thomasjkenney
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
@Oroboros re: Desolation Row
…and that is the best Desloation Row…period.
Between the windows
Of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flowDirtbag Hippie can survive anywhere. There’s a reason Phinneas resembled a cockroach.
@Oro re: blocking content
I use Firefox. The 3 key extensions I use are uMatrix, uBlock Origin, and Element Blocker. The former are like the old AdBlock extensions. The latter is a fine-grained filter so you can remove/block specific HTML elements from loading in a page. Right-click on a picture and select ‘Block element’ and it’s gone. Sites will get tricky to avoid this, so it can take a bit of tral-and-error get some things blocked, but it works very well.
@John Day re:
…and furthermore: So the internet is saving us?
I’m open to that. I hope it works better than telephony and radio did.
(Keep talking and listening to God, but don’t let people see you.)It is the seed of knowledge, that there can be this kind of network, that is the key. This iteration, the InterTubes, is pretty well phuqed. It has basically become ‘corporate heroin’ that cannot be turned off or all will collapse, but cannot be left to fester or folks will become enlightened.
@Dr. D again re: the revelations stuff
Yes, brilliant! I don’t believe in sky fairies, but I can get behind this kind of thinking.
re: Dr. D
Okay, that’s over Eight THOUSAND feet elevation. I guess! Wonder why it doesn’t blizzard a lot more often. But now that we have snow in Saudi Arabia, L.A. is clearly fair game.
We get snow at low elevs about once in 30 years, has happened 3-4x in my lifetime. I’m at 300m elev one valley in from the coast. It was snowing down to about 400m, hitting all the ‘ticky tacky’ that clings to the hills on the edge of the valley. We had graupel (tiny snowballs) where I’m at, but it did not stick. Many of the major highways have low-elev segments closed, including US-395, CA-58, US-101.
From my perspective, life-long resident of this same valley, this is pretty much ‘back to normal’ in terms of this type of storm. In this cycle, we should see similar storms into mid April, with snow down to 800m elevation.
@Dr D:
But does that explain why WE have to be animals, live in huts and walk everywhere while the Very Important People fly private jets to private islands, with private yachts? Food imported from Japan while you scratch the earth with your fingernails for maggots, you filthy animal? Because THEY are the ones with the “Secret Knowledge.” They are the “Enlightened Ones” who “Know”.
Heisenberg was quite the asshole, eh?
The surveillance, analysis, actuation require greater energy and control. As this curve ramps up, what is being surveilled warps. “It’ll do whatever you want, and cost whatever you got!” To know everything when that knowledge matters most, you must expend all your energy. Where does that leave analysis, actuation?
They are too chicken to turn off the Internet. That would ‘disempower’ many. But to them, it would be the equivalent of plunging an ice pick into one’s own ear.
I suspect AnandTech is using AI for some of it’s ‘sponsored’ content. Articles pop up with a new product, or a sale item, and the text reads like a car salesperson who doesn’t quite understand the internal combustion engine. Some of the text is technically accurate and unquestionable, but sometimes it’s an obvious gaffe. I used to work with a salesperson in the computer biz 30+ years ago. She was the best! But she didn’t get the tech, and sometimes ate a shoe or two. “Yes, we can send you a BPI tape!” was stated many times, she being blissfully ignorant of the fact ‘BPI’ is ‘bits per inch’ – the rated density of the tape. It’s the conversational equivalent of the ‘uncanny valley.’
I don’t think the machines will pass a Turing Test yet, but can they Kobayashi Maru such a test?
Know your tools. A good tool will last half a lifetime or more. I still have Mac tools I bought in 1988.
Misuse of a tool (Ardern) often leads to breakage of the tool or the object-in-repair.
