scrooks stuff

Remember when a 6-year-old computer wasn’t worth more than a doorstop?

Holy moley. This makes me feel good about using Google for next to nothing these days, and for using an iPhone instead of an Android phone: 14 eyebrow-raising personal details Google knows about you

The tag line is very accurate:

Some are fascinating, others are frightening

It’s amazing how long they hold on to some things, meaning they hold on forever:

6) A full list of everything you’ve done from any Android device

7) A comprehensive collection of every site you’ve visited in Chrome—on any device

Yeah, I know, you can turn most of this off if you want, or so they claim. But why should I have to work so hard?

Our neighbor across the street is moving and had a nice big, white, enclosed trailer parked on the street. It was empty, waiting for them to fill it today. Unfortunately for him, someone decided to be an asshole and steal it last night.

I have a rather nice security camera pointed at our driveway, constantly recording everything it sees. The trailer was parked just out of the picture to the top right, but I got the thief’s activity and truck pretty completely. The camera is set up to catch people in our driveway, so the shot of the thief in the street is not great quality. Certainly not good enough to make out a face or license plate. But at one point a car drives by and nicely illuminates the entire truck to the point where the make and model could likely be identified by someone who knew such stuff.

The police seemed happy to have something anyway. They know what the truck looks like and exactly what time the theft happened.

If you want to watch the video, here it is. Watch the top right area. You can see the guy drive slowly by to check things out, and then he comes back a few minutes later. It takes him a few tries to position the hitch correctly, and in the middle of all that he has to sit patiently while a car drives by, illuminating his truck fully.

I take full credit for this turnaround.

Starting in August you’ll need to have a cell phone with text messaging to access your online Social Security account. This is from an email they sent to me:

If you do not have a text-enabled cell phone or you do not wish to provide your cell phone number, you will not be able to access your my Social Security account.

Something about this rubs me wrong. Not everyone wants to have a cell phone. Not everyone can afford a cell phone. But everyone should be able to access their Social Security account.