Statues are a problem. Specifically statues of people. A statue (or sculpture) of a person generally indicates that this person had such an impact, or was so notable, that their contribution should be recognized for decades or centuries into the future. But there’s a problem with that. The problem is that society constantly upgrades itself in terms of…
Features I Need in Feedly
When Google Reader died I cried a lot. Not sure why you close the best RSS reader in the world but leave Google Wave Talk Hangouts to walk the earth. Anyway. When I was done mourning I started looking for a replacement. None of them were too exciting, but I finally settled on Feedly. I’ve been mostly happy…
The Center of Humanity is Desire
I’ve been thinking about the role of desire in the human identity, and I think I’ve identified a fundamental relationship between the two that isn’t appreciated nearly enough. Quite simply, I think the center of human identity is the presence of core desires. This is important for many reasons. Understanding this can help us pursue a more healthy…
My Friend and his Girl
I have a friend who I’ve always wished I was closer to. He is one of the kindest and happiest people I know. He’s like an ancient power source that produces hugs, smiles, and laughter. He’s also famously popular with women. Everywhere I see him he’s surrounded by multiple girls tying to learn more about him. It’s like…
How I Just Saved $5,500 on my EC2 Bill in 5 Minutes by Switching to a Reserved Instance
I just lowered my Amazon EC2 bill, over 3 years, from $6,120 to $583. Or, put another way, I just saved myself $5,500 dollars. Here’s how it happened. I was in Vegas this week for BlackHat / DEFCON and was hanging with my friend Saša Zdjelar in the hotel and messing with EC2 (as one does in Vegas).…
My Thoughts on the DEFCON Cancellation Meme
If you’ve not seen it yet, there’s a meme going around saying DEFCON is cancelled. It seemed to be purely a good fun troll, but it’s been gaining in popularity over the last couple of weeks. Then this morning I found what appears to be the official meme manifesto, and it made me wince a bit. Kind of…
When Do You Step in to Stop Poor Countries Destroying The World’s Rain Forest?
Brazil just opened 860,000 acres of the Amazon rain forest to pilfering by big corporations. It’s been happening for a long time, but the speed has dramatically increased in recent years. This will be unpopular, but the Amazon is not a national treasure that Brazil has the right to destroy. It’s not like we in the U.S. decided…
Universal Income and Population Control Are Inexorably Tied
A lot of people—me included—are excited about the concept of Universal Basic Income. This is the idea of eliminating all or most of the need for someone to struggle to survive, thus giving them time to dedicate to higher-level efforts like art, science, etc. A basic example would be someone who wishes they could be a painter, or…
The Universal Arc
I’m creating an EDM album. Well, designing one. I’m creating the concept, the theme, the title, the song titles, the feel of each song, the type of music I want for each, the type of lyrics, etc. But I’m likely going to get someone else to create the music because it’s not something I have time to learn…
Good App Features Become OS Features
People are really upset that 1Password appears to be forcing users to store their password data in the cloud. Whenever stories like this come around I get asked what I use for passwords, and since I use lots of different things I simply respond with what I believe to be a truth about tech features. If something is…
Unsupervised Learning: No. 85
This week’s topics: The future of security testing, nuclear plant hacks, Android malware, satellite decryption, wildcard certs, military encryption, gsuite protections, WWE S3, tesla 3, jawbone, drone hacking, mental aging, millionare GPAs, discovery, recommendations, the weekly aphorism, and more… This is Episode No. 85 of Unsupervised Learning—a weekly show where I curate 3-5 hours of reading in infosec,…
Calligraphy Class
We did a calligraphy class today, and I feel an obsession coming on. Typography, calligraphy, writing utensils—these are pure beauty to me. This was a short beginner course, and we’re going to sign up for the intermediate one as well, which covers things like building your own “font”, using digital tools like Adobe Procreate to practice, etc. It’s…
If Putin Ran Against Obama in Middle America
I think if Putin ran for President against Obama, and the only electorate was white, christian, middle America, Putin would win easily. Here are some reasons. At least Putin wouldn’t sell out America At least Putin is a god-fearing Christian We need strength, not weakness We need someone who can make us respected again Putin might be bad,…
