Category: Modern problems

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Twitter is starting to look interesting again!

I’ll admit, Twitter can be a dumpster full of burning poop. It had become so rancid and flat out hateful that I left the platform.

In the early days, before the Woke mob was allowed to take over and began dictating what could be said and by whom, Twitter was actually a lot of fun.

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It could be a time suck, but not the the extent that FaceBook was. I never had a ton of followers. Followers wasn’t my intent, I had a small group of friends on the platform that knew each other in real life. We “played” on Twitter.

We found the challenge of making our point in 120 characters stimulating. Dirty Haikus, or Limericks were shared among us and we made each other laugh. We were sarcastic, irreverent, and sometimes very blunt. We were friends. Sometimes it takes a real friend to metaphorically, “knock you upside your head,” by calling you out on something stupid you’ve done or are about to do.

In the early days, all of that was permitted and since none of us had thousands of followers, the reach was limited. As the platform grew, more oblique connections were made. Suddenly, someone that you met at a party would feel that they had the right to tell you what a bastard you were based on their reading of an out of context Tweet they read. Then their followers would pile on without knowing anything about the situation at all.

What these people forgot was that the initial small cadre of actual real life friends communicated in person and a snarky comment might have been the result of something that one person actually witnessed the other one doing.

Admittedly most of my followers were guys, and most of their followers were also guys. Guys bust each other’s chops on a regular basis, and the closer they are, the more brutal the teasing, or yanking each other’s chains can be. The small cadre of friends I followed and who followed me were pretty tight, there was a lot of trash talking which was no different on Twitter than if we were face to face.

What we forgot was that Twitter’s algorithm was presenting our engagement with each other on the platform as something of interest to other people that we didn’t know and who we’d probably never meet, much less hang with. Those people could follow us and read our comments.

The difference was that If my friends and I busted each other’s chops in a bar, someone else in the bar might have taken offense, but they had the social context of the bar and our body language as cues that we liked or even loved each other and social decorum prevented a complete stranger from commenting on what was essentially a private conversation between friends. Granted that “private conversation” may have been us yelling at the top of our lungs over loud music.

Twitter effectively removed all of the social cues and context, leaving only the words. We knew what we meant, but to an outside observer what was said could look pretty bad.

It was at this point that the judgement of others began to have a really nasty effect on our goofy conversations. We could say stuff like, “I don’t know how you get a date micro dick.” Where the reply would be, “Your sister liked it well enough and BTW you’re going to be an uncle!”

That joking screwing around would generate a firestorm of comments about hurtful demeaning words, and judgmental comments about irresponsible sex.

Then it got worse. Suddenly, the respondent would be a misogynistic, evil, CIS, privileged, male. Sometimes there’d be a day or two of hate directed at both parties for demeaning women and accusations of intent to rape.

The incessant comments along these lines were coming from complete strangers and any of the other core group of friends who might have commented on the initial exchange were subject to the same vitriol.

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Almost inevitably some outraged SJW would report one or all of us to Twitter for offending them and we’d all be in a Twitter timeout. It progressively got worse. There was always someone searching for something… anything, they could be pissed off about. There’s nothing so dampening of free speech as complete strangers “Judging” every word or phrase. There were people on Twitter who felt it necessary to correct sentence structure and punctuation on Tweets where they were not invited to the conversation, didn’t know any of the participants, and didn’t understand the context.

Who does that? Those same people would take our ignoring them as some kind of victory. Or they’d say we were mean because we didn’t respond to their unsolicited advice. It became a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.

I personally got Twitter Jailed for asking one of these people, “Do we know you? If not butt out!” Apparently, the Twitter censors deemed that “Hate Speech”

So we got in the habit of censoring ourselves publicly and DMing our trash talk to each other. Then we thought, “If we’re having to DM anyway let’s just use text messages.” At that point, the fun group nature of our Twitter interactions died. Replacing it was group texts which made easing out of Twitter easier.

The thing we all miss is that Twitter provided other services. We’d see and share news articles we encountered on Twitter and comment to each other on them. It was great fun over breakfast to discuss the latest Twitter deuce Trump dropped over breakfast.

We do that now in group texts but it’s not quite the same. On Twitter, the news piece was linked in a way that we could view it on the platform and comment. Using group texts we have to pull the piece up on its originating platform and sometimes that doesn’t work quite right.

The group of friends considered and tried other platforms. But those platforms were being inundated with the same people who’d made Twitter simply useless. The same rules applied and everything said was subjected to scrutiny reserved usually for legal documents. We tried Parler and had a brief period of the kind of freedom we had initially with Twitter.

That is until Google, Apple, and Amazon decided that freedom of speech even non-political speech was a bad thing. When Parler was murdered by the big three, group text messaging was cemented as the goto communication method for my small group of buds.

Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, we’ve become curious. All of us are tech folks, and Twitter is very nice in allowing access to the stream of comments without having to create accounts. We’ve all been watching and reading tweets and have noticed that off color humor is returning. We’ve also noticed that things which could not have been said a mere 9 months ago are not only being said, but are also being promoted in the trends.

We’re asking if perhaps it’s time to create new Twitter accounts and go back to the fun we once enjoyed on the platform. My friends and I haven’t reached consensus yet. But we are sharing some of the funny memes that are reappearing and not being taken down instantly.

It would be fun to be able to share our camaraderie on a single platform without worry again.

The question is, do we want to have to deal with a bunch of assholes that want to be offended and literally search for anything to be pissed off about?

For the moment, we don’t. But the discussion is open.

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Hmmm, Getting the first data about energy production from the Solar Panels.

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Yesterday was the first full day of Solar Panel operation. The panels themselves went online Nov 30th about midday.

The website and the mobile application provide pretty nice insight into the system status. What’s very cool is that I can see individual panel production and therefore can see if a panel is having trouble.

I’m figuring that we’ll run for several months before deciding if the system needs to be tweaked or if adding battery backup would be something useful.

One of the things that was befuddling me when we got into this, was that a solar array of interconnected panels would only produce power skewed to the lowest common denominator. 

In other words, the laziest panel on the roof would drag all the other panels to its level not the other way around. When I was a kid playing with Radio Shack solar panels, this effect really annoyed me. I kept adding panels to a small array but the voltage never increased above the output of my oldest little panel. Oddly and very confusing to my little child brain taking that oldest panel out of the circuit, then measuring I’d see the best output from the next lowest producing panel and so on.

I could see the pattern, but couldn’t explain what I was seeing. I hadn’t really thought about it until we began this project.

I’d seen a similar effect with my portable panels while recharging battery packs, but it was so negligible in that application that I’d just shrugged and moved on to something else I was doing around the house. In that case, either way, the battery pack would be recharged in 3 or 4 hours, so the impact wasn’t a big deal.

When you’re talking about a large array on your roof that’s costing you money and it’s supposed to lower your electric bill you kinda want to know these things. Well, at least I do.

I was really confused on Wednesday, when I got a look inside the “Controller box” mounted on the wall of the house. I was expecting to see a D/C (Direct Current) to A/C (Alternating Current) conversion device, but what I saw instead was more or less standard A/C connections and breakers.

The mystery deepened, I did see a coil of the type that’s used to detect current flowing through wire. In fact it had a single wire running through it. That wire went to a grounding block, the coil itself was connected to a small digital circuit board mounted at the very back of the controller box. This board was in no way going to be capable of handling the kind of power that could be coming from the panels on the roof. Looking at it, I thought, “That much power would turn that board into a burnt green popcorn kernel.”

The mystery deepened. The installer had no information about the details. He was just finalizing the A/C hookup to the house. But I saw inside the Controller Box, a makers logo.

