Earlier today it was discovered that a large number of websites (over 4,000) – including UK government and NHS websites – had been compromised with a “cryptominer”. A cryptominer is a piece of software that “mines” cryptocoins like Bitcoin, LiteCoin, Ethereum, etc, which in turn generate income. When a cryptominer is included within the code of a website and a visitor visits a web page on the site, his/her web browser becomes a “miner” and their device’s CPU is used to “mine” coins for whoever placed the cryptominer within the code. Essentially, someone else profits at your expense (and at the detriment to your device, if its CPU is being maxed out through mining), and all this takes place without your knowledge!
Category: Read
📖 Read pages 40-57 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart
📖 Read pages 40-57, Chapter 1. What is it About Bread: Classification of breads & beginning of 12 stages of bread, of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by (Ten Speed Press, , ISBN: 978-1-60774-865-6)
Lots of nice definitions and categorization, though I can already tell from other readings that some of the definitions, particularly for pre-ferments, aren’t always as solid as I’d like them to be. As if he were a mathematician, however, he seems to delineate a pretty tight set here that he indicates he’ll stick to throughout the book.
Four types of pre-fermented dough
Stiff/firm: pâte fermentée and biga (no salt)
Wet: poolish and sponge (or levain levure)
👓 Slack is the opposite of organizational memory | Abe Winter
slack empowers your worst people to overwhelm your best. It has that in common with the open office. It normalizes interruptions, multitasking, and distractions, implicitly permitting these things to happen IRL as well as online. It normalizes insanely short reply times for questions. In the slack world people can escalate from asking in a room to @person to @here in a matter of minutes. And they’re not wrong to – if your request isn’t handled in 5 minutes it’s as good as forgotten.
An interesting take. There is obviously still room for a better mouse trap here.
👓 TEDxManchester 2018 – transcript | Dan Hett
Yesterday I stood on stage at the sold-out TEDxManchester at the Bridgewater Hall, and spoke to about 2,400 people about my experiences. It was terrifying, but ultimately a really positive experience. I've barely decompressed, and I'm going to write a full blog post about it all when my head is back together a bit, but for now here's the transcript of what I said, more or less:
A stunning and powerful story about the true effects of terrorism…
👓 Children aren’t starting puberty younger, medieval skeletons reveal | The Conversation
Children are entering puberty younger than before, according to recent studies, raising concerns that childhood obesity and hormone-contaminated water supplies may be to blame. However, our archaeological research suggests that there’s nothing to worry about. Children in medieval England entered puberty between ten and 12 years of age – the same as today.
Of course, naturally, this isn’t the publicly perceived story. There’s still some science missing from the overall arc of the story, but people who believe that chemicals in the environment and hormones in food are causing children to start puberty at younger ages should be questioning why they think this is the case.
If anything, perhaps better first world lives may be pressuring the age down a bit, but even then it sounds like there’s a lower limit. Evolutionary effects are also certainly at play as well.
👓 On digital archaeology | Andrew Eckford
The year is 4018. German is widely studied by scholars of classical antiquity, but all knowledge of the mysterious English language has died out. Scene: A classics department faculty lounge; a few professors are relaxing.
I worry about things like this all the time. Apparently it’s a terrible affliction that strikes those with a background in information theory at higher rates than the general public.
👓 Disaster strikes for couple who sold everything to sail around the world | The Mirror
Tanner Broadwell, 26, and Nikki Walsh, 24, have just £60 left after their vessel they had used all their funds to buy capsized at sea off the coast of Florida
Clickbaity article. They were young and honestly didn’t lose that much in the grand scheme. How do inexperienced sailors eschew insurance on a new boat though?
📖 Read pages 29-44 of Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
📖 Read pages 29-44, Chapter 2: Mrs. Quimby’s Secret, of Ramona The Brave by (William Morrow and Company, , ISBN: 0-688-22015-0)
The girls bicker and are at each other’s throats until mom comes home to say they’re expanding the house and adding on an extra room. Ramona gets it first.
Today’s word of the day: varlet!
👓 State launches Aetna probe after stunning admission | CNN
California's insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after learning a former medical director for the insurer admitted under oath he never looked at patients' records when deciding whether to approve or deny care.
Things you often suspected were true sadly, sometimes, are.
👓 The Songs That Bind | The New York Times
Data drawn from Spotify listeners reveal that we are all teenagers in love.
Apparently our musical tastes are firmed up in our early teens… this explains a lot for me.
👓 Top official departs ‘rudderless’ railroad safety agency | Politico
The resignation of the former acting chief of the Federal Railroad Administration comes while Democrats are blocking a vote on a permanent leader — and as train-related deaths climb.
👓 Let’s Ban Porn | New York Times
An immodest proposal for the era of #MeToo.
👓 Gillibrand: If Trump wants due process, we’ll have hearings on allegations against him | The Hill
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) went after President Trump on Saturday for his tweet questioning a lack of "due process" in abuse claims, saying that Congress could hold hearings about sexual misconduct allegations against him if he wanted due process. “The President has shown through words and actions that he doesn’t value women. It’s not surprising that he doesn’t believe survivors or understand the national conversation that is happening,” Gillibrand tweeted.
📖 Read pages 1-28 of Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
📖 Read pages 1-28, Chapter 1: Trouble in the Park, of Ramona The Brave by (William Morrow and Company, , ISBN: 0-688-22015-0)
Somehow this isn’t as entertaining as prior incarnations of Ramona, perhaps because it was written a few decades later? There’s still a kernel of Ramona, but something seems off.
Jesus, Beezus!
Highlight (yellow) – Chapter 1: Trouble in the Park > Page 16
👓 Can’t Get Your News From Facebook Anymore? Try These 6 Apps | Wired
Now that the social network is changing what shows up in your feed, you’ll have to go elsewhere for current news.
I’ll particularly agree with how good I find Nuzzel to be, though I will say that I do take heavy advantage of a variety of highly curated Twitter lists which I’m sure helps the algorithm for the quality of news I get back out of the system.
I would prefer more transparency about how those that use algorithms are doing so.
Some of these don’t amount to much more than glorified RSS feed readers, and I’m shocked that the state of the art of the area isn’t much further along than it was a decade ago.