Month: October 2023

They Can Hear You!

By Sean Christopher On In Tech Tips

Ever talk about a product in the privacy of your own home and then see ads about that product or topic? It’s pretty common knowledge that devices are listening to us. I wrote a blog about it at some point, but recently I’ve been curious about what is listening to us and how to turn it off. These smart devices have “wake words” that hear commands/conversations and instantly start listening. While they are listening, they add the keywords into your algorithm to “help you” when you surf the web or social media. If you’re concerned, that’s probably a good thing. So here’s how to turn off some of those listening features:

Tracking Protection in Android 14

By Michael Gregory On In Misc, Tech Tips

If you’ve ever heard of AirTags, or their less-popular brethren Tile or Eufy, the value add is fairly obvious: Put the tag on an item and if you lose it or it’s stolen, then nearby devices can ping the NFC tag on it to report that they’ve seen it. Unfortunately, several nefarious individuals discovered that rather than track down lost items, these tools can also be used to covertly track someone’s location if you can get an AirTag on a person or in a vehicle. Apple was quick to issue a fix that alerts iPhone users if an AirTag is away from its owner and seems to be following them for an extended period.

Moving Hacks and Regrets, Part II

By Kristin Imperio On In Misc

Almost 4 years ago, my partner and I moved into our new home (our first house purchase together). Never would I have thought we’d be here, transitioning from Portland to Denver, with a pitstop in Chicago. A lot has happened and changed the course of our lives (ahem, *pandemic*). This is the 3rd blog post I’ve made about moving. Let’s say I’ve grown a lot.

Here are some more hacks/regrets about moving across the country (again):

Moving from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365

By Will Jay On In Tech Tips

I’ve had the job of managing a handful of data migrations from Google Workspace, Google’s business email/storage/etc. platform, into Microsoft 365. It’s a straightforward process at its core, but after looking into doing it for my own personal domain, there is a lot more room for nuance if you’ve deeply embedded yourself in their products. A few things that I’ve discovered include: