Cold. Hopefully clear though.
Yesterday stayed cool all day. It was clear and dry but never really warmed up. It was 40F when I went to bed.
Didn’t really get much done yesterday. Watched my local auctions throughout the day, and watched the news stories roll in.
Didn’t do super well in the auctions. One was a disaster. I had lots of items sell for a couple of bucks that should have sold well. I even bought one of my own items the price was so low and I’d actually spent money on buying it originally. I won’t be using that auctioneer again. The lego sold well. The k’nex sold badly, some bulk even going unsold. 40 year old concert T shirts brought $30-$50 EACH. Crazy. Hot Wheels and train stuff brought what I was hoping for. Kitchen stuff- corel and pyrex sold ok, not super, but not bad. Purses sold poorly. The photos were really bad. When a genuine Coach handbag, in simple black leather goes for $3 something is terribly wrong.
The stuff I dropped off Wednesday should list for next week in the better auction. I’m supposed to take a load to my ‘industrial’ auctioneer today. That’s why I’m hoping for clear weather. It will get more stuff out of my storage and that’s a good thing.
I want to accelerate getting stuff sold. I think the economy will not survive Biden and his plans. Not at the ‘man on the street’ level, not in the financial markets.
It’s possible we might be going to look at a couple lake properties on Saturday. I really want to accelerate that plan now too.
Lots to do, little time. Hurricane in the Gulf time… gotta get ready. Well, more ready.
Stack all the things.
nick
It’s a big club, but you ain’t in it.
Sorry, time zone differences, picking up topics from yesterday…
I think this is exactly right. He was elected as someone from outside the circle-jerk of professional politicians. Just like Ross Perot could have been. Unfortunately. Trump has his flaws, two of which are an immense ego, and a tendency to surround himself with yes-men. These combined to lead to the mess we saw on the 6th.
As a result, both executive and legislative branches will be firmly in control of professional politicians for the foreseeable future. And conservative views will be anethema to the left, even more so than before (if that’s possible).
It’s not a schism anymore, it’s a chasm.
A statistical analysis of the voting (using Benford’s law) shows that there definitely *was* fraud, and on quite a large scale. Unfortunately, the abject failure of observers means that there is no way to prove where, when and how much.
The Trump supporters and Republicans have only themselves to blame, because they bloody well knew that this was a danger.
All the posturing in the aftermath, by nearly all Congresscritters, is pretty pathetic. The first thing the Senate did? Not finish counting the votes, oh no, it was signing up individual members to make speeches.
If Biden wants to be the bigger man, and actually wants to do something to reduce the chasm, his first act in office would be to issue a blanket pardon to all involved, including Trump himself. Whether or not you think Trump needs a pardon, this would put an end to any further posturing after Jan 20th.
They are all about posturing. For them ‘thinking’ of doing something is equivalent to actually DOING it, hence all the #hashtag warriors, and the belief in incantation and magic words (like gun free zone signs).
n
See also: hate speech, speech codes, trigger words
If you prevent people from saying something, then they can’t think it, right? And the Bad Thing goes away, too.
She’s Turtle’s wife
Indeed.!! Her father is a Chinese shipping magnate with connections to the China State Shipbuilding Corporation apparently.
I don’t think old Mitch is going to criticize China very much..
The swamp is deep..
What about The Turtle’s mistress. Please, they all have one.
The photocopiers at the White House will be busy this weekend gathering the “insurance policy” against impeachment.
When a genuine Coach handbag, in simple black leather goes for $3 something is terribly wrong.
Coach isn’t the brand they used to be 20 years ago. Like everyone else, they shifted manufacturing to China, and the suppliers started cutting corners.
I got two more examples of “junk stuffed in a box” from EBay over the last week. No nastygrams about the returns from the admins so maybe the pendulum has shifted back.
An economy based on opening shipping containers from China seems to have a time limit before the second hand merchandise is simply garbage since the items are junk when new.
Of course, no one wants to even open the containers anymore.
