I got one years ago. Used it for quite a bit. Worked great, but I stopped using it when my daily computer didn’t have a USB-A port any more.

You do have to remember what each numbered button is for.

https://onlykey.io/

6 FIDO keys in one.

• Beefy Laptop
• Rechargeable tools (especially the Impact Driver)
• Local library membership

AWS salespeople, meeting customers today.

Airtags have four modes:

1. Locate something nearby, using UWB.
2. Leave something behind. Get notified later, when phone detects loss of signal.
3. Lose something out and about. Mesh of Apple devices can detect via iBeacon/BLE and share location to Find My network.
4. Send device a reverse signal via Find My network, to make a beep sound.

I have them on my keyfob, in my backpack and luggage, and we put one on the cat’s collar in case it runs away. We’ve had lots of reports of missing cats and coyote sightings.

For the nearby feature to work, you have to be reasonably close. Doesn’t work too well if on another floor, or you’re inside and the item is outside, or in a closed metal vehicle. Lots of wandering around until it finds a thin signal. Has never worked for me.

For leaving something behind, it does send a signal, but it could be minutes later. Also, lots and lots of false positives. Tells me my backpack was left behind when it’s literally on the passenger seat next to me. Used to be worse. Each time I left home without the backpack, it pinged. At least they fixed it so you can geofence home.

For the mesh signal, you need to be in an area with a few Apple devices going by – and this is important – during the scanning period for beacons. If any of those are not true, you won’t get notified, and the remote make-noise feature won’t work either.

Our cat ran out once, late at night, so not many people were walking or driving around. We started scanning. Nothing inside or outside. I jumped in the car and drove around the neighborhood, hoping to pick up a ping. Nothing. After 30m driving around, came back. Saw a pair of eyes under a car right in front of the house. Possible she wandered and came back, but cat is also a notorious chickenshit. Likely was there the whole time. No signal, no notification, no beep even though we looked out there multiple times.

Still keep the AirTags around and change the batteries, sunk costs and all. But I’ve sort of lost my faith in the tech.

FWIW, used to have Bluetooth-based Tiles and Ecobees. Sorry, way worse. Which is why I went with AirTags and UWB. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The minute the Pi4 compute module showed up, the jig was up.

For the secure boot scheme to be really secure, you have to generate a unique key for each device. Most vendors don’t bother because it means each firmware update has to be signed and encrypted for each unique device. This also means you have to have the infrastructure for device attestation. You can’t just stick an update file on a public S3 bucket or FTP site like the good old days.

Some end up reusing the same product key, so if it’s compromised, all devices in that family can be hacked. But even that’s too much for some vendors.

Instead, they just wing it, and go back to the bad old habits (no encryption, or symmetric keys embedded in firmware) that get them featured in DefCon presentations.

Screeching 9600 baud modems. Now with more emotion!

Y’all should check out Voyager for Lemmy. Very close look and feel.

How to tell if a joke is truly funny.

Still working out a few kinks.

Most often because management wouldn’t hold up their end of the deal. They wanted to stick to a hard timeline, but wouldn’t approve a milestone or sit on a decision for days and weeks. That would cascade down and stress everyone out later. Deadlines work both ways.

Another one was not making people who had special knowledge available. Or those people would drag their feet because they were busy elsewhere.

Best solution was to have someone in upper management as a ‘sponsor.’ If things didn’t happen on time you told them about the schedule impact without throwing anyone under the bus. Funny how things would start happening.

Not the same, but as a consultant, used to fire clients all the time. Very satisfying.

In most cars, there is an integrated antenna for all wireless signals. For example:

• Audi: https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi__/Mobile-Phone-Antenna/78750936/3G9035534.html
• GM: https://parts.gmparts.com/product/gm-genuine-parts-mobile-telephone-and-telematics-antenna-22964579
• VW: https://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen__Jetta/Mobile-Phone-Antenna/78750936/3G9035534.html

These are often mounted behind non-metallic surfaces (plastic bumper, spoiler, etc). You can try to cover them up, but it means you’ll lose all the other antenna functions.

Disconnecting at the other end can only take out cellular without affecting wifi, Bluetooth, etc.

Mind you, it’s not easy. There’s a wiring harness with a waterproof connector that eventually goes into the cell modem. You’ll have to find the right antenna pin and disrupt the signal. Different for every make/model and not possible without proper schematics.

A lot of cars do have EDRs (Event Data Recorders), but they only store certain events related to crashes so they can go back and establishes what was going on before an accident.

AFAIK, regular telemetry going out the cell is much more extensive, continuous, and realtime.

https://crashdatagroup.com/pages/edr-explained

List of automotive connectivity module providers: https://www.evbusiness.net/ev-directory/automotive-lte-5g-module-manufacturers/

Find which one your car has. Then see if you can find a repair manual with schematics. Find where the cell antenna connects. Non-destructively disconnect it. This way your telematics won’t be affected. It will just look like you’re always in a cell dead-zone.

Edit: don’t do this if it’s a lease, a rental, or there’s a loan on the vehicle. If you own it outright and it doesn’t void the warranty, go nuts.

Only if you’re doing it right.

Tequila too.

College. Everyone doing shots. Throwing up in a back alley. Never again.

You’re right. For Arabic and Persian, was trying to simplify the idea of an intitial, medial, final, and isolated form and map them to latin upper and lowercase.

For those interested, the same letter can take different shapes depending on where it appears in a word. For example, the same letter ‘H’ can be:

• ـح
• ـحـ
• حـ
• ح

Greek definitely has upper and lowercase. Arabic and Persian do as well, but also rules on glyphs (different letter-shapes based on proximate letter combinations), as well as small accents that change the pronunciations.

All have hand-written (cursive or calligraphy) vs typewritten variations, including fixed-width vs variable fonts.

Serifs are display attributes, mostly for latin alphabets. But greek lettering have had them too, albeit in subtle, light versions. The modern didone (thick) or slab serifs didn’t show up until 18th Century.

The Michael Offensive at the end of WW-I.

After 4 years everyone was out of gas. Germany had early success during this campaign, but there were fresh American troops, and the Entente had figured out their munition manufacturing supply pipelines.

Once it turned, it went really bad for the Germans. It led to a total collapse and the one-sided Versaille Treaty.

The grievances gave rise to Hitler, and everything that came after that, which affects the world to this day.