Thursday, December 17, 2020

Opinion | I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We’re Being Hacked


From the Article:

The magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate.

The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months. The Russian S.V.R. will surely have used its access to further exploit and gain administrative control over the networks it considered priority targets. For those targets, the hackers will have long ago moved past their entry point, covered their tracks and gained what experts call "persistent access," meaning the ability to infiltrate and control networks in a way that is hard to detect or remove.

While the Russians did not have the time to gain complete control over every network they hacked, they most certainly did gain it over hundreds of them. It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they just occupy.


Saturday, December 5, 2020

He Asked His Team How to Avoid Layoffs. Their Response Thrilled Him


His team volunteered nearly half a million dollars a month off their salaries. Some offered their total pay; others offered 50 percent; others offered 5. (Price capped all contributions at 50 percent.) "It extended our runway to somewhere between six and 12 months," he says. By late summer, he was confident enough in Gravity's future that he paid back all employees.

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Unable to update your fire tv stick endless loop


I've done everything the troubleshoot asked.

i unplugged it for more than 10 mins, and I restarted my WiFi box. 

Now it's stuck with that screen that it can't update my fire tv.


Answer:


Please factory reset your Fire TV device using the remote with these steps:

  1. If needed, safely eject expandable storage.
  2. Press and hold Back and right side of the navigation circle together for 10 seconds.
  3. On the TV screen, choose to continue or cancel the factory reset. If you don't choose, the device resets automatically after several more seconds.

  • Important: All account information and downloaded content is deleted during a factory reset.

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

The "Biden plagiarizing" scandal was so dumb.


He cited the source of some lines in his speech almost every time, which isn't plagiarism. He forgot to cite the source in one speech and the Dukakis team blasted it all over the airwaves and pretended he'd been doing it forever. It was such a sleazy and underhanded attack that Dukakis actually fired his campaign manager over it and only re-hired him after getting Biden's blessing at the convention.

Source:

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Trump is the “Chaos Monkey” of democracy


As for order: Trump not only tolerates chaos, he manufactures it. A few years ago, Netflix developed software called Chaos Monkey to intentionally provoke failures in its system so engineers could determine vulnerabilities. Trump is a chaos monkey for our democratic system, and he's exposed countless areas where it's not fully equipped to deal with corruption of the executive branch, executive overreach or a president who openly pines to be an authoritarian. But unlike with Netflix's version, we can't just terminate the program — at least not until Jan. 20.

More:

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Back to the Bunker!!!



Hope Hicks, close Trump aide, tests positive for coronavirus

Hicks traveled with the president several times this week

By Josh Dawsey and Colby Itkowitz


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hope-hicks-close-trump-aide-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/2020/10/01/af238f7c-0444-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Kellyanne Conway says 'the quiet part out loud': For Trump, the more chaos and violence the better


"The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who's best on public safety and law and order" -- Kellyanne Conway makes a case that the killings of peaceful protesters will benefit Trump politically

Saturday, September 12, 2020

Friday, September 11, 2020

How Typical - Trump’s Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize Was Apparently Forged. Twice.



In a phone interview on Wednesday, Mr. Njolstad of the Nobel committee, said, "We verify all nominations, at least the ones with a shadow of doubt."

Mr. Njolstad declined to provide details or copies of the forged nominations, but he said it was fair to assume that the documents purported to have been from a nominator who — when contacted — said the nominations were not valid.


Monday, August 31, 2020

USPS Board Chairman Revealed as Director of McConnell, Trump-Linked Super PACs



The United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors Chairman, Robert M. Duncan, is a director of the Mitch McConnell-allied Senate Leadership Fund Super PAC, as paperwork filed Monday confirmed. The ties between Duncan and McConnell deepen concerns about the integrity of what will likely be an election largely conducted with mail-in ballots, which has also been complicated by issues with a Republican-led gutting of the USPS.

