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Thread: Android TabE Lite

  1. #1
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    Default Android TabE Lite

    This is a paperback-sized, but cell-phone thin Android device which will run the port of OpenCPN navigation software as well as any other Android thingamabobs that you want. I bought it on ebay and after futzing with it and my g-mail account I lost what little patience I still have with anything that says "Google" on it. I restored it to the factory settings instead of chucking it out the window.

    This thing has been charged, sat on my desk for two days and had my fingerprints on it for about three hours. I even wiped the fingerprints off. It was $65 on ebay. I'll sell it for $40. The thing really is the ideal size to have as an in-cockpit charting device, it's just that I have developed a rabid hatred of all things Google.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    ... I have developed a rabid hatred of all things Google.
    Aww, c'mon, Alan. Call me. I'll walk you through the process. I share your dislike of large corporate monoliths, but then again, they give us lots of free stuff. Can't beat the search engines, directions at the touch of a finger, yada yada. Stay away from Facebook and you'll never realize how much of your soul has been accessed.

    I went over to Richardson's Bay yesterday afternoon to anchor out for the evening just for the heck of it. Set the anchor nicely as the sun set, turned on the cabin lights only to find that my little one burner stove wouldn't start. Couldn't boil water for the noodles, the spaghetti sauce was cold, couldn't heat that, and realized that without the stove I wouldn't have coffee in the morning. Plus, and this was the kicker, Dura Mater was rolling rather extremely back and forth!!! That did it. I pulled up the anchor, getting very very muddy, and motored home to Berkeley in the full moon. That little tablet you disparage? I love it. I used it. I'll help you figure it out, but maybe you'd prefer some other very expensive chart plotter? Carliane has one of those. You can ask her. I think it cost more than $69.

    BTW, the only other vessel on the Bay besides a few ferries at 7:30 was this hugely lit up something over there: Gold lights all around its hull and up the mast, it looked like a New Orleans Carnaval float on the water. Then I heard a helicopter, and watched it light up the boat, hovering. As far as I can tell from the radio it was the Coasties practicing MOB drills. Keeping up to date on safety procedures to ensure our safety and catch bad guys who try to swim away, I suppose. Thank you, Coasties.

  3. #3
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    Being an IT guy, I should have realized that Android = Google, but I almost never deal with peoples cell phones in my job and I just didn't know. I refuse to send every detail of my life to Google, and that's exactly what that implement will do while it's turned on.

    Thanks J. but no. If I could reformat it and remove every trace of the Android OS, I'd keep it and replace Android with Linux, but extensive reading online has shown me that you can't do that. You can set it up to dual boot, but that's not the same thing.

    Others who do not have the same level of mistrust of Big Data companies may find this implement to be extremely useful. I'll happily pass it along. It cost $65 on ebay. If there are no nibbles in a week, I'll put it up for sale on Craigslist. If nobody bites, I'll give it away.
    Last edited by AlanH; 02-01-2018 at 04:19 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  4. #4
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    The problem with what you wrote -- " I share your dislike of large corporate monoliths, but then again, they give us lots of free stuff. Can't beat the search engines, directions at the touch of a finger, yada yada.".. is that it's indicative of an unawareness of how business works online.

    Some businesses work the old-fashioned way. They sell stuff...physical stuff like rope or boats or houses or ponies or autopilots or candy, online. Amazon functions as a sales outlet but also as a middleman, but in the end, MOST...not all, but most of what Amazon sells is "stuff".

    Google doesn't do that, and neither does Facebook. What they sell is time and contact. They sell exposure to you. Every second they can document where they have your attention is money to them because they can say...

    "Look, Jackie Philpott spent 45 minutes staring at our website. Hey Big-Company-That-Sells-Stuff we will sell you space on our search engine/store/chat site/whatever that has captured Jackie Philpotts attention. She will be looking at your advertising for a long, long time."

    Not only that, but they're better than that, Jackie. These companies track what you search. Do you think Google gives away that search engine for free? Google is a company and there is no private, for profit company that gives away anything significant "for free". Google tracks what searches are run from your computer. They know that whoever sits at the computer with hardware address xx:12:yy:45:zz:67 does a lot of online searches for boat stuff. That means that they will market advertising access to your computer to West Marine. If you never search for MMA fights, then won't try to hit you with advertising for TapOut clothing. If you're not interested in what Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are up to this week then you won't see advertising for Justins favorite baseball cap company.

    Google and Facebook specialize in targeted advertising and the more information they can gather about you, the more precise, and therefore the more valuable, their advertising is.

    Two stories....

    1. ) Me. Once, my friend Lance and I were joking around about his little girls' fascination with "My Little Pony". Do you know what "My Little Pony" is? I didn't know, either. So after laughing about it, the next day I looked up the slang term "Brony" with Google. "Brony" is a slang term for guys who like "My Little Pony" which is seriously marketed at little girls. An hour later, I started seeing "My Little Pony" advertising popping up on my Facebook page. To me that's a little bit creepy, not because of the Brony thing, but because the connection between a google search and Facebook advertising was SO tight.

