Brain-reading Devices
A highly recommended ‘food for thought’ article for you today..
* Think Internet Data Mining Goes Too Far? Then You Won’t Like This
“These days, you can hop on the Internet and buy yourself a consumer-grade brain scanning device for just a few hundred dollars. Technically, they’re called brain computer interfaces, or BCIs. As these devices develop, researchers are thinking a few steps ahead — they’re worried about how to keep marketers from scanning our brains.” Read more..
[ Share that one with your friends/family..]
Sorta related: Yesterday, while watching an educational seminar posted to YouTube, I experienced for the first time YouTube’s “InVideo” ’embedded’ ads – ads that actually interrupt the video, and you have to wait/watch for 5 seconds before you can click on “skip ad” – which was made worse by incessant ‘ghost overlay’ (semi-transparent) ads which I had to keep closing.
Almost exactly 5 years ago I wrote Good-bye YouTube. Enjoy Your Ads., and I guess it’s finally come to fruit. I am muttering expletives like the proverbial Chief Bosons Mate, here folks. Has advertising gotten SO invasive/pervasive that I must cut out all forms of media (besides books)? Seems to me we have reached that point. (I’d like to paraphrase Shakespeare here: “And the second thing we do is..”)
If anyone knows of an ad blocker (or other trick) that can strip those out, please let me know. (Yes, I looked at this one.)
Update: Found an easy one. I added ||2mdn.net^ as a custom filter to my AdBlock Plus extension. Yay!
Today’s quotable quote: “Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need.” ~ Will Rogers
Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)
Completely Off-topic #2
A Few Words For Those Of You Who Have Cares, Worries, and Concerns (Or Know Someone Who Does)
Some of you are facing some real challenges on this road we call Life. There is no doubt, we are in “hard economic times” and for many of us the future looks uncertain. Scary. Even bleak.
If this does not describe you – rejoice! For you have (for now) escaped a cruel pain!
If it does.. I am not sure what to say to you. I think my words will seem weak.. and meaningless. But I also feel compelled to say them anyway. Please don’t give up.
I hope you will not think I am being unsympathetic, but I ask you to look at your situation as a challenge, and I ask you to think about – how have you solved other challenges in your life? (You must have solved many – or you wouldn’t still be here.) And I remind you that sometimes to get those challenges resolved, we need to call in some help to get the job done. There’s no shame in that. You can (and should) ask for help if you think you might benefit from it.
For those interested, WebMD has practical tips and advice for coping with “stress” at their (appropriately named) Stress Management Health Center. Reading this advice will not – I don’t think – get you a new job/cure your illness/put money in the bank/perform miracles, all by itself, right away, by magic, but perhaps you can find some “self-help”, and good, useful information there. And help is good.
No matter the depth and strength of your ‘challenge(s)’ on this road we call Life, please do not sit down and stop walking it. OK? I ain’t going to tell you the Land Of True Happiness, Milk, And Honey is “just around the next bend”. How would I know if it’s there? You might have to go ’round six or seven bends.
Or ten. Or two.
But keep walking. Who knows who you will meet, or what you will find, or where it will take you?
.. sorry for the non-techy topic. I’ll get back to gizmos and gadgets tomorrow. Thanks for listening. (And no, this wasn’t spawned by anything I am going through personally. Not today, anyway. No need to write in.)
* * *
Today’s quote: “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” ~ Mark Twain
Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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