Nothing New : Israel Best the US at Arms Since the 70's

Consider the case of the Sidewinder (Bill MacLean's baby) :

(from Ron Westrum's underwhelming book)

Israel had its first missile kill on 28 November 1966, when an Israeli Mirage IIIC fired a Matra 530 missile successfully at an Egyptian MiG-19, downing it. Yet, missiles were hardly used at all in the Six-Day War of 1967, whose many Israeli victories were all accomplished with guns. After 1967 there was a rapid climb in the number of missiles Israel used in combat. The Israelis soon got access to Sidewinders and used the AIM-9B and AIM-9D in the early years. Bu the Lebanon conflict (1982), Israeli planes were also carrying the AIM-9L, "super-Sidewinder." Diplomacy got Israel  its early missiles, but soon it was designing its own, first the Shafrir and then its successor, the Python. The Rafael Design  Bureau carried out the design of these Sidewinder variants. Israel has excellent technical capabilities, and these missiles are generally considered superior to the American Sidewinder versions.

Survive Like a Spy (In Prison) with (Jason Hanson) and John Kiriakou

"

What are the rules? Use : The ARAB WEDGE goes from SC to FL in a Hired Michigan TRuCK

No	Rule	Mn
1	Adapt to your environment : blend in - don't stand out and become a target	A
2	Recruit spies to get access to secrets (info not publicly available). Use GERI : Greed, Excitement, Revenge, Ideology on the part of your target	R
3	Ande Mac : Admit Nothing, Deny Everything, Make Counteraccusations	A
4	Use cover to blend in - sense your surroundings and avoid trouble	B
5	Everyone is working for someone. Everyone is potentially working for the other side! (Remember the Moscow rules!)	W
6	The human body can endure much more than the mind thinks it can. Keep your body healthy and your mind will stay healthy. A punch in the face ain't so bad. If your assessment is that you need help, there's nothing wrong with seeking it and using antidepressants to recover	E
7	Solve potential problems before they arise using dirty tricks	D
8	Don't underestimate the power of another's greed	G
9	Don't be afraid to beat a strategic retreat	S
10	If stability is not to your benefit, then chaos is your friend	C
11	Be the power behind the throne - don't be an overt challenge to the king. Remember Nicolas Fouquet? He really fouqued up and died in prison. Don’t!	F
12	Listening is a better strategy than talking. Use the FEND : flattery, ego, naivete and deliberate misspeaking (remember David Lieberman's "Now You Can Read Anyone"?	L
13	Hide in Plain Sight - Don't draw attention and become a target (Yah? How the hell is this different from #2 or #4?)	H
14	Use the subtle art of misdirection to throw people off the scent (How?)	MI
15	Trust no one - everyone is potentially working for the opposition	T
16	Use the power of rumour	Ru
17	Always maintain a plausible cover for action - have your story ready!	C
18	Know your enemy - knowledge is power!	K

Ron Trite : Think Do Say

That's actually Ron Tite of Church + State - Advertising copy genius + standup comedian.

Go in for Brand Belief over vision/mission.
Be clear about what you think - why your organization is at the core. It takes time to agree on this. You can't do it in one meeting.
Once you have this, align your action and message to be consistent.
Eg. REI believes people should pursue a healthy outdoor lifestyle. Do : close stores on Black Friday so people can chill out outside. Say : we're closed - have a blast outside.

The first step to innovation is improving the efficiency of what you already do. There are things that you do as an individual that can be done far more efficiently than you do them right now. Remember Management by Reply-All? Many of you are trying to inspire your teams by writing Outlook novellas and then, surprise, there's no time at the end of the day to try something new. Get efficient. Then start exploring.

Getting to the one brilliant idea requires generating five crappy ideas and talking about the bad ones out loud. Crappy ideas have to be poked and prodded and improved and reshaped and crumpled up and pulled apart so that the brilliant ideas emerge.

Refs : Scott McKain Iconic : How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Ultimate Level of Distinction

John Kiriakou : What I Learned in Prison

Some good stuff, but, you can't help thinking in your head, "John, when will you ever grow up?"

