It was a very disappointing. Starlink satellites were visible, but they were much fainter and much more widely spaced than the night before. Those who know about these things better than me say it's very hard to predict exactly how "good" one of these passes as the satellites move towards their final orbit, unlike the International Space Station passes which are very predictable. On the upside, a better pass is predicted at around 9pm this evening. I also understand there's a launch of the next batch (60) of Starlink satellites tomorrow (Wednesday) in the US, so there's a chance we might get to see an even better "string of pearls" pass a day or so later. And remember, we're also in the middle of the Lyrid meteor shower which peaks tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow morning, so if you've got nothing planned, just go out in the garden tonight and look up. You might see a spaceship, and you might see meteors. Assuming the sky is clear, you'll definitely see loads of stars!
How easily do you give up data?
Barely a day goes by when I don't see and get irritated by a Facebook post from someone imploring me to fill in a list along the lines of:
"I'm bored during lockdown. I bet none of my Facebook friends will do this, but just for a bit of fun let's see who does. Then share your answer with all your friends"Things like:
- Your favourite colour
- Name of your first pet
- Best holiday destination
- Your favourite meal
- Colour of your car
- Month you got married
- Your computer passwords
Ok I made the last one up, but had I not, I suspect there might be a few people out there gullible enough to do it!
Whilst these seem like a bit ion innocent fun, in reality, these sorts of "challenges" aren't your pals idea. They've more than likely been instigated by persons unknown as a co-ordinated way for someone to "scrape" data about you. For example, if you filled in the top five answers in the first example, everyone (including the people that instigated this) knows that you like blue, you had a pet called Bertie, you like going to Ibiza, your car is red (why didn't you buy a blue one if it's your favourite colour?) and you got married in September. Imagine that list being 20 or more items. That's a lot of information about you. Then imagine you sharing that list with everyone of your contacts, and they sharing with every one of theirs and so on. Imagine how many people freely giving up data about their "favourite things" that is (incidentally, that's also a bit like how coronavirus spreads so quickly which is why you should be staying at home!).
And all this can (and most likely is) used at the very least for tailoring marketing advertisements towards you. Worse, it could be used by unscrupulous individuals (yes I know some people think marketeers are unscrupulous, but let's not go there), to start mining accounts for passwords. Too many people use basic passwords based on their favourite things, and also repeat those passwords over multiple accounts, so with enough people filling these in, some people will inadvertently leak their passwords, or at least give people a head start when it comes to cracking them.
That's why I don't fill these things in. It's not because I'm a grumpy old git (although that may be true) and I don't want to engage with my "friends". Honest.
Made soda bread again today. Looks like a better effort than my first one a week or so ago. Only time will tell - tea-time!
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| Home made bread |
And finally, my son had a blender out this afternoon making iced coffee. The following short video on slo-mo on an iPhone shows what happens in a blender when there's water in it. Quite transfixing.
Until tomorrow....
#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives
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