As much as we’d all like to think otherwise, the reality is there are many out there hurting right now. Furloughs, cutbacks and job losses have left millions of Americans in a tough financial place, for some even far worse off than during the 2008 housing crisis economic downturn.

Many of those affected could use something to help get them back on the feet. And if it means a new career with the prospect of new job training, even that new lease on lease needs to come at an absolutely minimal cost.

As the Financial Times reports, “Tech companies are still hiring feverishly as they move to take advantage of a world shifting increasingly to digital.” And IT security experts will be a huge portion of that expanded workforce. The Complete Cyber Security Certification Training Bundle not only offers the background to get hired in one of those new positions, but students can even pay the price they want to pay for that training.

The package includes nine IT security certification prep courses with more than 100 hours of instruction in areas like ethical hacking, penetration testing, auditing and more.

All the biggest IT security acronyms are here in this collection, including training for CISSP, CPEH, CISM, CISA, and CPTE certifications.

From generalized training to validate knowledge about the information security and best practices to specialized looks at risk management, cryptography, ID and access management, network, server, and app security and more, this package lines up all the training to be ready to take and pass six different certification exams, including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) test, issued by the world’s leading cybersecurity and IT security professional organization. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/get-11-cyber-security-training.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/the-quarantine-coloring-book-p.html

“No. Bull. Shit.”

I love this woman.

Congresswoman Katie Porter of Orange County, California, speaking with Samantha Bee.

'If you're full of bullshit, I'm coming for you.'

For those taking notes at home, here’s a list of things I don’t have time for:

1. That.pic.twitter.com/apmGFOnZgz

 Katie Porter (@katieporteroc) April 10, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/if-youre-full-of-bullshit.html

“[D]eaths over the last month dwarf what would be expected from seasonal variations, and look more like a mass casualty event.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/brutal-chart-shows-all-causes.html

Some centenarians have survived coronavirus

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/woman-107-recovers-from-coro.html

Huh, that's... weird? No?

The White House announced today that impeached U.S. President Donald Trump spoke today to Vladimir Putin of Russia.

This was their second call in as many days.

Putin and Trump “discussed the latest efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and maintain stability in global energy markets. The two leaders also covered critical bilateral and global issues,” says the White House.

Source: AP

White House: President Trump spoke today to Vladimir Putin of Russia.

This is their second call in as many days.

 Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) April 10, 2020

Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, the White House says. They "discussed the latest efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and maintain stability in global energy markets. The two leaders also covered critical bilateral and global issues" per WH

 Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) April 10, 2020

I’d previously assumed that the lack of reported Russian cases was due to the strong leadership of Vladimir Putin. But it turns out that the government may have been dishonest and now things are getting bad. https://t.co/4U2y5xr5A1

 Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) April 10, 2020

The Latest: Trump, Putin discuss virus, global energy (from @AP) https://t.co/W7ozIXFtk7

 Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 10, 2020

Imagine the ratings Trump could get if he aired his Putin convos live.

 JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) April 10, 2020

POTUS at WH coronavirus briefing yesterday: "I just spoke with President Putin, and the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman, and we had a big talk as to oil production and OPEC and making it so that our industry does well and the oil industry does better than it's doing right now."

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/trump-speaks-to-vladimir-putin.html

Google and Apple are working on a joint effort to introduce opt-in Bluetooth-based COVID-19 contact tracing APIs in mid-May for iOS and Android.

The companies say the technology will not track the users' location or identity.

Contact tracing can help slow the spread of COVID-19 and can be done without compromising user privacy. We’re working with @sundarpichai & @Google to help health officials harness Bluetooth technology in a way that also respects transparency & consent. https://t.co/94XlbmaGZV

 Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 10, 2020

To help public health officials slow the spread of #COVID19, Google & @Apple are working on a contact tracing approach designed with strong controls and protections for user privacy. @tim_cook and I are committed to working together on these efforts.https://t.co/T0j88YBcFu

 Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) April 10, 2020

The idea is to slow the spread of the coronavirus that causes the potentially fatal illness COVID-19 by “allowing users to opt into a system that catalogs other phones they have been near,” Reuters reports:

The rare collaboration between the two Silicon Valley companies, whose operating systems power 99% of the world’s smartphones, could accelerate usage of apps that aim to get potentially infected individuals into testing or quarantine more quickly and reliably than existing systems in much of the world.

