Thursday, August 30, 2018

Is 1984 Here? By our own choosing? ...Yes, it is.


A few years ago, I was interviewed by Seth Shostack for NPR as a technology expert. The question was whether the surveillance tactics like those in 1984 are on their way. The truth of the matter is...They are here.

After a few minutes on Facebook, we can see that as a society, we have become somewhat narcissistic in posting everything from "Look at the Sour Cream and Bananas I ate this morning" to giving specific destinations for our business trips and vacations, relating the airport destination data for all to see. But that is REALLY just where it all starts in two very important and distinct ways.

First, that's not all the data that's being collected AND SHARED about you and second (and this is most important), what you don't realize is what is being done with this data. Data is being collected from you in sometimes very subtle ways. We all know that when we search for or buy items online we will then be bombarded with ads for the same or similar items. (No, I don't need more screwdrivers) In the tradeoff for convenience, we have sacrificed this level of privacy. This loss of privacy extends beyond the online purchases and, even creepier is how your data is connected.

There are also more nefarious ways to collect our personal information. When you play one of those silly games like "choose your super-hero name" and you use your Month that you were born with the street you grew up on to select two names. Why do you think they exist? They are there to collect your personal information! This is not paranoia, this is FACT.

The second point is what is done with the information. I recently purchased some spackle at Lowes in the actual brick and mortar store. When I got home, I was bombarded with ads around my Yahoo email for drywall screws at Amazon. Consider for a moment the speed, the connective power and just how much data is cross-referenced from all of our identifying items...like your Lowes "rewards" card.


As for the data that is being trolled for on Facebook in the form of silly games, who knows. We already know identity theft is a serious thing and easily carried out internationally. The questions like "What street you grew up on" or "your first Pet" are often used as security questions by credit agencies. Consider also, your Birthday (usually available on Facebook) is often a security question.

Other personal information like the names of your children and family, our favorite books, movies, and TV shows could also give a hacker some serious clues for cracking your password. If you've made it this far, I bet you are re-thinking your current password.

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 

Anything that we don't want to be true is now, "fake news."


I've already written enough on the topic of the news, but it just proves that the conditions of 1984 are already here.  They are just not quite as drab looking...yet.


If the Government says it is!  Anything else is labeled "FAKE NEWS!"  Know that you could be lied to.  It's possible!  At least question things!





Monday, June 11, 2018

...and that's the way it was.

When Walter Cronkite uttered those words, "...and that's the way it was," not a single American, left, right, Africain American, Asian American, etc., would disagree on the content or bias of the facts presented.

As divided as this country was on so many issues during Mr. Cronkite's tenure, from the Vietnam war to racial or gender inequality, we didn't waiver or argue in our perception of reported facts by any of the popular news sources simply because it wasn't what we wanted to hear.

I try, VERY hard to be an objective person.  I try to use news sources that are not tainted by the left or the right.  As a citizen of the United States, it's almost unbelievable that I need to go OUTSIDE the United States to find one.  I go to the BBC for major headlines and news.

Unfortunately, Snopes.com has become necessary for almost any political or news post on social media, left or right.

What is worse, is that we cloud our own perception of what public opinion is by listening to news sources that tell us what we want to hear.  We tend to surround ourselves with people on social media who have the same left or right viewpoints.  To top it off, we have a president who feeds this left-right polarization and actually treats the media sources' ratings like they are a more important fact than the events that are shaping the world.

This has to stop! 

We will find ourselves in a new civil war, that is not separated by geography, but by left, and right ideologies that are being influenced by media ratings and external (possibly Russian) influence.

I have done my best to try and keep any of my opinions of left or right issues out fo this, in the hopes that this post can spread without political bias when we all agree we need a search for the real truth.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

“Daddy…is this the Men’s room?”


…my three-year-old daughter asks me, as I guide her quickly past the men standing at the urinals toward the stall where she can do her business.
Some men give me strange looks as I bring my little girl into the men’s room. Most places don’t have a “family” restroom (although I am grateful when there is) and as a father of, now four-year-old twin girls, I am left with little alternative but to bring them into the men’s room.

If I want to take my little girls out for breakfast to give my wife some well-deserved alone time, or some time at the gym, restroom visits are a common thing. It seems no matter how much I try to make them use the bathroom at home before we leave, I have still seen the inside of every single men’s room of every family-friendly restaurant in the area.   

Somehow, there isn’t anywhere near as much of a stigma in bringing a three-year-old boy into the women’s room with his mom.  Perhaps it’s because there aren’t urinals in the women’s room. Perhaps it’s an echo of a previous generation’s expectations of it being “a women’s role” to take care of the kids “bathroom-business.”

It can be a difficult road to navigate for a modern dad. In addition to some of the stares, some of derision, some creepy and general looks of disbelief; some men also don’t always zip up their business whilst facing the wall… A quick turn and one of my hands becomes a make-shift blinder.



There is, of course, the added fun of the conversation with my daughters in the stall:



“Daddy?”
“Yes, sweetie.”
“Thank you for sharing your room with me.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie.”
“Daddy?”
“Yes, sweetie.”
“How do you go to the potty with one of THOSE,” points out of the stall toward the urinals, “potties?”
Stammers…
”Are you done now, sweetie?”

What is a father in the 21st century to do?