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(My writer's block has finally gone away. I used to be a passionate writer but had been unable to write for several years.)

I thought I'd just got banninated from Portland's DamnSingles group over an epic flame war the other night.

But no none of Facebook was working. Sometimes this helps:

      $ sudo ping -f -c 1000 facebook.com

If your net is slow in general, do that to nsa.gov, fbi.gov, vatican.va and cern.ch.

Keep track of how long it takes the nsa to stop replying to your pings.

But no, it was not to be.

    $ ping 8.8.8.8

No? Maybe just the name servers are down. I left this running for a half hour:

    $ ping 4.2.2.4

During this process I cycled my Mac's WifI, power-cycled my AirPort Extreme and cable modem, but still no replies.

I puzzled over what it would cost me to get cell phone directory assistance for Comcast support. This despite that I was using mobile safari so I could continue on Facebook.

Why don't I try the World Wide Web? I hear http is up to 1.1 these days. Will the wonders never cease?

Comcast's support site goes way out of its way to impede your progress toward a live human, but I expect that's for the best as I only pay $29.99 for my first year of their lowest tier. Maybe I'll get satellite internet at month 13.

Amit from support was courteous and helpful, doubtlessly because he has yet to get the memo regarded my Net Neutrality activism on Facebook. That's the great thing about sharing the work of others - you get to pretend you make a difference despite that you're preaching to the choir!

When he asked me to verify my contact details I realized that my phone number changed when I bought my iPhone, but I didn't update my number with Comcast. What was my number? Heck if I know I never called it!

The Wayback Machine saved the day. Good thing I don't worry about my privacy!

      http://web.archive.org/web/20170421201738/http://soggywizards.com/

I knew everything would check out, and Amit said it did so my my feelings towards net neutrality soured considerably. Shouldn't this fine, publicly-traded corporation be rewarded for its courteous and helpful tech support?

I began to hope he never receives that memo. I'll start sharing the right wing's posts from now on.

Amit asked to test my modem, which I was cool with. The test took two to three minutes.

"Can you verify that your Internet is working now?"

It wasn't.

But I used to be a network admin, and I know that things break, and as I told Amit, no one is at fault except for googling getting Portland to revise all its regulations to enable google fiber only to back right out.

So I started my usual troubleshooting.

That went very quickly when I realized my Wifi wasn't connected.

Oopsy. It always disconnects when I power off my AirPort Extreme.

Where is "Den Of Iniquity" in my Airport menu! Ah there it is.

I selected it.

... and promptly commenced receiving ping supplies.

Amit asked me to take a brief survey when we parted.

When asked whether I would recommend Comcast to others, I selected 10.

Folks, my administration has weathered some terrible storms. Harvey, Irma, and Maria have been the worst. And North Dakota had the absolute opposite, a very serious drought. We’re working hard on it, and it will disappear, it will all go away. It's a fine November day in Washington: crisp, breezy, partly cloudy, with zero percent chance of impeachment. In the West it's nice and warm, they're having their Indian summer, I guess they call it Native American now (I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations). Arizona and California are having some great beach weather. And in my home town they're looking forward to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is always tremendous. Folks, you've had Thanksgiving before. It's always fantastic, right? In China, they have National Day, that's their biggest holiday. Great idea, they celebrate being a country. We have a better country, we don't celebrate that enough. So I said, let's celebrate it more. Let's take the holidays we already have and make them into national days. In addition to what they already were. Get ready for #NationalDayofThanksgiving! But it won't happen unless President #TrumpProclaims it.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 23, 2017, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many amazing blessings. 45.wh.gov/HwPuBv

Yesterday, I issued pardons to a couple of real turkeys. pic.twitter.com/fsS8B8f5UR 🍗🍗-- I mean 🦃🦃 -- who stayed in a nice hotel the night before. At the .@WillardHotel in Washington. pic.twitter.com/Zz20w6si6k pic.twitter.com/EOvxDcjiQl It's nice, it's not the nicest, it's not the Trump International Hotel. But, Emoluments Clause! Let me tell you, we need to repeal that. It's killing our economy. #MAGA 🇺🇸

Update: ate some delicious ham. 🐷 They told me it was ham. I hope Al Frankenstien is OK (not really). 🍖 Watch my video! pic.twitter.com/nQhi7XopMW

In response to SID22548, CID596405, regarding quick duplication of files onto external USB storage, I wrote a utility for this purpose. Buy some 10 port USB hubs or suchlike. Buy required storage. Run utility and mount first batch of USB storage units. Press return key. When prompted, unmount storage. Press return key. Repeat as required.

