Still worth the effort

ross misuse of other people’s work (aka slop) did not kill blogging and choosing to blog here again (on a frequent basis) has paid off. Hence, I will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

In recent years there were whole months without any blog posts at all.

Why?

I blogged elsewhere.

But for personal matters and non-tech topics I might as well make better use of this platform. It’s still being read despite many people no longer using RSS readers.

Be prepared

rowing up with many dogs, I loved dogs. Don’t get more wrong, I’m a “dog(s) person”. Years ago we thought about getting a dog ourselves. We ended up delaying and we only bought things for a dog, except the dog. Delays delays…

We have one neighbour with a Bully XL. I don’t like those dogs (the breed) because I don’t trust them. I’ll probably never trust any Bully XL, not just because of what I read in papers (they even murder their own elderly owners sometimes) but the actual ban on such dogs (and sometimes “culls” too). The UK identified them as unworthy of the risk.

I’ve had to mentally prepare for a scenario where this one Bully XL goes berserk and decides to attack me. I’ve decided that because this dog is short-legged and clearly overweight sprinting away from it would be effective enough; he cannot catch me and I can run for a lot longer before stamina becomes an issue. This Bully XL is around 60-70KG, it’s very short, and it’s just a “fat boy” basically. Second option is, hop on the roof of a nearby car. This “fat boy” cannot even jump over his home’s fence, surely a car would be “too tall” for him. Failing that, in case I need to wrestle such a dog, avoid neck bites or falling to the ground. Fatalities won’t be possible due to a bleeding leg or hand.

Of course they could just put a muzzle on this Bully XL. But guess what… of course they don’t and lecturing an old lady about it ain’t “my cuppa tea”.

Sounds obscene, it’s about money rather than local talent

he “Premier League sets new transfer market record with more than €4 billion spent” according the French broadcaster. “The 20 Premier League sides spent more than €4 billion this summer in the transfer market, setting a new record.”

Manchester City spent the most and it is already top of the league (table).

Actions speak louder than press releases

ermany is the largest economy in the EU and one of the largest in NATO.

What happened in a German airport [1] should be treated not as “provocation” of “hybrid”. It was an act of war [2].

When Russia ‘peacefully’ invaded Crimea without fatally shooting people it didn’t mean that no war had been declared. 8 years later we saw what Russia had in mind.

Germany should heed the warning of Crimea.

____

1. EU, NATO Seek Stronger Response To Russian Threat After Leipzig ‘Escalation’

   “Leipzig marks a new escalation on European soil, directly attributed to Russia,” she said. “Every loophole Russia exploits is one we must close. We are looking at ways to cut even deeper into Russia’s war chest.”

2. Russia’s hybrid attacks on Germany: When is it ‘war?’

   He noted that the attack had been planned with a “high degree of technical expertise and considerable organizational effort.”

   In late August, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said of the incident: “The federal government will make the perpetrators of hybrid attacks pay a price. They will pay for this.”

   At the time, he did not mention Russia by name. And even now, Merz himself has not commented on the matter.

Paying more for less.

ROWING up in the 90s (as I often put it), coffee jars were reasonably large and full to the rim (filled to the highest point). Not anymore. Many brands leave a lot of air in the product (it’s not for any taste-related purposes) and dosages went down gradually while prices rose.

Now, in the check-out tills, I’d see them selling sachets of coffee because the stuff got so expensive that they adopt the “microfinancing” approach or “one day at a time” mindset. What next, sachets of toothpaste and shampoo?

This is not the hallmark of a society moving in a good direction. They normalise poverty and brand that as “lifestyle” or “style” (sachets are, per weight, actually very expensive).

he site of RMS (online since the 1990s) has been offline for about 3 days. We don’t know what’s taking so long for it to come back online.

To RMS, his site is like Social Control Media but a lot better. He controls everything there and it’s in plain HTML, in static files.

Read on…

Science and technology as codified in caselaw

erman media (DW) reported how Julian Assange was granted permission to appeal at the High Court, but this didn’t mean going to the Court of Appeal, which we are going to pursue this month or later (soon). This is important for future cases. It’s about precedents.

The Net is not the Web and being able to distinguish between the two is critical. There are many hundreds if not thousands of protocols on the Net. Some are for videos, some are for devices to transmit messages. Experts can explain that in simple terms, but bringing experts to hearings is not cheap (not just flight ticket and hotels).