My Crystal Ball 2013

Article = none , personal experience.

I suppose it is a hobby of everyone to try to tell the future and guess where the world is going.  This is my latest shot at it.

First : What is the crystal ball made of. 

Or , what technologies do I think will affect the world ?

• 3D Printers. They're down to 1300$ , and only getting cheaper
• Nasa's Pizza 3D Printer. Doesn't exist yet , but they have commisioned the creation of a 3D printer that makes pizza's for the astronaughts up in space.
• Artificial Intelligence : Emily is getting smarter. Who is Emily ? The voice system when you cal bell canada , that computer that answers , and can understand what your saying. If your accent isn't too heavy.
• The Internet. Pretty certain it's not going anywhere.   
• Cheap Sewing machines. down to 88$ for an electric one. They can't go much farther down , all that can happen is more features

So what do I see in the future with these four things ?

I see Star Wars.

I see Uncle Owens farm , a small family riding herd on their robots , cleaning and maintaining them while the robots go out and do all the farming.  I see simple clothing , loose pants and tops , made by automated machines. I see spare parts for the robots being made by "3D Printers" which will likely be called something else by then.

I see very few formal "jobs". I see the return of the craftsman , making his goods via commanding robots to do it and just maintaining the robots. I see a small family getting work maintaining the electrical grid , or the internet grid , for a small city block. I see people processing farmed goods into goop of some kind for the 3D food printers. I see other people making and recycling plastics for the other 3D printers. I see 3D printers for metal parts.

I see people making the electronic guts of various devices. Some guy might specialize in the internal workings of a cell phone , for example , and sell that. People will buy it , and print out their own case for it. And just slip it inside.

I see work needs to be done (usually by robots) in electrical power, in internet infrastructure, in construction, in food growing and preperation, in transport, in elevators, in all the "essentials" that we cannot do without. (Hmm..don't forget robot maintenane in the list , dang things will be everywhere) I see people overseeing small companies with robots doing the work. And they just watch monitors and give the robots hints.

I see children coming of age, and as a going away birthday present they get a couple of robots of their own before being sent out on their own to make their way in the world. Much like today you give them a microwave or vacuum cleaner or some such.

I see all the cooking and cleaning being done by robots, I see most of our "manufactured goods" being made at home , with no need to buy things, just more and more plastic or metal goop for the 3D printers.

I see a lot of "Luxury" shops. Restaurants. Bars. Coffee shops.  People don't need a restaurant they can cook for themselves, but still they will go out and congregate with other people. There will be small fancy clothing shops , but no big super stores for cloths (or foods) since the robots back at home will make the "cheap" stuff. Store bought cloths and food will be Luxuries, not neccessaties.

I see a world full of people who mostly just maintain and repair their own personal robots as a primary skill , and as a secondary one other thing (farming , electronics, making cell phones or computers, etc) . I see large corperations will vanish because the economies of scale theory is dead in the water with 3D printers. Well , most corperations. Oil Companies are here as long as the oil lasts, we need the electrical power. And after that the nuclear reactor plants and the hydro electric companies are probably with us forever.

And police. There will always be a-holes out there who need to be locked up. That's just human nature.

And thats , in general , my vision of the future. Other than adding a few more professions that will never go away , that's it. People running their own little companies, bossing around their robots who make stuff both for their own internal use, and to sell and bring in a little cash to pay the electric bills.

Crazy Eskimo

Article = none, personal experience

Did I mention the crazy eskimo guy I have as a room mate ? (one of seven room mates actually , in that house).

My first encounter with him was when he accused me of catching a fly and putting it in his room. Not sure how you catch a fly with your bare hands , undamaged , but he's pretty sure i did it.

My second was when I lent him my phone and he called up the Land Lady and informed her he'd just called city of ottawa because living in a basement was against the rules, and there were three people living upstairs in the same room (it was a large room , and they were one family) also illegal.

Yep. He didn't let her wonder who called he city of ottawa. He phoned her up and told her himself.

This instigated the part where I help clean the room on the main floor (those guys were disgusting pigs ! ) and move half my stuff up there and live there for a while. And while I was helping the land lady clean my new digs, she mentioned him.

Oh yes, and how she mentioned him. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks he's eight ball crazy. City of Ottawa says he can't live in the basement and she's saying he's got to be out by the first (so she told them). Not to mention that all sorts of other unspecified problems she's been having with him.

Then the real fun began. Crazy Eskimo caught me in the hall and asked if my welfare was being cancelled, and I said no. He insisted that everyone in the city of ottawa had their welfare cancelled, were they saving money by this ? I told him that was extremely unlikely , but he insisted they were. Apparently he likes to lead with a question , but he's not interested in the answer , he's already made up his mind before he opens his mouth.    Told him I was on disability and I'd checked with my worker , no problems for me, maybe disability wasn't affected ?

This guy lives in his own little world , I swear. He doesn't want to hear what anyone else says.

There's no drinking allowed in our place , but I keep noticing these beer cans in the kitchen piling up along one shelf. And then I notice that at night Crazy Eskimo likes to sit at that table. And talk to people.

