A Georgia computer central to a lawsuit seeking to change the way votes are counted in Georgia was mysteriously wiped clean. Probably doesn't mean anything, right?

Courtesy of the AP: 

A computer server crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was quietly wiped clean by its custodians just after the suit was filed, The Associated Press has learned. 

The server’s data was destroyed July 7 by technicians at the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University, which runs the state’s election system. The data wipe was revealed in an email sent last week from an assistant state attorney general to plaintiffs in the case that was later obtained by the AP. More emails obtained in a public records request confirmed the wipe. 

The lawsuit, filed July 3 by a diverse group of election reform advocates, aims to force Georgia to retire its antiquated and heavily criticized election technology. The server in question, which served as a statewide staging location for key election-related data, made national headlines in June after a security expert disclosed a gaping security hole that wasn’t fixed six months after he reported it to election authorities. 

It’s not clear who ordered the server’s data irretrievably erased. 

The Kennesaw elections center answers to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brian Kemp, a Republican running for governor in 2018 and the suit’s main defendant. His spokeswoman issued a statement Thursday saying his office had neither involvement nor advanced warning of the decision. It blamed “the undeniable ineptitude” at the Kennesaw State elections center. 

After declining comment for more than 24 hours, Kennesaw State’s media office issued a statement late Thursday attributing the server wiping to “standard operating procedure.” It did not respond to the AP’s question on who ordered the action.

Oh yeah, SOMEBODY was very nervous about the data that was stored on that computer. 

And possibly for good reason.

The information that Trump leaked to the Russians visiting the White House was that Israel had hacked ISIS computers.

Hey you wanna hear some of the nuclear codes I memorized?

This is from a New York Times article detailing how hard it is to use cyber weapons against ISIS: 

Even one of the rare successes against the Islamic State belongs at least in part to Israel, which was America’s partner in the attacks against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Top Israeli cyberoperators penetrated a small cell of extremist bombmakers in Syria months ago, the officials said. That was how the United States learned that the terrorist group was working to make explosives that fooled airport X-ray machines and other screening by looking exactly like batteries for laptop computers.

The intelligence was so exquisite that it enabled the United States to understand how the weapons could be detonated, according to two American officials familiar with the operation. The information helped prompt a ban in March on large electronic devices in carry-on luggage on flights from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries to the United States and Britain. 

It was also part of the classified intelligence that President Trump is accused of revealing when he met in the Oval Office last month with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and the ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak. His disclosure infuriated Israeli officials.

To be clear this incredibly sensitive information was just revealed to two Russian spies simply as a way for Trump to brag about what great classified information to which he had access.

Imagine how that must have made the Israeli intelligence community feel, and how it impacted our allies ability to trust this country with confidential information that if revealed might put their agents in danger or reveal tactics that could help our mutual enemies.

And somebody tell me what information leaked about Donald Trump even comes close to being as damaging to our national security as what he simply volunteered to two Russian operative who should never have been allowed into the White House in he first place.

The Russian government not only hacks computers to get information, they also plant false information to attack their foes.

What? Child porn was found on your computer? That is a shame.

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

Hacking is not only a good way to get real information, like the emails of the D.N.C., but a relatively easy and usually untraceable way to plant fake information. For example, when unidentified hackers last year broke into the computers of a government research center in Lithuania, they stole nothing, but planted bogus reports on its website that the country’s stoutly pro-American president had worked as an escort and K.G.B. informer while a student in Leningrad during the Soviet era. 

A similar break-in affecting the Lithuanian military’s website replaced a bland announcement about a coming NATO exercise with a fake statement that presented the exercise as part of a plan to annex Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, and join it with Lithuania, a member of NATO. 

The supposed NATO plan outlined in the phony text closely mimicked methods used by Moscow in 2014 to annex Crimea and stir up unrest in eastern Ukraine, including the seizure of military posts and police stations and calls for the establishment of the Kaliningrad People’s Republic. 

Written in faulty Lithuanian, the statement was “immediately obvious as a fake,” said Rimtautas Cerniauskas, the director of Lithuania’s National Cyber Security Center, which was set up last year in response to increased alarm over Russian aggression. 

