Category: General

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And in the last few days before the election…

I’m turning my radio & Television OFF!

The incessant vicious ads and mudslinging have reached a fever pitch and I can’t take it anymore.

I’m with Abigael Evans,  the 4 year old who got an apology from NPR.

I wholeheartedly agree that it’s just gotten to be way too much.

If I see another 10 minute string of proposition commercials punctuated by sniping senate & congressional hopefuls… I swear I’ll just not bother to vote at all.

Grow up people, present your case be civil to each other and hopefully we’ll make the best decision.

At the very least you’ll be examples of how differences should be resolved, instead of demonstrating to young people that name calling and bullying are the way to get what you want.

I’m almost to the place where I thinking we should just choose our politicians randomly from the population. At least then, the PACS and businesses wouldn’t know who to hand the money to.

It would be a damn sight easier to figure out WHO was taking what money from whom.

I think we ALL deserve an apology for the nastiness we’ve seen in this election season.

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Happy Halloween

I always loved Halloween as a kid.

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The fun and excitement of dressing up, waiting anxiously for the sun to set then I was set free in the neighborhood with my friends.

The goal was to get as much junk food as we could and to do that we went to as many houses as we could in ever widening circles from our own block. We’d hit the 7-Eleven at the mid point for an Icee because back in the day, the costumes didn’t have a lot of ventilation.

The 7-Eleven folks gave out free samples and that one day a year… We could take anything from the candy aisle for free.

I clearly remember those early evenings and feeling so damn safe. The worst thing we had to worry about was a real ghost or monster coming up out of one of the swamps.

Then sometime around the time I was eight it all started to change.

I can’t even remember how at first, it was just that there was a bit more suspicion, an undercurrent of mistrust and we kids picked up on it. 

Our parents began restricting our once a year, after dark adventures favoring instead more controlled activities. 

Slowly, Halloween changed… 

The community I live in is for the most part a small and safe little town. Even here there aren’t’ any kids knocking on doors. 

Everyone goes to the center of town for a Safe halloween event sponsored by the local businesses and Chamber of Commerce.

It’s neat, but has become renown so that instead of just folks from the local community we’re getting people from communities as much as 20 miles away.

Such is the price of “Fame”

I’m nostalgic I suppose. I liked the sense of community that I had while I was growing up. I appreciated the feeling that as kids we knew without any question if we fell or got hurt we could knock on any door and someone there would bandage our scrapes or call our Mom. Usually both.

I think in part that sense of community was reinforced because of our once a year haunts.

We all knew where everyone lived, and they us. We were always under the watchful eyes of someone in our neighborhoods and we didn’t think for a moment about trying to get away with anything.

Well, we thought about it… but there was always an adult keeping an eye on us who knew our names.

I’m not sure that the old way was better than the “new”. I simply find myself wondering if the old way helped to displace mistrust. 

Like the handshake, turning our kids loose with each other was a sign that we bore each other no ill will, and we were still villagers at heart.

Happy Halloween,

Be safe and try to remember we’re still villagers, fearful of the unknown lurking in the forest.

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OK What part of this don’t you understand?

I sent a link for free virus software to a person I knew had just purchased a bright shiny new Macbook.

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This person is transitioning from a run of PCs that they had nothing but trouble with.

I think I now know why they had difficulties with their PC.

Here’s the reply I got after sending the link.

Thanks!
I have been told that Macs don’t need antivirus software. Is that not true?

Sent from my iPhone

 Ok I’m thinking “The Antivirus software is FREE, I’ve been using it for years as a licensed user. I PAID for it… I explained this all when I sent you the link. Why is this even a question?“

I suppose that I was a little annoyed about it too.

Which led me to write the following…

I’m sure that some of my friends in the computer industry will take exception to portions of what I’ve written here  Guys, comment away! You know me, I’ll post your comments and I’ll correct any misrepresentations in the technical aspects of what follows. I’d ask you to bear in mind that I’m trying… and failing to keep my response as non-technical as I can.

All computers are susceptible to viruses.

Computer viruses do not spontaneously occur they are created specifically to cause mischief or damage.

A computer virus is no different than any other program running on any computing device.

Even the computer in your smart phone is susceptible.

The question is…

Has the computing system that you are using presented a viable target?

The PC operating systems, because of their completely OPEN nature (Early on there were no checks on any program the system executed) and the fact that they were cheap made PCs, easy targets.

Since the PCs were also fairly ubiquitous it made a lot more sense for the nefarious elements in our society to concentrate on them. After all if you’re seeking attention you want to make a big splash.

What bigger splash can you have than 50 million PC owners freaking out about a piece of software you wrote, getting into their computers and saying “Doomsday is here” all over their computer screens. Or if you’re trying to fleece money from people PCs still represent the biggest return on your investment of time.

