Former Naval Person Too

German strategic objectives

2011-02-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

The Germans planned to invade Greece, probably in March 1941 to achieve two aims. One was to secure their rear prior to the planned attack on Russia in May or June 1941. The other was to prevent British bombers, based in Greece, from hitting the Rumanian Oil fields. The Germans felt increased urgency due to the British successes in North Africa and the Greek successes in Albania. The Germans wanted to ensure their success, so they planned to use a larger army than originally envisioned. Hitler was ready to use however large an army that could be supplied over the roads in the Balkans. The initial British force was planned to include the 2nd Armoured Divsiion, the New Zealand Division, and the 6th, 7th, and 9th Australian Divisions. The Australians would have a large role in the move into Greece, when it came. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History.

The Greek attack on Valona

2011-02-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

The Greeks decided to attack the Italian port of Valona in Albania, following the failure of the Italian offensive. The Greek army had received captured Italian equipment from North Africa as well as British equipment. The British acquiesced to a Greek request for air support for the offensive. The Greeks committed almost all their army to the attack, leaving six weak divisions facing Bulgaria. Now, the situation changed radically in Greece, as General Metaxas died on 29 January 1941. In response, Churchill stopped the offensive in North Africa, so there would be forces to send to Greece. The British later found that Hitler had decided in November 1940 to attack Greece. The offensive would start in March 1941. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History.

2011-02-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

Because of Greece's decline of a token British force, the British forces in North Africa were allowed to advance to Benghazi. The commanders in Britain also decided that British forces should take the island of Rhodes and other islands in the Dodecanese belonging to Italy. General Metaxis and General Papagos were unsure what lines to defend, partly due to uncertainty over what Yugoslavia would do. If they cooperated with Germany, Greek forces would defend a line along the Aliakmon and Venetikos Rivers. This was a short front that would face the Italians in Albania. While this was being decided, General Wavell was told to prepare four divisions for service in the Balkans, in event of a German invasion. By the end of January 1941, the Italians attacked that quickly failed. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History.

Obama apparently wants to put the Muslim Brotherhood in charge of Egypt

2011-02-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

From the latest news. Obama is intent on removing Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt. From reports, Obama has been in communication with the Muslim Brotherhood for some time. Obama seems to want to put them in charge, despite them being anti-American and virulently anti-Israel. I have a lot of sympathy for the people who liked the stability of the Mubarak government and who profited from peace with Israel. Our administration is apparently pursuing a policy which will end up destabilizing the region and bringing about increased violence and possibly warfare.

Clayton Cramer is blogging again

2011-01-17T17:31:00.001-08:00

Clayton Cramer is someone that I used to link to in the past. He was recently the target of the Copyright Trolls, who are out for no good, and he was forced to shut down for a while. He is now back up and blogging at Clayton Cramer's Blog. Clayton Cramer comes across as a social conservative, but he is also a strong supporter of gun rights and writes about the mentally ill who commit crimes and who are failed by the system. He is a programmer, like many of us, and is interested in history.

The contested 2000 presidential election

2010-11-28T17:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight on Sixty Minutes, the interviewer made some comment about how some people thought that the Supreme Court stole the election for George W. Bush. The truth is something else again. There was this circus going on in Florida, the aim of which was to steal the election for Al Gore. Al Gore legitimately came close to winning, but the left was not content to let the process proceed to its natural conclusion. Instead, they were intent on ensuring that Al Gore won by all possible means. The Supreme Court put a stop to the circus, which was the real attempt to steal the election.

How to play Texas Cash Five without a computer program

2010-10-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a cashier from a local grocery store, while we were both in line. She was not working and buying groceries. She plays another lottery game, but I promoted Cash Five as an easy game to win. Get a pick that has two winning numbers and you win $2. I realized that there might be some interest among lottery players about how to win at Cash Five without using a computer program. I would highly recommend Gail Howard's "master guide" and her book about playing five number games. You can find them on Amazon.com. You want a book so you are able to "wheel" numbers.

The first step is to rank numbers, from the most likely to win to the least likely. A simple way that works moderately well is to rank numbers by the last time that they won. Those that won most recently would be placed at the top and the ones that have gone the longest time since winning go at the bottom. You can make a list of numbers from 1 to 37 and then go the winning history on the Lottery website and find the date when they last won.

I would recommend taking several small wheels and write down the template on paper. I would then fill in the numbers from your orders list. You could play some or all from what is generated, and you would have a chance to win something. A good way to selectively pick what to play from a wheel, so you don't have to play the entire wheel, is to do the process of ranking numbers for ten previous games. Then, use your wheels of choice and fill in the ranked numbers. From what you have generated, figure out what would have won and mark those combinations from the wheel results. Now look over the last 10 games or however many you wanted to do, and look for positions in the wheel that won more than once. I would play those multi-win positions in the current game.

If you have the ability to use wheels without buying a book, so much the better. If you have the books, you can read about some of the approaches that can be tried, when trying to rank numbers.

Facebook problems

2010-08-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

Because I was trying to use Facebook from my hotel room, Facebook has gone crazy. I hope that when I am home, using my desktop computer, that Facebook will mellow out. How much do you know about your "Facebook Friends"?. Some of them, I don't know at all, and Facebook wants me to identify them in photographs? Give me a break.

"Former Naval Person Typepad" just got a big jump in traffic

2010-06-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

I was interested to see that "Former Naval Person Typepad" had a big jump in traffic, starting yesterday. It may be a temporary spike, but it is back to where the original "Former Naval Person" blog was in June 2007. Too bad there is no advertising that would be comfortable with the blog (NSFW) and that I would also be comfortable with carrying. I have had enough of Triple-X advertising on a PG to R blog. There seems to be no middle ground, however, and I don't understand why. It seems that if Google would allow it, there are suitable advertisers available, but then Google does not allow it, so that is that.

Robert Gates seems to be carrying water for the administration

2010-06-18T10:25:00.001-07:00

I am not that tightly locked into the issues, but Robert Gates seems more interested in cutting defense spending than funding what is needed. The GE F135 engine is a case in point. The present administration has little interest in defense spending, except as pork, and is constantly on the prowl, looking for programs to cut.

They ruined Google Chrome

2010-06-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

The geniuses at Google ruined Google Chrome. I had started using Chrome as my everyday browser, but now that they made the bookmark manager just a tab, instead of a separate application, they ruined the usability. I want to be able to "organize bookmarks" and get the separate application. Now, everytime you select a bookmark, you go to it (the wrong thing to do) and lose the manager.

Apparently, the surprising news was true

2010-06-07T06:34:00.001-07:00

Yes, the news that surprised me was true. I read it on an official website. The reason was the usual one: "tools". I have mixed feelings about all that, as the "tools" were both entertaining and informative. I listened to them all the time in the 1990's and had favorites. Still, a leader could make a lot of money selling "tools" and not necessarily make money from "the business". That was the problem. Our guy got bounced in 2007 over "tools".

I have wondered if there was a lot of wreckage in "the business" after 2001

2010-06-07T05:37:00.001-07:00

We have been affiliated with "the business" for the last 18 years. We have been inactive since 2001, although I attended some meetings in Minneapolis in 2003-2004. I had suspected that there could have been continued fallout from some of what started to hit as early as 1998, when there was trouble about "tools" and people being involved in multiple businesses. I couldn't resist searching a few days ago, and was not surprised at what I found. Well, if some of it is true, then I am a bit surprised, as there was at least one couple that I would have guessed would not leave "the business" under any circumstances. That is, they always seemed "squeaky clean" and committed. Sorry, but I am being non-specific for a reason.

Lotto programming

2010-06-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

I have several posts at "My Back Pages" about my latest approach to generating combinations for the lottery. One thing that I want to mention is that we won most of our winnings from the last nine months using Gail Howard's wheels. The only game that they really worked well for was "Cash Five", but they worked pretty well. Everywhere I turn, people disparage Gail Howard's work, but I have found that I only started to win when I used her approach. I have moved on from there in the last four days, based on my work with "Pick 3" programming. I have read Isaac Nwokogba's book Ea$y Dollar$ and "Professor Jones's" book The Basics of Winning Lotto/Lottery. I combine the two approaches in my "Pick 3" program. The first uses "hot numbers" while the second uses "positional analysis". Hot numbers could be all you would need, but to win with pairs, you need to use positional analysis. I am now using hot numbers for "Cash Five" and "Lotto Texas".

My new approach

2010-06-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

I did a quick implementation of my new approach to playing Cash Five last night. It uses "hot number" analysis and a full wheel. Once I have the wheeled combinations, I check to see if there are lines that have won more than others over the last 40 games. There are such lines and I take some number of those, ordered by descending frequency, and play those. It worked better than what I had been using.

Full wheels

2010-06-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised that my recursive algorithm for generating unique combinations worked for 25 numbers. The algorithm produced 53010 combinations for 25 numbers. The algorithm produces "full wheels". I am currently using the algorithm for playing "Pick 3" with hot numbers. I also use "positional analysis". Between the two, we have won four times since a week-ago Monday.

Google Street View is simply awesome

2010-05-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a woman about Denver, and about where I lived for 8 months in December 1994 to August 1995. I lived near the corner of Havana and Mississippi. There was a King Sooper supermarket there. I tried Google Maps to refresh my memory and then realized that I could see the street view for the corner. I can see from Google Street View that the King Sooper supermarket is still there. I was just inside Denver from Aurora, as I remembered the location. I could turn around and see what seems to be the mall on the opposite side of the street. The Conoco station is still there, as well.

Neanderthals

2010-05-10T05:50:00.001-07:00

I was interested to read what should have been obvious: Neanderthals were part of Homo Sapiens, not a separate species. The fact that they could be part of fertile cross-breeds confirms that fact. I have long suspected, as have many other people, that Neanderthal traits have survived to this day in the general populace. E. M. Smith has a blog post with a photograph.

Bess Levin of DealBreaker

2010-03-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have been interested in Bess Levin for a few years.

The Observer has a picture and story.

Lost freedom

2010-03-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

A striking feature of life in 2010 is the gross over-regulation and criminalization of doing unhealthy things. As recently as 1998, we still have many freedoms left. Now, someone restricts businesses from letting people smoke in separate enclosed rooms, hurting small, locally-owned restaurants, people are required to do all sorts of things in their cars (often observed more in the breach than in compliance), and criminalizing activities that used to be considered to be "fair use" under the old copyright laws. Fines are now usually excessive for traffic violations and local, state, and federal government constantly intrude on our lives (or they want to, at least). The courts have stripped us of our constitutional rights because they figure that some good is accomplished by doing so. In the United States, though, we are in better condition than the Europeans. Britain and the Netherlands seem doomed, if they continue as they are. In the U.S., government risks driving the people into rebellion through repressive laws and enforcement. I find the whole prospect frightening, as I liked our situation even prior to 2001, if not prior to 1999.

64-bit binary news readers?

