IT Insights Blog — training

Does anyone else remember the days when most (if not all) of the things that you could "subscribe" to were printed on paper and delivered either a) to the front porch (or the driveway, the rosebush next to the picture window, the low-hanging branches of the maple tree on the front lawn — it's hard to aim things from a bicycle seat or the back of a station wagon), or b) to your mailbox? Newspapers, magazines, catalogs, or maybe the latest selection from Book of the Month club.

Today is March 29, a date that commemorates one of history's more unusual reigns of terror. New York City's Mad Bomber resurfaced on March 29, 1951, after an almost decade-long hiatus patriotically declared in observance of America's involvement in World War II. It isn't your average sociopath who commences whatever twisted mission he has set out for himself, then decides to recognize the greater societal good, publicly announces a truce, and actually follows through.

Sometimes in life things happen just because. That is to say that not every deed or development has a good and compelling rationale behind it, or can be traced back through a series of logical outcomes to a perfectly understandable inciting incident or event. The phrase "out of a clear blue sky" exists to describe an unexpected occurrence because sometimes this or that monumental (or miniscule) outcome is like lightning on a clear day, like a literal "bolt out of the blue."

When a political candidate wants to spread whatever message he or she is spreading, as well as meet people, shake hands, and build relationships, the candidate quite often travels from place to place and person to person. Pounding the pavement and pressing the flesh is a time honored approach to disseminating ideas and information and forging important connections with voters.

Hackers have a pretty tarnished reputation and, if you think about it, that's probably always been the case. Has "hacking" anything really ever been looked on as being productive, positive, or beneficial? Prior to the information age, "hacking" was probably most often something done with machetes and, before that, swords. And unless you were say, hacking your way through dense jungle foliage, there's a pretty good change that what was getting hacked was human limbs.