unwise halloween costumes

found with google image search

i don't know about dressing up like the twin towers, but dressing like a terrorist or a package of anthrax seem like really good ways to get an unwanted armed response.

zombie computers taste like spam

found through google image search

that is, in fact, a big part of what zombie computers do - send email spam.

personalization fail

found on the art of trolling

probably not the best idea for a personalized license plate.

the worst happened

from here

obviously this is inspired by current events, but preparedness can have a positive effect on all manner of disasters - whether they're natural or man made.

you don't put your weed in there

from here (source image)

is this too crass? well, maybe, but it seems like some folks need to hear it.

that moment when...

from here (source tweet)

so apparently (according to this twitter conversation) it wasn't the members' original passwords but rather ones that are generated as part of a password reset procedure, but the members aren't forced to change these passwords so for all intents and purposes this practice is just as bad (unless the member used their original password in multiple places - revealing that would be worse). at the very least make sure that the passwords sent this way can only be used once, but better yet don't send passwords at all, send links instead and again make sure they can only be used once.

erasure destroys computers?

from here (source story)

thanks to aleks gostev for tweeting about this bit of ridiculousness. clearly US defense secretary leon panetta doesn't have the slightest clue what he's talking about. deleting or overwriting data doesn't "destroy computers". if deletion were that dangerous, there wouldn't be a delete key on the keyboard.

what happens in the sandbox stays in the sandbox

from here (source image)

i was trying to think of a way to explain sandboxing to the layperson. think this will work?

this isn't the magic you're looking for

found on picture is unrelated

you can't always believe what it says on the box, whether it's a pop-up message box on your screen from some scareware or the box your security software came in from the store. be skeptical.

just encrypting is good enough, right?

from here (source image one, two, and three)

the install and forget mentality strikes again. big name companies using short encryption keys like it's 1999. this is why i don't trust so-called transparent security - if you don't involve a person somewhere along the line then the security falls down.