Logbook: Phones
Nokia Fallen from grace, Esteemed phone maker to Shovel seller.
Ed note: Gemini almost did it here .. but it is funny what it did with the phones. and two closed signs.
Nokia the maker of legendary phones such as the Nokia N900 and the Nokia 3310 is now peddling shovels for the AI Goldrush and trying to use some legendary logic. AI data centers would be built two times faster if there were not supply chain issues
The tech industry would build data centers twice as fast without the supply constraints they face, the CEO of Nokia told CNBC, underscoring continued demand for AI even as top executives debate slowing down the pace of development.
No shit Sherlock, you can build faster when you have the parts. I feel like this is something else though, I think Nokia realized they were late for the AI party and wishes they could sell some data centers.
“I don’t think you can say in any manner we’re overbuilding today because reality is that if we could build 2x faster, our customers could build 2x faster, they probably would,” Justin Hotard told CNBC’s “The Tech Download” podcast.
The thing is right now with the amount of CAPEX being built out we have no idea of the true capacity that has been built out. You have every company on earth who knows how to turn on a computer building out with data centers and the thing about AI is NO ONE truly knows how much capacity is needed. Because if ChatGPT or Gemini break through with efficiency that saves half of the speed needed these companies are not going to burn through millions of dollars of computing when they can save half.
“So that gives me confidence that we’re still in the early days” of the AI buildout, Hotard added. Shortages of key memory chips and energy are among the supply constraints facing the sector. Nokia, one of the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment makers, has pivoted to become a key player within the AI infrastructure space. It sells the technology required to connect racks of chips within data centers as well as technology that interconnects data centers across different locations.
Hey Hotard go read about 1849 and you will understand that the amount of shovels had no connection to the amount of gold that was dug from the ground. This is just posturing to make it sound like the AI gold rush is still going on. But Mr Hotard should make another n900 for this generation that has AI on board rather than blow more money on AI that we do not know where it will be in a year.
Nokia’s growing role as a “picks and shovels” player in the AI boom appears to have won over investors, with the stock up around 130% over the past year .But there’s been continued debate over whether the industry is building data centers too fast and whether demand will be there to sustain it. Investments in the AI buildout from data centers to chips and related infrastructure will total $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032 — an average of 3.63% of U.S. gross domestic product per year, according to research presented at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
The funny thing right now how many companies are overspent on CAPEX build out (all of them) is going to have some horrifying detrimental actions when the bill comes due. Right now are are all focused on Magic Farts and Butterflies of AI on the market and people are buying into it like it is the best thing since the Knife that sliced bread. But sooner or later the bill is going to come due and it will make the school loan debt crisis look like someone was missing school lunch money.
Hotard said that demand for AI is not just predicated on frontier labs like Anthropic and OpenAI releasing new models. “I think the reality is that we’re even where we are today is so early in the deployment, and the power of these models is so massive that there’s a lot of there’s a lot of demand to run in just deploying,” Hotard said. “Even if we didn’t have another frontier model released in the next three years, we could probably make tremendous progress just deploying the technology that’s there today.”
Hotard translation here: “please keep buying out AI shovels and don’t worry we will make sure to bill you triple.
Attributions from:
CNBC – Nokia CEO says data centers would be built ‘2x faster’ without supply constraints
Phone Fun (Pixel 10 xl pro): Spaceballs 2 the search for more money.
It’s been about two years since my last phone review and its time for a new one! When I had the ability to get a new phone I decided to forgo the Pixel 11, I have no interest in a light bar. It’s just influencer vomit.
Though google has to take one knock here on the pixel 11 , they took away the temperature sensor which is a huge loss to people who love the world around them. Searching for a hotspot on a motherboard or piece of electronics bust out the phone and find it. Your kid says she doesnt feel well you bust out the phone. Testing food to see if its done you bust out the phone. seriously google tripped on itself on the pixel 11 by putting in a gimmick rather than a tool!
Give or take it has the ability to bring back the oh so good notification lights! but anyways enough about the Pixel 11.
I ended up getting the Pixel 10 pro XL. As far as an upgrade at the surface from the 9 pro xl you spend a few days looking at the phone and go “So?” . Then, three days in, you glance at the corner of your screen and realize you haven’t plugged the damn thing in once, and it’s still sitting on a fascinating level of charge.
The worst thing about the smart phone generation was the fact you just about had to charge it every day. Google is finally seeing the sweet spot that most other phone developers have missed, A fucking phone that lasts.
My old metric for measuring phones was as so and it was valid for many many years. Phones have come away from just being a phone to the portable PC. All of this is good but as my old metrics I think we can make a change to come up with the times.
The new Metric is as follows (it closely follows the old but is more refined.
1: Communications & Media
2: Configurability
3: Durability:
4: Good battery life
Sure making phone calls is good but there was a time in smart phones that you could send a Telegram before you made a call, Im specifically looking at the Sprint EVO and some Samsung phones.
