Predictable fitness behavior

Interesting demonstration of the lemming (and sloth) like behavior of americans. this chart shows a regular and predictable spike in Google searches for the word gym in the last few days of the year. It also shows how quickly interest (of should we say commitment) declines thereafter. Gym operators better be allocating their ad budgets appropriately. The Gizmodo source

Working a new machine

I've been doing a little consulting work recently and one of the side benefits is the place has a very nice semi-pro espresso machine and proper grinder, so I've been able to practice my espresso kung-fu on something new. It literally took me a year to learn how to use my Expobar well so I'm quite proud that with a fresh bag of Intelligentsia Black Cat I was able to produce acceptable shots almost immediately and great shots within a couple of days.

The machine is a double boiler Vibiemme and since it's in an office environment it gets much more use then my Brewtus and was filthy. Has no one hear of the portafilter-wiggle? I spent a little time each morning cleaning the machine and the Mazzer grinder to rid them both of the burnt Starbucks crap they've been eating for years. Now on a steady diet of Black Cat the pair are clean and happy and producing very good espresso. Now if I can just get people to replace the portafilter after they use it instead of leaving it on the tray.

Cyber war? Hah!

The DDoS attack on Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the Ex-half-term Governor of Alaska in support of WikiLeaks is a drive-by shooting compared to this stealth missile (or maybe the better analogy is a Predator drone, but I digress).

Stuxnet is a spectacular demonstration of what is possible with enough skill, time and money. It represents an unprecedented level of self control, subtlety and effectiveness never seen before by any malware. Three, count em, three individual zero-day exploits, controlled replication and a self destruct timer?

..and speaking of DDoS, didn't the whole "Jillian Assange is a criminal" thing get decided in the early 70s when the supreme court ruled the NY Times could publish the Pentagon Papers?

Oh yeah, did you hear that the FBI is now accused of planting multiple backdoors into the crypto libraries of OpenBSD. If true, this one's gonna leave a mark as the code in question is ~10 years old now. @HowdTheyMissThatOne

New Passport

For some crazy reason I thought passports expired on your birthday. I learned on Wednesday that I was wrong and my passport has actually been expired since June.

Not any more. Thanks to these guys, I have a shiny new passport with all maner of anti-counterfeiting tech. What a spectacular service they provide, I got a call from my personal advisor immediately after filling out the web based forms and received regular updates the whole way. My new booklet arrived this morning, just in time for a trip on Sunday.