RIP (rest in pieces) Hotmail

Email is such a hassle. I have four different accounts, and I only regularly check one. There's one for websites that require an email for sign-up (the kind that you know are going to send you spam), there's one for when I was in elementary/high school, there's one for when I decided to grow up, and there's one for all my Google uses. Luckily, in this modern world we live in, there's now a service that handles it for me, and I only have to go to a single place again. I don't know what's up with people and how they love to hate Microsoft, but I feel they're doing a pretty good job of staying on top of things. I tip my hat to those guys, well done.

Cuckoo's Egg

I'm glad we've learned from our mistakes, well, relatively speaking. Hacking wasn't that big of a deal back when this book was written. The cause of this was mainly because the internet wasn't around for very long up to that point. It was still very new, and all the wonderful uses of it had yet to be determined. It's a little sad that it took 16 years before the US government enacted the FISMA of 2002, but still, progress is progress, no matter how slowly that progress is made. Now that FISMA is in place, all government agencies are required to have some sort of information security, aka cyber security. The problem still remains though that security is just that, security, and there seems to be few entities, if any (I couldn't find any online), that track down existing hackers. The hacking group known as Anonymous is possibly the largest group that I know of, and they've been around since 2003, one year after FISMA was set in place. They've shown no sign of slowing down, and I don't believe they will as long as there's no one willing to stop them, or at least someone willing to make an attempt to stop them.

The other thing that really saddens me is the fact that the method used for hacking by Hess is still largely used today. People don't put adequate passwords on their systems, and they can be easily guessed by hackers (which in that case I don't even consider them hackers, just regular people who can guess passwords). Government entities have since greatly increased their security, however most other companies have not enforced adequate passwords. Information can still be stolen through these other companies. Many government agencies allow their employees to access their non-government issued emails, and even facebook while their employees are at work, and this allows access into the government machines. Something needs to be done, but the problem is, people aren't willing to change, and that is usually a problem.

Games and Gender

Computer gaming is a man's sport. Granted there are those few exceptions of girls playing, my sisters for some, and my mother for another, but all the professional gamers that I follow and watch regularly are all male. I don't mean to negatively stereotype, but women usually don't enjoy killing things, beating things to a pulp, or watching violent constant action. It's totally a good thing too, because if a child doesn't get that kind nurturing gentleness that women bring to families, violence and video games might actually become linked (they aren't currently). Since the video game industry is targeted for the male population, computers in general when used as a play thing, is a boy's toy.

Information Leak

People are stupid. Why would you share anything extremely personal with anyone other than a spouse? I wouldn't even trust my own siblings with my information. On top of that, assuming people are stupid, and they do stupid things, why would they not change their passwords after a breakup with that once significant other or some other kind of information leak? I'm a firm believer in survival of the fittest, and if people are humiliated online, they are that much less likely to be leading a company. Lots of smart people should be leading the companies of America and supporting the US economy. It works out better for everyone in the end.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/04/tech/mobile/breakup-data-precautions/index.html?hpt=te_t1