The gov't would love to have you pee in a cup and check you for illegal drugs - all in the name of War on Drugs. But they can't due to this document called The Constitution.

But they can somehow convince companies that "good employees can pass a drug test" and then all companies are like "yeah - that's a good idea" and pass around a big cup.

So now we have gov't control without the gov't doing it. It's okay because "we" did it to ourselves.

I love these wilting flower types. If Apple (or Google/Amazon et al) are monitoring and invading your Privacy -- Write a Law to make them Comply. OR "They are evading the law by hiding Tax money overseas -- make them comply"

But wait -- The laws in China says those apps are against the law... Yo Apple - don't follow the law... break it !! What's good for all Americans is good for the world ! Go get em.

Use your trillions to fight them in court. Is there court in China or do they just snap you off at the knees? I actually don't know.

What I liked:
    * Genius - making a smart playlist from my music.
    * Sync my! CDs
What I disliked: Wifi Sync - never worked. and Impossible to (re)install the software at times. How many ways are there to log an error? let me count the ways.

I haven't heard what the plans are for Windows users - for which I'm one. I've been using iTunes for a long time (first with some old iPod with a click-wheel).

I own a fairly large CD collection and sync (most of) it to my phone (and Sonos library). What I'm not enamored with is the prospect of losing this sync feature - Apple is really pushing the monthly subscription and making it harder to find the "sync my library" button. Throughout iOS 10 & 11 the default App was always to attempt playing from the Cloud and I had to configure it to use "Your Library." Every update would switch it back to "the cloud".

Is sync going away? Will I only be able to rent music? Sure - I know the economics that I can't buy as many CDs a year as I could listen to as part of the subscription. But I like the control and higher fidelity. Plus if the budget gets tight I can stop the buying and use what I have.

MS closed down their OneDrive Goove player which allowed streaming of my own music from my own OneDrive cloud account.

My computer BSOD to death last week (after a driver update no less) and my only option was to Reset Windows. I was presented with two sub-options:
    1) Save my files and re-install windows
    2) Wipe drive and re-install windows.

Option 1 required... wait for it... a Local Admin account to exist !! I was supposed to login as a local admin in order to see the existing files, otherwise my only option was to wipe the disk and start over. Being attached to the domain nobody had thought to create a Local admin account so I was forced to wipe the disk and start over.

Activating the computer via my cloud AD account kept failing and my IT person said "just create a local account and I'll configure everything later" -- yet neither of us could find that option even after picking multiple choices and getting stuck in a loop. I gave it back to IT to figure it out.

I don't understand the legal technicalities the MS objects to...

If my landlord receives a warrant to open my apartment door - does the landlord have to tell me?
if the phone company has a wiretap warrant - does it need to tell me?
if the cloud provider receives a "wiretap" warrant - do they need to tell me?

It sounds like the "has a warrant" step was missing. Or there were too many of them.

Is MS having a problem because they think the barrier to gain a warrant is too low? Or that they don't like being building owners?

Great - It reads Netflix , Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Streaming policies. What if they all say "we totally sell everything and do background credit checks on you monthly" and I don't like it?! No TV for me!?

These EULAs and Privacy policies are written for The Company. Not for the consumer. You accept them or don't use the service. A Very binary choice. The entry onto the internet for everyone is walled by the very companies offering the services, who also wrote the policy.

The consumer is not protected. The service provider is.

We all click it, not because it is dense, but because we don't care. What other choice is there? I want (need?!) a cellphone - I guess I need to agree to whatever EULA Apple puts in front of me.

Besides - LinkedIn allowed all my data to be stolen even though they claimed in their privacy policy that they followed industry best practices and don't sell my info. So if they can do it -- do I need to follow their EULA?!

PS- what is the privacy policy of the privacy policy AI? Who checks the checkers? :-D

I have noticed several apps causing iOS 13 to ask me "Allow this app to access Bluetooth" The first app to cause this was Amazon Alexa - my first thought was "I do stream music to the Alexa speaker - must be why it is asking me" But "no" you can't access it anymore, thanks for asking.

