Capitalogix

What's The Most Common Password?

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. 

Unicorns Are Becoming Less Mythical

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.

 

via CBInsights

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?

What Do You Really Have to Fear?

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. 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - February 26th, 2017

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.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Future of Work Manifesto. (TechCrunch)
• The Art and Science of Learning Anything Faster. (FourHourWorkWeek)
• The Five Best Super Bowl Commercials. (Washington Post)
• How to Find out If Your IPhone 7 Has Faster or Slower LTE Modem. (iPhoneHacks)
• Google Flights Will Now Tell You When Fares Will Increase, Help You Find Cheaper Tickets. (TechCrunch)

Trading Links:

• UBS Wealth Chief on Fintech: 'We are beyond Fighting'. (BusinessInsider)
• Uber Hires NASA Veteran to Help It Figure out Flying Cars. (TheVerge)
• Trump's Bonfire of Banking Rules Could Burn Us All. (Flipboard)
• The Art of a China Deal. (Chinafile)
• Microsoft: Tech Companies Aren’t Getting into Financial Services to Make Friends with Banks. (CBInsights)

Victory Is Near: A Reminder From Tony Robbins and JP Sears

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. 

 

TED via YouTube.

Hope you had a great week.  And, remember, Winter is just about over ... 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - February 18th, 2016

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.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Genomics Intelligence Revolution. (TechCrunch)
• Generation Adderall. (New York Times)
• Spending 10 Minutes a Day on Mindfulness Subtly Changes the Way You React to Everything. (HBR)
• Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person. (NYT)
• The 5 Revolutionary Technologies that Will Dominate 2017. (Salesforce)

Trading Links:

• The Immigration Ban is a Headfake, and We’re Falling For It. (Medium)
• Biden at Davos: Russia is Greatest Threat to Democracy. (USAToday)
• Volatility at Lowest Level for over a Year, Says S&P Dow Jones. (HedgeWeek)
• Jeff Bezos Just Passed Warren Buffett to Become the Third Richest Person in the World. (CNW)
• Ray Kurzweil: the World Isn’t Getting Worse. (GeekWire)

Should the Robots That Take Your Job Be Taxed?

A Chinese factory replaced 90% of their human workers with robots and production rose by 250% ... while defects dropped by 80%.

Fascinating or terrifying?

The world is changing.

Some say change is the only constant ...  Others remind of death and taxes.

In this video,  Bill Gates says we should tax robots.

 

 

Are we about to treat robots as "electronic persons"?  It isn't unprecedented ... we already treat certain business structures like people in tax and legal matters.

But, where does it stop?  

If you tax robots ... what's the difference between a robot, an algorithm, a cotton gin, or printing press?

Taxing increased productivity could have happened at any time.

Are we ready to change the face of capitalism and society?

At the extreme, it raises a question, if production and efficiency can be raised without as many humans working, what will humans do?

This quickly leads to some far-fetched (but thought-provoking) ideas and conversations.  For example, recently Elon Musk (and this presidential candidate) proposed a Universal Basic Income.  The basic premise of this is that by giving people the minimum income necessary to survive, you free them up to do what they're passionate about.

Clever ... or crazy?

We live in exciting times. 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - February 11th, 2017

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.

 

Lighter Links:

• Why Having a System is Essential to Increasing Your Creative Output. (Medium)
• Pepsi Created a Tostitos Bag that Will Tell You If You are Drunk. (USAToday)
• Why Stop at Five Senses? Tech is Letting Us Hack Our Brains to Give Us 'Superpowers'. (Wired)
• Cellular Reprogramming Rejuvenates Old Mice and Boosts Lifespans 30%. (SingularityHub)
• What 20,000 Pages of Hacked WikiLeaks Emails Teach Us about Hillary Clinton. (Vox)

Trading Links:

• Vincent Viola, Nominee for Army Secretary, Drops Out. (New York Times)
• Donald Trump Plans to Undo Dodd-Frank Law, Fiduciary Rule. (Wall Street Journal)
• Investors Pull Most Cash from U.S. Stock Funds since Election: ICI. (Flipboard)
• Feng Shui for Your Portfolio: Where to Invest during the Year of the Rooster. (Forbes)
• This is the First Pot Company to Trade on a Major North American Stock Exchange. (News)

 

Population Growth and Climate Change Explained by Hans Rosling

Sometimes complex things can be explained simply.

 

Hans Rosling, a Swedish medical doctor, academic, and statistician became famous for just that.  

 

He died last week.  Sadly, that is what prompted me to review some of his videos, and to share this.

 

Rosling called himself an "edutainer."  He had a knack for explaining difficult concepts (like global inequality, climate change, disease, and poverty)  using a sense of humor and a strange collection of props (including, maps, storage boxes, and colored stones) to tell the story of our world. 

  

For example, in an interview with the Guardian, Rosling beckons:  "Let me show you the world," as he used stacks of Lego-like bricks to demonstrate the dynamics of population growth, child mortality, and carbon dioxide emissions.

 

 

The Guardian via YouTube.

  

"The challenge for the world is to get everyone out of extreme poverty and get the richest people to use less fossil fuels so that everyone can share their energy levels," he said.

 

His messages were often more positive than most would think, demonstrating that life is getting better for more people, if we only bothered to look at the numbers.

 

 

Here are links to two other Rosling posts worth a look.

• How Data Can Solve the World's Most Challenging Problems. 
• The Health and Wealth of Nations.

 

Facts or Fiction: How Faithful is Your Favorite "True" Movie's Story?

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about fake news and fact-checking the contents of the news and what public figure say.  However, I haven't heard much about measuring the veracity of movies.

This site was kind of interesting.

It purports to rank the relative veracity of various movies. 

For example, "Selma" is impressively accurate  (as is "The Big Short") ... "The Imitation Game"?  Not so much.

 

via Information is Beautiful

This interactive breakdown lets you be as "pedantic" as you want -- letting the "truth" be relatively flexible, or seating the truth-scale at "only what objectively happened".

So, where does your favorite film fall?

Pretty interesting.