”I’m smart enough to know I’m dumb.” Richard Feynman
Thank goodness for RSS.
Recently the internet has become an even bigger dumpster fire of a mess burning away. I’m doing my best to ignore all the background screeching of social media, advertising addled websites and the constant menace of being watched by surveillance capitalism. Is it any wonder people are so distracted?
For my own sanity these are exactly the kinds of situations I deliberately avoid. And a big part of my approach has been adopting #RSS feeds to subscribe to folk who are interesting and have something interesting to say. I subscribe to blogs as well as posts from specific people on social media, I get to read what they’re up to without any intermediation or unnecessary distraction.
I find #RSS is the best way to consume content online. It always has been, and it still is for me.
Not gated, not filtered, no ads, just want you want delivered direct to you fast when there’s something new. It’s hard to beat.
“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” Richard Feynman.
The first of the wisteria.
Looking west towards Thirteenth Beach from Barwon Heads Park.
Towards Barwon Heads, Victoria 3227, Australia. William Buckley Bridge in the background.
“What counts as a crisis is the expectation of loss of control; in other words, cybernetic breakdown in an institution.” Stafford Beer, Brain of the Firm (2nd ed.), 1981.
“Should we all stand by complaining, and wait for someone malevolent to take it over and enslave us? An electronic mafia lurks around that corner.” Stafford Beer, Designing Freedom, 1974.
Absolutely, definitely made of polyester.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Spring 2024.
I have just learnt that avocado oil has an exceptionally high smoke point of 271oC / 520oF. I can’t wait to try it with my next stir fry dinner.
In every crisis there’s always someone looking to make money.
“Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.” …. Jacob Bronowski.
Avenue of trees, South of France.
Eriocapitella hupehensis, ‘Japanese wind flower’.
Malvern Hills, Worcestershire. Looking east and down towards Malvern.
“We are presented not only with fragmented news but news without context, without consequences, without value, and therefore without essential seriousness; that is to say, news as pure entertainment.”
The potential for cybersecurity spending is limitless.
The potential for #cybersecurity spending is limitless.
There’s literally no end to the time, effort and money you could spend on adding more checks and controls to make things more ‘secure’ ad infinitum.
The result is extreme cybersecurity ideologies, ‘secure everything just in case’.
And if you’re responsible, and accountable, for running a cybersecurity programme there are no incentives to not keep demanding for more.
Because if you’re a security extremist, and you still get hacked, at least you can say you did everything in your power to make things more ‘secure’.
It takes real guts and courage to be a cybersecurity non-extremist and advocate for an informed risk approach.
Aeschylus in Perrhaibides: ‘Where are my many promised gifts and spoils of war? Where are my gold and silver cups?’
“Blood grows hot, and blood is spilled”
“Blood grows hot, and blood is spilled. Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds and thrives. Confidence dies, and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill his neighbor, lest he be first killed by him. Revenge and retaliation follow. And all this … may be among honest men only. But this is not all. Every foul bird comes abroad, and every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion.”
— Abraham Lincoln, letter to the Missouri abolitionist Charles D. Drake, 1863