No Safe Spaces

We went to see No Safe Spaces today.

I had helped to fund the movie via Indiegogo so I've been anxious to see how it turned out.

It turned out very good.  I easily held my attention for the 1.5 hours (even though I was already aware of the content).

It's certainly worth seeing.

Mackinac Island in the Fall

So we just finished our vacation.  This year, we decided on Mackinac Island, but going in the off-season (i.e. after Labor Day).

We stayed at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast: Haan's 1830 Inn.  It's only a 10 minute walk to the town and very close to the Butterfly House and Mackinac Art Museum.

So, the good:

• Since it's after Labor Day, the number of Fudgies is low.  The crowds are light and the lines to get into things is small.
• Prices are low.  Big discount at the Inn for this time of year.  Plus most of the shops had sales. 
• Staying on the island means you can see things without even the low crowds during the day.

But then, there is bad:

• The weather at this time of year is cold and rainy.  The day we arrived, it poured.  But we remembered to bring our rain gear and were were not uncomfortable as we walked from inside venue to inside venue.
• The next day was rainy in the morning.  But, you know, it was rather nice.  We met maybe 5 people on the trails.  We rested in several covered areas around the island and by afternoon, it was clear and dry (with the expected upswing in tourists).
• The day we left was, of course, bright, sunny and dry.  *sigh*

On the whole, we'd do it again.  The Inn was nice enough that we would pay the premium of going in season next time.

On the way back, we had time, so we stopped at Fort Michilimackinac. They have done a wonderful job of reconstructing the fort and turning the place into an excellent museum.  There was more of crowd at the fort, though.  But mainly because the Wrinkle Wagons dropped a bunch of seniors (who were all very nice).

PI4 as desktop

So let's start at the beginning.

In the Man Cave, I had a Chromebox.  The purpose was to have something that I could do web searches and display information that I needed for my projects.  But I was finding that I really needed something more.

I was able to pick up a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB and got a case with a fan.  According to everyone, it would work as a full desktop PC.  But it wouldn't be a speed demon.

That was fine.  I didn't need a powerful PC for the Man Cave.  Just something that would do some light weight things.

The bad news: YouTube was not "light weight" enough for the Pi4.  8(

So the Pi4 is now a project box.  It will get a new OS install at some point.

Today, I visited the Junk Store (what other people call Valley City Tech Store) and picked up an HP EliteDesk 800 G1 (small form factor PC).
Core i1-4360u, 3.70Hgz, 500 GB HD, 8GB RAM.  It includes a DVD writer, sound, NIC and 10 USB ports (some USB3!).  Only $120 (including the Display Port to HDMI cable).

My only disappointment is that it's supposed to have wireless, but it doesn't.  I had to use the UDB WiFi dongle that I had in a really old PC that's about to go to Goodwill.

Interestingly, that's the same amount that I paid for the Pi4 and extras.

Script kiddies with too much time on their hands

So, I wanted to be able to access Haruka from outside of my home.  When I first set that up, Haruka was getting "hit" by hundreds of login attempts per minute from all over the world.

At first, I was intrigued and kept stats, but over time, I was blocking bigger and bigger portions of the Internet from Haruka.  So I decided to simply move the ssh port to a non-standard number.

That worked and worked for quite some time.  But that ended about 4:50am today.

Someone, with way too much time on their hands decided to do a big port scan looking for non-standard ssh ports and finally stumbled on mine.  So back to their really lame attempt at logging in as root (hint: root's not allowed to ssh in to my server - so that isn't going to go too far.  And for the person doing a dictionary attack, and the other person doing a rainbow attack, there's exactly 2 user IDs that can log in and you can't guess what they are - let alone guess the passwords).

But I'm tired of getting emails saying "there's an attacker!" and having logs filled with their lame attempts.  So I've moved the ssh port again.  Good luck finding that port.  There are only 65535 ports.  If it took them 2 years to find the last one, I figure it should take them about 10 to find the new one.

R.I.P. Mad Magazine

I just saw in the news today that Mad magazine is effectively no more.  It will no longer be sold on the "news" stands and starting in Dec. will no longer have new content - instead rehashing the old content that is has in its vault from the last almost 70 years.

I was sad to see it go, but it was time.  Magazines just aren't that useful when people get their content from the Internet.  But I think it was more than that.

While Bill Gaines was head of Mad, all of Mad's owners had 1 rule "make money".  As long as Mad made money (and they usually made quite a bit), the owner left it alone to do what it knows how to do.

But Bill passed away.  The magazine got new editors and a new owner.

It was about this time that I noticed a change in Mad - which was expected with new editors - but the change was not a good one.

Bill's magazine was an equal-opportunity-satire magazine.  Your politics made no difference.  If they could make fun of you, they did.  The new editors, however, were certainly more left-wing and, so, they focused on making fun of those on the Right, but making fun of those on the Left was frowned upon.

Being purchased by DC was not a good thing either.  DC already has a terminal infestation of SJWs and will likely be out of business soon.  I'm sure that purchase pushed Mad even more Left.

And the final nail was the fact that we all know:  The left has no sense of humor.  The magazine was simply no longer funny and, therefore, no longer entertaining.