2010-02-20T12:02:00.001-08:00

I wondered if there were any news readers that might take advantage of 64-bit processors and Windows 7 64-bit. The answer is yes, at least with News Bin Pro.

A banned news group?

2010-02-20T11:58:00.001-08:00

I had seen a reference to a group in another news group. Neither of my news providers carry the group, so perhaps it is banned. Now, searching with Google, it looks like a news group that I would not want to see anyway, given the topic mentioned. There are several ways to check groups online. One is with http://binsearch.info. There are some other sites that list news groups, at least. The news group I had seen seems to be valid, not carried by my two news providers, and now seems to be a non-interesting topic (although from binsearch, that was not obvious).

How did we do in Cash Five on 12 January 2009?

2010-01-13T03:05:00.000-08:00

We didn't do that great, as the winning pick for 12 January 2010 was 5-7-10-12-30. We just won $2, by my count:



1-4-26-30-31
4-8-17-28-30
4-13-19-30-34
1-2-4-28-36
5-6-10-17-33-won $2
11-17-18-33-34
4-17-20-23-33
5-14-15-17-34
5-17-19-23-31

Some Texas Cash Five picks for 12 January 2010

2010-01-12T02:58:00.000-08:00

I have never won more than $58 on any one day playing Cash Five. However, I frequently win something. Here are some picks for today's game (12 January 2010):


1-4-26-30-31
4-8-17-28-30
4-13-19-30-34
1-2-4-28-36
5-6-10-17-33
11-17-18-33-34
4-17-20-23-33
5-14-15-17-34
5-17-19-23-31

There are no guarantees here. You take your chances. I will report how they do after tonight's game, just for fun.

How about some Mega Millions picks for 12 January 2010?

2010-01-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

OK. Here are some Mega Millions picks for 12 January 2010. There are no guarantees. The best that I have done so far in Mega Millions was to win $30 in a recent game. (In this case, we didn't win anything, mostly because the winning pick had a Mega Ball that was a low probability number: 5-9-31-37-56 Mega Ball 16)


Pick              Mega Ball
15-18-39-40-45     6
11-13-18-28-48    39
 7-18-28-41-50    36
 8-18-28-37-55    15
 8-13-28-39-41    44
 4-22-27-39-46    23
22-27-39-43-46    46
 4-27-43-46-55    40
 8-18-44-48-56    27
 1- 6-31-53-54    27
 1-27-45-50-53     2
 6-15-45-53-55    24

How we did in Cash Five for 11 January 2010

2010-01-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

Well, we didn't do too great. We won $2 for 8 sets of picks.
(January 11, 2010):


8-14-19-23-28
11-14-19-24-32 - won $2
8-10-14-16-33
6-10-14-24-37
3-13-15-19-33
3-16-19-23-24
3-17-19-28-32
6-13-16-19-28

What I have been doing since August 2009

2010-01-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

Since August 2009, I have been working hard on a family of computer programs, for my personal use, that use AI techniques to "predict the near future". I use several layers of heuristic rating methods to generate sets of predictions. I also generate reports that show the historical performance over time. I am not trying to prefectly guess the future. I just want to make a little money in the process. On example of what I can do are some picks for the Texas lottery game "Cash Five" for tonight (January 11, 2010):


8-14-19-23-28
11-14-19-24-32
8-10-14-16-33
6-10-14-24-37
3-13-15-19-33
3-16-19-23-24
3-17-19-28-32
6-13-16-19-28

This week, I am mostly playing on paper, not actually spending money buying picks. I would not recommend buying these, but it would be interesting to see how these perform in tonight's Cash Five drawing. I will give an update and some picks for tmorrow night's game tomorrow.

The CRU documents are posted to a news group

2009-11-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

I guessed that this would be the case. The documents obtained by the Russian hackers are posted to a news group. They are from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit. They are saud to imply that scientific data was altered to show that there was global warming, even when actual temperatures were in decline. You can find the RAR file by searching with BinSearch (the website) with the search term "Climate". Look in the most popular news groups.

Artificial Intelligence in Action

2009-10-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

The emphasis on rule-based systems in the mid-1980's was a mistaken notion based on experience with mostly toy systems. The work of John R. Anderson was the exception. He continued to evolve tutoring systems that worked off a combination of rules and knowledge structures.

I have been working on programs since August that use some alternate approaches to applying AI techniques. The classic architecture of "generate and test" still works. The major component of the "generate" portion are heuristic rating systems and some just plain "hacks". I quickly found that in my problem domain of choice, that I had to go beyond principles and look at performance with real world data. In conjunction with the heuristic rating systems, I also use some extremely simple machine learning. Those two together seem to be producing adequate performance. I will continue to tweak and test every day, as new ideas occur to me and I see the results of applying what I have.

Megan McArdle?

2009-10-22T11:57:00.001-07:00

I have been curious as to what is happening to Megan McArdle. She has kept moving to the left as she has switched employers. The Atlantic certainly is a left-leaning publication, which is fine in itself. She was running along, blogging frequently, and then lately has fallen strangely silent. I hope she is OK. She was going to get married and then decided that they couldn't afford to marry. So what is up? At least she finally spoke up today with several blog posts after being quiet for some days. I find her present political orientation understandable, as Megan started out on the far left, and then picked up libertarian tendencies. I was fooled prior to 2008 into thinking that she was center-right. At best, she is center left, but probably just left.

The Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize just shows how politicized the award has become. What did Obama do, promise to close Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center and then not do it?

