The Moon is a Supervillain

The Moon is a super villain, and The Sun the savior. Chasing away the darkness that the crescent wears as the deep-sleeves of the night. The moon fight’s the sun for supremacy, and the night is the knight. The sun is the light, and the light down from great heights. Two battling enemies, and never the twain shall meet. Least the sun depart, darkness will wear the moon crown. Least the sun return, so too does the light, with all it’s army’s might. The villain is the war that tears man limb from limb in pitched black darkness; there is no eyesight, only opposition. Wearing the phantom’s mask, and sporting the killer’s black cape, we call that the night wearing silver.

There is silver in the sky, to keep the wolf from tearing the clouds asunder. Like when dark hounds form, we call them the storms, come to put an end unto the seeing-man’s wonder. And the hero is the one who saves the maiden, with bravery the light reflects his presence. A smile is like her hand against the face, and a breath of air is like a sigh of relief, from the warm arms of maiden’s embrace. The good news feels good, when the good news is made a’new.

Like when hope becomes the heart, with no shadows cast from the dark. And it is the two in the misaligned sky; the sun over the moonlight; waging war for supremacy, awaiting each’s day. Like when the mind battles the heart, or the darkness battles the eyes. Like when the soul questions the rock, or the sea challenges the skies. The moon is a supervillain, broken and floating; insane and unmoving, it’s the madness of despair. In breathing man’s lair.

And it is the sun, the hero, brighter than light and is light, it is the desperate man’s answer to his prayers. Never the two shall meet. And never shall the two battle-arena greet.

Just the silent titan against the magnanimous one, awaiting the two’s time for one of the other’s grandeur defeat.

Day Walkers

Outside was the cool, cool air;

unleased against–

The flowing wind is the howling wind;

like chimes in the distance.

The soul is unleased, there is no sound–

The sound is around.

Two legs walk forth, into ruin.

Four legs forth, and its the village we grew in.

A gasmask is a rune, used by the druid to escape the ruin–

What’s it like Living with ADHD? (My Personal Experience being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder)

Hey buds! It’s Everybody’s Favorite Uncle Gregory Thomas here!

I made a podcast that talks a bit in depth about my personal experiences having ADHD.

For those who have no idea what that diagnosis is, its basically a learning disability, where people who have it can’t focus.

But then again, who do you know nowadays that don’t seem to have ADHD, am I right?

-Sincerely, Your Favorite Uncle Greg

The Cigarrette Box Paradox

Imagine this scenareo:

You’re walking down the street in a poor part of town, and look over to your side to see a young 21 year old homeless man.

He is strung out on drugs, and can’t afford clothes, food or water. He turns your direction, and asks.

“Hey bud, do you have a pack of cigarettes? I’d get my own, but I’ just got laid off from work. Please, I’m really depressed, and just need something light to take the edge off.”

Looking in your pocket, you find that you have two packs of cigarettes (let’s say that you’re an advet smoker).

Here is where the question comes in at:

If you give the homeless man a pack of cigarettes, would you be doing a good deed, or a bad deed?

This, is the Cigarette Paradox that I came up with.

The Paradox is this: If you give the stressed Homeless man a pack of cigarettes, you would be doing a good deed because you’d be giving to those in need, however because the pack of cigarettes is a toxic habit, you would be paving the way for him to have potential health problems. Thus, you’d be doing a bad deed. Like a man giving free crack to a first time buyer; yes you gave him something for free, but what you gave him was harmful to his wellbeing.

Moreover, if you told the homeless man no, you would be fulfilling the role of the greedy. Not giving to those in need, and only keeping things for yourself, even if what you won’t share, is bad for your health for the both of you.

How then, can we do a good deed, if the person asking for us to help them, wants us to help them with something that is not good for them?

The Cigarette Box Paradox goes in even deeper, when we use it in other more serious scenareos:

Such as a doctor, and a patient in the hospital that’s paralyzed from the neck down.

The patient has zero quality of life after attempting to commit suicide, his attempt failed, and left him paralyzed, giving him further turmoil.

He asks the doctor to put him out of his misery. Would the doctor be doing a good deed humanly euthanizing him? It be what his patient wanted, but it would also be committing murder.

Or would he be doing a good deed allowing his patient to suffer, unable to give him a better life?

The end result leads to the choice yielding no good answer, or at least none that could leave the two to truly be satisfied. The scenareos that can be swapped with the two actors can vary greatly in almost any situation; the soldier and his wounded comrade, a mother and son in coma, a dog owner, and his gravely wounded dog.

(Soldier: If his comrade can’t be saved, and enemeies are closing in on him, does he kill his own comrade, other than risking both their lives trying to save him. Doing so would keep him from being killed or tortured by invading forces, but is that honorable, or should they both perish? Mother and son in coma: If her son was in a coma for 20 years, should she pull the plug, or have him live the rest of his days attached to a slim chance of recovery? What choice would be the most noble? Dog Owner: If his dog has gone blind, and cannot walk or hear, but can still eat and drink…Would it be good karma to keep the dog alive with his health slowly deteriorating, or would shooting it and putting his beloved pet down yield good karma?)

Even biblically in regards to God and humanity; if God giving a man over 1 million dollars would make him happy, but turn him greedy and wicked, would God be doing a good deed, or bad one? Thus it would be more just for Him not to give this man that large sum, but the man will be greatly saddened, unknowing of why God won’t answer his prayers for great riches.

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The Cigarette Box Paradox is quite a cruel dilemna, that hopefully mankind will never be faced with, but understanding how each choice applies to us and the people we’re faced with will help us as a society to know the true difference between right and wrong, and what must and mustn’t be done.

-Sincerely, Everybody’s favorite Uncle, Gregory Thomas

The Art of Emotion

A stone, still stuck in its ambition. That’s the skin.
The body is the war, and the depths within.
The mind war torn like glass through the flesh; or a sword made from steel headed straight for neck.
The knight on horseback reckoning the wind.
The day the resentment begins, is the hour of sin.
Three birds flap thrice, in search of the night. A war torn pilot and his squad.
A boy and his dog.
The soul and its body.
And what good are eyes that can’t stare into the light?
Blinded by the truth.
The pain is too strong.

And what water is there to drink, without the muscles to swallow your own tears.
Like a stone in the throat, or the truth down a hole.
Like the sum of all fears, or the great unknown.
And what faith was faith, without its faith?
And what escape is escape, without a way to escape? The heart is the heart, even if the heart forgets it once was a heart.

Does War Have Emotion?

The pilot in the air. The killing air.

Soldier on the ground; The killing fields.

A soul in limbo; another widow.

For the ground, a quicksand abyss;

and it is indeed the quote, the very saying in this;

if you stare into the void, the void stares back with a thousand yard stare.

Finding hope, on the battlefields of despair.

Galloping to and frou, you lonely soul. Following the Freedom Flag home.

The ribcage; iron bars.

My eyes hurt from seeing the pain; everything the light touches is a glass shard’s regain.

The regiment of valor, at war a’gain. The mind is a rock that is down to earth.

The clouds in the sky? Cotton balls; nothing but a floating hearse.

Pilots in the sky get hit with a missile; then their souls float the white chariots to heaven; where they are given their wings. A hit and miss swing through solid clear skies; and the rain is just the teardrops, falling down from their eyes.

For a warrior is cursed to fight; his anger inside.

The Earth is planet Mars’ war-torn brother in disguise.

The Importance of Homeland Security (Data Compromise: Maintaining Business Ethics, Truth about Password Security)

Thomas, Gregory, (December 12, 2020), Cascadialegends.wordpress.com

Your passwords are useless. Because the bandits hack the king, and bypass the commoners.

This is because regardless of how “strong” it is, how many numbers and special characters you implement, the hackers of today are not living by a ‘dictionary attack’ method of hacking and stealing data (Ostrowick, John).

Dictionary attacks usually involve software or tool that attempts to go down each letter or word of the alphabet, systematically attempting to match a password case. If the program finds that an ‘A’ is in your password, then it will remember that A in the place it found it, then continue to match cases until it discovers your password.

Hackers have stronger tools to use other than this method, this is what large companies such as Windows and Amazon won’t tell you, and the FBI know this, but won’t tell you either.

