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Zoom – Just say “No!”

July 10, 2020 by Bob Easton 6 Comments

While I’ve confined most of this blog to woodworking topics of some sort, my “day job” was nearly 50 years in the technology business, most recently software engineering and developing accessibility techniques for making the Internet an easier place for people with disabilities.

So, I’ll break away from Splinterville for a few moments to talk tech.

Main point: Don’t use Zoom. What!?! Doesn’t everybody use zoom? Unfortunately, too many.

I’ll be blunt. While Zoom is bright and shiny and easier to use than some other products, it is a Chinese product with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP has absolutely ZERO respect for personal freedom, independence or personal privacy. Zoom is a security sieve, so full of holes that any of your personal information can be easily mined by the Chinese Communist Party and other malcontents.

Do you want your conversations with your doctor, your financial advisors, your insurers etc., known by others? Think very seriously about what information you exchange in Zoom meetings, or what information your reveal in your Zoom profile, and whether you want any of it known beyond the people you trust in those meetings. Zoom has a long history of security weaknesses; everything from the absence of encryption in some “free” meetings, to very weak encryption when used, to Chinese servers controlling those weak encryption keys, to weaknesses that lets others into your meetings, that lets others take over your webcams, to a backdoor that lets the CCP listen in anytime they please, and similar weaknesses that cybercriminals are now exploiting to steal your digital identity.

Amazingly, one of my healthcare providers chose Zoom for “tele-medicine” meetings. Their reason was because Skype wasn’t HIPAA compliant and Zoom was. I can’t imagine how Zoom is HIPAA compliant while being riddled with security and privacy holes. DOH!

Personally, I blame Microsoft. They’ve been very complacent in not upgrading SKYPE to meet modern commerce demands. Think: old cow whose milk is still bringin’ cash.

A collection of articles about Zoom’s security flaws:

  • Zoom security issues: Here’s everything that’s gone wrong (so far)
  • A Zoom Flaw Gives Hackers Easy Access to Your Webcam
  • ZOOM ENCRYPTION CONTAINS A CHINESE BACKDOOR AND….
  • Maybe We Shouldn’t Use Zoom After All
  • Is Zoom a HIPAA Compliant Video and Web Conferencing Platform?
  • Zoom Security Concerns Mount as New Flaws Identified

Filed Under: Technology

Bowl #4

June 24, 2020 by Bob Easton 4 Comments

  • photo - completed bowl
  • photo - completed bowl
  • photo - completed bowl
  • photo - completed bowl - bottom

Ambrosia Maple. Length: about 13″ – Width: about 8 & 1/2″ – Height: about 4″ – Finish: food safe flaxseed oil

This log came from tree maintenance along a wooded road to the South of Lake Welch in Harriman State Part, NY. It was one of the logs I asked about a few months ago. From that query, I learned about the Ambrosia beetle and its habit of burrowing into a tree to establish nesting space. The beetles who inhabited this tree are long gone, but they left their large marks and a few tiny bore holes.

photo - rough shaping

The log rested in a plastic bag for a couple of months before I started on it. By the time I started, it had dried a bit and was as hard as one expects of Maple. I did a lot of the rough shaping using my newly built bowl horse. [ Bowl horse design from David Fisher. ]

I always find it interesting to see how many chips result from carving. Two pics show the bowl. The first is after roughing, with all the chips from that process, and the second is after final carving with those chips. The chips become garden mulch.

  • photo of bowl #4 - work in progress
  • photo - bowl and chips - 2

FWIW. This bowl is, at the time of this posting, currently lost in the mail. I posted it for a destination in Europe while in the midst of lockdown mania. The post office wasn’t aware at that time that mail to Europe was being held at various points along the way. Some European countries were rejecting entry of all mail and have only recently opened their gates. We have yet to discover whether the package actually arrived in Europe, or is being held at a big airport on the U.S. east coast, or … ??? — UPDATE: arrived at its destination after elebenty-seven days in transit.

Filed Under: bowl carving, green woodworking, Woodcarving

Bowl # 5 – Spring Chicken

May 17, 2020 by Bob Easton 1 Comment

Basswood. Length: 8.5″ Width: 4.5″ Height: 3.25″ Finish: Artist acrylic paints

This one is an experiment in finding the right shape. Again, inspiration from David Fisher, talking about his hens … one of which is the direct inspiration for this bowl. My “aha” moment came when I realized one does not need a crook to make a bird shape. A good block with a roof-peak shape will do.

Rather than hack into a hard maple log, I made this miniature from a 3x3x9 block of basswood. It was good practice in finding the right shape, and easier carving all along the way.

Filed Under: bowl carving, Woodcarving

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