March 13, 2016
Adventures in P.E.B.K.A.C.ery
My computer issues seem to be mostly resolved. Part of this weeks computer problems turned out to be traceable to the fact that when I upgraded to the latest version of Parallels I found that it comes with Kaperskey's anti-malware package. Figuring that it was optimized for the virtual engine, I activated it....as I sat in that spot where so many of my computer problems originate ( the zone between my keyboard and my chair) I neglected to remember that I already had AVG in Windows 7 and neither of the programs wanted a roommate. I had to evict one of them.
My computer issues seem to be mostly resolved. Part of this weeks computer problems turned out to be traceable to the fact that when I upgraded to the latest version of Parallels I found that it comes with Kaperskey's anti-malware package. Figuring that it was optimized for the virtual engine, I activated it....as I sat in that spot where so many of my computer problems originate ( the zone between my keyboard and my chair) I neglected to remember that I already had AVG in Windows 7 and neither of the programs wanted a roommate. I had to evict one of them.
Anyway, I finally figured out the issue and everything seems nominal now, The connectivity issues I had have mostly died down, though Verizon itself seems to be a bit twitchy. I'm able to watch Ctunchyroll, for instance, but only at lower resolutions.
Well, enough of my first world problems, here is some eye candy...
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March 12, 2016
FINALLY! A Post That Write's Itself!
Phantom World Episode 9 continues the writer's habit of breaking the fourth wall....
Thank you for clarifying that.
So...their roots were in improvisational theatre?
The bear?
The bear is there.
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Gate Episode 22
Steven and I have not always agreed on this series, in part because he's comparing it to the original books, whereas I'm just enjoying it as it comes out...but we are in total concurrence on this weeks episode.
He sums it up nicely here.
The episode's portrayal of Leili in particular is malapropos.
Remember, this young mage speaks multiple languages, turned the tide in a battle against a dragon and can use chopsticks.
She's not going to stand there passively...twice...to provide a damsel in distress to the local ecosystem.
Worse, we didn't even get to see her dissertation on her Middle Earth Sorcery as combined with the High School chemistry book the earthlings provided her with.
" I was cheated."
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March 07, 2016
Aaaand.....We're Back
Midterms are over, though, there were other distractions over the weekend. While spring cleaning, I cut on the overhead light in the spare room, only to discover...to my considerable chagrin...that the light cover was being employed as an unlicensed flop house by half a dozen of the vast numbers of stinkbugs that have been seeking asylum in southeastern Virginia this winter. As I had the fan running to air out the aforementioned room, the aroma of stinkbug flambe' was distributed through the house in a most egalitarian manner. In other news, my heater core blew Friday night, at least I THINK that's what happened since the van suddenly filled with the subtle fragrance of antifreeze. Cutting the heater off is an acceptable work around for now. The rest of the weekend involved laundry, fixing a broken toilet, intermittent connectivity issues, and a bunch of ghouls who beset me after I jumped into a whirlpool to escape a particularly durable deathclaw.
"That last item isn't so much an explanation as an admission."
Ahem...
In any event; as compensation for the disrupted posting we have provided some Hestia cheesecake below the fold.
more...
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February 29, 2016
Midterms Are Upon Us
Posting is, therefore, likely to be intermittent. Here, as atonement, is something to tide you over that seems to cover all bases.
Artist Unknown, but it appeared recently in Nyan-Type
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Super Tuesday
Can the Trumpeting be stopped?
No.. I mean...
How 'bout we just put the whole post below the fold.
more...
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February 27, 2016
Warp Speed
Instapundit reports that Nicholas Meyer will be executive producer on CBS's new Star Trek Series!
Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home (which Myer directed) were Star Trek at its best and the last that really kept faithful to the spirit of the old series before the deliberate shift in philosophy and tone that was evident in TNG.
CBS seems to be shooting for the old Desilu magic.
This could actually warrant some attention.
UPDATE: Belay my last Meyer's role is not so critical as we were led to believe. So much the better...
