The Technology blog and podcast

MyTelespace tweets, updates users

For the first time since MyTelespace’s outage, we saw a tweet I thought we should pass along from the team that manages the system.

MTS Support, Wanted to give you an update on the status of MTS. We’re waiting for hardware to arrive, so Wednesday is our target date for having the system back on line. 2 hours ago, Twitter Web App

As we reported earlier, the JRN was called about this outage and it seemed like it was technical and later it was confirmed. We’ll have to see what happens as the date comes closer, but I’m happy that they did tweet out to their users who follow them on the social media platform. Do keep up the work, and we’ll see how it performs once it is back up!

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well its out

Hi all.
The latest windows 10 20h2 is out.
Some of you may get an enablement package but some like me may go and download and install via upgrade assistant or media tool you will certainly want to update your recovery media which which is what I did yesterday.
Biggest thing to notice is that control panel system is gone.
To invoke system, type control sysdm.cpl into the run box and it will run fine.
Everything goes to settings but we all know that there are a lot of settings still in control panel that have always worked for us users.
There are articles about lists of control panel commands.
Most of these have existed since xp days and earlier so most of these will work for us.
Sadly there were a few regressions for those that use media tool or update assistant.
The biggest seems to be the disabling of system restore.
I also managed to get explorer to crash once while processing things.
As usual you will need to reinstall your virtual midi controlers, adjust your recording devices,etc else they just won’t work.
This includes installing screen reader components so they actually run.
Remember to deauth and reauth itunes before you update and deactivate and reactivate your synths as well.
If you have shell things like ribbon disabler you need to reenable that to.

Here are the updated programs to be informed about.
For those on amd, amd drivers 20.10.1 is out.
In this update they actually do a good job on fixing the most critical issues in the current driver packages and while there are issues they are not critical.
Java 8.7.1 is out.
Be aware that java 8.6.1 will not be uninstalled after this and needs to be done manually.
Node js 15.0 is out and also we switch choco to using visual studio build tools 2019.
Remember to remove 2017 after update and be patient, I wasn’t and spent time yesterday finding how to reinstall the tools.
Thunderbird 78.4 is out.
Waterfox 2020.10 is out but if you use nvda please don’t bother with it, 08 works and doesn’t crash on a few sites.
Really which waterfox.net would actually fix their brouser instead of just securing it.
Some store stuff got updates to.
Due to be away for 3 days next week.
On a personal level I have applied for several jobs and while a couple have fallen through the rest look good.
Hopefully this year ends on a high with some more contracts.
For now thats me for a little.
On the subject of the suplamental cast, I have not forgotten you.
Its just because of some medical issues and the fact covid and various things have simply put my head in a different zone.
One of my major issues of late is the fact I go through several phases of sleep.
During winter I sleep and sleep deeply.
The rest of the time I may sleep but not all night, or at least 5 am in the morning.
At times I will sleep to 2 and thats way to early to get up.
At times I will sleep to 4 then get up.
Today is one of these times, I am up at 4.30 because I have things to listen to thank god and feel full of power.
If I sleep I will be sleeping till mid day.
This may actually happen.
Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my issues resolved.
I need to sleep till a good hour.
Training will not happen tomorrow because lets face it, I need to be at this thing at 9am.
Don’t know how long its going to take, so training is knocked out.
Depending on things I may also knock off training for the rest of the week, I have a full saturday session, and sessions on monday and friday.
And saturday.
Not sure what else I will do.
Laters just now I’m done.

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My Telespace update, its down and down for a good reason

Yesterday, I reported the news that MyTelespace was down. I also mentioned that I’d reach out to see what the deal was. This morning I got a response from John Hass, an employee at Sipmeeting, the company that maintains MyTelespace.

John indicates that they think the Raid controler is failing or they are having hard drive issues.

Like any company, this is going to happen. It seemed like it was technical, knowing their history of notifying people of planned things, and I’m sure it wasn’t planned this way.

They are taking an image while they can as they’re going to need to get new equipment. A system like this runs on a rade system which contains multiple hard drives. Chances are, if one drive fails, they can move the system to another one of its drives and things can work. But if the controler fails, it can’t copy things, and then if something else happens, it can eventually colapse.

