littlewolf
littlewolf's Journalgood gravy how much data mining is Google willing to do?
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=227599Google paid billions for a thermostat company? And why is that?
Well, NEST makes a thermostat that will talk (over WiFi) and "learns" what you do with it. That is, you turn it up at certain times of the day and down at others, and it learns the pattern you use. So what? That's not very revolutionary.
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No, if you want my opinion what Google wants and thinks is worth the few billion smackers is the portal inside your house on the clean side of your home network.
My money is on them wanting the data, in short.
If they could get you to let them see in your bedroom, I bet they'd do that too. After all, you might buy more condoms if they knew how often (and how many different people!) you were sleeping with -- especially the latter.
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You think this sort of thing is good? Yeah, I get it -- it's convenient. With NEST at least you were completely in control (in theory anyway) of who had access to it -- that being you, and you alone.
With Google involved and it being on the Internet (since you can get to it via your cellphone from anywhere)? Anyone for bets on how long it is before that thing signs into your Google account, integrating everything? And of course since it's on your local WiFi network it can see all the MAC addresses on your network too. Those uniquely identify every device that connects to your network.
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That means Google now knows if you're home, because if your thermostat is set back, you're not. They know when you're home, when you're not, when you're on vacation, if you like to get up early or late, how late you stay up and more. And if they want it to they can have it enumerate all the WiFi (and cabled) devices that are in your house network too, because this thing is on the inside.
Oh I'm sure Google will never do anything like integrate this thing with the rest of Google, right? I mean, that integration with your Gmail account and Google ID is just theoretical, for now anyway.
more at the link
TX man imprisoned for half his life freed on bond.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/14/22302588-texas-man-imprisoned-for-murders-half-his-life-freed-on-bond?lite=&ocid=ansmsnbc11slimy detectives, slimy DA's, i wish folks who railroad people would get
some kind of punishment. like years in prison. even here in NC .. the DA lost his law license. hopefully this guy either gets acquitted or pardoned.
A Texas man imprisoned for half his life for a double homicide that he, witnesses, and hundreds of supporters all maintain he did not commit was freed Tuesday, nearly two decades after he was sent to prison.
Daniel Villegas, 37, of El Paso, has been behind bars since 1995, when a jury convicted him of killing two teenagers and sentenced him to a life prison term. His conviction was largely based on a confession that Villegas, just 16 at the time of the 1993 drive-by shooting in northeast El Paso, has said was coerced by detectives.
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The District Attorney's office has not yet announced whether it will seek a new trial for Villegas, and has until a Jan. 21 hearing to decide.
Joshua Tepfer, one of Villegas' attorneys and co-director of Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, said Villegas went to church after leaving prison, and then was celebrating with family and friends.
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The confession that landed Villegas in a life sentence had numerous discrepancies in it: For example, Villegas claimed he was riding in a white car the night of the crime, when the vehicle involved in the shooting was actually red, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Villegas quickly recanted, explaining he only confessed because he was told if he didn't, he would be raped in county jail and that he would get the death penalty. But his confession to the murders of Robert England, 18, and Armando Lazo, 17, was kept on file.
An appellate court vacated the conviction in December. On Monday, District Judge Sam Medrano set Tuesday's bond hearing for Villegas.
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Jesse Hernandez, a witness to the double killing, told FoxNews.com in 2012 he did not believe Villegas was the shooter.
"I believe with all my heart he is innocent," Hernandez said. "I always thought I knew who else might have done it from the beginning. I had never heard of Daniel before."
Hernandez and another witness, Juan Carlos Medina, have both signed affidavits affirming Villegas' confession paints a different version of what happened the night of the shooting.
Villegas' case attracted the support of The Innocence Project, Northwestern University Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, and Proclaim Justice, along with John Mimbela, an El Paso businessman-turned-activist who spent more than $200,000 trying to win freedom for Villegas, according to Proclaim Justice.
more at the link. glad he is free.
I do not understand why
the GOP is beating Hagan. she is voting pretty much like a republican ...
