The cordless phone frequencies have changed over the years. I now have a Panasonic cordless which probably is the best one I've owned over the years. The cordless prior to this one operated very close to the WiFi frequencies and in certain situations would cause trouble with the computer wireless peripherals. It took a long time to figure that one out because I was trying to troubleshoot the mouse and keyboard when I should have been concentrating on the cordless phone. One day I ran across an article that described my problem. Their solution was to replace the cordless phone with one of the latest (at the time) because it used a higher frequency band than the phone I had. That didn't make sense to me because I didn't think the frequency bands were that close together, but replacing the phone fixed the problem. The Panasonic cordless must be close to ten years old by now and the range on it is a couple hundred feet depending on the terrain.
I'm glad that you feel comfortable with your Echo. It's more than likely no threat at all. There are people who believe that the microphone and the cameras in trier smartphones are disabled when the phone is shut off. I'm guessing a lot of them also have no qualms about Alexa listening for it's name to be spoken. However Alexa hears EVERYTHING while listening for its name to be spoken. I give that situation about the same amount of trust I give to my Google phone. It too is only listening for it's name to be spoken.
Reeading on Easter Morning
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Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
When I was working on pinballs and video games, I was also chatting on my 2-meter radio while at work.
I needed to be hands free in order to chat while working.
I got a little toy fire truck that worked on simple voice commands. The commands were simple, Go, Stop, Right, Left, Back.
I took the module out of the truck, since that was all I needed, and used the two wires to the motor to key my mike. Saying Go would key the mike and keep it on until I said Stop. I couldn't use right or left because they were only momentary, only held long enough for the truck to make a 45 degree turn, then would go back to center. Back was also only momentary for about 5 seconds.
From playing with it, since I hated saying the word Stop over the air to turn off the mike, I found I could just say Op and it worked.
Like you said, it was listening all the time, so when I would tell someone to Go get something for me, my mike would turn on.
After a few months of using this, I found another toy with a similar system, which had a lot more words. It was a Tank I think, I just bought the replacement module is all, not the housing. The key words I used were Up and Down as the ones that made the most sense to use. It too had Right, Left, Forward, Reverse, Fire, Up and Down were for the cannon on a tank, or possibly a ladder on a fire truck.
It only worked right for about 6 months, but then a fellow ham stopped by and gave me headset he had made that used the words Speak, and Over to unkey the mike. It also had volume up, and volume down, which was cool. He didn't charge me for it either! But he did want both of my older control modules in exchange, which was A-OK with me.
I needed to be hands free in order to chat while working.
I got a little toy fire truck that worked on simple voice commands. The commands were simple, Go, Stop, Right, Left, Back.
I took the module out of the truck, since that was all I needed, and used the two wires to the motor to key my mike. Saying Go would key the mike and keep it on until I said Stop. I couldn't use right or left because they were only momentary, only held long enough for the truck to make a 45 degree turn, then would go back to center. Back was also only momentary for about 5 seconds.
From playing with it, since I hated saying the word Stop over the air to turn off the mike, I found I could just say Op and it worked.
Like you said, it was listening all the time, so when I would tell someone to Go get something for me, my mike would turn on.
After a few months of using this, I found another toy with a similar system, which had a lot more words. It was a Tank I think, I just bought the replacement module is all, not the housing. The key words I used were Up and Down as the ones that made the most sense to use. It too had Right, Left, Forward, Reverse, Fire, Up and Down were for the cannon on a tank, or possibly a ladder on a fire truck.
It only worked right for about 6 months, but then a fellow ham stopped by and gave me headset he had made that used the words Speak, and Over to unkey the mike. It also had volume up, and volume down, which was cool. He didn't charge me for it either! But he did want both of my older control modules in exchange, which was A-OK with me.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
The take away from your story is that voice recognition has been around for a very long time. Back at the Big M when CDMA was its thing, I took a class that explained how it all worked. The bottom line was that they had to reproduce voice on the receiving end by using a digitized input signal. Thus every word spoken on the sending end had to be translated into a digital representation of a syllable. While Motorola had a very clear edge on voice reproduction, they did mention a few problems still had to be worked out. For example it was hard to distinguish "Stop" from "op" and it got really difficult when trying to make the distinction by using people with various accents to create the correct words. I also learned something totally unexpected in that class. The Illinois DMV used that digital voice recognition code to come up with a prefix number of your driver's license. Mine was B600. I told this to a friend of mine who had a similar last name, and sure enough. His license prefix was the same as mine.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
I'm sure voice recognition was a complex thing to solve. Remember Dragon Speak? I had it, it never worked very well, hi hi.