“To the Internet, Boy Blunder!” Yeah, as a kid in the 1960’s I watched “Batman” and I read “Mad Magazine”. What of it?

When I got to the manufacturer’s web site. All was revealed.

Turns out, each panel has its own inverter attached to it. Meaning the D/C to A/C conversion is done at the panel. As I read the specs and dug into the installer side of the website I sat there going, “Duh!!!”

The design is brilliant. Since the power coming from the panels is already A/C it’s just a matter of connecting the array to the house A/C (with some safety features of course,)

Electricity flows a lot like water. If there’s more electricity coming from the house then it flows back into the grid. This is a gross oversimplification but it’s easy to visualize.

Since the D/C to A/C conversion is done on panel, each panel can produce at its own rate without the other panels affecting it, or it affecting the other panels.

That mystery was solved, so what is this controller doing? 

It’s talking to each of the inverters on the panel, and then sending that data to me, and sending it to the installation company so they can address any warranty issues and they’ll know if a panel needs servicing. It also allows accounting. Since the system knows how much power each panel is producing, and therefore what the array is producing the Electric company can’t get away with “fudging” the numbers about credit owed.

The Controller monitors how much power we use, how much power is produced, simple math calculates the difference. It’s the difference that gets sent back to the electrical grid for the power company to “purchase” from me as an electrical producer.

The Controller also provides for the addition of battery backup, and would manage a switchover if needed due to a power failure.

Another thing I didn’t realize was that if the main power goes off and I don’t have a battery backup, I’ll still be without power. 

I understood that I’d be without power if a power failure happened at night, but I thought if the power was off during the day, I’d still have my fridge and essentials running. That’s not the case.

Thinking about it it makes sense. It’s a safety feature. If I’m generating power at my end and feeding it back into the main electrical grid, then the electrical linemen could never work on the power lines. The lines would always be powered up until each house with solar panels was physically disconnected from the grid.

The Controller box handles that automatically in the configuration I’ve got installed.

I’m thinking that a battery pack is probably in the future.

I don’t want the hassle and noise of a gas powered generator running during a power outage.

When the inspection was finished, the solar guy pulled off the protective plastic on the controller box and voila the manufacturer’s logo is now visible. 

I knew I shoulda peeked under that protective plastic film. I’d have been able to have my questions answered a lot sooner!

Now I just have to wait. A couple of months of runtime data and I’ll be in a better position to decide if I need to add a couple of panels and what size battery pack I’ll need to install. 

I’ll also need to figure out if making those modifications will add to the overall value of the house if I decide to sell it.

I also suspect that if I leave California, where-ever I move to, I’ll be installing Solar probably with batteries because I like the idea of being able to sail through power outages without really noticing them.

I don’t like to be inconvenienced!

Call me a snooty, spoiled, first world person if you like!

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It Begins! A PSA

Microsoft account unusual signin activity

The SCAMMERS are out this Holiday Season!

BEWARE of all emails.

If you don’t recognize something or someone delete the email. Don’t click on any buttons, or links.

This email, shown above, is one I’ve been getting over the past few days. It looks a lot like the incessant email that Microsoft will send you if you happen to have an email account hosted by them.

The Microsoft email looks a lot like this, and because they send their Unusual Sign In emails virtually anytime you change networks, if you’re traveling and sign into your Parents WiFi or use a hotel network, you’re likely to have see the real Microsoft version.

This email is bullshit!

If you click on the “Report The User” Button, the handy “Click Here”, or even your own email listed at the top of the email, you’re directed to some website called techconsulting-pay.com not Microsoft.com.

The Indian assholes running this bullshit are targeting Americans who are scared of Russia so that they can rip you off. It’s probably some bullshit “Protection Scam” where they say they’re from Microsoft selling you some obscenely expensive Anti-Virus or “support” package. These “Support Packages” will often screw your computer up more than they help.

Don’t fall for it!

If you’re concerned about some kind of compromise in your email, ask the source!