1: Communications & Media: The phone is much like the 9 to some point but you gain one more speaker out of the deal better sound at the earpiece and seamless Bluetooth connection and it sounds really good with the Bluetooth.
2: Configurability: What can I say when I am using a google pixel, It’s a Pixel it remains the modular Lego kit of the Android world, unlike Samsung where you can get yourself in trouble with Knox you can do just about anything, Install another OS, Install whatever you want within reason.
3: Durability: The frame on the pixel 10 seems a bit more rigid than the 9, While I dont want to drop it it seems like google had paid some attention to that years model.
4: Good battery life: The Pixel 10 Pro XL is much the same as the pixel 9 but with the changes under the hood no one sees anyone who does not pay attention to the phone would think that the 10 is not an upgrade, The 10 on many levels you could completely ignore and think you are not missing much. The phone has a fantastic battery life, I have gotten up to 4.5 days of use between charges. In smart phone terms that is another universe as far as usage.
The return of the temperature sensor is a welcome device because most people do not realize how useful that tool is. If you are working on a car engine and you are not sure about something you can pull the phone out and avoid the touch test to see if something is hot. If you have a kid that’s not feeling so good you can take the phone out and take their temp. If you have questions about food, surfaces and the world around you the pixels temperature sensor is your tricorder of the phone world. Given the inclusion of the ships computer of Gemini it gives you a tool kit that comes closer to the tricorder of starfleet with you pair a pixel watch to the phone.
Given that the Pixel 10 feels like a Fox Body ford mustang. While the economy version looks cool the pro version is the 8 cylinder of the phone world that actually has some good fuel economy. The 9 introduced the fox body and the 10 refines it into a monster.
Google needs to stop with the pixel A/B lines of Pro being a phone with all the bells and just make the pro the base model than market to engineers with an engineering model that has options to interface with machines using a OTG cable and keep the sensors and other stuff useful.
Writing prompt III: There and back again by Coffee Commander..
The longest trip I’ve taken was the best and worst. I happened to take a flight where the airliner never got to the runway.. The plane spent over 3 hours on the tarmac and delayed getting to the next leg of the flight to Philadelphia. When I got to philly I missed my connection, this is where things go from aggravating to bad.
US airways redirected me from a direct flight to CDG airport in France. The problem was they could not find pilots for the flight. so after hours of delay they finally find some pilots. The pilots got on the plane after a delay and as we were taxiing the pilot announces that they are returning to the gate because they had too many flight hours. Back to the gate we go, Defeated and hungry.
I did not know US airways screwed up my itinerary while they did redirect me towards Europe they made a mistake on the computers, They had my paper routing set to Orlando rather than Arlanda somehow the US airways employee fat fingered my location. So if we review my flight plan, It was supposed to be BOS to PHI to ARN , Somehow US airways had me from BOS to PHI to CDG to MCO to ARN?
To this point I had spent 1.5 – 2 hours – Logan Airport ,5 hours – broken plane out of gate – philidelphia airport inside of plane, 45 minutes – 1 hour – attempt #2 at taking off Philadelphia airport illegal flight crew., 5 hours – inside gate 22(?) at airport finding new crew.
to this point we’d been past the gates, with most amenities closed, me starving and other passengers in the same state we had asked for food, the flight attendants gave us a lavish meal of a Soda and a package of pretzels to which I still have to this day.
After getting off the flight and entering paris airport. from all the delays from the start of the flight I tried to find any help possible for my next flight because the connection time was only less 15 minutes(or passed by 15 mins) or so to Stockholm , so finding that the plane leaves from gate 7(?) again across an entire airport.
While I headed across this airport I realized that the setup of the airport is a horrible horrible setup. The airport was very hard to navigate your way through to get to your next location . figuring that I am already 24 hours overdue to my receiving friends I figured that I should reach out to them, I grabbed my phone out of the carry on and Tried to dial *dead* tried again *dead*. I did not know at that the time but T-mobile messed up and set another phone on the account for international travel and my phone to receive international calls. I put the phone away and hoped i would catch the flight and figured worst case I would figure out what to do in Stockholm. I ran to the gate across the cavernous airport with the people mover treadmills and got to my gate and to my dismay the flight was not listed. I found an english speaking person and asked about the flight and it had left an hour beforehand.
Defeated, I decided to make my way to the US airways ticket booth.. and there I realised I won my next prize, they were closed and would not be open till monday a full 24 hours till the booth opened. I managed to spend all of my time in the airport with a few excursions into france because I was bored out of my mind. Given I had not slept, I knew if I sat down I would pass out and I was still analyzing the situation to figure out what to do . I did eventually sit down and my carry-on with on me but not attached to me. There is nothing like waking up with guns in your face asking about your luggage. Given I was scared, Lost, Exhausted I kept trying to do my best not to piss off another country. The problem was every time I fell asleep I would wake up with some very attentive military types. Given it was their third visit and me not having a cigarette in over 2 days I noticed one of them had a pack on them, I gave them a short explanation to my plight and they seemed to take compassion in it. They said hold on and actually brought me out a door that I was not supposed to be out and let me smoke one of their cigarettes.
