It has been a nice clear, sunny, and dry day--a bit warmer than yesterday. I will have to check the plants tomorrow for watering but I don't expect they will have dried out from the deluge we had early in the week. I had to go out this morning to get a new e-reader because my ancient iPad seems to be on its last legs. It might last a good while yet but I thought it best to get a replacement while I had the time to become accustomed to it. As it turned out I didn't go with another iPad, thought the cost has gone down considerably. Instead Barnes and Noble has a Lenovo 9 with a large memory that can easily accommodate my "library" and much more besides.
We kept BBC on the TV all day. It provided a lot of information on more than that damned Republican Coronation. They had enough to give me an idea of what went on. I haven't changed my mind on Trump or his sycophants. I hope they lose but the Democrats are in a race with them to see who can actually reach bottom first. I am reminded of the Will Rogers quip: I don't belong to an organized political party; I'm a Democrat.
They also had extensive coverage of the Crowdstrike IT snafu. It isn't really surprising that the disruption spanned the world or involved so many industries and companies. Here is another article on the situation. A couple of decades or so ago, I was buying a new Apple computer and I was talking to the sales associate about the current spate of hacking. The salesman (and it was a man, you didn't see many women selling computers) remarked that I wouldn't have to worry about that because Apple (at that time) was too small a part of the market to make it worth hackers' time. Several years ago that had changed a bit as Macs have become a larger portion of the computer sector. But the financial institutions, the hospital chains, city governments, and other entities use other systems and are big enough to attract hackers--witness the ransomware attacks over the last few years. It's the Willie Sutton rule: you rob banks because that's where the money is. Nowadays, a lot of the money is pixels in computer systems.
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Another nice day. I should get out and tidy the patio and planters but I don't have any ambition at all. I have been able to open the door and windows again for a while. When it warms up outside I will have to close up but til then we can enjoy a fresh breeze.
As I read this article I wondered how many countries weren't affected by the Croudstrike caused IT outage. All the information I found dealt with companies not countries. Russia has actively worked to separate itself from international networks since they invaded Ukraine so it is no surprise that they didn't feel any discomfort. I suspect that other countries not deeply integrated in the global economy/information systems wouldn't be either: N. Korea, Iran and others.
Hurricane Beryl did a nasty job on the electricity infrastructure in Texas. That has led to a debate about how much more reliable underground lines are as opposed to the overhead lines. Areas that had underground lines were still without power while some neighboring areas had theirs restored. And vice versa. The Weather Channel had a piece about the new composition poles which are stronger and more lightweight than the wooden poles. We have noticed that our utility company is replacing a lot of their poles and we also have a patchwork of areas with overhead lines neighboring areas with underground lines. We haven't had any prolonged outages for several years. The utility company is also aggressive about trimming trees to remove dangerous limbs and reduce the likelihood the tree itself will come down.
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