Blog Index for 2019

Remotely access your home network using free dynamic DNS service from DuckDNS

(Sun Dec 01 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Do you have files stashed on a computer at home but you're halfway around the world? In theory the Internet is equally usable by all of us, but in practice it's a little different. We're told we can only store our data on servers owned by other people, and cannot do so on our own server. In actual practice it is fairly easy to access computers on your home network, and the first step is associating a domain name with your home network.

Switching back to normal YouTube home page layout after being shoved into horrid YT 'experiment'

(Thu Oct 03 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Did your YouTube home page recently switch to a horrible mode with large thumbnails that look like they're designed for old people with weak eyes? You probably didn't accidentally change a setting. Instead, YouTube (like any large web property) is always experimenting with user interface tweaks, and you probably got selected to be a test subject. In fact, you actually have been selected for an experiment, and you cannot "opt out" of that experiment according to a YouTube engineer. If you're like me, you hate this new design and are looking for an escape.

How does Apple's fuel gauge chip block battery replacement - RIGHT TO REPAIR

(Sat Aug 24 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) An earlier post summarized a discovery by a fellow in China (Justin Ashford) that Apple was purposely displaying a scary warning message if someone replaced the battery in an iPhone XR, or XS. In this post we summarize some deeper information he presents to iFixit.

Record terminal sessions using GIFY Capture or Asciinema

(Sun Aug 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Those of us who write software tutorials explaining how to use this or that software tool, we need to demonstrate using the software. I tend to create a static bit of text showing what I did and maybe the output. But there's something different about an animated display showing the commands as they were typed by a human. In this post we'll go over two ways to generate animated GIF's showing commands typed in a terminal window.

Apple purposely shows 'Service' warning after iPhone battery replacement - RIGHT TO REPAIR

(Thu Aug 08 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) On an iPhone XR, XS, XS Max, after replacing the battery a warning is shown warning the battery might be no good and should be serviced. Maybe Apple is being a good vendor and warning us of a possibly bad battery? Instead it seems Apple is trying to lock out independent repair shops from replacing batteries.

Facebook (Twitter, etc) is a crime scene to election fraud amid destruction of democracy

(Wed Aug 07 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) In both the Brexit campaign, the 2016 USA Presidential election, and other elections since, misinformation channeled through Facebook had a huge effect that we cannot measure because of the nature of Facebook. The news stream we're shown is custom generated for us, and nobody has a record of what was shown because the news stream disappears as soon as it's displayed. How can anyone validate claims whether Facebook was an accessory to election fraud?

Apple possibly preparing to eliminate hackintoshing via T2 Security Chip

(Mon Aug 05 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Apple cannot be happy about the Hackintosh community. These people are using Mac OS X, that Apple provides for free, but on hardware that Apple does not manufacture. Obviously Apple's Mac OS X is "free" as a way to incentivize sales of Apple computers. So far Apple's attempts to kill off Hackintoshing have failed, because the Hackintoshers have ingenious worked around everything Apple has done to stop them. But the T2 Security Chip may mean the end of the road.

Can a MacBook or other Apple computer with broken T2 security chip be repaired?

(Sun Aug 04 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Apple claims the T2 security chip does all kinds of wonderful things for personal security. It ensures that only a secure authorized operating system can boot the computer, preventing errant KEXT's from creating gaping security holes, for example. And, the T2 chip shuts off the internal microphone to prevent eavesdropping. But if the T2 chip dies the computer is completely unrepairable.

Employees are disposable assets and can be canned at any time

(Mon Jul 15 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) The attached video should hit home for anyone who's worked a corporate job for a significant time. It sure hit home for me, having been laid off several times and my passion crushed into nothingness by the corporate needs. What is the sound of one man standing up to take his power into his hands?

How to upgrade MacBook Air/Pro SSD to NVMe using this one weird SSD adapter

(Sat Jul 13 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Out of the box Apple has used proprietary SSD's in its MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models for several years. As a proprietary SSD it meant any upgrade meant paying Apple's price for SSD's rather than the market price. This probably served Apple's bottom line, and who cares if the customers are screwed. This one adapter gives owners of such machines access to normal M.2 form factor SSD's.

iFixit rates 2019 MacBook Pro with 2 out of 10 repairability score

(Fri Jul 12 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Apple recently released updates to the MacBook Pro, and as expected repairability took a back seat. The team at iFixit did a teardown and found a bunch of repairability problems, awarding the machine with a 2 out of 10 repairability score. Yes it's possible to take the machine apart, but most of the parts are soldered on and basically non-replaceable except by uber-experts.

make free energy with spark plug using light bulb real free electricity generator

(Fri Jul 12 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Can you make free electricity out of thin wire just by wrapping a couple spark plugs with wire, then passing a magnet nearby? Probably not. I can't for the life of me see why this would do anything. But it would be simple enough to replicate this effect if it is real.

