The New Wave: Symbolic Protest

The Yale Graduate Student Union is holding a symbolic hunger strike. What's a symbolic hunger strike? Students can leave and get food when they're hungry.  This is likely to take off into a worldwide phenomenon. Personally I'm going to hold a symbolic sleepless protest, where I can go to bed when I'm tired.

• Hacking has taken on a whole new meaning. Somebody got hold of ten episodes of 'Orange is the New Black' and demanded a ransom from Netflix. Netflix refused and the hacker leaked the episodes. Before you ask, I do not have the location.

Australia is the land of animals you never want to see, no handguns, and privacy erosions the likes of which you also never want to see. They have a thrilling and incredibly sad legal framework in which they can get at least the metadata of all phone use, including VPN or encrypted information. Same in the US, actually. Metadata does not reveal what's in the message; it reveals FROM, TO, TIME, which comes in handy in investigations. Happy Day to all.

• Let's talk stats: 
• the majority of traffic came from the US and France
• the top browsers used were Chrome and Firefox
• the top operating systems were Windows and linux
• number of visits.... well... let's say that I appreciate you coming by

Speaking of brain cells, here are four hacks to grow your brain cells.  I'm particularly fond of number four, except where it says it improves cognitive functions in dementia. I'm not going to suggest this to my mother.

• Twas a good day to stay out of Texas today
• Dallas: EMT shot, manhunt happening
• Austin: UT-Austin, 4 stabbed, 1 dead, suspect in custody
• Sensitive College Student: I felt very unsafe when Campus Carry passed. Oops, this was a knife.

Our good friends at Faceyspaces used algorithms to collect data on 6.4 million Australian children under the age of 14, based upon their emotional state for targeted advertising. Leaping to accept responsibility, Faceyspaces says the use of the algorithm was an 'oversight'. There is a reason I refer to FB as the Front Page of the NSA. They got caught here... what else do you think is going on? What other data harvested? Who else marketed to? Please don't make me say I told you so.

• The NSA is ending its controversial warrantless surveillance program. This is spying - I mean surveillance on any communication that references a target outside the country. You believe them, right? They wouldn't lie to us, would they? They're completely above board, aren't they?

The Trump crowd is boycotting Starbucks due to the owner's actions. I boycott Starbucks because it sucks (Peet's for me). Last night we wanted to leave the domicile, as we are wont to do once a month. Barnes&Noble was the decision and they have a Starbucks in house. Since we do enjoy a frappucino now and then and since we went from 50 to 80+ degrees in a few days, this seemed like a good idea.

Well, right up til we sat down.

Almost immediately after we sat in the uncomfortable seats, I heard loud, urgent talking, which morphed into loud, urgent, constant whining. A child of tweenish age was complaining to some adult about her parents not letting her do anything. They sat down and it continued in its loud, urgent tone. At one point the adult told her to lower her voice, bless her, but it went right back up to the Kill Level. It seemed like she had some sort of psych issue and wasn't dealing well with limitations imposed by it. 

I'm trying to read a magazine to glean some information but had great difficulty due to the volume of her aural assault. My first thought was to take the Ironic Approach and go to her table to explain that my A.D.D. prevents me from reading when there is loud noise. Once in a while I manage to moderate myself, yearly, and I'm proud to say this was my effort for 2017. 

I didn't have much time until The Loud Couple appeared at a closer table and had a loud discussion about what kind of drinks were available, loudly questioning some of the flavors. Her loudness was the major irritant but it served to make his volume, and irritant level, that much louder.

Fortunately this calmed down, so Loud Child could become the Lone Irritant.

But not for long.

I heard very loud breathing next to me, as an older fellow, possibly missing a lung, and/or a heavy smoker, started rearranging the table. He pulled it out six inches from its original location, and started placing Stuff and napkins about the table. The breathing was very loud, and went breath, awhhhhhhh, breath, awhhhhh.

Meanwhile the child continued, with brief interruptions from the Loud Couple.

