Mike Williams Club – The Blog – Page 90 – Weirder words were never written!

Cracking iPhones?

As an Apple iPhone user, I am grateful that Apple takes security and privacy seriously. So much so, that they’ve been to court many times over it.

A story from Engadget this morning sounds troubling. Apparantly, there is a hardware device on the market that can crack iPhone security. From the article…

Based on an earlier report by Malwarebytes, GrayKey is a small box that can unlock two iPhones at a time. (See the two connectors in the image of the device below?) It was developed by Atlanta company Grayshift, which is run by long-time US intelligence agency contractors and a former Apple security engineer, according to Forbes. To use GrayKey, all cops need to do is connect a phone to it for two minutes. They simply have to wait a bit after it’s unplugged to see a black screen pop up with the passcode — how long they’d have to wait depends on how complex the passcode/passphrase is.

Hopefully, Apple will release a patch that will negate this device.

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April 13, 2018 by Mike Williams Apple News

At Last…

My Google home screen of choice.

No birthday bullshit.

April 11, 2018 by Mike Williams Sh*t Mike Says

A Series of Books

As you can see by the sidebar (today anyway), I am reading a series called Arisen. It is an awesome series about a ZA or Zombie Apocolypse for anyone who doesn’t get the lingo.

I started the book yesterday and I was immediately confused about what series this was. You see — I have probably read about 14 books between the last book, Book 12, and the current book, Book 13.

A lot of different things have happened in a lot of other books. It can get really difficult to keep track.

I suppose it is a great problem to have. Reading so much that you can’t tell which series you are in.

Ok. Just wanted to rant a bit.

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April 9, 2018 by Mike Williams Sh*t Mike Says

After a few weeks of ups and downs, my friend Chuck is finally out of the hospital. He collapsed at work several weeks ago from a mild heart attack. After a few days of diagnosis, it was determined that he required open heart surgery.

After the surgery, Chuck has some more battles to overcome including standing up and then — dying.

He was brought back and then forced into a coma for a few days.

He was supposed to be able to come home yesterday but the hospital wouldn’t release him.

Today — after all of this — he is finally home.

Watching a friend go through this makes me look at where I am as far as my health is concerned.

I certainly don’t want to go through what he has.

Anyway, I’m glad he is finally home.

Update: (04.21.2018) – Chuck had to go back into the hospital a couple of times because of respiratory issues. Fluid builds up in his lungs and he can’t breathe. This has happened twice now. He finally came back home again yesterday. He sounds much better and has lost a lot of weight. I have to admit that I was getting worried when I didn’t see him this morning. His brother called and finally woke him up. I was honestly wondering about whether or not he had passed as a reason for not seeing him this morning. My mind wonders and I couldn’t be more happy to be wrong in this instance.

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April 8, 2018 by Mike Williams General Musings

Do You Trust Your Computer?

This documentary is free to watch until midnight.

It is very well done and asks the question “just because we can does it follow that we should?”

We’ve created countless films warning about the dangers of AI and yet, we still plow forward.

Human beings aren’t very bright.

April 8, 2018 by Mike Williams Artificial Intelligence

Water Worlds

Great article in Scientific American about debate on whether life would exist or not on a world made up of water.

I like the comment near the bottom of the article about comparing everything to Earth and why it is not always a good idea.

“I think it could be dangerous just thinking about everything in an Earth-mindset,” Ramirez says. “You might be missing out on other possibilities.”

I still feel a bit of arrogance from the scientific community about life on other planets. You can’t armchair quarterback the universe and the only way you are ever going to know what these worlds are like — is to VISIT them.

In unrelated news…I still think it is super cool that I can copy a link on my iPad and paste that link into my MacBook Pro. </end geek moment>

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April 5, 2018 by Mike Williams General Musings Science

Misunderstanding Apple Pay

Gruber at Daring Fireball has some good points about a poorly written/researched Wall Street Journal article about Apple Pay.

My take away is that Apple has been doing a poor job of marketing Apple Pay. I still have friends and co-workers who — when I mention Apple Pay — have a “deer in the headlights” look on their face.

There should have been enough commercials running everywhere by now that everyone knows what Apple Pay is and what it is used for. But, alas — there is not.

Update: 04.04.2018 – Apple released some new Apple Pay ads.

April 4, 2018 by Mike Williams Apple News

Broken Links

Over the weekend, I took a trip down memory lane and decided to read the older blog posts from several years ago.

Good stuff — except for the broken links.

Websites come and go. I know that more than anyone and with them also goes their links and pictures.

Fixing the links is no small task. I will probably need to do some research on each one and locate the picture from elsewhere.

Happy to do it but will probably not be until this weekend.

TTFN

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April 3, 2018 by Mike Williams General Musings Mike is an idiot

A Break from The Crazy – Part II

We were supposed to have our new system up and running by now. We’ve hit a few snags and now it will be a few more weeks until we are using new software. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.

This past weekend I got an overwhelming urge to reach out to a friend of mine whom I have not heard from in a few years. We plan on catching up this weekend and I’m hoping to plan a few camping trips this year.

I would like to keep up with writing but until we get to the other side of this major project — not very likely.

After about a year and a half, I picked up the drum sticks and began playing again. I was afraid the “song in my heart” that made me want to play in the first place was gone after my breakup. It has been a slow recovery for me and hiding behind that pain with laughter is what I’ve done for the past 18 months.

A close friend of mine has just undergone open heart bypass surgery. No matter how much safer these procedures are these days, it is still a nail biting experience until you get that first call from them. I got that call yesterday morning. He didn’t sound great but it was a welcomed call. His road to recovery is just starting and I wish him all the best.

When I was 5 years old, my neighbor (Mr. Cooney) had bypass surgery when the process was still new. He didn’t make it. I still have sad feelings wash over me when I think about it. They were the nice older couple next door and would watch me and my sister before we had to go to school. I miss them.

Well, this has been another fine brain dump.

I have a couple of blog posts in the hopper and I’ll post as soon as I can. One of them is about the Cannes Film Festival.

Fuck. Them.

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March 29, 2018 by Mike Williams General Musings Sh*t Mike Says

A Break from The Crazy

We’ve been getting ready to complete a major project at my day job. This project has been pushed back a couple of times because it seems the scope was much bigger than anyone imagined. Anyone but me, of course. I remember talking to a co-worker who believed we could get this thing done in a month. It looks like we will get this done in 3 months. Ideally, this should have taken 6 months.

In talking to a few folks over the last several weeks, I realize there are two things that I am really passionate about outside of the day job. Those two things are writing and hiking/camping. Throw in a few ideas about “prepping” and you’ve got quite the mix.

A couple of books in the audible library are about what happens when we loose electricity. The power grid goes down and the whole world goes to shit. Literally. I have a few different titles but they all seem to show a common thread. People who have not prepared expect those who do — to take care of them. Extreme liberal views are like that. I have friends who believe that the government should run everything. Not because the government clearly knows what they are doing — but because they believe in being “taken care of” by someone other than themselves. As a military veteran, I would strongly disagree.

I think I am overdue to a short shory so I am hoping to write one this weekend.

I should probably start posting on this site because, why not?

This website is for me. I don’t write on it to keep anyone else informed. It is my place to discuss whatever I like and… occasionally, I get to swear.

Being single has its perks.

TTFN.

March 17, 2018 by Mike Williams General Musings Sh*t Mike Says