January 2024 - Page 2 of 4

REVIEW: The LuminAID Titan Collapsible Solar Lantern

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Are you looking for a lighting solution that is easy to pack and easy to charge? I was, so I decided to check out the collapsible LuminAid Titan solar lantern. It’s only $34 at the time of this posting.

First and foremost, I was not paid for this review. I bought it thinking it would be a good piece of gear. And it is.

This is an LED collapsible lantern that can be charged with a small solar panel charger or by USB. It has four different output levels in both red (tactical!) and white light. The fifth output is a low-level random blinking-like light. (Which I guess is for maybe a romantic ambiance?)

I have no way to measure this, but their site says at max power, it puts out 150 Lumens with a run time of 8 hours. On low power, 10 Lumens with a run time of 72 hours. According to their site, it is bright enough to illuminate a family-sized tent. I tried it in my medium-sized bathroom, and it did illuminate it enough to be able to do most normal activities, but it would have to be closer for fine or small detail activities, like removing an eyelash from your eye.

It has a velcro handle with two holes if you want to hang it more securely, with 550 cord, for example.

What is neat about it, it is collapsible into a slim form factor about an inch thick. Expanded, it is about six inches tall. There is a little plug on the bottom you have to open, then twist to expand it into lantern use or collapse it for storage. When expanded, it fills with air to keep its shape (after you close the plug). Also makes it floatable and it is waterproof. When you collapse it, the air rushes out with a whoosh.

The LuminAid Titan solar lantern can charge small devices

According to their website, it can also charge some small devices like a phone, tablet, headlamp, or camera via a USB cable.

To test this, I drained my phone down to 8%. With the Lantern at full power according to the battery status indicator, I plugged my phone in. In two hours, it charged my phone to 58% before its battery was drained. Not a full charge but I thought that was pretty good. To recharge the LuminAid Titan solar lantern battery via USB took about two hours which made sense. I have not had…

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Broadband Breakfast: Industry Groups Urge Fixes to FCC’s Cybersecurity Labeling at House Hearing

Alan Butler, executive director of consumer privacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that a website on the safety of technologies could provide as an additional layer of protection. This would allow the FCC to limit the amount of information on the label and avoid confusing consumers. Consumers expect to understand if their devices could pose potential threats, he said.

Consumer Electronic Show 2024 Farming Awards

The Consumer Electronic Show 2024 has wrapped up, and quite a few unique announcements occurred in the food and agricultural category. This category is always dominated by John Deere’s showcases, and in past years, they’ve won Innovation Awards for the John Deere autonomous tractor, a self-driving tractor with GPS, and the See & Spray, a crop sprayer. Both are arm implements with artificial intelligence built in.

This year John Deere theme was ‘From Dirt to Shirt,” and they showcased different business models including the possibility of pay as you go so all farmers can spread out payments and access John Deere smart technology for use on their farm. There are also solutions as service, a concept that lets farmers pay for only the tech they plan on using.

Beyond John Deere, the Consumer Electronic Show’s farm and agricultural category had a few smaller brands who also won Innovation Awards this year. Could they eventually be as dominant as John Deere in the category? You never know. Here’s a look at a few of the biggest announcements at the Consumer Electronic Show 2024.

AirFarm

Some hobby farms are 10, 20 or more acres, so the idea of farming in a small, contained space might seem a bit odd. But there are a lot of uses for a small farm space in urban areas, and it’s even better if that farm is inflatable.

AirFarm, the world’s first inflatable farm, is made up of air-inflated seed beds, and it only takes half a day to set it up. One of the reasons the company won an innovation award is because of how the system can slash water use by 99% over traditional farm use. It uses a reciprocal system that converts moisture in the air into water and then recirculates that moisture back to the roots of the plants. The AirFarm is also a lightweight, easily movable system you can set up virtually anywhere.

Minefarm

Not everyone may want an AirFarm, but a MineFarm is something most hobby farmers could make use of. The MineFarm Showcase looks like a small refrigerator, but it’s an indoor growing system with artificial intelligence. It can manage water, light, and the growth cycle, and it will use the data it collects to learn how to best grow your specific plant. There are a lot of different seeds you can grow in Minefarm, and setting up your plants is as easy as scanning a QR code on one of Minefarm’s Seedkits.

Minefarm could be a helpful addition to a hobby farm because you could use it to start seedlings indoors. Not all seedlings thrive, and Minefarm may be able to analyze why some seeds do better than others on your farm.

Rise Roma

Most indoor hydroponic gardens grow small plants like microgreens. Rise Roma, a winner of the CES Innovation award, can think bigger. It’s able to grow large plants including tomatoes, egg plants, or small dwarf trees. It can grow plants or trees up to…

EPIC: FCC Should Incentivize Carriers to Guard Against SIM Swapping and Port-Out Fraud

On Tuesday, EPIC submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission applauding new rules that will strengthen consumer protections against SIM swap and port-out fraud and urging the FCC to further incentivize carriers to reduce security vulnerabilities. SIM swap and port-out fraud occur when a fraudster takes control of a victim’s phone number by convincing a carrier to transfer the victim’s phone service to the fraudster’s phone.

EPIC alerted the Commission to increased instances of SIM swap and port-out fraud targeting major cryptocurrency investors and unsuspecting telecommunications customers alike. EPIC called on the Commission to harmonize CPNI and CPI rules with SIM swap authentication requirements, to establish additional authentication requirements, and to require carriers to report incidents of fraud. Additionally, EPIC requested the Commission articulate its enforcement power under the Communications Act of 1934 and hold carriers liable for SIM swap attacks conducted using their networks and devices, as presently carriers seek to evade liability for SIM swap fraud.

EPIC routinely comments on regulations concerning telecommunications customers privacy and protection from fraud.

I Tried to Live Completely Off Grid for a Month. This Is What Happened

Living off grid has a lot going for it. You’re more independent when you’re not relying on outside suppliers for necessities like water and power. You can save a fortune on overpriced utilities, and also insulate yourself from crises – remember how energy prices spiked after the 2020 pandemic?

You’re also building in a layer of resilience. If you’re not connected to the grid you won’t be affected by problems with the grid. If a storm brings down power lines that’s only a problem if your electricity arrives through those lines.

For preppers there are other big advantages to being off grid. It’s excellent training for surviving in a post-collapse world; if society collapses the utility grid will be an early casualty.

Everyone will be off grid, and if you’ve been living that way for a while you have a huge head start. Related to that, if you’re off grid already the transition to a crisis will be more seamless. Everyone will face challenges when the world as we know it ends. For many the biggest challenge will be surviving without power and water being delivered on demand. If you’ve been living off grid, though, you won’t have this problem.

You’ve already set everything up, got used to how it works and ironed out the bugs. When everything falls apart you can focus on coping with other things, because where your water and energy come from is already under control.

I don’t live off the grid, usually, but I decided it would be a good idea to try it and see how I got on.

Would This Be Possible?

Before starting my experiment I sat down and worked out what going off-grid would actually mean. Obviously utility connections were out, so I wasn’t going to be using mains electricity, gas or water.

Did I want to be totally self-sufficient, though, or would it be OK to buy things I can’t produce myself?

The reality is, right now, I’m not in a position to be self-sufficient. The big drawback is that I don’t have enough land to grow all the crops I’d need, or to keep any livestock except maybe a couple of chickens.

⇒ The Only Plant That Will Make Your Chickens Lay Twice as Many Eggs

So for my one-month experiment should I rely on my food stockpiles, then build them up again later, or would going to the grocery store be acceptable?

In the end I decided that I’d rely completely on my own stockpiles and resources for a month, with one exception – the internet. I’d throw the main power supply switch, turn off the gas and water, and live off what I could produce or already had stored, but I couldn’t disable my internet connection because then I wouldn’t be able to work for a month….

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EPIC Urges FCC to Protect Consumer Data from Misuse by ISPs

On January 17, EPIC submitted reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission in the FCC’s proceeding on reclassifying internet service providers and other broadband providers as common carriers. In its comments, EPIC urged the FCC to outline a broad interpretation of its privacy and data security authorities under Title II of the Communications Act (which governs common carriers such as phone carriers), to explain that the FCC’s consumer protection authorities complement those of the FTC, to make findings that prioritize protecting consumers over protecting data broker and advertiser profits, to initiate an immediate rulemaking to safeguard consumer privacy and data security on the internet, and to continue to facilitate cooperation among state and federal agencies in combating fraud.

EPIC has long advocated for consumer privacy protections in broadband services and regularly files comments with the FCC.

Bloomberg Law: Google’s Tracker to Abortion Clinics Spurs Complaint to FTC

Google hasn’t followed through on promises to delete sensitive user-location information, including visits to abortion clinics, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission Thursday and provided to Bloomberg Law.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit privacy research and advocacy group, is asking the FTC to investigate the Alphabet Inc. unit for “unfair and deceptive trade practices” around how it handles the data. The complaint follows ongoing reporting that Google has continued to collect location data for users visiting abortion clinics and other sensitive locations, despite promises by the tech giant in July 2022 that it would delete those records.

The collection of location data can cause “substantial injury” to consumers because it can reveal sensitive personal practices, including visits to abortion clinic visits or houses of worship, according to the complaint. Such data can “lead to criminal prosecution and unduly discourage individuals from seeking vital health care services,” EPIC wrote.

PRESS RELEASE: EPIC, Accountable Tech Urge FTC to Investigate Google’s Failed Promise to Delete Sensitive Location Data

In a complaint filed today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Accountable Tech called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate tech giant Google for failing to promptly delete location records of users’ visits to abortion clinics and other sensitive facilities despite publicly promising it would do so.

