Ensure Your Safety Before You Take A Selfie

Darwin claimed a Californian visiting Michigan recently.

The Detroit Free Press: Woman falls to her death taking selfies at Michigan landmark

A California woman slipped and fell to her death while taking selfies at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Wednesday afternoon.

[The woman], 32, was hiking solo on the North Country Trail and paused to take selfies near a 200-foot cliff edge that looked over Lake Superior. While taking pictures, she fatally fell into the lake, according to upper-Michigan based television station, WLUC.

In short a completely needless and preventable death.

The amount of people injured or indeed killed from taking selfies or otherwise burying their head in their phone is rather considerable. Being aware of your surroundings, especially when said surroundings lack guardrails to protect you from your own lack of awareness and footing, is rather paramount. Unfortunately, people often fail to be aware of their surroundings and think they live in a safe bubble. Reality sets in and their bubble pops, and often they do as well.

Now I'm not saying that taking selfies should be banned or anything, just some common-sense selfie control laws clearly need to be instituted, right? After all if it saves just one life . . . . .

Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys? The NSA Of Oakland County

Cell phone tracking, intercepting, and spoofing - it's not just for the Feds anymore.

The Detroit News: Secret military device lets Oakland deputies track cellphones

Oakland County commissioners asked no questions last March before unanimously approving a cellphone tracking device so powerful it was used by the military to fight terrorists.

Now, though, some privacy advocates question why one of the safest counties in Michigan needs the super-secretive Hailstorm device that is believed to be able to collect large amounts of cellphone data, including the locations of users, by masquerading as a cell tower.

Able to imitate a cell tower in order to track phones and intercept conversations, the big question is why does a County Sheriff's office need it, and what exactly are they planning on doing with it?

Of course, Oakland County didn't pay for this alone, the device, while in the first paragraph is stated to cost $176,000 in later paragraphs costs considerably more, but not to worry, a Federal grant covered all but $105,000 of the cost:

The county received a $258,370 federal grant that paid for all but $105,000 of the device, training and about $56,000 to purchase a vehicle to contain it, records show.

That would imply it costs $363,370 and whatever the vehicle purchased for it, at $56,000 it better be gold-plated.

Especially considering the Undersheriff has stated it would be illegal for the Sheriffs to listen in on phone conversations, which is a key point of having a Hailstorm device in the first place, its a lot of money to act as a cell phone locator.

Undersheriff Michael McCabe said, “Hailstorm helps us capture fugitives from the law, people wanted for murder and rape” and can be used only with a search warrant. He said the federal Homeland Security Act bars him from discussing Hailstorm, but he elaborated at length about what it doesn’t do.

“It’s not a tool to spy on people, unequivocally,” McCabe said. “It does not record cellphone conversations ... Hailstorm does not capture personal information on anyone or store unintended target data. It does not take photos of anyone. It doesn’t take videos or fly in the sky. It’s a tool used for criminal investigations and it’s legal and lawful.”

. . .

The commissioner said McCabe eased his concerns with written assurances that it’s illegal for local police in Michigan to listen in on phone conversations. Only federal policing agencies with warrants can do that, McCabe said.

It's a bad sign when an entity buys a showcase piece of very expensive and capable technology and then clams up when asked what they're going to do with it.

Comms Restored. Rule 2 of CCW no longer violated.

Well it took a reset to factory option to clear the problem. To do a factory reset option on the droid to unbrick he phone after the Gingerbread install bricks it, do the following:

Note this formats the phone and kills all your data and customizations. You have been warned.

1. Hit the power button and home button at the same time.
2. when the triangle appears on the screen hit both volume buttons.
3. Then scroll to restore to factory default and press the power button.

Interestingly enough it did not restore the factory installed operating system but made the Gingerbread update operating system work.

The downside is that all data, customizations, downloaded apps are gone due to the factory reset.

Luckily, the work server backed up the calendar, contacts, and email and the phone is synced and data is flowing once again.

If you haven't backed up all your personal data or do not have a server it syncs to, don't try the update or you may end up being badly hosed.

So I'm now busy reinstalling the apps and trying to redo the customizations I had done.

At least now my brief non-communications dark age is over, allowing me to no longer violate Rule 2 of carrying a gun.

Rule 1 of course is: Have a Gun.
Rule 2 is: If you're carrying a gun, carry a cell phone.

Droid "Gingerbread" Update Bricks Phone, Hard.

I ran the Droid "Gingerbread" update on my phone last night.

Others in my office had complained that it required them to redo their account settings manually. I ran it anyways figuring I could easily reestablish the account if necessary and looking forward to some improved security and allegedly better functionality. So figuring that was the worse that could happen I ran the update from the settings feature on the phone.

The update downloaded, I executed it, it ran and after some time I got a red Motorla icon and then nothing.

After about 45 minutes, I took the battery out to reset it and on reinstalling the battery I get the start-up screen including rotating eye, it takes me to the home screen, gives about 5 seconds of functionality, and then locks, hard.

Touch screen does not work, pressing the power button blanks the screen and on pressing it again the home screen disappears, leaving only the top indicator showing the time (which freezes and does not change), the 3g , bluetooth and connection bar symbols, not pressing the power button results in the same black screen with top bar. The phone will not receive calls or work in any fashion, and the time indicator freezes at the time it bricks.

Removing the battery for up to 45 minutes does not change the result, it always starts with a white M with a red background, does the eye roll, goes to the home screen and locks, and every reinsertion of the battery results in the same effect leading to the bricking.

This sucks and I'd strongly advise anyone with a Droid to not run the Gingerbread update until Google announces they've un-screwed up (a more angry word would be used but this is a family-friendly blog...) this upgrade.

You'd figure that Google could handle an upgrade on Droids given that they're all running the same operating system and are on the same Motorola phone hardware but No....

Perhaps Google could issue an appropriate warning with the update:

"This update that we produced and delivered to you may turn your phone into a brick, with less utility than a brick as it doesn't offer a lot of structural support when mixed with mortar. Would you like to continue y/n?"

If anyone can offer some help or suggestions on backing this out, or doing some other reset procedure, it would be appreciated.

Cell Phones and Drivers

Traffic all messed up due to a massive bloom of
Michigan' s State Flower along the roads on the Lodge Freeway and Woodward, bringing traffic to an impressive halt.

Now to add to the fun, today I'm driving to work in all this mess and every driver -
to my front, rear, and both sides had cell phones growing out of their ears, and driving like their head is up their @**.

When you're in slow traffic I can understand - you're not going anywhere and you're presumably paying some attention to the car in front of you. However, during that brief shining moment in the commute where the road is clear and marked 45 mph and you're in front of me yaking on a cell phone and doing 35 on a one-lane road with no passing allowed, with occasional hitting of the brakes for no discernable reason, is an annoyance, and potentially dangerous.

I'm not against cell phone use in cars, provided the user pays attention and can handle the extra task loading without messing up for other drivers. I use a cell phone while driving, but with a hands-free device as I noticed there is a clear difference in situational awareness when you're holding the phone to your ear as compared to using theearbud. Too bad these other drivers seem so oblivious to their cluelessness while driving with a cell phone.