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- January 27, 2017
- Johnny H Pruett in Memoriam
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Johnny Henderson Pruett
May 30, 1933 - January 27, 2016
Retired Airforce, Decorated Viet Nam Vet, Journalist w/ Stars and Stripes, Retired SC DHEC
Gentleman, Scholar possessing multiple degrees, Writer, Chef, Gardener Extraordinaire
Husband of my Mother, my beloved Stepfather, Friend, Advisor, Attended to innumerable details
We have missed you more each day.
My stepfather passed one year ago today. There hasn't been a single day that I haven's said aloud that I miss him in the hopes that he can hear me in Heaven.
While I spent a lot more time with him than I did with my late biological father, who I also miss since he passed on January 4, 2001 — the newness of the loss of Johnny coupled with the fact that I feel I should have spent even more time with him than I did has resulted in an elevated sense sadness in my life.
This has been the subject of personal pain for me an entire year now.
Circluating with the "what ifs" and the "if onlys" are those tortuous details of Richland County EMS forcing us to go to the Richland County hospital against our wishes. Their subsequent lies to the coroner stating that Johnny had suffered an unwitnessed fall in a nursing home ... and the worse part of all, that incompetent female osteopath who failed to adequately evaluate Johnny have haunted me since he died.
We feel that he would have received much better care at Providence, but this was not afforded to us by what I feel is a corrupt Richland County EMS who appear to be directing all traffic to a county hospital manned primarily by students such as the aforementioned incompetent female osteopath.
This all has been contributory to that loss which was his death which we feel the hospital contributed to with their incompetent emergency staff.
Rest in peace.
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- January 25, 2017
- Mary Tyler Moore RIP
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There is this notion that those characters with which we identify become a part of us. Not everyone subscribes to it — but I have been known to on occasion.
In my earliest days there was The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mrs Petrie portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore.
It was an innocent time of married couples sleeping in twin beds and nothing risque or remotely outside the general audience purview was allowed.
Still it was funny and she was a large part of that humor.
Over the years she engaged in other endeavors like The Mary Tyler Moore show and even had her own production company called MTM Productions.
Alas, she has left us for the great beyond and like so many of my childhood icons, the numbers of whom grow sparse as time progresses ...
I will miss her.
Rest in peace.
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- January 24, 2017
- New Sleep Deprivation Study
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A Microsoft research organization has refinforced something of which I have been aware for two thirds of my career. This earth shattering revelation is that sleep deprivation is harmful to your performance.
I once worked for a moron educator who would have me work all weekend to give a class beginning on Monday morning.
Rather than make her support people who were responsible for the setup handle the matter she would place it upon my already overworked schedule as if I owed her every hour of both my work week and premium off time.
So I would end up working straight from Friday afternoon through the full day Monday and have to teach the remainder of the class on top of that.
When I finally got home I would be called to the telephone should it ring for even the most trivial crap — even though I hadn't slept in 64 hours at all and treated as though I was crazy when I protested.
To this day I have declined to be a slave to the phone for that reason.
Yes. Sleep deprivation is deleterious to your functioning, your comfort, your sanity, your health and well being. This is why it is frequenly utilized in instances of torture ... to break down the resistance of a person to interrogation.
Why it took Microsoft research to decide this was a relevant study escapes me. However, it is quite true and I can attest to many instances when I taught college how such frequent impositions were simply more than anyone should ever have to bear yet it was common in that place of unscrupulous immoral leadership called "the system".
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- January 23, 2017
- IM in the Workplace
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Instant Messaging. Those desktop apps providing SMS communications over internetworked assets may have found a place in the workplace.
A recent study from UC Irvine and Ohio State University found that workers using IM software reported less interruption than those in their cohort who didn't.
This contradicts a widely held belief that IM is simply a distraction and does nothing other than provide a vehicle for workplace disruption.
Now then, in my IM heyday "broadband" was just becoming a thing. Suffice it to say that I'm really not a fan of messaging and this includes email.
It is my personal belief that there is no such thing as an 'emergency email' and I certainly had an even lower tolerance for pop up apps with someone wanting to chat and I fear this has spilled over into social networking in general.
My interests are the work at hand and setting aside time for SMS modalities amounts to technodrivel and I pretty much avoid it all anymore.
HOWEVER, I am not so jaded that I cannot see the value of a little text interaction in the workplace and even offered to write such an app for the enterprise I support.
