iSurf Social | Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) @ iSurf Social

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 5 days ago Friendica

See golf-ball sized hail and birds fall out of the sky in Australia

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/01/20/australia-hail-dust-storm-lon-orig-tp.cnn

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DavïÐ Låzårµ§ 5 days ago diaspora

I got stopped by one of those "end of the world" folks the other day. I patiently listened to him and politely said that I practice freedom from religion.

2 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 5 days ago Friendica

Muse

Mon Jan 20 05:44:21 +0000 2020

This is done VR style so you can look around and up-down. So KEWL!!!
Aurora Borealis over Willow, AK in Real Time 360 8K VR

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Wayne Radinsky 3 days ago diaspora

That's gorgeous.

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Wayne Radinsky 3 days ago diaspora

Without the 360 view, I would have no idea how much of the sky the aurora covers.

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Is there anyone even vaguely connected to Donald Trump that's not a criminal?

Northern Invader

2020-01-13 06:38:19

Mrs. Florida 2016 and pro-Trump media personality Karyn Turk going to jail for fraud after stealing her mom’s social security checks while she was dying of Alzheimer’s at a nursing home #BecauseFlorida https://t.co/Y79wrZ3r9M pic.twitter.com/omc8KnMVHT
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) January 11, 2020
Twitter: Billy Corben on Twitter (Billy Corben)

# #BecauseFlorida

3 people like this

8 comments - Show more

lambjams 2 weeks ago diaspora

The real welfare queen.
I heard a podcast saying that when Ronald Reagan spoke of welfare queens, it was all based on the exploits of one particular woman who had committed an amazing amount of fraud. Reagan extrapolated that woman's crimes to the entire population, assisted by racist stereotypes that he helped create.

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Well, there was a lot more "welfare fraud" in Reagan's day that there is today. It was a business in some families to have as many kids as possible to collect the most money. That really went on. There were people collecting under several different names, etc. Back then it wasn't that hard to have multiple IDs. Since then, things have been tightened way up with much tighter ID systems in place and Department of Homeland Security involved at every step. You don't get anything unless they know exactly who you are and it's all tracked nationwide.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

I should add that this case has nothing to do with welfare, but simple theft of someone's social security income. She's also guilty of numerous crimes of fraud and interference in government business.

lambjams 2 weeks ago diaspora

This woman was not typical, but extraordinary.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/opinion/sunday/welfare-queen-myth-reagan.html

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Yeah, I was already aware of that story and Reagan. I'm saying that the case cited is extreme, but there were thousands of cases at that time of welfare fraud. It was out of control. You could interview girls in middle school in poor neighborhoods and learn that their career goal was to have lots of babies and collect welfare. Things are a tightened down now -- actually too tight in many cases. As always, the pendulum overshoots when it swings.

lambjams 2 weeks ago diaspora

As for the original post, my first thought was that any relative managing finances could be suspect - elder abuse is not unusual. But the story painted a much more callous situation.

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Yeah, a nasty bitch she is. She'll have fun in prison.

lambjams 1 week ago diaspora

I would say that culture was created by redlining and forcing people into ghettos, where they didn't have access to other forms of employment. I was reading somewhere that there was a period when there was more integration, but then the tide turned and people were pushed into more concentrated neighborhoods.

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Mini PC ?

Do any of you have experience with so-called mini PCs? Any caveats to watch out for? Things to avoid? Mistakes made?

I run a ThinkPad with a quad core, 8 GB, and SSD, and am very happy with it. However, I run it with a large external monitor, external Unicomp keyboard, external mouse. I boot the laptop, then turn the brightness down, close the lid, and never look at it again. It seems the only advantage of using a laptop is the built-in UPS.

I'm looking to add a second computer, for various reasons, which is why I'm looking at a mini PC.

Any thoughts?

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13 comments - Show more

Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

Have you looked into getting an external UPS? Sounds like the only reason for using a laptop. I use laptops as laptops and desktops as desktops. I've found I can get cheap desktops by getting refurbished machines off eBay and throwing Linux on them, but no UPS.

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Yeah, I may well take that route. I became very fond of UPSs back in the 1990s, when living in a place with shaky electrical power. Now I'm addicted. Computers without a UPS make me nervous. Lol. But yeah, a UPS is cheap. I only need a tiny one with a machine like that.

