Min polare och medkonspiratör i IT-säkerhetspodden, Mattias Jadesköld, har nu blivit författare. I dagarna har hans första bok, Cyberdeckarna och Gisslanprogrammet släppts i bokhandeln (I alla fall på Internet). Så man kan antingen köpa den som en fysisk bok eller som ebok.
Platsen är Stockholm i ett framtida Sverige som är både nära och på ett visst sätt avlägset. Hackare är överallt, men nätet är inte längre garanterat. Ständiga strömavbrott gör att man måste leva både online och enligt gamla principer från 1800-talet. Informationen är knapphändig. I denna eklektiska blandning av fjärrstyrda djur som är AI-hybrider och gamla tanter som tvättar kläder vid stranden, finns det mycket att undersöka.
Syskonen London och Linus får i denna bok uppdraget att rädda en båt som drabbats av ett datorprogram som håller hela verksamheten gisslan. London åker dit för att undersöka, medan Linus sköter bakgrundsarbetet. I bakgrunden hjälper hackergurun, en avdankad lärare som skrivit “NeoICE”, en legendarisk programvara som kan låta dig hacka det mesta.
London är en mästermanipulatör med en silvertunga, som kan prata med alla och säga rätt saker för att få fram information, manipulera andra eller skaffa kontakter. Linus är en smart kille som kan nörda ner sig i det mesta, men saknar en hel del av den sociala förmåga hans syster är så bra på. Tillsammans skapar de exakt den duo som behövs för att gå till botten med det mystiska som pågår i staden.
Boken riktar sig mot tonåringar och barn och är en modern version av 50-talets deckare där barn löser gåtor. Det är knappast Poirot, Sherlock Holmes eller Miss Marple – men det är inte tanken heller. Hela konceptet är riktigt kul och känns modernt på ett sätt som jag antar appellerar på de som är unga idag.
Jag har hjälpt till lite med framtagningen av karaktärerna och en del av det tekniska.
Ok, speling errors are fun. And Microsoft delivers the goods… The master Browser is such an old technology that it simply seems to be abandoned by the people in Redmond.
TLDR; Don’t log in to Pastbook or use it in anyway! They steal pretty much all of your data and will sell it to god knows who. If you do: get ready to be bombarded with mail telling you to buy the photoalbum from them… Or else… Really nasty site.
As I was idly surfing on Facebook, a post told me that my 10 year photobook was ready. I should have known better (with a site like you) and NOT clicked on it. I thought it was one of those Facebook memory slide shows where you’re shown pictures with a random friend on Facebook.
When I clicked on it, an authorization dialog came up and told me to login with my Facebook account. This is a clear warning that it wasn’t Facebook I was going to. Being tired and unfocused I stupidly logged in by clicking the link. Terror struck me when I realized what I had done five seconds later. My photos were already spreading accross their site. I unauthorized them, but it was too late.
Their name (too live forever in infamy): www.pastbook.com.
That’s it… I’m boned… Yeah, I need help, to get rid of charlatans like you!
So as to what they want from your Facebook account? Pretty much everything.. No surprises there… And Mark O’ZuckerIsBorn doesn’t care.
It’s easier to list what they DON’T take from you. Click this picture if you’re not already dead inside…
SCREW FACEBOOK! PIECE OF GARBAGE SITE! MENTAL BLOODY DOPAMIN-RELEASE DRUG!!!
… And just when you thought it was safe to pop out of your bunker…
… Jay, another psychopath entrepeneur ready to sell your stuff…
Me more than 40 years ago. A kid with way to big head phones for his head…. And why not? As bad as the head phones fit me, the dream of radio- and audioengineering did much better.
Today is my 46th birthday and I want to clear some rumours about me and that particular date. I’ve heard those lines so many times, this has to be sorted out now!
Question: “Oh, so you did get less gifts than other kids, then?”
Answer: No cookie for that observation. But remember just a cats believe they’re close to starvation because you haven’t fed them for 15 minutes, kids never think they get enough gifts at any time.
Me, on the other hand is totally over that, I can buy stuff every other day than the 24th of December since I get a steady paycheck and stores are open those days. I’m going to prove my point by pouring myself a Gin and Tonic, that I bought the Gin for a few days ago.
Question: “Your mother got quite the gift for christmas that year?”
