Follow-Up

There are 521 posts filed in Follow-Up (this is page 17 of 53).

Tigo bye bye

Tigo_Logo_small

Recently I posted how I’m irked that Tigo wants me to pay to access data that belongs to me. In disgust, I removed my Tigo from my network yesterday.

Lo and behold I got this dramatic email from Tigo’s datacenter early this morning:

PV System Alert

Turner, Mark – System ID: blahblah

Monitoring and Maximizer system not accessible

Details:

The monitoring and Maximizer system has not checked in to the Tigo Energy Data Center recently. This usually indicates a problem with the network connection, meaning that current data for the system will not be displayed on the Summary Page. However, it could also indicate a problem with the Tigo Energy Management Unit.

Troubleshooting Suggestions:
– Verify that the network is working properly (Network Troubleshooting Guide)
– Verify that the Management Unit is receiving power

Please visit the Summary Page to view system performance.

For additional help, please contact your installer or Tigo Energy Technical Support.

Since I couldn’t care less about Tigo not getting the data they want me to pay for, I send them this snarky response:
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Zimmerman trial

The jury in the George Zimmerman trial reached a verdict of not guilty last night. Many of my lefty friends are outraged and, while I haven’t followed the trial at all, I’ve found the emotional reactions most alarming.

Many people have thrown common sense to the wind and are calling for vigilante justice against George Zimmerman, yet these same people condemn Zimmerman for taking the law into his own hands. It’s crazy to hear all the calls for more blood.

Gun violence is a scourge on humanity. Racial profiling is shameful and wrong. It’s a shame that Trayvon Martin is dead. So many people think they know exactly what happened during that encounter and yet none of us really do. Those who are second-guessing the verdict are as guilty of jumping to conclusions as they accuse Zimmerman of being.

I had no investment in the trial’s outcome but I am appalled at how this incident has stirred some frightening reactions, divorced from all reality. I’m appalled at how the media hype surrounding this incident has been used to further divide us rather than to bring understanding.

Don’t buy into the hate. Don’t buy into the violence. Let go of the stereotypes that blind you to the truth. If we can learn to do this, perhaps we can salvage something useful from this tragedy.

Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays, Not $16.89

Here’s another rebuttal for David Lowery, who recently asserted that Pandora was ripping him off. It turns out his record company is ripping him off, which should be old news to him by now.

Lowery told kids to get off his lawn about this time last year, blaming Creative Commons.

David Lowery’s “My Song Got Played On Pandora 1 Million Times and All I Got Was $16.89” article has been picked up over and over and over, including by very respectable folks, often without comment.

This has left many readers with two impressions:

Pandora only paid $16.89 for 1 million plays.1

Pandora pays much lower royalty rates than Sirius XM and especially terrestrial AM/FM radio.

Music royalties are complex, but both of these are patently untrue.

via the understatement: Pandora Paid Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays, Not $16.89.

A person in your neighborhood

Speaking of neighborhood boundaries, last month I had a spirited discussion on Facebook regarding the neighborhood email list and who should be allowed to subscribe. I’m one of two moderators of the list, where basically I help people subscribe and unsubscribe. Generally I sign up anyone who politely asks, though I do try to weed out spammers and the like.

Unlike other nearby neighborhood lists, I don’t try to enforce a residency requirement. This was put to the test when I got a friendly request to subscribe from one of the postal carriers who works our neighborhood. He doesn’t really live here, so do I sign him up?
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Nextdoor and neighbors

My friend Reid Serozi wrote a blog post in support of Nextdoor.

Almost one year ago, I started questioning the value of using Google Groups and started to wonder if there was a better way to communicate with my neighbors. I discovered Nextdoor in early 2012 and immediately recognized the value and how it could address the pains I found with using Google Group for a neighborhood/community communication tool.

He makes some good points, but doesn’t address the issue of how poorly Nextdoor deals with neighborhood boundaries. Reid ran into this issue himself this week, as this post to the Oakwood mailing list shows:

I am trying to reach the Historic Oakwood Nextdoor lead.

It appears we have a boundary issue, since the Mordecai CAC overlaps your neighborhood boundary near East Franklin.

Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. All these boundaries. Virtual gated communities is what it is. Even with Nextdoor’s announcement that they’re reenabling their Nearby Neighborhoods feature doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Maybe I’m a geezer (okay, maybe the question should be how much of a geezer I am), but I’m all about open, open, open. Let everyone participate, don’t put up barriers (i.e., membership). Let people own their own data.

