So looks like FCC is implementing some new rules to protect against SIM swapping and that's taking effect on July 8, 2024. Though from the press release, I'm not quite sure if that'll protect the customer from a carrier employee being the bad actor.
Interestingly, that "rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are", this totally works with Korean too.
That perspective is a little wrong; those are the 4 companies on the edge of a wave of technological improvement. It isn't unusual for there to be unique companies in those circumstances. For example when Apple hit the market with the iPhone back in '07 there were similar things going on. One of the things that hamstrung Apple's competitors was that nobody in the supply could manufacture equivalent parts.
Those 4 companies aren't without competitors. But if you pick the best in each category there is (funnily enough) only one option and right now chaining them together gets a noticeably better product than anyone else can build. That isn't normal but it also isn't that weird for new products.
If you want what Nvidia was building a few years ago there are several of options.
Zeiss and ASML currently have no competitors in the EUV lithography space as everyone else dropped out. (There was a big switch from lenses to mirrors)
I won't rule out a direct competitor, but they have a substantial moat.
They face some pressure from indirect competition like Canon Nanoimprint though.
Another way of framing your opening is "a bunch of other companies are on the verge of figuring this out, but the market isn't big enough". EUV hasn't even been the done thing for all that long, I gather it is only the tech of choice for about a decade.
There are a bunch of thin bottlenecks and oligopolies in global supply chains. It is a big and complex world. But that leads to a situation where three things are true at once:
* There are companies that are expensive to replace.
* No single company is truly irreplaceable.
* On the cutting edge, it is common enough for there to be only one company that knows how to do something.
When the MacBook Pro switched to Intel processors, Intel made an entirely new top bin for Apple and for something like six months they had exclusive right to it.
Oh favoritism and bribery! More like, small market that can deal with the fact that the vendor can only promise small deliveries. But also Intel trying to land a whale.
Right. Which is why they were noting the implication that if Twilio earns a higher margin from an SMS 2FA vs an Authy 2FA, maybe the owners of Authy would discourage the use of Authy through actions like this.
Being forced to interact with city government, state benefits, hospital systems, courts, police, and especially probation officers, all of whom are known to block or obfuscate their number even though missing their call could cause you no end of trouble, would help disabuse you of your smug solipsism.
And most services including utilities if you want to reach a human. It fucking sucks because English is my second language, I can read and type fine but if I have to talk on the phone I’m screwed, maybe both of us could understand 70% what the other party says
When the doctor's office can't get a hold of you, now you're looking at 6 months longer until you get to see the specialist you've been waiting for.
When probation can't get a hold of you, now you're looking at an unannounced visit, violation, and/or arrest warrant. This happened DAILY when ankle monitors suddenly malfunctioned and communicated that they'd been cut off or that I was violating home confinement by leaving unannounced.
i'll corroborate GP. it's happened when i tried enrolling in WA's Apple Health and then 3 days in a row got a call from the same number who left no message; finally i made sure to be near my phone the fourth day and got to it before the voicemail.
related, i found out within the last month via mail, after-the-fact, that Progressive had canceled my car insurance due to a billing change, and so i couldn't legally drive that week. you'd think an insurance billing department of all places would leave a message if they can't get hold of you immediately, but nope. not their policy. i guess the spammers have ruined things so much that if Progressive did leave a message most people (myself included) would mistake it for a phishing attempt anyway.
I’ve submitted several ideas to Apple over the years. One of them actually made its way into iOS, which is the silence unknown callers option. I’m very happy about that. Before they added it, I tried to implement it with the existing feature set by setting my default ring to silent, then adding a custom ring to all my contacts. It was a pain, but it technically worked.
One thing I really noticed was the dramatic drop in call volume once I stopped answering calls. Once I stopped answering, they stopped trying to call. People are basically being trained not to answer the phone.
That's one of the reasons I've not been huge on the recent (within the last several years) increase in "scam baiters" and stuff. As much as it does waste the time of the scammer and as helpful as some of the big ones are, normal people who do it are having little effect and ultimately just putting themselves on more and more lists.
It doesn't even have to be waterproof to prevent 99% water damage cases. It just needs to be water resistant against liquid pours from the top, like how a car can withstand rain.
Most of my cases where me toppling over some classes or bottles in a way where the liquid ended up directly on the open laptop.
On the other hand in my bag I normally have the Laptop in an additional sleeve, sometimes a double one, so any case where liquid ended up spilling in my backpack it at most lead to a slightly damp laptop due to the sleeves getting wet but nothing which causes water damage.
As a side note if used correctly a simple plastic bag (like a thing plastic shopping bag) as an additional sleeve around you laptop sleeve can be a trivial cheap way to get a surprising amount of waterproofing a laptop in a backpack. I don't do this on a daily basis but when traveling or similar I always hope to not forget to do it.
I can confirm. I work at a school with a massive fleet of Macs. The kids generally kill their devices with water by keeping their water bottle in the same bag as their MacBook. Doesn’t matter how often I tell them not to, they insist on doing this.
Yes. The risk of a water bottle opening in a student’s bag and ruining a laptop, causing a very expensive repair is worse than the inconvenience of keeping the bottle outside of their bag.
How would you avoid water damage due to the scenario? Or do you consider it normal and unavoidable?
https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-governmental-affairs/fcc-announ...
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398483A1.pdf