Tag: stupid is as stupid does

Well, not really tricks, stupid behaviors.

1.) Fiddle around never planning for the inevitable… crash. It doesn’t matter how good your hardware or software is, one day, right in the middle of an absolutely essential piece of work, your hard drive will fail, your OS will become irretrieveably scrambled, heck, your house will biurn down and your will be data lost forever IF you are among the nearly universal set of casual users who don’t have a backup and disaster recovery plan. Count on it.

2.) Use a computer “bare naked”. No, I’m not talking about the user. I’m talking about the computer. Plug the thing directly into a wall socket and you’re just asking for trouble. Almost as bad (and in some ways worse)? Use an under-rated faux surge suppressor. If it won’t suppress a bare minimum 1,000 joules (and that is a minimum) don’t plug into it. If it’s older than a year, well, it’s probably nearly as bad as not having one at all (surge suppressors wear out over time). All it takes is one good spike (or many small spikes spread out over time) and your MOBO is toast.

3.) Surf “naked”. Yeh, no firewall. Even the crappy Windows firewall is better than nothing. A software firewall is absolutely essential nowadays. Most Linux distros come with pretty good firewall rules ready to activate, and there are several free Windows environment firewalls available (my current fav is Comodo. Very good. BTW, if you are still using Windows 98 or *shudder* Windows “Muppet Edition”–Me–install Sygate Personal Firewall–link is to an ftp download)

4.) Really dumb (and irresponsible and completely shameless, no matter what OS is in the box): no antivirus software. Even if you don’t get infected, taking a chance of unwittingly forwarding an infected email is dumb.

5.) Even dumber? NOT UPDATING one’s anti-virus. And not USING it to MANUALLY scan downloaded files. Emperor. New clothes. Get it?

6.) Ditto anti-spyware.

7.) Cheesy passwords. Your birthdate, child’s name, pet’s name, whatever. Dumb, real dumb. Worse still? I simply cannot count the number of computers I’ve seen with passwords stuck on monitors with sticky notes. *sigh* Hello! Put a sign on your house: “It’s locked, but the key’s in the door.” Choose passwords that are based on phrases, preferably from unique incidents in your life. Mix ’em up with misspelled words using uncials, capitals, numbers and symbols. “eyEdreenkgr33nt3@” is better than “password” *duh*.

8.) Sharing is for losers. Data and security losers, that is. If you must have file and printer sharing on on your home network, at least share ONLY specific, password-protected folders! And for heaven’s sake, TURN OFF FILE AND PRINT SHARING WHEN USING A WI-FI HOTSPOT!!!

9.) And while I’m on the topic of wireless… Heck, even responsible people can be tempted to sniff your network if you leave your fly down. *heh* At least use WPA-PSK on your wireless network. WPA2 (AES) is better. Current crops of router/firewalls are easily-configured for pretty darned secure wi-fi, but it seems most people never enable even basic WEP (*yech!*) “security” and for that matter never change the default password on their routers! (most common: UN:admin; PW: password *sigh*).

10.) Willy-nilly install and uninstall any old downloaded software–betas, warez, cracks, whatever. Asking for trouble. No, begging. Windows users, make a Restore point before installing new software. For that matter, determine FIRST if you NEED that shiny new toy, do some research–reviews in mainstream computer mags are one place–and MANUALLY SCAN the downloaded file with an UP-TO-DATE anti-virus BEFORE installing it.

11.) Oh, here’s a really dumb trick: clicking on any and every link in an email. Anyone say, “Viruses, Trojans and Worms, oh my!”? Or how about phishing? Great. Infect yourself (and pass it on) and offer yourself up for identity theft, if you will. CLICK NOT unless you have a VERY GOOD IDEA where that CLICK will lead you.

12.) Opening any old attachment in an email. The classic “Infect me please!” Dumb. The rules are: Do not open unexpected attachments, SCAN expected attachments separately, MANUALLY with an up-to-date anti-virus software.

13.) And the “unluckiest of all” dumb computer trick? Listening to Cousin “Eye R a compewter goo-roo” Clem. No, he does NOT know what he’s talking about. Nod your head and keep his hands OFF your keyboard!

Tacked to the board at the Thursday Thirteen Hub and Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Planck’s Constant, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Thoughts, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

SEE UPDATE BELOW!

I wrote a brief comment about this earlier, but it deserves expansion, because the root cause of Jon Corzine’s injuries is also the root cause of anarcho-tyranny in the U.S.–elite abuse of power and position.

---

Karma can be a bitch.