This is all I have for now, and I’ll be catching everyone later on.

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My Telespace is currently down and there is nothing concrete at this time

Hi Folks,

I was called this afternoon in regards to MyTelespace, a telephone line ran through several numbers around the country. While MyTelespace has declined throughout the last couple of years, and while I’ve not been on for over a year, (blog post) all I can confirm is that the web site is not responding and at least one number I know I am able to access successfully can’t be reached when dialed.

I’ve reached out to the company that I knew ran the system, to find out what is happening. While I’m not obligated to know because I’m no longer there, I thought I’d enquire.

As of this moment, I know that the domain seems solid with registration and it is pointing somewhere where hosting may occur.

The company behind MyTelespace has always been up front if there was something happening whether it be maintenance, a temporary takedown like what happened several years ago, (blog post) or whether something else happened.

The second blog post I found out lead to some clean up and other administrative decisions needing to be delbt with, so it wasn’t down for long. I had a detailed chat with someone who explained what was going on and it made sense.

I’m not going to start rumors on what might be going on, but something did definitely happen that I can confirm to be the case.

If I hear something that I can share, I’ll be back with another blog post updating you what I’ve found out.

Here is another blog post which covers some MyTelespace stuff This should have probably been blog post 2, but there were instances where MyTelespace was closed for administrative functions, and I am highlighting them here in this post.

Again, I’ll stress the confirmation as I see it, but beyond that, I have nothing more. More if we have it.

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the best antivirus of 2020

Hi.

This appeared from the local news paper.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/300127221/the-best-antivirus-software-of-2020

The main catigries were security, false positives and performance.

Lacking is accessability and in particular the targeting intentionally
or unintentionally of blindness related products.

Of interesting note are the spots at the top.

1.  norton.

The price tag is quite good.

I have not used it for ages but when I did, norton had a stranglehold
around performance and users.

Certainly had a lot of issues with norton anything.

2.  caspersky.

The only comment is that politics and security shouldn’t mix.

If they do then everything we own including our clothes are a threat
because they are made in china.

3.  on the 3rd spot was mcaffee.

Have we forgotton?

Its been only a year or 2 since the last major stuff up from mcafee
where it killed systems, there are major definition screwups, and yet we
still use it.

F secure and avira were in the 4th and 5th spots and had no comment.

Interestingly, avast, and avg were not even mentioned though some still do.

I do wander if the installing on everything plus the microsoft blocking
avast on some systems as addware itself has discouraged it from being on
this list.

Sadly there were a few things not added to the article.

1.  easy to control and exclude stuff you don’t want.

I have a patchwork of excludes, from data drives to entire directories
of blindness and other software.

If the viruschecker says I have a virus, then I am more likely to
exclude it than actually get rid of it especially if its something I use
myself.

The only good thing out of this is that if your a smart user that
follows all the instructions and does not click links microsoft windows
defender is a good choice.

Sadly it is the only accessible non performance draining thing the blind
can use.

It also allows us to clear out of all the issues with excludes though
its false positive scan especially among accessibility software is
really high.

Sadly an added definition needs to be added to the usual definition of
antimalware and security tools and also to malware, viruses and ransomware.

1.  what is a virus.

A virus is a piece of software that is not generally liked by any big
software company even if its usefull.

What is malware.

<Malware is anything not liked by software companies unless you sue or
something.

What is ransomware.

Ransomware is something software companies do to others to get them to
buy their stuff else they will trash the systems which they may do anyway.

Malware can also be a right.

Accessibility is malware, a screenreader is malware, games for the blind
are malware, certain files for windows can also be malware.

How to solve this.

1.  exclude everything you use and leave just the os folders alone.

Antivirus is not your friend.

Looking at mozilla and their language on accessability was the reason I
pushed out of using firefox.

They toned it down a little, but suggesting that accessibility vectors
could be used as malware is not the issue.

Saying that turning off accessability support will protect people means
that people will get the wrong idea that accessability equals compromise.

If this is the issue its mozilla's implimentation surely.

The latest quantom firefox doesn't use standard accessability controls
and just what mozilla uses.