SnapOn – Nice, the real deal, but the ‘BMW’ of pro tools
Matco – Substandard, the ‘Nissan’ of pro tools
Mac – Serious business. All the Harley mechanics I knew back then used Mac. They have the tolerances and durability of SnapOn without the frivolity of decorationPIP is the government’s main disability payment …
Geez, if that ain’t a scary signal. Pip was also the poor sod cabin boy who fell off the Pequod and spent long ours in the world’s biggest shark tank, gone utterly mad before Ahab returned to rescue him.
re: free speech
My mentor in all things computer once described to me what using a ‘DNA computer’ meant. It’s a talus field method of finding many viable complex answers very quickly. One technique: you assign certain ‘steps’ to syllables in the DNA, these steps being parts of chemical processes, mathematical operations, software design, etc.
One goal was to do optimization. You had to do a certain chain of steps to produce a chemical you want. Certain of these steps can be done out-of-order, by-products can be precursors, etc. To find out which processes could be parallelized, or what level of parallel, is a part of this optimization. It is a brutal task (one I’ve only done for software opt).
To do this with a DNA computer, you mix up some goo that has a high rate of forced mutations. You dump the goo into a ‘sluice’ that is looking for certain steps that cannot be parallelized. This gives you a reduction in results to only those that can actually function. Now the sluice gets finer, ordering for shortest chain of processes, most parallel, least wasteful of time/ingredients/energy.
The solutions you want literally fall into place. It is a very limited tech, but applicable to realms beyond optimization of process and other mundane things.
This is how I view freedom of speech. It is the basis of science, no? Without it, the charnel house cannot function.
—————————————————————–
re: child labor
Yes…but…
Given our energy levels as children, and our pliable minds, it is often best to set up as an apprentice of some kind. I was constantly searching for something to which I could apply algebra/geometry, language skills, etc. I’d have killed to learn how to run a lathe, build fine furniture, set type (thanks, Benji). Forcing kids into factory labor is shitty, no argument. But I was very glad to have bicycles and well-behaved computers in my childhood. I think that any apprenticeship like this has a great deal of art involved, which is extremely important for the development of new ideas (see re: free speech).
———————————————————————
Thanks, all! These have been very rich threads these past few weeks.
Midwest Doctor’s first paragraph:
One of the challenges I find with most forms of media is that the creators of it are continually seeking to manipulate you into adopting their position. For this reason, I greatly prefer written content as opposed to audio or visual content as it is much easier for me to rapidly filter out the manipulative rhetoric built into what I am reading. Similarly, this is why, to the best of my ability, I try to avoid inserting manipulative language into my writing (as best as I can I try to follow the Golden Rule and not to do things to other people I don’t like having done to me).
I have stated exactlythis on this very forum at least once in the past. It is refreshing, and a bit vindicating, to see others organically arrive at this point of view. My wife can’t unsee it, now that I’ve clued her in, and she’s suddenly reading more books than ever!
———————-
@V Arnold re: machinist
In a healthy society, you’d be treated like royalty. Instead, you get your legs broke and get chained to your workstation. I have had a very good boss for 20+ years. However, even he has to ‘screw me over’ sometimes or he can’t stay in business. I’ve never been very connected to The System. I’m edging closer to cutting those last ties.
Some hope – I’m seeing smart kids everywhere. They are grasping for knowledge, quite frustrated with the systemic blunting to which they’ve (we’ve all) been subjected. I think some things have been unleashed that don’t bode well for totalitarianism. It feels like a Fahrenheit 451 moment.
RE: batteries and rare minerals for said
We have some nice low-tech battery designs that haven’t been pressed very far at all. I suspect if the US Patent Office wasn’t a dysfunctional troll headquarters, we might have the freedom to investigate some of these other avenues.
Courtright-Wishon water system is a battery.
———————————-
RE: protonOne of the fundamental ‘particles’ observable around us, and knowledge of which is required to perform some basic chemistry, is still a mystery box object. <sarc>Sure…I fully trust Bill Gates to rewrite my DNA, which has been bequeathed to me by a direct line of natural replication since the dawn of organic molecules on this planet.</sarc>
A thought occurred: a brazen, reckless attempt to force a fire sale of EU assets
If you’re a German industrialist, facing the axe, and finally realize that the war is on you, a strategic retreat is in order. But keep this in mind. In a military retreat, do you leave your gang of howitzers and stock of shells behind intact? Do you leave them behind, intact? Do you leave to your enemy all of that functional materiel for them to use against you immediately?
