Something similar happened to a colleague of mine. He was in charge of his client’s website, which ran on servers from a company called Media Temple, which GoDaddy later acquired.
A few years pass, and the account holder is completely out of the picture and not answering their email, and his authorization is needed to change the credit card which is set to expire soon. My colleague tries every support mechanism to regain access to the account (and it’s my colleague’s credit card on file) but support keeps asking for the long gone account holder’s authorization.
When the card expired, GoDaddy wiped the servers and we lost the only copy of the site’s source. Sadly there were no backups anywhere.
It was an account of 28 years. The site started in 1997.
Over the summer it’s been my job to put a static site online made of the WayBack Machine’s snapshots (it’s a pain to scrape these snapshots for anyone wondering).
Lesson learned: keep local backups, everyone!
I'm super annoyed by any hosting or telco provider that has failed to implement it, I think it amounts to negligence, especially if they stop and completely erase your entire portfolio only a couple of days after payment failure, which some officially do.
I lost my Online.net Scaleway test servers this way, because they have failed to implement the updater. Of course, their support will always blame the customer.
BTW, these Account Updaters are also the reason why changing a card number will not prevent any recurring charges, either; it's by design.
I can confirm that Amazon Prime, Visible and 123-Reg have no issues with VAU and equivalents. Your monthly Amazon Prime in the US will continue getting billed to an expired credit card without any issues, for example. Same with Visible and even the annual renewals on 123-Reg. They all don't show the new card in the interface, and still DO issue warnings that the card is expired, yet, on the billing date, it all just bills as if nothing has happened.
T-Mobile US may lack support, and Callcentric, Hetzner and Online.net, don't seem to implement an Account Updater, either, not sure about OVH.
> An AWS spokesperson told The Register: "We always strive to work with customers to resolve account issues and provided advance warning of the potential account suspension. The account was suspended as part of AWS's standard security protocols for accounts that fail the required verification, and it is incorrect to claim this was because of a system error or accident."
Note that this deletion — without the supposedly standard 90d grace period — was NOT an error (up until the time it's been reinstated, apparently).
My card doesn't even let me include repeating digits in its PIN. I suppose it can make a one-off guess more likely than one in a thousand to correctly guess my PIN.
Is it repeating in the whole PIN, or in digits next to each other? I'm trying to resist the nerd snipe of what the total number of possibilities would be in the latter case...
I believe it would be 7290, or more generalized, S(N) = 10 * 9 ^(N-1) with N being the length of the code and S being the number of combinations (assuming that a decimal system is used)
And from there, with variable lengths ranging from L to H, S(L, H) = 5/4 * 9 ^(L-1) * (9^(U-L+1) - 1)
So if the bank allows combinations from 4 - 6 digits, there would be a total of 663390 combinations to choose from.
Now, of course, the bank may decide to go from decimal to hexadecimal in the future - or maybe, there systems allow only duodecimal. In any case, the formula can be generalized further to account for all number systems - with B being the base of the system:
Which is honestly not a bad idea, given that somebody shoulder surfing or trying to read smudges on the PIN pad becomes much easier in the case of repeated numbers.
"1111" would just leave a fingerprint on a single key, for example, and only one possible PIN (or maybe 3, if the bank/card allows 6 digit PINs).
While not as versatile as Target Display Mode, you can use AirPlay over a wired connection from Mac to Mac: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/09/airplay-mac-to-mac-exte...
Weird it's still called AirPlay, but at least it's possible. The video will be compressed, though unlike Target Display Mode
I'm the owner of a Light Phone II [0] and (other than battery life), the biggest downside to the Light Phone I can envision for most people is the absence of apps like Uber, Apple Pay and Spotify. I think 5G isn't that necessary on a phone like that, except maybe for future-proofing.
This phone seems to have a camera, though, and access to Play Store (although it will likely be messy) really sets it apart from most "minimal" phones out there. Plus, a real keyboard might attract the people who despise the on-screen one on the Light Phone. They're really devices of different classes at this point, though. The price does seem awkwardly low, however.
