Wednesday, February 8, 2023

VPN (virtual private network)

     VPN (virtual private network) is a technology that allows you to create a secure network tunnel between your computer and a remote server.

     Using a VPN service:
  1. Sign up for a VPN service.
  2. Create an account.
  3. Download the app or specific software for your chosen VPN service on all of your devices.
  4. Log in to the account you made when signing up for the VPN service.
  5. Depending on what service you selected, you might be asked for a security key or two-step authentication code.
  6. Once in the app, connect to a VPN server.
  7. Once connected, run a speed test.
  8. Look for a tutorial to guide you.
     When you are connected to the VPN, all of your internet traffic will be sent through the VPN server. This will hide your IP address and make it difficult for anyone to track your browsing activity. The activity is hidden through encryption.


1. PRIVATE INTERNET ACCESS
2. CYBERGHOST
3. TORGUARD VPN
4. NORDVPN
5. IPVANISH
6. VPN UNLIMITED SOLID
7. EXPRESS VPN
8. SURFSHARK
9. WINDSCRIBE
10. HOTSPOT SHIELD

     Secure network issues list among things in the nature of worms and viruses, account privilege abuse, insufficient defense in depth, unworthy IT management, and ransomware attack.

     IP addresses are target security breach points.  "Bill Hancock, known of Exodus Communications Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., on filtering techniques.  We utilize several.

     Edge-router filters to block traffic from bogus addresses or SYN attacks at the edge of the network.

     Rate-limiting filters to stop incoming connection requests to protect against high volume attacks.

     Traffic-flow analysis to detect inbound connections that match known attacks or to backtrack to source for prosecution.

     Traffic and Domain Name System (DNS) redirection to redirect attacks coming at them via high speed hardware aimed at the DNS server.

     Host-based firewalls to protect against direct denial-of-service attacks by filtering out known types of attacks." (Computer world)

     A VPN is the easiest and most effective way for people to protect their internet traffic and keep their identities private online. As you connect to a secure VPN server, your internet traffic goes through an encrypted tunnel that nobody can see into, including hackers, governments, and your internet service provider.

Adapt, get secure, stay smart.




Tuesday, January 17, 2023

The Dronecatcher.



     Olivia made her way into the woods.  Her significant other wanted her to wait for him in the woods, at the park, buttnaked.  She agreed.  She'd heard how this was a great place to jog.  This, being a weekday, 5:30 a.m., still dark, wasn't that place, seemingly.  She stretched a bit.  She looked around.  There were two other vehicles in the parking lot.  One had foggy windows.  "Jacking off." She paused, and stretched a bit more.  Dickhead, she laughed to herself.  She didn't have panties on under her old volleyball shorts.  She went to their agreed meeting place.  On a slow stroll, she walked off in to the pitched black, dark woods.

     The Dronecatcher.     All Liam could think about was how lucky he was.  He made his way to the park.  Livi's there too.  She's dependable, he laughed to himself.  This was to be an evening/morning that neither of them would ever forget.  He looked for a space in the parking lot.

     The Dronecatcher.

     By the time Liam made it to Olivia, in the woods, she wreaked of expensive parfume, and sweet-sugary lotion.  Someone could've placed their hand on a book, and raised their other swearing that it was as if she were baking a cake out there.  He thought that in about two weeks, her and her fiancee would decide to go jogging.  He is going to bring her here, in the middle of the day, on a weekend.  She will see the place where they are, now.  She will completely view it all so differently.  The world is a warm, loving place. He skeeted, hard and fast inside of her.  He kept pumping like a high speed, Texas, oil well.

     The Dronecatcher.

     James woke up early in the morning, as he did every day. He turned on his coffee maker and  attempted to shake off his morning routine.  He looked around his ultra-modern, luxurious apartment. It was just the apartment that his significant other had paid for as long as he was ever willing to fulfill his every whim he might have at any place and time.  He glanced at the camera. Why not do something different today.  He looked around. He glanced passed the "too" expensive drone that was placed on a shelf as if it were modern art.  He muffled, "this is boring, today I'm going to wander outside in the dawn of the day, no shoes, or anything. Just the same clothes I've slept in the past two days." His hair was awry. The morning wasn't cold, either. He liked the gentle breeze. Then, a thought hit him. He should blend in with the environment. Street people are usually dirty. He began to roll around in the trimmed, lobby garden that the maintenance people worked hard on. He got dirty and possibly rolled over an old dog terd. "Whatever", he chuckled to himself. He thought he should stand on the boulevard, better yet, lay in the boulevard. He laid down in a half yoga position, when he realized those were rocks. At that moment he began to partake of the scenery. This is something he had never experienced and would never experience again. Has anybody had this experience, he thought. Things looked a lot different. Interesting, even, as his eyes slammed shut.  He was jarred awake, with a pair of balls hanging in his face.  There was an outstretched hand, and some guy saying, "you need help, bro?"  The guy had some little-bitty shorts on and his balls were hanging out.  James finally recognized the guy. He didn't really know him. He was an occasional person he would see at the corner store because they both liked the community coffee. He then, snaked his hand past the balls and pointed his long trustworthy, navigating finger into his asshole.  A quick incident took place. He heard a car swerve; he might have gotten hit in the face, and he took off running. He made his way back to his luxurious apartment, as he had always done before.