One of our self appointed charge persons scoffed at the idea and said it would use too much bandwidth. This was okay with me too because it wasn't going to be something I clung to or anything.
I do note that enterprises with assigned cellphones will have text messaging by and large and that is a full fledged implemetation.
However, this is not IM by the classical definition which includes a desktop app with scrolling and notifications in real time.
So the moral of the story is text messaging will either be a part of your operation or not and that decision appears to be more subjective than objective in it's origin.
Suffice it to say that if you get IM you'll likely be in the minority because the recurring theme I kept hearing is "subject to abuse".
If this indeed is the case than you're better off without it anyway and It's just another aspect of your existence they can monitor and record.
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- January 22, 2017
- Women's March on Washington
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My knee jerk reaction of course was initially to lambaste the march thingie and trivialize it all ...
However, I gave the matter a little thought prior and it occurs to me that though I dissent with some of what is represented by the spectacle — that dissent itself is not something with which I have ever had a problem.
In fact, I am both pro dissent and in favor of making that dissent known to those with whom a person may be in conflict.
Then you have our fine people like Madonna who thinks that her opinion, like her vagina is some treasure trove gift from God to the world ... and that idiot Michael Moore who should just go ahead and transition his metrosexual butt like his other sister Chelsea did — seeing how he probably hasn't had any since it had him. Then then there's Cher so afraid of growing old and being irrelevant ... well just what would anyone expect anyway?
The bottom line here is Trump is not the only one ever having participated in womanizing. JFK was an incredible womanizer. He had avenues of secrecy at his disposal unavailable to some of the more contemporary others. I have read accounts of Obama in a similar vein and believe those as well.
While I agree that such behavior is a sigificant issue; the underlying business of The Republic is my primary concern with the administration. If he can drag us up out of the mire which is the legacy of the Obama administration you all can protest til the cows come home and I'll simply read of your exploits, cheer some of you on, and vote for a second Trump term when the time arrives.
He got my vote for how he has handled business. He got my vote because I believe that he will pursue greatness for the United States. He got my vote for his business savvy. He got my vote because UNLIKE Obama he will place the United States first in his pursuits as Chief Executive.
All other issues are secondary to me and I could give a rip regarding the problems women have with him. I have to leave it between them and him as I have entirely too much else going on.
As far as the Woman's March went ... it was quite a shindig and I hope it left the participants simply trembling in their pussie hats with a satisfying afterglow when it ended.
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- January 21, 2017
- When Political Correctness Doesn't Cut It Anymore
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PC. Political Correctness. That realm which requires avoiding expression which may be construed as excluding, marginalizing, or insulting any group of people who may be disadvantaged from a social context or subjected to discrimination.
While subscribing to JFK's idea that "civility is not a sign of weakness" I personally have made it a point to breach those boundaries at every opportunity since the early 70s we are now approaching a group of the populace who political correctness has rendered "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore."
This is not to say that I don't tone my confrontational rhetoric down frequently in some effort to bring less attention to myself. I simply feel that this business of "preferred pronouns" and "calling things what they aren't" is folly.
Furthermore, generally creating some life of fantasy designed to accommodate the misinformed and misguided individuals who think they can specify all aspects of existence regardless of reality is likewise a hot steaming load of crap.
The notion that we are supposed to not be offensive for the sake of coddling the idiots of the world who cannot comprehend their circumstances simply has come to an abrupt end. I'm happy I declined to go there at every turn and that others like me feel the same way. Hence the advent of the Trump presidency.
We need to start dealing in terms which reflect reality not some pc euphemism that totally misses the point.
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- January 20, 2017
- Trump Inaugural
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Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States today. A few of us streamed the proceedings at work.
It was rather anticlimatic given all the democrat and progressive hubbub and whining about boycotting and general bad sportsmanship in the electoral process.
However, I'm glad that their worst fears are now realized and perhaps we can regain some of the ground lost to their using the country as their personal fountains of cash for so long.
America now comes first after an extended hiatus of democrats pushing their frivolous agendas and I hope that somebody gets busy and makes George Soros cease and desist with his idiotic pro-progressive anticonservative rantings defeated by the electorate at the polls.
While I'm certainly not going to resort to any level of gloating — I'm looking for better times ahead with a man in charge who won't kowtow to muslim leadership, subvert the business of The Republic, or INTENTIONALLY send the entire country down the tubes as did his predecessor right up to the end.
"Free at last ! Free at Last ! Good God Almighty, we're FREE AT LAST."
