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Tom Wheeler: Telecom/Cable Industry lobbyist, FCC Commissioner, protector of network privacy.

I always thought he just went with the flow to make sure he was getting a piece of the pie. Now I'm not so sure. In a March 29, 2017 OpEd piece in the New York Times, Wheeler decries the actions of Congress in weakening (some might say destroying) online privacy protections:

On Tuesday afternoon, while most people were focused on the latest news from the House Intelligence Committee, the House quietly voted to undo rules that keep internet service providers — the companies like Comcast, Verizon and Charter that you pay for online access — from selling your personal information.

The Senate already approved the bill, on a party-line vote, last week, which means that in the coming days President Trump will be able to sign legislation that will strike a significant blow against online privacy protection.
[...]
Here’s one perverse result of this action. When you make a voice call on your smartphone, the information is protected: Your phone company can’t sell the fact that you are calling car dealerships to others who want to sell you a car. But if the same device and the same network are used to contact car dealers through the internet, that information — the same information, in fact — can be captured and sold by the network. To add insult to injury, you pay the network a monthly fee for the privilege of having your information sold to the highest bidder.

This bill isn’t the only gift to the industry. The Trump F.C.C. recently voted to stay requirements that internet service providers must take “reasonable measures” to protect confidential information they hold on their customers, such as Social Security numbers and credit card information. This is not a hypothetical risk — in 2015 AT&T was fined $25 million for shoddy practices that allowed employees to steal and sell the private information of 280,000 customers.

I would have thought Wheeler wouldn't want to rock the boat, but apparently is willing to stand up for online consumer privacy.

Did I have him wrong? I don't know. And now I'm not really sure I care.

I have many many online friends but very few meatspace friends.

Monday I felt tired and depressed, today too. But after work both days I visited with a couple of the few IRL friends I've got. And I wasn't so tired anymore, nor depressed.

A while back Anonymous Coward drove down to Vancouver and took me out to lunch. I'm going to email him to suggest I return the favor. He'll still have to drive here - he lived about forty miles away - but now I have the cash that I could buy us both lunch.

I've been sleeping excessively. Time that I could otherwise spend with other people, I spend sleeping. This is bad - excessive sleep makes me depressed, depression makes me sleep excessively. Clearly the solution is to sleep less, but when that alarm clock rings, I am immune.

A new guy moved in across the hall from me, that's in the same housing program I'm in. Chris is a good guy. I'm going to invite him in for coffee.

He said "Do you need any food? I got food". "No I got lots of food" I replied. "I'll get you anything you need - food, girls, you name it."

Just spending a little while having coffee with me would be all I need.

I know waitresses and baristas all over the Pacific Northwest, but there's only one I know well enough to see outside her work. She said she wants to come visit, but she's been very busy. She works a lot of hours, then her troublesome sister keeps her busy. She babysits her sister's kids.

I'm planning to buy a car with the money from my next project. (I've been asked to do a second project!) That should help quite a lot as it will enable me to play Open Mics with my keyboard. Performing live music is a good way to make friends. Musicians are a lot more fun than computer programmers.

Spring is here. It's still cold but many of the trees are covered with blossoms. It gladdens my heart to see them.

I still have to wear a coat but I no longer have to wear a sweater under the coat. Soon it will be warm enough to go out without a coat.

I haven't been singing on the street since I've had this client. I'm thinking seriously that I should resume singing. As my Newfie ex-wife said, it would blow the stink off me.

It's evening twilight as I write this. I like it that the sun is up later and later in the day. When I get off work there's still a couple hours of sunlight left.

With daylight savings time it's hard for me that the sun is still down when my alarm clock rings. It's not quite dark, it's morning twilight but there is very little light at that time. Soon though the sun will rise before my alarm.

Krddit's tdillo suggests that I need a hobby away from the computer. Really my music should be that hobby but my depression leads me not to practice. The crazy thing is that I feel good whenever I do practice, I know that I will, but even so I dread practicing.

The dread I have of doing just about anything is delusional. But just knowing that you're delusional doesn't make the delusion go away.

I'm going to ask my pshrink to change my happy pills. The ones I'm presently on - two different antidepressants - do help but not enough. I don't feel bad exactly but I sleep too much. When I talk to other people I speak very slowly. I have difficulty talking at all.

Well I'll post this and head home. The apartment manager will be replacing one of my light switches tonight - when this switch is turned on, the bulb flickers dimly. I don't know for sure that it's the light switch but it seems a reasonable explanation.

