted, yes they are happy to note them down but no nothing is sorted with it.
Interestingly toshiba I had at school and they are aware of accessability.

Its why I buy their products, 99% of all their software is accessable and what isn’t accessable is not something that is needed.
Sony stuff is accessable but their software is not but their digital recorders have always hardware wise been accessable to a point.
Microsoft had 2 experiences.
The first one I was working to fix an audio speech issue.
Me I am having an issue.
Person, ok go to registry and delete this and this.
Me ok.
then restart.
Ok fine.
I restart, everything is gone.
Me fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
I may as well not call ms support, they are useless.
A reformat later since that was the only way to fix things, I looked at email.
The first thing that came up with a satisfaction servey to answer wich no one reads.
I answered the servey but really was angry for ages.
THe second issue was with windows update not working.
In this reguard I got through all the channels finally to a tech that had to be mexican or spanish.
I quoted him my session id and he connected to my system.
He worked for 4 hours on the issue explaining everything to me as he went for the most part.
At the end I asked him what would happen if the same issue happened again.
He said he would write a report and email it to me.
Less than 30 seconds later one came in an accessible html document properly marked up and headded right.
The issue has happened 3 or so times and I am always able to refur to that report have even sent it to people that needed the help.
I have also had favourable outcomes with cannon support, someone I will also buy stuff from in the future.
They did admit to me that ttheir quickstart was not accessable and also their manuals but if I had anything needed to be read to me they could instruct me to this reguard.
While there were issues where they needed someone to read a screen I was able to get the info from the web configuration screens and it seemed ok as long as I did this.
Hp printers are a mixed bag.
The software is accessable enough to use and install firmware and drivers.
Their printer websites are 50% accessable but their eprint system is quite bad and has only got worse.
Still as long as visual displays are mirrored on the device some way I can read them well.
In most cases they were ok and I don’t need tech support all day long.

I will end my speel with an interesting problem for readers.
I do some work for family members and from time to time support for old people with their systems.
Person, I have an issue with my email.
Me what is the issue.
Person, some chinese person rang me up and said I hacked her system and sent me junk and spam and is going to call the cops on me and is vary angry.
Me, ok lets check.
The day I can’t remember but it was the same day news had been going wild about the second or was it third local yahoo security breach.
That person was a yahoo user and I am so glad we all use gmail over here!
Me, lets check.
I knew how the latest breach worked.
1. login, ok.
2. check drafts and junk.
ok nothing.
check sent and inbox.
nothing suspicious there.
I had other users locally that got locked till they changed passwords.
Ok, me I am going to have to change the password.
Ok.
I rang support for the local isp that used yahoo and they told me the link to use.
At first they wanted me to use a web site that was not accessible at all but gave me a link to change the login.
Me, ok I have changed the password, I guided them through changing the password both for their broadband and email.
Ok, you shouldn’t have any issue from now on.
Person thanks.
Bye.

This was aparently fixed.
But left me with a few questions.
During my call to the isp I explained what happened, they confirmed no one had called them to complain about any such spam attack or that that there ever was one on their end.
I discounted it as it was maybe not their problem.
However its left me with 3 nagging issues that not even google has solved for me.
1. was this true, a hoax, or was it a fluke both happened on the same day as a security breach.
2. if so was this planned to happen on the same day as the breech.
3. If not then how would an isp give out personal phone numbers to a random person without instead putting out official contact about an issue.
4. Shouldn’t they have contacted me or fixed the issue via their own systems.
and 5 given this person has only a win xp system he used to use for email but mostly I do it remotely and he doesn’t even use the computer much and the isp subscription is just a left over from several years ago and used for a few limited family matters, could he have launched any attack.
I mean he struggled to understand how to use his system securly or even effectively.
He couldn’t even type right.
I am convinced that someone just randomly decided to lash but I am not sure and its not happened again.
I did everything needed to change security but to be honest this sort of complaint shouldn’t even hit a user directly especially since they had no hope or show of defence.
Because of this said person has given up using the internet completely and has stopped using email.
He has also given up using his mobile phone and left his phone off the hook.
If this was an attack it sure was successfull.
The reasons for it were sloppy to say the least.
There had no foundation and there was no evidence to back it up.
Eventually since this was one of the family we convinced him to use the phone again but he won’t use anything else.
We also keep the internet open though not much comes in to the email and he refuses to even use the computer.
If I ever find the people involved I’d like to take a knife and stab all of them in the back I really would.
What happened shouldn’t have happened.
Because of this a person who was just starting with the computer gave it up and almost gave up talking all together.
It still makes me mad even now even though it was 2 years ago because it remains unresolved.
The same anger goes to the call scammers saying you have a virus.
Sure us techs and hackers know what they are about but for those that are old and have issues they will simply freak.
I had similar experiences with buying things around christmas or with funding agencies.
People assume you want something to donate and add it to your bill.
ANd while I let a few through I am not really happy with the fact that its expected the case.
I have never had such a call, though to be honest if I kept getting scammed I would leave the phone off the hook and use cell or email only at least I know what they are all about.