The Ransomware Trinity
There are three things that industries ravaged by ransomware tend to have in common. They have data that is sensitive enough to be protected. The industry lacks mature defenses. Someone in the victim ecosystem is willing and able to pay. Where we’ve seen this so far are places like: Hospitals Schools Small businesses Home users (to a lesser…
The Future of Pentests, Bug Bounties, and Security Testing
People are very confused about the bounty vs. penetration test debate. They see fundamental differences that don’t actually exist, and they’re blind to what’s actually coming. The reality of testing needs can be reduced to a few key variables, which exist on a spectrum. Good vs. bad testers Many testers vs. few testers High vs. low business context…
One Answer to Failing Advertising is Customized Product Discovery
Everyone hates bad advertising, which is why the industry is in a freefall. But what does it mean to be bad advertising? Is there such a thing as good advertising? I think there is, and I think the way to tell the difference is to simply ask yourself if you consider the thing you’re being shown to be:…
Unsupervised Learning: No. 83
This week’s topics: Petya ransomware worm, RNC breach, Anthem settlement, Russians want source code, risk ratings, patching, ICOs, ideas, discovery, recommendation, aphorism, and more… This is Episode No. 83 of Unsupervised Learning—a weekly show where I curate 3-5 hours of reading in infosec, technology, and humans into a 15 to 30 minute summary. The goal is to catch…
3 Factors That Determine the Effectiveness of a Worm
With WannaCry and now with Petya we’re getting to see how and why some ransomware worms are more effective than others. [ Jul 3, 2017 — It’s now pretty well accepted that Petya wasn’t ransomware but a wiper instead. The post still applies to ransomware, though. ] I think there are 3 main factors: Propagation, Payload, and Payment.…
I’m Selling a Late 2013 MacBook Pro
My friend Saša is selling his MacBook Pro from late 2013 for $1,700 so that he can buy a MacBook. Here are the specs: Retina 2.6 Ghz i7 (4 cores) 16 GB memory 1 TB SSD 1.5 GB dedicated video card Model Name:MacBook Pro Model Identifier:MacBookPro11,3 Processor Name:Intel Core i7 Processor Speed:2.6 GHz Number of Processors:1 Total Number…
Gun Control and British Terrorism
I didn’t write about this immediately because it seemed insensitive, but I want to ask a couple of simple questions about the various terrorist attacks in Britain. If you’re a “more guns equals more safety” type of person, do you honestly believe that the knife attacks in Britain would have been less deadly if guns were easy to…
This Universe’s Final Problem
Once we’re able to decipher our minds, our memories, and everything that makes us unique as individuals, we’ll be able to transfer our minds into digital form. This will basically make us immortal, and I think the next stage is to share knowledge among all of us that are digital. Once we’re all sharing common knowledge, I don’t…
4 Things the Far Left Are Doing to Drive Moderates to the Right
Liberalism in the United States is in the middle of a slow motion suicide by poison. We’re watching the unscrewing of the lid, the last looks about the room, and the multiple sips from the vial. Except we’re seeing it happen at one frame per month with no ability to stop the film. The far left has effectively…
20 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Wonder Woman
I really enjoyed the latest Wonder Woman movie and was surprised by how powerful she was both in it and in the previous Superman movie. So I decided to do some research since I knew virtually nothing about her as a character. Here are some of the interesting things I learned. Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by…
EDC 2017 Recap
I just returned from my annual pilgrimage with my buddy Jason and our friend Martin (plus his brother Jake this year), and here’s a recap. [ PLAYLIST: I’ve created a playlist of around 20 of the top sets at EDC Vegas 2017. You can download it here. ] I ended up going while really sick. I had a…
Terrorism May Destroy Traditional Religion
I think extreme religion is about to remove itself from liberal, western society as the result of internal terrorist attacks. Historically, liberal society has been inclusive. The mantra has been multiculturalism, inclusion, and all the related synonyms. But homegrown terrorism, where thousands or tens of thousands of religious people have all but openly declared war against the western…
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