Jake Russo

Last week, a friend and I attended PechaKucha night, which happened to be hosted by our favorite teacher. We didn’t know exactly what to expect — we had never before been — but were confident, at least, that we might be entertained for the few hours it occupied.

It was great! From monologues on the “transformative power of music”, to orations on the power of reading and the danger of banning books, the passion in each of the six-minute, forty-second presentations was contagious.

The experience reminded me how much I don’t know, the breadth of experience and thought. Some presentations brought words to feeling and sentiment I possess but haven’t executed on — “buy the ticket”, for example, “leave home, and experience other cultures” for another. There were nine presentations in total, and my brief survey here obviously doesn’t account for all of them, but I enjoyed every one of them; they each had their unique insight and poignant moral.

The experience comes shortly after my discovering Gurwinder’s Substack and his periodic “Mind-Expanding Concepts” posts. There’s a certain kind of fulfillment I get from learning different, sometimes idiosyncratic ideas; PechaKucha night was a Gurwinder post on steroids. And I’m certain this fulfillment isn’t unique: if you’re interested, look for new experiences, perspectives, and opportunities for thought. I don’t pretend to be some sort of authority on the subject, but it seemed important enough to write down. At the very least, I’m going to increase the frequency of these sorts of experiences in my own life.

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Philosophy seems interesting and unlike much of what I’ve been exposed to. That’s probably next for me, but it’s a huge area of study, with so much to learn, and I haven’t even started. According to Jared Henderson, Plato’s Dialogues is a good place to start.

Verizon is supposed to be the best, and the data supposedly backs that up. Their coverage is, in my convenience-sample¹ backed estimation, the widest ranging. I’m ~never somewhere where I cannot make a call on Verizon. But I’m frequently unable to connect to the internet — on LTE!

I prefer MVNOs

They’re cheaper and easier to switch between, but the best plans (without considering price) are post-paid through the major carriers. But approximately or effectively equivalent plans are often MVNO options. For example, my Verizon coverage is via Verizon Visible’s Plus plan — an excellent plan, with 50GB of prioritized data (which is of outsized importance on Verizon, because of their annoying network management³ and often low capacity) and unlimited data thereafter. They also include some free international roaming⁴, which, at this point in my life, isn’t of much consequence. They also include 5G UW access, which is nice but unnecessary: I’d prefer solid LTE that actually works most of the time.

Comparing networks

Arguably, the ability to make calls is more important: it’s better to be without internet communication than without communication altogether. But in practice, Verizon’s zero or near-zero internet speeds are the most annoying.

I live in an area with good coverage (often low- or mid-band 5G) from all three carriers², and where Verizon is good, it’s really good. I’ve never been in a situation where I’m so far outside of a Verizon coverage zone that I’m unable to place a call, but I’m frequently unable to connect to the internet, which I do much more often than talking on the phone.

One of the places where Verizon doesn’t work is school — obviously, somewhere where I spend a significant amount of time. Because of this, I got a cheap Boost Mobile (AT&T) SIM, on their $25 for 35GB plan, as a second line on my iPhone.

I’ve been dual SIM for about six months now, and it’s time to pull the plug on my Verizon (Visible) service. AT&T often feels slower (which is likely because Boost is deprioritized) than Verizon (when it works), but I’ll take “slower and more consistent” over “faster, except when it’s slower than dial-up”. And almost every time I lose internet connectivity on Verizon, switching data to AT&T gets me back online. I’ve experienced this around my town and neighboring ones, on long drives, and in other states.

Alternatives?

I’m looking for an alternative, preferably on AT&T. The tech media seems to be running a marketing campaign for T-Mobile, insisting they’re the best carrier overall. Admittedly, I haven’t used T-Mobile for a few years, but the coverage wasn’t great⁵.

I’m considering AT&T Prepaid’s Unlimited MAX (though the 5GB of hotspot⁵ might not be enough), Cricket’s unlimited plan (though I don’t love Cricket), and Google Fi⁷.

I like Google Fi for the price — $20/month per line with a family⁸ plan. Its being a Google product is also nice, since I would prefer dealing with them than e.g., AT&T’s antiquated PayGo portal.

The problem with Fi is its using T-Mobile. As I mentioned, it’s been a few years since I daily drove their network; I’m willing to give it another shot, though, and they’re (T-Mobile) offering a trial!

Speaking of, T-Mobile’s post-paid plans are good both in features and in price.

Domestic roaming?