Answer: Without bragging, I believe I was quite a thing for her. Parents do like their kids, so that’s a pretty easy guess. But that christmas actually more like gave her the gift of giving birth. It rates pretty high on the dolorimeter, so probably not the most happy moment until done. I love my mother and she loves me. But neither of us have to go through that “birth”-stuff again, which is all fine if you ask me.
Question: “Nobody remembers to congratulate you, then?”
Answer: True. I hated that as a kid. Then that Facebook thing came along and now people feel compelled to congratulate me, as the option to by mistake forget about it and then hope I don’t complain pretty much is gone. So… Not a big problem..
Question: “Another kid was born that day, right? (big smile)”
Answer: You’re Swedish, right? I also did this incorrect assumption, so I’m not holding it against you. But… You know… Just because us Swedes celebrate christmas eve instead of christmas day, doesn’t mean Mary had to reschedule Jesus birth. The son of god (citations needed) in fact was born on christmas day. What year? I dunno, what calendar? Julian or Gregorian? Should we take in account all the times we lost count of the dates in our history and just guess? Many questions, but the answers are alas out of my remit.
Hope this clears all this out and … a merry christmas to you and yours!
In 2010, the prolific and unorthodox mind of Winston Rowntree created the comic that the picture above was taken from. It’s called “The museum of the theoretical“. The story of this strip is about a woman who finds the “Museum of the Theoretical” an outfit that deals in things that COULD have been. As for most of Rowntree’s creations, it is really a treat for the imagination.
The poster behind the woman who owns the exhibition shows the last Beatles album that COULD have been and it is titled “Imagine a photograph from a passing jet”. It is a brilliant joke.
We know that the members of the Beatles actually made songs in the last years of the band, that ended up on their solo albums like “All things must pass” from George Harrison and “Jealous Guy”/”Child of nature” from John Lennon. It also references the songs “Jet” from Paul McCartney, “Imagine” from John Lennon and “Photograph” from Ringo Starr.
But mr Rowntree (That’s not his real name by the way) continues to deliver as Beatles is a recurring theme within his comics.
Why is the future always in pastel? … And the past in greyish brown?
Tomorrow never knows follows the fictitious (I hope!) story of John Lennon being bothered by time travelers. He seems to be used to this kind of crap and simply ignores them.
Ah, Mr Gnik Nus, nice to metcha…
A->B Road (See what he made there?) is built around your life as the medley from the back side of legendary Beatles album Abbey Road. It points out that days and the need for sleep removes the impending feeling of doom that would be with us all the time if life was just an endless stretch of time leading up to the inevitable eternity of non-existence.
How many songs are hidden in this picture?Yes! It does!
Musical Wheres uses cities as metaphores for well known bands. The image “alt”-texts are to die for in this picture:
Sure… Weren’t they related to “Plastic Ono band” somehow ?
You probably know just how much I love the original Twilight Zone TV-series, and mr Rowntree’s webcomic “Subnormality” seems to appeal to that mind set. You know philosophical drama with darkness and hope mixed.
I’m no big fan of Halloween or the Swedish “All-helgona”. Visiting the graves of my relatives is a very fine tradition, but the whole “trick-or-treat”-thing is not only ignored by me, but I will simply not open the door.
The light shines a little less bright today as mr Randi is now a near and dear memory. But what a good one.
Today, the news that James Randi, magician and skeptic-extraordinaire has passed away at the age of 92 reached me.
I have had the good fortune to sit in the audience in one of his shows. And an amazing show it was, but one where your fascination was not the most important thing. It was the lessons he taught about our inabilities to correctly observe the world even if we consider ourselves smart and attentive. He started many of his shows/lectures but talking into a handheld microphone which he later demonstrated was an electric beard trimmer. He then removed his glasses and put his fingers through them, making us understand they never had any lenses in them to begin with. This simple trick shows us how much of our world that is just beliefs rather than facts. If we cannot even see the most obvious things clearly, how can we truly understand this world? Randi meant that is what makes a magician’s magic possible. It is not “magic” per see, it is just a trick that a good magician will never explain.