Duncan's ties to the $130 million Senate Leadership Fund is just one of the chairman's ties to prominent Republicans. Moreover, nearly all of the people on the Trump-nominated USPS board of governors have ties to the Trump administration.

More:

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

How Donald Trump turned an attack on Michelle Obama into a major self-own



In the wake of Michelle Obama's blunt warning to the country Monday night on what a second term for Donald Trump would mean, the President was asked about the former first lady's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Read in CNN Politics: https://apple.news/AT3JlLzYQTGWU8cqQ2lNDKg

Sunday, August 16, 2020

PiMac - Imgur


Runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 with RetroPie. The screen is an 8" 800x600 VGA LCD, found on eBay for about $25. 4:3 LCDs can be hard to find, particularly at this size.


Sunday, August 2, 2020

How to add hourly Taptic Chime alerts to Apple Watch - 9to5Mac



This is the Trump Shell Game


Trump twice pushed back the deadline to release his 2019 financial disclosures. Then dropped them with no warning late on Friday. Then said he was banning TikTok and pulled everyone's attention away. We're still paying attention. See his finances here:

President Trump's 2019 Personal Financial Disclosure

Sunday, July 19, 2020

California Gov Was Reportedly Told He’d Have to Do the White House a Favor to Get Help With Testing Swabs


Sources cited by the Times say it was White House adviser Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, who voiced the apparent quid pro quo in April. Kushner reportedly told one of Newsom's advisers that the administration could aid in getting 350,000 swabs for the state if the governor would call up Trump and personally request his assistance. "The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, had to call Donald Trump, and ask him for the swabs," Bob Kocher, an adviser to Newsom and former White House health care official under Obama, told the Times. Newsom, who was also reportedly told he would have to thank the president, held a press conference later that same day where he credited Trump with the "substantial increase in supply." 

More:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gov-gavin-newsom-was-told-hed-have-to-do-the-white-house-a-favor-to-get-help-with-testing-swabs-nyt

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Sunday, May 17, 2020

There is a huge difference between Christine Blasey Ford and Tara Reade



"Believe women" does not mean we must be blind to facts or engage in willful blindness. Sexual assault is a crime. In our system of justice and in the court of public opinion, facts still matter, and not all allegations are equally meritorious. Some are downright false. With regard to Reade, it's long past time the media stopped indulging in the notion that if you believe Ford, you must believe Reade.

Believe All Women? Sure. Here’s 25 we should start with

 Trump supporters are saying that we should “believe all women” because we feel that all accuser’s claims should be investigated and not just dismissed out of hand.

Here are the 25 women that have accused Resident Trump of sexual misconduct. Why can’t we investigate all of these claims along with Tara Reade’s?

https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12

Monday, April 20, 2020

LEGO building guides - technology



https://chrismcveigh.com/cm/building_guides_-_technology.html




David K. Shepherd 

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

davidkshepherd@gmail.com

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Earth Day Posters | From NASA Science Mission Directorate



Earth Day Posters

This is a collection of illustrated posters in NASA's annual celebration of Earth Day.  High resolution printable PDF files are available for download by clicking on each image.

https://science.nasa.gov/toolkits/earth-day-posters

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Redeem Capital One miles for food delivery and streaming services


If you have the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card or the Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card, you can now use your miles to pay for food delivery with DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, and other services.


You can also use Capital One miles to cover purchases with eligible streaming services like Netflix and Hulu from your account.


Read in Business Insider: https://apple.news/AVxGBBQI2TcyGwYXB-0HI9Q

Sunday, April 12, 2020

What Does Jesus Mean, 'The Poor Will Always Be With You'?



It just so happens that in saying "The poor you will always have with you," Jesus was quoting another well-known Biblical phrase—from a well-known passage of the Jewish Torah. Everyone hearing him back then would have caught his drift. 

Here's the full original quote:

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be … For the poor you will always have with you in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.' (Deuteronomy 15:7-11)


More:
https://relevantmagazine.com/current16/what-does-jesus-mean-poor-will-always-be-you/

Monday, April 6, 2020

U.S. Weekly Initial Jobless Claims


https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/fvyi5h/us_weekly_initial_jobless_claims/

Sunday, April 5, 2020

This is because Trump hates the military


 • ⁠Trump fired the captain of the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt after he warned superiors that COVID19 was spreading among his crew 
⁠After Iran's retaliatory strike, 109 US troops suffered brain injuries. Trump dismissed these as "headaches" 
⁠On July 20, 2017, in room 2E924 of the Pentagon, Trump told a room full of Generals, "You're a bunch of dopes and babies" 
⁠Pardoned multiple war criminals, which stomped on long standing military values, discipline, and command. Trump has no military experience (May&Nov, 2019) 
⁠Trump mocked Lt. Col. Vindman for his rank and uniform. He threatened said purple heart officer, resulting in the Army providing him protection 
⁠Trump's Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange. 
⁠There is a facility in Tijuana for US veterans that Trump deported. Wounded war vet, Sen Duckworth (D) marked Veterans Day 2019 by visiting this facility • ⁠Russia took control of the main U.S. military facility in Syria abandoned on Trump's orders. Russia now owns the airstrip we built 
⁠On Oct 7, 2019, Trump abruptly withdrew support from America's allies in Syria after a phone call with Turkey's president (Erdogan). Turkey subsequently bombed US Special Forces. 
⁠Trump sent thousands of American troops to defend the oil assets of the country that perpetrated 9/11 
⁠In Sept 2019, he made an Air Force cargo crew, flying from the U.S. to Kuwait stop in Scotland (where there's no U.S. base) to refuel at a commercial airport (where it costs more), so they could stay overnight at a Trump property (which isn't close to the airport). Trump's golf courses are losing money, so he's forcing the military to pay for 5-star nights there. 
⁠In Sept, 2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall. 
⁠In Aug, 2019, emails revealed that three of Trump's Mar-a-Lago pals, who are now running Veterans Affairs, are rampant with meddling. "They had no experience in veterans affairs (none of them even served in the military) nor underwent any kind of approval process to serve as de facto managers. Yet, with Trump's approval, they directed actions and criticized operations without any oversight. They wasted valuable staff time in hundreds of pages of communications and meetings, emails show. Emails reveal disdainful attitudes within the department to the trio's meddling." 
⁠Veterans graves will be "dug up" for the border wall, after Trump instructed aides to seize private property. Trump told officials he would pardon them if they break the law by illegally seizing property 
⁠Children of deployed US troops are no longer guaranteed citizenship. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28, 2019) 
⁠On August 2, 2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall 
⁠On July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuted war criminals 
⁠Trump denied a U.S. Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his citizenship interview (Reported July 17, 2019) 
⁠Trump made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them fly at his July 4th political campaign event (July 4, 2019) 
⁠Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at 4th of July parade (reported July 2, 2019) 
⁠In June, 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance" 
⁠Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (June 6, 2019) 
⁠Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen (Bette Midler, of all people) (reported on June 4th, 2019) 
⁠Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military (reported June 4th, 2019) 
⁠On May 27, 2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain 
⁠Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to Japan (May 15, 2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered. (May 27, 2019) 
⁠Trump purged 200,000 veterans healthcare applications (due to known administrative errors within VA's enrollment system) (reported on May 13, 2019) 
⁠Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (April 16, 2019) 
⁠On March 20, 2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral 
⁠Between 12/22/2018, and 1/25/2019, Trump refused to sign his party's funding bill, which shut down the government, forcing the Coast Guard to go without pay, which made service members rely on food pantries. However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise 
⁠He banned service members from serving based on gender identity (1/22/2019) 
⁠He denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity (on-going. Published Jan 18, 2019) 
⁠He tried to deport a marine vet who is a U.S.-born citizen (Jan 16, 2019) 
⁠When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest "cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him $1 (Jan 26, 2019) 
⁠He called a retired general a 'dog' with a 'big, dumb mouth' (Jan 1, 2019) 
⁠He increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018) 
⁠He finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (Dec 26, 2018) 
⁠He revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (Dec 26, 2018) 
⁠Trump lied to deployed troops that he gave them a 10% raise (12/26/2018). He tried giving the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, he lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't. 
⁠He fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays 
⁠He tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (Dec 17, 2018) 
⁠He called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018) 
⁠He urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (Nov 12, 2018) 
⁠He canceled an Arlington Cemetery visit on Veterans Day due to light rain (Nov 12, 2018) 
⁠While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, he didn't attend the ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain -- other world leaders went anyway (Nov 10, 2018) 
⁠He used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their families (Oct-Dec, 2018) 
⁠He stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (Nov 7, 2018) 
⁠Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many veterans to run out of food and rent. (reported October 7, 2018) 
⁠Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (July 5, 2018) 
⁠Trump deported active-duty spouses (11,800 military families face this problem as of April 2018) 
⁠He forgot a fallen soldier's name (below) during a call to his pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (Oct 23-24, 2017) 
⁠He sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. (Trump approved the mission because Bannon told him Obama didn't have the guts to do it) (Oct 4, 2017) 
⁠He blocked a veteran group on Twitter (June 2017) 
⁠He ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present) 
⁠He deported veterans (2017-present) 
⁠He said he knows more about ISIS than American generals (Oct 2016) 
⁠On October 3, 2016, Trump said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong (note: yes, he said it's 'because they aren't strong.' He didn't say it's 'because they're weak.' This distinction is important because of Snopes) 
⁠Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and said: "I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier." (Aug 2, 2016) 
⁠Trump attacks Gold Star families - Myeshia Johnson--gold star widow, Khan family--gold star parents, etc. (2016-present) 
⁠Trump sent funds raised from a January 2016 veterans benefit to the Donald J Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities (the foundation has since been ordered shut because of fraud) (Jan, 2016) 
⁠Trump said he has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military" because he went to a military-style academy (2015 biography) 
⁠Trump said he doesn't consider POWs heroes because they were caught. He said he prefers people who were not caught (July 18, 2015) 
⁠Trump said having unprotected sex was his own personal Vietnam (1998) 
⁠For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off of Fifth Avenue because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. "While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses?" - 1991 
⁠Trump dodged the draft 5 times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs. 
⁠No Trump in America has ever served in the military; this spans 5 generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service

