Author: Kim du Toit

Not That Unusual Anymore

Technology

Following the recent Crowdstrike/Microsoft debacle, we apparently now have this little problem:

Students in Singapore are scrambling after a security breach wiped notes and all other data from school-issued iPads and Chromebooks running the mobile device management app Mobile Guardian.

According to news reports, the mass wiping came as a shock to multiple students in Singapore, where the Mobile Guardian app has been the country’s official mobile device management provider for public schools since 2020. Singapore’s Ministry of Education said Monday that roughly 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools had their devices wiped remotely in the incident. The agency said it will remove the Mobile Guardian from all iPads and Chromebooks it issues.

Allow me to repeat the warning:  the more centralized the dissemination method, the greater the vulnerability becomes, and the more people will be affected.

I’m not all for going that far back to when lecturers and teachers handed out paper copies of material, and students took actual notes by writing them out during class — but you have to admit that this Singapore incident would never have happened under those circumstances.

Sometimes, conveeeenience comes with a high price tag — something I’ve also often said before.

Speed Bump #5,406

Grammar Nazism

Once more into the breech, dear friends:

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, is known for making hyperbolic predictions about the US economy – and this time he has a grim prognosis for the most populous state in the nation.

‘The problem is California is going broke,’ he wrote on X. ‘California will begin raising taxes and cutting subsidies to the poor, to prisons, environmental problems, and teachers unions. That means crime will spread as police will be cut.’

He believes even Americans who don’t live in the Golden State should care about its prospects because it’s a bell weather for the rest of the country.

‘Since California is a Bell Weather state and is going broke, which states will follow?’ he asked. 

I think he means “bellwether” and not “bell weather”, which is meaningless.

The article was otherwise quite informative, hence why the above atrocity was such a speed bump — I stopped reading it to write this post as I usually do in these circumstances.

Poxy illiterates.

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Quiet Skies

Government Thugs, Surveillance Society

Apparently, Tulsi Gabbard is on the dreaded “SSSS” list:

This story began two weeks ago, when the former Hawaii congresswoman returned home after a short trip abroad. In airport after airport, she and her husband Abraham Williams encountered obstacles. First on a flight from Rome to Dallas, then a connecting flight to Austin, and later on different flights for both to cities like Nashville, Orlando, and Atlanta, their boarding passes were marked with the “SSSS” designation, which stands for “Secondary Security Screening Selection.” The “Quad-S” marker is often a sign the traveler has been put on a threat list, and Gabbard and Williams were forced into extensive “random” searches lasting as long as 45 minutes.

“It happened every time I boarded,” says Gabbard. The Iraq war veteran and current Army reservist tends to pack light, but no matter.

“I’ve got a couple of blazers in there, and they’re squeezing every inch of the entire collar, every inch of the sleeves, every inch of the edging of the blazers,” she says. “They’re squeezing or padding down underwear, bras, workout clothes, every inch of every piece of clothing.” Agents unzipped the lining inside the roller board of her suitcase, patting down every inch inside the liner. Gabbard was asked to take every piece of electronics out and turn each on, including her military phone and computer.

I suspect she’s on the SSSS list because of stuff like this:

Not having flown on any airline for many a year, I wouldn’t know if I was (still) on the SSSS list (story here and here) and it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing so anytime soon either.  But should I take to the Friendly  Quiet Skies again, it will be interesting to see if my inclusion has lapsed, so to speak.

I think I’ll pack the 1911 in my checked luggage, just for giggles.

And I wasn’t aware of this little thing.