Ah, I do love to read about the adventures of Google in Europe.

I find it rather interesting that business between them is headed for another spate of antitrust litigation with their proprietary adverts being the prime source of friction this time.

Seeing how the bulk of Google's coffers rely on that advertising business it is a critical issue I'm sure.
 

European officials are moving toward smacking Google with yet another set of antitrust charges, with their offense arising from their advertising business this time.

As the EU appears to be rapidly approaching readiness with their statement of objections I suppose the cauldron is getting hot enough to feel all the way across the pond ... So the trials and tribulations of Alphabet, adwords, and Google et al will be coming to a head right soon now.

It would seem that the favoritism played toward Google's own shopping service in it's adwords mechanics and the aforementioned heavy handed android phone tactics aren't just pissing me off. And I thought I was all alone in my anger towards them ...

If the proceedings go the EU's way the fines will be stupendous ... almost a tithe for doing business in the EU and all it's glory.

Abuse of market dominance via code isn't going over so well it seems.

So the adventure in self promotion continues. I wonder how much you have to pay them monthly to get them to answer the phone in Europe.

Yesterday I spent a few hours with Mom at her place.

We sat and putzed around with her phone and took a couple of selfies. It was obvious that we could use a little more practice. Aside from being quite humorous the technical quality was mediocre at best and the photography was even worse. The two I snapped were good for a few laughs ...

She showed me her new facebook photo. It was a nice picture snapped by my sister when they went out to lunch recently. I took it and adjusted the levels and contrast then made a little vignette.
 

John's Headstone Ft Jackson Natl Cemetery

If you mouse over it you can see the original picture...

We went to Ft Jackson National Cemetery and put flowers on John's grave. It's still a pretty grief filled time for us without him. We sat and spoke of all the things we're missing since he passed in January.

But we want to honor him and we try to put fresh flowers at his headstone every week and snap a photo or two of them as well ... This time we brought a bunch of canna lilies and hollyhocks with his last gardenia from the bushes in his yard. We miss him terribly.

So after a magnificent dinner I scooted back home and kicked back for the rest of the day..

Now that the new server is finally achieving gainful forward motion and the obamacare mess at work is over at long last I am getting in a little relaxation...

We were having a discussion Friday regarding topical items for which my personal interest has dimininished over the years. Whereas in my younger days I was this fuss budget with an opinion and stance on just about everything ... anymore I could really give a rip and little impacts me in the big scheme of things anymore.

I would take up all the various personal interests du jour of others in my midst. If they met with my agreement I became their 'instant champion' as it were.

No longer. My exposure to that stupidity which is the world in general has jaded me for their causes. From the dolts like Bernie Sanders preaching this unattainable utopia he will never see through the similarly losing cause of recycling things other than metals and that utter lack of justice so often evident in the courts by and large have made me simply not give a rip.

I grew weary of pursuing these pipe dreams just because I thought they were good ideas. So while you might get out there and harp on various causes stuck in your craw in the name of making a difference — I'm content to remain out of the picture and though my opinion might certainly exist I have no interest in sharing it or worse; FORCING it on anyone.

So all of you who are young enough to still think we have effective government .... or that things aren't the poor representations made by those with advanced degrees who remain stupid ... how any lives really matter ... how we can truly impact global warming ... how the muslims are going to breed us out of existence ... how the government is no longer a constitutional democracy, or even a republic but an oligarchy dominated by a rich and powerful elite ...

just try to control your naive pie in the sky self if you can.
 

Castle Walls

Once in a dream
Far beyond these castle walls
Down by the bay where the
Moonlit water falls
I stood alone while the minstrel sang his song
So afraid I'd lost my soul

There in the fog his song kept calling me
Leading me on with its haunting melody
Deep in my heart a voice kept echoing
I knew I'd soon be wandering

Far beyond these castle walls
Where the distant harbour meets the sky
There the battle raged like hell
And every dove had lost its will to fly

Far beyond these castle walls
Where I thought I heard Tiresias say
Life is never what it seems
And every man must meet his destiny

Styx
 

All of the adventures of late have me happy to be winding down.

I've configured tomcat and every other subsystem so many times it's becoming old hat.

The other engines and various pieces have fallen into place.

My environment is shaping up nicely to the point that I have two candidates up and running on the new web box.

The end approaches. I am ready. It's been a long rough haul.