The utility makes several assumptions including where storage appears in a filing system, available storage on external volumes and handling of special filehandes (if any). For efficient use, it also assumes that disk buffers are sufficiently large for parallel copying to multiple volumes. (Copying may be exceptionally slow if available buffers are exceeded.) It also assumes that sync is a reliable checkpoint operation and this is known to be a fraught assumption.

begin 644 duplicate.pl.gz
M'XL(`'_L%%H"`ZU4WV_;-A!^UU]Q<;1(6AI3\I*UBZ-T6S,,`88^)-WV$&<`
M+=$Q$8G42*J.T;I_^X[4S[@;5F#SB\6[[[X['K^[PP-2:T667)"*J0).?O>\
M0[@U4M$'!E=U5?",&BX%W&:*5P:=7!@F<I;#2BK(N3:*+VL'D2M8\8)IP.]?
M;W\$W=)0#3G3&+_$*"Y@;4RESPG1<ELP803;Z*E4#R2398EG/:V*UYKGZ6QV
M=OKJ*,.OL^^^/8W/#EO`1M$*"PG?1+,X>0GOU@S>2*&E,KPNI_8"UIXDR2LL
M@2KC>;I>0D45+>&#!U`IO`/<OKOZZ>8&)GY\#K7&.L_!CX%4U*R)D5A<K3)&
M<JY8AO?8PEWOHK61I:R%&;SW"S&9(S5[XB:<17-OUR3-UBQ[=$E]Q*9ZS5?&
MXO@J/#AASA@Y=U?5Q":!P#H"R"4V4TAC:;69MCG:+-]$]K#KR/)_(^,-55_R
M'MWI<SKUA72*T9PN"[;'=M:S*69J)?J&+&GV:'C7DZS,AY[X"$V#P'[*BHGP
M^FW\8F(A\'$2=8!I>H'V2WO,"JF91?7.]),F=PNQ4/?'/B%2/[/#PC0N`JVK
M*2VTB.;%\.8ZHP55X?<_W/S\6W21-`TX<MH)'<C7*DM]Z[Z+[^<VQ%D^D3\6
M)^1S^#[EY>P+,&D+\G-MVES)?2L;9QMG&W/9EN^`%9HU\55!TZ.NY6%0"UHR
M.-%!U)$A`-B?$/S"1?T4=(0^[H1QW&8M:<F;J+:J"2E9SBFQT/;A>TUKTQ&U
MX*`!!PW.JF)49*\NII14YX`E&5PM)=3B4<B-F**%403KBF5\M855713@I&@D
M4`']./ZCMN.GY&77'>_(S:1[-;1U)UOTW/,V:UQ@8?OL7]G:F[9:02)[>'5]
M$[]HP0`-.F<K+E@>^JQ@<6H'HD-&4=]1#/G@`+LTZ4;#";C'SOO--&EOP[3A
MHMF^[V51E[@,S)H)1#&M6_5V-[W`=7;]ULV%OY(R3N/_HVS[I#UNN$(T>E],
MEC3)[&^4,'$)IP$)IBXJZC"?IT_&Z9-H1-^HU$(.K.:G.+EC9YO_^'C>FW;>
M\_]QDY.^!LMJ(R_C,5W;_J;9=M%I0USM0;.%R\IL47&Y?0;%4*0HRD=>55P\
M#(K;$_>(-Y/5%J&P4K)$=A0@^3JP(AYG&A,!Z*TVK`PG604G%>YD%P,#?!(-
M6/?N0RMVP[!Y/5&@MR(;QM\I)8WWUCS>=6WKQ'HYR[N"_FYD&X2]@J/J9-J'
3#)*NQ7\1->[FOP#Q>W/<J@@`````
`
end

(Usual instructions for uudecode process.)

The idea of an "(in)finite unbound"¹ universe isn't new to me at all (insert video game reference here ...Asteroids uses wraparound) but the last bit was a step I hadn't seen or taken myself and it blew my mind.

"If the Universe is finite but unbounded, it is also possible that the Universe is smaller than the observable universe. What are seen as very distant galaxies may actually be duplicate images of nearby galaxies, formed by light that has circumnavigated the Universe. It is difficult to test this hypothesis experimentally because different images of a galaxy would show different eras in its history, and consequently might appear quite different."

From Wikipedia and NextBigFuture's rearrangement. I put the last bit in bold for clarity.

The article of the quote argues that the size of the universe including the size of the universe that we currently observe are much larger than one commonly would think due to expansion i.e. one has to add the expansion during age of the light gathered from a distant object onto the redshift distance to the object. Thus the universe is much larger than what we usually say. Seems legit to me :)

But the main point for me was the quote above, I never thought about how the same galaxies etc. would look very different each time their (older and older) past light looped through an unbound universe. Maybe I'm the last one to hear about it?

¹ To me a "finite unbound" and an "infinite unbound" is exactly the same, simply "unbound". I know just enough to intuit that I might be tempting fate at the hands of aggravated mathematicians by saying something like that but not enough to know why they might (hoo-hoo now I'm really asking for it aren't I) be correct :D (teaspoons please, if you don't mind).

