Month: February 2010

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Oh, Just Grow Up

*sigh*

Rant: on

Some folks are so very intent on remaining irritating, illiterate boobs that they’ll even refuse to use a mature browser (or even a semi-mature browser like Firefox) and so continue to post comments on blogs, social networking sites, etc., that are evidence they even refuse to use a spell-checking browser with a decent dictionary.

Sure, even using spell checking won’t make such folks’ blather make any more sense, but at least it might avoid assaulting others with the most obvious misspellings. That’d be a start.

Rant: nah, not turning this off yet.

Worse: “text-speak” or the asinine abbreviations and cryptic comments folks post from their phones to their own blogs, etc. Get a keyboard and some bandwidth. Stop “talking” like 6th-grade “tweens” already!

*sheesh!*

*heh*

Rant: off.

Continue reading “Oh, Just Grow Up”

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Shields Up!

Steve Gibson has some good resources available for the average user at his webs site. (For those of y’all who may not be familiar with the name, Gibson’s the guy who developed the venerable–and still useful, especially in its newest iteration–SpinRite.) One of the useful lil tools he offers at his site is Shields Up! While the tool only tests the first 1056 ports on your computer, it’s nevertheless a useful measure of your firewalling.

Between my ISP’s watchful eye, my “hardware” SPI firewall in my router and Windows 7’s built in firewall, that installation on this computer results in a very respectable showing on Gibson’s tool.

Not surprisingly, the results are the same when browsing in a Linux Mint or Puppy Linux or PCBSD session hosted on the same machine–as long as I remember to configure Puppy’s firewall (the others are configured and turned on by default in modes that effect the same results on this test as Win7’s firewall; Puppy’s firewall must be turned on–once; after that it “remembers” its settings like the rest).

Other security scans can be found at Audit My PC and PCFlank, among a wide range of places. Each scanner has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, so multiple scans with different tools would probably yield a “best mix” of information.

DO check links to scanner tools out with something like AVG’s Linkscanner or McAffee’s less trusted (by me) Site Advisor, especially if your browser of choice doesn’t have a reliable tool to warn you about suspicious sites.

NOTE: None of the port scanning tools I know of will definitively demonstrate that you are really secure, but they can give you a good idea of common areas of weakness. If you then also have well-rated (by reliable, known sources such as WestCoast Labs), up-to-date anti-malware software, and keep it up to date and turned on, AND you practice usual and customary safe computing, you should be fairly safe.

But note well: break any link in the chain, and you WILL become infected with malware. The weakest link? Simple, safe computing practices, like being careful where you travel on the web, NEVER installing software you’ve not “manually” scanned with a reliable, up-to-date anti-malware, avoiding CLICKing on links in emails and NEVER opening attachments unless you

1. Know absolutely, exactly, beyond any shadow of doubt what it is you are opening and
2. Have nevertheless manually scanned it with a reliable, up-to-date anti-malware BEFORE even considering opening the thing

Seriously. I don’t care if Great Aunt Sadie would never send you a virus, trojan or worm. DO NOT OPEN THAT ATTACHMENT FROM HER! Especially not from her. *heh*

Continue reading “Shields Up!”

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More on Virtualbox

With all there is to really like about Virtualbox’s approach to VMs, one thing really stands out as a sore thumb: VMs sharing resources with the host machine. As in, “sharing” is not the word for some resources.

USB-attached devices? Well, using them in the VM (via VBox Guest Additions) means hogging them in the VM. No access via the host machine while the VM is making use of those resources–printer, external drives, etc. Ditto for optical drives. Designating ones physical DVDRW or CD or whatever as usable by the VM “uninstalls” it from the host machine.

Not really cool.

Well, at least resources can be shared in that limited sense, but it really sucks dead bunnies through a straw.

OK, so “plugging in” and “unplugging” does allow sharing back and forth in a klunky kind of way. But man, it’s cumbersome. It’s probably the only thing I liked better about M$’s Virtual XP: sharing resources was less kludgy.

And yeh, I wrote this while in a rare instance of XP running in a VB VM. Why so rare? Well, I never really warmed to XP to begin with and only invoke it now whenever I need to check some XP-specific procedure. Otherwise, Puppy or Mint or an occasional PCBSD (I really, really like PCBSD, but for some reason only rarely use it; I need to examine that) are just fine for me. Running on a Win7 host.