The companies said they started developing technology two weeks ago to allow mobile devices to trade information via Bluetooth connections to alert people when they have been in close proximity with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, the sometimes deadly respiratory disease associated with the novel coronavirus.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/apple-and-google-are-working-o.html

Nothing says ur-Passover in Pandemic Land like bagels.

I received a bag of artisan baking flour. I really wanted to test it out and baking unleavened crackers because of shit that happened a long time ago seems not to respect the gravity of our daily situation.

I have improved my bagel recipe over the old one, but it is still fun to read. Also, today I used commercial yeast but you can use sourdough. Simply substitute the yeast, 1/4 cup of four and 1/4 cup of water for 1/2 cup of starter.

ur-Passover Pandemic Bagels

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups warm water 1 packet of active yeast 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Boiling solution:

2 tablespoons baking soda 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 8 cups of water

Bagel Toppings to taste.

In a measuring cup I combined 1 1/2 cups of water with the sugar and yeast. I let it sit for 15 minutes. In a bowl I put the flour and salt.

I combined all the ingredients all into a big ball. I kneaded it 2-3 minutes and set it aside in a bowl for about 60 minutes on a warm surface.

I spread baking soda on some aluminum foil to bake the moisture out of it and evidently up my bagel skin game. I heated it at 300F for the time my dough was rising.

After an hour I set the pot of water to boil and separated the dough into balls.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/pandemic-baking-i-made-bagels.html

Several years ago, I tech edited a book on the Internet of Things. Prior to that, I had not thought that deeply about the complex issues surrounding self-driving cars, except (as a person with severe spinal arthritis) looking forward to owning one in my future. After editing that chapter, I came away with a much greater understanding on the infrastructural changes that will need to happen and the profound moral and legal questions that will need to be addressed before this technology becomes commonplace. My takeaway: I won't be owning an autonomous car in my lifetime. This is technology that is 20 or more years away.

In this video, part of Kevin Kelly's The Future Of series, he discusses autonomous cars. His takeaway: the infrastructural changes that will need to happen and the profound moral and legal questions that will need to be addressed mean that self-driving cars will not be commonplace for another 15-20 years. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/kevin-kelly-on-the-future-of-a.html

If you own a piece of hardware, you should be able to do whatever the hell you want with it, period. Don't like the color? Paint it. Not enough storage? Upgrade it. Not thrilled with it's operating system? Change it out. Many companies disagree with this. They'll void thew warranties of the things you putter about with. If you're cool with that, then putter away.

I do.

A couple of weeks ago, I got tired of the way that my accidentally tapping any of a number of keys on my Pomera DM30 would switch my typing, in mid-sentence, into Japanese. So, I changed it: Popping the caps off of all of the culprit keys, I removed their membrane. After the keys were popped back into place, it looked exactly the same as the device I started with, boasting one important difference: it only types in English now. It's a small, successful hardware hack that pays dividends towards my quality of life and productivity when I use my DM30 to churn out text. I've performed similarly simple operations on other hardware in the past: installing a new battery and a larger SSD in my ancient 11" MacBook Air. A New battery and replacement display for my wife's iPhone SE? Yep. They're small wins that have gone a long way towards building my confidence as a tinkerer and, consequentially, make me want to tinker with even more of the shit that I own.

Today, I was planning on sharing how easy it was to upgrade my 7th-generation iPod Classic with 256GB of Micro SD storage and a 3,000 mAh battery. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/the-right-to-repair-is-the-rig.html

Colin Furze modified his bicycle to maintain social distance on the road.