Now some of this may be fine, but to be honest abandoning old, stable
tech because it may be a problem to include new, so called secure and
issue ridden tech that has accessability issues is going to become a
real big issue soon enough.

The only solution for those that need it is to use older, less secure
software, or modified software, or hacked software.

Have we not tried everything or is the industry not willing to learn.

If they are not, then maybe I should use accessible software and pay the
hackers for my data and not have the issues with the good guys.

Judging from support I have got from various support agencies over the
last little bit they either are really good or they aren't.

If they arn't they can turn a broken system with a broken and possibly
buggy bit of software into a completely broken system fixed only with a
complete reformat.

Maybe I can just pay a hacker to secure my system.

Maybe its time to focus on companies that previde for the users because
they are users to and not for a cash gain.

I feel that in our race to beat the bad guys we have become our worst enemy.

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more data= more performance

Hi all.

Well I have just found and setup sitekit by google.

This will enable more on the fly performance tracking of users.

This means that we are fully supported with the google data systems.

This does include adds, analitics but your add blocker can block those.

It is important that where possible you allow the site through.

Now obviously if the add banners become a problem please tell me so I
can turn that part off.

So what does this mean for the users.

Well for us admins it means actively finding out what is trending on the
site.

I do get a report from google search every once in a while but any
tagged posts will get recorded in tag manager.

Google optimizes page speed and the like.

There are adds but don’t feel you ever need to click those.

At any time I or jared can view what is going on traffic wize and what
is being searched.

This will get us more insite on what to create and what to do in general.

Of course, any comments will help a lot.

thanks all

crashmaster

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The Intellegence Blog has moved

For those who followed the Trend Micro Intellegence blog, its got a new home. This is the new RSS feed you should use. I plugged it in and its 8 posts long now. I may talk about stuff from this new blog in the future, but they encouraged me to send thi out for those who are interested like me. Enjoy!

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blindvms episode10

Hi.
Note to all, this was requested by a gamer on the gamers descussion group.
Its up here because I decided to try to put it up and see.
The wireless cast was done but it was really boring so I clobbered it.
Still thinking about what next.
Laters just now

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technology suplamental 1 or blindvms 9, take your pick.

Hi all.
This is just to say that this thing is up.
Catchups on the cast, what is going on, and the no video jam, which sadly wasn’t what I expected.
Note, if you want to listen, do so.
But really unless you do the jam yourself it may not be one of the best casts.
I promice that future episodes won’t be so boring and stupid.
Maybe doing the no vid jam was a bad idea because I didn’t get much of the games in it.
Tip, waterfox/firefox just doesn’t like unity.
Use sleep mode with nvda with the java stuff.
Use edge and chrome and good luck.
Look at the forum page of audiogames.net with my submissions.
Remember that we are now on http://blindvms.jaredrimer.net.
Remember that everything else works to.

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Thunderbird lays off 250 people

On the 12th, Shaun sent me this email and in part the quote from Mozilla says:

Today we announced a significant restructuring of Mozilla Corporation. This will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that
will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech. Sadly, the changes also include a significant reduction in our workforce by approximately 250 people.
These are individuals of exceptional professional and personal caliber who have made outstanding contributions to who we are today. To each of them, I
extend my heartfelt thanks and deepest regrets that we have come to this point. This is a humbling recognition of the realities we face, and what is needed
to overcome them.
<

Its unfortunate that companies like Mozilla are now facing tough times, but we all are. While some of us have been able to work from home, if there is no money coming in, than tough choices like the above must be made. I enjoy Thunderbird and firefox greatly. May they continue the best they can.

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NDIA hammered for records/email management

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Server maintenance along the network

I posted the following to various places along the network. I apologize for the downtime.

---

Users and visitors,

There was some server maintenance performed over night, and that maintenance looks to be complete. If you are noticing any issues, please contact the Jared Rimer Network and let me know of any issues. Thanks for your continued support.

---

I was emailed by our other admin, and I sent him back a similar email. Sorry about that, we should now be good. I hope you will continue to check out the blog and podcast, its going to be a good time here.

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and here we go again.

Hi all.

