Shinycroak

Or at least its app is. Just bought two different color-changing lightbulbs, one from Philips and one from LIFX. Both have appalling privacy policies. The LIFX policy says: “For example, we may collect: Hardware model, IMEI number and other unique device identifiers, MAC address, IP address, operating system version, and settings of the device you use to access the Services.” – https://www.lifx.com/pages/privacy-policy The Philips policy, though less explicit in its language, is similar in meaning, and their Android app will not operate unless granted permission to track the smartphone's location. Apparently the new design process for consumer electronic hardware is: Figure out what data you want to gather on the user and how much money you will make from gathering it. Provide some functionality that requires one to install a data mining app. Boize moi!

"The car seat broke into pieces in a 30 mph crash test commissioned by CNN, failing to meet the basic standards set by US regulators." – Fake and dangerous kids products are turning up for sale on Amazon . Fk Amazon.

The New Yorker: "According to Brittain Ladd, a former Amazon senior manager interviewed for the story, around 2013 the company decided that it could no longer rely solely on the likes of FedEx and the UPS to deliver its packages. Instead, it would also work with smaller courier firms scattered across the country to supplement its ever-growing demand. […] Ladd went so far as to circulate a written warning among colleagues: 'I believe it is highly probable that accidents will occur resulting in serious injuries and deaths.'" – https://mashable.com/article/amazon-drivers-dangerous/ CBS Channel 2 Chicago: "CBS 2 Investigators catch Amazon delivery drivers creating dangers on the road.  With one pedestrian dead and another who says he suffered severe injuries, CBS 2’s Dave Savini looks into the drivers working at a local Amazon warehouse." – https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2018/05/15/amazon-drivers-accused-deadly-accidents/ Buzzfeed: " Valdimar Gra...

In which the CEO of Uber excuses the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which holds 14% of Uber. Uber CEO on Saudi Arabia's killing of Jamal Khashoggi: "It's a serious mistake. We've made mistakes too, right, with self-driving ... So I think that people make mistakes. It doesn't mean that they can never be forgiven" pic.twitter.com/EvinRrh3SE — BNO News (@BNONews) November 11, 2019

Krugman   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/opinion/trumps-china-shock.html   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/opinion/trumps-trade-quagmire-wonkish.html Bloomberg – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-05/china-retaliation-is-11-on-scale-of-1-to-10-wall-street-warns Larry Summers – larrysummers.com/2019/05/15/theres-a-revealing-puzzle-in-the-china-tariffs/ Financial Times – https://www.ft.com/content/9d24c1ca-b7cd-11e9-96bd-8e884d3ea203

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are trying to outdo each other on student loan forgiveness schemes. It is good to see. People took on the debt on the promise of well-paying jobs. Then most of the well-paying jobs went away. So, declare bankruptcy, heh? But conservatives outlawed that. Somehow, after taking away education grants, raising the price of education, making it difficult to get any job without a degree, cutting pay across the board, being in deep debt is still the fault of students. As if that is not enough we have work crying to be done. Our infrastructure is crumbling, we need to build a carbon-free economy, and conservatives do not want to pay. So what it to be done? Let us look at a simpler scheme: allow student loan debt to be dissolved in bankruptcy, and return bankruptcy law to its pre-2005 state, so that it allows a dignified fresh start to the bankrupt. But the banks will fight this tooth and nail. So why, even, are we talking about something much more radic...

Amazon warehouses are reliably reported to be dangerous workplaces, as well as sexist. If this bothers you, I suggest the unionized Powell’s Books as an alternative source for books. For other items there are often other sources, you might even (gasp!) buy something locally, but some things are simply available nowhere else. This story is evolving, and likely to continue to do so. Places to follow it are: @spencersoper on Twitter, @ TonyaJoRiley on Twitter, and The Guardian’s Amazon Diaries . “The only injuries Amazon ever seemed to take seriously, she says, involved blood. The main concern, it seemed, was not getting stains on the merchandise.” – Mother Jones, March 19, 2019. She Injured Herself Working at Amazon, Then The Real Nightmare Began. “A warehouse worker told her manager she was pregnant. Less than two months later, she was fired. Several lawsuits against Amazon show a similar pattern.” – Amazon fired these 7 pregnant workers. Then came the lawsuits . Cnet , M...

I have learned something about cloud security: to secure your email or cloud, you need at least one account, somewhere, where you have a business or personal relationship with the provider (a smartphone serves this purpose for a lot of people), so that you can talk to them, or walk into their office, to recover your account. Otherwise, if an account is lost you may not be able to recover it. Obvious, but I’ve never seen it stated anywhere. When the internet started out, this was the norm; you were a member of some institution or other, or connected with some institution, and there was always someone you could go to to recover your account. Somewhere in all the chaos of creating the modern public internet, this got lost: you can lose your Google, Microsoft, or Apple account and never get it back. None of these firms are willing to accept your proofs of identity if you walk into their offices, not even Apple with its otherwise excellent customer service network. It's a hangover ...

You lease Kindle books – you don't own your copies. You can't sell them as used, give them away, or will them to your children. You can't even move them between your own accounts. Amazon can take them away or put them out of print whenever it wants to. Future researchers who wonder what was in your library are will only be able to wonder. You can't copy pages from them, even for fair use. I don't want to hear how unnecessary print books are until I can actually own my own copies of ebooks.