But, he added, the stunt nonetheless succeeded in distracting cyberdefense staff members from their normal work for days and in spreading a lie that, though immediately exposed, polluted discussion about NATO.

But that is not the extent of it:

This blurring of all boundaries between truth and falsehood in the service of operational needs has created a climate in Russia in which even the most serious and grotesque accusations, like those involving pedophilia, are simply a currency for settling scores.

Much of this article talks about the Russians hacking computers to place child pornography on its hard drive and even send those photos and videos to other sites that then will lead back to their victim's computer.

This should send a chill right up the spine of journalists and opponents of Putin's puppet president here in the US as to the kinds of tactics that might be directed their way if they make life too hard for Comrade Trump.

It also might explain just how Donald Trump became a puppet of Vladimir Putin.

Just something to think about.

Just a reminder that yesterday was not the first time that Donald Trump suggested that a foreign government hack American computers.

Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama's college records (destroyed?) and check "place of birth"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2014

That was two years ago.

The Chinese are now hacking White House computers. Why not? They already own the place.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2012

And that was from four years ago.

How many incidents does it take to establish a pattern again?

(H/T to Mediaite.)

Journalist attempts to stump Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with question about quantum computing. He answers it. Correctly.

This guy is smooth.

If you want to make yourself ill just compare him to the front runner in the GOP nomination.

Canada is a pretty lucky country.

Hopefully they will cherish their intelligent charismatic leader far more than Americans have done for the last seven and a half years.

Our future. Whether we like it or not.

More info here.

Soon we will be not only playing games in a virtual reality, but also communicating, working, and even developing relationships in virtual reality.

Which might seem cool and innovative to most of us, but that is until we realize how we will look to those not "jacked in."

Yeah, that might be a problem.

Personally I am looking forward to VR. I have read some amazing ideas concerning its numerous applications, and the possibilities for improving our lives in multiple ways.

However the question of what it will do to our ability to function in the non-VR world is one that we really need to come to terms with.

Some religious leaders believe that in the future AI can be converted to Christianity. They do realize that the "I" stand for intelligence don't they?

Courtesy of Gizmodo:  

AI with intelligence equal to or beyond human beings is often referred to as "strong AI" or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Experts disagree as to when such an intelligence will arrive into the world, but many are betting it will happen sometime in the next two decades. The idea of a thinking machine being able to rival our own intellect—in fact, one that could quickly become far smarter than us—is both a reason for serious concern and a reason to cheer about what scientific advances it might teach us. Those worries and benefits have not escaped religious. 

Some faith-bound Americans want to make sure any superintelligence we create knows about God. And if you think the idea of preaching God to autonomous machines sounds crazy, you may be overlooking key statistics of U.S. demographics: roughly 75 percent of adult Americans identify themselves as some denomination of Christianity. In the U.S. Congress, 92 percent of our highest politicians belong to a Christian faith. 

As artificial intelligence advances, religious questions and concerns globally are bound to come up, and they're starting too: Some theologians and futurists are already considering whether AI can also know God. 

"I don't see Christ's redemption limited to human beings," Reverend Dr. Christopher J. Benek told me in a recent interview. Benek is an Associate Pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church in Florida and holds masters degrees in divinity and theology from Princeton University. 

"It's redemption to all of creation, even AI," he said. "If AI is autonomous, then we have should encourage it to participate in Christ's redemptive purposes in the world."

The article goes on to discuss the possibility of AI someday developing something akin to a "soul"  which I have long identified as self awareness, and whether at that time the machine intelligence would be susceptible to faith.

In a word, no.

For one thing the artificial intelligence will not have biological ties to beings who self identify as Christian, Muslim, Jew, etc.. And for another they will not be as susceptible to societal pressures to fit in with others like themselves.

And let's fact it if the Artificial Intelligence were to be exposed to the wide variety of religions, which of course it would be, it will quickly identify the similarities, recognize the factual deficiencies, and reject them all out of hand.

However I will open the floor to dissenting opinions.

Worst popcorn ball recipe ever.

Just a note on that last note.

Pornography is bigger than ever and driving much of the innovation in computers, website design, and online purchasing, just like it drove much of the innovation in home video technology in the 1980's.

And so demonstrates the power of prayer.

I think I found my next computer keyboard.

