Welcome
- March 22, 2017
- Cell Phones and Malware
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There is a high incidence for cellphone infestation with various malware payloads.
The increasing prevalence of this predicament is part and parcel of that segment of the population using cellphones for web access in the absence of various exploit preventives.
This also implies an edge on those who specifically utilize dangerous web assets placed there specifically for the purpose of turning your phone into some type of abusive bot let loose upon the rest of the users of cellphones.
I use my smart cellphone for business communications or calls from my mother exclusively.
I engage telephone numbers of known individuals and very few text messages to only those in my contacts list.
I am quick to blacklist incoming attempts at contact and my personal phone is not a "smart" phone at all for reasons of caution and discretion.
My reticence to engage risky behaviors with cellphones is simply evidence for that older guy that I am and I am not interested in any of the chats, apps, or other acoutrements of the connected individual whose cellphone is "their life" as it were.
My cellphone could never be my life. I save my web access for my workstation because it has adequate exploit controls which I keep up to date religiously.
I'm even afraid that the "phablets" and "tablets" don't interest me as I avoid touch screens by and large and the keyboard implementations are less than adequate to meet my needs. The bottom line here is that distinct lack of caution evident in those who utilize the smartphone as their sole computing device and their interests are not the serious pursuit of work but more aligned with social media and other frivolity.
I can do without such mess.
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- March 21, 2017
- AI, Self Driving Technology, and ME
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I was wandering through Mashable again today when I encountered a provocative piece on self driving automobiles and Ford's one billion dollar investment in Argo AI which is lead by a couple of heads formerly doing similar work from google and uber.
Ford says they intend to place fully autonomous automobiles on the road by 2021 and rebrand as a "mobility company".
The underlying plan is to develop tech to license to others to market in their own vehicles some time in the future. The core of the technology will be AI systems and it is Ford's intent to become to dominate the self driving platform. NOW then. I'm pretty giddy over the prospects of all of this autonomous vehicle being batted about for the public streets, roads, and highways.
My issues — aside from cost, and other practical matters which concern me personally surround the local populace, some of whom presently maintain their vehicles in a perfectly dismal state of repair.
What happens to self driving vehicles which have fallen into such disrepair that the functionality of the components seriously compromises the safety of everyone else on the roads at the hands of some AI controlled POS reeking havoc on the masses ? What kind of fail-safes are included in the options packages ?
Plus ... there is the insurance. That legislated confidence game that forces us to buy "protection" as though we were voters in the mafia. I am curious as to what the industry is thinking up for their autonomous automobile tier in their unnecessary government sanctioned racket.
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- March 20, 2017
- First Day of Spring !
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Today is the vernal equinox this year ... when the sun crosses the celestial equator traversing from south to north. This marks the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and one of my favorite times of the year.
For I am drawn to the milder temperatures of Spring and Autumn compared to the heat of Summer and cold of Winter. It's just one of those quirks my niece finds endearing about me.
There probably aren't many other reasons for which I could possibly be endearing.
So if you're in the Northern Hemisphere today is the start of springtime and I hope you have a wonderful season of moderate weather and the sprouting of flowers and such.
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- March 19, 2017
- The Loss of Passion
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pas•sion (păshˈən)
A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger, ardent love, strong sexual desire; lust
Ah passion. That great mover of people throughout the ages. Even I was once passionate with a fervor rivaling anything upon the Earth ... only to grow old and lose it all to some jaded evolutionary process whereby all things became cliche and interest wained long past it's prime ... like some over ripe fig hanging ripped upon the tree.
Early on I was the great challenger of the oppressor — truly a legend in my own mind. That sass and agent provocateur that was me would get on anyone's case for any transgression slowly diminished into the ignorer I am these days, interested only in working, eating, and sleeping.
You could tell a lot about me by that music to which I listened. Early on it was the top 40 am drivel which turned to rock and roll Styx, REO Speedwagon, ELP, and Joan Armatrading in the Navy through my progressive days of Renaissance and Jimmie Spheeris to the now which primarily consists of a lot of ambient and esoteric stuff few listen to aside from myself. My substitute for that confrontational nonsense is a bit of cutting up with co workers and belting out a brief tune now and then as I grasp feebly for some tidbit of that essence which was me so long ago.
