Hull Pixelbot and Meltdown and Spectre

There's been a lot of talk in the press about the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities inherent in modern computer systems. For anyone out there who is concerned, I can confirm that there is no danger of any Hull Pixelbots being compromised by either of these issues.  

Actually, to be serious for a moment, the important thing about these two clever pieces of nastiness is that they let a naughty program read another part of your computer memory. They don't directly allow a program to attack your system.

If you happen to be running a missile control password management database at the same time as browsing the murkier corners of the internet and running a cracked copy of Photoshop then you might have cause to worry, but most people don't do this. At least, I really hope they don't.

One of "Robert's Rules" is "A system complicated to be useful will have bugs in it". A corollary (posh word) is  "A system complicated enough to be useful will be vulnerable to attack". 

That's why we wash our hands before eating, have locks on our houses and make sure that our computer has the most up to date security patches.