Professor Linton[2] first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago, but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. Incarcerated in such a body, man’s only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshiper.

In 2018 I called it Apple’s Middle Age:

The long-run came quickly: one year later CEO Tim Cook had to issue a revenue warning thanks to slumping iPhone sales; after four years of accounting for between 68-70% of Apple’s revenue in the company’s fiscal first quarter, the iPhone suddenly only accounted for 62%. Over time Facebook extended its data collection far beyond the Facebook app: both it and Google have a presence on most websites, and offering login services for apps not only relieves developers from having to manage identities but also give both companies a view into what their users are doing. Then came the bombshell in Apple’s Updates to the App Store Guidelines:

Apple is going to leverage its monopoly position as app provider on the iPhone to force developers (who use 3rd party solutions) to use Sign In With Apple.

The SEC charges that Kik sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering their offer and sale as required by the U.S. securities laws. Kik allegedly told investors that rising demand would drive up the value of Kin, and that Kik would undertake crucial work to spur that demand, including by incorporating the tokens into its messaging app, creating a new Kin transaction service, and building a system to reward other companies that adopt Kin. “By selling $100 million in securities without registering the offers or sales, we allege that Kik deprived investors of information to which they were legally entitled, and prevented investors from making informed investment decisions,” said Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Do park rangers have this as a typeface on their computers to set in their word docs, pdfs and power point slides? Turns out it isn’t a typeface at all but a system of paths, points and curves that a router follows. It doesn’t really exist as a typeface unless a sign is made.

The goal of my talk was to demonstrate that the current state of security of voicemail systems is not much better than it was 30 years ago and what exactly is the impact of gaining unauthorized access to a victim’s voicemail today. voicemailcracker launches hundreds of phone calls at the same time to interact with voicemail systems and bruteforce the PIN. If an attacker has access to your voicemail, he may be able to compromise your email, social networks, financial services, private conversations, track you and more…

You may not be as familiar with this as with SMS but have you ever tried to reset your password and got a 6 digit code on your phone you had to enter to complete the password reset process?

SQL code is a bizarre combination of yelling and relational algebra. By embedding our own programming language in our SQL queries of course! In this talk, we’ll take a look at how you use a combination of various Postgres features to build a programming language out of SQL.

As of today, for new users who download and install Firefox for the first time, Enhanced Tracking Protection will automatically be set on by default, protecting our users from the pervasive tracking and collection of personal data by ad networks and tech companies. Our research shows that Firefox users are seeking out privacy protection, particularly through the use of Firefox’s Private Browsing mode. As was the case with retirement savings plans, what this shows us is that the burden needs to shift from the consumers to the companies whereby the complexity of privacy settings shouldn’t be placed on users to figure out.

I wanted to write a book on Bayesian statistics that really anyone could pick up and use to gain real intuitions for how to think statistically and solve real problems using statistics. My goal with Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way was to create a book that basically anyone with a high school math background could pick up and read. Bayesian statistics does require just a little calculus and is a lot easier with a bit of code, so I’ve included two appendices that cover enough R to work as an advanced calculator and enough background in the ideas of calculus that when the book needs talk about integrals you can understand.

The SEC charges that Kik sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering their offer and sale as required by the U.S. securities laws. Kik allegedly told investors that rising demand would drive up the value of Kin, and that Kik would undertake crucial work to spur that demand, including by incorporating the tokens into its messaging app, creating a new Kin transaction service, and building a system to reward other companies that adopt Kin. “By selling $100 million in securities without registering the offers or sales, we allege that Kik deprived investors of information to which they were legally entitled, and prevented investors from making informed investment decisions,” said Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

The problem, of course, is there’s enough legitimate bipartisan worry about the power of big tech that this little telecom sector lobbying gambit has been able to fly under the radar as the real driver of this new Trump administration push. But there’s a reason the Trump administration ignores telecom’s monopoly and privacy issues while amplifying Silicon Valley’s, and I’d argue it has a lot more to do with protectionism than a genuine worry about healthy markets. I don’t think it’s happenstance that this new Trump “big tech” antitrust push comes as big telecom has asked for just such a push to aid its own competitive agenda.