iOS 18 also reboots to get back into BFU mode after 72 hours of inactivity. Are you sure the Pixel requires network blackout to reboot? Its probably doing the same thing as iOS and rebooting on device inactivity. And this makes things significantly more difficult to attack because the user partition (where your data is stored) isn't mounted. Your credentials are needed to unlock the secure enclave to get the decryption key. The police already keep your phone in a faraday cage to prevent remote wipes

This is not true. I work for a rural ISP in a very HCOL area that has received several million from the feds to deploy fiber. When we first started getting funds, we had almost *no* customers on fiber. We currently have 62% of customers on fiber. This is up from about 48% in the spring of 2024. This money from the feds comes with many, many strings attached and performance metrics we have to meet.

You can get air ambulance insurance. I have both LifeMed and LifeFlight air ambulance insurance. One costs $100/yr, the other is $50/yr. I don't remember which is which. Covers my entire family. I also live in an area (Alaska) and do a lot of activities (a lot of back country stuff) where I could conceivable end up needing air ambulance.

Bluelink will also only let you start the car for 3 cycles in a 60 minute period. 3 times might sound excessive, except when its -20 F (-29 C) outside and the car really does need the extra time to warm up properly. The ability to turn on the heated seats/steering wheel/rear defroster is model dependent too. On my '16 Sonata Limited, I can only set the interior temp/enable the front defroster. New models allow you to control more features. To me, this is an artificial limitation... Everything is CANBUS. The infotainment system (where the cellular modem is) just needs to ask the BCM to turn on the heated seats/steering wheel...

Not exactly. As an ISP you have to register a designated agent with the copyright office https://www.copyright.gov/dmca.... DMCA notices then get automatically emailed to the email addr listed for the designated agent by what ever clown outfit is alleging infringment. Then in theory the ISP is supposed to process those and send the notice to the user. Competent ISPs have that whole process entirely automated via the ACNS XML attachment in the email. Source: Wrote our ANCS processor/customer lookup/emailer.

This is a violation of the magnuson moss warranty act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... "Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty"

Actually, thats not true. I have experience with telemed having worked on a telemed project for the last 4.5 years. Telemed actually decreases response time and improves costs. One group that I'm familiar with, makes it a requirement for their doctors to check the telemed case queue when they have down time. This particular clinic when from having a waiting list 4 months long to get an appointment, to now its typically less than 1 week. And telemed is responsible for this because the doctors can take and review cases when they have a few moments free, instead of the patients having to travel in to the clinic and occupy an exam room.

Kind of, not really. We are in a really weird position. Our device is a kiosk with metal brackets for hanging other devices on. At the root of it, we are a class I, but because we talk to class II and III (12-lead ECG) and because we shuttle data around, we are a class II. Although there is the risk the FDA could come back and say we are a class III given that we talk to a class III.

The project is a lot of fun in spite of the FDA :) http://afhcan.org/cart.aspx

Sadly, your wrong. I work for a medical device manufacturer. The two big things that drive the cost of a device up are the FDA and lawyers. The amount of documentation we have to produce for the FDA is mind-numbing. We sent a hold box of paper when we submitted out 510k. I can't make a single change in the code base without having a signed-off requirement. I can't fix a defect without having the defect entered as a bug, and then tracing that bug back to a requirement. All because of the FDA. Some of this is good, and a good part of GMP, but a lot of it is overkill.

Thats not 100% true. You can get a 16 PIDs from FTDI for free and use their programmer tool to replace their PID with yours. I did this for a biomedical device manufacturer we purchase equipment from. You still have to use their VID, and it takes a tiny bit of work to make the FTDI serial driver work with the new PID but its entirely doable.

I can honestly tell you that you have no idea of what you are speaking. I work for a small medical device manufacture as a software architect/engineer. There are many reasons why a medical device is expensive. I'll enumerate the two that I have experience with. The first, and biggest is the FDA. We are a class 2 medical device, much like the piece of equipment mentioned in the article. So what does this mean? It means reams and reams of paperwork. Not nearly as much paperwork his required for a class 2 as a class 3 (pace maker and other implantable devices) device, but still reams of paper. We sent almost a WHOLE box of paper to the FDA when we submitted our paperwork. If I had to add up the cost to produce the paperwork, given the cost of lawyers, and staff time, my guess would be >$250k. Thats just the initial cost. We now have to get ready for an FDA compliance audit in the next few months. We have also have to overhaul how we develop the software. We have to be able to trace every line of code back to reams of paperwork, that adds an additional burden to the bottom line. Next are lawyers. We spent a TON of money on lawyers while doing our FDA 510K. Competent lawyers who are also knowledgable about the FDA 510K process are NOT cheap. ONE of the lawyers we used cost $600/hr. You also have to remember that the medical market is quiet limited. How is a small medical device company supposed to survive if they sell the device for a couple of hundred dollars into a very limited market? When you see our product, you might be tempted to think $5000? I'm not paying that much for a metal frame, a hardened PC w/ a touch screen and some software. Its not worth that much. And when you do, I want you to tell that to me personally, to my face. I also want you to tell me that my family doesn't deserve to eat.