Saturday, July 8, 2017

if we're to have a state, we should have a constitution. sure. and, it should be enforced judiciously and difficult to amend.

but, it should be amended from time to time, too.

in the end, constitutionalism is just another kind of religion and should be resisted just as any other religion should be.
it is more likely that you will see israel stand with the turks in trying to fight the saudis off.
a strange thing happened this morning.

we'll talk about the cats later. maybe. i'm hoping we don't have to.

but, i got some ide drives. all 40 gb. 3 for $10. i know at least one of them works. i'll install after i get some rest...

the strange thing is this: i went to take out the old drive and i noticed something was loose inside, sort of like a blown light bulb. i shook it a little to prove to myself it was really broken, after 19 years. a little piece of metal fell out; it could have been the leg on a chip, perhaps.

i tried one more time.

...and it spun.

but, it took me up to the block screen i see when the power cuts. this requires a reinstall. the system is, in fact, designed for easy reinstall.

but, see, i've long suspected that the block screen is a sign of a dying hard drive, so i'm going to install on one of the new drives and see if it fixes it.

the more exciting thing is that i didn't lose my script.

i guess it solves the mystery: i seem to have blown a component, and the broken piece seems to have maybe created a short, i guess. the drive seems to work. but, for how long? i should put it aside and try something new.

updated actual spending totals:
22.58 (bicycle) + 32.77 (shoes) =    (6th)
55.35 + $10 (hard drives) =    (8th)
65.35

i was woken up this morning and need to get back to the sleep that i missed.

Friday, July 7, 2017

the guy with the ide drives is going to bail on me, too. ugh. i've had a lot of bad luck with electronics on kijiji.

he wants to sell 8 ide drives for $75, 6 of which are large drives and two of which are small drives. he'll probably eventually get somebody to buy, but the idea that he's offering some kind of deal with the smaller drives is idiotic.

i offered him $20 for the two small drives. he was sketchy about agreeing, kind of blowing me off, thinking he'd sell them all together. he relisted the 8 drives together this morning and clearly wants to push that as some kind of deal, as clueless as it is.

see, it's going to be people with pcs from before 1999 that are going to want the smaller drives, and people with pcs from about 1999-2005, or so, that are going to want the bigger drives. if your machine can take a 300 gb drive, there's no conceivable reason why you'd want an 80 gb drive, given that they're the same price, nowadays. the smaller drives should even arguably be saved and put aside for the older machines, and not wasted on machines built after 1999.

again: i'm sure he'll find somebody that wants a bunch of drives and will pay for it. what will happen is that the 80 gb drive will end up as a backup somewhere instead of being used. it's sad, but i can't make stupid people rational.

i have another lead on an 80, but it's not clear if it works out.

again: this is something i'll wait out, although i'd like to get my tv up and running.

worst case scenario, if the cost of the drives gets up past a certain point, i'm going to want to look at something like this, instead:
http://nanopi.io/nanopi2-fire.html

i just need to make sure i get one without a wireless connector.

it would be an upgrade, clearly, and a pretty cheap one. but, then what do i do with the old pc?  i don't want to closet it. and, i'll eventually find the drive i want, and feel stupid for getting the board.

again: i'll wait it out.
i hope i'm getting something across, though.

a lot of people rail against capitalism as this idea of big business monopoly, and want to replace what they see as capitalism with what they see as free markets. they think opposing capitalism means supporting small businesses (that usually pay minimum wage and don't provide benefits). the language is often confused. when you prod them, what you learn is that they're just liberals, and they're not really anti-capitalist at all. if anything, they've confused capitalism with socialism, and what they're really opposed to is the latter.

my anti-capitalism gets right to the heart of what it is: i'm vehemently opposed to markets, and so skeptical of their efficacy as anything other than a corrupt tool of corporate collusion that i'm willing to even act against my own self-interest in suspicion over a market, when i see it approximating the behaviour that the debunked theories claim they should follow.

i'll wait it out.
it's weird with this phone, because direct-from-amazon is usually the cheapest option in the list. with this device, it's the most expensive.

