Ben Mann Monthly June 2021
dog arrived, tri training, learning security, ancient empathy
Purpose
An index for my memory
A menu of topics for my next conversation with you
A faster way to share what I’m excited about without the barrier of writing a complete blog entry on it
A skimmable way to spread content I found valuable
Experiments and experiences
First month of dog
Last month I learned that my dislike of dogs came from isolated, outdated experiences in my childhood. This month, our one-year-old dog Roong-ji flew in from Korea. She's incredibly well behaved! I must admit I've enjoyed having her around. She might be the best dog I've ever met. Out of the box (crate?), she already followed commands for sit, shake, and come, in Korean. We've since also taught her stay and a few others. I think of her behavior from a machine learning perspective: keeping a short gap between stimulus and reward, making sure rewards are consistent and obvious, trying to prevent reward hacking. Walking around the city or hiking with her is like being part of a special club where talking to strangers is welcome. We're now part of the global dog owner community? Because she's so photogenic, we had to create an Instagram account for her.
Back to climbing
Now that the gym is open again, I can ablate the importance of skill vs muscle, having lost most of the latter in the last 18 months. Before pandemic, I could do most V4s and was projecting V5s. Now I can do most V3s and can make progress on V4s, so I've lost about 1 level. Not bad! I've already started running into friends at the gym. San Francisco is starting to feel small, personal, and friendly again.
Eyebrow laser
I could either pluck my glabella every few days for the rest of my life, or laser the hair off in 3-6 treatments and never have to think about it again. On the recommendation of a friend I decided to try the laser. The first treatment only took a few minutes. It took a lot more time to travel to and from the clinic than that, but in the long run it'll pay off.
Tri training
I re-registered for last year's cancelled half triathlon in Santa Cruz in mid September. Running's going to be okay, biking's going to be a stretch, and swimming's going to be tough. Luckily, our heated pool just opened up, so if I can peel myself away from my laptop for long enough to walk downstairs, perhaps I won't drown. I looked at average finishing times for half-tri segments. Comparing myself to the slowest demographic, 70-year-old women, I project it'll take me about 7 hours to finish, of which 1 hour will be swimming 1.2 miles. I've never swam that long or that far, let alone in open water. Practice makes perfect.
Emotion rating {-3, 3}: mean 1, std 1
Highs: realizing Roong-ji is the best-trained dog I've ever met, unmasked living, summer weather, relationship going great, firing on all cylinders at work
Lows: frequently sleepy all day, Diana injured, not exercising as much as I'd like
Life updates
Started reading The Perfectionists ⚙️
Started reading Broken Stars 🌟
Holidays: a time to do overdue plumbing and cleaning 🔧🧹✨
Content
5 point Likert ratings for “I would recommend this content to a friend”, sorted
An eye-opening survey of the major cyber attacks of the last few decades, who's who, and their likely motivations and effects
NSA's hacking tools are poorly defended and have leaked multiple times, then quickly adapted by bad actors
When media talks about "being hacked by 'The Chinese'" they mean the PLA. State-sponsored hacking has been the norm for a long time now.
Spear phishing is one of the most common attack vectors. Use 2-factor!! Beware email attachments and links. Use a password manager.
Always update the software you use. If you run a software org, ensure you have good code review practices, including regular audits.
If a state actor wants your stuff, it's very difficult to defend
Hacking can affect the physical world (cf Ukraine blackouts), but at least in practice these events have been less disruptive than expected
If the FBI warns you of a breach, don't ignore the warning!
Why prior generations missed some of the biggest priorities 4/5
Insightful exploration of why ancient societies believed what they did, eg eternal return, humanoid aliens, and living rocks.
Gave me more empathy for the past. Even just knowing that progress is possible is hard when you can't see it on a week-to-week basis from your tiny medieval hamlet.
In the Heights 3/5
A+ style and energy, but the songs didn't stick in my head the way they often do after musicals
Luca 3/5
Predictable but heart-warming bildungsroman: leave home, meet new friends, expand your horizons, face your fears
More Italian flavor than any other animated film I've seen, reminescent of Porco Rosso
Mortal Kombat 3/5
Exactly what you'd want and expect: the right amount of gore, plenty of references to the game, good balance of action and comedy.
Loki E1-4 3/5
Loki, god of mischief, is extradited from time and space to help the keepers of the sacred timeline stop one of his variants from messing up everything.
Incredible special effects and acting for a TV show!
The plot has more holes than swiss cheese, but the action sequences are fun, and for a supervillian/buddy cop drama, the characters are trying hard not to be flat. It's almost convincing.
