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May 28, 2017
The Cost of not stocking GRITS
Quaker Instant Oatmeal Packs    
    Quaker Instant Grits Packs

So, I received a renewal notice on my Costco business account.

I'm sure they could care less, but I declined to mail it in opting to place it in the shred box instead.

Then I went online and registered for another Sam's Club business account. This morning I went to the location where I typically shop and had the card printed up and now I'm good to go.

Though I wasn't entirely dissatisfied with the Costco thingie they had a fatal flaw which rendered them ineligible for my continued patronage ... individual packets of instant grits for a quick breakfast at work.

You see, they did stock the oatmeal packets and I had been buying several of those of late. When I looked for the grits all I could buy is some 10 lb bag of a brand I did not recognize ... not that the branding matters as much as everything coming emblazioned with "Kirkland" on it.

So now I'm going to Sam's which doesn't appear to be run by a bunch of rude farina eating yankees.

C'est La vie !
 

Tags: ecommerce, endings, beginnings, food
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May 27, 2017
Bradley Manning Remains a Traitor
Manning is a traitor    
    Manning is a traitor
The outrageous poof Bradley "Call me Chelsea" Manning is still a traitor of the United States of America.

Convicted by courts martial of violating the Espionage Act and other crimes in July 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison but was commuted by then President Obama as one of those final slaps in the face he could deliver to The Republic prior to the blessed removal of his reign of destruction.

Bradley Manning disclosed some 750,000 classified and sensitive documents to Wikileaks while serving on active duty in the Army.

When I was in the Navy such activity would not have gone unpunished in the manner this person was afforded ... a pardon for treason.

In the true nature of liberals everywhere who applaud treason and hate America Barack Obama saw fit to pardon him.

However, he cannot change the facts that this little boy who thinks he's a little girl is a traitor to his country.

The little creep was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by some other misguided human being.

And the media ... who boom derrogotory nothingness and false news via their stupid voices at everything Trump says or does remained oddly silent regarding those proceedings involving Wikileaks, Assange, Manning, et al.

All I can say is this man is not a hero. This man is not to be celebrated. This man is a traitor to his country who didn't even do the world a favor and kill himself after several tries in prison. His president emancipator whom he implied was a "weak leader" is no better.

Tags: people, things, technology
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May 26, 2017
4.5 GHz CPUs without Overclocking
intel core i7 socketside    
I remember just prior to the advent of the "compatible" computer when everything was proprietary getting a VT-180 CP/M machine with VisiCalc, Wordstar, and some database thingie I don't recall on 5.25" floppies.

Then IBM released the PC-1 (model 5150 around August of the same year) and my stuff became instantaneously obsolete.

I recall what I thought was a continuous wait state between the slow CPU and the analog action of those floppy drives and since my only comparison was the old DEC line of PDP processors I thought that the mini would always reign supreme over the micro.

So now, the rules are all changed. The clock speeds are beyond the comprehension of we in the beginning. The capacities as well and the instructions per second through the roof:

Like the i7 Extreme, the new Intel Core i9 will likely be too expensive for the tastes of many ...

but we who definitely go for respectable clock speeds in a main processor will likely not be deterred.

Enter the i9 7900X (Skylake X) CPU with 10 cores, 20 threads, and a base speed of 4.0 GHz (already there, thanks) with a 4.5 GHz totally devoid of overclocking.

Likely to leave it's nearest AMD competitor in the dust, I have forgone AMD chips for the cooler Intels a while back. However my deep resepect for AMD remains ...

Tags: technology
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May 25, 2017
The News is Awful Lately
It's reaching the point that I think I would prefer ignorance to reading the garbage circulating in the news anymore. I think that the mainstream press has lost it's ability to discern reality so they just make things up as they go and then pitch a hissy fit when you call them on the fake news they pass out as though it were candy.

