Hacking Capital One

I think of a firewall as an intrusion avoidance component of a software system.

It keeps unauthorized access to the nucleus of a system – the business of a system: passwords, customer data etc. - from happening.

I think of hacking as getting into the business of a system – the nucleus; penetrating a firewall opens up opportunities for hacking, but it is not hacking; hacking is breaking through the – one would hope and suppose – iron clad security wrapping the business system; if the security wrapping is robust enough, hacking won’t happen.

So, if the news is correct, and if the Capital One hacker accomplished stealing the data of 100 million Capital One customers by discovering an improperly configured firewall and penetrating it, one must find fault with the security wrapping Capital One’s business as being far from iron clad.

Maybe she is super-human, but likely she isn’t.

The fact that the Capital One business resides on Amazon Web Services makes the story pretty interesting.

All one needs to do is penetrate AWS’s firewall and the business systems are open season due to less than iron clad security wrapping?

Apolitical Images For 29 July 2019

Now that donnie is revving up the republican hate machine I find myself at a loss for words.

If getting all the white hate crowd behind him gets him re-elected, I am at a loss for what to do next; I've always thought I would live to see a medium chocolate colored America; apparently I am going to live to see a blood spattered streets America.

You gotta hand it to old donnie: he's one hell of a bidnessman.

So while I am contemplating how to live through America's imminent demise, let's look at some happy pictures.

Final Indictment

Over time America has been indicted and found guilty of a number of things.

A few biggies spring to mind: slavery; apartheid, and xenophobia.

Recently the clown masquerading as president has done a number of things that are all unexplainable in any normal or rational universe.

The clown’s acolytes have the explanation, though; they continue to assure us that all his tweets of recent are part of a genius-contrived master plan to win re-election.

If the president – pretend or otherwise – by attacking at random American citizens wins re-election, we will have all come under the final indictment.

Images Of Notre Dame

Notre Dame is a person.

At least she always has been to me.

Ever since I started living for extended periods in Paris, during which time I walk for hours taking pictures, Notre Dame has been a major part of my life.

And of my pictures.

Several years ago I had decided that I had taken every picture of her from every angle and in every possible light condition; "I am not taking any more" I thought.

I thought that while finishing up a great late lunch at Le Départ St-Michel.

As I left I left Le Départ I glanced over at Notre Dame.

The westering sun had her in light I had never seen.

I took a bunch of pictures and dropped the nonsense about having taken every possible one.

So when she burned I had an homage trove of images.

Here are some of them.

There are quite a few here, but they are not many of the ones that I have.

Finally, What That Bird Is

I have been trying to get a decent picture of this bird for years.

I see them in Le Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

They don’t like to sit still and they don’t like to be close to humans, so getting zoomed and focused is no mean feat.

Anyway, this one came up on my screen saver; it’s not very good, but it’s about as good as I have ever been able to get, so I captured it, cropped it and did a little Photoshop lightening and darkening.

So I could get a pretty good look at it.

“You know” I said to no one in particular, “except for the color that looks like a chickadee”.

So I did a search “European Chickadee” and that’s what it is.

Watch The Fuse

Because there is one, and it has been lit.

That’s all that really happened on the 24th.

Now that unanimous, trans-partisan contempt is being heaped upon Robert Mueller’s “performance” in his recent testimony it is easy to miss that fact.

Because it’s such a little thing; and the heap of derision is such a big thing.

So donnie and his acolytes are all basking in the perceived warmth generated from that heap.

Even the legitimate press and the night-time commentators are universal in their scorn.

Even Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me in the daytime.

But the fuse that is now lit on the bundle of explosives that is the Mueller Report is wending its way bundle-ward.

Yogi always said “It aint over till it’s over”; Chris Christie said 'This Russia thing is far from over'.

Both Yogi and Chris describe the phenomenon of a very long fuse, once lit.

You aint felt warmth yet.

Mueller Report Potpourris

I listened on NPR.

I found Mueller to be a credible witness.

I found the republicans to be assassins.

I found the democrats to vary in skill and impact.

I found the spinal chord of The Mueller Report to be the bottom line of the day’s testimony, which is:

“There was massive Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

There were a large number of contacts between the trump campaign and the Russians.

We can’t find solid enough evidence of conspiracy by trump and his campaign to expect to prevail in court against the arcane and hyper rigorous legal requirements necessary to prove conspiracy.

This is significantly different from saying that the president is not guilty of conspiracy.

Collusion is not a crime and therefore has no part in this investigation.

The president has performed a large number of actions that could be obstruction of justice.

The only way to decide that issue is to prosecute.

Various factors preclude indictment of a sitting president.

There is, however, a constitutionally provided avenue for that prosecution.

Lacking the outcome of such a prosecution, we are unable to stipulate that the president is guilty of obstruction of justice or that he is innocent of that crime.”

Then, later in the day, I saw substantial videos of the testimony.

Seeing Mueller say what he was saying, not just hearing it, for me, sealed the deal.

His face, as deadpan as he must be proud of thinking it can be, wasn’t.

Deadpan.

And therein was told the tale, in support of all the words in his historic Report.

donnie is guilty; guilty; guilty.

Period.

old bone spurs is Quite a Military man

Or so he says.

Only yesterday he said he could destroy Afghanistan in a week but he didn't want to kill ten million people (he got the body count from Sean Hannity, another heavy military man).

I once wanted to be an entertainer.

If the early success of the RF Trio can be taken as evidence that I might have achieved that goal, the fact that Vietnam trumped that wish might be significant.

I guess.

But WTF.

So now we have donnie.

He wanted to be - something - maybe a real estate developer or something, seems to be what it was.

And I guess he has become one of those animals.

At least he seems to have the emoluments market cornered.

But to get to be what he wanted to be he needed to avoid going to Vietnam.

And he did.

Avoid going.

To Vietnam.

He's a winner.

I couldn't figure out how to avoid going to Vietnam.

So the trio, and being an entertainer, died.

But WTF.

Here is what we sounded like; it wouldn't work now, but it wasn't bad for the early sixties:

http://noelmckeehan.com/nelliesitsawaitin.html

So I went.

And donnie bought a podiatrist.

And donnie didn't.

Go to Vietnam.

That makes me a "LOOOSER".

That's a visual simulation of a Queens accent.

So old bone spurs has, for the moment, eschewed, killing ten million people and the rest of us,

all get to act as if it makes sense that a draft dodging sex criminal has any say in the conduct of world affairs.

That is sort of like Kafka's first few words in Metamorphosis.

Here is a picture.

The black background is the cumberbund from my semi formal uniform that I wore at dining ins as an Air Force officer.

Look up Hap Arnold  for more on this subject.

Look up old bone spurs for the rest.

Images In Lieu Of Anything Else

Hearing trump accuse Iran of lying is a little like waking up and 

discovering that you have become a cockroach.

That is so absurd that an alternate universe needs to be invoked.

Here are a few flashes in that universe's pan: