Category: Internet

Friday Video Picks : 2/9/24 Job Market and Aggressive Layoffs in March

Paul3 Replies

Aggressive Layoffs in March(2024)!

Economists estimate that we will have aggressive layoffs in March.   A very thorough look at what it could become like in the later months.   I am not going to say that she is right but I do think she has some very good points.  If you haven’t seen this video you should watch it and decide for yourself how much of this will happen.   Is there going to be a recession in 2024? Some information in this video actually shows me that someone is messing with the labor numbers and it is worse than than the US wants us to believe.   I am not going to say that we aren’t already in a Recession but I wouldn’t think we will be finding the jobs easier than we did in the past.   This is probably a good time to pivot and start applying to other jobs that are away from the tech industry for a time and then maybe when this is all over with you can come back to it.

Are they Lying to use about the Job Market?

Hyper Specialization is one thing that might be causing them to lie about the job market and this video goes into even more details about it. I’ve suspected something was going on with the job since I have started looking for a job the last few weeks. Nothing seems to correlate with why I haven’t gotten one interview in the last few weeks unlike previous where I could apply and have an interview at least once a week or twice a week and be feeling like I am accomplishing something.   This industry is not looking good for the for see-able future and we are going to have to consider other ways to make money.

I’ve been Applying

I will say that I’ve kept applying for jobs that I know I could do because of the my work experience.  I haven’t been in IT long so I have Production, Forklift, and Grocery store experience.   The problem I think is that with the mass amount of layoffs going on everyone is trying to find any job they can and that means everyone is applying for the same jobs and those in bigger cities will see applications for general work also skyrocket.  So the real questions is why does it feel harder to find a job and even get an interview than ever?  I’d be curious as to how long this will last but I am not going to hold my breathe on how long it will be before the real numbers actually show us that we are in the a Recession.

I’ve researched this as much as possible while not looking for a job to find out what I could do to get a job and so far everything I am a seeing is not promising and we should just tighten our belts on this to make ourselves get through the storm.   I am going to keep applying for jobs and networking to try to find people who might be able to get my foot in the door for places that I can work and hope that this doesn’t get to serious in the coming months.   I’m still hanging on to the fact that someone will hire me and let me work in IT but I will have to start looking other places also like Remote work, and Work From Home Jobs.  Again those will be flooded by people trying to find jobs and you are going to be Ghosted and forgotten most likely due to the high volume of applicants.  I don’t see this coming out any other way but we must be willing to take whatever we can to survive.

Are you looking for a job?  how is it going for you?  Have you had any success with interviews?  Leave a comment and tell me your story, I’d love to connect and find out what others have done and if they have had any interviews that didn’t pan out.   Remember subscribe to my blog for even more topics about this and other stuff.

How companies use Big Data and Analytics

Paul

Big data by Nick Youngson
CC BY-SA 3.0
Pix4free

What is Big Data?

The term “big data” refers to data that is so large, fast or complex that it’s difficult or impossible to process using traditional methods. The act of accessing and storing large amounts of information for analytics has been around a long time.— Sas.com (https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html)

Even that information is a little more harder to understand than we think.   Big data is the use of servers with massive hard drive space and massive cpu power to use to analyze and look for patterns or maybe it is even simpler it is a bitcoin rig that is trying to find the hash to make a profit out of.   Either way it requires a big amount of data and processing power to find the right hash to unlock bitcoins.   This is what big data is, it has to analyze the hash and find the possible algorithms to for he bitcoin and make money for the user.   It’s really a long process but the idea is simple it requires a lot of data and sending and receive of data to verify if the bitcoin is unlocked or not and each time it uses even more data to check it hashes as it tries to work out the formula for the bitcoin.  This is what big data is about in a fashion.

Data Analytics

When we talk about analytics it can seem strange to say or even think that a company will use it to make a profit.   It however is the thing in today’s market because most of the time, companies are trying to figure out what the user is wanting and leveraging what they want with making money.   So what’s Analytics and why should I need to know about it?

Analytics is simply the process of looking for patterns in users and data to find common paths and understanding why those paths are being used. 

Let’s face it, Companies want that information because they can figure out how to advertise to you or even bring more people to a landing page to convert into you buying their products or services.  If they know 20 year olds like a certain vehicle or likes a movie, they will advertise to these groups of people and make sure their products are seen more widely to them so they can make a profit from these 20 year olds who didn’t know they were being used to make money from.

Websites

Most websites now are getting as much data as they can to find those common paths to help increase their profit and make money off of the web.  It is always going to be that way, after all advertising is a really good commodity for those who can harness the data and leverage advertisements to people who visit their site.  I say that with some understanding of this because I do this from time to time on my site and it isn’t any harder than what most think.   I am constantly looking at what people are doing or where people are going on my site.   This way I can get the advertisers to advertise for me and bring me some money to help support my website and help support my data needs for the site.  I am hopeful that it will bring even more people to my site and bring them into my world and want to be loyal readers but in reality I also know when I have loyal readers they are more likely to support me and keep my site running in many ways.   This is the nature of analytics and that is why it is so widely used.  After Facebook does this and they know you are know it in one way or another.  In truthfulness we really don’t have any more privacy when we are on the web because everyone is going to use that data for one purpose or another.

