Welcome
- October 13, 2017
- Trends in Bromance
-
As if things weren't already wierd enough with the antifa clowns and sjw idiots we now have the mainstream bromance being proffered as a preference. There was a somewhat amusing article in dailymail.co.uk about "bromances" being more rewarding than relationships with wives and girlfriends.
The disturbing part of it all is how totally homo boundaries are crossed juxtaposed with the whining about women. .
It seems that 30 "straight" male students were interviewed by a fellow at Winchster University whereby 28 said that they would prefer discussing emotional issues with friends instead of wives and girlfriends.
Then it was intimated that young men now feel able to "openly pronounce love" to their male friends and there is recession of social role conventions of the past perhaps "informed by" homophobia.
Good grief, this is practically saying that the younger crowd are a veritable "brokeback mountain" with the intertwined metrosexuality being overshadowed by the ersatz homosexual relationship.
So why don't you boys just get on out and do your thing behind closed doors and stay the heck away from me. That fundamental aspect of humanity called "boy meets girl" among other things gives the stark appearance of becoming a fossil in our succeeding generations raised in an educational system which indoctrinates rather than educates and subjects students to a never ending stream of hyperliberal idiots and moron globalists seeking to create a world of servants ...
• because too many parents and guardians are either not involved at all or
• too stupid to realize what's happening — or
• actually think that these skewed biologicals and demographics are desirable.
Regardless, it's a poor show we're seeing in the reality of humanity anymore. Hope things improve really soon now.
- Comments (0)
- October 12, 2017
- VR Open Source
-
Virtual Reality. A forbidden fruit in my world where practical matters take priority and I simply don't have time for anything else.
In my never ending quest to fulfill my dream of continuing to eat and live indoors there simply isn't time for immersing myself in virtual reality or those hardware environments so essential to it's implementation.
I have a lot of respect for those hobbyists I know who do indulge ... but they don't have my years in the field nor are they as tired as my old carcass has become.
So when I learned that Oculus has released a set of full open source schematics for their second Rift development kit all I could do is sigh wistfully and continue my business application web work as usual.
There was a time when VR could have been something I could have engaged. However, it hadn't become practical back in the 1980s. So now I'm doing open source database and coldfusion server up the ying yang.
It's a living and that's what I need at this late juncture in both my career and life.
- Comments (0)
- October 11, 2017
- Stool Pigeon Personal Tech
-
Oh how I love it. The Chicago Tribune had a tidbit on the various technology devices in his home outing a murderer to the police.
The tale involves one Richard Dabate was found on the floor in his kitchen after a 'desperate' 911 call moments previously. He was bleeding and tied to a chair claiming "They're still in the house".
It seems he had killed his wife, Connie and there were no perps to be found and no witnesses. This lead detectives working the case to evaluate all the personal electronics all over his house.
Her fitbit told a good piece of the actual tale with the home alarm system, facebook, and a key fob filling in the blanks of that actual account which rendered his version totally false.
The data essentially caused him to be charged with his wife's murder to which he has plead not guilty.
This case has shown the authorities (and me) how the internet of things (connected smart devices with data collection, home assistant devices, trackers, thermostats, televisions, and such) are causing the evolution of crime scene investigation and therefore criminal justice.
This case has alarmed privacy advocates all over and I personally am going around disabling wifi on a bunch of stuff I have laying around. Despite these antics it is said that the internet of things will likely increase from 8.4 billion now to about 3 per person by 2020.
The moral of the story is that if you concoct the perfect back story for committing murder your smart devices may rat you out. Betrayal by possessions. It's the new admissible evidence.
- Comments (0)
- October 10, 2017
- Harvey Weinstein and Me
-
There are a number of individuals calling for men everywhere to denounce Harvey Weinstein in light of those numerous sexual harrassment incidents all over the news.
That cliche microcosm of 'starlet on the couch' which has spawned innumerable tales of getting ahead by giving head, otherwise or what have you have really manifest as reality in the harsh glare of those who have come forward.
Allegedly, Mr Weinstein was the most powerful person in Hollywood and naturally there is this propensity to "drive the knife home" into as many other individuals as may be referentially indicated even though the President merely spoke while Mr Weinstein acted ...
And then there is the stark absence of all the democrats to whom Mr Weinstein made substantial monetary contributions over the years and yes their silence is deafening.
So all I have to say about it is there is no correlation between Mr Weinstein and myself and I feel no compulsion to condemn him because his actions are his and my actions would have been something totally different.
