I had some time for link hunting yesterday; I just didn't find any links that sat up and begged to be shared. Today? Not many.
Book reviews and blog posts for each day this week will be posted, but may be off schedule.
Books
Inside the Canadian truckers' protest with...Gord Magill? Can that be his real name? Whatever. Link to pre-order at the review link:
Caring, Who Does, About Whom
Cartoonist Scott Adams...
Sample cartoon from Wikipedia.
...Said that if Black Americans say it's not okay to be White, then White Americans should avoid them. What he said was not hateful but some people howled for censorship, giving newspapers their pretext to replace "Dilbert" with a carton that may be fresher but is not as dearly loved.
Y'know, what I've seen is not that news consumers, themselves, are killing the newspapers by preferring to get their news from online echo-chamber sets of news groups. It's that newspaper editors are killing the newspapers by making bad decisions. If they want to get rid of "zombie" cartoon strips, they could start with the ones that never were funny but used at least to be drawn well, like "Mark Trail" and "Mary Worth," instead of "Dilbert." Also, instead of using their printed editions to advertise special "online only" content on behalf of local computer stores, they could use their web sites to advertise special "printed only" content. Also, they could avoid buying two-thirds of their content from a group of writers who (1) make no pretense to try to be politically objective and (2) don't try to tone down their hostility toward the party to which the majority of the readers belong...
Anyway Dilbert went online-only and, because censorship, I started listening to Adams' vlog. I don't approve of vlogs. Adams was old enough to get a free pass. If you are under age 70 and have any use of your hands and eyes, I expect you to type out your blog like a reasonable person.
The most obvious difference between Scott Adams' Dilbert Blog, which was one of the great blogs while it lasted, and his vlog was that he'd become both a partisan and an adviser to then-embattled Ex-President Trump.
This went on. Trump ran for President again. I don't know who suggested some of Trump's more successful campaign moves. I know I was the first person I know who suggested the unlikely alliance between Trump and Secretary Kennedy; I doubt very much that I was the first person Trump heard or read suggest it. But Scott Adams was applying his professional communication skills to each of Trump's speeches, praising what worked and suggesting what Trump was going to do next. And Trump did. And it served him well. Every time. Dilbert's having invented a flying car was a joke but Scott Adams really is a very intelligent man.
So...then...last summer Scott Adams went down with cancer. He was not originally expected to have a chance of being alive by now. He is still alive and still vlogging.
Trump calls to check on him now and then. So does Mehmet Oz. It's called paying back a good turn.
(Snippet from a longer vlog, for your convenience.)
Idiocy, Pathetic, of Microsoft
After promising that Microsoft "updates" would end in October, this week Microsoft interrupted what I was doing on this computer with four "update"-upheavals in one day. Since then Microsoft has popped open a window that purports to "tell me how" to buy a new computer with Windows 11 on it. Hello? They think I want Windows 11? They think I'm not postponing paying back a lunch debt to pay for a computer that's Microsoft-free?
If Microsoft seriously wanted their products to be allowed in the house any more, they'd hire a responsible adult, with two X chromosomes, who would of course tell them that they'd need to begin with demonstrating how efficiently it's possible for a computer to run. Like if this computer were to run for another five years WITHOUT SO MUCH AS FALLING BEHIND THE PACE OF KEYSTROKES WHEN I'M TYPING AT SPEED, with NO more crashes, NO more noticeable "updates," NO "wait" messages or graphics, just DOING WHAT IT'S TOLD WHEN IT'S TOLD WITHOUT DELAYS, that might interest me in adopting another computer with Windows...XP, or ME, or maybe 7.
Windows 10 is garbage and Windows 11 is guaranteed to be even worse. Maybe Microsoft can send me an e-mail when they've rolled out "Windows CUSTOMER RESPECT EDITION," with guarantees that your computer cannot receive third party input for one hour after the last keystroke, that any changes in the way your software looks or works will be compensated with a minimum of $500 each, that any delays in functioning will be compensated with a minimum of $100 per second, that content you produce can become available to plagiarism programs only after you acknowledge receipt of a fair payment, and that nobody but you the owner can activate your camera or microphone software without a warrant sworn out under a higher standard of probable cause to investigate for evidence of criminal activity than is required for a physical search of the building.
No comments:
Post a Comment