Author: wwducat

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

I’ve been looking at wallets.

The one I have been using for 10 – 12 years is still more or less in good shape.

It’s a bit of a traditional wallet style that I’ve been finding more uncomfortable to sit on.

I started looking at a variety of wallets, some traditional, and some of the new non-traditional versions. 

My previous leather wallet was made by BelRoy and it’s a great wallet.

Unfortunately, they’re not making that version anymore, or anything like it.

After searching and mulling it over for months, I noticed I kept coming back to the Ridge wallets. 

www.ridge.com

For the record, I’ve not been paid, or compensated in any way by them.

I ordered one of their RFID blocking wallets in “Burnt Damascus”.

They upsold me with a Valentines day special, to their “daily driver kit”, which includes their key case.

I thought okay, why the heck not? I’m worth it. At check out they made me a great deal on a pen.

Awww, why the hell not? This is my Valentines present to myself.

To this order I added their AirTag Holders for both the wallet and the key case.

I’m not going to go through all the florid unpacking details.

The packaging is nice, direct, and sturdy.

In the wallet box are spare screws, a fairly decent Torx T-5 screwdriver and two replacement elastic straps.

One strap is used to keep tension on the plates that hold credit cards. The other strap is to act as a money strap, holding a small selection of bills.

In the wallet AirTag holder box, in addition to the AirTag holder, is a screwdriver, a couple of extra screws and two more replacement elastic straps.

In the Pen box, is just the pen.

In the key case box there is the key case, a flat bladed tool to open the case, two metal rings, (typical spiral loops) one large, one small. 

The AirTag holder for the key case is just flexible plastic, requiring no tools but also comes with the two metal rings.

From a presentation standpoint the packaging is really nice. It appeals to my sense of aesthetics.

So, here’s where we are, 3 days after getting the package. 

First, I like the wallet. It’s solid. The Damascus is a simulation of Damascus steel and it’s got texture. I like that because since my wallet lives in my front pocket now, it’s nice to have something to grip.

I wasn’t sure I would like the wallet. It’s a very radical departure from what I’ve carried all my life. I thought I’d be testing out their return policy. Oh, about their return policy, it’s very generous and impacted my purchasing decision.

I did not however, like the AirTag attached to the wallet.

This is not a problem with Ridge, the build quality of the wallet and the AirTag holder is good. They both have heft and the metals are solid.

The problem was that I wanted a thinner wallet and the AirTag adds thickness that defeated my goal in getting a new wallet..

I went back to the original wallet design. I’m planning to purchase a different device that is shaped like a credit card and supports Apple’s FindMy functionality. Due to the shape it will not significantly increase the thickness of the wallet. 

The thing I really like is that the wallet is clean, simple, and fits easily in my front pocket.

The key case is also nicely built, but a touch awkward with my front door key. The awkwardness is that the key is not round, or hexagonal in shape. The door key is this weird trapezoid shape.

That being said, it’s nice to have the keys all contained and silent. The containment is accomplished with a simple compression plate made of spring steel. 

The key case is not suitable for keys like the larger car key fobs common with BMW, Lexus, Jaguar, Mercedes, and others.

It’s only going to hold onto the traditional flat keys like house keys. The picture shows the scale of my car key with the key case. 

There is a pocket clip on the back of the key case. I found that I don’t like it. The bent end is somewhat sharp, and getting in & out of the car that clip catches on the seat.

It could scratch leather or possibly tear your seat getting in or out of the vehicle. Since I had the handy T-5 I removed the clip. In doing so I discovered that the clip was secured in place by the spring clip that holds the keys in place. It only took a moment to fix.

I added the carabiner to tie everything together for the moment, I’m probably going to be revisiting the arrangement several times over the next few weeks.

Thus far I’m pleased. This has forced me to carry only what I need, and I expect that as time goes on, I’ll be thinning it out even more.

Why the change?

Part of this came about after using Apple’s MagSafe wallet.

I found that I didn’t need to always carry a big lump in my back pocket.

