How to Protect your Google Accounts

I went into Google a few months back and viewed the plethora of information they have collected about me over time using information from domain names, social media accounts, browsers, email clients, and public record. It was alarming (but understandable). Use the internet for 20 years and you’ll have a backlog of info you’ve provided too. Two days ago I had to add yet another Google Analytics profile to my account. When I logged in, I saw the scrolling list of domains, and then it occurred to me that while I take precautions, many of my clients (who I also provide access to their sites via Google) might not take the same safety measures when it comes to protecting their Google accounts.

The method I use is called Two-Step verification. In short, to add another device (computers, phones, etc) I have an app [Google Authenticator] where I’ve already been authenticated. That app gives me a code that changes every 30-40 seconds, when I’m adding another system I simply open my phone, enter the code, then I’m verified. If I don’t have my phone on me, or someone else is trying to gain access to my accounts, then Google can prevent the access from that machine (if I’ve not yet used it).

Food for thought

One of my clients had to send out an email today along the lines of “Please ignore the last email to you from my email accounts, it was someone else.” That’s scary. While most other people might use Google Apps or G-mail, Google is striving more and more daily to make their accounts all seem fluid. So if you’re writing on Blogger, you’re using the same account you check your e-mail with. If you’re shopping with Google, then it’s the same account. If you’re posting messages on Google+, then its the same account… domain contacts, corporate email management, Google Analytics, and Webmasters access… not to mention anywhere you’ve logged in with your Google account as an OpenID. It’s sort of like making your Google account the holy grail of all things to hack. Google has the infrastructure to protect a lot of the attempts, but if you don’t take the time to enable the provided features (like two-step verification), you may find yourself the victim of more than identity theft.

What if a black hole isn't a hole?

So I had this idea earlier today after watching a couple of videos on Quantum Physics and Quantum Mechanics yesterday. The idea that there could be something with so much gravity as hypothesized in a black hole seems a bit confusing to me since nothing would be able to escape its gravity. What if, however a black hole isn’t really a hole at all? What else could it be?

Then I started thinking about liquid hydrogen. We know from videos taken inside of orbiting space craft that liquid matter returns to a spherical state in space. For instance water in a vacuum will create little spheres. When light hits a sphere of water or any other clear liquid the light is refracted in a different way than a solid. When we look at a black hole, couldn’t we really be looking at the refracted dark space on the other side of a sphere of liquid hydrogen or helium, or even water?

Image from NASA

This would explain the gas based stars that appear to be emanating from the black holes. It would also explain why there appears to be a lot of gravity at the center of the black hole. An object large enough to be visible from this far away in space would definitely generate a lot of gravity. If the sphere isn’t so far away though, it wouldn’t have stars revolving around it at all.

It seems a bit odd to me though that with all of the spheres, from small sub atomic particles  all the way up to gas giant stars, that within the vacuum of the universe we would naturally have an object that isn’t a sphere at all. Just a thought.

Image from Black Holes on Wikipedia.org