However, I do take solace in the the quietude and vegging out before the teevee with the occasional socialization thrust upon me by the various others in my midst ... the ladies taking precedence but even some of those are disturbing at this late juncture.
I have substituted being on the road from sun up to late night with the occasional attempt at yard work and putzing around on various personal projects at the keyboard of my workstation. I still lament the loss of my hair, the fatness of my body and that general lack of shape I used to take great pains to cultivate.
However, that impetuous youth has been replaced by a certain wisdom which results from being resilient over the years and remaining here when so many of my people have departed.
I miss them all too. Pretty much I strive for the kinder, gentler Dave seldom known in past iterations.
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- March 18, 2017
- Why I will NEVER return to New York
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I'd like to qualify this with the fact that I am not a "hater". I just prefer to engage matters of humanity in those biological terms which suit us based on the meanings imparted upon me throughout my education.
This has formed my orientation to people and I'm afraid that I decline to suffer fools just because it's the prevailing idiocy du jour. If you want to "call" me on this feel free for I can place my back against the wall and take on the world regarding any conceptualization in the realm of humanity.
Personally, I really don't care about how you choose to live your life, your various orientations, or what you think you are even when contradictory to those natural properties that being human entail.
New York, bastion of stupidity in the United States of America. Home of the dreaded NYCHRL (New York City Human Rights Law) which requires employers, landlords, businesses, and professionals to use a preferred name, pronoun, title regardless of the individual's genotype.
The stupidity of this gender non conforming crap is if you're XY at the chromosomal level you're male and if you're of an XX chromosomal arrangement you're female regardless of hormones, attire, makeup or whatever and the so-called "law" doesn't change this fundamental aspect of people.
So ... I've been to New York and viewed the whores performing fellatio in the alleys off Times Square, the used needles in Central Park, the United Nations and it's continual attempts to rule the United States and all the rest of it and as far as I am concerned New York can stay there and I'll travel elsewhere thank you.
That absolute stupidity which is the NYCHRL is precisely what's wrong with the progressive moment and it's relentless pursuit of all things unnatural, abominable, and nasty in humanity.
Your gender was chosen at fertilization. Whichever gender you choose otherwise is simply a manifestation of abnormality. Now I can live with the concept of "choosing your gender because you're screwed up" but passing laws to require the normal to accommodate the abnormal is simply insufferable for me personally and evidence for the fact that the progressive movement is simply pandering for democrat votes during elections.
The people of New York City should have stopped the freaks from having their way with the legislature.
Bottom line here is:
If you're XY you're not a woman and you're never going to be one.
If you're XX you're not a man and you're never going to be one.
Despite your best efforts and expenditures you are who you are and this was determined long before you had any control of your destiny. Should medicine develop a nanite capable of rewriting your DNA such that you're sex chromosomes reflect your so-called "gender identity" then of course, the rules will change.
Otherwise you will remain that strapping "female impersonator" with 5 o'clock shadow by and large or that squirrely little "man" with the big hips and other feminine features which mark that lesbian that you really are.
However, by all means be who you are. Just don't legislate what I call you because I have a right to express my opinons first and foremost and the United States Constitution remains in effect as does the First Ammendment to it.
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- March 17, 2017
- Saint Patrick's Day
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I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I didn't realize it was St Patrick's until I went to the bank and the ladies asked me why I wasn't wearing any green. Suffice it to say that my attention to details has evolved somewhat over the years and for sure ... I've had other things on my mind of late.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig in the Irish, or The Feast of Saint Patrick, aka Saint Patrick's Day is a Gaelic cultural holiday with religious origins held on March 17 — the traditionally recognized date Saint Patrick (c. 385 – 461 AD) died.
Since the early 17th century it has been an official Christian feast observed by the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran churches commemorating Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland as well as well as Irish heritage and cultural significance.
In the United States the lack of recognition of St Patrick's Day as a "holiday" has not stopped the many wide spread celebrants from marking the day for as long as I can remember.
Locally, there is a shopping and entertainment district where the celebration has heavy participation with merriment, lots of green, food, and refreshments all around.
So, in that spirit of Saint Patrick's Day and it's many adherents everywhere I wish you a happy celebration be yours sacred or secular wherever you happen to be.
Happy Saint Patrick's day !
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- March 17, 2017
- The Approaching Singularity
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Futurist Ray Kurzweil says by 2029 our brains will fuse with machines making us infinitely more capable across the board than we are now.