Mr Check Valve…meet Mr Hydraulic Press. Anything that can be punched, munched, or scrunched should NOT be left in a useful state. Before you sign any paperwork, make sure you’ve driven to Texas and back on 1 qt of oil.
@bosco
First, thanks for the links, and digesting a snippet of my personal cosmology. 🙂 ‘God’ is the sum of all as-yet/maybe-always unexplained forces and tides in the universe. There’s a lot of time we can’t examine directly. Also, many forces we take for granted. I once argued with someone that it might be possible for the rules of physics to be slightly different in another part of the universe. Or different energy states leading to elemental misbehavior: carbon only has 3 slots, not 4, or more likely a generally unrecognizable periodic table. Wouldn’t that be fun?
RE: paradox
As an apprentice programmer, I learned that many proper solutions to problems are obviously, glaringly, tauntingly elegant. The math is clean; fewer lines of code, with no ‘gee-whiz’ optimization to cause brittleness; grokkable by successors. But to seek the elegant solution is a siren song. Most of us ‘averages’ will only stumble upon the elegant fix.
re: the Shatner, it’s a beautiful piece, expresses himself well. But he’s recoiling. I might react the same way, never been to space. Maybe he needs to digest the experience for a while. All that beauty and more is certainly out there. It’s just unattainable in that way humans desperately crave – the cruel trick.
He’s being a bit disingenuous re: the ‘Ellie Arroway’ quote. She’d been gifted a front row seat on a tour of random spectacle. If John Glenn’s or Yuri Gagarin’s mission had been to go to Europa (a comparative dull trinket), how would that have affected pop culture? What if those first travelers had returned with tales of Cibola?
@bosco: entropy, time, heat death – Think of every particle you can name as simply another eddy in space/time. It’s all just spin, slowly unwinding. There are no solid particles, just warpage and the attendant force. Entropy drives all, yet is simply the phenomenon of the unwinding. All seeks a level of ‘unenergized’ (from the Big Bang? before?). The particles with the highest energy fall like talus and expend that energy. Things that expedite entropy are ‘selected as agents’ – species use/waste more and more energy, elements congregate and ignite into stars (heaviest first!). Thus we are absolved from being rapacious gits. Not our fault!
Now consider that our ‘universe’ is simply quantum representation of distinct ‘atoms’ from as many different ‘universes’ simply participating in our own on their off time. And if this might be so, is it possible that all the ‘universes’ taken at once are simply a solid? All ‘particles’ roiling within their own, but when all instances fill all possible positions of the spin, they’re whole?
Though I’m growing to hate him and his ilk, I still think Benford was right. Biologics are precursors to machines. That’s why we don’t have E.T. in an embassy somewhere.
the phenomenon that produces heat – collisions of molecules
Yeah, sure.
Electrons manifest the retained energy in spin. When a spinning electron collides with another electron, the ‘victim’ gets more energy while the ‘perp’ loses some. Molecules don’t get warmer via collisions. Molecules get warmer because radiation comes along and smacks some electrons and makes them go faster.
The guy has a good point, but, geez, can we at least start with HS-level chemistry?
Non sequitur:
I read an article 10+ yrs ago about carbon composite ‘dog hair’ structures 3m tall that were piezo generators. They were installed in an open area with high winds. The flex in the material would stress the structure and generate the differential. Some 10 years before that, I’d read something (by L. Niven, IIRC) about huge piezo cables that could be strung axially in orbit of a planet or a sun, and the tide would stretch them and generate differential.
