US seeds?

[gato]

just letting you know that I got a response from paul at new420guy seeds. not sure why there was none earlier. inquired why my check was mailed on the 29 june and bank statements said cashed on 7/5. he's looking into it.

they have some nice seeds and some and low as 2 for 12 and 2 for about 15 and old school ones too. autoflower regular seeds as well. still plan to use them, if they fill my order and if not north atlantic seeds (sponsor) has some nice prices and planned for 2 purple haze and a freebie for $25. hard to beat their prices.

thought to let people who read this know that new420guy is not shut down and open for business. paul said he didn't understand why I thought they were closed and explained it to him. hopefully he will get things straightened out. want the durban poison regular autoflowers to cross with something.

take care and thanks for the helps. you guys rock*

 

[garybo]

Google is your friend...

There is also Duck Duck Go, they do not track where you go or where you have been.

 

[TorturedSoul]

There is also Duck Duck Go, they do not track where you go or where you have been.

That was proven to not actually be true. Ironically, at least Google has always been pretty up front about tracking users. Although I'm not sure whether DDG's shenanigans were/are all-pervasive or just on its Android app. And the Microsoft tracking agents that it's been allowing to operate because... money makes an excellent lubricant?

 

[garybo]

That was proven to not actually be true. Ironically, at least Google has always been pretty up front about tracking users. Although I'm not sure whether DDG's shenanigans were/are all-pervasive or just on its Android app. And the Microsoft tracking agents that it's been allowing to operate because... money makes an excellent lubricant?

Interesting, was not aware of a breach in their tracking ability. Well there's always the Tor Browser.

 

[Vegan4life]

There is also Duck Duck Go, they do not track where you go or where you have been.

I have VPN and anti tracker software...

 

[SmokingWings]

That was proven to not actually be true. Ironically, at least Google has always been pretty up front about tracking users. Although I'm not sure whether DDG's shenanigans were/are all-pervasive or just on its Android app. And the Microsoft tracking agents that it's been allowing to operate because... money makes an excellent lubricant?

Surveillance Capitalism and Data Analytics make the world go round and round.....

So far they are not tracking people by name---and they might not ever need to. They have been at it enough that they know if someone buys Fox Farm fertilizers there is a real good chance that the person is growing weed, a slight chance that they are not growing weed but are growing flowers and most importantly almost positive that the person gardens something or another.

Keep those data analyzers in a job and buy on-line with a cell phone where every app is gathering info (why do all those apps need to be allowed to access our cell phone photos???) or buy with the computer.

One day we will roll down the highway in our self-driving car and a person will see one ad on a billboard and the other will see something else. Analyze that data.

Well there's always the Tor Browser.

Had to look that up. I thought you were talking about the Tor book publishing company. They were one of the first one to not put copyright protection on their eBooks.

 

[TorturedSoul]

You can precisely identify someone easily, if you have some spare processing power and access to multiple data sources (or one widespread one). A person's online activity is not quite as unique as a fingerprint or retina image, but it has to be pretty close. It's like those combination logic and reading comprehension things we used to get once in a while in elementary school... Tommy is allergic to ice cream. Martha gets to wear a football helmet everywhere, because she's special. Bobby and Amy both have orange hair. Tommy is seven years old. Martha is younger than Tommy. {bunch of other facts} Who is the oldest brunette? - and you made a grid, with people on the side and the variables across the top, filled in the information you were given outright, then used the other hints to deduce what the blank spots would be. Or something like that, lol, I haven't done one in 40 years or so. You don't have to be a genius to do those sorts of things, just work through the data you have. Computers aren't smart (yet?) - but even an inexpensive cell phone's CPU is capable of performing a billion operations per second. Or some large number, at least. Given a large enough sample size, a lot of data, and the ability to match up even a portion of one to the other, you can then exert some degree of control over a not insignificant number of people. And then you sell your services to a corporation, a corrupt person who wants to "go large" into politics, or even decide to use this thing for yourself to accomplish something. Something always seems to end up being something unsavory, for some reason. I suppose that might be because it's the unethical/amoral who don't have any... inner conflict with the concept of climbing into people's heads and pushing buttons.

 

[garybo]

Surveillance Capitalism and Data Analytics make the world go round and round.....

So far they are not tracking people by name---and they might not ever need to. They have been at it enough that they know if someone buys Fox Farm fertilizers there is a real good chance that the person is growing weed, a slight chance that they are not growing weed but are growing flowers and most importantly almost positive that the person gardens something or another.

