asclepi

Don't contact the FCC directly. Contact your cellular operator. They can investigate to see if it is a problem on their end. They will also contact the FCC if necessary.

> Nice, but where can I actually buy those things? A quick web search doesn't get me anywhere.

Plenty to be found on Amazon or eBay. See the coverage on the RTL-SDR.com blog[0] for a few links.

> EDIT: it looks like it's just the chipset and it's not sold directly - instead, one should look for devices based on it.

Yes, that's correct. You need a USB 3.0 to VGA adapter that is based on the Fresco Logic FL2000 chipset.

[0] https://www.rtl-sdr.com/osmo-fl2k-a-tx-only-sdr-hacked-from-...

> The PS4 doesn't allow anything other than a PS4 controller to turn it on.

That has changed. Both PDP Media Remotes for PS4 can turn a PS4 on. Still proprietary, but they're technically not PS4 controllers.

Reading from Amazon reviews, also the PDP PS4 IR Receiver For Logitech Harmony Remote Control Devices can turn a PS4 on. But I can't confirm this as I don't own one.

Do you know if this mainly a Visa/Mastercard issue or does this affect American Express as well? The latter isn't a network of banks and seems to be less restrictive towards international payments, but I could be wrong.

FWIW, I paid with AMEX (using Stripe not PayPal) and it went through right away.

Fastmail charges you in AUD? Weird, I know it's an Australian company but I paid for service earlier this month and was charged in USD. And I'm not misinterpreting the "$" as a USD-only sign, the invoice literally says "USD".

In that case, also consider adding iMessage to the Messengers section.

Yes, this will be the future. I believe the latest iPad Pro models have a virtual Apple SIM embedded. The Apple Watch Series 3 also has a virtual SIM. They will eventually appear in phones as well.

iPhones are generally sold through carriers with the phone locked to that specific carrier. The main point of the Apple SIM - the ability to switch between short-term mobile internet contracts across multiple carriers - would be pretty moot in this scenario.

Note that the Apple SIM isn't new, nor tied to the release of the new iPad model today. It's been around since at least 2014. I remember going to an Apple Store back then to pick one up. The associate at first didn't know what I was talking about but eventually found them somewhere stashed in the back-office.

It's not a time issue, there's just no need. Radiation-based screening is sufficient most of the time. Physical bag searches happen when the radiation-based screening indicates something or when it cannot produce a clear image. Bags may also be randomly "selected" for a physical search.

The majority of checked baggage is screened without the need for a physical bag search.[0]

[0] https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening

That's called PPBM (Positive Passenger-Bag Match). However, PPBM is not required on US domestic flights. I had a few occurrences where I checked my bags several hours before my flight and had those bags arriving before me (on an earlier flight) at my destination airport, waiting for me in the airline's luggage office. The TSA relies on screening every bag to prevent incidents, rather than assumptions-based reasoning.

There is a PPBM requirement for international flights though, including those leaving from the US. While security is the reasoning behind it, I suspect that customs and immigration compliance also play a role.

I've noted that people quickly advise others to issue a chargeback as a resort to "win" against a company that has supposedly "wronged" them, even in cases where the company fulfilled its contractual obligations and no fraud whatsoever was committed. Here's a word of advice: do not issue a chargeback against any company you ever want to do business with in the future.

While this is arguably less a problem with WalMart - issuing a chargeback won't get you banned from their physical stores - a chargeback is especially something be avoided with every vendor where you have an "account" of some sorts, except if you don't care about being banned (permanently).

The examples are numerous. Issuing a chargeback against car rental companies can put you on their DNR (Do Not Rent) list[0]. Issuing a chargeback against Amazon may result in a permanent ban (including loss of access to your Kindle library and even your AWS account)[1]. Issuing a chargeback against Sony for a purchase over PSN may get you banned from PSN[2].

[0] https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz-gold-plus-rewards/1897...

[1] http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/159184/#Comment_...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/2ivsz3/beware_if_you_s...

It saves more time. Warned humans will also skip the costly "what's going on"-realization phase of the human brain.

It's definitely possible. Japan, which is situated in another earthquake-prone region, has built an Earthquake Early Warning system.[0] It saves lives.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Early_Warning_(Japa...

Right, it's a universal regulation that applies to about 6% of the world population. But you make a good point, it is very hard to regulate this on a higher level. I'm just saying that the EU shouldn't expect every foreign company to accept and play by their rules, especially if it's only relevant to a fraction of their customers. What this may lead to is companies refusing to serve the EU and EU residents forced to resort to shady VPN companies to access their services - as they already do to circumvent copyright regulations - eventually resulting in less privacy and loss of VAT and other revenue for the EU.

Again, I do not want to paint an overly bleak picture - and I do support regulations like this one - but my feeling is that, due to the lack of a universal solution, this GDPR won't have a better fate than the current copyright regulations: beneficial for some, but at the cost of more internet fragmentation and discrimination. It's almost like lawmakers consistently forget that the internet doesn't stop at borders.

The preamble of the GDPR states that it regulates the fundamental right to privacy, not the human right to privacy. The human right to privacy is much lower level than the fundamental right to privacy.

To repeat myself: I'm [also] NOT against the GDPR and I totally understand the need, I just wish it would be regulated on a more universal level.

That sounds pretty similar to Sonos Trueplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QgJHUy93T0&t=138s

I can only hope for the EU that their economic incentive remains strong enough to prevent foreign companies from totally pulling out, resulting in the EU market becoming bleaker and bleaker. And it's not even the current companies that I worry most about - they often have already invested too much to withdraw because of this - it's the new companies that may flat out refuse to enter the EU market.

The GDPR is yet another regulation that adds a lot of liability with the risk of huge fines for a foreign company. And while no regulation in itself is ever going to be enough of reason, it's the plethora of regulations that is, and the more it grows, the more companies will feel it reached the tipping point for them, which may result in either withdrawal or refusal to serve the EU market. If this proves true, EU citizens should expect to see a lot more of "We're sorry, this service is not available in your country" messages. And it's already pretty bad from what I've heard.

Note: I'm not saying Emirates will pull out because of this, they won't. I'm also NOT against the GDPR and I totally understand the need, I just wish it would be regulated on a more universal level. Same with copyright regulations.

Would "the hum" not be noticed in a lot more areas if it were caused by jet engines?

Note that there is some variance in the volume of air traffic: weekend nights tend to be a lot slower than weeknights. Same for Christmas Day (and the night before and after). If "the hum" was caused by jet engines, this variance should be noticed too. The risk of misattribution is considerable, however, as industrial and other activities also tend to wind down during weekends and holidays.

Is a hum not more or less expected in the vicinity of busy harbors, even more so than in general industrial areas? Harbors attract a lot of possible sources that could cause a hum: maritime equipment, ship engines, generators, industrial equipment, large refrigerators (in containers or in warehouses), ...

You may want to read about the Kokomo, IN "hum" investigation which was traced back to an industrial source [1].

[1] http://www.le-bruit.com/easy-media/kokomo_hum_report.pdf

The FCC's Antenna Structure Registration website [1] is a good place to start.

Crown Castle [2] owns a fair amount of cell towers across the US. If it's a freestanding tower, they often also own the land where it is situated on.

[1] http://wireless.fcc.gov/antenna/index.htm?job=home

[2] http://www.crowncastle.com/

There's https://plus.codes/ which seems to be more liberal and licenses its codes under the Apache 2.0 license.

However, although it has been around since 2014, I've never seen any practical use.

That's what we call "texting", but very often texting isn't done using SMS. With the iOS market share hovering slightly below 50% in the US, it's iMessage that is the main messenger, at least where I live. The iOS Messages app seamlessly switches over to SMS when the receiver doesn't have iMessage - and shows a visual distinction - but in my case, that's a minority of the people I text with.

I don't use Whatsapp nor was I ever invited by someone to use it, but I heard it's basically the iMessage equivalent in the EU and in other places where the iOS market share is lower.

Social media has partially democratized access to public shaming, in the US at least, as you no longer need to know someone at a media outlet. But luck remains an important factor. If OP had posted an hour earlier or later, it could have never broken out of 1 or 2 upvotes on HN, and his issue would not have been solved.

I believe OP coined the term "Huaweied" to refer to a phenomenon described in another section of the same Wikipedia entry...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei#Espionage_and_security_...

There are abundant parallels between the Huawei situation a few years ago and the Hikvision situation now.

I think you're referring to the detection of radioactive iodine at trace levels in Europe back in January 2017? This made some headlines worldwide and was also covered on HN.

http://www.irsn.fr/EN/newsroom/News/Pages/20170213_Detection...

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13676570

As far as I know, that case was never solved, and media coverage died quickly.

For reference, the OpenBSD patch in question released on August 30: https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/6.1/common/027_n...

It seems that OpenBSD already patched their source code and that wasn't to the likings of the researcher. In the future he will now delay notifying OpenBSD of vulnerabilities.

Why did OpenBSD silently release a patch before the embargo?

OpenBSD was notified of the vulnerability on 15 July 2017, before CERT/CC was involved in the coordination. Quite quickly, Theo de Raadt replied and critiqued the tentative disclosure deadline: "In the open source world, if a person writes a diff and has to sit on it for a month, that is very discouraging". Note that I wrote and included a suggested diff for OpenBSD already, and that at the time the tentative disclosure deadline was around the end of August. As a compromise, I allowed them to silently patch the vulnerability. In hindsight this was a bad decision, since others might rediscover the vulnerability by inspecting their silent patch. To avoid this problem in the future, OpenBSD will now receive vulnerability notifications closer to the end of an embargo.

A quick check on Google Maps shows that right next to LOE is a road named "Addicks Dam Rd." That's a red flag. Zooming out on the satellite view reveals what certainly looks like a reservoir structure. More red flags. Googling "Addicks Dam" leads you to the Addicks Reservoir Wikipedia page which doesn't sound reassuring (even when you consider the pre-Harvey version of that page).

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but it doesn't seem like there was anything in the way of due diligence to avoid choosing this neighborhood. I certainly believe however that realtors and the local government said that everything was fine in pre-Harvey times, as both had something to lose with saying the opposite. That's why I never rely on those sources alone.

There's a lot of additional information to be gained from Google Maps and OSM, satellite views, walking in the environment, checking historic news, talking with residents, etc. before settling on a neighborhood.

That's not necessarily true if it means that more Americans are pursuing skills-based training instead of college. Many of our vacant jobs do not have a college program to prepare for them [1]. Valuing education doesn't mean you need to chase ever-increasing college enrollment numbers, especially if you are unable to provide every college graduate with a matching job.

[1] https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/22/help-wanted-americans-don... (featured on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14651019)