New App warns if "Smart Glasses" are in use around you.

 

I saw this from "Tech Crunch" I think it is a really good idea, I don't like the idea of someone surreptitiously recording me.  Yeah I know in this day and age, I know cameras' are everywhere, but "Smart Glasses" are personal.   

This is the screenshot from my phone, I went ahead and downloaded it.

One of the chief problems with “luxury surveillance” devices, like smart glasses with baked-in video recording cameras, is that they often look indistinguishable from regular eyewear, meaning you might be recorded without knowing it.

But now there is an app that can detect and alert you when someone nearby is wearing smart glasses, or potentially other always-recording tech.

The Android app, aptly named Nearby Glasses, constantly scans for nearby signals that emit from Bluetooth-enabled tech, such as wearable devices made by Meta (and Oakley) and Snap.

The app launches at a time as there is an increasing resistance against always-recording or listening devices, which critics say process information about nearby people who do not give their consent. 

Yves Jeanrenaud, who made the app, first spoke to 404 Media about the project and said he was in part inspired to make Nearby Glasses after reading the independent publication’s reporting into wearable surveillance devices, including how Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have been used in immigration raids and to film and harass sex workers.

On the app’s project page, Jeanrenaud described smart glasses as an “intolerable intrusion, consent neglecting, horrible piece of tech.”

Jeanrenaud told TechCrunch in an email that his motivation came from “witnessing the sheer scale and inhumane nature of the abuse these smart glasses are involved in.” Jeanrenaud also cited Meta’s decision to implement face recognition as a default feature in its smart glasses, “which I consider to be a huge floodgate pushed open for all kinds of privacy-invasive behaviour.”

The app works by listening for nearby Bluetooth signals that contain a publicly assigned identifier unique to the Bluetooth device’s manufacturer. If the app detects a Bluetooth signal from a nearby hardware device made by Meta or Snap, the app will send the user an alert. (The app also allows users to add their own specific Bluetooth identifiers, allowing the user to detect a broader range of wearable surveillance gadgetry.)

ScreenshotImage Credits:Yves Jeanrenaud

Jeanrenaud said that the app may be prone to false positives. This means the app may detect a nearby virtual reality headset made by Meta and alert the user thinking it is a pair of smart glasses made from the same device maker. That said, virtual reality headsets are usually larger and more obvious to someone that they’re wearing the device.

To try this out, I loaded the app on an Android phone and walked around my city’s neighborhood, and found (to my surprise) no smart glasses wearers, and did not receive an alert.

But since the app allows it, I added a specific Bluetooth identifier (0x004C), which allowed me to search for nearby devices made by Apple — and my test device immediately flooded with alerts (as you might expect), likely picking up every Apple-made device in my near proximity. 

This showed that the app works as designed.

Jeanrenaud is still adding new features, and said that there is demand for an iPhone app, but that it depends on spare time and availability.

Speaking of the app, Jeanrenaud said: “Of course, it’s a technical solution to a social problem (which is amplified by technology), and it won’t go away anytime soon,” and described the app as a “desperate act of resistance, hoping it would help at least someone.”

Spokespeople for Meta and Snap did not respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.

47 years Past due.....

 

    47 years...47 years, we have been taking crap from the mullah's in Iran, I remember as a kid in 1980 in Alabama by Ft McClellen when they rolled a TV in a cart to play President Jimmy Carter's speech apologizing for the debacle of "Desert One"

I remember the shame and the anger. we as Americans felt after hearing that. On top of having our people hostages, I remember the "Yellow Ribbons" that were tied on the front of the trees in the yards all over America. as a symbol of the hostages.

     I have to explain to people why we attacked Iran to push the mullah's out of power, "for 47 years the Iranians have been calling us the "Great Satan" and Israel "the Little Satan",  The Mullahs were behind the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut where 17 people died, the marine barrack in Beirut where 241 Marines died, by proxies of Iran.  The capture of the CIA chief in Lebanon Mr. Buckley I believe, they tortured him for 444 days, and mailed us the tapes of the torture, and finally his heart gave out. They also snatched up the head of the U.N peacekeeping force in Lebanon, also an American, and tortured and killed him too, and sent us the video's for their amusement.  The acts of terrorism on airplanes, nightclubs were linked to proxies of Iran with Libya throwing an assist.  Actually they swapped technical information back then along with the "IRA", kinda like the trifecta of terror if you will.  Also remember the brief war with the Iranians during Operation "Earnest Will" when we reflagged Kuwaiti tankers after Iran was throwing mines and silkworm missiles at the tankers in an attempt to close the Persian Gulf to the West. We can't forget the "U.S.S. Cole".  Plus all the IED's used to kill and maim U.S. Troops on Iraq and Afghanistan were designed and built by the "QUDs"  So I am glad we are putting paid to that account.

     I found out much later, there was a backroom deal between the Carter Administration and the French about Ayatollah Khomeini returning to Iran after the Shah came to the states for medical treatment, apparently there were assurances from the French "people" that the Ayatollah was going to be a moderate so the Carter administration had no objections to the Ayatollah going to Iran to formally take the reins of government basically screwing over the "Shah" an American Ally.  Well being true to form, the Carter Administration naivety bit us in the ass...Remember "Detente" where the Carter administration tried to make nice with the Soviets and the Soviets took full advantage of it, making us suckers ...yeah....Pepperage Farms Remembers.  They were greenhorns all over the foreign affairs stage, this was the same administration that gave away the "Panama Canal" for a $1 and now the Chinese runs the locks.... I am proud that we finally have a president that doesn't care about world opinion and finally taking care of business.  We should have handles this back in the 80's but every time Reagan then Bush Senior tried to use the military, you heard from the lefties and democrats "Vietnam Syndrome", and this was used to stymy any military action.  It took the 1st Gulf war to put that to rest.  

There will not be any boots on the ground, that ain't Trumps style.  We suck at nation building, unless the nation being rebuilt really wants it.  Iran before the mullah's was a very western based country.  After the mullah's are kicked out, this will be up the Iranians er the Persians to figure out.   And yes they are celebration all over the world.....except here in the states from the usual suspects.

And of course we had people in Pakistan rush the U.S consulate to seize it in a fury of religious zeal, and they paid the price.  Trump and Rubio ain't Carter and Clinton.  The cynical part of my wonders if the ISI sponsored the riot because the Pakistani's are lukewarm allies in the best of times. or am I being cynical

Monday Music "ThunderStruck" by AC/DC

 

I know that I did this song recently,  I was running with a bunch of songs from the 70's, I was planning on putting another "Kenny Rogers and the 1st Edition" today but events pushed this back.  This song also is dedicated to the Mullahs of Iran, we are putting paid to an account that is 47 years past due,  and about time.  I will do my rant er an opinion probably tomorrow.

I know that this song is er, ah well, hmm mumble 36 years old, but to me it is young because loud rock crunching songs are a throwback to the songs of the 1970's when stadium rock ruled.  

    I decided to go with AC/DC "thunderstruck"   This song hit in 1990 while I was in Germany and it was very popular, this was one song that every would play LOUD.  Something about good crunching Heavy Metal Rock and Roll.    When we were in the Gulf, we had dedicated this song to Saddam Hussain and his Republican Guard as they were "Thunderstruck" by the United States Military.

"Thunderstruck" is the first song on the 1990 album The Razors Edge by the hard rock group AC/DC.
The song was released as a single in Germany, Australia, and Japan, and peaked at No. 5 on U.S. the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. In 2010, "Thunderstruck" topped Triple M's Ultimate 500 Rock Countdown in Melbourne, Australia. The top five were all AC/DC songs.
With the exception of new material from an album they are touring behind, this is one of only two songs released after Back in Black that the band still regularly performs live in concert, the other being "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)".

Angus Young stated in the liner notes of the 2003 re-release of The Razors Edge:

It started off from a little trick I had on guitar. I played it to Mal and he said 'Oh, I've got a good rhythm idea that will sit well in the back.' We built the song up from that. We fiddled about with it for a few months before everything fell into place. Lyrically, it was really just a case of finding a good title ... We came up with this thunder thing, based on our favorite childhood toy ThunderStreak, and it seemed to have a good ring to it. AC/DC = Power. That's the basic idea.

The song has sold over a million digital copies since it became available for digital download.

The video which accompanied the single was filmed at London's Brixton Academy on 17 August 1990. The audience members were given free T-shirts with the words "AC/DC – I was Thunderstruck" on the front and the date on the back, and these T-shirts were worn by the entire audience throughout the filming of the video.being "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)".

35 years since the end of the First Gulf War

 

It has been 35 years since the end of Gulf War 1, The event that changed my life forever, it is an event that I have called "before the Storm" and "After the Storm".  My life and those like mine are forever impacted by that war.  That being said, I would do it all over again in a new york minute.  I remembered a photo that came across the wire and you know if you see a photo and it sears it into your soul..well this one was one of the ones for me.