Instead, a hacker will hack directly the database itself, which holds everybody’s information that has been stored on the cloud. The cloud is virtually impossible to keep from being compromised, because what happens in the cloud, stays in the cloud.

Under the illusion of control, big names such as Windows, Apple, Amazon, etc. will heavily force their customers to create a strong password, usually about eight characters long, with certain requirements that are needed in order to progress further (in example, even though the password: “!wEi8?aZ” took a long time to come up with, the page will not let you progress, if it requires three numbers to be used). This becomes even moreso tedious should a large company force longer passwords, such as a ten or twelve case letter. For the older generation, such as Baby Boomers, it is extremely difficult for them to progress further–even if they have over one million dollars in their pocket, being only human just like the rest of us the upper class also struggles greatly to maintain password security without the fustration of forced fixed passwords.

In fact, due to whaling and phishing hacking attacks (whaling is when a hacker masquerade as an upper level access employer, and cyphor sensitive information, usually through emails; phising is extremely popular in this day and age, and involves scammers trying to get unsuspecting users to release sensitive information, or click fraudulent links) (kaspersky.com) (consumer.ftc.gov).

Not going too much into the ins and outs of the two hacking atttempts, here are some things that you should know. Your uncle, Gregory Thomas here will tell you info big names will hide from you.

Regardless if you have no password or a strong password, hackers don’t need to guess your password.

Your information is stored in the cloud, which can be accessed via stolen data. This data comes not from you, but from the company itself. Like robbing a bank why do I rob an ATM, when the bank, if I am successful and if it’s illegal, will have more to offer?

Once data has been stolen from a company, all of their customer’s information (including your ‘strong passwords’) can be found at the source. This is the frailty of the cloud, and cannot be avoided.

This is why, the internet within itself, is virtually out-of-date, and needs to be upgraded.

More on that, mostly what’s important is maintaining data integrity. You can see many big names, such as Donald Trump, and Elon Musk, usually frequent Twitter, Facebook, etc. As a cardinal rule, I can say that what they do is highly unethical, do to the risk for compromise in security. The head of a company should always reframe from exposing the information of a social media platform. Though as rich as Elon is, its very clear that as a professional, he is inadequete to maintain security properly, is highly unethical, and engages in very risky behavior that can not only compromise his entire company, but lead him at risk of retaliation from hostile activist groups.

According to Melanie Kaidan from express.co.uk, Elon’s twitter rants even cross the dangerous boundaries of politics, where his responses sparked controversy; posting imagery appearing to mock preffered pronouns centered around profile descriptions (Kaidan, Melanie). Though as harmless as it may seem, Elon Musk shouldn’t even be maintaining a regular presence on the website, due to the risk of damaging reputation, integrity, and potentially compromising the security of the company. Nobody should know his political beliefs, or his stance on transgenders. This was just one of many times Elon has stirred controversy for his company, and though he stands as a billionare, you have to remember that attacks from countries such as Iran can cripple his profit, hacks are known to cause billion dollars of damage in a matter of minutes.

Instead, head CEOs should keep their conversations yay, yay, nay, nay, have representatives speak for them, and respond only when it is neccessary. To Americans, some may believe that just because somebody is rich, they can’t be stopped. However, unbeknowst to them, the ability to steal data, block access to one’s own website, and sabotage one’s company is made easier due to the level of technology that a criminal can gain access to online. In fact if I may be so bold, I’d give Elon Musk about less than eight years before a major event in linked to security compromise, corruption, hacking, or activism cripple both his wealth status, and company’s momentum.

Again, repeat, your passwords (though a password is better than none) don’t matter, beacause of a hacker’s ability to go straight for the jugguler, and hack CEOs, corporations, and databases attached to the cloud. In fact, due to it’s tedium, it actually confuses the companies themselves, when you are unable to access your accounts due to you not knowing the answers to your own security questions; in one case I had with Amazon, I had forgotten my password, and so I had to know my debit card’s last four numbers in order to progress further…But the card they were using was an old and outdated card that I didn’t use anymore, and the only way to progress further was to call their tech support.

Ask yourself, why should another company be using your debit card for entry? These are things that you should reveal as little as possible, and it’s clear that the password situation is not only getting out of hand, but is losing it’s potency in the IT world.

