WindowsPhone

And people wonder how and why I still use my old WindowsPhone.

Earlier this year the Norwegian watchdog produced a damning report calling out dark pattern design tricks being deployed by Google and Facebook meant to manipulate users by nudging them toward “privacy intrusive options.” It also examined Microsoft’s consent flows, but judged the company to be leaning less heavily on such unfair tactics.
Among the underhand techniques that the Google-targeted GDPR complaint, which draws on the earlier report, calls out are allegations of deceptive click-flow, with the groups noting that a “location history” setting can be enabled during Android set-up without a user being aware of it; key settings being both buried in menus (hidden) and enabled by default; users being presented at the decision point with insufficient and misleading information; repeat nudges to enable location tracking even after a user has previously turned it off; and the bundling of “invasive location tracking” with other unrelated Google services, such as photo sorting by location.

Just saying...

'nuff said...

"There's so little honesty in law and politics. I sometimes feel like retreating from all of it and..."

Fill in your own end to this sentence.

The Only One With A Sense Of Humor?

Not one to judge, but sometimes you get the feeling that some people have a certain, um, smugness.  At the very least, they often lack a sense of humor.  Plus, it seems they have a bad reputation on the road.

Saw this in a parking lot recently:

 I assume this owner has one for the right reasons. Truth in advertising? 

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

Recently was in an OC High Rise next to the OC Performing Art Center. Uptown address near a start-of-the-art facility. Needed to use a comfort station.  Imagine my surprise when I saw, inside, one of these:

The building must not have a lot of traffic.  They feel no reason to remodel, even though this has not been allowed in California for over 25 years - 1994, in fact.  And this ashtray (for those of you who don't know what an ashtray is) has not been used in at least that long.  Feeling very Mad Men.

Hidden Gems

Where does the time go?  I guess on Facebook.  So anyway, sometimes I walk.  At lunch, near my office, in an undisclosed location on the ‘Westside’ of Los Angeles, is this Wall Mural:

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a
sphere of activity in which we are permitted
to remain children all our lives." - Albert Einstein

I did a Google Image Search for it and, surprisingly, no match. The wall where this mural is painted is on a street that gets almost no traffic.  Unless you work on this street, are lost, homeless, or me, you will likely never see this work.  A shame. 

 

You’re welcome.