One of those rising stars was Anton Yelchin. I have seen him in several of his works as a clairvoyant short-order cook in Odd Thomas, a Fright Night remake, and various other endeavors including the Terminator franchise and of course Star Trek.

Alas, yesterday, we lost Anton Yelchin as the result of a freak automobile accident when his 2 ton jeep rolled down his driveway and pinned him against his security fencing.

So the brief brilliant star that he was is now dimmed forever. No more wonderful portrayals in the finest traditions of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and various children and teeny bopper bubble gum productions.

Rest in peace Anton Yelchin.
 

Today Mom and I are taking a brief road trip to the country to visit my sister and her family. We'll stop by my brother's house briefly to see his red roof then depart for the rest of the journey to Aiken county.

We'll return sometime after lunch and try to knock out a little yard work she needs before I depart for home this afternoon.

Attrell Cordes

In the early 90s there was a hip hop duo consisting of two brothers called PM Dawn which took sampling, lyrical elements set to a pronounced beat, and harmony to a new level. Half of that duo, Attrell Cordes has passed at age 46.

"Prince Be" as he was known succumbed to the complications of diabetic kidney disease in a New Jersey hospital.

Though there is that "rap" aspect of their music which did bug me ever so slightly, I found the bulk of their work intriguing to the point that I purchased several albums.

While I remain one who distances himself from the bulk of all that pop culture fluff reminiscent of those long gone days when MTV primarily concerned itself with music videos and what have you I remain a fan of PM Dawn to this day.

The prevention of gun violence such as the Orlando massacre will not happen with the rounding up of weapons and ammo. Anyone with an inclination to reek such havoc on humanity will simply engage the black market where absolutely everything is available for sufficient funds.

I have frequently scoffed at Diane Feinstein's ignorant stance on guns, violence, and the law — particularly that dog and pony show she conducted a while back where she was flanked on a stage with supposed police officers ... only they appeared as actors and weren't properly attired for the occasion.

In the final solution to ending gun violence of the type experienced in Orlando that focus needs to be on the people who perpetrate it; not the weapons because those weapons will be had by hook or crook.

This is criminal behavior we're talking about here. I have a number of weapons myself but I'm certainly not going after a bunch of innocents out for a good time to satisfy some deviant whim.

In the world today it is usually people kill people. Guns are merely an option, not a requirement.

The politicans by and large miss the point entirely, particularly Mrs Feinstein with her total lack of pertinent grasp and Mrs Clinton who would do better keeping her man happy so he doesn't have to hop on every whore he sees.

Oh yeah, and tell me again just how gun laws are going to rein in the criminal anyway. Doesn't the entire nature of criminal behavior entail being a scofflaw?
 

I'm positively amazed at the impetus of influence. Last night I read a most interesting article on interviewing while purusing the uproxx.com site whereby they posed questions of Mr Drew Houston, the CEO of dropbox.com, a successful secure file sharing and storage‎ site.

Having recently been involved in the development of a site wide ftp endeavor for the powers that be at work one of those frequent things I heard was how it should be "like dropbox" and how people didn't like the software acquired by an employee no longer with the crew ... and how it really was unpopular the entire time it was being used.

I suppose that adage I keep hearing in the workplace that "you get what you pay for" is in reality quite true. This package we're replacing with an inhouse solution has been out of support for the good part of a year and it really wasn't much of a proper implementation and the most that it did was piss everyone off.

Soon it should be gone ... but as usual, I digress.

The uproxx.com article mentioned five job interview questions sure to ake you sweat. THAT was what caught my eye. So I engaged the meat of the issue presented and gave the questions a go.

1.	Who is the best in the world at what you do?
2.	Who are your influences?
3.	What have you learned in the last year?
4.	And if you were able to sit yourself down 10 years ago, what advice would you give your younger self?
5.	What are the most important lessons you’ve taken away?

The CEO Of Dropbox Has Five Job Interview Questions Sure To Make You Sweat
https://uproxx.com/life/interview-questions-dropbox-ceo/
E.S. Huffman 06/14/16

Though I don't view these questions quite as foreboding as apparently others in my midst; it's obvious that not wish to work for the CEO of Dropbox because he asks questions which are irrelevant to employment interviews of the nature required for my line of work.

The first question regarding who is the best in the world what I do would certainly be "me" though the answer sought is probably some topically relevant mainstream guru who likely doesn't do what I do: hardware, software, media, coding, operating systems, artificial intelligence, expert systems, and so forth. I don't really know of many mainstream generalists in this world of subspecialization where people know a lot about a little ... and not a lot about a lot.

The second question soliciting influences would require an answer that is equally obtuse given that we are the sum total of our experiences. Of course I would include my many mentors over the years but scattered through the notables would be others whom I likely would have been better off never meeting in my lifetime.

The third question requesting what I have learned in the past year would likely run the gamut from subject matter expertise in practical Unix operations, postgressql, and the software lines offered by the fine fellows at Apache as well as a smidge of new hardware configurations and the pitfalls of attempting to mix legacy with the cutting and bleeding edge components available.

The fourth question is the most interesting of all, regarding advice to one's younger self were that possible. I would have to say that ten years ago I would simply say "persevere" for the skill set is there and the opportunities will eventually follow. Perhaps I would have also stated that cessation of the teaching of college will be the best thing that could ever happen to you.

The last question involves learned lessons and those too would be many and varied. Of course, there are the aspects of technical skill acquired. My exponential contempt for google and microsoft, their product lines, and the way they do business, and those people skills and insights derived — both good and bad — from those from whom I've passed along the way.

Of course, sitting here in the comfort of my office at my 24 inch monitor pecking away at notepad is far less stressful than being in the presence of a bunch of potential cohorts vetting an interviewee ... however, one of those secondary lessions I've taken from this journey is paramount to the interview process: never let them see you sweat. I don't either. Besides, I truly feel my interviewing days are over.

The Orlando gay night spot Pulse saw the worst massacre in US history inundated Orlando Regional Medical Center with 44 victims of having high velocity gunshot wounds ... a lot of the victims struck multiple times and the people of the area — and the nation — are still reeling from the tragedy.

Parents were shocked by final communications from children about to be murdered via cell telephony. The impending doom obvious in the SMS messages transmitted. Others with wounds so devastating as to be life threatening and a killer who went down cool and calm in a gunfight with the police after phoning 911 to pledge his allegiance to ISIS.

This home grown terrorist, one Omar Mateen inflicted the worst mass shooting ever in the united States. The incident is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.
 

Pulse Nightclub Orlando

Omar Mateen

Now then, the gays are a particular kind of target for the likes of ISIS/ISIL given the scriptural references to abomination. HOWEVER, in the United States we leave that judgement to God and defer our objections to Him.

For example, I am not a proponet of the gay lifestyle but would just as soon keep my gay friends and cohorts safe and well EVEN though I disapprove of their sexual proclivities BECAUSE it's simply none of my business and I have too much else with which to contend to even care.

I suppose young Mr Mateen missed that "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" unalienable rights which the Declaration of Independence imparted to the citizens of this nation.

You don't have to approve of any aspect of anothers existence to treat them with respect and dignity.

All joking aside (and I DO joke about homosexuality), I will always avail myself to others in this manner. One of the best friends I ever had was gay in Colorado and I would have done anything to see him one more time before he passed away. You don't get many friends in life; let alone many good friends such as the one I lost when I was 40.

So I've experimented with the last three versions of my operating system of choice in an effort to find that magical mystery configuration which is going to give me that satisfaction of knowing I'm where I should be in the server cluster arena.

Today I arrived at my ORIGINAL configuration ... the one I had grief getting the blog package to operate upon. Be all of this as it may, I've decided that the latest production version of the OS is what I need.

If I fail to get the blog package to work with it I'm just going to have to change blog packages. You see, I simply cannot be held hostage by some content management system which is problematic in my chosen server configuration.

I'm 90% there. I'm going to pose the question to the listserv and see just what the portends are. Should my next attempt at content management system installation fails I will get a different one and go about my business.

I've been through countless different configurations and the earlier versions of the OS don't interoperate well with the new hardware in place.

I decline to tap dance any longer.

I'm glad I can handle any contingency. Lesser techs would have crumbled by now.

I've had a keen interest in the Jordanian city of Petra; the site of ancient archeological digs primarily because of the workmanship, engineering, and hydrodynamics incorporated within the city — which likely began in 312 BC and was undiscovered by westerners until 1812.

The efficiency of the aquaducts and structures carved into solid rock are a wonder of biblical antiquity.

National Geographic reports the discovery of a monument which is the size of two olympic sized swimming pools and has remnants of extensive pavement, a colonade, and gigantic staircase.

It was said to be hidden in plain site close to the center of Petra.

It has been one of my wishes to someday visit Petra. I doubt that I will be around long enough to make it. The sheer fabrication of a city from stone complete with running water is a marvel from where I stand.
 

While I envision this statement to be more a commentary on smartphones than anything else, India has become the worlds second most connected population on the planet.

Thats a purported 277 million users due to a 40% rise over multiple years. However, China remains number one in the number of internet users according to the annual Internet Trends Report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers — a silicon valley venture capital organization.

Shucks, that means we're third. However, do not fret. I don't think all those phones are a force with which to take on larger hardware configurations with more memory and mass storage.

Still, the numbers are foreboding from a data protection standpoint given that India is about the biggest purveyor of spam and China the biggest exploit conduit of which I can think.

The report is placing the world wide use around 42% with a count of 3 billion internet users. That's 9 zeros. All I can do is keep those subnets firewalled and cap the domestic incursions by foreign entities as I pursue my target audience and bloody fend off the rest as best I can.

Hate to be this way, but the access logs tell the tale.

I love Lexus drivers. They simply scream uppity.

Like the previously owned Jaguars and gawd help us — BMWs ... those cars that say 'Asshole' driving down the road.

I love to see that pretentiousness those sixteen thousand dollar used vehicles instill in the polyester attired would have beens that drive them.

"Yeah, I drive a Lexus."

What they neglect to tell you is it's used and was depreciated long before they acquired it.

Me, I drive a truck. My personal preference is as analog as they can be manufactured; but I have been kowtowing to the technological tidbits included in it as well.

I was reading in the Christian Science Monitor regarding software glitches in some Lexus vehicles sold in the US.

It seems that buggy software messed up their information and entertainment systems.

The piece goes on to pose the relevant question:

What if this happened in a self driving car?

Lexus struggles with software bug: What this means for automakers
Christina Beck
Christain Science Monitor
June 8, 2016

So would we want a company whose technology is largely dependent on embedded systems of the computer variety rising to their level of incompetence and inadvertently creating an easily hackable or virus attackable personal conveyance to be exploited at the most inopportune times while we're traveling hither, thither, or yon ?

It is my personal observation that the wonder which is the evolving "self driving" automobile may well use a bit of extended development and testing.

I keep having these visions of the high speed crashes going down totally beyond the control of the occupants at the hands of some hacker or inept programmer imparting their funk into the mix.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for technology. Just make sure it's "ready for prime time" before you spring it on a populace wanting the latest in self driving rides.

1950s era driverless car concept

Here's one I'm taking with a grain of salt.

SimilarWeb, formerly called "SimilarGroup", an IT marketing research concern founded in 2007 engages as a provider of business and market intelligence, web analytics, and data mining for the international business arena.

Remind me to firewall them and all of their colocations immediately.

They are propagating a study which proposes a decline in the use of social media apps such as facebook, snapchat, instagram, and twitter between January through March 2016 in comparison to that quarter in 2015.
 

They also pointed out the censorship issues immersing facebook and twitter of late causing them to have a significant drop in usage.

Facebook is said to be down by 8%. Twitter is said to be down by 23.4%. The app instagram, owned by facebook is also said to be down 23.7% and snapchat use is allegedly down by 15.7%.

This data is derived from android clients and therfore covers phones, phablets, tablets, and other droid based configurations.

Now then, I personally don't view this as any "death knell" for social media inasmuch as android is not the entirety of the internet.

I still know many others using microsoft and linux based clients and in my purview the linux clients are steadily rising and my logs are rife with these as well.

The bottom line IMHO is that you can think what you like but the android population has not inherited the world and I personally will be getting an iphone to replace my droid due to personal issues regarding how google handles site availability when you bar them in the robots.txt file.

Be all of this as it may I really can't see stock prices dropping over diminishing use anytime soon. I know entirely too many lemmings for this to be something I could ever worry about or for which I could ever hope.