You can go to www.microsoft.com, log into your account, then look for account management.

Once you’re there Microsoft will ask to send you a confirmation code. Retrieve the confirmation code and enter that into the requested location. From there you’ll be able to check “Security”.

Microsoft will display all the real “Unusual Activity” and allow you to confirm if it was you or not.

In my case, the only unusual activity was from my recent trip across the country. My parents, my brother’s place, and one point when I was using my phone as a hotspot in a hotel room.

There was no record of Russian login.

As noted above, the IP Address these jackasses are reporting is in Delhi India. If this was a real issue, the IP Address would actually track to Russia and there’d be some record of the activity on the Microsoft site.

How? You might ask did these people get my Microsoft email address? That’s easy! They purchased it from one of the numerous job search sites and are now trying to get a return on their investment. This is one of the MANY reasons I hate job search sites! There’s so much scamming on them they are almost unusable!

I miss the old way, the local newspaper and a real address and phone number that was verifiably local to where you were searching for a new job!

Then again, I’m older than dirt!

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Do you ever read Police Blotters, or Law Enforcement sites?

I do. I suppose some would say it’s morbid curiosity. Others might infer that I’m “Looking for trouble”.

I don’t look at it that way. I use this information to keep myself informed about the myriad ways that criminals work.

I’ve been interested in carjackings, follow home robberies, and street crime that I’m likely to encounter in cities.

Living near a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles, and knowing that we’re going to have a lot of Winter tourists in the small town I live in from that area, I just want to have a slightly heightened awareness of the possibilities.

After all criminals like to play in the snow too, don’t they? Some criminals might prefer to operate in an area full of visitors taking advantage of the chaos and confusion to steal from the unwary.

Some of the things that have caught my interest are “Bump & Rob”, “Follow Home Robberies”, and the clever ways criminals are inciting altercations as cover for theft.

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There’s an article in Law Enforcement Today about a rise in Bump & Rob/Carjack accidents in MN. The article is here It’s interesting. The criminals bump into a victims car, then get out while the victim driver is collecting their wits. In the momentary confusion, the criminals point a gun at the victim and then steal his or her car with all the contents.

There have been similar incidents in Los Angeles. The MN police have gone so far as to issue public warnings. I doubt that Los Angelino’s will see warnings. The LAPD and City council seem to be far more interested in sweeping rising crime under the carpet.

“Follow Home Robberies have been reported in LA and the surrounding communities. Some of the more high profile follow home robberies have involved celebrities and people in wealthier neighborhoods around Los Angeles.

Recently, there was a rather shocking smash and grab in Cucamonga. That one got my attention because it was relatively close to my home. 

Reading about the methods of both, and some of the precursor behavior I feel, makes me a little better equipped to avoid the situation before I become a victim. That’s not a guarantee but at least I’m more aware of shady behaviors that might be leading up to something.

A follow home situation is unlikely given where I live. I doubt criminals will want to follow me to where Jesus lot his other sandal, and given the rural nature of my community, criminals might think twice, assuming that rural people would be well armed and more likely to give them lead poisoning. (Generally True!)

Smash and grab might also be less likely even during the Winter because avenues of escape are few and choked with traffic. Home robberies on the other hand might become more of an issue. It’s not uncommon to see strange vehicles in my neighborhood because of lost people looking for snow play areas or the ski resort. 

In Winter there are so many strange vehicles and people occupying rental properties it’s become difficult to determine who belongs where.

The point I’m making is be aware, keep an eye on your surroundings, and report shady stuff to the police. Depending on where you live, you might have quick response or as in my case, the police are at minimum 15 minutes away. If you know or suspect your’e being followed, don’t go home. Find a police station. In the case of bump & rob, keep your eye on the occupants of the other car until you determine they’re not armed. If you see a weapon and your vehicle is drivable, I’d say  leave. You other choice it to comply (as the MN officer suggested).

I’m gonna leave! I’ll call 911 as I’m exiting and ask where the nearest police station is. Yeah my car is covered by insurance, but lets face it, the insurance company is gonna try to put you in a roughly used gardening truck with what they pay out if your car is totaled.

If I didn’t live in California, I’d be more likely to greet a carjacker with a weapon of my own. Oh, to live in a constitutional carry state!

That’s another story…

This holiday season, keep your head on a swivel and be very careful out there.

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What’s with all the hand wringing about Twitter? OH! Right…

I admit that I’m still on the fence about Twitter personally. I did enjoy it and participated in some great discussions with people, in its early days.

Dead Twitter Bird

That being said, I’m “Meh” about it going the way of MySpace. Nobody ran in tight circles or lit their hair on fire when MySpace wound down to whatever it is now. (Is MySpace even still around?)

Celebrities, Pundits, Wags, and all kinds of other people appear to be having a melt down over Twitter “Melting Down”.

Elon Musk probably went too far with his email asking for, (or demanding) fealty to the company long work hours and whatever else he asked for. Clearly he pushed too hard too fast resulting in a lot of his staff resigning.

This makes me wonder though if he’s “souring the milk” just to get rid of self important dead weight.

It’s long been a tactic of employers to make a place a tough work environment that forces employees out the door rather than have a mass layoff. Especially with the WARN Act and all of its constraints, having a mass voluntary exodus works for Elon and the company.

Now he can hire employees to replace those that have quit, and not have to pay unemployment either. This is financially better for the company rather than have to keep those employees around for 60 days and pay them to screw him.

I’d imagine that he’s looking very hard at the H1B1 workers who remain, and considering simply not renewing their H1B1 Status. I don’t know all the ins and out of the visa system but I do know that without sponsorship the H1B1 Visa expires. At that point, the individual is supposed to return to their country of origin unless they’ve become citizens of the US.

Elon may be trailblazing in showing how H1B1 and other visas can be cancelled while limiting liability. I don’t know.

I know that there are a lot of American software engineers that can certainly do the job, who’d be willing to take on the challenge of working at Twitter. I’d guess that American software engineers would be willing to ensure freedom of speech as long as they were from outside the Silicon Valley bubble.

That so many people not involved directly with the company are commenting and wailing about the changes at Twitter is interesting to me.

Journalists specifically seem to be making a lot of noise, and I couldn’t figure that out.

I began to wonder if these journalists are realizing that they’re actually going to have to research what they say instead of relying on “Tweets” to write a story. That could explain why they’re so up in arms.

Are these people saying, “My God, I’m going to have to actually do research!”

Once that realization sinks in, I’m guessing they’re going to be pretty pissed off that they’re going to have to pick up the phone and speak to someone, vet their sources, and at least partially verify their facts before running off to write a one sided hit piece on someone or some event.

Social media is hearsay not fact. It’s always been hearsay, rumor, innuendo, and in some cases complete bullshit.

When so called journalists began using platforms designed for social media and conversation as their journalistic sources we got Journalism that looked like social media, instead of fact.

Funny how that works isn’t it?

So journalists… Get to fucking work!

I’m going to be waiting for the want ads to come out to see if there’s a position for me at the new Twitter.

If I could work from home, or in an office outside California I’d work pretty damn cheap. If I have to move to San Francisco, well the job is going to have to be really “Cherry” and the pay will have to be significantly more.

That’s because I don’t see the need to live in a Studio Apartment for 5K a month, to be in a place where I have to step over shit in the streets to go to work.

I absolutely love the thought of all the rainbow colored hair social justice warrior types finding that their “playpen for pay” is being taken away. I’m half tempted to drive up to near San Francisco, take BART to Twitter headquarters and ask for a job application.

I’d fill out the application in the lobby and laugh my ass off watching the tearful goodbyes as the children left the building.

It would be very hard for me not to say to them, “Welcome to the real world, parasites!”