quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
Thought I would relay something bizarre that happened to me today.

I had been bidding on a Sig Sauer MPX 9mm on Gun Broker for the past 6 days. The auction ended today. I had been winning the auction for the past 5 days and if you've bid on GB before, you know that they have a 15 minute rule to prevent last minute sniping of the item.

We've been experiencing severe weather here in Texas this past week and I had a couple of water connections freeze and burst. The wife and I were driving into town to Home Depot to purchase replacement connections when the auction was scheduled to close. Per the 15 minute rule, any bid placed in the last 15 minutes starts another 15 minute clock so as to give all bidders a chance to continue bidding.

Anyway, 12 mins from close, someone else bid, starting a new 15 min clock. I bid again, and the other guy waited until 2 mins remaining and bid again, starting yet another 15 min clock.

I had my wife monitoring the auction on my iPhone. She was placing any bids on my behalf while driving as I was committed to win. We pulled into the Home Depot parking lot and I took the phone to place another, hopefully, final bid.

All of a sudden, my connection to the website was blocked and I wasn't able to continue bidding. Almost in a panic, my wife gave me her iPhone and said "try mine". Her's worked .... for a second or two, then became blocked as well. I just happened to notice her's was on LTE while working and as her phone went into wifi, it became blocked.

We looked up and noticed a Starbucks in the same parking lot. Evidently what happened is, as we pulled into the parking lot, my phone auto connected to the Starbucks wifi. Starbucks wifi blocks any websites that have anything to do with guns. So because of their misguided political views, I almost lost my auction. I quickly disabled wifi, connected to the website via cellular data, bid a final time and won the auction.

Screw those bastards at Starbucks. I'm just amazed that in the USA, we have to deal with this level of big brother interventionism and censorship. I wasn't even in the Starbucks building, nor really in their parking lot. I was in the Home Depot parking lot and just by accident connected to their wifi. But for some quick reasoning to figure out what happened, I would have lost the bid.

Son of a bitch!!

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
Point is, I wasn't in Starbucks. Wasn't in their parking lot. Wasn't doing business with Starbucks, nor trying to use any of their services.

I was in Home Depot's parking lot. Just by chance, being in the vicinity of Starbucks and having my phone on auto connect to WiFi, the sons of bitches undermined my freedom to connect to a legal website and participate in a legal activity.

Nothing to be done about it. Just bitching.

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
Point is, I wasn't in Starbucks. Wasn't in their parking lot. Wasn't doing business with Starbucks, nor trying to use any of their services.

I was in Home Depot's parking lot. Just by chance, being in the vicinity of Starbucks and having my phone on auto connect to WiFi, the sons of bitches undermined my freedom to connect to a legal website and participate in a legal activity.

Nothing to be done about it. Just bitching.

Not really - you jumped on their WiFi network

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
Point is, I wasn't in Starbucks. Wasn't in their parking lot. Wasn't doing business with Starbucks, nor trying to use any of their services.

I was in Home Depot's parking lot. Just by chance, being in the vicinity of Starbucks and having my phone on auto connect to WiFi, the sons of bitches undermined my freedom to connect to a legal website and participate in a legal activity.

Nothing to be done about it. Just bitching.

Not really - you jumped on their WiFi network

Mike

You're correct. I did. But still missing the point. I didn't do so by any intention on my behalf. And because if it, my freedom was restricted. Not to be overly dramatic on that subject but yeah, my freedom to surf whatever legal website I desired and make a legal purchase from said website, simply because of Starbuck's political bias against gun related activities.

I suppose the point of my post in the first place is expressing concern of how much control is being exercised over our lives today without us even knowing it. For instance, search for information on a product and watch how many ads pop up for similar products on every subsequent page you open for the next few weeks ... or your spam file in your email account. Google a topic and see how the only results you get are slanted to a certain political view point. Just try to find some info on a topic giving an opposing opinion. We are being controlled without even knowing it. Just like my episode of being blocked from GunBroker simply because I happened to drive into an area where Starbucks' wifi signal reached 150 yards or so outside of their establishment, and with the phone set to "auto connect", my liberties were infringed. I think we have to wake up to the fact of being controlled, be aware of it, and know what to do when we detect it. In my case, switching off WiFi and going back to cellular data. But then, what happens when ATT, Verizon, etc, decides they will restrict cellular access to similar websites ... or your internet provider does from your home? Where does it end?

There is a great documentary on NetFlix right now called The Social Dilemma. The producers went out of their way to present the topic right down the middle of the political spectrum. A feat that in today's environment is both appreciated and unexpected. The program consists of interviews of "Chief" level former and current hi tech company executives, such as the former CEO of Pinterest, the former no. 2 executive for FaceBook, etc. They describe the deep, deep level of interference in our lives these companies are actively engaged in 24/7/365 and discuss some of the consequences. To a man / woman, they all recommend either severely limiting participation in social media or better yet, completely abstaining.

When this little event happened yesterday, I didn't immediately think of the documentary as we watched it about 3 weeks ago. But overnight, I had a chance to reflect and realized, DAMN, this is more of the same of that crap. Hi Tech, pared with a certain political slant, controlled my liberties, completely without my permission or knowledge. It was a fluke of quick thinking that I realized it was Starbucks' wifi, located all the way across the parking lot, again about 150 yards away, with a barely detectable signal, that had interrupted my on line experience.

Troubling.

quote:

Originally posted by nopride2:
Welcome to the brave new world. The people that don't like it are getting older, the younger generation has been conditioned to accept it.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Dulltool17:
I'm not tech-savvy enough to know the answer, but is there a way to block a specific wifi auto-connection?

I know you can disable automatic connection, but that would disable any and all.