As for the judgmental feminists voicing this call for vocalization I say talk to the democrats and progressives. They are the ones who gained enrichment by those contributions of Mr Weinstein and bloody don't make his fight my fight because I have no information nor wish to be involved in such antics given the fact that my paycheck has always been provided via efforts in other avenues of existence.
No, I don't condone Mr Weinstein's alleged behavior. No, I don't view those who have brought the matter out as out of place. However, this sphere of existence simply isn't one I have ever occupied and I'm at that point in my life where I could just as soon not be bothered as there is entirely too much drama in my own life otherwise.
It all reminds me of that SNL gag long ago saying "I just want to be loved ... is that so wrong ?" — with the pretext being lust and that stark difference.
I too am a sinner. Just not in the same manner nor quite to this extent. I believe were such enormous resources available to me that I could have found many other suitable avenues to pursue.
- Comments (0)
- October 9, 2017
- Columbus Day
-
This day celebrates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas on October 12, 1492. The celebrations have been unofficial since the 18th and official since the 20th centuries. It is meant to honor the contributions of those Americans of Spanish and Italian descent.
As is usual of late, Antifa plans a "deface Columbus Day" operation which I hope is thwarted. These masked cowards have yet to be dealt with accordingly and I personally feel that Columbus day is as good as any other to shut them down permanently.
While the federal and post offices as well as most banks will be closed for the day I believe that I shall be working. Oh well, no place I'd rather be anyway! I recall a time in my life when I wanted to be any place besides work on any given day. As I have grown older I find the need to be somewhere increasingly important.
- Comments (0)
- October 8, 2017
- Games, Game Consoles, and Phones ... pa-touey
-
The technology news reeks of games, game consoles, and phones anymore. The mainstream outlets just don't have anything to say about emerging technologies or those bleeding edge tidbits I crave in my reading.
So I'm left to my own devices and simply have to hunt them down reading all of the obscure rags in an effort to feel informed.
Once upon a time I was a gamer. Oh my, when I think of the innumerable hours spent at the keyboard with the various multiplayer monstrosities which used to command my time like a veritable deity in my meager existence.
Nowadays I have fewer interests and they are decidedly more esoteric than the next big smartphone trend, app, or game console on the horizon.
Oh well ... I suppose we all have our crosses to bear and the sophomoric interests of the masses will likely have to suffice. At least I know where not to go online.
Boo !
- Comments (0)
- October 7, 2017
- Ralphie May RIP
-
Whenever I thought of over the top comedy I thought of Sam Kinison, Charlie Murphy, and Ralphie May.
There is something about the rough and tumble approach and timing of these fellows which caused me to laugh at their antics for the scant hour I've occasionally seen them perform.
It saddens me to say that the last of my favorite comedians is now gone.
Well, I can't say this wasn't totally unexpected, but yesterday Ralphie May passed from cardiac arrest in Las Vegas at the ripe old age of 45 years young.
Having watched all of his comedy specials and quite a few of his personal appearances on various television shows ...
I can say that he was truly unique in comedy from the perspective of earthy relevant observation and his opinions expressed were consistently hilarious.
He had been ill with pneumonia for the past month and this had affected his schedule as he was trying to "work through it".
Ralphie May was born in Tennessee and came to the fore in 2003 as the result of finishing second in a stand up comedy competition called Last Comic Standing.
He is survived by his lovely wife and their three children.
Like Sam and Charlie there will never be another quite like him. Rest in peace.
- Comments (0)
- October 6, 2017
- Musings on The Singularity
-
There is a concept called "The Singularity" whereby humanity becomes fused with technology such that we essentially are rendered cyborgs and those enhancements give us abilities we do not presently know.
This has been batted around in jokes uttered by Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory and other quasi science venues in entertainment and a few pure science venues in technology.
Now, Professor Brian Cox is saying that the approaching ability to upload human brains to machines will allow humans to attain immortality — and much sooner than we might otherwise realize.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the stuff of science fiction is said to be rapidly approaching fact and there is big fundage and keen interest by various technophiles such as Mr Musk and Mr Levandowski.
The current proposal includes transference of the content of those cerebral storage mechanisms to an electronic medium replete with i/o devices such that the essence of the human being remains.
That symbiosis of man and technology is quite the feat to attain and the mere utterance of approaching ability toward that end gives me shivers up my spine into my immense melon.
My humble inadequacy of comprehension only leaves me to think that the essence of the individual is somehow more than the sum total of it's parts. This synergism is what I construe that final challenge to entail. For if we are left with a bunch of data and even though it may be perfectly accessible — even though the feat is astounding ... the person will not have been uploaded entirely.