     The Dronecatcher.

     Kelly woke up in the morning routine that she had always done in the hotel room. She had taken so many business trips to not so fancy cities in order to have business meetings, as she couldn't remember them all. The only time she remembered them was when she was doing her taxes, so she could itemize them as deductions. She stretched and slammed her laptop shut. It was 5:30 a.m.  A thought hit her.  Today is the day to be healthy. She is going on a jog.  She put on her old sneakers. She pushed her puffy, pampered, plump ass into her yoga pants.  She threw on her puffy hoodie.  Maybe they had her favorite spunkmeyer pastries downstairs. This time she's not leaving to go get lobby breakfast; she's going jogging.  She grabbed the card key and left.  The hallway was quiet. That's why she enjoys this hotel.  Nice artwork on the wall.  It's as if she's there all by herself she droned on in thought.

     The Dronecatcher.

     Alan woke up and stretched; as hungry as ever.  Through blurry, cracklin' enhanced vision,  he found himself in the lobby breakfast room. The same fucking spunkmeyer donuts.  Motherfuckers, he laughed to himself.  Then, a thought kicked him in the back of his head.  He's going out for breakfast. He remembered where he parked the rental car and proceeded to the elevator.

     The Dronecatcher.

     Bing, the elevator doors opened.  Kelly, and Alan caught each other's eyes.  He didn't feel as intimidated this morning. She seemed at ease, too. He playfully said "you're up early this morning." As if he had known her for 30 years.  Kelly sneered with him.  Maybe it's because they were in a safe place, where no one else could really be, because the guard would wrestle them down, unless they were supposed to be here. I'm going on an early morning job because this business trip is boring.  Alan said, "Well I'm going for breakfast and I'm not going to jog it all. As a matter of fact I'm going to have their heart attack combo.  "Okay!" they chimed in, simultaneously.  They parted the pathway sea, and made their way through the hallways.

     The Dronecatcher.

     Alan glanced back and thought to himself momentarily, "Why do women always put their hair in a ponytail before they go jogging." He found his rental car.

     Kelly thought to herself as she felt the early a.m. breeze to put her ponytail into her hood.  It's cool enough for a fast paced, brisk jog.  She took off running.

     The Dronecatcher.

     At 5:30 a.m., Kay, the construction worker fell asleep at the wheel of his expensive digger.  He startled awake, and looked about himself really quickly. He could swear somebody had slapped the shit out of him.  Simultaneously, as he had spun almost 360°, there was an old ass lady on a walker moving slowly past the cones. It couldn't have been her, he thought to himself, she is barely mobile enough to solo jaunt about this hapless morn.  Kay laughed to himself.

     The dronecatcher.

     A thought hit Alan, again.  He's going to jump into his rental car and follow the lady he met in the lobby. He laughed to himself. "Where do I get these random thoughts?" He made the corner in the parking garage and was face to face with the hotel concierge.  They droned to each other, "Good morning." He speed walked to his rental car. Try as he may, try as you might, he couldn't find her got damn ass jogging at night.

     Kelly  had already made the block. She was feeling it now.  She went into an in-place jog at the stop light.  She jumped and looked over her shoulder swearing that some tall skinny guy was standing there talking to her. "Fucking ass stop signal."  The stop signal had a loud automatic voice.  Was this always here? She had passed this place a million times before and never noticed it. Maybe because her windows were always rolled up and she was in her car droning on to her meeting in the morning at this time. Now she was a passerby. Click click click, that shit is fucking loud, she laughed to herself. As she was about to leave the curb a car sped passed her.  "Asshole." She sneered.  She then notice there were two bums arguing in the middle of the street.  A rental car swerved past them.  One of them took off laughing.  Got damn faggots.  No one else out here this early, except for that construction worker. She jogged off into the breeze.  Two more cars sped passed her.  She thought she recognized one guy from her meetings.  I think his name is Charlie.

The Dronecatcher.




Saturday, December 31, 2022

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, SNPs, 2023

     Single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, are Genetic DNA variants.  SNPs predict an individual’s response to drugs, susceptibility to environmental factors, and uncovers the risk of developing diseases. SNPs can also be used to track the insurance of disease-associated genetic variants within families.

