Feb. 23rd, 2017

cellio: (talmud)

The g'mara on today's daf discusses two cases of disputed ownership. In the first case, a man said to another: "what are you doing on my land?" The other said "I bought it from you; here's the deed of sale". The first said it's a forgery; the second then said to Rabbah "yes it's a forgery; I had a real deed and lost it". Rabbah rules in favor of the man occupying the land, saying why would he lie? He could have claimed the deed is genuine; since he instead told us this story about having had a deed, we accept his lesser claim. But R' Yosef objected, saying it's mere clay (and he's admitted it!). Rabbah wins this round.

In the second case, a man said to another: "pay me the hundred zuz you owe me; here's the bond". The second says "that's forged". The first again told Rabbah that yes it's a forgery but he had a real one before. Rabbah again says "why would he lie?". And R' Yosef again says it's mere clay. R' Yosef wins this round.

What's the difference between the two cases? R' Idi b. Amin says in the land we follow Rabbah because we say "let the land remain in its present ownership", and in the money we follow R' Yosef because we also say "let the money remain in its present ownership". It's not about land verses money; possession, according to this g'mara, determines the outcome absent proof. (32b)

cellio: (don't panic)
XKCD on carrying spare phone battery to never be disconnected

I disbelieve. How is he going to maintain connectivity while changing the battery? That takes a couple minutes (including the reboot time). He needs a whole spare phone!
cellio: (out-of-mind)
Today I got the following notification on my Android phone, allegedly from Google:



I haven't typed my Google password on my phone recently, nor has my account changed. Hmm. I saw a few possibilities:

1. Google legitimately wants me to re-enter my password, but their notice is wrong.

2. Phishing, though there's no obvious vector (no recent apps or suspicious web sites).

3. Compromised account, though that seemed very unlikely. (I use a very strong password for Google.)

When I got home (and thus to another computer) I verified that #3 was not the case. I then began searching for explanations for this notice. I had a wisdom of the ancients moment -- people have been having this problem since at least 2014, but no solutions were extant. I saw enough to decide that the notice really was from Google (so, #1) and re-entered my password, and lo, email returned to my phone.

So what was that? It's ok with me if Google wants to require re-authentication periodically on small, stealable devices with access to significant personal information, but if that's what happened, couldn't they tell us?

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