DerfNet

I explicitly don't want to use Amazon Key, but would like a keyless lock as keyed locks are basically a minor inconvenience for even an amateur lock picker, but a 5 key pin would take days or weeks to brute force.

Looks like a Schlage Touch might be the best option out there. Numeric keypad, no key hole, and has no radio connectivity of any kind to be tampered with.

I've considered building a small shed in which Amazon could place packages, grocery delivery could deposit groceries in a small fridge, etc.

If the future is Amazon staple deliveries and Uber drivers coming by with my groceries, this might be a reasonable solution.

I mean, instead of buy proprietary devices like Fire Sticks and Chromecasts, you could just connect a computer to your TV, have it all, and call it a day.

Of course, "all" does not include 1080p playback on Netflix unless you use Edge or Safari

I've actually semi-automated this in the past by having Amazon ship me products on a regular schedule. Pricewise, though, it makes more sense to just make a quarterly trip to Costco and load up the storage closet.

Here's a simple solution: next time you buy soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc, buy two of them and put the one you're not using in a closet.

It's the new thing, people will always buy or use the new thing just because it's the new thing.

I do not grant my phone permission to constantly use its microphone. Unless it is being tampered with, which is beyond my control, the microphone should only be in use when I enable it.

I physically remove the microphones and webcams in my laptops and use a USB microphone with a physical power switch. This is probably unnecessary as, by the same logic as my phone, nobody should have access to these peripherals unless I grant it. But it helps with paranoia. I don't like a camera and microphone pointed at my face constantly.

No way in hell would I buy a device where "always listening" is listed as a feature.

100% my stance on it. To expand, these devices do not offer enough convenience in exchange for so thoroughly triggering my paranoia.

there is zero privacy concern regarding the average washing machine, not to mention the fact that a washing machine is actually saving you hours of time per week, whereas if you add up every single convenience offered by a home assistant compared to, say, the same exact thing you have on your phone, you're saving seconds in exchange for the normalization of always-listening microphones in your home.

Meanwhile, after two years my Android phone will brick itself.

Hoodie, jeans, sneakers

There are quite a few budget smartphones out there for under $90, without even touching the used market. Could the software run on an Android device?

No idea what stats show, but I can tell you personally that I have a 20 minute round trip commute daily and wouldn't have it any other way (except shorter if possible)

The only other factor I can think of with ReviewBrah is that he's often negatively reviewing products from huge companies (fast food chains) that might advertise on YouTube. Would Burger King want to run an ad before he reviews chicken fries or whatever?

do you have to commute an hour a day?

I'm not from silicon valley but priorities vary a lot from person to person. I value shortest possible commute time much higher than an extra ~2500 square feet I don't need.

I've heard a lot of chatter amongst non-tech people about Facebook etc spying on the public. I think the general population is finally starting to care a little bit about privacy, so that might help Firefox's numbers a bit.

I always found it crazy that they didn't carry over the hardware "recording" LED to cellphone cameras. I'd really like to see that become a thing, and maybe another LED for the microphone, wired into the circuit so that the camera and/or microphone cannot be in use without the LED lighting up. I'd basically like a row of status LEDs like an old Thinkpad for monitoring all systems on my devices.

user privacy is exactly why I'm excited to finally have a decent mainstream competitor to Chrome. If nothing else this is a nice gate out of the Google ecosystem.

MicroCenter has been selling $5 Pi Zero Ws near me for about 2 months, check if there's a location near you

That's without even mentioning the "internet of things" phenomenon, standalone voice assistants, and so on. The advertisers aren't happy just collecting web usage data anymore and now they want into our actual homes.

Could you expand on that second line a bit? I'm curious what features we're currently missing out on compared to decades past.

They explicitly used to scan emails for advertising purposes:

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-reading-personal-email...

submit a pull request

As a T420 owner who can barely make it through a 2 hour movie on my 9 cell battery, this comment is confusing.

Laptop manufacturers messed up by not behaving like cell phone manufacturers. without planned obsolescence and scheduled component failures, there just isn't the same demand for iterative improvements.

I use a six year old Thinkpad and it feels like a new machine. This just doesn't look like it's worth ten of my laptop.

ah! thank you, that makes a lot of sense. I use Evernote's web clipper for similar functionality.

In the book Hatching Twitter, AIM status updates were cited as a major point of inspiration for Twitter.

honest question, why would anyone use an in-browser screenshot tool when screenshot tools already come pre-installed in basically every operating system?

can Firefox's screenshot tool be disabled? I'd like to switch back from Chrome due to Big Brother concerns but not if Firefox is making questionable choices like this.

It's weird that people are blaming a search engine for providing relative links for discussion on a topic. Again, it's a search engine first and foremost, not a media outlet. It indexes media outlets.

It shouldn't be Google's job to vet articles. That should fall on the end user, and this push to hide "fake news" is just asking for more problems down the road.