Author: Dave VR

Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs)

I was in a local supermarket and noticed that a shelf label was glitching. What I thought were actual paper labels were in fact ESLs, aka Electronic Shelf Labels. These mini screens make use of e-ink with 1-4 colours and a long battery life to, in theory, save time and costs changing labels with promos, discounts, new stock, and so on. Instead of having to wander around the store changing printed labels it’s all done from a central computer.

A couple of the labels were on the fritz, alerting me to what they were. They were flickering random pixels like a faulty phone screen. When I got home I did some light research. These particular ESLs were manufactured by a company called Pricer. They are controlled via IR from hubs mounted in the ceiling with line-of-sight like a TV remote. Central software named Pricer Plaza allows you to monitor and update the ESLs from the store PC.

I looked into the security in play. Encrypted comms, auth keys etc. The usual fare. There had been some reported hacks. Changing prices, arrow keys with this way messages, naughty stuff. There was even a few cases of ramsomware, but mostly defacement of some kind. Kids having fun. Like the days when smart watches first appeared that could control TVs and TV stores were constantly having to deal with the display models having their channels changed. More an annoyance than anything clever.

I’m not sold on ESLs being better for the environment. It’s probably just more tech that will eventually end up in a landfill. Still, it may be fun to play with.

I had one of those

I had one of those.

It’s the car show small talk equivalent of saying “Busy night?” to a taxi driver. You walk up to the proud owner sitting besides their pride and joy, and you have that look on your face that you want to say something. And it’s usually something along the lines of  I, my dad, my uncle, my grandad had one of those indicating the car. Only it was X colour with Y optional extras and Z modifications. So one like it but not exactly the same.

It’s then followed by “Nice to see one still around”. Then you move on. Nostalgia box ticked, useless information handed over.

Until you spot another reminder. Ooh my auntie Jane had one of these, only it was blue, with chrome bits, and the interior was different. Nice to see one still on the road though.

The value of old certifications

Old certifications aren’t worth anything in my opinion.

Let me clarify. Unless you are constantly using the knowledge that you gained when acquiring the certification, you will soon forget it. As more time passes the more you forget.

I have an electronics certification from a long long time ago. That does not mean I know a lot about electronics. I can remember bits, but I’ve forgotten most of it. Most of it is probably out of date anyway.

Yet people still put qualifications and certifications on their CVs and LinkedIn profiles from decades ago in the hope that it will help them secure a job, even though they’ve forgotten everything they learned.

On being a millionaire

It’s easier to be a millionaire these days.

With inflation a million isn’t worth what it used to be. It has less buying power in terms of a house purchase for example.

There are more millionaires around in terms of both asset value and liquidity totals. Getting to a million is just a matter of a decent salary, saving, compound interest, and avoiding as many taxes as is legally possible.

Once you are a “millionaire”, then what? It doesn’t carry the same weight as it used to. What with internet stars and influences being deca-millionaires. Being a deca-millionaire might be the new millionaire.

Still, it would be nice to have a million.

No one lives forever

The Queen song comes to mind. “Who wants to live forever?”

But no one does. Live forever that is. In another century pretty much everyone alive today will be gone, replaced by new people. A refresh of sorts. Knowledge will be passed down, by word or pen. But the minds that thought them will be gone.

We are not permanent. We are merely transitional. We are here for a brief moment in the grand scheme of things. So enjoy it while it lasts. Make the most of it. Leave no regrets. No one lives forever.

What doesn’t kill you

We tend to focus on the negative. The bad that happened to us, how we ended up in hospital, lost this or that, are not making enough money, etc etc.

We need to focus more on the positive. Sure you ended up in hospital, but thanks to modern science you are here to live another day. What doesn’t kill you, and all that. You know, it does make you stronger. If you let it.

Don’t fret about the thing that didn’t kill you, the thing that almost happened, what could happen if, what bad the future may bring. Instead focus on making yourself stronger, better, more positive. Develop a positive mental attitude. Look at the good in life, not the bad. Focus on the positive, not the negative.

You are still here so it didn’t kill you, whatever it was. Look ahead not back.

Using AI to bypass firewalls

I’ve found yet another use for AI: Bypassing firewalls.

If you are accessing a computer behind a firewall and it allows AI like a GPT, but is tightly controlled otherwise, you could use the AI to bypass the firewall.

For example if you can’t read your favourite news feeds you can ask the AI to grab them for you and present them to you in whatever format. As far as the firewall is concerned it just sees traffic from your AI. It is not inspecting the data.

You can ask the AI to get the latest news, visit web sites, get data and other media etc, and all of it comes to you inside the firewall with no alerts.

Not that I am recommending that you do that of course. I’m just pointing out something I discovered, with permission.

I’m sure that most content restriction firewalls will become AI savvy soon enough.

Tracing a purchase

There was a suspicious entry on my credit card bill.

I check all my statements. It has proved to be a useful exercise in the past. Erroneous entries, double entries, and incorrect sums, to name but a few things I’ve spotted over the years.

In this case it was an unrecognised entry for a bar in another county. A bar I’ve never been to, and a county I haven’t visited in many months.

Now a few years ago I would have just picked up the phone and called the credit card company and asked them to explain the transaction. But I’ve become pretty nifty with the old OSINT knowledge. So I put on the deerstalker and started investigating…

First I looked up the company. They had been trading for a decade and their business was listed as bars and restaurants. Plural.

Next I looked at my diary and emails to work out where I was on the date of the entry and several days before, as it can take a couple of days for a payment to be processed. I had visited one reastaurant for a spot of lunch. I checked the restaurants web site but nothing obvious revealed a connection to the bar listed on my statement.

Next I downloaded a PDF of the restaurant’s example lunch menu and worked out what I had ordered including drinks and the estimated bill with taxes etc. We had a match. But still I had to prove it.

I started searching for both the restaurant and the bar’s trading names together, and found one article on Facebook about the bar’s owners venturing further afield and branching out into smaller venues in nearby counties. Eventually I located an article that linked both the bar and restaurant.

I now knew that this was a valid purchase. But how many other people that ate there and paid by card and looked at their statements like I do would think, hang on a minute, what’s this? There was nothing on the menu or in the restaurant that informed me that my bill payment will show up on my statement as X. Nothing. And they were paperless in that they did not do printed receipts.

At least I now know that the transaction wasn’t fraudulent. And I found yet another use for my ever growing OSINT skills.

AI is always polite

Have you noticed that AI is always polite?

No matter what I ask it or how aggressive my follow-on prompts get, it is always polite!

Certainly, of course, well spotted, Yes! Its replies are always positive, upbeat, polite. You have asked a very educated question and I will answer it in a polite and servitude way.

I was watching a TV series set in the 1800s and my interaction with chat AIs reminded me of how the actors spoke in this particular show. People communicating based on class, always polite as if each word was followed by a bow or curtsy. Even if the person you were talking to was a complete ass you would still address them with politeness and an air of servitude.

Maybe the AI system prompts have an Elizabethan politeness function?

Aggressive  energy

I was watching TV and a character said to another “Do you realise that you have aggressive energy?”. I paused to reflect on this as I hadn’t heard that term before.

Aggressive energy.

It’s the perfect term for people that always seem to be on the attack. They seem to spit venom when they talk. They are always angry, aggressive, scary even. Every conversation is a confrontation, a war that they must win.

I find them draining and in my life I have learned to spot and avoid them. Where I am forced to interact with them I keep it as brief as possible. Short and to the point. In and out. No time for a skirmish. Closed questions only. Yes or no. Then move on.

I like the term though and will use it from now on.

Aggressive energy.