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References

dictionary attack, Ostrowick, John, Retrieved from URL:

https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/dictionary-attack#:~:text=A%20dictionary%20attack%20is%20a,encrypted%20message%20or%20document.

What is a Whaling Attack? Retrieved from URL:

https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-a-whaling-attack

How to Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams, (2019). https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams

Elon Musk sparks Twitter meltdown as SpaceX boss accused of sharing ‘transphobic’ meme, Kaidan, Melanie. (2020). Retrieved from URL:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1372589/elon-musk-news-twitter-spacex-controversy-transphobia-grimes-lgbtq-ont

My thoughts on College~Notes

The following are notes from my posts in my college course for Computer Information:

That’s amazing that you went 30 years without even needing a degree. That’s more than can be said for me, born in the 90s. Now a days nobody will hire you unless you have a degree if you plan on going into IT…However, that’s gunna change soon. The reason being is that companies just don’t have the time to wait four years for somebody trying to get hired to get their bachelor’s first. The truth of the matter is that jobs want to hire workers now, and will hire off the street and train people on the spot. Especially with the desperateness of companies needing people in IT as soon as possible, an IT job is going to be one of those “quick-hire” jobs that people can just walk in fresh off the street and get hired. Also, you have to keep in mind that many of the jobs in IT that are important now will be replaced with AI, apps, and machines. Soon, most jobs you used a human and a giant staff team for to get things done, will not even be neccessary, due to the increase in technology, and the supply and demand of industries needing to be quick and adaptive to the times.

You’ll notice that companies who never gave the future much thought are going out of business. This is a prime example of companies who failed to utilize the BYOB (Build Your Own Business) or DYOB (Destroy Your Own Business) strategies, in where companies strive to brainstorm all the ways the business could fail, then work to come up with policies and procedures to defend the company against such issues.

This is a crisis management skill all companies should employ, otherwise they’re basically just sitting ducks waiting for the end.

Also, college is fleeting by the day. What I mean by that is, due to the expenses needed after you graduate, the unpredictability of people finding a job that’ll even hire a college newby graduate (or just hire another employee’s cousin), the increase in technology, and the use of applications taking more and more jobs, all that, plus this crisis of over 46 million unemployments in the works all across not just America, but the world, many will stay as far away from college as possible.  Oh! Also, can’t forget the fact that most classes are all online, without hands on interactions, and basically people are just learning what they could’a learned for free off google search, and that people are just working to complete the work, this adds to the stress factor of going to college, and sadly many will steer away from this if they feel like it’s too much of a hassle. Racial tension isn’t the only thing that will change, next, people will be protesting heavily against colleges being a trap for students to get into. This will be the next thing The United States begins to regulate, once students lose their heads over the mounting stressors.

With all that being said, this will leave people who chose to go surely a treasure, as it’s all the companies got. It is what it is. Times are changing, and we’ll either end up like a futuristic society with robots walking around, holograms, flying cars. laser weaponry, and a society with too many rules…Or we’ll end up like a cave man style throwback, with waring tribes, and people abandoning everything to do with technology unless it’s a club and spear.

Sounds like science fiction, but it’s a scary true realization of our world.

Copyright June 18, 2020

Cloud Computing School Notes

The following are notes from my college Computer Information Class, in a reply to a discussion post.

Cloud computing is the new norm for society in this day and age. I couldn’t possibly imagine a successful company that failed to convert their data to the cloud, without eventually running into loss or corruption of data. When things like that happen, data can be lost and completely irreplaceable, simply because the company failed to back up their information. Even if all of a company used files in filing cabinets, this is also a bad idea, because in the event of a fire, the company will basically lose everything, when all they had to do was invest in the cloud.

With the cloud, information is basically invincible, and can’t be stopped. It serves as the digital fingerprint that can’t be erased. The CIA would have an easier time removing bloodstains, than the internet and the cloud. In fact, in case people might not have realized this, but even a camera (the old ones that use film) and your cellphone are basically mobile clouds. In the instance of your camera, even if you deleted all the pictures off of it, there is still a chance the FBI can retrieve them from the internal cloud in the device; on cellphones its impossible to hide anything, even if you deleted it. In fact, any website you visited, the address you viewed that website, the time, the number of clicks, the times you’ve searched the website, the pictures you’ve downloaded off that site, and any pictures on your computer are all be inevitably retrieved by the Government, due to the tools used in Crisis Management. 

