FarFarAway

joined 2 years ago
[–] FarFarAway 2 points 1 month ago

They wouldn't let me turn mine off. The first bank flat out said no, the credit union charged me $5 to draft $100 from my savings. If there wasnt $100 in the savings, they would charge me the $5 to take what was in my savings and the $25 overdraft to cover the rest. There were no other options.

[–] FarFarAway 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You are automatically an Irish citizen if one of your parents was an Irish citizen who was born in Ireland. You can become an Irish citizen if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland, or you can become an Irish citizen if one of your parents was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, but was not born in Ireland.

https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/usa/our-services/citizenship/born-outside-ireland/foreign-births-registration-guide/

[–] FarFarAway 4 points 2 months ago

I would think chinchillas would be more closely related to squirrels, than to rabbits.

[–] FarFarAway 3 points 2 months ago

Haha jokes on the kid! My grandmother would buy all sorts of crap only use it once then give it to my mom. My mom has it piled away in a store room and when she goes, I'll add it to my hoard collection. (Were not super hoard-y and can still walk and use all my furnature, etc, we just cant bring ourselves to throw away things that work, in case we need or want them one day / possibly sell them as collectables, even though they're worth nothing now...) when I go, the kid will inherent 3 generations of crap. Sucker!

[–] FarFarAway 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I had to double check to see if this was an onion article.

[–] FarFarAway 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Thank goodness someone explained that to me. I was startong to wonder if she was some sort of technology expert, or something.

[–] FarFarAway 7 points 3 months ago

Theres a neighbor that doesnt want to add more ambulances only cause they dont want to pay more taxes. Like dude, we have 4 ambulances for 100,000 people.

Some people just dont care, even when they know they'll benefit from it, too.

[–] FarFarAway 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Where I grew up in rural texas: these are current times as I still go there regularly to visit.

Convenience store: 10 km down a major highway

Market: 20 km

The nearest Walmart : 58 km <-- this used to be the only option until they built ... The nearest chain grocery: 21 km

Train: 60 km (Amtrak)

Park: 8km. Down a road with a 60 mph (96 km/h) speed limit. But definitely walkable.

Bus stop: ??? There is no public transportation in the town of under 2000 people. Google maps won't even give me a suggestion so...I have no idea. Does a greyhound count?

Library: 21 km

[–] FarFarAway 1 points 3 months ago

The only things I see that have a visa logo on it, are those prepaid cards. Out of all the cards I've ever had, bank or credit, I'm pretty sure only 1 has ever been visa, and that was like 15+ years ago, everything else is, or has been MasterCard.

[–] FarFarAway 1 points 4 months ago

Idk, ask the Texas Tribune, haha.

I feel people have made the same mistake before, and confused crowdtangle, which is a disinformation tracker, and tangles, which is a "surveillance-for-hire outfit." Meta probably felt the need to clarify, at least once time before.

[–] FarFarAway 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

One point of contention. I dont think tangles is some defunct meta app. Texas has recently acquired a contract with a law enforcement surveillance tool called tangles.

Tangles is a product offered by the cybersecurity company Cobwebs Technologies, which was founded in Israel in 2014 by three former members of Israeli military special units. The company has said their products, which are marketed as open source intelligence (OSINT) tools, have been used to combat terrorism, drug smuggling, and money laundering, but Meta has accused the company of operating as a surveillance-for-hire outfit. In 2023, Cobwebs Technologies was acquired by the Nebraska-based tech firm PenLink Ltd.

This tool is out there, and still being used.

[–] FarFarAway 17 points 4 months ago

Ohhh nooooo! That's not funny! Well, maybe for the dog.

But, that really sucks for the tech.

 

"The SCOPE Act takes effect this Sunday, Sept. 1, and will require everyone to verify their age for social media."

So how does this work with Lemmy? Is anyone in Texas just banned, is there some sort of third party ID service lined up...for every instance, lol.

But seriously, how does Lemmy (or the fediverse as a whole) comply? Is there some way it just doesn't need to?

7
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by FarFarAway to c/[email protected]
 

my collection

 

I can remove this post if it is inappropriate.

I have a collection of rocks and minerals. It's not the bestest as most are small specimens, but at last my collection could finally serve a greater purpose. Maybe I could get help identifying some in the process.

