AVOIDING SPAM CALLS
Are spam calls getting worse? No, but they’re still a nuisance.
There were around 54 billion robocalls last year. Fifty-two billion are expected this year. The reduction may be due to recent changes by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC started requiring carriers to verify all incoming and outgoing calls.
Even so, spam calls can be hard to recognize. I once got a call from a guy pretending to represent a local theater group. I should have hung up and called the theater instead of donating. Later I learned I’d been scammed. So the next time someone wants a donation and I’m inclined to give, I’ll hang up and call the organization myself.
Here are a couple more tips I got from CNET. First, if you’re asked to press a number before being connected to a representative, hang up. It could be a scammer. Second, don’t respond “yes” to a question like “can you hear me?” Scammers get people to sign up for things by recording the word “yes.”
The major carriers offer services to fight spam, including AT&T’s “Call Protect,” Verizon’s “Call Filter,” T-Mobile’s “Scam Shield,” and Sprint’s “Call Screener.” T-Mobile’s Scam Shield is free. Sprint’s Call Screener is free until Sprint customers fully migrate over to T-Mobile. The others have both a free and a pro version.
If you have an iPhone, you can send unknown callers to voicemail. To set it up, go to “Settings,” tap the phone app, then scroll down and tap “Silence Unknown Callers.” On an Android phone, tap the phone icon, then tap the three vertical dots in the top right. Tap “Settings,” then “Blocked Numbers.” Toggle the switch next to “Block calls from unidentified callers.” But this just blocks them, rather than sending them to voicemail.
Texting from a Big Keyboard
I rarely text from my phone. Thanks to Microsoft’s free “Phone Link,” I text from the big keyboard on my Windows desktop.
For this to work, a phone needs to be on and connected to the internet. To set it up, type “Phone Link” in the lower left of your screen. If it’s already installed, click “open.” Otherwise, install it.
Google has its own version of this. Go to messages.android.com on your computer and follow the onscreen instructions. It works fine, but I’m always having to set it up again because my Ccleaner app wipes my tracks when I close my web browser.
With Microsoft’s method, the text app is always available in my taskbar. I can also use it to view phone photos, see phone call records and make phone calls from my computer. But it won’t let me delete photos. I get a message asking me to permit it, even though I’ve already done so. As a friend said: “That’s Microsoft for you.”
Infinity Bike
If you’ve ever seen a tank, you know how they move through rough terrain. Now there’s a prototype of a bike that moves like that.
The “Infinity Bike” by Stephan Henrich of Germany redefines what a bike is. It has a single tire that moves like a caterpillar. “This mono-tire is propulsed by a central dented wheel getting its force by a crank over a short chain and a 8-speed gearbox,” says Henrich. He hasn’t set the price yet. It’s still in the design phase.
Car Thing
Car Thing, you make my heart sing. Or you would if I had a car, a phone service with unlimited data, and Spotify’s “Car Thing” gadget for listening to music in a vehicle. I went car-free last year after being inspired by a car-free friend. But I still appreciate car stuff.
With Car Thing, you can ask for music from your Spotify Premium playlist. Or you can tap, turn or swipe to get songs, artists, playlists and podcasts. The price is $90. To work it, you’ll either need an aux jack in your car or Bluetooth connectivity, along with a data plan on your phone.
What’s the advantage? With Car Thing for music and podcasts, you can dedicate your phone to a map app. That way you’ll be less tempted to fiddle with it. Or you could save the $90 bucks by turning on voice controls in the Spotify app. But it isn’t working in my tests. It keeps saying “I didn’t understand that.”
Quantum Computers: Not So Sci-Fi Anymore
I used to think of quantum computers as the stuff of sci fi. After all, it involves what Albert Einstein called “spooky at a distance-” the ability of separated objects to share a condition. But it’s not so scifi anymore.
There’s a quantum computer at the Cleveland Clinic, a 65 qubit machine made by IBM. The clinic will also get access to IBM’s upcoming 1,000+ qubit quantum system.
A 65-qubit machine can process data in over a quintillion states at once. “Quintillion” is a number with 19 digits. The new 1000 qubit system will be able to handle so many possibilities in parallel, it would take 1,000 digits to write down the number.
In 2019, Google used a 53-qubit computer to solve a problem that would have defeated any supercomputer, even the one that won “Jeopardy.” They plan to build a million-qubit quantum computer by 2030. The mind boggles at the number of parallel processes that would allow.
If you’re inclined to try your hand at it, Agnostiq.ai, a software-as-a-service startup, offers Covalent, a free workflow platform designed for quantum computing.