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Random “heh”

About 15 or 16 years ago, I attended a concert by a wonderful choral group from a moderately large high school, directed by a former classmate of mine. It was my first exposure to the group, and I was amused to see they called themselves, “A Capella” for two reasons:

While the director obviously meant the term to mean “unaccompanied voices” (yes, I checked and that was what had originally been intended, and, indeed, the group had been a voices only group for its first few years), most of their performance was of music accompanied by their director or a student playing piano. And…

“Capella” refers to either a female goat or a first-magnitude star in the constellation Auriga, NOT a cappella (“in the manner of the Roman chapel”) singing. The second “p” really does make a difference for anyone who’s literate.

But nowadays, meaning takes the back seat in nearly every interaction, while feeling has attained ascendancy in all, it seems. Distinctions in meaning are dismissed as “just semantics” or “silly syntax/grammar/orthography rules” (assuming “syntax” and “orthography” are in the vocabulary of the illiterate boob objecting to clear communication).

But back to my lil vignette. I approached my former classmate after the concert and offered my sincere congratulations on having built so fine a musical performance group in a public school system. I also noted the interesting name. Appalled director much? *heh* Name was changed to protect the innocent singers.

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Passing Thoughts

A commenter who made a monumentally stupid assertion in commenting on a recent post led me off on a rabbit trail today, which, in turn, led to this gleaning from several past posts of thoughts about people who simply do not think. From, “Facts vs Feelings”

I met an old guy who runs a junk store who’s a good example of “feelings over facts”. He had on his shelf a bottle of clear amber fluid labeled “Pepper Beer–not for drinking”. Naturally that led this unmoderated tongue to comment, “What a shame. Beer is for drinking” which led to…

“Beer destroyed my family,” and a tale of growing up in a family where his father got drunk on beer and was abusive. No amount of pointing out the fact that the beer didn’t force excessive amounts of itself down his father’s throat making him into an abusive drunk was going to convince him of his father’s responsibility for his own drunkeness. No, it was the beer that did it.

*feh* Such people are idiots. Inanimate objects, chemical substances and the like do not make people harm others. People make themselves do harmful things, including making the CHOICE to abuse mind-altering chemical substances of all kinds.

The bushwah about people, including addicts, not being responsible for their actions is the perhaps single most harmful meme in our society today.

From September 22nd, 2008’s post, “Are You Too Stupid to Vote?” noting the results of the Civics Quiz found here,

Heck, face it. Most American citizens who now possess the right to vote don’t know the fundamentals of our government structure, our history or anything genuine about current events (most still getting their information from the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind propaganda machine).

Too stupid to be allowed to vote, and yet it is this mass of stupid people who will elect the congresscritters and administration that will exercise power.

Scary.

BTW, that civics quiz? Got 100% right. Anyone who gets a lower score either wasn’t paying ANY attention in grade school (OK, maybe junior high), or else was but suffered their earliest lobotomy in public school. Seriously, folks, it’s one easy-peasy quiz… and those who took the quiz who had held or currently do hold public office were the lowest scorers. But that’s OK. Most folks failed it outright, anyway.

And these same civics-illiterate boobs can (and do) vote. See especially the finding that those who watch the news are less well-informed than those who don’t.

And here, noting the difference between so-called “radical” and so-called “moderate” Muslims is an example of correcting misconceptions foisted on self-enstupiated sheeple by the “philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide,” as espoused by Mass Media Podpeople, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, is “The Difference Between ‘Plain Old Muslims’ and ‘Islamic Terrorists'”

“Plain old Muslims” claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.

Islamic terrorists claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.

“Plain old Muslims” revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc.) as worthy of emulation in all of life.

Islamic terrorists revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc.) as worthy of emulation in all of life.

Now, THE distinction: Islamic terrorists honestly, forthrightly and openly seek to actually emulate the bloody Butcher of Medina, while “Plain old Muslims” are either just not all that serious about actually following Mohammed or are living lives of lies, decieving the Dar al Harb.

There. Now you know the single most significant difference between “Plain old Muslims” and Islamic terrorists.

And, from The Islam Comic Book,

[audio:Islamnot4me.mp3]

And from a 2009 re-post (of a 2007 piece) on morality vs. the very nearly universal deceit that is accepted in our society,

M. Scott Peck wrote some 20 years ago or so about “People of the Lie” (a pretty insightful book, IMO, and one with particular application to understanding the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and politicians *spit* as a class) wherein he said that the truly evil “are masters of disguise and cloak themselves with masks of respectability, goodness and often piety.”

The Lie is central to the destruction of a moral culture, and it is by continually lying about darned near everything, continually selling the culture of The Lie that the culture of the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind (almost entirely congruent with a culture of The Lie) makes its lies into reality, as sheeple ape the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind in their daily life, in everything from envy of the lifestyles seen portrayed on the dullertainment offered to the political agenda of the Hivemind as revealed in dullertainment and “news”-ertainment programs.

And art. I saw a segment of a public television show the other night featuring an “artist” who painted on wood using house paints. The “artist” was shown as an example of a modern primitive painter. The “artwork” displayed was crap. And that’s speaking kindly. The worst stuff I’ve seen in years. Presented as “art”. When the very idea of art is debased to such a level, is it any wonder that in performance art we have such excrescence as “rap”? (Go on: try to make a convincing argument that listening to rap “music” does not debase an individual. Try. Please.)

But about all sorts of topics, from Islam to Healthscare, from taxes to “welfare” the increasingly illiterate (in many, many ways), self-enstupiated sheeple who get all their news propaganda from the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind and their understanding of the Constitution from the American Communist Liars Union ARE the problem. As the money quote in the blog header says,

“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”-third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axiom

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One More Corrupt Politician Bites the Dust

There is something fundamentally sad about a man who goes to his grave apparently unrepentant of his sins. And that is the only sad thing about the death of John Murtha. As far as his place in the Congress: good riddance to bad rubbish. As far as one more soul (in all liklihood, from the evidence of his life) self-consigned to hell: at least he will be in familiar company. Say hello to Teddy, John.

Oh. Is there some rule about speaking ill of the dead? Well, I don’t see any sense in speaking of the dead other than as I have spoken of them in life. Seems rather hypocritical to me. I’ll not dance (or do other, less savory things) on his grave, and I do regret the apparent fact that he died an unrepentant sinner, but the loss of one more corrupt politician is in some senses a reason for rejoicing.

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Calling the Plays… That Have Happened

Drudge said, “Kiss of death”–“Obama predicts Colts victory in Super Bowl”

As an acquaintance on FB said,

Everyone said the Saints couldn’t win unless hell freezes over. Did you see there was a blizzard in DC over the weekend?

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“Common Sense? We Don’t Need No Steenkeeng Common Sense!“

In the face of such stupidly ironic statements from The Ø! as,

“When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

That from the idiot who apparently thinks spending money the country DOES NOT HAVE on wasteful, useless, pork to buy votes for his agenda is the way to deal with a national economic crisis. Cue Bugs Bunny:

[audio:What-a-maroon.mp3]

“We live in an era in which… government of the government, by the government, and for the government apparently can never vanish from the Earth, but instead will continue to grow…

…Meanwhile, appeals to common sense are futile: we all know the common sense solutions to many problems, but the government of the government by the government and for the government isn’t about to allow that.”–Jerry Pournelle

A common sense approach to dealing with an economic crisis engineered by “feddle gummint” meddling is really quite simple. Not painless, but simple.

“Feddle gummint”: stop spending money we do not have.
Getcher stinking hands off my money! Effect the FairTax and operate the “feddle gummint” on whatever it brings in. Period.

“Feddle gummint”: stop spending money we do not have. That WILL mean fewer “feddle gummint” workers and pork programs and meddling in the personal lives of citizens, which, of course, means less power for Beltway self-anointed elites. Oh, boo-hoo.

Of course, absent some serial counseling sessions with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether, I doubt the Beltway Bandits will release their deadly grip on the throat of the U.S.

But miracles happen.

Due to an amazingly uninformed assertion made in comments, I’m adding one lil video that packs enough references to enable ANYONE who wants to do their own homework to fact check it, even glean more information by ignoring the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind propaganda and simply doing a little research:

Quite contrary to the myth propagated by the Hivemind, politicians *spit* and anyone with a commie/socialist/class warfare axe to grind, typified by comments such as this,

I think we can sum up the cause of our current economic crisis in one word — GREED. Over the years, mortgage lenders were happy to lend money to people who couldn’t afford their mortgages.

The Federal government required financial institutions to make sub-prime loans to people who could not afford to pay them back. Outright lies such as the one I quoted above (and no, I will not link to that lying site. Google it if you want) are the core of the meme The Ø!’s administration and co-conspirators are flacking.

But it is a lie. Sure there was greed. Largely on the part of those who sought the loans they could not afford to pay back and on the part of politicians whose “careers” were boosted thereby.