The problem with the MagSafe wallet was its 3 card limit. I also didn’t like having to remove it from the phone to access the cards. They say 3 credit cards. That’s BS it’s 2 cards because one slot is taken by your ID.

So my combo when using the Apple MagSafe wallet was ID, Debit Card, & Credit Card. Then I was off to have drinks with friends.

Since most credit card purchases can be accomplished using tap to pay, from the Apple digital Wallet in my phone or from my watch,  I don’t need to carry a wad of credit or debit cards. The exception seems to be gas pumps. In my area they almost never have the tap to pay system operational.

My proof of insurance cards, also live in the Apple wallet, so I don’t need to carry them either.

I like having cash on me. It doesn’t have to be much, but it’s a little security blanket. In that regard, the Apple MagSafe wallet wasn’t cutting it.

Originally I was looking for a MagSafe compatible wallet from another vendor than Apple. That led me down several unproductive rabbit holes. Ridge makes a few MagSafe compatible wallets but none of the available colors struck my fancy.

Eventually, I thought maybe MagSafe wasn’t that big an issue. I use wireless charging so I’d have to take the wallet off to use wireless charging or MagSafe mounting. 

The more I thought about it, the more I concluded that a straight up wallet was probably better. I can grab the phone, wallet, and keys, on my way out the door. 

The pen is great. It’s simple, well balanced, a bit thicker than some of my other pens and is comfortable to write with. It uses a standard Parker refill so when I need to replace the cartridge it’s not going to be a hassle. 

Parker cartridges are easy to find in a variety colors, and fine, or medium line thicknesses. 

For comparison, pen is what Ridge calls “Burnt Titanium” it’s more of a matte finish. I was strongly considering the Wallet, and Key Case in this color.

The “Burnt Damascus” is a little more shiny and reflective than I thought it would be. But I like it.

So here’s some closing thoughts.

I feel like Ridge has designed these products to be customized. You can mix & match, add & remove features and attachments easily. 

It’s like they send you the basic model and invite you to make it your own. 

I’m still fiddling but I’m mostly comfortable with what I’ve gotten to now. 

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Don’t know what’s going on in the UK, But it’s got to stop!

Uk police commissioner.png.The Washington Post reports that the UK government is demanding Apple provide them backdoor access to users encrypted iCloud data.

This is nothing particularly new for government. The FBI has been famously turned down by Apple when it came to their demands for decrypting lock codes of alleged criminals iPhones.

What is disturbing is that the UK is making this demand under cover of its “Investigatory Powers Act“. This sneaky, slimy, law makes it a criminal offense for the company under demand to say anything about being under notice, demand, or request.

0_MI5 MI6 headquarters London.So the UK government knows that they’re doing something shady, and they want to do it in complete darkness.

They do allow an appeal to a secret panel and judge. In other words the appeal process is just for show.

This demand for a back door doesn’t just apply to British citizens, the UK government wants the ability to spy, snoop, violate privacy, of anyone in the world who is using Apple iCloud.

Their justification is, as it always is with totalitarians, that they need this access to insure public safety and they can be trusted not to abuse this ability.

We can bet that they’re making, or have already made similar demands of all other encrypted cloud services. But we will never know if that’s true, and we can never know who complied, because of the double super secret provisions of “Investigatory Powers Act“.

So the continuous assault on Personal Privacy goes on. This is important because in the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is sort of a central piece. It’s so central to Apple device functionality that Apple gives everyone a little iCloud storage space when they buy their first iPhone. At that low level, it’s mostly about iPhone backups and settings.

Most people increase the amount of iCloud storage available because if you have several devices it’s convenient to have access to your all of your data from every device.

Chamber House of Commons Houses Parliament London.Do you want someone, without your permission, looking at your backup data? How about documents, text messages, photos, movies, or literally anything you’ve stored in the cloud? 

I don’t. I could live without iCloud. In fact I could live quite nicely with local storage and not have anything in the cloud. But that’s just me.

A lot of people can’t.

Most people, due to Apple’s marketing of User Privacy being one of Apple’s top concerns, have a reasonable expectation that their data will be encrypted and that no-one including Apple can access that data.

