THE PENDING DRAFT

WIRED: Researchers Create First Firmware Worm That Attacks Macs

August 4, 2015

An attacker could first remotely compromise the boot flash firmware on a MacBook by delivering the attack code via a phishing email and malicious web site. That malware would then be on the lookout for any peripherals connected to the computer that contain option ROM, such as an Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, and infect the firmware on those. The worm would then spread to any other computer to which the adapter gets connected.

A firmware worm that completely hides itself from the system and can spread through peripherals like Ethernet Adapters is a pretty scary thought if you ask me.

Hopefully hardware vendors will remove those vulnerabilities as fast as possible.

WIRED: Researchers Create First Firmware Worm That Attacks Macs

Productivity

May 16, 2015

There are plenty of advices and techniques out there on how to be more productive and i’m sure you read most of what i write somewhere else before.

But anyway, i’d like to summarize what worked for me and what i changed over the last months to become way more productive than before.

1. Weekly Reviews

If you are a Freelancer and work on your own on most projects, it’s so damn easy to loose focus. Especially if working on side-projects with no direct monetary benefits or fixed deadlines it can be really hard to keep track. One really simple thing i started this year is writing a Weekly Review each Friday outlining which projects i worked on, the progress i made and what i plan for next week.

Even if you’re not going to keep your own word and have a To-Do in that “planned” list that you haven’t got done, i found that it puts a lot more pressure on me if i have to write it down again each week, rather than just moving an item in my Calendar.

2. Default your Calendar View to Weekly or Daily

Most of the time, i used iCal in Monthly View to plan ahead. This often led to unrealistically overbooked days because i just moved things around without really thinking about how long something will take. Of course, getting a birds-eye view from time to time is needed, but i default to the weekly view now and it helps a lot to plan things more realistic.

3. Publicly announce your side-project

As mentioned in the first paragraph, it’s hard to plan in enough time for side-projects, especially when a client with a paid job knocks on your door. Announcing your project publicly can help to put some pressure on yourself and to take a side-project more serious.

4. Blog daily (or do whatever, daily)

At the beginning of January, i basically just had the idea to relive this blog and felt that when i don’t post something daily i will soon loose traction again. So i kept to publish something daily for more than four months now. To be honest, i have no idea how that fits in with productivity and why it should be included in this list. It’s probably just that having any kind of daily routine, whatever it is, can help to train your overall discipline and that in the end will make you more productive.

There’s plenty more things i tried, but these are the most important one’s and even if they sound small and easy, they worked quite well for me.

What’s your secret productivity tipp?

Upon This Wrist

May 15, 2015

After all those “one week with the Apple Watch” reviews, this is probably the most brilliant piece i read so far. About this thing on your wrist.

Very few notice the thing on the wrist. That makes me happy. But some do see it. Once they see it they say, Oh is that the thing? And I say, Yes it is the thing. And they ask, Has it changed your life? And I shrug. And they are so disappointed. They want me to say, Yes. Yes it has changed my life. The wrist thing. It’s made me a better man, a stronger man, a more thoughtful man. But, no. This is what I say: I say, Look, it shows maps. And they Ooooo. And I show them the remote camera and they Ahhhhh. And I say, look — my heartbeat. And they say, Wow, you have a high resting heart rate. And I sigh and say, I know. Oh, how I know.

Upon This Wrist

Alcohol or Marijuana

April 11, 2015

Aaron E. Carroll asks “Alcohol or Marijuana?” and answers this question from a pediatricians standpoint. A very interesting post (found via Matt’s blog with some great comments). It’s one of the best articles on the topic i read in a long time and i like the fact that it’s on a high-profile site like the New York Times. He makes some very convincing – and maybe surprising for some – points about the comparison of alcohol to marijuana.

I also can’t ignore what I’ve seen as a pediatrician. I’ve seen young people brought to the emergency room because they’ve consumed too much alcohol and become poisoned. That happens thousands of times a year. Some even die.

And when my oldest child heads off to college in the not-too-distant future, this is what I will think of: Every year more than 1,800 college students die from alcohol-related accidents. About 600,000 are injured while under alcohol’s influence, almost 700,000 are assaulted, and almost 100,000 are sexually assaulted. About 400,000 have unprotected sex, and 100,000 are too drunk to know if they consented. The numbers for pot aren’t even in the same league.

I think the public opinion on drugs is completely distorted today. If you talk to people about drugs, it’s pretty common to refer to drugs when talking about so many substances (mostly the illegal ones) yet at the same time not even seeing alcohol as a drug. Which is bad because it’s not possible to have a real discussion and to compare things if you categorize them differently to begin with.

Fact is, humans liked to alter their minds ever since and some substances can help in that regard. Whether someone is smoking pot, drinking a beer or taking any other substance, it is on a fundamental level for the same reason: Alter your brain activity. If your use of a substance will lead you to abusing it later on has several complicated reasons beyond just which kind of drug we’re talking about.

Another fact is that prohibition created way more problems and harmed more people than it ever helped and it created a whole lot of criminality along the way. It never stopped anyone from taking something but instead created a market for dirty, unclean and dangerous substances of which many people died. Happened during the alcohol prohibition in the states as well as with any other drug prohibition i know of.

We really need to have this public discourse about drugs and we need to change the way we treat this topic. The legalization of marijuana – which is inevitable if you ask me – and the more differentiated public discussion that seems to come with it, is one first step in the right direction.

Alcohol or Marijuana? A Pediatrician Faces the Question