And in back of me, two loud students were flummoxed by the tables not being large enough, using their student brains to come up with pushing two tables together. They must have been engineering students. Mind you, there were two of them, plus a laptop, so with tables for four, I was unable to see an issue. Fortunately the debate raged no further.

I remember wondering if these people were raised in barns, by wolves.  I was taught to be considerate by a considerate mom, so when I go to places like this, I don't use my booming voice. Apparently I'm the only one. The only surprise was why a spontaneous basketball game or small heavy metal concert didn't break out while I was finishing my drink.








I had some killer pictures to upload, just to bring a smile or a frown. Unfortunately, something changed and I can no longer upload graphics or sometimes even log in, from about six browsers. Thanks guys!

Now With Twice the Gluten of Normal Blogs!

Here comes the greatest morning news... the EU has launched a controversial deal with the US aimed at curbing government spying on the internet information of European citizens. Aside from the laughable content and enforcement of this deal, the EU has petitioned for more than US citizens get from their very own spy agency.

• Here's a completely non-helpful hint from Thermionic: don't use Chrome-based browsers. They're absolute memory pigs. If you want confirmation, check your total available memory before you start the browser and a few hours later - you'll be shocked. I don't use Chrome because it's Google but apparently a few of the browsers I use are built on Chrome. After a few hours, they suck up ridiculous amounts of memory. Under linux, I'm speaking of Opera and an Opera spinoff called Vivaldi. Chrome, obviously, and Iron also.

BEWARE of Pokemon. Not only because it's stupid, but if you have a (God forbid) iDevice, you could be allowing the program full access, which it may take advantage of. Here's more information and a solution but make sure to do the research.

I first became aware of Pokemon Go online, where it took me a while to figure out (I'm not always the rapid-fire pundit you read here). It was described on the news as groups of people, staring at their phones, completely absorbed. In other words, completely indistinguishable from any other day and any other group of people.  My conclusion? Mow them down.

• Speaking of apps, do you know what's at the top of the iDevice store ranking? An app to hack cars. Think about that when you get a new/used car. 

Is your cell phone constantly running out of juice? It's the price you pay for a smartphone with a large, bright screen and Serious Cell Use, Get one of the gee-whiz external charger/batteries. You can find them at local stores or Amazon for a better deal. When your phone is about to go dead, plug it into the battery and it will continue working and charging simultaneously. They come in every size from tiny (with small charging capacity) to bricks. We use them here and are very satisfied.

• Know what I hate?
• Everything.

Marshall update: he's getting worse. We may have to medicate him (for grief over losing his cat). It's only a matter of time until we're all on the same medicine.

• Disney has outlawed selfie sticks. Yes, folks, it's another step in my plan for World Domination.

We have become a very uncivilized society, partly because of barriers that we feel shield us from responsibility for what we say and do. When we're driving, we say and do things we'd never do when walking. When we're online, we say and do things we'd never do in-person. People are calling for executions of police, journalists and politicians. People are threatening society and promoting lawless behavior. We have to learn to use the system, regardless of perceived wrongs. Don't shoot police. Don't shoot each other. Don't shoot people pulled over unless necessary. Don't declare open season on police.

We gotta learn to live together.  I believe most people are decent and want peace and normalcy. Rallies and hugs and handshakes (and funerals) reinforce this. Unfortunately, rallies are not going to convince the bad element. How to deal with them? I have no idea, but at the rate things are escalating, it's going to involve bullets. None of us want to see that.

Looked at in the larger sense, this is Divide and Conquer. Trump vs Clinton. Black vs White. Meanwhile we're not coming together and we're no good when divided. 

In the Sixties, it was protest songs. In the 2000s, it's Pokemon Go.

• Check out this early review for Jeff Beck's latest album. I have only heard one track and I have to be honest - I don't like the female singer. Hopefully the rest of the release provides normal Jeff fare.

During the police shooting in Dallas, a robot was used to deliver a bomb, blowing up the shooter. Not sure I'm ok with this but just imagine what will happen when Obama ordered drones...

• Check: How to secure your router and home network