[ale] Stupid smart phone

[Bob Toxen]

Please keep reporting your findings and solutions.

My GF is pressuring me to get a new overpriced gazillian pixel humongous
IdiotBox.

Bob

On Sun, Dec 12, 2021 at 01:37:34AM -0800, Alex Carver wrote:
> Oh they're very clever about it, too.  Despite DHCP giving it DNS servers
> that I control and despite the manual network configuration exposing only
> two DNS server entries it actually has Google's DNS servers hardcoded as a
> third server.  So if I tried to blacklist anything at my own DNS server, it
> would get around that by querying Google directly.
> 
> I spotted that when I first got the TV and put a sniffer on it before I let
> it out into the wild.  It was querying 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 even though I had
> manually configured it for my local DNS. When I let the sniffer pass the DNS
> queries through it still used Google servers to handle Vizio lookups to the
> mothership.  Evidently the user configured DNS is only for the extra
> applications like Netflix, Hulu, etc. while the core spyware uses only
> Google for DNS.
> 
> On 2021-12-11 22:42, Bob Toxen wrote:
> > GOOD FOR YOU to block it from spying on you and tattling!
> > 
> > Bob
> > 
> > On Sat, Dec 11, 2021 at 10:44:30AM -0800, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
> > > I've got a two year old Vizio that has RCA L/R audio outputs on the back.
> > > 
> > > Of course the TV does *NOT* have a built-in battery-backed RTC.  It wants to
> > > set its time every time you hit the power button via NTP and there's no
> > > manual way to set the time either.  So the firewall rewrites its NTP
> > > requests to point to my internal NTP server and blocks all other traffic so
> > > it can't call home like every other TV does.
> > > 
> > > On 2021-12-11 02:19, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> > > > Jim Kinney via Ale said on Fri, 10 Dec 2021 18:22:04 -0500
> > > > 
> > > > > Other days it's more like the vcr clock always
> > > > > blinking "12:00" for lack of a $0.10 rc circuit to keep the clock
> > > > > alive during a power blink.
> > > > 
> > > > Speaking of for lack of, how many have noticed that oh-so-modern TVs
> > > > no longer have headphone jacks. You remember headphone jacks --- you
> > > > just patch the headphone jack to the line-in of any amplifier and bang,
> > > > you've got sound, and the sound is controllable by your TVs volume
> > > > control.
> > > > 
> > > > But noooooo. That's just soooo *legacy*. Instead of a 30 cent
> > > > headphone jack, my Samsung TV has one of those silly "toslink" infrared
> > > > fiberoptics. So you have to buy a fiberoptic cable for about $15.00,
> > > > and then a $40 fiberoptic to line level converter, from which I can use
> > > > patch cords to go into my amp's line in. Because I don't have a $500.00
> > > > "home theater" system --- but rather have a $30.00 20 watt amp that's
> > > > tiny and works just great for TV sound.
> > > > 
> > > > Well, after trying for days to get the toslink plus adapter to work, I
> > > > read that many Samsungs just don't work with those adapters. For lack
> > > > of a 30 cent headphone jack. Oh, and of course, the Samsung's built-in
> > > > speakers are guaranteed to be indecipherable, with various oscillations
> > > > at frequencies guaranteed to obscure speech.
> > > > 
> > > > A couple weeks ago we went out and bought about the cheapest TV on the
> > > > market. Picture's not all that great but it had what we really wanted,
> > > > a headphone jack. Now we hear great sound that we can raise and lower
> > > > with the TV remote. Life is good.
> > > > 
> > > > SteveT
> > > > 
> > > > Steve Litt
> > > > Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
> > > > Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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