It’s just a matter of numbers.

Back in the day, a Mac used a completely different CPU than most PCs on the market. That difference provided a measure of security because the PowerPc CPU used a different instruction set than an Intel CPU

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Now the very same Intel CPU runs Apple Computers and any Windows computer.

That translates to a potential vulnerability.

Thankfully, this vulnerability isn’t one that the average 14 to 20 year old hacker can easily exploit. There are very few people in that age range that have the requisite knowledge of machine code to create a program where they could command the CPU directly to do something untoward. It’s possible, but unlikely. (It’s likely that the Virus used to cripple Irans uranium refineries was a virus built in low level machine code. By the way, the virus in Iran attacked the controllers for machines running the centrifuges but did little damage to the PCs in the labs.)

You don’t need to be a government or have a cadre of high-level programmers writing machine code…

There are far easier ways to compromise the average computer. There are even “Tool-Kits” that can be downloaded from the internet for free that will assist a budding hacker in the creation of a virus.

This is possible because most modern devices include by default, or have provisions for running high level language interpreters

Java is the most ubiquitous. This language runs on PCs, Macs, smart phones, tablets, and I’ve even heard of some navigation systems using it.

This means that a Java application written by a bad person, could run on a Mac or PC, could have direct access to the data stored on either machine, and could at the option of the applications creator, transmit any information of interest to a remote computer or simply erase selected files with little trouble.

I’d bet that Barnes & Nobles card readers used Java or some other high-level language. Their card readers were infected and independently collected then forwarded customer names, card numbers and PIN numbers to an outside party. All made possible because someone realized that the software running in the card reader was independent of the computer the card reader was attached to.

As an aside, this is the kind of stuff that kept people like me up at night… that is before everything got off shored and businesses decided it was reasonable and appropriate to throw older computer workers in the dust bin… Now I think it’s just desserts, I’m waiting for the first lawsuits over this kind of data compromise. After all, there is the reasonable expectation that swiping your credit card INSIDE a store at a point of sale terminal is going to be secure…

Microsoft also includes in it’s applications a scripting language.

This means that any computer running Microsoft Office (Mac or PC) is potentially vulnerable to attack. That attack starts as simply as the user opening an infected Word Document.

To Microsofts credit, they have taken great strides toward preventing this kind of attack. However, the convenience features that the scripting language provides are balanced against the risk.

It’s possible to trick someone into executing a script that would simply erase their hard disk. It’s also surprisingly easy!

The reason that viruses proliferate is that a large percentage of the people in the world are always vulnerable to infection. Either because they’re going to websites that are compromised or they have no virus protection software.

This translates at minimum into some 14 year old getting national or world wide media attention because the virus they created freaked a bunch of people out.

OR

The darker side of the coin is this. Viruses are big business.

You know all that spam email you get? Often the address lists for those spam emails are generated from a PC that’s been infected with a virus.

Your address book is nothing more than a data file. It’s not terribly different from a Word or Excel document. The virus looks for the address book file, then opens a link to a server or website and transmits your address book to that remote site. It happens in 30 seconds or less and you never notice. The very same thing could happen to your Quicken files or your Money files or anything else of interest.

In the case of your address book  the remote sever packages up an email loaded with links to other bad websites and sends it to all your friends making it appear that you sent them this neat, funny joke or recommended a service. It’s profitable because if less than 1% of the people open that email, then they get infected, and their address books get sent to the bad guys.

If less than .025% of the people receiving that spam email actually provide financial information like a credit card # to purchase a bogus service then the bad guys are making a ton of money. (See Barnes & Noble…)

Even if no-one ever gives out their credit card #, the Bad guys still make money SELLING a list of current, valid email addresses to other bad guys or sometimes to legitimate companies seeking to market their products.

Which is how you end up on email marketing lists for stores that you’ve never shopped at in your life.

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Bottom line.

1) All computers are vulnerable to virus infections.

2) The myth that Macs are invulnerable to Viruses is exactly that… a Myth. (At one time… it was probably 90% true because Apple wasn’t that big a target, those days are past.)

3) Even if your computer isn’t capable of executing the virus, it can still propagate the virus via sharing of documents.

I could bring social responsibility into the discussion… But I won’t.

Virus protection is always a good idea. Free Virus protection is even better.

I’ve always thought of antivirus software like having a condom,

Better to be safe than sorry…

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Here’s an exercise in spin for you… Be warned your head may hurt.

Before my Liberal friends form a lynch mob… I’m playing here… It’s a Joke… Well a half joke… 

In truth, I wrote this just to stir the pot. I think that anyone with little effort can spin anything any way they want.  This is my attempt at proving that “Facts” are just a matter of spin. I hope you enjoy it.

