Phishing is the most common way bad guys steal your passwords and hook viruses into your machine. This is routinely done via email, but this practice is becoming more popular in SMS messages in a practice Forbes has called Smishing. Today, I received one such message and thought I’d go deeper and get to the heart of this malicious phenomenon.
This new editor is feeling like Wordpress is trying to empty Lake Ontario with a bucket. It’s a futile gesture, but maybe it’s the gesture that counts? It’s like the world is craving no more sequels to movies, but when you give them something original, they don’t show up. Wordpress, you’ve got a fight ahead of you.
Lately I’ve been utterly fascinated with books that detail alternative ways of thinking and mindsets that find success. I’ve become (at heart) a student of social sciences, so something like Levitt and Dubner’s Think Like a Freak is right in my sweet spot. My first introduction to this world came by way of the Freakonomics podcast, and its great start if you’re curious about how these guys think. It’s just a great listen in general. Once I dug into this book however, I was very pleased. Let me explain.
This year has been a great year to read books. Whether is was picking up Sapiens in Ireland this summer, or relaxing on a beach in Portugal reading another, I was not without a book in hand for many days this year. I thought I’d share the books I’ve read and feel are worth your time. These aren’t ranked in any particular order, as think they’re all worthy of your attention.
Yuval Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind was known to me for a while as a book of interest, but I hadn’t given it a serious look. I generally avoid the droning, long and tedious history books in favor for more recent and topical themes. After finishing The Disaster Artist, I was looking for my next read, and Sapiens was staring me face to face at an airport bookstore. Now that I’ve finished, I’ll offer some of my thoughts.
So, what is it? It’s a book about a friendship that spans 15 years between two unlikely people (one of them the author). I too had a friendship that very closely parallels this story. Amazing how us humans have these constant repeating patterns. The subject of the story is Tommy Wiseau, who would go on to create perhaps the worst movie ever to be recorded in The Room. I haven’t seen the movie and I know it sucks.
Flying to the archipelago of the Azores landed me square in the sights of Azores Airlines (a new brand flying under SATA). Their logo includes a whale fin and planes are adorned with a full-sized whale sticker. For good reason as Azores is the largest whale sanctuary in the world. Booking this flight deal on Expedia, I had never really heard of SATA before this trip. I’ll break down my experiences, flight costs, and let you know what I thought of this particular airline.
You might remember my mention of a way to help book authors combat piracy. It was an idea borne of a small simple conversation with a friend; and neither of us had read the book. In fact, at the time of writing that book, I had not read a physical paper book in years. This seemed like a great way to exchange ideas and help the author in our own small way (though, frankly as a bestseller, this book doesn’t need the help). Now that I’ve read it, I wanted to let you know what I think.
Apple’s AirPods have been noted for being original (in a field of products that sees only incremental changes), and uncharacteristically troubled. The product was announced in September for a pre-Christmas release, but delayed past Christmas for reasons untold. Just about anyone who sees these headphones will say “How much?”, and scowl at your response. Well, I finally have a pair and will put them to the test in today’s review of the AirPods.
This 2016 Macbook Pro refresh has been a long time coming. Since May of 2015, in fact. My last computer was a Retina Macbook Pro (2015) with reasonably similar specifications, which stood as the previous model, but due to this massive re-design, a far different computer. Over Christmas 2016, I took the plunge and decided to go with this high quality (but recently beleaguered) line of laptop in my on way (as an I.T. Professional).