DIY Hack using Home Depot parts digitally scan film negatives using a regular camera

(Thu Jul 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Scanning film negatives using a DSLR does not require using a tripod. It's possible to repurpose some items from Home Depot to build a stand along with a macro lens on a regular DSLR. The process also does not require special software, just a preset in Lightroom.

How YouTube radicalizes folks to Alt-Right views with the algorithm

(Wed Jul 10 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) YouTube's algorithm to select content you're likely to watch is amazing, and very useful. It's easy to just head to the YouTube home page, and voila there's a bunch of recommended content some of which is surely of interest. Google is investing a lot of money in AI algorithms to drive content recommendation on YouTube, and YouTube's popularity is largely driven by those recommendations. But it's possible to rabbit-hole into specific content areas, and then suddenly the entire body of information you see is within that topic bubble, and it tends to affect ones thinking.

A simple method to digitally scan film negatives using a regular camera and Negative Lab Pro

(Wed Jul 10 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Some of us still shoot with film, and lots of us have old film lying around that we want to scan to digital. There are labs who will scan film to digital files, and there are bulky scanners that do the same. But neither work well in the field. This method requires a regular tripod, a film holder, and some software.

Google taking larger chunk of search traffic, squeezing organic clicks to sites

(Mon Jul 08 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) It seems that Google is hijacking organic search results, and instead preferencing its own properties. While we can wail and moan and wave our hands about how the design of the Google search result page is preferencing Google's properties, there's nothing like real data. Like some graphs collected by Sparktoro showing clearly a slow trend to squeeze out organic search results in preference to Google's properties.

Apple ditching butterfly keyboard, validating rumor of multiple MacBook's on the way

(Thu Jul 04 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Apple has a long history of laptop design mistakes, for example the display cable that breaks necessitating an expensive repair job. The Butterfly keyboard was one of those mistakes, that Apple fans have long complained about. News is that Apple is introducing a new keyboard design, and clues point to a wildly different sort of keyboard involving flexible glass. Think Different!

Avoid using Alexa, it remembers everything you tell it

(Wed Jul 03 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Alexa is a nice service from Amazon, being a box where you can ask questions and request that Amazon (or partners) perform services. That's a nice application of voice recognition and artificial intelligence. We get a voice activatable information robot that can perform our bidding. You might not remember asking Alexa to start the charging station on your car, but it turns out that Alexa records every query or command it services.

Tweets are interstate communication, making us liable for federal crimes

(Wed Jul 03 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Feeling angry about something and letting off steam on Twitter? According to US Federal Prosecutors, twitter posts and presumably facebook et al are interstate communications. If that posting can be interpreted as a threat or other illegal communication, you have therefore used interstate communications to transmit a threat - which is a federal felony.

Do not buy a MacBook Pro until watching this video

(Tue Jul 02 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Since 2015 it seems that Apple has careened from one major hardware flaw to another major hardware flaw in the MacBook Pro line. Either it's a horrible keyboard design, or a ribbon cable that breaks rendering the display useless and requiring an expensive repair, or various other hardware flaws. The attached video is from a prominent expert at repairing broken Apple hardware, and gives more details than you want to know about Apple's failure at designing reliable laptop computers. I think he goes overboard in this video, but the information is spot on with technically deep explanation of why one should avoid the newer MacBook machines.

Building a touch screen fake MacBook Pro laptop

(Tue Jul 02 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) The Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop makes a good Hackintosh, according to the attached video. It even supports touch screen on Mac OS X - a feature I've wanted since the mid 2000's. We do know that Dell computers tend to be big and heavy, and this is a 15" Dell, so it's probably the opposite of the thin sleekness we covet from Apple. But hey the video makes it look like a good choice.

Google is bad at social network services, on purpose

(Tue Jul 02 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Google has a history of failure in social networking. Google+ was killed recently, and before that Google killed Orkut and Buzz. Instead Google is very good at developing tools and utilities. Should Google refocus on social networks? Or should Google continue down its path?