September 11th

2009-09-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

We sit now on September 11, 2009, eight years after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. I heard someone point out that President Obama has dismantled many of our anti-terrorism efforts since he took office. How long before we see another attack? I still vividly remember the day. I was working in a western suburb of Minneapolis. I first heard that there was something happening while I was stopped in traffic on the highway. I was listening to Bob Edwards on NPR, back in the days when NPR was leftist but you could stand to listen to them (unlike now). Bob told us that there was report of a twin-engined aircraft hitting one tower of the World Trade Center. Could it have been a small aircraft? We finally heard it was an airliner, which seemed strange. At work, someone had radio on, and we heard of the other tower being hit, and then in rapid succession, the attack on the Pentagon and the plane in Pennsylvania. We all knew that this was a terrorist attack. We were sent home at about 11am and didn't know if we would work the next day or not. We saw, on the CNN website, the video clips of the planes hitting the towers and then people running down the streets when the towers fell, with a cloud of dust behind them. Now, eight years later, we sit here with a buddy of Hugo Chavez as our president. I guess that we have officially forgotten 9/11.

Censorship? In 2009?

2009-08-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

I still have trouble believing that the main search engines are censoring search results, but that is exactly what Google and Yahoo are doing. For a long time, after Google was doing it, Yahoo was still feeding up the Blogger "Former Naval Person" in search results, but now they have stopped. To get there, you have to follow a Boxxet.com link or a link from one of my blogs. A good number of people also have bookmarked the blog.

Where can you see my fakes of naked women?

2009-08-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me yesterday if I had any fake pictures of naked women. The answer is "yes" and they can be found at the Blogger version of "Former Naval Person" blog. I got into the business of making fake pictures in early 2007. I started putting pictures of naked women on my blog as far back as June 2006, when Heather Mills first made a big splash. You can also find that content at the "Original Former Naval Person" blog. This has different new content than the Blogger version, but shares some content from farther back.

Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart, with Kari Anne Peniche

2009-08-18T06:13:00.000-07:00

Guess what I will being tonight? I will look on the UseNet for the video of Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart, with Kari Anne Peniche. "It's not a sex tape, just three naked people maybe wanting to have sex".

Two Minutes of Hate

2009-08-18T04:51:00.000-07:00

Roger Kimball, of the New Criterion magazine, writes about the similarities between the Obama operation and 1984. In the Obama universe, George W Bush takes the place of Emmanuel Goldstein in 1984.

WinRAR

2009-08-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

RAR files are commonly used on Usenet to compress large video files or large collections of smaller video or jpg files. The best binary file Usenet readers support extracting RAR files, at least to a point. NewsRover would not extract this one 1.5GB RAR files (combined split files). I needed to get WinRAR, from the inventor of the format. I had not realized that an individual has the right, under the license, to install WinRAR on all the computers that they own. A business needs a license for each computer, but there are volume discounts to ease the burden. I certainly am going to take advantage of the license and install WinRAR on my second desktop computer.

Obama and "Health Care Reform"

2009-07-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

I can't figure out President Obama and his approach to health care reform. People voted for him thinking that he meant to give middle-class health insurance to the uninsured and let the rest of us who have health insurance keep what we have. We might have been excused if we thought that he also meant to limit the ways that health insurance treated us below the standard we expected. But now, President Obama's team of health care geniuses assumes that they cannot afford to give everyone good health insurance. Instead, while everyone would be covered, we would all be covered in such a way as to get worse coverage than we already have. Besides that, the government would reduce costs by not paying what it costs to provide health care, but to pay doctors and hospitals something less than that. That will help to reduce the numbers of doctors and hospitals and would further reduce the quality of health care. The present problems are at least partly due to the reductions in what Medicare and Medicaid will pay. They pay less than cost and force the rest of us to pay more.

What's Happening?

2009-07-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

We finally had the content from the Blogger "Former Naval Person" blog copied to TypePad. The question is now: "how long before search engines start returning links to the new blog in search results?" There are something like 3300 blog posts on the new blog: "Original Former Naval Person". I am also adding new content of the same sort as the last two years (fake pictures, mostly). The Blogger Former Naval Person is still alive and as well as can be expected, given that all the traffic comes from Yahoo Image Search and links from Boxxet.com, except referrals from my other blogs.

How to find the Erin Andrews video at "My Back Pages"

2009-07-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote how to look for and find the Erin Andrews video at "My Back "Pages". I would move fast, if you were interested, because there is no knowing how long it will be available. Some controversial content is caused to become expired prematurely, and this is content that there are people desperately trying to squash.

Tom Maguire excepts a funny David Brooks piece

2009-05-27T05:40:00.001-07:00

David Brooks is generally the liberals' Republican, but he wrote a funny piece that is off the reservation. Tom Maguire, at JustOneMinute, excerpts it.

Good News-Bad News

2009-05-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

The good news is that the News Rover news group search found that there were Little Liana pictures posted to one or more news groups. The bad news was that the binsearch.info didn't find them. Little Liana is one of the paysites advertised on this one young girl picture website (legal pictures only, by policy). They have this free site that they use to advertise hardcore paysites for 18 and over girls.

Browsing news groups online

2009-05-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Despite the demise of alt.binaries.nl, we can still browse news groups online, without looking at the attachments, of course. I am using the binsearch.info facility for browsing that is similar to that found in the late lamented alt.binaries.nl.

boxxet.com links to my posts with fake pictures

2009-05-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure what Boxxet.com was, but it seems find. They link to my pictures, and have my old fake Dakota Fanning picture from 2007, if you can believe it. I hesitate to actually link, because Blogger can do strange things at times. You can copy and paste the URL into a browser or, better yet, search for Dakota Fanning fake picture.

The Google AdSense Privacy policy

2009-05-06T06:12:00.001-07:00

I had been uncertain how to satisfy the Google AdSense requirement for a Privacy Policy. From several blogs, I found what I wanted to see. First was the policy example and the general scoop from Mark8T. The second piece was how to publish the policy. "News Update" (free-sms-mms.blogspot.com) told how to do it. I finally compliant, albeit a month late.

Google AdSense Privacy Policy

2009-05-06T06:00:00.001-07:00

Personal Information Collected on this Website
No personally-identifiable information is collected on this website from persons that browse our website. The only personally-identifiable information collected on this website is gathered on our “contact us” pages, where fields are provided so that you can provide your name, email address and phone contact information. We collect this information so that we can respond to the comments that you send to us via that form.

Anonymous Information Collected on this Website
We record anonymous data. Most of the information that we collect from this website is anonymous information, such as the pages you visit. Other anonymous data we may collect might include the name of your internet service provider, the website that you used to link to our site, the websites that you visit from our site, and your IP address. The data is used for statistical purposes, but you, as the individual user, remain anonymous. We use this anonymous information to help improve the content of this site and to compile aggregate statistics about individuals using our site for internal market research purposes.

Cookies
We use cookies on this website. We use Google, as a third party advertising company to serve ads when you visit our website. Google a DoubleClick DART cookie to serve ads to you based on visit to this sites and other sites on the Internet. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these Google, click here.

I keep finding new news groups with binsearch.info

2009-05-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

I assume that alt.binaries.nl is permanently dead. It is too bad, as it had features not found in binsearch.info. In alt.binaries.nl, you could browse news groups from the web. You could not see files, but you could see the headers. Binsearch.info is still helpful, as I found two new news groups this morning, while looking for a specific topic.

In certain circles, you can't criticize Obama

2009-05-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

This does not surprise me, given what we are seeing with the press. In certain social circles, you cannot criticize Obama. If you forget and do it, you find that all conversation has ceased.

R.S. McCain tells us how to get a million SiteMeter visits in less than a year

2009-05-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

R. S. McCain ("The Other McCain" blog) tells us what he did to get a million SiteMeter visits on his Blogspot blog in less than a year.

I am now using binsearch.info for binary search

2009-05-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

For uncensored binary search of news groups, I am using binsearch.info. At times, the NewsRover search will find things that binsearch.info will not find, but usually NewsRover search is censored, as far as I can tell.

Susan Boyle in 1984

2009-05-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

After seeing the Flash video of Susan Boyle in 1984, you have to wonder how she remained undiscovered for so long. In 1984, she was in her prime and her appearance gradually deteriorated after that.

I enjoyed seeing Susan Boyle in 1984, when she must have been about 23

2009-05-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

The new videos of Susan Boyle show her in 1984 singing "The Way We Were" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him". She must have been about 23 when she was recorded. The Daily Record has the original videos. This is the article for her singing "The Way We Were".

U.S. Banks under attack

2009-04-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

If this doesn't worry you, it should. Henry Blodget says that traders are betting that the big banks will be forced to default.

Oracle buys Sun?

2009-04-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

I just looked at Slashdot and saw this post that Oracle had bought Sun.

There are Susan Boyle skeptics "out there"

2009-04-18T18:59:00.001-07:00

Ann Althouse is not alone in downplaying Susan Boyle's audition for Britain's Got Talent that aired a week ago. Rob Leigh, from the Mirror, is another skeptic. My wife disagrees and says that Susan is "the real thing". For what is it is worth, my wife went to school with "Vicky Carr" and sang in choir with her. I promote Susan Boyle because I believe she is good and more people should hear her sing.

I just got my Susan Boyle fix to keeping me going a little while longer

2009-04-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

I have the avi file of Susan Boyle's appearance on Britain's Got Talent from last Saturday night. This video has more of her talking before and after her audition than is on the YouTube video. Now, they have found a recording that Susan made for a charity CD in1999 of the song "Cry Me A River".

The Susan Boyle internet phenomenon

2009-04-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

What has happened since Susan Boyle performed last Saturday night is one of those classic internet-driven phenomena. Susan "came out of nowhere" to be an internet star. I think that the power of the song she sang "To Dream a Dream" has been overlooked. They have concentrated on the disconnect between her appearance at the time of her audition on Britain's Got Talent and her singing ability. You can follow the story on my other blog "My Back Pages".

Susan Boyle: Wow!

2009-04-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

(thanks to the NY Daily News)

I just finished re-listening to Susan Boyle auditioning on Britain's Got Talent, and she is amazing. Many versions of the YouTube video have expired, but the one that I link to on My Back Pages is still good. The NY Daily News isn't far wrong about her being the greatest reality show performance of all time.

More about alt.binaries.nl and binary search

2009-04-08T15:39:00.001-07:00

My take on the situation is that alt.binaries.nl is either blocked or has been forced to cease operation. I suspect the latter. But don't dispair. In the US, I can use Google to search with the search term "binary search" and I can find the new alternative to alt.binaries.nl. I find that the new site is probably superior to alt.binaries.nl. One question is if anyone in Europe can see the new site, or if it is blocked. We want a binary search capability to look for various sorts of binary files in news groups. The good binary search sites don't keep content on their server and only look at headers (and information about attachments).

Strange stuff

2009-04-07T16:59:00.001-07:00

One thing that I found out in my exploring is that some adult-content websites will not let you download full-sized pictures from their site. Instead, you get a low-resolution thumbnail. The only way to get content is to do screen captures and then save them as jpg files.

