General
Actually, this is not 100% correct, but it could be. Police working a murder case in Bentonville, Arkansas, are "courting" lady Alexa, literally.
Who is Alexa? Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon.com. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic and other real time information. It is actually very cool.
Local Bentonville police have issued Amazon a warrant for the voice recordings of Amazon Alexa Echo owner James Andrew Bates. He is accused of murdering Victor Collins in his hot tub after a night of drinking in November of 2015.
Amazon’s Echo works by passively recording everything you say. It is always listening. Everything you say, to your wife, husband, kids, friends, even your side of your telephone calls, it is passively recording. This means that it is listening, but not Actively recording... What does this mean?
When the Echo hears “Alexa” (or one of the other wake up words), it begins to actively record. When it hears the Wake word, it will actively record and send a snippet of speech just before the Wake word, along with the rest of your request. Your request is then sent to Amazon’s cloud servers, where your recorded message is run through a speech-recognition network and a response is sent back to you.
Police seized the Echo and served a warrant to Amazon, stating in the affidavit there was “reason to believe that Amazon.com is in possession of records related to a homicide investigation being conducted by the Bentonville Police Department. Supposedly Amazon declined to turn the actual voice-search queries over to the local police, though it did send the authorities other user account data.
This is not all. Detectives discovered other "smart home” devices, including a smart water meter, a Nest thermostat, a Honeywell alarm system, a wireless weather monitoring system and the Amazon Echo. Police are actually focusing more on the data collected from his smart water meter than his Echo. They say an abnormal amount of water was used when they believe Collins was killed, allegedly an indicator of Bates having washed away blood.
This case has raised fresh questions about privacy issues regarding devices like the Amazon Echo or the Google Home, voice-activated personal command centers that are constantly “listening”.
Just what are we willing to trade for our toys?
Apparently everything.
User Rating: 4 / 5
Don't lose the oppertunity to get Windows 10 FREE!
Again, the FREE Windows 10 Upgrade ends on July 28th. After this time, if you wanted to upgrade you will have to purchase windows 10 Retail, (around $110.00 depending on the "flavor") (then you still need to backup your system(s) And install the new Windows 10 OS.
Let me help you figure out if your machine is worth updating, or if it can be updated/ungraded.
Is Windows 10 worth it? Yes!
$25.00 will get you a "house call". I will go to your home or place of business. We can discuss your computer/network needs, and upgrading to Windows 10. If we come up with a plan of action I will apply the $25.00 towards any work discussed/plan of action.
If not, your only out $25.00, but will have gained a plan of action, a direction!
I am presently re doing my website:
www.TerminalMadness.com
401-314-6062
Chris Mathis
cmathis @ terminalmadness.com (please note, there should be no spaces)
Call and leave a detailed message. I will get back you you.
I have been working with computers for over 23 years.
Wireless Networking
If you own multiple PCs, you have probably thought about how great it would be if your computers could talk to each other, and do so securely.
With your computers all connected together, you could many cool things like:
Share a single Internet connection among all the computers in your home. Share a single printer between computers.
Access shared files such as photographs, MP3s, spreadsheets and documents on any computer in the house.
Play games that allow multiple users at different computers, And many other very cool things.
Wireless Networking!Wireless Networking
Wireless Networking
If you own multiple PCs, you have probably thought about how great it would be if your computers could talk to each other, and do so securely.
With your computers all connected together, you could many cool things like:
Share a single Internet connection among all the computers in your home. Share a single printer between computers.
Access shared files such as photographs, MP3s, spreadsheets and documents on any computer in the house.
Play games that allow multiple users at different computers, And many other very cool things.
- Super User
- General
- Hits: 2013
Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People
User Rating: 5 / 5
Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People
Make sure you have updated to the latest version of WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is an online messaging service now owned by tech giant Facebook, that has grown into one of the world’s most important applications. More than a billion people trade messages, make phone calls, send photos, and swap videos using the service.
This means that if any group of people uses the latest version of WhatsApp—whether that group spans two people or ten—the service will encrypt all messages, phone calls, photos, and videos moving among them. And that’s true on any phone that runs the app, from iPhone's to Android phones to Windows phones to old school Nokia flip phones. With end-to-end encryption in place, not even WhatsApp’s employees can read the data that’s sent across its network.
I’ve given up social media for the New Year and am trying to make friends outside Facebook while applying the same principles.
Every day, I walk down the street and tell passersby what I’ve eaten, how I feel, what I did the night before, and what I will do tomorrow. Then I give them pictures of my family, my dog, and me gardening. I also listen to their conversations and tell them I love them.
And it works. I already have three people following me—two police officers and a psychiatrist.
About Terminal Madness
Terminal Madness started out as a Computer Bulletin Board, ( BBS ) back in the early 90's. Fascinated that one could get all the information they ever wanted "on line", for FREE, the "BBS" was named Terminal Madness.
Now, about 22 years later, that fascination with computers and information continues.
From the USA, to the Dominican Republic, to Curacao and back to the USA.