The Charles De Gaulle Airport security guys were amped but actually very nice. I joked with them where I might end up next. Due to having my bag strapped to my shoulder so long it had actually caused it to bleed fairly bad and I was starting to look like Bruce Willis in die hard. The next twenty four hours had me in a haze. The next morning I was actually able to have the breakfast of champions which was two Heinekens and a basket of rolls .
My next discovery in the airport was the internet kiosk, after my breakfast of the gods, I had some euro coin and it was enough to get on the computer for 10 minutes and cost 15 euros. I loaded up every session possible of Connected messengers, and at the time offline messages were not a thing. And I watched the time count down in desperation for ANYONE to log in. As I watched the time remaining drop into the sub two minute range, A good friend logged in and my typing WPM was likely 400 because I typed an entire book to my friend which was something like “Hey I am at the wrong airport , my flights were diverted my phone doesnt work my card locked up when trying to get money , Call my mother tell her i am fine . tell my mother to call my father and tell him that i am stuck in CDG airport. Contact US embassy please help, US Airways trying to divert me to MCO ” at the 30 second mark my friend said “ok” and I watched my connection die.
Happy I had made a hello world from the wrong part of the world gave me a bit of reserve. I went back to my area I was sitting and listening and hoping someone would find me. Not realizing the whole time over the PA they were calling my name and I was not paying attention to local dialect. My name is pronounced differently in france and suddenly my gun toting friends found me in the airport and they brought me to US airways booth. Now that part of things I had people I had hope and the first thing that the US airways desk agent says is “do you realize that you have a flight to MCO Orlando, at that point I said why on earth would I come to france and divert to orlando when my destination was Arlanda !” The desk agent made a call and what I could see in his hurried voice over the phone turning to abject terror realizing what exactly was happening.
The Desk agent suddenly was a flurry of calls, they routed a call to the US to my parents to say I was alive. My mother was freaking out, I told them to call my father instead, I gave him the story and he said he’d call back. They gave him the number to the desk. after a short bit Mr Gate agent’s phone rang, I knew he was talking about me and looking at me. Little did I realize that US officials got involved, I was shifted to the Pilots lounge. I had a celebratory rum and coke and just marvelled how fucked up US airways was. My Cell phone rang, it was my father saying he straightened things out and had help from US gov. Sipping away at my rum and coke and finally relaxing, Mr Gate agent comes in and says I cant stay in the lounge, I finish my Rum and coke and they finally have me routed to ARN through germany, I tested my debit card on mcdonalds and to say the least it was a completely different experience than USA. When they called me on the plane , they set me up in first class, which is an experience in itself.
The flight attendants treated me like royalty and honestly at the point I did not care, because I was getting closer to my destination. After another switch and window seats to which I love I saw my first glimpse of Sweden and realized the beginning of the beginning of my Journey was nearing its end.
Landing in ARN Stockholm.. getting off the plane and going to the belt to get my luggage I watched everyone’s luggage go around the belt. Ten pieces turned into 8 pieces that drew down to nothing left on the belt. I left the belt area to go to the US airways booth to be told my luggage was not there so I was left with a month to go no clothing to go through my trip , my stuff in my luggage was somewhere else. The irony here, My luggage took a different journey, BOS -PHI- CDG- NYC – MCO – PHI – ARN it came three weeks into my trip to which point I welcomed my luggage like an old friend and laughed that someone from ARN drove 3 hours to bring it to me.
Honestly, The trip was the best in my life, I had Friends, food , Surströmming(yes that one, No it was not bad, It was prepared by a chef), Beer, Swedish Culture, Walking around sweden give you an idea of how big and small the world is all at the same time and how Sweden’s Culture of Lagom is something to aspire to..
Dumb: Climbing a mountain with no experience. Dumber: asking someone who has never climbed a Mountain to do it. Darwin dumb: It was AI
Every time I am thinking about AI, there is a fatal concept that comes to mind with AI, it has never done anything but, it can explain it in concept it but not much else.
Three novice hikers from Roseville were stranded overnight on Mt. Shasta after following Google’s Gemini AI for route and packing advice, turning an expected eight-hour climb into a multi-day ordeal in Mud Creek Canyon.
What.. the fuck.. asking gemini for instructions to climb a mountain is like asking google maps to guide you through a city when you forget its in pedestrian mode. You will go down more than a few one ways backwards and likely end up with mr police officier asking if you are on something.
In what authorities are calling a “critical misstep,” three hikers relied heavily on Google’s Gemini AI to guide them through a Mt. Shasta summit, leaving them stranded on the mountain’s southeastern flank.
A critical misstep is understatement of the century, what is next for our enterprising adventurers climbing Mt Everest and ignoring sherpa’s that have boots on the ground for centuries and going “Nah dude we got this with AI!” .
In a post on Facebook, the Sheriff’s Office said, “The men summited at 7:00 pm that evening, well after the recommended turnaround time of 12:00 pm, and descended in the dark.”