But Randi’s career as a magician never actually was the most important part of his life as I see it. it was his skills as a skeptic and a driving force in teaching people to doubt and refuse any charlatan’s lies and deceit. He accepted any magic trick and magician if they did not try to fool people magic was for real and to try to sell products based on false promises. He promised one million dollars to anyone who could demonstrate that “junk science” like homeopathy, chakras, auras and esp works. If you for an example wanted to prove that dowsing could find water, all you had to do is demonstrate that ability in front of a couple judges. All it took was a success rate above random chance and the money would be yours. The prize was retired many years later… unclaimed… No big surprise there.
As a self-appointed skeptic and science-buff, mr Randi has meant a lot to me. And as I am sad to see him go, I am happy for the time he spread enlightment to the world.
An older article I wrote in 2010 – “The always amazing mr Randi”
He’s looking sternly at you charlatans!
I live in Sweden, so I will have to travel far to meet people like James Randi. That is unless they decide to go on a tour and visit Sweden, which fortunately mr Randi did. So on the 15th of June 2010 I went to see his appearance at the Oskar Klein Auditorium which is located on the premises of the Royal Institute of Technology here in Stockholm.
The event was organized by the Swedish skeptics organisation “Vetenskap och Folkbildning”. As one of their members I must say I’m impressed that they got the legendary illusionist and paranormal debunker to come to Stockholm. I wasn’t as impressed on how they handled the logistics. Many of us barely got a ticket and they had to cram the auditorium to allow everyone entrance. But it’s a minor complaint.
What makes a magician “magic” ? I won’t go into detail, because it would be spoiling all the fun. But he used the first five minutes of the show to demonstrate that things are not what they appear to be using among other things a beard-trimmer. The lesson is simple: we all assume things about what we see. A good illusionist knows exactly what his or her audience believe that they see and use this against them.
Randi is not here just to entertain. He started the “James Randi Educational Foundation” which goal “(…) is to promote critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society today”. They’re most famous for their $1 million challenge. The first person who can prove their psychic or paranormal abilities, gets the money. So far none has ever succeeded. It’s not from the lack of trying if you believe mr Randi.
He went on to demonstrate why there can be a serious problems with things like new age medicine or psychic healing and their unverifiable claims. A number of years ago he managed to uncover a scam where a TV-evangelist used a wireless earpiece and some social trickery to fool people that he could heal them through god. Off course he charged them for it and most likely caused people not to seek proper medical attention. This could prove to be fatal.
The most valuable lessons from the whole event was when Randi reminded us that “people that get fooled are not stupid, just uninformed” and when he explained why you cannot prove a negative. “I can prove you that I’m not a giraffe but I cannot prove that there are no unicorns in Africa”.
His explanations were blended with video clips from his career and sprinkled with many interesting anecdotes. Everything was delivered with a subtle, bit dry and very charming humor that made me laugh and think at the same time. He also made a lot of fun of people carrying the title Doctor of Philosophy. I may read too much into it, but I can’t help suspecting that he feels a that he is in a weak position since he himself lacks an academic title. Projection, anyone?
Still he was both funny and dead serious at the same time and kept my undivided attention for the whole two hours the show lasted. I walked home feeling that I’ve encountered a true showman with the heart in the right place and the brains to match.
James Randi gets a full score from me (5/5). If he comes to your town or your country, I highly recommend that you get a ticket!
There is a weird man in a costume in the neighborhood jammering on about some weird “zone”, talking to himself none the less. Somebody, call the police!
“What you are about to watch is a nightmare. It is not meant to be prophetic, it need not happen, it’s the fervent and urgent prayer of all men of good will that it never shall happen. But in this place, in this moment, it does happen. This is the Twilight Zone.”
— intro to the Twilight zone episode “The shelter”.
The opening scene shows a party in a quiet suburbia, where the neighbors celebrate the good doctor’s birthday. Everyone is happy and comments on his newly built fallout shelter with a bit of scorn. The situation is fine until the son of the house asks him to switch the radio to the Conelrad station. In the early 60s, this is probably the last thing you wanted to hear. Had things gone wrong in the Cuban missile crisis, Conelrad may have been the last radio station in the US. The idea was that in the (un?) likely event of a Soviet nuclear strike, all TV- and radio stations would stop transmitting with only Conelrad remaining on the air on two frequencies to guide the population. Back then, many nuclear war heads would have been delivered by bomb plane, and navigation was much easier with local radio stations in the cities acting as unwitting beacons. The bombers could use radio location to find the cities, so that is why the US government made the stations switch off as soon as the early warning systems went off. Back to the episode.
