Opinion

Internet Speed in the Sticks

I understand that most people have ok internet speeds but for me and my wife, it can be a daily struggle.

We live in the middle of nowhere. Comcast doesn’t come out this far and the only things we have are LTE grade cellular and satellite.

HughesNet satellites are too high up to be useful. The latency makes them almost unusable.

Enter Starlink. My wife bought this for us a while ago and it has been a game changer for us.

The only reason I am posting about it is because I just ran a speedtest and got this result.

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This is very unusual for us. We’re usually lucky to get 10Mb down.

Happy Sunday!

Removing Twitter from My Site

I’ve had a pretty good Twitter sidebar widget for a little while now. In fact, I’m fairly certain I got it after Musk took over.

I couldn’t help but notice that it looks like Twitter decided that they didn’t want to feed these types of widgets anymore and just killed it.

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Of course, I have posts on Twitter. Many of them.

I went to try and upgrade to Twitter Blue and was told that I don’t post enough to be using Twitter Blue.

Therefore, my giving a fuck about Twitter days are slowly coming to an end.

As far as I’m concerned, there are no real substitutes for it. Anything Meta is involved with is always something I run away from. So, Threads is out. I don’t trust the company at all nor do I feel like contributing to their bottom line. There are plenty of idiots who use their products to keep them in business. I’m just not one of those idiots.

Great read about how badly Threads is performing here.

Mastodon is not even close. It takes way too much to get started using it for the average user which means that the user base will always be small.

I loved the old Twitter, before Elon Musk got involved with it. I think he does most things well but I never felt like Twitter was one of them.

This Will NEVER Stop

Via AP

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue Friday night, killing seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, and wounding three others before he was shot and killed by police, officials said. It was the deadliest attack on Israelis in years and raised the likelihood of more bloodshed.

The attack, which occurred as residents were observing the Jewish sabbath, came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank. Friday’s shooting set off celebrations in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where people fired guns into the air, honked horns and distributed sweets.

The burst of violence, which also included a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, has posed an early challenge for Israel’s new government, which is dominated by ultranationalists who have pushed for a hard line against Palestinian violence. It also cast a cloud over a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region Sunday.

The only way to achieve peace is to take away the thing that the two children are fighting over. Simple parental tactics will solve this problem.

Article Titles to Avoid

I have a lot of ideas about what a good title should be when writing an article, book, chapters, or anything else that literally requires some sort of title.

In my most humble opinion, I don’t see the value in taking leaps or making assumptions about how the reader should “feel” about your article. Look at the following example.

19 Photos From Dumpster Divers That’ll Make Anyone Who Hates Waste Scream At The Top Of Their Lungs

Really? If I hate waste (hate is a strong word) then logically (in your mind) I should scream at the top of my lungs?

I don’t think so.

That headline isn’t even good click bait.

I don’t think that you should ever tell anyone how they should feel, how they should live, or anything else really. Why? No one is smart enough to do that. Let’s face it. People are dumb. ALL of us.

Yes. I include myself in that.

Perhaps, the article title could be written in a much better way.

19 Photos from Dumpster Divers.

That title alone peaks my interest. No need to tell me how I should feel about it. I can make that determination on my own. Thank you.

Scary Shit

This article should scare the shit out of you.

Programming is a powerful and ubiquitous problem-solving tool. Systems that can assist programmers or even generate programs themselves could make programming more productive and accessible.

Our movie makers have made countless films about the dangers of A.I. and what that type of future would look like.

Battlestar Galactica
The Terminator

Just to name a couple of them.

Artificial Intelligence or Smart Algorithm?

I stumbled across an ad this morning in the news journal I read.

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There is a small snippet that says AI-Vetted.

I want to be clear. As of this writing, there is no such thing as AI. Artificial Intelligence implies sentience which has not yet been achieved. Another way of describing it would be the term “self-aware.”

Science hasn’t built that yet. We throw around the term AI as if that is what the process should be called. How about smart algorithm? It doesn’t sound as cool as AI. However, smart algorithm is what we should be using.

As soon as someone creates AI, I’ll be one of the first people to post about it as I make my way to a remote country to escape the SkyNet that will most assuredly follow.

Aliens or Not?

I am convinced that aliens would never visit this planet because they would have killed themselves off before they reached that level of technology. 👌🏼

Touch ID under Duress

A feature that I would like to see on Apple’s Touch ID devices is what I call a “duress” mode.

Let’s say someone is mugging you and demanding that you unlock your device. What if you assigned a specific finger to something called duress mode that does things behind the scenes while appearing to unlock the device.