Officials said that, an hour into their descent, the group called the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch to ask for directions but eventually wandered off route into Mud Creek Canyon.
That evening, one of the hikers fell and suffered a knee injury.
Our heroes here failed in so many ways it’s not funny. AI is not a magic device that makes you superior at doing things it makes you stupider at doing things if you have no concept of how to do it. AI has never climbed a mountain, AI has never gone to work in new york through the subways and over road routes. it has a “concept” of all of this but it has never done it for itself and this makes AI a bad companion when the user does not know how to do things. If you are talking to AI about installing a 240v supply for your washing machine and use the same prompt later for building a PC you never know if the AI will amalgamate the two together and it tries to make you a PC powered at 240V .
If you are clueless and you have no idea how to do something, Start with the basics like “I want to go up Mt Shasta”. Than ask yourself what does it take to go up Mt Shasta , OH YEAH CLIMBING. our heroes were young here and likely from a university, firstly they could of checked at the uni if there was any climbing or hiking groups. Secondly, they could of reached out to any local climbing place and say ” hi, I do not have much climbing experience and want to climb Mt Shasta.” In two tenths of a second the guy at the climbing place is going to do one of two things, If he just answers the question he’d say “NO don’t do it ” Or if the guy is into his craft “no, please don’t do it, our Climbing group goes to Mt Shasta twice a year and its not recommended for novice, How about I offer you an introductory to climbing course at 25% off?”
We need to stop acting like AI is the mastery of anything, if anything the AI is the master of average, It takes the sum of human intelligence and averages it out. That is AI’s ability. It can’t fathom new ideas, It can NOT figure out how much rocks have fallen on Mt Shasta, Microclimates, our Heroes Abilities or disabilities.
At Mushroom Rock (12,800 ft), another climbing party warned them to turn around. They ignored them and kept climbing into the dark. This is class A dumbarrery at an epic level. Because at the simplest of levels walk around your house… Than blackout every window in the house and try that again. You will fail.
Reading further….. what .. oh What the fuck..
The incident occurred days before Google announced its multi-year partnership with Beast Industries, a company founded by YouTube influencer Jimmy Donaldson, also known as his media personality MrBeast, who produces viral spectacles online.
According to the announcement, on Sunday a new MrBeast video will follow Donaldson and his crew as they attempt to survive “some of the most extreme and treacherous climates on Earth.”
Teams will race to navigate the jungle, the desert and the Arctic using Google’s Gemini to help them identify dangers and survive “brutal weather.”
This will end well? But Mr Beast has millions of dollars and some experience here so I guess he will do well, but this idea is fucking horrible because it’s going to cause more heroes for Mt Shasta. Those rescues are not cheap and at times people recieve bills into the tens of thousands of dollars.
The sheriff’s office said hikers should also have multiple methods of wayfinding. “Do not simply rely on your cellphone or Garmin, and stop to verify that you are on the correct route often.”
The Clear Creek Route on Mt. Shasta, which the three hikers wandered onto, is not a technical mountaineering route, but officials say it still requires climbers to be physically fit and prepared for unforeseen circumstances, such as an injury, inclement weather or an unplanned overnight stay.
“Serious accidents and fatalities occur on the Clear Creek route when individuals become lost and wander into more dangerous terrain, such as the Mud Creek drainage,” officials said on Facebook.
My closing here is Mr Sheriff from the office has sage advice “Do not simply rely on your cellphone or Garmin, and stop to verify that you are on the correct route often.” This man is our hero in the adventure because the three guys basically decided to conquer a mountain with a keyboard.
ed note: with the use of generative images as of late it looks like spelling issues is back on the menu. oh well its another perfect example of why not to use one single device as a way to get a result. Im keeping the errors its funny..
Attributions from:
The LA times – Lost in the algorithm: Hikers stranded on Mt. Shasta after following Gemini AI’s plan
From the I told you so files. AI Coffeepots Strikes back.
It would seem my want of a good Non-AI coffeepot has been reinforced yet again. The IoT coffeepot has been caught spying.
A cluster of seemingly unrelated incidents ranging from exposed enterprise AI tools to a breached coffee machine has revealed the daunting reality that modern cyber risk is no longer confined to servers, endpoints or even employees. It now increasingly spans ecosystems, vendors and even the delivery mechanisms for the very tools designed to drive organizational productivity.
The problem with AI is it is veiled in a ton of secrecy that is no good for anyone. Because once the bad agents start figuring it out. We are in deep trouble. The convenience of the AI coffee pot might be nice but it comes with a ton of drawbacks most people don’t account for .
A digital forensics investigator, identified only as TR, was called in when a client suspected a rival had infiltrated their systems after a data breach. Instead of finding malicious software, TR discovered that an internet-enabled espresso machine, equipped with a default password, an outdated operating system, and no firewall, was the source of the leak. Threat actors exploited this device, which was connected to the client’s secure network, to exfiltrate sensitive data. The machine was sending packets internationally every time someone brewed a cup, bypassing all the client’s advanced security measures.