but i'd actually rather pay the highest price. if it means it's from a credible seller, than take a chance with some "marketplace" reseller.

i don't care much for brand names as status symbols or whatever other kind of idiotic capitalist bullshit. it might seem that i'm contradicting myself in insisting on a brand retailer. it's the same thing, right? well, that's the point in contention - how do i know it's the same thing? i'd have to trust the market, and i definitely don't. so, i'm actually not contradicting myself in my broader skepticism towards capitalism, it's just that the proper manifestation of that skepticism is to reject brand names at the status or symbolic level and insist upon them at the retailer level.

i'm hoping that it comes back in stock. i think it was out of stock last week, too.
yeah. i don't like my options with the phone, right now.

i'm going to wait for the distributor. hopefully it's temporary and comes back. if not, i'll revisit it once i have everything else taken care of.

so,

updated total:
phone (amazon): $105
battery (amazon): $27
2 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x15 [ships to canada]
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon): $13 [ships to canada]
4 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x32 [ships to canada]
2 tb external drive (amazon) : $117 [ships to canada]
50 cd-rs [amazon.com]: $25 [ships to canada]
500 gb sshd laptop drives (best buy or amazon?): $2x80-85 [ships to canada]
2 gb internal drive (amazon or best buy): $105 [ships to canada]
50 bd-rs [amazon.ca or best buy]: $40
ps/2 to usb connector [amazon.ca]: $5
100 dvd-rs [best buy]: $30
200 jewel cases [staples.ca]: $80
square monitor (pawn shop): <$50
  < 140 gb ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
==================
$766-776

total phone: $105
total mp3 player: $13
total laptop 1:  $137-142 + usb sound card
total laptop 2: $149-154 + $117 (external) + editing software?
total desktop 1: $20
total desktop 2:
total desktop 3: $155
total optical media:  $175

i'm going to need to get back to dealing with the sound card(s) this evening.
i may be better off getting a usb phone until the price comes down a bit more.

i mean, i don't have any really desire to buy a phone. it's just going to sit on the table most of the time. and, if i can't make it fit into a specific budget, i'm not going to bother.
i missed the time window on my phone and it's out of stock by an official seller :(.

i don't want to buy from third-parties. i just don't trust the process.

i don't want to pay more than $100.

back to the drawing board...

the money should be cleared by monday or tuesday. i hope that doesn't happen again...
i had an acquaintance in high school; his name was rob blackman. he was a black male, as his name would imply. not a friend, really, but a friend of a friend of a friend. still, i ate lunch with him every day for five years.

there were never more than five people of african descent at this school at any given time. it was a catholic school in a largely italian neighbourhood of ottawa. keeping in mind that almost all afrrican-canadians can trace their history in canada to after 1970, the number of black catholics in ontario is relatively low, and i believe mostly of caribbean descent. this particular school drew mostly from the italians and poles of the surrounding area and the irish and scots of a wealthy suburb, called barrhaven. canada does not have a very large spanish-speaking population, either. the reason we have publicly funded catholic schools has to do with our large french minority, which is largely invisible in ontario.

rob was actually an incredibly passive guy. he was very quiet. he kept to himself. and, we had to pressure him for quite a while before he finally agreed to smoke some pot with us; he didn't like it much. i do not think he excelled academically, but it wasn't due to any clear level of delinquency. i don't know what happened to him.

despite these traits, the teachers tended to pick on him. i used to listen to him grapple with this: he really didn't get it. but, then, one day he did. he'd been sent to detention for something he didn't do, and wasn't sure anybody even did at all. and, he said it, sure of himself, finally:

"it's because i'm black."

this was actually met with the roar of pubescent male laughter, tickled by the absurd surreality of the situation, for we all very well knew it was true, and perhaps a good deal of time before rob, himself, did. and, what can a bunch of kids do in the face of absurdity but laugh?

and, laugh we did.

for, now every problem in the world was reduced to the fact that rob was black.