Granted, it was a long weekend, but still... The euphoria of being up 100K, then the despair of watching it disappear over the span of a couple days. It's fucked up. I'm not rich. $100k is a fucking shit-ton of money to me.

This story starts in the spring of 2013. Bitcoin had just broken $250USD and was crashing (or 'correcting') downwards. A coworker that had built a mining rig a year earlier told me that they sold and made enough money to buy a car - she had made some real money. I decided to take a better look into bitcoin.

Over the next few days, I spent hours reading all about bitcoin and eventually got my computer mining bitcoin for me. Then I bought another video card. And another. It wasn't long before BTC mining wasn't profitable anymore, so I started mining LiteCoin. I had a dedicated computer in my basement (a motherboard with 2 video cards sitting on an old coffee table -- no case) that I ran for a year. I got 200 Litecoin from that.

In November 2013, shit started getting real. LTC had been holding steady at $4/LTC making my stash worth about $800. That month, LTC shot up to a peak of ~$50/LTC. All of a sudden, these Litecoins were worth $10k! I sold 1/2 @ $45. It was amazing timing, because the next day the bubble burst. I managed to walk away with about $5,000.

That $5k is what I used to later buy Bitcoin in the spring of 2014. This was just after Mt Gox had imploded and the price of bitcoin was... erratic. Everyone thought that the Goxxing would be a minor blip, and that bitcoin would recover quickly. Well, it wasn't. I spent the next 2 years watching bitcoin go lower and lower and lower.

In January of 2015, some guy decided to sell 30,000 bitcoin. That's an insane amount, and I think is the biggest on-exchange dump ever. He earned the nickname 'manbearwhale'. 1/2 man, 1/2 bear (in trader lingo - a seller), 1/2 whale (a big player). It was a depressing time. Bitcoin had been losing ground for years. My $5,000 was significantly less at that time and I had spent the previous 2 years watching it dwindle away.

That event started a reversal. Bitcoin had hit rock bottom, so there was nowhere to go but up. It's been going up ever since.

***

Last week was an interesting week in Bitcoinland. The blocksize increase that we have been waiting for years to implement was called off days before it was scheduled to take effect. Bitcoin now doesn't have any -real- scaling plans. If Bitcoin can't grow, then it's useless. I feel that bitcoin (or something like it) is literally going to change the world. It's as important as the transistor or the Internet. If bitcoin can't grow to accommodate more than a few million users, then it's effectively dead.

Disheartened with the path that bitcoin was headed, I decided to convert a big chunk of my bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash. Well... Bitcoin cash had a wild weekend. It rocketed from $600 all the way to $2,700 - a 4.5x increase in a couple days. I had a good entry point, and had been buying a bit more as it went up. Before I knew it, I was up over $100k! It was euphoric. I had predicted a rise like this (not the magnitude of the rise, but that there would be a significant rise). I was telling my wife, and dreaming of expensive cars and exotic vacations.

Then it started crashing. Down. Down. Down. A relentless grind downwards. Do I sell? Hold? I would just watch the red candles slip more and more. My euphoria was turning into despair; Worry. I couldn't watch the chart continue to fall, but I also couldn't look away. Down some more. Finally it found some support, then dropped again...

In the end, I pretty much broke even, but it was a wild ride. I have never made and lost so much money in a matter of days, and likely never will again.

The shocking truth is coming out about Dem Senator Al Franken from SNL and from Minnesota. It's not so shocking. I look forward to a thorough investigation. It will confirm what we already know -- he is a fat pig, slob, dog and disgusting animal who has ZERO respect for women. 🐷 Who forcibly kisses them, filling their mouths with his foul slime. 🐽 Who treats them like SHIT. 💩

He apologized. He says he respects women. Tell that to Israel, Al! Tell that to Israel. 🔯

Low I.Q. Al Frankenstein came to the Senate cafeteria, and insisted on joining me. He was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! Up close and personal, he could only be described as attractive if you like a man with a bad complexion who is built like a linebacker. Not exactly one of the great beauties of the world, according to anybody. I have a picture of Fat Al when he was a huge, huge WHALE. 🐋 He lost weight, he's still a fat slob! I just took that picture out of the drawer where I keep it. I just took it out. Not for long, believe me. The picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. DISGUSTING!

Al Franken is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at him, he's a slob. How does he even get on television? If I were running the Senate I'd fire Al. I'd look him right in that fat, ugly face of his and say, "Al, you're fired." We're all a little chubby but Al's just worse than most of us. But it's not the chubbiness -- Al is a very unattractive person, both inside and out. Beauty and elegance, whether in a man, a building, or a work of art, is not just superficial or something pretty to see. I really understand beauty. And I will tell you, he's not. #MeToo #ImpeachHim

COACHELLA, Calif. – When Cesar Garcia pulled the letter out of his mailbox, he immediately recognized the name of the law firm on the envelope – Silver & Wright. Eighteen months ago, they had dragged him to court, called him a criminal, cost him thousands of dollars and made his life hell. What did they want now?

