Category: Life Beyond Tech

Posts that shouldn’t have much to do with tech.

Read: Faster – The Acceleration of Just About Everything

Faster
James Gleick; Random House Audio 1999

 

I have to recommend this book for the purpose of it’s current ability to cause reflection on the 15 years since it was written. The exact causes cited in the book are woefully outdated and don’t capture the revolutions that have happened since the year 2000.

What is relevant about the content is recognition about how correct the assumptions were as laid out in the book. Everything really is getting faster. My first favorite portion of this book is the enchanting description of Time in the very beginning. I have never felt such a deep understanding of Time before.

My second favorite portion of the book consists of the journey through what does 24 hours really look like and where does the time really go. Outdated as the book is, I found it very easy to examine the statistics the author uses to describe the hours of the day, and easily adjust for all the modern wonders and how much faster our lives are today.

I couldn’t imagine taking the time to read this book as the only thing I do, perhaps it was only appropriate that I listened to this while drinking my coffee on my way to work over the course of a few weeks.

Read: Kevin Mitnick – Ghost in the Wires

Ghost in the Wires
Kevin D. Mitnick; Little, Brown and Company 2011

 

I was aware of Kevin Mitnick’s status as the most wanted hacker since my first year in college. The book is an excellent narrative on how he became the world’s most wanted hacker.

I have no issues whatsoever with his incessant need to hack as a way to understand computers and systems. I also understand his belief that each new challenge was not for profit, but simply to see if he could do something.

The book is a great reminder to me, and for anyone that reads it that the weakest link in computer security is the human sitting in the chair. There is nothing as exploitable as each other. And this is really where the separation for White hat vs. Black Hat comes in, social engineering is a devious and nefarious activity. Unless specifically hired for a company to do pen-testing, any use of social engineering is in my mind highly unethical.

I lack the drive necessary to take advantage of the trust people place in me. I still believe that technology is meant to help humanity, and can’t bring myself to exploit for personal gain. And perhaps that is why I will never be the world’s most wanted hacker.

Wally Drains Robot – Dilbert Comic Strip on 2015-08-31 | Dilbert by Scott Adams

Robot: You killed ten thousand medical nanorobots by exposure to your bloodstream. That makes you the biggest mass murderer of robots in history. Gaaa!!! Why is my power supply draining so rapidly? Wally: Run.

I work with a guy that oozes about as much apathy as Wally does, yet he still manages to get his job done and be as obnoxious as Topper at the same time.

Source: Wally Drains Robot – Dilbert Comic Strip on 2015-08-31 | Dilbert by Scott Adams