September 2022 - The Digital Life from Lökwest - new iPhones, phishing avoidance, password strategies, Janet Jackson, and corn!

Here we go! It's another issue of the finest curated technology tidbits for miles, coming straight to you out of Labor Day weekend, heat wave covered Southern California. Whatever your weekend plans are, we hope you have a great one, and stay cool!

In this issue, please take note of our new postal mailing address. We were forced to get a P.O. box this month due to new corporate restrictions at Seacrest Apartments. Never fear - we're providing the same great SoCal service that we have been since 2013.

Now, to the news - mark your calendars for September 7th for Apple's next event, where they will be announcing new devices. Also, take a look at how teens use social media in the latest Pew Research study. We've also included a couple of articles on new phishing techniques you'll want to avoid.

We can't forget tips and other interesting things. Learn about a new password strategy and where to get free e-books. Then read about Janet Jackson crashing computers and the funny things Facebook's AI chatbot is saying.

In tech history, learn all about why Atari is called Atari. Then, close out the issue and your summer with your love of corn. 🙂

Thanks as always for your support,

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Our new mailing address

If you booked us in the last year, you received a post card from us. If you didn't get a postcard, here's an update! We have a new mailing address, due to management restrictions at Seacrest Apartments. We're still in San Clemente serving the community as we have since 2013. However, for all correspondence and billing related matters, please send physical mail here:

Lökwest LLC

806 E Avenida Pico, Ste I-297

San Clemente, CA 92673

In the news...

Apple’s ‘Far Out’ iPhone event is scheduled for September 7th — www.engadget.com

If you're an Apple fan, September 7th is the date to watch. Apple has announced an event where they're widely expected to announce four new iPhone models. Not only does that mean new phones to choose from, but look for discounts on current model phones. 'Tis the season!

Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022 — www.pewresearch.org

You'll be surprised how much time teens spend on apps. From Pew - the landscape of social media is ever-changing, especially among teens who often are on the leading edge of this space. A new survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds that TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S. teens, while the share of teens who use Facebook has fallen sharply.

Keep it 100...percent secure

Your next Phishing email may come straight from PayPal — www.ghacks.net

This is more of a corporate attack vector, but it's an interesting study about how phishing campaigns can be clever and successful. This particular new phishing attack abuses PayPal's tools to send out fake invoices and phishing emails directly from PayPal. Meaning, even if it comes from a legitimate address, it still may be spam!

Conti Cybercrime Cartel Using 'BazarCall' Phishing Attacks as Initial Attack Vector — thehackernews.com

A trio of offshoots of Conti cybercrime gang have resorted to "BazarCall" phishing attacks as an initial entry point. Here's what happens - you get an e-mail about a software subscription you "need to renew". A phone number is listed. A scammer is on the other end. The lesson - never call a phone number to a company in an e-mail. Look it up!

Tips

How to create impossibly strong passwords that are actually easy to remember — bgr.com

What3words is a way of mapping the world using ordered words. We've covered this site before as an interesting way to share your address or location. This is a new idea to us though - use what3words to generate strong passwords tied to locations you can remember. Clever! (until too many people start to use it)

Download a free book to read from this electronic library. — usa1lib.org

Looking for a new read to pass the Labor Day weekend? Check out Z-Library, where you can download tons of eBooks for FREE. All you need is an app that can read EPUB files.

That's Interesting

Janet Jackson music video given CVE for crashing laptops — www.theregister.com

Sounds like clickbait, but it's true. Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" album, when played at sufficiently high volumes, can crash older hard drives. The root cause - certain very old models of your "spinning platter" variety drives resonate at the same frequency as a frequency expressed strongly in the album mix. Ever seen a wine glass shatter from singing? You get the point. 😆

Facebook's AI Chatbot: ‘Since Deleting Facebook My Life Has Been Much Better’ — www.vice.com

Facebook released a new AI Chatbot to the public this month called "BlenderBot 3". The idea was to get real world users to interact with it and train it for future conversations. However, so far it's produced some hilarious, untrue, and even offensive statements - for example "since deleting Facebook, my life has been so much better." LOL - nice work Zuck!

In tech history...Voyager rocks on!

Why Was Atari Called Atari? — www.howtogeek.com

Almost everyone played one. But what does Atari really mean? We finally found out in this interesting article. From How to Geek - with powerful branding and design, Atari became a household name in video games and computers during the 1970s and early ’80s. We’ll explain how its founders came up with the name and what it means.

In closing - It's CORN!

ICYMI - “It's Corn” Kid’s Viral TikTok — www.elitedaily.com

“It’s corn” kid, aka Tariq, went viral on TikTok for his love of corn in August 2022 thanks to a Songify challenge. I think we can all appreciate the viral remix of "It's corn" from Recess Therapy. And we can all agree - CORN IS AWESOME! 🌽🌽🙂