Month: July 2022

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Interesting, if you’re a Geek

I’ve been using Bitdefender antivirus for about the past 6 years. Generally speaking, I don’t have too many problems with viruses. Most of the people I know have enough sense to stay away from sites containing viruses, and they don’t as a rule forward email wily nilly.

There have been some emails over the past few years that were infected but generally speaking I maintain antivirus only as a safety precaution.

I started using Bitdefender because a couple of companies I worked at used it and it seemed pretty robust while not sucking up tons of system resources. Many of you may know of the product because it’s marketed mostly as a Windows solution. However they also have a Mac version of the software.

You have to buy their Total Premium package to get it, but that didn’t bother me because I also had Windows and that package gave me 5 licenses.

I just got the renewal notice telling me that another 3 years was going to cost $200. “Whoa!” That’s a lot of money. Not really a lot over the course of 3 years but I got to thinking about what I was really using.

I’ve not been doing a whole lot with Windows, so I didn’t need the Windows license anymore. I don’t use Bitdefender’s VPN, Parental Controls, or in fact any of their products except the Mac Antivirus.

I’d become disenchanted with even that product because it seemed to be really busy all the dang time. There wasn’t enough file activity, downloads, and email attachments, to justify the application constantly checking (something… I don’t know what). Don’t even get me started on what a royal pain in the ass Bitdefender was every single time Apple updated the OS. Uninstalling and reinstalling the application became a really common event.

That was an annoyance. But the bigger question was that the Bitdefender dashboard only showed that one license was in use, when I knew for a fact that there were 3 of the 5 available in use. This raised the question, did they really have as much of a handle on things as they said they did.

This led me to investigating alternatives.

To The Internet Boy Wonder!

There were tons of reviews of various antivirus products. Bitdefender was always in the top 3, even on the Mac side of things. Norton was another and well, to be honest, I didn’t even read the Norton reviews. Norton and I have a really bad history. So admittedly I’m biased. One other product popped up on the Mac side of things frequently.

It’s a Mac only product from a company called Intego. I’d used their product in the past until they got too expensive and honestly bloated beyond all reason. If I recall correctly I stopped using them about 8-10 years ago. In great part because they were sucking up all kinds of system resources on my Mac OS 9 system. Then they got super expensive and I was done.

I think they learned their lesson. Their current product reviews stated that the product had a light footprint and did what it was asked to do. Their suite of applications was nicely integrated and during installation the user had the option to install only those apps from the suite that were wanted.

Very unlike Bitdefender which installs everything and then forces the user to execute uninstallation utilities for applications that aren’t desired.

Intego is a Mac only solution. They’ve been Mac only right from the start. That means that their solution isn’t a reworked hack job converting a primarily Windows application to a Mac compatible version. It’s Mac to its foundations.

I read a ton of reviews, the only “Dings” I found were that some years Intego didn’t submit the product for “Professional Evaluation & Review” to various publications.

Also noted was that the installation process was a bit iterative. Meaning that if you install their entire suite of applications, you have to authorize each application for access when you bring it online.

I understand why some reviewers might be annoyed with this, but I see it as a plus. It forces a conscious choice on the part of the user to allow a product access to their system or not. I like having a touch more control over what applications have access to my entire disk, or my network traffic. Many other suites issue a blanket pass for such things and that has always made me uncomfortable.

Really, does a network utility need access to my contacts? I think not.

Goodbye Bitdefender

I also found a coupon that got me a substantial discount. So I purchased 3 licenses for 2 years. Uninstalling Bitdefender took forever, installing the Intego suite took a little while, but it went very smoothly.

An interesting side note is that Bitdefender offered me half off the subscription price when I turned off “Auto Renew” I guess they thought if after 6 years this guy is turning off Auto Renewal we’re going to lose him.

They weren’t wrong… Trouble is, it was too little too late.

I’m going to be running Intego for about 30 days on my system, then I’ll put it on the other half’s.

Thus far, I’m liking what I see.

The various interfaces in the applications are clean and well laid out. I like the net barrier application’s visual firewall. I could see where net barrier could be annoying if you have a lot of applications that want to phone home. That being said, once authorized the application doesn’t ask again.

The Washing Machine application is a bit slow, but it wiped 4 GB of crap from my system. I haven’t even run its duplicate scan yet. I’m hoping that it’s as intelligent and informative about what it plans to do as the cleaning cycle.

The antivirus portion of the application is clean and simple. Some reviews said that it was a a bit slow, but my experience was on par with doing a full scan in Bitdefender. Yeah… it’s going to take a while.

If I find any weirdnesses or annoyances, I’m planning on updating this post. I’d recommend that everyone take a look at your subscriptions when they come up for renewal. Rather than just clicking on the Pay Now button, give it some thought. Do. You really like the application or service, or can you do better?

Have a great weekend.

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America’s Fascism at its finest… In Texas? In Freakin Texas?

The San Marcos Daily Record published a very troubling article on Sunday July 17th.

The headline read, FBI Raids Retired San Marcos Couple’s Home

At first you might miss the significance. I thought to myself, “What could a retired couple possibly have done to warrant the FBI raiding their home.

The thoughts that went through my mind were, Human Trafficking, Drug manufacturing or sales? Were these folks involved in organized crime? Had the FBI found some fugitive who had escaped and managed to live quietly for years in an average community?

All of which would be good reason for the FBI to raid a place.

I was completely wrong.

The article is linked to the headline above. Click on it, I dare you!

This couple was raided for nothing other than having been part of a peaceful protest in Washington D.C. on Jan 6th 2020. They were not inside the capital, they were on the other side of the Capital from where the crowd, (was Invited in, Stormed the Capital Police, Broke into the Capitol Building,) that seems to depend on whose narrative you’re reading.

For my part, I tend to believe the eyewitness accounts of many of the protesters themselves. They all describe a very chaotic confusing scene. Each of them saw things slightly differently. But there are commonalities in their narratives. The doors were open, many saw people walking through the building, many thought it was okay. The Capital Police were talking with protestors on the steps. Then everything went to shit. (I suspect the trigger was the gunshot from the Capital Police Officer who killed Ashli Babbitt. I could be wrong…)

I believe the vast majority of the protestors really had no idea that they were doing anything “wrong” and that would be somewhat supported by the remarkable lack of destruction in the building. Compare Kenosha with The Capital Building.

Burning cars? Nope! Fires inside the building? Nope! There are pictures of people inside the building next to vases, portraits, and fabrics, mind you, all intact.

Pictures of protestors inside The House Chamber, and Nancy Pelosi’s office show that the room and indeed most of the furnishings were remarkably untouched. For there to have been such horrific violence you’d expect there to be a lot more damage. I’ve seen barroom brawls that did more damage than the so called Inserrection.

This is counter to what The Jan 6th Committee would have us believe.

Reviewing photographic evidence of the, “Mostly Peaceful Protests,” in cities across the nation reveals a rather stark difference.

Billions in damage, whole neighborhoods razed and yet we’re to believe that somehow The Capital riot was worse?

We’re to believe that The Capital riot was on par with Pearl Harbor, or 9/11?

I’ll quote Ilhan Omar, “Some people did some things…”

The troubling aspects of this FBI raid in Texas are many.

Unmarked cars?
No sirens, or lights?
The homeowner directly requesting to see a warrant in accordance with his Fourth Amendment right being responded to with flashbang grenades?
Drones & Planes circling overhead?
Excessive force, 20 to 30 vehicles, perhaps 100 agents, and an armored vehicle?
FBI, ATF, and SWAT?

What precisely did the FBI think was going on? All this to not arrest two retired law abiding citizens?

All of this to confiscate a couple of cell phones, and Trump memorabilia?

You’re probably thinking, “But the man was on his front porch with gasp an Assault Rifle!”

First, it’s Texas! Second, since the Biden Administration has opened the border. People rolling up on your home in Texas, unannounced and unmarked could just as easily be a bunch of Cartel Thugs looking to take your place over as a base of operation. Third, Texas has a stand your ground law that includes your property, (in this case all 7 acres). Fourth, an older man in his underwear greeting intruders on his property before dawn with a rifle isn’t at all surprising.

I’ve greeted police at my door late at night with a baseball bat. I’ve also greeted police banging on my door at 3 a.m. with a gun in my hand. Both times, there was a moment of tension.

With the baseball bat, I apologized and set the bat to the side of the door, then stepped back.

With the gun, (Not aimed at the officers,) I asked how we could extricate ourselves from this awkward situation. They were very polite and simply asked if I would place the gun on the table and step away. I did, and invited them in.