Even though I haven't been able to take or at least complete any classes since I got to prison, I have learnt a lot. Among the things one can learn are how to cook methamphetamine, how to smuggle drugs across international borders without getting caught, how to steal food from the cafeteria and then cook an entire meal using only a live electrical wire and a garbage can full of water, how to make contraband cigarettes using chewing tobacco spat out by prison guards, dried and rolled with toilet paper, how to self-medicate using home remedies and over-the-counter concoctions in lieu of real medical care, how to set up a Ponzi scheme and how to defraud mortgage companies and the department of Housing and Urban Development - another prisoner-led class. So, at the end of the day, I guess I have been educated in prison.

Dumbass, why didn't you use what the CIA taught you, while you were still in the CIA?:)

* Know your enemy
* Adapt to your environment - blend in and don't stand out

Perl : Print the Letters of the Alphabet, One Per Line

Never mind why (actually, I'll tell you - it's because stinking Excel easily gives you 1,2,3..26 after you type 1,2,3 and then drag. But, it doesn't do that with letters after you type a,b,c,d.. and drag:) - and, yes, it's to encrypt a password that I store in my gmail - yes. take the letter and spell out the number in a different language - you got me.

Now, get me

a
b
c
..
..
z

rookie	perl -e 'foreach (97..122){print chr($_),"\n";}'
practitioner	perl -le 'foreach (97..122){print chr($_);}'
expert	perl -le 'foreach ('a'..'z'){ print }'
master	perl -le 'print foreach 'a'..'z';'

Speed Up Windows by Disabling Background Apps

From https://youtu.be/K_c6DfZw5SQ?t=167

Control Panel > Privacy > then, on the left, Background apps.

Damn! They got all kinds of crap running..

This after wondering why the iPhone always has 25+ Mbps on the WiFi, but, of late, the Win 10 PC slows down to a crawl - sub 1 Mbps on Google's test. Rebooting fixes..

Triangulation Fraud - Wow! I Ain't Seen Anything!

https://youtu.be/2IT2oAzTcvU - Nina Kollars of the Naval War College - she researches Cybersecurity and Military Innovation

Coffee addict - and uses Nespresso (N)
You can buy directly from N
Dem pods is really expensive - so, can I get em cheaper?
Yes, Ebay - found a listing that would save her 50% vs direct from N
But, have to buy 200 pods at a time - cool, I drink tonnes :)
Wins, pays with PayPal and week later - hello, snail mail.
But, aha - also das brand new N Pixie machine - $280 value retail

Mistake?
Looks at invoices - same sender, but, shipped direct from N!
Not expected - should have come from some third party.
Ebay seller - Sue - rating 0, new account. Only sells N.
On Nespresso site, account holder is George - different person!
Calls N, yes says N customer svc, George's credit card has been charged for both items - pods and machine - after explaining only pods were ordered, and from Ebay, not N!
"You better let George know"
Please send me a pre-paid shipping label so I can return your machine.
Googles, gets to Krebsonsecurity - and finds this graphic.

The whole trick is to convert a line of credit into cash.
You have a stolen credit card.
You want cash.
You use the card to "buy" something
Why "buy" - because you buy something that you "sell" when someone else - unsuspecting customer - wants to buy "something"
Get it?
A wants X. You use the CC to buy X from N and ship to A. But, A pays your cold hard cash (or something like cash). Who loses? Either N or the credit card company - or, if the guy who lost the card is really dumb and doesn't dispute the transaction, he's the loser.
You keep the cash!

FYI - Shame on Ebay - the rating on top - the stars - is not for the seller but for the product. They bury the seller rating at the bottom in really tiny font!

And, with Ebay, you can't (at the time of the talk), report fraud if you received the item! Is it any surprise to you AMZN steamrolled these sleazy *ds?

Caleb Berquist - Son of a !! Maybe It's Something Anyone Would Do

Go through his parts list - he gives you links to the parts on AMZN. And? You guessed it, he gets a cut if you purchase using his links.