Cleared Google notification of mobile responsiveness issues, traffic did not rebound

(Mon Jul 01 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) In April I noticed a sudden drop-off in traffic to one of my sites which was coupled with a Google notification that the site in question had mobile responsiveness issues. After a couple months of work the mobile responsiveness issues have been fixed to Google's satisfaction, but traffic to the site has not rebounded. The site is full of very important content that I believe could make a positive difference in the world, and my goal is getting the traffic to return.

Google and Facebook control 70% of web traffic, and are favoring major websites

(Mon Jul 01 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) The web has long been a place where anyone can launch a website, and thereby have their own soapbox from which to speak the message singing from their heart. But it has become harder and harder over the years for the small scale website to continue reaching an audience. The major gatekeepers on spreading our message have become Facebook, Google, and similar sites, and those gatekeepers are increasingly favoring major outlets owned by the major media conglomerates.

ARM based MacBook Pro, iMac, or Mac Pro, does not look promising to software developers

(Sat Jun 29 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Reportedly Apple is planning to switch Mac's to ARM processors sooner or later. More power to Apple, it is their platform and they can surely make whatever decision they like. With the announcement of iPadOS 13 it looks like Apple wants to blur the iPad experience with capabilities currently relegated to desktops and laptops. It looks very cool so far, but as a software developer I need a command line and a bunch of other stuff. And, I have several serious issues to raise that will make the job of writing software harder on a non-x86 CPU laptop.

A Ukrainian YouTuber summarizes memories from other Ukrainians about Chernobyl accident

(Sat Jun 29 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) There are lots of eyewitness accounts about the Chernobyl accident available online, but they're written in Ukrainian or Russian. Unless you know the key phrases in Russian for the Chernobyl accident, Google won't show you these accounts. This Ukrainian YouTuber who is also fluent in Russian and knows English found these accounts, and summarizes them for us. The video is also full of authentic pictures from the Chernobyl reactor both before, during and after the Chernobyl accident.

Does the seven new MacBook models mean the ARM MacBook is on the way?

(Sat Jun 29 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) According to tech journalists that track this sort of thing, Apple registered seven new laptop product models in the Eurasian Economic Commission database. Of course there is no official news about what this means, but there are some guesses. Those include the long-rumored conversion to ARM-based Mac desktop computers. So lets talk about ARM based Mac desktops.

Building a fake MacBook Pro while complaining about cliquey Apple fans

(Fri Jun 28 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Are Apple products only for high end customers who can pay premium prices? Apple is surely chasing after such people, with high prices and pristinely designed software and hardware. To folks that can't afford those prices, it can feel like being pushed out of a special clique by the snobs who are inside the clique. There are two approaches to avoiding the premium price while being able to use Apple hardware and software. There's the approach I take, and the approach shown in the attached video.

A Russian tells us about Russian Media response to HBO's Chernobyl mini-series

(Mon Jun 17 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Recently HBO aired a mini-series about the Chernobyl disaster, and Russian news media has reacted badly to this. The video names a bunch of problems named in Russian news media about the Chernobyl mini-series. It is suggested the news media is reacting badly because first that most of it is controlled by the Russian Government, and secondly because the mini-series undermines decades of work by Russia to give themselves a good image. The HBO Chernobyl series showed the ugly side of the USSR regime.

The allure of digital serfdom is a fiction created by big business owners

(Mon Jun 17 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Every few months I come across a new YouTube video complaining about how hard it is today to earn a living through making YouTube videos. I feel for those making the complaint, but I also remember my struggles in what I call Digital Serfdom. YouTube is just one of many web sites over the years offering us the chance to post content to the site, and the site owner will direct a stream of revenue our way. The complaints made by these modern YouTubers are nothing new.

Is everyone really leaving YouTube? Or is it just a few whiners who are leaving?

(Mon Jun 17 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) For months a chorus of YouTube creators have complained about the adpocalypse and how demonetization is drying up YouTube revenue for many. A new video claims "everyone" is leaving YouTube, and to prove the point glues together snippets from a dozen or two YouTube creators complaining about the changing climate on YouTube. Many are complaining about a lack of control, and how YouTube is supposedly applying one standard to individual YouTube creators and a completely different standard to big name media channels. While there are clear indications that YouTube is shifting focus towards big media players, the individual YouTube creators should never have put themselves in the position of depending 100% on Google's largesse.

