Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 04-15-26

We have a second consecutive warm day in New York City. We also have a third consecutive day of Pook-Emu Bee links. 1. Seven Myths About the Iran War (Michael Doran for Tablet Magazine. April 13, 2026.) Good start. Hard to choose just seven. 2. Someone Bought 30 WordPress Plugins and Planted a Backdoor in All of Them. (Austin Ginder for Anchor. April 9, 2026.) WordPress should send notifications to webmasters whenever an installed plugin from the standard WordPress repository changes hands. 3. Sam Altman’s house targeted in second attack; two suspects arrested (John Owen Lamb for The San Francisco Standard. April 12, 2026.) Scary stuff and good thing both attacks failed (these sorts of types are often not too competent). Let us hope the perpetrators are dealt with appropriately and quickly to minimize the number of other deranged individuals who may take inspiration. 4. Reflecting on Microsoft Windows Vista in 2026 (Maya Posch for Hackaday. April 9, 2026.) Say what one will but my Vista experience was fine. I’d take it over whatever is going on with Windows 11 these days. 5. Failing the Fix (2026) (U.S. PIRG Education Fund. April 7, 2026.) I won’t spoil everything but I will note that having recently operated on a 2006-07 Macbook, I can confirm that Apple’s failing grade is nothing new. 6. You Should Be Using Reddit on Your RSS Reader (David Nield for Lifehacker. April 10, 2026.) That is an interesting suggestion but I counter with “use an RSS reader and don’t use Reddit at all.” 7. Amazon is ending support for Kindle devices from 2012 and earlier (Brad Linder for Liliputing. April 7, 2026.) But not all is lost for people with ancient Kindles: “You can still ‘transfer personal documents’ to an unsupported Kindle using a USB cable, although you may need to use a third-party tool like Calibre to convert some eBooks into a format that your Kindle recognizes.” Calibre does handle conversions to MOBI. 8. MLB pitcher Merrill Kelly says California tax rate swayed decision to reject Padres’ free agency offer (Chantz Martin for Fox News. February 28, 2026.) Today reminds him why he made that call in free agency. 9. A medical journal says the case reports it has published for 25 years are, in fact, fiction (Retraction Watch. March 3, 2026.) But other than that, the reports were accurate. (HT to Pixy Misa for links 2 and 3.)