Well the scammers are getting through.

I have been looking at all the security systems over the last day.

Since it aint a user issue I decided to ripp out the security system.

The logic captcha is gone, the zerospam is gone, akismet and jetpack
protect are what I have now.

So I have enabled registration again but now have the simple recaptcha
in v3 mode.

This is supposed to stop spammers and not actually impact users.

Its monitoring everyone that logs in but its not going to do anything
unless you are bad.

There are other ways to handle this including just blocking registration
forms with recaptcha in annoying mode.

This may be it though.

I am now putting all my trust into jetpack and its akismet companion
software and seeing what it all does.

And its actually working!
No more spam registrations.
The plugin is called simple captcha recaptcha and it does what it does.
No spam, and we are getting users just going in.
Aparently it supports all the standard forms by default.
Looks like this is it.
All sorted for now.
And here we go. its fixed yaay.

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registration temperarily removed

Hi all.
I was going to post about wordpress registrations, how I had added extra spam messages, how I had added human approvals and you will still see these in the modified information pages. at least for the moment.
However users still appeard for approval and quickly.
So either one of the users registered is malicious and not himself and there can be only 2, or there is a virus server side.
I have for now removed the human registration plugins, as well as the honeypot protection, and rely on akismet and jetpack for spam since 0spam could have been conflicting.
Registration is now on a by request state.
If you need to get registration, email my username by entering on crashmaster and sending me an email, who you are, your contribution level, if you want to just subscribe or something and I will put you there.
I am about to remove all content I added for the new system because its not existing.
I am unsure what the hell I am going to do.
Leaving registration off will fix this problem but it basically means no users can get in till I turn it back on.
It also means I need to give this round to the fucking spambots and I don’t care for this.
Case in point, I have utterly failed.
I don’t know who is generating the bots, but its one of the 2 remaining users on here.
Or its not and they are appearing.
Anyone thats on here can comment and yes public can comment to normally as usual.
Thanks

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database alert

Hi all users and visitors.

Please read.

Currently I have 5 users on here, visparo, me, tech, and techwarn who I
can’t seem to kill so assume important.

Database perge is complete.

If you are a user, please reregister.

Please do not use a weird domain, and please use something recognisable
for your your nick so I or tech can approve them please.

This new system is going to be a bit of a kurve.

For one thing you need to register to post or comment.

On one hand that means you need to have extra steps and the admins need
to approve you on the other hand, we will not hopefully get anymore
spambots on this thing.

Thanks for reading and keep doing so.

crashmaster secondary admin

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important admin notice

Hi all users.

Over the last few days well 2 days to be exact a group of new users are
on here.

Thats good except their names are weird and the domains are almost the same.

They also registered in a bunch.

Starting from now, users will need to be approved by one of us admins
either jared or myself.

I have yet to decide on deleting all the mismatched odd users in the
database and will not be deciding that today.

If by the end of the week this hasn’t calmed down though I will be
perging all weird domain users then waiting for the group to reregister
then blocking them.

Obviously I may actually misrecognise and get a actual genuine user.

If you are genuine and are blocked, email one of the admins here.

I am on gmail, and sm dot everiss is my username gmail dot com is my domain.

I won’t be putting all of that here in case its being read by spammers.

Saying that, obviously if you are a genuine user and you are not getting
a stupid domain or something then you will get through.

Obviously because every registration needs to be human approved this may
take extra time.

A reminder that in addition to your account registration on here you can
do a 2step auth login via your wordpress id onto here now and skip
registration entirely.

Just don’t be surprised if I or the other admin checks you out in case
though.

Right now this is another precaution over our security solutions
currently in place.