     SNPs occur normally throughout a person’s DNA. They occur almost once in every 1,000 nucleotides on average, which means there are roughly 4 to 5 million SNPs in a person's genome. These variations occur in many individuals; to be classified as a SNP, a variant is found in at least 1 percent of the population. Scientists have found more than 600 million SNPs in populations around the world.

     SNPs research is known as Genotyping. Genotyping is a laboratory process in which an individual’s germline DNA is analyzed for SNPs. Genotyping differs from sequencing in which all of the nucleotides comprising a specific length of DNA are assessed.  Genotyping is used in a number of sectors.  The most important sectors are clinical research, clinical diagnostics and agriculture.

     An example of the use of Genotyping in clinical research is for the purpose of Precision Medicine.  This form of medicine uses information about a person’s own genes or proteins to prevent, diagnose, or treat disease.  One sort of Precision Medicine is "targeted therapy to treat HER2-positive breast cancer cells by tumor marker testing." PMC

     An example of the use of Genotyping in clinical diagnostics is to treat Antimicrobial Resistance.  This Resistance is the developed within a disease-causing microbe. A resistant microbe has the ability to survive exposure to an antimicrobial agent that was previously an effective treatment.  Antimicrobial Resistance initiates through mutation or gene transfer.

     An example of the use of Genotyping in agriculture is to identify potential genes to improve crop and livestock breeding programs. Breeding complex traits and minor genetic effects with high-density markers is Genotyping.  Each trait-related locus is associated with at least one marker for the purpose of choosing top-ranked lines based on individuals' genomic estimated breeding values.

     SNPs research occurs with a genotyper.  "Kmer-based Alignment-free Graph Genotyper, or KAGE, is a new genotyper for SNPs and short indels that builds on recent ideas of alignment-free genotyping from Malva and PanGenie for computationally efficiency. KAGE implements two novel ideas for utilizing all previously known haplotype information from repositories such as the "1000 Genomes Project" in order to improve genotyping accuracy, and speed." BMC, Genome Biology 

     SNPs are found in the DNA. They can act as biological markers, helping scientists locate genes that are associated with disease. When SNPs occur within a gene or in a regulatory region near a gene, they may play a more direct role in disease by affecting the gene’s functions. Research continues to identify SNPs associated with complex diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The Formula for Interest Rate and Compound Interest Rate

     The amount charged by a lender to a borrower for a debt is called Interest Rate. It's a percentage. (Accountingtools.com)

     Interest rates are applied to borrowed items.  Common borrowed items with Interest rates applied are cash, accounts, vehicles, and buildings.  Another term for interest rate is lease rate. (Investopedia.com)

     The I.R. is supposed to cover the risk.  It is the  charge for the use of the item borrowed.  I.R. is described as compensation of a loss of opportunity.

     The rate is divided into a period of time.  The unit rate is set according to the lender.  The time is usually annually, or yearly.  There are formulas.
 

Simple Interest -  Principal x Rate x Time

Compound Interest - Principal (1 + Interest)^Time


Let's look at some examples.

1)  Aunt Sally has $100 in her bank. After one year, she has withdrawn a total of $20 and she still has $85 in the bank. What is the yearly interest rate of her bank account?

Answer: 6.25%

Explanation:  Since Sally has withdrawn $20, that means she only has $80 in her account.

80 + 80x = 85
80x = 5
x = 5 / 80
x = 0.0625
6.25%

---

2)  If an entrepreneur borrows $200,000 at an interest rate of 6% compounded annually, when she profits in 4 years, how much money will she owe? Round to the nearest dollar.

Answer:  $252,495

Explanation:  A = P(1+r)^t

A is the amount of money owed, 
P is the sum borrowed, 
r is the yearly interest rate, 
n is the amount of times the interest is compounded per year, and 
t is the number of years.  

A = $200,000 (1+0.061)^4
A = $252,495

---


3)  Dillon borrows $200,000 at an interest rate of 6% compounded quarterly, when she graduates in 4 years how much money will she owe? Round to the nearest dollar.

Answer: $253,797

Explanation: A = P(1+r)^t

P = $200,000
r = 6% =0.06
t = 4

A = $200,000 (1+0.064)^4
A = $253,797


     I.R. (interest rate) is the amount charged by a lender toward a debt in a percentage.


Sunday, August 28, 2022

Liver Fibrosis and WISP1 antibody inhibited MRTF signaling.

     Fibrosis is the major risk factor associated with morbidity and mortality in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, (NASH), chronic liver disease.  NASH fat cells cause liver scarring which can lead to cirrhosis, and possibly cancer.  JCI.

