DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The gap between the super-rich and the poorest half of the global population is starker than previously thought, with just eight men, from Bill Gates to Michael Bloomberg, owning as much wealth as 3.6 billion people, according to an analysis by Oxfam released Monday.I'm not sure I believe these numbers, but even if I did, I definately don't accept Oxfam's contention that it is immoral for people to accumulate large amounts of wealth.
“It is obscene for so much wealth to be held in the hands of so few when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, who will be attending the meeting in Davos. “Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.”Maybe there is such a thing as too much wealth. But what is driving inequality is not the fact that these men are successful. It's government policies that actively loot from the population. It's governments holding one group of people in thrall while another enjoys all the advantages of their work. It's policies like blocking GMOs for use in feeding starving populations or blocking effective mosquito eradication programs to prevent malaria and yellow fever. It is a host of diverse complicated issues and what is immoral is targeting people like Bill Gates as the cause.
The Register - Google reveals its servers all contain custom security silicon: Even the servers it colocates (!) says new doc detailing Alphabet sub's security secrets -
Revealed last Friday, the document outlines six layers of security and reveals some interesting factoids about the Alphabet subsidiary's operations, none more so than the disclosure that: “We also design custom chips, including a hardware security chip that is currently being deployed on both servers and peripherals. These chips allow us to securely identify and authenticate legitimate Google devices at the hardware level.”
That silicon works alongside cryptographic signatures employed “over low-level components like the BIOS, bootloader, kernel, and base operating system image.”
Quick read was pretty interesting. It looked like I could pretty easily match most of their controls to the top 5 of the SANS 20 Critical Security Controls.
Ars Technica - Apple in Trumpland: How the new administration could upend Apple’s business -
As one of America’s biggest companies, Apple will continue to find itself singled out by Trump. Apple provides a good case study for the ways in which Trump’s stated economic and trade policies could benefit and damage large, multinational tech companies. Those policies combine typical Republican orthodoxy about low corporate tax rates with Trump’s bellicose proclamations about import tariffs. Depending on the way things break, Trump’s policies are going to be a double-edged sword for Apple and any company that relies heavily on overseas manufacturing and the global economy.The gist of the article is kind of "Trump is an idiot, but Apple has to work with him." They are far more diplomatic of course but that's the general feel.
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