We have at least 2 spam solutions here including the protection in
jetpack and our logical captcha for logins, maybe I will check this out
and see if I can yet increase that.
As an added note.
I have just cleared the database of all spam!
Now its probbable that I have cleared users that I don’t know the userid of.
I know my user id, the admin user id, another id for visparo which I registered last week and there is yet another which wouldn’t let me kill it so assuming I have 5 good users here.
Now, that means I have a lot of other users that I don’t know.
I most likely have cleared legit users.
With the new registration system and the new approval system I am confident we will not see any more of this spam stuff on here at all.
If spam does continue, dispite our approval systems I will have to concidder ending registrations and that aint the answer in my opinion.
I’d still like some automatic code validation.
I am not sure about rules but maybe I will set things.
Right now, I would appreciate that all users that register have an understandable id.
If I see username 123523 or gxxx534 or something with bad language in it or porn or sex or something you will not even get past approval.
Not sure about domains.
If you are registered and not approved within the next 2 days, please email me or jared with your particular username and details you registered so I can approve you.
I will continue talking with tech on adding extra users and rules.
Later all.

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This week in Security news, news ending July 17, 2020

In the news department for thi week, Trend Micro does have the apparent Hack of twitter. We still need to learn more, although we do know internal tools were involved. Besides that, the Distributed denial of service attacks for hire will be fueling a new wave of attacks, the worm battle for Internet of Things territory, info on Tax Scams since Tax day was pushed to this month due to the Pandemic, Corona Vaccine info being potentially stolen by Russia which should be no surprise to some, and more. Are you interested in anything particular for a technology or security box podcast? Please contact me through my tech at menvi dot org address and I’ll be sure to take a look. If you can provide a link to the story, that would even be better. Thanks so much for reading.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. How can you send me anything if I don’t provide you the article? >This Week in Security News: Trend Micro Research Discovers Cybercriminal Turf War on Routers and a Massive Twitter Breach Compromises Some of the World’s is that article, and thanks again for reading and participating!

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A new show being added to this podcast

Starting at 11 am PT, 2 PM ET, I’m debuting a hshow as part of the mix family. This show will be held on the the independent channel and will be posted through here. The program will be called the Security Box, where all kinds of security topics and commentary will be talked about. It’ll be a 3 hour program that is different from the main program where it is me, or a contributer. You’re welcome to skip these shows if it does not interest you, but I figured we’re more than likely linking to articles and other RSS places we have don’t quite work that way anymore, that this is the best place.

The first show will be posted today, and I hope you like the new idea. You can send things of interest through my tech address on this podcast, but for the radio show, I’ll be giving my mix address out as well.

Thanks for reading, and make it a great day!

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windows 10 2004 is out with a few warnings

Hi windows 2004 is out for those that want to manually update to it.
Firstly, the latest amd drivers that work with windows 10 are available here.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-20-5-1

A note that when installing before restart removing the following tasks will make the software not do stupid things.
start dvr, start cn, modify link update, and all tasks with amd in their titles.
We don’t need to ever interact with the amd software but the amd software likes to change our keyboard shortcuts like the replace shortcut.
Next nvidia.
https://www.geforce.com/drivers
Its worth noting that the g force experience aint that accessible either and neither are their web detections.
I know some users with version 385 or 384 of the software installed, but that is with a really old card and maybe its time to update it.
Now note if you have 354 or lower and thats the last version you can ever have, then it may actually be time to update that card.
If you got that card for something its now a liability because due to issues with windows your system may screw up.
The easiest solution is to pull and throw it away and get another one or update the driver to the latest you can if you actually can do it.
I know microsoft will probably fix it but if you run 354 of the software then you are running really old software.
There are other issues in this update.
However if you don’t use more than 1 network adaptor at a time, or more than 1 bluetooth device at a time, or have a thunderbolt dock or even if you do, don’t use it then you won’t have a problem.
I actually don’t use bluetooth on my laptop its easier to plug a cable in.
There are issues with some synaptics and conexant devices, and issues with some system files in older drivers.
For older drivers update if you can or replace those devices or wait for a fix.
If you have synaptics or conexant devices that handle audio, then don’t bother.
The last 2 issues have to do with intel and vr and something to do with a mouse and gaming which don’t apply to us blind people.
The only issue I have noticed is that when starting windos the network does not immediately power and you need to wait a couple minutes after login for it to actually do what its supposed to do.
As always, www.dropbox.com has an update www.dropbox.com/release_notes will get you there then click on the latest stable.
You will not lose any settings, my only caution is if you update via media creation you will have to reinstall all your optional languages and features you had on.
Doing it via windows upgrade wizzard means you only have to install the newer features.
After updating you may get a large store apps update to.
As usual notebook manufacturers will have to catch up.
At least intel has fixed my 4th gen system so driver update works again.
As for the issues bar the ones I mentioned, the only issue that may be about is my bluetooth with realtech on my ryzen5 2nd gen workstation which I don’t use.
The network issue is a bit annoying but if I turn off all my updaters on nvda on startup it will not be a problem.
There is a small update to install after everything goes up to from windowsupdate.

