Photuris

The issue with me lately is more and more sites actively blocking connections from VPNs. I’m not sure what to do about that.

If my relatives want to talk to me, they can pick up the phone.

Fine, but I don’t want the smart features to be installed at all in the first place.

I don’t want a WiFi antenna or Ethernet port in there.

I know that sounds ridiculous, since I can “simply not use them,” but I want to spend my money on an appliance, not a consumer data collection tool.

I don’t want them to have any of my data, and I don’t want to spend money “voting” with my dollar for these data collection devices.

Some of these devices have even been known to look for other similar devices within WiFi range, and phone home that way (i.e., send analytics data via a neighbor’s connected TV as a proxy).

Fuuuck that. I don’t want my dollar supporting this, at all, plain and simple. And I don’t want to pay a premium for the privilege of buying a technically simpler device. I do, but it’s bullshit, and I’m unhappy about it.

I don’t care about 8k.

I just want an affordable dumb TV. No on-board apps whatsoever. No smart anything. No Ethernet port, no WiFi. I have my own stuff to plug into HDMI already.

I’m aware of commercial displays. It just sucks that I have to pay way more to have fewer features now.

¿Por qué no los dos?

I don’t know, but I suspect there might be a link.

I agree that our only way, truly, out of our current mess here in the United States is to get hardcore, focused, and doggedly persistent. Overturning CU, if we ever have a remote chance of even getting close to doing it, will be a hard slog, but it is fundamental, absolutely necessary, and singularly non-negotiable.

It should be our primary issue, I think, even though it’s not a sexy one.

If Democrats don’t deliver on this fight, then we must fight the Democrats tooth and nail, too.

The real problem is that our elected representatives are not sufficiently afraid of us.

We should be verbally abusing Democratic party leadership until they “radicalize” with us, or join MAGA in fighting us outright.

If good, strong, brave people can fight the good fight and win, then perhaps we can turn the tide and we’ll keep evil at bay for another 40-year cycle or whatever.

Or it might be too late, and we have to go through a real destructive cycle of severe suffering at the hands of tyrants first. I hope not, but I don’t know.

The core human problem is Sociopathy / Narcissism (Cluster B Personality Disorders). 5% of people cause 95% of all problems. And it has always been that way.

No matter what systems or institutions you put into place, public or private, and no matter how rock-solid your constitution or by-laws or institutional culture is: eventually and inevitably, one day, sociopaths and narcissists will conspire to take it over, by hook or by crook, and ultimately they will succeed.

Government, company, charity, church, club, movement, whatever; they all fall to sociopathic takeover, no matter how initially well-led, well-planned, well-founded. In fact, the more successful your organization or movement, the more lucrative a target for takeover it becomes. Corruption, therefore, is inevitable. The best you can do is keep it at bay as long as you can before the cycle of corruption, destruction, and renewal takes place.

It’s the ever-perennial Problem of Evil.

No one has ever solved it, though many have tried.

You cannot educate it away, you cannot religion it away, you cannot forgive it away, you cannot shame it away, and you cannot punish it away. It keeps coming back.

You cannot teach Character. For example, Seneca attempting to tutor Nero into becoming a man of Wisdom and Character is a tragic tale as old as human time. To a Narcissist, everything is merely a tool for gaining power and influence, even lessons in Ethics and Character. Pearls before swine.

Only a Sisyphean resolve to constantly and persistently RESIST, every hour, every day, every generation - every moment that one can, no matter what, and knowing that bullies and a control-freaks will always be with us, and the struggle to resist and restrain them will ever be refreshed anew with every sunrise, that is all we have right now.

Learn the signs of Malignant Narcissism. Be proactive. Protect yourself. Stand up to bullies.

Linux phones I guess. I really don’t know.

Fear backed by the threat of violence.

Look, I hate violence. But anyone who says “violence isn’t the answer” clearly hasn’t read a history book. It’s nearly always how things are changed (for better or worse).

For real. I want me and my family to leave the United States. Bringing the entire family to a whole new life abroad is a very tall order.

I had hope for Microsoft when they came out with WSL and VS Code.

I was a fool, of course.

We didn’t see this one coming a mile away.

Palantir execs and shareholders are buzzing with anticipation.

How very “libertarian” and “small government” of him.

Put aside the internet for a moment.

Kids and teenagers used to have more real spaces to go hang out at. Community centers, shopping malls, arcades, etc.

Not so much these days. And it’s sad.

Younger GenX are basically Millenials (but cooler and less uptight), and older GenX are basically Boomers (but nastier and louder).

I haven’t left yet, because I have no other marketable skills.

“Palantir and the like can intercept data in transit and data at rest at the endpoints, so we don’t need data at rest on the consumer devices anyway.”

It’s time to abandon the internet and build a new one from scratch.

Tried it, didn’t like it.

Cigarettes are gross, and alcohol leaves me with a headache and upset stomach.