thebaldgeek

So I hear that some Aussies had a day off for a horse race….
Holidays, don’t get me started about holidays (But, I have to admit, since we are not heading home so much, we are able to do a few more things over here which has been really really nice, but it’s still a constant battle to get some down time).

Anyway, this story is what prompted this blog…..

http://petapixel.com/2015/11/04/woman-shares-selfie-with-winning-horse-race-ticket-has-the-825-stolen/

A Perth, Australia woman named Chantelle attended the prestigious Melbourne Cup horse race yesterday and placed a 100-to-1 bet on Prince Of Penzance. When that horse won the race, Chantelle’s ticket was worth $825.

To celebrate, Chantelle posted a selfie of herself with her ticket on Facebook:

What she didn’t realize was that the barcode in the photo can be used at an automated machine to claim the winnings, and that’s exactly what someone did after seeing the photo.

So yeah, she is out the money. Major downer to the day.

I feel bad for her, but want to push the lesson home with this news story from a September….

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/lockpickers-3-d-print-tsa-luggage-keys-leaked-photos/

THE TSA IS learning a basic lesson of physical security in the age of 3-D printing: If you have sensitive keys—say, a set of master keys that can open locks you’ve asked millions of Americans to use—don’t post pictures of them on the Internet.

Those photos first began making the rounds online last month, after the Washington Post unwittingly published (and then quickly deleted) a photo of the master keys in an article about the “secret life” of baggage in the hands of the TSA. It was too late. Now those photos have been used to derive exact cuts of the master keys so that anyone can reproduce them in minutes with a 3-D printer or a computer-controlled milling machine.

So yeah, please keep in mind that anything you show in a photo can be used in all sorts of ways.
A simple Google on the topic shows all sorts of exploits on bar codes, QR codes, coupons and physical objects.

A our house we always, A.L.W.A.Y.S, mock the anti piracy notice that plays on the start of a lot of DVD’s and Blu Rays… If you have seen it you know it… The bit about stealing a car, and not downloading movies, we rip it and say, “well, actually, you can download a car now days”…. (Another topic for another blog).

The point is, if you can see it, you can copy it.
Be mindful of what you pictures you post online.

You guys know I love weather, and you know I love computers… so how could I not just be gushing over this announcement!

http://www.programmableweb.com/news/​ibm-bets-big-weather-data-weather-company-acquisition/2015/11/02

In a nutshell, IBM have bought the weather company.
For two (2) billion (billion with a b) dollars….. Whoa.

Why?

IBM’s Weather Company acquisition hinges on its ability to create value by applying the company’s cognitive computing platform, Watson, to The Weather Company’s data to create predictive weather analytics solutions.

So yeah, because of artificial intelligence.
IBM now have a pretty solid data set to play with. Get weather forecasting right and you could make some serious money.

All jokes aside, this is a pretty cool acquisition and if done right, could really not only pay out big for IBM, but honestly do some good for the entire planet.
I for one welcome our weather prediction AI brain.

What a time to be alive.
There is so much cool tech stuff happening that it’s hard just to keep up with it.

I first got interested in fusion reactors by reading an article in Reader’s Digest back when I was 12 or 13 years old. (Living in a suburb of Brisbane called The Gap).

Can’t profess that I have been keeping uptodate with it since, but every time something floats past about it, I read it.
In this case, the video is probably more suited to my blog readers than the text, so here is it… Just days away from being tested with plasma….