Speaking of DMV - I knew the CODE for the original Missouri Drivers licenses. Won many a bet because of it too!
I could tell you the last four digits of your drivers license number if I only knew the month and day you were born, and I had to know if they were male of female also, which you usually do when talking to someone face to face, hi hi.
At one time I could also tell them the first four digits of their drivers license if they gave me the first four letters of the last name.
The first letter before the next three digits was easy, it was ALWAYS the first letter of your last name, but then a code was used for the next three numbers. Missouri Drivers licenses had four groups of four numbers, except the first group had a letter as the first character.
Speaking of DMV - I knew the CODE for the original Missouri Drivers licenses. Won many a bet because of it too!
I could tell you the last four digits of your drivers license number if I only knew the month and day you were born, and I had to know if they were male of female also, which you usually do when talking to someone face to face, hi hi.
At one time I could also tell them the first four digits of their drivers license if they gave me the first four letters of the last name.
The first letter before the next three digits was easy, it was ALWAYS the first letter of your last name, but then a code was used for the next three numbers. Missouri Drivers licenses had four groups of four numbers, except the first group had a letter as the first character.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Your reply reads as if Missouri is/was doing the same thing as Illinois with the drivers license number. Perhaps it's some kind of national standard. I also was familiar with DACs before I took the class at Motorola, but I had no idea that kind of information was part of my drivers license. Apparently credit cards have something similar, i.e., 4 groups of 4 digits. The first four identify the issuing company and the next two groups have some kind of standard information encoded into it. Only the last group of four is the unique serial number. It would seem easy enough to crack, but apparently it's not. People are still stealing the hard coded numbers.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Do you remember your IL drivers license number?
Or maybe just the last 3 digits?
My MO drivers license number was D057 7906 9702 5682.
I only asked folks the month and day they were born, never the year, you can get slugged doing that, hi hi.
This worked for any MO drivers license, until they switched to SSN instead, and then that irked the government, so they switched to yet another system, so this no longer worked after that.
But here was the trick to get any persons last three numbers of their drivers license.
Take the month times 63, I was born in October, so 10x63=630.
Then take the day you were born and double it, I was born on the 26, so 26+26=52
Add the first answer to the second answer, 630+52=682 - This is for a Male! For a Female add 1 to the answer for a Male.
The first four digits in MO always start with a letter. My last name is Deutschmann, so the starting letter is D.
The eut form the next three numbers, but they come from a chart you can't figure out using math.
But if you know enough people and get their first four digits, you can eventually come up with your own chart.
Now for Women, the first letter and next three digits are taken from their Maiden Name, normally.
There are exceptions to this though. If they were married at the time they got their drivers license, it may be one or the other.
Also, if you last name is shorter than four letters, let's say your name was Wu, then it would be W500.
The 7906 970 or the next 7 digits are your serial number for your license.
There were only 9 states, probably 10 by now, with 10,000,000 people.
Even so, the chance of a duplicate drivers license number was nearly impossible.
Because the first four, and the last 5 digits, would have to be identical too.
Nearly all of my relatives, and almost all of the kids I went to high school with, we all memorized our drivers license number.
It was also used as an ID to be engraved into things we owned of value, to help recovery if stolen.
Then after they switched to the SSN for the drivers license, we could buy from the county and ID marker.
I had purchased the steel marking die number 62 and 64.
Even so, when my daughters bicycle got stolen, and it had the Die mark on the bottom.
The police found it, and later auctioned it off at a police auction.
I happened to be driving by and saw the auction going on and stopped because I saw my daughters bike.
They had already sold it, and the guy who bought it let me check under the hub and sure enough, it was my daughters bike.
I raised all wholly hell with the police department for selling stolen goods when they KNEW THE OWNER of the item.
Didn't do any good. They said everything they sell was recovered stolen goods that were unclaimed.
They didn't even bother to check with the county for known purchased ID numbers.
