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The 5th Republican debate is underway, and most of the candidates that can remember what encryption is appear to be "against" it. Rewatch the first hour for some truly chilling comments. Only Ted Cruz or Rand Paul appear to deviate from the party line on security, and not that much in the case of Cruz.

Undermining these peoples' fantasies and law enforcement in general should be a top priority for our community.

Someone I have been speaking with online sent me a link which might help some folks stop some of the spying and as you can see here there is a ton of work required to turn all the spyware off, frankly it looks like more work just trying to disinfect the thing that it would be to go back to a non infected version of Windows.

I was watching the morning news the other day, and opened the computer to record KSHE's "Lone Klassic"... and it was in Linux. What the hell? Apparently I should have shut it off the night before, because Microsoft had apparently installed an update and then rudely and maliciously rebooted the computer. It was in Linux because kubuntu is the default OS in GRUB. So I rebooted again, selected Windows, and the little thing came up and... just sat there. Ten minutes later I still had a black screen.

I pulled the battery and tried again. Ten minutes later and I still had a black screen. So when I'd yanked the battery again and restarted it, I selected "Windows Recovery" from GRUB. An Acer screen came up with selections for reinstalling Windows. The first wiped the hard drive, the second kept your files. I picked that one; there was data on the hard drive I hadn't backed up in a few days, including a new story I'd started the night before and was on a roll with.

Twenty minutes later the first progress bar said "1%".

I'd decided a long time ago to get a DVD burner for the old Dell, until about three weeks ago when I'd taken it apart to install the video card and hard drive from the old HP that had computed its last. There were no slots that would fit the card (older computer than I thought, I guess) and the drive ribbon was a single drive ribbon. I probably have a spare double drive ribbon in the basement, but since the card wouldn't work in the Dell, there really wasn't any point. I'd decided then to get an old laptop that already had a DVD burner. So this was the time, because I had writing to do and the install was going to take all day and half the night.

I drove to the pawn shop and bought an HP laptop with Windows 7 and a DVD burner. It's a lot bigger than I like a laptop to be, but the smaller, cheaper one with a DVD burner ran Window 8, and I didn't want to deal with that garbage. Windows 7 is still the least annoying and least problematic of all of MS's OSes.

Of course I had to download Windows Defender and Firefox with IE, install Firefox, uninstall Norton and McAfee and Bing Bar and all the other effluent that comes with a new computer, reconfigure everything, and download and install Open Office and all the other programs I need.

Meanwhile, the Windows reinstall on the Acer had hung. Damn, I was going to lose everything I'd written the day before, since Windows had surely overwritten GRUB. I got lucky; it hadn't. So I went into Linux to copy everything to thumb drives, since I still can't get it on my network (time to try a new distro). I even found some movies I thought I'd permanently deleted by mistake months ago!

After I saved the data on thumb drives I rebooted again, went back into Windows restore and let it wipe the drive. That was the next morning, and it took all day. By then I had the new laptop running pretty smoothly and was writing again. The next day was mostly spent getting the old Acer back to normal. I was amazed and pleased that it had destroyed neither Grub nor Linux.

I'd lost a few passwords and haven't yet reset them all, and lost all my bookmarks.

That new computer is too big, but it's a lot faster than the Acer.

So I turn the TV on this morning and it wouldn't pick up channel 49. Flipped through the stations, and all of them had really screwy colors. I have my fingers crossed that it's the converter and not the TV, since the converter had fallen off the shelf last night. I hope it is, because they're not expensive and TVs are. I'll find out when I play a DVD.

In former (?) actor Shia LaBeouf's latest performance art stunt, he will be taking calls at a mini call center:

The Hollywood star has set up his own call centre in the city's Fact gallery, where he and his two artistic collaborators will field calls.

They will be at their desks between 11:00 and 18:00 GMT from Thursday to Sunday.

Those wishing to touch LaBeouf's soul can call the trio on 0151 808 0771.

Others can visit the gallery to see the event unfold in person, or can watch a live stream and see notes the trio are making on Touchmysoul.net.

Get in touch.

http://www.bbc.com/cymrufyw/34985536
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126915334@N03/ (higher resolution, watermarked)

I'll spare you how I had to hock my left nut to purchase the privelige of speaking to a live human at Fidelity, who AppliedMicro - formerly AMCC - told me would know how I could take a hardship withdrawal from my 401k.

My plan is to buy a van to live in. Just today I realized that if I had wheels I might find work as a carpenter; I was once a carpenter, I really enjoy the work, my father was a carpenter his father a general contractor. I have all my own tools and their tools as well.

Fidelity had records of my accounts at previous places I've worked but not AMCC. "Maybe 2008 was before they started using Fidelity. They changed their name - do you know when AppliedMicro started using your fine investment vehicles?"

Do you mean Applied Micro Devices?

No not AMD, AppliedMicro. Two different companies.

I called AppliedMicro's HR, who was really dismayed, said she'd get right on top of it then call me back tonight.

Wouldn't it be funny if Fidelity lost ALL of our money?

If you have installed the new AMD Crimson driver be sure to check your overdrive setting as some users are reporting cooked cards because a bug in overdrive locks the fan speed at 20%. While this bug didn't affect me I went ahead and went back to 15.71 simply because the fix is only out in the form of a beta driver and I don't mess with betas, but if you have an AMD card running Crimson its something you should check.

From Obama's prime time speech:

This is our strategy to destroy ISIL. It is designed and supported by our military commanders and counterterrorism experts, together with 65 countries that have joined an American-led coalition. And we constantly examine our strategy to determine when additional steps are needed to get the job done.

That's why I've ordered the Departments of State and Homeland Security to review the visa waiver program under which the female terrorist in San Bernardino originally came to this country. And that's why I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice.

It sounds like Obama may be taking a U-turn. The Second Crypto War isn't over yet.

Recall that I reported that I was getting depressed.

Yesterday I sang on the street, just one set but I earned $4.50. Enough to buy a new charging cable for my phone. My previous charger was stolen, the main homeless-on-homeless crime around here in theft of phone chargers. Also I bought a day pass to get to my storage locker on the bus, to fetch my other coat, as the zipper broke on the one I was wearing.

I got up at ten o'clock. That's not early for most people but it is for me as I am a confirmed night owl.

Last night I practiced guitar for about an hour.

Going to the locker is a huge PITA even under the best of circumstances but actually I had a good day today.

I kissed a pretty girl on the hand this evening. Next time I see her I'm going to ask her to meet me for coffee. To do that I'm going to have to sing for enough tips to buy TWO coffees.

I think I headed off the depression. It would have been harder to do so had I let it go longer.

The Social Security Administration just pointed out to me that I have a little over seven thousand dollars in a 401k retirement account. I had totally spaced that. It's just like me to do stuff like that.

I am very chagrined to say that while I fixed the busted taillight that I got a fix-it ticket for back in 2010, I never got it signed off. California wants $900 out of me for that. Then there's insurance, and ~$56.00 for an Oregon driver's license (or something like that) plus when i buy the van I'm going to immediately replace at least some of the parts that are likely to go bad.

A used cargo van from craigslist is about $3000 so I'll have some left.

It's just as well I didn't find out about it until now, I would have blown it all on hats.