...it will make the inevitable disappointment that much more exquisite.
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Gate Episode 20
In our latest story, Itami and friends go dowsing for adventure, which takes them far, far away from the actual plot.
Said plot focuses on the the continuing political machinations in the Imperial capital, the efforts of the Japanese government to not exacerbate the situation and a brave little girl who can think on her feet.
"Well, sir, these may look like mother of pearl, but if you observe them closely you'll note they are, in fact, solid brass."
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Bad Day in Superhero School
The above captures a moment of introspection from this week's Sir Mix-A-Lot tribute episode of Phantom World which, despite a few cute moments and an amusing attempt to get Minase to smile, pretty much involved the audience doing this for 28 minutes....
Some days, even the best efforts just do not pan out.
"Oh man, that's just wrong!"
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February 24, 2016
Tornado Warning
Weather just turned exuberantly suboptimal.
UPDATE: Damage in the immediate area is minimal, but less so in other parts of town. I got to hear O.D.U.'s tornado siren for the first time last night, when the second wave of squalls passed through. This is not unheard of here, but tornado season doesn't usually start for another month or two. Note that these storms are absolutely nothing like the monsters that Don deals with.
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Yay Robots!
Yay! I'm 18 months from retirement.
Yay! I might make it before this replaces me.
This is really impressive. The ability to get up and cope with a Teamster with a pole represents a genuinely amazing amount of progress and yet leaves me with ever so slightly mixed emotions. Of course this is much more the sort of concern many of us expected in the 21st century that 9th century religious fanatics, so we should count our blessings.
I'm not going get genuinely worried until they equip it with a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
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February 22, 2016
Oh...So Marissa is a Necromancer?
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Techweasels Unmasked!
Over in the comments section at one of the cool blogs, Brett Bellmore appears to have worked out one of the many proprietary techniques in the repertoire of Overton's Window Moving Service.
I'm convinced that the modern social media business model makes sense. It just doesn't make financial sense.The new business model is to build up a large customer base by being useful and reasonably impartial, and doing it at a loss to attract customers. Then, at some point, when you decide you have enough customers, you take your profit.But, not in the form of money. In the form of political influence. You've got eyeballs, you feed them a skewed version of reality designed to effect how they vote. You've got customers who are of the opposite political persuasion, you screw with them, and extract from them the opportunity cost of switching to a different platform right in the middle of an election campaign.Sure, your company tanks, customers eventually flee. But not before you've thrown an election.The big investors in companies like Twitter don't object to this, because this is the profit they were looking for. They weren't buying future income, they were buying a chance to push politics in a direction they like.
Yeah.
That's pretty much what's been going on.
Damnit...If I'm going to live in a futuristic dystopia, I want flying cars.
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Peace in our Thyme
All is tranquil and quiet inside our spice cabinet.
Elsewhere however:
Iran is preparing to launch another satellite. This is, of course, impossible, since such activities were forbidden by the recent nuclear agreement. Oddly enough, the Simorgh launcher seems to be very close design-wise to the North Korean Unha launcher that launched a similarly forbidden payload into orbit earlier this year. That could indicate close cooperation with the DPRK on weapons development, which would mean that Iran might be continuing its nuclear program abroad. That's silly of course since such an unlikely development would render the whole Iran agreement nothing more than...
In what is surely unrelated news, North Korea seems to be readying another nuke test.
Elsewhere...
All evidence points to a Chinese crackup, or an explosion of violence against its neighbors and the United States, or both
Meanwhile, Here is a map of all the cultural heritage sites that have been razed or attacked by ISIS and its affiliates.
This Foreign Policy Article is behind a paywall, but its headline gives a short, but comprehensive overview of the world situation.
That piece does cover everything but I prefer to leave on an upbeat note and one bright side to all this is that the disappearance of dangerous nuclear material in Iraq is actually pretty low on the threat list.