From:
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/fv7don/the_only_official_fired_over_the_virus_a_captain/fmgw0gs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Why Newton Added Two Colors to the Rainbow? | Dr Len Fisher



https://www.lenfisherscience.com/how-did-the-rainbow-get-its-colours-its-all-down-to-newton/

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

CIA secretly owned world's top encryption supplier, read enemy and ally messages for decades



But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company's devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages.

The decades-long arrangement, among the most closely guarded secrets of the Cold War, is laid bare in a classified, comprehensive CIA history of the operation obtained by The Washington Post and ZDF, a German public broadcaster, in a joint reporting project.


https://boingboing.net/2020/02/11/cia-secretly-owned-worlds-to.html

Monday, January 20, 2020

Hacker leaks passwords for more than 500,000 servers, routers, and IoT devices


A hacker has published this week a massive list of Telnet credentials for more than 515,000 servers, home routers, and IoT (Internet of Things) "smart" devices. 

--
David K. Shepherd, CISSP, PMP, ITILv3, SAFe 4 davidkshepherd@gmail.com

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Not a Joke: Trump Is Looking Into Making Bribery Legal | Vanity Fair


"It's just so unfair that American companies aren't allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas," Trump said, according to a passage published by the Post. "We're going to change that." 

More:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/01/donald-trump-bribery-laws