Welcome
- 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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- January 12, 2017
- Sick as a Dog
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I don't know if the idiom quite does the affliction justice, but let us say that my state of health could definitely use some improvement.
I've been ill in the GI tract for the past few days and the misery has been legendary.
Though I feel I have improved I also know that I have yet to attain "wellness" and I have been laying out of work to the point of guilt.
Not to mention the laying around and sleeping between the bouts in the lavatory.
It's all more than I really care to delve into or endure in my pursuit of shaking this thing.
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- January 9, 2017
- Dylann Roof's Defense Rests
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Dylann Roof told Judge Gergel at his trial that the defense rests.
He did so without offering a defense; as if there really were some defensible position from which to approach such a thing. About all that remains are the deliberations regarding his fate and an optional closing statement which may or may not happen.
Actions and consequences are now heaped upon him like a ton of bricks and I can't really say what I would prefer ... life in prison or death. I get the impression he could cope with life in prison a lot better than I could. I'm pretty old and I'm simply too pretty to go to prison and assume the role of some bad man's concubine.
He is much younger, has contingents of both proponents and opponents with which to either take comfort or contend — not to mention the timeframe which may be long but will either end naturally or prematurely.
In all my ponderings of this horror I still cannot fathom a person going into a place of worship and murdering those who welcomed him into their fold ... as I told my mother recently, if you are "at church" or "going to church" or "coming from church" there should be some protective aura guarding worshipers from such insufferable tragic endings.
Rest assured, that in all those incidents for rage I have experienced over the years there has never been any danger to churchgoers on my part. It simply is not within my makeup to hurt someone treating you like the decent individual you may or may not be.
This kid may or may not get what he deserves, but one thing is for sure. I will always wish that he had not gone to the dark place in human behavior he traveled while at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston South Carolina the evening of June 17, 2015.
The only rage I feel is not being able to turn back time. The only pain I feel is for the victims of this terrible crime. Young Mr Roof is left to suffer those consequences of actions the gravity of which he may not be able to fully grasp.
One thing is certain. He did not attain his goal in all the horror he brought upon a group of church congregants who welcomed him into their midst.
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- January 8, 2017
- Know Your Parasites
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Once upon a time connectivity was a reference to network infrastructure and bandwidth. Nowadays it is more a social media convention whereby individuals form collectives to share and interact.
My personal need for connectivity is primarily a function of the networking at my disposal, i.e., that infrastructure and bandwidth I crave so much more than being part of some collective, sharing, and interactivity.
My issues surround the conformist socialism which would place a millenial at the disposal of an errant politician such as Bernie Sanders who will like most promise the sun and the moon and the stars yet produce the nothingness which is part and parcel of that leech he is — such a nothing with an underlying plan equally lacking substance and practicality which belies his fundamental desire to take from the worker and give to the shirker.
After all, that is how his ne'er–do–well beginnings evolved into the practiced and studied leech that he is. This person who touts continuing relevance in the political arean from a position in humanity which can only be labeled "user".
So when I see all the "safe zoner" millenials in their drag and drop rationales parade around their mispronounced undefined mediocrity I am lead to believe that Bernie Sanders was just a millenial born before his time and more so how his time should already be up in all his irrelevance to the modern world and the needs of the many who produce being simply another of the many who primarily exist to be a drain upon resources amassed by others.
While I fully remain a staunch proponent of "live and let live" — IMHO there comes a time when the parasites of the world should be eliminated from the mix as the drain upon society that they are.
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- January 7, 2017
- Winter Weather Fizzle
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So it doesn't appear we'll be having any significant winter weather here.
I awoke this morning to find that reports that fueled my anticipation were highly exaggerated and that indeed we were wet with rain but that appeared to be it.
Some others in the state may experience patchy snow, sleet, and other precip but my expectations for this morning were certainly the results of some overly cautious weather forecaster.
Some of my cohorts at work were expecting worse. We got nothing.
Such is the way of the weather in the deep south ...
And while my "disappointment" likewise is quite exaggerated I am content to go about my business dodging the cold raindrops as is more typical for the winter weather around here.
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- January 6, 2017
- Wintery Weather
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They're talking 4 inches of SNOW possible in our spate of winter weather and the predictions for overnight Friday and Saturday are presently in the half to one inch range of snow for Friday followed by a tenth of an inch of freezing rain on Saturday.
Today my heater went out ... naturally. I have already placed a call to the service company's answering service and I'm going to be hard pressed to leave work tomorrow so we'll just have to see how things go.
I'm presently running two oil filled radiators, and one of those is a hoss so the temperature is quite comfortable with the Vornado floor fan and two Hunter ceiling fans providing excellent circulation.
My only real issues with all of this stem from the drivers here and their 'snowy road psychosis' whereby they forget everything they never knew about driving on the roads ... and driver's education having been terminated in the public schools long ago there is little hope for safety in an inclement commute — even if it is only 4 miles one way.
Suffice it to say if the electricity doesn't go out I have a bit of a comfort buffer zone in which to live. I can always put another electric heater in the mix as well.
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- January 5, 2017
- National Bird Day
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My first inclination on a day called "National Bird Day" is I should go around flipping everyone off. But no, it is an observance held each fifth of January for bird watchers and activities involving birds up to and including bird adoption for those hard core enthusiasts.
pretty bird from eddiesaviary.com
All of those issues involved in bird care like the constant need for cleaning, rowdy birds that scream, and aggressive birds that bite are all to be taken into account on this, National Bird Day.
Other considerations include interaction on a daily basis and a healthful varied diet easy on the sunflower seeds ... and no ...
I won't be flipping everybody off even though my first knee jerk reaction naturally gravitates in that direction.
Happy National Bird Day to you !
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