How to Make a powerful DIY wind generator from an old e-bike motor

(Sun Jun 16 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) This video shows a DIY project to build a wind generator using an old electric bicycle hub motor. While the design has a couple flaws - such as how to avoid twisting the power cord around the mast - the result was able to provide power to run this guys entire house.

Deep dive into symbology of The Matrix

(Sat Jun 15 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) If, like me, you watched Matrix a few dozen times at least, you're interested in all the symbolism. This video goes way into the details of the first movie of the three. There is lots of details, some of which were new to me.

Using iPadOS v13 as a desktop offers mind-bending experience

(Thu Jun 13 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) The latest exploration of iPadOS 13 capabilities is how well it works as a proper desktop user experience. That is, what if we connect it to an external display, external mouse, and external keyboard, along with a couple portable disk drives? Bottom line is it all works, beckoning the possibility that iPad's can be used for more of what we currently do on regular laptop computers.

A YouTuber spends two days in the Chernobyl exclusion zone

(Wed Jun 12 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) While the area around the Chernobyl disaster site is an exclusion zone, it is possible to book a trip into that area. Besides the broken reactors, there is a large area which used to be occupied by humans. There are old houses and old apartment buildings and old schools and everything else that went with humans living in a town somewhere. The sense this video-maker takes away is what would a post-apocalyptic world look like?

Naysayers of 2019 Mac Pro are wrong

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Apple finally released a proper modular Mac Pro computer, again. The new Mac Pro has a design reminiscent of both the 2009-2012 Mac Pro and the old G4 Mac Cube. It is extremely customizable, easy to open up and fiddle with the interior, and the maximum specs are way beyond belief. But, the price is putting people off in a big way, especially the price for the corresponding monitor. The chorus of naysayers are, however, wrong, and are clearly not the intended market for the new Mac Pro.

BBC's coverage of Chernobyl disaster immediately afterwards

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) The USSR did not publicly disclose the Chernobyl accident until Sweden detected a large increase in radioactivity. The BBC put together this excellent news program within a couple days of the USSR admitting to the accident. This report shows the alarm people had at the time. As one of the interviewees pointed out, for radiation to be detectable 700+ miles away in Sweden, there must have been a considerable release at the Chernobyl site. But it's also clear the people speaking in the report were making best guesses because there was no solid concrete information available at the time this report was made. The last thing said in this report is especially telling -- the speaker guesses that the reactor which exploded is a boiling water reactor, a design that's popular around the world. He goes on to say that even for a reactor with a containment building -- the Chernobyl reactor had no containment building -- the economic consequences of a major meltdown accident would be enormous. The Fukushima nuclear disaster of a few years ago proves that point, as the Japanese Government is spending major megabucks cleaning up the site, and they have a 40 year project ahead of them completing that cleanup. There are whole new technologies that must be develop to do the cleanup. And in the meantime there is an exclusion zone of a hundred of square miles or more in Japan.

The human cost of cleaning up the Chernobyl disaster, told by one of the workers

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) The cleanup operation at Chernobyl attempted to use "robots" to cleanup highly radioactive debris, to spare humans from the task. Humans with experience working around radioactive debris were valuable, and had to be preserved for as long as possible. But in the area of the worst radioactive debris, where extremely radioactive graphite had fallen from the core of the reactor, the robots failed to work. Humans had to go in themselves, wearing the most primitive of protective suits, and working for shifts lasting all of two minutes. It took 3828 men to accomplish the task.

Interview with Deputy Chief Engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) This interview, in Russian with English subtitles, allows one of the key people responsible at Chernobyl to explain what happened before, during, and after the Chernobyl explosion and subsequent disaster.

Why did the Chernobyl reactor explode? Detailed physics

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) With the recent HBO TV program, Chernobyl, we're interested in why the Chernobyl reactor exploded. The TV program did a fairly good job but this video goes deep into the weeds of how nuclear physics works.

Russia Today gives us possible propaganda about why Chernobyl blew up

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) RT News, a so-called news arm of the Russian Government, published this video describing the Chernobyl reactor explosion and the response. They showed original film and interviews with the original people. Therefore the program looks to be a truthful story about the Chernobyl disaster. However we are talking about RT News and it is possible this is propaganda.

