COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

I suppose it all depends on how much you browse and render yourself vulnerable. I am Facebook proof. Binned it two years ago and never open it.

[Gloria]

Must admit that I don't see any extremism or fake news on Facebook, just my friends, local animal rescue charities and a bit of local history.

I'm much the same Wendy, but just recently I've had "friends" accepting two requests, I've never heard of them, so I unfriended them, and, a proper friend noticed I'd added a change to my status, but wasn't showing it. I hadn't done a change to anything. Something going on and I don't know what, and don't like it.

[Wendyf]

That doesn't sound good Gloria. Have you changed your password?

[Gloria]

I have now. Why didn't I do that before??

[Wendyf]

I have now. Why didn't I do that before??

You can look at your activity log by clicking on the little down arrow at the top right. That might tell you something about the status change.

[Gloria]

Interesting, Ive looked as you suggested. It shows my response to my status being changed, but there is no reference before it to my doing it.....hope that makes sense. Hopefully the change of password should stop whatever is happening.
Thanks for your help, I was about to bin Facebook, but will trot along with it a bit longer now.

[Tizer]

Must admit that I don't see any extremism or fake news on Facebook, just my friends, local animal rescue charities and a bit of local history.

I can understand that's the case for you Wendy but there's another side to Facebook groups such as the secret ones run to disseminate disinformation. Also this: There is a Facebook group set up by a man who bought a new house from Persimmon and he, like many others buying from the firm, found many serious faults with the house. The group ran to 14,000 people. But Persimmon has just `taken over the group' and shut out all those who were criticising its houses and the `group' is now nothing more than a promotional tool for Persimmon. I don't know how Facebook groups work but how can a company take over a private individual's group without that person's consent?

[Wendyf]

No idea! I run 2 groups and I don't know how anyone could "take them over". Looks like false news to me!

[Wendyf]

Having looked at reports of Persimmon taking over the Facebook page it seems they contacted the person who had set it up and he gave them admin status so they could run the group. A deal must have been done!

[Stanley]

That all illustrates why I bailed out.... I am a control freak and don't mind admitting it!
Canonical have just given me 91mb of upgrades..... Must be a reason!

[Tizer]

A deal must have been done!

Or they leant on him heavily - perhaps they threatened him with a visit from Nick Clegg.
More about it here: LINK

[Stanley]

"The unacceptable face of capitalism"?

[Stanley]

See THIS report of the hacking attack on the private forensic service that does the majority of police work now.
As one commentator said yesterday, the phrase 'sophisticated attack' is becoming a bit of a joke in the security community. No company will admit to being broken into by a 'bog standard' attack. The question is how good was their preparation and back-up?

[Tizer]

The company just paid the ransom and thus encouraged the perpetrators to make more attacks. When I was reporting on malicious food contamination and tampering in the 1990s and early 2000s my security contacts hated this and companies were always advised not to pay up. Do companies not keep remote back ups of their computer data these days?

[Tripps]

Trigger warning - not for those of a nervous disposition. . .

I've just bought a new video security gadget. Not quite got to grips with full functionality yet, but looks promising. I can see my front room from my smart phone - from anywhere! Not sure why I'd want to but I can.

Just found out you can extract still photos from it as well.

Here's an example. . . .

2019y7M8d19h1m27s(1).jpg

[PanBiker]

It renders a good quality image Tripps. Is it one that you can talk back to?

[Tripps]

Yes - I think so, but I have a rule - I only speak to humans.

The instructions are so small that I can't read them - so I looked on Youtube for help. The phone software is called 360eyeS from the google Playstore, and is fairly intuitive.

here it is

Yes the picture is quite good enough for email etc, and only about 90 kBs.

They do a cloud storage for 30 days free, then about $24 for a year, with no automatic renewal, which is a good thing. I'm still considering that.

[Stanley]

As you so often remark David..... Spooky!
(Like the painting .....)

[Tizer]

Mind it doesn't get hijacked by the Russians!

[plaques]

Or hacked by the bad lads to see if your house was worth the trouble of breaking into.

[Stanley]

I had the same thought but refrained in case it made David paranoid....

[Tizer]

David? Paranoid? Never!

[Tripps]

(Like the painting .....)

Bless you for that - that makes just the two of us. My kids hate it. The poet says she likes it, but I think she's just being polite. I think you may be right about the photograph - reveals more about me than usual. I've changed it to the view from the front window. Now they'll think I live in the jungle.

Found this - good to know that one of the hundreds of Chinese students I see nearly every day is doing good work. Early days yet, but like garlic bread - it must be the future.
Send for Ned Ludd. Pick a lettuce

[Stanley]

I was listening to a fruit farmer talking about robots for picking blackcurrants... The fact that only ripe ones must be picked is a big obstacle but they are working on it.....

[Stanley]

I did a search in Gthumb this morning and the term I used was '76' as I was looking for an old image from that year. It threw up almost 7,000 thumbnails inside 20 seconds. I never cease to marvel at the speed of the FM3. Thanks Pluggy!