Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
Posted on

For the first time in a very long while…

I’m actively considering downgrading from an Apple update.

IOS 26 is pretty on my phone. It’s also pretty on my watch. But it’s very annoying.

Notifications half the time don’t show up on either my watch or my phone. Sometimes on one but not on the other, and sometimes on both. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.

I’ve checked and rechecked the settings and all the troubleshooting steps I can think of, and those suggested by Apple. Even turning off the “New” features doesn’t help.

How they could fuck up something that worked so well, is beyond me. I mean phone calls, and messages from known contacts not ringing? REALLY? That’s kind of basic stuff.

Thing is, it’s not any glaring “This is IT,” issue. It’s death by a thousand cuts. It’s little things.

For example, when starting a workout on my watch. In IOS18 I’d hit the action button on my ultra, that would take me to a list of workouts I’d done in the past. It was logically sorted by most frequent. I could tap the workout I was going to do and be off.

Now, hitting the action button takes me to the last workout I did. FULL SCREEN, No list, with a “Play” button.

If I want to select something else, I’ve got to roll the crown to see other selections.

They added an un-necessary complication to the process. The previous way was clean, direct, and simple.

It’s a minor thing, but it’s annoying. Then on the phone side you’ve got live activities which is fine and maybe even useful. But if you open the fitness app even after you’ve completed a workout and stopped it using the watch, there’s a screen showing the summary of that completed workout with a green check in the upper right hand corner.

Okay, but what I wanted out of the fitness app was something completely different, and now I’m forced to press the green checkmark to get to the underlying data screens in the fitness app.

Again another unnecessary step.

The whole of the OS is filled with extra, unnecessary steps that make working with my phone like answering 50 questions at a damn gas pump.

I just want gas! Take my money and turn on the fucking pump!

I’m not having a battery drain issue with my phone as so many others are, Because I’m not using it. Really, I’ve noticed I’m going to my computer for even the slightest bit of information.

Maybe this is just settling in stuff. Maybe I’ll get used to it. But I don’t need an interrogation from a device that is supposed to be my assistant, every time I interact with it.

Maybe this is just the age we live in.

Even researching the roll back process is annoying. I entered a search on how to roll back then found an article from Macobserver, fine. I tapped on the link, then Macobserver wanted age verification. WHAT? Then they wanted me to click on a check box the proved I was human. Then cloudflare pops up with a “Verifying” dialog and I still hadn’t gotten to the fucking article.

Why does everything have to be so complicated? I bailed on their page and made a different selection. Even then I was pounded with cookie notifications, an AI chat box to help answer my question, a Google login prompt, and some EU notification. ALL OF WHICH prevented me from reading a text article related to the question I asked. I couldn’t even see the title of the article to verify if it was what I actually wanted.

I bailed on that page, and went to the next listing in line. Finally! There was an article describing the process without all the bullshit!

Maybe I’m just cross.

Then again, maybe I’m just sick of bullshit at every turn of my existence.

It looks like downgrading from IOS 26, while possible, has a rather high risk of fucking up my phone, and data. I’ll have to reach a much higher level of annoyance before I undertake that project.

It’s got me thinking though.

I’m convinced that dumping the web hosting and this blog entirely, is in fact the right thing for me to do. It’s become such a headache I’m not interested anymore.

Between endless demands from the EU regulators to verify the owner and contact information on every single web domain, and them telling me that they’re implementing new rules to protect the delicate sensibilities of their members. I’m over it.

Gee Thanks Obama! You fucking moron! Turning over the domain registration to the EU was a fucking brilliant idea!

Well, the internet was a good idea, while it lasted…

I wonder if I can still get a print version of Encyclopedia Britannica? Why yes… it’s 2K on Amazon.

Posted on

Huh, I just had a kind of epiphany.

Don’t know if I’m right, but I wonder.

Jimmy kimmel 3383259177.I’ve been following with great amusement the Jimmy Kimmel affair.

I personally found the guy unwatchable and unfunny before he got his show.

Jerry & I would sometimes try to watch him if there was a guest of interest on, but we usually didn’t make it through the opening monologue before we’d look at each other and whoever had the remote would turn the TV off.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth, the screaming about freedom of speech, and all the rest of the cacophony from the leftists, and Democrats in Congress has been instructive.

The Democrats in Congress apparently have no idea how the FCC regulations work.

As a HAM Radio licensee there are a LOT of things that I can’t say on air. Saying some things would cost me my license and by the way, if someone were to use my radio to broadcast bad words, lies, damaging rhetoric, or a whole bunch of other things, that’s still on me as the license holder. If someone was offended, and reported it to the FCC, I could lose my license.

That’s in a perfect world… Truth of the matter is the FCC doesn’t have enough resources to put a stop to it. Anyone can buy a radio, licensed or not. There are too many people who have radios that for some reason love to interrupt conversations by holding their transmit button, or put tones on the air tying up repeaters for no reason other than to be a nuisance. 

Technically the FCC is supposed to track these people down and fine them. But they only have the resources to get the worst of the worst.

So maybe I have a slightly different perspective on the FCC.

All that being said, the FCC didn’t need Trump’s direction to threaten ABC’s license. Kimmel, was by any stretch, being horribly offensive.

Moreover, Kimmel’s show was pretty low rated according to Nielsen, He was also a liability because Turning Point USA could have filed a law suit that would have been pretty expensive.

The point is, Freedom of speech is limited on public broadcasts because the “Airwaves” (frequencies,) are owned by the Public, they’re regulated by the FCC. The regulations go way back, and haven’t really changed for 60+years. They were about preventing offensive language from coming into people’s homes.

This is also why you can get pornographic movies on cable, but not over the public airwaves.

If Kimmel had been on a cable only show, he could have been as offensive as he wanted to be. So long as people subscribed.

This opens a can of worms that the FCC and the government still haven’t adequately addressed regarding the internet, subscriptions, sites, etc. That’s why people like me really got bent out of shape when the Biden Administration announced their Department of Misinformation that appeared to be focused on the internet.

Especially since there had already been, as has come out in hearings, censorship directed by the Biden Administration directly aimed at specific individuals and phrases on Facebook, X, and other sites.

If the Trump Administration is doing the same thing, I’m just as opposed.

All this is kind of the background for me not thinking Kimmel has a leg to stand on. He used the public airwaves to be very insensitive and outright offensive. ABC saw him as a liability. His ratings were low. The final nail in his coffin was that he refused ABC’s directive to apologize. So, like any other employee he was fired. It’s as simple as that.

My epiphany was an article this morning talking about Sen. Jon Ossoff’s campaign. The campaign tried to paint Kimmel’s monologue as “Satire”. Yawn, whatever.

Further into the article Ossoff’s campaign painted Trump and his administration as “Authoritarian”.

That’s when it hit me.

The difference between a lot of the career politicians and the rest of us is that they may not have worked in or owned, small companies, ever.

They don’t understand that Trump, and all owners of private companies are authoritarian. It’s the nature of the beast. The company lives or dies not by committee, shareholders, or distributed decision making, but on the decisions of one person. The Owner.

It is therefore not surprising that people who’ve never worked for a solely owned company would view Trump as an authoritarian. It’s also not surprising that Trump would be quite authoritarian in the Presidency.

If, in fact the Biden administration was being run by consensus because Biden was cognitively incapable of executing the duties of The President. Trump would be one hell of a shock to their system.

This could possibly extend to a significant portion of the Democrat base as well. I’m not making excuses for either side, but I can suddenly see how both sides would be at odds.

Most Republicans I know have tried at least once to start and run a company of their own. Myself included.

That’s why the Democrat talking point of “Trump had several failed business that filed bankruptcy,” while clutching their pearls, has zero impact on so many business owners from both sides of the aisle.

It happens. You put together a company, it goes along pretty well, you try to increase business, and if you’re lucky you succeed. If you’re unlucky, the business fails.

(I can personally attest to what happens when you have a business partner that decides they need a new car instead of paying for new brakes, or starts taking cash out of the business instead of paying for supplies the business needs. Bottom line, no more business partnerships for me, ever again. I had the last laugh, though it was a Pyrrhic victory, since I had all the knowledge & technology and my business partner didn’t. The parable of the frog & the scorpion comes to mind. He also didn’t have the ability to adapt to changing conditions. But he got a new vehicle…)

People who have always been in positions where they were employees, have no understanding of why a business owner must by definition be an authoritarian.

Suddenly I understand why for example, California business taxes are so high, and why there are so many fees. Why for example, business income taxes, at least here, have to be prepaid based on an estimate of income. It’s because the people imposing the taxes & fees only see the dollars. They have no clue about good months and bad, nor do they have any idea about formerly good customers suddenly not paying bills.

They see and predicate their actions on the force of government to demand payment. That’s something that the average business owner can’t do. Sometimes, business owners will never get paid for their efforts, but they’ve paid for the materials that they supplied in good faith to their customers, and still have to prepay taxes as if they were getting paid based on their Accounts Receivable.

A business owner will cut a customer off if their bills are 30, 60, 90 days in arrears. That’s harsh but it’s business. No hard feelings, and as an authoritarian business owner you can make a decision to gamble by extending additional credit to honorable people who are going through a rough patch with their businesses.

Government will simply come in and seize assets so they always get their money. Government minions, like corporate employees, have no skin in the game at all. If a government office shuts down or a company closes, then those employees will cry and whine about finding a new job but they’ll never understand the factors that led to the closures. They’ll call it corporate greed or authoritarian policies.

Yes, I’ve complained about upper level executives getting golden parachutes while the rest of the employees got screwed. The problem there is the executives typically aren’t in the trenches doing things to make the products. They’re having long lunches with other corporate executives trying to figure out how to whip the employees to be more productive with less resources.

Translate that to people in Congress especially career politicians, and you understand why even in a bad economy the taxes keep going up. Why Newsom for example, sees no problem increasing the gas tax while his state is in a breathtaking deficit, and he has the highest unemployment rate in the country.

Career politicians don’t see the connections. They literally see a dip in tax revenue and leap to the conclusion that people are cheating on their taxes. That’s why you get laws that say over $600 in payments from an individual or company must be 1099ed. And why tips must be declared.

I’m glad Trump might be a bit of an authoritarian. I’m glad there’s someone at the top that understands what it’s like to have failed businesses and successful ones.

Adobe express file 1 2171750180.I think all our politicians should have those experiences because then maybe they’d be a little more careful with the balance sheets of “We the People” instead of spending money that is not theirs, like drunken sailors on shore leave.

Oh, and I’m really glad Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert are cancelled. It will be interesting to see if the vile women on The View get the message.

Posted on

On a lighter note…

IOS 26 logo-3903750623.I’ve got all my Apple devices set to automatically update. 

Last night I noticed my iPad telling me that there was an update to the current iPad OS and an update to iPad OS 26. 

Without thinking I pressed the update this evening button. In retrospect I seem to recall that I wanted the latest security update to my current iPad OS, but I probably “Fat Fingered” it and said do iPad OS 26. I couldn’t figure out how to undo the selection and figured, “what the hell”. I went ahead and answered all the new OS questions then put the iPad down. I even remembered to plug it in.

This morning I’ve got a single device that’s got the new OS 26. That includes the journaling app. So now I can type with an actual keyboard to make journaling entries instead of using iPhone mirroring.

Much more direct and a pretty nice experience.

After playing around with the new OS, for a while I decided, “What the hell?” I’m in the process of updating all the devices in the house.

Highlander rules apply, “There can be only one!”

This is going to take some time. The computer, phone, HomePods, and Apple TVs are pushing the router and my fiber connection pretty darn hard. Having the iPad already updated makes the HomePods easier because it can initiate (and monitor) that process without worry of it rebooting.

In a few hours, I’ll have a unified OS experience and if it screws up, I’ve got yesterday’s backups. Wish me luck.

While I’m waiting, I can use the iPad for other computer things that need to get done.

Generally I like the new OS on the iPad. I’ve had to make some tweaks to the Home Screen and it’s different when I switch from one app to another. I’m not sure I like that as much as the old way, but it’s not a show stopper and it may just be that I’m used to the old way. Some of the apps are hanging around on the very edge of the screen. It’s not like “Stage Manager” but it looks like they’re trying to remind you that something else is running in the background. Or it could be a bug. I don’t know for sure. I’ve seen my iPad do this kind of thing in the past and restarting it made the problem go away.