bad news


1. Google is going to track credit and debit card transactions in order to "prove" that their targeted ads work. If this isn't the epitome of over stepping. Any credit card or debit card transaction of mine I see in this data will result in me pulling out of the bank I'm in and going elsewhere.
2. Shariah compliant crypto gold is being batted about as a new Islamic currency ... actually it's being touted as a New World Reserve Currency, i.e., for use when they take over the world as is their intent.
3. Everyone is heavily into AI. The scuttlebutt appears to indicate a general rise to their level of incompetence ... but in the movies skynet was formed from similar attempts to go beyond those boundaries of human existence. I must admit that my trust in these companies is not all that either.
4. Uber has a fare fraud suit in the works. You know, it's always something.
5. Apple is providing free app development curricula to schools. Ah yes, indoctrinate the kiddies so they can be as unthinking as the teachers.
6. NASDAQ is investing in AI in an attempt to detect fraud and circumvent the innumerable scandals of recent history. Good luck with that.
7. Turns out that AT&T has bought HBO. One of their grand scheme ideas is abridging Game of Thrones episodes for mobile devices. See what happens when a selfish entity is allowed to acquire art? Boo!
8. It seems that hackers are hiding malware in fake movie subtitles as a mechanism for getting it to the desktop of PCs. I'm glad I have other things to do besides watch online streaming video from my computer. Let's hope that the streaming hardware can dodge this bullet so I don't have to purge my network and buy another stupid cable subscription.
9. Net Neutrality is in the news again. People are mourning the possibilities for consequences if it is abolished. This is one of those FCC thingies I would have preferred to be left alone. You don't always get what you want. Mr Trump is keen on leaving out some of the most important stuff to me ... and I voted for him.
10. China is linked to the APT3 hacker group. They have been attacking government and defense industry targests since 2010 and are linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security along with others. It pains me to note that we buy the bulk of our routing hardware from Chinese sources and in our collective stupidity; apparently have plans to continue to do so.
11. Texas billionaire Robert Bass wants to build 12 seat supersonic business jets. Oh well, remember the Concorde. With just a dozen seats the thing will either sell out or belly up fairly quickly. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the upper 1% with that much money to spend frivolously.
12. Taylor Swift's record label is taking Spotify and YouTube to task. My but that child loves writing and singing songs about ex boyfriends ... and of course a nice infringement lawsuit every now and then, now dosen't she.



Tags: technology, world
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May 24, 2017
Hackable Biometrics
Galaxy S8 and the EYE
I have never been a fan of biometrics. Utilizing body part patterns to identify users has always been something I viewed as less than adequate as well as being a database for intrusions — you know, facial recognition, big brother, and blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Well ... it figures. Biometrics, once touted as the totally unique primary identifier for user input in the universe are turning out to be just another hackable gateway to data systems.

A German hacking club called Chaos hacked the iris biometrics of a brand new Galaxy S8 using a photo of an eye with a contact lens placed upon it. Upon holding it up to the alleged "smart" phone it unlocked the S8 pretty as you please.

They say that iris security is riskier than fingerprint security but I fear that the technology is likely overused at this juncture given these circumstances and the propensity for hacking utilizing items commonly available. So much for face scanning, biometric passports, and other highly accurate yet spoof prone technologies.

Boo !

Tags: technology
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May 23, 2017
The Internet of Hazards
   logitech backlit in green glow
I don't spend a lot of time on political sites, but an item by Robert Samuelson on realclearpolitics.com dated May 22 drove something home which has been bothering me for quite a while now.

The piece discusses how even though we dodge the bullet on much of the "digital damage" reeked by things like ransomware and other exploits that there are only going to be more and more attacks.

The malware primarily strikes older versions of windows software and though most have replaced those with newer distros, there are still hold outs clinging to them as vestages of times gone by and memories of happier lives.

The unmistakable lesson of recent years is that the internet is a double-edged sword. Despite enormous benefits -- instant access to huge quantities of information, the proliferation of new forms of businesses, communications and entertainment -- it also encourages crime, global conflict and economic disruption. The drift seems ominous.

Robert Samuelson
America's Internet Delusion
realclearpolitics.com
May 22, 2017
As our dependence increases and continues on internetworking those out to have their way with you grow more able to exploit your existence and those risks will remain for years.

The divergence of personal interest and national security is a chasm across with the typical end user is unaware. Those trecherous packets on the internet continue to circulate and we who are blissfully ignorant remain unaware and uncaring.

Couple this with the emerging technologies associated with the "internet of things" there remain virtually unlimited avenues for others to take what you have and remain untouchable by the unwary victims of their advancing predation.

The so-called "internet of hazards" remains a function of our deficiences in conjunction with that burgeoning addiction to technology ever present in the fray.

Tags: technology, people
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May 22, 2017
Yelp ... ruining careers one at a time !
June Chu    
Stephen Davis

I was reading how Yelp reviews have adversely affected the career of one June Chu, a residential dean at Yale. It seems that those powers that be in the halls of pc thought some of her comments to be 'insensitive' being characterized as 'reprehensible' and damaging to students and the community fabric.

Far be it from me to question the overstepping of yet another educator on the toes of someone exercising their right to free speech but the holier than thou Stephen Davis some faculty member in charge has spoken and apparently his will be done.

As for me, I don't circulate on such accounts like yelp, facebook, twitter and the like to keep me from throttling morons like Mr Davis and I really don't care what the substance of the criticism is but that stupidity which is Mr Davis and Yale in general astounds me ad nauseum.

I'm sure he supplies a lot of "safe spaces" in which his students may hide from the real world all cozy and protected from the persecution of reality.

yelp logo
Tags: things, places, people, technology
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May 21, 2017
I Love Fresh Linens
Fresh White Bed Linens
I have this "thing" for fresh linens. As a matter of routine, I typically change those linens on my bed each Saturday morning upon arising.

I spray the bed down with lysol "fresh linen" spray on those days that I don't sprinkle baking soda on the mattress then let it sit and vacuum it up.

There is something about laying on a newly made bed that just brings me back to my childhood and I love the experience.

This matter arises because I was chastised yet again by a long time friend who told me that the value I place on clean sleeping arrangements is vastly over rated. This from a 60 year old wearing a baseball cap turned to the side on his bald elderly head and wearing oversized tee shirt and baggy shorts falling below the knee.

He think he looks "hip hop cool" and I think he looks like someone trying to recapture lost youth and missing that boat then arriving at some level of misunderstanding ...

The bottom line is I will continue to pursue my clean bed linens and will refrain from sleeping on a bare mattress set upon the floor in my street clothes, socks, and shoes like he does.

It takes all kinds to populate the world and I'm afraid he and I are at opposite ends of that spectrum.

Tags: things
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May 20, 2017
Troubling Times
US Flag from Bandera

These are troubling times. Things like the "deep state" which would overthrow the government and keep us prisoners of the democrats and progressives and their penchant for profiteering via those mechanisms of global politics at the expense of nationalism and keeping of profits by those who earn them.

Then there is the suppression of efficient technologies in our possession by the military industrial complex in order to keep the oil companies rich at the expense of the environment and the people at large.

The sequela of the evil Barack Obama who turned over the elections to Homeland Security over the loud protests of a multitude of those in the legislative branch including democrats and republicans alike. We need to strike everything this man has done from the record and undo everything he cast upon the people in his quest for ruination of The Republic.

Likewise, the transformation of our democracy into an oligarchy controlled by a group of wealthy elites at the expense of the voters of the United States of America needs to be terminated with extreme prejudice.

We need to stop that stagnant stupidity propagated by political correctness, preferred personal pronouns, and other ridiculous stifling of the freedom to speak guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

Mr Trump comes to the fore trying to restore everything that we were before all of this destruction of the American way of life and he is attacked by those who want to keep the status quo of the Obama like democrat and so-called progressives out to pillage the nation as they are doing right now under the ignorant noses of their constituents ... both democrat and even some republicans.

In the words of Patrick Henry,
 

    I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.

For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.
    


There is a grass roots movement out to thwart the usurping of the United States which began with Harry Truman and his implementation of the Majestic 12 and Dwight Eisenhower with his 1954 Greada Treaty.

We will not stand idly by and allow the democrats and progressives to attain that end of impeding a President who won an election fair and square regardless of the incessant whining of Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

There is a point beyond which the patriots will not go and those out to loot the country should be advised that their days are numbered. Evil is the democratic party and their offspring the so-called "progressives" out to rob the nation.
 

Tags: politics
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May 19, 2017
Millennial Bashing as an Art Form
Millennial Name Tag    
Millennials. Those individuals born between 1982 through 2004 — which would make them between 13 and 35. Presently the largest consumer demographic in the world.

Fortunately I don't rely on them for my ability to eat and live indoors so I do love to take a poke at a few of them on occasion ... particularly when I see them engaged in blatant stupidity like using a word in incorrect context or engaging in "texting grammar" in a formal business communication.

Then there are those who claim to be a "highly skilled" programmers when in actuality all they do is drag and drop a scant few objects in an integrated development environment and call it that. IDEs not withstanding my issues with the progeny of the generation of burger flippers we raised earlier in my career has me a bit cautious because even the millennial physicians are overly populated with morons as evidenced by the osteopath at Richland Hospital who failed to evaluate my step dad adequately and then laughed it off like the stupid female human being she is.

Therein lay the problem with being forced to go to a hospital run by students by the Richland County EMS who TOTALLY misrepresented the facts to achieve this end ... but that's another story.

I have always been pursuant of information. This penchant has carried me through my childhood through my advancing aged "now" and though I always attempt to be tolerant and kind some of the stuff I encounter really leaves me wanting for a level of communication which escapes the vast bulk of those I encounter anymore. Incidentally they all seem to occupy the aforementioned "millennial" range.

So when you think you must address me as a child or when you think you can misuse some phrase or term and chastise me for calling you on it I am drawn back to Mr C Theodore Sands who taught me geography in the seventh grade.

He told me that "it is far better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt". So just cart your stupid moronic millennial butt down the road and don't darken my path thinking that I fail to comprehend your wisdom. What little you have drooled down your cheek when you ate your avocado toast for breakfast thank you very much.

Tags: people
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May 18, 2017
Senior Netizens
    Herb the Hacker in Hoodie
I was perusing an item on CNN tech ... about the only thing on CNN with any relevance to my life until that moment they just "fake" it like they do most of the other news.

The article spoke of a third of senior citizens not using the internet ... which certainly rings true for me.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center evaluating how digitally connected adults over 65 claim to be. Seniors comprise some 15% of the U.S. population which works out to about 46 million old farts making about 5% of us steering clear of the internet according to the study.

Pew says that the demographic has been increasing with added smart phones with about half of seniors not even having broadband. I'll bet the rest of them have some crappy half assed broadband like Roadrunner Lite or something equally lame.

You would think that Spectrum might be aware of the fact that their business class customers are watching how they treat their mothers and look out for our seniors better than they do. Alas, they are content to ignore them and I'm content to drop Spectrum like a hot potato as soon as my contract is up.

So anyway, in the presence of this study, based on a number of surveys from the recent past we can surmise that the bulk of the older crowd is pretty well connected (or at least think they are) and rest assured I'm sidestepping those lame limitations imposed by Roadrunner at Mom's house as we speak.

Tags: technology, people
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May 17, 2017
Poop Transplants return to the Threads
intestinal flora    
Yes, having mentioned them a scant couple of days ago the concept of encapsulated feces taken for intestinal flora thereapeutics is back in the news.

FMTs ... or fecal microbiota transplantations if you will are a mechanism by which corrective action may be taken for those of us with deficient microbes in our guts resulting in a variety of immune disorders and obesity among other things.

The research delves into the significance of BMI which I personally don't view as a relevant measure because it fails to take into account body composition so much as dimension.

You can have a high BMI and be quite lean, as I have been in the past. Not now, mind you — but back in "the day".

The recent U of Miami study leads us down that primrose path of improvements in the BMI post fecal consumption with the mechanism of course being the flora from people with normal BMIs which was encapsulated and given to the fatties in the study.

As for me, I personally believe in the science of cultivating a healthy intestinal flora with contributions from others. I simply don't think a BMI point or two one way or another is an accurate measurement of results. It's enough to turn one into a raging fecophiliac.

Tags: health
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May 16, 2017
Wanacry Ransomware Appears Contained
I have been feeling badly about giving my Mom some rather pointed advice concerning her continued use of Windows XP. It is a 15 year old operating system which went EOL in 2014 whereby Microsoft stopped general support and the exploit list keeps growing in the absence of actual real time updates.
   wannacry ransomware

A story in businessinsider.com is saying that a part of the recent success of the WannaCry exploit cyberattack is due to the 7% of existing PCs still using Windows XP.

Citing those timeframes and percentages above they have said that Microsoft did release a patch for the WannaCry exploit for XP and this causes me to think that the thing is quite a bit worse than I originally estimated ...

The mean spirited nature and cold environment of the internet is all the more reason to maintain as up to date a distro as possible and it is crucial get off of obsolete master control programs (operating systems) like Windows XP unless you have an extended service contract like they say the Navy bought for the product.

Given the fact that this particular exploit operated through a security hole in Windows XP and there is more of this to come can we really afford to lag behind crucial updates in the presence of an ever widening landscape of threats to cyberspace at the hands of the multitude of cybercriminals out there ?

You might not do much more than play games but you may lose a lot of personal documents like pictures and videos if you maintain this posture of operating computers in the past.

The point that drives the moral of the story home is the very title of the businessinsider.com article:

A huge number of PCs still use ancient Windows software that puts them at risk

Tags: technology
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May 15, 2017
Intel Admits to Product Line Hacker Problem
Intel CPUs have a hacker exploit issue
I was having a look at Forbes — like I do every now and then until they piss me off with their nag screen quotes they're so fond of sticking up in people's faces.

They had a tidbit on Intel's CPU exploit which is due to a critical flaw which might allow an Intel machine to be hijacked by a remote hacker ...

even if the machine is powered off !

Astounding though it sounds the flaw is said to be extant in all seven generations of it's CPU product lines for the past decade or so BUT the vulnerability is due to a chip not found in the consumer lines of their products.

They have an exploit test app available which will indicate the need for a system upgrade.

Tags: technology
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