GadgetComa’s Subconscious Rantings

Mobile Carrier Customer Service Ushers in SIM-Swap Fraud

It’s pretty ridiculous that you can do everything right to protect your account, but you cell carrier can’t ensure their staff are trained well enough to avoid social engineering. Or maybe they need to pay them enough so they’re not as open to bribes. Weak challenge questions by customer service reps make it easy for fraudsters to hijack a phone...

01/09/20

Fun with Charts: Why Apple’s Services and Wearables are in the spotlight

Looks like the “iPhone company” is in trouble. 🤔 Every three months, we get to peer inside Apple’s business via the financial disclosures that are mandatory for American public corporations. (The company will reveal the specifics of its holiday quarter on January 28.) Read the full article at sixcolors.com.

01/09/20

Scientists put 3D glasses on cuttlefish and showed them film clips. The results were surprising.

Following this study, animal rights activists insisted that the cuttlefish not be deprived of their newfound interest and will be getting 8K OLED TVs and 3D Blu-ray players. A new study planned for next year will assess the impact of 7.1 surround sound. (CNN) — Cuttlefish have the ability to watch 3D movies and react to them much like they...

01/06/20

Downlink 2.0: Custom Views of Earth

As much as I love science and Macs, how have I not heard of this before? It’s been a few months since I launched Downlink, and since then I’ve put out a few nice updates—better handling of Spaces, multiple displays, and so on. But there was one big feature on my list that I’m happy to announce is now available:...

01/05/20

WENDY VICTORA: Stop hiding behind safety of our screens

I realize it would be a lot of work to remove anonymity from social media, but it sure would be nice for people to have to take responsibility for their words. Of course, there are those who don’t care even though their identities are well known. Still, this would be a good start. Accountability — being held responsible for our...

01/03/20

Irresolute?

Instead of resolving to make big changes at the beginning of the year, I’ve been taking advantage of the quiet time around the holidays when work slows down and I have a few extra days to decompress. It’s basically a mini staycation without even burning vacation hours at work. That almost makes it even more relaxing since I’m not spending...

12/29/19

Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield: ‘I feel more confident talking about sex’

It’s nice to see an actor who started out so young be successful, practical, and articulate. He was great in Hugo and Ender’s Game as well. I’m looking forward to the next season of Sex Education, not to mention anything he does in the future. The former child star has won rave reviews for the hit Netflix show. So why...

12/29/19

7 Problems Y2K Actually Caused

I remember having to cancel my plans to celebrate New Year’s in Sydney, Australia so I could stay at work on New Year’s Eve. After tons of hardware and software updates, I had to monitor the desktop computing environment for problems. There were none. I have yet to visit Australia, though. Remember Y2K? In the relatively early years of computer...