i called a lot of places and nobody has the right answer.

i've been able to determine that the usbp has "category I" access to the cpic database, and that nobody i can reach over the phone can answer the question. i've also been able to determine that the precise question i need answered is whether or not they can see an fps number.

if they can see an fps number, i am going to need to go to a nexus centre in canada and include a s. 6 grievance in my constitutional challenge. if they cannot, i can cross the border to detroit in the next few days to have this dealt with.

what i'm going to have to do is go in to the windsor police and ask them to run a cpic check from there.

my complete rejection of capital letters is not an accident, it's a very clear political position: i am entirely opposed to capitalism, and want my writing to reflect it.

all letters are equal; no letters shall tower over others in dominance or authority. there is no hierarchy in the alphabet, no control in the language.

this is not news, either. i've been making this argument since the 90s...

i am an anti-capitalist, an egalitarian and an anti-authoritarian, and my writing is carefully crafted to reflect it.

chrome also seems to want to take control of my writing style, by insisting on "auto-corrections" and "grammatical corrections".

yeah. right. big brother can fuck off; i'll be dead before i let a computer correct my syntax.

i've been clear on this point now for years - i am an alphabetical egalitarian and grammar anti-authoritarian. i completely reject your bourgeois grammatical conventions as a form of mind control. free thinking individuals cannot have their sentence structure dictated to them by some centralized grammatical authority; that is a step towards totalitarianism, and should be rejected. this is not some kind of joke, i am seriously in favour of the complete abolition of grammar.

spelling is a different thing, because you have to be able to convey an idea properly. if i misspell something, it's an accident, but i really don't give a fuck about grammar. at all.

so, i will create my own grammar as i go, and you can fuck off if you don't like it.

ok, this is frustrating.

it seems like the answer to everything with chrome is "install an extension". fine. and, i'm even able to find the extensions. great...

but, the chrome store has this fucking banner sitting over the "install" button that is probably supposed to lift, but won't - potentially because i don't have a tactile device (and absolutely do not want one). 

so, i have to find a way to get the banner out of the way before i can really make this usable. first, i need to get the fucking ads out of here - what a catastrophe that is. if i were introduced to the internet nowadays, i'd probably rather go play outside than deal with all of the ads. gross.

second, i need to find a way to edit the html in an email from inside gmail. i was trying to embed that nirvana video, and running on the assumption that it would do so automatically, because it seems to automatically embed inside gmail. no such luck. i think that the template is essentially converting the html into a blog post, so if i can edit the html...

there's an extension for it. alas.

i need to call the border cops first, and get to this after. the goal is trying to figure out if they can see my prints or not....

yeah; there's no way i'm getting used to chrome as a browser. yuck.

test post from netbook

what?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm6Iz-I5OmQ

yes - i can post here via email.

so, that's settled; i'll set up a fake account when i wake up, and post here remotely from it when i'm out and about with the chrome book.

so, i guess i blew the day; i wanted to make some calls in the morning, and spend the rest of the day working. i think it worked out, in the end.

i deny it, but i know i'm going to slowly migrate to that netbook. i spend so much time focused on google products; it makes sense, in the long run, even if i remain spooked about actually creating an account.

well, unless elizabeth warren breaks up google, i guess.

laundry's done, at least.

it's just that the device is intended to be used almost exclusively in public spaces with poor or no encryption - coffee shops, libraries. i don't even really want to check my email. i could always make a fake account, i guess. you can post to blogspot by sending email, right? this is premature, still.

you can pick up a 64 gb thumb drive nowadays for $10. nuts. unfortunately, i only have $6 left of that amazon credit. but, i'm going to want to get a dedicated storage for the netbook that is different than my general purpose key. i can probably get something at the grocery store....

i should have created two pdfs rather than one, with the other being for this blog, and i'm also going to need to find a way to mention the external media, without linking to it. so, i'm a little ahead of myself on that, after all.

but, i'm going to nap a little, so i can be up a little earlier and figure out what day is the best day to head over. if i can't get to a show, maybe i'll just focus on the recycling.

well, you can't say they weren't given a chance to redeem themselves, anyways.

this should have happened more or less immediately. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-wilson-raybould-philpott-caucus-1.5080880

...& that also means the end of flash on this machine.

flash & voice were probably the two sketchiest things on here, so i'm not sad to see them go.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lenovo-thinkpad-x131e-chromebook-review-giveaway/

yeah. the mic is on the front of the device, and the chrome os integrates everything natively - no drivers required. i just need to log into gmail and it's ready to go...

it could not possibly be easier. and, the sound quality is actually a little bit better; i tested it by sending myself some voice mail.

so, that's my new phone, and i can make some calls in the morning.