The guy who bought it would have sold it back to me, but two years after the fact, my daughter had outgrown that bike, so I let him keep it. Besides, he wanted 40 bucks more than he paid for it too, hi hi.
I also complained to the county about them charging for an ID number that the police don't even look for.
They too said, if we had the bike, we would have checked in the designated location for the number, but we too could have sold it at auction if not reclaimed. The only difference being is we would have sent a letter to the address on record for that number.
Personally, I think the county just came up with a bunch of dies somehow, possibly recovered stolen goods and decided they could sell them. At least that's the way it appeared to me after the fact.
Or maybe just the last 3 digits?
My MO drivers license number was D057 7906 9702 5682.
I only asked folks the month and day they were born, never the year, you can get slugged doing that, hi hi.
This worked for any MO drivers license, until they switched to SSN instead, and then that irked the government, so they switched to yet another system, so this no longer worked after that.
But here was the trick to get any persons last three numbers of their drivers license.
Take the month times 63, I was born in October, so 10x63=630.
Then take the day you were born and double it, I was born on the 26, so 26+26=52
Add the first answer to the second answer, 630+52=682 - This is for a Male! For a Female add 1 to the answer for a Male.
The first four digits in MO always start with a letter. My last name is Deutschmann, so the starting letter is D.
The eut form the next three numbers, but they come from a chart you can't figure out using math.
But if you know enough people and get their first four digits, you can eventually come up with your own chart.
Now for Women, the first letter and next three digits are taken from their Maiden Name, normally.
There are exceptions to this though. If they were married at the time they got their drivers license, it may be one or the other.
Also, if you last name is shorter than four letters, let's say your name was Wu, then it would be W500.
The 7906 970 or the next 7 digits are your serial number for your license.
There were only 9 states, probably 10 by now, with 10,000,000 people.
Even so, the chance of a duplicate drivers license number was nearly impossible.
Because the first four, and the last 5 digits, would have to be identical too.
Nearly all of my relatives, and almost all of the kids I went to high school with, we all memorized our drivers license number.
It was also used as an ID to be engraved into things we owned of value, to help recovery if stolen.
Then after they switched to the SSN for the drivers license, we could buy from the county and ID marker.
I had purchased the steel marking die number 62 and 64.
Even so, when my daughters bicycle got stolen, and it had the Die mark on the bottom.
The police found it, and later auctioned it off at a police auction.
I happened to be driving by and saw the auction going on and stopped because I saw my daughters bike.
They had already sold it, and the guy who bought it let me check under the hub and sure enough, it was my daughters bike.
I raised all wholly hell with the police department for selling stolen goods when they KNEW THE OWNER of the item.
Didn't do any good. They said everything they sell was recovered stolen goods that were unclaimed.
They didn't even bother to check with the county for known purchased ID numbers.
The guy who bought it would have sold it back to me, but two years after the fact, my daughter had outgrown that bike, so I let him keep it. Besides, he wanted 40 bucks more than he paid for it too, hi hi.
I also complained to the county about them charging for an ID number that the police don't even look for.
They too said, if we had the bike, we would have checked in the designated location for the number, but we too could have sold it at auction if not reclaimed. The only difference being is we would have sent a letter to the address on record for that number.
Personally, I think the county just came up with a bunch of dies somehow, possibly recovered stolen goods and decided they could sell them. At least that's the way it appeared to me after the fact.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
No, I don't have a recollection of my Illinois driver license ID number, but I do have the voided license itself. LOL When I got my first Missouri driver license they voided the one from Illinois and gave it back to me. B600 1704 4430 as compared to the MO number starting with the letter 'C' followed by 9 digits that can be provided upon request. Don't want to put them in a public forum like this. Given that the two numbers are completely different, I would assume there is no universal coding system at work here.
I don't have to tell you, but I will anyway, that there are more laws on the books than anybody can read in a single lifetime. We often hear the complaint that certain new laws are not needed because we already have the situation covered in some old unenforced laws. That argument is a total can of worms and I don't care to get into it here, but I bring it up because I know the police are well educated in the laws they are supposed to enforce. They simply don't enforce all the laws nor follow all the procedures. Lost and stolen goods would fall into that category. I read recently where law officers confiscated $1.3 billion (street value) of marijuana. That's tons of weed and I can't help but think there are some very high law enforcement officers walking around town these days. LOL I've seen tons of confiscated illegal firearms in storage too. If you know the right people in North Carolina, for example, you can have your choice anytime, day or night.
