Monday night was college football’s national title game between Georgia and Alabama. In the game thread intro I included several talking points for the community to discuss, none of which were the national title game.

For review, here’s the list:

• Your New Year’s Resolution
• The last good book you read
• What show(s) you’re binge watching now
• What video game(s) you’re playing right now
• Star Wars (no spoilers)
• Your personal relationships and the holidays
• Puppies, Kittens and Other Animals You Adore
• Your New Instant Pot
• The raw water fad
• Bar coding
• Why it’s been so damned cold out
• I want a new Android tablet - recommendations
• What you’d like to see from us at CN this year

Note that last item. We have now moved officially into 2018. I know a lot of people mark New Year’s Day as the day the new year begins. I do not. The new year begins after the last college football game has been played. Now that we are there, I honestly would like some input from our community on what you’d like to see from us at CornNation this year.

What can we do differently? What can we do better? What are we doing enough of? What do we need to do more?

I have some ideas about some different things this year, but I’d like to hear from you.

Flakes is a little late this morning because I thought I had an emergency earlier. I’ve had two workstations at customer sites I’ve had to clean up because of malware. These are two separate, unrelated customer sites, but the same malware. It isn’t ransonmware, nor were the infections cryptoware like WannaCry. Technically I should not call it malware, but that’s a common phrase used by end users so that’s what I’m going with.

Both infections were caused by end users downloading and installing software they shouldn’t have. (I’m not going to give you 100% of the details, but an idea of what happened.)When they downloaded the software, in this case a screen capture program, it installed other software along with it.

That software included antivirus software that replaced our existing antivirus software. It included something supposedly that was a web monitoring tool, that was really a VPN client. It included Chromium, a takeoff on Google’s Chrome browser. Basically, it took over the machine so that malware could be installed, and controlled anything that happened on the Internet. It was a real pain in the ass to clean up.

Bottom line – don’t install software on your Windows computer unless you know what you’re doing.

If you’re wondering why this stuff wasn’t caught by an antivirus or anti-malware program, it’s because antivirus software cannot legally block a program if you agree to install it. That’s why you see many web pop-ups trying to get you to install software. If you agree to install the software you have effectively bypassed most security software on your system. Be careful out there.

News

Glynn Watson sounds off on his play in Husker basketball. It’s kinda nice to see the encouragement from fans in the thread.

Scott Frost wins Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of Year Award
Scott Frost has one final award to share with the University of Central Florida. The former UCF coach and new Nebraska boss received the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year Award on Wednesday night.

HuskerOnline.com - Outland Trophy banquet highlights past, future of college football
In addition to outgoing Nebraska seniors Luke McNitt, Chris Weber and Drew Brown, former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers and coaching legends Tom Osborne and Bobby Bowden made appearances at the downtown DoubleTree for the annual celebration.

Huskers Outlast Illini, 80-72 - Nebraska Huskers
Hannah Whitish hit a career-high six three-pointers to finish with 20 points, while redshirt senior Janay Morton added the best performance of her Husker career with 10 points off the bench in the second half to lead Nebraska to an 80-72 women's basketball win on Wednesday night at the State Farm Center.

Huskers Hope to Keep Momentum Rolling Against Purdue - Nebraska Huskers
No. 19 Nebraska continues its short homestand this Friday, as the Huskers (3-3, 1-1) are set to welcome No. 22 Purdue to the Devaney Center for NU's only dual of the weekend.

#ProBigRed: Huskers in the NFL Playoffs - Nebraska Huskers
#ProBigRed: Huskers in the NFL Playoffs

Matt Rhule to Colts rumors: Baylor coach interviewed this week - SBNation.com

It wasn’t a great year, either, though there’s more to it.

No idea why Rhule ever took this job in the first place. What an incredily stupid move by him.

Jim Tressel: Ohio Republicans hopeful former Ohio State HC enters Senate race | SI.com
Ohio Republican officials are looking at former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel as a possible candidate to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in this year's midterms, reports the Washington Examiner.

Brian Bowen, Louisville recruit at center of FBI scandal, transfers to South Carolina - SBNation.com
Frank Martin is taking in the former McDonald’s All-American.

A guide to the 2017-18 college basketball season for diehard college football fans - SBNation.com
So you’ve been too distracted by football to pay attention to college basketball. That’s OK. You’ve missed a lot, but there’s still plenty of time to catch up.

How former NFL linebacker Aaron Maybin is fighting to turn Baltimore schools’ heat back on - SBNation.com

“Guys are always in their communities like this but no one cares,” Maybin says. “They don’t care until it’s a big enough stage and they wanna celebrate it. People love to fetishize poverty. And we’ve accepted that as the societal norm for how we see black people. When you do that, it marginalizes the position of the oppressed person. You trivialize the reality of that person.

A great story. I had no idea that Baltimore schools were this bad. How the hell can you have kids go to school where there’s no heat? How can Baltimore have any dignity whatsoever if politicians and their cronies are doing this? What a shithole of a town.

Cather's handwritten musings become part of the internet age | Nebraska Today | University of Nebraska–Lincoln
This is the first time Cather’s letters will be easily accessible by mass audiences. The author dictated in her will that her letters never be published. This ban was lifted when ownership of her estate was transferred after the 2011 death of her nephew.

Then There’s This:

A little old, but terrifying. The son and I binge-watched some episodes of the BBC’s documentary Planet Earth II on Netflix. Nature is a horrifying, unforgiving terror. Everything is about sex or death. EVERYTHING.

This Video Of A Monster Crab Killing A Bird Is Pure Terror
Imagine snoozing on the beach, under the stars, only to be woken by a dog-sized crab chomping on your leg. It’s fodder for a horror movie. Luckily for us, coconut crabs—which can climb trees and grow…