The Weekly Weird - 2017-01-20
- Knowing your data can get you way farther than picking the right general-purpose algorithm.
- If you read one 8,000-word expose on tracking down the responsible parties behind a botnet, make it Krebs' "Who is Anna-Senpai, the Mirai Worm Author?"
- The First Four Things You Measure.
- RDBMSes need tuning. Humans suck at tuning and DBAs are expensive. Solution: apply a thick, unctuous layer of machine learning. Open source too! It would be kind of cool to integrate this into a distributed dbms like cockroachdb or TiDB. Be sure to check with Kristen Stewart for an expert opinion on machine learning.
- There's a common theme in infosec that your threat model is either Mossad or not-Mossad, in that if you're worried about a hostile nation-state you're kind of fucked regardless of your opsec. It's not strictly Mossad but fascinating to contemplate the hack of the Israeli lawful cellphone hacking company Cellebrite and where that fits on the transitive Mossad scale.
- Speaking of the 'can be hacked' list: your car. This should surprise no-one.
- What motivates gamers? What does gaming do to your brain?
- Remember, stop looking at your average or median performance numbers. Keep your eye on the outliers.
- I really love/hate the webassembly thing. On one hand, it means I don't have to write javascript. On the other, now we're just bringing SQL to the browser which gives me the howling fantods.
- Yay, mass produced nuclear reactors are getting regulatory attention. Solar is going to eat Nuclear's lunch but it's still nice to have for baseload and remote sites.
- How much bandwidth does it take to compress human voice? How about 700 bits per second?
- The Barbie(TM) Typewriter had a hidden alphabet subsitution cipher mode.
- It being from the Times I'm sure this article is subtly inaccurate but I found it interesting that women apparently dominate the corporate governance industry.