 

Insanity Run Rampant — Antivirus Pro System (scareware)

Paul

Some of you would want to ask me why I am calling this title an usual title. In fact it is quite simple, I have been at the hospital since early this morning. While I was there I had some intriguing things happen. I was watching a person cruise the internet while they were at work. This is someone who is supposed to answer the phones and such. Then I see this POP UP, this draws my attention. “You SYSTEM Has Spyware”. This was my first thought, Scareware. The Popup said it was for “Antivirus Pro System”.
antivirus-system-pro

Since this was a Hospital computer, I couldn’t get a real screen shot of this but there are plenty examples out there, just like that one above.  Anyways what worries me is how System Admins are allowing employees to surf the web while at work on company time.   It also makes for a bad experience with their family.  It also concerns me about the fact that while that computer is infected some of the patients records could be leaked online.

[ad]If you have this Scareware program, Here is a good explanation on how to remove it.   Hospitals have a duty to protect peoples privacy.   Although I seriously this system had patient records it was being used to keep track of who was in surgery and where they were.

Hospitals should prevent their employees from using the internet and preventing patients or their family’s from using the internet.   While I was there I couldn’t do much but check my email and Maybe watch Twitter using Tweetdeck.   That was how bad the bandwidth was there.  According to some nurses they have a T1 Line.   So you know people are watching movies or other things through the internet.   I also heard from a doctor that people were streaming who were supposed to be at work.

That has been my day,  and am I tired.

I would also suggest people have a f[intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]ree anti-virus software and a Good free Firewall[/intlink] to help prevent this type of scareware in the future.  Remember your the End User and that means only you can prevent this from happening in the first place.  Never go to suspicious sites or URLS that you don’t know where they go.   If you can prevent these types of attacks then you are much better off.

Electric Company fear Mongering gone wrong!!

Paul

I saw this talking going on at Arstechnica and SANS Interenet are Talking about the Elecric Company Fear mongering. Here’s what Ars Says:

It sounds like something straight out of Hollywood. Current and former US security officials have reported that foreign nations have penetrated the cybersecurity barriers surrounding the US electrical grid, water system, and even financial networks. Although no known attempts have been made to activate the booby traps said black hats left behind, such sleeper cells could activate suddenly during a war or crisis, plunging the nation into a disaster only Bruce Willis and that Mac dude could avert.

[Via Arstechnica]

[ad#cricket-right-ez]This was posted today with people asking the question Is the Electric company have a viruses or have a worm? I don’t know but these fears are coming from the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON — Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

[Via Wall Street Journal]

Now let’s talk about this, This is being a talked about on a friends Podcast, The Caffination Podcast. This is where I have figure we should talk about this. I think Sans Internet Storm says it better than I could:

One email stated that The power systems we have in place today are ran by Knobs and Switches. Mostly built int he 70’s and 80’s, these power stations are mostly ran by manual intervention. The power stations that _have_ been stood up since then, a couple of Nuclear Power stations, are federally regulated to not have any connections to anything, let alone the Internet.

Since this particular email comes from a very trusted source, I am inclinded to believe this person. Is it possible that there ARE computers in power stations that are connected to the Internet? Yes, I am quite sure there are. However, is it possible that the computer or computers (if there are any) that actually CONTROL the power are connected to the internet, I tend to not believe that.

[Via Sans Internet Storm]

I agree with what Sans is saying but I don’t think there is anything to worry about, for the fact that I think that the computers that control electricity are not hard wired to be online. This is meaning that if someone virus or worm gets on those computers there is no way these viruses or worms could talk back to command and control. This is my Theory and I don’t work from the electric but I do think this is the most plausible way they are preventing this type of attack. The First Tier, just like tech support, is for Corporate and technicians to talk to eat other over the intranet. The 2nd Tier, this is the important computers that would control Electric process. I don’t know this for sure but I think the 2nd tier would be used to isolate the computers from being accessed externally. Like I said before I don’t work for the electric company and this is all theory on how the electric has this set up!! So you can take it with a grain of salt or come up with your own ideas.

Are You and Your Friends Fine — Virus Spam

Paul

Logged into my Google Email and was checking my spam to see what I see and this one draws my attention:

virusspam

I think I know where this is leading me but I click the link and this website with the Reuters logo pops up:

fakesvideo

Now as you can tell this looks authentic but when I did go to this site, AVG detected some trojan.  It blocked it, but  the file that it is downloaded called “save.exe” and I have talked about [intlink id=”2991″ type=”post” target=”_blank”]flash player fake updates[/intlink].  I have seen other blogs talking about dirty bomb news report leads to malware.  I don’t know about you but if I wanted to update my flash player, I go to the source and not use any links.  It is wise not to download any programs or files and run them without properly checking them out for viruses and Trojans.  You should have a fiewall and anti-virus running at all times and that will help but it is your actions that help your prevent from getting viruses or Trojans.