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Wednesday Morning: Wonderful, Just Wonderful

I debated about posting Jonny Lang’s Lie to Me. Nah, we’re lied to every day, might as well ask for the truth for once, even if it’s ugly. The truth is that nothing’s okay though we wish like hell it were otherwise.

That said, let’s forge on into the fraught and frothing fjords…

‘Nope.’ That’s what California Air Resources Board said
Huh-uh, no way, nada — CARB told Volkswagen in response to VW’s proposed recall plans for emissions standard-cheating 2.0L vehicles sold into California. Because:

  • The proposed plans contain gaps and lack sufficient detail.
  • The descriptions of proposed repairs lack enough information for a technical evaluation; and
  • The proposals do not adequately address overall impacts on vehicle performance, emissions and safety

Wonder if CARB’s response will be different with regard to VW’s 3.0L vehicles? Shall we take bets?

Fugly, in multiples — cybersec edition
Ebay’s got bugs, and not just at auction.

Need more than tape to fix this problem with cheap web cameras.

Popular antivirus may pose a hacking threat, patch has been issued. Same antivirus manufacturer has a nifty relationship with INTERPOL, too, to share information about cyberthreats. Wonder if they phoned INTERPOL and said, “Cyberthreat. It me!”

(BTW, I love it when spell check helpfully says, “‘Cybersec’ is wrong, don’t you mean ‘cybersex’?”…um, no.)

General Motors: We won’t sue white hats doing our work for us!
No lawsuits, but don’t expect any rewards for finding vulnerabilities (unlike competitor Tesla’s bug report program).

Big of you, GM. Way to protect your intellectual property and brand at the same time.

The biggest threat to nation’s power grid is S_______
Beady-eyed and focused, slips beneath our radar, gnaws into our electricity transport with annoying frequency, causing hundreds of hours of power outages. Stuxnet? No. Bloody squirrels.

In short, it’s all wonderful this Wednesday. Just wonderful. Pass the Glenmorangie, please.