The Heartbleed Bug

You may have already heard about the Heartbleed bug; it's been called by some as the biggest internet security threat to date!



The reason for that is the bug affected a lot of popular websites – I'm talking Gmail, Facebook – and your sensitive information was exposed during this time. Now the good news: some of the companies that were vulnerable have put in patches and are safe now; but because it affected so many big sites (for who-knows-how-long), it's been recommended that you go change your password.

There's a site out there right now that can run scans and see if the websites you want to use are safe. There are also breakdowns of the big websites, if they were affected or not, and if you need to change your password.

Facebook, it's unclear. Do you need to change your password? Yes!



Additionally, some of the big ones were affected and they recommend you change your password:

Tumblr,



Google,



Yahoo,



Gmail,



Amazon Web Services,



GoDaddy,



TurboTax,



Dropbox,



Minecraft,



OKCupid,



SoundCloud,



Wunderlist...



...and really, if there's any silver lining to this, it seems that most all banks were protected by this. The bad part: if any of that information was on places that could've been affected, then that's where your information could get out.

So really, if you want to be safe right now, change your passwords; don't use the same passwords on more than one website.

Conclusively, just a rule of thumb on the internet, no matter how secure you believe you are, you really never are. Someone would always have the perfect pairing of being smart enough, and being bored enough.

Virus Shield

Everyone's worried about getting a virus, and so that seems to be the reason why, in the Google Play store, the #1 paid app was Virus Shield; it prevents harmful apps from being stored on your device; protects your personal information; and has a strong antivirus signature detection.



And it's so good, even at $3.99, it had been downloaded 10,000 times; had over 2,600 people recommending it, and had a 4.5 star rating.



Amazing, right? No. Turned out the app which was less than 1 megabyte did not – well it didn't do nothing – what it did do was change this X...



...into a check mark.



That's it!

And it has let a good number of people to wonder if the Google Play store can really be trusted. Personally, I had hoped that the community could self moderate with the star system but, whether it be because there are fake accounts giving amazing reviews, or because people perceive that it's working because it's supposed to be preventing malware. It's kind of a rainmaker app: you're scared about malware so you download it, and after sometime you still don't have malware so it must be working. Lol, and all this has led some people to go even a step further, saying that maybe Google Play should have some sort of screening process; a walled-garden of sorts, kind of how Apple does it with iOS.

And, because the app (Virus Shield) is now down, I don't know if the money has gone to the creator of it. So, if Google refunded the people who downloaded it, I think it's beneficial.

And I'd love to know what you think. Do you think it's better what Apple does? Or, how Google does it? Maybe there's even something middle of the road where you start creating apps and then you become verified? I don't know, how do you support, and even promote, creativity without suffocating it with these things you have to go through?

And honestly, I'm on the fence.

New Forms of Cunt

We have new words in the Oxford English Dictionary.



Language is both a tool and weapon – depending who is at the helm. But, due to constant use of trick ass words we have new words as I type this. Specifically, 4 different words of the word cunt. Yes, for real. Apparently, the use of these words are so constant that they had to be in the dictionary.

So, here are the 4 versions of the word cunt:

1. CUNTY,



2. CUNTISH,



3. CUNTED,



and 4. CUNTING.



And if you're confused, here are a few examples of common day usage:

• I'm cunting excited for the Sony Xperia Z2, Bro!

• I was so cunted last night because that cuntish cunty cunt was just being so obnoxious!

• Also, do you know where I put my third leg?

Conclusively, the principal point of this short story is that scrabble night has gotten so so so so so much more interesting! Thank you, Youth of the World, for ruining language so I can smile more.

#FortHood

In very sad news, there was a shooting at the Fort Hood Army complex in Texas, few days ago. And no, this is not a repeat story from last year's shooting at Fort Hood; that of course resulted in 45 people shot, 13 being killed. And unfortunately, this time, people died again. 16 people reportedly injured, 3 people killed, and the shooter now dead.



Additionally, it's being reported that the shooter was an army specialist. Federal officials saying that the army serviceman was being treated for anxiety, depression, and was under evaluation for posttraumatic stress disorder at the time of the shooting on the base.



Earlier reports are saying that the man used a .45 Smith & Wesson; at around 5 PM (local time), he walked into the building and opened fire! He then hopped into a vehicle, drove to another building, went in and opened fire again!! And finally, when the military police confronted him he turned the gun on himself.



And it's just a terrible story; just senseless violence, senseless death, once again. And obviously, there will be a conversation of guns again. But, I do believe that there's a bigger story: how the US labels, and how they deal with mental disorder, mental disease, what do they actually do with the guys they send over to Iraq once they're back? It's a sad story made even more terrible by the fact that it's not even a unique story anymore; and as of right now, they have no motive for why this shooting happened – and, once again, it's because it seems senseless. Hopefully, they'll figure out how to stop this from happening again in the future.