I should have restarted the iPad after the update was complete. I’ll do that as soon as I have another device up & running completely.

The Liquid Glass appearance is nice although I’ve gone for a solid appearance of the time when I first open the iPad case. The liquid appearance is a little too busy due to my background.

If you can’t reach me for the next hour or three. Leave a message. 

Have a good day.

Posted on

Looks like Erika Kirk was right.

Damn!

X, which is often the scene of flame wars, has really doubled down.

The conservative right, and even just right leaning folks have taken the gloves off and said, “Hold my beer.” 

People are pissed off. They’re not holding back. One dude is tracking down everyone that danced a little dance over Charlie Kirk’s assassination. This guy is sending the videos to people’s employers. I don’t know what the “Fired” count is at the moment.

Some of the vile leftists are going on instagram and TikTok to bemoan that they’ve lost their jobs. Then they repost their little crying videos on X. Some are claiming it’s a violation of their freedom of speech. Then it gets funny as hell.

The right wing folks are more than happy to point out how these people got others fired for “Hate Speech” and are asking where the difference is.

Others point out that they’re entirely free to say whatever the hell they want to and that’s why law enforcement isn’t kicking their doors down. But then go on to say their company doesn’t have to put up with a hateful person working for them.

Then inevitably more leftists jump in trying to defend the poor “Victim” who just lost their job. Nobody is listening to that shit anymore. People on the right are saying in no uncertain terms what they think, then pointing out that’s them exercising their right to free speech.

Greg Gutfeld took on one of the panel members on The Five and tore her a new asshole over the duplicity of the “but what about” arguments. He said on-air we’re not listening to that shit anymore.

He spent 4 minutes saying exactly what he thought. It was obvious he was pretty close to being pissed off. (At least as close as I’ve ever seen him on air that way.)

Thus far I’ve not seen any physical threats from the right, but that could be because X is filtering that stuff out. 

Today, there are reports that other people knew about this guys plan. Reditt is probably going to catch some subpoenas for messages posted in one of the trans rights activist groups. There’s another report that Amazon had a book listed 1-2 days before Kirk’s assassination titled something like Killing Charlie Kirk. The book and amazon listing are gone now, but it begs a serious question.

The trigger man, appears to have been dating another dude who was transitioning to being a woman. The boyfriend (yes, I misgendered the fucker,) is said to have hated Christians, Conservatives, and Charlie Kirk. His family says in the last couple of years as he’s been transitioning he’s become more radical and pulled away from them.

Holy fuck! This might mean the end of the radical transgender movement. And it can’t happen fast enough.

The down side is that most people don’t have the capacity to differentiate between the LGB and the TQIA+ fuckwads who’ve been trying to tell LGB and straight folks, that we’re the screwed up ones because we don’t date mutilated things with frankenweinies or rot pockets.

It’s freaking wild.

There’s a move to remove Ilhan Omar from a bunch of committees and after the shit she’s said! I’m all for it. One that caught my attention was where she said “Somalia is better than the US.” Ohhhh really???

Lots of people suggested that she get her incestuous ass on a plane back to Somalia. Others suggested that she not only be removed from Congress, but that she also be flat out deported for false statements on her immigration paperwork. These people replied to her X account directly.

I hope it doesn’t escalate, but I also hope that decent people keep shouting these leftists down. It’ll be good for them to have a taste of their own medicine for a change.

Kathy Hochul endorsed that socialist, (a.k.a. communist,) running for mayor of New York. She might have just torpedoed her career in the process, and that too would be a great freaking win.

It’s possible that instead of a bunch of “powder kegs” going off all over the country in which a lot of innocent and not so innocent people would get hurt, it’s just going to be a wild fire of people not holding back, not being polite or tolerant anymore. That may be enough…

Turning Point is seeing a massive number of inquires about starting chapters in High Schools and Colleges across the country.

A doctor that said he was happy Charlie Kirk got his head blown off. When a nurse called him out about it, the nurse was put on unpaid leave. The doctor was also put on leave and has since resigned. The Nurse, in an unusual display of justice was reinstated and is back at work.

In that case it’s not so much about the Doctor having his opinion, it’s about him saying that in front of all the nursing staff, patients, and visitors in a hospital ward. If I’d heard that as a patient, I’d be checking out against medical advice. That kind of heartless statement would make me question the doctor’s resolve to obey the Hippocratic oath.