Pripyat and the abandoned zone around Chernobyl is a patchwork of radiation and amazing wildlife

(Tue Jun 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) After the Chernobyl disaster, the Russian government ordered a large zone of land to be abandoned. Even today several thousand square kilometers have been abandoned. While folks generally do not live in the area, it is possible to travel through the area. This video is a British guy taking a tour of Pripyat, the closest city to the Chernobyl power plant. As might be expected after a city is abandoned, the remaining buildings are not in good condition, and wildlife has taken over.

iPadOS v13 a harbinger of iPads as Laptop Replacement

(Wed Jun 05 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) With Apple's iPadOS announcement there were many advances demonstrated.

How to build a solar-powered workshop

(Wed Jun 05 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) This project shows building a backyard shed that is also a sizeable workshop where all the tools and lighting is off-grid solar powered. One big time-saver is buying a shed from Tuff-Shed, because they send out a team who will install the shed in a few hours. Beyond that solar panels were installed on the roof, the inside was painted and a custom workbench installed and a nice shelving system installed.

How to Make the Ultimate 18650 Power Bank with Infinitely Expandable Capacity

(Sun Jun 02 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Why should commercially made power banks be so expensive and so small? This DIY powerbank can be built by anyone at a fraction of the price of commercially made power banks. This unit can power not just USB devices, but 120 volt AC devices, it charges over USB or USB-C, and contains voltage displays. This plan reuses a lot of commercially made components. What makes it work is some highly customized 3D-printed parts from which the case is built.

Living the Apple ecosystem without giving money to Apple

(Sun Jun 02 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) For years I've only owned Apple equipment. This started around 2000, I knew the Mac OS X Public Beta was around the corner so I bought a Powerbook and lived with OS 9 for a few months until the OS X Public Beta came out. Apple promised Unix with a Pretty Face, that also supported Java, and that hit enough buttons for me that I wanted in. Since then I've owned Powerbooks, Mac Mini's, and MacBook Pro's, plus a couple iPads and iPods, and I'm on my third iPhone. But it's been five years or more since I bought anything direct from Apple, and I doubt I ever will buy anything again direct from Apple. I buy good quality equipment originally made by Apple, I use Apple's operating systems and software, all at a fraction of what Apple charges because I am not paying the Apple Premium.

Checking and reapplying thermal paste can save your laptop from untimely death

(Tue May 28 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) For a couple years my laptop had its fans running at high speed. I didn't think much about it, until I started looking at the health of the SSD. According to the SSD status app, the SSD was suffering from heat. After finding an app to report CPU temperature, I was alarmed to see it routinely above 80 degrees C. That's really bad. Cleaning the output vents helped, as did decreasing some background tasks. But checking the heatsink grease, a.k.a. thermal paste, and applying new grease, has made a huge difference.

How to make wireless LED's, no battery needed

(Sun May 26 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) In Tokyo a product was found, LED's that can receive power wirelessly. The LED's are meant to be put into robot statues -- think the Japanese Manga Robots -- so the robot can light up without needing batteries or wires. That led Scotty from Strange Parts to explore how it was done, and in general how to do wireless power transmission.

The use of Facebook advertising knows no bounds of decency

(Mon Apr 29 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Mothers Day is coming up and therefore the Merchants of Gifts are out in force trying to get us to spend money on gushy thingies for our Mothers. And yes, our Mothers sure put up with a lot to get us to where we are, and deserve all our thanks. However this advertisement that popped up in my Facebook news stream is more than intrusive, and it demonstrates the lengths to which some advertisers will go to sell things.

Intermediate result fixing mobile usability problems after Google enforced mobile-friendly web design as a search ranking factor

(Sun Apr 14 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Last week I saw an ominous drop in traffic on one of my sites that was related to Google starting to enforce mobile-friendly web design on the site. Google has long warned it would start looking at mobile-responsiveness and use it as a ranking factor in search results. My site wasn't too bad in this regard, but some of the pages were outright horrible on mobile devices. Not all pages, only some. I've spent most of the last week working on the issues, and have an intermediate result to show.

How to disable Intel ME - the hidden computer inside your computer that might be a secret backdoor

(Thu Apr 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Hidden inside Intel CPU's is a whole other computer system, the Intel Management Engine, or Intel ME, that watches over the computer. It is running an embedded Minix operating system, and has massive privileges over everything running inside the computers. Some fear this hidden computer is a hidden backdoor inside Intel CPU's. This video claims to show how to disable the Intel ME computer, but the process is absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Re-uploading creative commons videos to YouTube is risky idea that might make you money

(Mon Apr 08 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) A trending topic on YouTube currently is videos describing how to make a ton of money on YouTube without even shooting any videos. It's a gimmick in which one finds videos that are Creative Commons, which in theory allows free reuse of the video because that's the purpose of the Creative Commons License. What one is to do is download Creative Commons videos, then either make a compilation video, or simply re-upload the entire video, claiming the videos are Creative Commons and it's all okay. In theory this is sound, but in practice there are problems.