With that in mind, a company can grow just as many immortal heads by moving their information and data to the cloud—even though the cloud is basically just a fountain of compromise that a hacker can dive in and out of at any given time, its still the best way to ensure that your data is always around, and can be retrieved.

That would be the drawback of using cloud for BCP by the way, it’s very hard to protect the cloud, which is why America runs into so many data breeches. It’s the flaw of the cloud. The digital fingerprint can’t be erased, and their is always a way to trace information back to the user. To mitigate the vulnerabilities associated with cloud computing, I would recommend a company invest in their own database. In other words, steer clear as much as possible from using a public database, such as google drive (NEVER use that for your company, it’s too public, the risk of compromise is very high) Stay away from emails like Gmail and definitely avoid yahoo for its security risks.

A company should do this, then use both DMZ tactics, virus security, and a troubleshoot that monitors the activities of all traffic that comes in and out of the database. Also, the company should use encryption and decryption, along with keys to work them. For this, you should invest in a cryptanalyst who specializes in these skills, and an architect that understand the entire network and infrastructure inside and out.

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Hmm, I’ve never heard of the ‘cloud itself’ coming out of business. I figured the cloud is basically just the place all data goes.

I can safely say that in the future (that is if we don’t convert back to caveman times due to mass poverty, heavy riots and protests killing the economy, war and famine) IT companies need to consider creating a more stable and secure alternative to cloud computing. Basically redesigning the entire internet, to be safer for users to browse. By this, I mean the internet doesn’t leave so many data trails in the network that lead to sever compromise from hackers.

This would take the building of hands from all around the world, new policies, and an agreement between the United Nations and other countries before it can take hold, as I’m sure many will be against it. If they are, then America needs to do it anyway for their own country, and leave others out, but then again, that might cause even more unrest between others.

Copyright June 13, 2020

Notes from Class -Offshoring Benefits-

The following contains notes from my college course, about offshoring:

Outsourcing is a very good way to save money. This is the main reason why so many may insist on outsourcing. With that being said,  Outsourcing shouldn’t be branded as a move used by “super-villain” companies, in where they stay away from doing their business in America, further hurting or negatively impacting the local ecomony. The reasoning behind outsourcing can also be used to spread a company’s business worldwide, without being stuck in America. 

Being able to branch out to other nations helps the consumer be able to get goods, such as a shirt from Walmart, without having to pay extra money due to supply and demand here in America. Over where supplies are plentiful, and where manual labor of the locals in other parts of the world only makes things cheaper and more convenient for us here. Services provided to companies will help their business grow, and this has been going on even in the BC era, as China has always been known for its ships and merchant to merchant innovations long before America was ever thought of. When this is combined with IT, the results are magnanimous, as the interaction, especially in lines of ITIL, will pave way for companies to become so potentially large, that they may become monopolies, if the government didn’t put into place laws to prevent their vast expansions.

The most logical reason to outsource is the main reason why most do; saving money. Americans have no intentions of stopping their outsourcing, with only recent events such as the coronavirus pandemic beginning to steer business elsewhere as smoothly as possible. Less labor on the American side is another boon for offshoring. The fact of the matter, is that as long as cheap and convenient remains lucretive, offshoring will continue to be the choice of companies not just in America, but all across the world.

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Honestly, costs are the main chunk of why everybody offshores and outsources.

There isn’t much else to it. With that in mind you have to think about it, here in America, having an American that knows the labor laws versus people subject to the laws of their country (America forbids the things in our country that China gets away with, but that’s a story for another time) you’ll see that the choice is a no brainer. Sadly, companies are worried about making money, not being ethical in regards to investing in labor overseas, as there are many cons to offshoring in where many companies overseas engage in questionable behavior. The way our phones, clothing, etc. are handled by companies overseas in order to reach us comfortably may be frowned upon, but having to pay 90 dollars for a t-shirt due to supply and demand will be frowned on even harder here, and so the best course of action would be to invest in offshoring and gaining the ability to maintain import as smoothly as possible.

Copyright May 30, 2020