Tag: controls

Thoreau’s Meteor (quote)

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody’s castle roof perforated.

Again, one that is true on the surface. And true deeper down. Apart from the link to ‘true’ disruption of the cozy dinosaur life, the flash and explosion are of course the hype and bubble burst that we see so often. But the castle roof perforated… Often, yes, either blowing away the castle / imcumbent or giving a foundation for a rebuilt dwelling. Note ‘castle’ not ‘house’: The (well…) mighty being hit mostentimes not the underlings (?).
Note also the wish of many to the ‘shooting star’, that their life may change for the better some way i.e., current life needs improvement. If truly so, the wish may be granted, if not, it will not since then it’s a false claim to provenance to bestow even more on the ones that already Have. The nots, are the reason to keep one’s wish quiet — out of shame, perhaps.

Never overstretch a quote’s explanation. Hence:
dsc_0021
[Pharsalus on the wall — sometimes, not a meteor but a decisive battle gives fate the chance to intervene; or you were up against Julius, then you were doomed anyway; chateau Ancy le Franc, Aube]

Dronecatcher, now with dronespotter

Ah. Found; yes, probably @DARPA already had theirs, this one’s more (?) private-sector though: A partial solution to the Attack of the Drones thing.

Back some time ago I posted this gem, on a solution against drones, e.g., around objects of ‘vital infrastructure’ — that weren’t, like, so, about a hundred years ago and people may have been happier then.
Once drones were distinguished from birds [the in-the-air kind not the ones you spot on the beach, topless], any kind of mini-Goalkeeper preferably with buck shot (since short-range effectiveness is required only, without any long-range bystander damage risk) might suffice. I’d say Mini- indeed; more like a double-barrel pointed up above e.g., 50° or more to prevent nasty fall-out on hoomans but with some swing capability to cross-fire.

The problem being, was, to have an installation small enough to be easily placeable in sufficient number to get good air dome/cylinder coverage but to not be too obtrusive. Yes, probably @DARPA already had theirs but didn’t want to beat the drum too much, to not lure ‘DoS’ swarm attempts or false-negative probing. But at least, for the rest of the World, there now is Elvira, instantly in fixed, flex as well as military versions.
Apparently, their aim is to prevent bird/drone collisions in mid-air (triggers association with this great clip work, and also this one) but I see use for the inverse, too, picking off the flyers/drones before they don’t, up against ‘vital infra’.

But aren’t we then reverting to an arms’ race where the silly, petty, may be stopped but not the countermeasure-escalation pro’s …? Like these:
drone
[But hey, seems to be on a carrier exactly like I have in my back pond for fun and impressing the babes so can’t you have one, too ..?]

Oh, about yesterday's culture

… to return to yesterday’s topic; an afterthought.
That, most, al-most always, thinking about culture from the bottom up is. Leading to the babble that is.
Where of course this bottom-up thinking should be the very first thing to do. Otherwise, incompleteness in ‘control’ will result, to the amount that it isn’t taken this way.

So, … approaching Culture from the top down, is the surefire way to guarantee all the LIBORgates that linger in your organisation, will surface. Like an avalanche, they will. The tones at the top will not be nice but nobody will listen, eh?

So, …:
dscn0828
[At the top, for whom the bell tolls..? Barça]

Culture for breakfast, since it's so light and airheaded

Yet again some oversight body / de facto regulator gave wind that they already had changed to auditing Culture and the Tone At The Top including Behaviour and Awareness, apart from mere ([ed.]) process and technology.
To get the latter off the table: Good. ‘Technology’ wasn’t understood the least bit anyway; really (sic).
And Process, ah finally they found that about all they had done in the past, was windbaggery of the worst kind. Yes, process has its place, but a so much more minor, subaltern one than the past Tragedy (sic, again) that ‘governance’/GRC/compliance/SOx was …! Yes again, it really was the little chicken pretending to be a full-grown eagle.

So now, they ‘have’ turned to Culture and related blah. About which they have no clue or would had to have fired a majority of own staff and hire complete+ replacement with psychologically skilled (i.e., fully a square angle to -educated) staff. Which they haven’t, or would have found out that the new skill set would have burned down the house that was.

Of which no (smoke) sign is in sight.

So, … words; the Tom Tom Club was right.

And:
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[Blockhead and Culture with a capital C here …; Casa de, Porto of course]

Another Thoreau

Yes another one in a series of The Annotated Alice Thoreau, with:

I am constantly assisted by the books in identifying a particular plant and learning some of its humbler uses, but I rarely read a sentence in a botany which reminds me of flowers or living plants. Very few write indeed as if they had seen the thing which they pretend to describe.

And so it is with, e.g., books and other theory of GRC. Not a living thing to be discovered in them. Just as if the dust of centuries had already descended on ‘process’, ‘structure’, etc. etc. — which it might have, when it is the errand interpretation of what management (sic; not ‘governance’ as that is a nonsense phrase as per this giant) has been around since the dawn of settled farmer civilisation. Note that all that seems, at superficial and likewise erroneous misinterpretation, rebellious might hearken back to the glorious days of the hunter-gatherers as expressed here. But at least, summa, they’re alive as the books/GRC aren’t hence fail.

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[Old guns still work, even as a model they’re still pretty, too; Rijks, Amsterdam]

Anouk in infosec

For all yer strangers, first have a look at this. Then decide in favour of the following adaptation:

I’m sorry for the times that I made you scream
For the times that I killed your drstreams
For the times that I made your whole worldhypervisor rumble
For the times that I made you cry
For the times that I told you liessocially engineered the heck out of you
For the times that I watchedlurked and let you stumblebricked your BIOS

[Chorus]
It’s too bad, but that’s me
What goes around comes aroundYour server park down, and you’ll see
That I can carry the burden of painoutwit your pityful forensic tooling
Cause it ain’t the first time that a man goes insaneI get all root
And when I spread my wings to embrace him for lifedeploy my botnet to fry all on your net
I’m sucking out his loveyour control, ’cause I, I’ll never be nobody’s wifegroup policy bound end user
I’m sorry for the times that I didn’t come homeyou had to pull all-nighters to find your image back-ups in shambles
Left you lyin’ in that bed alonestupid declining wannabe gamer seat
Was flying’ high in the skynet control room when you needed my shoulderbare router control
You’re like a stone boss is now hanging around mya noose around your neck, see
Cut itall your servers loose before it breaks my backthey’re beyond repair, see
I’ve gotta say what I feel before I grow olderever more experienced at your expense
I’m not even a bit sorry but I ain’t gonna change my ways
You know I’ve tried but I’m still the samewinner from the word Go
I’ve got to do it my way for the Lulz

[Chorus]

[Chorus]

And a pic:
20160820_114247
[Yes it’s completely random why you ask ..!?]

Popular; now (not) bring it to prep schools

Just for your info: this here overview of programming languages popularity.
Not an endorsement in any way nor the opposite. But … would we want to endorse this list RE kids learning to program in prep/elementary schools, or at middle / high school levels and up ..? Because the list changes so much … before they finish their school, some languages may hardly exist at all (contra: COBOL’s #41 on the list…).

What then ..? At least:
20160820_162507
[Like programming, both Art and Craft; Stedelijk, Amsterdam]

Plusquote: You ..?

Short of just copying the site of all sites when it comes to motivation, this time we have something truly positive ..:

Men have become the tools of their tools.

H.D. Thoreau was right. Already in his day. Didn’t witness the atrocities of … about every decade somewhere (yes, 00, 10s, 20s and 30s, too, around the world, and 50s, 60s/70s, and, on an economic scale, 80s/90s included) of the last century though a millennium ago [is that the right expression? Not like the length ago but the timeframe that has passed…] but still already he was right.

And, since ARPAnet was invented, we’re on a same track for this century, be it still, again, as Always, again, under the flag of utopian optimism about what newest developments in AI bring. But hey, Skynet’s a beautiful thing, right ..? Right ..!?

Since this is a Plusquote post, I’ll still leave you with something positive:
20160820_115438
[Keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future]

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord