It's hard to argue with results … and sometimes the answer doesn't have to be creative (it just has to work).
It's the same with modern computing. We can perform better and faster than ever before, and a lot of it is because of prettier code, and smarter tools, and more skilled employees. But, sometimes, what it takes is an elegant use of brute force!
I've always enjoyed the aphorism: "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Last week, I saw a different version of that … and thought it was worth sharing.
Here is a peek at what I've been reading lately. These are the links I saved this week.
Hope you find some interesting and enjoyable tidbits.
Let me know if you read something I'd like … Or if there are other sources I should add to my weekly reading.
With the Equifax breach, I was reminded of something else he told me.
"It's not whether or not you've been hacked … because you have … it's whether you've been targeted."
As data becomes more valuable, and IP more coveted, security concerns grow, but the biggest security concern isn't where you would expect it to be.
When people think of hacking they often think of a Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attack or the media representation of people breaking into your system in a heist.
In reality, the greatest weakness is people, it's you … the user. It's the user that turns off automatic patch updating. It's the user that uses thumb drives. It's the user that reuses the same passwords.
via xkcd
Whether it's malicious or unintentional, humans are often the biggest security weakness.
As proof, watch the first few minutes of the video below to watch a social engineer find out this man's email and gain access to his cell phone account. She locks him out of his account at the same time.
I started the video at the interesting part so you don't have to search for it.
As for passwords … I recommend not knowing them. You can't disclose what you don't know. Consequently, I recommend a password manager like LastPass or 1Password.
How many cyber security measures you take comes down to two simple questions … First, how much pain and hassle are you willing to deal with to protect your data? And, second, how much pain is a hacker willing to go through to get to your data?
It doesn't make sense to put all your data in a lockbox computer that never connects to a network … nevertheless, it might be worth it to go to that extreme for pieces of your data.
Think about what the data is worth to you, or someone else, and protect it accordingly.
You probably heard that one of the biggest credit-reporting bureaus got hacked recently. It was pretty bad.
Equifax, TransUnion and Experian are the big three providers of credit scores (and other data, including: social security numbers, full names, addresses, birth dates, and even drivers licenses and credit card numbers for some) to potential lenders and consumers.
Hackers have had access to this information between May and July, and it's taken five weeks for the company to disclose the breach.
Regardless of whether or not you were affected, they are offering "Trusted ID Premier" monitoring free for a year as an extra layer of protection. But, beware, TechCrunch has pointed out that agreeing to their ToS seems to waive your right to sue Equifax.
Situations like this are reminders to pay even more attention to your own online security.
An ant is pretty cool. It can lift more than 50 times its weight and handle pressures up to 5000 times its weight.
But, what makes ants interesting is what they do when there's a colony (or swarm) of them.
An ant can only be "so" smart – their heads are tiny – but a colony of ants is a superorganism whose collective intelligence is much greater than the sum of its parts.
Ants release pheromones from glands all over their bodies that can tell their colony an array of things. It can tell them how many ants they need to accomplish a task, it can tell them where there's food or danger, and it can even be used to relocate their whole colony to a new geography.
Clearly, it can also be used to communicate that the best way to survive danger is to create a mass of each other and allow the most possible to survive … there's no fear or greed, only what's best for the colony.
In a very real sense, this is where technology and trading are starting to move. I say starting, but swarm intelligence has been an area of research in technology since the late 80's.
There are many simple applications of swarm intelligence in creating CGI crowds, telecommunication networks and more, but technological advances are drastically increasing the power and uses of swarms.
Using the communication of various systems in order to gain real-time data from their actions and interactions will create hidden opportunities that we couldn't capitalize on previously.
We're in a golden age of innovation … How cool is that?
The Teflon League: NFL Revenues and Viewership Are Up.
Currently, the NFL is the 11th most important private company in the USA according to Fortune, and has the highest revenue of any sports league worldwide.
While critics contend that something needs to be done about the various issues surrounding the NFL, it's hard to conclude that those issues affect viewership. The NFL currently dominates attendance per game, viewership, and revenue.
In an experience economy, the NFL puts out an extraordinary product.
via 
via xkcd
An ant is pretty cool. It can lift more than 50 times its weight and handle pressures up to 