I think this is exactly right. He was elected as someone from outside the circle-jerk of professional politicians. Just like Ross Perot could have been. Unfortunately. Trump has his flaws, two of which are an immense ego, and a tendency to surround himself with yes-men. These combined to lead to the mess we saw on the 6th.
If they can’t get Yes Men, American managers tend to like employees who have no other option but to keep their mouths shut, for whatever reason, regardless of what they see or hear on the job.
To me, subservience seems to drive the IT outsourcing to the Subcontinent more than any minimal cost savings long term when you factor in rework.
Desperately needed skillsets? Oh, please. Really? I guess a few still want to believe.
Yep, race to the bottom. Vintage Coach usually commands a premium for that very reason. Very thick and supple leather, attention to detail, quality materials.
Take something apart to see what it’s really made of. Watching shoe and leather bag repair on youtube has taught me a lot. Tearing apart machines and tech taught me some too.
n
“While WhatsApp will start sharing data with Facebook, it’s important to note that WhatsApp is encrypted by default, meaning Facebook will not be able to see the contents of your messages.
However, it will be able to see who you message, as well as how often you do it.”
–that’s called ‘traffic analysis’ and gives lots of info. It’s how suggestion engines for products work too.
SRSLY, get off social media
n
–that’s called ‘traffic analysis’ and gives lots of info. It’s how suggestion engines for products work too.
SRSLY, get off social media
At a minimum, use a browser which allows you to purge personal data at will, preferably with an option to purge every time you exit the program.
Visit the Facbook site with a browser session once and you can safely assume that you are being tracked until you get rid of the cookies, etc. Even then, a lot of browsers still have a fairly unique fingerprint which can be accessed by the tracking apps.
Facebook specifies Signal encryption for paid WhatsApp accounts for businesses, but they’re vague on personal account encryption. I wouldn’t bet my life on that traffic being secure.
Yah. And you can get a lot of people really annoyed by saying that, both managers who deny that they’re looking for lickspittles and SJWs who deny that cultural differences exist.
Bah. Once rework, delays, sloppy implementation, and hidden costs are taken into account, offshored IT work costs more than onshore work with a linguistically and culturally American workforce. (For American projects, of course. I’ve seen no studies on cost-effectiveness of Americans in, for instance Australian IT projects.)
” WhatsApp accounts for businesses,”
–don’t know if the HPD bought the business version, or if the cops are just d/l and using it on their own, but voices on the scanner have mentioned using whatsapp during surveillance ops.
n
I’ve taken the first step today. Getting off Facecrack is hard. I like it to keep up with people – I like to see pics of what everyone is doing (even if it’s idealized) and seeing how kids are growing up. But enough is enough. It’s easy for me to block it here, as i run my own DNS. Sending all that traffic to localhost fixes it, and the tracking as well. The wife won’t quit, so she can still access it on her phone with the cell connection.
I’ve also blocked twitter and whatsapp, even though none of us even have accounts.
Combined with blocking scripts and ads in mozilla, I’m at least slowing done the spigot of data flowing out…
–don’t know if the HPD bought the business version, or if the cops are just d/l and using it on their own, but voices on the scanner have mentioned using whatsapp during surveillance ops.
If the cops are not using the paid business accounts with some explicit statement regarding the encryption and expectation of privacy, then they are taking a huge risk.
I think it would be fallacy to assume that Facebook is free of infiltration by criminals and/or foreign agents. The information kept by the company on a billion+ users is way too tempting of a target.
Ha! Ha! I believe plugs will surround himself with many “yes he/she/its” as his tenure as VP showed. He will be all bluster and then do whatever his advisors say.
I’ve noticed plugs’ shuffling while walking for quite awhile. He is not well. I don’t think he has the stamina to do what tRump does, so he will rely on his “he/she/its” to do the work.
Quoting Groucho: “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”
You missed ‘microaggression’.
Isn’t stand-alone Signal a better option? I just signed up and will be checking it out…
whistleblower Edward Snowden also recommended Signal. He replied to a user who asked why they should trust Signal by saying, “Here’s a reason: I use it every day and I’m not dead yet.”
https://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/signal-sees-rise-new-registrations-elon-musk-tweet-whatsapp-privacy-policy-controversy-2349758
I only go on Facebook to see photos of the grandkids. I think I’ve posted maybe three times in ten years. Amused (and confused) by some of the ads they show me.
Wanna know what crazy times are? A year ago I had a modest IRA that I haven’t contributed to since 2000 (cash poor). I logged in today and it’s value is over $850K. That is over double it’s value in a year. I’m lucky to have found a good investment manager. Now, to keep it safe and out of the hands of the greedy goobermint. What to do, what to do.
She can go for it but McConnell has said this morning that even if the House impeaches the Senate will just sit on it and run out the clock until the 20th so there will be no trial.
And Trump is back on Twitter and has tweeted that he will not be attending Shufflin’ Joe’s inauguration. As of yesterday Pence said he was planning on attending.
Sorry, but that’s just petty. He doesn’t need to go to support Joe. He needs to go to show support for the presidency.
Shot Girl ™ is now *tweeting* for Ted Cruz to resign or have the Senate expulse him. The ultimate in free speech suppression. 2021 is going to be very, very interesting. But stupid!
If 70 million people quit Facebook and Twitter, what happens to the stock price and the fortunes of the pasty-face sweaty billionaires?
“Trump is back on Twitter and has tweeted that he will not be attending Shufflin’ Joe’s inauguration ”
Sorry, but that’s just petty. He doesn’t need to go to support Joe. He needs to go to show support for the presidency.
Biden won’t even know Trump is there.
“Sorry, but that’s just petty. He doesn’t need to go to support Joe. He needs to go to show support for the presidency. ”
What would he gain by that? He’s made his position clear- Joe is not the rightful president. Going would only add legitimacy to Biden and would hurt Trump.
Being polite. Playing by the rules. That got us to the place we are in. Not gonna get us out of it.
n
“If 70 million people quit Facebook and Twitter, what happens to the stock price and the fortunes of the pasty-face sweaty billionaires? ”
–this. and is there NO ONE in Trump’s circle that knows about Gab? His next tweet should be about him moving to Gab for ever more. Hell, he should have done it at his last press conference.
n
If 70 million people quit Facebook and Twitter, what happens to the stock price and the fortunes of the pasty-face sweaty billionaires?
Not that it will ever happen, but cratering stock prices won’t mean Zuckerberg or the Twitter founders are eating cat food in retirement. Real estate assets alone would prevent that for most of the upper management at those companies.
If nothing else, the pandemic proves that this country is all about FOMO.
Facebook has seen some of its power ebb as of late. If that hadn’t happened, the “Lean In” twit would be CEO of Disney right now. Instead, she isn’t even on the board anymore according to my last two proxy ballots.
I always voted against Sandberg.
Throw in parler.com and find an app to cross post to all of them (including twitter et al) and keep posting. Anything censored on Twitter/Facecrack gets special posts on gab/parler on how awful they are. Press people to at least open gab/parler accounts even if they keep Twitter etc. I follow Mark Levin on Twitter, he is moving exclusively to parler, so I set up an account.
“Sorry, but that’s just petty. He doesn’t need to go to support Joe. He needs to go to show support for the presidency. ”
What would he gain by that? He’s made his position clear- Joe is not the rightful president. Going would only add legitimacy to Biden and would hurt Trump.
Here’s a thought — How many people on the dais are going to be listed on the passenger manifests of Jeffrey Epstein’s jet when the Maxwell woman goes to trial?
I don’t think Trump wants to be in those pictures. The media constantly tries to make that link to Epstien without success.
Assuming of course, the Maxwell woman makes it to trial. No guarantees with Merrick Garland in charge of the Marshalls as of 1/20.
@Lynn – Did you install the GeForce Experience with the new graphics card?
I noticed a new driver for my GT730 card out today. I haven’t seen as many crashes of the driver since the last upgrade, but I did a Clean Install rather than use the Express option.
Isn’t that only 2-3% of their users?
Nick’s coments the other day reminded me of this:
“Rumors about the identity of the person responsible for the Max Headroom hack floated around, but they were quickly dismissed — most weren’t even investigated. It seems that whoever did it simply faded into oblivion, satisfied with their work, uneager to continue drawing attention to themselves.”
https://allthatsinteresting.com/max-headroom-hack
A quick Google search say 2.7B for FB and 330M for Twitter (these are monthly active users).
So roughly 3% and 21% respectfully.
1 out of 3 people on Earth has a FB account?
Nope. SkyBotNet smiles.
Old riddle I learned about statistics: Why are statistics like a bikini? What they show is appealing but what they hide is essential.
This was the source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
Here’s another that says 2.45B: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/
Now these are quoting number of “users”, not number of “people”. Can one person have more than one FB account? IDK – as I said, I barely use it. Also this I guess counts accounts for businesses. Are some (large?) number of these users fake accounts, bots, etc. Again IDK.
It does seem though that if every person that voted for Trump left Facebook I really don’t think Zuck would blink. (And we’re also assuming every one of those 70M is on FB.)
Not proven: See: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-benford/fact-check-deviation-from-benfords-law-does-not-prove-election-fraud-idUSKBN27Q3AI
No, Benford’s Law cannot prove election fraud
Neither can other forms of statistical analysis.
OTOH, the US State Department has been running around the world for decades looking at elections and pronouncing them fraudulent based on statistical analysis.
Coupled with violations of election laws regarding observers, ballot integrity, signature certification, etc., and the refusal of election officials to answer reasonable questions, there is more than enough evidence to conclude that fraud occurred.
Farsebook may have 2.7 billion users, but which users are the basis of the companies valuation and revenues?
Take 70 million US users off the table and I guarantee that the next shareholders meeting will be quite “sporty”.
Even more certain if the 70 million divest themselves of FB stock before pulling the plug.
Take 70 million US users off the table and I guarantee that the next shareholders meeting will be quite “sporty”.
Zuckerberg has been careful to keep control of the voting shares throughout the existence of Facebook. I think he had advice from Steve Jobs about how to do that.
Facebook does whatever Zuckerberg wants at this point.
I don’t think the company would be where they are without “The Social Network” establishing the public persona of Zuckerberg. That script was amazing.
Heh. “companies”
@Greg
Control of voting shares keeps him in the seat.
Stock craters -20% and seat gets very hot.
That “social network” is a disease.
It wasn’t fraud that caused Trump to run behind Republican candidates all across the country, not only in swing states. Sad to say, he was a flawed candidate and the votes reflect that.
@Richard
Fraud in four states swung the presidential election.
Not to say there wasn’t fraud in other states.
Make that 69,999,999 for Twitter – Trump has been permanently banned.
Several others too. More to come. Let the progroms commence. Shooting won’t be long now.
Ballot box Soap box jury boxCartridge box is all that’s left, even ordinary people can see that
Hell, bikini babes can see it.
n
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/breaking-general-flynn-kicked-off-twitter/
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/emily-ratajkowski-says-facebook-banning-trump-gives-zuckerberg-too-much-power
What was it Nick said recently: “The elephants are dancing, and we mice can but hide” or something to that effect.
The elephants are having a shindig right now, for sure.
Set aside Fraud. Several states changed their election rules by bypassing their legislatures. There were suits brought to invalidate those states’ elections based on the clause in the federal constitution that confers federal election regulation solely to state legislatures, not secretaries of state, governors, courts, or any other entities. These suits were rejected by the US Supreme Court. I don’t have the details available, but these suits would have made interesting cases had they not been rejected.
Some constitutional scholars have claimed the suits were valid, and should have been heard. If the Supreme Court had ruled in favor, the states in question would have had their elections invalidated, and would probably have had the option to hold new elections. I believe the deadline would have been the inauguration date, but it might be later.
I just don’t “get” social media. The president could have, and IMO should have posted to whitehouse.gov or some other official web site, starting when he took office. The whole world would have still seen his posts, and this petty controversy would have been avoided.
Same for everyone else. Anyone can cheaply start a web site and post anything they choose. If there is enough public interest, it will be read.
Maybe I am just old fashioned, but seems to me that some people don’t know how to find anything beyond their AOL XXX social media sites. I have some friends like this, and I have asked them to explain their behavior. I get blank stares.
Yup.
Can’t claim to have a valid election when the rules are not followed.
“Standing” be damned.
Maybe I am just old fashioned, but seems to me that some people don’t know how to find anything beyond their AOL XXX social media sites. I have some friends like this, and I have asked them to explain their behavior. I get blank stares.
Facebook employs psychologists and does reams of research to make the site more addictive.
Your friends may not know why they don’t venture beyond social media.
At least AOL had some expectation of privacy with their email accounts.
“At least AOL had some expectation of privacy with their email accounts. ”
-until fairly recently too. Once they sold to yahoo it was only a matter of time. Then the notice went out that they would be doing the same sort of keyword mining google does.
I still use aol for this persona, and my main email account. I’ve had it since AOL came on floppies. Re-connected with the girl who became my wife because of that account… Don’t do anything else on aol, for at least 2o years, and probably more. Don’t even read their news headlines. Adblock the nonsense, and their anti spam tech was some of the best in the business.
n
Almost forgot about this from yesterday:
“Congressman Tim Ryan just told reporters that as many as 60 Capitol Police officers were injured, including 15 hospitalized and one in critical condition. Many were hit in the head with lead pipes, he said”
Were they now? Amazing. Probably need to have a lead pipe ban bill introduced with a couple weeks of debate.
@Nick
Back of the envelope not needed:
If all the AOL CD’s that were ever sent out had been put in a sunny spot in the garden, the resulting increase in albedo would have stopped global warming and plunged us into a new ice age.
Apple and Google say they are taking down the Parler app to remove users access to uncensored social media. The wife is recommending we return to email distribution lists to avoid left wing censors. Too many people use Gmail or MS controlled mail platforms that can be instructed to black-hole conservative email lists.
And yet it happened a little at a time, anyone who raised the issue was shot down, and now the wheel has turned.
n
“Many were hit in the head with lead pipes, he said”
–maybe he should be looking for Colonel Mustard in the Library?
n
Free speech is being removed, censored. Right thinking rewarded (stimulus), wrong thinking punished. The free USA is dying. 01/20/2021 will be the final nail in the coffin.
Gab had their app removed a long time ago. You can still use it on your phone though via a “web app” – instructions on their site somewhere, which seems to be down right now.
Disgusting that companies with the power of Google and Apple use it to block freedom.
”
Disgusting that companies with the power of Google and Apple use it to block freedom. ”
–there were plenty of people warning of the dangers. Mostly they were pooh poohed or dismissed.
“Do no evil.” “Do KNOW evil”
n
“I only go on Facebook to see photos of the grandkids. I think I’ve posted maybe three times in ten years. Amused (and confused) by some of the ads they show me. ”
–the FB link on every web page that has a share button track you thru your FB account. They even track you UNTIL you get a FB account, then they tie the ‘unknown’ to you.
@pecancorner, I was quoting someone, “When the elephants dance, the mice get nervous”. I might be quoting incorrectly. I recently saw another blogger use it as “When the elephants dance, the grass gets trampled.” I like the image and have used the quote before.
n
Scanner has the cops working on illegal street racers again tonight. And HPD moved in to roust some of the racers and blew up the task force’s stakeout. Oops.
Since street racers almost killed my sibling last week, I’m feeling like they should go weapons hot on the fukcers.
n