"shit. it's raining. have to stay in."
"...it's because rob is black."

this was a wonderful joke for, in fact, many years - and rob did not just laugh along, but often offered the punchline, himself.

i get it.

i'm not doing it, though.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

july 6th vlog, where i get my bicycle working for the first time in many years.

it's not that i'm coming down hard on nina turner because she's a black woman, it's that you blinded yourself to the fraudulence that is so very clearly in front of your blinking eyes for the very precise reason that she is, in fact, a black woman.

it was the same thing with ellison. i didn't come down hard on ellison because he's a muslim; rather, you ignored the reasons you shouldn't have supported him, precisely because he's a muslim.
(note: my initial comment was deleted from huffington post. what follows is an approximate reconstruction. it seems that the huffington post only allows comments that are racist, in line with the government's continuing cultural genocide of this continent's indigenous people.)

this article does not explain the part of the indigenous act in question (it just glosses over it as "sexist", which is typical of this government and groups aligned with it) for those that are unaware of it. which is a blood-quantum rule designed to extinguish indigenous membership over a short time period by preventing women from passing on indigenous status. more precisely, and more to the point, it prevents non-indigenous men from marrying into the tribe, which genetic testing tells us is something that has happened frequently in recent history and which biologists tell us is necessary to maintain healthy levels of genetic drift and maintain healthy levels of genetic variability.

this specific legislation, which was brought in by mulroney in 1985, is just a part of canada's longstanding policy of assimilation and cultural genocide towards it's indigenous inhabitants. the trudeau government's refusal to look at this for what it is is a strong signal that the government has no intention of modifying this existing policy at all and that language to the contrary is just a smokescreen, meant to obstruct and confuse from the true intent of continued corporate dominance of indigenous resources, and eventual extinction of indigenous peoples.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/07/06/maliseet-senator-writes-open-letter-to-trudeau-i-am-losing-fai_a_23019779/
i also got my bicycle fixed today for...

$23.

i didn't realize it'd be so cheap. i would have done it months ago. but, it was $23 and i'm rolling.

i knew all i had to do was put some bearings in it's just....i figured around $50....and it just never prioritized itself.

but, i am ecstatic to be back on my bicycle. it's not an object. it's an extension. an improvement. a bionic betterment. a transhumanist step.

in total, i've spent $55.35. only $4944.65 left to go.
these shoes may or may not be good for skateboarding. i don't know. i don't skate.

http://www.payless.com/womens-airwalk-maddie-mid-top-shoe/77631.html?dwvar_77631_color=chambraydots#start=42&cgid=brands-athletics-airwalk

but, anybody that wants to put this beside a pair of converse or vans and complain about build quality is out of their fucking mind. the airwalks are clearly far better shoes.

just look at the heel:


compare that to any pair of cons or vans on the market. the vans are a little better (than the cons). the cons are fucking trash.

for a walking shoe, the airwalks have to be just about ideal. those backs are key: you could walk to mexico and not get sore heels. it doesn't matter how far mexico is, it's still true.

and look at the bottoms. that's a fucking inch to walk through. this is my problem with shoes: i walk through them. it's going to be a long time before i wear these babies down.

again: i don't know about the marketing battles and the corporate "punk" extravaganzas and the rest of the bullshit. i know that these are far, far better shoes, and that you're fucking daft to suggest otherwise.

$33. canadian. i couldn't imagine paying twice or thrice or even four times that for a pair of shoes that's going to give me blisters walking across town and fall apart in the rain just because the brand is cooler.

just put the shoes beside each other and look. be empirical. examine the facts. there's no comparison. and, suggestions otherwise are daft.
there's a "vape lounge" in windsor. i've only been in there twice. the reason is because it feels like an after school program, a community centre. there's tvs at either end of the place, with people watching movies and playing video games.

it would be the perfect place for kids to go to get off the street.

but, you have to be an adult to get in

i think the age should be set closer to 16.

http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/marijuana-age-limit-should-be-low-not-high/wcm/62cf29f9-6a70-4229-ac1f-99e2ad38239f
 “if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQYDamOvop8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUF_3oKlX_U


so, if you understand morality as an evolutionary process - neither absolute nor relative - then how do you apply that understanding in real life?

the homosexuality example was used in the video, and i don't like the way that chomsky handled it. he should have been a little more firm about individual rights at the expense of a culture, because, really, fuck your stupid culture. and, fuck my culture, too.

abolish all culture.

but, let's say that you have this issue where you have this homophobic muslim refugee showing up from an arab country which has historically had scarce resources (what is going on in the region may be described precisely as adjusting from scarcity to plenty) and a system of laws that reflects it, into an overwhelmingly liberal country like canada, which is overwhelmingly liberal precisely because it doesn't need or have any meaningful restrictions on access to resources at all. this may not be all that hypothetical.

you would certainly not want to tell them that they have a right to maintain their culture in a time capsule, and that it's ok if they hate queers because it's their culture and i'm white. that's a disgusting attitude towards everybody - it's caving in on queer rights due to the soft racism of lowered expectations for the primitive arabs. that's what "cultural relativism" is, in real terms: it's wholly, fully, absolutely through and through racist.

likewise, you wouldn't want to sit there and lecture them about the superiority of liberal secularism over muslim backwardsness, no matter how true it may actually be. you don't get anywhere by pushing your perceived superiority in somebody's face.

rather, what you need to do is explain to them that the reason that their religion persecutes queers is that it was developed in a region that has historically had real levels of scarcity. and, the historical scarcity in the middle east is very, very real. it's not the artificial scarcity of western capitalism. it's people dying of starvation, people collapsing due to drought - sometimes due to war, and sometimes due to climate and sometimes due to mismanagement. queer people do not breed, so harsh decisions about resource management required them to be excluded, in order to ensure that the breeding members of the tribe could carry on. there is no such scarcity in canada, so there is no basis for those rules.

if the refugees are reasonable, they should understand this and modify their prejudices. but, if they react with "MUH CULTURE!!!", then the new society has the right - dare i say obligation - to exclude and ostracise them. there is no reasonable argument to hold to concepts of relativism, at this point, now that we've dismantled them using science. that is no longer cultural relativism, but base cultural conservatism, and should be resisted at all costs.

as for today, the oil wealth in these states makes it difficult to generate arguments to hold to the primacy of their books. with the exception of the horn of africa, i am not aware of anywhere in the region experiencing serious scarcity to the point where persecution of homosexuals can be contemplated as rational. criticism of these regimes should consequently not be muted under arguments of "cultural relativism" - that is just a reduction to "they don't know better", and is consequently an expression of white supremacism.

as an aside, the naturalization of morality has an important consequence: it was the last thing that science needed religion for. now that we have a fully naturalistic understanding of morality, we can dispense with religion altogether.
chomsky tends to do this, sometimes: he talks about biology without talking about natural selection. it makes you wonder if he's holding on to some creationist baggage. it might not even be intentional; he might not really realize it. he might also be suffering from the fallacy of descartian dualism, which wants to separate morality from science, even as he identifies it at the start, in some kind of inverted defiance.

bringing in natural selection is the way to make proper sense of what he's saying.

the idea of morality as a genetic faculty is maybe a little undeveloped, but it makes sense if you assign a specific region of the brain to it. i'm not on board with chomsky's ideas of innatism; i'm all about the tabula rasa. but, that means relative to existing structures inside the brain, which are kind of mini-organs. but, then what?

well, then those born with specific tendencies that maximize success of reproduction will be more successful. but, this will depend on different environments. and, we can look at two specific kinds of moralities that have existed in history to see how selection can shape morality.

nietzsche refers to these as master and slave moralities, but they are just as well referred to as nomadic and civilized moralities, respectively. a nomadic society is going to have harsher limits on access to resources that may require it to behave in ways that settled societies may view as barbaric. strong selective pressures may be required to cull free riders from the group. conversely, a civilized society is going to put greater focus on preventing conflict, as it maximizes total gene expression, and resources are plenty, anyways. a moral system in a civilized society should look something like mutual aid. from these two different scenarios, different concepts of morality arise via the process of natural selection.

that does not mean that any system of morals is interchangeable with any other. it means that systems of morals should make sense relative to selective pressures. and, one should then argue that capitalism is incoherent precisely because it is a nomadic system of morals applied to a set of civilized societies. it is a mismatch, and consequently turns the selection on it's head. it is when things get criss-crossed like this that species end up extinct.