Note to Germany (and warning to the rest of us):
If you still have water pressure, and some useless car batteries and alternators and fuel tanks, you can have some electricity. I’d recommend using it to run a small freezer. Let’s hope Schwab’s buddies aren’t working on bobbles.
RE: 404 – Nearly universal slang for Ukraine in non-Western circles, a non-existent ‘country’, cannot be found, any attempt to communicate results in error, etc etc etc
I was being derisive using it. The t-shirt actually says ‘Ukraine’…and f#(< them for doing it. My guess is the ‘sugar daddy’ who fixed their reputation is pushing this. Starts with ‘B’ and ends with ‘k’ and rhymes with ‘cock’ maybe?
Wife informs me:
Gibson Guitars just Insta’d their new “We stand with 404!” t-shirt. Comments were brutal. The kindest were “Well…I guess I’m a Fender guy now.” They just spent decades repairing their brand, and now opt for the cyanide.
The Saker is down ATM, and Martyanov reports fireworks are staring in earnest.
…and a little more, sorry.
RE: bitcoin – It is sufficient to remind that bitcoin is a transaction vehicle, not an investment vehicle. The ‘workflow’ is: convert your local dosh to btc, anonymously and securely buy <heroin|ferrarri|iron ore|whatever>, and the seller converts to his/her/its local dosh.
The froth over it’s value is misdirection. It’s not supposed to have any intrinsic value, just like a paper check is worthless.
RE: releasing carbon hungry plants – Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle – I’m sure there will be no unintended consequences. Also, there’s a Niven story (don’t recall which of his hundreds) that describes nanobots that convert raw carbon into diamonds…with interesting collateral damage.
RE: the Picasso – really direct, almost an icon. If you know what a mammal looks like, and what water and land look like when adjacent, you instantly get it.
Seeing reports from all over that young people cannot regulate their lives. At all. Barely functional, unable to plan, execute plans, etc. Whatever this is, bad education, screen time, whatever, they are not viable human animals in that condition. Which is why they do whatever they are told to do, however illogical or counterproductive. Generations are large and generalizations are difficult, but I see the trend.
– Dr D – today
“This is not the first time you’ve seen eyes like that,” she said to her son in German, “not the first man you’ve seen who could not move unless someone told him where to move, who longed for someone to tell him what to do next, who would do anything anyone told him to do next. You saw thousands of them at Auschwitz.”
“I don’t remember,” said Epstein tautly.
Mother Night – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr – 1962
@Mr House re:
Question: Has anyone noticed differences in gas prices? When i was growing up gas was always, always more expensive in the city. Nothing huge but it was always five to ten cents cheaper in the rural areas but in the last few years i’ve noticed the opposite. Anybody have any ideas as to why the change?
From a strictly California perspective, I’ve seen it as a ‘where you can’ spectrum of wallet rape. In places where serious work gets done using hydrocarbons, it’s usually the cheapest. Truckers’ towns like Mojave (CA-14/CA-58) or Visalia (CA-99/CA-198) are cheap-to-mid $ for low-to-hi pop density. Mojave is raw desert, so only shipping/tourist. Visalia is agriculture-heavy, more trucks, variety of other diesel machines. I haven’t been in a few years, but I’m sure in places like San Rafael, Petaluma, it’s probably $6.50+, less than 30km from the Chevron refineries in Richmond.
Low-mid class suburbs is the average (I’m in Northridge, currently ~$5.50/gal of 89). Tourist towns/traps (Fish Camp, south gate of Yosemite, ~$7.00), upscale urban areas (Beverly Hills, ~$6.75) are highest. Between my area and ‘fancy town’ (Beverly/WeHo) there has been, historically, a $1.00 gap. Likewise, a $1.00 gap the other way when compared to Palmdale/Lancaster (possible ‘mil warp’ of price from nearby AFB). These gaps are shrinking or are gone in many places, but Bev/WeHo is the center of a money vortex, so they can afford to ‘compete at the pump’ also.
EDIT: Adding…diesel was always ~15% cheaper everywhere.