it means i can put away this half broken piece of shit mic i've been using, and that i no longer need to run google's spyware on this machine - or hang on to a 32 bit browser, although i will, for a while. if i need to launch the profile, i'll use the virtual machine.

i still need to have a terse talk with mr. gates, though.

so, i seem to have misunderstood a few things about my chromebook.

first, it's a combo mic/phone jack. so, i don't actually need a usb headphone; i could potentially even just get a splitter, if one exists, although the mic i've been using for a while now kind of sucks and i'd be better off upgrading it, anyways. i'm sure i can find a $5 splitter in the morning...

but, the thing actually has a mic and a webcam built into it, no doubt with this purpose in mind. i don't see anything in the settings that acknowledge the existence of a webcam, but will the chrome os pick the mic up right away, out of gmail? let me give this a shot.

i've been apprehensive about "logging in" to the device; i've just been using it as a guest. maybe i should log in to check these extra features...

i got the thing because i can't stand typing on a phone; in the end, i may use it as one, after all. good choice, jess.

so, am i even going to check?

well, i'm going to check prices at staples and best buy for a usb headset that has chrome os drivers. that ought to be kind of a business standard, right? i actually would rather use the netbook, for the reasons stated, it just doesn't have a microphone...

if i can get out there first thing in the morning, i'll wait until the afternoon to make some calls.

otherwise, yeah - i'll have to try it with the product key checker turned on. and, if it turns out that this is the problem, i'm going to send bill gates a tersely worded email threatening to take my business elsewhere.

ok, so i spent the night trying to work this out and i came to a startling conclusion - i have a virus on my system called windows. unfortunately, the competitors are worse....

i don't spend a lot of time complaining about this, because i've largely fixed it. windows is in fact highly configurable, and you can solve most of the performance problems associated with it by simply turning everything off. i was working as a tech agent for microsoft during the vista launch, and in the process learned a lot about it - i know how to clean the os up. so, yes - i'm running windows 7 on a nearly 15 year old laptop, and it has limitations, but i mostly don't notice them because it's stripped down to the core os functions.

but, the install is a mess. it's been moved to different machines a few times, and more than a few things are broken. i should reinstall, but this broken laptop has a broken optical drive in it, and my product key is....

i got the product key from carleton. it's legit, but it might be expired because i'm not enrolled there any longer. and, i'm coming to the conclusion that it's the product key that is causing me problems.

i decided to rip everything out - firefox, the network and the audio - and put it back together again. but, i stopped to eat and noticed something - the 90s laptop (which is now my tv) has a microphone slot in it. well, i could try, right?

what i wanted to test was what the server was rejecting, as the behaviour i'd experienced - it works sometimes - seemed strongly indicative of a server error. i mean, if the software was broken, it would always be broken. it seemed like something wasn't sending from the other side. is it rejecting my ip (apparently not, as i got a new one)? my location? my email address? or maybe just my browser...

i run chrome on the 90s laptop because it just loads up to youtube. i'd rather run firefox even there, but youtube is insisting on chrome given the hardware - i don't really have the choice. it's just a question of html5 standards; i can find an old version of chrome that can load youtube, but can't find an old version of firefox. if they would still allow flash, i'd be running firefox. whatever - it's a way to test.

...except i couldn't even load gmail in the browser. this is a similar problem - why do i need so much ram to launch gmail?

the netbook seemed like the more obvious choice, but it doesn't have a microphone in, so it's useless for the purpose. nonetheless, i could at least check the audio and i did - i can connect via the same ip over chrome.

it must be firefox, then, right?

so, i got the drivers installed and went right to the 32-bit install, as basic as i could get it. clean profile. give it a try - and it works. try again, and it doesn't. the server's blocking me, clearly, i'm thinking.

but, at this point i'm fed up, i've decided i'm just going to get a usb headset and use the netbook for the phone. that keeps google's spyware off this machine, anyways - a better option. great. so, let me get the 64-bit install back on...

...and it's just not running. at all.

it's the weirdest thing - i install the program without an error and then launch it and it just halts with ram at 25 megs. no error. no crash. just sits there, apparently waiting for something. what, exactly?

so, i'm thinking there's something corrupted, here. i take every file off the machine, remove every entry from the registry - same bullshit. i'm beat; at a loss. i'm thinking it's time to reinstall, but wondering if i even can.

out of that thought, on a whim, i decide to try it with the software protection service turned on. remember - i have almost everything turned off. that's why it's snappy.

bizarrely, it works, all of a sudden.

so, get this straight - windows was actually preventing me from launching the web browser, because i wasn't running the fucking product key checker. is that why the audio stopped working, too?

if i was to move anywhere, it'd be to linux, but i actually don't want to do that. i still run word 2003, for example, and just don't like the competitors. there's audio issues with linux. &etc.

but, the fuckers are out of line on this one; that's a valid product key, and there's no reason to be on my ass about it.