Oh, you probably know what I’m talking about: NJ Governor Jon Corzine’s little boo-boo on the Garden State Parkway. No, I’m not gloating that a politician *spit* was seriously injured. But I am pointing out that what happened to Corzine was cosmic justice. After all, why was his state trooper-driven vehicle traveling 91mph in traffic on the Garden State Parkway? Was there some legitimate emergency that required the attention of state troopers and he was just along for the ride as a passenger? Nope. Was there a genuine State emergency requiring Governor Corzine’s hurried transport? Not at all. He was on his way to a meeting with… Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball players. Emergency? Hardly. And how about the excuse that troopers can exceed the speed and use their lights when transporting the governor “for security reasons”? Wasn’t very secure, was it, now?

Yeh, that “reason” is just more B.S. excusing politicians’ *spit* abuse of power. And as they abuse their power and position in everyday, commonplace ways–butting to the heads of lines, shoving ordinary people out of the way on the Garden State Parkway (among the many other places), etc., they continually turn the heat up on the frog in the kettle, teaching citizens about the priviledge of position that political power brings and training those citizens to submit as subjects to their power.

Little by little we are being turned into subjects. Rights? Those can be turned into licenses, priviledges controlled and licensed by politicians *spit* and bureaucrats *spit-spit*. Just see how much more clamoring for restrictions on gun ownership by citizens we’ll see in the coming days and weeks as a result of the incident at Virginia Tech, something that could have been cut way short had any of those UNarmed putative citizens been armed…

UPDATE: Over at Chaos Manor Mail, Peter N. Glaskowsky points out that another man intent on mass murder five years ago in a different Virginia school of higher education was not so “successful, because that school did not have a rule preventing its adult students being armed.

Put that in your “disarm law-abiding Americans” pipe and smoke it, “Brady Bunch” liberals.

Respect? Not due citizens by politicians *spit* unless thay have bigmouthed racist/sexist “spokesPEOPLE” to harrangue for them and Mass Media Podpeople to take up their cause. Go ahead, write or call your congresscritters. See just how much genuine respect you get. All you’ll get–at best–are words, sound and fury signifying nothing. Don’t believe me? Just look at the polls on border control/immigration. 70%-80% of folks do NOT appreciate the way politicians *spit* are handling the situation, want stricter controls and better border security, and even deportation of illegal aliens has a large majority support. But since almost zero of that support is played up by the Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind, the majority of politicians are firmly behind surrendering the U.S. to the invading horde.

*sigh*

So, whenever cosmic justice gives even one abusive politician *spit* a taste of his just eternal reward in hell, we ought to bow our heads in thanks. I do not rejoice that Jon Corzine was so seriously injured. No. But I do hope he at least gets a ticket for not wearing his seat belt.

Now, that would be cosmic justice.*

(*Yeh, I know, I know: NJ law would mandate a ticket for the driver for allowing a passenger to not wear his seat belt, but imagining the state trooper getting a ticket he’s earned is about as difficult a suspension of disbelief as imagining the governor learning a lesson in humility from his overweening behavior, after all, one’s is a Law Enforcement Officer, and so above the law *sigh* and the other is a typical politician *spit* and we all know they only get what they deserve when they die and go to hell… [some few exceptions may apply])

Also posted at The Wide Awakes

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Random Yak, Maggie’s Notebook, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Helium, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Pet’s Garden Blog, stikNstein… has no mercy, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck’s Constant, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Not in a blogging mood. What?!? Are my non-existant “sponsors” gonna drop me or something? *heh* So, this is a linkfest (more about that below the wandering rabbit trails that follow) and a semi-random buncha stuff. You decide which is more useful. 😉

---

So, another dump off of computer junk. One useful thing, though, was a MessySoft “Internet Keyboard Pro” with a “whole lotta lumps” (shortcut buttons) and a bifurcating cable with both PS/2 and USB. The USB connection makes it serve as a hub, as well. Useful, especially when connected to a computer without front USB ports (yeh, antique). You’d think I’d have enough keyboards, what with 15 17 others (just spotted two more here in the office, hiding out over to my left ;-)) NOT connected to computers held in reserve. But, no. Never have enough reserve keyboards and mice, right? Who knows when a keyboard may bite the dust, or just need a trip through the dishwasher? (Almost ditto on “spare” monitors, right?)

While I’m in a compgeeky mode of thought, anyone else going to see if servers are swamped with attempts to download Ubuntu 7.04 on Thursday? That’s assuming it makes it’s projected release date. The RC was supposed to be out LAST Thursday, but got held up. Anywho, it promises some neato-keano stuff, like a tie-in with Linspire/Freespire’s Click n Run application installation and easier setup of media apps. Sounds like it’s truly getting closer to Joe Schmoe and Aunt Tilly ready.

