WvZotLpJT4/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Psp Serial Number Checker' title='Psp Serial Number Checker' />Embrace Nothingness With A Buick Lucerne. Buick, at least in the U. S., is a brand that has traditionally skewed a bit older. Im not sure theres a recent Buick that makes that vague bit of demographic data come to life more than the 2. Buick Lucerne, a car that is essentially the very concept of responsible, suburban aging turned into metal. Its namesake is a Swiss town that nobody really gives a shit about, but is undoubtedly clean and well run. Notice/mbimg/MB-model.jpg' alt='Psp Serial Number Checker' title='Psp Serial Number Checker' />That fits the Lucerne very well. The car was decent enough technically, with a choice of a decently powered V6 at first a smaller 1. Northstar V8, making up to 2. Thats fine. All the specs were exactly what youd expect of the era FWD, four speed auto, full size, four door sedan, in the middle of the full size category, for size and fullness, generally streamlined shape that was decided by the same math and aero research as just about anything else, no risks taken whatsoever. The build quality was decent, the options and amenities put it in a near luxury classhell, this car was Buicks flagship model from 2. TheINQUIRER publishes daily news, reviews on the latest gadgets and devices, and INQdepth articles for tech buffs and hobbyists. No more missed important software updates UpdateStar 11 lets you stay up to date and secure with the software on your computer. Do you love that sensation of suddenly being hurled forward when you have to abruptly slam on the brakes If youre in a selfdriving car, the effects apparently. Total Commander Plugins. Plugins are extensions of Total Commander with additional functions. Please note that most of these plugins are written by third parties, see. Home Loan Interest Manager 4. Home Loan Interest Manager is a mortgage loan interest checker that allows you to audit the interest you are being charged on. That has to mean something, right Youd think so, wouldnt youThe truth is, by putting the Lucerne at the top of their range, what Buick managed to create was something like that unfinished pyramid on the back of the dollar billa structure with no top. Sure, the unfinished pyramid gets that mystical, all seeing eye filling the gap, but the Lucerne just topped the Buick range by being one of the most anonymous, character free cars ever to blandly plow Americas roads. The Lucerne, again, wasnt a piece of shit it was a quality product that no human bearing a detectable pulse could possibly give a shit about. It was like getting an absolute finest, prize winning free range, artisinally raised superchicken, and then cooking it by running it through an atomic powered deflavorizer for a week. Buick tried, half assedly, to give the Lucerne a distinct look with a chromier and chromier grilles and Buicks trademark speed hole thingies, but these bits of detail and brightwork just served to emphasize how mind scorchingly boring the rest of the car was. Even the commercialsat least the ones without Tiger Woods pretending to give a shitcould really only tout the vague idea of quality, because what else was there to point toAdafruit Industries, Unique fun DIY electronics and kits Sensors Tools Gift Certificates Arduino Cables Sensors LEDs Books Breakout Boards Power EL WireTape. Real news, curated by real humans. Packed with the trends, news links you need to be smart, informed, and ahead of the curve. Other than the speed holes Have you ever heard the words I really want a Buick Lucerne Until now, no, Im about certain you havent. In fact, my computers grammar checker algorithms just freaked out because it was unable to process the use of the verb want with the proper direct object Buick Lucerne. Its simply never been written before. The Lucerne is like some kind of healthy millet porridge that a doctor may suggest to someone in their late 7. Its certainly not going to hurt, and its probably even pretty good for you, but its so joyless and sexless and free of novelty or interest and aggressively benign that eating food you actually want becomes a fair trade for a few extra years of geriatric life. Thats the Lucerne. Nobody ever wanted one. Nobody cares about it. Someday, they will all be gone, and we will have forgotten to even notice. Man, what a boring ass car. Surprise, Echo Owners, Youre Now Part of Amazons Random Social Network. Since the Echos release in 2. Amazons nonstop advertising and welcomed Alexa into their homes. Amazons original sell for the always on, voice activated device was that users could ask Echo for information, music, news, sports scores, and weather from across the room and get results or answers instantly. But in the last couple of months, it has evolved into something else the hub for Amazons new social network. In May, Amazon pushed a software update that added features called Drop in and Alexa calling and messaging, which let you connect to other peoples Echos. The communal device, used by all members of a given household, suddenly became a telephone and answering machine, much like an old school landline shared by a family, except this one emits a pulsing yellow light when you have a message. This is a unique aspect to being a consumer of the Internet of Things The things stay connected to the company you bought them from, which means the company can push down an update from afar and change them into, well, other things. Overnight, the Echo went from being a voice activated Google search to a device that could be networked to a bunch of other devices. In order to use the new feature, Echo owners have to open the Amazon Alexa app on their phones and import their contacts, after which they are stored in the Amazon cloud. Amazon then offers up a list of who among their contacts is an Echo owner, and automatically makes all of them part of their network, rather than letting them choose who they actually want to connect with as most other companies do. Amazon assumed this was the best way to organize its network, apparently not realizing most of us have tons of strangers and randos in our phonebooks. My own list included a couple of ex boyfriends, a person I stayed with once on Airbnb, current co workers, former colleagues, and a U. S. senators press secretary, who would probably be surprised to learn I knew she had an Echo because Ive never actually called or talked to her. There was not a single person on the list whose Echo I would want to call. Instead, it was an uninvited look into the consumption habits of the sundry individuals whose numbers have made their way into my phone over the last 1. When asked about the privacy context collapse involved in revealing your Echo ownership to anyone with your phone number, an Amazon spokesperson emphasized that calling and messaging via Alexa is an optional feature. To import contacts and send voice messages youll need to first set up callingmessaging if you prefer not to use the feature, simply dont set it up, the spokesperson wrote via email. Amazon is not the only company to decide that its users should be able to identify other users based solely on knowing their phone numbers. Signal, an encrypted messaging app, also discloses its users this way. Its why I had the press secretarys number in my phoneI wanted to find out which senators offices were using the secure app. It makes it easier to connect with other people using the same app, but theres a privacy trade off You only need someones phone number to figure out that theyve bought or downloaded that product. And that could potentially be used against users. A repressive government, for instance, could find out if activists were using Signal to encrypt their communications. A hacker could find out if a target was using an Echo, in the hopes of using it to invade the persons network. But Echo users had more immediate concerns when the feature came out. Amazon, new to the social networking game, didnt realize that some users in its network might not like other users. Winning Eleven 7 International Patch. Those who first turned on Alexa calling, like Elise Oras, discovered that they couldnt block people from calling their Echo. And once they discovered that, they discovered they couldnt easily leave the social network. There is no delete button. To exit Amazon. Echoverse, you have to call Amazon Customer Service and get a real live human being to turn off the feature. Its still the case two months after its release that you have to make an actual phone call to exit the Echo social ecosystem, but Amazon came to its senses with blocking. Last month, it gave users the ability to block contacts from calling their Echo those contacts will still see the person listed but wont be able to make a call to them or leave them a message. Amazons missteps here may not prove to be a big deal to Echo owners. I Ll Fly Away O Brother Where Art Thou Chords. After all, if theyve bought a device for their home with an always on microphone, theyre likely the type of people who arent too worried about their privacy. But its good to remember, as you ponder whether to buy an internet connected thermostat, or lamp, or refrigerator The transformation from a lowly appliance to a node in a vast privacy demolishing network is just a software update away. This post was produced by the Special Projects Desk of Gizmodo Media Group.