I'm also a fan of refurbs. I get mine from NewEgg. But mini-PCs are a fairly new technology so there aren't that many refurbs around yet.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

In any case, I'm looking for warnings and bad experiences with mini-PCs. For example, is cooling adequate? Do they run hot or overheat? Or, certain brands to stay away from.

Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

Hmm I guess I can't help you there.

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Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

Just saw this on the Linux Mint blog. Linux Mint is the version of Linux I use.

https://fit-iot.com/web/products/mintbox3/mintbox3-press-release/

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Man, the specs on the Model-3 Pro are terrifying. Holy crap. But the price is reasonable. As I scrolled down and down, I was expecting a tag close to $10k.

Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

If it works with Linux Mint, it should be compatible with just about any other version of Linux. Although if you put another version of Linux on it, the box would still have the Linux Mint logo on it. The company (Compulab in Yokneam, Israel) also produces machines with Windows.

Obviously I have no personal experience with their machines, but I use Linux Mint and the Linux Mint developers seem to love them, so that ought to count for something.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Well, look at that. Ain't that interesting.

Yeah, Mint should run on any reasonably normal PC. My other favorite OS I didn't mention: Puppy Linux. It's very cool and has certain advantages such as ultimate speed, ultimate security, and minimal disk usage. I've used it since around 2005 also. I don't use it much these days because I don't have a specific need for it. Although it's always in my mind as a tool. I considered using it with this SSD machine I have to minimize wear and tear on the SSD.

Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

Yeah, I know. I was practically drooling looking at it. And I'm not even in the market to buy a new system at the moment. I've got two desktops and two laptops that I use on a regular basis, one Mac and one Linux for each category. And my plan was basically to keep using them until they broke or otherwise became unusable, and then move up to newer machines. Since it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon, I figure I won't be buying new machines for a long time.

Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

I actually have a little tiny underpowered Toshiba "netbook" which is sluggish under Linux Mint. Since I see Puppy Linux is one of those "light-weight" distributions, and you recommend it, maybe I'll try throwing Pupply Linux on that machine and see how it goes. I never use the machine anyway as it is because Linux Mint is sluggish on it.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

I definitely recommend it. You might not like it, so I'd recommend trying it. Fortunately, that's extremely easy. You don't even have to disturb your existing systems to try it.

Puppy is different and requires a slightly different viewpoint on how things are done. I love it. It's also a standard in certain hi-reliability, high-trust, ultra-secure settings that you'll find at certain agencies of the US government -- without putting too fine a point on it.

Try it. If you don't like it, nothing lost. Just be aware that it's a bit different and takes some getting used to. Your sluggish machine won't be sluggish with Puppy running.

Wayne Radinsky 2 weeks ago diaspora

Hadn't heard of Puppy Linux before. Man, there are a lot of Linux distros. I tried Ubuntu a couple of years ago and it irritated me. I'm really happy to have discovered Linux Mint this year. Before Linux Mint I didn't consider Linux a viable option for desktop machines.

I haven't gotten into my "distro experimentation" phase, but I can tell it's going to happen someday. I'll tell you why. I had a terrible experience that turned out to be a wonderful experience. I'll explain. I installed Linux Mint on my laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad), and I forget exactly why but I was trying to change which commands required sudo and which you could use without sudo. And I screwed the machine up so that sudo itself didn't work. And I needed sudo to fix the problem. I realized I'd fundamentally broken the machine. I felt like the stupidest person ever. I felt terrible. But then I wiped the machine and reinstalled Linux and copied my files back on it. And suddenly I realized, wow, this machine isn't like my Windows and Mac machines, where you have to be super-careful not to break things, because if you do you'll have to deal with registration keys and disk encryption restore key and all kinds of nonsense, or take the machine in to a professional technician to get it fixed, or possibly have to throw it away and get a whole new machine. With Linux, I can completely screw up the machine and it doesn't matter. I can just wipe it and reinstall Linux. I suddenly felt like the machine was actually my machine, not Microsoft's or Apple's, and they're just letting me borrow it. It's my machine and I can play with it however I want and make whatever mistakes I want and it doesn't matter if I completely screw it up. Because if I completely screw it up and break everything, it just means I have to spend a few hours reinstalling Linux and copying my files back on.

After having this experience, I understood why there are people who install every Linux distribution under the sun on their machines and play around with them -- they even think it's fun! And it's fun because the fear and terror of breaking a machine whenever you have a Windows or Mac machine isn't there.

