10 Thoughts for October 14, 2014

1. Leakage has apparently occurred with Dropbox accounts, though Dropbox's official statement is that it was a third-party who leaked it, not a vulnerability with Dropbox specifically.  In other news, always have two-factor authentication (2FA) turned on, so that no one can access your cloud services.  Also, when you're logged into Dropbox, delete any 3rd-party apps that you no longer use!
2. It took some time to process the USC - UA game.  The issue here is that if you analyze it based on the outcome, then it was a quality win for the Trojans over a #10 opponent for the second time this season.  But the only difference between a win and a deja-vu last second loss, was a missed field goal with seconds left in the game.  USC had been ahead by two scores late, only to see the Wildcats march down the field twice.  I'm with #21 Su'a Cravens, that the team shouldn't have been in the position it was, at the end of the game.  And once again the culprit seems to be the coaching staff.  Let's see if this is familiar: The defense switched the call but not everyone was on the same page, leading to a big play for the opposing offense.  I have zero confidence that USC can win out, but I do feel a lot better that the USC defense can go up against a spread offense without a blowout loss.
3. It took nearly as much time to process the Seattle Seahawks loss to Dallas.  I wasn't exactly shocked, because the Seattle defense just hasn't been up to the same level as last year's defense, particularly with the loss of Red Bryant and Chris Clemons -- the run-stop king.  But then, the offensive line looked really bad, as in undisciplined, with 3 false starts, in your own stadium no less.  And unlike the Washington game, they moved away from the read-option plays.
4. Speaking of the Seattle game, no one around the country cared one bit for Fox Sports' "bonus coverage" of the Cincinnati - Carolina game, except those folks living in Ohio and North Carolina.  To make it worse, the damned game went into overtime and they played all 15 minutes -- a full quarter's worth -- to reach a tie.  Again, no one cared, but by the time they switched to local games, everyone was already into the second quarter.  Gee, thanks Fox Sports for screwing up Sunday football.
5. My new NAS setup is going well -- zero lag when streaming video files from it, via Chromecast to the TV.  Only problem so far, has been network performance when it comes to moving content from different sources to the NAS.  I've moved all my FLAC audio files to the NAS, which is nice as now I don't need to be online to access my music (via Google Play Music) from my laptop.  Only problem is, I've still only ripped about half my classical music CDs.
6. I understand many things about stocks, but the one thing I can't figure out, is why Adobe (ADBE) trades so high.  At 127 P/E and whole-year EPS at $0.48, it makes no sense that people are buying into the long-term of its transition to subscriptions-only.  Before the move to subscriptions, Adobe routinely hit the $0.40+ EPS mark in a quarter, but now it's a rare thing to see a $0.30+ mark.  So far the data is quite clear: Substituting the software cycle for continual billing has slashed earnings.
7. Have you checked out Google Fonts lately?  It's an explosion of free (open) fonts.  If you use Google Docs, incorporating them is as simple as selecting the "more fonts" pull-down tab.  Or you can just select the fonts you like in Google Fonts, then download them to use.
8. Speaking of Google Docs, apparently they now correct some French grammar.  Type in the wrong gender article and it highlights the error.  Le pilule bleue results in grammar checking asking if you meant La pilule bleue.  Cool.
9. Droid Life has posted leaked videos of ads for Android.  This one shows what is expected to be the Nexus 9, while this one shows off the Nexus 6.  This one just is an amusing ad.  Of course there is a message in all of the new ads: Android comes in many flavors even though it's one ecosystem.  All those Androids come from the Androidify app, so remake yourself into an Android.
10. IF you are lucky, tonight is a good night to check out the Northern Lights.  It's not covered by the media because it wasn't the result of a massive X-class flare.  But you see, tonight's show is already stronger than the last X-class flare.  If I could speculate, it's probably due to a direct hit from the M-class flare yesterday.  Current -- as of this writing -- Kp = 5.  We're talking big.