> the biggest downside to the Light Phone I can envision for most people is the absence of apps like Uber, Apple Pay and Spotify.
You've hit it spot on. I got a light phone years ago to help cure my cell phone addiction, but it was too problematic. I still need to use the "tools" of my phone - things like Maps, Uber, authenticator apps, texting, etc., but I just wanted to block the "dopamine dealers" like social media and the browser.
The best I've gotten to so far is to permanently enable "focus mode" on my phone. Of course I can still disable it, but I've noticed the number of times I just automatically start browsing the web or whatever when I'm even just a tad bored, and having those apps blocked is at least just a reminder to me of "Do you really want to do this right now?"
I'm with you. As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd have a Light Phone if it could use Telegram and a few other "essentials." Throw in a good camera and it'd be incredible.
At the moment I use greyscale mode on my Pixel and have uninstalled apps, only using them in the browser if I "need to." It's not much, but adding that small friction helps somewhat.
Some more friction, use a password manager and change the password to a really long string of characters, then don't install the password manager on the phone.
I tried a Light Phone as well and I found that it made texting so difficult it was basically useless to me as a phone. I then tried a basic flip phone which was more useful but ultimately still added too much friction to my life to be worth it. Now I'm back to my iPhone. It would be great if Apple created the equivalent of those minimalist Android launchers that allow you to remove distracting apps and simplify the UI. At the end of the day a phone is a tool and none of the minimalist phones currently in existence work well enough to be a useful tool for me.
> I think 5G isn't that necessary on a phone like that, except maybe for future-proofing.
5G is more than future proofing, at least where I am, 5G is deployed at new lower frequencies (taken from broadcast TV) that provide for more full coverage. With my new 5g phone, I have less dead zones than my old 4g phone.
5G New Radio (5G-SA) at 600Mhz (band 71) can deliver useful signal about 20% further than LTE on 700Mhz (bands 12, 13, 14 & 17).
We have seen this in action as many Cellspot and other signal booster users have retired these devices as the indoor and basement cell coverage improvements of 5G deliver better service than the DSL or satellite back hauled micro cells these users used to have at home.
I've had 5G turned off on my phone since I got it. There is a dead spot near my house that really annoys me any time I go anywhere. You're making me thinking I should try turning 5G on to see if it helps... but I really don't want to take the hit to my battery.
It's probably worth trying. I gather 5g on early phones is rough on batteries, but my phone is a 2023 and battery life seems fine with 5g on. (old phone was 2020 moto g power, new phone 2023 moto g stylus 5g).
If 4g only makes your phone get stuck searching for signal and 5g would find a signal, turning on 5g will help
I find the comparison to "headphones" for your eyes really interesting because it might provide a long-term view as to the Vision Pro's place on the computer market. Desktop speakers and Hi-Fi home stereo equipment are obviously still a thing today, and, in a few generation (and with the advent of more competition), the case of bigger desktops (and possibly laptops/tablets) might be analogous to today's headphone-loudspeaker duality.
I don't know if it's intentional, but it's a reference to a Steve Jobs quote from 2005:
"Headphones are a miraculous thing. You put on a pair of headphones and you get the same experience you get with a great pair of speakers, right? There’s no such thing as headphones for video. There’s not something I can carry with me, that I can put on and it gives me the same experience I get when I’m watching my 50-inch plasma display at home. Until someone invents that, you’re gonna have these opposing constraints."
Walt Mossberg then mentions goggles, and Jobs says "but they're lousy!" (And Walt adds, "you never get a date if you wear them.")
A teenager myself, I agree schools should start later. To my surprise, the gym teacher is allowed to make some students wake up at 5 A.M. to run laps. There's also no reason why classes starts so early at my specific school, as sport teams and extracurriculars are basically inexistant. The bureaucracy behind all of this must be such a nightmare in Canada too...