So I know one of these days when I have the time I'm going to experiment with a boatload of Linux distros. But not right now. Right now I have a million things to do and just need computers to get out of my way and let me get other work done. Linux Mint does a good job of that. (Mac does a pretty good job, too, truth be told.)

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 weeks ago Friendica

Yes, indeed. All true. And if you'd had Puppy on a USB stick, you could have booted that, gone in and repaired your machine -- if you knew what was wrong. Puppy is my standard tool for putting a Windows machine under the microscope and dissecting it. Lol.

Puppy is also useful for forensic work. You can get into any machine, examine everything, and when you're done there's no trace you were ever there.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 3 weeks ago Friendica

I like this:

YouTube: BRIGHTLINE (Virgin Trains USA) - America's AWESOME new train! (Wingin’ It! Paul Lucas)

2 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 3 weeks ago Friendica

Wayne Radinsky

Sun Jan 05 03:23:10 +0000 2020

"Cerebras's giant chip will smash deep learning's speed barrier." "When IEEE Spectrum visited Cerebras's headquarters in Los Altos, Calif., those customers and some potential new ones were already pouring their training data into four CS-1 computers through orange-jacketed fiber-optic cables. These 64-centimeter-tall machines churned away, while the heat exhaust of the 20 kilowatts being consumed by each

2 people like this

Northern Invader 3 weeks ago diaspora

Ya but does it play Tetris :)

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 3 weeks ago Friendica

It will if you let it watch you play first.

Steve likes this.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 3 weeks ago Friendica

Rare snowfall in the California desert.

Rare snowfall covers High Desert near Joshua tree

Heavy snowfall blanketed the High Desert in Pioneertown, California, near Joshua Tree National Park.

^{www.usatoday.com}

5 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 1 month ago Friendica

How did NORAD come to track Santa Claus?

How a misprinted newspaper ad and a quick-thinking colonel sparked NORAD's Christmas tradition

The only other person with the number for the red phone in Col. Harry Shoup's office was a four-star general at the Pentagon. Or so he thought.

^{www.businessinsider.com}

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 1 month ago Friendica

Happy 72nd Birthday to the Transistor!

Happy 60th Birthday to the Transistor ! – Shuttersparks

Happy 60th Birthday to the Transistor ! – Shuttersparks

^{shuttersparks.net}

2 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

"Trump is on a Roll!!!"

This is an interesting phenomenon here in Greater Appalachia, where Trump is seen as a god. I'm now getting bombarded with targeted ads for everything from car insurance, medical insurance, to mortgage loans, cellphones, you name it, that headline with "Trump is on a Roll!!!".

The ads basically go like this: "Trump's brilliant work now makes it possible for us to offer you XYZ at a lower price than ever before...etc., etc."

So Trump's name has now become a sales buzzword like "more", "extra", "cheaper", "better", "new and improved", "economical", and so forth, and people are putting his name on product ads. I'm sure it's sucking in millions of Trump fans.

I think P.T. Barnum would have a chuckle over this.

4 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

Paul Ferguson

2019-12-06 03:39:59

Whataboutism:

" It is particularly associated with Soviet and Russian propaganda.. When criticisms were leveled at the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the Soviet response would often be 'What about...' followed by an event in the Western world As Garry Kasparov noted, it is a word that was coined to describe the frequent use of a rhetorical diversion by Soviet apologists and dictators, who would counter charges of their oppression, 'massacres, gulags, and forced deportations' by invoking American slavery, racism, lynchings, etc. It has been adopted by other politicians and countries."

#whataboutism

#whataboutism

3 people like this

Steve doesn't like this.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

Always the man in the shadows, but Led Zep would not have been nearly what it was without him.

YouTube: John Paul Jones - Mike Bullard Show 2000 (Mark Zep)

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

diane a

2019-11-28 06:43:38

This resilient Raspberry Pi cyberdeck is made for the end of the world
A one-of-a-kind build that redefines ‘rugged and portable’
^{www.theverge.com}

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

diane a

2019-11-19 22:12:59

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3 comments - Show more

Violante de Rojas 2 months ago diaspora

...not to mention the Crusades...!

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

And, the French Wars of Religion. And, Europe's invasion of the Americas.

"Yo, Hernan Cortez, what are you doing here?"
"We're bringing these savages to Jesus."
"But the King of Spain states thge purpose of your mission is to find the Fountain of Youth, and vast amounts of gold and silver."
"Oh, that was just a cover story to get funding. We're actually here for Jesus."
"Murdering millions?"
"Yeah, these people won't submit to us."
"Hmm, Jesus never said anything about murdering people who refuse to believe."
"Uh, I'm just following orders."

