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Posted by on Aug 10, 2014 in Blog | 3 comments

America’s Biggest Problem

 

torn-american-flag

 

What’s America’s biggest problem?

First, let me tell you what it’s not.

It’s not the economy.  It’s not terrorism.  It’s not the increasing scarcity of natural resources.  It’s not any of the typical uncertainties commonly associated with our perilous future.

Our biggest problem goes much deeper than that.

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Posted by on Jun 10, 2014 in Blog, General Poker, Politics | 10 comments

Avi Rubin Comments on Internet Security and Online Poker

 

Avi-Rubin-Nolan-Dalla

 

When I sat down earlier today with Avi Rubin here on the main floor at the 2014 World Series of Poker, he told me something shocking.

Internet banking as we know and practice it is dead — or very soon will be — given the way technology works and the advancements, hackers continue to make in stealing all of our secrets.  But personal banking and finance are only the tip of a larger and dirtier iceberg that’s floating out there.  We might as well be passengers on the Titanic’s maiden voyage.

Fact is, everything we do online is vulnerable to attack and exposure, which should really be alarming right now given the current political climate, especially to those who are engaged in the fight to legalize online poker.

Avi Rubin’s credentials in this arena are impeccable.  Poker is extraordinarily lucky to have him as a potential resource working on our side.  We should use him to develop ways to counter the bad guys.  He’s even willing to help us out simply for his deep love of the game, combined with a fundamental belief that online poker sites must be pressed to go the distance to protect players at all times, in all games.

Rubin’s conclusions and bold ideas merit our attention.  Even though we may not always like what we read, and some of the conclusions he’s reached will be troubling, we are much better off working with him in the long run.  We must ally ourselves with Rubin and those who have his expertise (who are few), rather than denying that security breeches remain a serious issue.  Here we have one of the world’s foremost experts in this area.  So, let’s take advantage of him and his generosity.

Accordingly, I encourage those in the poker industry to call upon Rubin to work with us.  At the very least, his most recent articles deserve serious attention.

Pay particular note to PAGE 3 of the paper, “Securing Online Poker.”

Abstract:

As an avid poker player, I enjoyed playing low-stakes cash games and low buy-in tournaments on Full Tilt Poker before Black Friday.  However, as a Computer Scientist specializing in network and software security, I would never play poker online for any significant stakes, due to security concerns around malware and malicious remote access tools.  In this article, I describe a new scheme that is easy to adopt, requires no new hardware or user training, and which I believe eliminates the primary threat of malware in online poker.  Under my scheme, implemented properly, I would be comfortable playing poker online for whatever stakes my bankroll would allow.

AVI RUBIN’S HOMEPAGE

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING (“HOLD’EM OR FOLD’EM“)

PAPER:  SECURING ONLINE POKER

A PREVIOUS ARTICLE I WROTE ON RUBIN:  “AVI RUBIN’S FANTASY“

TAG: Avi Rubin Johns Hopkins University

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Posted by on Mar 23, 2014 in Blog, Rants and Raves | 2 comments

I Don’t Like Saturn

 

saturn

 

I watched a television show last week.  It was about outer space.  They showed a bunch of planets and stars.  Boring stuff like that.

The show was confusing.  Even worse, it made me depressed. 

They talked about how gigantic the universe is compared to earth.  Like that’s big news or something.  Everybody knows that.  They talked about the beginning of time up to the present day.  It all made me realize that human life is like a milli-second on the galactic timeline.  We’re nothing a blip.  It kinda’ made me feel like shit.  Like I’m nothing.

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Posted by on Feb 28, 2014 in Blog | 3 comments

So, 715 New Planets Were Just Discovered (What’s the Big Deal?)

 

saturn

 

They just announced the discovery of 715 new planets.

This doesn’t mean the planets are actually new.  Only that we didn’t know about them before.  So, they’re new to us.  Here’s a direct link to the news story: CLICK HERE

Okay, I read it.  And frankly, I don’t understand what’s the big deal.  I could have told them there were a bunch of planets out there, totally for free.  Just look up in the sky.  Had they asked my opinion, they could have saved a ton of tax dollars and endowment money paying all those expensive people salaries who spend all their time looking up at the sky.  Some job, huh?  Those fancy scientists should have been doing other stuff with their time, like looking for UFOs.

Speaking of UFOs, I’ve figured out why aliens are here.  It’s obvious.  They’re looking for sandwiches.  A slice of pizza.  A bag of peanuts.  Anything — just so long as they can eat something.  You don’t believe me?  Check them out.  Look at their bodies.  Admit it.  Have you ever an alien that looked healthy?  You ever a fit and muscular alien?  Hell no!  Every one of those creatures has an 18-inch waist and pale skin.  They don’t eat well.  They don’t have suntans.  They look like shit.

You’d think that if these people were so scientifically advanced, at least they’d know how to grill a cheeseburger.  And we’re supposed to get guidance from them?  No, thanks.  After taking one look, I think I’ll stay here on planet earth and enjoy a greasy bucket of KFC — thank you very much.

So, now these scientists who all think they’re so smart to say they’ve discovered a total of 715 new planets.  How do they know?  Those lights up in the sky all look the same to me.  How would they know a star from a planet?  Half of those lights could be airplanes for all we know.  What I really suspect is happening is this — they’re throwing darts and making stuff up.  That’s because they know no one else is capable of challenging what they claim.  What’s someone going to say — the scientists are wrong, there are only 620 new planets?  Who can you believe?

The arrogance doesn’t end there.  They even claim the ability to predict how far away some of these stars are, and which galaxy they’re located in.  Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit here.  I can’t even get my GPS to work half the time.  There’s no way some nerd dressed in a white lab coat looking into a telescope a few minutes a day is going to tell me there are 715 new planets out there.  Besides, what have these scientists been doing for the last 45 years since they staged that fake moon landing?  Shouldn’t they have identified those planets a hell of a lot sooner?  What happened, did they just now all magically appear?  Somebody must be sleeping on the job.

You can guess what’s coming next after this major announcement was made.  These scientists want more money.  For what?  To hang out and drink coffee around the giant telescope in order to find more planets?  Why!  We can barely handle the planets we’ve already got.  Come to think of it, we can’t even handle one planet — our own.  Do we really want to be taking on more of the universe’s problems?  I mean — 715 planets or 715,000 planets?  What’s the difference?  How’s that going to put cheap gas in my car?  Or sack the quarterback of the team I bet against so I can cover the spread?

Hey, try this.  How about actually doing something useful — like creating a cure for a tequila hangover?  Or making it where my cell phone calls don’t get dropped in mid-sentence.  How about curing the stuff here on earth before tackling what’s going on with Mars and Venus?  At the very least scientists should be capturing UFOs and talking to the aliens, by now.

Someone needs to do a serious audit on these guys.  They spend years locked away inside observatories staring at stars and planets all day and night, and this is what we finally get after all that so-called “research?”  We learn there are 715 new planets that aren’t anywhere close to us, and no one cares about it?

I think planets are overrated.  Way overrated.  Just look at the eight right here in our solar system.  Some scientists still can’t even decide if Pluto is a planet, or not.  They’re nothing but balls of fire, gas, and rock — stuff no one needs.  They’re totally worthless.  If there’s no gold or diamonds on the planet, what’s the point of worrying about it?  Leave it alone.  It’s not going anywhere.

Prediction:  In a few more years, they’ll announce the discovery of another 500 planets.  Or a thousand.  Whatever.  So long a Spirit Airlines isn’t flying there, I don’t give a shit.

I don’t like planets.  I think we should stop wasting time worrying about them.

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