Courtesy of Fast Company:  

If you've ever been so frustrated with work email that you wanted to punch your computer—or toss it out the window, à la the Office Space printer beatdown—you might appreciate this new keyboard design. Designers replaced each letter with a punching bag, so if you want to write anything, you'll have to kick or bodyslam it out. 

For the designers, the "workoutcomputer" was a more interesting way to approach our sedentary work lives than a typical standing or cycling desk. "We were inspired by personal needs for physical activity during daytime, and back pain in the evening after a full office day in front of the computer," say designers Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag, from the European design studio Bless. 

Instead of splitting the day into time for working and time for working out, the designers wanted to combine both simultaneously. Of course, it's not exactly the most efficient way to type a page. 

"If you were using it the first time, it might take approximately two minutes per word, depending on the length," say Heiss and Kaag. "But when you know where all the keys are, you could actually write relatively fast. Of course, it still takes 10 times longer than using a normal keyboard, seeing that the distances between the keys are vaster."

As much as I like this concept, using it would probably mean I could only get out two or three posts a day. But damn those would be hard hitting posts. If you know what I mean.

Ah, but just imagine how much more satisfying it would be to type up a post on Republican trickery or Sarah Palin shenanigans with this bad boy.

I am actually fairly good at staying on a workout schedule and do a combination of resistance training and cardio at least five times a week, if not six.

And I actually used to box when I was younger, and fought in full contact Karate matches as well, so I am no stranger to the heavy and speed bags. Still I am trying to imagine my success at typing on this while trying to enjoy my evening glass of wine.

I am guessing it would even more full of typos and run on sentences than usual.

Damn it I knew it! Alaska has the second slowest internet in the nation.

Courtesy of Radio Kenai:  

As one of the country’s most remote states, Alaska is often behind the eight ball when it comes to new developments, especially in technology. A new study confirms what many have suspected: Alaska’s internet speeds are among the slowest in the country. 

What might be surprising is that Alaska wasn’t the slowest in the test; Akmai Technologies said Arkansas took the red lantern with the slowest rates in the USA. 

Report author David Belson said Alaska’s Internet speeds are up 33 percent from last year, but they’re still only half as fast as the three states with the best internet delivery: Virginia, Delaware and Massachusetts.

I don't even want to tell you how much I have to pay per month to the bandits of GCI for halfway reasonable internet speeds, but I will tell you that it is money better spent on loose women and dangerous mind altering substances.

And considering how important my internet is to my job, my free time, and my sex life when there are no loose women around, I really do not have much of a choice.

What we need up here is some real competition.

And I don't mean some fly by night company making promises and talking smack that GCI will smash like a but under their heel.

No what we need is Google Fiber.

Sadly I live in Alaska which means that it will probably take a decade or more before Google Fiber finds its way up here.

By which time I will probably only be able to pound out one or two posts a day with my claw like arthritic fingers. And the majority of them will probably be focused on the last time I was able to take a poop.

Oh well, it could be worse. I could be living in Arkansas.

FBI would like to hire computer experts to help fight cyber crime, if they could only find some that don't smoke pot. Good luck with that.

FBI Director James B. Comey

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal:  

Monday was a big day for the nation’s cyber police. The Justice Department charged five Chinese military officials with hacking, and brought charges against the creators of powerful hacking software. 

But FBI Director James B. Comey said Monday that if the FBI hopes to continue to keep pace with cyber criminals, the organization may have to loosen up its no-tolerance policy for hiring those who like to smoke marijuana. 

Congress has authorized the FBI to add 2,000 personnel to its rolls this year, and many of those new recruits will be assigned to tackle cyber crimes, a growing priority for the agency. And that’s a problem, Mr. Comey told the White Collar Crime Institute, an annual conference held at the New York City Bar Association in Manhattan. A lot of the nation’s top computer programmers and hacking gurus are also fond of marijuana. 

“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Mr. Comey said. 

Mr. Comey said that the agency was “grappling with the question right now” of how to amend the agency’s marijuana policies, which excludes from consideration anyone who has smoked marijuana in the previous three years, according to the FBI’s Web site.

Let's face it, the new methodology for fighting crime in the 21st century, has less to do with marksmanship and kicking in front doors, and more to do with killing viruses and finding the backdoor that leads past computer security systems.

