Just when you think it is safe…..

For those that don’t know, AT&T announced that millions of its subscribers information has been found on the dark web including names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers. If you don’t have a massive security system on your desktop, laptop or iPhone, I suggest you get one. With everything being done on computers now days we can’t think like we did 30 years ago and install some freebee anti-virus and be done with it. The bad thing is none of it is cheap anymore. I have Life Lock for my own personal stuff which is part of Norton now. None of that is cheap when you look at some of it costing $59 a month, or $119 for one part and $39 a month for something else. Another problem with some of the security systems is that it jacks up the systems on my desktop.

I have never liked computers. I tell people all the time it will be the down fall of civilization. My job when I was on active duty with the Navy was communications. We used teletypes to send most of the messages that we sent to the ships around the world. We had computer systems in place but not knowing too much how they worked, I really didn’t care. They helped to a certain degree but the shift came when we shut down most of the teletype traffic and started sending stuff through the satellites. Only the ships that didn’t have the capability to receive messages via satellites we sent their message traffic via teletype. I suffered 10% hearing loss in that job. I sat behind a huge bank of printers on my ship checking message traffic all day and night to make sure the messages were routed to the proper people and commands. The only time they were quite was during the new Radio Day or if they were doing Engineer Drills they would shut the power off to certain parts of radio and the broadcast would drop out. When it all switched over to satellites that didn’t happen as much. Then the only problem was the little computer that we had that was hooked via the satellite to send messages would have a brain fart and since I was the only one who had gone to school on its uses was tasked with getting it back on line. No matter what I was doing I had to stop and go fiddle with that dang thing. At my old command the ET or Electronic Tech’s would do their thing to get us back up and communicating but not on that ship. It was great when it worked but a royal pain in the ass when it didn’t.

The only reason I bought my first computer desktop was due to the fact I had over 30 people to write evaluations for in my unit. And I had been to a class about writing evaluations for Naval personnel. I didn’t have any say in the matter. As an E-5 and then as an E-6 you are tasked to take certain classes whether you want to or not. When you are an E-4 you can usually skate by and not have to worry too much about it. Then they griped about having to stand quarterdeck watches and I told them I would swap with them if they wrote all the evals, they said No, I wonder why? lol

When I go to the lake with my buddy the camp grounds they camp at doesn’t have cell phone service except on a hill above the boat ramp. Most of the time you can get service on the lake especially at night but sometimes you don’t. It is nice to go out on the lake just to fish and not worry about someone running you over in their boat because they were updating their status on Facebook instead of watching where they were going. I usually turn my phone off to save the battery unless we are headed out on the lake. A couple of times I have left it in my vehicle since my buddy has his. It is nice to be disconnected from the ever present iPhone and the crap that comes across it.