John Siracusa and Merlin Mann try to figure out exactly how they got this way.

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#171: Time Off

December 10th, 2021 · 92 minutes

Merlin finally took a real vacation.

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Links and Show Notes

Things kick off with Merlin's ongoing confusion about the role of the pre-flight.

Merlin thinks John is being kind of terse, and John almost quotes what The Wolf said—and, yet, he somehow remembers exactly what model of car The Wolf drove.

Then, there's a fair amount of talk about old Apple keyboards. Merlin abuses his relationship with John to get some tech support.

In follow-up, John takes an unprecedented third crack at explaining security through obscurity. John can't even imagine ever sharing his screen, and Merlin bemoans the normalization of terrible security practices. In something like the opposite of nostalgia, your hosts remember their "college ID numbers."

Credits

Chris Poole's tweet about Kerckhoffs's principle
Kerckhoffs's principle - Wikipedia
Security through obscurity - Wikipedia
Merlin's Wisdom Project
Flonase
Social Security History
Social Security Cards Explained - YouTube
Rusty Shackleford
Apple Extended Keyboard II with template overlay
"Curse a REAL sword?" - MBMBAM animatic on YouTube
Apple Extended Keyboard II triple threat | The classic, time… | Flickr
Student Conduct Resources and Campus Policies | Oberlin College and Conservatory