Keep those data analyzers in a job and buy on-line with a cell phone where every app is gathering info (why do all those apps need to be allowed to access our cell phone photos???) or buy with the computer.

One day we will roll down the highway in our self-driving car and a person will see one ad on a billboard and the other will see something else. Analyze that data.


Had to look that up. I thought you were talking about the Tor book publishing company. They were one of the first one to not put copyright protection on their eBooks.

Tor, as you probably found out will bounce your internet usage around the world a few times making it almost impossible for being tracked. It's also required to go on the dark net

 

[garybo]

Had to look that up. I thought you were talking about the Tor book publishing company. They were one of the first one to not put copyright protection on their eBooks.

Tor browser, as you probably found out will bounce your internet usage around the world a few times making it almost impossible for being tracked. It's free and also required to go on the dark net

 

[SmokingWings]

You can precisely identify someone easily, if you have some spare processing power and access to multiple data sources (or one widespread one). A person's online activity is not quite as unique as a fingerprint or retina image, but it has to be pretty close. It's like those combination logic and reading comprehension things we used to get once in a while in elementary school... Tommy is allergic to ice cream. Martha gets to wear a football helmet everywhere, because she's special. Bobby and Amy both have orange hair. Tommy is seven years old. Martha is younger than Tommy. {bunch of other facts} Who is the oldest brunette? - and you made a grid, with people on the side and the variables across the top, filled in the information you were given outright, then used the other hints to deduce what the blank spots would be. Or something like that, lol, I haven't done one in 40 years or so. You don't have to be a genius to do those sorts of things, just work through the data you have. Computers aren't smart (yet?) - but even an inexpensive cell phone's CPU is capable of performing a billion operations per second. Or some large number, at least. Given a large enough sample size, a lot of data, and the ability to match up even a portion of one to the other, you can then exert some degree of control over a not insignificant number of people. And then you sell your services to a corporation, a corrupt person who wants to "go large" into politics, or even decide to use this thing for yourself to accomplish something. Something always seems to end up being something unsavory, for some reason. I suppose that might be because it's the unethical/amoral who don't have any... inner conflict with the concept of climbing into people's heads and pushing buttons.

I doubt that the majority of them are actually interested in knowing someone's name. They just want to be able to predict future purchasing. Plus being able to know what an individual will buy tomorrow is not much. They want to know what the majority of those who buy one particular product today will want to buy tomorrow.

The day is coming when each of us will get advertising directed just for us and everyone else gets their own.

 

[TorturedSoul]

There's nothing inherently wrong with targeted advertising. In theory, it helps both the advertiser and the (potential) customer. But some entities go way too far, in regards to data collection. And what about when data collection entities sell their services to politicians? Manipulators can significantly influence elections - all over the world...

Cambridge Analytica - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Interesting reading, that. Some familiar names. "The entity known as..." has ceased to exist - but some of the principles are still causing harm. That company's parent entity is also an... interesting one. The extreme amount of personal data CA collected about a staggering number of (identified) people, and the things that have been influenced by same boggles the mind. Things that are known, I mean. And here's a thing: Say someone gets busted for illegally growing cannabis, or producing some other substance that is illegal in that particular location. Eventually, LEO destroys that substance. But data? Those databases still exist. It was nearly impossible to completely eradicate handwritten data 1,000 years ago. If I know enough about you, I can make really accurate predictions about your behavior and actions, how you'll react to a thing, even how you think. And will have a strong chance of influencing those things. If I have that quantity of data on enough people, I can - literally - build a cult, and influence it to a high enough degree that its members begin to ignore reality and facts. You might as well stick electrodes in people's brains, and hand be the control panel... because that wouldn't be much worse.

 

[SmokingWings]

There's nothing inherently wrong with targeted advertising. In theory, it helps both the advertiser and the (potential) customer.

True. Then one day the customer starts to wonder why they are throwing away so much food they never ate, clothes they never wore, toys the kids did not even take out of the box. Then they start to realize why they find it so hard to pay off the credit card each month.

An example of what is happening in the background can be seen on the seed seller websites. They sell more seeds by showing a photo of the bud at harvest time when it is its largest. The description includes buzz-words about color, taste, smell. All those buzz-words gathered by listening to what previous growers and users said they wanted.

 

[bluter]

There is also Duck Duck Go, they do not track where you go or where you have been.

but they were. yeah sure technically legal. thing is the said they weren't even collecting it.
they claim is it isn't a bullet - proof, it's an "agreement".