I’ve wondered about this for a while without finding a decent answer⁹: doesn’t the existence of domestic roaming agreements between US carriers mean Verizon’s advantage — calling — is moot? If one network’s data coverage is better, more consistent in areas you frequent, wouldn’t domestic roaming fill in the gaps?

It turns out domestic roaming agreements are weird, and the agreements between carriers are very location specific. Just because there’s AT&T coverage in an area without e.g., Verizon or T-Mobile coverage doesn’t mean you can roam on one of those networks. It seems like it’s more of a thing in rural areas with hyper regional carriers — thus, LTEiRA agreements.

Domestic roaming is also, traditionally, a feature of the big three’s post-paid plans (though Visible began offering it recently).

Stasis

That’s where I am with my wireless providers. I’ve been meaning to switch for some time but have been carried by the inertia of my Boost/Visible+ combo working. I almost never have a problem with coverage, because when I do, I can switch to Boost from cellular settings, and continue. But this setup is overpriced and unnecessary; it’s annoying that Verizon’s subsidiary MVNO offers such a compelling plan, and AT&T’s doesn’t.

I might post an update here, if/when I find and switch to a better plan. But for now, I’m tired of opining on cell phone service.

I went through a period of being intensely interested in cell phone carriers, MVNOs, plans, etc. If you’re interested and want to learn more (you can get much more into the weeds than I did) or keep up with industry news, take a look at Sneed Mobile Tech and Light Reading. Stetson Doggett does a fantastic job covering plans in particular.

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¹A less clear way of saying “completely anecdotal”, which I left in as a relic of AP Statistics that other students might appreciate.

²My experience with T-Mobile is less recent, but their coverage seems fine in most areas I frequent. There is one area in particular, though, where the three carriers are co-located, all except Verizon with usable internet access.

³Carriers use QCI (quality control index) numbers to prioritize network activity — some are GBR (guaranteed bitrate), which is reserved for live audio or video (e.g., phone calls); others are for diagnostics, etc.; but the higher (and, thus, lower priority) indexes are for data. On Verizon, there are three: 7, 8, and 9. 7 is Frontline, Verizon’s first-responder plan. 8 and 9 are for the consumer plans, 8 being “prioritized”, 9 being “deprioritized”. The prioritized plans are relatively few — mostly comprising of Verizon’s own first-party, post-paid plans (except the recent, terrible Welcome Unlimited), and the Spectrum/Xfinity Mobile plans (which, interesting, are also postpaid). Almost every Verizon MVNO is deprioritized — the likes of TracFone, etc. — and prioritization can be the difference between usable internet and “have fun with 2G”.

⁴I think AT&T has the best (but not the cheapest — that might be T-Mobile) international roaming. I don’t remember the details exactly, but it’s worth googling, if you’re interested.

⁵T-Mobile’s advertising makes me laugh: they call themselves the “best 5G network”, carefully distinguishing their claim from that of “best network”.

⁶You change some network settings on your tethered device — ttl — to mask your traffic as coming from the phone, which should bypass the cap.

⁷Google Fi on iPhone is annoying to set up, and Google doesn’t seem to care much.

⁸My family is mixed across cell phone plans and providers, so it’ll be annoying to switch, but the savings make it worth the trouble.

⁹I’m sure there’s one out there somewhere; my trouble is probably a product of my not knowing how to phrase my question for Google.

I’m a little late on this one — everyone else has already had their say. And, quite honestly, I don’t have much to add.

LTT, and some of its sister channels, were hacked late last week by actor(s?) who transformed them into “Tesla” outposts, featuring Elon Musk giving away free crypto.

I found the attack vector interesting — something I’m more used to hearing about on Security Now, than seeing actually happen. tl;dr: someone opened an infected PDF with a tool that grabbed browser cookies, allowing session hijack attacks for logged-in accounts. I guess it’s not the most sophisticated attack, but it seems like it would require some reasonably intermediate skill.

The WAN Show is one of my favorite podcasts, and I appreciate its growing duration — four-hour WAN shows are becoming the norm! Last week’s¹ was great; it was interesting hearing Luke and Linus discuss the damage of and their response to the attack.

The community support was nice to see — it’s nice to feel like a part of it — and Floatplane subscribers soared — finally passed 40k!

I’ve been somewhat in the market for a metal reusable water bottle for some time — plastic gets annoying² — but indifference and inertia for using single-use plastic bottles stalled me.

