I wanted to write and record a hit single with the words "Hey Tom Tom" in it, so that when it played in cars with Tom Tom GPS devices in would trigger their Tom Tom's to talk. There's a song I sometimes sing to my son at bedtime that triggers Siri on my iPhone.
Posts by stringyfloppy
73 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Oct 2014
Troll it your way: Burger King ad tries to hijack Google Home gadgets
Hundreds of millions 'wasted' on UK court digitisation scheme
America halts fast processing of H-1B skilled worker visas
Define "Technology Company"
I'm sure the Trump administration has totally forgotten that "technology companies" develop products, and that those products are often beneficial to people. I work for a biomedical company which relies on a lot of technology and technology workers, many on H-1B visas. Making problems for those workers does not help the research and production stay on target. But I'm sure making international cooperation, communication, interaction, etc. easier is at the bottom of Trump's list of priorities.
Security bods find Android phoning home. Home being China
Which Is It?
The articles states:
"Adups has not published a list of the phones its software is included in, although it is known to provide its software to the two large Chinese phone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE."
Then a Huawei spokesperson states:
"The company mentioned in this report is not on our list of approved suppliers, and we have never conducted any form of business with them."
Which is it? Register, what do you mean when you say "it is known to provide its software to the two large Chinese phone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE?" What's the source for that?
Two plead guilty to stealing personal information of millions
Clucking hell! Farcical free-range egg standard pecked apart by app
FCC clicks off the safety, fires at America's great cable TV box rip-off
Great news!
I hope this goes into effect, and soon. It's ridiculous how aggressively the cable companies pursue people who don't return their 6-year-old, outmoded, desperately-in-need-of-retirement set-top boxes. As if anyone has time to bring that crap to some remote, local cable office at the same time that they're planning a move. I've been pursued, and I think everyone who lived in a home previously has been pursued for it, because I've seen their mail and received phone calls for them.
How Microsoft will cram Windows 10 even harder down your PC's throat early next year
US Treasury: How did ISIS get your trucks? Toyota: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ISIS hasn't yet decided which Toyota slogan they're taking to heart. Their choices are:
"You asked for it! You got it!"
"Oh, what a feeling!"
"Who could ask for anything more?"
"I love what you do for me, Toyota!" (current front-runner)
"Everyday"
"Get the feeling!"
"Moving Forward"
"Let's Go Places"
White House 'deeply disappointed' by Europe outlawing Silicon Valley
Fiorina: I rushed out HP servers to power NSA snooping. Mwahahaha!
NEW ERA for HUMANITY? NASA says something 'major' FOUND ON MARS
If you got Netflix for Miss Marple, you're out of luck (and a bit odd)
Then of course with Netflix, every few months it just stops working at all. Once my family informs me (sometimes after a few days - I don't really use it much myself) - I have to remove any devices that are linked or whatever, and redo it over again. I don't know why this happens, but I'm sure Netflix knows - it doesn't even seem to be accidental, it's like they purge all devices occasionally on purpose.
While I like the idea of Netflix, their selections is EXTREMELY limited. Have they ever heard of black & white movies? Classics? They don't exist on Netflix.
Krebs: I know who hacked Ashley Madison
More deaths linked to Ashley Madison hack as scammers move in
Get whimsical and win a Western Digital Black 6TB hard drive
Mumsnet founder 'swatted by misogynist griefers'
You CAN'T jail online pirates for 10 years, legal eagles tell UK govt
They seem dead-set on being able to treat someone who downloads music using Google as an MP3 search engine the same way as they treat someone who manufactures illegal CDs and sells them on the street for cash. These are two incredibly different things. They need to stop using the word Piracy. It's so very vague - do they mean rum-drinking?
Bloke cuffed for blowing low-flying camera drone to bits with shotgun
Are people expected to know what a drone is, and be able to differentiate it from other things? Are we supposed to be able to tell when it's close enough to the ground above our houses that it might hurt someone (people have been killed by "toy" radio controlled helicopters - it's not that unusual) and we should notify the police?
These things are basically new, and apparently there are a lot of morons controlling them. I don't own a gun, but I'd take the garden hose to one of these things in a heartbeat of it was over my property. If the jackasses flying it call the police, I'll tell them I had zero idea what it was and thought I was under attack. "A 'drone?' You mean like an alien drone? Yeah, I thought it was something dangerous like that, a drone. I hope there isn't a queen around anywhere..."
If authorities are going to let people fly these things around like fools, they also have to let us have absolutely no idea what the things are, and do whatever we can think of to knock them out of the sky, just as if it was a Stephen King book. I'm not going to restrain myself just because some dork paid $1,800 for the menacing aircraft he ordered online.
Amazon enrages authors as it switches to 'pay-per-page' model
Suppose someone self-publishes a book, 1000 people buy the Kindle version but no one reads it. Then five years later the writer becomes well known, and everyone who bought those 1000 copies suddenly reads all of it. Would Amazon pay the writer at that point? Or is there some cut off point by which customers must read pages in order for the writer to get paid?
Reddit: Gonna SCRUB these TROLLS right outa my hair
Who the hell cares? It's a privately owned site that the owners let people use for free. They can control it however they want. This (and the more recent shuttering of certain sub-Reddits) is only "news" because Reddit wants to try to rein this in without losing users. Since they don't charge users, the only reason they don't want to lose users is that they exist to sell advertising, or are somehow hoping to sell Reddit.
The Martian: Matt Damon sciences the sh*t out of the red planet
The thing about Apple's 'one MORE thing'? It's a streaming music thing
I've been reading some bogus claims that Apple Music will allow users to listen to "almost every song ever." This is complete bull, as I own loads of music that no streaming service has available. First of all, there's a lot of music that has never been released digitally, and a lot that's long out of print. Then there are small, indie releases which are pretty obscure. Apple's collection and mine don't actually overlap all that much.
Has marketing grabbed the IT reins at your company?
Doom, Mario, Pac-Man level up to video gaming's Hall of Fame
Woman dumps ultra-rare $200,000 Apple 1 computer in the trash
Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bog-standard boxty
China spending $182 BEEELLION on net construction by end of 2017
Milking cow shot dead by police 'while trying to escape'
Starbucks denies mobile app hack, blames careless customers
Major London rail station reveals system passwords during TV documentary
Facebook serves up shaved, pierced, tattooed 'butterfly' as CAPTCHA
Fsck those new emojis! Install iOS 8.3, OS X 10.10.3 NOW to squash all these security bugs
Dot-com intimidation forces Indiana to undo hated anti-gay law
The amendments to the law really don't fix it enough, because since you can instantly become a legally ordained minister online, you can then discriminate against people for ANYTHING other than what the amendments specify. So you can discriminate based on people's taste in clothing, the size of their hair, or the fact that they're not from Indiana. The law should have to specify who you CAN refuse to do business with, not who you CAN'T refuse to do business with. F Indiana and Arkansas - we can live without those states.