62F and dripping this morning. Didn’t check the gauge for total rain yesterday, but we got some for a while. It has been very wet. We should be getting some of the effect of the big storm crossing Mexico be tomorrow morning. Yea! More rain.
Some days I wake up and there is nothing to say. Other days, I cut it short so I can get the family fed and out the door. Guess which type today is??
And yet, maybe there is something.
Triggers. We had some discussion about setting triggers and then acting on them. According to the constable’s deputy last night, one of our neighbors was robbed at gunpoint 2 nights ago, while walking in the neighborhood. A ‘white man and some youths’ approached him, asked the time, and when he got out his phone to check, they stuck a gun in his face and robbed him. Deputies were able to arrest at least some of the robbers later that night after a short pursuit.
I mentioned that one of my triggers for moving was ‘violent home invasion in the neighborhood.’ Told my wife last night that I’m pretty much counting this incident, and want to start seriously looking. Her response was “which area of Houston is safer?”
And that folks is how you boil the frog. It’s why Venezuela didn’t empty out. There aren’t many areas in Houston that are safer, and they are both very blue politically, and very spendy.
We’ll see what happens, but I don’t think I’ll be seriously house shopping, and not in the direction away from town that I’d like.
n
43º and sunny right now, but will be raining later. I have a Jr Hi XC meet to score this afternoon a little south of here. I’m hoping to not get TOO wet. On the upside, it’s a paycheck.
Our little town has been settling down. Less strife & conflict this summer than the one before, which strikes me as a good thing.
About the weather – seems the NWS has decided that “Lake Effect Snow” == “Winter Storm Warning”. Most of the folks around here are wondering if marijuana is legal where they’re making that kind of decision. As anyone that lives where Lake Effect is a thing knows, Lake Effect is a thing. It is significantly different than other kinds of winter storms. I don’t give a rat’s hairy butt if the folks in Pittsburgh know what it means. The people around here DO know what it means, and how to prepare.
On the upside – many of the long-range forecasts predict a milder winter for us this year. Something to look forward to.
I may have mentioned that I set up an OwnCloud server last week. This week, it’s all the piddly little details, like automating backups and integrating these into my automatic backup systems. This is the kind of stuff I touch maybe every year or three. It’s set up, and it all just works. Which means that I have to re-discover just how it all works, so that I can change it. Which inevitably takes more time than it ought to…
Next big step is the Googlectomy that my wife wants. Moving our email is, in principle, no big problem. But… What happens to the google accounts, which use the email names, when the email is directed elsewhere? There’s lots of stuff tied to those accounts: mobile phones, purchases, logins to other websites – who knows what all? On the one hand, that’s the point: extract oneself from Google. On the other hand, who knows what’s going to break, when we do? I’m not looking forward to that adventure…
well keep us posted as there are plenty of people here who would like to do the same thing.
n
RE: Googlectomy
As an early Internet adopter, I’ve had my own site and domain for decades and manage all my own email. I also worked for a military grade email supplier (NEXOR) in the UK for some years learning how they create “noise” between sites to hide any uptick in REAL traffic. In 1995 we were contracted by a Middle Eastern country to provide a government run, free-to-the-user, email system. One of the specifications was that it have a “feature” to allow email administrators “government” to view, redirect, copy, detele, and even modify, emails in transit. This was called a “security” feature.
My wife too is wanting to remove her exposure to Google and has abandoned Chrome and Google search. But she still uses an Android tablet. I need to look into rooting it and replacing with Ubuntu but there’s never enough time.
Some math illiterate hillbilly paid the poor tax and now will have an entirely different set of problems in his/her life….
Although there is nothing so far to suggest it’s a single winner and not a syndicate. I guess it makes better headlines.
n
good thing they weren’t so foolish as to play……
What the news should have stated was a single ticket had the right set of numbers. But using individual is more dramatic and in line with tabloid journalism of today.
I did not play this round, forgot to buy a ticket. For all I know I could have been sharing in the jackpot. But I also fool myself that I am young, good looking, muscular, can do a 3 minute mile, etc. Odds are about the same.
Yep, I forgot too. Too much other stuff going on yesterday.
n
Anyone think there is a way to fix this guy, short of a quick drop on a short rope?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6310003/Wannabe-cannibal-plotted-dark-web-EAT-young-girl-sex-corpse.html
n
My wife too is wanting to remove her exposure to Google and has abandoned Chrome and Google search. But she still uses an Android tablet. I need to look into rooting it and replacing with Ubuntu but there’s never enough time.
Get a second generation Nexus 7 from EBay and flash it with LineageOS. Firefox and Duck Duck Go are more-than-adequate replacements for Chrome and Google Search, respectively.
I have a Nexus 7-2 rigged that way. It works great. I keep the Google Play store available in case I am on a trip and want an app for temporary use, but the tablet is otherwise Google-free.
Living free of Apple or Google surveilance is possible, but, be forewarned, the experience is like stepping back in time about a decade. You’ll have to manually edit contact lists and transfer files, most notably photos.
Not that I can consider. Although long, slow, painful torture does spring to mind.