This technological singularity will apparently make us super humans some time in the next 12 years as a cybernetic society with implants and enhancements in the best Johnny Mnemonic tradition ...
This time will bring us to an era of machines which are smarter than people and that fusion of person and those machines will cause a synergy which will result in the proverbial "super human" with all bells and whistles that go with it.
Personally, I view it all as a bit of a stretch from the phone fanatics of today to the cyborgs of tomorrow ... but who am I to question Mr Kurzweil's 86 percent accuracy rate over 147 predictions since the 90s ? He indicates that this fusion will cause more neocortex (that "thinking" part of the brain) resulting in more abilities in every aspect of human life from intellect, musicality, sexuality, the full gamut of human existence is said to improve.
As for me, I was likely born too soon to benefit but I hope its everything for which the rest of you could ever wish.
Mr Kurzweil has no apparent fear of AI or machines out to take over the world and control humanity. His vision is one of benefit for all mankind with the advent of this technological fusion of people and machines.
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- March 16, 2017
- Fat Fingering
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The incredible omnipotent, omnipresent typo. Cause of massive Amazon cloud server farm outages. Cause of failed keyboard tests. Cause of applications being down for extended periods when somebody fails to test software.
fcuk typo minimal by jazzle on DeviantArt
jazzle.deviantart.com
Yes I have had my share of episodic fat finger boo boos at home, at work, at large ... but I'm proud to say I've been working on it and my code output has been fairly bug free for the past spate of time ... ever since the Amazon cloud farm outage got me thinking about it.
It is not enough to code, but to code with good design, control structures, and without error. I have decided that if I'm going to do this "plan b of plan b" as it were I need to at least TRY to do it well ... or at least "satisfactorily".
Therefore I have redoubled my efforts to recheck my code and test that module before walking away from it. My the end results have been astounding from all the compliments I'm getting for tighter work.
Anyway, I guess careless and stupid aren't exactly the same thing but they're entirely too close for comfort as far as I am concerned.
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- March 15, 2017
- YouTube, LiveLeak, et al
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I spent a short while yesterday evening looking at internet videos. YouTube on the Roku and later LiveLeak on the workstation. There is a distinct divide between those cultures involved in both.
Whereas YouTube is aimed more at the "G Rated" audience LiveLink is more "R Rated" and those associated videos consist of genre which most likely would be pulled by YouTube's staff of google tards in a heartbeat.
So ... if mainstream and informational stuff is to your liking I suppose YouTube is your cup of tea. If you're like me and tend to "push the envelope" in entertainment tastes or have a thing for the vulgar, obscure, violent, or heavily risque ... then it's certainly LiveLink for you.
Something about a poor fellow atop an electric train in India getting char broiled before your very eyes is mildly stimulating compared to the never ending parade of regurgitated kitties and kiddie pranks to which you might also be immersed otherwise until you drown in cutesey cuteness.
There was a time when YouTube had videos with relevant true life adventures including the absolutely required fisticuffs ... but those have eluded me of late. LiveLeak has a contrastingly no holes barred approach but you're likely to see something in the mix that is shocking beyond your ability to cope graciously.
Many will find aspects of LiveLeak politically incorrect or vulgar, or any combination of derrogotory descriptions.
I remain glad that political correctness has never fazed my existence. I recognized it as the frank BS it has always been since that day I was at Schneider Electric giving a dBase III+ class talking to a little idiot girl who worked there with her penchant for circular logic and total irrelevance. It's difficult to care about hurting the feelings of someone obviously incapable of understanding anything beyond the most basic interaction and nothing of nuance or referential meaning.
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- March 14, 2017
- Petty Crap
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I loaded an old configuration file into my mail server yesterday with disastrous results ... figuratively speaking.
This text based file lacked the few corrections required for the new version of the mail server and of course, were not reported at build time — only during runtime operations.
Anyway; I just caught these 24 hours later and (after TWO configuration replacements) fixed them — but I really should have been monitoring a whole lot better than I have been even during the reconfig process.
The worst part of it all is the fix was an entry in the host file with the server config being primarily a recovery operation.
Perhaps I've simply reached that juncture where it's not as important to me as it once was.