Garcia opened the letter, prepared for the worst, but was still shocked by what he found inside.

The law firm had sent him a bill for $26,000.

When he protested, the price climbed to $31,000.

[...]

Garcia’s case may sound strange, but in the low-income cities of the eastern Coachella Valley, it is not. Empowered by the city councils in Coachella and Indio, the law firm Silver & Wright has repeatedly filed criminal charges against residents and businesses for public nuisance crimes – like overgrown weeds, a junk-filled yard or selling popsicles without a business license – then billed them thousands of dollars to recoup expenses. Coachella leaders said this week they will reconsider the criminal prosecutions strategy, but the change only came after defense attorneys challenged the city in court, saying the privatized prosecutors are forcing exorbitant costs on unsuspecting residents.

“Fixing his house was just a side effect. Collecting this money was always their goal,” said attorney Shaun Sullivan, who represents Garcia in a lawsuit seeking to erase his $31,000 bill from Silver & Wright.

Through an extensive review of public records, The Desert Sun has identified 18 cases in which Indio and Coachella charged defendants more than $122,000 in “prosecution fees” since the cities hired Silver & Wright as prosecutors a few years ago. With the addition of code enforcement fees, administration fees, abatement fees, litigation fees and appeal fees, the total price tag rises to more than $200,000.

Here's a sample of some of the cases:

For example, a Coachella family with a busted garage door and an overgrown yard filled with trash and junk was billed $18,500.

An Indio man who sold parking on his land without a business license was billed $3,200.

And an Indio woman who strung a Halloween decoration across the street in front of her home – then pleaded guilty to a crime no more serious than a speeding ticket at her first court appearance – was billed $2,700.

Each of the examples above contested their billing in court. The amount billed then went up to $25,200, $5,100, and $4,200 respectively.

There are some other features of note. The two cities in question are unusual for taking these sorts of cases, called "nuisance property abatement" routinely to criminal court. The other cities in the area take cases to civil court because it is lower cost for the city.

We have new law passed to enable the business model:

Indio contracted Silver & Wright in 2014, then Coachella followed in 2015. Within a year of hiring the firm, both city councils created new nuisance property ordinances empowering the cities to seek prosecution fees without needing approval from a judge. Then Silver & Wright started taking east valley property owners to criminal court.

And the bills for these prosecution fees come six months later, after the window for withdrawing the plea deal has expired. It's quite the operation.

Every hour we're getting calls from reporters from the Fake News Washington Post asking ridiculous questions. And I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos. Amazon is getting away with MURDER, tax-wise. He's using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed. He thinks I'll go after him for antitrust. Because he's got a huge antitrust problem because he's controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing. He's using the Washington Post, which is peanuts, he's using that for political purposes to save Amazon in terms of taxes and in terms of antitrust.

@LennyMBernstein of the Washington Post called the WRONG person in Alabama. When he called Pastor Al Moore looking for a woman to make "damaging remarks" about Judge Roy Moore. And offered a "$5000 to $7000" reward. DISGUSTING! www.facebook.com/WKRG.News.5/videos/10155917973537500/

I'm going to make a MAJOR, MAJOR statement later. Time & date TBD. Maybe tonight. Nobody really knows. I don't think anybody really knows. But later. #TrumpTV 📺

Thoughts and prayers with the people of Iran. Who just had a major, major earthquake. 7.3, with hundreds and hundreds killed. I called the president of Iran to give condolences on the terrible earthquake. I tried to call him. But I couldn't get through because of his cell phone reception at the site.

I've said before, they have suckered us. Iran has suckered us. They have taken advantage of stupid people, stupid representatives, people that are incompetent, whether it's Kerry or our president. I don't blame Iran. After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens?

To the Supreme Leader of Iran, if you're listening, thank you for limiting the range of your missiles. I really believe you limited it. I accept it, because you said so. I have a lot of things going on, I'm very happy I don't have to worry about your missiles. Very happy. I know you work with North Korea. You have great chemistry with North Korea. Which has become a threat. As long as we stand together, that threat will never happen, doesn’t even have a chance. The entire civilized world must unite to confront the North Korea menace and the entire world is watching us right now.

To the families of the victims, we are praying for you, and we are here for you. And we ask God to help see you through this very dark period. May God bless the souls of the lives that are lost, may God give you the grace of healing and may God provide the grieving families with strength to carry on. Good luck to everybody! Good luck. ✝️🙏