If Apple gives the UK backdoor access. Then privacy is gone. China will next be demanding their own access to user data, then it’ll be Interpol. All the while the US government will be quietly taking data dumps from “Five Eyes” member nations. Using that data to spy on its own citizens but being able to deny that they are. Our intelligence agencies will shrug their shoulders and say they can’t control what information is shared with them in a data dump from other intelligence agencies.

The UK government has become the ultimate representation of a “KAREN” and their surveillance and free speech, or rather, their definition of hate speech, policies are the biggest reasons that I have no desire to visit.

You know what? I’m good with that too. 

Even if Apple were to turn off encryption for all phones operating, or purchased in the UK, it still wouldn’t meet the requirements set forth in the “Investigatory Powers Act”.

I’m fine with the UK, UKing all over their own people. Their people apparently like this stuff.

I draw the line at them potentially expanding their bullshit beyond their little islands. I’m not impressed or interested in helping the UK assuage its feelings of inadequacy by invading my privacy. In fact, to the best of my knowledge I don’t have contact with any UK citizen or business. I believe that is true for at least the past 20 years. So why would they have any remote need to access my encrypted iCloud data?

The iCloud data they want backdoor access to may include heath data (from my watch), location data from all my devices, frequented location data, digital ID, private journal data, financial data, and via my contacts application, all my business associates and / or friends.

Notavlecase cover20 1400x775.But what they’re really interested in are my mean tweets, or off color Facebook posts, they want to know if I’m twerking on tictok, or have appeared in blackface on instagram. (After all I’m not Justin Trudeau)

Remember, authorities in the UK have repeatedly, and quite boldly, said they’ll come for Americans on American soil if we speak poorly of their muslim invaders, their shitty leaders, or their insane transsexual, transvestites, from Transylvania, on social media.

Like all “KARENS” the UK government seeks totalitarian control over everything and everyone. They want a Utopia. There’s only one catch. 

Utopia requires a mechanistic homogeneity of thought, and pesky humanity is renown for individuals that refuse to comply.

Which leaves totalitarian Utopias only one viable option. Their elites must be content to rule over a graveyard.

I personally think there can be no Utopia without it being a totalitarian state. But I’m nobody of interest.

I’m hoping that since this has been exposed and is appearing in news reports in main stream media that the idiot “KARENS” in the UK will back down. They probably will, for at least 9 months to a year.

When they think the average Joe isn’t paying attention they’ll issue another slimy “technical capability notice” and this time, they’ll make sure they gag anyone who might blow the whistle.

The UK is trying out the George Orwell path right now. They’ll move on to the mass graves anytime, and then finally will have the Utopia they’ve always wanted.

We’ll have to see what Apple does. I think perhaps it’s time to reconsider using any cloud storage media for anything.

Why make it easy for some bored fucker with nothing better to do, issue you tickets or screw your social credit score because you, at one time, 20 years ago said the “N” word, or called a bunch of Iraqis “Sand N****rs”.

I admit I think it would be interesting for the Metropolitan Police of London to show up at someone’s door here in the US to attempt to arrest them for a mean tweet.

I’m honestly not sure if that would result in body bags draped with the British flag, or that we’d find our law enforcement folks are willing to violate the US Constitution, specifically the First Amendment.

Given some of the videos of the Metropolitan Police asking nicely to enter someone’s home to arrest them of a violation of their morality and speech codes, and the potential arrestee hanging out the window saying “No! Bugger off, you gits!”

I think the Metropolitan Police would be quite shocked at the way Americans handle such things. 

British people are way more polite than we are.

Might be worth having some popcorn ready for that show.

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He’s been right about a lot, wouldn’t be surprised if he’s right about this.

President Trump.Trump said he’s going to be weeding out illegal immigrants from the Social Security system.

Since then, X has been alive with people telling us very seriously that Illegals can’t get Social Security benefits. Then acting like Trump is dumb or crazy or whatever.