This does present the facts of IoT machines need just as much vetting as computers on a network, if your IT guy doesn’t find every IoT devices on the network he is creating a leak, and the corporate moto of just buy the cheapest thing is normally a recipe for disaster.
Firstly, Keep all of your IoT shit on its own network, If you have a store named BOBcorp, Put all IoT devices on BioT29384 network that is isolated from the main network. Second, You want a network monitor IoT devices are chatty in nature but if your network traffic jumps sniff it out and make sure its sanitized. IoT companies should give a master list of where their devices connect to. That way if your AI coffeepot is connecting to Nigeria you know something is wrong. Either that give google, Apple, Amazon, and other Hub Devices a choice to go through a master server on the devices Hub of choice, That way if all of the corps go through the hub device the IT staff have an easy way to poke at what the IoT stuff is doing.
By having a master hub list of devices if a device starts misbehaving or an attack vector is found. They can deauth the device. It stops companies from just vomiting out “smart” everything devices, That way if they lose there auth they will act fast to restore the trust in the devices.
Another thought here is with security layers is, that most IoT have BLE enabled by default, After pairing there should be a dipswitch to turn off the BLE until its needed for repairing to the network. BLE is notorious for sniffing what is around it .
FirstNet Trusted™ Could really do something to come out on top here. Because of corporate laziness of “just buy the cheapest thing” leads to the problem in the first place. since they are part of AT&T and there network knowhow.
Even passed that Cellphones on the corp networks need to be on their own network, Workers who place IoT or cellphones on the larger corp networks need to be taken off and the employee trained for network safety, it would create a top down security that would even extend to the workers home after. Rather than finding out too late that there beloved AI coffeepot has been stealing secrets for Months.
In the end, You are better off with a Coffeepot with a switch , and if you need it smart. Add a smart plug to it and than you can control it from afar without having so much bloatware you never know what it is connecting to.
Anyways, back to my non smart non AI coffee….
Attributions from:
The Cybersecurity Hit List: From Enterprise AI to Compromised Coffee Machines -pymnts.com
We need to talk about “smart” devices… -Coffeecommander.net
Internet-connected coffee machine reportedly led to data breach -Scworld.com
FirstNet Trusted™ FirstNet Trusted™by AT&T
Googles Internet of things – By Google
Vizio tvs enshittification and why I won’t touch them.
Walmart has recently made move to require a walmart account on your Vizio and ONN branded Tv’s and its not over Watch metrics, its over how much data they can take from you. Its how much they can market your name and sell it off to other Entities. They claim it is a unification, Its not, it is walmart wants your living room, These TV’s likely have microphones in them and worse proximity sensor to know who’s in the room.
Beyond innovation, the results from Walmart and VIZIO are already clear for customers. 65% of surveyed Walmart customers report that CTV ads helped them discover new products3, underscoring the power of placing premium content in front of high-intent shoppers.
How the fuck did they flavor this question. They probably used a no win question where they gave 5 answers and gave people a no way out. something like “How much do Walmart ads on your VIZIO TV help you learn about new items? 1.Significantly 2. Somewhat 3. A little bit 4. Not much 5. Not at all.. They just flavored the poll to 4 yeses and a no. The poll is bullshit and likely people don’t know what they answered to. Because they will bias the outcome. But Walmart should not have the control over the TV they want. We bought Vizio Tv’s for the game room, for grandma when her tv dies. We dont want to buy a TV for grandma when it makes her able to click the interface and made the home shopping channel in one go because she was watching the big bang theory and walmart spawns and ad for notebooks on sale.
Roku does the injected ad Garbage. Even when you try to turn it off you find ads overlaid on other ads. Roku recently patented technology for “HDMI Customized Ad Insertion.” This allows the TV to monitor the HDMI port. Meaning when you have a monitor for a test while you are checking out someones test results while you are looking up someone’s health roku just made a hipaa violation. Privacy is now a subscription service, the price of getting the subscription is shopping at savers and finding old tv’s that don’t record you while you take a shit. The problem is Walmart is the granddaddy of data from customers , they are the place the FBI turns to when they cant answer a question. they made the reason facebook knows you jerk off because they are reading your watches and phones sensors while you sent memes an hour ago to your work buddy.
The sad part is walmart just leaped over facebooks tracking. Because walmart just stepped up the game. They will probe your phone via the Vizio, Than when you hit the store they will have a tracking Tag that probes your phone again and if you go for the product that was on TV they have your home address, they have your means of payment. they have everything. This needs to stop. With this if you stop to long in an isle walmart will hallucinate that you are buying Plan B while you are pregnant because you dodged out of an isle to talk about something important. In states where birth control is frowned on you could be arrested.
My answer to this as much as I hate it, Buy a Firestick or a google device. Amazon uses Sidewalk, But you can turn that shit off. They are geofenced, they go no further than your TV. They have more regulatory rules to stop them from doing what walmart wants to do. If it is discovered that either them are taking information beyond the boundaries than you know to stop it . If that Vizio or ONN tv refuses to setup without an account, return the TV as a defective product. Make a report to the FCC that the TV is refusing to let you see OTA TV. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, specifically the OTARD (Over-the-Air Reception Devices) rule, manufacturers cannot place “unreasonable restrictions” that impair the use of antennas for video programming. There are people out there without internet still and imagine nursing homes being TV locked because no internet.
