The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[conan50]

Awhile back I got a pop up notification on my moto e phone from google asking if it was me trying to sign in from Nigeria. I ignored it and it popped up again a few minutes later. I finally 'got it' and said 'no'. After that I set up 2 factor authentification on my entire google account. I can't sign into anything google on a new device now without approving it on my phone, but hopefully no one can hack my account easily. I got to thinking what a pain it would be to lose everything on my google account and realized two factor authentification is worth it.

[gmw]

Two factor authentication is definitely worth having for anything that's important to you. The PITA then becomes (this is a vent and rant thread after all) that you have to make sure you know how to recover if your phone dies or is lost. I'm using Authy for those places that support it, which has reduced the number of places I have keep track of recovery codes for, but there are still some sites that use different systems.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by gmw

Two factor authentication is definitely worth having for anything that's important to you. The PITA then becomes (this is a vent and rant thread after all) that you have to make sure you know how to recover if your phone dies or is lost. I'm using Authy for those places that support it, which has reduced the number of places I have keep track of recovery codes for, but there are still some sites that use different systems.

Yep. That is the downside. Could be a real pain if the phone gets lost or dies.

[DNSB]

Unfortunately, two factor authentication has it's own issues. Even leaving out the social engineering workarounds, it's hard to claim that 2FA is a highly secure system since most implementations verify the device and not the user.

Better than a simple password? Yes. Highly secure? Not really.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by gmw

Two factor authentication is definitely worth having for anything that's important to you. The PITA then becomes (this is a vent and rant thread after all) that you have to make sure you know how to recover if your phone dies or is lost. I'm using Authy for those places that support it, which has reduced the number of places I have keep track of recovery codes for, but there are still some sites that use different systems.

Yeah, no kidding. I'm not a big smartphone user. Where I reside, we didn't have smartphone service readily or easily available, for about 10 years, from 2008-2018. I never developed the umbilical-cord-phone-addiction that seems to now cover the globe.

I was LIVID when Amazon insisted that I had to use 2FA, which meant I had to run outside, about 100 feet, from my house, in 117F temps, to get their magic "code" to prove I was me, and then run BACK in and enter it, in the 2-minute allotted timeframe.

Not everybody has, or even wants, goddamned smartphones. I could pretty cheerfully go the rest of my life without one, as long as I had a way to contact emergency services in case of a breakdown, etc.

(Don't get me started about the toxins that I think that the combination of social-media+smartphones has spread world-wide. Speaking of the Technology V&R!)

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Not everybody has, or even wants, goddamned smartphones. I could pretty cheerfully go the rest of my life without one, as long as I had a way to contact emergency services in case of a breakdown, etc.

You are not alone.

[gmw]

Much the same situation here. I've only had (mostly) reliable voice reception for a year or two, although text messages have been getting through a bit longer. But I will note that with Google Authenticator / Authy style authentication (as opposed to the more common and vulnerable SMS style), once it is set up (which I did through WiFi to my local network) you don't need an active connection. One of my backup devices for Authy is an old smartphone that has no SIM in it at all.

[Thasaidon]

As per usual Hitch, you are bang on the nail.

The toxicity of smart phones and so called social media is already biting us and it bites harder every day.

I also recently had a sim card expire (don't ask)in a phone I was using to receive OTPs. The trouble I had sorting everything out. Sheesh!

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by PeterT

My work phone was just upgraded from an old Nokia flip phone to an Android Moto E. All is good apart from my Jabra Bluetooth headset. I used to have it connected to both my personal Pixel 4a and the Nokia and would use the Google assistant button on the phone to initiate calls on the 4a. Now that both phones support Google Assistant the button more often than not activates the Moto E.

I reckon I need to override the Bluetooth profiles that are used when the headset connects but
... so far no luck.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Woot. Had a reply from Jabra support that included the nugget

It will only use the assistant for the dominant phone, which is usually the last one paired.

A quick reset of the headset followed by pairing to the Moto E and then the Pixel seems to have solved it!

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[cc_in_oh]

Ooh - WIN11 - can't wait. Lately I've been finding tools on the first try, so we're obviously overdue to throw all the Win components back into the cement mixer to get them properly jumbled up again...

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Ooh - WIN11 - can't wait. Lately I've been finding tools on the first try, so we're obviously overdue to throw all the Win components back into the cement mixer to get them properly jumbled up again...

Just like when my neighborhood grocery store changed its floor plan overnight ... after 20 years of sameness ... Bewildered customers asking strangers where the bread was shelved now ...

[timebug]

One of our local supermarkets did the same thing recently. I could wander the aisles in my own 'set' route and pick up what I needed.Now, I have to search for most of the stuff I have easily picked up for years!

[John F]

Originally Posted by timebug

One of our local supermarkets did the same thing recently. I could wander the aisles in my own 'set' route and pick up what I needed.Now, I have to search for most of the stuff I have easily picked up for years!

You would think that some of the grocery store apps would tell you all your items in your shopping list that are in Isle 1, Isle 2, Isle 3.

[ownedbycats]

I don't really go there anymore (pandemic and switched mostly to eBooks), but there was a period of time that every time I visited the Chapters Indigo store in my town, they had moved around all the shelves again. Good luck finding anything!

[timebug]

Same thing at our local Waterstones! I recently used a gift certificate that I had been given last Christmas, and compared to pre-lockdown, everything in the place seemed to have been repositioned!