    But still hahaha! My Little Pony! ~~funny. The next story isn't so funny.

    2.) My friend Carlene was diagnosed with a late-onset neurologic disorder about 2 years ago. When her doctor told her about it, she didn't know what it was. He (or she) prescribed something to Carlene to help with some of the symptoms. Carlene used Google to search for information about that medication. Within a few hours, she started noticing that the advertising on some of the websites she was visiting was all about her disorder, treatment for it and so on.

    In other words, by doing a web search, Google and it's affiliates "knew" that she had this neurological disorder and Google had sold that information to it's advertisers. They might not have sold the direct knowledge that someone by the name of Carlene X had Disease Y, but they sold the fact that the computer at 33:rr:56:df:ab:24 had a user who did a search for Drug A, and that person also has a Gmail account carlene.smith@gmail.com and the person logged in to gmail under that account spent nine hours this week looking at websites that google controls.

    Hahaha! My Little Pony. So funny. --------------- Sharing health information for profit? Not so funny. What prevents Google from sharing that information with Carlene's health insurance company? Oh, they only sell the information that the user at hardware address xx:12:yy:45:zz:67 did a search for the drug Oxyfibbulin A. That's all. Funny though...the online application for insurance from Mutual_Health_Insurance.com came from a computer with hardware address xx:12:yy:45:zz:67 . No personal information was sold here, right? Right? ...so it's not illegal.

    Right?

    I'm not making any of this up, Jackie, this is EXACTLY how both Google and Facebook work. Those search engines are not "free". Is Google Maps, "free"?

    Jackie, every time you use Google Maps on your phone, with your GPS turned on, you are sending exact information about where you are and what you are doing, to both Apple and Google. If you have location services turned on, on your iphone so that in theory you can find your iphone when you lose it, Apple knows where your phone is. If they can seduce you into carrying the thing on your person so closely that with a high degree of certainty they can say "where Jackie's phone is, there also is Jackie" then they know that you drive by a Starbucks every day on the way to work. You will see Starbucks advertising, if Starbucks is willing to pay for it. The more accurate Google/Apple/Facebooks information on you is, the more valuable their advertising is to Starbucks.

    Jackie, Apple knows where you sleep. I mean, think about it. Is your iphone moving between midnight and 3:00 AM? Probably not, huh? Did you ever have a small child? You know, kids today are married to their phones. They text every minute they're awake. Do you really think that Google and Apple don't have databases of those texts and where those phones ergo..kids... are when they text? Are you comfortable with the fact that Google knows exactly where your kid is, 24/7, even if you don't? I'm not making this up, this is today...right now... reality.

    Don't even get me started on FitBits and apple watches. Seriously, people VOLUNTARILY send private companies with absolutely no interest whatsoever in their health, intimate information on their exercise habits, blood pressure, heart rate, weight, where they are, etc. etc. And Amazons Alexa? What the actual f**k? People, by the millions, put a private companies listening device in their homes so it would easier to go shopping. Google Home? Seriously? What the 'efff?

    I remember explaining that to our dept secretary. Her response was..."but I only use it to turn on my music!". Dumbass, it's not what YOU use it for that matters. It's what AMAZON USES IT FOR that matters. If the damned device isn't listening all the time, how the 'eff does it know that you just said "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" ?? Do you really think that Amazon is so concerned with your privacy that they aren't filtering every word said in the proximity of that machine for hints for advertising? Think for a moment. AMAZON KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE HAVING SEX IN YOUR BEDROOM. How? Because that damned Alexa machine can hear you.

    What's next? Microchip implants under your skin? Oh, but it makes online shopping so much easier!!!

    Google? No. Google has NO social conscience. They are a private company and the company has one goal and one goal only. Make Money.

    I choose not to give them, mine.
    Last edited by AlanH; 02-01-2018 at 11:40 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  5. #5
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    That post is an obnoxious rant. However, there is absolutely nothing in it which is not completely true, unfortunately.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    That post is an obnoxious rant. However, there is absolutely nothing in it which is not completely true, unfortunately.
    A rant, yes. Obnoxious? No.
    Lee
    s/v Morning Star
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  7. #7
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    Being somewhat paranoid about these things, I clear browsing data on both computers at least daily and keep location services (and a bunch of other stuff) turned off on my phone - except when Ray says to turn it on because I'm using his new Traccar app (oh, the irony!) And no Alexa for me - even Siri creeps me out.

    But my best defense is leading a boring life.

    I have to add - this wouldn't be a typical SSS "For Sale, Rent or Loan" thread if it didn't go all the way up and turn left.
    .
    Last edited by BobJ; 02-02-2018 at 10:30 AM.

  8. #8
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    You shouldn't worry if you have nothing to hide.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Smokester View Post
    You shouldn't worry if you have nothing to hide.
    Believe it or not, I actually know people who use that "argument" to justify what's going on. That's almost more frightening than the misuse of technology, itself.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  10. #10
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    Yup.

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