But honestly at this point I am almost ready to say if you buy a cheap TV , use a cheap Chinese brand, They will track you but the end game what is a Chinese man going to do if you talk about farts with a friend for 45 minutes.
Walmart is creating a surveillance state that the US government is dying for, now if walmart follows through they dont have to do it. Worse yet if Walmart cheats and says “you need the Vizio APP to set up the TV” congrats you have given walmart your location down to the foot.
It’s bad enough in the generation of smart Devices that you need a SCIF to talk about stuff that is under NDA or court injunction because of a divorce or other means. We as the consumers need to place boundaries. we go to the store to get products, we don’t need to spied on at home because we ran out of coffee.
Also, You know all of this is going to further enshitified by AI , The fact you know these TV’s are going to be taking private data, the second you replay the BLURAY/DVD of your child’s birth congratulations, your or your significant others Vagina is on the internet.
Anyways, if you buy a TV read the TOS , privacy policy and be safe. otherwise the assholes win. I need a coffee now…
We need to talk about the Pixel Watch 4 LTE
The Pixel watch is a really good watch, it has the hardware to last through a day of work. It can make calls, it can connect to your calendar. It CAN NOT text on its own? What .. the .. hell google? This hit me when I was stuck without my phone in a snowstorm. I tried to text my friend and The text could not send. Again, WHAT THE HELL? You have a watch that will tell me when i have fallen if my heart stops. But it won’t protect me in an emergency that does not require 911? Given that i was in a situation that I could make a phone call, I called my friend. Overall it was a situation better handled by text.
Now there are situations you would think a safety oriented watch would think of these things. If you are in a situation where verbal dialog is not possible. Bad Dates, you have fallen, You are lost but your friends are near , worst case is domestic violence. No one is going to bat an eye if you are fooling with your watch. If you are in a situation where your phone dies or your phone is smashed. An attacker might see a phone as a weapon of communication. a smart watch might be seen as a time piece or a toy. But Can you quietly Discretely reach out ? No. but is there a work around?? Possibly:
If you use if you use WhatsApp or Telegram you are safe. However if you don’t use that you are kind of screwed. Using WhatsApp/Telegram exposes you to giving out personal information to companies. In some cases you may not care to use another third party app.
There is always option B:
Create and send an email to your friends and just have them reply to you , use that email in a folder called “work” if you need help you can hit “reply” and send a message Via email. While you are not able to append your GPS location over the watch you can definitely give a shortened message to get the point across while “checking your watch” .
This is seriously a big miss by google, if you are in a domestic situation if you grab your phone the aggressor is going to break that. They are far likely less to react to a tiny watch when you make a bit of time because you have to use the bathroom and send an email over your watch. If you are on a bad date, You can reply to an email quickly and lie to the person saying sorry I have a work email to deal with. When you are really emailing to say “Come to soandso and meet me” . Especially if you have your friends knowing that this work email is your “angel shot” , its super discreet and not likely to be noticed because you look like you are just emailing your “boss”.
But in all, for a watch that is supposed to be used independent of the device it is still forced to be slaved to the phone device. Google really dropped the ball on this…
We need to talk about “smart” devices…
In this world of AI and smart devices we are leaning towards a smart Armageddon. There are so many stupid smart devices out there. Smart Water bottles ? Fuck that, they are likely stealing your data and location. Smart Toasters? Fuck that you can turn a knob and almost 500$. Smart thing you piss on for tracking hydration.
The sad sad story about this of all of these smart devices that claim to make your life easier are doing one thing. They are taking data from your life apart one piece of data at a time. You end up losing your own agency and sovereignty. They end up selling every piece of your life away for pennies, then reselling that and making more money… if you need a true smart device, buy a whiteboard, it’s safer. it will not steal your data. A whiteboard doesn’t leave you open to marketing unless you pin a pizza advertisement to it. If the smart device company goes out of business you have a Dumb smart brick. You are stuck with someone else’s mistake and a worthless product.
These smart on-the-go devices like water bottles also leak your position in real time with Bluetooth. They are as secure as a screen door on a sub made of paper. Your data also has no chain of ownership, so once your data gets “analyzed” you lost a bit of yourself. You have NO idea where this data is sold off too. This is the sick future of things you will not be able to take a shit without that data being sold off.
If you think about it , a whiteboard is more secure than all of these devices. A smart toaster could leak information about you to an insurance company, You’d have no idea why your rates shot up because they bought data on your carb habits. the piss tracker for hydration could “leak” data saying you are a health risk because you do not drink enough. These billion dollar companies spend more time buying data about you than talking to you. One of the biggest spies in the world …. Walmart!! Walmart could train the CIA. Walmart is turning into a data company that just happens to sell you socks when you need them while tracking your phone. When you are in their stores buying smart shit they follow you around the stores with facial recognition, they likely buy the information from the smart device makers to “help” you make informed decisions. Walmart has used this ecosystem to generate 6.4 billion dollars! they are planing devices inventory tracking that have Bluetooth, the funny thing about that it’s not about that . every time a mobile phone passes these devices will become aware that your phone has passed it . they will map you out through the store and see your exact habits. at that point just buy a cucumber some Vaseline and condoms, While checking out if there are any employees left just say your going to have some fun tonight. Just to screw with metrics. .
But in all when purchasing a “smart” device, ask yourself, Do i really need this device to be smart. Coffee parts are smart enough with the built in clock. your smart enough to put the grinds in the coffee pot , You are smart enough to add water. If you need something more smart, Upgrade to a Prosumer level or a commercial grade. Don’t get distracted by apps , Features you don’t need or See things on your phone. because in the case of the coffee pot you pass by it 20 times a day in your house.
Because, In the end you need to ask yourself, what did they remove to add the “smart” tech. What happens to the device if you lose internet. There are coffeepots out there that already stop working when the internet is off. How reliable is the small computer that tracks you in the device, will a device like a toaster stop working when toasters have worked nearly 100 years if the “smart” dies. The whiteboard is your best device if you need to track things. if you really need a “smart” coffeepot buy a smart plug and a dumb coffeepot with a switch if you really need a smart coffeepot. the plus is less data leaky about your caffeine habits.
Final thoughts here, if you need a smart device that doesn’t really need it , Buy a smart plug. That’s my opinion. The smart plug will leak data but at worst they will leak Wattage use vs hard data. Need a smart crockpot. skip it . buy a smart plug and you can turn it on in the middle of the day and all the smart plug knows is you turned the plug on. Not stuff they sneaked into device or menus asking what you are cooking to have you volunteer more data.
in the end buy a smartplug with 1800w 15a so you don’t burn your house down anciently and moreover don’t give anyone data on when you are cooking your 239842398 alarm chili in your crockpot.
I’m not saying all smart devices are bad, but you need to think about what you are giving up the first time you sign into an app. If you really want to have that “smart” device – Buy a dumb device and use a smart plug, it is cheaper in more ways you than you can count. You do not lose your personal security. A smart plug might give up the energy your using and perhaps some network mapping. A smart device with an app on its own is a spy that will leech every bit of data it can get.
In all that’s my opinion… Now back to my coffee from my non smart pot.
Phone Fun the spinoff! Bose Quiet comfort ultra(earbuds)
Sure, phone reviews aren’t as common these days, but that doesn’t mean smartphones are any less important or complex. Actually, they’re way more than just phones now. Think of them as these smart hubs we carry around that control all sorts of things in our lives. They link up with everything from our smartwatches and earbuds to even our coffee makers and ceiling fans. Basically, phones are central to how we live and interact with technology every day.
tA Bluetooth coffee maker? Fucking seriously? If I had the money, I’d buy that ridiculous thing just out of morbid curiosity. I mean, Fucking come on, are we really incapable of pressing a button to brew coffee ourselves? I think humanity still has that much dexterity left in our fingers.
Anyways. However a distraction this coffeemaker is not the phone fun spinoff we need to talk about. The thing is when you are out and about having your phone in your hand is kind of a distraction.. I purchased Bluetooth earbuds with both noise cancellation and passthrough audio features to meet my specific needs. if you are on the road and you are a target like me you need passthrough audio in order not to be hit by a car or other things.
I purchased a Bose Quiet comfort ultra. They have a case where they look unique. I hate it when people copy Apple’s airpod shit and act like they are the best thing since sliced pizza. Honestly, though, I get annoyed when other brands just copy Apple’s AirPods and then try to sell it like it’s something totally new and different.
The sound quality is pretty good, though the standard settings are the bose special, enough bass to blow your tits off if you accidentally turn it too far up. You can set different audio profiles to your sound likings. These earbuds stay in your ears and do not fall out. I’ve had earbuds that if you farted hard enough they would fall out.. Here’s looking at your plantronics.
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones feature a passthrough audio mode called “Aware.” While it functions, the “Aware” mode doesn’t allow a sufficient amount of external sound to enter. i was almost hit by a car i did not hear behind me. It feels like it lets in a range of audio that is around you but you get blind deaf spots. THis is likely a fault that can not be addressed by firmware. But companies should take notice and develop something that has a passive awareness that can warn you of things in your environment.
Moving to the inside world the noise cancellation is divine. At night if you can’t sleep because your partner is snoring, just shove the quiet comfort ultras in your ears and snoring mosty is gone. I have tested in environments that are loud and basically the noise cancelation gets rid of unwanted noise.
One thing that pisses me off about these earbud is the left earbud can be flaky on connecting. nothing like trying to get some sleep and when you put in the left earbud and the connection fails. No prompt no nothing, You need to take the earbud out and put it back in.
