The Actuator - June 21st

Hope everyone enjoyed Father's Day this past weekend, and that your day was filled with good food and good times with family. This week's Actuator is timed with the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. But as any SysAdmin knows, the longest day of the year is any day you are working with XML.

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

Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, wielding online might in brick-and-mortar world

In the biggest news story last week, Amazon agreed to purchase Whole Foods. I am cautiously optimistic for what this could mean with regards to world hunger. By purchasing Whole Foods, Amazon gets a brand name AND a distribution channel they need not build themselves. Combined with drone delivery, Amazon could find a way to provide food to remote locations. Heck, if Amazon partners with a real estate company such as McDonald's (who already feeds 1% of the world each day), Amazon could be feeding 5% of the global population within ten years.

Divide and Conquer: How Microsoft Researchers Used AI to Master Ms. Pac-Man

Good news for SkyNet fans, we've now created AI smart enough to defeat video games. It won't be long now before the AI decides that the best way to win is to not play and instead eliminate the game creators.

Complete list of wifi routers from WikiLeaks' Cherry Blossom release detailing CIA hacking tools

If your home router is on this list, you might want to make sure you've protected yourself against the exploits that have been publicly released.

Forget Autonomous Cars—Autonomous Ships Are Almost Here

And now I have something else to write about other than just autonomous cars. Autonomous ships!

Marissa Mayer Bids Adieu to Yahoo

Only in America can someone be given the opportunity to run an already failing corporation into the ground and then walk away with a quarter of a billion dollars.

Block Untrusted Apps Using AppLocker

For anyone looking to add an extra layer of protection against malware. As much as I know users are a large security surface area to control, I also know that a lot of SysAdmins take and run scripts they find from internet help forums. Running random scripts you find on blogs are also a risk. Be careful out there, folks.

20 Percent of Users Still Don’t Know about Phishing or Ransomware, Reveals Survey

That 20% seems like a low estimate, IMO.

For all the fathers out there: