The Actuator – July 25th

sqlrockstar over 5 years ago 2 minute read time

This week's Actuator comes to you fireside, as I am able to start enjoying the results of three weeks worth of hard work building an outdoor living area. We had planned to hire someone to do this work, but they never got back to us so we decided we could do it ourselves. It's been exhausting, but rewarding. There's something to be said for building things yourself. But not databases. Let a professional help you, please.

As always, here are some links from the Intertubz that I hope will hold your interest. Enjoy!

Python has brought computer programming to a vast new audience

People are using Google to search for Python more than they are searching for a Kardashian. Also warrants mentioning – Python gets its name from Monty Python.

Netflix Cloud Security SIRT releases Diffy: A Differencing Engine for Digital Forensics in the Cloud

Another great example of Netflix being awesome. I love how they are taking their internal tools and making them available for others to use and, in theory, improve upon over time for the benefit of everyone.

Surprise! Top sites still fail at encouraging non-terrible passwords

In related news, I am spending up to 30 minutes of my day logging into websites and having to retrieve passwords from 1Password or using two-factor authentication. Security has a cost, and part of that cost is time spent logging into websites, apparently.

Hackers account for 90% of login attempts at online retailers

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Why health insurers track when you buy plus-size clothes or binge-watch TV

As someone that has had difficulty with Optum, this article drives home how healthcare decisions are being made. What should be in the hands of the doctors is often in the hands of a computer program and a person that has no idea about you, your health, or your needs.

Colleges ask for a share of future salary in lieu of loans

At first I thought this idea was horrible, but after reading it a few times and thinking about it a bit more, I now think this is a terrible idea. Schools are a business, diploma mills mostly, and this financial arrangement has the potential for abuse.

The mistake that almost got me fired but transformed my career

If you haven’t hit this point in your career, I hope you do soon. Or keep an updated resume handy.

One of the joys of summer - carnival food! Here's a sausage, topped with pulled pork, topped with bacon:

Top Comments

rschroeder over 5 years ago +1

That sandwich demonstrates the miracle of pigs (according to Jim Gaffigan): Feed them an apple, they make bacon! (And sausage, and pulled-pork, etc.).
mtgilmore1 over 5 years ago +1

Deep fried Oreos
sparda963 over 5 years ago +1

I can see both sides of the argument here. I can see colleges using this to take advantage of people even more then they do now. But I think this could have good results too, it puts some pressure on the…

david.botfield over 5 years ago

Good Articles.
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rschroeder over 5 years ago

One might infer that insurance companies want to reduce costs, and charge more for people who are involved in higher risks for health costs.
Therefore, if they had records of someone regularly using massive amounts of screen time to binge shows, they may think this implies the person is not exercising, but instead is engaging in unhealthy activity.
Similarly, perhaps they feel the same way about people who are too heavy in the eyes of the insurance companies. Excessive weight leads to diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, etc. These are all very expensive things to treat, therefore an insurance company may raise the rates charged to someone purchasing larger clothing. Or the companies may refuse to insure large people at all.
Simply for a cost and business and profit point of view, knowing clients are couch potatoes and are very overweight could be a valuable piece of information for insurance companies. Or for ALL companies, if they all want to reduce sick time and lower health care costs by having healthy, active employees. This could mean a person could lose their job just for buying larger clothes, or for spending the weekend watching twenty hours of some streaming video series.
Big Brother is still watching. But . . . although it's a gross invasion of privacy (today), wouldn't a healthy society WANT fewer overweight people, and want people who are more centered on the average body mass instead of far off to the heavy end?
I'm not advocating this, but it seems there's some benefit to losing excess weight and being active, to socializing in person, face-to-face with friends while being active. I bet I'd benefit from less screen time and losing weight, thus enabling me to wear smaller clothing.
Where do we draw the line, when on the one hand it looks like discrimination, but on the other hand it helps us be healthier?
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tallyrich over 5 years ago

That is a good point - which is why they exempt themselves from so much legislation such as healthcare.
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sparda963 over 5 years ago

Our law makers won't do anything about it until it has an effect on them. Just look at facial recognition and what the ACLU did to finally get a response from congress on it, and it worked.
Amazon facial recognition mistakenly confused 28 Congressmen with known criminals - CNET
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bobmarley over 5 years ago

Why health insurers track when you buy plus-size clothes or binge-watch TV
Creepy Stuff!
I can't imagine being a young person now and everything that you ever said and did on social media is kept somewhere forever, then finding out your rates for insurance are higher because of something stupid you did in middle school.
Hopefully our politicians in the states will wake up someday and implement something similar to the new laws in Europe.
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