This photo relates to the 24th Infantry Division, where a few Bradley's were hit by  Friendly tank fire, this photo shows the price of war and it was a personal meaning for me.  I lost a friend of mine we called him "woody", that was his nickname, I had met him back in 1986 at "Planet Gerp" as we called our kaserne in Germany.  The place is gone, after the Germans took the Kaserne back after we pulled out of Germany in 1992.  We both went to different assignments during the normal Army PCS moves.  Well to make a long story short, I found out after the war ended that "Woody" died there, his "Track" was hit by a hellfire missile fired by an Apache Helicopter, then I saw this picture and it epitomized the pain for me. 
     I will give a bit of background on this, After the war ended, a large percentage of the casualties we suffered were called "Blue on Blue", the lethality of the missiles and guns we used exceeded our ability to ID targets.  This was the first time the Army used Armor and Infantry in a large scale since WWII.  Our weapons have gotten more lethal but we still relied on the Mark I "eyeball" for Target Identification.  The technology for ID hasn't paced the range and accuracy of the stuff we used on the First Gulf war.  The U.S Army used the "Airland Battle or FM 100-5" concept that we had developed to counter the Soviet Echelon formation and their doctrine and it worked very well, we crushed the 4th largest Army using this doctrine.  We called it "Shock and Awe" and it was warfare like nobody else had ever seen before.  I am of 2 minds of that war, We won the War, and lost the Peace, I remember being pissed when they stopped us after 100 hours of ground combat,  President Bush caved under pressure of the Democrats because they saw the "Highway Of Death" and whined to Bush about it.  I personally had no pity, those soldiers were fleeing Kuwait city after raping and pillaging the city and were running with all their loot.  War is a bitch.  a lot of Iraqi soldiers survived that Saddam was able to reconstitute a big chunk of his army and use them to repress the Kurds after the war.  I wish we had gone to Baghdad the first time, it probably would have saved us a lot of drama and aggravation through the 90's and probably Gulf War II and possibly 9-11.  It would have calmed down the Ayatollah's in Tehran anyway....Maybe.  I do know that the middle east would have been a lot different.
    I will include some more pics and a link to the story and background.  Anybody that has walked the ramparts in defense of this country will have stories like this, it is a common thread of our experience and it is part of the bonds of the brotherhood, the shared sacrifice and loss that we have suffered. 


Here is the Link and the Story plus other pics of them meeting, follow the links

UNIONTOWN, Pa. – Twenty-four slow, burning years have passed since Sgt. Ken Kozakiewicz got wrecked to his soul.
Raw from a battle that ended moments before, dazed from the two missiles that smoked his Bradley Fighting Vehicle and weary from traversing an ungodly expanse of Iraq desert, Kozakiewicz did what any man would.
He read the name on the dead soldier’s identification card, looked away from the bloody body bag and wailed.
Kozakiewicz’s helpless, primal howl became the signature image of Operation Desert Storm. The picture, taken by David Turnley, showed war’s wicked truth and is considered one of military history’s most provocative photos.

Kozakiewicz, his broken left hand in a sling, had been guided into a medical evacuation helicopter after the Jalibah Airfield rout Feb. 27, 1991. The battle was among the final objectives of a dominant campaign to expel Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein’s army from neighboring Kuwait.

Kozakiewicz and Cpl. Mike Tsangarakis were about to be whisked away. Then a body bag was loaded onto the helicopter floor. Kozakiewicz demanded the dead soldier’s name.
A medic reluctantly handed Kozakiewicz the ID for 20-year-old Pvt. Andy Alaniz. In the center of the photo, Tsangarakis lifted his head bandages to glimpse the sack at his feet.
“I was just dumbfounded,” Kozakiewicz recalled Friday. “I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. He just got married. There’s no way.’
“Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.”

The vulnerable moment was seen around the world, running on the cover of Parade magazine. For 24 years, the photo has embarrassed Kozakiewicz but buoyed Alaniz’s high school sweetheart, who became a 19-year-old, pregnant widow.

“I don’t see my husband in a body bag,” Catherine Alaniz-Simonds said Friday. “I see a man crying. I see my husband surrounded by people that loved him. This picture shows the true meaning of war. Not everybody came home.”

Operation Desert Storm was a television show to most Americans.
For the first time, we watched a war as it happened. CNN showed airstrikes live and aired the latest news around the clock. We could see missiles fired from a safe distance, and a sensational fireworks display.
The United States dominated the Iraqi forces. Setbacks were rare. Even so, the Pentagon censored news reports that depicted death or military suffering.
Back home, few realized the cost of war until the haunting photo of Kozakiewicz, Tsangarakis and Alaniz’s body bag appeared on Parade magazine’s cover June 9, 1991.
“Some of us were taken, and some of us weren’t, but everybody rolled the dice where they were going to come out,” said Staff Sgt. Kary Varnell, part of the 24th Infantry Division that swept the Jalibah Airfield. “Were they going to come out alive or mangled?

