Blog/January 2019/Jan 25th

January 25th

Comments or questions? Click here!

---

A restful week was had by none.

Mom had several doctor appointments, following up on and in reaction to her recent pneumonia hospitalization. Esther, though more resilient than the rest of us, caught my cold and was battling it all week. I went to the hospital to get my knee MRI’d. Jeremy was admitted for surgery, after an extended period of not feeling well. Prayers appreciated. The medical profession got to know us all a bit better this week, to our chagrin.

Last week, Esther renewed her Israeli passport which was set to expire in a few weeks. This week I did the same. Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to “upgrade” our national identity cards to the new, “biometric”, versions. The passports are also biometric. Who cares, you ask?

Well, I do. As a longstanding privacy proponent, and someone who more than dabbles in cryptography and security issues, I’m well aware that information in databases is vulnerable to attack by bad-actors. Quite apart from the libertarian argument that no government has a need to be able to identify its citizens by camera (as they can now trivially do), the cardinal principle of data security is that information which is not necessary should not be stored. If it’s not there, it can’t be stolen or abused. Not that I think my government might abuse the data it collects…

This is why, in my own company’s database, I don’t store more than a basic minimum of information on my customers — just enough to verify they are a customer and to be able to contact them if needed.

Of course, you might rightly point out that I’ve got a pretty wide internet presence, being active more or less on Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Twitter, and other sites. Yes, the irony isn’t lost on me. But the difference is that I choose to be on those sites, because the benefit for my business or personal life outweighs the privacy exposure in my opinion. In the case of the identity documents, I have no say in what information is gathered or in how it is used.

What’s up?

• In privacy-related matters, Israel is now restricting the use of cash. As to why that might be bad, you can view this short video.
• More privacy: who is actually behind the most popular free VPNs? PSA: I use “NordVPN”, which is really excellent.
• Yet more: the credit-card companies are starting to censor your activities.
• A timely and fascinating read: The Fate of Empires. It’s only 24 pages long, but packs a lot of food for thought in there.
• Israeli campaign slogans don’t translate well into English, sometimes.
• Half of people who think they have a food allergy, don’t.
• The “planetary health diet”. One sticking point, “Their diet needs an enormous shift in what we pile on to our plates and for us to turn to foods that we barely eat.” Yeah, good luck with that practical suggestion, mate.
• Look, Ma, no mouse! Welcome to satori, young human! As a veteran Vim user, I reached satori long ago…

I made a new release of 8th this week, my first since before leaving on vacation. My users were getting restless!

Jeremy’s surgery went well, and he’s in recovery where he’ll probably be for several days. Mom’s doing fine now, slowly getting her feisty back. I’m moving towards fine, in time to take care of Esther. B”H!

We’re looking forward to a quiet nuclear-family-shabbat. We’ll serve up: mushroom soup, marinated chicken wings, rice, turkey cholent, various salatim, and cookies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

---

Top: Blog

Prev: Jan 18th

Next: Feb 1st

---