Big Rich
I am Richard L Lawrence, Millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht. Plus a few computers, ham radios and comic books. I also have my own podcasts. I am very geek and I do the 6a-10a show on Sundays.
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UPDATE: FBI Hacked and Found to Be Spying on iOS Devices – Tech Tuesday
Shocked! Yes, shocked and dismayed at the revelation that the FBI would be tracking and spying on people's iPhones and other iOS devices. Actually, I'm not that surprised about it. There's been story after story coming out about how the government can collect data, without warrants, about anyone. This hack just shows you what they have on you.
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Got a U.S. Trade Sanction Over Your Head? No World of Warcraft for You! – Tech Thursday
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AT&T Says “Want to use Facetime on 3G/4G? Have to Switch to a new Plan” – Tech Thursday
AT&T announced the other day that anyone who wants to use Apple's Facetime video chat app over 3G or 4G had to be on their new shared data plans. Customers started saying that violated the FCC's Net Neutrality rules. AT&T's Public Policy Blog then posted a response saying they weren't. After 194 comments on that blog, not one was positive.
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Is That Text Message From a Hacker? – Tech Tuesday
It was revealed last week that there is an inherent security flaw in the way a SMS message, more commonly known as a text message, can be sent with a reply to address different from the address that sent it and you wouldn't see it, thus sending a reply to someone entirely different from whom it appears to be from. This kind of thing isn't really new, but common sense can help protect you.
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Adobe Ends Flash for New Mobile Devices – Tech Thursday
Adobe said they would do it, and it has been done. Flash, a programming language that can allow websites to show videos and let you play games in your web browser, has been pulled for mobile devices from the Google Play store. They have also updated their page on the Google Play letting users know as well. But it's still alve and well for desktop and laptop computers.
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FCC Says You Can Tether Your Phone For Free with Verizon – Tech Tuesday
For a while Verizon has been blocking people that load apps on their phones that allow them to share their 3G/4G connection with their other wifi devices. Last week the FCC released a descision about the ability to use tethering on your phone without having to pay extra for it. Seems that the FCC says we should be able to do it. And now that the decision has been made, some people wonder if will affect them.
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Verizon Has Secret Data Plans for Heavy Users – Tech Thursday
Are you a heavy data user on your mobile devices? Now when I say heavy, I'm talking about more than 10 Gigabytes a month. That's the equivalent of downloading 6 or 7 movies from iTunes using Verizon 3G/4G. If you are, then maybe one of these secret data plans from Verizon, is for you. But you have to ask for them specifically.
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NASA Video Taken Down by False Copyright Claim – Tech Tuesday
These kinds of stories seem to be cropping up often now. Someone posts their own work on YouTube, Their own music animation, what have you, and an automated system sees it and claims that it violates the copyright of another company, and you have to jump through hoops to get your own video back up on YouTube. That's what happened when NASA posted a video of the the Curiosity rover's arrival on Mars.
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Olympic Watchers Online Sidestep NBC Restrictions – Tech Thursday
NBC has said that their ratings for the Olympics has been tremendous. They say more people have been watching then before. They attribute that to their online streaming of live events. But NBC's requirement of having a more expensive cable subscription to have access to them, has excluded people from being able to watch, simply because they don't pay for a higher level cable package, have a small independent cable carrier or opted to not have cable at all. I'm in that general group of people. So how can I watch online?
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Microsoft Tries to be Hip Again with Web Reality Show – Tech Tuesday
For years Microsoft was the king of the world. They had the operating system nailed down with Windows, were developing games and software that were decent quality and people generally liked them. Then they started getting all full of themselves and alienating users. Now they are trying to be cool again with a web reality show for the Next Microsoft Employee.
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Mac OS X Mountain Lion is Prowling on Macs Now – Tech Thursday
We knew the new Mac OS, named Mountain Lion was due to be released this month, but we didn't know an exact date, until the day before yesterday. Mountain Lion is now available and Mac users are upgrading to the new offering from Apple, even me! So what's it like?
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NSA Chief will Be a Speaker at The DEF CON Hacker Conference – Tech Tuesday
Until a few days ago, one of the main speaking events for this Friday at the 20th Anniversary meeting of DEF CON, a hacker conference that takes place in Las Vegas, was being kept secret. But it was revealed that General Keith Alexander, head of U.S. Cyber Security and Organizational leader for the NSA, has agreed to be the speaker for that day. This is pretty big news in the computer security world.