Today Theresa May's letter triggering Article 50, the UK's withdrawal from the EU, was delivered to Donald Tusk. Far-right populism appears to have triumphed over post-WWII cooperation. We live in interesting times. Scotland has voted to have another independence referendum, and Northern Ireland's regional assembly is in limbo as a result of a corruption scandal and republican parties have increased their presence. The UK's days are numbered.

Hmmmm...

This page was generated by a Throng of Orange Barbarians for Gaaark (41).

Trump REALLY is everywhere these days!

Seems to be getting velly intelesting over there

https://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.ca

Another prediction confirmed.

All you need to do is cast off prejudice and read with an open, curious mind.
You may open your Horizons, lol.

The White House's official newsletter linked to an article sarcastically ripping apart Trump's budget

This budget will make America a lean, mean fighting machine with bulging, rippling muscles and not an ounce of fat. America has been weak and soft for too long. BUT HOW WILL I SURVIVE ON THIS BUDGET? you may be wondering. I AM A HUMAN CHILD, NOT A COSTLY FIGHTER JET. You may not survive, but that is because you are SOFT and WEAK, something this budget is designed to eliminate.

I could open a business checking account but that means I need business licenses with both the city and state. But my first paycheck is almost gone.

What did I spend it on? Might as well be hookers and blow, I'd have as much to show for it. Actually I spent most of it on restaurant meals. I'm fortunate that I spent some on items of lasting value, like my spiffy new Mac Mini, and some new clothes. Otherwise I would have spent the whole thing at restaurants.

Fortunately a close friend is willing to lend me the money for the business licenses. I will apply online later tonight. This friend of mine is well aware of my fondness for hookers and blow, but frankly I'm shocked.

I used to enjoy cooking at home. It's my depression that discourages it.

I could take sandwiches for lunch but every morning I feel too wiped to make my sandwich. Starting tonight I'm going to make my sandwiches the night before.

Rice and Beans. I like rice and beans, but my bean pot is dirty. I have two kitchen sinks. The left-hand one I actually use, and do a good job of keeping it empty. My bean pot is in the right-hand sink, and has been there for months, unwashed.

There is no excuse. Depression makes me lazy but even so I must not give into it. Among the best ways to overcome depression is to act as if one is not depressed. If I were to wash that damn bean pot I would be rewarded with wholesome nutritious hot meals each evening.

I don't really have any plans for this second paycheck. But that means I must be extra careful or I will spend the lot of it at the taqueria down the street.

So I finally got too fedup with the modern breakage that is called desktop environments on Linux, grabbed the source code to CDE, and compiled it. I *finally* have an environment that works with multimonitor without being complete crap. After a bit fiddling with the X defaults database, it's quite usable.

Imgur Proof (warning, high resolution)

Honestly, compared to MOST of the other DEs I've used, this is damn heaven at the moment. With a bit of work to get to support XDG groups, some app fixing, and a little polish, CDE probably could wipe the floor as far as usability goes.

My bad habit used to be finger biting: by forcing myself to not bite them, I transferred it to cheek and lip biting.

I've started using large doses of easy absorb magnesium powder, and that eases it off (if I take a dose about every 6-8 hours. If I forget, it takes an hour or two to kick in again.

Does anyone else do the same? Do they have a good solution?

Now, I gotta make sure I take some before work in the morning, and should probably mix a dose to take at work, then try to remember around supper, then maybe at bedtime....

Sigh.

In a television interview on July 29, 2016 with KUSA-TV in Colorado, Trump said: "I wouldn’t do that [using federal authority to shut down recreational marijuana], no … I wouldn’t do that … I think it’s up to the states, yeah. I’m a states person. I think it should be up to the states, absolutely."

In a radio interview with WWJ Newsradio 950 in Michigan on March 8, 2016, Trump said "I think it certainly has to be a state — I have not smoked it — it’s got to be a state decision … I do like it, you know, from a medical standpoint … it does do pretty good things. But from the other standpoint, I think that it should be up to the states."

At a campaign rally in Sparks, Nevada on Oct. 29, 2015, Trump said: "The marijuana thing is such a big thing. I think medical should happen — right? Don’t we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states. It should be a state situation ... but I believe that the legalization of marijuana – other than for medical because I think medical, you know I know people that are very, very sick and for whatever reason the marijuana really helps them - … but in terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state."

He Lied:

"There is still a federal law we need to abide by in terms of when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature," White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Feb. 23, 2017. "I do believe that you'll see greater enforcement."