Comments (0)

Tech companies should care more about customers with disabilities.

This is a great article, and I hope it means something soon. Its too bad that the person involved had this trouble, but then it gets written about like what’s in this article. Lets see what you guys think in the comments.

Source: Tech companies should care more about customers with disabilities.

Comments (0)

Obama Won’t Seek Access to Encrypted User Data

So I’ve read this article entitled Obama Won’t Seek Access to Encrypted User Data and this is a great step. Companies who don’t have the keys can’t be compeled to give them up anyway. I don’t know the keys, even if I did unlock my phone. Great article!

Comments (0)

the demise of a free lunch

Hi all.
Well I wasn’t going to do anything but after another program I used to
use went this way forcing me to make it go away has got me to some
really truely horrible conclusions.

For ages 4 years or so I used the dvdvideosuite from dvdvideosoftware.
it was called free studio.
It was youtube to mp3 and a lot of other things, all for free with
premium subscription, and a few things.
They had their own toolbar which you had to get round and their own
spyware but you could get round that.
I had a program for cd extraction called cdex I used to use.
I had a compresser called izarc I used to use till I went to 7zip.
and I am not evensure if thats safe.
I use nvda and I am not even sure how safe it is.
I have replaced cdex with goldwave a payed for app.
I have replaced the free studio with a payed app.
The issue I have and that we all seemed to hide is that free for us
doesn’t mean free for everyone.
ccleaner and other piriform stuff use google related addware and so do a
lot of things.
However, a lot of software seems to be using opencandy which seems to
install offers fron uniblue 360 security, and other addons to all your
web brousers and computer, change your homepage and put adds on your system.
Now, beffore I start slagging off at every addware company lets get
things straight.
The following companies can load my system with addware because I use
your stuff and thats fine.
1. ms.
I can’t complain I am using a microsoft product right now!
mcafee.
Hmmm that norton and simontech.
I respect them as security people but yeah I don’t like their software.
avg, I don’t care about their software either but they have kept their
old lifetime licences so I guess.
Yahoo.
I use yahoogroups, have people on yahoomail, and have a weather program
using yahoo xml I can’t really bite that hand.
Google, Um.
I use search, I have people using maps, android, earth, streets, just
about every service.
I am on gmail and so are the rest of my family.
I use like just about every service and will continue to do so.
aol.
I do still have an aim account and I do use winamp which aol did own so
yeah I use aol.
The rest can go away.
The bad thing about opencandy is there is no way to get recomended
offers to not install.
And its suspect stuff, optimisers that slow the system, and other
modifying programs.
last week when I got stuff doing this it took all day, a system restore
and a registry restore and several uninstalls to restore the system to
where it was before it.
Some of these sites have donation pages to.
To be honest if you are going to include a lot of trogens and adds to
keep your stuff free.
You may as well asy, we need to fill your system with viruses and
spyware so you stupid fucking pricks can enjoy our stuff for free.
Please pay 10 or 20 dollars so we can actually eat for another day.
I will pay for stuff I use even if its like something I use from time
to time if not to much.
Dvdvideosoft did say this in one of its news sections once.
“some people have said opencandy is a virus, without opencandy we will
have to charge for our software.:”
Well because of opencandy I have payed upwards of 200 bucks in order to
have a cd ripper, and a dvd suite for the stuff I do from time to time.
goldwave is a good program which I use so not a waste but the other
program while it has a lot of stuff I will use I actually prefur if I
didn’t have to buy it.
Right now nvda, seven zip, and cd burner xp are all I have that are
opensource and old winlame.
And to be honest if they go that way I don’t know.
nvda will not, winlame is quite old anyway and I don’t know about the rest.
I urge people to donate every so often to software you use and pay for.
If you use software that was free but is now full of opencandy trogens
and you still want to use it.
I think its time you contact the developer and offer to pay 10-20 bucks
so you don’t have to bother with this and so they will get cash they
would have got from adds from someone that actually uses their stuff.
Right now I can rant because nothing is being effecting me directly.
All the sofftware gone the way it has has been stuff I have not needed
for ages.
cdex for example could become a portable app minus the installers.
the rest dvdvideosoft, freemake and others don’t matter to me.
I just hope it doesn’t spread into something like sevenzip or cd burner xp.
if it does I’m going to ask if I can have it without the adds even if I
have to pay 10 bucks for each.
Sadly with all the free apps and stuff for devices I don’t think every
developer can afford being free anymore.
this has gone on a bit further than the net revolution but truely free
is really not free at all.
In conclusion, buy stuff if you use it and can afford it.
give feadback at least and donate a little from time to time.
your software that you use if it decides to suddenly go add filled then
chances are your local indipendant developer is trying to survive and
you should ask if you can get rid of it and offer to pay a couple bucks
or so for the lost fundage.
Now if the big companies that charge subscriptions do that to you, I
suggest you go else ware.
As an addition to the above post
after looking at the opencandy website
if you add the /nocandy to any install name in a command line or as a batch file you can remove icandy from loading.
To be honest I have now gotten around part of the issue with the stuff I have now though sadly some of the programs I replaced things with are not accessable at all and I will have to eventually try to sort those now.
Happily cdex and the dvdvideosuite are not essential programs so I can avoid opencandy.
However if it ever spreads to more programs in particular 7zip, cd burner xp klite codec and firefox and thunderbird, vlc etc I am going to have to reevaluate what I do.
My theory actually is that because of all the devices there is a glut of apps and freeware and competition is really massive.
Sadly for a lot of people thats to much to handle and programs just go and well die off.
Truely free stuff is nice, but if it has to be loaded with so many adds I’d like to pay for them rather than having to nagotiate the adds most of which are not usefull and even when you kill them they add extra stuff to the system and other malware.
Its sort of sad really.
Today a company that prevides advertising has listed as one of the highest on our second teer stock exchange.
If advertising is the new high well I don’t know.
I do think computer adds should have the same regulation as standard adds do.
Most tv adds I can ignore same with radio although from time to time I find the next cd I want etc.
Radio shows I listen to will put on adverts on stuff they play and I can be happy with this.
But computer adds have no rules.
I don’t want to make my penis bigger or something like that.
I don’t want to have to spend ages trying to save my computer from adds.
Today I got a message from email to fill out a servey, though this time it was from a store I shop at so I filled it I often get lots of messages from things like this.
Yesterday I had to unsubscribe from some list that subscribed me automatically I assume it was from something I got but as this list was so unrelated to stuff I got who knows.