What happened to alt.binaries.nl?

2009-04-03T15:55:00.001-07:00

More than alt.binaries.nl are affected by whatever has happened. I suspect a move by some government, perhaps the Netherlands, against alt.binaries.nl and other sites that help to access binary news groups. That is why I don't want to compromise another binary news group search website. You can find it and a few others easily enough with Google.

Exploring

2009-03-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some exploring. That is a dangerous thing, potentially, on the Internet. I use McAfee SiteAdvisor to stay safe. The only thing that they do not cover well is objectionable content. All of a sudden, on a site that has a green check, I say "Oops!" and leave the site as fast as I can. They at least protect me from being hacked (most likely).

Amazing

2009-03-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

I found a new online news group search facility. It is tailored for doing searches for binary attachments. I don't think that I care to say what the url is online, as I don't want to have it be killed off by the authorities. The authorities are intent on censorship, so the last thing that they want is for anyone to be able to do uncensored searches. The amazing thing is how much stuff that is out there are .scr or .exe files. To load a script is suicidal and I can't imagine running an .exe that I downloaded from a news group. One of the worst offenders seems to be alt.binaries.german. It is loaded with RAR files wrapped around .exe files.

So have they "taken out" alt.binaries.nl?

2009-03-26T17:02:00.001-07:00

I checked alt.binaries.nl, and they are down. Are they the latest casualty of the anti-free speech move in Europe and elsewhere? Anything that gives uncensored access to the Internet seems to be a target. They apparently took out Wikileaks.org recently. They only want you to see what they want, and nothing else. Since alt.binaries.nl is a newsgroup binary search, are the censors moving against the Usenet?

Is the list of banned webpages banned in the US?

2009-03-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

The trend in the US seems to be that free speech needs to be restricted, and that reasons are given to justify the censorship. I can imagine that if you tried to access a banned webpage, you would be in trouble, as the government or left-wing pressure groups are spying on web traffic, looking for violations.

Obama apparently intends to kill the last source of good-paying jobs

2009-03-11T05:25:00.001-07:00

The word on the street, in the defense industry, is that President Obama intends to make big cuts in defense acquisition programs. There would be a delay in the much-needed tanker replacement and there would be no new bomber built, for starters.

Someone I knew a long time ago has been doing good things

2009-03-09T16:50:00.001-07:00

I knew a young woman a long time ago who seemed very bright and pretty. I have not seen her in a very long time, but once the Internet came into being, I started looking to see if I could tell what happened to her. By chance, about two years ago, I noticed that she was mentioned working for a large company in the Midwest. Today, I found an article that mentioned her more recent achievements in her field. I am not surprised, as even when I first met her, she seemed like a young woman with a lot of character and potential. This is sort of a waste, but I find it nice to be able to say nice things about this now, not-so-young woman who has prospered over time. At least I know about it. For many reasons, I can't say more.

If Obama has lost Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd, who's left?

2009-03-06T05:34:00.001-08:00

Both Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd are both now former Obama supporters. If he has driven them off, who is left, besides The Huffington Post?

Obama stole our checkbook and is writing hot checks

2009-02-27T05:03:00.000-08:00

I have the impression that getting elected President caused Obama to think that he had the right, then, to take our checkbook and start writing hot checks for all his buddies and pet projects. He obviously jokes when he talks about fiscal responsibility, runs up a huge deficit, and then proposed to raise my taxes by a large amount (at least if we were in the income range where we would like to be).

The techinical term for our situation is that we are "screwed"

2009-02-26T16:13:00.001-08:00

Bob Krumm writes about Obama's performance in his first month. I can summarize it by saying that "we are screwed". Bob jokes about it, saying that Obama must be a Rovian plant, designed to discredit big government.

Bananatization

2009-02-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

Definition: Bananatization - the process of becoming a Banana Republic.

Why is the birth certificate issue still alive?

2009-02-15T17:08:00.001-08:00

The Obama birth certificate issue is still alive. I find it baffling that it still is. Clayton Cramer has a post about it.

A better plan?

2009-02-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

I am under the impression that President Obama's "stimulus" plan is mostly a set of pork projects for various Democratic congressmen and senators, as well as diverting funds to Democratic constituencies. We would get better results from just spending the money on defense acquisition projects for ships, aircraft, weapons, and systems that what is proposed. Many Democratic constituencies would still benefit.

Firefox continues to be a resource hog

2009-02-08T17:22:00.001-08:00

I hate using Firefox. The only software I hate using more is IE6 or 7. My gripe with Firefox is that it is such a resource hog. On my oldest desktop, with just 1GB, it is soaking up resources. That is based on looking at the Taskmanager and the processes tab. I like to have a lot of tabs open and it some of them are "active", it really shows.

My second cousin

2009-02-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

I was thrilled when I had the chance to be Facebook friends with my second cousin, Lyn. The discouraging thing was that it only lasted a few hours and then she was gone. I only had a modest relationship with her that stemmed from genealogy research. Now, having a Facebook presence destroyed that link, and I would only be guessing as to the source of the problem. She is a liberal Democrat from the Flint area and a big Obama supporter, which is fine with me. I am not a liberal Democrat and not a big Obama supporter, so we have a mismatch there. I am also doing some things that some might find offensive, but for which there is an audience. It also interests me, for better or worse. The breach over Facebook is still unfortunate.

