Category: facebook

Continuing about the interesting findings from the Museum of Failures. Meet My Friend Cayla, a doll that can answer children’s questions about everything under the sun. Released by Genesis Toys in 2014 and discontinued in 2017. In Germany, it was banned as a surveillance device because it turned out that the manufacturer not only sold gathered information to third parties but also sold partners the propaganda of their products through the doll’s speech.

By the way, if you thought this involves something like an embedded ChatGPT, no, for 2014 that would still be too much. Essentially, the doll was a Bluetooth headset for a phone, requiring a special app that sent audio to a server, recognized it, processed it, synthesized a response, and sent it back to the phone. This app partially used the internet to search for responses and partially its own DB. Meanwhile, Genesis Toys equipped her with a “personality” to keep the questions about the doll consistent.

If Cayla didn’t have a ready response in the local database, she would use the Wikipedia API.

She also has a list of approximately 1,500 “bad words.” If a child requests them or if they are present in a Wikipedia response, Cayla will give a sanitized generalized response: “I don’t want to talk about this.” It is asserted that “gay marriage” is listed in the category of “bad words.”

Germany eventually recommended parents not only dispose of the doll but actually destroy it before throwing it away, as the doll formally qualified as a spying device and violated local laws. From what I understand, it was even prohibited not just to sell the doll, but to simply possess it in Germany. Moreover, they were required not just to destroy it but to do so officially, acquire a document proving its destruction, and send this document to the authorities. Otherwise, a fine of 26,000 euros and/or imprisonment awaited.

Now, why exactly a mere headset in a doll caused so much uproar. Basically, there were four vulnerabilities:

1. Dangerous Stalker – altering the database content on the child’s mobile device. A strange vulnerability, but okay.

2. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attack – between the phone and the internet with data request/response alterations during transmission. This one’s rather serious.

3. Guys found a backdoor. This point was translated by ChatGPT as “The backdoor gap of Cayla herself.”

4. Random Pairing – when the host device exits the range, a malicious device can be connected with a single touch to confirm.

So, some startups can indeed be painful;)

Continuing about all things interesting from the museum of failures.

In 2004, Febreze released a device called Scentstories. “You can play scents just like music—just insert the disc.” Each disc has five scents, changing every half hour. The discs were named “relaxing in a hammock,” “exploring a new trail in the forest,” etc.

Apart from the device resembling a music player of those times, brand ambassador Shania Twain notably “promoted” the device as a hybrid of a music player and an air freshener, which marked the beginning of the end for the project.

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Recently visited the Museum of Failure. I can post something interesting from there every day for a month.

For instance, did you know that back in 1987, the toy company Fisher-Price released a video camera called PXL-2000, which used a standard audio cassette for recording. It could hold from 4 to 11 minutes of low-resolution black-and-white video (120×90, 2 colors (B&W), 15 frames per second) on each side of the cassette. Moreover, at maximum speed — up to 42 cm of tape per second. It cost 100 bucks back then — that’s about $269 today. By the way, it still costs that much on eBay. The cassettes could only be played on this camera too. Everything would have been fine, but the mechanism was so noisy that it spoiled the sound quality. Ultimately, the toy company deemed the product a failure and discontinued it.

Here’s another story. About Lululemon. For a long time, the symbolic product of this brand was black yoga leggings, suitable both for training and everyday wear. They cost about $100 — not cheap. The largest size was US 12 (or Eastern European 48). But at some point, there were complaints from fuller-bodied women that the leggings became very transparent when they bent over in yoga, revealing a striking view to those behind them, which was upsetting. The company’s founder, Chip Wilson, could not think of anything better than to say that the leggings were not intended for women with larger bottoms (ok, sizes), which many perceived as body shaming, and Wilson promptly received a full backlash. As a result, the company faced losses of $67 million, which was about a third of its market share, and eventually, this led to Wilson stepping down as head of the company. I won’t attach a photo of the transparent leggings from behind on a big bottom.

#museumoffailure

Right next to the hare is a whole forest, where there’s enough grass to eat till your heart’s content. But no, it has to come to a little patch where the toothy dog lives, and eat his grass.

By the way, this bald patch along the fence has been trampled by the dog specifically in anticipation of the hare. And right now, he’s sound asleep. The dog, that is. The hare is munching on Yuka’s grass.

Incidentally, it seems that at night this hare visits Yuka in her dreams where they pleasantly spend time together. Otherwise, how do you explain why he barks in his sleep and kicks his legs? Yuka, not the hare.

my 27th attempt at oil painting a rural landscape

The main problem with walking Yuki after 8 is not stepping on a frog in the dark.

Masha regularly receives fairly standard spam from universities. Today, for instance, we received a postcard that really looks like it was handwritten. Not even by a robotic hand or a plotter, but directly with a pen and hand. Interesting, such effort must be worth it.

You never know who you’ll meet while walking with Yuki