Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I am well aware of that. I have been on Hacker News since 2009 under my Mz handle and I have a Certificate in GIS from UC-Riverside, the most respected GIS program in the world at the time that I attended (2002, IIRC). I don't try to crow about being some kind of tech genius because for the HN crowd I'm not. But I'm not poor due to being mentally retarded or something. I have an incurable medical condition as do…
Perfectly average geographers on HN represent! I feel like seeing another GISer in the tech world is like seeing someone from your country while on vacation. You’ve just got to say hi because it feels so rare. Edit: thanks! Solved. I’ve deleted this part of the comment because I always feel very socially awkward and afraid I’ll make others feel awkward.
Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
81–90 of 350 posts
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#82I had this happen with a cheapo android phone ages years ago, where the battery drained beyond 0% and the charging circuity wouldn't recognize it. Sent it for repairs and it conveniently came back with a dead battery again due to the long shipping time. I ended up stripping the wires out of the charger (the USB end, not 120v), and connecting it directly to the battery for 30 seconds or so. This bypasses the charging…
in the future, at least put a high value resistor in series. Chargers are usually 5v, lithium batteries get VERY unhappy with anything past 4.2 (4.3 with newer ones) and can blow up. with no current limiting, the "blow up" stage could arrive quite fast. Also phone's various regulators that power FROM the battery might not be rated to handle 5V inputs
That's generally good advice but then it would have taken much longer to get to the point where the phone's charging circuitry could take over and the battery being near empty likely served to peg the voltage at something really low. Finally, those chargers are usually not capable of more than a few amps and given the internal resistance of the batteries at that point the bigger risk would be to fry the charger if it can't handle something suspiciously close to a short circuit.
If you're going to use a resistor use something like 100 Ohm, that way you will still be able to see some effect of your action before Christmas and if you have access to a volt meter connect it parallel to the battery to see what's going on. As for the 4.2V, that's a single cell, some phones/tablets will have a couple of those in series so you can't assume that you'll find anything up to 4.2V at the battery terminals, checking that should be your first stop before attempting any of this.
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#83Have you tried unenrolling from RCS?
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#84Try to find a 3rd party phone repair shop. There's a decent chance they can get your old phone charging pretty quickly and cheaply if it's just your charging port being dirty / faulty.
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It used to be opt in until the icloud hacking saga where the public demanded something be done. So it was decided users want mandatory security by default. Almost all of these services provide backup codes you can write down on paper as well. Sure, some people are going to lose their only device and the bit of paper, but at that point if you have literally nothing to identify yourself with, it's going to be hard to p…
It can still be opt out with a fallback on the old approach of security questions. The name of your first pet, your favorite teacher, etc. It doesn't matter how much in general 2FA works out better for most people, there are lots of people for whom it is not viable. They know who they are. Give them an option that doesn't make their life worse.
>Give them an option that doesn't make their life worse.
This is the sort of thing that really should be handled by government
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#86This is my nightmare. This is why I refuse to use 2FA. (Except on services that require it, and I wish they didn't require it.) Am I worried about getting hacked? Absolutely! But when I weigh the likelihood of (1) someone else getting into my account without 2FA and (2) locking myself out of my own account with 2FA, the latter seems much more likely! I understand how backup codes work. I promise you I will loose them…
> This is why I refuse to use 2FA.
That just makes it even more likely you'll lose access. If you have 2fA, Google will just ask for your 2fa. If you don't have 2fa, Google will pick some random device you signed in on once ten years ago, and tell you that you can only ever log into your account again if it's from that device.
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#87If anyone got afraid and wants to disable 2fa, go to https://myaccount.google.com/security
The trick isn't to disable 2FA. It's to add a bunch of 2FA methods that don't rely on your cell phone: authenticator app, yubi keys, backup codes.
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#88Is that SMS codes or an app? How can you know they're being sent to the dead phone when it's dead? Maybe they were never being sent to that number at all? Obviously there must be a process to gain access when your phone with an authenticator app is lost or destroyed. Why is that process not working?
I know because the messages on my NEW phone that I am trying to set up state "We sent this to (your old phone -- identified by type of phone, which is different from the model I am setting up).
I think there's some confusion about messaging. If Google knows the model/name, then it's likely not SMS being sent, but rather one of the "review this login" system pop-ups.
See if you can revert to SMS verification through some option at login. I can't verify it now, but the choice could be accessible though something non-obvious like "I'm having problems verifying". Make sure it's trying to use a text message instead of some other method... and let's hope you have it configured.
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#89I have long wondered if two factor authentication actually causes more economic harm than it solves - it just doesn’t cause that harm to be noticeably all in one place (the harm is spread to millions of users who will lose access at some point during their lives rather than concentrated on the company that implements TFA dealing with fraud). It feels like it might. This isn’t counting the productivity that’s lost to…
Not to mention the chances that your 2FA method will be used as another tracking and marketing vector. These days I'm deeply suspicious of companies that require 2FA.
Re: Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a smaller of the two problems for the company . If you are really poor, losing access to your online life because you couldn't pay your phone bill or something can be a huge, huge problem. I have been homeless. I'm not currently. But this is an extremely stressful situation that could do all kinds of damage to my life if I can't get it sorted.
Losing access because someone stole your account is even worse because of how much access a Google account gives someone.
Honestly, I would suspect that for many homeless people, the "losing access" part is much, much worse than "someone else having access".