     Liver fibrosis is the scarring of the liver tissue.  This is the first stage of liver deterioration.   The liver functions decrease until there is nothing left.  Liver failure ensues.

     Research has been unable to clearly establish the initiation mediators.  There are treatments available.  NIH.

     After a biopsy, doctors will usually assign a level of affect.  METAVIR is a popular scoring system.  A0: no activity; A1: mild activity; A2: moderate activity; A3: severe activity.  F0: no fibrosis; F1: portal fibrosis without septa; F2: portal fibrosis with few septa; F3: numerous septa without cirrhosis; F4: cirrhosis.

     With status assignment a pathway appears, involving WNT1-inducible signaling pathway protein 1 (WISP1) and myocardin-related transcription factor (MRTF). Nature.com.  This protein pathway functions as a central mechanism pushing liver fibrosis progression.  This occurs via the integrin-dependent transcriptional reprogramming of myofibroblast cytoskeleton and motility.

     Regulation of WISP proteins could improve treatments for cancer patients.

     Liver fibrosis patients are given antifibrotics.  Antifibrotics are prescribed medications which have been shown to reduce the likelihood that liver scarring will occur. 

     Research is ongoing.  In mice, WISP1 protein deficiency protects against fibrosis progression, but not fibrosis onset.  Treatment is available.  The cure hasn't been found, yet.  The therapeutic administration of a novel antibody blocking WISP1 halted the progression of existing liver fibrosis in NASH models. 

     Research on the eradication of fibrosis leads to the WISP1-MRTF axis.  This is the key to liver fibrosis progression. The aim is to target the pathway with antibody-based therapy.  Apply WISP1.  Stop MRTF. Slow down NASH.

     Thus, WISP1 antibody inhibition of MRTF signaling will prevent progression and treat NASH fibrosis

 

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Crypto July 2022 Rise or Fall?



     Crypto has plunged very low.  It approached an untouchable status.  Everybody sold.  The headlines are explaining it all.


Headline:
Bitcoin Settles in Calm Before Possible US Inflation Storm
Bloomberg.com
     Inflation has been deemed a trickle down effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Fresh volatility possibly, in turn, deserves some fresh investments.


     At the time of this posting, cryptocurrency held at about $19,500, in Asian trading, small changes of the day.  This is on the back end of a drop of 11% from the end of last week.


     Inflation could drop the currently strong Dollar, and make Crypto stand up.  The American Dollar ran side by side with the Euro.
Current crypto standings are about to jump.
Crypto standings- 7/2022- $906 billion, decreased from, $3 trillion 11/2021, market value.

     Other current Crypto news shows the cold side of severe market changes.

Headline:
Crypto Winter Watch: All The Big Layoffs, Record Withdrawals And Bankruptcies Sparked By The $2 Trillion Crash.  
Forbes.com
     Forbes termed the plunge in market value as a crypto winter.


          "Crypto winter forced once high-flying firms into bankruptcy and pushed investors into panic-selling mode."

     The results: losses of trillions of dollars in market value, billions of dollars in frozen funds and thousands of jobs.


     The Federal Reserve curbed rising inflation by hiking interest rates.  Investors are depressed. $3 trillion in November 2021, and currently, $920 billion.  That's a tactical 60% drop this year.  Following this market declines, cryptocurrency companies have laid off more than 2,000 workers in less than five weeks.  Joblessness is increasing.


     Investors fled cryptocurrency investment funds at a record pace.   Bitcoin plunged to an 18-month low last month. Outflows totaled $423 million in the week of June 17.  “Extreme market conditions,” crypto lender Celsius became the first major platform to pause withdrawals and transfers between customer accounts on June 13. Others followed suit: Babel Finance, CoinFLEX and Voyager all froze withdrawals.


     Cryptocurrency investment risks are very high.


     On June 29, a British Virgin Islands court reportedly ordered 3AC to liquidate its assets, insolvency, Chapter 11.  Voyager itself filed for bankruptcy on July 5.  Celsius, Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13. It listed assets between $1 billion and $10 billion, liabilities in the same range, and dozens of loans for millions of dollars, via Invictus Capital.

     This is a complicated point.


Headline:
Technical Analysis 
coindesk.com
     Bitcoin has reached breakeven for the week, invalidating a major bearish technical setup.  A bearish but historically contrary indicator suggests an end to the market decline and a bullish revival ahead..


     BTC's current price range remains intact after several weeks of negative returns.


     The headlines are endless on the cyber news front.  As of 7/18/22, Ethereum has reversed it's course ever so slightly.

     The Crypto ride hasn't been closed.  All riders, hands in the car.  


     Have fun.