"I'm keeping 2m apart vertically," he writes. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/this-is-a-social-distancing-bi.html

As I posted last week, thieves smashed a glass door at the Singer Laren museum near Amsterdam and stole Vincent van Gogh's oil painting “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884." The museum has been closed due to COVID-19.

“I am shocked and unbelievably pissed off,” said Singer Laren’s director, Jan Rudolph de Lorn. “Art is there to be seen and shared by all, for society as a whole, to bring enjoyment, to bring inspiration, and also to bring comfort. Especially in this difficult time.”

Esquire's Daniel Dumas interviewed Art Recovery International CEO Christopher Marinello and Jordan Arnold, art risk advisor of security firm K2 Intelligence, about who might buy such a thing and the chances of finding it. From Esquire:

If smugglers do manage to sneak the painting out of the Netherlands, it could literally end up anywhere on the planet. But there are a few areas in the world that, according to Marinello, “are friendlier to acquiring stolen objects.” Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Quebec all have laws that favor those in possession of property even if the path of ownership is murky.

Some wealthy collectors exist in China and the Middle East who are ethically challenged when it comes to getting a good deal,” Marinello says. Then there’s Russia where many oligarchs have adopted a “come and take it” attitude if accused of possessing stolen property. “I have a number of cases pending with high value works looted by the Nazis being held in Russia,” Marinello says.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/how-to-find-a-stolen-van-gogh.html

Whether you’re trudging clothes to a laundromat or running huge loads in your own house, washing clothes is always a production. And it’s almost even worse if you don’t have a whole lot of dirty clothes that need cleaning.

Washing one shirt, a dress or a pair of pants with a stain requires 15 to 30 gallons of water for a single load, not to mention the energy cost of powering through an entire wash cycle. And if you happen to be on the road and need to get some clothes washed, the hotel could charge upwards of $70 for a medium-sized load.

Forced to contend with those unappealing choices, you may want to take a hard look into the practical new ultrasonic washers like the handy little Sonic Soak.

Weighing less than 4 ounces and less than 5 inches long, the Sonic Soak actually looks like one of Dr. McCoy’s old medical scanners on Star Trek. But actually, it’s attached to a control unit that generates 50,000 ultrasonic vibrations per second. Just put your clothes in a sink or bowl, fill it with water, then drop the Sonic Soak in and fire it up.

The ultrasonic waves produce microscopic bubbles that implode and vacuum out stains, dirt, bacteria and pretty much anything else your fabric picked up, leaving clean clothes while using 40 times less water and 15 times less energy than standard washing machines. It’s especially great for delicate apparel that you don’t want to subject to the rigors of a full wash cycle. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/check-out-this-ultrasonic-clea.html

I recently re-read Mindhacker: 60 Tips, Tricks, and Games to Take Your Mind to the Next Level, by Ron Hale-Evans and Marty Hale-Evans. It's full of interesting ways to memorize things, think creatively, solve problems, and learn new things.

Here's a sample:

Hack 36: Roll the Mental Dice Quick! You need a way to generate random numbers using just your brain, because you're playing in the pool, driving, falling asleep, or doing something else that makes it difficult to roll physical dice. Maybe you're playing games (board, role-playing, or purely mental) or breaking out of a rut by making decisions randomly. Don't panic – you can use simple math on random words from your surroundings to quickly create random numbers, just about anytime and anywhere.

For each of these procedures, you'll need to be able to come up with a short random word, either spontaneously or from the environment. To get one, check nearby signs or reading material, ask a friend or passerby, or do anything similar that seems good to you. You'll also need to know or work out the number value of each letter, corresponding to its place in the alphabet: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on through Z equals 26.

To emulate a 6 sided die, follow this procedure:

Find a short word, such as “cat.” Sum the numerical values of the letters in the word: C = 3, A = 1, T = 20, and then 3+1+20 = 24. Calculate the number modulo 09 (see the section “How It Works” for the procedure).

If the remainder is a 0, 7, or 8, which will happen one third of the time, discard it and try a new word. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/how-to-roll-an-imaginary-6-sid.html

Delta sent out an email yesterday to more than 25,000 flight attendants asking them to “please refrain from notifying other crew members on your own” if they test positive from coronavirus.

