20 Things I'm Grateful For

I feel like I'm whining too much, or whinging, as my father would call it. My parents lived in Australia for 18 months from 1990-1991, and my father picked up a lot of Australian slang, which he'd throw out from time to time without warning. Whinging was among his favorites, along with my mother's.

It's mostly the fear talking. My complaining, anxiety, depression and my anger are results of my fear, which I'm trying to combat in various and sundry ways. Some days are easier than others?

Today was hard. It's been a tough week...not because anything major happened, more the result of various frustrations, and uncertainties?

Anyhow, before I go into the day...a few things I'm grateful for that either happened today, didn't happen, or are always present...making life enjoyable in small ways.
( twenty simple or not so simple things I'm grateful for )

This is long, I'll do the whole Crowdstrike debacle in a different post.

Crowdstrike Debacle - more on global debacle

Oh, in reference to the friends locked post on Crowdstrike (it dealt with Crazy Workplace which was affected...)...here's the CNN article explaining what happened:

Global Outage due to Crowdstrike

"A global IT outage has swept major services worldwide, disrupting public transport links, delaying international flights and restricting operations for health care facilities and businesses.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is behind the outage? The outage appears to stem at least partly from a software update issued by Crowdstrike, on Microsoft Windows systems. The US cybersecurity firm told customers early Friday that engineers were addressing the problem, according to an advisory viewed by CNN. The issue is specific to Falcon, which is designed to protect files saved in the cloud."

[They sent a file to all the computers with MS Windows Operating Systems via the Cloud last night and the file, Falcon, had a critical flaw that caused the computers to constantly have to be rebooted when you started it. So basically instead of taking you to the log on or into your system, it just kept restarting or taking you to the blue page of death.]

"How long will the outage last? Microsoft said the “underlying cause” of the outage “has been fixed,” adding that residual impact is still affecting some services. “We’re conducting additional mitigations to provide relief,” the tech company said in a post on X. Some services have been restored, but others are still grappling with the disruptions."

[It lasts until someone deletes the file, which they did by putting a flash drive into the hard drive, and going in and manually deleting it. Or it automatically got fixed for some and rebooted. But most of us required the manual fix - ie. removing/deleting the update.]

"Who has been affected? Global banks, medical services and critical infrastructure have been impacted by the outage. Medical providers including the UK’s National Health Service, and one of Europe’s largest health facilities in northern Germany, have been stifled by IT delays. Meanwhile, banks, broadcasting outlets and supermarkets in Australia, New Zealand and the UK were affected, including ABC News and Sky News."

[Basically anyone who relies on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems via the Cloud. If you have Apple, Linux, or no computer at all - because you are a luddite, or you work remotely, or don't work on a computer or didn't need to go to a bank, plane, or DMV or somewhere that did? You were most likely oblivious. But rest assured if affected a lot of folks, and necessary functions across the board.]

"Airlines worst hit: Scenes emerged of flustered travelers filling the corridors of major airports on Friday, as US and other international carriers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East had to delay and cancel flights. There are around 110,000 scheduled commercial flights today worldwide, according to preliminary data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shared with CNN. As of 6 a.m. ET, there were 1,390 canceled flights globally. That figure is growing."

[Weirdly, I saw none of this at the Air Train building. But the Air Train building was also very quiet this morning, and I barely saw any travelers until around 12:30 Pm today...so.]

"International response: The White House says it is “looking into” the disruption caused by Friday morning’s cyber outages. “We’re aware of the incident and are looking into the issue and impacts,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNN. Meanwhile, the UK government held an emergency meeting to discuss the outage, Downing Street said, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency."

[Be happy you don't live in the UK? Independent on Computer Outtage

and ..

Blue Screen of Death in the UK
( Excerpt )

]

I know more about this than most - because I work for government infrastructure and they told me.