Apple Pay With Express Transit Mode Now Accepted on San Diego Transit https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/20/apple-pay-express-transit-mode-san-diego-transit/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
#Motorcycle rider, #Gearhead, #Tech geek, #Ducati #Triumph #RoyalEnfield owner. He/him
Apple Pay With Express Transit Mode Now Accepted on San Diego Transit https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/20/apple-pay-express-transit-mode-san-diego-transit/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
This is beyond…
#LeMonde reporting that a French scientist traveling to Houston to attend a conference was denied entry to #US after a #search of his #phone & #computer revealed messages critical of #Trump's #science cuts, "which [says #CPB] conveyed hatred of Trump & could be qualified as terrorism". Computer confiscated.
#law #geopolitics #USpol #authoritarianism #dictatorship #FreeSpeech #ThoughtPolice #Nazis #ViewpointDiscrimination
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/03/19/etats-unis-un-chercheur-francais-refoule-pour-avoir-exprime-une-opinion-personnelle-sur-la-politique-menee-par-l-administration-trump_6583618_3210.html
New PebbleOS watches with more battery and familiar looks are up for preorder
Shipping in July and December, with far more battery life and newer chips.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/new-pebbleos-watches-with-more-battery-and-familiar-looks-are-up-for-preorder/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
New Pebble watches! https://www.theverge.com/news/631657/pebble-watch-core-devices-duo-2-time-2
The first new Pebble smartwatches are coming later this year https://www.theverge.com/news/631657/pebble-watch-core-devices-duo-2-time-2
Your regular reminder not to blindly trust things on social media. Double check before reposting. Just because you’re not right wing doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to misinformation and propaganda etc.
It hurts my heart to say this, but if you were planning to vacation in the USA from abroad, don't come. In addition to what might happen at the border, our national parks & public spaces are so incredibly understaffed. For your own safety, & to protect our national parks, don't come.
A local television station in Tennessee is warning nebulously about a "new type of card stealing scam," without actually explaining what the new scam is (spoiler: I'm going to tell you). According to the story, the scam involves a novel "tap to pay" type of fraud.
“From what I understand, this may be one of the first or earliest arrests of this type of situation in the country,” Binkley said.
The story also noted that 11 people had been arrested as allegedly involved in the scam.
These facts lead me to believe that what we're seeing here is the materialization in the United States of a software-as-a-service offering that allows thieves to relay a valid NFC (tap-to-pay) transaction from mobile devices halfway around the world.
As I explained at length last month, this innovation is being driven by Chinese phishing groups that have largely been responsible for all the toll phishing and USPS phishing scams that arrive by instant message on your mobile device.
These are not SMS messages. They are being sent through Google and Apple phones and bypass the mobile provider networks entirely. When fraudsters successfully phish card data from victims, they then tell the victim their bank needs to verify the transaction and will send a one-time code. If the victim then provides that one-time code, the phishers will use to enroll the victim's card into a mobile wallet tied to a Google or Apple phone.
The fraudsters who are selling these phishing kits also sell the software for relaying NFC transactions from these compromised cards/devices.
A number of people in Singapore have been arrested for trying to use this "ghost tap" software at electronics retailers. AFAIK, This is the first case I'm aware of in the United States that's been documented in the media.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/how-phished-data-turns-into-apple-google-wallets/
Because it was time, I have -- finally! -- created a FAQ for the church, to answer most of the questions that come up whenever I mention that indeed, I own a church. The FAQ also has lots of pictures so you can see what it looks like now. Check it out:
Is your Windows gaming PC suddenly complaining it's got a "HackTool" called "WinRing0" on board? Mine did, and I dug into it. Turns out it's underpinning *loads* of popular PC monitoring software, and Microsoft is holding all the cards.
https://www.theverge.com/report/629259/winring0-windows-defender-fan-control-pc-monitoring-alert-quarantine
OH yeah love ending my workday with a surprise National Geographic interview about the Saturn moons that I helped discover by accidentally pointing the CFHT telescope at Saturn. Definitely my most scientifically productive whoopsie ever.
128!!!! New!!! MOONS!!
Happy Moon Day!
Trump last week at Joint Address: We ended the last admin's insane electric vehicle mandate.
[Americans stop buying Teslas]
Trump this week: Why won't you people buy Tesla's electric vehicles??
Ideally POTUS & the world's most incompetent person are two different people. Simply not the case here.
Texas bill would make identifying as transgender a state jail felony
Trans people are less than 1 percent of the population. It makes them such a useful scapegoat...even taking all their family and loved ones into account it's a group that has great trouble fighting back in large number...but worse, it's being used as well as a wedge to go after everybody on the LGBTQA spectrum...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation posts a reminder that "Yes, You Have the Right to Film ICE" -- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/yes-you-have-right-film-ice
At this point, we arguably have a duty to film ICE.
It strikes me as an academic question whether Trump is or isn't formally a Russian asset. The important thing is that he ACTS as though he is. And, as Trump's actions increasingly benefit America's long term foe, you've got to ask when the country will wake up and defend what's left from the recently installed enemy within. Right now Putin is winning the eighty year conflict.
You know why we Germans are so pedantic about data protection? Someone around 90 years ago went through all records available, selected people with certain criteria, with the help of IBM, and then killed them all.
We don't want to be on any list.
And now the US Gov and Musk are trying to get access to all data they have about every person and put them into a big fat DB and run AI over it.
I am afraid what they will do with that.
Volkswagen's lead designer says the move away from physical buttons in the company's cars for touch screens has been 'a mistake.' https://www.pcmag.com/news/volkswagen-to-bring-back-physical-buttons-to-all-vehicles
Rosemary is back at the Federal Building in Pittsburgh,
53 years later
I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor:
What explains more of #MAGA’s hate of #Zelenskyy than Russian connections is their grievance of him.
MAGA is a cult of #manhood, but its led by these crooks who amassed their wealth or power in dishonest ways. And on some level they have to recognise what they are; thieves, bullies and liars.
”Every time a JD Vance sees a Zelenskyy he sees a better man.”
And they rage about it. They are petty, weak men using power to erase proof that better men exist.