Connie Converse is an very interesting character, and this book gives a really details backstory of both her early life up to her strange disappearance. If you've not heard Connie's music I recommend starting with 'How Sad, How Lovely'. Her songwriting was miles ahead of her peers, those 'folky' types shackled by tradition.

There are some surprising moments and a few theories on her disappearance that leaves you with questions. Overall I thought the book was well researched and is a great introduction to the world of Connie Converse.

I am half way through this book so far, it's fascinating. Covering the beginning of code/bits/bytes up to modern computing. It has illuminated some points of computing that I have not covered for some time. More on that soon.

I think I hit a bit of a roof on this one when it started to get super techincal, I decided to take the second half a bit slower.

In Progress… Still in progress.

The rich get the assets, the poor get the debt, and then the poor have to pay their whole salary to the rich every year just to live in a house. The rich use that money to buy the rest of the assets from the middle class and then the problem gets worse every year.

Gary Stephenson

Gary's take on economics really helped me understand how economics and trading works both in the UK and internationally. Before reading this I had no idea and hadn't thought too deeply about the topic. Since reading I've also been watching a few channels (including his own) on the topic/current affairs/economics and it has sparked interest in me. I particularly liked hearing about his rise to success in a field dominated by people from privileged backgrounds and how he navigated those relationships.

I listened to this as an audiobook read by Gary himself and this made the connection more personal. Hearing about his early life going through school and early jobs around Essex helped set the scene.

Gary is clearly a very smart person. Someone who not only can convey complex ideas and trading insider techniques but also how traditional economists do not often see how the economy affect people and social impacts on the economy.

If people don't like folk music, they haven't heard the real thing.

Shirley Collins

Shirley Collins writes her early days and travels with Folklorist, Alan Lomax as the record audio and document the music of Americas heartland. Split in chapters between Collins' early life in – and their professional and emotional relationship with Lomax,

The hacker didn't succeed through sophistication. Rather he poked at obvious places, trying to enter through unlock doors. Persistence, not wizardry, let him through.

Clifford Stoll

This book is an excellent dive into the cyber security field during the late 80's. Cliff Stoll depicts the challenges and excitement around identifying a person with unauthorised access inside their network.

One day in 1986 Stolls' supervisor asks him to resolve an accounting error of 75 cents in the computer usage accounts. This event triggers a chase that spans the entire book, with Cliff at the forefront, tracking the hackers every move.

Ultimately exploiting a vulnerability in the GNU Emacs package 'movemail', the hacker was able to traverse the network and other neighbouring networks of various government and military facilities, stealing documents, files, passwords and other data.

Not only does the story detail everything from the key strokes to the tools/programs used (including key loggers and trojan horses), Stoll also covers tricky it was to monitor the hacker across multiple continents.

Stoll welcomes the reader into not just his professional life but also the personal relationship between him and his partner, Martha. The rushing off from dates during the chase, building the tension between them, adds a great layer to the story.

On occasion the book felt a little like groundhog day due to the repetitive events of the hacker appearing and then disappearing again in short succession. Stolls' frustration expressed of the authorities and policing of cyber crime during the time shows just how far the field has come.

finished 05/12/2024

Like the coronavirus pandemic, the current infodemic is a global phenomenon. We need to tackle it on an international level to avoid adding a third layer to this worldwide crisis: a societal one.

Julia Ebner

Dr. Julie Ebner specialises in radicalisation, extremism and terrorism studies. In this book she bravely infiltrates groups from far-right nationalists, Islamic terrorists to trad-wives and ISIS brides. She goes to festivals and lurks online in forums/ chat rooms probing the people she encounters looking to understand and explore. A few moments in the book magnify how close Julie gets to danger and the risks she takes to expose methods and approaches of these groups to gain control over members. I agree with some other reviewers online that this book has short sections and uses an investigative journalists tone. It does not mean it is not an informative or, dare I say, an entertaining(?) read in places. The book leaves you wanting more, to understand deeper, and to hopefully be able to recognise family or friends on the precipice of the online rabbit holes covered.

Towards the end specialists are given space to make their predictions for 2025, they cover cyber crimes and mention various groups to be wary of. Living in 2025 and based on what has happened so far in the US and further afield, I get the impression that they vastly underestimated how terrifying the reality could be.

Additional content: Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists | Julia Ebner | Talks at Google

Rinsed is a triumph. If you want to understand how the chaotic world around us really works, read this book!

Miles Johnson, author of Chasing Shadows

Currently listening to the book during my commute. From the opening chapter about Pablo Escobar laundering physical, hard cash to the later chapters covering crypto/blockchain game coins it's a wild ride start to finish. A few key factors and personal observations:

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is unlikely to go anywhere! The email inbox is still a highly effective attack surface for any business or individual. It's also the easiest method to be compromised.

Money laundering and Cyber crime in general are mutually exclusive. Even the most intelligent, highly operative Cyber criminals who can hack systems, compromise organisations and individuals are reliant on the specialists that head up the money laundering industry for their services.

Here is a list of podcasts I regularly listen to about a variety of topics: