Erase yourself

Probably inspired by GDPR, some Global vendors are following the tracks of social media giants by making it easy to download ALL your data.

It will take seven (7) days but I just put in my request for info to Apple hoping for some surprises.  There will be many of us who state that we have “nothing” to hide and don’t care what information is held.

You don’t know what you don’t know

https://privacy.apple.com

Self-discovery is always a healthy thing gives you the power to decide to delete ALL, correct or reset.

Basic discovery

App Store, iTunes Store, 
iBooks Store and Apple Music activity
Apple ID account and device information
Apple Online Store and Retail Store activity
AppleCare support history, repair requests and more
Game Center activity
iCloud Bookmarks and Reading List
iCloud Calendars and Reminders
iCloud Contacts
iCloud Drive files and documents
iCloud Mail
iCloud Notes
iCloud Photos
Maps Report an Issue
Marketing subscriptions, 
Marketing downloads

 

5 hour Disruption

At just rank 17, Star Wars Battlefront 2 version 1.08 is as addictive as ever.

Its in-game economics have been nicely engineered to only reward the player with better guns through hours and hours of gameplay only.  No more using real money to buy in-game weapons but, for me, this resulted in total disengagement from real life just to focus on ranking up and avoiding being killed every 10-30 seconds or so.

STAR WARS; Battlefront II – Trying to become an elite manager

The ranks system means the upper upgrades are only available at Rank 22 and 35.  In-game currency can only be used for cosmetic changes to your appearance.

The multiplayer sessions seem to be crowded with either folk over Rank 50-100 or newbies like me under 22.

Negative side effects

Poor eating or drink
Lack of quality sleep
No communications with friends or family
Total AWOL on projects
....I can't feel my legs (only kidding)

Conclusion: An absolutely fun game to play and a dream for real Star Wars fans wanting to relive the movies (now down to $23.99).

STAR WARS Battlefront II – Already an old game.

It’s too much of a disruption to my life (2-4 hours continuous gameplay) so I’ll eject the disk and conceal it in the office till the winter months and probably a new game patch.

Make your head Nod

Day 1 –  EU Data Laws come into force today.

Look out for the Article 33 – 72 Hour breach notification debacle.

I can only imagine the litigations that are cued up and ready to go.  Enterprise is all lawyered up but Small Business owners must be wondering what to do.  The first cases will definitely hit the media.

Will it make the end-user safer or just cause admin hassle and change the strategic position of hackers and miscreants? A new era of Lawfare where regulations are used to tied up resources of a target, distracting them and potential weakening their infrastructure.

Policy, procedures, standards, compliance will someone please wake me up.

…but yet I’ve already had some vague clueless queries from worried business folk.

Data enemies approach – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

No matter, your friendly neighbourhood CISSP is here for ya.

Walk in the Park

Game release timing is always critical.  I’m very picky with when I buy a title as the marketing hype from AAA studios is often a punch in the face.  Indie titles are a bit more honest but often lack the wow factor.  Funny thing is that I’m really enjoying indie title HellBlade.

I sidestepped the travesty of No Man’s Sky but still curious and would probably buy the full game for $20 or so but definitely not for the current $60.  I added two low commitment titles that were not on my buy list but pleasantly interesting with a tempting price drop to $5 from $20, Firewatch and Inside.

Brilliant RabbitHole game – INSIDE

Mafia III (released July 2016) is also down to $16 from $40 but the timing is not right and the drop indicates a possible freebie later this year for PS4 Plus members as they try to boost sales.

 

Brilliant Walk in the Park – Firewatch

Leave the Party

Like so many tech trends, once something becomes mainstream it simply loses its appeal.  I started DIY mining years ago but quickly figured out that the cost of the hardware, maintenance and most importantly my electricity bill made it a potentially high overhead experiment.

With some many active serious investors hunting for crypto currency, the energy costs are ramping up.

BitCoin costs too much energy (report May 2018)

This report suggests that in a few short months it will no longer be feasible to mine cryptocurrency.  Hopefully, the masses will get the heads-up and go back to what they were doing before the media hype.

Cryptocurrency cost on the rise