Let us hope the modeling proposed is as similar between the biological and electromechanical aspects as the proponents apparently envision. It's truly a profound possibility on the horizon. One I don't expect to realize in my lifetime ... but have great abiding respect for nonetheless.
- Comments (0)
- October 5, 2017
- Online Hate Doesn't Faze Me
-
Cnet has quite a little library of articles discussing various aspects of online hate going. I was clicking around on them and then I came to Here's the brutal reality of online hate by one Terry Collins back on July 11 of this year.
It delved into the various harrassment and mean spirited hateful treatment leveled at one of our Jewish netizens and I was aghast with some of verbiage which described how low some people will stoop to engage the base treatment of another human being.
I have a unique perspective in this regard because during my life some of my best friends have been Jews and therefore I have not had any issues personally with anyone of that persuasion.
Me, I also decline to stoop to such levels of depravity in my expression because I was a "late bloomer" so to speak and spent earliest adulthood being obnoxious and oblivious only to come to the realization that I should "straighten up and fly right" if I wanted to make it in civilized society.
Civility did not become a component of my personality til sometime around age 28. I use that age as a milestone because it represents that time im my life I first considered my actions "stupid" and realized that for the years prior I had been behaving thusly yet did not have the realization that indeed I was stupid.
I suppose when you're stupid you don't realize it at all. This was the case with me.
The ugly truth of the matter is there are others just as vile and filled with vitriol towards their fellow people who retain this orientation through much of their entire existence and I was determined that this would not be the case in my life.
So no, there will be no animal mutilations. No I'm not going to troll anyone and call them names or hurt them as do some anonymous, characterless cyberbully. And no, there will be no profanity laced interactions or pushing, shoving, hitting or any other act of violence.
This has little to nothing to do with that esteem I may or may not feel for another person. It is simply a reflection of the Dave born on his 28th year who decided that the bar was too low and a higher standard was indicated for that person who is me.
I may not be the handsome young blond curly haired Tarzan of my youth; but that which I have become is someone I can look in the eye unashamed of that which I have become.
I don't think purveyors of online hate can really think this in the absence of some distorted reality in which they exist.
- Comments (0)
- October 4, 2017
- World Animal Day
-
I have been taught that there are two types of animals on the planet.
There are the "companion animals" which serve to provide comfort via their actions, being, and states of being for those humans who have include them in their lives. The status of who is owner "owner" and who is "owned" has been raised repeatedly by these individuals in my presence as well.
Then there is the "food animal" which is raised for slaughter without other considerations by and large.
The boundaries are sometimes blurry and the "food animal" becomes a de facto "companion animal" during the course of it's raising making that time it fulfills it's role as food more difficult for those left to handle the practical matters of preparation.
I personally am not a proponent of animal rights. I do not really view the dumb animal as an entity which has inherent moral or legal entitlement to certain treatment and/or disposition.
Likewise, I understand that I rapidly assume the minority in this attitude and indeed, I fully understand the attachments of humans to animals at various levels and callousness and that cruelty which often accompanies it are not components of who I am.
I will go to great lengths to afford an animal passage or safety yet still become vehemently opposed to the neighborhood cats coming over to my yard to take a dump. Go figure.
Today is World Animal Day, an international observance of animal rights and welfare which comes around each fourth of October. This corresponds to the feast of Francis of Assisi who is the patron saint of animals.
The aim of this day is to raise the status of animals in order to improve their standards of welfare internationally. It is part and parcel of the animal welfare movement in an attempt to make the world a better place for the animals which dwell here.
- Comments (0)
- October 3, 2017
- Regurgitating the Equifax Breach
-
I've been going over a few of the articles on various venues regarding the Equifax data breach which caused the release of 143 million American consumers personal data with little to no consequences for the company.
The Equifax people are whining about security measures not working and people problem failures but in the end the breach remains and we were all betrayed and still those consequences remain minute or non existent.
My personal feelings regarding the matter include throwing everyone above middle management against a wall and giving them that firing squad they so richly deserve. They also include the notion that perhaps servers in a DMZ containing such critical data might have been hardened much more BEFORE the fact instead of afterwards.
Had the personal data been transferred from a deeply secure repository to an edge server requiring packet transfers over verified connections known to the server beforehand, had spoofing not been possible over the IP networks, and certainly had somebody picked up a gd phone and spoken to someone once in a while perhaps these things may have either been mitigated or prevented.
