Tag: Technology

The Comrades Lose Control

Drive Time, Technology

I’ve been ranting about this issue for about as long as the nonsense first appeared with software-dependent cars.  Now it seems as though it’s for real:

Hundreds of Russian Porsche owners have found their cars immobilized across the country, amid fears of deliberate satellite interference. 

Drivers have complained that their vehicles have suddenly locked up, lost power and refused to start, as owners and dealerships warn of a growing wave of failures that has left hundreds of vehicles stuck in place.

The nationwide meltdown hit Porsche models built since 2013, which are all fitted with the brand’s factory vehicle tracking system (VTS) satellite-security unit. 

The vehicles have been ‘bricked’ with their engines immobilized, due to connections with the satellite system being lost. 

Okay:  leaving aside the paranoia concerns — it’s the Daily Mail, of course there was going to be some panic warning — let’s just go with the system failure (regardless of cause) that causes one’s normally-reliable car to quit working.

I know I’m not the only person in the world who regards this “development” as creepy and worrisome.  The fact that some situation could occur that renders one’s possession useless makes me deeply apprehensive.

As I said earlier, whether the immobilization was a factor of technology fail or else of some malignant third party is unimportant.

Note that this VTS thing is touted as a “security” feature — i.e. one that lessens the effect of the car being tampered with or stolen, a dubious benefit at best — and this supposed security guards against another feature (keyless or remote start) that seems to be all the rage among today’s cars, for no real reason that I can ascertain.  In other words, car manufacturers have made it easier to steal their cars, and then have to come up with yet another feature that can negate that situation.

While some drivers were told to try a simple workaround by disconnecting their car batteries for at least 10 hours, others were advised to disable or reboot the Vehicle Tracking System, known as the VTS, which is linked to the alarm module.

Some owners have been stranded for days waiting for on-site diagnostics, tow trucks or emergency technicians.

There are reports of Russians resorting to ‘home-brew’ fixes – ripping out connectors, disconnecting batteries overnight, even dismantling the alarm module. 

A few cars were revived after 10 hours without power, but others remained immobilized.

And they call this “improvement”?

By the way, it’s not just Porsche, of course.

Last year, MPs in the United Kingdom were warned that Beijing could remotely stop electric cars manufactured in China, as relations between the two nations deteriorated. 

The previous year, lawmakers cautioned that tracking devices from China had been found in UK government vehicles. 

Yeah duh, because China is asshoe.

As for Porsche, this makes me realize why their older, non-VTS-equipped models are fetching premium prices in the second-hand market.  I mean:

300 grand for an ’87 911?  Are you kidding me?  (Yeah, I know it’s been fully restored at a cost of about $50 grand — but even taking twice that amount off the asking price would still leave you with a $200 grand ask, which is ridiculous.  No wonder the vintage sports car market is starting to tank.)

But at least this 911 isn’t going to stop working every time there’s a meteor shower, or whenever some controlling remote entity decides that you’ve been driving it too fast or too much.

It’s a fucking nightmare.  And we’ve allowed it to happen.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From someone on the Internet (SOTI), talking about the increasing complexity of the modern world:

“In the future, a large portion of consumers will want low tech, bullet proof appliances, vehicles, homes, etc.  I want my grandma’s fridge, my parent’s home, the 1988 Honda prelude I drove when I was 16, and to retire from my high tech job.  All my friends think the same way.  It’s too much hassle for the benefit and nobody is happier.“

Me too.  Give me simplicity over complexity every day of the week.

Followup Thought

Deep Thoughts, Lifestyle, Technology

…to the above QOTD:  I wonder whether this irritation towards the modern world’s increasing (and likely over-) complexity is just a generational thing?

I have no idea as to the age of the commenter in this case, but I know that this disenchantment and hankering after a simpler life seems fairly common among people of my age, for the simple reason that it’s a common factor of life among my friends and, lest we forget, Readers of this here website.

But do the various “Gen” types feel the same way?  I mean, we Olde Pharttes can remember (a bit) how much earlier times were less complicated and simpler.  But in the case of Teh Youngins, are they even aware that life can be simpler, given that all they’ve ever experienced is Smartphones, the Internet, self-drive cars and refrigerators that can tell you when you’re running low on milk?

And considering that most Millennials, let alone the Gen X/Y/Z tribe don’t know how to change a flat tire, cook a meal from scratch and drive a stick shift, would they embrace a simpler world when so much of their daily life is smoothed by technology?

I suspect not, for the same reason that people of my generation would have no idea how to drive a horse-drawn carriage or be able to transmit a telegraph message in Morse code.

So our final few years of life on this planet seem doomed to be techno-centric instead of simple.  What joy awaits us.

Good Question

Technology

From the comments to yesterday’s post about A.I., this from Reader askeptic:

“I seem to recall being taught oh-so-long-ago, that every advance in technology has brought an expansion of employment, contrary to the accepted knowledge as machine replaced man. Why would not the use of A-I be an exception to that?”

Simple answer would be that machines have always worked perfectly (after improvement) in doing repetitive tasks — assembly-line activity, mathematical calculations, full-automatic shooting and so on.

What humans do is think:  about building robots to work on assembly lines, the calculations to be performed, and the need for massed fire, to supply answers for all three activities, in other words.

What seems to be getting people alarmed — and I’m one of them — is that A.I. seems to be aimed at either duplicating or indeed creating those thought processes, replacing humans in the one dimension that has created this world we live in.  (My special reservation, shared by many I suspect, is that the engine of this replacement seems to be relying on the wisdom of crowds — i.e. garnering information from previously-created content, much as philosophers have relied upon Aristotle et al. to provide the foundations of their further philosophies.)