Linus and Luke mentioned they thought the best way to give the attackers the metaphorical finger was to make as much out of the incident as they could — Luke even mentioned thoroughly enjoying the excitement and long hours — and made a “Gone Phishin’” shirt to commemorate it. It’s filled with subtle details, like the cookie basket, a floatplane, and a “2FA” heart. I’ve never tried one of their shirts, but the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. And indigo looks nice.

I upgraded my LTT Floatplane subscription to the 4K tier — the softness of 1080p often drove me to watch the videos on YouTube instead³, if I was using a 4K display or TV — and finally ordered a water bottle and T-Shirt from LTTStore.

And it seems like LTT is back in full swing, and Friday’s WAN show was another record.

These sorts of businesses, communities and creators are one of the wonderful things about the internet.

I’ll write about some of my favorite blogs, podcasts, books, other internet things later.

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¹Relative time in this post is a little weird because of when I started and finished it.

²Cleaning metal bottles can be annoying, too, but this doesn’t seem like much of a problem when you, like me, drink ~only water. They’re not generally dishwasher safe, spawning a market for Shark Tank products like this one.

³And the app doesn’t support background play, which rules out The WAN Show. And downloads are broken so I can’t push it to my podcast app. The audio quality seems (to me, but this might be total placebo) noticeably higher fidelity on Floatplane, which is why that version is worth mentioning. It also includes the pre-show.

Is TikTok anything more sinister than a benign waste of time?

Why the outrage over TikTok? It seems that those who are outraged aren’t TikTok users, and to the extent they are, they’re sympathetic to a forced removal of their biggest time sink.

Their appearance before Congress was riddled with near-incomprehensible questions and legislators thinking they were clever.

The CEO was asked such ridiculous questions as, “have you directed them to change the source code,” and similarly absurd accusations that TikTok is spying through our phones’ cameras to capture our facial expressions.¹

The real threat TikTok poses, if any, is hardly articulated.

Yes, it’s probably bad for a foreign government, especially the Chinese, to have access to the sorts of data TikTok does — preferences, demographic and other inferential data.

Why? A tap into the obscene number of collective hours we collectively spend on TikTok could be invaluable.

Could the Chinese government use TikTok to influence Americans’ thoughts or behaviors? Maybe, but probably not in an obvious way.

Facebook, Google, and other adtech are necessarily good: they wouldn’t survive otherwise. Yes, there are the predictable ads that follow you around seemingly forever after visiting e.g., Allbirds and viewing a single pair of shoes.² But for every one of those instances, there’s a matching one of incredible prediction and statistical maneuvering.

My favorite illustrative example is this: Target knew a teenage girl was pregnant before she did. And this is obviously not because she searched for e.g., diapers. The short version is this: people who are pregnant, whether they know it or not, tend to act slightly differently than other people. This, apparently, extends to their shopping behavior at Target. They used an algorithm that could parse purchase habits and determine, with apparently great accuracy, whether a customer was pregnant.

It doesn’t take much imagination to believe companies, with considerably more tech prowess than Target, use techniques similar to these to predict demographic, health, interest, etc. information. People who are, eventually, known to be members of a certain group or have a certain attribute might act in certain, slightly different ways on Instagram or Google or… you get the idea.

This is why it might seem like Facebook is listening in through your phone’s microphone. But they aren’t. If they were, they’d (1) have to keep it very quiet, and (2) exploit a horrible bug in iOS (or Android), since Apple certainly wouldn’t be on board — they cost Facebook millions because of their App Tracking Transparency popups, which allow users to opt out of cross-app tracking. Unless this is some sort of 4D chess. 😉

So the influence TikTok might exert would be more sublime: it’s much more powerful when someone draws the conclusion you want them to — it’s ‘their idea’ — than to overtly try and convince them. Maybe there are certain types of videos their recommendation system could prefer that would subliminally promote e.g., feelings of resentment of or distrust in government. The usefulness of such an effect is clear.

Whatever the case, our legislators are sorely ill-equipped to handle such a matter of technology. Even the Supreme Court admits they “really don’t know about these things [… we’re] not like the nine greatest experts on the internet.”

I might think differently after reading some more about this. Noah Smith wrote a piece arguing that “of course we should ban TikTok,” and Platformer just published a critique of the CEO’s performance before the House committee. Maybe I’ll revisit this topic.

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¹I got this from a video on TikTok. An interesting meta argument is that videos ridiculing Congress seem to be doing well on TikTok. But is that because of their manipulation? Maybe it is, but maybe it’s what the median TikTok user agrees with.

²I can’t stand ads and have removed them (as much as reasonably possible) from my life. But that’s a topic for another post.