i consequently agree with chomsky's position on relativism and foucault, i just wish he had brought in the machinery of natural selection to better present his argument in truly biological terms.


another way to say it is this: the boomers have nothing to teach you. don't bother. skip right to gen x.

i mean, i don't know if chomsky's generation is the greatest, but they look pretty great, side by side.

if you're going to force me to pick a boomer, i'd choose somebody like dawkins over zizek with absolutely no second thought put to it.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

the ideological views on differences in epistemology aside, this fundamental truth remains: zizek will not actually teach you anything, because he does not have anything to say. search through his videos - and writings, if you insist - and you will see that. it is all speculation, leaps of logic, half-formed opinions and, more than anything else, unsubstantial rant. say what you will, but he does not teach.

it is absolute sophistry.

i don't agree with all of her positions, but if you want a new chomsky, i might suggest ignoring zizek and looking more towards naomi klein. in doing so, you have to understand chomsky as an activist and teacher in the public discourse, that is a creator of important texts and a leader of political movements, rather than an ivory tower academic. but, who gives a fuck about ivory tower academics?
and, for the zillionth time, i'm not a marxist, either, i'm an anarchist.

i've never done anything but criticize marx. i think he was a tyrant; i hold to the view that he is one of the greatest villains in history, that his system is the single greatest threat to individual liberty in the history of the world. and, the anarchists predicted that, and broke with marx, and criticized him and fought against him.

the reality is that anarchists have fought marxists more often than they have fought capitalists.

worse, his ideas are not even well thought out. scientific socialism? historical materialism? give me a fucking break, with your contrived, teleological nonsense.

there is no end of history.

it drives me nuts. like, i don't even see common cause. there's a few obscure strains of marxism that i can tolerate, but the main ones - maoists, stalinists, lenninists and even trotskyists - are just as bad as capitalists, in my perspective.

so, don't call me a marxist, please.

frankly, i'd rather talk about thomas paine.
if i was filling out an online dating app - and i have actually never done this, and probably never will - i would be likely to type 30-50 into the 'age' category.

certainly, under 30 would feel very strange and unnatural to me.

i'm just saying.
don't ask.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/ufrqi/how_can_i_prevent_friction_rashes_my_butt_cheeks/

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

i want to clarify: should we have a trade agreement with china? absolutely. but, it shoudn't be a "free trade" agreement.

i mean, it can't be a free trade agreement. that's impossible, given the realities of things. that should be obvious to anybody qualified to negotiate; it should even be a condition to be qualified. but, none of the "free trade" agreements are actually free trade agreements. so, if they try and pull that over you, you know they're just selling the country out. those words, "free trade", are red flags, nowadays.

rather, a trade agreement with china should clearly list tariffs on goods like clothing and electronics, which are made with child or slave labour. the intent of such an agreement should be to increase the price of chinese imports to compensate for endemic human rights abuses and give local manufacturers an ability to better compete.

if we don't get such an agreement in place, these abuses will get worse.

so, yeah: i support a trade agreement with china, but not in the way anybody in the media or government wants to do it.

....and what i'm saying is actually what you would expect, historically, from a liberal government in canada.
in principle, the idea that you can't separate human rights in china from free trade discussions is indeed absolutely critical, because you can't begin to talk about free trade with china unless you talk about the lack of worker's rights in the country.

....which is why all they're talking about is journalists.

it's a bait and switch. and, it broadcasts that it's extremely unlikely that what will get signed will be a free trade agreement. it will be another investors rights bonanza, full of special clauses for specific special corporate interests.

this is just mercantilism. and, the way we use 'free trade' today is something like the way orwell used the 'ministry of peace'.

that said, we clearly need an agreement with china. china isn't going anywhere. we have to deal with this.

what's worrisome is the idea that it may end up as the same kind of deal that countries like peru are signing with them. and, watch the chomsky video i posted yesterday for a discussion of the problems endemic within that.

