This is the view through the screen door of my new camera, the one I got for Xmas. It is a little off perpenzontal as I’m just testing things. That is our view to the north, I’m not showing the west, where this week’s windstorm devastated the yard. It will take a day to clean that up now, so where is Wallace? Just kidding, but the trash is a foot deep and we have a small tree down. Plus a broken gate.The only good news is there is a vine that started growing out of one of the big flower pots. Green with large leaves, I left it to grow as it is quite nice and maybe Wallace planted it. It took over back near the barbeque and garden and I believe could be trained to grow up the walls. Electronics I know about, plant life, forget it.
Where’s my Arduino? And I see we’ve entered another era of “free” software from the Internet. Free download means that, they don’t charge for the download. Probably because at this time they can’t. Now I’m looking at conversion code since Limewire was torpedoed. I maintain Limewire cost nobody, as in the end, the users either never had the money or would not have paid for what they used in the first place. The shutdown was caused by those who would force them to pay and that ain’t quite right. (Pushing the recordings rather than the live music is the root cause.)
Another scam is calling something free and then later revealing it to be a trial version, not full-featured, or embedding a “watermark. Again, I have nothing against those companies who tell you in advance that is what they do. But calling it free doesn’t fly. Sooner or later, somebody will invent a system that weeds out the liars and get rich very quickly. Meanwhile the government ignores Internet bait and switch.
Speaking of idiotic policies, the flat tax people are at it again. Yes, we all know that a flat tax will raise more money, be more equitable, and get more from the rich. But what we all don’t seem to know is that governments love the control they get from income tax law and are not likely to relinquish such power. A flat tax is anonymous and that alone is its death-knell. The government (as it exists) needs control of income tax law for its far-reaching intrusions into privacy.
It’s their ace in the hole. By taxing income, they got everybody on file to a degree never otherwise permitted in a democracy and routinely use those laws to blackmail, cajole, investigate, trace, prosecute, plea bargain, threaten, intrude, and you get the idea. Ask Al Capone how they got him. As long as we have habeas corpus, the government will never relinquish the supreme grip of income tax law.
I told the tale of how every $1.99 breakfast special in Florida becomes at least $6.00 or more (the regular price) by the time you get out the door. Here, in my occasionally humble opinion, is the best $6.00 deal in town, with real prices at Burger King. I’m pretty equal on hotcakes or toast, just you remember BK doesn’t serve toast. If you have even the tiniest hint of grey around the temples, BK will give you the coffee half price, but you have to ask. Here is the breakfast combo and at BK you don’t get hounded for a tip. The budding investigative reporters among you will notice the atlas in the background. That was the gift from Wallace back in 1999 for the trip to the Carolinas.
Dang, I lent out my 2 Gig flash drive at the Xmas party since again, nobody else showed up with enough memory. My expensive drive totally infected with the RECOVERY.LOG virus but you can’t prove it without getting on the other guy’s computer and he won’t allow that. In the end, I formatted the drive and lost my contents. The effect of the virus is to almost instantly minimize any folder you open down to the task bar.
And you know, one of the finest things about being broke is you can stop by at Jimbos’ on the way back from Home Depot. There, no matter how many years or dollars you spent at school or study, somebody there will know more about it than you do. I downloaded a ton of basic electronic theory from the net. Gee, if only I’d known it was all free up at the club. How come they are never around to remind me that docx files can’t be opened by Office 2003? Strange how life works that way. Nobody to guide you but tons to say they told you so, now forming the ignorant majority on the Internet.
One major mistake was driving home last evening and forgetting to tank up. I was distracted and ran out of gas, but this time while doing 45 mph. As I glided to a stop, this choked the gas tank sludge up into the carburetor. GM owners know what I’m talking about. Several people who learned about the satellite trip have volunteered to “drive up there” but I'm leery of not travelling alone.
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