Newsletter Archives

• Here’s looking at you, kid: the child-cam scam

  Posted on March 1st, 2021 at 01:06 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ---

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Here’s looking at you, kid: the child-cam scam

  By Brian Livingston

  It’s terrible when no one is paying attention to you. But it’s much worse when someone is paying attention to you whom you don’t WANT to be paying attention to you.

  Around the world, millions of nursery schools, daycare centers, and private homes have installed “child cams.” These are intended to allow parents to see what their kids and caregivers are doing at daycare, how their infants are sleeping in a crib room, and so on. Many of the systems allow the video to be viewed from a distance across the Internet.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender, Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Internet of Things, privacy, Public Defender

• Amazon’s new ‘same-day nodes’ will displace postal deliveries

  Posted on February 22nd, 2021 at 01:06 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Amazon’s new ‘same-day nodes’ will displace postal deliveries

  By Brian Livingston

  The market dominance of Amazon in online retail is well known. But what’s less understood is the effect the corporate giant’s expansion into superfast delivery services will have on the US Postal Service and private parcel companies.

  Marc Wulfraat has extensively studied Amazon’s plans in the United States and 22 other countries in his role as president of MWPVL International, a logistics consulting service based in Montréal, Québec.

  In the past year, Amazon has built eight new “same-day fulfillment centers” in the US.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.7.0 (2021-02-22).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender Amazon, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender, USPS

• Batteries so powerful they do everything but fly

  Posted on February 15th, 2021 at 01:10 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Batteries so powerful they do everything but fly

  By Brian Livingston

  There are times when I’m power-mad — I just want the biggest battery available to power my laptop, my phone, and heck, maybe a cup warmer for my coffee, too.

  I’m not going to drag around a cart with a propane generator just so I can compute. Fortunately, power banks that can double or triple the life of a laptop are now affordable and light enough to carry around in a shoulder bag or backpack.

  But what about airplanes?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.6.0 (2021-02-15).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Batteries, Power, Public Defender, Travel

• Surf the Web — even when your ISP is down

  Posted on February 8th, 2021 at 01:50 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Surf the Web — even when your ISP is down

  By Brian Livingston

  It’s a well-known subset of Murphy’s Law: Your Internet service provider will go down at the worst possible time for you.

  When my ISP goes dark, whatever boat I was trying to float becomes pretty much dead in the water. On occasions like this, my usually sympathetic friends become singularly unhelpful: “Just go outside and take a walk for a while.”

  But if you’re hosting a video conference, moderating a hot stock-tips forum, or preparing a report for presentation to your board in an hour, your participants aren’t going to accept excuses such as, “I decided to take a walk instead.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.5.0 (2021-02-08).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.5.F (2021-02-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Home Networks, Public Defender

• Set up a guest network that’s actually secure

  Posted on February 1st, 2021 at 01:10 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Set up a guest network that’s actually secure

  By Brian Livingston

  In the computer industry, too many things that should be simple and easy are instead complicated and hard for the average person to understand. Take Wi-Fi routers — please!

  In my column on January 25, I showed you a way to protect your most essential computing devices by placing them on a different network from easy-to-hack Internet of Things devices. The trick uses two different Wi-Fi routers.

  But what if you have only one device? A cable company often installs a gateway that offers several wired Ethernet ports as well as Wi-Fi. In that case, you don’t have two devices to play with — you have just one.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.4.0 (2021-02-01).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender, Uncategorized AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Networking, Public Defender

• Hackers are running your smart home

  Posted on January 25th, 2021 at 01:25 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Hackers are running your smart home

  By Brian Livingston

  I never thought it would get this bad. But it has.

  There are now more Internet of Things (IoT) devices than there are people on the planet. And the vast majority of those IoT gadgets are wide open, easily taken over by malicious hackers and used against you, your community, and the world.

  Almost half of all technology managers have let IoT gizmos — printers, HVAC systems, protocol gateways, etc. — into their corporate networks without changing the default passwords, according to a ForeScout survey.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.3.0 (2021-01-25).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Home Networks, Public Defender

• Find the cable modem that’s just right for your ISP

  Posted on January 18th, 2021 at 02:40 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Find the cable modem that’s just right for your ISP

  By Brian Livingston

  It’s hard as hell to find out the best device you can obtain to connect to an ISP. This can save you hundreds of dollars that you’d ordinarily pay over time for “renting” one.

  In last week’s column, I gave you Steps 1, 2, and 3 that determine the bandwidth you need — e.g., 25Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps — and whether your own modem or gateway can replace the generic one your cable company provides. (Cable is now the way most Americans get broadband Internet access.)

  Today, we’ll go through the remaining steps to identify the exact piece of hardware that’s compatible with
  the service level you’ve chosen and with your ISP’s standards.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.2.0 (2021-01-18).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter