Random Musings

Still shocked at the hate we have, now Target jumps in to lead the way .... yes, Target ...

(Please read the following, it is all true.  But, let me get the plain facts out to whomever cares about life.  When you or your friends shop at the well know, pretend upper-class store, Target, you may be helping their friends find ways to execute your sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, either of your parents, best friends, whomever they feel may be gay.  As you read on you will see that this is not made up.  It is just Target doing business, taking your money, willing to have a few people executed along the way.)

Hello, all.  People say that I worry too much, lately.  You know, how the country seems to have forgotten it roots.  How it has forgotten that its founders left countries, their homes, due to the very real mistreatment for being different in some way which, for some reason, bothered someone.  And, those someones came to this land also.  And, the settlers and then the great country of the United States of America, fell into a dark spell.  The country formed and broke treaties with the indigenous peoples of this land.  If one can really own land, then it was theirs.  The treaties made people feel good, until they needed more land, oil, cheap labor, whatever.

Since that time, but, mostly - and, this is just how I see it from my limited life on this planet - in the near past and the very present, the idea is not to think about things, not to critically think and examine ideas.  Rather, it is to write something, usually misspelled, on a piece of cardboard.  What is being written?  Signs of hate.  Someone has to be blamed for the tough times - and I know how tough they are, for as I fight cancer and am not working, I struggle to keep my home.  I can't wait to get back to work, but, no smart company is about to hire someone who needs a number of surgeries to make them even partially useful, including my brain work.  I love that work, but, still, I have to be healthy.

So, the hate goes on.  I hear, "no, it isn't about a black President, it is his policies."  I hear that our FBI, CIA, NSA, and the recently 1600 various groups to make sure we stay safe, that we do things correctly, were left in such bad condition by the last administration, that they let through a person who had a fake birth certificate, gave him some of the highest clearances possible, and let him become President of these wonderful United States.  For me, as bad as the last administration was, I don't think they were so bad that a phony birth certificate got by them. 

Friends of mine, friends who really wanted our current President to win at the beginning of the campaign, began to feel that it would be better if he lost, for the mess he and his administration would inherit would limit him to one term.  I felt the opposite.  I want him in there if things are that bad.  I believe that he can help lead us out of this mess.  Though, anyone who gives it real thought, would know that it will take at least two terms to move things along.  After all, it took only two terms to make one of the greatest messes of our country, from all parts, in all of its history.  But, people want to focus on hate, they don't think, they just point fingers.

So, today, I open this email and I am stunned.  How is this possible?  Can people really put money toward people who would have me executed for loving someone they don't love, for following my spiritual life into an extremely spiritual relationship.  But, they don't approve and want me dead.  And, Target, the store people feel special about, is just fine doing business with them.

It bothers my family a bit, when I tell them that I am actually getting nervous for my life and that I do see moving to a home I am lucky to have in Costa Rica, where this Catholic country is decades ahead of our country in civil rights and in loving all.

For now, I will fight with my words, my time, speaking to one person at a time, helping them to see how to think in a critical manner and not just go by what some comedian on a radio talk show says.  I feel sorry for them that they don't realize how many millions of people laugh at them for even listening to these nobodies who have no special education in what they yell on about.

Anyway, this made me sad.  It is not the United States of America that my father fought for and so many others who did and are doing the same.  Here it is, as I said.  Damn, scary and sad.

This is where the Human Rights Campain logo would go, if could figure that trick out on this blogging stuff.

__________________________________________________________________

Joe Solmonese

A new friend

Another day in Manuel Antonio, Cost Rica. Our house did very well
durning last months majpr and damaging storms.

Thought we would head out to the Mangrove canals and see who might be
home. This little guy, with fangs which could remove a finger before
one knew it, dropped by to see if we had any food. We don't feed
them, for they must learn to fend for themselves, but, more than once
they have jumped in the boat and grabbed a bag of mangos and someone's
hat.

More pictures later. Time to go on the nightime frog and snake tour. Later.

Vacation and healing, plus taking my Favorite Entertainment Hardware

So wasted from fighting cancer, the treatment, and the never ending pain, I can barely wait to we take a break in our home in Costa Rica, http://www.atriptoparadise.com. I love to sit and watch our Sun seem to vanish as we move from day to night, in an almost exactly day and night of 12 hours each.  That is all year long.  And, while I will be out of commission to participate in the many activities, such as taking on one of the many Zip line courses, I will still be fine, reading on my Kindle more books than I thought were possible to carry.

If you don't have a Kindle, and you feel you have the money, for you will save on the cost of books; and more, there are about a dozen sites which have all sots of booksr an no cost.  Including one which goes all the way back to 1699, written by Sir Isaac Newton and his work.  One can also find all of the classics, and more. 

There is a false issue in which of the Kindle versions one needs.  Really take a look at what you want it for.  Kindle/Amazon has kept the reading and readability on all models better than any other e-book I have used.  I chose the smaller and least expensive model. The screen is great, the weight is nothing, and I have over 50 books, magazines, even articles which friends have posted on www.scribd.com, had the document converted to a few e-book formats, including Kindle, now I can see what they are up to.  I am a super gadget freak and geek, but I always insist that the product does what it says it does very well.  Otherwise, it is getting a smart phone, which may be cool, but really is crappy as a phone.  Kind of makes it useless for the main purpose.  That said, should you have a kindle or go and get one, please let me know how it is working for you.

This is the kind of politics which is not only silly and without merit, but worse, some people believe this joke of a politician

It seems that almost everyday there is a nuttier politician or would be citizens who are in almost violent protest of some issue, but when asked where they got their information they either, "just heard it,"  or "everybody knows this stuff," or "Limbaugh and Beck  (two of the funniest comedians on Fox Comedy.  But, it does pay, Beck earned over $30,000,000 last year, and good for him, there is nothing wrong with that.  But, he has earned most of it from the people who he knows will not check facts, want someone to hate, and like to be angry.

This clown of a potential politician made the commercial below.  It would be my hope that those who see it, actually check out the facts.  Like when the Texas Congressman who voted against the stimulus package, vowed that he would get their governmor to turn down the money, and, "you won't see me at any of these wast of money ribbon cutting shams."  He has appeared at four of them and has sent out letters explaining how he knew "we" (his constituants, I guess) needed this money, which was started my Bush, to help rebuild our infrastructure and put people to work."  Scary.  Even sarrier, some will believe him.  Like how then Governor Palin was for the now called "Bridge to No Where," then as soon as chosen as the Republican VP running mate, she claimed that it was a waste and that she was against it from the start.

Here is really silly and scary clip:

Privacy Enhanced Mode

I am back again, wow, two posts in a day.  Kind of nice to feel like I am following up a bit on what is becomming somethings I really enjoy and hope to make better.  Better in a way so that I can bring you content that you are interested in and, hopefully, that we can even discuss.  The post below this one has the subject material which is always a good thing to talk about with each other here, I hope, and, our families, espcecially our children.

To start, the post below is about searching and surfing in an annonymous mode.  As I mentioned earlier, that was the rage for many of us in the later part of the century.  And the products I used, from Zero Knowledge, gave me a very good understanding of what I really need to be aware of and what are the harmless things we may run accross, which will provide a better browsing experience (man, I sound like I work for some major, super big, not-to-be-named social media/contact get your information site.  I don't. 

I do realize that if I want much of what I have found on the Web, if I want to be able to keep reading about my favorite subjects, or seeing some great videos, or joining a soical group based on geo-location, then, I have to compensate the owners of these "companies," so that they can make a living and continue to improve and deliver the products I like so much.

Some sites are very direct, they want a subscription fee.  I have heard friends say, "man, no way, I will just go somewhere else."  Great, but, at some point there has to be a model which will allow "companies" to make a living.  We don't like to work for free, and my employees, as good as our product (non-Web) is, want to get paid.

What do we have to offer?  Money, sure, and in some instances I find it well worth the fee.  Being honest, I can't afford a financial fee for every site and Web service I like to visit and/or use.  That leave me with not much to offer, for as you can see, my blogging abilities are very rough on a good day, so, no barter there.

We all know what it comes down to, information about each of us.  For me, I am fine with that, given a truth that I can decide what I will trade in the way of information.  I am not going to give out my social security number, though, I am sure there are a number of very good Internet jockeys who could find it and hand it back to me within minutes. (An aside: I was at one of my cancer pain clinics today. I had to fill out some form for a referral to get me even more images of some sort.  There was a place for my Social Security Number.  I declined to fill it out.  They could have my health insurance number, heck, they could have my car insurance number, even my driver's license number, but not my Social Security Number.  They seemed fine that I would not give the number out.  My assumption is that it is strictly for record keeping, but, they can find another method, I am sure.)

There, I have a set at least on limit on what I will trade.  I will let the Web site owner know the type of browser I use - if he can tell that it is usuallly the latest version of Opera, but in the masked mode of identifying itself as either Firefox or Internet Explorer.  That is because so many Web sites are not written to work well with each type of browser.  I have no real knowledge of why this is, and I am sure some of it is how Opera makes their browswer run. The negative is that the Web site owner does not see that it is an Opera browser, so doesn't think to check that the site works well with that browser.  I do not meant to lie, but I do want to use the site, that aspect of Opera helps me out.

On the social sites, I had to really look at what I would be willing to give.  And, heck, I was already a member of Linked-In.  Plus, for $10.00 to $15.00, I can get, assuming I have a key piece of information, such as your phone number or address, a full listing of what you paid for your home, what your neighbors paid, what their names and phone numbers are, how many cars the own versus lease, where you lived before your current address, the same information about your neighbors, you current employer, your legal history and so on and on.  Now, that fee is a one-time only fee, for that site needs to make money and when someone pays for the one-time use of the site for a low amount, as above, or even for free, they put down a credit card and are entered into a monthly payment agreement, which they must stop by a certain time after the first use.

The really talented gurus of the Internet and the Web, (I am assuming that to get some of this or most of this information for free, they may use another part of the Internet versus just the Web, just my thoughts) could probably get most of that information and more in a short time.  Much of it is public record information, but, how many of us really understand how to get at that information, thus, the information broker business is dong just fine.

The title of this post, Privacy Enhanced Mode, refers to how the video in the last post is told to handle certain information about your visit.  If you come by and do NOT click on the video, no cookie, which helps the owners with how many unique views, the browser used, etc, will not be placed on your computer.  But, hit play and the cookie goes on to the browser and the owner of the site can get the fairly benign, at this point, information they need.  Please click this to read about the Privacy Enhanced Mode.

Let's wrap this up, though, I do want to come back to priviacy on the Internet and the Web at another date.  For me, I am willing to trade the information so I can watch http://www.fearnet.com without a subscription fee - yet.  And the same with so much else that is out there and it comes to us in all forms, music, discussion, live debates, great and interesting articles on everything, I believe, that man has thought of in the past few centuries or more.  However, that is just me.  We each have to decide what we will give up seeing or using if the price isn't right for us.  There is no wrong answer, but, as in the rest of our lives, if we can't pay, in some form, we don't get to play.  But, also, the things we keep discovering on this Web, may just go away, to me, that would be sad.

Web issues seem to orbit around and come back again

Sounds pretty great, doesn't it, and for now, it is free.  But, I see shadows from much earlier in our Web time frame.

In 1999, I was a downtown DC city fair.  We were all having a lot of fun and I ran across a booth with a company named Zero-Intelligence.  If you signed up, you could surf in total anonymity.  Truly, there was no way to track you, as your browser's request was stripped of most information, then went through three proxy server and back came the page, no cookies, nothing.

They had an email component.  Most people seemed to get three of these addresses.  The idea was to use them for shopping, personal, and whatever else.  The company, with the way it was set up, had no way to track who sent an email - sort of.  Most people paid by credit card, that is always a strong trail, but, in this case, it could stop them before they go going, or they might get lucky.

The big issue for this really nice company was that it was 1999.  Most of us had some form of dial-up, I had ISDN, I believe, and the service was just too slow to survive.  They added an anti-virus program, then a firewall, but, they could not get the main product into the hands of enough people.  Eventually, they turned to big business and set up major security protocols for their clients.  Here is a bit on Zero-Knowledge, from 1999,
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9902/11/browsanon.idg/

Privacy was such a big deal then, as it is now.  And, though it is still important, one only has to look at the number of Social Media sites of any kind and there are millions of people around the world sharing more than they may realize.

