On a somewhat sad note of the times, of which I don't want or mean to start a TD type discussion, I feel a bit "Kimmeled" (c) DougAz 2025.
Nowhere in my life's timeline have I felt any pang of concern that I, a self-Defenestrates conservative, now modest Liberal, was considered a bit persona' non gratis. Unwelcome to coexistence with all the Rights of Man and Independence here in the United States of America 🇺🇸
It's not a major or even minor concern per se. Yet, it has become something tangible.
Just wanted to express some personal thoughts about our current macro US environment.
I must follow this up with IF there was government coercion, I cannot support his removal. If the network did it because they found his statements abhorrent, then no opposition.
I haven't ever watched any (either?) of the Jimmy's late night blabfests. One might think that those in charge might be smart enough to not make utterly unnecessary commentary about a horrifically tragic event....but, one would be wrong in thinking that.
Jimmy Kimmel made what most of us would call insensitive remarks about the Charlie Kirk shooting, and Donald Trump specifically. Poor taste. But from comedians, not unheard of. But ABC, supposedly under pressure, chose to suspend Kimmel's program.
A "cure" far worse than the disease. And in the aftermath of Stephen Colbert's cancellation, fears of Trumpian censorship.
It's ironic that the same people who have complained for years about "cancel culture" and "online censorship" are now actively embracing the silencing of various voices that they don't like.
Comedians have always pushed the envelope, even going to jail for violating various obscenity laws in place during their times.
The First Amendment was created for a reason, at a time when the people who created it could still remember tmes when printing presses were destroyed and their operators imprisoned for publishing tracts critical of the King.
"'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!" was an important principle back then.
I agree. It's all of the same cloth, though. Dumb comedians (no, not everything can be joked about in the immediate aftermath), dumb network exec's, incredibly dumb writers, dumb pols...
And of course it's Trumpian censorship. We're just getting started on the stupidities with Trump. It's going to get much worse. And dumber.
Thanks! Interesting. But so many acronyms to try to figure out! Now, could someone please translate that into a language a digital ignoramus can follow.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Thor's Day! D and I are working at the food warehouse this morning, my favorite thing. Maybe I'll have time after that to pick up more mulch for the front flowerbeds, which were devastated by the construction.
I worked in at least two sweatshops in my younger days. Although some of those jobs were in the service of paying for college so I could eventually wear a suit and tie rather than overalls. It didn't kill me, but at the time I thought it might ;)
I think a little Dickensian sweatshop would be a good thing for a lot of modern youth. They feel dreadfully oppressed when they have to get out of bed, brush their teeth, eat breakfast, etc.
All the work I did as a kid... and large amounts as an adult...would now qualify as sweatshop or sweatshop adjacent.
I was just reading something about Gen Z (that's the youngest group, no?) not working. No one works. If we're in a contest with China, which we apparently are, I've got some news for America. Chinese kids work. Like...get the current job done and then ask if there's anything else they can do because there's 3 minutes left on the clock...work.
Good morning. 55 degrees now, with highs in the 80s, hot and sunny. Summer weather even as summer is about to end in a few days.
The mothership is reporting on the Fed cutting interest rates (which Trump had been pressuring them to do). The FP reports on asylum seekers being arrested and deported as they appear in court for their hearings.
For anyone worried about their ISP and privacy I have 3 letters - VPN.
He explains why a VPN is the same as an ISP: Whatever info you reveal to the one you also reveal to the other. The question is which you trust more.
Most of the explanation, though, has rather good news. Very little that you transmit beyond the first DNS lookup is visible to anyone but you and the system you’re corresponding with.
Dave's point about VPNs is that you are simply trading one party that can see your DNS requests (your ISP) for another (your VON provider). While that is true (unless you change your DNS settings and/or use encrypted DNS), there is still a difference.
My ISP knows my name, my address, and my SSN (which they have only because I used to work for them years ago, but most ISPs insist on that for credit screening).
In contrast, all my VPN provider (Proton VPN) knows about me is my login name/password and my email address. I pay them with cryptocurrency (several VPNs take it), which is anonymous, unlike a credit card. So my VPN can profile me all they want. That data is unlikely to lead back to me.
I watched the video. A pretty techy video, that at times I had trouble keeping up with. But quite accurate, and very insightful as to how customer data is mined with what I would call "kinda sorta" anonimyzing that can still identify specific devices.
As he says, most actual content is secured. Most web browsing is not to "HTTPS" URLs, which means they are encrypted. Most email is likewise encrypted in trtansit. (I use a custom DNS domain, and an email provider that supports encrypted SMTP transmission, but Goole, Yahoo, etc encrypt as well).
The main thing he pointed out, which I had not realized, was DNS, which reveals what websites you access. By default, your ISP sets those for you, unless you specify DNS providers (and he mentions a couple of public providers. He also mentions enryoted DNS, which I am not familiar with. Or -- if you're a real techie, you could run your own DNS resolver on your home network, whish is as secure as your home devices.
I'll mention VPNs in a separate post, since this one is already long.
I pay a lot of money for my (multiple) VPN's. All VPN's are not created equal. Sure, someone out there in VPN land knows what I'm doing, but it's not monetized as unsecure browsing is.
Now that I am retired I do nothing that requires a VPN anymore. I have dropped all my VPN subscriptions. In addition, my home ISP is through our local telephone Co-op. The upside is that I doubt anyone even knows of my ISP's existence. The downside is that even on fiber my speeds are slow. I know the techs at our co-op and I'm pretty sure they don't have the infrastructure to track anyone, or the ability or desire to do so. I read a lot of tech forums and I don't have the problems some people do with their ISP's doing weird things.
Curated irrelevance...there's a lot to unpack there. In China, good friends and most acquaintances of mine have a remarkable ability to engage in unapproved behaviors by carefully curating and projecting irrelevance. It's like an invisibility cloak. You're there, but no one sees you.
Of all the things misrepresented in Western narratives, the social credit score has gotta be in the top 5 misrepresentations. There have been some actions against anti social people and their behaviors (listing nonpayment of child support, continued petty theft, continued motor vehicle violations, etc.) including but not limited to can't buy a train or subway ticket, can't get an airline ticket...but enforcement and general support and usage by the Party has been minimal and waning, and there's public calls for its application on minor antisocial behaviors. People aren't necessarily upset by it.
Life in China is hard. Harder than Americans can grasp. Something like a social credit score isn't even on most people's radar, and lots of people think it's OK. If one reads about the social credit score in WSJ, NYT, or those other entities....they use Chinese journalist with Chinese names to imbue their misrepresentations and nonsense with gravitas and cachet it does not deserve.
A friend of my younger son took a job at PayPal. We were all at a soccer match and I asked him if I should just give him my Amex card number and other information. He smiled and said, "No need. We already have it." We laughed and laughed...🙁
"It's those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes / Nothing remains quite the same / With all of our running and all of our cunning / If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane"
On a somewhat sad note of the times, of which I don't want or mean to start a TD type discussion, I feel a bit "Kimmeled" (c) DougAz 2025.
Nowhere in my life's timeline have I felt any pang of concern that I, a self-Defenestrates conservative, now modest Liberal, was considered a bit persona' non gratis. Unwelcome to coexistence with all the Rights of Man and Independence here in the United States of America 🇺🇸
It's not a major or even minor concern per se. Yet, it has become something tangible.
Just wanted to express some personal thoughts about our current macro US environment.
Love yall 💓
My day, no my week, heck let’s go for year….has been made. Vile human. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2025/09/17/jimmy-kimmel-live-suspended-charlie-kirk-comments/86209499007/#
I must follow this up with IF there was government coercion, I cannot support his removal. If the network did it because they found his statements abhorrent, then no opposition.
I haven't ever watched any (either?) of the Jimmy's late night blabfests. One might think that those in charge might be smart enough to not make utterly unnecessary commentary about a horrifically tragic event....but, one would be wrong in thinking that.
No loss, near as I can tell.
I just read about what's his face...one of the Jimmys...getting pulled off the air. That's wild.
Jimmy Kimmel made what most of us would call insensitive remarks about the Charlie Kirk shooting, and Donald Trump specifically. Poor taste. But from comedians, not unheard of. But ABC, supposedly under pressure, chose to suspend Kimmel's program.
A "cure" far worse than the disease. And in the aftermath of Stephen Colbert's cancellation, fears of Trumpian censorship.
It's ironic that the same people who have complained for years about "cancel culture" and "online censorship" are now actively embracing the silencing of various voices that they don't like.
Comedians have always pushed the envelope, even going to jail for violating various obscenity laws in place during their times.
The First Amendment was created for a reason, at a time when the people who created it could still remember tmes when printing presses were destroyed and their operators imprisoned for publishing tracts critical of the King.
"'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!" was an important principle back then.
I agree. It's all of the same cloth, though. Dumb comedians (no, not everything can be joked about in the immediate aftermath), dumb network exec's, incredibly dumb writers, dumb pols...
And of course it's Trumpian censorship. We're just getting started on the stupidities with Trump. It's going to get much worse. And dumber.
Good morning! Last night I dreamed I saw a manul on the backyard.
That sounds like a good omen.
Manul!!! ("on", or "in"...?)
Argh. In.
"On" works, but it's odd.
Thanks! Interesting. But so many acronyms to try to figure out! Now, could someone please translate that into a language a digital ignoramus can follow.
In the battle of the worst acronyms, it’s a tight race between the computer tech industry and the military.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Thor's Day! D and I are working at the food warehouse this morning, my favorite thing. Maybe I'll have time after that to pick up more mulch for the front flowerbeds, which were devastated by the construction.
Morning. So glad the Dickensian sweatshops of yore are now a distant memory!
I worked in at least two sweatshops in my younger days. Although some of those jobs were in the service of paying for college so I could eventually wear a suit and tie rather than overalls. It didn't kill me, but at the time I thought it might ;)
I think a little Dickensian sweatshop would be a good thing for a lot of modern youth. They feel dreadfully oppressed when they have to get out of bed, brush their teeth, eat breakfast, etc.
amen to that
All the work I did as a kid... and large amounts as an adult...would now qualify as sweatshop or sweatshop adjacent.
I was just reading something about Gen Z (that's the youngest group, no?) not working. No one works. If we're in a contest with China, which we apparently are, I've got some news for America. Chinese kids work. Like...get the current job done and then ask if there's anything else they can do because there's 3 minutes left on the clock...work.
It's one of the reasons I like China. They work.
Gone are the days when you could threaten to sell them to a passing carnival for failing to complete their chores.
Or even a caravan of Midianites.
I had to look up "Midianites". Spell checker sez midianites is spelled wrong.
Maybe they meant "Medianites"...people that live in the middle.
The Midianites are a people tangentially related to the Israelites.
Still: preferable to the Milorganites (literally full of crap) or the Hellgramites (vicious predators).
Good morning. 55 degrees now, with highs in the 80s, hot and sunny. Summer weather even as summer is about to end in a few days.
The mothership is reporting on the Fed cutting interest rates (which Trump had been pressuring them to do). The FP reports on asylum seekers being arrested and deported as they appear in court for their hearings.
For anyone worried about their ISP and privacy I have 3 letters - VPN.
Right.
He explains why a VPN is the same as an ISP: Whatever info you reveal to the one you also reveal to the other. The question is which you trust more.
Most of the explanation, though, has rather good news. Very little that you transmit beyond the first DNS lookup is visible to anyone but you and the system you’re corresponding with.
Dave's point about VPNs is that you are simply trading one party that can see your DNS requests (your ISP) for another (your VON provider). While that is true (unless you change your DNS settings and/or use encrypted DNS), there is still a difference.
My ISP knows my name, my address, and my SSN (which they have only because I used to work for them years ago, but most ISPs insist on that for credit screening).
In contrast, all my VPN provider (Proton VPN) knows about me is my login name/password and my email address. I pay them with cryptocurrency (several VPNs take it), which is anonymous, unlike a credit card. So my VPN can profile me all they want. That data is unlikely to lead back to me.