The banking collapse was in fact caused by Liberal Democrats, not Conservative Republicans.

Lets look at the facts.

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Many liberals believe that it’s wrong to deport illegal workers (This is a term that I use to mean inclusively any person who has entered this country illegally. )

That the term illegal workers has come to be synonymous with Illegal hispanic workers is a discussion for another time. I will say this… if a term has come to be redefined as descriptive of a situation, well perhaps you need to ask how that came to be…

Many liberals believe that housing must  be equal opportunity no matter what. (I also believe that housing should be equal opportunity, meaning that if you can afford a home or apartment you shouldn’t be denied access to that home or apartment based on race, color, creed, sexuality, or religion.)

Many liberals believe that  higher education is a right, not a privilege and as a result have enacted a multitude of affirmative action policies nationwide.

Many of those affirmative action laws, regulations, and policies have been expanded to apply to more than education and now apply in a variety of other aspects of our society including banking.

Having worked in the mortgage banking industry approximately 4 years before the collapse (I got out because I saw it coming) I got to see some things from the inside.

Remember No document loans?

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How about reverse amortization loans?

These “products”  were a direct result of mortgage lenders complying with affirmative action regulations. 

The mortgage bankers I worked for felt that they couldn’t deny a loan application because affirmative action regulations demanded a certain percentage of what was called “B & C” paper be accepted by a bank. Think of it like “Assigned risk in insurance.”

Essentially, these “B & C” designations were loans to people who were far more likely to default than the so called “A” paper loans.

Sadly the “A, B, & C” paper loans shook out along largely racial lines due to underlying aspects of our society. 

This meant that someone like myself (A paper) who was employed, had a mortgage, had never been late on a payment, was making more money than I ever had in my life, and who wanted to refinance my house at a lower percentage rate without taking any money out of it, and who provided documentation to all of the above…

Would be scrutinized to a maddening degree and even had to answer questions like “Why has your income increased?“

No Shit! The fact that I was making more money was actually a bone of contention between me and the underwriter. It pissed me off to the point that I told her I’d quit my job if that would make it easier on her then we could average my income over the past decade.

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The mortgage lender I was working for at the time did not hold my mortgage… but over lunch one day I asked WTF? of an underwriter I knew well.

His answer was that since I had a history and had provided all kinds of documentation, the underwriters had to do a full process where they, by banking regulations checked everything about the loan they were going to fund.

He went on to say that if I’d gone for a new house instead of a refi, and the loan had been a “Jumbo Loan” I could have gone with a no document loan and been approved within a week.

I still didn’t get it. 

My underwriter friend explained,  because of equal opportunity lending regulations and HUD rules, and half a dozen other regulations designed to prevent discrimination,  the no doc loans had become known as the Housekeeper loans and I’d have qualified easily for one of those.

He’d seen 800,000 loans approved for gardeners in Orange County. After the loan was approved, typically within 120 days the first payment was late.

Then another department in the company we worked for would start calling and asking for payments to be made including late fees.

The late fees were always paid first and the remainder of whatever payment we got was sent to the mortgage holder. This was called “servicing” a loan. It was / is a very profitable enterprise. This is especially true when only a partial payment gets sent to the mortgage holder because the cycle can repeat several times a month on the entire amount that is in arrears. The late fees keep stacking up and the profit for the loan servicer keeps increasing.

It was the interaction of protections for the poor, affirmative action,  the lack of proper identification requirements, the right to privacy about where you obtained your income, and other liberal progressive factors that created the no document loan in the first place.

The banking industry simply made all of these regulations profitable!

These loans were given  to people who sometimes didn’t understand what they were signing and at other times actually couldn’t write their own names.

Then the loan was packaged up as an investment portfolio that was mandated by law to have a specific % of A, B, & C paper loans. The completed portfolio was sold to a wall street firm.

Back to my original statement…

It was the liberal demands for equality in lending, and housing, their insistence on not deporting illegal workers, the bleeding heart progressive agenda, and complete lack of concern or perhaps the liberal demonization of profit and business, that is in fact responsible for the banking collapse.

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By forcing the banking industry to approve a percentage of questionable loans that the banking industry normally wouldn’t have approved, the liberals created the housing bubble. Simultaneously making it far more difficult for honest citizens to carry on with their lives and pursuit of the American Dream.

The evil banking industry was just following orders.

 

 

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I broke the rules of Dinner parties

Yep,

Over the weekend I spoke of… Horror of Horrors !

Politics!

Thankfully it was at the end of the party not the beginning…

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Several guests were talking about the food labeling proposition that’s been getting a lot of air play here in California.

The gist of the proposition is that genetically modified foods should be labeled. But then the proposition goes on to exclude some foods and require labeling on others even if there “might” be a component used in the food that was derived from a genetically modified source.