UPDATE: As Steven pointed out in the comments section, that missing nuclear material was found...in a gas station in Iraq.
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February 21, 2016
Slander Refuted
Read this.
Go now.
Read the whole thing.
It defies excerpting.
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Contingency Planning Thread
The Primary results have me so despondent that I'm not going to blog about politics. However, despite the dark implications for our nation, last night's results in South Carolina make it increasingly possible that Takumi Yanai IS in fact a time traveller. Thus, since the fall of the Republic may, in fact, be nigh we need to make contingency plans. The upside of course is That Mr. Yanai has shown us the way to escape the coming darkness, but has warned us that without proper planning Americans will be denied salvation. Also the latest episode revealed that
so one might want to wonder what resources one would need to bring through to maintain a tech advantage. Note that repairs would be impossible once the gate closed, so something along the lines of a victorian machine shop would be necessary.
Also general discussion/speculation regarding GATE.
more...
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February 20, 2016
I Just Don't Know.
When I first heard about the Apple encryption story I thought that this was a really good thing Apple was doing. For a good overview of the Apple side of the argument, JC Carlton has an extensive and link rich post on the topic.
If the FBI and NSA are so inept that they can’t do simple traffic analysis on the communications or find other means to do the legwork, why has country spent hundreds of billions over decades to build up an intelligence apparatus that apparently can’t find it’s ass with both hands. And what happens to what’s left of our liberties if nothing is secure from the government?
Lois Lerner is FREE today, and that should end the discussion, or so I thought until I read this.
First, the government is not asking Apple to break the phone’s encryption. They are seeking to have Apple turn off an auto-erase function, which (when turned on) automatically erases all the data on an iPhone if there are ten consecutive incorrect attempts to enter the four-digit passcode. They are seeking to have Apple allow the passcodes to be entered electronically — so nobody has to manually type in every possible four-digit combination. And they are seeking to have Apple disable a feature that introduces delays of increasing length as incorrect guesses at the passcode are made.
Now, Patrick Frey is a prosecutor and prosecutors tend to want to err on the side of getting info and not on the side of privacy, however, he is saying that the issue is NOT as is being presented in the media.
There is also this.
Apple also decided in February 2015 to store local users’ personal data in China. The move was a gesture of good will towards Beijing that other companies like Google, for example, have always rejected for "security reasonsâ€. This is because it is easier for China to request access to personal information that is under its jurisdiction.
I honestly don't know enough about the situation or the ins and outs of the technology to know where to come down on this. I'm strongly inclined to take Apple's side ion the issue, seeing as how our government, especially THIS government cannot be trusted with people's data. The precedent would seem to be troubling to say the least. But this was a phone known to have been used in a terrorist attack and there is a court order involved.
Anyway, have at it in the comments.
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Cunning Plan is Cunning
Whut?
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Ultimately, the reason we have 'Bulkhead 30'
...and segregated bivouac arrangements....
is not only about professionalism and efficiency...
...but on a more fundamental level, to prevent bringing down the wrath of the gods on one's officer corps.
From episode 19 of GATE where this awkward misunderstanding at the intersection of local customs and common law precedent has nothing whatsoever to do with the epic and tumultuous events happening far from our blissfully unaware heroes. However, it does precipitate a spirited academic debate about the merits of competing methodologies which indirectly leads to our protagonists developing a new appreciation for the importance of keeping informed on current events.
A few things were established in this episode.
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February 17, 2016
Phantom World Episode 7
This episode was just a weird occurrence at the school and was pretty episodic..
However, unlike most stories that mention a certain thought experiment, they got Schrödinger's cat right!
Not only that, but our heroines all turn into catgirls for some reason.
Thus the episode still counts as a win.
This despite the fact that the "problem" is, regrettably, solved. (To our hero's credit, he has nothing to do with that unhappy development.) Additionally, this story may tie somewhat into continuity going forward. We'll find out as we are still enjoying this silly, slightly pretentious, but surprisingly enjoyable show.
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