I don't have to tell you, but I will anyway, that there are more laws on the books than anybody can read in a single lifetime. We often hear the complaint that certain new laws are not needed because we already have the situation covered in some old unenforced laws. That argument is a total can of worms and I don't care to get into it here, but I bring it up because I know the police are well educated in the laws they are supposed to enforce. They simply don't enforce all the laws nor follow all the procedures. Lost and stolen goods would fall into that category. I read recently where law officers confiscated $1.3 billion (street value) of marijuana. That's tons of weed and I can't help but think there are some very high law enforcement officers walking around town these days. LOL I've seen tons of confiscated illegal firearms in storage too. If you know the right people in North Carolina, for example, you can have your choice anytime, day or night.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Right, don't put a current drivers license number on a public forum!
My TN drivers license is also 9 digits, and the exact same digits as my Class A CDL with all Endorsements.
I thought I almost figured out how they came up with the drivers license number, because they are not sequential.
But it seems to only partly work if you once had your SSN on your drivers license.
I had about 20 friends drivers license numbers, as well as their social security numbers.
On 8 of them, I could convert their SSN to their drivers license number using the same formula on all 8.
But it didn't work at all on the other 12. Then I realized, they didn't get a drivers license until after SSNs were no longer used, nor asked for. There was no way to get the SSN number back using the DL number though.
The reason for this was fairly simple. The first multiplier caused a two digit number and you only used the last digit, plus you had to add a second multiplier to the first number. Which is why two of the same digits in a row on your SSN would end up with different digits on the DL number.
Maybe if I knew what the number sections stood for, that might have helped. But I think now they are all sequential from each DMV station.
My TN drivers license is also 9 digits, and the exact same digits as my Class A CDL with all Endorsements.
I thought I almost figured out how they came up with the drivers license number, because they are not sequential.
But it seems to only partly work if you once had your SSN on your drivers license.
I had about 20 friends drivers license numbers, as well as their social security numbers.
On 8 of them, I could convert their SSN to their drivers license number using the same formula on all 8.
But it didn't work at all on the other 12. Then I realized, they didn't get a drivers license until after SSNs were no longer used, nor asked for. There was no way to get the SSN number back using the DL number though.
The reason for this was fairly simple. The first multiplier caused a two digit number and you only used the last digit, plus you had to add a second multiplier to the first number. Which is why two of the same digits in a row on your SSN would end up with different digits on the DL number.
Maybe if I knew what the number sections stood for, that might have helped. But I think now they are all sequential from each DMV station.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
I can't say what the algorithm is for determining driver license numbers. I know the system has changed since I got my first license, but I never questioned how the number was derived. With the advent of online purchasing using credit cards, the derivation of those numbers did come of interest to me. Basically I wanted to know how easy it would be for somebody to guess my credit card number. I found an explanation of it all several years ago. Each group of four digits represented something such as the card issuer, the type of card, and the date of issue. Verification takes more than the card number to complete apparently. A few times I have entered erroneous numbers, but never got a positive response. The thing of interest there was the rejection was immediate. They didn't seem to be looking up anything in their database. The numbers I entered were all they needed. So I've come to the conclusion that it's very difficult or impossible to guess a credit card number when ordering online. That's why there is such a thing as physhing for one's identity.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Here is the best example I can use to sorta explain those groups of numbers.
Let's say you are Big Company A.
And you have satellite offices where the work is actually performed, and where account numbers are assigned.
The first one or two numbers identify the number as being a part of the Big Company A group.
The next few numbers identify each of the satellite offices individually.
Now each of those individual satellite offices have a range of serial number they and only they can use.
Think of getting your license plate from the DMV offices, each office has a different set of numbers they can use.
Plus, in the case of credit cards, the numbers are not sequential like they are on license plates.
Sorta like when you ship a dozen boxes via UPS, you'll see their tracking numbers for your packages are not sequential either.
They follow a specific pattern, and part of the last number is like a checksum.
Makes it nearly impossible to guess someones credit card number. Or to come up with a fake credit card number.
When you use a credit card, the number is checked by the scanning terminal as a valid number before sending it to the main system for verification.