I have enough concerns about doctors in general, the last thing I need is to be worried about not getting decent or proper medical care, because a doctor figures out that I’m a right leaning gay man. Some would say conservative, (My brother still thinks I’m too far left. 😁) In California, I’m considered positively rabid!

I’ve lost count of how many followers I’ve lost on X. Guess what? I don’t care. I’m letting my subscription lapse and may close the account entirely. It doesn’t serve me, and I’ll never get to their monetization goals. The one thing it provides is a broad scan of the news across pretty much all media feeds. It’s a convenient collection point for what’s happening, which can be processed in 10 minutes or less.

I recently did the same thing with LinkedIn. I’ve decided to purge everything that is not a direct quantifiable benefit.

That being said, I’m glad I’m still on X for the time being. I think the fireworks right now, are about the most entertainment I’ve seen in a while.

Something has changed in our country. I don’t know if it’s for the better or worse and I don’t think anyone will be able to make that call until the dust has settled.

In a way, I pity the Democrat party. There are a lot of very fine people who are life long Democrats. They’ve been unwillingly dragged along by a radical fringe who have come to wield tremendous power and hijacked the party. I suppose I feel pity because that’s exactly what happened to the LGB community.

It’s tough seeing a group of like minded people that you found kinship in, destroyed from within. Worse yet is suddenly finding yourself painted with the same dirty brush as the radical freaks that you have nothing in common with, simply because you’re a member of a particular party or group.

The conservative right has finally pulled a page from the radical left’s playbook. They’ve gotten angry enough that they’re no longer willing to take the high road, be quiet, and take whatever slurs or lies were spoken about them.

Trump simply got there a few years ahead of the rest of us. If you think about it he was simply calling out the bullshit while the rest of the right was behaving as if the left would come to their senses.

They didn’t. So now the right is beginning to fight fire with fire.

Let’s hope that it doesn’t devolve into a full on battle in the streets.

Although there have been some reports of loudmouth leftists getting their asses beat for disrupting vigils and memorial services for Charlie Kirk. Sorry, not sorry. Those people didn’t read the room very well.

You just don’t show your ass at a memorial. Mourners emotions are already raw, and it’s not going to take more than a second or two before they decide to relieve themselves of their pain, by inflicting it on someone spewing hate for the deceased.

Just saw a video where some dude was bear maced after trying to disrupt and destroy a memorial vigil. He was laying on the curb crying like a little bitch while one of his fellow protestors tried to comfort him. She was looking at the crowd surrounding them with genuine fear and confusion in her eyes.

I’d like to think she was realizing that people aren’t going to put up with the bullshit she and her friends have gotten away with for the past 6-7 years anymore. I’m hoping that her fear will make her rethink her life choices and rejoin civil society where discussion and debate are the norm. Though I’m not foolish enough to hold my breath.

I’ll admit to a certain thrill and satisfaction hearing that guy wailing in pain.

Posted on

You know, I’ve been too nice, too respectful, and put up with more than my share of absolute shit!

I guess I was, and still am, in a “Mood“.

For the past 12 weeks the old guy next door has been working in his yard. That’s fine, it makes him happy, more power to him.

When he started, he’d be playing music, and if I listened real carefully I could hear snippets of the tunes. We all have our windows open and honestly it didn’t bother me. Just background noise nothing to it.

Over time, the volume has increased. Over the past 4-5 weeks it’s gotten to the point that he’s turning it up so he can hear it over his gas powered leaf blower. As an aside he cranks the damn leaf blower up and uses it in his “mostly dirt” back yard. So those of us around him spend all our time fucking dusting our houses.

It’s like painting the San Francisco bridge. I no sooner get the house clean and then “Burrrrrrrrrrrrrr Burrrrr Blaat Burrr” & I’ve got a dust storm blowing through the house again.

But he’s not the only one. The Mexicans up at the top of the canyon almost every weekend blast mariachi music nightly until 10:30. They only stop because if they’re blasting it after that, someone calls the cops and they get another ticket.

The old guy across the street smokes his rancid pot that wafts all over the neighborhood while playing some of the worst recordings and/or worst rock bands of the 60’s & 70’s, also at deafening volume.

Typically, I can’t sit in my own living room and watch a movie anymore. Forget a film where the actors are British, often their character’s accents are unintelligible if there’s a lot of background sounds, either from the soundtrack or from the external Cacophony provided by my ever so courteous neighbors.

Honestly, I’ve given up trying to enjoy anything because no matter when I sit down to watch something, within minutes there’s “Aie yi yiaaaa” or some really shitty “B” side track from Deep Purple.

I guess yesterday, I reached a breaking point.

Normally I keep my TV and music volume pretty damn low. I don’t think it’s polite for me to disrupt other peoples lives. I don’t run my yard tools until typically about 10 in the morning.

I try very hard to keep my shit from interfering with other people’s shit. I don’t cause trouble, I don’t tell people to turn their shit down, or call the cops. I thought I was just being a decent human being and eventually these people turn their shit off or down and I’m fine.

But you know what? The more you don’t say shit, the worse people behave. The more inconsiderate they become. Nobody cares, that you’re not fucking up their evening. They never think that they’re fucking up someone else’s evening, day, afternoon, or whatever.

They just assume their music, or drunken shouting, echoing down the canyon is something everybody wants to hear.

Guess what? It’s not!

So, right on cue yesterday, I’d made myself lunch, turned on the TV to watch a football game, and… Music from the guy’s back yard so loud it was like it was coming from my TV in my living room. To top it off, the fucking leaf blower too, kicking up dust blowing straight into my house.

FUCK!!!!

Okay, so I’m not going to be able to watch the game. Fine, I’ll do other shit that needs to get done. But I’m going to play some music…

From every set of speakers in the house. And I’m going to play it loud enough that I can run the vacuum and do anything else I need to do. This house is going to rock like Studio 54 on a Saturday night.

And the playlist? Ohhh That’s easy! A collection of very angry fight songs that are not censored. This is a playlist that I put together to help keep me going after Jerry died. The songs are angry, full of rage, and pretty much expressed what I was feeling at the time. They’re dark, and some are downright hostile.

Watch, some prissy fuck will call the cops and accuse me of “Hate Speech”.

They’re kind of fitting after the last week. Two people butchered. Democrats telling us to calm down and tone down the rhetoric. Trans fucks celebrating death, others whining about losing their jobs because they were stupid enough to go on TikTok a video their gleeful hatred of Charlie Kirk and anyone else they disagree with. Then trying to hide behind the 1st amendment when their employers cut them loose. Oh boo hoo.

Yet more people saying Stephen King shouldn’t be canceled for his hateful spew, followed by a pussy assed “Apology”.

Nancy Pelosi raising funds to pay for the California redistricting to deprive all of us of representation. Office Depot libtards refusing to print a poster of Charlie Kirk that had no message other than his name, DOB and Date he died. After it was paid for! (Those “loads their mothers should’ve swallowed”, have since been fired.) California democrats refusing an invitation from the GOP to attend a Kirk vigil “Because he was fascist” thereby continuing to spew vomitous vitriol against a man that simply debated university students. 

BUT at the same damn time they’re telling right leaning people or conservatives that we’re wrong for being righteously angry Kirk was shot & killed by some brainwashed maladjusted queer kid poisoned with years of leftist bullshit.

As my china rattled, and the whole neighborhood heard my music. Raw, angry, unashamed, and disruptive. It occurred to me that I’m still really PISSED OFF. About a lot of things!

Absolutely nothing that’s happened in the past 6 years to me personally, and the country in general, is acceptable. But those of us on the right, or more conservative types have been told we’re the worst scum for disagreeing of asking questions.

This is me reaching my fucking breaking point! I and others like me have been silent for too long.

It’s time for us to get loud.

By the way, Apple HomePods have got some range of volume. I think I’ll be putting the Mini’s out on the decks when I’m working from here on out. Since it appears the object of the game is to annoy the neighborhood… I’ll play by their rules.

Linkin Park, Korn, NIN, and peppered in I’ll throw in some death metal. Maybe I’ll find some tolerable white supremacist shit just to really piss off the pussy democrats that live all around me.

Let one of them try to give me the least bit of shit.