The budget for moving our family to Honolulu was tight, judging from the tiny cottage we rented and the rusted-out Ford Fairlane we bought to get around. My brother Kevin and I took turns sleeping on the couch. I was thirteen; he was nine. But the cottage was near the beach—just up a driveway lined with other cottages, on a street called Kulamanu—and the weather, which was warm even in January, when we arrived, felt like wanton luxury.
The Pulitzer Prize In Bullshit FUD Reporting Goes To… The Sunday Times For Its ‘Snowden Expose’ | Techdirt
Rupurt Murdock’s Sunday Times published a whopper on Sunday in an effort to smear Edward Snowden and was promptly shredded by other journalists for its fabrications and shoddy reporting.
Let’s start with this. Soon after Daniel Ellsberg was revealed as the source behind the Pentagon Papers, White House officials started spreading rumors that Ellsberg was actually a Soviet spy and that he’d passed on important secrets to the Russians:None of it was true, but it was part of a concerted effort by administration officials to smear Ellsberg as a “Soviet spy” and a “traitor” when all he really did was blow the whistle on things by sharing documents with reporters.
Does that sound familiar? Over the weekend, a big story supposedly broke in the UK’s the Sunday Times, citing anonymous UK officials arguing that the Russians and Chinese got access to all the Snowden documents and it had created all sorts of issues, including forcing the UK to remove undercover “agents” from Russia. That story is behind a paywall, but plenty of people have made the text available if you’d like to read the whole thing.
Why the “biggest government hack ever” got past the feds | Ars Technica
Ars Technica takes an in-depth look at the “biggest government hack ever,” the OPM hack that exposed over 4 million records of federal government employees.
As I posted to Twitter, while the NSA was busy monitoring Grandma’s phone calls, the Chinese made off with 4 million federal government employee records. Tell me again why we are spending billions on the NSA?
n April, federal authorities detected an ongoing remote attack targeting the United States’ Office of Personnel Management (OPM) computer systems. This situation may have gone on for months, possibly even longer, but the White House only made the discovery public last Friday. While the attack was eventually uncovered using the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Einstein—the multibillion-dollar intrusion detection and prevention system that stands guard over much of the federal government’s Internet traffic—it managed to evade this detection entirely until another OPM breach spurred deeper examination.
Source: Why the “biggest government hack ever” got past the feds | Ars Technica
Tom Apodaca: Senate’s enforcer uses muscle, humor to deliver GOP agenda | The Charlotte Observer The Charlotte Observer
Nice profile of North Carolina Senate majority leader Tom Apodaca.
In another life, Tom Apodaca chased knife-toting bail jumpers and once found himself in a cheap motel staring into the barrel of a shotgun.
The conservative Republican used to be a Jimmy Carter Democrat. And for a long time, Tom Apodaca wasn’t even Tom Apodaca. But now the Hendersonville Republican is the North Carolina Senate’s enforcer, the muscle for President Pro Tem Phil Berger of Eden.Along with Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, he’s one of the state’s three most influential lawmakers. As Rules Committee chair, he’s the ultimate gatekeeper. At one point last month, more than 460 House and Senate bills sat parked in his committee. Few measures become law without his blessing.
City council dodges patio bar hot potato
I don’t know what the Raleigh city staff was thinking. Honestly, this recent attempt to ban patio seating for bars was bound to blow up in their faces. Anyone who’s worked in city government and played the political game should’ve seen it coming, yet staff happily tossed this hot potato right into the laps of the Raleigh City Council.
In an election year. Yes, an election year.
Of course, a huge groundswell of bar owners and their fans spoke out against this draconian measure and Council wisely backed down, but it all could’ve been avoided.
Me? I don’t see much difference between a bar’s patrons clogging the sidewalks and a restaurant’s patrons clogging the sidewalks. Both businesses’ patrons are likely swilling alcohol and both businesses are contributing to the economy and lifestyle of the City of Oaks. If the city allows one, I see no reason why they should not allow the other.
As for people who moved downtown to enjoy a lively downtown scene and then complain that the lively downtown scene keeps them awake at night, I don’t know what they’re thinking, either.
City staff should’ve known better than to spring this on the public with little warning and on Council during election season. It wasn’t that long ago that the Council took the city staff’s bait and outlawed garbage disposals. Yeah, that went over well. Some staffers apparently didn’t learn the lesson.
