Unsupervised Learning: No. 177

Unsupervised Learning is my weekly show that provides collection, summarization, and analysis in the realms of Security, Technology, and Humans.

I spend between five and twenty hours a week consuming articles, books, and podcasts—so you don’t have to—and each episode is either a curated summary of what I’ve found in the past week, or a standalone essay that hopefully gives you something to think about.

?️ Security NewsMy Takeaways from the 2019 DBIR Report My Summary The ReportThe DOJ has unsealed the indictment against those who they believe hacked Anthem in 2015, and they are Chinese Nationals. They didn’t reveal the suspected motive, however. But as I wrote about last year, I don’t think we need an explanation. I think it’s obvious. MoreAn Airbnb host in China has been arrested for watching guests using a hidden camera. MoreThe Mossad has released an interesting challenge in something of a spy CTF style. MoreChinese scientists have created a small, portable camera system that uses LIDAR to resolve human features from up to 28 miles away. Good news—it also penetrates smog. MoreThe US’s Acting Director of Defense Media Activity at Fort Meade said that the Pentagon isn’t sure how many websites it’s running. Disappointing, but not surprising. Many big companies have this problem. More? Hardwear.io is a hardware security conference run by one of the best organizers in the industry, and it’s in Santa Clara this year, on June 11-14. If you’re an individual or company interested in hardware security—especially if you’ll be near the Bay Area during this time—you should check it out! I’ll be there for sure. MoreBreaches: Binance ($41MM)⚙️ Technology NewsUber has had a bad run since its IPO. I’m nowhere close to investing since the business model always seemed based on scaling the mistreatment of humans. I think peer-to-peer economies are the future, but our current “gig” economy basically reduces to paying struggling people as little as possible, with as few benefits as possible, for as little time as possible (while they work on more automation). It just seems gross to me. Oh, and plus they’re bleeding out at the rate of billions of dollars a year. No thanks—I’ll wait for a healthy and sustainable version. MoreMicrosoft Word Online is now offering an AI editor assistant. Like a combination of Clippy and Grammarly, I’m guessing. MoreBird is now selling its electric scooters directly to customers. MoreAmazon can ship to 72% of the US population within a day. More??  Human NewsEven a little exercise can give our memory a workout just like with physical body parts—including getting stronger as you train. MoreBad fathers are evidently worse than no father. MoreWe’re finally seeing wage growth after 10 years post-recession. MoreEvidence is becoming stronger that air pollution causes dementia. MoreIt’s not as hard as we thought to master a language later in life. More? Ideas, Trends, & AnalysisExamples of Bad Metrics — My new essay on what not to do when creating metrics. I’ve been wanting to write that one for a long time. MoreWhy Books Don’t Work — A fantastic essay about how people generally don’t remember much from books, and what to do about it. MoreAdam Savage on the power of lists. MoreAmazon is buying a lot of closing malls. What are they going to use them for? I think they’re going to turn them into the new Town Square. e-Sports (new arcades), shopping, returning the stuff you bought on Amazon, and of course—doctors’ offices and pharmacies. Plus they’ll use the space for distribution centers. They’re going to try to become the epicenter of human society. More? DiscoveryHow to Find Information on Anyone MoreI added a book summary of The Tyranny of Metrics More7 Surprising Bash Variables MoreA brilliant explanation of the peculiarity of the speed of light. MoreSSH Honeykeys MoreThis is a photo of 265,000 galaxies that took 16 years to make. MoreVader vs. Kenobi Reimagined MoreQuantum Computing for the Very Curious — A completely different kind of reading material, designed to transfer understanding more efficiently than anything you’ve read before. It’s written by Andy Matuschak, who wrote the essay about books in the Ideas section above. MoreYou can download a copy of all the recordings that Amazon has of you from your Alexa devices. More? Notes? Well, the reaction to me asking if you would be interested in a Slack channel for subscribers was OVERWHELMING. I got hundreds of responses in the affirmative, and less than 10 in the negative. So we’re doing this! The first features I’m thinking of are 1) general hangout for like-minded people (including me), e.g., chat, questions, etc., 2) the Unsupervised Learning Book Club, where we talk about what we’re reading, and since I’ll likely be reading the most I’ll be posting what I’m currently reading, what I’m thinking about it, etc., and 3) chances to do collaborative newsletters on Sunday mornings, e.g., I might stream somewhere while I go through all my news, chat with you all about the stories, take suggestions from everyone, etc. It should be super fun. The channel is ul-community.slack.com, and if you’re not a member already you can sign up here to get access. For those who are already members, I’ll be sending out invites to the channel this week! SubscribeI’m getting the itch again to build my curated list of OSINT tools, based on use-case. So, rather than listing 247 different tools that you could use, or that might work, I give the best one in that category. Examples would include, finding someone by email, finding someone by phone number. Etc.?️ RecommendationsImport your Facebook Birthday’s Calendar into whatever calendar app you have, so you don’t miss any more birthdays. MoreYou can now send people short clips of podcasts using the Overcast app. Super useful. You hear a part you like, rewind 30 seconds, hit the share button, choose to share with the current location, and then text or email it to the person you want to show. I’ve already used the feature quite a bit. More? Aphorism“Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day”.~ Charlie Munger

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