Hmmm. Really? So if one of these folks is using a stolen SSN to work, you think that somehow they’re not going to use that SSN to do other things? Apply for credit cards perhaps? Mortgage loans? Bank Accounts?

Really? Nobody is that naive.

The other half had his identity stolen on a couple of occasions. Once, it was just a couple of debit card numbers, but the other time it was his whole credit history. He wasn’t aware there was a problem until he tried to get a loan for an instrument, then he found out that there was someone else running around using his social security number.

How ever did this bad person get the other half’s SSN? Oh that was due either to a medical insurance company breach, or a doctor’s office closing. We later found out that all the medical records had simply been dumped in the dumpster out behind the office.

It didn’t matter. It cost us a lot of time and money to get everything sorted out. 

If someone has your SSN, name, and date of birth, they could possibly start collecting on Social Security too.

That’s called stealing you know. Not that any of the liberals care about little things like stealing, or crime in general.

Unless it disturbs them.

When drugs come to the rentals in their neighborhoods, or an HOA socialite is mugged for her earrings in a common area.

Then liberals who previously wanted to defund the fascist police, while being kind to the poor immigrants seeking a better life, will hire a mercenary goon squad to patrol and harass everyone walking through a neighborhood.

We know that a lot of those liberals manage to look the other way, & pay under the table dirt cheap wages to illegals too. Liberals don’t seem to understand that paying someone 10 cents an hour is essentially slavery. Say that out loud to a liberal and they’ll lose their shit.

I’ve long been annoyed that everything is tied to a SSN. Credit applications, Tax filing, Mortgages, Car Loans, Medical records, Insurance, and God knows what else. 

It wasn’t supposed to be that way.

Back at the dawn of time when I got my SS card, the accompanying paperwork said specifically that this number wasn’t to be used as ID.

Yet that’s exactly what it’s been used for. Lots of people forget that SSN is an account number, to your forced contributions to a retirement savings account, that doesn’t pay a particularly good interest rate.

At this point we might as well use the number as our phone number, drivers license, and car plate number. Everyone knows our account numbers.

I’d bet we’ve all received at least 10 notices of security breaches where our name, address, SSN, and phone number has been dumped out on the internet for sale.

I’ve been informed that my personal data was leaked by the Office of Personnel Management of the United States government. You know what they said? Too bad, so sad, perhaps you should invest in a credit counseling service.

At least corporations provided credit monitoring services for a few years!

Given all of this.

Is it that far a stretch to entertain that some number of illegal immigrants might be getting social security payments they’re not entitled to?

Illegal Immigrants, as Tom Homan said, are all criminals. He’s right, and I fell out of my chair when he said it directly to someone questioning him about deportations.

Until I heard him say it, I thought I was some kind of idiot that just didn’t understand the issue.

The moment a person crosses our border without permission, or overstays their Visa, they are, by definition, a criminal because they committed a criminal act. If they’re willing to start out committing a crime, what’s to stop them from stealing someone’s identity?

Liberals would justify even that, as okay (as long as it wasn’t their identity,) because the poor illegal is just trying to work and feed their family and they needed a SSN to work. Or retire.

Here’s something few people ever find out.

If you claim unemployment benefits, or assistance for medical costs, or disability payments, all of which are tired to your SSN. The state sends you a 1099 form. 

YES! Boys and Girls, you have to pay Federal taxes on that “Income” If you’re in a state with income tax, you get to pay them too.

So some illegal running around with your SSN can do a whole lot of damage, before they even begin to fuck you out of your tiny assed social security check.

All of this is to say, it’s very possible that some 87 year old grannie, or someone who’s contacting the Social Security office on Monday morning ready to retire, may find out they’ve got nothing because someone else got there before they did.

Trump saying that he’s ordering it to be looked into is a good thing. Even if they find nothing, at least the American People can have faith in the Social Security Administration. 

If an audit does find fraud, then booting the fraudsters out of the system means people who deserve the funds will likely get them, and perhaps Social Security will last a bit longer.

I question the Democrats screaming about Doge looking into Social Security.