Debi used to work for Nova, before they changed their name to Elavon. So she knew just a little bit about how the terminals worked, since her main job was uploading new data to existing terminals.
Let's say you are Big Company A.
And you have satellite offices where the work is actually performed, and where account numbers are assigned.
The first one or two numbers identify the number as being a part of the Big Company A group.
The next few numbers identify each of the satellite offices individually.
Now each of those individual satellite offices have a range of serial number they and only they can use.
Think of getting your license plate from the DMV offices, each office has a different set of numbers they can use.
Plus, in the case of credit cards, the numbers are not sequential like they are on license plates.
Sorta like when you ship a dozen boxes via UPS, you'll see their tracking numbers for your packages are not sequential either.
They follow a specific pattern, and part of the last number is like a checksum.
Makes it nearly impossible to guess someones credit card number. Or to come up with a fake credit card number.
When you use a credit card, the number is checked by the scanning terminal as a valid number before sending it to the main system for verification.
Debi used to work for Nova, before they changed their name to Elavon. So she knew just a little bit about how the terminals worked, since her main job was uploading new data to existing terminals.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
The checksum idea makes sense given how quickly websites can detect an invalid number. Since each of us also have a marketing ID on the Internets, I'd guess they also keep track of that identity and match it with the history of credit card numbers it has been using. Any variation raises a red flag. I do my banking online which does not involve any credit card numbers, but it does involve that marketing ID number. When I make a new virtual box to do a financial transaction, my bank always detects that and sends me a 2FA challenge. When I switched to new hardware they went even further and asked a few personal questions to verify it's really me. I like what they are doing in spite of it being annoying as all get out.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
My bank does the same thing if I use a new or different computer.
But now they know all the computers I've used so I get in easily with just my password.
Like they did you to, on a different new machine to them, I will get asked five questions.
Also, if it has been more than 6 months to a year since I last used that computer with the bank.
What irks me is I don't want to change my actual password for getting in, since it is complicated to remember.
Sometimes I will get Wrong Password when I know it is right.
So they will send me a link to reset the password.
If I type in the password I like, they say, you've already used that password select another one.
I normally just cancel out of the questions and wait till the next day, and then I can get back in again with my usual password.
That only works if I tell them to e-mail me a temporary password, and then they reset it and I can't use the same old password anymore. Which is how it got so long in the first place, hi hi. I would use the old one with another word trailing.
Speaking of passwords. I happen to be up at the library on Thursday, and although I don't pay much attention to what the kids are using up there anymore. I did notice on lady about 40 in age I guess, take a card reader from her purse and plug it into one of the machines, then stuck small plastic card she had on her keychain in it. She pulled it out about 5 seconds later, then took out the little reader and put it back into her purse, then went about working on the document that came up. I wanted to ask her what it was, but she was gone by the time I got back to the front of the library.
The card she plugged into it from her keychain was the same size and style as the grocery store cards.
But now they know all the computers I've used so I get in easily with just my password.
Like they did you to, on a different new machine to them, I will get asked five questions.
Also, if it has been more than 6 months to a year since I last used that computer with the bank.
What irks me is I don't want to change my actual password for getting in, since it is complicated to remember.
Sometimes I will get Wrong Password when I know it is right.
So they will send me a link to reset the password.
If I type in the password I like, they say, you've already used that password select another one.
I normally just cancel out of the questions and wait till the next day, and then I can get back in again with my usual password.
That only works if I tell them to e-mail me a temporary password, and then they reset it and I can't use the same old password anymore. Which is how it got so long in the first place, hi hi. I would use the old one with another word trailing.
Speaking of passwords. I happen to be up at the library on Thursday, and although I don't pay much attention to what the kids are using up there anymore. I did notice on lady about 40 in age I guess, take a card reader from her purse and plug it into one of the machines, then stuck small plastic card she had on her keychain in it. She pulled it out about 5 seconds later, then took out the little reader and put it back into her purse, then went about working on the document that came up. I wanted to ask her what it was, but she was gone by the time I got back to the front of the library.
