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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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Articles by Andrew Orr

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The NSA Continues to Violate American Rights

Andrew Orr ·

The National Security Agency continues to violate American rights when it comes to internet privacy.

The government attempts to defend this spying by pointing out that its “targets” are foreigners located abroad. But this is no defense at all. Americans regularly communicate with individuals overseas, and the government uses PRISM surveillance to collect and sift through many of these private communications. The government has even admitted that one of the purposes of Section 702 is to spy on Americans’ international communications without a warrant.

I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!

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The Untold Story of Cyberattack NotPetya

Andrew Orr ·

So far NotPetya has been the worst cyberattack in history, and now we’ve got the untold story behind it.

On a normal day, these servers push out routine updates—bug fixes, security patches, new features—to a piece of accounting software called M.E.Doc, which is more or less Ukraine’s equivalent of TurboTax or Quicken. It’s used by nearly anyone who files taxes or does business in the country.

But for a moment in 2017, those machines served as ground zero for the most devastating cyberattack since the invention of the internet—an attack that began, at least, as an assault on one nation by another.

Psst! *whispers* That nation was Russia.

Intel Power Gadget Monitors Your Mac’s Energy Usage
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Intel Power Gadget Monitors Your Mac's Energy Usage

Andrew Orr ·

Traditional methods to estimate power/energy usage of the processor has always been a cumbersome task that included special purpose tools or instrumentation on the platform along with third party equipment. Intel Power Gadget is supported on Windows and macOS and includes an application, driver, and libraries to monitor and estimate real-time processor package power information in watts using the energy counters in the processor. In version 3.0 there are more features that include estimation of power on multi-socket systems as well as externally callable APIs to extract power information within sections of code.

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Advertising is Obsolete. Let's Kill It With Fire

Andrew Orr ·

Advertising is obsolete, so let’s kill it with fire. Ramsi Woodcock of the University of Kentucky writes that if the only justification for advertising is that it informs, then it’s obsolete now.

Imagine a world wiped clean of advertising of all kinds…Would you still be able to find all the information you could ever want about products in this alternative world? Of course you would. Your friends, family and the host of complete strangers you follow on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and half a dozen other sites would continue to bombard you with information about their lives, including all the products they are using.

That argument make sense to me. However, he continues to write that advertising has another use: manipulation.

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Are Thousand Dollar Smartphones the New Normal?

Andrew Orr ·

Vlad Savov writes that thousand dollar smartphones are the new normal.

Three or four years ago, anyone proposing a four-figure price for a phone would have been laughed out of their boardroom meeting. Two years ago, if I’d told you Apple would be successfully selling a phone with a notch in its screen but no headphone jack, at a price of $999, you’d have shaken your head and accused me of wilder wishful thinking than Gene Munster’s Apple TV pipe dream.

This is a nonsensical argument. Smartphones have been around US$1000 for years now. Including tax my iPhone 7 Plus bill was around US$950. I bought it unlocked, and it wasn’t subsidized through a carrier like Vlad has gotten used to. Nothing has changed except the way carriers have split up the cost on contracts.

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Apple is a Beacon in a Silicon Valley of the Dead

Andrew Orr ·

Writing for Bloomberg, Leonid Bershidsky writes that Apple is “the perfect tech company for this day and age, an example to the rest of Silicon Valley.”

Because this is a time when Amazon is pushing innovations that don’t solve any real-world problems but may create some… This is a time when Google is trying to subvert new privacy regulations to turn them against content producers. A time when Facebook, blasted by media and regulators for ignoring people’s privacy concerns, starts a dating service which will collect people’s most intimate data.

Apple certainly has had its share of issues. But they are issues related to its products, not societal issues. We don’t have to worry any time soon about Apple creating mass surveillance facial recognition systems, advertising systems that belittle media and treat people like products, or secretly track them.

Plugo is an AR STEM Gaming System for Kids
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Plugo is an AR STEM Gaming System for Kids

Andrew Orr ·

Plugo is an immersive AR STEM gaming system for kids, and right now it’s a Kickstarter project. Plugo comes with four gaming kits: Quest, Count, Link, and Steer. Designed for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 years, each kit comes with many exciting educational games that are conceptualized to make your child learn, play and have fun—all at the same time. The gamepad is compatible with multiple iOS and Android (Samsung) tablets and smartphones, iPad, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and more. No wires, no electronics or additional hardware; the gaming system requires minimum effort to set-up and play. The project has met its goal of US$25,000. Rewards start at US$35 and the estimated delivery is March 2019.

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Robots are Taking Over the Movie Industry

Andrew Orr ·

Okay, maybe not taking over. However, a robot (or more precisely, an android) will be starring in an upcoming movie called 2nd Born.

The report doesn’t include many specifics on the robot star, other than that it will learn various acting methods and techniques prior to filming. However, Kaye hopes the performance will be enough to earn the bot recognition from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), meaning it could conceivably go up against human actors come awards season.

I hope the film will be a comedy, otherwise a robo-actor might be a bit awkward.

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Science Confirms Women’s Pockets are too Small

Andrew Orr ·

If you’re a woman you’re probably familiar with the tiny pockets of your clothing. Science has now confirmed what we already know: women’s pockets are too damn small.

“If you’re thinking ‘But men are bigger than women,’ then sure, on average that’s true,” the site adds. “But here we measured 80 pairs of jeans that all boasted a 32 inch waistband, meaning that these jeans were all made to fit the same size person.”

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Got a Smartphone Addiction? You Can Get Help

Andrew Orr ·

Smartphone addiction has slowly become more prevalent in our society. Companies like Apple and Google have built new features like Screen Time to help you manage how much time you spend on your phone. 

Numerous studies confirm that smartphone addiction is a problem because phones compel us to use it more often, and more disruptively, than we’d like. It can affect productivity, relationships, quality of life, and happiness.

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How to Break Spaghetti in Half Like a Physicist

Andrew Orr ·

In 2005, scientists confirmed that dry spaghetti noodles never break cleanly in half. Instead they tend to split into three or more pieces. If you’ve ever cooked spaghetti you’re probably familiar with having little bits explode all over the kitchen. But it turns out that there is a way to break spaghetti cleanly in half. Famous physicist Richard Feynman once spent a night with a friend snapping pasta to figure out what was happening. He never solved it, but it inspired French researchers to try, which earned them a 2006 igNobel prize. The secret? Twist the noodles hard like you’re wringing out a washcloth. To understand why, they used a high speed camera that recorded the shattering pasta at a million frames per second. The twist prevented the two bent strands flexing back quite as forcefully as an untwisted strand, and the untwisting motion released some of the stored energy in the spaghetti, further reducing the likelihood of a second fracture.

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ISPs Say They Can't Expand Broadband Without More Money

Andrew Orr ·

Apparently ISPs have been recently saying that they can’t expand broadband without more government handouts.

Broadband providers have spent years lobbying against utility-style regulations that protect consumers from high prices and bad service.

But now, broadband lobby groups are arguing that Internet service is similar to utilities such as electricity, gas distribution, roads, and water and sewer networks. In the providers’ view, the essential nature of broadband doesn’t require more regulation to protect consumers. Instead, they argue that broadband’s utility-like status is reason for the government to give ISPs more money.

Of course, the biggest issue with this is that the government (read: American taxpayers) have already given ISPs US$400 billion dollars to expand fiber optic networks across the country. The article’s header says it best: ISPs want benefits but not responsibilities.