Sunday night I decided to upgrade iOS on my iPhone. I was on version 12.something, 12.2 I think. It was old enough that apps were starting to break and updates required a newer iOS. Hawk assured me that she's on 13.something and nothing's wrong with it.

"Nothing's wrong with it" is an important recommendation because often there is something wrong ( Read more... )

After the recent security controversies with Zoom, the suddenly-more-popular-than-ever videoconferencing tool, which I gently parodied in my company as an April Fool's joke, my company has removed it as our standard conferencing tool. For the moment we're back to Google Hangout Meets for all meetings, internal and external. (Previously we used ( Read more... )

Woodland Hills, CA - Tue, 15 Nov 2019, 5pmWe've just wrapped our full day of meetings and workshops with a customer in Los Angeles. I'm titling this blog "Workshop Daze" because the official name of the event I led today is "[Company] Days" (it's a pun, see?) and, well, I feel like I'm in a bit of a daze. It's been a long and trying day ( Read more... )

Carlsbad, CA - Tue, 24 Sep 2019, 7:30pmI'm settled in at my hotel in Carlsbad for the evening. I've had dinner, my shoes are off, and I'm taking it easy for the night. It's relaxing. Though I worry what craziness will erupt shattering my tranquility within the next 30 minutes... because the past 24+ hours of travel have been a roller coast ride of ( Read more... )

SF Moscone Center - Thu, 15 Aug 2019, 3pm

Whew, it's done. My presentation at the trade show- the thing I've most been sweating for two weeks- is done. And with it my formal responsibilities at the show are also done. The expo floor is closed now (just ended as I wrapped up my talk and Q&A) and I have no more customer meeting, either. There's just ( Read more... )

Last week I wrote about what the modern-day risk of hacking really is vs. how people think hacking works using a recent comic from XKCD. One friend got a chuckle out of it and sent me another XKCD comic from years ago that touches on a similar point.


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Today's XKCD comic caught my eye because it touches on an issue I've chatted with a few people about recently: the difference between how people think hacking works, and how hacking actually works.


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I've been having trouble with my personal computer, a MacBook Air, the last few days. Occasionally it would freeze up. The display would be on, but all the apps would be frozen. The Force-Quit keystroke combination didn't work; the only thing I could do was shutdown & start up. At first I thought maybe it was a stability/security issue with my web ( Read more... )

After I arrived home from 8 days of travel late last week I was locked out of my work computer. My password wasn't working. As I began the process of recovering without a password- which also wasn't working well- I happened to notice that when I typed my email address the '@' appeared as a '2 ( Read more... )

IAD airport car rental - Wed, 24 Apr 2019, 9:30am

A second crazy thing happened this morning, all before 9:30am. No, I didn't see a second person wearing my wedding ring. It was a bit of work craziness ( Read more... )