HuffPost got a hold of this email, which also says to employees: “Please do not post on social media (including SkyHub) about your health status.”

From HuffPost:

“Employees have freedom of speech about their health,” one flight attendant, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being fired, told HuffPost in a text message Thursday night. “No employer can take that away. We have a responsibility to take care of ourselves, our coworkers and everyone we come in contact with.”

It’s unclear whether employees who disregard the protocols will face penalties. At least one flight attendant said they received a call from Delta’s human resources department about social media updates they posted about a colleague who is currently on a ventilator in intensive care, but HuffPost could not independently verify the details of the conversation. Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday morning.

There's also a two-minute audio voicemail, which HuffPost now has, that a flight attendant had received from Delta, which tells the attendant that they “may have been exposed in the last 14 days to a person on your recent rotation who may have had symptoms of COVID-19” but to keep working anyway.

More details at HuffPost.

Image: by Delta News Hub / Flickr Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/delta-asks-employees-not-to-te.html

D-Wave Systems opened up free cloud access to its quantum computing resources for researchers responding to COVID-19. They're also enlisting their staff, partners, and customers to help others get up to speed on programming quantum computing for their specific tasks. By taking advantage of quantum weirdness – the ability of quantum bits (qubits) to exist in both a “one” and a “zero” state at the same time – these systems can potentially solve problems that cripple even the fastest of today’s supercomputers. From IEEE Spectrum:

Since 2018, D-Wave has offered remote access to quantum computing via its “Leap” quantum cloud computing service. Baratz says an ecosystem of more than 1,000 developers has sprung up to apply Leap’s quantum computing resources to a variety of purposes, including protein folding and financial modeling, and optimizing public transportation routes in Lisbon, Portugal.

Then, in February, D-Wave began offering an enhanced quantum computing cloud service (Leap 2) which couples simulated qubits (on a conventional computer) with D-Wave’s actual qubits.

“We’ve seen problems being explored in the following areas: 1) the modeling and simulation of the spread of the virus, 2) the scheduling of nurses and other hospital resources, 3) assessing the rate of virus mutation, and 4) the assessment of existing drugs as potential treatments,” Baratz said. “We've heard positive feedback from organizations and developers around the world and are looking forward to their collaboration with our global partners to find potential solutions to COVID-19."

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/free-access-to-quantum-compute.html

I noticed a coincidence.

Sources: The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai. [scan via Wikipedia/Metropolitan Museum of Art] and a graphic from The Financial Times by John Burn-Murdoch Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/the-great-wave.html

In this footage, a man is seen relaxing at home when a nearby battery, apparently charging on the floor, starts spraying sparks. It explodes violently as he approaches to unplug it. The origin of the footage is unclear: the video is being ganked on every video platform and none of them bother to report any information whatsoever. So I don't know if the person is injured or how badly the dwelling was damaged. He is at least able to fetch a fire extinguisher and have at the blaze. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/why-its-not-a-great-idea-to.html

Want to avoid being seen by person-recognizing camera systems? Wear a shirt printed with a complex, confusing image that looks like a mangled JPG of a crowd scene.

The bright adversarial pattern, which a human viewer can darn-near see from space, renders the wearer invisible to the software looking at him. ... Code does not "think" in terms of facial features, the way a human does, but it does look for and classify features in its own way. To foil it, the "cloaks" need to interfere with most or all of those priors. Simply obscuring some of them is not enough. Facial recognition systems used in China, for example, have been trained to identify people who are wearing medical masks while trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or other illnesses.

And of course, to make the task even more challenging, different object detection frameworks all use different mechanisms to detect people, Goldstein explained. "We have different cloaks that are designed for different kinds of detectors, and they transfer across detectors, and so a cloak designed for one detector might also work on another detector," he said.

See also Adversarial Fashion. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/anti-camera-shirts.html

I'm rooting for the new champion, Mabel, perhaps because of the technical setback at the outset. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/dogs-breakfast-commentated.html