The card she plugged into it from her keychain was the same size and style as the grocery store cards.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
I can only guess what was going on with the lady at the library, but a lot of new approaches to security have been implemented during the pandemic and with all those people working on company computers from remote locations. It would be cool, for example, if my bank issued me a unique identity card which would be required for any banking transactions that did not involve a living and breathing teller. The card would be something like those dongles you needed to make certain software work back in the old days. For banking that card plus a PIN would be a fairly secure way to ascertain the identity of the person making the transaction. If there wasn't so much hype against it, I would toss in some face recognition software too. All three factors would have to match in order to get into my bank account. The library lady could have been doing something similar, but it's a VERY bad idea to be doing it on a library computer. Just because her identification verifies does not mean that the data she sends is safe on the library public network. That's why many work from home people are required to have VPN's installed and managed by their company. Then again, if she was using something like the TOR browser, her session would be secure because I believe it runs from inside one of those software containers we talked about elsewhere. So, my guess would be that the card and the reader were security measures for accessing whatever she was accessing. It's still a bad idea to do it from the library though.
Like yourself I become irked when websites try to force me to change my password. Some won't accept anything I've used in the past three years and require a change every six months. That seems extreme, but when you consider the proliferation of database breaches happening these days, it's not a bad idea to change that password often. I feel for you regarding the length increasing, but as I've mentioned in the past it's the number of characters more than the type of characters that make a difference. The longer the better is the rule. And it doesn't have to be complicated. A sentence that makes sense to you would do well enough if it went to 64 characters or more. You know, something like, 'ThisISmyPASSwordandi'mstickingtoit4ever"
Like yourself I become irked when websites try to force me to change my password. Some won't accept anything I've used in the past three years and require a change every six months. That seems extreme, but when you consider the proliferation of database breaches happening these days, it's not a bad idea to change that password often. I feel for you regarding the length increasing, but as I've mentioned in the past it's the number of characters more than the type of characters that make a difference. The longer the better is the rule. And it doesn't have to be complicated. A sentence that makes sense to you would do well enough if it went to 64 characters or more. You know, something like, 'ThisISmyPASSwordandi'mstickingtoit4ever"
Debian Version Listing
While monitoring my Twitter feed this evening the following article came down my timeline. We talked earlier about how to determine the version number of a Debian installation and I think I came up with a few suggestions. This article lists six (6) different ways to do it: https://vitux.com/get-debian-version/ Some of those methods were in the previous article, but there may be some new ones in here too. I don't know if any of them will give you all the information you crave, but now you know half a dozen ways to only get part of what you need to know. LOL
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
I live in the poorer area of town, and a lot of folks don't have computers, or if they do, not a fast enough connection for doing work from. Our local library has added another 18 computers in a room with a partition between each one so people who have to work from home can do it from the library. But you cannot stay there all day. They allow 2 hours with a half hour break on the computers in the special room. The ones on the floor they only allow an hour at a time, with a 10 minute break, just in case someone else needs to use it. Three of them are only used in place of the card catalog system, so not set up for anything else.
You also have to get a special access card from the librarian to use that room too.
About the only thing I've heard about VPN's is that they slow your computer down to a dead crawl.
I came up with a leading password that has an appended few characters which are different for every website I visit.
But for places like banking, credit card, etc. I use a unique password on those, different for each one and some are quite lengthy too, only because they demanded it be over a certain length and contain a few special characters.
Speaking of my wife's niece again, she unlocks her Schmartz-Fone using her thumbprint.
Now it seems to me, all one would have to do is to dust a little talcum powder on her screen and her thumbprint would be recognized, hi hi. Maybe not, but it is a thought, hi hi. Because of that thought, I told her when she was here that after her phone unlocks, she should slide her thumb off the square so it smears her thumbprint. I planned on trying my talcum idea the next time she comes, but she hasn't been here now in a long time.
I'll check out that link and give those codes a try, after I check if the codes are valid elsewhere, and let you know if one works.
You also have to get a special access card from the librarian to use that room too.
About the only thing I've heard about VPN's is that they slow your computer down to a dead crawl.
I came up with a leading password that has an appended few characters which are different for every website I visit.
But for places like banking, credit card, etc. I use a unique password on those, different for each one and some are quite lengthy too, only because they demanded it be over a certain length and contain a few special characters.
Speaking of my wife's niece again, she unlocks her Schmartz-Fone using her thumbprint.
Now it seems to me, all one would have to do is to dust a little talcum powder on her screen and her thumbprint would be recognized, hi hi. Maybe not, but it is a thought, hi hi. Because of that thought, I told her when she was here that after her phone unlocks, she should slide her thumb off the square so it smears her thumbprint. I planned on trying my talcum idea the next time she comes, but she hasn't been here now in a long time.
