Recent posts

#11

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by buster - October 27, 2026, 12:37:10 PM

Microsoft buying out 60,000 employees. AI seems to be the culprit, either in diversion of cash, or 'efficiencies'.

#12

Security and Privacy / Re: Serious PHP vulnerabilitie...

Last post by buster - October 26, 2026, 06:06:16 PM

There's probably a long list of vulnerabilities that we 'don't see' until after the event, though they are often right in front of us.

- The Maginot line between the French and Germans worked well in WW2, except the Germans simply went around it.

- 2008 Subprime mortgages were bundled and spread throughout the economy and the world economic system almost collapsed. They were bad risks to begin with.

- Scientists estimate that between 200 and 100,000 species become extinct each year. (Since we don't know how many species there are, because new ones are always being discovered, it's hard to refine the numbers.) Many plants, sea and land, supply oxygen, and many insects supply needed pollination for foods, so are we really guessing a hot ocean will just make ocean swimming warmer?

- And the hugely integrated electronically computerized business world will never have a problem, and the affiliated electrical systems will keep running smoothly. (Any of us who have set up home networks with multiple computers and printers and automatic updates have seen the damnedest things over the years.)

Jason has pointed out something that has been in front of us for ages without being noticed.

Myself, I think the 'unseen' thing will be hot oceans and/or the electronic interconnectedness of the world.

I don't think it's necessarily what will go wrong, but like COVID, when will something new and unexpected erupt. (Or maybe the countries of the world will start elected unbalanced people for president, like some countries we know.)

#13

Security and Privacy / Serious PHP vulnerabilities fo...

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 07:11:14 PM

This week, a major flaw was found in PHP, a core scripting language most websites rely on (Hughes, 2026). Evidently, the security vulnerabilities have existed in the code for years. The team upgraded the PHP packages on the server this evening. It scared me a bit, since an attacker could exploit it to gain total control of the website. The CBC article linked below explains it well. What fascinates me is that researchers found the flaws using AI and patched them before hackers knew about them.

References
Hughes, A. (2026, October 22). What is PHP, and how did a flaw in its code lead several websites to go dark this week?. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/php-cybersecurity-vulnerability-explainer-9.7392394

#14

Website & Forums / PHP and SMF Upgrades

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 07:08:02 PM

The server's PHP software has been upgraded to address serious (9.2/10) vulnerabilities found in the core software. I also upgraded SMF (Forum software) to the latest version, which includes its own security fixes. Everything appears to be working okay. If anybody notices something broken, let me know.

#15

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 06:53:05 PM

Akin & Akin (2026) discuss stock market behaviour. From the abstract:

"The findings reveal several significant correlations: rising real interest rates negatively affect stocks due to loss aversion and sentiment. Conversely, higher consumer confidence tends to positively influence the stock market, driven by herding behavior and optimism. Additionally, market volatility shows a negative correlation with the S&P 500, influenced by risk aversion, recency bias and herding behavior. Moreover, an increase in credit default swap rates leads to stock market declines, primarily influenced by risk perception, loss aversion and herding behavior."

References
Akin, I., & Akin, M. (2026). Behavioral finance impacts on US stock market volatility: an analysis of market anomalies. Behavioural Public Policy, 10(2), 337–361. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioural-public-policy/article/behavioral-finance-impacts-on-us-stock-market-volatility-an-analysis-of-market-anomalies/D1CEF34141D03D8BECB2AE42467166B3

#16

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Is World War III coming?

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 06:40:32 PM

I thought they had already been targeting power plants. It's kind of sad that the US have eased sanctions on Russia, which has been committing those war crimes since the start of the Russian "special military operation" in Ukraine.

I still remember Trump saying that he'd keep the US out of foreign wars. Technically, declarations of war are supposed to come from Congress, but I don't think he ever declared war on Iran. If only the Democrats could get the necessary 2/3 in the Senate to oust the guy. They'll probably impeach him again if they get in, though it probably won't matter. For those not aware, impeachment requires a simple vote in the House of Representatives. Trump has been impeached twice. But conviction requires a 2/3 vote in the Senate (67 or more members). And that won't happen. I think it only happened once in US history with Andrew Jackson.

#17

Articles, Tutorials and Tips / Re: NordVPN now offers a graph...

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 06:32:55 PM

Keep in mind that some recent browser notes like 'we use vpn' do not refer to downloads. They just hide your browsing history. As well, prices for NordVPN vary for from site to site.

Thanks for the info, Buster. What 'browser notes' are you talking about?

#18

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Does AI have feelings?

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 06:30:43 PM

" Look at the top of your search results; the first blurb is usually AI."

I like and use this feature a lot. Right now I'm researching and watching film noir and westerns, mostly 40's to 70's. The summaries are generally gathered info that has been established. It's a guilty shortcut.

If I wish to turn off AI during a search I follow this advice:

"Add -ai to Queries: Type -ai at the end of your search phrase to manually filter out generative results."

Thanks for the tip. I don't use Google, but it's good to know they have the option.

#19

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Does AI have feelings?

Last post by Jason - October 23, 2026, 06:30:06 PM

Sorry, I should have said that I use the Startpage search engine, not Google.

Startpage does actually use the Google search engine, but it somewhat isolates you from Google, so Google doesn"t really know who is doing the search query.

Okay, that makes more sense. I use Ecosia for searches, which does something similar, but it uses searches from Google and Bing. If you don't like the results, a dropdown menu option lets you use Google directly. I like Ecosia because they use their profits to plant trees.

#20

Articles, Tutorials and Tips / NordVPN now offers a graphical...

Last post by buster - October 22, 2026, 05:57:43 PM

This is important for some of us mousekateers. Point and click. Here is where you can check it out.

https://nordvpn.com/download/linux/?srsltid=AYCX9vIvvFpQ12kHvxGg-HszAUdEQztbBayumF_iOWdFZ3uRml6aTjYZ

Keep in mind that some recent browser notes like 'we use vpn' do not refer to downloads. They just hide your browsing history. As well, prices for NordVPN vary for from site to site.