I’m really tired of all this “hashtag this/hashtag that” crap.
Just shove it up your nose, blow it out your ears, and rub it in your hair.
Too Much Old Tech?
I’ve usually found ways to use computers I’d otherwise retire, rather than just trashing them if I couldn’t find someone else who wanted ’em. Example: my nonagenarian mom gave up her computer a while back, and, after being stuck in Lovely Daughter’s possession for a couple of months, it then sat in my car for a few more. I’ve not found anyone who wants it, yet, so I’ve decided to scrub the drive (including the WinXP Pro that’s on it, of course) and install ReactOS for a play machine. I’ve used earlier iterations of ReactOS on some VMs and appreciated its look and feel that evokes WIn 2K Pro a bit more than WinXP, and found that it ran Windows software better than WINE does on ‘nix machines. *shrugs* If I find someone who needs an XP-compatible machine, ReactOS might just suit ’em. Until then, it’ll sit in the back room with some spare hard drives slapped into it for network access. Just another storage/play box, I suppose. . .
Oh, why ReactOS? I just don’t need another ‘nix box, and the computer isn’t really suitable for Win7/8, so. . .
Something the Internet Is Good For
[Just a lil stream of consciousness rant. . . ]
One thing the Internet is really good for: revealing the extent of subliteracy1 in society. Small example: folks who misuse as nouns compound words that are adjectives, instead of using the separate adjective/noun phrase that applies, or who misuse adverbs that have been formed as compound words instead of using the adverb/verb phrase that is appropriate. FarceBook yields a good example. It offers “Log in” to, urm, log in but offers the noun, “logout,” for the action of logging out, instead of “log out,” as it ought. Other examples are almost endless, it seems.
“War monger” when the word is “warmonger.”
“Backseat” (adjective) when referring to a “back seat.”
“Nevermind” (*gagamaggot*–an almost sure sign of a 20-something nearly illiterate grup; still useful when writing archaic dialog, though meaning not at all what the aforementioned grups might intend) instead of “never mind.”
“Alot” (which is a “word” only in the nearly non-existant minds of self-made morons) instead of “a lot.”
Misuse of “altogether” (a perfectly useful word meaning “entirely” in place of “all together” (something like “as a group”).
Misuse of “everyday” (adjective: commonplace, quotidian) for “every day” (a regular, daily occurrence).
And, of course, the plethora of examples of verb phrases versus compound nouns that poorly-read people get wrong with fair consistency, because they have never (or have not often enough) read examples used correctly.
When I read things like this in someone’s text, I can be fairly certain that they are lazy thinkers who have not bothered to do their basic homework (that is, bother to become literate) before committing their slop to text.
Of course, these little indicators are just part of the package, and more subliteracy indicators await the conscious reader. Still, these canaries can give a quick tip to careful readers that the oxygen’s being replaced with toxic fumes in whatever text they contain.
Thank you, Internet, for showing the true value of a hyper-democratic society: a rush to the bottom of an ever lower common denominator.
[micro-mini addendum]
A slightly different problem, of course, is dumbass illiterates misusing words they think they know the meanings of, and we’ve probably all seen a bellyfull of this. From the mother country of the English language, published recently in a “professionally edited,” internationally read newsrag, this:
“Each date was captured on camera, with the ‘big reveal’ illiciting [sic] wildly different reactions from the women. While some find it funny, at least two of the women struggle to hide their disappointment at Joe’s conceit [sic].”
THAT got published?!? *gagamaggot* No wonder illiteracy in English is rampant. . . and not just in the US.
1subliteracy: a neologism I have not seen elsewhere, though someone else must certainly use it, intended to convey just what it appears to convey: a condition of poor literacy that does not approach a standard that could be reasonably called “literacy” by any honest person. Subliterates can generally puzzle out the words formed by letters, though they often have only vague ideas–if any at all–what the words they have puzzled out actually mean. And in those cases where subliterates do know words’ meanings, their reading vocabulary is vastly overshadowed by their oral vocabulary, rendering their own attempts to reproduce what they have heard (quite often from those who, like them, are not at all well-read) incorrect.
Gross examples of this are simple misused words such as using “then” for “than” (or vice versa) or any of the plethora of sadly laughable misuses regularly promulgated in social media, blogs, discussion lists and even Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind “professionally” written and edited subliterate crap.
But a sure sign of subliteracy–chiefly of being exceedingly poorly read–is this problem of either misuse of compound words or the failure to use a common compound word where it is appropriate. This is a common failing of poorly-read writers.
Remember: Literacy of College Graduates Is on Decline
Cluebat: Things are no better in 2015 than they were in 2005 when that WaPo article was written about the 2003 NAAL. In fact, the 2003 NAAL data (not the Ed Department spin on the data) showed the situation to be worse than the article states, because the “complex text” that “recent college graduates” couldn’t read and comprehend included bus schedules, want ads and med instructions as found on prescription med bottles.
Do note: I do not consider myself as well read as either of my grandfathers, for example. Just saying.
Fun, Fun, Fun. . .
And I don’t even have a T-Bird for “Daddy” to take away. . .
So, our Third World County™ “baling wire and chewing gum” telco has decided to enter the late 20th Century and extend fiber to the house. Sound cool? Notsomuch.
Let me ‘splain. [pause] No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Fiber to the house means no more power over telco lines (no copper to carry it), and telco line power, or a substitute, is needed for POTS.
So, substitute is. . . a required outdoor power outlet where the telco line enters.
The current location for the telco line is. . . suboptimal, for several reasons. (One reason? Since the fiber line was run in at the street, they’d have to trench around 3/4 of the house to get to the current entrance. Another? The line into the house from the original construction sucks dead bunnies through a straw and needs replacing anyway. There are others.) So, I offered ’em a place on the South wall of the garage for placement of the new box and entry to the house.
But. No interior POTS wiring there. No electrical circuit with a line to that wall.
In attic:
- run Cat5e (since I have scads of the stuff) from Network closet to South wall of garage and effect an exit to the location for new box.
- sever the power to the light in the garage (NOT the line to the light switch!) and install a junction box with a line paying down the South wall of the garage (encased in non-conductive protective material–reasons below)
- install an exterior, weatherproof outlet/box.
Not such a trouble, but. . .
Yeh, it was.
The garage was originally a carport, as I understand (makes sense from the construction). South wall of garage construction:
Brick shirtwaist between three concrete columns; above that, ordinary stick wall (w/ typical drywall) that was added between the brick shirtwaist and the STEEL BEAM that ties the columns together. So. . . no drilling a hole and fishing cable/wiring through the wall, no.
Then. . . the original wood siding was covered over about 30 years ago with vinyl siding (with styrofoam insulating sheets between the vinyl and the wood siding).
Ugly (and not entirely safe) cable/wiring routing, hence need to cover. Weird layers of materials to penetrate to route wiring/cabling to exterior. Lots of exercise with a ¾” auger bit in a manual brace&bit setup. Destroying as little vinyl siding as possible (temps hovering around freezing, so the stuff’s pretty brittle), using a caulk/sealant that barely works at these temps, repairing drywall, installing a new grounding rod for the system–some semi-techie reasons why I prefer local grounding for the outlet to supplement to circuit grounding: all these and more made for fun, fun, fun.
And THAT’S the short version. *heh*
Just glad I had most of the tools and materials on hand, and wasn’t out much on what I didn’t have, because we don’t use our phone line for anything that fiber would improve (voice only) and I’m SURE the phone company, besides using MY power, now, will end up raising my rate for basic POTS service.
Oh, well. Part of the price one pays for living in an otherwise ideal Third World County™.
Oh, it’s nice to have decent POTS wiring in the house now. AND, when the guys come by to trench for the line to the house, I got ’em to commit to hauling off a bunch of yard waste–I made sure it was right in the route from the street to the new box ;-)– and put the fence back afterwards. *heh* So, at least I’ll have something for the telco’s use of my electricity.
One of My Favorite Things
Every now and then, someone has said to me, either humorously or not, that I’m full of shit. I always smile at the patent falsehood. I can’t be “full of shit,” because I seem to have three or four large bowel movements each day.
Each one is a moving experience.
Perspiring Minds. . .
. . .don’t really GARA, but I sometimes wonder, WTF are people who mispronounce “jewelry” as “jewlery” thinking?
Oh, right. They’re not.
What really chaps my gizzard, though, are Mass MEdia Podpeople and commercial “actors” who say “jewlery.” What are they taking money under false pretenses for?
Is It Just Me?
Anyone else annoyed (to the point of having your gizzard chapped *heh*) by speakers and especially by writers who use the plural pronouns, “them, they, their” in place of “he or she, him or her, his or hers” whenever they simply want to obscure–or simply not specify–the sex of the (singular!) person to whom they refer?
I view such usage as lazy and cowardly. Use gendered pronouns whenever possible. Chap idiots’ gizzards.
I’m Far Too Accommodating
I had someone on FarceBook ask for a better pic of me than my profile pic. (I can only wonder why. . . nah, that’s too much work. Don’t care why.) So, before anyone else asks, should there ever be anyone else who wonders what I look like nowadays (again, why?), here ya go (clipped from a Candid Capture). Don’t ask again, Mystery FB-er. *heh* I don’t have any better pics available.
Some Non-Random Musings on the Current Scene
N.B.: I frankly DGARA about foreign affairs, except where developments might have a local effect because of “feddle gummint” stupidities or deliberately malicious intent (toward citizens) in policies. So, by “current scene” you can expect me to comment on what was once quaintly known as “the home front,” for the most part.
Today’s topic: Censorship, “feddle gummint” skulduggery, Sharyl Atkkisson, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and a possibly appropriate citizens’ response.
By now, anyone with at least one firing neuron who’s not been living under a rock knows that our dear “gummint” placed spying software on Sharyl Atkkisson’s computers. Anyone in denial about the runaway skulduggery in effect in nearly every agency of the “feddle gummint” is either delusional or a part of (or expects to benefit from) the underhanded, nefarious, unscrupulous behavior that seems to now be the norm for “feddle gummint bureaucraps.” Heck, even the WaPo is “viewing with alarm” the appallingly stupid, criminal “feddle gummint” spying on a journalist.
If the feds can do it to her, they can do it to you. “Evidence” of “computer crimes” on ANYONE’S computers is now subject to The Sharyl Atkkisson Caveat: if the feds can plant things on her computer, who’s to say they didn’t plant stuff anywhere else they wanted to?
From now on, any claims by the “feddle gummint” to have found “evidence”–of ANYTHING–on a citizen’s computer should be loudly and raucously mocked.
Citizen response? So far, just the usual “view with alarm” stuff like the WaPo article. Sound and fury, etc. What would be appropriate, I think would be for a “vigilance committee” of patriotic hacker citizens to engage in a “Manhatten Project”-style effort to crack open every government computer system possible and flood the net with everything they want to hide from us. Snowden? He should be so far back he wouldn’t even be visible in the rear view mirror. Of course, it could happen that _some_ secrets could be minimally detrimental to national security, but I seriously doubt there are many such. Most “national security” secrets are more than likely just bureaucratic turf building/protecting.
Sadly, I do not have the skills necessary to make a contribution to the effort, and nor do I any longer have an audience/readership to influence toward that effort, since my work to remake this blog into nothing more than exercise space for “the voices in my head” has borne fruit. *heh*
In further mind-boggling abuses of rights supposedly protected under the First Amendment, while a student who is a Sikh has rightly received a pass on carrying a knife (“ceremonial dagger”) in pubschool, for religious reasons, Christian students who carry or read their Bibles, share their faith with other students or who are seen or heard praying or even just expressing opinions informed by their faith are continually oppressed. (Sure, schools pretty regularly lose in lawsuits over this, but the push against Christians practicing their religion in a pubschool setting is regularly, improperly, assaulted).
And cognitive dissonance never sets in with the left, because. . . it requires cognition? *sigh*
Feeding the Baby Trolls
Every now and then, a baby troll will drop in here at this place. Always, always, always, these baby trolls are illiterate, woefully uninformed/misinformed/disinformed (and proud of it!) morons who refuse to use facts and reason, and who litter their verbal vomit with misused words, incomprehensible punctuation and grammar that would gag a maggot (demonstrating again a lack of ability to engage in logical thought, for syntax is the linchpin of logic in language).
In the past, these trolls have been primarily either Loony Left Moonbats or Muslims, but the sheer volume of baby trolls on the interwebs now that any illiterate moron with a credit card can obtain some sort of Internet capable device beggars the imagination, and so even here, at this modest lil place where I can just let “the voices in my head” run around and play, using casual speech, combined with verifiable fact and sensible opinion, baby trolls do occasionally come calling.
And what do I do?
I feed them (and in doing so perform a public service, but more on that later). And how do I feed them? Well, if they are simply illiterate morons who are proud of their ignorance and proud of their woefully uninformed/misinformed/disinformed, I may just tweak them for a while, though I will almost ALWAYS enjoin them to do their homework, somewhere down the line, and I’ll usually even give them hints to aid them in their homework.
But, alas! That will not do for baby trolls. Most are offended when anyone notes the profound stupidity of their comments, and so immediately start the slide to the Godwin Fallacy. No, really! it’s inevitable. [Edit: it is especially hilarious when Leftists and Muslims do this. They never see the irony.]
So, as long as it amuses me, I will continue with these baby trolls, allowing their almost “spamtardish” comments and responding with vicious, cruel, heartless deconstruction of their stupid comments, and even lading invective and vulgarity in response to such things as veiled death threats and the like. (Come to my house and try that, putzes. No, really. We do have a Second Amendment for good reason, you know. Just ask the Supreme Court about Heller. *heh*)
As to “performing a public service,” well, first, it’s like my tactic for dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon “Missionaries”. I usually try to consume as much of their time and resources (I ALWAYS ask for any “literature” they may have), in order to limit their time and resources available to spend elsewhere. I also spend time arguing with them, and supporting my arguments with facts from their own precepts that are easily refuted from sources they (falsely) claim to respect. [Edit: I also used to go visit them at their places of abode and spend time expounding views antithetical to their heresies. Tit for tat, as it were. *heh*]
The differences in tactics between dealing w/JWs and MMs as opposed to baby trolls? JWs and MMs are usually much, much more intelligent and literate than baby trolls on the interwebs, and have yet to resort to ad hominem attacks (such as the Godwin Fallacy) and threats, and those stupid behaviors are reason enough to lade invective on baby trolls. It amuses me, and it calms and soothes my mind to do so, and, from the evidence of their commentary, it reduces them to foaming at the mouth, for all the world appearing to be on the verge of stroking out. Thus, egging baby trolls on and encouraging them to vent their spleen in ever greater degree, gives me hope that they are thereby shortening their own lives.
So there: my modest public service vis-à-vis Internet trolls. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. That it’s also amusing, relaxing and just downright fun is just a bonus.