You've come a long way Baby! ♥

Happy 30th Birthday to the World Wide Web! :slight_smile:

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We were using an internet-like service back in 1979 called “The Source.” If you didn’t want to go broke you used it late at night. We somehow had a discount rate through Readers Digest of all things.
Ah the sound of:

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KId’s today will have no idea what that sound is. Man, I sound like an old fart.

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I know. That’s the fun part. :rofl:

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I remember making prodigy BBS ‘sites’ like it was yesterday!

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Back when the world felt simpler and safer because you actually knew that sound was normal. I would give so much for living in the 90s once more. Nowadays your phone will produce creepy alien voices during a call and you have no idea why it does that. I feel like so many things have become more secretive and worrisome. Anyone feel like that?

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What creeps me out is knowing that most anywhere I go, there’s a high probability of a camera watching me and recording what I’m doing. Unless I specifically turn it off, my cellphone keeps track of where I’m at. Siri and Alexa listen to everything we say. New technology is great, but I did feel a lot more comfortable about it two or three decades ago.

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I’m going to record this and play it back for telemarketers. :slight_smile:

I think I can build that logo from legos lol.

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I think we just know more than we did. Ignorance is bliss.

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You all let it happen every day. Willfully and purposely feeding The Machine in the interests of convenience and the apparent need to broadcast all your doings from what’s for breakfast to bowel movements. It’s your own silly fault if you invite machines that listen into your life, or connect everything from your car to your washing machine to your phone.
If you have remote cameras in your house so you can see inside while you are out, do you think you’re the only one that can see that feed?

Short article on the “hackable toaster.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/01/500253637/an-experiment-shows-how-quickly-the-internet-of-things-can-be-hacked

Wait until the drones start flying because you just can’t wait for an overnight FedEx to get your toothpaste from the store down the street. Those aren’t quiet machines and they sure as heck won’t have regular routes over the high-end properties that will use them. When the US Mail delivers an Amazon Prime box to the house on a Sunday morning, I take it in to the household recipient and announce “Drone delivery!” Did it once from the front door, made the mailman laugh all the way back to his truck. LOL.

I’m not a complete Luddite. Yeah, I use the internet to buy things, and I use a credit card. I have a BJs membership and love when they try to guess what I want coupons for that they send in the mail, usually for things I get once a year. LOL. I don’t sign up for ‘store cards’ and refuse to shop at places that require a card to get the sale prices marked on the shelves. I brought a bunch of sale purchases to the cashier at CVS, when they didn’t charge the sale price, I told em to cancel the sale and put the stuff back, and walked out without it. They used to scan a register card for that stuff but don’t any more.

Just say no.

And an older Atlantic Article I’ve always found amusing:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/the-demon-voice-that-can-talk-to-your-smartphone/513743/

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I can’t remember if I mentioned this here a while back or not, but I ordered something online from Walmart several months ago using their mobile app.

A few weeks later, I went to Walmart to buy something or other, but they didn’t have what I needed, so I left. Later in the day, I got an automated Walmart email or text (can’t remember which) saying they had noticed me spending time apparently looking for and not finding something on aisle 12 (or whatever) and wondering if I would complete a survey of some kind, if I remember right.

The app had apparently tracked my movements through their store, noticed that I had lingered in a specific spot in the store and, since I hadn’t bought anything with the credit card I had on file with them or stopped at the check-out stand, assumed that I hadn’t found what I needed. CREEPY!

I deleted both the app and canceled my online account with Walmart. I generally keep the location feature on my iPhone turned off, but it’s occasionally useful for things and I sometimes forget to turn it off again. I always have Siri turned off. I have no idea if Apple records everything Siri hears. I doubt they do, but it’s totally possible and wouldn’t surprise me. The same is true with the Amazon and Google voice apps — no way I want them in my house. My new MacBook Pro and my iPhone let me login with a fingerprint. Does Apple now have a copy of my fingerprints?

The amount of data that’s being collected on all of us is downright spooky. Personal privacy in almost any setting or capacity is no longer a given. For that matter, the opposite should be assumed. Even in the mountains, when I go hiking in the backcountry, I routinely run across camouflaged trail cameras shooting video of everything passing by. I’ve gotten in the habit of taking evening walks around the neighborhood after dark before bed to wind down. I can only guess how many homeowners routinely notice the same guy walking by their houses after dark and triggering their doorbell cameras. When I’ve noticed home security cameras tracking me, I’ve sometimes been tempted to just stop on the sidewalk and stare blankly at the house for several minutes — just to creep out the homeowners who see it the next day. “George, that same shadowy man was standing outside our house again last night. What should we do?”

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Maybe not everything, but at least some things.

Still one of my favorite memes :smiley:

wiretap%20(2)

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There was a radio station that spoofed the smart refrigerators using the 2001 HAL voice.
“HAL, unlock the refrigerator.”
“I can’t do that Dave.”
“Unlock the refrigerator.”
“I can’t do that Dave, you’ve exceeded your calorie allotment for the day. But if you look at the viewscreen I can offer you the latest selection of sweaters on sale today.”

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