What does he say ? Well , that night , first he complained "McMasters University is Shit !" a few times, then asked one of the roomies what Universy he went to. "Ottawa University. " "Ottawa University is shit ! Every University in Canada is shit ! " repeat a few times. Needless to say we both walk away.
   A little later I use the kitchen microwave to heat up some chicken broth (I'm on a no food day , they want to x-ray my belly the next day ) and he looks at me and says, slightly slurred "Too many fucking old men in this country. Fucking old men just don't die. "
   "Wonders of Free Health Care I tell him. "
   He just continues repeating that.
   Half way down the hall and into my room it occurs to me. I have a head full of grey hair , and a grey beard too.  This guy is deliberately looking for a fight it seems.

   I decide upon a plan , a plan I call avoiding Unneccesary Drama. Basically ... it's only five days or so to the end of the month , and this guy is out of there by then. I'll just visit the girl friends for five days and skip over this whole melt down thing.

   Interesting that he thinks welfare cut off everyone in the city though. He may use that as an excuse to try and stay longer , claiming he has no place to go. Maybe I'll give him until a little after the first.
   I'll just drop by long enough on the first to pay the land lady and be gone again. 

Kidnapped by Islamic Terrorists

How an Alberta woman abducted in Somalia survived captivity Amanda Lindhout, the Canadian journalist taken hostage in Somalia in 2008, has released a new book detailing the 15 months she spent in captivity and revealing how she endured thoughts of suicide. The now-32-year-old Alberta woman was captured while working as a freelance journalist near Mogadishu and held for 459 days. During that time, Lindhout says she was beaten and sexually assaulted before considering suicide about a year after her capture — that is, until a small brown bird flew into the doorway of the room she was trapped in.

So what do we have here ?

• Beaten
• Sexually assaulted
• Kidnapped (ie: committed no crime)
• Terrorists are 1.3 million richer

You wonder why people hate Islam ? This goes under the catagory of "They did it to themselves" . How can you not believe they are inutterably evil acting like this and then claiming their religion requires it ?

And this business that "You're not Islamic you deserve it" is just horse pucky. There are three major forms of Islam , and they all hate each other , and they all will happily murder you if you're not of their particular brand of Islam . So no matter what you do , someone out there wants you dead.

There's nothing to be said. They've already said it all themselves. They've already done it all, demonstrated it all.

U.K ad firm uses Wi-Fi-enabled trash cans to track people

Article

LONDON -- Officials demanded Monday that an advertising firm stop using a network of high-tech trash cans to track people walking through London's financial district.
The Renew ad firm has been using technology embedded in the hulking receptacles to measure the Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones, and suggested that it would apply the concept of "cookies" -- tracking files that follow Internet users across the Web -- to the physical world.
"We will cookie the street," Renew Chief Executive Kaveh Memari said in June.

It's not enough the government spies on us. Now every advertiser in the world wants to spy on you. Tracking your cell phone's unique id number so it can tailor ads to you specifically. The ultimate in targetted marketting. 

The iTrashCan (as I call it) has a clock on it and can easily sport a video screen as well. One can imagine how entertaining it will be to call out your name and publically try and sell you condoms or other embarrassing products. 

   Plus it wants to store "cookies" on your phone. Heck no to that , why are you suddenly using my phone in a hostile manner against me ? And yes, I do mean "Hostile". Advertising companies are spending millions , each , to try and find out when you are most susceptable to a sales pitch , what kind of salespitch will most likely work on you, etc etc. Is it any wonder I accuse them of attempting mind control ? 

   And while the concept may sound ludicrous, well , they are spending a lot of money to try and make you do stuff you don't want to do ... sounds like they believe it's possible. Though I'm sure they'll find a nice user friendly name for it rather than "mind control".  "Customer Education" or some nonsense like that. 

State of the DisUnion these days

Article = None, personal experience.

And the City of Ottawa thinks my rooming house is illegal and so two people got kicked out, and I got to move to the main floor since living in the basement in a room the size of the average broom closet is apparently against Health and Saftey rules.

I don't mind the new digs , despite having to haul all my junk up the stairs alone (that's going to take days). But I talked to the other room mates and apparently a year ago this place got declared illegal and all the roomies were given a months notice and kicked out.

Kicked out. No emergancy housing, just you have a month to find other accomidations, thanks and good night.

I swear if I have to move again I'm abandoning most of my stuff and just getting a big duffle bag for a few changes of cloths. And maybe a bigger computer bag for my lap top. It doesnt' quite squeeze into the current lap top bag I have.

Bought a garbage can and 6$ got me 100 bags for it. Why am I mentioning this ? because I had to help clean up the room I was about to move in , and it was a disgusting stye.  Also ... my own room down in the basement was none too clean ... mostly I admit because I didn't have a garbage an (my fault) and going up those stairs to throw out a bag or two of garbage was just too much in my current state of health (not my fault).

In the news today ...

Lavabit , an encrypted mail service  , got raided by the US Government. They decided to shut down rather than give the guys in jack boots anythings. They also got hit by a hush order, making it illegal for them to say anything. But when you publically state "It is illegal for me to talk about the issue" , and you live inside the united states, it's pretty obvious the united states government is shutting you down.

More disturbing is Silent Text pre-emptively shutting down before the US Government can force them under. Disturbing because their servers are based in canada, not the USA , but they say Canada cooperates way too much with the USA so they're not taking any chances.

Hmm... thats not good to hear.

I went looking for a canadian based mail service. Found a big list, started down it. Ping the mail server, then use a location service ( http://www.iplocation.net/index.php )  to find out where in the world that address where the mail server is.   The five or so I checked were all inside the USA.  So much for trying to get to a mail server outside of the USA.
   I remember when I worked at rogers they actually were hosted on gmail servers, despite the rogers.ca address. And the competition  Bell , were hosted on hotmail servers specially rented for the purpose. Which was a pain since hotmail and gmail were constantly fighting and locking each other out and refusing to accept mail from each other at the time ...

I think we need to petition the Government of Canada to set up some free email servers here in Canada for canadian use. Because sending in the FBI to grab all the email and arrest anyone who doesn't cooperate ? I firmly believe Obama has lost his mind. I really do.

It's going to be interesting, the next two years. That being how long Obama has left to be President of the United States.

Unless they impeach him.

Snowden link to encrypted email service closes

Article

Texas-based Lavabit service has shut down but said legal reasons prevented it explaining why. Correspondents say Lavabit appears to have been in a legal battle to stop US officials accessing customer details. In addition, secure communications firm Silent Circle has shut its email service because messages cannot be kept wholly secret.

What does this mean ?

Well, "Legal Reasons" means the USA Government , since they are based in Texas. It is there for clear that the USA Government has shut them down. It is also clear that the USA Government has muzzled them and threatened them to prevent them from saying why.

Why do we care ?

That the USA is shutting down services it cannot spy on is worrying. That Google, Yahoo, and most of the services we use are USA based is even more worrying. It may be time to start deliberately looking for non-usa providers for ... well...everything.

The part where no one is allowed to say what the USA government is doing or they get tossed in jail is particularly worrisome.

Apparently , USA has become the new Communist Russia. Communist USA, it seems. Throwing in jail all political opponents. Muzzling the press. Oh , and they recently decided to ignore a copyright decision that they lost because it would be bad for their economy.

I don't think we should be trading with these people anymore. I think we need to cut all links.

Seoul hits at Obama’s Apple veto in patent dispute

South Korea’s trade ministry on Monday criticised the US president’s weekend veto of a patent infringement ruling against Apple, expressing “concern over the possible negative impacts that this kind of decision could have on Samsung Electronics’ patent rights”.

Mr Obama vetoed a June ruling by the US International Trade Commission banning a range of Apple devices – which the court ruled had infringed a Samsung patent – from being imported into the US.

So basically , what we have here is the USA saying "we don't care that one of our countries companies is infringing on your copyright. But don't you dare do it to us. "

Aha.

His intervention over the weekend on behalf of Apple in the first case was made because the Samsung patent involved technology that is key to technology standards, potentially giving the South Korean company “undue leverage” in licensing negotiations, according to the reasoning for the veto.

"Technology standards" . In other words, the USA gets to make the standards with their for-profit companies and get that "undue leverage" but other countries do not.

Is it just me , or did US Copyright law just become a club for beating all non-usa companies to death ? I'm sure all the americans are cheering , but I'm not an american.

Basically , the US copyright system can now be ignored , since it is demonstrating a bias in favor of the USA and against everyone else.

MMO Monotization : The not so F2P option

The Top F2P Monetization Tricks

 What is F2P ? It stands for "Free to Play". 

Tanstafl you say ? (Tanstafl = There Aint No Such Thing As a Free Lunch )

You are correct . 


Coercive Monetization
A coercive monetization model depends on the ability to “trick” a person into making a purchase with incomplete information, or by hiding that information such that while it is technically available, the brain of the consumer does not access that information. Hiding a purchase can be as simple as disguising the relationship between the action and the cost as I describe in my Systems of Control in F2P paper.



 It's long. It's complicated. To simplify ... 
Your playing a game, we'll say "Bejeweled" , with slowly increasingly difficult levels. 
This is called a skill game. You need skill to advance.
Suddenly , you reach this level you cannot get past no matter what , but they'll let you "buy" your way past with in game "Jewels" , the game currency. How do you get jewels ? Well, you pay for them. With real cash.  And you get volume discounts, and maybe one or two jewels drop once in a while in game. 

this is called the money game. You need money to advance. 

Money games are tricky. They do everything they can to hide the fact that you're paying real world cash every now and then.  Common tricks are , as I mentioned , volume discounts. Now it's hard to calculate how much real world cash you're paying to get past this "money game" level and back to the skill game. Other tricks include occasionally dropping in game currency (the afore mentioned jewels as an example) but not often enough , you will have a hard hard  road if you don't drop some cash. 

The first purchase is the hardest to get. After that , you are marked as a spender , and from then on , most of the game is the "money game" , difficulty levels now explode to ridiculous levels and the only way to get past any level is to buy your way past, though the game will always advertise there are people who get to the end without paying a dime. This is like a casino advertising it's winners. For every winner there are ten thousand losers. 

Three online MMO's I have played are this kind of "Coersive Monetization" model. They are the Star Trek Online game, Guild Wars 2  , and the new Star Wars The Old Republic has switched to it. And they all use the same mechanism. A box will randomly drop (very frequently randomly) , but you need a key to open it, and that key costs special game currency to buy. (never real world cash , that would trigger a response from the user and you'd realize you're being tricked, always there is an in game currency of some kind) . And inside are random items that are far more powerful than what regularily drops from the mobs you're fighting 

In effect , you can't have the good stuff unless you spend cash. You're a second class user. 

SWTOR is a specially abusive model in that they charge you 15$ a month to unlock anything , and then they still sell these packs full of good stuff that you simply cannot get by just playing the game. So they're collecting from the free to play crowd and they paying customers indiscriminately, thus abusing the people who pay the 15$ / month. 

Different from this is Wow's free to play model. They basically let you play until level 20 for free. And if you want to keep on playing it's 15$ / month and away you go. No packs, no special keys to buy , none of that "coersive monitization" junk . Just an honest "play our game for 15$ / month" , and the guys with the impressive gear got that stuff honestly , by playing , not because they dropped 100$ real money on packs or special keys to unlock f2p treasure and stuff. 

Police given OK to murder Civilians.

Provocative title , you think ?
But It has an unfortunate amount of accuracy to it.

Mountie cleared of perjury charge related to inquiry into Dziekanski taser death 

 

A Mountie accused of lying at the public inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski has been acquitted on a charge of perjury.
The Crown was able to provide only circumstantial evidence to suggest Constable Bill Bentley had willfully concocted a false story, Justice Mark McEwan said in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday.
.
.
.

The Crown had pointed to the Mounties’ similar notes and statements – which contradicted amateur video that later surfaced – as proof the officers had colluded. For example, officers claimed Mr. Dziekanski advanced on them with a stapler before he was stunned and wrestled to the ground, but the video showed no such occurrence.

VIDEO LINK HERE




This cop, one of four, murdered this polish guy at the air port, lied his ass off to cover it up , is publically caught lying his ass off with incontrovertable proof...

And is found innocent of all charges.

Basically , the cops have been given a free ride to lie and murder anyone they like. It's hard to see any other conclusion.
Because that's exactly what they've done here. Murdered some guy , and then made up stories to justify it afterwards. And then got caught red handed. And got turned loose anyways. Free to go , thank you and good night don't bother submitting a second set of lies we don't want to go through this again.

It is the principle of Law that Justice must be seen to be served.
I see no justice here.

US House votes to continue NSA's phone surveillance

 

The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to continue collecting data on US phone calls, in the first legislative move on the programme.

In a 205-217 vote, lawmakers rejected an effort to restrict the National Security Agency's (NSA) ability to collect electronic information.
The NSA's chief had lobbied strongly against the proposed measure.
The vote saw an unusual coalition of conservatives and liberal Democrats join forces against the programme.
The details of the NSA dragnet were made public by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for America's electronic spying agency. He is now a fugitive, seeking asylum in Moscow.

 

 In a 205 - 217 vote  , US Law makers decided to continue to listen in and spy on every phone call , email , chat , skype call , and more , in the entire world. Or at least any such information as they could steal. 

The rest of the world did not get to vote on the matter.

Power Outage July 19 / 2013

Article = none, personal experience

   So I'm at Girlfriends place on Friday , sleeping until three in the afternoon (it's 30 degree's out , major heat wave). Finally get up and take a shower ...

   Thunderstorm. Flickering lights . Darkness.
    Now I'm in the dark ... but the shower is still working we still have water. Where's the soap ? where's ... pretty much anything ? It'd hadn't been dark a moment ago. Get out of the shower , which I hadn't finished, visions of slipping on a bar of soap and killing myself and no one finding me for a week dancing in my head.
   Find some diet cola in the fridge left over from last week sit down on my favorite chair and stare at the blank computer screen.
   No power. No computer . No internet.
   Girlfriend is on the phone talking to a friend. In Tagalog. I have no clue what they're saying. Luckily everyone I know is on cell phones these days. Wind with some kind of unlimited local calling is actually cheaper than a land line.
   We talk about the last power outage. Lasted for days. No no  , Girlfriend assures me. That was when some power company in the states blew a gasket and blamed it all on us. All I remember is getting out of work early and endlessly walking around the building while our bosses tried to decide if they were going to send us home or tough it out and hope the power came back sortly. The stars were very pretty that night long ago. Seeing as how there were no lights near by to drown them out.
   Checked the balcony. The sun was still up , and it was quite cloudy, owing to the thunder storm that had most likely knocked out the power.
   Sat down and watched the rain a bit. Girlfriend was glad I was there since the room mates (who now lived in my room while I lived in a broom closet across town that probably still had power and internet where as her place didn't) were off for the weekend. Camping or some strange thing.
   I phoned my sister in toronto. She was on a wind phone too , so wind to wind call , no charge. We chatted for an hour. She was at work but no one else had shown up so she was sitting at her desk feet up on it relaxing. Or so she told me.
   Talked about our dear sweet father , whom her interest in Geneology had turned up. No idea where that is going. Could be a new friend for life, or he might tell us to bugger off and quit bothering him. Not a clue . This isn't a soap opera, and things don't always have a happy ending in real life.
   Then again in most good soap opera's there rarely is a happy ending either. House MD ended with House's best friend having terminal cancer. Greys Anatomy it's almost traditional by now , season nine, to have some disaster strike and kill someone off at the end of the season (end of september we find out if Richard survives or not... I'm betting not , mostly because I read an online artical saying one of the main actors had asked to be written out of the story , and it was Richard webber on the ground getting electrocuted at the end of the season finale. Could be a fake out though.  )
   Why am I meandering on like this ?
   Blonde Sister (the one in Toronto) doesn't like my blog. She says I sound like a crazy man with issues all over the place. I tell her ... the blog is where I vent.  It's where I can vent in private / public without sounding like a crazy man . So , according to her , I sound like a crazy man on my blog instead.
   Aha. Win some lose some. I'll try to keep the ranting down to a minimum.
   But really. The Americans listening in on every phone call, every email, every skype call, and more ,  in the world ? And their president not only refuses to apologize, but see's nothing wrong with it. Everyone does it , he publically states. Who wouldn't want to rant about that. Am I ranting again ? Sorry.
   Girlfriend decides to take me to dinner, her favorite Buffet across town. She's nice enough to even pay for it , though she tells me she's knocking it off the price of the computer I "sold" her and never got paid for. Apparently I'm being paid in the form of whatever T-Shirts and pants she finds on sale at the Sally Anne , and the occassional night out.
   Win some , lose some. I'm keeping my current lap top though. When Ottawa Housing comes through and gets me a place it's becomeing my new Ubuntu machine, since she has my old one and it just sits on a shelf while she uses my previous main computer.
   On the internet they're constantly taking surveys, for marketting purposes, who's using what operating system. Are you an apple user ? A windows , a linux man ? Statisticians want to know so they can sell the information to advertising agencies who can in turn sell it to computer manufacturers. There's a lot of money on the table for junk like that.
   Do I count as a windows guy or a Linux Guy ? I wonder sometimes...since I like to have one of each at all times (when I get a choice in the matter, when Girlfriend hasn't "liberated" one of my machines" )
   We get home and the powers back on. I remember I promised myself I'd write a blog entry about this , and that I would try to keep the ranting down to a minimum.
   We'll see how it goes.


   

Big Data Asks, "How much can we overcharge you ?"

Study: Firefox users pay less for car insurance than users of other browsers


 "CoverHound deals with several insurance companies to offer side-by-side rate comparisons, but it decided to flip the script and compare something almost as exciting as insurance: it’s users’ choice of web browser.

It found that, on average, Firefox users pay $608 for six months of car insurance, Chrome users pay $731, and Internet Explorer and Safari users pay the same: $750."


So Essentially , business is spying on you, basically which browser and by extension which computer you're using , and deciding they can charge extra if you're on some computers because you seem rich , or you're gullable or something.

Does anything seem wrong with this to you ? Do you suddenly feel like a sucker , a mark waiting to be ripped off , because you don't have the technical expertise to install firefox on your comptuer ? Do you feel ticked because you think insurance, in this case, is looking to take you for a ride ?

Trust me. This is only the beginning of Big Data and it's effect on the general population. Business people will do anything to make a buck. Today they figure what browser you use tells them something worth money , tommorow it will be your picture on face book , or who knows what else. But they're mining , and they're spending millions looking. 

And apparently it's working.

This is why data privacy is so important. You are now being ripped off financially because of violations of your data privacy. And where there's money involved, you can bet they're going to exploit this as far as they can.

France, Spain take action against Google on privacy

Article


(Reuters) - France and Spain led a Europe-wide push on Thursday to get U.S. Internet giant Google to change its policies on collecting user data.
News that the U.S. National Security Agency under the Prism surveillance program secretly gathered user data from nine U.S. companies, including Google, to track people's movements and contacts makes the timing especially sensitive for Google.
France's data protection watchdog (CNIL) said Google had broken French law and gave it three months to change its privacy policies or risk a fine of up to 150,000 euros ($200,000).
Spain's Data Protection Agency (AEPD) told Google it would be fined between 40,000 euros and 300,000 for five violations of the law, that it had failed to be clear about what it did with data, may be processing a "disproportionate" amount and holding onto it for an "undetermined or unjustified" period of time.


 Whoa , this is unexpected. 
 Google is a USA company. It must follow USA laws.  But what happens when those USA laws are in conflict with other nations laws, especially in the area of  Data Privacy  ? Is negotiating with France and Spain actually going to do anything when the USA holds the strings to the puppet and can make them do anything ? 
   How many violations of privacy laws will it take, that Google has no control over it must do , will it take before all USA computer companies start getting banned from providing services to these countries ? One can already immagine local competiters drooling in anticipation of google, yahoo, and the like getting booted out of their little ponds. 
   All thanks to the antics of the USA government. 

   It's a new age out there, a post PRISM age. 
   And it's not Snowdens fault (the guy who leaked the existance of PRISM) because one of the first things any intelligence agency learns is that "two people can keep a secret , but only if one of them is dead" , so they must know that it is inevitable that all secrets eventually come to light. What did they think would happen when people found out you're recording every phone call in the world ? Every email , every facebook posting ?
   This won't be boring , that's for sure. 
 

he EU is demanding assurances that Europeans are not having their rights infringed by a massive US surveillance programme.

Article

The EU is demanding assurances that Europeans are not having their rights infringed by a massive US surveillance programme.
Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding plans to raise the concerns with US Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday.
Last week a series of leaks by a former CIA worker led to claims the US had a vast surveillance network with much less oversight than previously thought.
The US insists its snooping is legal under domestic law.

 Let me take a moment to answer the EU's concerns , and the rest of the worlds concerns, in this matter. 
1.  The USA assures us that under their own laws that they get to make up , that say anything they want them to say , they are acting in a perfectly legal manner.
2. The USA assures us that the "traiter" who let everyone know that the USA was lying proflifically to everyone in the world will be prosecuted to the full extent of any law the USA may have already invented out of thin air , or might invent in the future. It is their intention to make this guy an example to all , just like they're doing to the wikileaks guy , that they will not tolerate being caught laying, not by anyone.
3. The USA will now give you the usual lies , I mean assurances , that this will never happen again and you're all perfectly safe and shouldn't worry about it.
4. No , the USA will not consider simply telling everyone in the world "We're spying on you all. If you're a terrorist , your only option for secure communications is a network of carrier pidgeons. " despite the fact that this is probably the truth.
5. It is unlikely that Obama , or any us president , will understand how a person screened for loyalty to the USA , who is specially selected for his desire to protect and defend his country , who truely believes in the ideals of his country (freedom , and privacy in particular) could ever betray them just because they've sold their countries morals down the river for short term gain.

In closing, I'd like to paraphrase President Obama.
"Don't worry , be happy. No one is listening in on all your phone calls. "


 

Internet at Home

Article = none, personal experience

Ok, it turns out my land lady doesn't have camera's everywhere spying on us through the internet. Apparently there was an outage a week or so ago , and I heard the other residence in the hall talking about how "a lot of people depend on that router for their internet".

Take that with her comment about how expensive internet is , and a quick peek at the rogers internet page shows it's 10$ / gigabyte for overages , and she was talking about how she was paying a lot of overages ... yeah she just doesn't want any new users on her modem. It's too expensive.

My phone has internet , they charge me 8$  / month for it. I phoned them up and they said it was a five gigabyte limit. (apparently "unlimited" internet is pretty limited). 

Yes , I'd tried my phone before at my old place, my brothers basement. I got cut off every five minutes. But here at my new place on the other side of town , or should I say NOT on the very edge of Ottawa where if you walk across the street to the shopping mall and try to go behind it you find nothing but trees for the next one hundred kilometers , reception is considerably improved. I can actually hold a steady connection and play for two hours at a time.

Installing World of Warcraft is 22 gigabytes , I had to bring my lap top over to a friends place and use their connection , but after I got it going , a week of fairly steady playing was only 240 megabytes , less than a quarter of one gigabyte.

Good enough.

Guess I'm online again.

Stupid Salesmen Tricks

Article = none , personal experience


Ok. I got on disability , finally , and they sent me a nice big check , a double sized one actually , and then some. So I did a little shoping and I got myself an android phone.

And that was not a nice story.

The bottom of the line phone is 139$ and they were out of stock. And they weren't interested in selling me the demo model that they had on display. There was a 200$ one , but I was feeling pretty robbed because they were displaying a phone they didn't actually have for sale , the old bait and switch game.

So I hopped on a bus and I went over to the next shopping mall along the transit way (3 minute ride) and thought I'd try it again.

Big mistake.

The guy played me like a fish. Promised a big discount no problem , let me handle the phone and play with it , showed me a few tricks on it. Then suddenly he didn't know how to enter the discount in his computer. And no he wouldn't give me a rain check , he had to phone his manager for that and he already tried twice ....

... and I remember walking by this joker in the shopping mall a few weeks earlier, and he was explaining to a new salesman about how you con people , phone your own home phone because you know no one will answer (you're there at work) , say you can't work the computer what are they going to do ? You can't let them touch it can you ?

I knew he was doing it, but I had my heart set on a new phone , and I'd already been at this a few hours bouncing around... so I caved in and payed the full price.

Honestly , 200$ + tax isn't a bad price for the phone I got , but it's the principle that I got conned  , that's what ticks me off.

It's a Huawei U8681 running Android 4.0.3 and it has 2 gigs of ram (well , it reports 1.98 ... close enough) and it cost 200$ , 236$ when all was said and done.

I hate the stunts salesmen pull... but I see this phone or phones like it for 400$ or more at other stores ...

My New Dibbs

Article = none , personal experience

Moved out of my brothers basement (his wife hates me ) , or was forced out , after the landlord started in on renovations and the place was literally unlivable. Hit Kijiji and after a week or so got lucky and found a place up on Hunt Club.

Place is a large closet.

Judging by the fresh drywall and tiny closet doors everywhere, the luxury three bed room house had been converted into an eight bedroom room rooming house. Eight tiny bedrooms. As in don't bother buying a box spring for your mattress you'll never get it down the stairs into the basement (where my room is)

The room is 7' x 9' and 7' tall.
There's no internet because the landlord has the internet by Bell and is using it to "monitor temperature alarms" or so she says. I wouldn't put it past her to have audio bugs in the house, but thats illegal she'll never admit to that. And besides, after looking over my neibours , I don't really trust them and I wouldn't blame her a bit.

I got a fold up lawn chair , I looked all over for a tag for a weight limit (I'm about 300lbs), couldn't find one. Openned it up and sat down on it at walmart before buying it. No problem holds my weight nicely.

Got it home , openned it up ... whats this tag ? 225lbs maximum weight.

Sheesh. I put a milk crate under it and a big cushion , so that would take the weight and not the chair.

Got a little fold out table for my lap top , but no internet. My phone has internet , but the lap top is Linux and won't recognize the phone. I'm going to have to turn it back into a windows machine eventually , it seems , for the duration. (It's ok to do that on a wind phone, but bell or rogers or telus will charge you extra for using your phone as a modem , a lot extra)

The duration ?

Application is in at Ontario Housing for a rent to income place (bachelar pad or one bedroom) and disability should give me an answer end of april whether I qualify or not (I hope so , I sent enough test results from the doctor in , and there was another guy in the waiting room who also had Chrones Disease and he was on disability )

Hopefully in a year or two I get the rent to income house and disability and it's early retirement time.

Some people say they'd go crazy if they didn't work. But truthfully , I don't think I've ever had a job that mattered much to anyone. Security guard. Telephone tech support for computers and later cell phones, computer programmer. I liked computer programmer , but they decided Quebec needed more jobs and move the whole (government) contract to Quebec , and the little firm I was working for suddenly didn't need me anymore.

How can anyone love a job where they treat you like dirt and toss you out the door at the first opportunity ?

I'm going to pick up my piano lessons and start a band. I'm not actually going to travel , not with my bad belly , I'm just going to upload stuff to youtube.  We'll see how that goes.

Why My Privacy Is Important To Me

Article = none , personal opinion.

There's been a lot of talk about online privacy , or the lack there of , the recent c-30 bill that was killed that would have given canadian police the right to basically spy on anyone any place , any time.

And there is that tired old argument that still gets traction in some corners, you know, "If you have nothing to hide , you have nothing to fear from the police watching you. "

I'd just like to say a few words about why I value my privacy.

I don't want to receive coupons on my phone about the great sale the pizza place I'm currently walking by is having.

I don't want to find out ten credit cards were openned, in my name  and now the companies aim to collect thousands of dollars from me , money I don't have, or they'll wreck my credit rating.

My boss doesn't need to know which political party I voted for, and doesn't need the ability to insure that I voted for his party or he'll demote / fire me.  Same deal with which religion I believe in.

I don't need a team of psychologists going over my "data profile" and deciding when would be the best time to hit me with a sales pitch , when would I be weakest , what would really cinch the deal to buy their piece of junk.

I certainly don't need such a "data profile" being even gathered in the first place.

I don't need some salesman to find out what my girlfriends phone number is , and then bollux my call display so it looks like she's calling when it's really a sales pitch.

I don't like talking to machines. I especially don't like talking to machines that phone a thousand people an hour and ask personal questions they have no business asking.

I don't need some computer to find out which ailments I have and send off ten thousand bogus homeopathic recipies that will "cure" what ails me please have your credit card ready.

Microsoft has no business knowing that my lap top is running Linux , even while my main machine continues to run Windows. I don't need bill gates to decide to "punish" me for my customer disloyalty.

I'm not intersted in that collect phone call from my brother Tom who's in the carribian and desperately needs a thousand dollars cash right now. Tom died about ten years ago , by the way , so I'm pretty sure it's a scam.

I don't think the grocery store has any business asking for my postal code and refusing to serve me if I don't give it. I don't need the flyers landing in my mailbox, I'm trying hard to get rid of the last batch.

I don't need Rogers to come knocking on my door , kick me out of bed because its VERY IMPORTANT , ask one question about how my internet is doing , and then launch into a sales pitch.

I don't need the rogers sales person freaking out when they come back three months later and I slam the door in their face because they already pulled that one on me once before.

I'm not intersted in receiving a letter from the local hospital stating that "Dear ...OTTAWABOY... we heard about your recent stay in our hospital for INSERTDISEASE-X , but you have to understand that in order for our facilities to stay open we are asking for donations ..."

I find it desgusting that every contract I am forced to sign against my will includes the clause "... we will not share your personal information with anyone except our business parters and associates and representatives , affiliates ... " because that basically means they will sell your information to any idiot on the street with two pennies to rub together.

I am actually upset that when I bought my first Dell Computer , Sympatico phoned me up knowing all the details and tried to sell me a dsl modem. I said no , no NO ! NOOO ! and one arrived in the mail a few days later anyways. It took two hours on the phone to cancel the account I never wanted , and another hour a few days later to pack up the modem in a box they mailed me and carry it across the street to mail it back. ... Three months later they sent me another one. I refused to touch it and told the post man holding it to return to sender I refuse delivery.

I am upset that the last time I applied for a job they demanded my facebook page and password so they could snoop around on it and see if I was the kind of person they wanted to hire.

I'm even more upset when I told them a) I don't have a face book account , b) I want my resume back because I don't want to work in such a place , and c) they kept my resume anyways so they could show their client what kind of people worked for them, even though I'd just told them I don't want to work for them. Their instinctive reaction of "What's on your facebook page that you're hiding " just ticked me off even more. Is everyone a criminal who doesn't want to recieve endless spam ? Apparently so.

(edit : Feb 18)  A british bank clerk noticed "The CEO makes 7000 pounds an hour , I make only 7. That's fair. " on face book. She got fired for it.

A Canadian Woman suing her employer for depression put up a picture where she had smiled for the camera. The Insurance company decided she didn't look depressed , and denied her claim.

  

Manufacturing jobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zls4tdDwFo

Remember long ago , we used to manufacture our own stuff ? Before all the jobs got shipped over seas to those dollar a day places like china  ?

Those jobs are coming back !

Oops, I mispoke myself. The jobs are not coming back. The manufacturing is coming back.

It's called 3D printing, and basically a box the size of an end table plugs into your computer and "prints" three diminsional objects. 

Think star trek replicator.

I am looking around the living room, and what do I see ? A plate, a fork (ok, I ate at the computer) a fold out table, cheap furnature (I'm on a budget , all right ? ) my girlfriend has a shelving unit full of knick knacks ...

Most of this stuff could be made by a 3D printer.

What do I really see that cannot be made by a 3D printer ? The guts of a cell phone. It can do the case, but  not the guts. The socket and switch part of a lamp , and the electrical cord. The bulk of the lamp it can do.

I look at a shelving unit and I remember it cost 50 bucks. Blowing thirty dollars on the colored "goo" a 3D printer will use to make a shelving unit seems ... a bargain. Especially since I don't have to pay for taxi fare to haul the thing home.

Picture frames , and pictures litter up this living room. A regular cheap under a hundred dollars printer for the pictures , and a 3D printer for the picture frames will cover that.

I'm not saying rush out and buy one today , they're still $1,300 .

But the last time I checked on them they were $20,000 . Hmm... thats quite the price drop.

Sewing machines snuck up on us you know. They're already here. Under $100 at walmart , cheap material everywhere. Heck I'm not even talking making your own cloths, just taking it in if it's a little loose, hemming your own pants, sewing on a patch over that rip , things like that.

Lap top computers are down to $235 according to my last trip to the electronics store . Thats a brand new lap top as well. Plug in some speakers ... forget about a stereo system. My friend bought a $1200 stereo system when we were young , I limped along with a $310 unit from the local discount store.

And internet is less than 50$ a month for unlimited here in Canada. Stay away from Rogers and Bell and Telus , look for those tiny DSL providers. Their service is terrible ,you'll wait a long time on hold , but the price is so cheap ($42 + tax = $47 for Primus here in ottawa) and once you get it set up I've never seen it go down for more than  a few hours a month.

Looking into my rather fuzzy , but still somewhat accurate crystal ball , I see that my home will eventually contain ...

...A cheap lap top playing music, and Television shows streaming from internet sites (such sites already exist , by the way)
... maybe you splurged and got the 80$ speaker set I got for my computer. Maybe you didn't and can live with the 20$ set most people get.
... A 2D printer for making pretty pictures
... A 3D printer for making trinkets, picture frames, cases, boxes, dishes, cutlery, cups, umpteen zillion other things.
... a small number of pre-built pieces of furnature that were cheaper to buy than 3D print.
... a cheap sewing machine in the corner on a table for those quick repairs. maybe you'll get into larger projects like making your own cloths, maybe just hemming your pants and patching the odd rip is all the work it will ever see. Whatever, it's dirt cheap for one and the dang things last for decades. Decades of heavy use. Occasional use you will more likely lose it in a fire or a divorce than have it actually break down.
... a "3d goo" recycling device , to shred your 3d printed objects and turn it back into goo , and make something else out of it. (and round and round it goes...)

The Evilness of Linux Repositories

Ah that first blog of the new year. What shall we blog about ? Winter ? Roads ? Bad weather ?

blah.

Lets blog about Linux.

Which by the way I am on (my old lap top) at the moment.

So , what is a Linux Repository and why is it so evil , you are asking ? You know how on windows you can download programs from any site you like ? Linux you can't do that.

Instead, you have a couple of "Repositories" that hold all the vetted (and free of charge) Linux programs you could hope for. All in one place. And there in lies the problem .

What if someone made a commercial version of Linux, say if ubuntu kicked Windows to the curb and took over ? And the owners , who ever they may be in the end after what I have no doubt will be numerous sell offs and branches of the operating system being made, decided to make a profit by selling access to their repository only , and you weren't allowed access to anyone elses repository.

With me so far ? What if Windows openned a "Windows Online Store" for software ,  on their new Windows 8 system, and you could only buy from that store , no where else ? They'd jack up the prices really high , wouldn't they  ?

Linux isn't really that bad, it should be mentioned there are ways to add new repositories to the list , effectively allowing another store on your computer for you to buy from.  But it's annoying , and involves copying and pasting long command lines, and is really unfriendly.

A tool to make adding a new repository a snap would be pretty cool .

The problem with repositories, or online stores, is that hackers will seek to shut them down with the inevitable ddos (distributed denial of service attack) possibly even demanding money to let up. Which never works of course because if you actually pay such a ransom 10 other hacker groups will promptly shut you down again and demand their ransoms as well.

Repositories are a bad business model all around. Bad for the user because it essentially creates vender lock in , which will triple (or more) all prices, and because they're too hackable. If Linux ever goes mainstream , those repositories will become a huge target for hackers. Take down half the computers in the world by shutting down one site ? What hacker could resist that ?