Then again, I didn’t see the value of Facebook but now I visit it constantly. You kids get off my lawn!

via Nextdoor Explosion | Reid Serozi – Civic Geek.

Are You Smart Enough to Be a Citizen? Take Our Quiz – Eric Liu – The Atlantic

The Atlantic’s Eric Liu totally stole my idea.

By the way, I scored a 73. Those dadgum Supreme Court justices need to get out more.

To become a citizen of the United States, naturalizing immigrants must take a test. Many native-born Americans would fail this test. Indeed, most of us have never really thought about what it means to be a citizen. One radical idea from the immigration debate is the repeal of birthright citizenship—guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment—to prevent so-called anchor babies. Odious and constitutionally dubious as this proposal may be, it does prompt a thought experiment: What if citizenship were not, in fact, guaranteed by birth? What if everyone had to earn it upon turning 18, and renew it every 10 years, by taking an exam? What might that exam look like?

via Are You Smart Enough to Be a Citizen? Take Our Quiz – Eric Liu – The Atlantic.

Why Are Dead People Liking Stuff On Facebook? – ReadWrite

Here’s a follow-up to the Mitt Romney Facebook hacking story. Apparently, the bogus “likes” continue long after the election was over.

Last month, while wasting a few moments on Facebook, my pal Brendan O’Malley was surprised to see that his old friend Alex Gomez had “liked” Discover. This was surprising not only because Alex hated mega-corporations but even more so because Alex had passed away six months earlier.The Facebook “like” is dated Nov. 1, which is strange since Alex “passed [away] around March 26 or March 27,” O’Malley told me. Worse, O’Malley says the like was “quite offensive” since his friend “hated corporate bullshit.”

Oh, in related news, Facebook’s security chief just went to work for the NSA.

via Why Are Dead People Liking Stuff On Facebook? – ReadWrite.

Mystery web traffic from DoD contractors identified?

A few years ago I noted very strange web requests coming from military bases and large defense contractors. Several of these sites were requesting a specific URL in my collection of over a decade of posts. That struck me as something highly unlikely for a casual web visitor to do, so I became alarmed at the possibility that these defense contractors and military units were compromised by a malware agent, perhaps planted by a foreign government. I emailed one of these groups, doing my patriotic duty by alerting them to this possiblity. Ususally when I point out potential hacking to a fellow sysadmin I receive some sort of thank you email in return. In this case I received no response (I’ll dig up my email and post it here if I can find it). I found the lack of reply unusual (and, well … rude), but kept open the possibility that I’d reached the wrong person.

Today, Techdirt had a story describing how a simple search through LinkedIn turns up a vast trove of resumes containing secret codeword programs. There’s obviously money to be made in surveillance – Edward Snowden made upwards of $200k per year – so analysts advertise the programs for which they have training. The corollary to this is that there are companies willing to pay for this experience – perhaps companies on the list I noticed knocking on my website door.

I can’t help but wonder if the unusual web traffic I noted might be part of one of these secret programs. Whatever it is (or was), it was obviously coordinated, so the only question is whether it was the bad guys or the good guys (i.e. Americans). Viewed through Occam’s razor, it’s more likely that these highly-secure defense contractors aren’t compromised (or at least they have some clue about network security), which leaves the possibility that the traffic came from some as-yet-unknown system. At least I hope our side’s responsible for it – we’re in a world of hurt if it’s not.

So, do I breathe easier knowing these massive defense contractors are not likely compromised as I once thought, or do I lie awake at night scared shitless that they appear to be spying on anyone and everyone?

NSA spying flap extends to contents of U.S. phone calls

Remember how Glenn Greenwald speculated that the NSA was capable of listening to the contents of phone calls? It turns out to be true.

The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls, a participant said.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed on Thursday that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.”

If the NSA wants “to listen to the phone,” an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. “I was rather startled,” said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee.

I had heard rumors of an AT&T facility in Kansas that transcribed millions of phone calls. Supposedly AT&T’s voice recognition software was highly developed for this purpose. Can’t find anything about it online, though, and not sure where I learned of it.

Also, read the Washington Post’s story on the NUCLEON program.

via NSA spying flap extends to contents of U.S. phone calls | Politics and Law – CNET News.