While I am glad they caught the creep some of the charges are disturbing. Attempted Capital Murder? He did not really attempt, just planned. Yeh, he would have done it but really got no further than leaving his house. Thus no attempt. Does this mean I could say I am going to kill someone, walk out the door, and be arrested?
Or this just a matter of the officials thinking up every charge they can in hopes of making a couple of them stick? I did not see jaywalking among the charges.
The guy was caught leaving his home with material to carry out his fantasy. Was he still in his yard? Was there a search warrant? If he was still on his property he had not really left to do the crime.
If I were to be working on some macabre horror murder novel and was communicating with someone via email about the plot would I also be arrested if that information made it to the police? How would I explain myself? What if the conversation happened to be with a LEO and the person egged me on in the novel without knowing it was a novel? With Google probably scanning all email such would not be out of the realm of possibility.
I fully understand and support the effort to stop a crime before it can occur. But at what point does it become an invasion of privacy? I don’t know the answer.
I think (IANAL) that as soon as he ACTED in furtherance (ie got the bags and knife together) it went from conspiracy to an attempt. Stretching a bit, maybe, but he did act in furtherance of the crime, even if none of the actions were crimes. Pretty sure that’s where the line is.
Since he (allegedly) admitted to the desire, planning, and actions in furtherance, I think they got a good one.
Doesn’t sound like the FBI creating terrorists to get their numbers up.
Also nice little list of how to find someone online…
n
Googlectomy
Nick requests: “keep us posted as there are plenty of people here who would like to do the same thing.”
So I will – I’ll write down my steps in a kind of diary, when I get started. When I’m done, I’ll post it on my little website and put a link here. My situation may not apply to everyone, but maybe there’ll be enough useful to help others.
Greg writes: “Living free of Apple or Google surveilance is possible, but, be forewarned, the experience is like stepping back in time about a decade. You’ll have to manually edit contact lists and transfer files, most notably photos.”
I wonder about the photos. Both Dropbox and Owncloud apps have a feature where they automatically transfer your pics to your cloud storage. I would think that both of these would work under Lineage.
I’m less sure about the contacts. I’ve read in Owncloud that you can install an “adapter” on Android (and presumably Lineage) called CardDAV for contacts, and CalDAV for calender entries. With those in place, Owncloud claims to be able to sync contacts and calendars across devices. I’m not that far yet…
Greg’s rooting and installing Lineage – I would love to do this, but I have the problem that I want to be able to read work email. To do this, I have to install an Outlook Exchange account, which itself claims administrative privileges: to wipe the phone if lost, etc.. From what I’ve read, such accounts cannot be set up on rooted devices. Does anyone have practical experience with this kind of thing?
RE: Get a second generation Nexus 7 from EBay and flash it with LineageOS.
She already uses a Gen 2 Nexus 7 so that should be easy peasy … if I don’t brick it.
I have an Amazon Fire.
Thanks;
Things may be about to get interesting.
Via Drudge:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/feds-investigating-suspicious-package-near-clintons-new-york-home-nbc.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/pipe-bomb-addressed-to-the-white-house-is-intercepted-cnn.html
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/breaking-cnns-new-york-headquarters-evacuated-after-suspicious-package-found/
Edit/Add: Many of the comments are blaming this on right wing terrorists. Sound to me that this is a plan by the left.
Devices that don’t go boom. Of course it’s Trumps fault. Smells of a false flag to me.
I do. It doesn’t work.
Longer answer – Outlook (or the Exchange connector) looks at the sig of the device, and won’t install/run on a rooted device. I’m in favor of this, by the way, simply because rooted devices are unknown. At least with non-rooted devices I have some assurance that they are secure and my employer’s data isn’t hanging in the wind.
The story about a bomb going to the White House has been walked back by Drudge. Right now it’s Soros, Clintons, Obama, and CNN.
I am against capital punishment.
However, I do support heartily retroactive birth control.
” I have some assurance that they are secure and my employer’s data isn’t hanging in the wind. ”
Don’t you have ABSOLUTE assurance that at least one company is scanning your employer’s data, and more likely 89% of the installed apps?*
n
*arbitrarily precise numbers are more convincing, studies have shown….
Wow, we have had 45,600 people cast early ballots already since voting started on Monday. That is over 10% of the registered voters in Fort Bend County, a total of 432,342 residents in Fort Bend County who are eligible to vote in the Nov. 6 mid-term election — a record number. The voter amounts and total are from:
http://www.fbherald.com/
and
http://www.fbherald.com/free/plus-vote-early-in-fort-bend-county/article_bce031ee-105c-589c-9d43-16ab2cb6a25b.html
I will be so glad when the election is over and the landline stops ringing and autoplay ads for Beto and Lizzie stop. (I live in the only real tossup House district in Houston, TX-7.)
Then you should have used 89.5% rather than imprecisely round your imprecise number.
I shall hold my nose and early vote straight Redumblican today.
_Ready Player One (Movie Tie-In): A Novel_ by Ernest Cline
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804190135/?tag=ttgnet-20
A dystopian novel set in 2045 with no prequel nor sequel that I know of. The author is reputedly writing a sequel but there is no hint of publishing it yet. I read the small font and well bound trade paperback published by Broadway Books.
