Real-Life Trolleyology

It was a lovely spring day in 2000, around May, I think, that I decided to fire up the jeep and drive to work in it for a change. The jeep (I don’t have pictures, unfortunately) was a 1976 CJ-5 with a V-8 engine, a moderate lift, big tires, and steel I-beam front and rear bumpers. I bought it for $2500 off Norm L., who had owned it for a decade or so and wanted to get rid of it because he never drove it. It was a great thing to pull stumps with, or put the wheel locks in, and go 4x4ing around the yard in when the snow got deep. Since it had no top, it just filled with snow in the winter, but you could climb in, sit in the snow, and start right up.

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In the Magicians’ Den

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved the magic of movies. There was a long time when I wanted to go into SFX (specifically, to wrangle weaponry for movies, after seeing so many stupid ray guns and anachronisms, like sterling 9mm submachineguns firing blaster bolts or MG42 ‘smart gun’ pulse rifles – and don’t even get me started on mis-balanced swords!) I started buying Cinefex when it first came out and only stopped when the pile got too heavy to move.

Movies are magic. So, you can imagine me squeeing long and hard when I got a chance to wander around the back lot at a major Hollywood studio.

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Macron’s Emails, Bien Sûr

Apparently we’re going to have to have regular discussions about email security, until politicians get their heads out of the sand and realize that they are targets and regular victims of mid-skill-level attack, and they need to level up their game if they don’t want to periodically look stupid.

Email security is not hard. I’d say “it just takes a little attention to detail…” but it doesn’t even take that much. I can only conclude that politicians are just blockheads about information technology and politics and it just shows how eminently qualified they are to lead high-tech civilizations. [stderr]

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