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- January 19, 2017
- The Monetized Web Presence
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I have been criticized for two things in the past:
1. Not specializing my blog content
2. Not monitizing by allowing companies to place ads
The monetized web presence is a relatively new phenomenon in society's pursuit of personal gain in the new world order of the few having the most and the most having the least.
All-in-all I attribute my lack of a monetized web presence to be part and parcel of that "sell out" which is some social media account where every other piece of content is an ad and clickbait is threaded all through the entirety.
Suffice it to say that I am satisfied to pursue my personal reasons for web presence. These do not include any search engine nor social media outlet. I am there for two simple reasons which are satisified frequently since the incept of it all way back when.
When such time comes that I feel my personal reasons for web presence are no longer relevant to me or that reality I may recognize I will step away and let you all have the web to yourselves.
I've never been one of these 'follow the herd' types out to be like everyone else in their midst. It's simply a situation I'd find insufferable. Call me weird if you like.
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- January 18, 2017
- Effective Filtration
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Spammers, hackers, and exploits have proven to be a force with which to reckon. After some 20 odd years of being various nodes on the public domain it never ceases to amaze me just how ridiculously persistent other persons on other nodes go after some of my assets or try to make me their commodity and "sell" what they "think" they know about me from ostensibly "mining" various details to their customers.
During the interim I have isolated a number of particularly troublesome spots dominated by data centers and several specific networks in particular. The end result has been quite the effective set of filtration devices and brick walls that I cast into the paths of these people for the sheer reason of maintaining the safety of my assets and those of my customers ... often time having to spot trends and trouble brewing prior to it actually hitting my ports full force.
It also surprises me in the cockroach farm consisting of all those spammers out there how some of them hit me with barrages of unsolicited commercial email with no apparent resistance. Whereas the satisfaction of a "reject" notice generates backscatter held against me, the silent "discard" simply looks like a normal transaction to the offending spammer's server. Oh well, all I can do is be happy in the knowledge that they're not getting through regardless of what they may think.
It surprises my customers how quickly I will decline their access for a single security infraction and how quickly I find them out.
So my log crunching, countermeasure scripting, and painstaking due diligence overseeing it all are working out nicely for me — even if I am viewed with disdain by those who would simply like to have their way with me without resistance; which they quickly learn is far from futile.
The mainstream ISPs are major contributors to what was formerly a fringe element network consisting of various diffuse fragments and some of these guys really need to get a grip. The legislature just wants to tax everything without providing improved services with teeth like spammer and exploit elimination so the DMZ is precisely that. You get out there and you take your chances and if you're a skill less wonder you go for managed services without the frills and if you have a few skills you throw up your shields at the hint of a problem.
This is where I presently am. Monitoring, firewalling, crunching logs, running countermeasures, upgrading hardware to seek and destroy the various works of all too many bad people running around the internet these days. You'd think that others would care about it too, but they don't appear to be concerned or there would be much more in the way of action regarding these troublesome netizens.
"Old, not obsolete."
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- January 17, 2017
- Anxious and Angry
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The news threads are touting a level of anxiety and anger on the eve of the Trump inauguration.
In this world where entitlements have gone crazy we have our collective of bad sport democrats boycotting the inauguration because the incoming administration isn't one of their own dole crazy members out to ruin the country by taking from the worker and giving to the shirker reveal that evidence of their true character which belies "what they say" viz a viz the true nature of the democratic and progressive politician in the United States.
I have always felt that duty comes before personal issues and the unprofessional nature of these individuals speaks volumes for the electorate that put them where they are.
Then we have an outgoing administration seeking to undermine the incoming administration at every turn. The legacy of the obama administration will hopefully be eliminated in the best traditions of our all too numerable attempts at revisionish history in the presence of a smattering of traitor republicans embracing the other side. Bunch of Bushes playing Eric Cartman with their "screw you guys, I'm going home" attitudes.
All I have to say is the man has earned his turn at the wheel. He certainly cannot be any worse than his kenyan abomination predecessor. At least this chief executive will not be out to ruin the country and will abate as much of the damage already incurred as the result of so-called 'executive order' ...
Luckily, two can play that game.
Regardless of what you think about the man he is now the incoming chief of state. Obama had one turn too many. This cost Hillary her chance at the spot ... along with the seedy business of profiteering on elected office.
The democrats and progressives whose time rapidly comes to a close are now for whom the bell tolls ... so whine on and boycott away you hypocrites.