Overall i would say these are a pretty good set of earbuds with a few caveats, I’ve had problems with cases, in the pocket the cases seem to make the USB C Connector fuck up. I’ve had two cases fail and not be able to charge them.
Overall though i would recommend these earbuds.
On sound I’d give these an easy 8/10
on ease of use: 5/10 (left earbud issues found through multiple pairs)
Noise cancelation: 9.5/10
Battery: give or take they can last all day 8/10
Durability: 6.5/10 (the fucking case.)
Price: 4/10 ( they are expensive.)
Rating Average:6.8 (average of ratings)
The coffeecommander Rating: 8.0(personal feel ratings)
Phone Fun (Pixel 9 xl pro) .. Part live action reboot!
So here we are 8 years later and sadly I have not updated this blog in ages. I think it’s time to go back to the roots.
With age we tend to lose some abilities. I like having a smaller screen or used to. The realm of the battleship sized screen always used to Irk me because I would be thinking where the fuck am i going to put this thing.
Honestly…. though I think i need to change my benchmark points here. When i used to post my old phone funs, my benchmarks were
1: To make Phone calls – I do think this singularly is still one of the most important things.
2: Configurability – I am not sure if this point is really valid in some ways the way i used to review phones. but, add/make ringtones and Applications should be bound into one thing now. These are almost a universal given these days.
3: Durability: This is still really important. with phones with back glass which is really fucking stupid, I should not expect to have a phone that you need to hold in a bubble.
4: Good battery life – this is hugely important.
So anyways… Here we go!
The Pixel 9 xl Pro … this phone is huge, you could land a small helicopter on it. The phone has a lot going for it. The early reviews were calling the phone out for not being powered by a stark Arc reactor and Ai …. While it has AI its really a point of Who the fuck cares that is on the phone. It has enough power to run any app on the store. google will never risk bifurcating the app store and have an app that will not run on all current phones.
1: To make Phone calls
For phone calls the pixel 9 xl pro gives a decent experience. the volume is decent the Bluetooth options are always nice. In reality in the past phone calls had more weirdness in the call quality area. Now it seems that call quality is more governed by signal…. which is annoying. With the collapse of options in the USA for companies phone call quality has more to do where you are standing than the phone itself. it is like the old days with walkie talkies. So given that location is an issue it would be nice for the phone companies to start working for more coverage in the urban environment , Do not show the bullshit maps of WE COVER EVERYWHERE…
2: Configurability
Pixel phones are generally one of the most configurable devices on the market. if you want to change your phone in to Dora the explorers backpack I’m sure you can do that. Ringtones, got that too. The app store however….. Now there is an issue. There needs to be more checks and balances in the app stores for google and others. App dilution is really at a maximum where you can search for an app you want and know what it is and accidently install some other bullshit app. Google should phase out older apps unless you specifically need them, give the users the ability to fence the types of apps you want. the updates for apps has become a bit more of a chore and while simple , its stupid.
3: Durability
Also with configurability , Phone case fall into this! I’ve bought phones that did not have options for a phone case or you have to wait for the next coming of jesus for a case to ship out (motorola) . Pixel phones always tend to have a good amount of cases with a slow rollout for choice. Getting a day one phone has one real risk. you get your new shiny phone and twenty minutes into owning the device you drop it and you see shards of glass. Generally pixels have some decent survival on drops.
4: Good battery life
This has always been a thorn in my side since phones have gotten “smart”. With the new phones added with bullshit technology such as AI and clouds, AI is a joke. its just a replacement of linear learning AI . It’s just standard problem solving we have had for 20+ years dressed up in a new coat of paint so our corporate overlords can brand it as SAS . But back to the battery … It is nice …. nicer than i’ve seen in years. Getting almost 3 days is amazing. That is more time than i’ve seen in 10 years.
5: overall impressions and opinions.
I think the idea of a phone is lost on companies. they are looking to turn the phones into the same devices we had in the 1980s …. The television. where all the phones functions are tied into advertisements and bullshit. almost every app is tied to the advertising , our information is being sold off for every tap , Every picture every move we make. this is horse shit. AI is a joke, it is not going to take jobs. moreover it is going to kill people in a non-terminator way, Almost every part of our phones has some insane subscription . the “assistant” on the pixel is helpful but it is no more helpful than the old assistant. Google seems to be dumbing down their old assistant to make the Gemini look smarter than it is . these new assistants are trained off of our words and our posts and more over it is making a linear answering psychopath. You want to learn to fuck ducks. you can now ask google and somehow if you word your phrases just right somehow the “new and improved” ai will find someone reddit post and tell you exactly how. but if you ask the weather… holy fuck . or ask it for something in your IOT .. shit.. i’ve seen the AI loose its mind and tell you some things that you did not want to know like the weather 4000miles away .
Lastly… is the pixel 9xl pro a good phone… time will tell. from the start i am going to say maybe yes. but i will favor the idea that it should be a phone i can have for a few years and not fall off the technology peak. So yes. Buy the phone. Don’t Smell the AI generated Roses and use your phone like any phone without AI .