January 2014

There were 54 posts published in January 2014 (this is page 3 of 6).

Forty-five trips around the sun

Family hike pic at Falls Lake. Note the wrist brace.

Family hike pic at Falls Lake. Note the wrist brace.


Yesterday was my 45th birthday. My how time flies. It was a good birthday, though, overall. The only downside is that I seem to have somehow injured my left hand on Sunday. I wasn’t doing anything excessive – just watching The Hunt for Red October on the couch with Travis, but an hour later my hand was extremely sore, especially at the wrist. This mystery injury provided me teeth-gritting pain over the last two days, only now letting up. Since yesterday, my hand has ballooned from the swelling. I hope it will settle down on its own because my former employer has been slow getting the COBRA coverage started on my health insurance and as of now I don’t think I can see the doctor without a lot of reimbursement paperwork trouble.
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Why Bitcoin Matters – NYTimes.com

Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen explains the promise of Bitcoin. I thought I understood these concepts well enough but this showed me new possibilities.

That last part is enormously important. Bitcoin is the first Internetwide payment system where transactions either happen with no fees or very low fees (down to fractions of pennies). Existing payment systems charge fees of about 2 to 3 percent – and that’s in the developed world. In lots of other places, there either are no modern payment systems or the rates are significantly higher. We’ll come back to that.

Bitcoin is a digital bearer instrument. It is a way to exchange money or assets between parties with no pre-existing trust: A string of numbers is sent over email or text message in the simplest case. The sender doesn’t need to know or trust the receiver or vice versa. Related, there are no chargebacks – this is the part that is literally like cash – if you have the money or the asset, you can pay with it; if you don’t, you can’t. This is brand new. This has never existed in digital form before.

via Why Bitcoin Matters – NYTimes.com.

RALEIGH: Raleigh Housing Authority: Where the streets have magicians’ names

A prominent local journalist commented that this “story” smacks of “piling on.” I have to agree. Naming streets? The nerve!

There might be a lot of things to take issue with regarding Steve Beam but to jump on him for naming streets is not one of them. This is weak and petty, N&O. It’s your credibility that’s in a disappearing act.

RALEIGH — When the Walnut Terrace public housing complex reopens next year, its residents will find that their new addresses bear the names of obscure magicians.

Steve Beam, Raleigh Housing Authority director and card-trick expert, has named the new development’s streets after historical figures in magic, most of whom – like Beam – were known for masterful illusions with a deck of playing cards.

via RALEIGH: Raleigh Housing Authority: Where the streets have magicians' names | Wake County | NewsObserver.com.

Nasa says Mars mystery rock that ‘appeared’ from nowhere is ‘like nothing we’ve seen before’ – Science – News – The Independent

This is bizarre.

A mysterious rock which appeared in front of the Opportunity rover is “like nothing we’ve ever seen before”, according to Mars exploration scientists at Nasa.

Experts said they were “completely confused” by both the origins and makeup of the object, which is currently being investigated by Opportunity’s various measuring instruments.

via Nasa says Mars mystery rock that ‘appeared’ from nowhere is ‘like nothing we’ve seen before’ – Science – News – The Independent.

Here’s the referenced Mars status report from NASA.

Cord Cutters And The Death Of TV – Business Insider

The cord-cutting and shift away from TV that I mentioned before is accelerating. TV as we’ve known it is dying.

The TV business is having its worst year ever.Audience ratings have collapsed: Aside from a brief respite during the Olympics, there has been only negative ratings growth on broadcast and cable TV since September 2011, according to Citi Research.

Media stock analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson recently noted, “The pay-TV industry has reported its worst 12-month stretch ever.” All the major TV providers lost a collective 113,000 subscribers in Q3 2013. That doesn’t sound like a huge deal — but it includes internet subscribers, too.

Broadband internet was supposed to benefit from the end of cable TV, but it hasn’t.

In all, about 5 million people ended their cable and broadband subs between the beginning of 2010 and the end of this year.

via Cord Cutters And The Death Of TV – Business Insider.

Lee Atwater on the “Southern Strategy”

A discussion on mobile phone safety led me to look up Lee Atwater. Atwater was the Republican strategist known for his divisive campaign tactics in the 1980s. Atwater died in 1991 from a brain tumor (thus the mobile phone safety angle).

I had long known Atwater excelled at race-baiting voters. Until today, though, I had no idea that this interview existed in which Atwater comes right out and explains the new codewords he used for this nefarious purposes. Those codewords are still being used today, sadly enough. Voters are voting on racial issues even now.
Lee_Atwater_1989
Perhaps Atwater will one day reincarnate as a black woman and get a feel for the hate-filled policies he put in motion.

The Problem with Facebook


Larry Lessig shared a video from Derek Muller of Veritasium about one of the biggest problems with Facebook: the intentional throttling of shared content.

It’s easy to take it for granted that what you post on Facebook is seen by all of your Facebook friends but that is actually far from the truth. Facebook’s business model actually requires the service to limit what people see, and to sell you the opportunity to promote your content for a fee. This video is a well-thought-out examination of what your role is as a Facebook user (hint: you’re being manipulated).

I wrote about this activity last year but it’s good to have a video which explains it so much better.

Hopping real estate market

Home For Sale

Home For Sale


With the construction underway of the nearby Oakwood North subdivision I’ve definitely noticed an upswing of “construction tourists” who come by to watch the work. What’s more, though, is that I’ve also seen real estate agents in fancy cars slowly circling through the neighborhood. Now, an agent driving potential homebuyers around is nothing new. These agents, though, are usually alone. That leads me to believe they’re checking out which homes might soon be up for sale. In other words, the new subdivision isn’t even built yet and already the home values in the area are climbing.

My neighbor Randy, whose house is adjacent to the subdivision, received a letter from a real estate agent out of the blue last week, saying if he were to sell to let the agent know. We received a similar mailing last week, too. Suddenly our neighborhood has become very popular.

Target and data breaches

Target_logo

As you are most probably aware, the Target department store suffered a data breach which exposed 110 million of its customers’ credit cards to hackers. It’s not news that these commerce juggernauts are targeted (pardon the pun) by thieves, but what is news is that you heard about it.

Companies get hacked every day. Most handle their data breaches quietly, afraid that the news of the breach would hurt their company’s reputation. Target has been refreshingly upfront about its data breach, with a full-page message from Target’s CEO running in today’s paper. This is outstanding public relations. Being a bit of a network security wonk and an observer of public relations, I applaud how Target has taken ownership of this problem. What’s more, I hope other affected companies will follow Target’s lead and be more willing to own up to their security breaches.

We can’t pretend that hacking doesn’t take place; we all know security-through-obscurity doesn’t work. A better approach would be to acknowledge the scope of the problem and to collaborate on ways to strengthen the tools we all use to keep our networks secure.