Hacks, Hackers, Hacking, and lack of Backing...

So, the apparent scandal of the phone hacking continues... now, the beard is no fan of the red tops, being as we all know or don't, a committed reader of the i... but I'm afraid that regardless of it all, and apropos to nothing in particular, I don't actually see the importance... after all, we all know that governments are corrupt, and that papers will do everything they can to get a story, and we all know that Rebekah Brooks is one of those strange women who really really ought to be at the very least fanciable, but somehow contrives to be not so... but does any of it make any difference...??? The Beard thinks not... after all, taxes will still rise, wages will do whatever they do, and most people's lives will remain roughly the same, despite not having that cowards alternative to the porno mag, the News of the World on the shelves... for Mr Murdoch (any of them) is not as powerful and important as anyone wants him to be.. quite literally..

Which brings us to a real scandal, hidden away in a few column inches of the qualities... and this si something that does affect real people... the fact that 5.3 billion quids worth (and yes, that is a b not an m!!) of equipment has gone missing from the MoD stores over the past few years, and that the said supplier of all things military has failed its audit on more than one occasion... now, while this may not be directly related to the other story, that yet another soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, it is at the very least indirectly linked to the appalling loss of life in war zones... an ill equipped soldier is an ill prepared soldier, and even worse is a demoralised soldier... and surplus to this, someone out there is making moneyt out of stealing from brave men who are doing a difficult and thankless task... now, doesn't that put a bunch of millionaires trying to buy a tv station into perspective....???

Of course, News International has supported these men, give credit where its due... so maybe by possibly and maybe though not necessarily provably hacking the phones of these same soldiers the NotW was providing some sort of dubious public service and taking its payment for said help, who knows.. I for sure don't... but I digress....

And talking, or indeed writing, though obviously technically the Beard is typing rather than doing either off the other two, not that it matters in the long or even short run, of dubious public services... a question raised itself in what passes for the brain of your possibly favouritish hirsute blogger... what if journalists illegally hacking someone's mobile phone had, for example, overheard a government plot to cause rioting in the middle east?? Or what if, hacking the voice mail of a hypothetical missing schoolgirl, they had found threatening or incriminating messages from the girl's relatives that implicated them in her disappearance?? Or what if by stealing someone's private emails these same journalists had discovered the identity of a serial killer and stopped said killer in his or her tracks?? If this sort of information had been uncovered, and used wisely to prevent further harm, or solve awful crimes, would we now be hailing the hacks and hackers as heroes??? Who knows.... but perhaps the telling thing is that this defence has not been used... but yet again I get caught up in the whole digression thingy...

Personally the Beard has better things to think of, such as Mrs Beard, Beard junior and the two Step-Beards... and of course the soon to be here Charnwood 2011 International camp, a place of worldwide Scoutery and Guidery... and the fact that the possibly excellent Tori Amos has a new album coming out at the end of the year, on, sort of surprisingly, a major German classical label.... which promises to be good... Now the beard has, as most of you know, except of course for those of you who don't, been a fan of Tori for many years... ever since hearing the disturbing acapella "Me and a Gun" on the Annie Nightingale request show one Sunday night way back in the early 1990s.... this was followed by a close encounter with the was-b-side-later-a-side "Silent all these Years," and the purchase of "Little Earthquakes," the debut solo album... ever since, the Beard has chased Ms Amos, restraining order notwithstanding, acquiring ever more cds, and even managing to encounter the "flame-haired and tempestuous songstress" as she was once described, in Nottingham (scene of a quite well handled security breach) and in Bude... but enough of my ramblings... suffice it to say that I am looking forward to the forthcoming disc of music, and looking forward even more to boring Mrs Beard et al with repeated playings of such... and I'm sure they're all looking forward to it too... or possibly not...

Now, it would seem as though the Beard was about to make some sort of point durring the last paragraph, and, to be honest, I was, but fortunately for most of you, especially those of you who have totally failed to read this far (you know who you are... remember there will be an exam on this at the end of term...) that point was totally forgotten... or at least partially totally, which is an amazing phrase that the Beard actually heard uttered by a member of that class of people known as "management" and pitied by the rest of us...

It is of course a scientifically proven fact that managers forget passwords far more often than most people... which explains a lot... and if recent studies are correct then this problem will get worse and worse... apparently, its not the difficulty of your password that matters, but its length... a random string of stuff such as £$fd>ign is apparently as easy to crack as would be theboss1, or indeed any string of eight characters... the trick is, or so we are now told, to choose a code at least twelve digits long... it would seem that aaaaaaaaaaaa is far harder to crack than aaaaaaaa, despite what our alleged brains tell us... so managers, who often fail to string two characters together consistently, are well and truly... now The Beard, as you would expect, has taken this advice to heart, and is currently changing all his passwords from whatever they were to the entirity of james Clavell's Shogun... the idea being that even if someone does crack it, they will take so long typing it all in, that by the time they get to the bit with Fujiko and the pistol, they'll have decided that it really isn't worth it after all.... whereas normally they would break in, examine the state of my financial affairs and realise that it definitely wasn't worth it... truthfully, the Beard is hoping that someone steals his identity... it can only improve his credit rating....

The Beard is currently working on a script for a hollywood adaptation of the current NotW scandal, entitled Murdoch and the Hackers... and in true Hollywood style, the plot has been changed for dramatic effect, and now tells the story of a mad ex-Vietnam helicopter pilot and A-Team member, and his involvement with a certain British PM who once held the role of Minister for Administrative Affairs... now who should we cast as Bernard Woolley...???

Any way, the hour grows early, and a shopping trip beckons, along with a shower and a session at the other laptop... so it remains to say that until all our words pass, and all our hackers get hacked, and until the day comes, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!