311–320 of 575 posts
We purchased a Chinese-made projector from Amazon, which was surprisingly inexpensive (~40 USD). Upon connecting it to the internet, it placed a constantly running feed of ads on the corner of the screen, even while movies were playing. There was no way to disable it either. Even though it's not a stick, it's a similar principle.
Sounds good in theory but in practice, computers are good at sorting this stuff out. Kind of why they are so popular.
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Get the sarcasm, but of course there is scam outside of capitalism. Its just that the capitalistic model almost turns it from an inconvenient bug into a mainline feature. Not saying there is an absolute perfect alternative, anyone who says that is usually shoveling smoke, but there are flaws with this economic model to be addressed.
Not true at all. I'm from Poland which was occupied by communist for a long time, and I can guarantee you - the amount of scam we had under that rule was orders of magnitude larger than what we have now.
It was said that Karl Marx was completely right about Capitalism and completely wrong about Communism. And that is fairly accurate, both have big flaws.
Most times, the opposite of one bad idea is another bad idea.
> Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and security industry leaders about the security and privacy risks of using these streaming devices, major e-commerce providers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others continue to sell hundreds of different models and brands I scanned the comments and I didn't see anyone suggesting that these companies should share any responsibility for selling these harmful products. Why is…
Sketchy devices on your wi-fi don’t really harm anyone. They’re a minor inconvenience at best, mostly to large corporations that like to discern residential connections from business/corporate ones.
At this point China probably has a botnet that can be turned on with a few deploys, and spans a majority of homes in US and RU (and thus is unblockable without disconnecting half of voters from the internet). Ready to attack the infrastructure.
I don't know where you get the idea this is a nation state attack. The devices are used to sell proxy services and scam advertisers. This doesn't even need particularly large organised crime. It would certainly be easier than large scale illicit drug importation and retail, which is happening all the time. Could China exploit these streaming sticks if it wanted to? Maybe, but no more than any other nation.
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Not true at all. I'm from Poland which was occupied by communist for a long time, and I can guarantee you - the amount of scam we had under that rule was orders of magnitude larger than what we have now.
Yeah I did forget about that. When you flatten the pay structure across the board, it makes bribes and scams so much more desirable. But also, communist structure in practices is sort of the total opposite of capitalism at a distance. It was said that Karl Marx was completely right about Capitalism and completely wrong about Communism. And that is fairly accurate, both have big flaws. Most times, the opposite of one…
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interesting bit of information: most EV mower companies now do not provide replacement parts - if a mower dies within warranty, a 'certified' warranty repair shop does basic troubleshooting, and if it's beyond a piece of cheap plastic, the mfr just ships a new mower to the 'repair shop'. Once out of warranty, you're on your own.
My electric mower has lasted longer than the gasoline mower before it, which literally had plastic valves inside the carbeurtator.
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Just being realistic here; many of these are of Chinese make so how exactly would you stop it other than blocking them from being sold. They certainly don't advertise to the big box retailer that buys them "and it uses the customer's internet connection for fraud." Hell, there's a section of comments that would probably going "hey, RELAX guy" because it's not US companies doing this. For any American companies that d…
If I open my own line of home improvement stores and do no oversight on what I sell and wind up selling really dangerous lawnmowers, I'm partly responsible. Or if I open up a gas station and allow any company without oversight to sell "supplements" through my shelves and cops arrest me for selling heroin, I don't get a free pass. Why should amazon or Walmart get a free pass just because they sell more items?
While there would be oversight, it is highly unlikely that a person opening a home improvement store would perform any meaningful safety testing. They simply would not be qualified. The oversight would lay in selling certified products, pulling recalled products off the shelf, and (perhaps) removing products if there is a reason to suspect safety issues.
Now consider streaming sticks. There are safety standards for the physical device but, to my knowledge, there are no such standards for the software itself. Heck, there aren't even standards for the engineers who work on the software. One can make highly prejudiced decisions based upon the country of origin. Perhaps there are even good reasons to avoid products from certain countries. Yet the lack of standards also means that products from trustworthy sources can be suspect, since all it takes is a management decision to change things.
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interesting bit of information: most EV mower companies now do not provide replacement parts - if a mower dies within warranty, a 'certified' warranty repair shop does basic troubleshooting, and if it's beyond a piece of cheap plastic, the mfr just ships a new mower to the 'repair shop'. Once out of warranty, you're on your own.
Thank you for reminding us that electric mowers are garbage.
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Counter anecdote, I've had gas mowers survive decades and EV electrical equipment (in this case, a chainsaw and a battery pack for a mower) both die within 14 months of purchase.
Counter counter anecdote, I was just tidying up the yard with my 18V whipper snipper and contemplating the fact that I bought it in 2012 and it hasn’t skipped a beat.
It is in rough shape, but it still cuts grass perfectly fine.
I have a wippersnipper from before I was born which runs perfectly today. It was left out laying sideways in the rain for about a month. Quick clean and a new plug and it was going again.
I'm sure the electric devices can run a long time, but when they fail, they tend to be not repairable.