What do you think of when you hear the word radio? Maybe you think of your local music station. Perhaps you think about picking up far away stations with your AM radio. You may also think of the walkie talkies you used as a kid. These are all great uses for radio but that's not all.
What Are Radios Used For?
Radio is all around you. Your cell phone, wifi, gps, microwave, walkie talkies, car radios, bluetooth speakers, etc. If your device doesn't have to be connected with a wire then you are using radio.
Ting is a network wholesaler that resells service on three of the four major US networks. The only network they don't partner with is AT&T. They offer great customer service, no contracts, and amazing coverage. Pretty bold claims, right? Let's take those claims one at a time.
Customer Service
I don't know about you, but i hate calling customer service. They are usually slow to answer, hard to understand, bounce you from department to department, adhere to a script even after you tell them what you've tried, etc. Not Ting. The longest i have ever had to wait for help was 5 minutes. That is extremely uncommon. I have called and gotten a person within 10 seconds of hitting the dial button as well. The agents are helpful, easy to understand, knoledgeable, and I have never had to be transfered (unless I asked).
Today dear readers I pose a question for you. Why does cable and satellite TV exist as of 2020? I recently saw a few videos and read articles about a company that I shall not name launching a new streaming TV service with a two year contract and a guaranteed doubling of price after the first twelve months.
Today's topic is going to focus on encryption services that are easy to use but safe enough to recommend. One of the most annoying things I hear is “I have nothing to hide” or some varient thereof. If you truely have nothing to hide, please hit up my About Me and DM me your SSN, DOB, mother's maiden name, etc. Actually, don't do that. I don't want it and you shouldn't give it. Point being, everyone has something to hide. Just because you don't need to protect yourself today doesn't mean you won't in the future. Stand up for those who need it now or risk nobody being willing to stand up for you later. Well, that was quite dark. On to the services shall we?
First off the title may be a bit misleading. However people who have never heard of Mastodon have more than likely never heard of the fediverse. You have to show them the former in order to properly explain the latter. In my opinion anyway.
So Mastodon Then...
Imagine if email and Twitter had a baby. It would be Mastodon. Mastodon is similar to Twitter in that it is a micro-blogging platform where one can follow and be followed by friends or anyone else (depending on privacy settings). Since the platform is called Mastodon and uses a wooly mammoth/elephant as it's mascot your statuses are called toots. This is similar to the sound elephants make.
Mastodon is similar to email because of it's federation. What's that? Well, you may have a Gmail address and your friend may have an Outlook address. You can communicate with your friend using Outlook because Outlook, Gmail, and every other provider all speak the language of email. Mastodon servers also all speak the same language. It's called ActivityPub (more on that later). So just like email you can have an account on one instance (website) and your friend can have an account on another.
My alarm clock shatters my dreams and brings me back into the plane of reality. I wish i could go back to sleep. Even as this thought occurs to me my lights start to brighten as if they can read my mind. In today's world, that very well may be the case.
Everyone knows large companies wish to extend their power to every part of our lives. Who remembers when Facebook purchased Whatsapp or AT&T purchasing Time Warner? There are better examples but I think you understand where I'm coming from.
So, if you live in the US and haven't been under a rock for the past two years. You may have read that T-Mobile — the nations third largest carrier — has been involved in a merger with Sprint. The FCC and DOJ approved the merger on the condition that they help Dish Network — satellite TV provider — become the new fourth carrier. Unfortunately the merger became very political with one party fighting against it on the grounds that consumers would be forced to pay more for less competition.
The TL;DR is that i am just another random person on the internet.
The longer explaination is that. I am a person who quite honestly reads to many articles about technology. I also likely spend far to much time watching online videos. I justify this to myself by saying “I watch content that is either educational or informative.”.
Ask me if you have a question I didn't answer. I don't bite. Most times anyway.