Blog/January 2020/Jan 24th

January 24th

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So we did have a cold and rainy-at-times week. Right now it’s cold and windy. Fortunately I have hot coffee.

Esther and I had a normal week, working and avoiding traffic. That wasn’t easy, since all the world’s leaders came to Jerusalem for “Holocaust Remembrance Day”, a.k.a. yom hashoah. Because hundreds of dignitaries befouled our capital, many thousands of police were deployed and roads were blocked off to traffic. Normally, I wouldn’t care; but I had to take Mom to medical appointments, one of which was very close to the “festivities”.

I know I probably should try to be a nicer person, but I sincerely wish the leaders of countries which turned a blind eye to the destruction of a large percentage of the Jewish nation (or actively assisted in it) would just go away and stop shedding their crocodile tears. The 1930s were not an anomaly: the uptick in antisemitic acts and expression worldwide and particularly in Europe and the USA, should be sufficient proof to those with open eyes.

As before, the world loves to eulogize dead Jews; it’s the living ones they hate. Thank you very much, we don’t need your “concern” and “compassion”. Just leave us alone. Please.

Various and sundry:

• The main “Palestinian” daily paper says, “One murder can prevent Holocaust remembrance event”. Apropos my earlier comment about the 1930s.
• The decline of the West in a nutshell: “theybies”
• The math of brewing a better espresso. Really.
• Routers running the open-source “Tomato” router software are under attack by a crime gang. If you’re technically savvy enough to flash your router with new software, you should — and I mean this with all due respect — also be aware that using default credentials is really dumb, for real.
• New NBC “Peacock” shows: real or fake? You’ve now got another reason to kill your TV.

The “LastPass” password-manager experienced a major outage this week. So what do you do, if you’re relying on LastPass to keep track of your passwords? You’re screwed, that’s what! It’s much better to use an off-line tracker like KeePass, or keep your passwords in a GnuPG encrypted file like I do. Or even write them down on a slip of paper you keep in a safe, if you have one.

Speaking of passwords and security: hackers leaked passwords for more than 500,000 servers and routers which had open “telnet” services. Telnet?!? C’mon, man — the ’90s are calling: they want you to use ssh already. Criminy!

Back to us: we’re planning a quiet shabbat, and will definitely have the heating on. It’s supposed to be very cold (by our middle-Eastern standards) with frost in the morning. The rain is on hold supposedly, for now at least.

This shabbat the three of us will hopefully enjoy at least:
homemade pitot, veggie soup, chicken schnitzel, baked potatoes, roasted veggies, various salatim, and brownies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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