You could even have a flash “store front” of apps that load up if you use this particular finger. None of them really do anything and your data is still protected. It may even add an extra layer of security that is required to unlock it by Apple. Once your device is put in duress mode, only authorized people could unlock it. By unlock it, I mean get it back to a state where your normal fingerprint would unlock the device. Apple couldn’t directly unlock it.

By using this finger, you have also alerted family, friends, and anyone else you designate that you are in some sort of duress. These messages could include your GPS location etc.

I think in the future, this type of functionality will be necessary. It might even save lives.

Picture from here.

Fireworks Laws

I wasn’t sure but I had a feeling that fireworks were illegal in my area.

Law changed in 2017
Until a few years ago, it was illegal for Pennsylvanians to buy most fireworks, with retailers focusing on sales to outof- state residents. When the law was loosened in 2017, it included some restrictions on exactly where and when fireworks can be set off: It’s illegal to ignite them within 150 feet of any structure or on any public or private property without permission from local authorities. In a densely populated city like Lancaster, that leaves very few places where people can safely ignite fireworks.
The law lays out penalties that local authorities, like Lancaster’s police bureau, can impose for violations: “A person using consumer fireworks in violation of the provisions of this article commits a summary offense and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100.”

Religion Origins

Historical fiction is a story that takes place in a certain period of history but the characters are usually fictional.

Religion is the exact same thing.

Especially if your religions doctrine cannot be independently verified by historians of the time.

That is a very basic requirement. You can make all of the bold claims you’d like in your religious text but if they are true, someone else would have seen it and written it down.

Don’t believe something just because someone says it is true. Find out for yourself. Do the research.

Even if it is your spiritual identity.

Don’t blindly follow anyone.

Ok. Life advice over.

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More Relativity Questions

Some thoughts about the theory of relativity…

Electricity moves differently in a vacuum or with altered gravity. Does that mean that time is different or does it mean that how we measure time is different?

You could make the argument that a person on Earth shows a different time than someone in space simply because electricity works differently in space but the same measurement of time has passed for both individuals.

The only thing that changes is “how” I measure the time difference. That is why I believe the theory of relativity is incorrect.

If electricity moves at the speed of light and electricity moves differently in a void does that question what the speed of light actually is? To me, that means the speed of light is variable. Or, the way you are measuring is changing.

To me, if I travel away from the Earth at the speed of light and then return, I will have aged exactly the same as if I had stayed on Earth. Time may have been measured differently in space but my constant of measure is the Earth.

It is a theory that is extremely clear to me for some reason. I’ve always said that you cannot arm chair quarterback the universe from your chair on Earth.

I think the theory of relativity will be debunked when we start seriously traveling among the stars.

Streaming Services

There are too many of them.

My prediction is that this business model in its current form is unsustainable.

People just want one place to pay and watch; they don’t want 100 of them. That is too much shit to keep track of. One place. One login. Done.

People are lazy. Paying for everything in one spot? How much lazier can you get?

Politics Light – Multiple Parties

First of all, I’d like to apologize for writing about politics on my website. I promise you that it is not going to a deep dive into which political party is better and why you should choose one over the other.

No.

This quick article is about why I believe we need to get rid of the two party system and go with something like Israel has. I believe Japan might also have a similar model.

With more choices everyone wins.

Multiple parties make it less about “us versus them” and makes it more solidly about the issues themselves.

There are two things I believe are so simple in politics that the fact that they really aren’t is proof positive that the system is broken.

1. Multiple party system
2. Flat Income Taxes. Either 5% or 10% would get the job done and everyone pays their fair share which cannot be argued if everyone pays 10%.

Those two things are painfully obvious to me.

Ok. Enough about that shit.

Apple News

I absolutely love the Apple News app.

The News app on my iPhone that is.

The News app on my computer is something quite different. For me, it all comes down to one simple thing. It is the inability to save anything to Instapaper.

Even though I have the option checked and enabled, it simply doesn’t show up as an option. The only options are apple’s built in choices. So, even though it appears you have choice here you don’t.

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Even though I obviously have it checked here…

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I think the phone just works better anyway but there are times when I am charging my phone that I’d like to be able to just use the M1 MBP.

Ok. My venting is over.

Revisions versus Writing

I am a first draft kind of guy. I can sit here all day long and pound out original material like nobody’s business.

When it comes to revisions, I hate it.

I’m doing it now. I have to go back over the last few stories I’ve written and complete the first revision. I have some beta readers who are willing to read my stories and give me feedback.

I plan on giving these stories to an editor when I think I’m ready to publish them.

Self publishing is something new I am trying but I don’t think you can or should publish anything without an editor looking at it.

My grammar can be awful sometimes. Anyone who reads this blog should know that by now.