I’m against this proposition, and my reasoning is simple. Either you identify ALL genetically modified foods or don’t bother. No exceptions, no exclusions, mandate an all or nothing approach.

In my mind, It’s probably not a bad idea to give the consumer a choice to eat genetically modified foods or not, you can do that with labeling. 

Sacramento in my opinion, was going to use the proposition to create another new administrative nightmare that would have been a “California Only” thing.

In the process they’d create another revenue stream for the politicians to waste. Oh and of course… they’d have created the potential for food shortages similar to gas shortages and obscene pricing, because the food in the OTHER 48 states wouldn’t be compatible with the regulations imposed by California.

Then they asked about the presidential choices. In my head there were warning klaxons… Even a guest appearance by the Lost in Space robot, “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!”

I plowed ahead… 

At this late date I’m still unsure which way I’m going to vote on the presidency. 

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I don’t think President Obama is the way… and at the same time I really don’t have great feelings for Governor Romney.

My reasoning is this, President Obama is today and honestly I believe has been a lame duck during his entire Presidency. With Congress refusing at every turn to work with him, he’s not been nearly as effective as he could have been. Even his good ideas for the country get no traction because no matter what, Congress is going to fight about it. 

The other liberal Democratic guests at the party swarmed me like sharks. I was amazed. They wouldn’t let me finish a sentence.

These otherwise intelligent people, were so incensed that not only did the conversation stop, it degenerated to a level just above name calling.

WOW!

I thought the Republican Conservatives were the ones that frothed at the mouth and refused to hear dissenting opinions!

Obviously I’m living in the past. 

I thought that decorum and politeness dictated that you at least listened to someone else’s opinion and let them finish their statement. I try to do this and while I am passionate about some things I really try to hear the other side.

Apparently, that’s not the way Americans work today. 

If you disagree… You’re to shout the other party down! That way you don’t have to be confused by the logic of a well reasoned argument against your preconceived beliefs.

One of these same people (Again, intelligent, well educated, older people) said the following which still has me reeling.

“I’d rather have another four years of a stalled economy with Obama, than a working economy under Romney.“

WHAT?!?!?!?!

I suppose that’s easy to say if you’re already retired.

But that’s a really bad idea if you’re one of the people who still needs to work.

That kind of thinking really disturbs me. 

 It’s also indicative of the partisan politics that has crippled Washington and our ability as a people to control our politicians.

The thing that people seem to have forgotten is that we and our politicians, need to think outside ourselves.

We should be thinking about what is best for our nation, not our party, not our ethnicity, not the GLBT people with one blue eye and one green eye.

We all need to step back and act in the best interests of all Americans. 

That may mean some of those Americans won’t have their special interests seen to immediately. And that’s the price you pay for the relative freedoms we have in this country.

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Do you think the Tuskegee Airmen were thinking about how unequally they were being treated in the armed forces and the nation when they fought in World War II?

Sure they were, BUT They were Men enough and American enough to realize that sometimes the bigger picture really is more important!

At a time when Black people had to sit at the back of the bus, and there were White Only restrooms and water fountains. These MEN stepped up put those issues aside and fought to protect this country. I can only assume that THEY saw the potential in our nation.

I’m totally in favor of the repeal of DOMA, I’m also in favor of allowing same sex marriage. I don’t think that Same Sex marriage should be a new law, I think it should be a simple enforcement of the logic of equality and freedom that we’re already supposed to have.

I believe that Independent civilian investigations should happen in Washington to determine just how deep the corruption goes and to start proceedings to root out the influence corporate America has on national politics. 

Am I willing to STOP the country until these things happen?

HELL NO!

Because that would lead to untold numbers of people being out of work, and with those people being out of work their children conceivably go hungry, they default on their homes and become a big drag on an economy that’s already stumbling. 

And in my opinion… taking any action that stops the economy, is unethical, and immoral. 

Of course the guests circling me like sharks weren’t at all interested in my reasoning.

Nor were they interested in this thought.

If Romney is elected and the economy improves, we have anecdotal proof that the country is in fact controlled by large corporations.

We also know which politicians are the puppets of those corporations because they would be the very same group that fought to make President Obamas policies fail.

Which gives We The People viable targets.

Over the next four years, We The People must vote those politicians out of office.

We The People must demand accountability and investigations into potential corruption within our government up to and including impeachment of any and all officials tainted by corporate special interest and control.

This will not be a simple process, nor will it be a quick one. But it is a necessary process if we want a government that is Of and For the people again.

Of course… the alternative is to do nothing.

Which means that thePresidential election has lost all meaning.

If the election process continues to be essentially a 50% / 50% split, that means that neither candidate or party is offering anything the people can rally behind. 

How long can any country survive with it’s political process in neutral?