Disclaimer
I am not a luddite. I’ve spent 35+ years of my life telling various kinds of robots what to do or say, and listening to what they tell me. I really like robots. I prefer the company of robots over that of most humans. Some humans have created rude, orc-like robots, and should be punished. Asimov is spinning in his grave!
Annecdote
Wife and I go to the market. We enter the right of two entrances, past the express lane and do our shopping counter-clock, finish and head to the middle for ice cream and the regular check-out. Short lines for each lane, but a dude beckons to the side that has all the self-check robots. We grumble about this, and he makes vague ‘no no i have a ckecker’ noises. Herds another guy to the checker and ushers us to the robot.
Robot may have vague instructions printed on it’s faceplate, but I’m old and not wearing my glasses. I plug the green box on the screen, and we proceed to ‘bucket brigade’ the items across the scanner. There’s not enough room to bag what we have in the designated bagging area, perhaps just under 1m^2, and apparently loaded with a sophisticated sensor array.
I put a bag in the cart and start bagging in there as I go, so I can sort the squishy stuff and not get it squished. The robot complains. It does it’s “HELP! STOP! THEIF!” routine, and the human minder approaches. I surreptitiously place myself between the minder and the robot. The minder divines that I’m on the level…this time…and heads back to his podium.
And I keep on plugging. At this point, I’m fully John Henry’ing the fuck out of that scanner. The sub-assembly responsible for speech output is aghast, flabbergasted, nonplussed! The minder makes several more attempts to come to the aid of the floundering device, but it’s no use…we’re done. The robot takes a final breath, reads the tally, and requests some dough. I show it my chip, there’s a vague slurping sound in the back, and it’s over.
I say a hearty “Fuck you, robot!” and walk proudly out the exit.
Rant
1) A checker in this same market accosted my wife about not wearing a mask not 2 months prior. Said my wife had to go use the robot. Now there are 3 TIMES AS MANY robots in that market. Stupid human! You go push broom!
2) I really, really enjoy yakking with people in the checkout. The checker in particular, if you repeat, becomes a ‘low-level friend’ with whom you exchange dopamine shots when you compliment eachother’s appearance. The robot sucks. The robot speaks to you in a rude, condescending Amy Schumer voice.
3) From an efficiency standpoint, they should be putting these in the express lanes only, since the high volume customers almost always have strange things like fruit with cryptic SKUs and cookies that aren’t in the inventory.
4) I strongly resent the flip in the basic dynamics of this transaction. When I go into a market, I rather like the buyer/seller transaction. It’s almost always on friendly terms, both get something we want, and the support ripples outward through the community. That disappears with the robot and the minder. It’s now a guard/prisoner transaction: get in line, do as the robot says, the minder’s watching, so no shenanigans!
Yeah… Fuck you, Robot!
RE: trucks
If the kettle brigades show up, everybody should just run away. The tow trucks have already refused. They’ll have to call the military, and trust that the CO they contact can make his/her folks carry out the orders in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, regroup. Use that war chest to pay some other faction to slow down or strike. If money is what’s corrupting folks that should be on our side, give them the money and corrupt them in a useful direction. We don’t have to be friends with them, just use them as they seem to desire.
With that kinda dosh, buy up stock in a noxious media company and try to change it.
Important here is the off-balance adversary. Don’t wait for a recovery. Use KV-2 tactics: retreat and reappear from a fresh angle…KABOOM!!!!
RE: kettle with no cell service
Again, war chest. Buy satellite phones and send ‘photo snipers’ in, some inside, some following the kettle brigades, from a discrete distance.
I’m already seeing some hopeful things in this. Mainly, the decentralization is brilliant. The trogs can’t decapitate a headless movement. Their futile attempt to paste a ‘head’ on the rider is driving Streisand Effect writ large.
@bosco re:
Never support a leader. Exploit the movement they claim to represent.
Wasn’t that the take-away of Fitzcarraldo?
