One year ago today: October 5, 2019, early lidless box.
Five years ago today: October 5, 2015, “AWWW-‘nld.”
Nine years ago today: October 5, 2011, tried my hand at sewing.
Random years ago today: October 5, 2013, 23 long years.
Good morning, I opted for a $20 box fan in the north wall and a treat for myself with the money saved. Think of a tool I always wanted but considered too expensive. My old work habits are returning, these happen in bouts if you live long enough. Only one way to deal with getting up at 5:30AM for no reason. And here it is, Texas chicken pie. I made a few changes, see, due to health food considerations but take heed. This is not diet food. (If I said “no matter how you slice it” that would be too corny so I won’t.) Okay, I admit one change is there is no chicken. It is 85% lean ground turkey. So if that rubs a few purists the wrong way, good, more for me. One change in spices is the addition of a smidgen of rosemary. So, it’s good morning again.
Put another way, I suppose some recording artists are nice people, but somehow not the ones I meet. Those tend more toward the egotistical bastard brand, plus I don’t like drawn out recording sessions any more than Johnny Cash did. Nor do I care for what the recording industry was and what it has now become. Give me chicken pie any time, note cup of coffee wisely consumed before the day gets hot.
Normally I do not leave my Internet connection connected while away from the computer. The wisdom of this was just confirmed again. I used Spybot Anti-Beacon to block Windows 10 from sending information to MicroSoft behind my back. It does not matter if it is good or bad information, only that it is behind my back. While I was in the kitchen Windows attempted another upgrade, which failed of course. But it opened 84, hmmm, 84 what? I don’t know the correct term. But the tracking is called telemetry. Windows 10 tries to “phone home” like all browsers do unless you stop them.
Over the years, Spybot has evolved from an adequate free-for-nothing anti-virus product to now you pay for it. Either with a credit card or your personal information, which is about the same thing. I don’t know [or care] how Windows managed that, since I have the updates disabled, but I had to uninstall Anti-Beacon. Now I can’t reload it. Fortunately there are earlier versions still free, if I can find a 64-bit version.
Mexico-Guatemala border.
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I opted for the microwave. A morning in Winter Haven, Florida. Remember Eagle Lake, the place with the building I was looking at? It now has a complete facelift. Whoever bought it sunk a fortune into it over several years. Quite a nice job. But I’m glad I didn’t because it turns out there is something wrong with Eagle Lake, if you ask me. I’m not the only one who thinks everybody who lives there is nothing but an AOL and they drive like Cubans. Oooh, is that an insult? Nope, just an observation. The only place I ever stop there any more is they have a Dollar Tree which is cheaper than Wal*mart and does not seen to have been affected by the tariffs.
I base that on what people say. And I say, where is my new dishwasher? Yeah, why are we giving money to developing countries when I have no dishwasher? This country needs to get our priorities straight. Let me check the news feeds. What’s this? AT&T is pulling out of DSL? Digital Subscriber Link, their Internet offering. The phone company’s long-standing obligation is to offer all customers the same grade of service. But that would mean installing fiber optic cable to some pretty remote areas of the countryside—something I’m against in any form if the cost is sent back to other customers.
I’m a strong backer of user-pay in almost anything. If somebody wants to live 50 miles in the bush, they can do without Internet or pay the full cost of service. I see both sides of the issue—and still feel it is not my duty to pay for the comfort of others. The phone company was a regulated monopoly for most of its existence and are still bound by some of those regulations. DSL was never a winner, but after losing out on the cable TV business, the company did not want to fall behind on Internet as well. Now they are stuck with potentially having to spend billions on service for a few scattered rural customers. Instead, it looks like they are going to yank the plug.
Another issue is work from home—how is it being monitored. Nearly half of US office workers are now doing it. Surveillance has become part of it as employers tackle cyber-slacking. And we know where surveillance leads. As is normal in the USA, a large group of suck-holes will allow the practice to become the norm, then complain afterward when little can be done. Shrinks will develop a whole new vocabulary to deal with what is really old-fashioned burn out. I see some major changes in jobs that pay by the hour. Do they monitory keystrokes? If so, I would be paid less because I only type at the final stages of a a project.
They say three-quarters of all US companies intend to keep some work farmed out. The novelty will quickly wear off. During my 15 year tenure with the phone company, nobody, not even co-workers knew my home address—and things worked out just fine for me. No surprise home visits from the boss that plagued so many of my contemporaries who had nothing to hide. And you know me, even if I do have something to hide, I don’t need any comments about it from the peanut gallery.
CPRA, the new California privacy legislation, should be called TLTL for too little too late. As with all American laws, it will contain gaps and exceptions that nullify the benefits. Seventeen years ago this month the FTC began the No-Call List and we still get about a call a day each. CPRA does not outlaw data collection, rather limits it. Some data is spelled out, like name, address, religion, and health information, but allow me to explain something.
Those are outmoded “ID” type information. Profiling works on a different scale. If I have your electronic profile, I don’t care what your name or address is. I don’t need that to track you, and that’s how profiling really works. If you opt out, that merely becomes the next piece of information used to follow you. And the big techs have all that information they need because you cannot change your profile. Google and Facebook are already screaming, but I spot that as a distraction. These companies are not out to serve you better. By making all the up front noise about CPRA, they are deliberately obfuscating the real issue. You’ve been warned.
ADDENDUM
I’m the one who said US businesses needed a shakedown. Instead we get a lockdown and it has changed some ground rules. The most noticeable to me is the number of restaurants who kept on as take-out only. I can see it, if they make say, half as much money with a smaller staff, the margins could be in their favor. This work-from-home, I say it will result in a lack of discipline in the industries that require it. There’s talk that some employees are lowering hour rates to reflect the lack of commute expenses. Is this the death blow to the middle class?
American Idol may have seen its best days as well. I watch the highlights at times and it seems dominated by vocalists, who after a while get boring. Especially the kids with adult voices. How many of them do they want us to go through? Note to myself—change all passwords. Why? Because I again typed a computer password into a Google text box in error. I’ve also upgraded passwords to 18 characters. The more I read of quantum computers the wiser it is to be prepared. What’s more likely than an actual quantum in the near run is they will use banks of regular computers to makeshift the behavior.