We know over the years, both the Democrats and Republicans have raided SS funds. We the People assume that the money has been paid back. What if it hasn’t? Worse yet, would be finding that money is still being siphoned off for stupid projects like those at USAID.

I’ll tell you what. If all the retirees eating tuna, cutting their medications in half, and paying taxes on their SS income were to find out they’d been spending a billion a year for something like “Condoms for Convents”, or half a billion on “Feed a Jihadi for Jesus”…

The old folks (myself included) would tear down the Capitol and smash every stone to dust with their walkers & canes.

I envision exchanges like this between the Capitol police and the old folks;

“Yeah sonny, that’s a pretty badge, so what? I’m on my last legs here, I’ll be dead in 6 months from cancer. I can’t feel anything on my left side… This here is a kamikaze run for me! Tear gas? That’s all ya got? I’ve been smoking Lucky’s for 65 years! I could huff that canister & chase it with straight bourbon! So bring it, ya pussy!”

(Thanks to Grok for generating the image.)

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Sleepless on the mountain

I’d fallen asleep on the couch for a few minutes. 

It was near bedtime so when I woke up I just relocated to bed. I started to drift off and then something happened. I’m not sure what, but I was wide awake. There were the usual creaks and sounds of the house, but for some reason they seemed louder.

Then I was thinking of all the stuff I need to do, which led to what do I want to do, which led to how do I do it, and the links in the chain went on & on from there.

Eventually, I decided to get up. After all, there’s no need to toss & turn in bed keeping Jesse awake.

His response to my sleeplessness was to sigh in an annoyed way. Once I left the bed, he curled up right in the middle of the bed. I guess I’m not going to be allowed to get back in the bed until I’ve settled down.

Something has me unsettled. I don’t know what it is. There’s something familiar about it, but it’s been too long for me to be able to put my finger on it.

I’m debating pouring myself a small drink to see if that will allow me to relax enough to go to sleep.

I haven’t had a problem sleeping like this in a very long time. I’m really wound up and I have no clue why.

Maybe I’ll try writing some. I’m wondering if I’ve got an idea percolating that needs to be written then I’ll be able to sleep.

It’s possible it’s the moonlight although it’s not a full moon, it’s a bright and clear night.

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Happy February, It’s a beautiful day

It’s in the 50s here on the mountain. The snow we had last week is melting fast, but I’m not putting my snow shovels or snow thrower away just yet.

February and sometimes March have been known to throw us curve balls and drop feet of snow on us at the darnedest times.

There are a few things that I’ve noticed this year. The dog never developed his super fluffy coat. The leaves on the maple and apple tree hung on for a really long time before dropping, and the cottonwoods and maple tree are already budding.

It’s thus far, been a mild Winter here. But there’s still a month & 1/2 to go.

I often think the trees and the animals are better predictors of the weather than we are with all our technology.

The various tax forms should be available now, and that means I’m going to be working for the government sorting all this bullshit out. I’m still working through all the tax nightmare left behind by the passing of my other half, and the COVID era. Apparently the accountant really fucked up the filings from 2019 on… So yipeee! I get to spend a ton of time unfucking the mess.

I wish Trump would just do away with the IRS already! There are so many things I could say about them. Most of it boils down to just the plain weird stupid shit about our tax code.

Chief among some of this is why is the tax code so damn complex? Why do we have an entire industry built around dealing with taxes that the fucking government takes right off the top, they know how much they’ve taken, then they jump us all through hoops where we file in terror of making a mistake then they always find mistakes that cost us more.

Why the fuck don’t they just send us a bill? Better yet, go to a flat tax, Even better… Stop taxing us altogether!

I’m annoyed about it.

I hate that over the past four years so much of our tax money was literally wasted on endeavors that did absolutely nothing for the American people.

I’ve also come to reject the premise that taxes allow us to have a safe and productive nation. 

That is absolute bullshit.

With our taxes going up over the past 16 years, I submit that we do not have a safer more productive nation. In fact I would say it’s exactly the opposite.

Maybe I’ll do some real research and then podcast about it.

In the mean time, I’m going to breathe, and see what I can do about enjoying this beautiful day.