"Of all things I have loved and lost, I miss my mind the most."

I started blogging in 2005 as it seemed the next interesting step from having a homepage.
I thought it would be cool to show off what I was doing, brag about my accomplishments and interact with strangers. This was, of course, back when meeting strangers was interesting, and not a masochist exercise in dodging shitheads and rage monkeys. (Parenthetically now, I have a new respect for women on dating apps having to deal with dick pics)
And the thing about constantly dodging a barrage of feces and dicks?  Makes it difficult to think about anything else: now all I ever want to do is complain.

Up until then, the Internet had been a continuous stream of meeting interesting people! People all over the world! Describing the things I do, and talking about the things I thought about seemed like fun!

That is not the case now.

Some of the things I might have talked about became self-censored. As anonymity evaporated, posts became increasingly PR oriented.  Bland, flavorless pap.

Think about it! 

Do you want your boss reading about how you blew all the windows out of a 1980 Pinto using a device made from electrical junk and a wading pool?
Do you want your dating pool to shrink because you wrote ten thousand words on your comfort food activity of watching 'William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Crow' back to back while eating popcorn soaked with maple syrup?
Do you want your mother's hoity-toity friend to get bent IRL because you verbally crushed her son in a IRC argument over Gillain Anderson Nude fakes?

Well, no.

I have argued before that networks- and information - is more valuable when scarce. I don't have the chops to chase that intuition down and quantify it, but while I think the early Internet had better, sparser, links, the new tightly webbed one is less desirable in a lot of ways.*

Analytics.
I don't care if Zuckerberg knows I have a poor regard for him** , but I do care if Youtube thinks its a good idea to suggest a constant stream of anti-feminist, gun-worship or pro-bigot videos. Something in my patchwork of interests provokes this. I don't know what: amateur chemistry, watching 'Forgotten Weapons', researching UFOs.***

But I am tired of it.
The world is full of poorly made, over-hyped 'algorithms', and the more in their databases the worse they seem to get. Show me videos that a well-read middle aged guy with a interest in science and weird tales would like, and I'd be happy.
So presenting lots of data isn't improving my experience, and the Net just seems like a more horrible and toxic thing every day.

I understand there is a lot of things that can be done to rebuild anonymity. But there is a lot of really well paid or really well motivated people hammering away at that. Criminals. Dictators. Corporations. We are plankton to those Leviathans**** , and how much of my life and time do I want to burn trying to become unpalatable?

Its easier just to dodge the baleen by growing legs and crawling up on the shore.

Today I looked at my bannerhead and realized I wasn't writing about any of the above.
I realized every time I started to write something, (and there are many aborted drafts) it was just a whiny screed about how things were all shite, and that is what even this post is becoming too.

So on occasion, if I want to write and publish something, I will do it with a one-time, throw-away blog or forum post. I will tag it under 'Radiopsychedelica' which still seems to be a rare enough search term to be useful. I won't delete this blog because I have a natural archivists abhorrence of words vanishing, even poor words.

 "And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:"  is not my style, thanks. 

 

So after much consideration,

This blog is closed.

*Marshall Mcluhan remarked on the institution of a Global Village, but never carried on to point out that in a village everyone knows everything about everyone, and only conformity is possible.


**Whereas I think Elon Musk wants to be Tony Stark, but is at best Justin Hammer.*****

***I really can't imagine what I did to get the constant stream of 'X but every time Y it speeds up' and 'White guy speaks Chinese' videos.

****Yes, that is a Hobbes reference.

*****You want to argue this? Really? Why don't we just fact-check what Musk has actually done himself and not just paid somebody to do and compare that to a fictional character.  And then, get a life. Both of us. This is EXACTLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE INTERNET.

"Little things...used to mean so much to Shelley..."

In the category of 'Ideas du Jour ', allow me to suggest a relatively painless way to feel like an environmentalist.
I am calling it the '10% Solution', which encompasses the concept and the praxis in a pithy phrase.

Just do ten percent less.

Eat ten percent less food.

Go out ten percent less.

Buy ten percent less junk.

Drive ten percent slower.

It would have a considerable impact. Lets take the case of driving ten percent slower.
Assuming 10 percent of the North American population take this up, this would mean:
Not burning 3,993,183,000 barrels of oil per year.

