Posts by fraunthall

Reply to the thumbs down brigade of of Marxist/Socialists

I know the UK is loaded with labourites and other members of the Marxist/Socialist Brigades. If a thumbs down is the best you can do, you may as well hang yourself as well as your pencil.

By a CG (computer Geek) older than all of you out there - got a good story that applies to so many

Everything I have read about Gen XYZ, Millenials and others of similar ilk makes me glad I don't have too many years left on this world.

No, I am not unwell, just appalled and disappointed about how many of said ilk are useless as employees and super ignorant.

I taught classes at a local university related to the History of Law as it developed from the Roman Empire onwards and culminating in both the Napoleonic Code and British Common Law. I was not teaching law students.

Most of my younger students took the class I taught because they mistakenly thought it would be an easy one to add to their B.A. programs, and that they'd ace the class by passing the usual exams using multiple choice and true or false questions.

They were surprised when I insisted on them actually writing Essays (Horrors!) in English instead of the usual exams during the semester and semester-closing take-home exams requiring essays demonstrating an understanding of every aspect of the subject matter I tried to teach them.

They were lazy, privileged, pampered and entitled 'precious' children, made that way by their parents and all too many 'teaching' academics.

I suspect that applies to many of the people this article describes.

Woe is our society!

Evernote's Demise

I re-considered Evernote recently because I haven't used it for so long. If I remember correctly it offered some useful means of sending full notes to other people, but I can't recall if it emulated FTP in some way.

Nevertheless, I found a freeware Windows App called NotesMan. I like it a lot. See the following 2 search results:

Download NotesMan - MajorGeeks

NotesMan is a simple, open-source, note-taking manager for Windows. NotesMan is a portable app, so you can always take it with you or easily back up the app. NotesMan can take multiple notes. You begin by clicking Add and naming your note. From there, it's as straightforward as editing any text document.

https://www.ghacks.net › 2020 › 09 › 04 › notesman-is-a-simple-and-open-source-note-taking-program-that-supports-autosave

NotesMan is a simple and open source note taking program that supports ...

NotesMan is a portable application. It is an open source tool written in Pascal. Aside from the lack of a warning about unsaved content, NotesMan is pretty good. The clutter-free GUI is nice, though it does come at the cost of the program being too simple.

Once I found NotesMan I gave up looking further. The portable app option is a good one for me. It is pretty simple to back up your notes.

Cheers to all and have a good Christmas in Europe (if that is possible).

Fraunt Hall in the frozen wilds of Western Canada

Delusional Thinking Rules

Here we go again, dancing around the mulberry bush.

As usual, the fools and nincompoops who want a fast transition to electric vehicles have not paid any attention to the availability of the materials needed to support a move to non-petroleum-based transportation energy needs, such as copper and other metals that are needed to accomplish their delusional aims.

Why would the the misguided climate idiots think about practical matters? All that matters to them is what they want.

Most politicians and their equally ignorant advisers and activist supporters have no concept of the impact of reality on their dreams and ideas.

They get an idea, which sounds wonderful, but is not based on any background knowledge or understanding, except for the fantasies they love, and ignore the rest. Facts and evidence are never considered. It is all wishfull and fantasy thinking.

This is pure fascism. Almost every sentient (some are not truly sentient) poly-sci academics appeared at one time to understand that fascism is attained in a society when huge corporate powers unite with the huge bureaucratic administrative state apparatus and compliant vicious, human hating politicians to take absolute and arbitrary power over all humanity.

George Orwell saw it coming and wrote about in his book 1984. The current incarnation of this is happening now. The opportunities of the great Pandemic opened up many opportunities to help make it happen.

It is in full flower in the ideas of Globalization, the personalities of monsters like George Soros and WEF, notions of Climate change and global warming, the rule of the mindless monsters such as Joe Biden and his Demorats, Turdo and his Liberals, and countless other fascists now infesting and destroying humanity. Welcome to it you hopeless, ignorant, mindless mass of idiots who have helped to bring it on.

Why Bill Gates?

Why anybody should listen to Bill Gates anymore than they listen to Joe Shmo from Kokomo is beyond me. I met him at a San Francisco Computer Fair in 1987 when all he had was a small pot to pee in, worked out of the equivalent of a garage, had a DOS-based operating system he’d purchased from some shmuck, and had been involved in creating and trying to market an assembly language application. He was like a few hundred other nerds trying to bust into the upcoming micro-computer business and, to his credit, he made it when he struck it lucky with IBM.

As a guru who thinks he is worth listening to, he leaves a lot to be desired , and was much less talented than many of the worthies who were heads and shoulders above him in brains, programming talent and imagination back in 1987. Like many entrepreneurs, or actors, music performers, luck and persistence has much more to do with a person’s success than talent.

Why should we listen to him about something he obviously knows very little about – climate change. That is perfectly obvious to anyone with a brain they actually use instead of stuff with nonsense.

Funny - good comment

Great comments on the idiocy of online 'meetings'. The most I've ever hosted was 4 partici-pants. Even that many was too many. The saving grace is that the host can mute partici-pants. You can't do that so easily in person.

Just before hosting a family 'meeting' I called 2 friends at their home. We each used a portable (not a cell) phone and had a great call that lasted nearly an hour. No need to see their faces. It seems people are used to talking one at a time on the phone and behave much more courteously. Much better. I don't see video meetings as progress at all. Its a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

I hope everyone can have a Happy New Year despite the Covid-19 attack.

Every Day and every way, Britain Reveals Itself as More and More Fascistic

Your "Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000" law reveals just how fascistic and totalitarian Britain has become. Combine this with the constant video surveillance of all aspects of British life outside of their toilets ( and even there, I'm not confident any privacy is permitted) and other Big State spying on people without just and valid cause by your governments, police and military establishments very clearly demonstrates that the National Socialists and Herr Hitler truly won the 2nd World War in Europe. Don't worry too much, however, as these fascist tendencies are infecting and infesting every other country in the world that once would have been relatively truthfully been called democracies. There is no where to go to escape it. It is completely irrelevant that this person that was hauled before the courts was a right-wing twit - the other right-wing and left-wing twits in charge of the country are no better, and because of their power against the people, backed by secret police, ordinary police, judges and other forms of state security and force, and the fascist politicians that create these NAZI-like laws, they are actually worse.

Fascists, but stupid

Not only are the British politicians and bureaucrats in Sheffield nasty fascists, but they are stupid and incompetent. The latter is a good thing, isn’t it?

The Rise of Fascism in the Former Democracies

The UK and China could amalgamate and form one unified Super-State. Both now have the necessary fascistic and totalitarian powers of surveillance against their citizens and lack of civil liberties and civil rights that accompany that process, all of which might have made Adolph Hitler smile.

Once the giant communications corporations and the government train the citizen-sheep of any former democracy to give up their privacy rights and accept the State as their nanny, keeper and jailer, there is nothing to stop the full development of fascism in what may once have been a real democracy.

It is happening everywhere. It is now China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Singapore, Mayanmar, Belarus, Nicaragua, and most Muslim countries, that are the world's worst examples of fascist States. There are others, but none of those in this list were ever democracies.

The disintegration of democracy and of the democratic civil rights and civil liberties that support democracy, and the accompanying rise of the totalitarian power of large corporate interests like Google, Facebook, etc., is what exemplifies fascism. It is happening everywhere among the former democracies - examples of this ongoing process include the U.K., the U.S., Canada under the retrograde progressives of Herr Trudeau, even New Zealand and Australia.

This May Have A Geo-Political Component

Could this be another Chinese Communist Fascist attempt to subvert electronic communications throughout the rest of the world in their hegemonic obsessions? Given that China is now being accused, and the evidence is very strong, of unleashing the Corona Virus plague on the rest of the world as part of their hegemonic obsession to become the only giant military and economic power of consequence in the world, it is fair to be suspicious that Zoom is part of that evil plan. Even the British Prime Minister's Office was caught in their web. While that is shameful in itself, it is indicative of the naive willingness of the technologically ignorant to trust the technology on the Internet, despite the myriad warnings from those who really know what they are talking about. Although I am not a hacker or coder I read the stuff published by Bruce Shneier and am suspicious of everything on the web as I was even before I heard of Bruce. Why aren't the so-called experts in the bureaucracies at least that curious? That applies especially to those in the offices of the highest public official in the U.K. Are they the idiots I think they are? I guess I was right.

Windows Search almost always disappoints and fails

For a long time now I have been using Agent Ransack or its newer iteration for Windows searches - speed, thoroughness and user friendliness make it a goo option rather than struggling to get a meaningful search result from Windows brain dead Explorer. Shame on Microsoft. I often think the soft stands for the brains of their managers.

I used to like LibreOffice, but it has severe problems

LibreOffice is lousy at capturing images from websites. This has not changed in years. Many tutorials contain images - screen captures which illustrate items which make tutorials much more helpful. OpenOffice on the other hand, is much better in that regard. If it doesn't actually capture such images, it allows a user to copy the image from the website and insert it into the OO document. The writers of these tutorials cannot wish to prevent such captures, as I am sure they realize people copy the tutorial for future offline reference, which makes the tutorial really valuable. Consequently LO is really annoying and I use it as little as possible.

Twits

Someone in this article used the word 'twit'. In the days of the 'ancien regime' before all this web and social plague, a twit was akin to a village idiot. The Monty Python crew used the term frequently. I still adhere to that viewpoint. The thing that bothers me most about President Trump is his twitting, even though in most matters he is a great deal better than his opponents in so many ways. If I am right about that, what does that say about the Democrats. Use your imagination. The world would be a better place if the Twitter-verse suddenly evaporated. Enough of the rant - Merry Christmas, everyone! Oh yeah - one more rant. I suppose many of you out there in twitter-land hate Christmas as you do Christianity. No wonder we got a Trump.

Oracle may be engaged in illegal fraudulent attempts to extort money

Section 380 of the Criminal code of Canada makes it a felony (serious offence) to obtain money or anything of value from others by deceit, and even the attempt to do so is a crime. U.K. law is probably similar. The crime of false pretenses may also be relevant here. Oracle's managers obviously think it is not bound by ordinary laws by trying the gambit described here. Their behaviour is shameful. The U.K. police and prosecutors should investigate and take appropriate action against the company and/or its involved managers.

Very interesting and almost frightening article

What intrigues me is that if a neural network can do what is described, that is to learn on its own without programmatic guidance to analyze and simulate things so very different from what it started with, and do it so quickly, then it is approaching the level of biological intelligence. I would love to see it being used to analyze and predict the outcomes of human planned activity based on available information about the plans, the risks associated therewith, the reasons why the activity was wanted in the first place, the predelictions or intentions and hoped for outcomes of the originators of the plan, and frailties of the planned concept, and of the planning and implementation processes involved, etc. What a tool that would be.

Fascism at Work in NAZI old Britain

I didn't realize it, but Hitler and his GESTAPO must have won WW2, as this story definitively establishes beyond any doubt. Don't worry, all you poor Brits born to unwed biological parents, it is happening every-where else in the world. You only get fined, not necessarily beaten up, tortured and murdered by the State, or am I wrong about that bit?

This is a bizarre comedy of epic proportions , worthy of a Greek or Operatic Comedy-Tragedy

Assange has literally been a prisoner of the Americans, Ecuadorians and the Brits for 7 years, all because of the NAZI-like policies of the US. It reminds me of the recent Canadian experience where the Chinese woman was shanghaied by Canadian police and politicians to satisfy the American thirst for blood based on not many facts or much evidence. The US, the world's worst example of a prosecutorial fascist culture masquerading as a democracy, is involved up to their eyebrows in both messes. The poor sob has thrown his life away and has little hope of redemption (not in the eyes of God, I must clarify). One does not stand up against a massive, powerful dictatorial regime without expecting to be crucified, as he will be.

The political 'Swamp' that still hasn't been drained.

If ever any proof was needed to skewer the Democrats and the Republicans as what President Trump calls the 'SWAMP' that needs draining and fumigating, this is it. The bureaucrats at the IRS are obviously trying to make things easier for both themselves and the beleagured and harrassed tax victims of Congress had a brilliant idea. Too bad. It is not permitted because the crooked and corrupt politicians of both major parties rallied to protect their true constituencies - the blood-sucking corporations who produce tax filing software at, no doubt, an enormous profit. If Trump is awake and looking he should veto this legislation 'toot sweet', to use a foreign popular phrase.