The occasional persistent bug in applications, tiny configuration errors, and not even bothering to look are portends of the fact that perhaps I should just shut down the servers and stop pretending that I want to operate a cluster on prem. Perhaps, I simply grow weary of embarassing myself or feeling stupid regardless of how trivial the issues are in reality.
Duh.
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- March 13, 2017
- Webcam Spying Problematic
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It's fairly common knowledge about the various exploit vectors which enable others to spy on you through your webcam.
Yes, that innocuous appearing little eye on the lid of your notebook can be activated by various malware payloads and controlled remotely without your consent or knowledge.
I have a number of acquaintances whom I consider on the 'perv' side of things that find this titillating ... however, my neurotic privacy seeking persona will thwart this at each and every move.
There are a number of very inexpensive masking devices which simply clip over the lens and prevent viewing of anything. They come in a number of decorator colors and can coordinate with your wardrobe quite nicely.
The bottom line in the entirety of the matter is "tape". Tape is the lowest cost alternative and is as effective as anything else on the market to keep those prying eyes off you as you enage your hing on that webporn thing.
Me ... after a couple of embarassing questions from others regarding various boo boos and such which should not be visible to the general public; I opted to remove all internally facing web cams because I simply have too many of them to track all the time. I simply decline to ever show off my package again if you don't mind.
So ... if you're less technically proficient and don't think you may effectively keep all the malware and exploits at bay; do as I do and tape that webcam away. Just because someone may have an open port doesn't mean you have to give them a clear view of anything and everything.
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- March 12, 2017
- Yes, it snows
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So I'm having fairly large snowflakes falling to the ground whereupon they mostly melt ... with a slight amount of accumulation in various patches of the yard.
I thought those rain drops were looking mighty big in the cameras.
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- March 12, 2017
- Snow Possibility in the Area
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Yeah, the news outlets are claiming the possibility for snow Sunday. Me ... I'm more inclined to believe we "may" get some light flurries which don't stick then rain to remove all traces shortly thereafter.
Sure. I'd like to believe that it's still winter and yes today was considerably colder than it's been recently but the thought of snow is simply too much to hope for given the high 80s of the recent past.
I already cleared out the bird houses and am preparing to set out the first set of hummingbird feeders shortly forthwith.
Pipe dreams are nice but I live in the real world these days.
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- March 11, 2017
- Adventures in CLI
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The command line interface is a feature of operating systems and some applications where you key commands rather than choosing them from some menu or launching an icon in a GUI environment.
It is a feature of my favorite families of operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Debian, and so forth and I utilize them because they break the chain of GUI addicts who cannot function in the old style in which I was initially trained whereby you entered the command and verified it prior to pressing the ENTER key which resulted in immediate execution.
I'd like to take this opportunity to reiteriate my opinion that all of these operating systems are "Unix based" even though colleagues may disagree calling "Debian" some entity of it's own design.
However, the parallel command structure begs to differ and I retain my view on the matter.
Terminal operations were once part and parcel to the utilization of computers which were large complicated machines requiring rooms full of equipment and resulting in much less computational power than many find on their desk tops these days.
My origins are in the 8 bit region on the PDP series of Digital Equipment Corporation machines with proprietary hardware peripherals and wire wrapped interface cards which occupied a "backplane" which too was a separate piece of hardware:
PDP-8, PDP-11/23, PDP-11/73, MicroVAX
I miss the old days of text based everything for it's simplicity. The advent of graphics on Unix boxes was a treat indeed, but nowadays I save the GUI stuff for windoze and stay at the command line on Unix based servers which are innocent of a single graphical module.
Servers really don't need the overhead of the GUI environment which I feel is a pitfall of the entire windoze line ...
The power of Unix and operating systems like them lay in the command line, accessed by a program called "terminal" or a "terminal emulator" running on a client to that host.
Errant commands could once be catastrophic, and indeed they may still be. However, if you know what you're doing prior to pressing that ENTER key you should be able to predict the results of any command.
Contrast this with my young nephew who once told me that a computer was "broken" because the mouse wouldn't operate therefore rendering the entire machine "unusable". I simply hit the keyboard and entered those shortcuts which enabled me to shut down the machine. I then reseated the mouse connection (which was PS/2 and therefore not a "hot swap" device) whereupon the entire machine automagically began "working" again.
The sophistication of too many users has become obscured by a company which would enslave everyone with few people challenging the environment or the company's ability to deliver a product ready for market.
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