Tag: security

Public Service Announcement

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocyLeave a comment

Just in case you haven’t heard, even by 2025’s standards there was a pretty massive fuck-up by somebody this week, with billions-with-a-b of passwords leaked.(*) And it’s looking like a lot of them were from Apple and Google and Facebook, and places like that where you really want to make sure your password is secure. I changed about twenty passwords today– all of my email addresses except for work, anything connected with money, and this site– and while it was a pretty big pain in the ass, it really needed to be done.

You’re using a password manager, by the way, right? You should be using a password manager. Make your password for that a four-or five-word phrase that you’ll remember, substituting a couple of numbers for letters or maybe doing some strategic misspelling, and let the app worry about everything else.

Anyway, point is, go do that.

Dammit, I had something else for this. Uh … shit, getting old sucks; I’m watching a video on another monitor while I’m writing this and I’ve lost the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at once. Expect a quick post tomorrow; we’re going to my brother’s to celebrate both of his kids’ birthdays; we’ve had to reschedule this a couple of times now because one or both of them keep getting sick, so hopefully nothing other than the heat will be getting in our way tomorrow.

Gaaaah. If I remember the other thing I’ll either throw up another post or just edit this. There was definitely something but it’s gone right now. Sigh.

(*) I’m not actually certain of any of the details of the leak, which looks like it had to have been multiple simultaneous leaks, somehow? I just know I pay attention whenever Apple or Google gets hit by one of these things because those are the accounts I really don’t need compromised.

EDIT: Oh! I remembered! I woke up this morning to discover that I had a couple hundred page views already, which is not normal– usually there will be no more than a couple dozen overnight. The other weird thing? They were all from Hong Kong, and the specific posts that were seeing a bunch of views were all older posts with no clear relationship to one another. We’ll see if it happens tonight. Those couple hundred page views were also spread out over a hundred or so individual visitors, so it’s not like one person went through a big chunk of the site or something. So … yeah, Hong Kong folks, if you come back, can you tell me why? 🙂

Some minor observations upon receiving my new driver’s license

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocyLeave a comment

Got the new license today. It’s … kinda garbage?

  • The licenses changed design rather radically in 2019. That was five years ago. You would think that at some point I would have seen someone with one of the new licenses, or heard that they had changed, or seen a picture? I had not.
  • They switched from two full-color pictures to two black-and-white pictures, both of which are significantly more washed out than the pictures in that stock image. For obvious reasons, I’m not putting a picture of any part of my drivers license on the internet, so you’re going to have to trust me here. That feels like an inexplicable step backwards and I’d love to know the reason behind it; I’m sure there is one.
  • It feels significantly thinner and flimsier than my previous card, which … come the fuck on, guys. It’s annoying enough that credit cards feel like business cards nowadays, but my official state ID? What the shit am I paying taxes for? Print this thing on something solid.
  • They did take a new picture, and made me re-sign the card, but it still says my hair is brown and, even more hilariously, lists my weight at 230. I wasn’t even asked if either of those things should change. I’m literally bald and my beard is white. I haven’t seen 230 in 20 years. I’m not even sure I lived in Indiana the last time I weighed 230. This is nuts.
  • Your birthday is on the card in three different places, including two on the front, which feels kind of excessive.
  • It also lists my height as 5’11”, which is odd, because I’m 5’10”, and nobody ever just downsizes themselves by an inch. It seems unlikely that I was ever telling people I was 5’11” and then switched to telling people I was 5’10” and forgot I ever changed it. Did they actually measure me at some point, maybe with my shoes on?
  • I note that my previous license also says 5’11”. I dunno, I don’t get it.

Anyway, I’m glad I don’t drink or smoke, because the fewer times I need to pull this thing out of my wallet, the better.

God, ETS, eat a dick

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocyLeave a comment

ETS, the company behind these fucking Praxis tests, is one of the worst organizations in the history of the entire fucking planet, and by “organizations” I’m including the Nazis, the KKK, the Republicans, and whatever flavor of Communism might be most on your nerves at the moment. I hate these people to a degree I’m not entirely able to explain, at least not without the FBI taking a closer look at me.

I passed another practice test today, by a larger margin than the first one, and decided, fuck it, I’m going to go ahead and schedule this thing. The last time I looked I was able to schedule an exam the next day, so you can imagine my surprise when I logged in and discovered that I can’t get in before July 1 any longer. Which … fuck. This blog is already turning into the All Math Test All The Time website, and now I have to wait three more weeks? I’m ready now, motherfuckers. Let’s do this.

And then I went through their list of “requirements,” and …

… look, God damn it, I need these fucking testing companies to understand that their shit is not that fucking important. The fucking NSA doesn’t protect their shit as carefully as standardized testing companies do. They won’t let me have scratch paper for a fucking math test. I have to use a fucking whiteboard, which can be “erased in front of the proctor,” because … what? I might share questions with somebody? So the fucking hell what? Every test is fucking different, and you sell practice tests, you stupid dicks. Which is the actual reason, by the way, because extorting $120 out of me for the fucking test isn’t enough; they need more money from anyone who wants to study for these fucking things, like the blood-sucking rent-seeking fucking parasite scumbag shitstained vermin they are.

Make sure any other devices in my home that use the internet aren’t running?

Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not even going to try to do this. Avoid wearing jewelry? Fucking why? And what’s “dressed appropriately” mean? Are people seeking teaching licenses likely to have their dicks or tits out while testing, so likely that they need a rule about it?

Elsewhere, I am told that I am expected to be able to show the proctor “all four walls” in the room I am in, presumably because any wall they can’t see is obviously covered with posters explaining how to do the questions on the test. My webcam is part of the fucking computer, though, and I’m not sure how the fuck they expect me to point the Goddamn monitor at the wall behind it.

(Also, remember: approximately zero percent of teaching involves blind recall of facts in the complete absence of resource materials. If I forget anything I’m supposed to be teaching, I can literally look it up right in front of the fucking kids if I want to. These things should be entirely open notes; what I have memorized is completely irrelevant.)

God, I hate this fucking company.

Quick politics/policy question

On By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized6 Comments

secret-service-obama
Clones! The secret service is using clones!

This feels a bit more like a Twitter thing than a blog post, but it’s a bit too complicated for Twitter to handle, so you get it instead.

John Kerry broke his leg while cycling in France today, and it got me wondering: What level of bodyguarding/security do we provide people like upper-level Cabinet members and members of Congress when they go overseas?  The article mentions Kerry’s motorcade but doesn’t give any indication of who was in it.  Does the Secret Service handle stuff like that, or do they just work with the President and VP?

Yes I know I could Google this.  I’d rather ask y’all; somebody out there knows.

Later today: Saleswanking!