Fascism Doing its jolly work

The UK is rapidly becoming the incarnation of NAZI Germany. You've got CCT cameras everywhere spying on your citizens, you have no constitutional protections against the government depriving you of due process and democratic freedoms, and you have laws like this one the GESTAPO would have been happy to have at their beck and call. At least you don't have fascist laws like "Its a crime to slander the state" like most of the rest of Europe does, or am I wrong about that?. Its no wonder that the world's first fascist states were established in Europe. Welcome to the New Fascism. Your authoritarian governments are trying to qualify for that label, and doing well at it. The rest of the so-called democracies are not far behind you. The US and the mis-named Democrats were a keen exporter of fascist ideas including Eugenics, adopted by such left-wing luminaries as George Bernard Shaw, all welcomed by Mussolini and Hitler. There is nowhere to go anymore. Good luck to us all.

Some folks are worthy of exclusion because they are flaming idiots, so the new SQLite (is that supposed to mean SQL Lite or Light?) CofC seems to have outed them. For that we should all be grateful. I read the full code. There is nothing offensive in it, and the rules, although difficult to adhere to, are all reasonable. Opposition to them is only revelatory of the extreme ill-liberal biases of the critics.

No, they're not Commies, just good, old-fashioned Fascists - Nothing to worry about here

They may not be Commies - but they surely are Fascists. Of course, that makes it OK in the Australian Orwellian political world of Double-Think. Jamal Khashoggi should have gone to the Australian Consulate for help - Yeah, Sure.

Why the high price?

It sounds like no camera - fine, and no slew of useless apps - fine, just a phone - fine. Then the price should be under $50.00, otherwise I will be one who ignores it. These devices must be cheap to make - fine. So sell them at a reasonable price.

There must be a way to counter vehicular spy hardware

There must be some way to place a faraday cage or otherwise block electroic signals emanating from a vehicle's spy hardware. Amyone got any suggestions?

CC Alarmists Get Facts All Wrong

Electric cars from production through use release more CO2 per mile than efficient gas or diesel ones. Of that there is no doubt. Even then, CO2 is not a harmful gas and contributes so little to global warming that its effects are negligible. You religious fanatics, as usual, have it all wrong. Wise up!

There are some courts that are not toadies of the fascist system

UK and Canadian governments and their fascist political parties shamed by still functional US courts which uphold democratic rights. There is still some validity to the phrase - 'Land of the brave, home of the free'.

The NAZIS finally Won

It only took 72 years, but the NAZI'S finally won. The totalitarian state is in full bloom and the sheep are not even bleating - "Huh? What? Chomp - Chomp - Good grass. Don't bother us. Thinking is too hard."

US Magistrate Reigns in Cops trying to force mass fingerprint seizure re iphone

First of all, it is extremely likely that a Magistrate's decision carries little precidential weight or force affecting other courts across the country, so it probably won't have any major effect or scope, so it's real value is primarily persuasive.

The more interesting question is why UK geeks have gotten their knickers in a knot over this. The state of effective civil rights protection in the UK is much, much worse than it is in the U.S. and other places that have a history of judicial independence AND court decisions protecting civil rights encroachments by cops and other arms of the State. The UK essentially has no constitutional protections against abuses of power and its people are at the mercy of courts that have no true boundaries set by a constitution designed to prevent state abuses of its powers. The almost blanket coverage of spy cameras in the UK is an example of this. The situation in this regard is much worse in most of Europe, particularly Germany and France, which are, in my view, little better than fascist states.

Cambridge Researchers cure for 'misinformation' - Ha!

As if the Cambridge researchers could recognize mis-information if it hit them in their faces. I strongly suspect that their dogmatic views on global warming are dominated by the IPCC and the complicated and error-filled models used to produce the desired results - ie.,that man-made CO2 is the only culprit that matters. Hang the economically harmful results of carbon-taxing, banning of coal, natural gas or petroleum and nuclear fuel, and even water-power, based energy production, as well as the risks and excessive publicly paid-for costs associated with windmills and solar panels. If I turn out to be wrong here, I will apologize. Fat Chance!

Trumps recruits Fascist CIA Boss

Hold your collective noses. The Register's description of Pompeo (Pom-pee-u) reveals that Trump may very well be a worse fascist, authoritarian, dictatorial nut than Obama, who supported spying on absolutely everyone. The pee-u prick even wants to murder Snowden, whom I admire for his courage and dedication to democracy, despite his recklessness in endangering his own life. What a great beginning to Trump's U.S. autocracy. The word 'Fascist' is used here out of historical context, merely to highlight the anti-democratic nature of the appointee and his boss.