The problem with all this is that just as Aristotle’s thoughts have sometimes proved erroneous in dealing with specific scenarios, the “wisdom of crowds” — in this particular set of circumstances — can be reshaped and reformed by the applications of millions upon millions of bots (say) which can alter the terms of the discussion by making outlying or minority positions seem like the majority, in the same way that a dishonest poll (such as the 2020 U.S. election) can be corrupted into portraying a preponderance that never existed.

It’s easy to refute one of Plato’s scientific observations — e.g. that heavier objects fall faster than light ones — but it’s far less easy to refute the inadequacy of facial masks to prevent the spread of airborne disease when the preponderance of scientific “evidence” allows people to say that if you refuse to wear a mask you’re a potential mass murderer.  We all knew intuitively that the tiny gaps in masks’ weaving were still huge compared to the microscopic size of plague viruses, but that intuition was crushed by the weight of public pressure.

And if A.I. only looked at the part of the data that said that masks work and never looked at the evidence that they didn’t, the output would always be:  wear a mask, peasant.  And yes, that is indeed happening.

I know the above is somewhat simplistic, but my point is that when you look at how A.I. is being used (to “cheat” creative activity, for example, in writing a college essay) and the potential that A.I. can learn from its mistakes (even if driven by erroneous input), that we are justified in being very apprehensive about it.

Which brings me finally to the answer to Reader askeptic’s question:  the premise is sound, in that technology has in the past always led to an expansion of employment.  But if we acknowledge that the prime function of a human being is to think, then what price humans if that function is replaced?

ASUS Delenda Est

Technology, Two-Minute Hate

Quick recap of my laptop woes:

  • Several weeks back the thing bricked on me.  One minute typing, the next thing black screen, totally dead and unresponsive.  All efforts to revive are fruitless, including long chats with online support staff.  Off to Best Buy (an ASUS repair facility).
  • The Geek Squad informs me that they don’t do any warranty repairs on ASUS machines that they themselves have not sold.  Nice.  So I send the thing to ASUS, imagining fondly that since I only purchased this POS in January of this year, that it is still under warranty.
  • It isn’t.  [50,000 very bad words redacted]  So I tell ASUS to return the brick to me, because I’m not comfortable having repairs done at a remote location (Indiana, incidentally) when, if I’m going to have to pay for the fucking repairs, I’d prefer to have the job done locally.  So off I go to Micro Center (Dallas).  This was yesterday (Monday) morning
  • Micro Center gets on it right away — I mean, I got a sitrep text message only an hour after I got back home.  That’s about the only good news.
  • Apparently, the motherfuckingboard is kaput.  On a brand-new computer.  Cost to replace:  $380 (part) + $150 (labor).  For a machine that cost around $500 new.  But:
  • None of Micro’s vendors have the board in stock, and ASUS themselves are looking at a 4-17 week resupply time.

My options seem to be:

  1. Grit my teeth and have the repair done, continuing to stumble along for the next 2-4 months on my old HP laptop with its occasional freezing-up, malfunctioning keys and broken chassis.
  2. Buy a new replacement machine* from Micro Center — average cost for a similar-to-my-ASUS machine, about $600-$700 which I don’t have.
  3. Try to reinstall my whole fucking life onto  some other (secondhand) laptop, of which a couple of you generous souls sent my way, but which I cannot get to function.  (I have the best Readers on the Internet.)
  4. Migrate to New Wife’s desktop PC, which is tucked away in a dark corner of our tiny apartment, and has NONE of the features of any laptop, and by that I mean a decent keyboard, sufficient power and storage, Win10 (okay, I can live with that), all while I’d have to sit on an ancient office chair which will cause me to have back problems, guaranteed.

To say that I am angry does not begin to describe my mood right now.

And oh, by the way:  if anyone out there is thinking of buying an ASUS machine in the near future;  DON’T.

*New Wife has okayed this option, but it still sticks in my craw.

Computing Thoughts

Advice, Housekeeping

While waiting at not-so-Best Buy to have my hard drive backed up / wiped prior to sending my ASUS Brick Model off to be repaired, I took a little walk around the store just to look at my options should the laptop be “unrepairable” and ASUS refusing to replace it (I know, it shouldn’t be a problem to replace a piece of equipment that was purchased in January of this year, but it’s a fool who doesn’t make at least some contingencies in case of corporate bastardy).

All the laptops looked the same, had too many unnecessary features and cost too much, so I didn’t spend too much time there.

Then my eyes fell upon this creature:

It’s one of those “everything in a screen” systems, and I must admit I was drawn to it — in no small measure because of the earlier suggestion from The Reader Formerly Known As CoffeeMan that I look at a desktop PC instead of a laptop. 

While my need for portability has admittedly been reduced because I no longer travel as much as yore, I still might need to take a computer out of the house when going somewhere on vacation, for example — or needing to carry the thing out if there’s a fire in the apartment block.  Carrying a PC tower and screen out is a non-starter for all sorts of reasons, but a single screen (plus keyboard) that in extremis  could be carried in a large suitcase?  That is a distinct possibility.

Here’s the White Monster’s spec sheet:

Hmmm.  Big screen for my Aging & Failing Eyes, a properly-sized keyboard for my Fat & Fumbling Fingers, manageable size (see dimensions) and if I may be greedy for once, more computing power than I would ever need for the remainder of my existence on Planet Earth.

There’s the small matter of the dollars required, but I’d just raffle off a gun or two from my ever-dwindling stock of Second Amendment appliances.

If anyone’s had actual experience with one of these beasts, let me know in Comments, because right now it’s looking awfully attractive.