Mittwoch

More lost privacy. 404 reports that Flock Safety, an automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company, “is building a product that will use people lookup tools, data brokers, and data breaches to ‘jump from LPR [license plate reader] to person,’ allowing police to much more easily identify and track the movements of specific people around the country without a warrant or court order, according to internal Flock presentation slides, Slack chats, and meeting audio obtained by 404 Media.” I wonder if Flock is downstream from the kind of surveillance that 404 allows through its participation in surveillance-based adtech. Look here. (Not as bad as some, but still a spreading delta of personal data leakage.)

A small catch. Software Update for my Apple Watch requires entering a passcode on the watch which the watch does not provide a way to enter while it’s on its charger. The app says it’s “verifying…,” suggesting that something is updating, but it will fail. Clues?

I love Edit All Categories in Wordland, which I’m writing in now. My blog on WordPress has been around since ’07, so I’ve accumulated a lot of categories, but I just added one more: Questions, for the post below.

A question for those who know: How can one tell which of their posts on Medium are, or are not, behind paywalls?

Final Four. Except for watching Jayson Tatum go down with one of the worst wounds in sports, I’ve enjoyed the NBA playoffs so far. Last night’s game between the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder was brilliant. So was watching the Indiana Pacers eliminate the highly favored Cleveland Cavaliers in just five games. And so will be watching the New York Knicks finish off the equally favored Boston Celtics tonight (though I kinda hope this Celtics team wins a final one for the home crowd tonight, so the Knicks can win the final game of the series in front of their home crowd this weekend). Meanwhile, I expect the Minnesota Timberwolves to finish off the Curry-less Golden State Warriors. Wolves vs. Thunder and Pacers vs. Knicks should be games for the ages. By the way, while I’m a lifelong Knicks fan, I was a season ticket holder for the Warriors in the Run TMC era, and began digging the Celtics as well, starting when I came to Boston in ’07. And now I’m living in Indiana, where basketball, Pacers, and Fever fever all run high.

I took three years of German in high school and gave them all back when I was done. But I do remember that Mitwoch is Wednesday, auf Deutsch.