Steve likes this.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

Lisa Stranger

2019-11-19 05:30:26

The truth in front of our noses: Donald Trump’s behavior is disgustingly corrupt and impeachable, whatever his defenders do or say
By GARRY KASPAROV
The GOP techniques on display are quite familiar to me, having spent so much of my life inside the propaganda bubbles of the Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia. It was therefore ironic to see the GOP accusing the Democrats of "Soviet-style” hearings when it’s the Republicans who are taking cues from the KGB playbook.

The truth in front of our noses: Donald Trump’s behavior is disgustingly corrupt and impeachable, whatever his defenders do or say
It was foolish to hope that Donald Trump would be cowed into better behavior by the start of impeachment hearings last Wednesday. His type never admits wrongdoing, never apologizes, never changes for the better. Instead, they smear their accusers, attack the witnesses, and cause as much chaos as possible distract from the growing pile of evidence against them.
^{www.nydailynews.com}

2 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

William Barr is racing to deliver a report that blows up the impeachment inquiry—and everything else

Attorney General William Barr is racing to complete a new “report” before Thanksgiving. And if Barr’s very poor summary of the Mueller report threw Trump a lifeline by distorting the real findings of the special counsel investigation, this new report...

^{www.dailykos.com}

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Lisa Stranger 2 months ago diaspora

I think the blow-up he gets is going to be more of the Wile E. Coyote variety.

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

I hope. The Attorney General wields a lot of power.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

How women are singled out for vile abuse for political ends

Far more than men

^{www.economist.com}

3 people like this

alysonsee (Fca) 2 months ago friendica (AP)

I’ve seen it in action. Women with an opinion about men on the internet getting bomb, death, and rape threats, fixed, and run out of their homes. I once called my local police station and asked them what they had done to prepare themselves to handle online crimes and threats. They really didn’t understand what I was talking about. I volunteered to point them to the kits that others have made for law enforcement and victims. And they seemed like they would have taken me up on it but they didn’t know who in their department to put me in touch with for something like that. It has had the intended effect: When I feel tempted to openly express an opinion about such things, I think more wisely of it and stick to dog photos.

@Phil Landmeier (ᚠ)

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

Jeez, yeah. That's a topic you need to talk to the chief about.

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Violante de Rojas 2 months ago diaspora

..that's mostly the reason I couldn't continue on failboat...I'm an older, redheaded woman with an education and strong opinions....the reactions were never very positive..

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

diane a

2019-11-13 22:27:09

2 people like this

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

I think the strongest unifying force for any movement is music. Words can be carried by music.

I think the strongest, unifying, force-multiplying factor in my generation's resistance to the Vietnam War was our music.

And where is the music for this new generation? There's isn't any. Ever noticed that? There's NONE. That's because our media, radio stations, etc. are all owned by a couple of corporations that control what goes out on the air. Political songs are eliminated.

For What It's Worth
The Fish Chant
Machine Gun
War
...on and on.

Where are this generation's songs? They're erased, eliminated from the playlist.

6 people like this

Lisa Stranger 2 months ago diaspora

Distribution of music today is somewhat less dependent on the label and radio gatekeepers, though they still exert some level of control.

Such a song would need to "go viral" nowadays, I suppose---and I imagine Youtube would put the kibosh on that in a hurry. (officially old, can't name another distribution portal!)

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) likes this.

Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

Thousands of Bots Are Retweeting Claims of Voter Fraud In Kentucky - Slashdot

"It's deeply concerning to see shady coordinated disinformation campaigns trying to undermine our democracy," says the man who apparently defeated Kentucky's Republican governor Bevin in a close election last Tuesday. The New York Times reports on what happened in the hours after Twitter user "...

^{yro.slashdot.org}

2 people like this

Su Ann Lim 2 months ago diaspora

Twitter is doing nothing about this?

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Phil Landmeier (ᚠ) 2 months ago Friendica

Apparently not, but I don't know.

I think that long-term, all anonymous social media will die. Once artificial intelligence develops sufficiently, there will be a sea of nonsense. Social media can only survive in the future if every user is positively identified as a real person.

Lisa Stranger 2 months ago diaspora

The S.O.B. finally conceded, so there's that.