It's just all these pictures look so professional, I don't want to misconstrue the purpose of this community.

Thanks

354
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by FarFarAway to c/nostupidquestions
 

This is completely strange, and very long. I've exhausted all my ideas, and need fresh ones.

Some background.

  1. my neighbor is old, very very old. Also, they are not very mobile. So something like creeping up to the window and listening in is out of the question. Although, a very long time ago (decades) they did used to hang out near an air condition vent, listening to our in person conversations.
  2. when I say neighbor, I mean they live in a small house connected by a breezeway to my house. I do admit they are rather close. Yes I do have access to thier house.
  3. i have no real idea of thier level of technological expertise. They are pretty manipulative so even though I'm under the impression they're very limited on expertise, it's possible they know more than they let on. Let's just say at this point, they say they have difficulties placing calls to thier saved contacts on thier jitterbug flip phone, but when your not looking they're already on the line with someone, like five seconds after you walked out the door. As far as we know they do not have access to the internet, but who knows. They do know how to navigate to at least a limited number of websites though. (Slight fear of them seeing this post, haha)
  4. they digest far right media. This in itself doesnt seem relavent, but I suppose, in my head, this might be able to give them awareness of the types of technology that one might use to pull something like this off.
  5. It is remotely possible that someone could have installed something inside the house maybe about 15-20 years ago, and given the neighbor access to it.
  6. they are on a limited income, and are not independently wealthy. Any technology would have to be no only easy to use, but on the less expensive side as well.

So... Maybe about once a year for the past few years a topic or phrase that was talked about over the phone would come up in conversation the next day. Not a big deal, written off as coincidence. That's just how it goes sometimes. Well now, we've had a falling out. For the past few weeks they have brought up many private conversations I have had over my cell phone with at least 2 different people. They repeat not just what I say, but what the person on the other end of the phone says as well. I say, "Man, im pretty sure they're hearing my phone calls." The other person says, "Maybe there's a bug somewhere." The next day they start to prattle on about...a bug on the wall. But not a real bug...oh what do you call those things...you know, bugs that know things. Or I say "I'm worried about this escalating." The other person jokingly says "Oh, don't eat or drink anything from them, unless they take some first.. They may try to kill you." The next day neighbor is handing me a concoction they've made. "Oh, I've just sat down with this mixture I've created for my health. Everything I put in it is sitting on the counter there. (Cue various herbal supplements / tinctures) here have the first sip... it's not going to kill you." They are bringing up / creating situations centered around private converstaions from the night before. They may skip a day or two here and there, but it's a pretty regular occurrence.

Something worth mentioning, is that while im on the phone call, I will turn on my Bluetooth and use my earbuds. Everytime the buds connect, the call drops, and we have to call each other back. I figured I was pushing a button wrong or something and hanging up. But since the neighbor has gone somewhere, we have not been able to replicate the situation.

Things we have tried but have since been disproven:

  • At first we thought we were leaving windows open and they could just hear it...but all windows were closed.
  • maybe they can hear through the walls somehow, they are thin. But its never been a thing before. (why would they have to hang out by aforementioned vent, then) We blast the radio real loud and see how much we can hear from neighbors porch. Can't make out exact words and doesn't explain hearing the other person.
  • well thier radio automatically connects to iPhones ( un-updated iphone from the air drop debacle/ f-ed up feature of the radio involving nfc and bluetooth) and it did pair with my phone at some point. Maybe they can the other person over thier radio. But we tried to make it work and just cant replicate it.
  • we've checked obvious places for a walke talkie looking receiver. Nothing.
  • we've used one of those cheap bug detectors off Amazon and checked the house...and the vent. No wires comming out of strange places as far as we can tell.

I'm at my wits end. What could they be using and how can I stop it? It maybe all a coincidence, but then its as much so as Facebook / Google targeted ads that arent listening your conversations. I mean, what, are they an advanced algorithm that can guess what your thinking based on all available data on you?

Help! And thank you for taking the time. Also, sorry about the format / spelling getting all this out on mobile is tough.

TL:DR. My really old neighbor seems to hear my both sides of cell calls to at least 2 different people. Is there simple, rather cheap technology put there that they could be using. And how do i go about finding it / making it stop.

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