I watched Beauty and the Beast this weekend, with my youngest.
He's not so young anymore, and it feels like these two toddlers aren't either. If you haven't seen this yet, watch ... It's a fascinating and funny time-lapse.
Two toddlers escaped their cribs and held a party in their bedroom.
By the way, Beauty and the Beast was pretty good. It's a faithful representation of the original cartoon, and a reminder that while children get older and technology changes, some things don't.
A week ago, we talked about security (or the lack of it).
Saw this, and thought it was related:
via imgur
Is your password up there? Might want to change it.
I've started using phrases for my password. They're harder for computers to guess, but easier for you to remember. This comic by former NASA scientist, Randall Munroe sums it up:
via xkcd
Thinking about security is important, doing something is even more so.
Recently, we talked about billionaires and how they made their money. Today, I want to talk about companies that are valued at over $1 billion dollars.
In tech finance, a "Unicorn" is the moniker applied to private startups when they cross the supposedly mythical $1 Billion valuation level.
Well, fairy tales are coming true more often.
The number of Unicorns doubled in 2015 ... and not just in number – but in value as well.
The chart, which only shows the 185 Unicorns that are still private companies, highlights the increasing Unicorn density since 2014.
Currently, Uber is the most valuable Unicorn, with a $66 Billion Dollar valuation.
What do you think it means?
Are these companies a sign of a strong market, a bubble, or both?
I recently attended a cybersecurity roundtable with Congressman Pete Sessions.
The message was disturbing ... But, you already knew that; didn't you?
First, check out this interactive attack map.
It's scary ... it shows the attacks happening now, their types, and their targets ... in real time.
Perhaps scarier, however, was the discussion on privacy. One of the messages was not to be so worried about privacy ... You don't have any.
Your data is already out there; what you need to worry about is whether someone intends to use it.
The question isn't whether your data has been compromised, it's whether you've been targeted.
Just a warning.
I think frameworks are an important tool. Here's one that seems to be in use a lot recently.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
I ran into YouTube sensation JP Sears at a conference this week (where Tony Robbins was going to be the keynote speaker).
If you don't know who JP Sears is ... he's funny. Some of his most popular videos are parodies on Spirituality, if meat-eaters acted like vegans, and being gluten-intolerant.
He also does a bit about what it is like to be at a Tony Robbins event.
It's mainly comedy, but there are some nuggets of truth hidden in there.
As for the Tony Robbins event, there is a lot of truth woven through lots of entertainment. And I'm always impressed by how masterfully he controls a room!
I've been to many Tony events in the past, but I get something new every time.
One of the ideas I liked was a concept he uses often ... Victory is near!
The night is always darkest before the dawn. The storm is roughest before the break. And even after the coldest, darkest, winter ... Spring appears.
If you're looking for a relatively short (but representational) glimpse at what Tony does – a good place to start is his TED talk on why we do the things that we do.
Hope you had a great week. And, remember, Winter is just about over ...
The Great Canadian Wall is up in the north. Looks like it will hold till spring.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Extreme reactions are just as bad (if not worse) than fake news.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
March Madness: The Last Perfect Bracket Busted After Just 40 Games
March Madness is in full swing, and it feels like everyone (and their mom) has filled a bracket. But how do they do it?
More importantly, how do the people that are successful do it?
The video, below, highlights the "Bracket Busters" of 2015.
via FiveThirtyEight
So, who were they? A 13-year-old who used a mix of guesswork and preferences, a 47-year-old English woman who used algorithms and data science (despite not knowing the game), and a 70-year-old bookie who had his finger on the pulse of the betting world.
Proof that different factors can lead us to believe we have control over something with odds at 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. For those who don't wanna do the math that's 9.2 quintillion.
That's not to say that different factors don't provide an edge. Knowing the history of the teams, their ranks, how they performed historically in the playoffs, all provide important information, to humans and machines that try to make the perfect bracket.
The way people fill out their brackets often mimics the way investors pick trades or allocate assets. Some use gut feel, some base their decisions on rank and past performance, and some use predictive models.
Just as an FYI, this March Madness, the last perfect bracket busted after just 40 games. This includes reporting on tens of millions of brackets from NCAA.com, Bleacher Report, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports and Yahoo.
People aren't as good at prediction as they predict they are.
Something to think about.
Posted at 01:02 AM in Current Affairs, Games, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Science, Sports, Trading, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)