we are hewers of wood. they want our resources. and, they're going to want to sell us back the products they make at slave labour wages. that's not free trade, it's becoming a colony in the neo-mercantilist chinese empire.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/07/04/china-canada-relations-hurt-by-trudeau-government-bowing-down-to_a_23015643/
so, my cash is in.

i only got access to $100 of it today. i meant to get my release limit increased this afternoon, but i forgot my photo id. i don't know what they're going to take it up to, but i'll have to wait until tuesday to get the rest of it released.

i spent the $100 on groceries.

i'm more interested in increasing my debit limit. it hasn't really been an issue up until this point, but if i don't get it increased, i may have to buy over several days.

i have gst coming in tonight and trillium on friday. i need to try and get my hard drives tomorrow, and it will certainly be nice to have my tv working again, that's for sure. i'm also going to be looking at getting my bike fixed tomorrow, cost permitting.

for tonight, i need to check july show listings, first, to see what i do or don't have to plan for for the weekend.

here's the cincher.

this is the absolute proof. it would stand up in court. QED.

ready?















































i like 90s radiohead better than 00s radiohead.

gen x.

clearly.

sorry....
it's true.

master rhymez. killer beatz. da fucking master.

somebody did a wutang/fugazi mashup that got a few spins from me, back in the day. i want to hear somebody convert rem's best material, stipe's best spits, into some really dank shit.

...because it would fit. flawlessly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N21472M8p9E


IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FLOW, BABY!

i don't know who the backup singer is.


i bet you kids nowadays didn't get it, either.

behold, michael stipe: the world's first white rapper, making fun of fukuyama a good five years before he even said it. original hipster, right?

(or, proof that hip-hop was in actual fact overwhelmingly influenced by white beatniks)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

Monday, July 3, 2017

i watched growing pains and family ties and full house, and then stopped watching tv in the 90s - except for the simpsons.

and seinfeld.

and the x-files.

i had a latchkey around my neck. not exaggerating. because nobody was ever home until 9:00 pm.

and, when the 90s ended, i complained that the culture was dead and i should have killed myself when i had the chance.

i'm sorry.

it's true.

i'm gen x.
and, i mean it's not like i'm '85 or something.

i have a younger sister that's '84. you can have these "it's not fair that they call me millenial" conversations with her. although, she's some kind of alt-right, anyways.

i'm '81. early '81. so, i was conceived in 1980, meaning i was imagined in the 70s.

i grew up on rem. i had nevermind on cassette. they played "smells like teen spirit" at the school dances.

i'm fucking gen x, bitch.

deal with it.
i don't know how many times i have to tell you that i identify as gen x.

i'm not just being difficult.

it's really true.
somebody should forward this to michael stipe.

the irony, of course, is that while chomsky clearly didn't get the reference, he's just about the best person on the planet to sit you down and lecture you on hegel.

the water is working.

it was about about 24 hours, give or take.

i won't pretend i know exactly what happened. but, here's the thing: if i knew they shut it off on purpose, i'd file charges. i'd have to. and i suspect they did, then reversed when i told them i would follow through.

as mentioned, that itself is harassment.

but, whatever the cause, the issue was very quickly resolved. and, i'd rather take that positive than drag them through criminal proceedings.

....for now.

this is all cumulative, of course.

but, whether due to my reaction or due to good faith, the water was in truth restored quite promptly, and i have reason to think things will improve. if that proves naive, they'll pay for it, in the end.
dude, you don't get it.

i'll send a fucking swat team after them.

i don't give a fuck.
i could not contact the property owner, as her voice mail was full. i briefly talked to the superintendent, who i prefer to avoid, and he confirmed that the issue is across multiple units.

or, at least, he claims as much.

today is a holiday. so, i'll give them a day or two.

i can't call the rheu with what i have, whether the situation is malicious or not.
the man is a thug.

i don't know if he's spent time in jail, but he seems to belong in one, from what i can see.
i haven't called yet, but it's clear enough what's going on.

i have no tolerance for this at all and will almost immediately jump to calling it in. it's a criminal offense in ontario to turn off water services - and i will have the landlord charged and convicted, with no second thoughts at all.

i will charge them twice, even.