All that remains is a few command decisions that I'm pondering presently.

It remains not just the destination ... but the journey.

There are issues surrounding the use of hand sanitizer and soap in our never ending pursuit of killing germs appropriately.

There is a recommendation to wash with soap for the duration of two rounds of "Happy Birthday". Previously, it was thought that hand santitizer was "take a squirt and rub". It should also be noted that it's the friction of rubbing in conjunction with the chemical which makes hand sanitizer so effective.

Now they're claiming a duration of 15 to 30 seconds is more efficacious with 45 seconds and beyond suffering from the laws of diminishing returns.

I come from a family big on hand santitizer. I don't typically partake because the alcohol is a bit rough on my tender alabaster white paws.

However, given the relative speed at which it works perhaps a bit of toughening up for my hands is in order.

Studies in Switzerland where E. coli was applied to hands which were then subjected to hand santitizer for 10 seconds to a full minute revealed that the bacteria count dropped drastically in the 10 to 15 second range then, true to form began suffering from the laws of diminishing returns with slight increases after 30 seconds and none after 45 seconds.
 

I've always heard that a very good treatment for urinary tract infections is cranberry juice.

The mechanism stated to me was a potent bacteriostatic action at multiple levels with the vitamin c in conjunction with various other constituents of the pulp and skin of the berries themselves.

The ramifications of this are astounding given it's propensity to heal great masses of suffering individuals.

Indeed, it has been stated by one of my most respected physician friends that the reduction was significant to the point of elimination of many courses of antibiotics.

A recent study by Ocean Spray Cranberries (of course) has supported this advice given to me in the early 1970s to a fair-thee-well.

The incidence for infection in two groups of people, one of which drank the juice daily were significant with a much lower number of cases and severity for the group drinking a daily cranberry juice compared to a placebo control.

The moral of the story is two fold: cranberry juice is decidedly advantageous to those who are predisposed to urinary tract infections and not all old wives tales are unsubstantiated drivel.

Even though I personally feel that it would take a very gullible individual to fall for this, it appears that further warnings regarding the pitfalls of computer repair scams are in order; likely due to the proliferation they are having to the multitude of novice users among us and the ease of technology to provide a direct link to the victim.

Yes, even today my colleague received a cell phone call from "microsoft" saying that his machine was compromised and required immediate attention by their skilled technicians to forestall total calamity. The insinuation was imminent failure with total loss of his machine and it's content.

Luckily my colleague is quite experienced with engaging the shysters and decided to engage this fellow for a bit of insult prior to terminating the call. He razzed him regarding his inability to understand the name of the person being requested at the telephone.
 

It would seem that an operational command of the english language is optional among technoscammers of this ilk and after barking at him and his entire approach the call was terminated with extreme prejudice. I might add that there was never a danger for this particular machine and the person the scammer attempted to dupe likely had many times the scammer's experience in machine troubleshooting and repair.

In that sum total of who we are on the internet and our perception of anonymity we should be cognizant of our informational footprint. The more you put out there the more scammers have with which to "get you".

Back up your data, preferably on a removable medium like a USB 3.0 drive or some flash memory component.

If approached in a "cold call" whereby you did not initiate the interaction you should hang up immediately.

Nobody is so benevolent as to volunteer such repair service in the nick of time as claimed by these idiots who would have their way with you.

Watch what you click on when encountering any web page. It's far too easy to click a redirected link and end up with a cryptolocker exploit ... particularly if you haven't maintained an external backup like I keep telling you to maintain.

If you need support, engage someone you trust and just remember that computer services are largely inflated on the cost end of things. Expect to drop some cash.

Learning simple maintenance procedures and exploit preventive measures will go along way to keep you safer over time. I highly recommend the malwarebytes software and personal firewalls available for free. Just be sure of the download source ... they too can be problematic.

Last night we had the summer solstice and a rare concurrent strawberry moon.

The summer solstice marked he first day of summer.

The strawberry moon is the first full moon of summer and signaled a time to harvest for the indigenous Algonquin tribes.

I'm afraid it was all lost on me in my office last night slaving over a hot keyboard messing with apache, coldfusion, and mura.

Given the previous installation was all php centric to accommodate the blog package the new one (which I wound up around 5:30 am today) lacks php altogether.

Much less to hack and exploit.

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.