One year ago today: January 10, 2018, loved my Tandy.
Five years ago today: January 10, 2014, 15 acres in Arkansas.
Nine years ago today: January 10, 2010, psssst, Theresa lied. About everything.
Random years ago today: January 10, 2017, playing the gimp card.
Too chilly for major yard work, here is that case I curb-side, what, a month ago? The back panel had been water damaged but the carcase was intact. Here is the resurrected unit, destined for the red shed, which up until recently was full of big shelves, making it difficult to move or find anything. I replaced the original finishing nails with fine-thread drywall screws, so this puppy is staying in shape. The top and bottom shelves have solid oak lips to stop small objects from rolling off.
Instead, I went to work on the drywall and while I seem to have a barrier taking measurements, I can at least cut pieces that mostly fit well. I’ve tried many schemes, such as using a stick and marking where to cut, but wherever I hit an electrical box, I’m consistently a minimum half-inch out. I even cut a wooden block template to place the boxes at the same height, yet every one turned out to be slightly off.
I’m getting ahead with the front bedroom, remind me to get some paint, or at least some undercoat ready. I mean it, you have lately not been doing such a good job reminding me and lots of things got behind and misplaced. You know, there is danger that you might be replaced by an A.I. robot, see below.
As for all the protesters about the government shutdown, they are just making asses of themselves. They should be protesting the democrats for stalling the wall instead of screaming about their paychecks. Trump was at the border with overwhelming support for the wall. One tiny faction said they didn’t want a wall and the media blew it up into fake news report that even the residents didn’t want the wall. Like it was a mass movement or something. Sorry, nobody’s buying.
Alaine called, they canceled our brunch meet-up tomorrow, but I’m invited to a Sierra Club walk around Arcadia on Saturday morning. It sounds fun but no way I can take the time off. Also, did I not hear some disturbing reports about the Sierra Club keeping a database of contacts? And have you seen the mounting turmoil over privacy and phone tracking. Seems the hoi polloi is just catching on now. Well, it is too late and they cannot say they weren’t warned.
[Author’s note: I’ve notice the term for the box part of cabinets and shelves is alternately called the carcase or the carcass. There appears to be no such word as carcase, but it turns out some find the other word unsettling. So, in one of those moves that makes English a living language, I will strive henceforth to use carcase.]
Mustangs, Colinas, TX
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The following was temporary, but here it remains. A demo of how flexible this blog is, format-wise. Enjoy, that's the primary focus of all blogs in the end. I guess.
UPDATE - you may get a smattering of quips rather than a formal post for January 10, 2019. I'm getting e-mails saying the Amazon guy's divorce makes his ex-wife the richest woman in the world, at $70 billion. Since I don't follow celebrity crap, I never knew who these people were. Yep, could have walked past them in the street without a blink. Still, for $70 billion, I was going to ask what she was doing this Saturday night. Then I saw this picture.
Let me guess, they divorced as the least photogenic couple. They entered the contests and came in second - last, that is, after Bill Gates, but only because he was self-disqualified pending some unspecified DNA results. All I'm saying, in this order, is that if I had billions, I would know my picture is going to be taken, and I would at least try a hair transplant and getting my wife's teeth fixed. Look at her overbite, I'll bet she could eat corn through a picket fence. Do I have to teach these people everything?
In as soon as 15 years, 40 percent of the world's jobs could be done by machines, according to one of the world's foremost experts on artificial intelligence. Kai Fu Lee, a pioneer in AI and venture capitalist based in China makes this prediction . . .
I can make predictions, too. The impact of the A.I. Robotics combination will be watered down by the same process that screwed up computers - the need to make them appealing to the unwashed masses. We do not yet know the mystery of the pyraminds, but more effort is going into how to make "female" robots wink and act coy.
Golly, if your job can be done by a machine, you've really hit the skids.
Well any millennial can tell you that is because anybody alive before March 1991 is clueless because they never had no Internet. Note, the oldsters only share it, no mention is made of who is creating it.
Location data is some of the most sensitive, and sought after, information that smartphones generate.
Yes, but to track you, they still have to have your identity, and that is what you should be protecting.
AMD unveils next-gen Radeon VII, launches February 7 for $699. AMD has maintained that it's not throwing in the towel in the high-end graphics card space, and today it came out swinging with the Radeon VII, the world's first 7nm GPU for consumers.
The newest latest fastest chip is useless for anything but playing games. It uses about 4,000 stream buffers, so it actually isn't anything new. It is the configuration of the buffers that makes it just another toy. Go, millennials, go!
ADDENDUM
This is a current picture of the final step installing the Faraday cage in the main bedroom. If you don’t know what a Faraday cage is, I encourage you to look it up. This is something a lot of people don’t understand. Why put a Faraday cage into your house? Let’s take a look at “a lot of people”. They are likely the same ones who scoffed at warnings and laughed at people who protected their privacy. Well, we know who was right about that.
“Ten years ago, I began to study a theoretical computer system called “database”. Lately, commercial versions of this product have been advertised and they are dropping in price. Once the government gets these programs, it will turn them on the people. A single piece of information can be related to every other file of any individual from birth to death and beyond. I have no doubt it will be used for that purpose as soon as possible.
No matter what the stated original purpose, the sole priority of any taxpayer-supported government office becomes its own continuance. When third generation bureaucrats begin to occupy government positions, it is only a matter of time until the state becomes too powerful for any private individual or private group to avoid interference in every aspect of their lives.”
I did not, in 1981, know anything about networking. Yet, I plainly thought the existence of one single computer used for storing data on private persons was enough of a threat. That summer, I keyed in the entire phone book of the town where I graduated, around 2,450 names, addresses, and phone numbers. The town even published a calendar with everybody’s birthdays (but not their ages). When I saw what I could do with that, I resolved there and then to make a concerted effort to keep my name and information off these contraptions.
You want an example? For several years afterward, I returned to that town for summer jobs. I expanded the database to include ages based on what grade people were in at school. I realized decades later this was my first foray into meta-information. The system unwittingly, by categorizing people by age, handing me power. I was able to know any time in advance when every girl in my town, well, shall we say, I’m not one to miss an opportunity. My reputation in those days amongst young women was very good, and now you know it did not magically happen by itself. One thing I quickly spotted was how all the government offices worked together. When all the information was conglomerated, I realized, they were keeping tabs, and this was before computers.
All databases did was bring what I predicted to the surface. I was amazed that others could not see it, but there was plenty of talk on campus about Big Brother. This was no theory because I witnessed it happening and realized there was very little defense other than keeping off the radar to begin with. It’s not like I spent my days ducking the searchlight. It was more little things, like coding application forms and avoiding survey takers. And it served me well. For example, I have had the same address for 42 years. I can smell a credit application form a mile away, even if they are disguised as college entrance forms, contest rules, airline tickets, or insurance claims. You simply don’t fill them out, but if you are compelled to, make certain types of “mistakes”.
However, the real fun was in the mid-1980s when the system was still pretty loose. I’d guess 99% of the people just beginning to use computers had no freaking clue how they worked. During that time, I loved to hack in and delete all my files. Even more fun was when I learned to replace my files with credible looking spoofs. I won’t say how far up the chain I got, but it was pretty far. And all of it before there was any cross-checking or checks for reasonableness built into the system. Of course, you don’t do this under oath, but back then, even the DMV would put your nickname on your driver’s license if you asked nicely enough. Nomsayn?
So, you fast forward to now. All of the people who snorted that Facebook and such were harmless are now squirming in the realization of what they’ve done to themselves. Good, it serves them right. Back to the Faraday cage. No, it was not necessary and I don’t even have much of a concept of how or when it will be used. Still, mark my words. There will come a time when Faraday cages will be outlawed, or there will be some system in place to track who builds one, probably by making a law that the materials can only be purchased with ID, that is, a credit card.
By then, it will be too late for most people. In a short while, I will know how well the cage works, and what happens when it doesn’t. More importantly, what to do about it. The materials added a piddling $18 to the cost of the room. Since I was right about identity theft, invasion of privacy, state-sanctioned sting operations, covert surveillance, tracking, DNA profiling, travel restrictions, blacklisting, enforced escrow, RFID abuse, porn morphing, warrantless searches, asset confiscation, and I will be right about the dangers of driverless cars, cashless societies, and exploitation of biometric scans, I would rather have a Faraday cage and not need one.
For those too lazy to research the Faraday cage, you’ve got the wrong blog. A Faraday cage is a metal container that blocks electromagnetic transmissions, both coming and going. Nobody outside can electronically eavesdrop, and nobody inside can receive any radio waves, including TV, cell, radio, or WiFi. Could come in handy when the need arises. Yes, your computer is emanating a signal strong enough that a car parked on your street, with the right equipment, can read your email. And your passwords, banking information, monitor your searches, and in some cases, sift through your photographs and set you up.