For example, https://amzn.to/2mrd72g resolves to

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BDR5PDW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07BDR5PDW&linkCode=as2&tag=dronedojo01-20&linkId=4b6ecbc0b27d6b13dff1482fe9cd8e69

Notice the Drone Dojo? Gotcha.

So? Click, get the page, select the name of the product, in this case, Element14 Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Motherboard, and then search for that in another browser on Amazon.

A Goldmine Aus Gene Kranz (NASA - Mercury, Gemini, Apollo)

One thing that jumps out at you from "Failure Is Not an Option" is how sophisticated their simulation methodology was even 50 years ago. They would spend 16 hours a day in simulation and there were a dozen computers working simultaneously on the simulation.

"... math models and a simulated astronaut"

Bill Tindall had started weekly meetings on the descent phase in April and had released a barrage of Tindallgrams and assorted notes. Tindallgrams was the name given to Bill's comic and highly treasured memos of the techniques meetings he conducted from 1966 to 1970 to document key engineering and operational decisions.

"There is another thing about powered descent crew procedures that has really bugged me. Maybe I'm an Aunt Emma. Certainly some smart people may laugh at my concern but I just feel that the crew should not be dibbling with the computer keyboard during powered descent unless it's absolutely necessary. They will never hit the wrong button of course, but if they do, the results can be rather lousy."

The next day, we started a review of every crew computer keystroke and its effect throughout the descent phase.

He was one of the great pioneers of manned spaceflight.

----

During the mission rules sessions, Buzz Aldrin was the crewman usually involved, demonstrating his knowledge on a variety of subjects and generally dominating the crew side of the conversations. (FYI, Buzz is a grad of MIT). Neil Armstrong seemed more the observer than the participant, but when you looked at his eyes you knew that he was the commander and all pieces assembled in his mind. I don't think he ever raised his voice. He just saved his energy for when it was needed. He would listen to our discussions and, if there was any controversy, he and Aldrin would try out our ideas in the simulators and then give feedback through Charlie Duke to the individual controllers. Buzz and Neil seldom took a strong position during the meetings, but they were good listeners. They knew enough about us to trust us, to give us the benefit of the doubt. Mike Collins used a different tactic. He worked directly with the trench and systems guys. By the time we got to the rules sessions, all the problems were ironed out. We published our first complete set of rules for the Apollo 11 mission on May 16, 1969, two months prior to launch.

With no landing simulation experience, the first set of rules represented the sum total of our knowledge from our meetings.

Simulation training is broken into two parts - nominal and contingency. The nominal training occurs early in the simulation period. It lasts only two to three days and is used to establish crew - controller action timing, locate the go-no-go decision points and exercise the procedures for the planned mission. The contingency training tests the crew-controller decision process in a mission environment while solving complex trajectory and systems problems. Training scripts are developed by sim-sup's team and problems are programmed into the simulators without the crew's or controllers' knowledge. The training environment becomes as close to the real thing as possible, with the training team testing the flight team's strategy, knowledge and coordination while probing into the psyche of the crew and controllers. Nothing is sacred.

Were it not for GK, I would know about this guy : Bob McCall - Space Artist.

Who Talks Like This?

"An outwardly sardonic Turkish man named Izzet" "who must have been a narcissistic prodigy" :

If you have time to sleep, you have time to do algebra
Didn't you kids lean this in kindergarten?

http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~coskun/
https://medium.com/@jeremyjkun/my-graduate-career-in-math-85fd4efb0fa9#.s5si561ir

BTW, Jeremy Kun is not only a math, but a poet as well. Consider :  If you want your career to grow beyond shuffling data around to meet arbitrary business goals, you should learn the tools that enable you to write programs that captivate and delight you. Mathematics is one of those tools.

The simplest and broadest truth about mathematics is that it revolves around proofs. Proofs

are both the primary vehicle of insight and the fundamental measure of judgment. 'Ihey

are the law, the currency, and the f‌ine art of mathematics.