The shooting at Virginia Tech? I’m with Ferdy on this one. All the bloviation of politicians and Mass Media Podpeople isn’t worth listening to. I’ll wait on the shake-out of info. One thing, though: if the victims hadn’t been universally UNarmed, the story would likely be quite different, eh?

Yesterday, the annual reinforcement of the lessons of serfdom was once again driven into we who were born free… Well, weren’t we? *sigh* Maybe that is another myth.

*heh* Russel Seitz: An Inconvenient Tree. Algore is probably chewing hi shorts (the things was written originally as an op-ed in the WSJ)

Not gloating, but evidence seems to indicate that politicians’ *spit* “I’m so special the law doesn’t apply to me” thinking had better at least consult the laws of physics before going 91mph in a 65mph zone… Oh, BTW, meant to include it earlier, but here it is now:

“The state trooper-driven sport utility vehicle was in the left lane with its emergency lights flashing… “

[More addendum] Yeh, but there was no “emergency”–just cops and politicians abusing their powers. Sometimes karma’s a bitch, Governor Corzine. He could have left on time for his meeting with Don Imus and the Rutgers women. Heck, being late for that media fluff event doesn’t qualify as a justifiable reason for the excessive speed and “emergency lights” use. And the tired old “doing it for security reasons” is a sick joke. It was all about casual, commonplace, everyday, quotidian *heh* abuse of power/position.

Ah, well, there’s an awful lot of other stuff going on out there in this Brave New World, but I’ll just let it slide for now.

Call it Spring Fever, if you will.

---

THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.

If you want to host your own linkfests but have not yet done so, check out the Open Trackbacks Alliance. The FAQ there is very helpful in understanding linkfests/open trackbacks.

---

Linkfest info below

---

I’ve found Newsmax to be pretty consistently lax with the facts. Oh, the facts are there, but I have to dig for them to remove the dlant of Newsmax’s “reporting”–just a right-wing version of typical left wing media tactics.

That’s not smart of Newsmax, IMO. Immitating liars to counter their lies just doesn’t work well.

Here’s an example from a recent email:

“NewsMax Poll: Americans Want Fred Thompson in ’08”

Oh, really? And how do you know that, Newsmax?

“An Internet poll sponsored by NewsMax.com reveals that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of Fred Thompson running for president in 2008.

Our “Should Fred Thompson Run for President” poll of nearly 100,000 people also disclosed that the former senator from Tennessee and “Law & Order” star would trounce all leading Republican candidates in a primary.”

Look, lefties are NOT going to get Newsmax mail (I’m not sure why I do, since I don’t consider myself a “righty”), let alone participate in a poll that is run by Newsmax. So the results were (nearly all) all self-selected Newsmax right-wing readers, OK? I didn’t take the poll (never do participate in their things). I don’t fit their demographic all that well.

So, what else did this poll of self-selected right-wingers determine? That among this self-selected (NOT random sample) group of about 100,000 the Q/A went something like this:

1) What is your overall opinion of Fred Thompson?
Favorable: 94 percent
Unfavorable: 2 percent
No Opinion: 4 percent

2) Is Fred Thompson your candidate for president in 2008?
Yes: 77 percent
No: 23 percent

3) In the following field, who is your 2008 candidate?
John McCain: 1.66 percent
Condi Rice: 2.64 percent
Mike Huckabee: .99 percent
Miss Romney: 4.14 percent
Rudy Giuliani: 7.53 percent
Fred Thompson: 62.54 percent
Tom Tancredo: 2.78 percent
Ron Paul: 1.25 percent
Newt Gingrich: 12.25 percent
Duncan Hunter: 1.23 percent
Sam Brownback: .97 percent
Other: 1.99 percent

4) In a Republican primary of the following, who would you vote for?
Rudy Giuliani: 7 percent
John McCain: 2 percent
Newt Gingrich: 13 percent
Fred Thompson: 78 percent

5) If the 2008 President race was between Fred Thompson & Hillary Clinton, who would you vote for?
Fred Thompson: 98.7 percent
Hillary Clinton: 1.3 percent

Now, it’s certainly encouraging that Fred Thompson is so popular among a list of Republican candidates/potential candidates, cos he’s among the best of a bad lot (Tancredo beats him hands down on the MAJOR issue of border control, but Thompson’s still better than any of the others on that issue, too, from what I can tell).