Comments (1)

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | New Microchip-Enabled Credit Cards May Still Be Vulnerable to Exploitation by Fraudsters

Source: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | New Microchip-Enabled Credit Cards May Still Be Vulnerable to Exploitation by Fraudsters

Comments (0)

High-Tech Wheelchair Accommodates Any Level of Technological Competence

I just read this article entitled High-Tech Wheelchair Accommodates Any Level of Technological Competence through twitter and found it of interest. I’ve not found much in the way of wheelchairs and technology, although this could get interesting, I’d love to see whether it could work. It it could work, than maybe people would be OK if somehow it alerts someone of a tipped chair where they can get help quicker, or if it detects something wrong and someone sees that and corrects the issue before it can turn in to a problem. The comment boards await you.

Comments (0)

Technology podcast 222 is now available!

Our RSS feed is up to date with the latest podcast. Here are the show notes.

---

Welcome to the technology podcast, podcast 222. On this podcast, we do a thorough review of The Transit App originally done as part of podcast 212. We

also have news, notes, and erata that we cover at the beginning of the show. Here are the articles I mention from krebs on security.

Articles

• With Stolen Cards, Fraudsters Shop to Drop
• Bidding for Breaches, Redefining Targeted Attacks
• Banks: Card Breach at Hilton Hotel Properties

Other info and links

The podcast lasts about 2 hours 21 minutes. To listen to the segment that was aired on podcast 212 on Transit App, access this 44mb file and

to download the segments for the app review itself please download the 104mb file thanks to Sendspace. Enjoy the cast!

Have fun!

Comments (1)

patreon hacked

Hi all.
Look at the link for more info
https://www.patreon.com/posts/3457485
As we all know or even if you don’t patreon is a croud funding based site.
I do not know much about it but one of my adult gaming sites I play a game from had a small message to post that would tie in nicely with this blog.
A public developmental test server which was exposed to the net for testing was accessed.
This had a database storing all usernames and passwords addresses, phone info, personal addresses etc.
No creditcards were stored there and the data was heavily encripted with 2048 bit encription and was not compromised.
Site enginiers shut down the system and moved it to a more secure location.
Nothing was lost and dammage aparently was non existant, the owners are doing an audit on their security systems.
They advise people to change their user id and passwords but say nothing was stolen and in fact everything seemed ok.
So even the vary secure get hacked.

Comments (0)

The LA School System’s $1.3 Billion iPad Fiasco Comes to a Sad End 

I saw this in the L.A. Times as it developed. Wow.

An iPad for every kid! It sounded like a good idea in 2013, but a $1.3 billion plan to supply Los Angeles schools with Apple tablets turned into a failure quagmire, with the school district asking for a refund.

Source: The LA School System’s $1.3 Billion iPad Fiasco Comes to a Sad End 

Comments (1)

go to sections menu

---