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

Cheap Thoughts: God and consumerism

It occurred to me this evening that God and consumerism are diametrically opposed in at least one way. God tells that we’re perfect just as we are, while consumerism tells us we need that new car, house, or shiny new toy to be complete.

Funny how when we do get that new car, house, or toy, there’s always another car, house, or toy that will really complete us. Anyone whose God is the almighty dollar is doomed to be perpetually disappointed.

Stepping aside as PTA president

I decided a few weeks ago to complete my term as PTA president of Ligon. Leading a PTA is an enormous amount of work and a good deal of stress, in addition. Right now I need to be reducing the stress in my life, so I opted to hand the reins over to someone else.

Was I a perfect PTA president? Hardly. I made a lot of mistakes and learned some hard lessons in the process. Still, I was the best PTA president Ligon had. I was willing to step up when no one else did.

Overall, it has been incredibly rewarding to do the job, though. I might not have heard much from the parents but I did get a huge round of applause from the Ligon staff today during their staff luncheon. The assistant principal told me he’s seen a lot of PTA organizations during his career as an educator and Ligon PTA’s by far the best he’s ever seen. It meant a lot to hear that!

I leave the PTA leadership in good hands with the incoming president, Terri Hart. I wasn’t able to pull off a PTA election at the end of the year, so I’ll stay on as the official president until the first meeting when we can make it official for Terri. She will hit the ground running over the summertime, though, with me showing her the ropes.

I also plan to continue playing a role – after all, how could I not? We’ll have both kids at Ligon next year and I will continue to play a role in the education of my kids and their classmates.

Volunteering gets into your blood, you know. It’s not easy to give it up.

How Joe Biden learned to work with Jesse Helms, who should’ve been his nemesis – Quartz

This May 17, vice-president Joe Biden address the graduates of Yale University at their Class Day. He spoke about the personal tragedies in his life, losing his wife and daughter to a car accident at age 30, which has been covered following the news of his son Beau’s death less than two weeks later. Beau and his brother survived the crash, and Biden almost resigned his newly won Senate seat before being talked out of it by Ted Kennedy, among others. Biden instead turned into an Amtrak commuter, coming home from Washington to Delaware every night to care for his sons as they recovered, and then to raise a family with his new wife, Jill.

But Biden also spoke about how he learned to work with someone who should have been his nemesis, the conservative senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

Source: How Joe Biden learned to work with Jesse Helms, who should’ve been his nemesis – Quartz

How Obama wooed back Merkel – Edward-Isaac Dovere and Matthew Karnitschnig – POLITICO

Chancellor Angela Merkel got on the phone with President Barack Obama with a message that was coldly blunt: We cannot go on like this.Her government had just sent the CIA chief packing after German intelligence uncovered a spy in its own ranks. It was the second big shock to the relationship after the Edward Snowden document dump disclosed that the U.S. had been spying on her cell phone. German media was filled with daily pronouncements about the worst rupture in the U.S.-German alliance since the Iraq War.

Source: How Obama wooed back Merkel – Edward-Isaac Dovere and Matthew Karnitschnig – POLITICO

Travis leaves elementary school

Travis gets emotional at his fifth grade graduation

Travis gets emotional at his fifth grade graduation


Yesterday was Travis’s 5th grade graduation ceremony. True to form, it was emotional for me and Kelly. Conn has been the only school he has known. He walked the halls long before he was enrolled there, tagging along with Hallie to and from school. Somehow time flew by and he has just one day left before he’s a middle schooler.

The ceremony included singing, photos from the students as babies, speeches, and plenty of awards. Travis took home a haul of these certificates. Indeed, we laughed when we looked at the “activities” page of the school yearbook and Travis’s face was in all but two pictures!
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Business Proposal—

Looks like I’ve struck it rich! I am so quitting my job! Easy street, here I come!!!11!

Reply-To: johnwan998789@yahoo.com.hk
From: “JOHN WAN” johnwan663@yahoo.com.hk
Subject: Business Proposal—
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2015 15:32:09 +0200

Dear friend,

I am John Wan from the bank of China, I have a business proposal involving the sum of $8,370,000.00 which is unclaimed as the deceased depositor died in testate with no surviving next of kin.

I will like you to work with me in total trust and partnership to enable me transfer the estate to you We will share the estate in the ratio 50% each.

I advise that you keep this email confidential and respond to me via my private email address: johnwan998789@yahoo.com.hk , I shall await your swift response to enable me inform you in details about this business.

Regards,

John.

Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game

Here’s a fascinating account of the creation of the first commercially-successful video game, Computer Space, and of the men who created it, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell would go on to create Atari and, by extension, modern Silicon Valley.

Computer Space pitted a player-controlled rocket ship against two machine-controlled flying saucers in a space simulation set before a two-dimensional star field. The player controlled the rocket with four buttons: one for fire, which shoots a missile from the front of the rocket ship; two directional rotation buttons (to rotate the ship orientation clockwise or counterclockwise); and one for thrust, which propelled the ship in whichever direction it happened to be pointing. Think of Asteroids without the asteroids, and you should get the picture.

During play, two saucers would appear on the screen and shoot at the player while flying in a zig-zag formation.The player’s goal was to dodge the saucer fire and shoot the saucers.

Considering a game of this complexity playing out on a TV set, you might think that it was created as a sophisticated piece of software running on a computer. You’d think it, but you’d be wrong–and Bushnell wouldn’t blame you for the mistake. How he and Dabney managed to pull it off is a story of audacity, tenacity, and sheer force-of-will worthy of tech legend. This is how it happened.

Source: Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game

Top Female Lawyers Say They Are Treated Like Assistants at Work – Bloomberg Business

I disagree with this premise. My boss calls her colleague her “work husband.” In this case it means they work very well together.

I certainly don’t condone treating women like assistants but many men (like myself) hold their wives in very high regard and to be called a “work wife” does not necessarily mean they are seen as less than equals.

I have already provided my thoughts on equal pay, so I won’t even go there.

Litigators— lawyers who work to help clients win, or survive lawsuits—can have high-stakes careers. One female litigator’s job, however, came with a less thrilling description. “She had always been the self-appointed ‘detail-oriented task manager on the team, scheduling meetings, keeping the calendar and taking notes,’” wrote the author of a broad study on workplace inequality in law, released by American Lawyer magazine last week, about one of the lawyers who journalists interviewed. The lawyer’s male colleagues called her their “work wife.”

The “work wife” badge is a symbol of a culture in which women are seen as supporters of, rather than equal to, their male peers.

Source: Top Female Lawyers Say They Are Treated Like Assistants at Work – Bloomberg Business