We are aware that hackers are huge problem in the modern world, although for most people it is someone else’s problem. But the more we hear of it, the more wary we become. There are trends towards mitigating the risk by removing aspects of technology. This was in the news today:

Hong Kong’s banks have a new weapon against scams: Accounts that require customers to visit a branch to access their funds.

The territory’s Monetary Authority calls these accounts a “Money Safe.”

…Hong Kong’s government will now promote Money Safe with advertising and other tactics, and is already encouraging residents to use the accounts to store any cash they don’t intend to spend in the near future.

Presuming that the in-person verification cannot be thwarted, I love this. True peace of mind in a digital world. Many people otherwise can and do store cash secretly at home…

Similar measures are taking place in other areas.

Australian Defence has signed a multi-year Deed of Standing Offer with Google Australia to deliver enhanced, secure and air-gapped hyperscale cloud capability for Defence’s ICT Environment. It is confusing considering the entire idea of cloud computing was originally to be distributed across multiple locations, but this is an instance without connections to the outside world, especially useful for portable computation. It cannot be hacked remotely.

Also in Australia, the government just made it mandatory for supermarkets and gas stations to take cash. Which means cash is sticking around, and cash in your wallet cannot be hacked.

People with modern cars are resorting to old-school methods to protect them from theft, because it is easy to clone a digital key. Expect more and more physical keys returning as an option (at least) for vehicles.

And Tesla is in trouble because someone died in a burning car because electrical failure meant the doors wouldn’t open the usual way. Hopefully we return to mechanical doors, and more knobs and dials for things like air con.

And finally, smart homes haven’t really taken off, except for HVAC in the US. And door bells / security. I sense a trend towards more self-reliance, like backup power supplies and generators, and tech-free defence.

There are similar ideas, like the Iron Curtain and Bullet Curtain, which both use a lot of tiny missiles to interfere with an incoming missile.

My idea is a mile high curtain, like a fishing net, woven from carbon fibre, as thin as possible.

It lies folded on the ground (maybe there are rows of them, miles apart…) and when activated it is sent skyward by rockets on each end of it. The rockets are angled slightly away from the curtain so that when the curtain is drawn tight horizontally, the rockets self-straighten.

Balloons are released when it reaches full height to keep the curtain up for a while. Afterwards, balloons and rockets are refreshed and the curtain can be re-used.

The netting of the curtain simply needs to be tight enough to probably stop whatever is incoming.

Conceivably it would be cost-effective relative to other systems, and a good part of required redundancy.

Every country should enact a law, in which all products sold must be able to perform their standard functions without any connection back to the manufacturer.

For example, smartphones would qualify. While OS updates are preferable, the phone will keep operating without them, or offline.

Actually, maybe it should be the Law of Offline. The product must specify which functionality will be lost if the product is offline. That could be anywhere from an EV not finding the nearest charging station to a tractor being bricked.

Regardless, we need to protect ourselves from the very real threat of being held hostage. Specifically, I can imagine that all Chinese EVs could be rendered useless by the flip of a switch.

Or, preferably, liquid paper.

It is a panel, directly below the passenger window, rectangular, big enough for two lines of legible text from the sidewalk.

And you can get it to say or show anything you want!

Only when the car is on, otherwise it could become a vandalism target.

Uses:

• Business
• Politics
• Ads
• Romance
• Fav Sports Team

You might not have noticed but the number of devices we charge every day is creeping up…

• Phone
• Tablet
• Headphones / ear buds
• Smart watch or ring

And soon a lot of us will be wearing XR glasses (a combo of VR and AR).

Meanwhile, as a large subset of the population gets relatively richer, travel will keep becoming more common, which means charging devices on the go.

Here are some ideas for how our charging protocols might change:

The Box – Think a shoe box. When not plugged in it is a box to carry stuff in, like socks and undies. When plugged in (it could come with a universal plug for different countries) it is a wireless charging device that works on anything inside it. Just chuck everything in. On the outside it could be a smart device itself, with a screen and speakers, so it sits bedside, you can talk to it, it can show the weather, time, play music.

Swappable Batteries – should not be hard to achieve. China is going hard on them for cars because it is more efficient, swap batteries instead of waiting for yours to charge. When you get home, or back to your hotel, you pull out the batteries of your devices and swap them with those in the chargers. It was a while ago but batteries in phones used to be very accessible. When you dropped your phone, the back case fell of and the battery fell out.

The Jacket – a 24 hour charging regime suits most users, but power users will always drain their devices quicker and might not be at home to charge them. There might be severe safety risks, and it doesn’t work in summer (you might need a backpack or fanny pack), but having a mega battery on your person, that can charge all of your devices on demand, could be a thing. To keep the devices operating (because you are a power user) it will require wires. Unless they can work out how to conduct electricity through your body…

More likely, given all the research and dollars up grabs, long-life batteries will turn up, that give us a week instead of a day. Or, some people will go for low powered devices. I’ve had (cheap, basic) smart watches that last 3 weeks on one charge.

We have many ways of communicating with one person – email, SMS, calls, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and so on. I have several annoying friends who use multiple forms of chat to reach me, often one a few minutes after the other if I don’t respond obediently.

If all of these apps shared a common protocol, and gave permissions to the OS, then the OS could aggregate the communications on a per person basis.

On my phone screen I could see an app named Barry, and clicking on it will show all my communications with Barry in a single, uniform interface. Replying to any of Barry’s messages would default to the app it came via, but that can be changed if I want.

Most of us would have less than 10 people that need a per person app. For business folk, they could perhaps be in folders of type, like potential client, existing client, exec team…