On a recent TV show, there was a question: “does heaven exist?” Setting aside the answer to the question for now, I want to address an argument that a member of the religious side made in response to the secular side.

The secular side made the statement that religion was based on faith which is by definition belief without any proof. In return, religious person equated the faith required to believe in a God with a faith in money, implying that any person person was guilty of a similar crime if they used money. On first reflection this might appear reasonable: money doesn’t exist as a tangible good so requires faith to use it. But it feels false, this equivalence.

I’ve been trying to cut down my use of em-dashes over the past couple of months. I had started to overuse the mark. This is part of a wider project to shorten my sentences and simplify their structure. The em-dash has been a crutch to my sentences, allowing them to go on far longer than they should have done. The em-dash still has a place, but it seems to be good practice to avoid it as a go-to piece of punctuation. I sometimes have to think harder about sentence and paragraph structure, but perhaps that will aid you, my dear reader.

With the release into the wild of MacDefender, one of the first widespread threats to OS X, it’s useful to restate the principles of computer desktop security. These are the kinds of things that should be baked into every computer users brain. Rote learning is sometimes a good thing.

	1. Never enter your administrator password unless you know exactly why you are being asked, especially if you are asked in the middle of doing something else like browsing the web.
	1. Never run a piece of software you don't trust.
	1. If an installer appears on your screen you did not request, always cancel it.
	1. Never enter credit card details into a piece of software. Always go via their website or, preferably, somewhere trustworthy like PayPal or Amazon---or an app store.
	1. Never connect to open wifi networks.
	1. Particularly on Windows, but perhaps on Mac too, don't run as a user with administrator rights. Many, many Windows attacks can be prevented with this measure.

Bearing this in mind, however, the problem is mostly not with the software any more. It’s mostly with the user. Both OS X and Windows 7 are very secure when compared to the virus heyday Windows XP and Windows 98. Going forward the problem is going to be with us and our propensity to be tricked into scams. If it seems too good to be true, it is. This seems is obvious. But increasingly, even if it seems to be true, it might not be.

Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books — hardcover and paperback — combined.

— Amazon

Internet security: Keys to the cloud castle

Dropbox has recently come under fire for some of its security practices, in particular for not describing them accurately in their security FAQ document (now changed). I think the criticism for the incorrect description is justified. Their security practices, however, were and are absolutely fine for the majority of users. They were also never a secret. Those who care about their security should have been aware of these issues in the first place. I certainly have been.