One disappointment

2009-02-02T17:26:00.000-08:00

I was disappointed that my second cousin backed off from being a Facebook friend. I can understand that given that she is quite politically liberal (I take it) and I assume that she is pretty socially conservative that she could quite easily disapprove of some of my activities on two blogs. That is the risk that I take with what I am doing. I don't even have the excuse that I am doing it for the advertising revenue, because both the offending blogs are now ad-free. I do it because it interests me and there is an audience for it.

Nortel just filed for bankruptcy protection

2009-01-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

This is been the wind for the last day. This morning, it happened. Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection.

2009-01-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

I ran onto this while looking for something else. This guy sounds like an Objectivist, almost, while talking about Global Cooling/Warming (or whatever).

My main concern is a new "Puritanism" from the far left

2009-01-02T15:56:00.001-08:00

Given the support of Hollywood for the Democrats, a new "Puritanism" imposed from the left seems bizarre. That is exactly what I am concerned we will see.

Two things that Obama could do

2009-01-02T15:52:00.001-08:00

If Obama were interested in overturning invasions of privacy and restrictions on personal freedom, he could have the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the restrictions on sexually-related sites on the internet removed. I doubt that either would happen, but we can hope.

alt.binaries.nl

2008-12-31T16:01:00.001-08:00

I am interested in the site alt.binaries.nl that allows you to browse and search on the Usenet. For this to be viable, they can't show you actual content, but they can show you the headers and group. You have to use what you find with a news reader to actually download content. I am now exclusively using NewsBin Pro. What is especially nice about alt.binaries.nl is that it is uncensored. I hope that this can survive. The United States now has prohibited material of all too many sorts that we are not allowed to see or have (shades of the Soviet Union?).

"For Christmas" I bought an Epson Artisan 800 Multifunction box

2008-12-26T16:04:00.000-08:00

I tried the Canon MP460 multi-function box, but I was dissatisfied with it. Mechanically, it is too fragile, because the lid pops off way to easily and is hard to get back in place. The scanner is too low-resolution, as well. If I had looked more closely at the specifications before I bought it, I probably would have purchased something else. The best thing about the Canon MP460 is the print quality, which was why I had originally picked it out.

We have limited places close by to by computer and electronic equipment. If I really have to, I will go to BestBuy, but I prefer OfficeMax. I am price sensitive, though, so I was energized by a good deal on a Compaq Presario C700 Notebook computer and bought it at Staples, my only major purchase there. But today, I went to OfficeMax and ended up with the Epson Artisan 800 multi-function box. I knew that I wanted to get a printer that would sit on our wireless network and had good resolution scanning and printing. The Epson fit my price and specification constraints.

A sign

2008-12-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

This morning, I noticed a small sign at the corner of Grand and Harwood in south Dallas. The sign said: "Dallas banks discriminate against Black businesses and consumers. Why is that?" (the last might be slightly wrong, but the right sense). I took the city street route to work because of the danger of ice on the highways. The temperature was 31 degrees and it was misting heavily.

Blogger and lawyer Bill Dyer reviews the Blackberry Storm

2008-12-21T04:14:00.001-08:00

Bill Dyer writes at Beldarblog (Beldar being a corruption of his name, Bill Dyer, inspired by Saturday Night Live). Bill has a review of the new Blackberry Storm.

December 7, 1941

2008-12-08T05:14:00.000-08:00

When I think of December 7, 1941, I think of two men. One was my father, who decided to enlist in the navy the next day. He was 19 years old. The other was my wife's late uncle. He had been a machinist on a battleship in the late 1930's as a sailor. When his enlistment was up, he was invited to take a job as a civilian machinist at Pearl Harbor. In December 1941, he worked as an aviation machinist at Ford Island. On December 7, he and his neighbor both went on the base after the attack to help with the recovery.

"Samantha Power is back"

2008-11-28T16:47:00.000-08:00

Apparently, Barack Obama's "firing" of Samantha Power was not for real, as she is back at work, looking at State Department staff. This is probably the "hottest" picture of her in existence. She is essentially a bomb-throwing radical foreign policy expert and advisor.

I am trying out NewsBin Pro

2008-11-27T18:07:00.001-08:00

I am learning to use NewsBin Pro, which I had only learned about today. The features which caught my eye were that it could use SSL and had a search facility. The down side is that the documentation is pretty pathetic. However, I was able to figure out how to use it, so it must be pretty "user friendly". It also works with many binary file formats. I like being able to download files to directories of my choosing ("folders" in Windows parlance).

YaCy: distributed open source web search

2008-11-24T11:20:00.000-08:00

What do you know? Ask and you shall receive (are there any more cliches?). I am going to try YaCy, the open source web search tool.

$1.729 for mid-grade

2008-11-24T06:24:00.001-08:00

I paid $1.729 a gallon for mid-grade gasoline at my local Tom Thumb gas station. There are reports of regular unleaded in the Dallas-Fort Worth area under $1.60 per gallon. I have thought that we were near a bottom on gas and oil prices, but I hope that I am wrong. From the perspective of the oil industry in Texas, we need oil above $40 a barrel. Of course, we can be pleased that low prices are making life difficult for the Mullahs and Hugo Chavez.

We need uncensored search of the Internet and Usenet

2008-11-24T05:05:00.000-08:00

In 1998, the Internet and Usenet were like the "Wild West". Today, it is like living in the Soviet Union. There is a great deal of "Prohibited Material" that the Government doesn't want us to see. The DCMA, the "war on child pornography", and the "war on terror" are used to justify the excesses and trampling of constitutional rights. Search engines are forced to censor what we see. I have thought that Google had a social agenda that also justified some of that, as well. Two things that would help bust us loose would be to have client-based of both the Internet and Usenet. Server-based options can be shut down by the government, because they cache everything, including "prohibited material". It would be interesting to see if anyone is providing tools for uncensored search.

