Blockchain is emerging technology. I'm trying to learn about it (old brain is not what it used to be). Miscreants are starting to look more into the technology for their own deviant use since by nature it is anonymous and decentralized. Imaging having command and control on public blockchains. It cannot be taken down without eliminating legitimate financial transfers, contracts or NFCs. Each compromised machine could have a wallet where 'digital currency' is sent to it and interpreted as commands to execute. Scary world out there.
Cybersecurity is a lucrative career, but there is two big downsides: 1) You must be right 100% of the time; an attacker only once 2) You are expected to know *everything* about *every* process, procedure, policy and practice Expanding on #2, this is the reality of it. You are expected to be able to answer just about *any* question about your organization. The Director, CEO, COO, CIO and other levels are not expected to have this level of knowledge, and netiher are any other departments. However, cyber (especially the CISO) must be ready at a moments notice be able to answer for any breach of any system (and why the process or controls failed). This is ever evident by oversight boards and audits where there is no time (nor any expectation) to be able to ask someone else for the details. Here are some examples: - "Why don't the guards walk around the facility and check every door?" - "When do the fire extinguishers get inspected?" - "insert any other question not related to cybersecurity" This is the reality, at least from my perspective of where I work.
OK, I was able to score a Next Gen console recently and a few next-gen 'optimized' games. I have fast Internet, so wasn't too worried about having to download the mandatory patches needed to play any game you purchase these days. Soooo, after installing and downloading the 1.24GB patch for one game, a few 64-100GB patches for a few others, I was alerted from my ISP that I was very close to overrunning my data plan. What? I thought I was on an unlimited plan. Not so fast there buddy....your unlimited plan does have a data cap, and when exceeded, we charge you for overages. However, if you want a truely unlimited plan, you must pay us an additional $40/month. So to all who use your Internet connection to stream videos and TV, download files and use Next Gen consoles, be sure to read the fine print in your ISP contract to make sure unlimited is really unlimited, not some redefined definition of unlimited.
We finally won the war of the popup ads through ad blockers and persistence. But there is now a new enemy in the web browser popup war: - 'XXX wants to know your location' - 'XXX wants to send you notifications' - 'We use cookies, do you accept? (thanks EU :( ) - 'Subscribe to our newsletter. Enter your email address.' - 'Log in to see more content' - 'Click here to save 10% on your order' - 'You qualify for a free credit card (while logged into credit card company site to pay my bill)' Yes, these are no longer annoying 'Punch the monkey' type popups, but instead rather obnoxious fill-the-screen pop-overs that you need to close on every visit to the web site. Give me the old days of banner ads.
Remember when software flaws were called bugs and not vulnerabilities? - Pepperidge Farms remembers
I had a dream about an idea for a video game. It is like Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online, but a mixture of single person and MMO. You are a warrior class outside a kingdom of a nasty king. The main idea is to overthrow the king, if you like, or assimilate into the kingdom. The whole world is interactive with quests and side quests, and your demeanor is determined by the actions you take. Coins are the currency of the world. You get coins by doing quests, selling items, helping people or mining gold and selling to a refinery. You can try to mine for gold almost anywhere outside the kingdom. For example, there is a place named Golden Field which is full of yellow-gold flowers. If you look around, you can find small gold nuggets. However, if you mine the area, you destroy the landscape permanently, but may find much much more gold. You can set up a mining operation there and recruit others to mine for you for pay each day. Eventually, Golden Fields will look like a large mining operation. Once you fill your wagons, you send them off to the nearest refinery which pays out for ore depending on the size, amount and current Gold price (which is calculated by total gold in the kingdom to adjust for inflation or depression. However, along the path to the refinery, other players may attempt to steal your supply. Chests are secured with Expert locks, so lockpicking is difficult if the thieves manage to overtake your caravan. You can send the wagons unguarded, or hire guards, place wards, hire Ogres or Giants at pricely sums, or even have trained animals such as a Dragon guard your wagon train. Inside the kingdom, there is no PvP. You can settle in a house and farm if you please, set up a store or blacksmith or whatever. There is a fighters arena for others to settle differences 'legally'. Outside the kingdom, you can clear parts of a forest and make a homestead, but you will need wards or defense creatures to protect it from others looting. You can join a Den. Everyday, new missions are automatically posted for Den members to partake in, or the Den leader can, using a Mad-Libs type form, create their own. If you complete an automatic (or King assigned) task, you are awarded experience and gold from the kingdom. If it is a Den task, the Den pays for it out of their coffers. Tasks/quests can be performed as single player, or team up wth other Den members to complete (and split the prize). Dens can even arrange raids against other Dens, but those Dens must be at equal or greater power than yours. If you are far away from your Den on a quest or just scouting around, you can communicate via carrier birds. The inform you of new tasks or quests or request for you to come back to the Den, etc. You can spend your time questing the countryside, invading the kingdom (and incur ransoms on your head), or take break to clear some outlier land and make a home for yourself and tend to fields, operate a store or whatever. While not playing, if you are attacked, the game will play for you, with you having the advantage. If you are attacked while paying, it is up to your skills to defeat the attacker, but again, you can only attack equal or greater levels. If you do attack other players, you may incur a bounty or get arrested. If defeated, you don't die, but rather respawn at the closest refuge, losing any armor, weapons or items of value, and much of your gold. You can select no PvP option gameplay as well. If you do, you cannot join Dens or attack others, and you cannot be attacked. You also become protected by the kingdom, so overthrowing the king is much much more difficult. It is a vast open world. In the kingdom, you need to follow the rules (or rather, not get caught). Outside the kingdom, rules are more lax. You can hunt, explore ruins, learn magic, fight mythical creatures (or befriend them), whatever. The environment is remembered and slowly regenerated. For example, trees that are deforested leave the area barren for a period of time, even if you didn't do the deforestation. You can smith everyday items from the land such as clothing, armor, hunting/fishing supplies, weapons, etc, or you can gather raw materials and visit a specialist to craft even more powerful items, and even make them magical. You have many skill sets you can level up in. These are similar to Skyrim. You can train to be a warrior, magician, thief, druid, or whatever combination you desire.
This is SO fitting for someone I know:
"He would criticize the grammar and spelling of a suicide note."