I remember the ghost town Raleigh’s downtown used to be not that long ago. The fact that there’s controversy over the sidewalks being too popular is almost laughable. As far as problems go this is a nice one to have. I’m glad the city is taking another approach to this and I’m glad the Council didn’t fall into the trap of approving this.
A Look Inside Reynolds Renovations | NC State News
Here’s a fun look at the hidden history of Reynolds Coliseum, recently brought to light by the university’s renovation work. Andy Williams! Ermahgerd!
There have been a few surprises. Nothing completely out of the ordinary, of course, though the decades-old box of uneaten peanuts kind of threw the contractors off for a few seconds.Three months into the first major renovation of Reynolds Coliseum since it opened in 1949, everything is on schedule. Ductwork in the hallways of the upper concourse has been removed, prepping for the first permanent air-conditioning system the old building has ever had.
More than 3,000 original seats have been removed from the north end, and are currently on sale as souvenirs through the Wolfpack Club.
There were a few interesting finds in the old air ducts: newspapers from the 1950s, receipts from Ice Capades shows and an Andy Williams concert in the 1960s, a program for a gay and lesbian rally in 1979 and a few more current ROTC brochures.
Glorious Church building meets less than glorious end
Glorious Church gets demolished
By the time you read this, there will likely be nothing left of the old Glorious Church, the building at the corner of Glascock and N. State St where Bishop Spain’s Apostolic congregation met for years. Demolition crews are whacking down wall after wall, turning it into a pile of bricks and memories. I snapped a few photos yesterday morning of the building while it was still intact, not knowing that hours later it would be demolished.
I’m somewhat sad to see the church go, actually, though the loud services often flared the tempers of surrounding neighbors. The building has been a church since the 1950s, as far as I can tell, and now the building is rubble. It was uninsulated and not much for beauty but it served as the home of a loving congregation. I don’t feel bad about the congregation, though, as I’m sure the sale price has provided them with money to build a new church, finally completing their dream interrupted years ago by what I heard was a dishonest contractor.
The Glorious Church building is an empty shell now
I knew about the building’s fate months ago through some real estate friends. Their plan is to raze the church building and the vacant daycare building just north of it and build three luxury homes in their place. The expected asking price for these homes is lofty and will certainly boost our property values but it will also accelerate change the surrounding neighborhood. In the end, though, I look forward to welcoming more good neighbors to the area.
Microsoft acqui-hires, shuts down startup BlueStripe – Business Insider
Microsoft has acquired a startup called BlueStripe Software today and shuttered it. It will take BlueStripe’s technology and add it into some of Microsoft’s major enterprise products like System Center.Most of the small BlueStripe team will be joining Microsoft. Microsoft would not confirm the number of employees involved, but according to LinkedIn, about 25 people worked there. When we asked for details, Microsoft sent us this statement:
“Core members of the BlueStripe team will be transferring to Microsoft. Microsoft is not sharing further details on BlueStripe personnel. BlueStripe brings both a talented set of personnel and a strong set of products.”
Source: Microsoft acqui-hires, shuts down startup BlueStripe – Business Insider
Stepson of Stuxnet stalked Kaspersky for months, tapped Iran nuke talks | Ars Technica
A fascinating, in-depth account of how security firm Kaspersky was infected by (and later discovered) one of the world’s most powerful hacking tools.
“These guys are so confident to develop their entire platform based on this zero day it means if they get caught and this zero day is patched they probably have another one they can use, which I would say is a pretty scary thought,” he said. “Nobody develops an entire malware platform based on just one simple assumption that this zero day will work forever, because eventually it will be discovered and patched. And when it is patched your malware is not going to work anymore. I think that’s also very scary and quite impressive.”
Source: Stepson of Stuxnet stalked Kaspersky for months, tapped Iran nuke talks | Ars Technica
Iceland put bankers in jail rather than bailing them out — and it worked – Vox
Yesterday, Iceland’s prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, announced a plan that will essentially close the books on his country’s approach to handling the financial crisis — an approach that deviated greatly from the preferences of global financial elites and succeeded quite well. Instead of embracing the orthodoxy of bank bailouts, austerity, and low inflation, Iceland did just the opposite. And even though its economy was hammered by the banking crisis perhaps harder than any other in the world, its labor didn’t deteriorate all that much, and it had a great recovery.
Source: Iceland put bankers in jail rather than bailing them out — and it worked – Vox