This novel was originally published in 2011, an excellent movie version by Stephen Spielberg was released in early 2018. I heartily recommend seeing the movie before reading the book but, that is my personal preference.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ready_player_one
The United States of America in 2045 is but a shadow of itself. The population has swelled to a half billion people through immigration, legal and illegal. Energy, food, and housing are incredibly expensive. Our protagonist lives in a house trailer with eleven other people in a 21 trailer stack outside of Oklahoma City.
In 2045, everyone is plugged into the virtual reality environment known as OASIS. The founder of OASIS, the richest man in the USA, passed away five years ago and everyone, including our protagonist, is looking for the hidden easter eggs that lead to his power and fortune.
The universe of the book is incredibly rich. OASIS contains thousand of worlds with its own currency. It even has a free school system that children can attend and graduate from.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (18,292 reviews)
I shall hold my nose and early vote straight Redumblican today.
This is the last federal election where we can vote straight anything this year in Texas. Straight ticket voting was banned by the legislature a while back.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/01/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-bill-eliminate-straight-ticket-voting/
“Mexican News Outlet: Officials Say 14,000 Honduran Migrants Heading to U.S.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/10/23/mexican-news-outlet-officials-say-14000-honduran-migrants-heading-to-u-s/
Yup, this is how you get to half a billion people in the USA by 2045.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Are there any Hondurans left in Honduras? Dumbocrats have yet to state what they would do. Jerry Rivers et al call them immigrants. No. Crimmigrants. I hope tRump sends III Corps to the border. Plus, as others have commented, 14,000 crimmigrants don’t walk 2,000 plus miles without support, food, water, shithole, etc. Somebody is supporting them.
Plugs Biden and Kankles are calling for an end to “divisiveness, ugliness, violence.” You know, the two who said Redumblicans are gonna put Blacks back in chains, and “deplorables.” What a pair. Of idiots. If this is the new Dumbocrat party mantra, buh bye.
Are there any Hondurans left in Honduras? Dumbocrats have yet to state what they would do.
Robert Francis will let them in with a big toothy smile and supply them all with food and housing vouchers. Plus dump the kids in the local overcrowded school district already full of illegals kids.
BTW, by the time the invaders get to the border, there will be 40,000 to 50,000 of them. And another caravan forming.
Is it OK to hate the Post Office? I ordered an SSD and a mounting bracket to mount 2.5″ drives in a 3.5″ space.
The bracket is here. UPS from San Marcos. I had to walk to the gate to get it but the dogs needed to get out. Nicely made product. Not a stamped piece of tin with sharp edges. Why the three crystal meth size baggies are rolled and taped is a mystery. Perhaps there is a reason to make the bags of screws the size of a yellow butt connector.
The drive? The actual real important part of this project? Who knows. USPS shows a shipping label was printed yesterday morning.
Crystal meth size baggies? Zip-loc bags about 1.5 x 1 inch wide. I don’t do the stuff but I see things.
BTW, by the time the invaders get to the border, there will be 40,000 to 50,000 of them. And another caravan forming.
From Sarah Hoyt: The Elephants. Excerpt:
“Let’s call it what it is: a Marxist crusade. And let’s treat it accordingly. Your freedom of religion doesn’t give you the right to violate US laws.
“Also, while at it, and I’m putting this here AND in PJ because I want my marker down ahead of time: if they get to the border and there’s ANY confrontation, a pregnant woman will get shot.
“How do I know that? Aren’t there way more men than women, and aren’t only some women pregnant? Aren’t the odds staggeringly against it?
“I know it because EVERY TIME there’s a big confrontation staged by communists (and the left are ultimately that) a pregnant woman gets shot. Since it’s so against the odds, I think that if needed the left shoots the pregnant woman themselves. But I learned this through countless incidents. EVERY TIME. And then there’s hagiography built around this woman and the left advances a bit more.”
Gentlemen, place your bets!
Sara knows commies and progs…
So I’m not gonna bet against her.
n
Looks like the early voting is not going Robert Francis’s way. I just saw a full one minute attack ad by RF on Ted Cruz on the TNT channel. RF be spending that Hollywood money on attack ads now. I hope he blows it all.
I am hearing that 10 to 15% of the registered voters in Texas have now voted. Sounds like a bunch of pissed red staters to me.
This novel was originally published in 2011, an excellent movie version by Stephen Spielberg was released in early 2018. I heartily recommend seeing the movie before reading the book but, that is my personal preference.
I was disappointed that the Infocom material didn’t make the movie. My guess is that Spielberg and Cline thought it too obscure.
I had hoped that an appearance in the movie would have motivated Activision to do someting with the Infocom IP, either a new “Lost Treasures” collection or opening the licenses to the games they own outright.
I will be so glad when the election is over and the landline stops ringing and autoplay ads for Beto and Lizzie stop. (I live in the only real tossup House district in Houston, TX-7.)
You used the B-word!
Here in Austin, the annoyance raised a notch with ads for Mayor Adler “opposing the Trump agenda”.
Adler can get away with it.