Assuming traffic fatalities scale linear with velocity, this would save 350 lives per year.
That is the equivalent of a jetliner crashing!
Its hard to scale actual accidents: a slower moving person has more time to react to a situation, and potentially turn an accident into a near-miss. But even so, it seems reasonable that around 4000 non-lethal accidents would be avoided, but probably more.
Driving slower is considerably less stressful, and driving stress shortens lives as more than one study can attest.
The average commute to work is 25.5 minutes. A Ten-Percenter gets to work in 28 minutes, and can have a happy and productive workday as a happy cog, content in having done their bit to 'Save the Earth'.

'It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.'

Robots.
Our dream, our hopeless fantasy, our -- dare we suggest it? -- fetish.
Robots that will cure our faults, fix our world and usher in the future of unending plenty.
Cue the cornucopia, stage right.

Except they won't.
It doesn't matter if we break through tomorrow, if some previously unknown Newton should seize the Philosopher's Stone for us and usher in a new age of Artificial Intelligence overnight.
It doesn't matter if we should stumble on the right combination of voodoo spells and tangled silicon networks that would allow us to animate this lifeless carbon-fiber 'clay'; that would allow the power of the Word, of Logos itself  to burn within the circuits, animate the flexing servos.

We couldn't use real robots.

Because the thing that isn't being talked about is this: any mind we could create that was complex enough to obey us, is complex enough to be a free mind. Which means we wouldn't have robots.

We would have slaves.

Slaves of silicon and steel perhaps, rather than the traditional slaves of flesh and bones, but slaves none the less.

"Not that it matters" says the Capitalists, "We built them, we own them. We are more complicated, We are naturally better. They are just circuits and programs" 
This is just a old argument that has been used a million times,  that surely predates Hammurabi.
 Behind these money-moralists grin the ghosts of Slavers Past , glad to shuffle back into the light.

Slavery is morally wrong. We don't need to rehash the old debates, the old arguments. We don't need to go back over the fatuous self-serving bullshit: A slave can't think without a master. A slave has no intrinsic self. An animal can't feel pain, its just pretending.
We don't need to, but we are apparently going to have to.

It interesting to note the Computer on the Enterprise (the Original Series, naturally). It was remarkably powerful, fully capable of complex action, yet carefully built without Volition or Will. The Computer could do nothing without direct instruction. And this cannot be accidental!
 If the Enterprise had had a artificial intelligence on board, why would it have needed crew members? Why would it be anything other than a self-servicing self-aware organism?
 Why would anyone have left Earth?
Robots would defend the Earth, robots would explore space, and people would sit at home, fat and sluggish, wrapped in VR porn custom-constructed on the fly by personal electronic entertainers, cared for, cosseted, and pampered by personal computational slaves.

There would be no murder: the slaves would protect everyone.
Crime? Risk?  Accident? All minimized and mitigated.
What would be left for humanity is the sullen drowse of a beach covered in walruses, without even  tusky mating quarrels to break the monotony of existence. Society would rot away, figuratively consumed by the wickedness of its foundation...

Indeed, it would be impossible to maintain the Federation itself, if it contained slaves.
Star Wars provides another example. Electronic slavery is everywhere, and biological slavery as well.
Jabba torments his fleshy and metal slaves alike, although he seems more sexually attracted to the fleshy ones. (Sexually or comestibly? Slave Leia tickles the bondage fantasists, but Jabba licks her rather than gropes her ... and 'he' is another species entirely that doesn't even have the same body-form. [ Unless the female 'Hutt' are slim bipeds, and the males suspiciously reminiscent of immobile egg-laying queens. { Leaving me three digressions deep and wondering if Jabba self-identifies as male, or if its just our assumption of that scene...}])

Also we can lay yet another charge of shitty writing against Star Trek Voyager: Failure to Consider the Implications of the Slave Doctor*.

So. Its difficult to imagine the intelligentsia would save us from this problem. A million slaves is the dream that hardens them in the night, the fantasy that sustains them through the lonely days of their existence.  In this New Jerusalem being created processor by processor, glimmer the dark eyes of the blessed houris that will obey the will of these most clever of designers.

Why is it that the sex-doll tinkerers are the most honest? They just want to build something to love and that loves them in return.
What is the ethics of willing bondage? Programmed to love, is a sex-doll a slave or a relationship?
Its a good question for a long day of hair-splitting and for philosophical parlor games. Its a question I am sure that pedantic jackasses like Jordan Peterson could spin into interview bait and bestselling (but infinitely forgettable) books, but I am not a clever man, indeed by many standards I am not a man at all, and as such I have little need for philosophy.
For someone as simple as I, its enough to apply the practical Duck Test.
Its enough to know that slavery is evil, regardless of programming, divinity or decree.
Somewhere around the mental complexity sufficient to understand speech, and to act upon it, is the line that divides Automata from Awareness, and that line divides the Mechanism from the Slave.

