Tootfinder

My contribution to #footpathFriday , just fresh from the press ;-)
I went to the local hill / mountain today to escape the fog / clouds. Well and also to see whether the fog would create some nice mood to capture along the way that I'm walking rather often.
And indeed it was a very pleasant experience to walk into the fog and breaking through it to see some blue sky.

Like all the rest of the nerds, I did a bit of tech support on family computers.
They're all popping up windows from scam virus scanners lying that subscriptions need to be renewed or machines are unprotected. People don't know how to remove these things. Luckily they also don't really know how to pay the subscription.
Their phones are updating on them. Changing where buttons used to be. Removing options. Forcing people to register to use they things they have been doing for years.
They don't know how to register.
Things pop up asking for passwords and they have no idea who is asking or which password to use.
I tell them that I don't really understand why they keep using Windows now it is so shitty and awful. They say they don't know how to use anything else. The fact they don't really know how to use windows either doesn't seem to register.
The tech corporations have given up completely on being user friendly. They are all deliberately user hostile and exploitative now.
Corporate tech is terrible. The industry is failing it's users, abusing them. People don't even know there is any other way. They are just giving up on achieving their tasks until someone can fix the pop-ups and subscription boxes and passwords and 2fa for them.
Tech sucks now. Sucks hard.
#tech #christmasTechSupport

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The polar vortex has caused a cold snap here, and the Great Lakes are rapidly forming ice. Under this thick ice, algae are growing. These are normal diatom phytoplankton, which change to form thick chains, attaching to the underside of the ice where light is optimal. We clearly see this brown ice and water in the wake of our icebreakers. This occurs near the pole…

As SBOMs slowly progress at the federal level and in enterprises, the rise of AI coding assistants is fueling optimistic—and, some experts argue, “kind of insane”—claims about a future with vulnerability-free software.
Check out my latest CyberScoop piece.
Many thanks to @…, @…

The slow rise of SBOMs meets the rapid advance of AI
Despite progress from CISA and global regulators, SBOM adoption in the private sector remains slow as experts debate if AI-driven coding will improve or undermine software security and transparency.

In 2014, NASA awarded a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract to Boeing to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station with its #Starliner spacecraft; as part of its contract, Boeing was awarded up to six crewed flights to the orbital complex - after a thorough evaluation, the definitive order has been adjusted to four missions, with the remaining two available as options: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/11/24/nasa-boeing-modify-commercial-crew-contract/. The next Starliner flight, known as Starliner-1, will be used by NASA to deliver necessary cargo to the orbital laboratory and allow in-flight validation of the system upgrades implemented following the Crew Flight Test mission last year - NASA and Boeing are targeting no earlier than April 2026 to fly the uncrewed Starliner-1 pending completion of rigorous test, certification, and mission readiness activities.

“Ow” Isn’t Enough: Writers, We Can Do Better #CrimeFiction
https://www.bobmuellerwriter.com/ow-isnt-enough-writers-we-can-do-better/

“Ow” Isn’t Enough: Writers, We Can Do Better – Bob Mueller
Writers and filmmakers often miss the small but important details that make stories feel real. From painless gunshots to inaccurate Miranda warnings, these storytelling pet peeves pull viewers out of the moment and remind us how much realism really matters.

A jury has found Edo, a TV ad measurement company, liable for breach of contract and says Edo must pay $18.3M in damages to rival iSpot; Edo plans to appeal (Dade Hayes/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/01/edward-norton-ad-tech-fir…

Edward Norton-Backed Ad Tech Firm EDO Found Liable For Contract Breach; Jury Awards Rival ISpot $18.3M For Improperly Obtained Data
EDO, an ad tech firm co-founded by actor and filmmaker Edward Norton, has been found liable for theft and breach of contract by a federal jury in L.A.

"I have always believed in deeds, not words."
As the ongoing Russian attacks keep crippling our infrastructure (as seen from a cold unpowered home with a failing cell connection), I am left with few options. One of them, ruminating before sleep on a strange recurring phenomenon. If not careful, we become what we fight.
We're not infallible. It's the values we keep, the tradeoffs we make to succeed that shape us.
Be vigilant. Watch yourself.
And stay sa…

BRICKSTORM Backdoor
"The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) analyzed eight BRICKSTORM samples obtained from victim organizations. BRICKSTORM is a custom Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) Go-based backdoor. "
MISP standard and STIX files available at the following location:
🔗 https://cti-tra…

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The White Cliffs of Dover are an iconic formation often seen on television or films that can be over 100 m high. The white colour is chalk "biomicrite" formed by the compacted deposits from dense blooms of Coccolithophore phytoplankton covered with distinct plates of calcite (coccoliths) in a shallow sea during the Late Cretaceous. The dark bands of fli…