I'll check out that link and give those codes a try, after I check if the codes are valid elsewhere, and let you know if one works.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
OK, thank you Yogi!
None of the ones shown worked, except.
The last one, as it was displayed on that website, gave an error message, "No Such File or Directory"
Whoever wrote the instruction used a capital letter D.
I changed it to a lower case d and it then worked.
It shows I am on version 10.10 the newest!
Here is the one that worked, don't use the $ sign, just what is after it.
$ cat /etc/debian_version
gary@SilverYogi10:~$
gary@SilverYogi10:~$ cat /etc/Debian_version
cat: /etc/Debian_version: No such file or directory
gary@SilverYogi10:~$ cat /etc/debian_version
10.10
gary@SilverYogi10:~$
None of the ones shown worked, except.
The last one, as it was displayed on that website, gave an error message, "No Such File or Directory"
Whoever wrote the instruction used a capital letter D.
I changed it to a lower case d and it then worked.
It shows I am on version 10.10 the newest!
Here is the one that worked, don't use the $ sign, just what is after it.
$ cat /etc/debian_version
gary@SilverYogi10:~$
gary@SilverYogi10:~$ cat /etc/Debian_version
cat: /etc/Debian_version: No such file or directory
gary@SilverYogi10:~$ cat /etc/debian_version
10.10
gary@SilverYogi10:~$
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Well ... I'm not sure what is going on over there, but ... the webpage I see has all lower case letters in the file name, i.e, debian_version.
Linux, and Unix for that matter, always bugged me with their requirement for the directory names to be case sensitive. It makes sense for files but not so much for directories. In any case you seemed to have figured it all out and got all the information you were looking for. I think the previous commands I gave you did not show the version extension number. debian_version does contain it.
The thumbprint unlock feature is on most smartphones these days and the fact that they are easily defeated is one more reason I call them clever phones and not so smart. I read an article by a hacker that was able to lift the fingerprint off the designated spot and make a mold that would fool the smartphone every time. Of course that requires the hacker to have possession of the phone as well as the knowledge and tools to make the mold.
The smudges on the touch screen will also reveal any PIN number to an astute observer. There is a concentration of skin oil on the spots pressed to enter the PIN. Guessing the order of the 4 smudges isn't such a big challenge. I more or less have a fix for that particular flaw by playing games that require me sliding my fingers across the screen and smearing the smudges. LOL Sometimes that doesn't do well enough and a dose of Isopropyl is required to erase the evidence. About the best unlock method, methinks, would be voice recognition. Everybody has an unique voice print and every clever phone I've seen has a microphone. Should work.
Linux, and Unix for that matter, always bugged me with their requirement for the directory names to be case sensitive. It makes sense for files but not so much for directories. In any case you seemed to have figured it all out and got all the information you were looking for. I think the previous commands I gave you did not show the version extension number. debian_version does contain it.
The thumbprint unlock feature is on most smartphones these days and the fact that they are easily defeated is one more reason I call them clever phones and not so smart. I read an article by a hacker that was able to lift the fingerprint off the designated spot and make a mold that would fool the smartphone every time. Of course that requires the hacker to have possession of the phone as well as the knowledge and tools to make the mold.
The smudges on the touch screen will also reveal any PIN number to an astute observer. There is a concentration of skin oil on the spots pressed to enter the PIN. Guessing the order of the 4 smudges isn't such a big challenge. I more or less have a fix for that particular flaw by playing games that require me sliding my fingers across the screen and smearing the smudges. LOL Sometimes that doesn't do well enough and a dose of Isopropyl is required to erase the evidence. About the best unlock method, methinks, would be voice recognition. Everybody has an unique voice print and every clever phone I've seen has a microphone. Should work.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Being case sensitive for directory names allows for many more short names to be used before you run out of combinations.
You can make a thumbprint in clay or silly putty and then fill that with liquid latex and have a duplicate real fast.
Of the banking chain I use, the ATM at their downtown office uses facial recognition along with the Debit Card Pin number.
The first time my wife picked up some cash for me at that ATM, it allowed it because it was the odd amount I always get as a safety check, but they also e-mailed me and asked if I wanted her to be included as an approved user.
I said yes, but then got to thinking, she has a card issued by them which she carries, so they should have known it was OK.
We are rarely ever at the downtown main branch for much of anything. The normal one we use doesn't check you facially that I know of, I do know they are recording you while at the ATM though.
I wonder about voice recognition, mainly because I knew a few folks who could use many different voices. Even if you listen to them very closely, the tone of their voice is entirely different for each character they portray.
In some cases, it is the words they uses, but it others, it really is the sound of their voice you recognize.
That being said, maybe electronically, the vibration of their vocal cords is unique to the individual.
You can make a thumbprint in clay or silly putty and then fill that with liquid latex and have a duplicate real fast.
Of the banking chain I use, the ATM at their downtown office uses facial recognition along with the Debit Card Pin number.
The first time my wife picked up some cash for me at that ATM, it allowed it because it was the odd amount I always get as a safety check, but they also e-mailed me and asked if I wanted her to be included as an approved user.
I said yes, but then got to thinking, she has a card issued by them which she carries, so they should have known it was OK.
We are rarely ever at the downtown main branch for much of anything. The normal one we use doesn't check you facially that I know of, I do know they are recording you while at the ATM though.
I wonder about voice recognition, mainly because I knew a few folks who could use many different voices. Even if you listen to them very closely, the tone of their voice is entirely different for each character they portray.
In some cases, it is the words they uses, but it others, it really is the sound of their voice you recognize.
That being said, maybe electronically, the vibration of their vocal cords is unique to the individual.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
Voice recognition takes some learning on the part of the computer which is probably the reason it's not more popular. There are many situations that would change a person's voice pattern, but voice recognition is like face recognition where only a few points are sampled. Getting enough samples to create a reliable profile is what takes time. A voice print is hard to counterfeit, which is why I think it's a good way to verify a person's identity.
The bank wanted your approval for your wife because of some privacy law, no doubt. Medical records are the same way. You have to consent in advance regarding who can discuss your medical history and that includes spouses. I don't see why anybody would not want to share finance or health information with their spouses, but I guess some folks are paranoid. Thus we now have consent forms to fill out.
The bank wanted your approval for your wife because of some privacy law, no doubt. Medical records are the same way. You have to consent in advance regarding who can discuss your medical history and that includes spouses. I don't see why anybody would not want to share finance or health information with their spouses, but I guess some folks are paranoid. Thus we now have consent forms to fill out.
Re: Reeading on Easter Morning
I hear talk of 5 point, 7 point, 9 point, and higher facial recognition programs. The higher the points the more accurate it becomes.
I remember the early Dragon Speak I had to record nearly a half hour of text they supplied before it finally worked fairly well.
Even so, it was fairly slow on the old computers. I could type faster than it could handle text from voice.
I tried it again a number of years later and although it worked faster, it still made way too many errors, so I spent more time editing than if I did the typing.
I already had to give them permission to give her a Debit Card in my name to my account. But this had something to do with her using their ATM about verifying her face. None of the other branches have ever asked that, so I guess they don't have facial recognition as part of their verification process yet.
When I first moved down here, I always parked and went inside the main bank. Mainly because I wanted them to see me, and usually they had problems locating my account, so I learned the code they needed to access it would tell it to the teller right away, that usually save several minutes of them hunting for my account. It took over a year after they bought out my bank back home for the strange routing method to get working right in their computers. But once they did, I never had any problems after that.
I remember the early Dragon Speak I had to record nearly a half hour of text they supplied before it finally worked fairly well.
Even so, it was fairly slow on the old computers. I could type faster than it could handle text from voice.
I tried it again a number of years later and although it worked faster, it still made way too many errors, so I spent more time editing than if I did the typing.
I already had to give them permission to give her a Debit Card in my name to my account. But this had something to do with her using their ATM about verifying her face. None of the other branches have ever asked that, so I guess they don't have facial recognition as part of their verification process yet.
When I first moved down here, I always parked and went inside the main bank. Mainly because I wanted them to see me, and usually they had problems locating my account, so I learned the code they needed to access it would tell it to the teller right away, that usually save several minutes of them hunting for my account. It took over a year after they bought out my bank back home for the strange routing method to get working right in their computers. But once they did, I never had any problems after that.