This NBC news story reads like a thriller: Why were the police asking about this man's whereabouts? "I was hit with a really deep fear," the man says. Alert readers have solved the mystery immediately: "exercise app." This hapless soul trusts Silicon Valley [SV] enough to have a phone and load it up with typical, privacy-invading apps and then wonders why he got caught in a police cyber-dragnet -- in this case, a flurry of inquiries to SV about anyone with an app who had been tracked in the vicinity of a burgled home. The article assumes readers have the ability to be shocked when most of them are similarly equipped and don't care as long as they aren't the ones in the crosshairs. Perhaps the writer wants to spur (a) less chumminess between SV and law enforcement (ha!), (b) legislation to stop this kind of cooperation (ha! ha!), or (c) consumer abandonment of smartphones, GPS, and apps (ha! ha! ha!). In the future expect articles like this to read: "When SV contacted Joseph Blow requesting information about his whereabouts on March 2, he was filled with a sudden rush of pleasure to be a citizen helping the authorities to catch bad guys."
around the web
imdb, discogs, merriam webster can't be added to firefox search bar anymore?
Firefox users: If you search the web using the address bar sorry to hear it. If you don't like commingling web browsing with searching and use the "search bar," you may have noticed some changes. Until recently Firefox had add-ons available allowing users to add Discogs, IMDb, and Merriam Webster to their list of search engines. Firefox appears to have removed these handy tools and replaced them with add-ons enabling the user to (i) select text on a browser page, (ii) right-click and choose one of these databases from the context menu, and (iii) find the selected text there. If the word you're searching doesn't appear on your browser page you're f*cked -- you can no longer search IMDb, Discogs, or Merriam Webster directly from your browser. This is not progress! If this is incorrect please email and this post will be updated.
Earlier example of de-improved search.
Update: The above comments pertain to Firefox running on a laptop with (holds nose) Windows 10. Linux Mint, on its search engine page, offers IMDb and Merriam Webster but not Discogs as Firefox add-ons.