And now a note on installs.
On the 2 laptops, my amd unit with realtech and amd and the intel 7th gen unit, I found installing took a while.
On the amd I used the media creation tool and the setup would stay at a percentage for a while and slowly rize.
After that you restarted 3 times and slowly things would go up on each restart.
After updating updates things would restart and then things would just work.
The only issue I had was my amd drivers needed a couple reboots to get up and running.
On the intel, everything just ran with the same as the amd, intel with intel all the way for most stuff anyway using the upgrade assistant.
On the 4th generation system, my dad’s one from 2013 I think it was 2013 the last bios is 2015 but latest drivers are 2016 so I get confused.
This one rappidly wemt up and up, with a few stoppages but seemed to just role with it.
During update of windows the system rebooted at least 3 to 4 times before finally allowing me to check the progress of the update at at least 70%.
On updating, windows needed to reboot a couple times to get settled but seemed ok after that.
Performance wize, with cortana off on the systems I guess there is a bit more.
On my amd and the 7th generation I have not noticed anything muchh.
On the 4th gen things seem a little faster.
On all systems there are a couple seconds where things take to start and shutdown but not that bad it eventually sorted itself out.
Over all I am happy with this update.
One major thing is that I havn’t needed to change any settings or even look at them because even my file associations are in tact.
I have cleaned all the stuff I don’t need but everything works and its fine.
See you later.

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opinion: online petitions, and blanket servey postings

Note!

Before I start my article I wish to post some administrative notices.

One of the search previders, google is stating that the site is not
fitting all mobile screen sizes well.

Also that images and text are to small, and several issues like this.

These are not critical issues so I have ignored them, but if these are
the case then maybe something may need to be done.

Nothing has errored out just yet but I could investigate if we need
extra tools etc for all this if it ever becomes an issue, comment or
email me or jared or something and we can look.

Secondly.

As you may or may not have been aware we had what looked to be an
unscheduled outage last week.

It seems to be however that we had an unannounced system upgrade as we
are now using the latest php, a thing we have been asking our previder
to upgrade for the last 1 or so years now.

I am happy we are using the latest and most stable version of php, this
should mean we have another 2 or so years before we need to be concerned
again, however it took ages to get what we needed and it could be ages
before we can get another one.

Lets hope things continue to run smoothly.\

Hi all.

As I sit in my dreery rainy office / bedroom in my house, with the front
door open due to it being needing to be fixed and in the process of
being fixed, I have been catching up on the blog and various bits of
flotsom coming accross my desk.

Firstly, I have noticed that a lot of servays have been appearing.

Asking questions like Is your blind child effected by this virus, or is
your job or your education, effected, or is your business effected, or
are your workers effected and so on and so on.

These and other such questions pop up daily from various sources,
organisations, lists of organisations, unions and other organisations
wanting to  get stats on the lockdown.

But here is the thing.

The questions in and of them selves and the links and the servays are
quite important things.

The information and the statistical data is quite important.

The virus itself is a really important topic world wide.

Here’s the thing.

Yes its logical to post that to everyone that may be interested, however
its really no good if you then chainmail it out to everyone, every list,
forum, usergroup and personal email address you have in your entire
google contact, facebook contact, twitter contact, in hopes you will get
a hit.

Granted, you could send to organisations and those organisations could
send things out to those in their databases likely to be a parent,
teacher, business owner etc that may in fact be able to answer these
questions.

But its a little harder, you can’t just blanket post.

Blanket posting will insure you get your information out there.

However, there is a slight drawback.

A large amount of your users will get the information, a large amount
who are not targeted by it.

At best they will just delete the information and accept that this is
going about as I have.