N C Senate - Tillis vs. Hagan PPP (D) Hagan 44, Tillis 42 Hagan +2
N C Senate - Harris vs. Hagan PPP (D) Hagan 43, Harris 43 Tie
N C Senate - Brannon vs. Hagan PPP (D) Brannon 45, Hagan 43 Brannon +2
N C Senate - Grant vs. Hagan PPP (D) Hagan 43, Grant 43 Tie
N C Senate - Flynn vs. Hagan PPP (D) Flynn 45, Hagan 43 Flynn +2
so she is beating Tillis, and tied with Harris and Flynn (both of whom I have never heard of.)
and how can Land be winning MI ? granted it is only 2 points, but come on.
Driving PSA's that I wish got more air time.
these are powerful, I wish they got more air time.
this one is old but still gets the message across.
please becareful ....
spokane wa botched call, innocent homeowner lucky he wasn't shot.
http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/spokane-wrong-house-lucky-didnt-shoot/SPOKANE COUNTY, WA — An innocent man says he was visited by sheriff’s deputies who pointed guns in his face and told him he was lucky they didn’t kill him.
Connor Guerrero, a recent college graduate, says he was disturbed in his home recently when strange men began sneaking around his yard and pointing flashlights in his windows, giving him cause for alarm.
Guerrero assumed he was being scoped out by burglars and that this could be a “dangerous situation” for him. He attempted to deter the prowlers by banging on the door to declare his presence.
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With guns pointed at him, he was ordered to his knees in submission. Guerrero was forced to produce his ID and prove that he lived in his own home.
“You’re lucky I didn’t [expletive] shoot you,” the deputy snarled at the homeowner.
As it turned out, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office went to the wrong home responding to a “suspicious vehicle” call. The Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said his deputies had made a mistake, but then placed blame on the homeowner for being cautious.
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It seems the sheriff believes his deputies deserve a wide latitude of understanding as they fumble routine calls and accost innocent homeowners. The threat of violence against a man who showed no actual aggression shows a questionable lack of judgement on the part of the deputies.
Perhaps the public servants should try putting themselves in the homeowner’s position, and be glad their ineptitude didn’t put them at the mercy of someone rightfully protecting their home.
well I got screwed today, in a good way :D
2 months ago I had an infection in my jaw and lost a tooth to it.
I had a bone implant. a week ago the dentist said the implant
took, and today the dentist put a Titanium screw in my jaw.
in about 8 weeks I will have a new tooth there, it has been an
interesting trip.
so far no pain, 600 motrin.
I have not taken the hydroncodone yet. not sure how it will effect me.
cross posted from the lounge. westjet christmas
found this and thought it was excellent will get my eyes here then in the lounge. 
could we use this to take back the House?
Found this column while reading on-line.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-obama-should-raise-the-minimum-wage/2013/12/06/0655626c-5ded-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html?wprss=rss_eugene-robinson
Obama’s speech Wednesday about the need to redress growing inequality was sweeping and comprehensive — perhaps to a fault. In outlining solutions, he talked about the minimum wage. But he also mentioned immigration reform, rewriting the corporate tax code, eliminating the “sequester” budget cuts, holding down tuition costs for higher education, providing universal preschool, retraining the long-term unemployed, creating “promise zones” in poor communities .?.?. the list goes on
All are worthy goals, but what chance is there of getting such an ambitious agenda through Congress? The Republican majority in the House disagrees with Obama philosophically and opposes him reflexively; if he’s for it, they’re against it.
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We know from the debt-ceiling fight, however, that House Republicans can be induced to do the right thing — if the political cost of doing the wrong thing is unacceptably high. And this looks like an issue on which Obama and the Democrats should be able to get real traction.
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The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is shamefully low compared with minimum-wage levels in other industrialized countries — nearly $13 in France, for example, and around $10 in Britain and Canada.
The highest minimum wage in a major country is Australia’s — in U.S. dollars, about $15 an hour at the current exchange rate. Conservatives would howl if anyone in Washington proposed such a thing. According to Republican dogma, such a high minimum wage would be the ultimate job-killer, a disastrous move that could only choke off the recovery and perhaps send the economy back into recession.
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Apparently, nobody told all this to the Australians. Unemployment there is 5.7 percent, versus 7 percent in the United States. The Australian economy escaped the Great Recession of 2007-08 and in fact hasn’t seen any kind of recession in 20 years. (Oh, and Australia has universal health care, too, but perhaps that’s another column.)
more at the link ...
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