Of course, as they say, "your mileage may vary".
I watched the video. A pretty techy video, that at times I had trouble keeping up with. But quite accurate, and very insightful as to how customer data is mined with what I would call "kinda sorta" anonimyzing that can still identify specific devices.
As he says, most actual content is secured. Most web browsing is not to "HTTPS" URLs, which means they are encrypted. Most email is likewise encrypted in trtansit. (I use a custom DNS domain, and an email provider that supports encrypted SMTP transmission, but Goole, Yahoo, etc encrypt as well).
The main thing he pointed out, which I had not realized, was DNS, which reveals what websites you access. By default, your ISP sets those for you, unless you specify DNS providers (and he mentions a couple of public providers. He also mentions enryoted DNS, which I am not familiar with. Or -- if you're a real techie, you could run your own DNS resolver on your home network, whish is as secure as your home devices.
I'll mention VPNs in a separate post, since this one is already long.
I pay a lot of money for my (multiple) VPN's. All VPN's are not created equal. Sure, someone out there in VPN land knows what I'm doing, but it's not monetized as unsecure browsing is.
Now that I am retired I do nothing that requires a VPN anymore. I have dropped all my VPN subscriptions. In addition, my home ISP is through our local telephone Co-op. The upside is that I doubt anyone even knows of my ISP's existence. The downside is that even on fiber my speeds are slow. I know the techs at our co-op and I'm pretty sure they don't have the infrastructure to track anyone, or the ability or desire to do so. I read a lot of tech forums and I don't have the problems some people do with their ISP's doing weird things.
For privacy, I rely on being irrelevant.
I rely on my nonownership of a smartphone and my avoidance of most social media. (Also on the scam detector in my head.)
Someone, somewhere is interested in you. 🙂
Curated irrelevance...there's a lot to unpack there. In China, good friends and most acquaintances of mine have a remarkable ability to engage in unapproved behaviors by carefully curating and projecting irrelevance. It's like an invisibility cloak. You're there, but no one sees you.
PR China's "social scoring" sounds like the surveillance web marketers do, but on steroids.
Interesting concept, "projecting irrelevance".
Of all the things misrepresented in Western narratives, the social credit score has gotta be in the top 5 misrepresentations. There have been some actions against anti social people and their behaviors (listing nonpayment of child support, continued petty theft, continued motor vehicle violations, etc.) including but not limited to can't buy a train or subway ticket, can't get an airline ticket...but enforcement and general support and usage by the Party has been minimal and waning, and there's public calls for its application on minor antisocial behaviors. People aren't necessarily upset by it.
Life in China is hard. Harder than Americans can grasp. Something like a social credit score isn't even on most people's radar, and lots of people think it's OK. If one reads about the social credit score in WSJ, NYT, or those other entities....they use Chinese journalist with Chinese names to imbue their misrepresentations and nonsense with gravitas and cachet it does not deserve.
I rely on being boring.
哈哈哈哈。。。that's funny.
I ran those characters through Google Translate: "Ha ha ha ha"
Good man.
I keep coming back to this. It's perfect, because it's funny and true.
BINGO! I knew you were smart. Carefully curating one's online presence is the key.
I like cat pictures and flower pictures.
That's a good way to become invisible.
A friend of my younger son took a job at PayPal. We were all at a soccer match and I asked him if I should just give him my Amex card number and other information. He smiled and said, "No need. We already have it." We laughed and laughed...🙁
NFTs are another thing. You should forget Karl Malden’s advice and definitely leave home without it.
https://youtu.be/hkjjngxZmnI?si=XhOghVcvs-iwpuRu
To slightly change an aphorism: Beyond a certain degree of sophistication, finance is indistinguishable from magic.
This is proven
It's all manipulated abstractions.
I’d believe that.
If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.
short trip for me.
😀
"It's those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes / Nothing remains quite the same / With all of our running and all of our cunning / If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane"
Philosophy from Jimmy Buffett as good as any.
Why can't we do both?
You mean, we don’t already?
I like the way you think.