That is all I have. Nothing Earth shattering. Just a post about how much I hate editing myself.

Book Review – Sort Of

I’m not yet going to give details of the book but I’m listening to a science fiction nugget.

I like the whole idea of it. There are parts that don’t seem to make much sense.

For one thing, the main enemy is missing the motivation. They are bad and try to kill the main characters but I still don’t know why.

It sounds like democracy versus communism. That seems off.

I’ll write a good review when this book is finished. It will probably be soon. I think I have 5 hours left.

Wondering Why Hiring Sucks?

I think with out the need to write more about the subject, the picture from today’s paper below demonstrates why it is so difficult to hire right now.

The company I work for goes through employees like shit through a goose. They hire 5 and the next day 3 leave. I’m not certain that the reason is so that they can say they’ve “tried” to find something.

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For an employee who is not in managment, they make more money by not working. I have always felt that was the case but this chart puts those thoughts into a concrete form.

Why go to work when you can make more money by staying home? Probably also doesn’t hurt your need to feel safe from Covid as well.

Societal Concept

Since I write a lot of science fiction stories, I often wonder what would cause a civilization to never make it into space or not very far before the society collapses.

The collapse could be for any number of reasons.

Here is why I think the inhabitants of any planet can either kill the planet or as a people they thrive and reach out to the stars.

I believe this equation best describes it.

If you grow as a society faster than the rate of innovation, you die.

I think we are there. We’re producing shit tons of plastics that will have no where to go when we’re done with them. You could say “recycling” but you’d be wrong. Most plastic ends up either in the ocean or in a land fill. We could sure use an atomizer.

Too bad we didn’t invent one yet.

Sports

I grew up with sports.

I used to watch my favorite NFL football team play every weekend and couldn’t wait for the Super Bowl. I remember getting depressed after the All-Star game because I knew there would be no football until next season.

I actually liked the XFL and I loved that it filled the gap of the missing NFL. It only lasted for a season which sucked royal money balls.

I turned 50 and something happened. I’m not sure exactly what it was but I started to not care as much about football as I once did. I’m pretty sure the enormous salaries had something to do with it. I’m sure making teams change their name because someone is “offended” may also have something to do with it. I think it was the money mostly.

Right now, the Washington Redskins don’t even know who the hell they are. The people that are offended aren’t even the people that are supposed to be offended. The real Redskins (the Indians for you new people) don’t give a fuck.

When the coronavirus hit, sports because the last thing on Earth that people actually cared about and I was ok with that. I guess it took the pandemic for me to realize just how insignificant sports really is. The sports went away for a period of time and everything was ok.

This is from an article in today’s paper.

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First of all, these kids did NOT lose everything last year. They are still fucking alive aren’t they? You fucking moron.

Everyone didn’t die. The newspaper was a lot more fun to read for me because the sports section (if it was in the paper at all) was only a page or half of a page.

To sum up this article…

…fuck sports.

Assumptions

If I am hot and sweaty and I decide to wear something that lets my upper body breathe (mostly talking about my tits), why do men automatically think that by the act of wearing said garment I am advertising that I am available?

If I am walking through a mall and see a guy wearing shorts rocking a nice cock outline, I don’t automatically think he is wearing it to pick up women. He might be. I don’t assume that.

For my 1st post with Mike’s website, I thought I’d write about something that always pisses me off.

Assumptions about my availability piss me off. Based on what I am wearing? Really?

I love men.

But, sometimes I don’t.

This post may or may not have been “triggered” by a recent trip to the store.

Company Leaks

Apple has had a really hard time to leaks to the press or other sources before a major announcement.

There are a lot of people that thrive on rumors and want to speculate about what the next big thing will be.

These same people may also not understand why leaking things to the public ahead of an event is bad.

If I am an engineer and I have worked to develop a product that I am proud of. Even if it’s something I am not entirely proud of, the fact remains that I’ve probably put a lot of time and effort into it.

I think as the engineer, I deserve to be able to present the work I’ve done my way. In Apple’s case, it would be a big press event. I should think that I am the person who deserves to show what I’ve done to others and not some publication, journalist, or an armchair technology quarterback.

When you release this information ahead of the engineering team’s expectation, you are literally robbing them of their moment in the sun. A moment that is sorely and richly deserved. They earned it. The person who writes about the leaked information has not earned anything. They were given information that can either chose to act on or chose to not act on. It is entirely their decision.

The person who releases the information has malicious intentions whether they feel that they do or not. That information is not yours to present. You didn’t “earn” the right to do so.

And that, makes the leakers and the people that present those leaks to the public lower then dog shit on the evolutionary scale.