Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 394 Editor's Choice: 41
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Interesting
[Read the article: Meet the iPhone hackers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of course it's going to get hacked. All smartphones get hacked. It's the way of things.
This should stop all the bullshit about Apple products being inherently more secure than those from other companies. Once Jobs pulled an Ellison and made his company a target it turns out that Apple stuff is just as full of compromises and shortcuts as everyone else's, and just as vulnerable to a sustained attack, with the noteworthy exception of the OpenBSD Project.
Maybe now that future exclusive deals with providers in Asia and Europe are likely to be a lot less lucrative, Apple will have the incentive to invest in real security instead of marketing security (a la Oracle), and we will all be better off.
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Unlocking your phone
[Read the article: Meet the iPhone hackers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Go down to the cell phone wholesaler located in almost every industrial park in every city in America with any other phone and they will unlock it for $20. That's why Verizon and Sprint went with hardware incompatibility instead of software - something the FCC should never have allowed, but they are useless anyway. Since iPhones are only sold here, for now, that option isn't available yet.
What I'm wondering is how Apple and AT&T are going to get around the legal requirement that any cell phone sold in America be unlocked at the owners request after 90 days. Also, has anyone called AT&T and tried the "I'm traveling to Europe" trick? Cingular unlocked 2 of my phones for me after a couple of weeks using that one, as did T-Mobile.
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WTF?
[Read the article: Meet the iPhone hackers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]These guys aren't hacking into Apple's personnel database or looting their bank accounts. They are modifying devices that they have bought and paid for (in other words, devices they own) to enhance their capabilities.
Refusing to live with what the suits decide to give you is not criminal behavior.
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I've gotten phones unlocked
[Read the article: Freeing the iPhone the legal way]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Legally, by the carrier.
Twice by Cingular. Just called them up, said I had owned my phone for 90 days and I wanted it unlocked, and they unlocked it. No questions asked, no hard time given.
Once by T-Mobile, after 3 weeks. Told them I was traveling to Europe on business, my employer had a SIM for me to use while there, and I needed my phone unlocked to do so. Again, no problem.
Also had one unlocked by a cell phone wholesaler, who had the software because its the same software they use to lock the phones. $20.
Getting your phone unlocked isn't a problem. But there isn't a lot of point to it anymore, since the FCC has lost control of the industry. Do you really like T-Mobile that much better than AT&T?
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Of course she's feigning interest
[Read the article: My therapist is making faces at me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You may as well have written in saying "I think the hooker I see once a week is faking orgasms".
Your therapist is only interested because you are paying her. You can tell this because she will stop being interested the second your checks start bouncing. You aren't paying her to care. You are paying her to listen. And you are getting what you are paying for. If the illusion isn't doing it for you, find someone else. Just don't expect a complete stranger to give a shit about you because you gave her money.
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I wouldn't call it AI
[Read the article: Chinook, the unbeatable checkers-playing computer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No matter how good this machine is at checkers, and no matter how good Deep Blue is at chess, they aren't really intelligent. The machine never takes the initiative after the first move (if it gets the first move), only responds to what the human player does. No creativity, no logical leaps, no potential for anything new. No smarter than a voicemail system, and I don't know anyone who would call them intelligent.
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Forever is a relative term
[Read the article: With Ooma, pay $400 for phone service forever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As we all know by now. After a year you save money over Vonage, but it sounds like these guys may not have a year left...
We should all have Asterisk servers, and the government should terminate our numbers for us. Then the telcos could concentrate on data networks and let voice networks die.
The power issue is one we have a great deal of experience with here in Florida, and it's more complicated than you might think. Most people use wireless handsets now, so power over POTS doesn't help. Bell South (now AT&T) is running fiber right into the house now, so they aren't neccesarily providing power any more. And the battery stores at the central offices aren't as large or effective as they used to be anyway, so a 5 or 6 day outage might kill your phone even with POTS. Cell phones aren't much better, the battery backups for the towers only last about 4 to 6 hours under heavy use, which is what you get when 3/4 of a metropolitan area loses power.
Comcast has an interesting approach to the problem. They provide a cable modem/VOIP box with a built in backup battery good for 4 to 8 hours. If the battery dies from an extended power outage, they will come out and replace it as an urgent service call - in theory. The reality is that if we have a catastrophic event, the cable guys will all be very busy, and the electricity usually comes back on a lot faster than the cable does.