Sunday, December 22, 2019

41 Years Ago, I Got A Call From George Lucas



Wow. 40 years in the wilderness. Kind of biblical, eh? Back in 1978, my invention (the Hagoth voice stress analyzer) made the front page of every major newspaper in the country. And I appeared on talk shows like ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Today and Tomorrow with Tom Snyder shows, The Mike Douglas Show, and The McNeil-Lehrer Show. One day, my wife said I got a call from George Lucas. I'd recently taken the kids out of school to see the first Star Wars movie, and excitedly called back. George's secretary said they were interested in getting one of my devices. I refused to sell it to them. After she gasped in astonishment, I explained that I'd be glad to give them one, and even fly to their offices and show them how to use it. We made a date.
I had a special unit made, anodized in Darth Vader black and showed up at the studio lot, where they ushered me to their offices. There, producer Gary Kurtz gratefully accepted my gift and, in return, gave me a Darth Vader helmet and five signed posters (one for me, and one for each of my four kids).
Later in 1978, I took the summer off and (with their permission) made a movie with my Boy Scouts titled Darth Vader in Exile. It's pretty hokey, as I wrote the script in about two hours and used old technology to make a 30-minute film. The rock groups Abba and The Bee Gees even let me use some of their music for the background. If you want to check it out, be my guest: Go to www.rickbennett.com/DarthVaderInExile.m4v. Forgive the cheesy flick, but this was a summer exploit with my scouts. And we got to use my prized Darth Vader helmet!
Boy, I wish I'd had FinalCutPro back then. My computer was a PDP-11/34 that took special air conditioning in my house, and sported 16 dial-in phone lines, a mag tape drive and two washing-machine-size disk drives with ten megabytes of storage. Hey, in 1978, that was a big deal!
Back then, I believed I could do anything. So I sold my company and ran for congress. And lost, only getting 47% of the vote from a heavily gerrymandered district in the state of Washington.
Why the nostalgia today? I'm going to see the latest Star Wars this weekend: The Rise of Skywalker! Which has gotten me reminiscing just a bit.
Wait until Earth Day. I'll reprise my previous LinkedIn article about adventures with Earth Day founder Frank Herbert, the science fiction author who wrote Dune. No, I don't live in the past. But I try to learn from it.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Scam Call of The Day from "Apple Support" @ 844-629-0858



Do people still fall for this kind of scam call? But more importantly, I have googled the number and it has been used for months by these so-called "Apple support" scammers. Why hasn't Apple pounded a stake into the yheart and had the number jerked? Yo, schmucks at Apple! This question is for you.

Saturday, August 31, 2019

NATO, the new Cyber Privateer Bonding Authority?


The UK Register reports (read the story here), that any cyberattack on a NATO country will be met wityh a counterattack. Now why hadn't I considered this before. Maybe NATO could be the world Cyber Privateer Bonding Authority? Check out the Cyber Privateer Code (click here) and consider the possibilities.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Only dumb schmucks buy Lenovo Computers


Anyybody who buys a computer from Lenovo (see the U.K. Register story here) deserves exactly what they get. Good grief, talk about supply chain roaching!

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Israeli Air Strike on Hammas Hackers: The Ultimate Cyberprivateer Ploy


Just got a Wired story (read it here) about "What Israel's strike on Hamas Hackers means for cyberwar." I think they got it all wrong. What it truly means is that current cyberdefense policy is NOT working. Again, I posit that licensed and bonded cyberprivateers are the only answer. Except of course against terrorists who aren't in it for the money. Then, bombing is the answer.

Yo Israel.You should seriiously consider becoming the world's cyyberprivateering hub!

Monday, April 22, 2019

Happy Earth Day, Frank Herbert

Repeating the blog from 2015:

Here is a much younger me in 1980 with my friend Frank Herbert. Sure, Frank's Dune, along with his other science fiction, eerily foresaw our current geopolitical battle lines, where technology became sufficiently advanced that one individual could wreak havoc on the entire planet. But his justifiable concern for Planet Earth, and his Philadelphia speech on the first Earth Day in 1970, is also appropriate for today. Ignoring the shrill rhetoric on both sides of the ecology argument, Frank's agenda was apolitical and common sense. We had many high-bandwidth conversations about everything from technology to religion to politics. Sure, he talked me into running for the U.S. Congress back in 1978. It might have been interesting, had I won and tried to live up to his vision of me as his "Tactful Saboteur" Jorj X. McKie. Who am I kidding, though? I'd probably be in jail today, having slipped a thumb drive past the capitol's legislative firewall and wreaking havoc on the Beltway Bandits' meal ticket.

Happy Earth Day, Frank.

Sincerely, Rick Jorj X. McKie Bennett.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Personal appeal to Ukraine government

Since I started this blog in 2011, the most popular single audience outside the United States has been Ukraine. To wit:

Pageviews by Countries

Graph of most popular countries among blog viewers
Entry
United States
Ukraine
France
Russia
China
Germany
Israel
United Kingdom
United Arab Emirates
Canada

Ukraine has hit this site tens of thousands of times. I think I'm trusted. So, Ukraine claims to have evidence of 2016 election tampering, but complains that nobody in the U.S. government is interested in reviewing the information.

The plea. Post it here. I'll publish it. Of course, I'll insist on authentication of the source being the Ukrainian government and not some misinformation hackers.

Please accept this invitation from…The Destroying Angel.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Test-fly an F-35 From Your Armchair!

Want the ultimate thrill of taking Uncle Sam's Club's latest into combat? Here is that chance. Check out the U.K. Register article (read it here). The highest-priced weapons platform ever is "unprepared against malware infections and other hacking attacks," according to POGO (the non-profit watchdog Project on Government Oversight). As Oracle's Ellison once said (read the article here):
You could kill everyone in the neighborhood in one week with an AR-15, but an F-15 could do the job in an afternoon.
 Talk about "the Christmas present that keeps on giving."

Friday, March 29, 2019

The Brits wise up about Huawei

Two U.K. Register articles make the point (read 1 here and a 2nd here).

Huawei, Heawei, Huawei down south, in…Huawei Hell

The End

Friday, March 8, 2019

Huawei Walks Into A Texas Courtroom…



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The most interesting cyberwar showdown yet (see the full U.K.Register story here) will be in an East Texas federal district court, where Huawei will seek a permanent injunction against the U.S. Government ban on use of their hardware. Instead of waging a PR war (the smartest thing to do, offering a reward for anyone who can demonstrate a back door in their hardware or software), these idiots will rely on judge shopping and laughable arguments. I mean, imagine China asking for a “fair hearing” anywhere, given their record in so many areas.

Attorneys representing the USA do have one dilemma. Do they share the Zero-Day info they have on Huawei’s kit, and lose a big-time NSA tool, or do they claim national security concerns and obliquely argue their case?

Get some popcorn, the super-size soft drink of your choice, and enjoy the show.