(no subject)

[camwyn]

questionoftheday asks: What is your relationship with technology? Do you keep up with the latest and greatest, or have you stuck with the older stuff you bought years ago as long as it still works?

My answer: What was that post again? Something like:

Technology enthusiasts: yay! everything in my house is automated and the Internet of Things is the best thing ever!
IT workers: the only networked object in my house is a printer from 2007 and I keep a loaded gun pointed at it just in case it makes any weird noises.
IT security specialists: *swig of whiskey* God, I wish I had been born in the Paleolithic.

I have a smartphone about a year old, and I bought a new laptop back in June or July, but overall when it comes to home tech I tend towards attitudes 2 and 3, there. Hell, when it comes to non-information technology? Do you see the helicopter in my icon? That's the training helicopter at my flight school, a Robinson R22. It's fundamentally unchanged from when the model first debuted in 1979, except for a few updates to keep up with legal requirements for transponders and radio. The engine's a four-cylinder Lycoming that runs on 100 octane low-lead avgas. The controls are all rod-and-link controls, not even hydraulics. The gauges in the cockpit are all actual physical needle gauges. The official procedure for what to do if the tube that provides pressure and speed data for three of the gauges gets blocked is to break the glass over the rate-of-descent indicator so that you reintroduce air pressure differentials into the system. That's how old-school the technology is, and I'm good with that, because it works.

I keep up with new tech because I need to and it's not going to get any easier by ignoring it, but when it comes to what I have to deal with on a daily basis, updating at the drop of a hair is not my thing in the slightest.

Comments

[prettyarbitrary]

I live with my sister and she got a Google Home Mini for the kitchen. She loves the stupid thing and doesn't understand why I grimace at it every time I pass it.

I absolutely REFUSE to accept any kind of smart home controller for our house's locks or lights.

At least, since she took a database administration class, she understands why I actually froth at the mouth every time somebody mentions the words SONY or Experian in my presence.

[camwyn]

I recently finished a cybersecurity risk assessment course from RIT. The last chapter was 'Special Topics' and began with IoT security, then went straight to the Mirai botnet.

Jesus, Mary, and Buddha, if I'd ever had a webcam before I'd have taken a hammer to it after that, just in case.

[prettyarbitrary]

Oh yeah, the shit I've heard of happening with webcams is just. WTF.

My personal fave re: webcams (for a wildly sarcastic value of 'fave') is probably how elementary schools are now in the habit of issuing phones/tablets/laptops to their kids and yet most have woefully inadequate oversight on their tech-related procedures. I keep waiting for it to come out that some fuckwad pedophile of a teacher has been using all those devices to spy on the kids in the class.

One of my infosec profs said he takes a hammer and nail to all his webcams. But another one said you can really get by just fine with a piece of tape.

[camwyn]

My office just bought a couple of security products a few months ago. The main devices arrived with all the requisite cables and instructions- plus sample plastic slides designed to be positioned over a laptop webcam so that you can slide the opaque plastic over the lens when you don't want to take chances, or slide it off when you need to make a Skype call. Apparently they sell them as custom branded versions, too.

I disable my webcams and microphones in the OS but I make a point of taping over the cams whenever possible just in case.

[prettyarbitrary]

I've seen those and I have NO IDEA how they aren't a built-in feature at this point.

[camwyn]

"But... but doesn't EVERYONE want to take the chance of some piece of malicious code waking their camera up without warning? isn't that what personal interconnectedness is all about- being seen without knowing you're being seen? Do you want to remove spontaneous bouts of terror from everyone's life?"

[prettyarbitrary]

If they build in a way for users to cover/deactivate webcams, then how can the companies that make them shadily monetize access and/or kiss up to the government by providing the ability to unconstitutionally spy on people?