Many in the security community are all atwitter about the Chrome browser not encrypting passwords. They call this bad security; a lot of people disagree. I tend to agree with the latter group: putting a master password or otherwise putting some kind of encryption in Chrome’s password store wouldn’t materially increase security, and would give… Continue reading Chrome security and best practices
Constituent Service
There have been a couple of stories recently about how Republicans are essentially telling people not to take advantage of the benefits of Obamacare, i.e. signing up for subsidized health insurance on the new health exchanges. It’s one thing for radio hosts to peddle this story (and how nice is it to see Twila Brase… Continue reading Constituent Service
Hedge Fund Blues
Businessweek has put out a quite memorable story on the decline of hedge funds. The story, and a very good response, are worth a read. Even if you don’t pay much attention to that sector of finance a whole lot.
On Surveillance and Snowdens
This has been quite the weekend for revelations about the state of government surveillance in this day and age. The suspicions of a lot of paranoid people were validated as we learned that the U.S. government is indeed collecting a vast amount of communications metadata and cloud data from citizens and non-citizens alike. For those… Continue reading On Surveillance and Snowdens
Legislative Pay
I generally believe in voting “No” on all amendments to our state constitution. Sometimes, it’s a “Hell No!” because I truly think it’s a bad amendment: see last year’s amendments on gay marriage and photo ID, for example. But most of the time, I vote no not because I think it’s a terrible idea, but… Continue reading Legislative Pay
The sequestration is a failure
The sequestration was always a stupid idea. Faced with a leaky roof, Congress declared “either we fix the roof or we blow it up!” Congress even in its most functional times is not a paragon of wisdom and efficiency, but this was extra ridiculous. Nevertheless, we were told, the whole point of the endeavor was… Continue reading The sequestration is a failure
Fixing your drive size
Last weekend, my computer froze up out of the blue, and then refused to boot. Since I got the dreaded “Unmountable boot volume” error, I figured it was the hard drive. My C: drive was a 250GB beast from when I built my first computer in 2005, so it was clearly getting a bit old.… Continue reading Fixing your drive size
The Abstinence Adventure
Via Hairpin comes the story of a high school student in West Virginia protesting an abstinence-only assembly (at a public school, no less) taught by none other than Pam Stenzel. First of all, kudos to her for standing her ground even after the principal threatened her future college career. Second of all, it reminds me… Continue reading The Abstinence Adventure
Budgeting for families and superpowers
Wonkblog has a good piece about all the reasons that people hate budget deficits, and all of the reasons why they are incorrect. It’s a great piece, but it does overlook one of my favorite reasons trotted out by politicians as to why we need to balance the budget: “Families have to balance their budget,… Continue reading Budgeting for families and superpowers
Negotiating with yourself
President Obama has put forward a budget that includes cuts to Social Security in the hopes of getting a grand budget bargain with Congressional Republicans. The goal was to show seriousness in cutting entitlements in order to get Republicans to show seriousness in raising revenue. Republicans have already panned it, liberals are not happy, and… Continue reading Negotiating with yourself