Google retains and processes vast troves of personal information collected through its many applications, programs, and partners. This includes massive amounts of location data, which can reveal sensitive details about a person—including health information like whether and when a person visited a doctor’s office, an addiction treatment center, or an abortion clinic. When this information is retained by companies like Google, it can be accessed by law enforcement and can be used to profile individuals in harmful ways.

In July 2022, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s rescindment of the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Google announced a major policy change to its handling of location data. Google stated that if “its systems identified that a user had visited” an abortion clinic, it would “delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit.” Google’s commitment also extended to location records identifying a user’s visits to addiction treatment centers, domestic violence shelters, and other similarly sensitive facilities.

But Google broke that promise. Months later, research by Accountable Tech and others showed that Google had failed to delete the location information it had promised to. For example, Google’s systems retained search queries and directions to Planned Parenthood clinics and granular map data placing users at Planned Parenthood locations they had visited for more than a month. And the problem continues to this day: a follow-up experiment from Accountable Tech found that while Google had scrubbed “Planned Parenthood” from a user’s Location History map, it retained the route to the clinic itself in four out of eight of its tests. Although Google recently promised—again—to extend enhanced protections to users’ location data, it has yet to follow through on the deletion promise it made more than a year ago, leaving users vulnerable to privacy harms.

“Google’s personal location data practices have caused or are likely to cause substantial injury to its users because they expose users to excessive retention of their ‘particularly personal’ information that can reveal highly sensitive information about them, including whether an individual visited a medical treatment facility, domestic violence shelter, abortion clinic, fertility center, addiction treatment facility, or a surgery clinic.,” EPIC and Accountable Tech’s complaint explains. “The ability of law enforcement to access such data can lead to criminal prosecution and unduly discourage individuals from seeking vital health care services—a risk of substantial injury that has dramatically increased following the Dobbs ruling.”

The complaint calls on the FTC to investigate Google for unfair and deceptive practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and for violating the 2011 FTC Consent Order arising from Google’s previous mishandling of personal data in the rollout of the…

Dear Diary, It’s Me, Jessica: Part 2

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Dear Diary,

It’s me, Jessica.

It has been a crazy, exciting week, but not in a good kind of way.

The day after Christmas, two things happened: 1) It snowed. Not much, a ‘dusting’ as Dad put it. It was mostly gone by noon, except in the deep shadows. Snow around here is rare. 2) The ‘HAM’ guy said there were reports of a ‘gang’ going around in trucks attacking remote homes and farms.

The next day two men on a dirt bike came speeding down our street. They had those big black rifles. No one has heard a car let alone a dirt bike in months. Everyone came out of their homes to see what was going on, many with their own guns. The guys on the dirt bike turned around and sped back the way they came.

Many in the neighborhood gathered in groups to talk about what they saw and what it meant. Jack showed up a few minutes later from his street and asked what happened. Once he heard what people were saying, he seemed to think for a moment. Jack then said while he was out trading with others in surrounding neighborhoods and way down in town, a few said they saw two trucks pulling RVs with another half dozen or so trucks, one with two dirt bikes in the beds going down Old River Road. Jack went and talked with the HAM guy to ask the local HAMs if they heard of anything unusual. The HAM guy said the net was ‘chattering’ about running trucks and the attacks. An old fisherman went to his favorite fishing hole off Old River Road, a remote boat launch and picnic site, to find it was occupied by two RVs, a bunch of trucks, and some mean-looking guys in ‘tactical’ gear. The fisherman high-tailed it out of there before they saw him. Jack did not think they would attack our neighborhood. He pointed to all the people with guns. If the two guys on the dirt bike were out scouting the area, the Miller farm, on the other hand, they would attack them.

Jack, who is the leader of the militia, split the militia into two. One group he called ‘home guard’ would stay in the neighborhood and keep watch. The other group, he called the ‘assault team’, made up of mostly combat veterans, would set up an ambush at the Miller’s farm.

It was early morning the next day, I was helping Mom turning over the compost pile in the back yard when we heard dull explosions…

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Communications Daily: Witnesses Cite FCC Cyber Push, Rip-and-Replace Funding Ahead of House Hearing

The Electronic Privacy Information Center says it believes the FCC “should adopt a dual-layer labeling solution” for the program that “would include an easily glanceable primary label and a secondary label that displays additional cybersecurity and privacy information, empowering consumers to make an informed purchase,” Executive Director Alan Butler says. EPIC supports the FCC’s proposal to “require data minimization” as part of its criteria for the Cyber Trust Mark, limiting a qualifying device to “collect only the data necessary to provide its essential functions and services.” The group opposes device manufacturers’ bid for a “safe harbor that would provide a shield against liability for insecure devices,” he says.