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It seems that our court system is backed up. Not enough judges to handle all the court cases efficiently.

Consider this worthy case the text of which is hear.

Twitter Summary:

A Twitch viewer is suing the Amazon-owned platform because the female streamers are too sexy so he:
a) has felt compelled to use a Fleshlight that has chafed his penis
b) has bloodshot eyes from ogling
c) shortcircuited his monitor by ejaculating on it

Quoted from court filing:

4. Introduction/Statement of Facts

The plaintiff has been a Twitch Prime and Turbo subscriber for years now, who also suffers from Depression, OCD, Panic Disorder, Agrophobia and Crohn's Disease. And because of these maladies, he heavily relies on the internet for all his entertainment purposes as many others do during this difficult time. And due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people HAVE TO STAY HOME FOR ENTERTAINMENT and are quarantining themselves, including the particularly vulnerable - children. As for the plaintiff, he only leaves his house for Inflectra infusions having to deal with hos Crohn's disease; otherwise, he's always on the computer constantly using and watching Twitch. [ . . . . ] Twitch has extremely exacerbated his condition by displaying many sexually suggestive women streamers through Twitch's twisted programming and net code making it nearly impossible for the plaintiff to use Twitch without being exposed to such sexual suggestive content. [ . . . . ]

[ . . . . many mini NSFW images in court filing omitted . . . . ]

6. Claims and Harm

The plaintiff who suffers from Sexual Addiction has suffered much worse given that Twitch has exacerbated his condition. The plaintiff's username on Twitch is [ . . . ] Twitch an be held liable for their misconstrued and devious actions if done with extreme disregard for the customer's well-being through negligence or fallible company policies. [ . . . .]

One can only be saddened and sympathetic for such an individual who has been so horribly victimized by Twitch's (owned by Amazon) callous and thoughtless actions and web site programming. To add insult to stupidity injury, this guy's case will no doubt have to wait in line with many other court cases that are far less worthy of the court's consideration.

With so many court cases what other possible solution can there be except to appoint more judges. Hopefully these judges will have the wisdom to carefully consider each case diligently, giving each one all the careful attention it deserves.

Please Mr. President, appoint more judges so that all of these worthy court cases can be heard without delay with appropriate justice.

Not noticing any attorney representing the Plaintiff, I believe this would be a Pro Se litigant. This also brings up the issue that the courts should be able to appoint attorneys for plaintiffs in civil cases as well as criminal cases. Just imagine how many people might file civil lawsuits but don't, because they lack the skill to represent themselves, or the financial resources to hire the very most expensive law firms in the nation to represent them. Imagine how wonderful it would be if the courts (the taxpayers) could provide the financial resources to enable such harmed litigants to avail themselves of the very finest (and most expensive) teams of lawyers for their worthy cases and complaints.

So, I'm driving along, and none of the stations are coming in well. I'm scanning the FM spectrum, looking for SOMETHING that isn't retarded. Finally, something came in clear - some asshole spouting his opinion about something. That something was COVID19. I listen a few seconds. Hmmmm - interesting.

The per capita COVID fatality rate is lower in all of those states that kept their economies going, than in any of those states that simply shut down for COVID.

Hmmm - wonder if that's true? And, who is that asshole? Listen awhile longer - hell, it's Limbaugh.

So, I'm still wondering if it's true. So, right now, after beginning my journal entry, I'll try to find numbers . . .

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/

Hmmmm - something's not right. There are supposed to be eight states that did not shut down. There are 15 states with lower fatality rates than Arkansas, which did not shut down. Soooooo - the statement that every state that did NOT shut down has a lower death rate than any state that did shut down cannot be true.

Which states did NOT shut down again?

April 3 - not quite what we're looking for here. https://www.travelbinger.com/13-u-s-states-have-not-ordered-a-lockdown-yet-take-a-look/

April 17, but it seems to reference much the same as Limbaugh was pontificating over.
https://www.lendio.com/blog/coronavirus/states-lockdown/

However, 8 states (Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming) still do not have any lockdowns or stay-at-home orders.

Compare that list of 8 to the table found in the first link - and Rush is full of shit. Oh well. There's a reason I never liked listening to him . . . Only on those rather rare occassions when the AM/FM couldn't find anything except Rush Limbaugh, did I ever listen to the old fool.

The chart does seem to indicate that all of those 8 states have had low mortality rates, compared with New England and Great Lakes states. Then, there's Louisiana, ranking right below the District of Columbia.

Well, all I can say is, "Fuck you, Rush!" The fool had me hoping that something all scientifical-like was going to prove all the fuss to be wasted.

https://soylentnews.org/politics/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=38126&page=1&cid=1011274#commentwrap

Joint Statement from U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr. Regarding the Noose Found in NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace’s Garage at Talladega Superspeedway

“On Monday, fifteen FBI special agents conducted numerous interviews regarding the situation at Talladega Superspeedway. After a thorough review of the facts and evidence surrounding this event, we have concluded that no federal crime was committed.

The FBI learned that garage number 4, where the noose was found, was assigned to Bubba Wallace last week. The investigation also revealed evidence, including authentic video confirmed by NASCAR, that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019. Although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week.

The decision not to pursue federal charges is proper after reviewing all available facts and all applicable federal laws. We offer our thanks to NASCAR, Mr. Wallace, and everyone who cooperated with this investigation.”

FBI: Noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage had been there since at least October 2019

The "noose" was a pull rope for the garage door, seen in video footage from long before Bubba Wallace was assigned the garage stall.

Bubba Wallace did not see a noose, but was working with what he was told, probably by NASCAR's President.

NASCAR vows to continue investigation into noose at Bubba Wallace's Talladega garage

Presumably, NASCAR will conclude that while the noose knot is an optimum shape for pulling open garage doors, it is not the right climate for noose knots and we need to tie better.

Bubba Wallace responds to FBI findings: 'Whether tied in 2019, or whatever, it was a noose'

Article shows an image of the offending knot. Bubba vows to stay outraged.

I think the only way this story stays alive is if it can be proven that the noose knot to garage door ratio was low and that Bubba was not randomly assigned to garage #4.

Previously: Fake Noose

I wanted a small, quiet, fanless machine to act as a router (firewall) between my two LANs in my house, something that I could leave on all the time, and something that could also act as a printer server and run my VPN client.

I saw some very cool things, including a quad-core Jetway system with 10 Gbit LAN ports! However, that was a little out of my price range just now, and I couldn't think of what to do with all the LAN ports.

I bought a Mini PC from a company called InsideTech, It's got an intel Celeron N3160 (1.6GHz) quad core CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 2 HDMI ports, 2 LAN ports (intel), 6 USB ports and WiFi (intel). It cost a shade under £250 with a spare HDMI cable and postage. The case is aluminium with some small fins on the top. It came with Ubuntu on it, which I promptly replaced with slackware64-current downloaded yesterday, kernel 5.4.47. I've got Arno's IP tables on it and the multilib patches. For now, I've got my WAP plugged into it and it's routing. My old Phenom II X6 is now retired from routing duties.

Since I got the printer stuff working, I thought I'd install it on this new machine and see if I can let CUPS through the firewall so that all the machines in the house (including the Windows ones) can print over WiFi. That's for another day.

My youngest daughter and I just spent the weekend hiking and camping in Dolly Sods, a U.S. Wilderness Area in the Monongahela National Forest. It rained for the better part of our outing but we made the best of it.

The trails are muddy, rocky and irregular. Hiking was challenging w/ a heavy pack but once you get somewhere you can drop your gear and set up camp it wasn't so bad. For the most part the elevation changes were not that extreme.

When we got together last week to compare our pack lists she was surprised at two of my items, duct tape and super glue. She said she's not bringing either.

But I'm glad I did. When it's been raining and all the wood is wet duct tape is very helpful in getting a campfire started. And when the sole of my hiking boot decided to come apart, a bit of super glue fixed me right up. It's packed in my first aid kit, for sealing a large cut that might require stitches. However, hiking several miles over rough terrain w/ your boot coming apart would suck for air.

The wisdom of being a Dad, on display in the Allegheny Mountains.

Nvidia Engineer's Vulkan Driver For Raspberry Pi Runs Quake III Over 100 FPS at 720p

Earlier this year, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hooked up with Igalia to start development on an open-sourced Vulkan graphics driver for the Raspberry Pi. However, Martin Thomas, an engineer at Nvidia, beat them to the punch.

Thomas announced yesterday via his personal Twitter that his RPi-VK-Driver is ready for primetime. The talented engineer had been working on the Vulkan driver in his spare time for more than two years.

Technically, Thomas' iteration isn't a Vulkan driver per se because it doesn't comply with the official standards established by The Khronos Group. Nonetheless, the resourceful developer produced a driver that adheres to the Vulkan parameters as much as possible, and as close as the hardware would permit it. There's just one limitation with the RPi-VK-Driver though. Unlike the official Vulkan driver that's still in the works, Thomas' version is only compatible with the Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU that's found inside the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, 3 and Zero devices.

Maybe 3B+ will briefly have better performance than 4B in some games and benchmarks.

Also at Phoronix.

ODROID-H2+ An x86 Board to Challenge Raspberry Pi? (cache)

• Intel Celeron J4115 Gemini Lake quad core CPU 1.8 GHz, turbo to 2.3 GHz.
• Intel UHD Graphics 600 up to 700 MHz
• Dual-channel SO-DIMM Memory DDR4-PC19200 (2400MT/s) supporting up to 32GB RAM
• M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 slot for one NVMe storage, 2x SATA 3.0 ports, eMMC flash support
• HDMI 2.0 up to 4K (4096×2160) @ 60 Hz
• DisplayPort 1.2 up to 4K (4096×2160) @ 60 Hz
• Dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) via RTL8125B chipset
• 24-pin header with I2C, UART (3.3V), USB2.0 and HDMI CEC signals
• 14V to 20V DC power input

ODROID-H2+ $119
ODROID-H2 $111

The change that stands out is the upgrade from 2x 1GbE to 2x 2.5GbE.

I've found that there's a certain genre of games that I have seen very little of and that is funny games. By that, I mean, games that are imminently playable and just fun to play, but also are really funny. Whether that's the storyline or just the game play in general.

To whit, I post what I believe is the most playable while also being the most funny game I've played.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bard's_Tale_(2004_video_game)
Third-person RPG game, standard hack and slash kinds of things, but with a number of funny cut-scenes and good story. Also, apparently Carry Elwes "served as screenwriter, improviser, and voice actor of the main character The Bard". "The Princess Bride" was one of my favorite movies and he's done some really good work beyond that.

Anyone else have some gems, they remember?

Snow?
Where are you?

I need to hear about the sexy sex you're getting!!!!!

Seriously, hope everything is going well there in polyamory land. Would love to hear how you Covid-safe two women.........

Be safe.

I completed the backup, shut the HP down to let it cool, and then tried to get it to run Linux from the DVD. It locked up before it got to the part where it asks if you want to try it or install it, so apparently the DVD is as worn as the headphone jack. Maybe I can find a USB drive with Kubuntu on it already, but I’m not hopeful.
        For a week or so I used my phone’s Bluetooth to hear KSHE, using the Dell to play OGGs. Not an ideal solution. Then I remembered that I still had the old phone, although it no longer has a carrier. The KSHE app was already installed on it, so I started using it.
        In the two months since I replaced it I forgot how often it crashed when it used Bluetooth. So that was out, and went back to using the new phone. Then I thought “wait a minute, I can use the headphone jack.” I dug out a stereo RCA cable and couldn’t find an adapter.
        Digging through the fire drawer; the kitchen drawer with matches, light bulbs, and other assorted fire stuff for an adapter, I found the old Wi-fi dongle I’d searched for and couldn’t find. Now I have two I don’t need.
        But I did find an an adapter and plugged it all up and into wall power, and tried it out.
        With the headphone jack it was all bass. It only took a few minutes to come up with a solution; there must be an equalizer app available.
        There was. It took a little fiddling to get the sound right, and it’s still not quite as good as from Bluetooth or the computer, but it will do.