Interesting, was not aware of a breach in their tracking ability. Well there's always the Tor Browser.

i guess tor get's you noticed right quick. leo trolls looking for tor users. they won't see you right away for sure. but i guess there's a way to capture over time.

lots of the kiddy porn has a tor imprint. that's why it gets the attention.

There's nothing inherently wrong with targeted advertising. In theory, it helps both the advertiser and the (potential) customer.

i live with it in the knowledge it's a deeper part of surveillance culture. the data is there, if there's an interest and the talent to find it, they will.

advertisers, the gov't, politcos, terrorist nations, hacker thieves, they're always trying to take a piss around. you can jerk them around a touch if you screwball some stuff, it's fun, but ultimately too time consuming for the effort.

True. Then one day the customer starts to wonder why they are throwing away so much food they never ate, clothes they never wore, toys the kids did not even take out of the box. Then they start to realize why they find it so hard to pay off the credit card each month.

unless you are a zombie you do have a choice. you can prioritize. you can say no.
there's loads of folk here who make conscious economic choices.

for one : i don't even have cable / sat / internet tv. just poverty vision. but i made that choice personally as far too much of the paid tv is shit anyway. occasionally i will pay to live stream a local football game but that's it.

i'm not telling you to give up your tv or anything lol .. it's just an example.

An example of what is happening in the background can be seen on the seed seller websites. They sell more seeds by showing a photo of the bud at harvest time when it is its largest. The description includes buzz-words about color, taste, smell. All those buzz-words gathered by listening to what previous growers and users said they wanted.

that's literally advertising at the core. it's the same as when folk chiseled a wooden plank to make a pictograph, so you knew what the merchant did ..

 

[TorturedSoul]

for one : i don't even have cable / sat / internet tv. just poverty vision. but i made that choice personally as far too much of the paid tv is shit anyway. occasionally i will pay to live stream a local football game but that's it.

I had a year of Curiosity Stream. Then, the last month of it, they started sending me emails, wanting me to buy another year (cheaper that way). I keep getting poorer, so even though I loved the service - it's all documentaries, science, history both relatively recent and millions of years ago, "outer space stuff," et cetera, much in 4K HDR which is probably great for people with good eyesight who sit within 18" of a 50+" TV/Monitor - I was deleting them without even bothering to read them. I accidentally opened one instead of deleting it...

It's a good thing I did, lol, because the subject line mentioned that it was the last one. And it said I could buy another year of service for a dollar (plus tax)! IDK whether it was a dollar all along, or if they kept dropping the price a little bit at a time, like K-Mart used to do when something went on clearance and no one bought it. I love it. I've got a small television with one of those cheap Roku gizmos, and it works on that. It works on my laptop. And it works on my cell phone, but my cellular data goes into snail mode after the first gigabyte because I only pay about $13/month for cellular service. Which seems cheap, I suppose - but I put my mother on it this year, and she got a year of free cellular service. THAT'S a pretty good deal, because... it's a "no contract" setup, cancel any time (but probably not within the first year ).

Anyway... Yeah, for those interested in learning something, Curiosity Stream seems like a great value. I think it's regularly $19.99/year for 1080p because they charge extra for 4K now (I didn't know that until yesterday, I think my free year was the 4K option). But if you get that, you also get additional networks (Tastemade, Topic, SommTV, Nebula, and One Day University).

A year and a half ago, I saw an advertisement for Hulu on sale for $2.99/month for a year. I got that for Mom. She doesn't have cable television, either. When the year was up, I - regretfully - decided to cancel. I logged into the account, used the option to cancel... and the last thing was a multiple-choice question about why I was cancelling. I selected the "too expensive" option - and was asked if I'd like six months at $2.99/month. So that was cool, but after this month it goes back up to regular price, and I doubt I'll be offered another six months at a discount. But she mostly likes old B&W stuff, westerns and detective shows, and there are a great many free streaming apps available on Roku. Other than Curiosity Stream, I get most of my "sedentary" entertainment via reading ebooks that I check out for free via three local libraries through an app, and there's another app which also goes through the libraries, sort of, but has a completely different set of ebooks (and also movies, TV shows, podcasts/audiobooks/music).

I went to the free and very cheap entertainment out of necessity. But I bought one of those MegaMillions tickets when the jackpot hit a billion dollars (lol)... And I idly thought about what I'd spend money on if I hit it, after buying a refrigerator, eyeglasses, and something with an engine in it. I never even thought about adding cable television service or a bunch of expensive streaming services. The only person I know who still has cable (TV) is my brother, and I only know one who has satellite television service. Victims of their own greed, I suppose. . . .