MIke Luckovich reports from the 2021 CPAC & a CNN report on QAnon

 

And as a bonus, here are his wacky supporters:

Interesting times we live in!

How to Reduce the Possibility of Being Hacked

 First, to completely eliminate the possibility of being hacked:

But that makes your computer a lot less useful.

If you do leave it plugged into the network (or, these days, connected via Wi-Fi, most likely, that gives you the Internet, with all its joys .... and dangers:

Here are the security suggestions I've been following since seeing them on a UW Colloquiam a few years ago:

(0) If you are on a version of Windows no longer supported by Microsoft, you need to stop using it immediately. Specifically, Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft, so any Windows 7 machine connected to the Internet is ... toast.

(1) Use a different password for every website. I know, how to keep track of all these? Look at the next item.

(2) Don't store passwords in your browser for anything sensitive (bank, brokerage, etc.)

Instead: use a password manager on your computer .. Password Safe is a good one for Windows; Password Gorilla for Mac and Linux.

(3) Use a different browser for banks and brokerages and such than  you use for normal browsing. For example, if you use Chrome for most browsing, switch and use Firefox for sensitive browsing.

(4) Use your sensitive browser in "private browsing" or "incognito" mode, which keeps you from exchanging "cookies" and other information with the site. 

So you will absolutely need to type in your username and password every time for these sites. You also may be subjected to some other security methods like 2-factor authentication more often than when using normal cookie-centric mode.

(5) Make sure the password for your router (the box that connects to your ISP) isn't left as the default password. Change it to something complex and keep that password in your Password Safe repository. This is crucial ... if anybody gets control of your network router they can crack the machines behind the router at leisure.

(6) Don't click on a link in email unless you are POSITIVE where it came from ... most banks these days will not send a link to their service in email, but hackers trying to get you to put in your username and password will send an email that looks EXACTLY like your bank ... or Microsoft ... or your brokerage ... trying to get you to put in personal information. This is called Phishing, and it's the thing that got the Democrats' emails exposed to the world in the 2016 election. Don't!

(7) Last but certainly not least: don't delay system updates, many of which contain urgent security upgrades! Windows update can be set to run automatically in the middle of the night: DO THAT!

Eternal vigilance is pretty much the price to keep hackers and phishers at bay ... but there isn't currently any way to avoid this.

Questions? Leave me a comment below!

Still hesitant about the Vaccine; just look!

 I've been reading Covid stuff for months, including all the negative effects it can have on humans:

• Loss of sense of smell and taste
• Pychosis
• "long haul" with multiple hospitalizations
• And of course: death, for 0.1% of the U.S. population and climbing still

Get the vaccine if you still haven't, please!

Complex Systems' dependence on tiny changes in initial conditions

 I recently read a book (see below) that made me think of this podcast:

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-open-a-restaurant/

The podcast is entertaining, as almost all Freakonomics episodes have been, but cautionary: the part that got my attention is that on opening night that had one glitch in their process on opening night that goofed up most orders all night and produced chaos instead of yielding a smoothly running restaurant. The rest of the episode is worth listening to; I hope you enjoy it.

The book I read was this one:

It's about DevOps, the idea of deploying software more often and in smaller changes, and the book struck me as a fictional take on how the monolithic deployment strategy in use by some companies still today (I worked at such a company as recently as 2018) has back-office ramifications that are pernicious and generally not predictable. Here's the main author, Gene Kim, talking about some of this:

Enjoy!

Nathan Myhrvold says he has a fix for Climate Change

 The Freakonomics Team has a (relatively new podcast) starring the economist on the team: Steven Leavitt.

The title is "People I (Mostly) Admire"  and a recent one is a conversation with Nathan Mhyrvold.

Besides his career with Microsoft, Mhyrvold also has a Ph.D. in physics and is a partner is a recent company reimagining nuclear power, Terrapower.

Mhyrvold claims during the discussion that the Terrapower reactors could all by themselves displace all carbon generation in the entire world economy.

Unfortunately this isn't all that's required, but would be an excellent first step! You still have to remove the existing excess carbon in the atmosphere, now over 400 ppm ...

Did you enjoy the 2020 election? Here's another way it could work!

I guess some election nerds really like the "swing state drama" of the late counts in Pennsylvania and Georgia ... but Biden has wound up 5 million + in the popular vote, so ... why?

And then there was the entertaining aftermath:

Couldn't we skip all this hoohah and just use the popular vote?

Maybe:

 

 

I was surprised to see that my state, Washington, has already approved this act ... as have quite a few others totaling 196 electoral votes. This leaves only 74 electoral votes before the agreement goes into effect, rendering the Electoral College a thing of the past.

I can't wait!

Another podcast-killer (well, delayer), this time from Chuck Wendig

 I just finished this one:

I don't want to say much about the plot as it's a wild one, just:

• You thought 2020 politics have been bad? Try this book
• There are a broad range of wonderfully-rendered characters including some horribly evil bad guys
• It's very violent in spots ... be warned

I am now maybe a full week behind on my daily podcasts! The audiobook is 32+ hours long.

Five stars!