Free technical education

I keep saying this, because it's true: if you're looking to get into a growth industry, the Internet Security field needs you.  Bad:

ESG [Research] is about to publish its 2014 IT spending intentions research as it does each year.  In reviewing this data, I found continuing bad news about the IT security skills shortage.  ESG research found that:

• Of those organizations planning on adding new IT staff positions in 2014, 42% say they will increase headcount in information security.  This is the highest percentage of all IT skill sets (note:  the #2 choice was IT architects at 35%).
• Twenty-five percent of all organizations surveyed claim that they have "problematic shortage" of information security skills at their organizations.  Once again, this was a higher percentage than any other individual IT category (note:  the #2 choice was IT architects again at 24%).

RTWT for the list of industries that cannot get and retain security talent.  This means that wages will be rising for the foreseeable time, as will job security.  In this economy, that's not a bad thing.

"But Borepatch", I hear you say, "that's easy for you to say having been in that industry since like 1066 A.D. or whatever.  But how do I break in?"  Easy - Cisco certifications.

Start with the entry level CCNA, which will open some doors just by itself.  This series of Youtube videos is very high caliber, and walks you through the entire curriculum.  You can also look at the slides here.  Spend a month or two of evenings and you'll have the material down - it's not landing a man on the moon, it's just basic blocking and tackling.  Then you take the Cisco certification test for a few hundred bucks.  Quite frankly, that might be enough to score an entry level IT networking job.

Next, take the CCIE, and then the CCIE Security specialization.  Again, high caliber online classes are available for a few hundred bucks.  Or free.  Followed by a few hundred for the test.  So for your time and a grand or two, you can make yourself into someone who can ride the desperate shortage of security talent into a lucrative career.

And a word to the wise: SecureWorks is looking for security guys for their Myrtle Beach Security Operations Center.  That's right - good pay, no State income tax, and living on the beach.

And nobody in the industry cares what college you went to, or if you went at all.

Modern Jazz Quartet - Winter Tale

Slick, Wolfgang. Real slick.

Srsly.



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If you found out today that you were dieing ...

Via Covertress (who you do read every day, right?) comes this mind blowing video.



Gratitude is a powerful thing, not just to the one who receives it but to the one who gives it.  The exercise was simple: pick a person who played a key part in your life.  Write about what they did for you that changed your life.

Then call them and read them what you wrote.

This is deep wisdom, distilled humanity.  I did this myself, writing Dad's eulogy.  I'm glad that I read it to him before he died.  That was a hard day, but it was a glorious day.  And I don't have the regret of not having read it to him before he went.  In that eulogy, I included this:

One of my two favorite sayings goes The longest journey a man will ever take is the eighteen inches from his head to his heart.  I can attest to the truth of that, and say that St. Christopher doesn't watch over that particular journey.  But my Dad did.

The other of my favorite sayings also relates to that journey.  If you found out you were going to die soon, and could only make one phone call, who would you call, and what would you say?

And why are you waiting?

That's what Covertress' post is about.  Why are you waiting?  Well?  Gratitude is a powerful thing, not just to those who receive it.  Get on out of here - you have someone to call, I expect.

The cuisine in Sochi seems a bit off

Err, or something:

What is going on in Sochi that every sign suggests you should shove food in your ass?! #SochiProblems
— Highly scatological (@RaisingOneBrow) February 6, 2014

It seems that this is some sort of Russian shorthand for "in association with other food on the menu", but has the unfortunate property of showing up on the menu sort of like this:

Martini, dirty, in ass.

Yeah, okay.  Not sure I'm hungry, actually.  And a protip to Russian waiters when Uncle Jay comes by for dinner: there's a reason we call him "The Big Guy", mkay?  Don't think you want to be finding out what that means, especially in this context ...

NBC 20/20: setups broadcast as news

NBC's 20/20 program broadcast a breathless report about how "you could be hacked at the Olympics".  Unsurprisingly, it was all a scam:

In this post, I try to replicate the NBC story where their new phone got hacked in a Russian cafe even before they were finished with coffee. Two new points to add to my previous blog post on the subject:

1. Richard Engel had to first disable the security settings that would block unknown hostile Android apps, something few users do.
2. The Google search engine downranks hostile sites, making them hard to find. It's extraordinarily unlikely Richard Engel would've found a virus on his own without being fed specific search terms or a URL.

So you can get "hacked" if you turn off all the security on your phone and then go actively Googling for malware that can hack you.  The only thing that would have made this a better story is if they had doused the phone in gasoline and put fireworks on it.

Getting computer security news from NBC is like getting gun safety news from the Joyce Foundation.  Reason brings down the Hammer of Love:

Graham then tried to replicate Engel's experiment. After going to great lengths, he writes, “I gave up and cheated -- cheating the same way I'm sure Richard Engel cheated. Instead of looking just for Sochi, I went looking for the viruses themselves.”

An NBC representative responded by charging, "The claims made [by Graham] are completely without merit.” According to CNET, instead of focusing on the actual hacking claims, the representative “noted that the report made it clear from the beginning that the taping was done in Moscow.” Judge for yourself how obvious that was in the broadcast.

This kind of sensationalist reporting not only calls into question NBC's credibility, it is outright counterproductive for technology freedom. As The Verge notes, deliberately muddling the distinction between the supposed threats posed by hackers and the real ones posed by massive government surveillance systems “is one of the things that allows that very system to be set up.”

Die screaming in a pickup truck fire, NBC.

Bond Girls, then and now

Tempus fugit.



I must confess to carrying a pretty serious torch for both Diana Rigg and Jane Seymour.

Global Warming: not as bad as predicted

Global Warming fears are driven by climate models, which are wrong and getting much wronger:

I’ve updated our comparison of 90 climate models versus observations for global average surface temperatures through 2013, and we still see that >95% of the models have over-forecast the warming trend since 1979, whether we use their own surface temperature dataset (HadCRUT4), or our satellite dataset of lower tropospheric temperatures (UAH):


Whether humans are the cause of 100% of the observed warming or not, the conclusion is that global warming isn’t as bad as was predicted. That should have major policy implications…assuming policy is still informed by facts more than emotions and political aspirations. [emphasis mine - Borepatch]

The green dotted line is the surface temperature record; the blue dotted line is the satellite record.  The other lines are the 90 climate model predictions.  You'll note that only two or three track near the observed data.  The others are so far off that the average is 0.3°C higher than observed.  That's the average of the model projections - off by 60% over the course of 30 years.

As Dr. Spencer wryly observes, 95% of the models agree that the measured data must be wrong.

This is important because all of the projected catastrophes - rising sea levels, desertification, extinctions, etc - rely on much higher temperatures.  Up to 5°C is projected in the worst case scenarios, but all of those are based on these models (you can see them in the graph, the lines that are highest in the plots).  Those worst case scenario model projections already are saying that warming would be 0.8°C since 1983 - basically the entire warming observed in the entire twentieth century.  It's just not happening.

The models are simply wrong.  All of them.

Now that's how you blog

Rockin' it.

Up the NSA

I am indeed sick of complaining, and so am adding my voice (such as it is) to the international community of #fuckoffnsa.  Or #getarealjobnsa.  Here's the gig*:

In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. Today we face another critical threat, one that again undermines the Internet and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.

In celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA two years ago, and in memory of one of its leaders, Aaron Swartz, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.

Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action. Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance. Together, if we persist, we will win this fight.

In a society run by criminals, the proper place for an honest man is in prison.  OK, then.  Join us.

Hope not.  Join us.  The truncheon has been used in lieu of conversation.  OK, then.  The battle is joined, the game afoot.



More than words.  Perspectives.  And it's not just me.  The Maryland Legislature is getting into the fray:

The National Security Agency’s headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., will go dark if a cohort of Maryland lawmakers has its way.

Eight Republicans in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates introduced legislation Thursday that would deny the electronic spy agency “material support, participation or assistance in any form” from the state, its political subdivisions or companies with state contracts.

The bill would deprive NSA facilities water and electricity carried over public utilities, ban the use of NSA-derived evidence in state courts and prevent state universities from partnering with the NSA on research.

* Note to the organizers of this event: your javascript sucks canal water.  Feed me a working banner and I'll put it up.

More winter weather in Atlanta?

Looks so.  But ChickenMom gives us some lovely baroque music for the event.



From the Youtube comments:

Nobody was hurt in the making of this video apart from the people who were hurt.

Remember, Atlanta folks: if it's snowing and your car isn't baroque, don't take it onto the road.  kthanksbai.

Mail bag

Jeff emails regarding last week's Red Pill Republic post:

This is what comes of clicking on links...
read your post today, and went back to read your post from 2011, which I never read because back in 2011 I didn't know you existed...but you linked in that one to a blog called "Deconstructing Leftism' and (speaking of rabbit holes) went looking at it.  I'm a bit confused by your references, but if that blog is connected to Moldbug, I have to suggest not linking to him in the future.  The reason is this post from last month
http://deconstructingleftism.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/the-catechism-of-the-jew-in-the-former-soviet-union/
which seems to be a one page summary/modernization of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and at the very least shows that anti-Semitism may now be endemic on the Left, but it's not died out on the Right.  Being Jewish, perhaps I'm a bit over sensitive on the point,  but I think the comments on that point bear me out in thinking that the blogger in question is, if not a member of Stormfront, at least a big sympathizer--and I have the general impression that you have no tolerance for Stormfront types.

And btw a general expression of thanks for your general excellence in blogging.  I went to college in Atlanta (Emory, now home, to my everlasting shame, to Jimmy Carter, although that's balanced out a bit by the Dalai Lama), so sometimes it's like reading news from back home.  As a point of data,  the globe has warmed enough in the thirty years since I was there that snowfall has increased considerably since I was there.  In the four years of my residency,  we had four days in which snow fell in enough quantity to remain on the ground,  all of them in the first three years.  Senior year, to my great disgust, there was no snow. And I looked forward to it, since I'm from Florida (still live in Florida, too.)

Thanks for the kind words, and for pointing out that climate is indeed cyclical.  The 1970s were distinctly colder and snowier all over the globe - I remember that was the decade where State U shut down due to snow one day.  In 20 years, it was the only snow day at the college.

And your point about reading with a bit of skepticism is timely.  The Dark Enlightenment attracts its share of kooks and conspiricists.  I haven't spent much time at Deconstructing Leftism, but its worth remembering your critical thinking when spelunking in that corner of the 'net.

In praise of Intellectual Humility

Reader Russel emails:

The other purpose of this email is to point you to a paper I read yesterday, *In Praise of Passivity*, by Michael Huemer out of U of Colorado. Reading it was like reading a *very* long Borepatch post, so I'd like to pass it along. It's in .pdf format, but instead of attaching it (which would be, at the very least, kind of sketchy) I'll link to the place I found it, the blog of economist Greg Mankiw:

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2014/02/humility-based-libertarianism.html

It was published in the current edition of the journal Studia Humana, but it's behind a paywall at their website. I would actually be surprised if you have not stumbled on this one yourself, or if someone has recommended it before me, but the paper is good. If you haven't read it yet, you're missing out on some awesome libertarian goodness, complete with cited sources.

The article's abstract is pretty devastating to the Big Government crowd:

Political actors, including voters, activists, and leaders, are often ignorant of basic facts relevant to policy  choices. Even experts have little understanding of the working of society and little ability to predict future  outcomes. Only the most simple and uncontroversial political claims can be counted on. This is partly because  political knowledge is very difficult to attain, and partly because individuals are not sufficiently motivated to  attain it. As a result, the best advice for political actors is very often to simply stop trying to solve social  problems, since interventions not based on precise understanding are likely to do more harm than good.

In other words: don't just do something, stand there.

There's far too much certainty claimed these days, not just in the social sciences but in the hard sciences as well.  Longtime readers will recall my beef with climate science overstating confidence.  I'm not the only one in this camp, and Judith Curry's "Uncertainty Monster" remains an area that most climate scientists refuse to address head on.

The result, of course, is a lower respect for science as it is done today.  An honest intellectual humility would go a long way towards restoring this respect.  Alas, it likely would also get in the way of grant funding.

Damn Minnesota terrorists

Making trouble in Russia:

SOCHI, RUSSIAN FEDERATION – Just hours before the opening ceremony for the Sochi Winter Olympics, Russia has put out an alert for two potential terror suspects, referred to by security officials as “moose” and “squirrel.”

An outpouring of fear swept the tiny coastal town on the Black Sea as details emerged of the possible terrorist attack by the unlikely combination of two Americans, identified as Mr. Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel. The two suspects are reportedly from Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, which Russian officials believe may indicate a connection to Canadian separatists.

Damn Canadians.  Jeez.

“We thinking this is classic lone-wolf, err– lone-moose type suicide bomber, world’s greatest no-goodnik,” said Boris Badenov, a Russian expert on security and espionage who announced heightened security measures to catch the pair. He was joined by Colonel Natasha Fatale of the FSB.

“Security is going so well darling,” Ms. Fatale told reporters, before adding, “until we get word of confounded moose and squirrel!”

Yeah, I'll bet.  Security always goes well until you see Moose and Squirrel.

(Via)

A non-Politically Correct rant

The commercials for the Winter Olympics universally show a young woman. Nothing wrong with women competing on the fields of excellence. You go, Girl

But where are the guys? Especially when you think that women are Gagging for manly men, where are they?

I mean, these are the Olympics, sort of the definition of manliness. So where are the men?

Maybe the Olympics have been so feminized that men will never appear. Or not; I don't know.

But there's something we can't talk about.

Fresh eggs FTW

Some friends gave us some fresh eggs, which I had never had before. Wow, they're good.




The fresh egg has a yellow yolk; a
store bought one has an orange yolk. Sadly, we ran out of the good ones.

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Before there was Monty Python

Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Marty Feldman put together a TV group called At Last the 1948 Show.  It aired on the UK's ITV in 1967 and 1968, after which Chapman and Cleese formed Monty Python.

Pythoners will recognize much of the same silliness.

Aram Khachaturian - Sabre Dance

Image via el Wik

This was written by a Soviet Commie, and you've heard it.  You can probably hum along to it, because it's pure, distilled 100 proof awesome.  It's so awesome that if you want to get ten year old school boys hooked on ballet, this is your ticket.  Because it has sabres, dig?

The Sochi Olympics opened with this as one of the songs in the opening ceremonies.  They were showing off Russian composers, and Khachaturian is one of the Big Three (along with Prokofiev and Shostakovitch).

Khachaturian was from Tsarist (and later, Soviet) Armenia, born just after the turn of the 20th Century.  An early adopter of communism, he was active in the revolutionary propaganda effort for the Armenian S.S.R. from around 1920.  This gave him a ticket to Moscow where his entirely untrained but prodigious musical talent was soon apparent.  By 1930 he was at the Moscow Conservatory, and wrote his first symphony soon after.

Say what you will about the Soviet Union, they produced some fine music in the early days.  But those days were not to last.  1948 saw the Zhdanov  decree which condemned Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, and Khachaturian as "formalist" and "anti-popular".  By this time all three had world wide reputations as the titans of Soviet music yet, in the twilight of Stalin's madness all were forced to publicly apologize.

Say what you will about the Soviet Union, they sure knew how to take a step or two backwards after a step forwards.

Khachaturian was a true believer in communism, and this hit him hard.  While not only was there a Gulag in his future, he continued being awarded Stalin Prizes.  But the heart went out of him, and really his best work is past by 1950.  The injustice of the situation was insurmountable for him.  This year's Olympic opening ceremonies sort of skated past this bit.

But the music is superb, and you easily may know this by heart.  But this is the Sabre Dance (from the ballet Gayane*), and so edged weapons are de rigeur.  I recommend that you watch this in full screen mode to see the spinning death.



Like I said, you want to attract young boys to the ballet, show them this.

Note that I'm an Amazon Affiliate.  If you like this music and are interested in buying it, please consider hitting this link.  There's no extra cost to you.  This album has a bunch of his best known works on it, including not just this but Spartacus as well.  I quite like the MP3 Amazon option.

* Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Just don't talk to Russian children about it.

And now, a message from our sponsors ...

You will notice that I've become an Amazon Affiliate, and put a quick link to Amazon in the upper right hand corner.  This is an experiment to see if the blog has enough traffic to generate some coin for the ammo and motorcycle fund.  The nice thing about the affiliate program is that it costs you nothing if you buy from Amazon via this link, but you'll be helping put ammo in the armory and gas into the motorcycle.

Not sure if this works for anyone, but I (and the motorcycle) would be right appreciative if you'd use this for your (ahem) Valentine's Day needs.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Things seen

Near Roswell Mill. Some sort of Japanese pop culture thingie. I asked if I could take their picture, and they struck a pose.




Parked on Canton St. Nice V-Twin.




At the aquarium. You pay enough, they'll take a group of you to sleep with the fishes. Err, or something.