Link Log for February 17

First, after this computer reels from the blow of the latest "Windows Update,"a description of the app I would buy: "Customer First." Once installed, this would prevent any site from doing anything for ten seconds after a keystroke or mouse click, so nothing interferes with what the customer paid for Internet access in order to do. If a script tried to run while the mouse or keyboard was in use, the site from which the script originated would receive a message, "Bad script," and would be blocked from all interaction with that computer for 24 hours.

Of course, it's a snow day! What the person who bought this computer so foolishly enabled is the electronic equivalent of the 3-6 inches of powder on local roads. The difference is, of course, that businesses struggling to market things on the Internet are not causing snow. (I suppose it's possible that the snow is causing some of the problems; the computer's showing "no wired connection.")

This computer is now displaying a button that proclaims its connection to "Century Link 3760 Internet access" while it takes thirty seconds to mull over displaying each letter I type in. Way to go, smarty-pants. If you have a choice about service providers, you don't want Century Link: I'm sure I'll remember that for years.

"Customer First" could provide an "extra": a list of company names together with the number of seconds by which keystrokes and mouse clicks have been delayed while a company's product or program was associated with a web page. Consumer Reports' annual printout of this list might sell as well as the car issue.

As a result of Windows' sabotage "updates," although I did see  some interesting things when I first opened Google +, they've since been buried under the yucky commercial sludge for which Google + is infamous, and I've been unable to relocate either the crochet pattern or the wild bird photo I thought youall might like. Sorry. No actual plusses on my Google + page today, for that reason. No Tsu posts, and not much on Twitter. It's been taking me literally an hour to do something that would normally take five minutes; it took Tsu over an hour to say it was opening, and then it still wouldn't scroll down. What I've accomplished today has been mainly knitting while the little wheel icon spins.

Anyway: Animals, Books, Lifestyles, News of the Weird, Politics...I'm ready to pack up my knitting and go home. I'm going to post this now and see whether I can get this link plussed, Tsued, and Twittered before I get a ride home. A lo mejor I might even be able to post a phenology bit here...

Animals 

If you visit the bookstore whose blog is linked below, you're likely to meet "celebrity" cat Owen, who is not a "Meany" in real life. But don't repeat my mistake and read a smudge of brownish mud on his fur as a sign of femininity. He's a Listening Pet and, though gracious and gentlemanly, prefers humans who can tell he's male.

https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/who-me/

He now has a couple of foster brothers whom I'm sure he's hoping to help find good homes .( The bookstore is a good place to look for lovable sterile cats.)

Books 

I've not read this one. I'd like to.

https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/the-monday-book-the-odd-sea-by-frederick-reiken/

Lifestyles 

The frugal (as distinct from impoverished) lifestyle is the best.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/111291429791/the-best-lifestyle-might-be-the-cheapest-too

But any vision for any new product should be evaluated in the light of Murphy's Law. If your vision of a splendid Green future involves concepts like "sharing" and "central" and ""everybody has the same," or anticipates cooperation among people who live where they can see each other's houses, you need to build in safeguards (like specifying that this is a fraternity or a community group, not a whole city) to ensure that it wouldn't work out, in practice, like this..dystopian science fiction, thank goodness.

http://www.amazon.com/Agenda-21-Glenn-Beck/dp/147671701X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424201372&sr=8-2&keywords=Beck+book+agenda+21

News of the Weird 

Oliver Darcy reports on a homeless man who was "just trying to keep warm." Oh, right. And what had he to lose, anyway?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/17/homeless-man-arrested-for-texas-islamic-center-fire-reportedly-says-it-was-an-accident/?

Politics 

This web site is very disappointed in its State Senator...

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?151+vot+S05V0261+HB1287

He co-sponsored a bill we desperately needed, and then today he just voted to "pass it by indefinitely." What was he thinking?

Maybe it's just hard to believe that the need is real. Most of us would have thought the U.S. Constitution covered the subject pretty well. I did, last year. Well, it seems I was wrong, and although the real discussion among U.S. voters and taxpayers belongs at Freedomworks, our friends in other countries may benefit from this warning: Drive very carefully while visiting the U.S., and don't display your assets.

http://www.freedomworks.org/content/house-hearing-civil-forfeiture

John Stossel's quote from Ludwig von Mises is appropriate: "There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men."