And the people who are best trained to do that are not likely to be a straight arrow, g-man type as played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in the old FBI television series and instead be more like this guy.

 In other words our ability to defend ourselves against devastating cyber attacks from Iran, China, and of course Canada, may be put at risk by the idea that marijuana is a dangerous drug like heroin instead of a socially accepted mood modifier like beer.

Internet use by older Americans can fight depression. Well now I know why I'm so happy all the time.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A new study published in The Journals of Gerontology suggests that Internet use can reduce the probability of depression among retirees who live alone by 33 percent. 

The study was authored by Shelia Cotten of Michigan State University, George Ford of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, Sherry Ford of the University of Montevallo, and Timothy Hale of Harvard Medical School. They used information gathered during the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey collecting data from more than 20,000 older and retired Americans. 

The authors noted “[r]etired persons are a population of interest, particularly because one mechanism by which Internet use may affect depression is to counter the effects of isolation and loneliness, which are more common among older adults.” 

They found “that for retired older adults in the United States, Internet use was found to reduce the probability of a depressed state by about 33 percent.” 

Makes sense. After all hanging out here with all of you always brightens my day.

Alan Turing, WWII codebreaker and father of the computer, granted rare royal pardon for the crime of being a homosexual.

Courtesy of Reuters: 

Mathematician Alan Turing, who helped Britain win World War Two by cracking Nazi Germany's "unbreakable" Enigma code, was granted a rare royal pardon on Tuesday for a criminal conviction for homosexuality that led to his suicide. 

Turing's electromechanical machine, a forerunner of modern computers, unraveled the code used by German U-boats in the Atlantic. His work at Bletchley Park, Britain's wartime codebreaking centre, was credited with shortening the war. 

However, he was stripped of his job and chemically castrated with injections of female hormones after being convicted of gross indecency in 1952 for having sex with a man. Homosexual sex was illegal in Britain until 1967. 

Turing killed himself in 1954, aged 41, with cyanide. 

Justice Minister Chris Grayling said the pardon from Queen Elizabeth would come into effect immediately and was a fitting tribute to "an exceptional man with a brilliant mind".

Without this great man we may have lost the war.

And without his contribution to modern day computing, I may not have been able to share this long overdue good news with all of you.

Remember when next you hear a conservative go on and on about the "good old days" that those old days were not good for everybody. And the times we are living in today are the ones that progressives have been fighting to drag  us to for decades.

World War 2 codebreaker, and "Father of Computer Science," Alan Turing to be pardoned for the sin of being a homosexual.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

 Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker who took his own life after being convicted of gross indecency under anti-homosexuality legislation, is to be given a posthumous pardon. 

The government signalled on Friday that it is prepared to support a backbench bill that would pardon Turing, who died from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41 in 1954 after he was subjected to "chemical castration". 

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a government whip, told peers that the government would table the third reading of the Alan Turing (statutory pardon) bill at the end of October if no amendments are made. "If nobody tables an amendment to this bill, its supporters can be assured that it will have speedy passage to the House of Commons," Ahmad said. 

The announcement marks a change of heart by the government, which declined last year to grant pardons to the 49,000 gay men, now dead, who were convicted under the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. They include Oscar Wilde. 

Ahmad told peers: "Alan Turing himself believed that homosexual activity would be made legal by a royal commission. In fact, appropriately, it was parliament which decriminalized the activity for which he was convicted.

Allan Turing was also instrumental in developing the notion of a 'Universal Machine,' the harbinger of the modern day computer. Which means that every homophobic redneck that calls somebody a "faggot" on Twitter is doing so on a device that owes its very existence to a homosexual.

How's that for irony?

While there are some applauding this action by the British government there are others who find even this to be an insult to the memory of this great man.

It is an insult to the memory of Alan Turing to talk about "pardoning" him, when he never did anything wrong in the first place.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 21, 2013

If there is any "pardoning" to be sought, it should be of the English judicial system, which hounded Alan Turing to his death.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 21, 2013

The man has a point.

Tennessee lawyer sues Apple for making a product that allowed him to watch porn and destroy his marriage. Okay, what did I just read?

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