In plain sight

This week I would like to cover two things that have been a burr under my saddle. The first is so obvious that it is hard for me to imagine why you can’t see it, the second is in plain sight, but, do we even care?

The internet is a very complicated thing. It is hard to decide at times just what is real, and what is fake. Considering we now have fake news to sift thru, the real stuff gets lost. Everything from ads to items you buy on Amazon, you need to have a skillful eye to determine the real from the fake. Sometimes people have nefarious intensions, and others are trying to make a buck at your inability to see the truth. Ads on the web, as of late, are very convincing, almost to a point of legitimate. Enough so that many of you fall prey to them, and allow persons to get inside your machine, and con you into believing that something is wrong. We live in a hacker world, and everyone is paranoid about it, and every time you answer an ad, answer a scam call, allow someone remote access to your PC, we are enabling them to continue to rein over us.

I encounter several scams a week myself, and am amazed to the level of detail these scammers go to, to convince me that this is going to happen me right now. Possibly for me, after so many experiences with virus and malware, I know what to look for. I have touched on this subject many times over the years, and every time someone tells me “they just took over” my computer, they left one thing out, “I gave them” permission to do this, is often the words missing form our conversation, admittingly, being human and making a mistake is something we all fear.

What I can’t see is what you saw, or heard, that convinced you to call this person, who claims to be from Microsoft, and is the only one who can fix this. You see my face on this article, right? Oddly enough, I am not from Microsoft, but, I can fix this, and I am not far, far away either.

In plain sight

What is the best hiding spot? in plain sight. This world is becoming fully automated, with cars, shopping centers, even robotic surgery. It can be baffling at times to see technology being used to enhance our lives, but, for me what I don’t like about this world of automation, is the lack of human interaction. We are being replaced by computers, we no longer communicate, “look me in the eye” and tell me you love me, says everything about being human, nothing about being robotic. I frequent a local store, I sometimes need some food, or something to wear, either way, I have noticed a change, and for me, not a good one. I hate being followed around, asking If I need help, and that is why I hate BestBuy, they over-reach courtesy into annoyance. This store is doing the same, only they want to teach me how to do a job, so they don’t have to hire more people, to do the same job a computer can do. What? We are being trained to use a certain computer, that will replace many people, and many jobs. Over-reaching convenience, for courtesy.

Self-checkout is not faster, nor is it convenient, for you are the checker now, and the bagger, and like all computers, they still need human interaction, especially when they don’t understand a command, say a coupon, and that takes even more time for a human to come over and tell the computer to make it so. Like I said, not a time saver, this is only going to save the store money, and hire less people, replacing people with computers. Will it make your shopping experience better? or will you dread going to the store, not finding a person who knows what you are looking for, or having to wait in the express lane, cause the computer can’t figure out the word coupon? Myself, I find a checkout that has a person who knows what convenience is, asks me how my day was, and if I found everything I was looking for. You know, everything a computer doesn’t do.