Jul 04

Anthony Cumia fired from SiriusXM

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Fans of the Opie and Anthony show on SIRIUSXM are in shock this morning as it was announced that Anthony Cumia has been fired for comments that he made on social media.  Many people take to Facebook and Twitter to vent and ramble but Cumia learned the hard way that you cannot do this and expect to keep your job.

This all stems from an encounter he had with a black woman in Times Square.  The woman was upset that it appeared like Anthony Cumia was taking her picture and allegedly punched him repeatedly.  During the encounter, Cumia says on his Twitter feed that he called her a pig and an animal for her behavior.  These comments were seen by SiriusXM as racially insensitive and Cumia was fired for them.

The following is a statement from SiriusXM’s Senior Vice President of Communications, Patrick Reilly:

SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel. The decision was made, and Cumia informed, late Thursday, July 3 after careful consideration of his racially-charged and hate-filled remarks on social media. Those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents.

Brendan Spaar wonders if Anthony Cumia would have been fired had the woman been white.  Only in America can someone be fired from their job for being the victim of a crime.  Now is the time for the silent majority to take a stand to end the apologies and political correctness.  First they came for Anthony Cumia and I said nothing…

Source:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/07/04/siriusxm-opie-anthony-cumia-racist-tirade/12212337/

Jun 03

Apple unveils IOS 8 and more at 2014 WWDC

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It’s that time of year again.  Apple has announced the latest version of its iOS operating system targeting iPads and iPhones at this year’s WWDC.  Brendan Spaar doesn’t feel that there are too many new features with this version of iOS.  This may be due to the fact that iOS 7.0 was a huge leap forward and Apple is using this version as more of a maintenance release to improve upon features that are already present on the devices.  Naturally there will be improvements to the camera app, as well as integration into OS X but for the most part, iOS 8.0 just doesn’t have much of a WOW factor.  The ability to log into other apps using your fingerprint is a neat idea if only this security wasn’t defeated last year.  For now, the safest way to keep your data secure is by using a complicated pass phrase, not biometrics.

Besides the iOS 8 hype which will be coming soon to an iPhone 6 near you, Apple announced their connected Home strategy.  Brendan Spaar is a fan of the connected home, having many gadgets that he controls from his phone today.  Their announcement was more of a certification program called HomeKit which will give you peace of mind that your Apple device is the only device capable of turning on your lights, adjusting the thermostat, or opening your doors.  Now the wait is on to see how all of these offerings will integrate into the next iPhone which usually has a release date around September.

Apr 15

Should you worry about Heartbleed?

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By now you have probably heard of the security vulnerability known as Heartbleed.  The news broke last week that versions of website encryption software OpenSSL were susceptible to an attack where someone could listen to traffic being sent to and from a secure website.

Could a hacker retrieve every password, bank account, and social security number from a website?  Not likely.  This attack had to be occurring at the same time that you were entering sensitive information into a secure website running OpenSSL.  The attacker would send the website data and lie about the number of characters this data should be.  For instance, the attacker would say they were requesting DOGS (200 characters).  The website would then return DOGS followed by the next 200 secure entries it had received.  Could an attacker be running this type of query all day every day?  Possibly but not likely.  Brendan Spaar recommends you change your password on affected sites out of an abundance of caution and also because you probably have never changed your password, ever.

Is it safe to file my taxes with Heartbleed in the open?  Yes.  The IRS does not use OpenSSL.

Here are a list of sites that Brendan Spaar recommends changing your password on:

  • Google, YouTube and Gmail
  • Facebook, Instagram
  • Netflix
  • OKCupid
  • Pinterest
  • Wikipedia
  • Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Tumblr, Flickr

Apr 07

Should creationists be allowed equal time on COSMOS?

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A creationist by the name of Danny Falkner, of Answers In Genesis, is making noise that he would like to see more about creationism on the science show COSMOS which airs every Sunday night on FOX.  Brendan Spaar is an avid watcher of this show and has heard the host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, mention several times that no one can be sure what happened before the big bang.  While Tyson uses science to dismisses the belief that the universe is only 3500 years old, he does reason that someone could have created it in the beginning.  We just don’t know.  If Mr. Falkner wishes to see more of creationism in science, he should first allow more science into religion.

Apr 02

Can you protect your Tesla Model S from hackers?

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Tesla Motors’ all electric sports car can do zero to sixty miles per hour faster than most gasoline powered automobiles may have one serious flaw.  This car relies on a complex computer system to control nearly every aspect of it.  Can the Tesla Model S be hacked?  Brendan Spaar has learned that all that separates a hacker from this system is a six digit password that can be broken by brute force techniques.  If you think about it, six numerical digits 0-9 only requires 1 million attempts before you have exhausted every possible combination.  This may not sound like a lot but for a computer system that is capable of thousands of attempts per second, it would only take a few minutes before someone has remotely unlocked your car or is allowed to follow it on GPS.  As more and more cars become reliant on technology, automakers need to put cyber security in the same category as vehicle safety.