The radio states that something bad is flying in the air and the nation is in “yellow alert”. People are asked to find shelter as soon as possible. So far so good. The doctor has his fallout shelter ready for him, his wife, and his son. They soon proceed there.
This is the beginning of the episode “the shelter” from Rod Serling’s legendary TV-series “The Twilight zone”. It was on the air between 1959-1964 and dealt with many serious societal issues by presenting them as science fiction, but I’ve talked about that previously on this blog. The neighbors get more and more desperate and some of them try to force themselves into the doctor’s shelter. This poses a big problem for the doctor as the supplies are few and room is limited. They were made to accommodate his family only and the situation turns truly hostile as everyone starts yelling and screaming and then it finally becomes physical. When a battering ram comes into play, the whole situation finally goes into full chaos. In the end, the crisis is averted, and the United States goes back to normal leaving a very uneasy situation as the doctor now knows what his neighbors are capable to. And they now know it too.
“No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized. Tonight’s very small exercise in logic from the Twilight Zone.”
— the closing words from the episode.
Me in Belgian TV. Not really OPSEC, and everyone in that country knows it too now…
A few years ago, the message from the Swedish government was that every household need to have supplies and capabilities to be habitable for three days without any support from them. Today it is actually one week. How many have prepared for this?
A very common comment you get is when you talk about this simple but necessary preparation is “Good, then we can come to your house”.
NO! You cannot. If you doubt this, please see the whole episode on YouTube… Now. I’ll wait!
The episode on YouTube
Good, do you see the problem with not being prepared now? I don’t think its everyone for themselves. The wise prepper involves everyone in the neighborhood if they can. This makes for a good network that will aid each other in a crisis and bond in good times.
This is the party one really CAN wait to get started…
I thought about writing a letter to myself a time now. I got the idea from “God morgon världen” a radio show on Swedish Radio program 1 that runs on Sunday mornings. They had one of their journalists talk to her younger self about the Corona in letter form.
My version is a letter sent back in time to January 2020, before this situation got out of hand. Back then, the worst fear was that that China situation would go bad. So here goes, a letter sent from October 2020 to January 2020. For the sake of this argument: time travel mail exists and my younger self will believe it’s not a prank letter.
Disclaimer: please understand I’m not trying to choose sides here, just showing a little dark humour. You must be able to laugh at everything in order to cope with this madness. Also I’m mostly making fun of the discussion that goes on in media and over the Internet. Please don’t sue! Or be mad! It’s the Corona that’s nasty, not me!
Dear Erik
Worried about IT-security issues, the pending American election or that recession we’ve been talking about since 2017 that never materialized? I have good news: you don’t have to worry anymore. I promise you 20/20 will be remembered best in hind-sight and fondly enjoyed in the far, far future. Here’s some predictions that are 100% accurate due to them already having happened:
Corona – more than just a mediocre beer
What little Coronas made of? Death and nothing nice…
Meet Corona, a friendly and very communicatible (is that a word, or did I make it up?) thing that really gets around. Never lets you down and has no biases against anyone. Clearly a being of this centuary.
You might want to stay clear of this virus, cause, it’s not really something that improves your life.
Enjoy your bunker So you’re an introvert? Nice! Gotcha covered. In february, the evil child of the Spanish flu will be making its world tour. You don’t get a T-shirt with the dates and the locations, but a reason to stay at home all day long without missing a second of the thrills of pointless meetings, impossible dead lines, irrate customers, broken servers, hacked networks and the results of inefficient planning.
The work day can start, go on an end at any time of the day. Get ready to have little concept the passage of time while looking into screen with messages blinking red and the loudspeaker blaring out bleeps for every ad, important message, expired time warning, social media-message, Teams-notification and e-mail that immediatly calls for your attention. The signal is like Forrest Gump’s chocolate box, you never know what you’ll get. “Ohh… Just a new ad for a set of speakers … or sneakers. Or some Rock’n’roll album”. Next time “Ahhhh. It’s 10 pm and a customer representative reports a possible security incident. Meeeting in 15 minutes… Yikes”.