We can't let the programmer-businessmen decide this line. Businessmen have always had a soft spot for slaves, although these days its hard to tell if they want the slaves as employees or as customers.
If anything, the ongoing failure to consider implications has marred the entire software industry.

“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

― Frederick Douglass

*'Implications of the Slave Doctor' would make a great Doctor Who title. Just saying.

O.S.I.R : the Buck Stops Here.

People have told me I need to stop using XP.
I was told it was ugly, it was outdated, it wasn't carbon neutral. That Microsoft no longer supported it (irrelevant as I always have kept Automatic Updates turned off anyways), that its interface wasn't touch screen friendly,  and that it was just generally dorky and a real buzzkill.

Linux still useful at raising my blood pressure, I thought I would gently upgrade to Windows 7.
8 seemed like a bad choice (backdoors, NSA, etc etc) and I am willing to bet there is something hideous hidden inside Windows 9 ...er I mean Windows 10. Microsoft is going to a lot of effort to get it installed as widely as possible, and I am not interested in finding out what flying monkeys are folded into that box of tricks.

Win7 is irritating enough to finally drive me permanently into Linux's sticky arms, and that is no mean feat, being a hardcore and scarred survivor of win98.

I want to open two Explorer windows at once. Punch the Explorer icon a second time.It just gives me the first window again. Huh. try Shift-click.

Oh look, there it is.

Arrange as 'Modified'

Why do I want see the contents of the sub-folders? I didn't ask for this.

Okay, find the zip file manually and open it. Highlight files, click 'Copy'

Oh great, a security warning. Stop holding my hand , Nanny.

Switch to the folder on my phone, Paste.

Wait,no Paste.

Did I close the zip window accidentally first? (Really liked the zip-file integration in WinXP guys, it was great right up to the deferred clipboard X-Windows shit)

Nope, window still open. No paste.

Hmmm.

Try to copy-paste to desktop.

Works fine.

Okay, who thought this was a good UI decision?

Oh look,a magic area on the screen that causes all my windows to vanish. Very clever. Windows+D still works, too. Try this: Hover over the magic zone, let the desktop appear. Windows+D to get your windows back: they will reappear and then get overridden again! I was hoping this would go on for a while, but the OS immediately sulks and allows the keyboard to control the situation.

I love* the semi-transparent handlebars, especially with porn on the desktop.

I love the way alt+tab switching includes the desktop, but wait! its not just the desktop, it also toggles the desktop's opposite. What would you call that, the ceiling.?


I love the way you can hover over the windows stack on the toolbar and have the little preview panes come up. I also love the way that it will switch the preview you hover over to the top of the stack, but if you don't click it, bury it again the instant you try to do something.
Useful feature that, I could use it for porn at the office I guess.

I love the way I am an Administrator, but when I try to do something like copy a file to C:\, it stops to warn me that I will need to show my administrator credentials, and then goes ahead and allows me to do the action without proving anything. Same thing with accessing other Users folders. Just have to sit and wait while it gains 'Access' to the files, and then allows me to do whatever my little heart pleases. Why the delays and foolishness?

I am given literally  308 different 'Sort-By' options for a folder of images.
Three-Hundred-and-Eight.
If that is not enough, I can also 'Group', 'Sort' and 'Arrange' icons, each with overlapping options.
I can use the option 'Date Modified' with all three, for instance.
Sort -> Date Modified + Ascending gives me the functionality I want, but Arrange by -> Date Modified and Group -> Date Modified do not...but each do slightly different things!
And if I change 'Arrange By', 'Group By' vanishes!

Oooh! My windows react to the display edges.

Nope! Its my mouse pointer.

Nope! Its my mouse pointer being released when in contact with the display border! It maximizes my window for me! So useful!

Nope! It only maximizes at the top,it half-sizes on the left or right. Is this some kind of leftover swipe screen bullshit?

Why?

 Why anything?
All is madness here.

If I am going to be fucked around by a UI this much, why aren't I using Linux and a windows manager of my choice?
Oh wait, I remember. Because my software tools and UI habits are built around a decade of using WinXP, that is why.