Google starting to enforce mobile-friendly web design as a search ranking factor

(Fri Apr 05 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) This week the traffic to one of my sites is exhibiting a steep traffic fall-off. For years it has had a solid 1000 visitors per day, or so, and at the beginning of March the traffic started to slowly diminish, then on Wednesday April 3 the traffic fell off steeply. Usually this site has a fall-off on the weekends, so this particular change is ominous. In the Google Webmasters tools is a clue - that at the beginning of March there is suddenly many reports of mobile usability issues. The two are likely connected as Google has long warned of a plan to downgrade sites that are not mobile friendly.

Sen. Warren seeking to break up Apple, after calling for Facebook/Amazon/et/al breakup

(Mon Mar 11 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Last week Sen. Warren (and Presidential hopeful) called for the breakup of three Tech Giants, Facebook, Amazon and Google. Warren noted that each has an outsized amount of power, and are dominating market areas, and are stifling competition. In an interview over the weekend Warren added Apple to the list of targets.

Google Adsense shows ad leading to site Google knows is bad/dangerous - WTF?

(Sat Mar 09 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) I just clicked on a Google Adsense ad - the ad text made me curious - and immediately shown a WARNING screen of a "Deceptive Site Ahead" that might install malware etc. It is nice that Chrome is there ready to shout "Warning! Warning! Danger Bill Robinson!" But -- I got to that screen by clicking an ad hosted by Google Adsense. Doesn't one hand of Google know that the other hand of Google has said that site is dangerous? Why doesn't Google block advertising that leads to dangerous sites?

Sen. Warren seeking to break up Facebook/Amazon/et/al just like previous generation broke up Ma Bell (AT&T)

(Fri Mar 08 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Today Sen. Elizabeth posted a manifesto saying Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc, are too big, monopolistic, have too much control over commerce and society, and therefore the government needs to step in and break them up. Cue howls of protests from Libertarians, I suppose?

Facebook promises 'A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking'

(Thu Mar 07 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Everyone should be worried about their privacy while using Facebook. Facebook is selling information it collects from us to advertisers, and has routinely allowed organizations of all stripes to collect an astonishing amount of data through the Facebook API. The evidence is piling up, and the users are looking for alternative social networks. If enough of us are spooked by Facebook's actions there might be a mass exodus to someplace else. I hear MeWe is a nice place with great policies. In that context, Facebook posted today an outline for improving privacy on Facebook.

Apple quietly fixes MacBook Pro 'Flexgate' design flaw -- leaving owners of 2015-2017 MBP's hanging

(Thu Mar 07 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) Apple's quest for ever-thinner-lighter computers led Apple Engineers to a design flaw in recent MacBook Pro models. The flaw caused the display to stop working reliably after a few months of use, in that one would open the laptop lid and the display would be fine until opened "too wide" at which point the display would shut off. In other cases the display had a theater-lighting effect. Yesterday it is reported from several sources that Apple has fixed this problem in the 2018 MacBook Pro model year, but is not even admitting to the problem in 2015-2017 models..

Scotty at Strange Parts opens the door into how YouTube Creators build their business

(Sun Feb 24 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) With news of a new YouTube Adpocalypse, it's a good idea to consider what a YouTube creator goes through to build their presence in the world. Today, Scotty at Strange Parts, whose videos have appeared on TechSparx several times, posted a video talking about his plans to develop the Strange Parts channel into a proper information production business. The Strange Parts channel started with what might have been a flash in the pan, showing how to build an iPhone 6 from spare parts, but Scotty has developed a vision of exploring the world of companies building the parts that go into the products we buy in stores. To implement that vision he has transitioned from a solo-enterprise to having employees, and in this video we are told a large part of the story.

Example YouTube advertising revenue decline -- but YouTube huckster ignores adpocalypse

(Sun Feb 24 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)) With the cries of YouTube Adpocalypse, let's take a look at one YouTube Creator's advertising revenue. This comes from yet another "Make Money Online" video stressing the potential of uploading videos to YouTube. As "proof of income" the guy shows his 2018 revenue, and completely skips over the huge revenue drop starting in mid-2018