To me, it is just funny to see it come around to now giving us a anonymous browser: Ixquck which is a Firefox add-on,

or one can go to www.Ixquck.com

The commercial, without the fool in the way.

I took one more look at just the commercial for McDonalds in France.  The one which, for the far right, seems to be scaring them to death.  If it really were not so sad and their response to the commercial so un-American - or, more accurately, so un-United States. (All too often people forget that Canada and Mexico are in America. So much for our geography classes.)

I realized that the scene with father and son happens over and over again in this and so many countries.  It is a scene which can evoke a bit of sadness, or certainly the young man does not want to disappoint his father.  And, he knows that at some time, he will come out to his family, the small smile the actor gives the camera at the end of the piece shows us that they will be fine.

Think of how many times something similar happens right around you, or, maybe in a few years you will be involved in such a scene, but, if you are the parent, then you know that your son or daughter is a gift to you and to this world. 

For fun, I thought I would put the commercial here without the Fox comedian's silly and old antics.

I watched. Then I read. Then I could feel tears rolling down my cheeks.

Someone sent me the video below, which is entertainer Bill O'Reilly's reaction to the French commercial for McDonalds, which he played for his audience.

Take a quick look, listen to what is said about it and let's go from there:

Love Has So Many Faces. Witness 162 years of combined love.

Everything I was nervous about ...

seems to be coming true in regards to Facebook (by no means are they the only ones getting this attention, and, to be fair, their current privacy policy is on the home page at the very bottom) and other social networking sites. Just read the tech section for a newspaper (yes, they still are made), or check the on-line news sites. There, one can read about issues with privacy policies many times over.   I just have had a feeling that while it would be fair to share certain information, listed before a person joins one of these, now, macro sites, in return for the services enumerated by the site and its Privacy Policy.  With that agreement comes a contract, for person A says I will share this information for you to sell and use to bring in revenue, in return for these services.  The lines that always bothered me and always kept me away were the one that were kind of nebulous about changing the privacy policy.  And, that is assuming the site had addressed the issue of changing the policy in the original Privacy Policy.

At the very least, the member, should be able to opt out, quite the service, and have their information discarded as they are no longer receiving any goods or services for the use of that information.  Also, the information should only be allowed to be used for the original purposes as stated when the person joined the site and agreed to its privacy policy. 

Over and over again we read about abuses with the information, the last minute changes in how it will be used and on and on.

Yes, making money on the Web can be a tough thing.  No, it is a touch thing.  And, for certain services, I like many people, will divulge certain information.  First, I see how it will be used and second I see what information they want.  If I can't make both of those things work together I do not join the service.  Thus far, my life has been just fine.  Heck, there are even sites that let you build your own social network (http://www.socialgo.com/) for free or, more realistically one might want to move to one of the tiers which do cost a decent amount of money, but, the services seem very well laid out, you control what information people need to give up to join and there you have it, your own group and control over the information.

All too many people feel that, "oh heck, they could find that out about me anyway."  Yes, maybe they could.  But, it would be expensive and they would not know how accurate the information is at that time.  So, what you share is one of the absolute items you must review and then ask others if they feel that giving up that much information to be used in the manner the site says seems like a fair trade.

For some sites, I bet there is no problem, but for a number of others, they are out to not only make the big money (which in and of itself is not wrong), but they do not see the members of their site as customers, only their lackeys giving up a very valuable commodity - your information.

Be careful.  Please, don't think you know it all.  Ask your parents or another adult or a good friend and decide  what it would be like if everyone knew that information.  If all seems fine, go ahead and have fun, but always keep checking the Privacy Policy of the site to see if any changes have taken place.  I use a free site, if one wants that service, or they have a paid tier, very reasonable, and it reminds me to check the privacy policies on a number of social sites.  Once the information is out there, well, it is gone and it will be used and sold and on and on. 

But, remember this, you won't be updating the information, if you felt comfortable giving it in the first place, you should be fine.  There is the rub, you, we all, have to be very strict with what we feel is appropriate information.  Sure, we want the sites to be successful, it is a form of bartering.  But, many of the sites change the rules of the barter after you are on board.  Just not a good way to do business, so show them that.