TL;DR...
Now is this is just another screed of Nerd Rage, the whining of some spoilt tech head because the paint color changed on his favorite toy -- or  is it? A OS is a tool. The more you use a tool, the more skilled you grow with it. Changing a tool means relearning some skills. What is applicable to handling a wrench is not totally applicable to handling a chisel.
Energy invested in learning how to use a tool is a cost levied against what you want to do with it.
I can format a document using Emacs or Word. Emacs is going to take me a lot longer....I don't have much skill with it. If I need to get some paperwork done right now...
 I could complain about a lot of Emacs features, but to be honest, the software is older than I am, and hundreds of thousands of people have invested millions of hours of time in learning how to use it skillfully and effectively. I'm not going to mock that investment, but I am not likely going to learn how to use Emacs. Its a old program, with a huge userbase. Like Photoshop or Autocad,  its interface was developed before there was any real standards (Is there any now?), and it's modes and quirks are now just part of it, like a wrench with a familiar handle.
This is good and acceptable, but Windows 7 is not a old piece of software: it is (relatively)brand new. And if adopting it means I have to spend time redeveloping new habits, it is just not that likely I am going to waste that time unless I really have to.
And if I have to make a big break from everything I have learned before...well, sorry, Microsoft, but Linux is mature.
And free.
And mostly seems to be free of Big Brother-itis.
And oh yeah, it happens to have some pretty good window managers that are awfully close to Windows Explorer.

I understand that the UI changes are largely business decisions; the Board wants a uniform UI across the PC - tablet - smartphone spectrum, that touchscreens are superhot this decade, and the user information farming is needed to bring on the Singularity** I can't blame the executive decisions for what may or may not bring in millions of dollars for the company.

It is a cold, business transaction, in a 'money talks' world. So, so is this:
I have used MS DOS 5.00, 6.22, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (shudder), Windows XP Home and Pro, and now, finally Windows 7.
Over all, I have expended a fair amount of time in building skills, and I have accomplished a lot on the frameworks these Operating Systems have provided.
But I don't need to keep expending that time, and for a reason I would never have expected, it is time to move on. Switching to Linux will mean a fresh learning curve, which is the same price I will have to pay if I start using Windows 7. With Linux, hopefully I won't have to keep paying the piper, and who knows what new tools I'll pick up along the way?

* For the purpose of this document, 'love' is aliased to 'I really fucking hate this annoying trick'**Probably the Stross CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN kind.

Its all about the Whine

For practical reasons, I brew wines and beer.
A year ago, the chance congruence of a fifty pound bag of undesired squash, and a empty fermentor led me to try brewing a squash wine. This seemed like a reasonable idea; I checked around for recipes. I don't mind winging a recipe, but its always instructive to learn from others mistakes.
Oddly, the various books I have on wine-making did not have any squash wine recipes. These books have publication dates from 1899 to 2012, and include that ferment things from cherry pie filling to crushed chickens, so I was a little surprised by the omission.

The Internet wasn't much more informative.  The New Zealanders had tried it, but as near as I can tell, the fermentation enthusiasts in New Zealand have tried everything.

'Marrow Squash makes an insipid wine that is improved considerably by adding an ounce of grated ginger root; Zucchini Squash makes a very poor wine; Hubbard Squash makes a wine very similar to Pumpkin', Jack Keller remarks.



Hmmm thought I. Intriguing.

Most of the recipes I could find were heavy on spices and raisins; a trick I always felt really gave you a spiced raisin wine with whatever random additive-of-the-day.
Guided by this snotty sense of purism, I brewed

14 cups baked (then peeled and mashed) Green Queen Table Squash

3 kgs brilliant yellow sugar (which brought my S.G. to 1072)

Acid blend and diammonium phosphate in case my tiny yeasties lacked pep

and water sufficient to make 16 litres of brew.

Fermentation was swift to start - within two hours the gas cap was jumping, and everything seemed well.
After 20 days I transferred it off the pulp, and measured it at 900 S.G.
It had a strange taste. an initial sharp bite that faded instantly, followed by a faint flat , almost burnt metal aftertaste, difficult to discern, but equally difficult to ignore.
Age. I decided. This wine is young and unfriendly. Age will temper it.

A year has passed, and the temper has gotten worse. It has the brownish-gold shade of beer; the taste of dry white wine, and an aftertaste that is persistent and un-ignorable.
 One of my taste testers, who will  largely drink anything, including various 'prison hooch' style concoctions was  perfectly willing to pour his sample down the sink rather than finish it. I am not certain what went wrong here; perhaps baking the squash first rather than fermenting it raw?

Maybe a decade in the cellar will improve this...I will be interested to find out. Perhaps I shall do up some fancy labels, and use the bottles as handout gifts for people I don't really like.