Oh, goody! Let’s express opinions…
Mister Young is suffering an acute attack of Karma. Recall he wasted not a New York Minute in cheering on the force-feeding of DU munitions to young Afghans.
Battle cry for a New Normal:
I’ll be mellow when I’m dead!
Someone in my very, very small contact group became an ‘anecdotal datapoint’ today. This one person represents approximately 4% of my close family/friends.
Another ratchet click of anxiety and dread…
————————————————–
RE: repatriation of art
@RIM re: Dr. Fungus
Ship him to Elba.
Elba is far too pleasant. South Georgia Island is my vote, conveyed by a 17c sailing vessel, periodically keel hauled along the way.
@Antidote re: eye candy
The shot of the crashed Mercedes reminded me of Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.
RE: post numbering
Likely software, and a choice of when to create a new record for a post. It’s possible a record is created the moment a user begins typing. At CFN, you have to first click ‘Reply’ and then are given a ‘Cancel’ button. In that case, it makes sense, as the replies are threaded. Creating a record first keeps the flow of conversation somewhat undamaged. If the user cancels, that number is burned. It’s just a number.
@Germ re: Vit D for the ‘big and tall’ set
I’m 1.91m (6’3″), 14 stone (200+ lb on a good day). Been doing 10k for years now. Started at the behest of an old family friend. Convinced to maintain after a change in my bicycling performance, having a 2-3-fold reduction in the number of breathing stops I’d have to make on a given climb, especially at higher elevations. Half my riding is at night, so no vit d pump working then. Also, these are not ‘spin around the park’ rides. I’m rarely out for less than 4 hours, usually 6-7.
I’m a devoted omnivore, and typically eschew supplements. This only served to highlight improvements I could make in my diet, but I didn’t stop the 10k a day.
Carlson Labs – Fish oil and vit d. We use these for the vegan gelatin (muslim diet, most gelatin in US is now made from pork leavings).
————————————————–
It strikes me that our Virtual Best Friend is trampling on the First Law…stellar.
@VP re: tribulations
I’m reminded of The Night of The Iguana, and Hannah Jelkes’ (Debora Kerr) prayer:
Dear God… Can we please stop now?
In an attempt to shave away a bit of your stress, can I offer some pet supplies? We send stuff to a rescue op here, and would be happy to send some your way. It’s not a huge amount, but hopefully can relieve some pressure.
‘Willie Nelson’ is a rescue:
This guy is so me it’s spooky. His young protege, ‘Henry Rollins,’ is a complimentary personality.
@TAE Summary re: allusive allegory
Excellent! It reminds me of a story my mentor told me about an encounter in the early ’80s he and his partner had with the ‘tech spooks’ in DoD.
Primer: Cassette tapes, and the copy-protect tabs in the upper corners. They operate by preventing a sensor in the tape deck from depressing. If the tab is in place, the deck will write to the tape. No tab, no write, purely a mechanical implementation. Same goes for old floppy disks, 5.25 and 8 had a sticker over a notch, 3.5 had a sliding puck.
Before all this, 9-track tapes had the same interlock…for decades. On the bottom of a 9-track tape is a groove cut into the flange. There is a solid plastic ring that can be placed in the groove, like snapping a Tupperware lid. A finger in the drive will probe for a ring, and refuse to write if there is no ring (or other obstruction simulating a ring).
In this long-ago meeting, the subject of data protection came up. Among other things, keeping people from erasing or altering the contents of 9-track tape came up as a requirement. L (my mentor) and E described the write-protect ring used in all 9-track tapes. Spook read into their statements the grandiose possibility that the Write Ring was a kind of magic. Despite being told “It’s only plastic, dude!” the Spook fixated on the Write Ring as the giver of permission to write. Solution: fill the grooves with epoxy so nobody can place a write ring in there!
General Turgidson is a living meme. ‘The Worst are full of juice, while The Best say “What’s the use?”‘ Paraphrasing, obviously.