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- January 16, 2017
- MLK Day
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I recall having worked on my portrait of Dr King for about a month when I ran it by a coworker at the handbell place where I spent a long satisfying spate working a Unix network and designing web content in Coldfusion.
When I told him what it was ... and that I wanted him to check it out, he gave me this superbly trifling look as though I was "messing" with him — being black and me being white.
Anyway, the look on his face when he first set eyes upon it told it all. I knew it was something I would not need to hide from others. It has subsequently ended up on my digital frame. I don't recall if it made a previous iteration of the blog ... but here it is:
Today is Martin Luther King Day. It is a bittersweet anniversary since last January when my stepfather had a cerebrovascular accident at his home on this day. Prior to this, the day didn't serve up much in the way of meaning for me personally.
I have long had an abiding respect for Dr King which was cultivated in my personal study of his writings and various rhetorical endeavors in the way of speeches, public speaking engagements, news clips, other television programs and the like.
The thing that formed my attitude toward him consisted of his manner of speaking. What he had to say was important, but his knack for the delivery of the spoken word was what caught my attention.
I never felt threatened by his presentation, despite the fact that I arise from a fairly long line of bigots the level of which has diminished greatly over time. This, coupled with the fact that I find a person with a rifle waiting in ambush from hiding to be cowardice incarnate. So ...
For who he was to his constituents and all that he taught me I am happy to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.
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- January 15, 2017
- As Windows 10 Sinks Slowly into the West
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Just did another application of Windows 10 updates. After the restart my I7 16GB system is markedly slower. That hostage I am to the whims of Redmond and their evil Indian chief executive remains a thorn in my side ... approaching that point beyond which I will decline to go.
At that time I see my self as a full Unix shop complete with all of the trappings of X and motif and that smattering of "real networking" Windows evades to this day.
In the pursuit of technical nirvana ... that which I used to consider to be the realm of Microsoft — which has been both torn apart and cast asunder by a company which must sell their products before they're ready after coercing their shanghaied customer base.
And we — those morons who accept such unrealistic and unreasonable terms associated with their use are left to bear the brunt of that which is sluggish, flawed, error prone, and should be relegated to that domain called "vaporware" because that's precisely what it is.
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- January 14, 2017
- Superbug with no Effective Antibiotic
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I read a rather sobering report on Fox News Health describing a lady in Nevada who died of a superbug found to be resistant to all antibiotics stocked in the United States.
Like the physicians who view this as a harbinger of dangerous things to come I to am left wondering just what will be the consequences of our over prescribed populace in an era of microbiology stronger than those agents developed for the treatment of various infections — and more critical, what are the probabilities that new classes of drugs which are effective may be developed?
I recall in my career as a medical database man in various practices across the nation that there was a disturbing predilection for patients coming to emergency rooms requesting antibiotics.
It is my memory that some of those conditions didn't really require them such as virals which had already run their course and were resolving ... only to be treated anyway.
Then we have wastewater systems with amassed drug concentrations due to people flushing their old presecriptions down the toilet to dispose of them.
Also, there are those antibiotics used in the production of food animals which has contributed to our present state where drugs no longer are effective in killing or inhibiting the growth of microorganisms causing medical problems for people.
Like the fools allowed to introduce genetically modified organisms into the food chain and the overuse of opiates prescribed for military disability injuries I am left wondering who decides where those aspects of efficacious and convenience diverge in the treatment of of people anymore.
This is one of those aspects of health care which scares me away from the local hospitals ... along with the rampant incompetence I have suffered at the hands of practioners in both the public and private sector in Columbia South Carolina.
I certainly hope thing improve or at least begin a path of good decisions in conjunction with research and development required to handle these complex problems.
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- January 13, 2017
- Friday the Thirteenth
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Yep. Another one came. I am a tad too superstitious to miss work so despite my "not quite being well" I was reticent to lay out yet another day. It seems that I'm one of those persons who has to have somewhere to go.
Anyway, you have to take your job seriously even when you're ill. Toward that end I arose and bathed and everything. Donned a set of duds and tied on a matching tie. Laced up a pair of matching shoes.
When people asked me why I didn't go ahead and remain in bed another day I simply layed it on the line and told them that I wanted them to know how much I appreciate the ability to eat and live indoors.
And so there go I as it has been since reaching the age of accountability. Sometimes you have to put down the kiddie mess for the real world even if it's not the most comfortable thing going at the moment.
It's those long term committments with reliability and steadfast attention to duty and the needs of the enterprise that get the attention of those who matter in the workplace.
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