Affiliates once had to guess what kind of person might fall for their unsophisticated cons, targeting ads by age, geography, or interests. Now Facebook does that work for them. The social network tracks who clicks on the ad and who buys the pills, then starts targeting others whom its algorithm thinks are likely to buy. Affiliates describe watching their ad campaigns lose money for a few days as Facebook gathers data through trial and error, then seeing the sales take off exponentially. “They go out and find the morons for me,” I was told by an affiliate who sells deceptively priced skin-care creams with fake endorsements… ...

via Why Does “=” Mean Assignment? • Hillel Wayne

Alcoholics Anonymous: Much More Than You Wanted To Know | Slate Star Codex I love this blog. :) Extra points for introducing me to the Dodo Bird Verdict: Everybody has won, and all must have prizes

That didn’t happen. And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. And if it was, that’s not a big deal. And if it is, that’s not my fault. And if it was, I didn’t mean it. And if I did… You deserved it. how true this is…

…QAnon was born last October, when someone claiming to have “Q” level security clearance started a cryptic thread on 4chan, the online message board and troll playground. It was titled, “The Calm Before the Storm,” a phrase Trump had recently used. Q posted hints, some in the form of questions, ostensibly meant to help clued-in Trump supporters understand what was really going on in Washington beneath the facade of chaos and incompetence. (“What is military intelligence? Why go around the 3 letter agencies?”) ...

Ood! Though I have to say the Krebs tweets at the end are gold :) tl;dr: In August 2017, I reported a vulnerability to Panera Bread that allowed the full name, home address, email address, food/dietary preferences, username, phone number, birthday and last four… — Read on medium.com/@djhoulihan/no-panera-bread-doesnt-take-security-seriously-bf078027f815

…a knockoff is clearly trying to confuse the market into thinking it’s something more popular, often using off-the-shelf parts, while cutting corners on the design of the product. Basically, it’s a product that succeeds because an unobservant parent or loved one doesn’t know the difference. (emphasis mine) Love this blog! via Game Boy Knock-Offs: A History of Portable Copycats

…[It] was the success of his own vision that demonstrated the limits of that vision. via Now would be a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign | TechCrunch

this well meaning documentary meant to alert you to the dangers of stimulant medications used to treat ADHD misses the mark. It doesn’t include any perspective on what medications can do when they’re prescribed and used properly. First off, I haven’t watched this particular documentary. But it’s not surprising -___- via Dr. Hallowell on ‘Take Your Pills’ Netflix Documentary « Dr Hallowell ADHD and mental and cognitive health

Instead, according to the complaint, she constructed an elaborate fiction that she would spend the rest of her tenure trying to keep alive, and that would lead her down the path to this week’s charges. In other words, Holmes’s mistake was that she refused to do what so many other entrepreneurs do every day, and come to terms with failure. Also, the actual complaint from the SEC is a great read. What a train wreck :/ ...