The General Technology Thread

[qwerty]

Only used Google Assistant occasionally before but now that I own a Bluetooth headset unit(Cardo Freecom4+) for my motorcycle helmet, I have found an issue. When the screen is on, it works flawlessly. The problem comes when I hit the power button to turn my screen off and stick it in my pocket. I've gotten it to work once or twice but for the most part, once the screen is off it just will not respond to any of my "Ok/Hey Google" attempts. I have it set to unlock with voice match as well as having Smart Lock set to keep it unlocked when paired with my Cardo unit but again that only works with the screen on. Say, for example I'm listening to music on Pandora on autoplay and I don't like the song that comes on. I should be able to say "Hey Google, open Pandora" followed by "Hey Pandora, next song", but this doesn't work. I can reach up to the unit on my helmet and feel around for the button that will skip songs, but it's on my right side(sun visor button is in the way on the left) so I have to take my hand off the throttle and fuss around with gloves on trying to find said button. I basically have to pull over and pull my phone out just to turn the screen on. This could be a problem if I ever plan to take a long trip. I'd like to be able to say things like "Hey Google, find me the nearest gas station" without having to pull over and fuss with my phone.

Do you have "Allow Bluetooth requests with device locked" enabled? It is under Settings/Google/Account Services/Search Assistant/Voice/ on my phone.

 

[tv1217]

Yep, sure do, and I have a Pixel 3XL so by no means a crappy phone.

 

[qwerty]

Yep, sure do, and I have a Pixel 3XL so by no means a crappy phone.

Looks like Google disabled it on the 3 and 3XL.

https://www.theverge.com/platform/a...xel-3-xl-google-assistant-voice-match-removed

 

[tv1217]

Splendid, thanks Google. My phone is rooted so maybe I can find a workaround. Otherwise it looks like I'm gonna have to put a different rom on it.

 

[qwerty]

Moments looks pretty slick. Can't seem to find a download link or a price.

It's free on a Synology device. I sent you a PM if you want to give it a test-run. You said you had a NAS so probably not looking to replace it anytime soon, but perhaps will help make a decision in the future.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Enjoy that government, Australia. Might invest in a VPN while it's still legal to do so.

 

[BugI02]

Enjoy that government, Australia. Might invest in a VPN while it's still legal to do so.

Just not Nord, apparently

Edit: Isn't preventing young men from viewing porn just encouraging an open source, collective effort to hack their facial recognition systems

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Just not Nord, apparently

Edit: Isn't preventing young men from viewing porn just encouraging an open source, collective effort to hack their facial recognition systems

Another situation going on recently with using facial recognition against fans at Soccer events.

The Criminalisation of Scottish Football Fans

 

[jamil]

Just not Nord, apparently

Edit: Isn't preventing young men from viewing porn just encouraging an open source, collective effort to hack their facial recognition systems

When I read that I thought, I can’t wait to see what 4-chan comes up with.

 

[actaeon277]

You know, in many post-apocalyptic stories, the survivors have a backlash against technology.

I think I now understand a little better.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Jack Dorsey (Twitter) announcing policy changes:

We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons… A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money. While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions.

Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes. All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale. These challenges will affect ALL internet communication, not just political ads. Best to focus our efforts on the root problems, without the additional burden and complexity taking money brings. Trying to fix both means fixing neither well, and harms our credibility. For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well...they can say whatever they want!

We considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too. We’re well aware we‘re a small part of a much larger political advertising ecosystem. Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising. I trust this will only grow. In addition, we need more forward-looking political ad regulation (very difficult to do). Ad transparency requirements are progress, but not enough. The internet provides entirely new capabilities, and regulators need to think past the present day to ensure a level playing field.

We’ll share the final policy by 11/15, including a few exceptions (ads in support of voter registration will still be allowed, for instance). We’ll start enforcing our new policy on 11/22 to provide current advertisers a notice period before this change goes into effect.

A final note. This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back in order to address.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Enjoy that government, Australia. Might invest in a VPN while it's still legal to do so.

No worries mate!

 

[T.Lex]

Saw this thread going in this direction, then this popped into my email box.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Fa...thing/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

Dude 3d printed a mask, combined with a small projector, such that the mask can change appearance.

 

[jedi]

Tech is always evolving.
Besides you cant pass laws to govern morality.
It will not work. AKA prohibition in the usa.

 

[T.Lex]

Real time deep fake.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

There's also these lens masks that block facial recognition methods. Might be commonplace in the future.

 

[jedi]

Hum... now that is weird scary stuff.
Having to wear that.

 

[jkaetz]

There's also these lens masks that block facial recognition methods. Might be commonplace in the future.

I suspect this would only be a temporary solution. Each mask would have to be unique or they could simply train the model with the mask. As compute power increases they could likely train a model to remove the mask(s).

 

[bwframe]

We need to figure out a facial covering that doesn't scream "shoot me first."

 

[jedi]

You just need to walk around like this...