Stocked up on food, water, toilet paper (Yes, that’s a thing!), power banks, alternative internet connections, spare parts and medication? Good… I’m just saying… No, don’t worry, it’s just a precaution.
It’s not paranoia when it’s out there to get you Corona is totally fine to have. 80% of all that get it will have little problems going through the ordeal. The other 20% that get problems might end up in the ICU or die. No worries, you’re probably in the 80% group. Wanna bet? Doesn’t matter, because you will be betting your life on it no matter what.
You have to be careful not to meet people or touch any surfaces (the floor counts!) without sanitizing. You might think it’s better to inject the hand sanitizer in your blood stream as a profylactic. But that’s mad, no one would seriously suggest that off course. Unless they’re crazy, sarcastic or maybe both. Which leads me into…
Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I can’t say who is really who, can you?
The US election… Enjoy the weirdest election year known to our times. It goes like this: a red and a blue team wants the US voters to vote for them. But there is a catch: each voter is only allowed to vote for ONE of them. Otherwise it would be no challenge I guess. And getting people to vote for the correct color means shouting, scaring, tweeting, scandalizing and otherwise causing quite a ruckus. Media, Internet outfits, radio stations and some nice intelligence agencies are all eager to help out. Otherwise the system won’t work they tell me. And maybe that is so. You can choose between two men that each is in the phase of their respective lives that they should be sitting in a rocking chair and tell boring stories to their grand children.
People will be protesting pretty much everything for any reasons. There may also be some bad stuff happening, you have been warned.
On November the 5th we will know who gets to use the white house as their retirement home.
… And stop laughing, in 2022 we get our own election year… It’s going to be interesting…
Coughing… Damn! it’s corona. Time to write your will… Here’s a chart for your convenience:
Symptom…
What you think it is…
Coughing once.
Corona.
A celebrity just died.
Corona.
A bit of a fever.
Corona.
Unable to breathe.
Corona.
Broken leg.
Corona.
The computer will not start.
The GRU just hacked it.
Corona come lately, sweet as can be….
What symptons are there really that may indicate Corona: pretty much everything. What parts of your body is affected by Corona: every part except the toe nails (pending further scientific research and may be revised later)
Sweden has a system, no one knows how and if it works and that includes us All countries will lock down, except Sweden. And that’s because we’re smart, crazy, incompetent, have a system, have no clue, want to be the odd one out, the arrow hit that suggestion on the board, just a random choice, very well made scientific study, the witch doctor said “oh .. ah… oh.. a walla-balla-bing-bong”, Tegnell read his party book, the party said so and then drinks were served, cosmic fluke or just a very brilliant decision.
The outcome of Sweden’s and all other countries efforts will be evaluated at a later date, then we’ll assign blame and maybe more blame to all of the countries involved. And all are going to get some… So there… I don’t think anyone is going to be happy with anything that happens right now anywhere in the world. So there are really no winners.
And Sweden, the Corona virus control group of the world, may be either the smartest … or dumbest country in the world when it comes to handling this situation. I really want to know which it is.
BOHICA – Bend over, here it comes again The summer will see us running out on the fields with reckless abandon. Someone with knowledge comments that the virus does not seem to be seasonal, but no one is listening. Beer (even the Corona brand) flows, bath time – big time!, going on vacation to places with no available hospitals nearby and just chilling in pubs where some tables are kept empty unless someone really wants to sit there.
And then fall arrives and the everything comes back, people, cars and … my Corona… It has quite the knack for it.
Look it’s getting better, man! Big sigh of relief…
Let’s party like it’s 1929... The recession was waiting for a reason to pop out of its lair, and Corona just gave it one. So here it is, and some industries will be weathering the storm fine whereas other come into a crisis with no end in sight.
Restaurants and other services with high physical attendence will be hit the hardest, but slowly rebound. Whatever the outcome is of this, it’s like to be a watershed moment for all of us.
Hackers at large Everyone is hacking everything. But that’s nothing new. It seems like hackers are just retargetting us poor fellas that have to sit at home and work. An advice, there’s something called Zoom. Never mind what it is, just don’t use it for anything, ok?
So to sum it up: The best one can be in 2020 is a stoic, accepting the storm as it arrives, doing whatever he or she can do and then going with whatever comes out of it without regrets.
Yeah, and stocking up on toilet paper, that is always a good thing…