But. Remember I said “best of a bad lot” and that’s because all of them are still big government types. Just Democraps dragging their heels, as it were, when it comes to government interference in citizens’ daily lives.

But back on point: Newsmax is just another example of too many (how many is too many? One is too many) folks seeking to counter leftist crap who resort to twisting and outright lies at times to counter… twisting and outright lies by the left (all the time).

Taking a poll of right-wingers is all right. Deliberately misstating poll results as referring to “Americans” in general–well, deliberately unless the writer and editor that viewed the thing are genuinely stupid–that’s just stupid and wrong.

---

THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.

If you want to host your own linkfests but have not yet done so, check out the Open Trackbacks Alliance. The FAQ there is very helpful in understanding linkfests/open trackbacks.

---

Nothing important, just… Saw an American Heart Association commercial the other day that said for every hour of vigorous exercise, I could (as in “maybe it’ll happen”) live two hours longer.

So? Looks like a poor bet to me. I’d stil have lost an hour

sleeping
blogging
reading
really listening to some fine music (who can really listen and the nuances of good music while grunting and puffing? Oh, rock or some other contemporary so-so music, sure, but even the BeeGees deserve better than having their stuff grunted and puffed through *heh*)
etc.

…to huffing and puffing and grunting and sweating on a hamster wheel (which is all most “vigorous exercise” is *heh*).

Sure, you say, I might have an “extra” hour to do these things as a result of “vigorous exercise”. Might. But I have those hours now, so why waste ’em with time set aside for “vigorous exercise”? Oh, if there’s someplace I want to walk (someplace walking with my Wonder Woman, for example) or some physical work I need to do anyway (yard work–cos I’m a confirmed tightwad) or work on the house, I can view that as exercise and get as much real benefit, perhaps more, since I’d be feeding my soul with something productive instead of playing hamster-on-a-wheel.

No 10K runs for me. Yeh, well, I just don’t care.

---

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Pet’s Garden Blog, Faultline USA, Sujet- Celebrities, Stageleft, Maggie’s Notebook, Walls of the City, basil’s blog, Helium, Shadowscope, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, The Pet Haven, Right Voices, Pursuing Holiness, and , thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

twc plans for Saturday…

Sleep in–done 😉
Feed The Boys–done
Pick up food order (yeh, semi-bulk “club” buy. Great deal if you can get it)
See Wonder Woman off to her librarian conference
General cleanup (but since it’s raining, the outside gets a pass).
Return last night’s videos (yeh, two rentals, cos was Friday “popcorn night”)*
Maaaaaybe make another “grape medallion” (for a rosette atop a pilaster framing front door–yeh, finally getting around to that lil chore). The first one turned out OK, so why not?–done (yeh, this post has taken close to FOUR HOURS to write, taken a word here, a word there, as things unfold. :-))

Pretty lazy day. No taxes to do, no major chores on my plate (that I can get to–weather is holding some at bay-hey, hey, hey-*heh*)

Blogging today? This is it. NOT gonna spend time and energy on “issues” today. Just. Not.

---

*about those videos… one was not as bad as I’d feared, the other a “B- movie” (best rating from my Wonder Woman–decent cgi but crappy plot, dialog and character development. Uneven acting–an old pro sleepwalking his lines gave the best performance). The not too crappy movie was “The Holiday”–and still an unconvincing performance by Cameron Diaz (well, she had a far-too-contrived plot to work with, I’ll give her that). The best part of the movie by far, ecept for the last part of the last scene with the two of them, was the interaction between the Kate Winslet character and the Eli Wallach character. The Kate Winslet/Jack Black duo never made any sense at all, at all. Still, Kate Winslet gave it a decent run for the money. All-in-all, not bad value, since one of the movies was a “free rental”–*heh* And the popcorn was freshly popped. Enjoyed the Gummi-Dinos, too.

Dead at 84. I continue to recommend (as I have often before) that everyone read his Harrison Bergeron. As speculative fiction (a very short story–read it and come back, even), the vision he posits there is becoming a very dread reality in our society today, a bit at a time…

Read it.

Not that I observe every day alike, mind you, but I do observe that this month Friday the Thirteenth does actually fall on a Friday.

Just thought the less observant might appreciate knowing that.

Click here for more.

---

Now, most readers of this blog know I hold a contrarian view of the Iraq adventure, but let me restate it here: We can put this one in the “Win” column fairly quickly, but it would require some common sense, some (not even much, to tell the truth) knowledge of the history and culture of the area and a little simple honesty.

1.) Acknowledge the simple fact of the matter that NO ONE in nearly the past millennium and a half has managed to “peacefully” rule that region without either separating the barbaric inhabitants who nurture generational tribal and religious feuds (partitioning) OR ruling them with a bloody fist of iron. We are unlikely–for many reasons–to be bloody-minded enough to accomplish the latter, so partitioning the area is the only historically proven method left to us, but how to do it?

2.) Allow the Kurds to rule their own traditional homelands and give them all the help–materiel and personnel–needed to assure their safety and independence. They are the ONLY peope group in the region who are likely to be not only allies but actually friends to the U.S., for many reasons, not the least of which is their exceptional (for the area) tradition of religious and political tolerance.

3.) Send the savage kiddies to their rooms–separate the Sunnis and Shiites (since those religious distinctions also would allow separating almost all the tribal rivalries as well). Let ’em know that any fighting amongst themselves thereafter is on their own heads, but they are NOT to touch the oil-producing regions on pain of death. Period. Sure, allow fair oil revenue sharing, but messing about with the oil production would result in the Wrath of God (or at least His iron fist in the form of American bombs) descending upon the silly little savages.

There you have it: the prescription for a Win in Iraq… a bitter pill to the Jacobian lotus eaters in the Bush administration, and utterly unacceptable to the Defeatocrats, as well. Therefore, completely unworkable for purely political reasons.

The story of contemporary American politics: if it makes sense, it is verboten.

I have resisted the Don Imus brouhaha, not because I don’t have a dog that wants to be in the fight, but because I’ve been vacillating between amusement and disgust at how it’s unfolded.

As it turns out, Imus was rightly cancelled (in both his main gigs), but for the wrong reasons. I’ve read and listened to (yeh, I even watched some fluff heads on TV) as much of the commentary as I could stomach, and the general consensus is that he was “fired” for his racist remarks that were in some way ioffensive to a broad group of people, a whole “race”.

And that’s just plain flat the wrong reason. He ought to have been forced to grovel before the people he had insulted, then “fired”. And by “people he had insulted” I mean the women of the Rutgers basketball team and thenm alone. (Ann Coulter is the only talking head I read who seemed to come close to making sense on this. In fact, she agreed with my comments to my Wonder Woman the other day, almost right on downthe line. :-)) Imus did NOT insult all black women (or even all blacks–I’m not going to call ’em “Afro-Americans because I despise all such hyphenated-American designations. Heck, the number of “Afro-Americans” approaches zero. Most are “Afro-Americans” to the same degree that I’m a “Celtic-American”. Fuggedaboutit.). He insulted a specific group of women who were not a fair target for such. “Public people”–those with egos the size of Texas–make fair targets for all kinds of insults (think darned near any politician *spit*, media celebrity, etc.) The Rutgers women are not in that class and should have been afforded the common decency dur the common man (yeh, and if some sexist woman out there dislikes my generic use of “man” then just bite me).

BTW, I have just one major disagreement with Coulter’s take on the issue, and that’s with her tag line:

Now, if Imus had called the basketball players “fat, race-baiting black men with clownish hairstyles,” well, then perhaps Sharpton would be owed an apology.

Ann’s pooed the scrooch with that sentence. Better would have been,

“Now, if Imus had called Al Sharpton–that race-baiting, lying racist— ‘a nappy-headed ho’ then nappy-headed hos everywhere whould have been owed an apology.”

Of course ALL this Imus flap, especially the argument that he insulted ALL black women– begs the question, “Where’s the outrage over all the trash talk in ‘rap’?” Oh, that’s right. I forgot. Double standard and all that. Just as blacks can say the “N” word with impunity (while anyone else is stripped bare, smeared with honey and staked out on an ant bed, then dragged behind a boat in shark-infested water as chum for doing so), so is it just fine and dandy, hunky dory for black rap “artists” *spit* to heap vile vituperation on the heads of women, because, well, they’re black, right?

That’s what the Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind apparently thinks.

(Update: Oh, BTW, I’ve never felt Imus was anything but a bag of noxious hot air, a worthless waste of oxygen. I never understood how anyone could listen to his line of B.S. for more than five minutes, and became convinced that those who did suffered brain damage resulting in an ability to continue to listen to his line. Ditto for Howard Stern and half a ditto for O’Reilly. Am of about the same opinion about Rush Limbaugh as O’Reilly: both arrogant air bags with appeal to some, but blind pigs who do manage to find an acorn now and then, which still makes them better than 99.999% of Mass Media Podpeople.)

---

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, basil’s blog, Stuck On Stupid, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, Conservative Cat, Jo’s Cafe, Faultline USA, Allie Is Wired, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.