If we are hearing this word, so is everyone else – bot. So what is it?
Well, for starters there are good and bad bots. Who knew? The term “bot” comes from robot. An Internet bot may also be known as a Web robot or WWW robot.
An example of a good bot is a search engine spider. Such bots troll the Web and index new pages for a search engine. So far so good. Now for the bad bot.
Malicious bots are typically blended threats that come as part virus/worm, part bot and are used in a identity theft or to launch denial of service attacks. Other illegal, or at least questionable uses, involve bots that harvest email addresses for spam and manipulate comments/votes on sites that allow user feedback. Now for the grey area.
Grey area bots are used by websites to promote shopping deals. In such cases, a bot will perform much like a search engine spider to index information about products on the Web.
Russia used the bad bots to manipulate comments and votes and plant fake comments to certain segments of the population, thereby affecting voting patterns. Now you know.
“Day Zero” is coming to Cape Town this April.
In one of the most environmental conscious cities in the world, after a three-year drought, considered the worst in over a century, South African officials say Cape Town is now at serious risk of becoming one of the few major cities in the world to lose piped water to homes and most businesses.
Hospitals, schools and other vital institutions will still get water, officials say, but the scale of the shut-off will be severe. Now here’s where those ‘green’ people caused a lot of harm:
The city’s water conservation measures — fixing leaks and old pipes; installing meters and adjusting tariffs — had a powerful impact. Maybe too powerful.The city conserved so much water that it postponed looking for new sources.
For years, Cape Town had been warned that it needed to increase and diversify its water supply. Almost all of its water still comes from six dams dependent on rainfall, a risky situation in an arid region with a changing climate. The dams, which were full only a few years ago, are now down to about 26 percent of capacity. Here’s a travel tip: Don’t go to Capetown in April as they are expecting riots.
Wednesday night there’s a super blue moon. For roughly 77 minutes, this supermoon will pass through the Earth’s shadow, casting a dazzling blood-orange hue over the moon. This is why lunar eclipses are sometimes referred to as “blood moons.”
Unfortunately for the east coast, this is taking place from 5:30 am until about 6:50 am. Perhaps just stay in bed and look at the pictures that others, who got up in the middle of night, took.
Intermarche, a supermarket in France, drew big crowds at several stores last week after announcing sales of the chocolate and hazelnut Nutella spread for just 1.41 euros ($1.74), some 70 per cent below the regular price. People were rioting and fighting to get their hands on a jar of this every unhealthy food.
Can we talk? Are these people out of their minds?
Say it ain’t so. Doug Ford, brother of the late illustrious mayor of Toronto Rob Ford is running for leader of the PC party of Ontario after the very quick demise of its leader Patrick Brown.
“Right now the party needs strong leadership, someone who’s ready to clean up the mess and lead us into the June election.” Let’s just say Doug and Rob Ford are of the same ilk. With his hat now in the ring, well, it’s making Ontario’s Conservative party looking, pardon the pun, like a three-ring circus.
We are guessing we are not the only ones totally confused with what’s going on with Trump, memos, leaked memos, collusion, immigration, deals, the firing the assistant at the FBI etc.
His detractors are comparing what is going on in the White House with Watergate. His supporters are saying that the Russian collusion is going on forever because, as the new saying goes, there’s no ‘there’ there.
This year the super bowl is in Minneapolis and authorities have spent over two years dealing with security issues.
Visitors can expect to see increased police patrols, bomb-sniffing dogs, helicopters, officers in tactical gear, and that chain-link and concrete fence around U.S. Bank Stadium.
Plenty of technology such as motion detectors, closed-circuit cameras and air particle sensors will be operating behind the scenes. Air particle sensors? Seriously?
Giant machines are being used to scan shipments to the stadium. Extra security cameras will be sprinkled around the city, and NFL-sanctioned events will have metal detectors. Teams will be in place to react to whatever comes up.
Here’s our tip: Stay home and watch the game from your couch with a coupla beers and some friends.
We’ll talk…