"How Rome Destroyed Its Citizens"

 I honestly believe that being an "American Citizen" is a precious thing and the politicians try to cheapen it by giving it to people that don't appreciate it.  I know that Rome fell when they cheapen the value of being a citizen of Rome and gave it to anybody and eventually nobody saw the value of it and the empire collapsed of internal rot and when the Goths attacked(who were auxiliaries of Rome and led by "Alaric" who was trained by Rome then used his training against them.   I see parallels to today  Oh Snap, I shouldn't have said that.    Well anyway.I have seen the Meme's involving "The Roman Empire" that have been floating around farcebook and other social media sites,    I do think of the Roman Empire and I do believe that there are a lot of parallels between them and us.  

   One of the books I have in my library I have in my Bonus room.   I see the strength and the decadence, and I wonder if we will survive or will the barbarians from the East will win with the internal rot I am seeing in our society.   

I got this from "Templar Minds"

Emperor Caracalla issued the Constitutio Antoniniana in the year 212 AD. To the modern mind, marinated in egalitarian sentiment, this decree must read like a triumph of social justice.

By the stroke of an imperial stylus, every free man within the borders of the Roman Empire received full citizenship. The ultimate inclusion initiative.

It was also a scam.

Caracalla was no philanthropist. He was a fratricide who had murdered his brother Geta in their mother's arms and then slaughtered twenty thousand of Geta's supporters in the streets of Rome.

He drained the treasury to gorge his legions and finance his Persian fantasies. Rome levied lucrative taxes exclusively on its citizens. The emperor didn't expand the franchise to elevate the masses. He expanded it to bleed them.

The revenue came. So did the rot.

---

For centuries, Roman citizenship had been a covenant forged in civic duty, blood, and military service. It demanded assimilation and commanded awe. The Apostle Paul wielded his citizenship like a blade, halting the centurion's whips by asking, "Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?"

When Caracalla bestowed this status on every breathing subject of the empire, he annihilated the value of being a citizen. By making everyone a Roman, he ensured no one was. The title shed its prestige, its cultural gravity, and its power to bind.

It devolved from covenant to clerical entry. The empire staggered on for generations, but its civic core had been hollowed out. What remained was territory without a people, an administrative zone waiting for the barbarians to finish what the emperor had started.

---

We're living through our own Edict of Caracalla.

The campaigns for open borders and mass amnesty don't argue that the illegal entrant has earned the rights of the citizen. They argue that the distinction itself is immoral. Non-citizen voting proposals don't strengthen the franchise; they dissolve the meaning of it by detaching it from allegiance.

The logic is Caracalla's logic, updated for a therapeutic age: expand the category until it contains everything...and therefore means nothing.

And like Caracalla, the architects of this dissolution are not humanitarians. They are accountants of power. The progressive state desires a pliable electorate unmoored from constitutional memory. The corporate oligarch desires a labor pool vast enough to suppress the wages of the American worker. Both cloaked in the language of compassion.

They want the border erased, not because borders are unjust, but because a defined citizenry is harder to govern and harder to exploit than an undifferentiated mass of consumers and taxpayers.

When citizenship is reduced from a bond of constitutional loyalty and shared historical memory to an administrative status stamped at a processing center, the nation does not become more inclusive.

It ceases to be a nation.

It becomes an economic zone. The passport cheapens. The glue dissolves. And we are instructed to call this progress.

---

Yet as the temporal order decays, we must keep our bearings. We're not the first generation to watch an empire devour its own foundations.

When the Western Empire buckled under the weight of its accumulated rot and the Goths poured through gates that no longer meant anything, St. Augustine of Hippo delivered the Church's verdict.

History, he wrote, is the tale of two cities formed by two loves.

The Earthly City is built on the love of self, the libido dominandi, the lust for domination.

It's the city of the technocrat and the open-borders oligarch. Because it is built on the sand of human pride, it will inevitably dilute its own foundations and collapse into ruin.

The Heavenly City is built on the love of God, usque ad contemptum sui, to the contempt of self. It's eternal, and it's ruled by the King of Kings.

We are placed in this moment by divine providence. We are called to stand against the tide, to demand justice, to defend borders, and to resist those who would dissolve the moral order for profit and votes.

We stand, armed with the knowledge that Washington, like Rome, is not eternal.

Act accordingly.

- Marcus Sterling