Somebody Call the SPCA

In the most recent weather horror, people were leaving their pets home while they escaped, in North Carolina. Why is this ok?  Leave the kids tethered in the back yard and take the pets. It will certainly be a more pleasant experience.



Browser Settings
if you don't use a browser, please ignore this.

Reminder to spend a few moments configuring any browser you install on your computer, tablet, or phone. I keep several browsers installed for different purposes: one locked down, one wide open, one encrypted, and the one everybody has but doesn't admit it (for the thing that everyone does but doesn't admit it).

The default browser settings are an absolute nightmare. I know, I know.. you have nothing to hide and you don't care. I do.  Yesterday I installed Opera. I'm a bit leery about this, as it's owned by a Chinese company, so it's probably going to be uninstalled. Every other setting needed to be changed. It's the worst I've seen yet. 

Stop the saving passwords first. This means anybody who is using your phone or computer or tablet has your permission to log into anything you do. Also stop offering to save logins or actually saving logins. This is about security. 

Don't use a prediction service: this is the same as going to Google or somewhere else. Don't use Do Not Track: nobody honors it and it allows sites to know you exist for tracking. Protect from malicious sites also goes out and gets a list. I'd also uncheck anything about sending data to the browser's company. 

Other protection - Extensions: help yourself out a lot by installing some extensions. Start with an ad blocker. I like uBlock Origin. Opera has a native ad blocker I'm checking out. History Eraser gets rid of everything when you close the browser. HTTPS Everywhere makes every place you visit secure, if possible. Do not accept Google as your default search engine: use Duckduckgo or something else of your choosing. Google needs no additional information of yours. Install a VPN if you like. This makes it insanely difficult to track your location (but still allows fingerprinting of your browser). Kill any personal news or recommendations on your home page: more profiling. Put your own bookmarks there if you want. 

NoScript is my favorite extension. It turns off javascript. This might break websites, but I only let javascript run where I'm sure it won't try to damage my browser. It saves the settings on a per-site basis. Another favorite is Cookie Monster, or similar, which does the same thing for cookies. It's a sport and privacy matter with me.. your mileage may vary.

Save yourself some space and allow searches in the URL spot. This gets rid of the separate search blob. A great time and effort saver is mouse gestures and rocker gestures (having nothing to do with your choice in music). It's very handy to have a shortcut to go back or forward a page with just your mouse. You don't need to set up users/profiles unless someone else uses the browser and wants it set up differently. 

• there is a new UK movement called Go Sober for October. It took an entire week to film the commercial because the actors kept breaking out in laughter.

I am so tired of the endless calls for diversity in the tech industry.
What we need is diversity of thought, not of gender. It's not the industry's job to 'teach' society anything. It's their job to get the best and brightest, regardless of anything but ability. If employees are chosen on the basis of race, gender, or size of their nostrils, it is sexism, racism, and nostrilism. Hire for brains, not breasts. Or other stupid slogans.

• A security professional noticed an access point on the corporate network that didn't belong there. She tracked it down to a water heater that had a wireless access point on it. Because water heaters need wireless access points in order to heat water. Smart = Stupid. Stupid = Smart.

"People are almost universally recognised as being the weak link in the cyber defence" 

You're kidding me!
Companies who care about security spend a lot of time and money securing and monitoring their systems. It only takes one well-educated employee to click on a phishing link and POW, the network is infected.

• The US Government Payment Service just exposed 14 million records. This is the government: the people who are going to keep us 'safe' and issue standards for cybersecurity. Eat your own dog food, boys.

ThermionicEmissions Detective Agency
Help solve this Important Security Matter...
I will provide the facts and you make a deduction.

There was a security analysis of cyber-attacks against universities and colleges in the UK

• attacks increased from 8 or 9am and then tailed off in the early afternoon
• There was a very sharp decline in attacks in the Christmas, Easter and summer breaks and during half-terms - with attacks rising again sharply when terms resumed.

Take a guess.....

• Have you ever had this happen to you?  You're minding your own business, walking into the bathroom, when you trip over the hedge clipper?

My parents have adjusted to cell phones better than I thought. Dad even manages to text. Mom manages to text, but she doesn't understand there's a limit on characters. She fires up SiriGoogleFrank and dictates texts, so they total about three or four on average. Their limits on text knowledge showed today, when Wife replied to a group text. She immediately got a call from Dad, who didn't understand what she said. She explained group texts but he wouldn't understand. He said she had to come over This Instant to explain it... Mom's all upset.

My parents really need a hobby. One that isn't us.

• Here's a bit of self-knowledge I recently discovered: after being exposed to people, I need a few weeks to recharge before I see people again.
• Whether this is a consequence of voluntary agoraphobia or the cause of it, I don't care.

In case you were considering it, you are not allowed to bribe your spouse's doctor to tell them that frequent sex will make them feel better. This is because of some nonsense called professional ethics. Or so I hear...

I just got this app for my phone where you put in your zip code and it lists items for sale in a radius around you. I don't get excited about new apps unless it's revolutionary or sends supermodels to my house, and that has never come along. This one, however, was interesting.. I searched for 'left handed' (strange, I know). What I got was pages of left handed golf clubs, a left handed bow (there's a left handed bow?), two left handed baseball gloves (one of which was right handed), a bunch of left handed guitars (one of which was right handed), and the piece duh resistance... it's almost like the app was written just for me... a breast pump.

I'm not going to tell Wife about this... no, not because of the breast pump; because of the Shoe category. In Electronics, I located a hair dryer, all sorts of things with apples on them, a black and red and black metal tool, a black and red digital device, air hoses, a computer set, and a Toshiba 4gig screen (laptop). Any ancient dusty speakers in your basement are 'vintage'.

The pictures were all taken by the same drunk child. Some people were far away, most were in the dark, one lady was selling rings who had HUGE hands, so the rings were dwarfed, only the backs of phones, and a flat screen tv side shot.