I still have my Spy vs. Spy collection.  Antonio was always my favourite.
I know that Sergio will keep going - I highly doubt that he's reliant on Mad too much.

But for everyone else at Mad: Thanks for running a great magazine into the ground.  I'm sure Bill Gaines would be proud of you.  Not.

Who likes socialism?

There are 3 groups of people who like socialism:

1. The power hungry (dictator wannabes).
2. The elite.
3. The stupid/lazy.

Let's take each group more in depth.

The Power Hungry
Despite the name, socialism is not about people.  Well, I should say it's not about individuals.  Under socialism, people are nothing more than components in a machine - easily replaceable and of low value.

Under Socialism, the gov't owns everything.  Therefore who ever controls the gov't controls everything.  And, like we saw in every socialist experiment, socialism devolves into a de-facto dictatorship.

People like Crooked Hilary and Crazy Bernie fall into this group.  They are pushing socialism, not because they think it's great, but because they think that once it's in, they will siphon off power/money for themselves.

The Elite
You see these people mainly in the Ivory Tower of universities.  These people are experts in their own fields, but are woefully ignorant in every other area.  But they think that they have The Plan that will create Utopia.

History has shown time and time again that these people are extremely ignorant.  They are ignorant about their own Plan.  They are ignorant in that they think that if socialism comes that the Power Hungry will allow them to implement their Plan.

They speak of themselves as "smart" because they have a degree in X, but X has nothing to do with economics.

The Stupid/Lazy
This is the biggest group.

The Stupid are people who think that Socialism is more "moral" than capitalism (how they can think that stealing the work of someone is "moral" shows how bad our education system has become).  They are simply ignorant - and made so by the media/education.

The Lazy are people who like the idea of getting "free stuff" without working.  These people are parasites who society should be eliminating.


So when someone wants to tell you what a wonderful idea socialism is, ask yourself "What group does that person fall in to?"  I guarantee that they will fall into one of these groups.

Student loan debt

One of the big problems you hear about today is the "crushing" student loan debt that many people have today.  And, of course, everyone has their "solution" to the problem.

The student loan debt problem was created by

1. A myth that a college education is required to get a good paying job.  This myth was perpetuated by the Left (mostly in Hollywood by stereotyping non-college-grads as stupid working low paying, menial jobs).
2. A student loan program that allowed students to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans to get a worthless degree.
3. Colleges raising their tuition in response to this easy-to-get student loan money.
4. Colleges turning from educational institutions to Left Wing indoctrination centers and producing people who are uneducated in their chosen field.

Simply put, the student loan system was created by the Left to funnel money into their institutions.

This is not a banking problem.  The banks are simply the intermediary for the money (since they had the infrastructure set up to give loans and take payments).  The Federal Gov't backed those loans, so the banks never used their money.  But they have to play by the rules that the Federal Gov't set for them.

Crazy Bernie Sanders wants free college education.  (Note that the only valid response to Crazy Bernie's ideas is to laugh - since they are the stupidest things ever said.)

Companies are tired of getting college grads who can't do their work and are no longer requiring college degrees.  New students don't want to be shackled with student loans and are seeking other education.  People are discovering that you don't need a college degree for many good jobs.

All this is adding up to colleges that are starting to fail financially.  And now you have the real reason why Crazy Bernie wants free college education.


So what to do about the ones who have "crushing" loans.  Nothing.  They messed up.  They paid way too much for a degree worth way too little.

When I went to college, I got a student loan.  But I also did a cost/benefit analysis of my degree.  My degree was worth more than the loan at the time.

If students did not do that and are taking it on faith that they will get a good paying job, then they were idiots and get what they earned: a poor lifestyle.

I should not have to pay for someone else's mistake.

Teacher Misery: Helicopter Parents, Special Snowflakes & Other BS

So I picked up a book titled "Teacher Misery: Helicopter Parents, Special Snowflakes & Other BS" by Jane Morris.

The book is basically a series of anecdotes about dealing with the current crop of bad students.

Before I get into my opinion of this book, let me first say this:  My dad taught middle-school for 43 years.  For most of my life, I had a view into what was happening on my school system that few other students had.  I know that being a teacher (especially one that wants to be a good one) is a frustrating, tiring and thankless job.

If you take the book as just a series of stories about stupid students and their parents (sort of like watching the car crash videos on YouTube), it's a pretty enjoyable read. But I would expect most people don't like schadenfreude.

But what was distasteful to me was the whining - from the teachers.

Every, and I mean every, problem in the stories has its root cause in the public education system.  The poor teachers, who can't be fired.  The poor administrators who won't discipline problem students.

Of course, you will say "but isn't some of this caused by poor parents?"  And you are correct.  But I will argue that those poor parents became poor parents due to the broken public education system.

One of the stories was about a couple of students who "identified" with animals.  The teacher telling the story wanted to not laugh at them, but that's exactly what should have been done (short of bullying).  Instead they humored them, reinforcing this moronic idea.

So Teacher Misery is a well written book and I would recommend it.

If you are like me and have strong beliefs about how our public education is failing, this book may be painful to read.