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Showing posts from November, 2024

Cyclists in Black: No, not a movie title!

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I'm surrounded, in the UK, by people trying to commit suicide. They don't actually know that's what they're doing, probably, but in effects that's what happening. Because these (usually) young people are cycling around my town at night: dressed in dark clothing with no helmet with no lights on their bike often cycling without hands on the handlebars often cycling while holding a phone in one hand And one young man went for the bonus level by doing all of these!  When I was growing up, in the 1970s, it was drummed into us by parents and teachers that it was illegal to cycle at night without working lights. And over the last half century, I've watched as this rule has become less and less enforced or cared about. To the extent that young people on cycles clearly give no thought at all as to their own safety. ("I'm 17 and I feel immortal", etc.) So far, I've managed to avoid them all but surely we're close to some serious accidents, as yet ano...

Badges, levels, points - they're all meaningless!

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A bit of a rant, but... it's all so meaningless. I open up Google Maps to look something up and am told that I'm a 'Level 6' 'Local Guide' and I'm 'only 2743 points away from Level 7'! Moreover, I'm being prompted to 'Earn my Novice Director badge'. As I drive around or walk around in my town, do you think it matters one jot how many points I have, or what my Level is, or what my virtual title is? Of course not! To detox from this nonsense, I head into Booking.com's app to plan an away day. Ahem. Front and centre, I'm told that I need to 'Complete 10 bookings before 20 November 2024 to unlock Genius Level 3'! Eh? What? Why? What happens when I hit Genius Level 3? Did anything happen when I reached Level 2? Nope.  Time to relax and chill. I start up Audible. Apparently I've collected the High Noon, Marathoner, Night Owl and 'Done & Dusted' badges. What do I do with them? Print them and sew them on a jacket??...

How security works in Android phones

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Guest writer (and friend) Mike Warner chips in with clarification on things that I (and almost everyone else) gets wrong about Android security... In Android there are three levels of security and updates to functionality. From the highest to lowest levels we have: Google Play Services Google Play System Update … and the (often monthly) Android Security Update Google Play Services implements all the Google developed services, such as App Notifications, Location, Advertising, Google Pay and Mapping and is updated by the Google Play Store automatically to fix any security issues or add new functionality. Google Play Services is distributed only to Google Certified Android devices, so some Chinese phones like Huawei and devices running forks of Android, like Amazon Fire tablets, do not contain this module. Without Google Play Services, the OEM has to provide their own App Store and replace the Google defined services with their own set of services to ensure that Android apps expecting th...