Infornography

Maybe we shouldn't have called it AI / 2021-11-14 T 19:04

The Net (1995 film) / 2021-10-07 T 05:30

I watched “The Net” (1995) (not for the first time). We all know that it ain't the greatest, but it doesn't suck. A few interesting things about the film this time this time include:

It shows how she keeps mostly to herself, in her home, has things delivered. In 1995, it was possible but rare. Since Covid, not so rare. (Movie predicted the future.)
They make an explicit point that someone was able to mess with her because all the information is “in a computer”, but I'm thinking that's not quite right. Electronic form is a more malleable medium than paper in a file cabinet (or paintings on a temple wall), but what a civilization knows is what's in the official records, regardless of how they are stored. Control them & you control everything. Computers didn't make that reality, but people became aware of that reality as our civilizatoin's memory migrated into electronic form.
When she uses a computer, it's often via colourful menus. Unrealistic it is, I now realize that movies work by showing, & colourful menus are a valid way of letting the audience see what she's doing with a computer.
When she's being chased on a merry-go-round, I suspect it's a visual homage to the end of “Strangers on a Train”. If the scene had someone crawling under the merry-go-round, I'd be certain it was an intentional reference to that movie.
When she confronts the main guy who's been chasing her, on a scaffolding, I could swear it's a visual homage to the end of “The Parallax View”. Come to think of it, that movie & this one might go back-to-back well.
Has me wondering what other references I overlooked.

Brute force password attacks + your router's guest wifi / 2021-09-19 T 09:03

According to Kaspersky, even as late as the year 2020, most of the incidents they ivestigated involved brute force password attacks.[kaspersky]

Reminds me of telling someone to use a password manager & not to “have a system” for making memorable passwords. Even in the year 2020, they reply “I have a good system” which they then describe to you because it's so clever[sarcasm].

This is why your router offers a guest wifi network & why even your {girl, boy, whatever}friend gets that passcode, not the one to your real network.

When to use the Tor browser / 2021-09-03 T 08:22

Don't ask “When should I use the Tor browser?” That's the wrong question. f2byk.html

another blog entry / 2021-09-02 T 20:52

Nothing to see here unless it's an error message. Move along (but thank you for peeking).

start a blog / 2021-09-02 T 12:24

Let's reorganize this, my ancient web site. Short blog(?) entries that say short things or link to longer things. And longer things in their own files (as they already are).