But then FB wanted access, and another app, and another... -- neither of which I could think of a good use case for needing this. I denied the access. I have forgotten what the other apps were - but it was so odd that I took a closer look at the pattern. Is it all apps - a strange default?!? OR.....

Then it occurred to me: have they been bluetooth beacon tracking me all this time? Previously bluetooth/wifi/Cell-data were all networks. One paired the whole phone with a bluetooth device and it became available to the app (although "allow this app to access the microphone" was a permission). But now - Apple is blocking access to individual devices.

Tinfoil hat ? Or app-store defaults? You decide.

When my son was young we taught him hide+seek. It was an enjoyable game for him.

However, there was one flaw in his hiding technique. He assumed that as long as he couldn't "see" you, he was hiding. I usually found him under a lamp table with his legs sticking out. But his head was hidden under the table. He thought he was hidden. We tried to explain it to him, teach him, however his young age prevented him from "getting it."

When I think about AI, limitations, and failures, these kinds of experiences come to mind. Bing going racist springs for example. I would assume that the other AI was finding the first and the two would learn from it. That is - if they were "old enough" to understand the concepts.

Tesla has said that this car will be available - it's a special S model with 3 motors. It isn't a one-off, rather a prototype of a "coming soon" car. It isn't like the Bugatti that recently set a top speed "record" (which had a special elongated body among other modifications).

As for stripping the interior - obviously the real car will house the normal creature comforts (I doubt they'll make a track-car "S" model). Porsche has several track versions of the 911 and Boxter that come without radios, A/C, rugs, and leather straps instead of door handles. I doubt the S would ever come like that.

It appears that Tesla is adding "real" performance features to match the hp of the motors. Suspension and brakes to match things like the BMW M series, Audi R-line et al. If you're a banker you don't want a Tesla like everyone else has - no, you want the one that costs money!!

I'm pretty sure Sandra Bullock starred in a movie that asked this very question. It ended with her having to literally burn a building down to escape.

I can't believe that one of the threats was "pay up or we'll get you fired" .... from the job that provides the money to pay your bills. Seems rather counter to the shakedown. i guess it's the electronic equivalent of "pay up or cousin Vinny will break your kneecaps"

I feel like we're all preaching to the choir. I have refused for years to give apps access to my FB info, even going in and removing app access for the few that I once did provide access. Sure, sometimes an app only allows a select list of login providers. For Google I've created a secondary account for this purpose. But I refuse to give any companies access to my private life. And for good reason - this isn't the first time we've seen some app vendor using our data improperly.

But again - I'm suspicious in nature. How do we make sure the average person knows not to do this. OR should FB remove the app access for this vendor? (seems they must have violated some kind of TOS).

gosh - having 2 "child sized" seats behind the driver would be nice. I'd buy one as a commuter car. Mostly it's just me daily to work, but I do need to pickup the kids from school a few days a week and this would be lovely.

I'll just need electric long underwear in the winter. But with 1000 miles range I'm sure there's plenty of battery to plug my suit into.

I don't have 2-factor on my FB account, I figure the less data they have the better. But once upon a time I did accidentally sync my addressbook with FB --- so everyone's phone# might be out there now !! :-)

Except we're all using Chrome. And the "address bar" is really a Google Search. So while you meant to go to basecamp.com -- typing basecamp into the address bar shows a search result. We're all trained to do that.

Wasn't that the original vision of the web and browser? Nobody would need to know MySite.com. Rather there'd be a big directory of things you're looking for and click on the relevant link.

Companies know that failure to be on the First page of results causes traffic to the site to drop dramatically. While it's nice to want to "not rely" on Google, practically you can't ignore it.

I think this speaks to the reliance people have on technology that seems to work. For example, the "not-really-self-driving" features and now a cloud keyfob that works most of the time. It all works - until it doesn't.

I dislike carrying my keys with me. Heck, I even hate carrying my phone too. I have a Watch that doubles as a payment system - until I find a store that only takes Cash or credit-card only reader. But I can get really far with this new fangled technology and complacency sets in until I snapped unexpectedly back to reality.

Technology - it needs to work! All of the time. This idea we're all going to carry metal keys from the 1800's is a little silly. Simple - but silly.