One year ago today: July 25, 2025, unusual tiredness.
Five years ago today: July 25, 2021, the Netgear blues.
Nine years ago today: July 25, 2017, applied for permission . . .
Random years ago today: July 25, 2023, a nothing day.
I like a fun Saturday as much as anyone. Instead, I was up, had coffee, and fell back to sleep until 4:40PM. Today I have nothing new for you—but I do have some minor items that have stacked up over the past week. We can walk through that. Like the remote started for the van, the remote alarm trigger. It fails on two counts. One, it requires an AC power source due to the design of the solenoid. And two, that power supply must be constant, not momentary. I set it aside, it will come in handy yet.
Now the facts have emerged and tongues are wagging. The winner is the kid brother of the mostly corrupt mayor of Little Rock. I detect a pattern here. Something actually happens in Little Rock once every 60 years and it is never good.
Where is my box of Arduinos? I have at least five units but where? I still have not built a successful amp, but I have three correctly-wired breadboard circuits. This joins around five of my most useful items that have “gone missing” since January. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you. The Prez, who used ChatGPT to generate a small booklet, sent details on the process. Alas, this so-called A.I. product cannot do much better than that. I’m searching for something more capable, but so far most are the same.
That is, unless the script is tailored to the capabilities of the software, it produces only short clips of cartoon graphics. Next, the doggie chow for the pound is in peril, the prices have shot up ten bucks a bag unless you want the brands consisting of mostly floor sweepings. I don’t have a lot of options left unless I goFund something. See today’s addendum for my thinkings on that.
My motive [for looking today] was not funding, but investing. Some time back I researched small home equity loans and fractional ownership. I sidestepped that route because, although it can be done casually, to really make a return it demands lots of good, experienced and talented account monitoring and management. One might as well get a job and let others do that kind of worry. Still, I am familiar with the concept. It would be new to me, which I can explain.
Prior to 2012, most jurisdictions made it difficult to fund or form any organization with more than 25 investors. The market was dominated by an elite who knew the rulebook, and it was a sticky mess for beginners. I did not know until recently that was the origin of the term “accredited investor”.
The change in 2012 was called the JOBS act, but I never paid it much attention. All it did, from my viewpoint, was remove the 25-member cap. It was also a regulatory look at the massive pool of scams generated by the early Internet. I never did understand why existing laws did not cover these shady operations just because they were on a computer instead of a typewriter. For now, this research is a towering task, but like myself, you can simply open an account and hope for the best. The only difference is I will document the goings-on.
Something I was not expecting is that you can open an account and accept donations before you meet the requirements. That means you can set up a fund for your cat without specifying the bank account or your ID. They will still collect donations for you. It’s when you want the money out they put the screws to you. No anonymous charity antics in today’s on-line America. What’s weirder (to me) is that you can even have them send the money (with proper criteria) to somebody else’s bank account.
Abandoned Lynnewood.
(The “Titanic” mansion)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Later, I’ve decided to go ahead with a goFund account to feed the Sheriff’s doggies. Reviewing the other (mostly self-centered) appeals, I quickly felt I could do better. From what I can tell, the minimum donation is $10 which I feel is far too much. I’m looking through the suggestion lists of how to “drive” people toward your listing, but is that the proper attitude? I’ll tell you what, let’s work together. We have this blog, the other’s do not. Tomorrow, Sunday, I have planned to announce the donation link.
I also notice others do not thank or report back, which I consider necessary. Asking for help is not something that comes natural to me, so again I’m starting from a zero knowledge base. I still think $10 is a bit hefty, but welcome anyone who wants to give. I have also noticed a 100% lack of videos. I see they have video capability, but meant for phone transmission. Ah, but it does not say that and if this blog isn’t social media, then what is? And we have some experience producing top-notch short vides, wouldn’t you say?
There was no afternoon, told ya, I slept through most of it. Even missed a planned night on the town. Instead, I read a chapter on human-computer interaction that a lot of today’s coders could benefit from. It involved the early experiments with computers that gauged how people reacted to button-presses. That remains a majority part of how such devices are used today.
It was a fascinating delve into the computer world before today’s “that’s-your-problem” menus were brought to you by thoughtless coders. Who remembers my 11-button “speed dial”, that’s what I’m talking about. The time back when computers were designed to be easy to use.
Realizing the internals of a digital gadget were alien to users, the early makers designed a system of feedback to make life easier. There’s too much to cover here, but the basic concept of the pilot light has never been improved upon. This was no chance development, I read two chapters on the speed and reaction times. Why come buttons fade, others grey out, and the technology of what happens when the timing is wrong. (Usually, if nothing apparently happens, the human will push the button again.) The point is, the activity was a wondrous and complete study that today’s thoughtless coders have chosen to ignore.
Included in the early study was menu design that put considerable emphasis on the proper and logical groupings of the commands. It is another lost art. Today’s junk menus must often be memorized for each device. Classic example is your GPS. Most just find the few features they use most often and leave the rest at the factory defaults. And ignore Brandon & Tyler who call that progress.
ADDENDUM
The concept of on-line charitable giving is noble, but a quick glance at the prime site, GoFundMe, (goFund in this blog) shows that it allows begging. Too much of it, but that is to be expected in a welfare state. There is no excuse for people to be begging for food in America. I also find some of the donation categories to be in poor taste. Can you see funding some lady’s European tour when you can’t afford one for yourself? Me neither.
You can also rule out tours to Disneyland, dream trips (final adventure stints), and you’ll not see my money helping people move to “safe neighborhoods” if you get my drift. I’m a plain-clothes redneck and I’ll not help export the problem.
Still, goFund is the largest and best designed location for this activity. I’m carefully going over the donation reports and find some of them suspicious. Many, especially gender-change and predictable adult crises just flip past. I’m after how the system works and I see right off that those with a legitimate cause are a minority. The sit is primarily donations, which is a different premise than crowdfunding. Most people lack the skill set to keep tract of dozens of investors, much less pay them back according to a contract.
The sites also report only success stories. I arbitrarily chose Kickstarter, who (in 2025) report 42% of users get at least some funding, also report 358,000 failures. There is a blurry line between investing and donating, but I’m certain when any profit is made, the SEC will make it very sharp and to the decimal point.
At best, I can only hand you an overview of my own experience here. I will set up a donation site to help with the doggie chow which will likely get swamped by the thousands. I’m skeptical how the top donor in so many sites is anonymous. As usual, just keep reading here over time and I’ll report what I find as it applies to my own goals. There are umpteen places offering “rewards-based” funding, where for $10 you get a thank you e-mail, for $20 you get a plastic pen, etc. At this time I will have nothing to do with that. Hmmm, this is something new, are you sure I'm not too old to be picking up on all this modernity?