The Underground Economy

2008-11-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

"Dr. Helen" thinks that the Underground Economy is unfair, in that the participants pay no taxes while those of us who follow the rules do. I would much rather not have to pay a high proportion of my income as taxes, but the problem is the tax system and government, not with the underground economy. I just happen to be firmly entrenched in the Above Ground Economy.

My card number and pin were ripped off at a gas station

2008-11-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

I bought gas at a Raceway station on Gross Rd. in Mesquite this morning. I used a different pump than I usually use. Right before 5pm today, I got a call from my bank saying that two gas purchases at Shell stations in the Houston area looked fraudulent. I confirmed that I had not made the purchases, and the whole hassle is created of having to change over all my business to use the new card number. Still, I am glad that they didn't get much with my card number and that I won't get burnt. I had heard on the radio (KRLD 1080am in Dallas) about this sort of rip off when they have readers on pumps. Well, I found that it is a real threat. The fix is said to be that if you use a card, don't enter your pin but use it as credit.

The 32nd Division in 1917-1918

2008-11-11T05:11:00.000-08:00

My grandfather, my Dad's father, fought in France in 1918 with the 32nd Division. He was injured by a large caliber German artillery shell and from mustard gas. He received disability after the war for his injuries. That paid his way to the University of Michigan with an architectural engineering degree.

Goofiness on the campaign trail

2008-11-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

This is the presidential campaign that has gotten extremely goofy. For one thing, John McCain refuses to use the best stuff that they have on Barack Obama, because he doesn't want to be a bad guy. In our family, one family member things that we are in the end times and that Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ. Another family member, who is the atheist, pro-abortion, pro-Israel, anti-radical Islam, is sitting this one out, because the person doesn't like either side. Besides, a vote for Obama would likely mean getting on the jury duty list. Another relative, who is a liberal, thinks that America is not ready to elect a Black man president.

My take on Barack Obama (at My Back Pages)

2008-10-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just posted my thoughts about Barack Obama on My Back Pages.

Colin Powell

2008-10-24T04:33:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell was one of the leading army officers of the late 1980's and early 1990's. He is a man of immense prestige and could well have had a chance of being the first Black American president. He was blocked by his wife, who feared for his safety and wanted to keep their family secrets from being exposed.

As soon as he could function in a more public way, General Powell showed himself to be politically center-left. That is despite his famous "Powell Doctrine", where the American armed forces would use overwhelming force to reduce American casualties. The "Powell Doctrine" is not inconsistent with being a moderate Liberal in politics, because it reflects his concern about the welfare of people.

I found Colin Powell's performance as Secretary of State to be disappointing, particularly because of the his apparent support of a pro-Palestinian slant in Israeli-Palestinian relations. While I sometimes blanch at some Israeli moves, I am pro-Israeli as a matter of policy. I also take a dim view of anti-Semitism, even though I am not Jewish.

So, Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama was not unexpected. I was a bit bothered that Colin Powell's apparent motivation was that he was excited about the prospect of a Black president. I was bothered, because Colin Powell is orders of magnitude more qualified for the presidency than Barack Obama. Barack Obama, outside of his academic career, has accomplished little other than to have associated with the Weather Underground figures since the early 1980's and then participated in a few failed leftist causes and organizing activities. I would rather vote for Powell than Obama. There is nothing about Obama that motivates me to vote for him. He is all image and no substance. General Powell is a man of substance, in sharp contrast to Obama, so his endorsement of Obama is disappointing.

Colin Powell "bolstering Barack Obama's national security credentials"

2008-10-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

My opinion is that to say that Colin Powell "bolsters Barack Obama's national security credentials" is ludicrous. To begin with, Barack Obama's national security credentials are non-existent. Next, Colin Powell has lost any credibility he might have once had during his tenure as Secretary of State under President Bush. That was unfortunate, because Colin Powell had gained a great deal of credibility for his service under the former President George Herbert Walker Bush.

More Obama speech suppression

2008-10-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

As usual, Barack Obama is "out there" trying to suppress negative speech about him and his friends.

How daring will the Left and Obama be if they win?

2008-10-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

We have heard all sorts of stories about what is planned when Obama wins the election. His buddies on the Left can't conceive of him not winning. It goes all the way to show trials for Bush administration officials, including the President, and more. We can imagine firing squads setup in the parking lots, in the style of Cuba and post-revolution Iran.

I think that Obama has less of an emotional stake in this business than his fellow-travelers. At least, a Drudge comment makes me think that. Still, Obama's longtime connection with the radical, violent Left causes me concern. More and more, it seems that he has known Bill Ayers since the early 1980's when the Weather Underground was bombing against South African Apartheid interests.

Oh, that is what I thought it was all about

2008-10-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

The Obsession video on DVD has harsh things to say about Radical Islam: "it portrays radical Islam as a ... force bent on world domination". Gosh, that is what I thought that Radical Islam's goales were. I removed "demonic" as it is not part of what I think about them. Just because someone is a Muslim or from a Muslim country doesn't mean that they believe any of that, but the Mullahs in Iran and the El Qaeda crowd certainly are bent on world domination. They want to convert everyone at "sword point" and would kill or at least enslave those who would resist. Those were the original marching orders from 1300 or 1400 years ago. They are a fraction of the population, but are too many. They are akin to the Egyptian cab driver in the Dallas area who shot his two teenage daughters to death and probably fled the country because they were too westernized for his liking (their mother was an "Anglo" Texan).