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Leave Facebook Now

Facebook (specifically Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg) knew that Russians were manipulating American voters in June of 2016, and not only did they abstain from trying to stop the blatant manipulation, they denied it was happening at all. They lied. The entire platform is designed for exactly this sort of manipulation. Leave now. Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-alex-stamos.html […]

Veterans get some military exchange benefits

Nice news for veterans: DoD will allow all honorably discharged veterans to shop at the online military exchange stores starting this Veterans’ Day… PX/BX/NEX pricing may have a tough time comparing to online internet pricing these days – but the tax-free aspect may appeal in some states. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1049503/department-of-defense-extends-online-military-exchange-shopping-privileges-to-v/ AAFES: https://www.shopmyexchange.com/ NavyExchange: https://www.mynavyexchange.com/ Coast Guard Exchange: […]

Protecting yourself after the Equifax personal information leaks

The Equifax leak of our personal information is particularly harmful; it makes identity theft of most credit holding Americans trivially easy for the rest of their lives. Not for just one year, but until we pass away. The problem is that the information leaked is all the personal details that do not change. Steve Rubin […]

Freedom of speech and public access

I had to stop and think about the possibility of my own hypocrisy today… I have been casually following the story of Dreamhost (full disclosure, I’ve been a happy Dreamhost webhosting customer for many years) fighting attempts by the US government to collect detailed information on visitors to sites organizing protests against Trump. http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/15/politics/dreamhost-department-of-justice-trump-opponents/index.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/justice-department-trump-dreamhost-protests.html […]

No wonder American voters are so poorly informed

I am usually very lucky to mostly be sheltered in a wonderful cocoon that is essentially free of commercial television. When I travel I get disgusted at the number of places that have the propaganda, sensationalist, and fake news channel Fox News on and blaring loud all the time. I don’t get that crap at […]

Trump, the GOP, and The Fall

This is absolutely brilliantly written and worded; and expresses exactly my feelings on the current election and self-destruction of the Republican party… I confess I never know if I should cheer on that self-destruction, or lament the loss of a reasonable and rational counterpoint to the Democratic party, which does need a healthy check against […]

“Trumpster Fire”

“Trumpster fire” – John Gruber knocks it out of the park again with my favorite phrase of the week when he compares the Republican National Convention to a “Trumpster fire” – awesomely apt description. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/07/21/nba-north-carolina http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trumpster%20fire

Wow – visualizing the massive scale of global shipping is interesting

We live in amazing times indeed where planetary shipping can be visualized like this… Created by London-based data visualisation studio Kiln and the UCL Energy Institute

Steven Levy nails it, again – why are we fighting for the right to privacy again?

Steven Levy has an excellent article about the current attempt to squash privacy and encryption by the FBI and why this all sounds so familiar, it’s because we already had this battle before, twice, in the 1990s… and both times wisdom prevailed. Will it prevail again? https://backchannel.com/why-are-we-fighting-the-crypto-wars-again-b5310a423295 Remember the dreaded “Clipper” chip and everyone worrying […]

Election Day in Virginia, November 3rd, 2015

Quick reminder to all those in Virginia; it is election day tomorrow – state and local offices will be holding elections in every district in the state. Don’t forget to go vote. Where do I vote? Virginia State Board of Elections Voting Places What is on my ballot? Virginia State Board of Elections Ballot