- You know when you take a class and there’s that guy who spends his time trying to prove to the instructor that he already knows the material by asking very pointed questions and having input on the answer? You know, the one who makes any lecture take almost twice as long as it needs to be?
- That jackass is even more annoying on a distance learning website.
- After using software to get a remote desktop on a system at the training vendor to do a practical lab this afternoon, I now remember why I prefer *Nix and command line interfaces.
- Hmmm, 30 seconds to draw a pretty picture and hit a button, or 8 seconds to type in the command, compare it to the one in the book to make sure I got it right, and hitting “Enter”. Decisions, decisions.
- I am, however, fortunate in that the software I’m training on this week is the version we are going to be upgrading to this spring. Usually I learn the old stuff just prior to an upgrade.
- For you non-geek guys out there, who I call “Those whom the gods are not punishing for past sins”, that would be like learning how to drive an American car with an automatic just before it was mandated that everyone drive a British car with a clutch on the other side of the road. Yeah, it’s still driving, but nothing is where you think it ought to be.
- It is a good thing that we have been taking extra time to do housework this week, because Girlie Bear’s friend’s family ran out of heating oil today and we were able to open our doors to her without having to run around like mad people.
Thoughts on the Day
Posted by daddybear71 on January 29, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/29/thoughts-on-the-day-209/
Pop Quiz
OK, kids, everything off your desk and get a number 2 pencil out.
I am going to give you paragraphs from two State of the Union addresses. Some will be from Richard Nixon’s 1974 address, and some will be from Barack Obama’s 2014 address. For those of you playing at home, yes, that’s 40 years apart, and yes, it’s both president’s fifth SOTU address. Please mark them with either an “N” or an “O” on your paper.
Let’s begin:
- It was five years ago on the steps of this Capitol that I took the oath of office as your President. In those five years, because of the initiatives undertaken by this administration, the world has changed. America has changed. As a result of those changes, America is safer today, more prosperous today, with greater opportunity for more of its people than ever before in our history.
- We will establish a new system that makes high-quality health care available to every American in a dignified manner and at a price he can afford.
- To indicate the size of the government commitment, to spur energy research and development, we plan to spend $10 billion in federal funds over the next five years. That is an enormous amount. But during the same five years, private enterprise will be investing as much as $200 billion—and in 10 years, $500 billion—to develop the new resources, the new technology, the new capacity America will require for its energy needs
- One measure of a truly free society is the vigor with which it protects the liberties of its individual citizens. As technology has advanced in America, it has increasingly encroached on one of those liberties—what I term the right of personal privacy. Modern information systems, data banks, credit records, mailing list abuses, electronic snooping, the collection of personal data for one purpose that may be used for another—all these have left millions of Americans deeply concerned by the privacy they cherish.
- As we create more jobs, as we build a better health care system, as we improve our education, as we develop new sources of energy, as we provide more abundantly for the elderly and the poor, as we strengthen the system of private enterprise that produces our prosperity as we do all of this and even more, we solidify those essential bonds that hold us together as a nation.
- And in the coming months, let’s see where else we can make progress together. Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Americans want, for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. And what I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all, the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in America.
- Meanwhile, my administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and jobs growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.
- And finally, let’s remember that our leadership is defined not just by our defense against threats but by the enormous opportunities to do good and promote understanding around the globe, to forge greater cooperation, to expand new markets, to free people from fear and want. And no one is better positioned to take advantage of those opportunities than America.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 29, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/29/pop-quiz-3/
Movie Quotes – Day 29
I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of 3 branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad. — Mars Attacks
Right now, I’d feel fortunate if we could be batting 1 for 3 when it comes to branches of government, but that’s beside the point.
I probably should have stayed up and watched the State of the Union address last night, but I just couldn’t. I’m going to read the news coverage and find a transcript, but watching it live just wouldn’t have been productive. Political cheerleading has lost its shine for me, no matter who is doing it. There really isn’t anything that President Obama could have said that would have been a surprise to me, or inspiring to me, or even interesting to me. After a while, all the speeches run together, and he’s the most speechifying president I’ve ever seen. Familiarity may not have bred contempt in this instance, but it certainly has bred indifference.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 29, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/29/movie-quotes-day-29-2/
Today’s Task List
Here is what I accomplished today:
- Got Boo ready for school and took him there
- Cleaned up a roll of paper towel that the cat had shredded in the kitchen
- Put homemade vegetable beef soup into the crockpot
- Completed training module on backup infrastructure
- Got off my butt and got going on something else for work
- Got Boo from school
- Fought a running battle with the Clan of the Soccermom to retrieve bread, milk, and bananas
- Cleaned up another roll of paper towel that the cat had shredded in the basement
- Prepared the rest of dinner
- Served dinner so that Irish Woman could attend a 6 PM work meeting
- Kept a lid on the kids so that Irish Woman could attend her meeting in peace
- Maybe I wasn’t so successful at this one
- Got Boo ready for bed
- Read “Elmer the Elephant” to Boo after he noticed that Girlie Bear’s pajama pants matched the patchwork elephant.
- Put away dinner
- Did the dishes
- Made buttermilk blueberry pancakes from scratch for tomorrow’s breakfast
- Cleaned and seasoned two cast-iron skillets
And now, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to get some rest before I have to get up tomorrow and do it all again.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 29, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/29/todays-task-list/
Movie Quotes – Day 28
No wonder you’re having nightmares. You’re always watching the news. — Total Recall
You may have noticed that I’m doing fewer “News Roundup” posts in the past few months. I still read the news, but I’m enjoying it less and less. Where I used to find current events interesting, now I find them depressing. I don’t think that the world is doing any worse now than it has been doing for the past decade or so. Rather, I think it’s that I’m reaching saturation. I know I’m in a bad place when I start to find things in the news comical, even if they’re not funny in any good way.
This is a challenge to me. I think it’s one of the duties of a good citizen to stay informed about what is going on. This keeps me in the know about what my elected representatives are up to and what challenges they face. If I follow my instincts and just throw my hands up, I let myself and the country down in a small way. Walking away from news sites and just looking at videos of kittens and college-age doofuses makes me less effective as a voter and citizen, and I owe myself, my friends, and my children more.
In short, the news is, to me, becoming depressingly gray and repetitive, but it’s important that I work through that and keep myself informed. Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn away and ignore the world. Some jackass has to be here to hoot and throw poo when politicians and the less than bright do something stupid, and that jackass might as well be me.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 28, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/28/movie-quotes-day-28/
Today’s Earworm and Quote of the Day
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” – John Stuart Mill
Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and the day we remember all of those who were lost in the Holocaust.
Nie wieder
Posted by daddybear71 on January 27, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/27/todays-earworm-and-quote-of-the-day/
Aw, Hell No!
In the latest shoe to drop from Edward Snowden, we find out that the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters, have been reaping personal information, including relationship status and sexual preferences, from the data collected by such common smart phone apps as Google Maps and Angry Birds. Additionally, the metadata from photographs is being strip mined by the agencies. Once again, NSA is pinky swearing that they don’t use the data from ordinary Americans unless they’re part of an active investigation, and I imagine that GCHQ is making the same noises through its much abused mouthpiece.
Apart from the “If you’re not going to be using it, why are you collecting and storing it?” question, this brings up the topics of data hygiene and data control.
Data hygiene basically means that you don’t leave your data lying around for others to pick up. Remember, anything you put on the Internet is available to anyone who cares enough to find it. Apparently, the same can be said about electronics such as computers, tablets, and smart phones. If you don’t want others to have and abuse your data, don’t put it out there for them. Why things like whose slot A you want to mate with your tab B are on an easily lost gadget is beyond me. But if you’ve been putting such things on your cell phone, congratulations, now the government knows about it, for whatever reason they can find to justify its collection.
TL;DR – Quit putting things you wouldn’t want anyone and everyone knowing on your cell phone.
Next, we have data control. Do you know what all of those wonderful apps on your iThingie are doing? Is that game reading your address book and sending it to its corporate masters for marketing? Is the mapping software grabbing your location requests and your calendars so that developers can find a way to suggest directions to a meeting before you realize you need them? Did you actually read what you agreed to when you installed and updated it? Someone could probably make a good living out of investigating what the top 1000 apps on iTunes or Google Play are actually doing and comparing that to their stated purpose. It would definitely be a job that lasts a long time.
The exploitation of mapping software is particularly insidious. Look at it this way: Let’s say that an authoritarian administration wanted to know who was attending meetings of an opposition party. They find some low-level fleeb to figure out where the meetings are being held, then mine the data from mapping apps to find out who requested directions to and from those locations for the hour or so before the meeting and the hour or so after. Now you have a pretty accurate list of people who have at least an interest in opposing the government. You’ll notice that I didn’t say a liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, nor did I say Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street in this scenario. Both sides of the political equation can and will abuse access to such data, and doing so will make their efforts to find, fix, and flatten their opposition a lot easier.
It’s time we demand that the government stop gathering this data without a very specific warrant with a heck of a lot of oversight. It’s also time we demand that app vendors stop gathering the data, too, or we should stop using their products.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 27, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/27/aw-hell-no-3/
Movie Quotes – Day 27
I’m um, this is my hospital. And my advice to you is, don’t get sick. — The Ghost And The Darkness
I always look to see if the people who work at a company not only recommend that you buy the product or use the service they provide, but also that they do as well. If they don’t eat their own dog food, then why should you? When someone comes out with the latest and greatest blastomatic or super-whiz-bang bullet for self-defense, I always want to find one of the guys who works the assembly line and ask if he would carry one of the pistols or use one of the bullets to keep his family safe. I wouldn’t ask the guy who owns the company, or the guy who designed or tested the equipment. They have too much wrapped up in success of the product, either financially or emotionally. I mean the poor schlub who does his job and wants to go home safe at night. If they don’t believe in the product, for whatever reason, then maybe there’s some reason you shouldn’t also.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 27, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/27/movie-quotes-day-27/
Thoughts on the Day
- Irish Woman and Girlie Bear went out to get their hair done did, so I took the opportunity to get some housework done.
- Swept, scrubbed, and waxed the hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, and hallway.
- Laundry
- Started dinner.
- Apparently nothing is scarier to a grown woman than having another woman working her head over with scissors, who suddenly turns to her co-worker and says “I don’t know how to do this.”
- Dinner tonight was a pork loin cooked with sauerkraut in a crock pot, garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed peas.
- I’m ashamed to say that only Girlie Bear and I ate the sauerkraut, and she only ate it because I reminded her that kraut makes an excellent breakfast food if she didn’t want to eat it at dinner.
- Our after dinner activity was to give both dogs emergency baths because they came in from the yard as chocolate labs. Unfortunately, one of them is silverish-black and the other is yellow.
- You know, I realized I had truly become domesticated today when I got excited about the new shower head that Irish Woman brought home.
- Of course, the fact that I did housework and cooking rather than play video games and take a nap when she went out to get a haircut might have been a clue as well.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 26, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/26/thoughts-on-the-day-208/
Today’s Earworm
This one is dedicated to the electrician in California who got star-shaped cataracts in both eyes after having 14,000 volts of electricity go through his body. I’m glad that doctors were able to restore at least part of his sight, and I hope that he is doing well.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 26, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/01/26/todays-earworm-467/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 