They legitimately were doing their duty, asking that we evacuate due to a fire. They didn’t ask for me to unload the weapon, nor did they touch it. One officer did discreetly place himself between me and the gun. I acknowledged his discretion with nothing more than a smile, he smiled back and nodded.

It’s amazing what a little civility and common sense can accomplish!

In either case, had an officer presented me with a Warrant, I’d have stood down in the same fashion. That’s called being a law abiding citizen.

What troubles me so much about this article is that it comes on the heels of high profile arrests such as James O’keefe with the FBI supposedly in search of Biden’s daughter’s diary.

O’keefe didn’t have Biden’s daughter’s diary. He’d said so publicly prior to his arrest and raid. Even if he did have it, he hadn’t stolen it. The diary was offered to, and reviewed by O’Keefe. But he chose to pass on it.

Jeffery Clark’s home was raided where the FBI seized electronics and held him outside in his pajamas until they’d finished tossing the place. Thus far, the only crime(s) Clark appears to have committed were questioning the election and working for former President Trump.

The tactics increasingly displayed by the FBI and the DOJ are nothing less than those of the KGB or Stassi.

My concern, beyond the obvious issues with our government stomping all over The Constitution, is that someone is going to get hurt. I’ll guarantee you that it’s not going to be an FBI agent. It’s going to be some local officer doing what he or she has been told to do by the FBI. Or it’ll be a innocent person or bystander

The FBI, ATF, or DOJ will call it collateral damage and use the situation as an excuse to execute someone.

These raids can only be seen as nothing other than intimidation.

I ask you. If these raids were happening at The Clinton Foundation, or Hunter Biden’s home, or Jim Biden’s home, or McCabe’s, Strozk’s, Page’s, Clinesmith’s, Sussmann’s, Elias’s, Omar, or Comey’s homes, what would you call it?

Would you say it was justice, or would you call it the weaponization of the DOJ against the players in the Democratic party?

Believe what you want. Just remember that once we’ve allowed this sort of behavior to become normal, once we’ve allowed the ruling party to forge this kind of weapon, then any ruling party can use it.

If the GOP seizes power and decides to pick up this weapon, using it against Democrats and their allies, don’t be surprised and don’t come whining to me about it.

What’s been allowed to happen at the DOJ is not much shy of a nuclear bomb dropped on The Constitution. It took a long time for us to crawl back from McCarthyism, this is far worse.

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I have this theory…

It’s a theory based on experience and observation.

I’ve known a lot of men in my life. Most of them were average “normal” guys with families, jobs, the occasional night where they had a bit too much to drink, good neighbors, jokesters, and some athletic ability.

They were Police officers, Lawyers, Doctors, Heavy Equipment Operators, Landscapers, Advertising Execs, Coaches, Educators, Engineers, you get it, their professions ran the gamut.

Of all of these men, the only men I’ve known who were complete “poon hounds” were men that were troubled.

Most “normal” men appreciate beautiful women, but their appreciation usually is curtailed by the ring on their finger, or the picture of their kids on their phone or in their wallet.

Those men, have nothing to prove to themselves or anyone else. They think about the woman they’ve married, or their children and happily leave a bar to go home to them.

Newly divorced men, get a little “houndy” shortly after their divorce, then settle down again into some sort of regular relationship. I’ve always thought of it like a second adolescence/young adulthood, “Hey, I can do whatever I want… Whoo HOOO!”

Then like the worker in a chocolate factory, reality sets in and they’re not trying every Bon Bon, they get more selective.

I’ve known women that do the exact same thing after their divorces. How many women started dating a biker after dumping their nice safe accountant?

It’s human nature.

The men that never seemed to get over the “poon hound” phase often had something else going on.

The guy who sleeps with any and every willing woman, or rents prostitutes every single night is trying to prove something. Either to himself or his buddies.

“Man, that Josh gets more ass than a toilet seat!”

“Yeah, but he drinks so much and snorts so much, he never remembers them.”

Eventuality the guys buddies aren’t impressed and the guy settles down, or he doesn’t.

The guys that don’t settle down, are the guys that often turn out to be gay.

See, they were trying to prove to themselves that they weren’t gay.

I’ve known Marines, Army, Navy, and Air Force guys that joined the military to prove they weren’t fagots. Only to discover three years in, that they were gay and then spent the rest of their hitch worried about being found out.

A man that’s engaging in risky sex with any woman that’s breathing is trying to fuck the pain away.

The pain of shame. Of disappointing their father, mother, pastor, or church. These guys, get into self destructive habits of whores, booze, drugs, and usually fuck themselves out of a career in the process.

I’m not a psychologist. I’m just relating what I’ve observed.

When this group of men finally look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge, “Yep… I want some dick…” Their lives often start to turn around.

No, I’m not saying everything immediately becomes rainbows and unicorns, but in being honest with themselves they begin walking the path toward accepting who they really are, instead of hiding it from the world and more importantly, from themselves.

In my experience, guys who are always badmouthing faggots either were abused, or they want dick and can’t reconcile it with themselves. They scream how much they hate faggots to demonstrate that they’re not one.

Think of it as “Methinks the maid doth protest too much.”

Lots of the men I’ve known who were fighting what they really were also had serious porn addictions and often filmed their escapades so that they could have visual proof they weren’t gay.

“Yeah, I put my dick in her and she loved it!”

I guess it’s a kind of feedback loop. “I fuck, therefore I’m a man, not a faggot pussy!”

There are gay men who knowing they’re gay, still feel “Less Than” and they’re much more likely to have drinking problems or self medicate with God only knows what.

I once knew a guy who’d gotten a permanent case of “Cocaine Dick,” He’d get hard, he’d fuck like a maniac, but for all his effort couldn’t achieve climax. The poor man walked around all the time with a serious case of blue balls and couldn’t find relief.

His problem was that while he was okay being gay, he couldn’t admit it to anyone. He felt he was a disappointment to his parents, and felt terrible guilt over not giving them grand children. That led to cocaine abuse, ultimately leading to his problem. Miraculously, when his parents died, (and it sounds harsh,) he got a handle on the coke, and after a few years began to have mostly normal orgasms.

I’ve known men with meth addictions that had the same kinds of problem. In addition to their teeth rotting out of their heads.

For some reason, men like these tend to open up to me. I guess I have a trustworthy face.

All of this preamble brings me to the point I wanted to make.

I theorize that Hunter Biden is gay.

He exemplifies the most troubled men I’ve met in my life.

He’s begging for Daddies approval, and attention. Who screws his brother’s wife? What is that other than saying, “See, I measure up.”

Who admits snorting parmesan cheese out of a carpet except someone that is so troubled they have to be high to live their life?

Who knocks up a stripper, while fucking his brother’s wife, while settling a nasty divorce?

Who gets, or stays, so fucked up that they leave a laptop full of self porn, with hookers, underage girls, and random women, at a shop and never goes back to claim it?

Someone in dire need of approval. Someone hoping Daddy sees the videos and says, “Good job son, that one was hot!”

Someone screaming for help. Someone so broken that they don’t know any better than to keep going back into the situation that broke them in the first place.

In short, a man whose inner turmoil is so profound that they only know one or two ways to feel good. Sex or drugs.

You can only fuck the pain away for so long. Eventually, no matter how many times you cum, no matter how many partners you have, you’re still empty inside and nothing can fill that painful void. So you can only live, drunk enough, or high enough to numb the agony.

Unless you’re really lucky.

Sometimes, you find yourself just drunk enough or just high enough, and you’re with a guy. Sometimes that guy is open to fucking around and you think, “What the fuck? I’ve done everything else. Let’s see what cock tastes like. I wonder if a guys ass feels the same as a woman’s.”

Then you’re lying in the afterglow smoking a cigarette and realize, “I don’t hurt so much anymore. Something’s changed, I don’t feel so alone.”

You have an epiphany. You realize your life is yours. You understand what’s been missing.

For the first time in your life, someone… The right person, at the right time, touched your soul.

It wasn’t just about sex, it was seeing that there was another way. A way that didn’t force you back into pain. There was the potential for you to find someone that always touched your soul and it wasn’t just about your body. The physical pleasure was just the icing on the cake.

If you’re very lucky, it occurs to you that you don’t have to be one way or another. You can have it all, if you’re fearless enough and want what makes you happy. It’s the ability to start to seize your own life and make the best of it you can.

Yeah… Been there, done that.

That’s why I think Hunter Biden is gay.

I hope that he finds the right person, at the right time, and that someone can touch his soul.

Then I hope he’s fortunate enough to put the pieces together, bail on his dysfunctional family and seize control of his life.

I hate seeing someone in the kind of pain it looks like he’s feeling.

He’s still got time, unless he OD’s tomorrow.