As it stands nothing is really secure. Our social security numbers are used as primary identification numbers in too many avenues unrelated to social security, and we need the stupid global orientation imparted by the UN to go away and allow us to pursue our own designs in who gets what on our segment of the internet.
Nobody gets my stuff unless they have an account with a static IP and are known to me up front. I trust little and verify much. I would never give up data in the manner as Equifax and the scoundrels have gotten away with it ... as usual.
There is no punishment too severe for these technotards. Everything in America is retrospect because we never try to get it right up front.
- Comments (0)
- October 2, 2017
- So Much for Hygiene Freaks like Me
-
I am what may be called a "hygiene freak". I spend an inordinate amount of time in the shower prior to work and have been known to bathe several times on particularly scroungy days ... of which I have a few scattered across the year.
There is something about being fresh and presentable which appeals to me personally, though I typically refrain from criticizing the personal habits of others. It's just after a couple of bad experiences in France while in the Navy has left me a tad on the critical side when it comes to a few matters presented in the public forum over time.
Okay. In an attempt to be somewhat delicate with this particular subject, my eye was caught by a yahoo thingie on fashion — which is not my forte by the way ... with a fashion designer commenting on her 'youthful' appearance and apparently French surroundings. It simply was too much to resist given my history.
Seventy-Six year old British Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood claimed that her secret for 'eternal youth' is not bathing more than once weekly.
"Don't wash too much."
Decidedly younger husband Andreas Kronthaler who is 25 years younger says his elderly sugar momma bathes once weekly and attributes this to her 'radiant appearance' claiming he only washes once monthly ... allegedly joking. It has been my observation that a few Brits and some of the French are notorious for being hygenically challenged.
In particular a raven haired woman working the Russian Orthodox Church located in Nice back in the mid 1970s who had the marked aroma somewhat reminiscent of limburger cheese gone bad.
Perhaps they simply "rubbed off" upon her.
So while I recognize that this person is likely not a 'field hand' chopping cotton or cutting okra all day this notion of not bathing daily is somewhat disconcerting to me at multiple levels ... but to each their own.
While I agree that over bathing can dry out the skin removing sebacious oils essential for maintaining turgor and health of the layers thereof ...
it is my experience that utilizing adequately gentle soap products can permit one to maintain a high degree of hygenic maintenance which includes the one to two showers I pursue daily.
I personally feel that I will never "wash too much." Likewise, just because I'm in an area where bathing may be totally optional I am unlikely to "do as the locals do".
- Comments (0)
- October 1, 2017
- The Fall is in Full Swing
-
October 1 brings with it the beginning of my personal holiday season commencing with Halloween at the end of the month. Then there are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years to round it all out into the Winter.
I remember when I began to feel all festive this time of year for the first time. The seed was planted in the first grade in Blackfoot Idaho at Irving School when Mama would bring goodies to the class and made me a ghost costume for Halloween. It seems the rapid fire of the following holidays just made the time more special and that feeling has been reinforced over the years.
My recollections of my biological father were of the notion that he had Christmas in his heart. He always was an active participant in the decorations and various activities of that time. I always supposed he got that from his mother, my Grandma Ida. She always had a stupdendous tree happening in her living room and oh how I miss those times of my childhood.
You really have no concept of aging when you're a little kid preoccupied with all that was going on during the holidays. I revisit those times on occasion while collecting my thoughts at day's end.
So the holiday season is kicking in yet again. This will be my 60th some odd iteration and I tell you it's the same as the first inside my heart.
- Comments (0)
- September 30, 2017
- International Blasphemy Day
-
I was once very religious. Various circumstances in my life have altered that orientation significantly and my late found ambivalance is the subject for a lot of introspection.
Indeed, the Catholic church has over history been perpetrator of massive crimes against humanity in the name of God.
In modern time the charlatans practicing various traditions of men who would claim these are of God have further distanced me from religion in general.
Today is International Blasphemy Day which was created to encourage people to openly criticize religion and blasphemy law internationally.
It came to be in 2009 by a group called Center for Inquiry after being pitched by a student.
It is said that the International Blasphemy Day is not meant to offend but that inasmuch as there is no human right against being offended then that dialog and debate set forth by the day is not an issue for those who began the observance.
The September 30 date coincides with the anniversary of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy whereby offending drawings of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper resulted in a muslum uprising with violent protests and the firebombing of Danish embassies resulting in the deaths of over a hundred people.
While I won't be celebrating I certainly respect the right of others to participate fully in this observance for whatever transcendance or personal enlightenment it may provide.
- Comments (0)