• 4 Posts
  • 656 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: August 5th, 2023

help-circle
  • My main concerns are mostly to do with the fact that Google in my experience has always had the benefit of enticing software and services that are extremely invasive but also very convenient (even if we remove IoT from the table for a moment). This is mostly due to how invasive Google Play Services is, and how invasive the Google app has been since the first iterations of Google Assistant (Google Now). I’m concerned that even those of use who have done what we can to turn off Gemini and not use Generative AI are still compromised regardless because big tech has a choke hold on the services we use.

    So I suppose I’m trying to understand what the differences are in how these two types of technology compromise cyber security.



  • Pre-Generative AI, lots of companies had AI/Algorithmic tools that posed a risk to personal cyber security (Google’s Assistant and Apple’s Siri, MS’s Cortana etc).

    Is the stance here that AI is more dangerous than those because of its black box nature, it’s poor guardrails, the fact that it’s a developing technology, or it’s unfettered access?

    Also, do you think that the “popularity” of Google Gemini is because people were already indoctrinated into the Assistant ecosystem before it became Gemini, and Google already had a stranglehold on the search market so the integration of Gemini into those services isn’t seen as dangerous because people are already reliant and Google is a known brand rather than a new “startup”.




  • The box was there. Where the keyboard is supposed to be. But the keyboard was not there. I couldn’t get the box where they keyboard should be to go away with gesture controls, and I couldn’t get the keyboard to actually display. I restarted and it was still happening in every app (including Google’s apps). It persisted when I restarted in safe mode so I went in and force stopped the Gboard app and then cleared storage and cache. That did the trick and the fix persisted when I restarted into regular android again.






  • We have a wireless Android Auto dongle. And it takes an age to auto connect. Not to mention the problems with it still wanting us to pull over and put the car in park to switch, something I thought would be circumvented when I bought it but somehow is not. Usually it’s the person in the passenger seat trying to change something and not being able to. I’m not advocating for distracted driving. I’m pointing out that someone else in the vehicle who’s not driving can’t interact to change certain things even though it’s perfectly safe for them to do so.



  • I have equally bad experiences with both Android Auto and Apple Carplay. I don’t really want either and am fine with what I’ve got (only 1/3 of the cars I own even has Carplay/Android Auto). I mostly dislike how it’s been implemented with “safety controls” that require the phone to be plugged into the infotainment center in some cars and the requirement that I only connect it while at a stop with the car in park. If someone is driving with me and they want to change to their phone I have to pull over and that’s stupid.

    The infotainment centers themselves with their stupid touch screens and lack of buttons are where my real problems start, and the end with the tracking BS and telemetry data. You can keep the new cars. I don’t want them.