But you could potentially get your users reporting you as spam and
getting you blacklisted all over the places or unsubscribing from your
news lists or not recommending you because you fill their mailboxes up
with spammy serveys amd mail which is not targeted at them.

I have not reached that point but a few serveys have appeared on
organisations like afb, nfb, aph all at once.

These filter down to users that chainpost them all over the place.

I need to now review all my mailboxes, spam, and other things and before
I read a single mail I have to delete half the messages in there, and on
some forums report/block certain users and topics full of serveys.

Its calmed down now though but is this blanket posting of serveys a good
use of resources?

If you are from an global entity like world blind union I guess I’d
understand.

But if you are in organisation x posting to y and then z and then to all
other organisations it may be better to get targeted serveys to those in
the database the servey matched with.

Some general posting is fine to a point to and some users will pass that
about to a targeted few.

Now though I am getting serveys at least 10-20 per day most of which
don’t have anything to do with me.

It may be only 2-3 serveys posted to various places, forums, news
letters, etc, from various organisations I am on but then users will
chainpost on and on and on.

For now its all quiet but it seems quite a waste of resources if 50% of
all users may not be your target.

Others may have a view and I encourage descussion.

Next, do online petitions actually work.

News stories I have read over the years suggest they don’t.

Firstly a local news broadcast suggests that they are legally nonbinding.

That in plain english means you give a corperation a bit of paper or a
site stating you don’t like them and they can just ignore it and not do
much about it.

So these are to make you feel good.

They mean nothing, but they make the user think they have done something.

Some sites and news feeds suggest they make others take notice as it
shows the feeling of users in such things as a country where governments
use this form to gage their voters feelings.

However its known that this is just a feel good thing.

What isn’t talked about though is the down side.

To sign these you need to put your name, email address and in some case
the country you are from and your comments if any.

Now granted getting where you are from, your name and email address aint
that hard to do these days.

Some sites get you to set an account where you put a username, password,
address, phone numbers, etc and so on.

Again its not a bad idea in the scheme of things.

If you want someone’s address, phone number mobile or otherwise you can
legally easily get it.

But what seems not to be talked about is who owns these petition sites.

Where is your data going.

There is no garantee that someone is getting and using it.

Names and email addresses are bad enough for spam, phone scams and
junkmail are a bit of an issue but thats not the worse of it.

There are plenty of things someone can do with your mobile, phone, email
and physical address including, physical things like potentially kill
you or rob you.

They can also target you in online swatting, hacking, spamming and
scamming/fishing.

They can be as spaciffic as they want to.

Someone is getting your data, that someone is the company behind the
petition.

And for all we know its china or someone.

True you can find out who owns x site easily enough but as other
articles on this blog have shown with wire labs for example this means
absolutely squat.

Names, addresses and all sorts of things can be faked.

You can even make fake creditcards these days.

So now not only are online petitions just feel good they could possibly
be potentially dangerous.

Also, any user from a conciderate organisation to a concerned citizin to
an utterly spoilt brat wanting to be a troll can make one.

I have had several and most of them are written out.

However I have had a couple from whining trolling idiots that are hoping
people will sign their whinings so they feel good.

Sadly with this virus going about these guys have increased.

These trolls will ask how to get money for free, etc.

Of course you can just choose not to sign.

I have signed a few just to make me feel good even though I know it
isn’t worth a damn.

I don’t do this all the time but it does concern me that no one has
looked at the potential user impacts of these online petitions.

The only good thing with the various privacy rules and laws about
especially in the climate of covid 19 especially with contact tracing
every government company and respectible entity needs to put what they
need to access and why in simple and readable english.

If they need to breach privacy run spying or servailance they need to
within reason tell people what they are doing, where they are doing it,
why they are doing it if applicable and when they are doing it and how long.

A lot of grey about and a lot of criminals but assuming things are all
good its still something not addressed.

We do know for example that selling and buying on facebook could be bad
and setting privacy information and misconfigurations in places from
facebook to organisations can be costly.

But no one has really researched how dangerous needlessly posting our
information to somewhere that has no gain what so ever.

It is clear that someone has a lot to gain, pitty its not us, the users.

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