1) harassment: It is an offence to threaten a tenant, interfere with a tenant, or pressure a tenant to move out of a rental unit.

2) withholding services:  It is an offence to withhold or interfere with the reasonable supply of a vital service, which includes hot or cold water, fuel, electricity, natural gas and (during certain times of the year) heat.

i already gave them second and third chances.

this will be followed by a second civil suit, seeking full rent abatement since april 1st, which will be $2679.64.

and, because of the malicious nature of their behaviour, i will win this in full.

should have thought it through, huh, old man? now you've got a criminal record and a $2700 bill coming up because you couldn't control your anger.

dipshit.

she has a very short time window to work this out and make it right.

http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page1175.aspx#report
my hot water appears to have been cut this afternoon, and it's hard to believe that it wasn't on purpose.

they'd better have a good reason for this, or the harassment suit is getting that much worse. they're going to give me a year's worth of rent by the time they're done.

it's hard to believe that somebody could truly be this hopelessly idiotic. they're just throwing money out the window. the more they harass me, the more it costs them. how much are they going to have to give me before they get it?

i sent them a notice a few weeks ago to do something about the cats and pro-rate my rent in order to avoid another court date. this was a consequence of another demeaning yelling match and a need for me to be more firm in my reaction to them. i don't care if they're retarded; they can't be yelling at me, and i don't have a responsibility to be patient about it. but, they got rid of the cats, so i decided to let it slide for the benefit of the universe - so long as everybody duly noted that i'd consider the situation cumulative, should i need to.

now, this: they've rather clearly cut my water maliciously. right when i was about to back off on the harassment proceedings, they've gone and escalated to a point i can't ignore.

it is illegal in ontario for the landlord to cut utilities for any purpose whatsoever - even non-payment. that order has to come from the tenant board. all i need to do is demonstrate that they actually cut the water. they have no conceivable defense whatsoever.

i'm willing to cut the property owner a little bit of slack on the premise that her father is acting without her knowledge. but, i'm going to need an actual settlement, this time. these damages are not due to cost but purely punitive - and somebody is going to pay, one way or the other.

Sunday, July 2, 2017

i guess it could have been this one, but it's not as catchy and didn't present itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeQDRhidNnY


i went for an unnecessarily long walk last night. in the end, it was a waste of time. but, it's not like i missed something better. this city was disturbingly quiet, last night.

in the process, i generated a lot of concern from passing motorists, who all wanted to give me a ride. every other block, it seemed. should i be impressed by the altruism of male windsorites, who were all out to help me get from a to b, out of the goodness of their little hearts?

i go over this repeatedly in the vlogs: if you were really concerned abut my safety, the first piece of advice you'd give me would be to not stop for random drivers while walking alone early in the morning. so, it's a non-starter. i'll never get in your car. i'll never even stop to give you the time of day. it's not even that i'm not friendly, it's just unacceptable to yell at people from your car.

so, i said "no" to a lot of people last night. and, i found myself humming this old tune....

i must have had a lot of lucky guesses. but, i'd also like to see a more direct breakdown.

see, i think i got most of the first part right, i found the second part difficult and if i got anything at all in the third part it was just a fluke.

after doing the test, i'm more convinced that it's a real possibility. but, i need to reiterate that i might just be bad with faces.

as an aside, i'm highly critical of self-assessments. this test is a good test.

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/psychologyexperiments/experiments/facememorytest/startup.php


i'm not diagnosed with this, but i did have a head injury when i was a kid and i've long believed i'm an undiagnosed asperger. i have all of the social cues, or lack thereof, of an asperger's case. but, i'm as high functioning as the charts get (i just can't get my head around people very well), so it would kind be a diagnosis without a disease, sort of thing. i may want to look into this more seriously the next time my odsp renews.

i tend to recognize people by other markers, like haircuts, body shapes and articles of clothing. or, i'll recognize somebody from a role or position, but then i might not recognize them outside that role. i could talk to you for an hour at the bank in the afternoon, and then not recognize you at the club the same night. so, if you have a really distinctive haircut, or some other flamboyant characteristic, i'll probably recognize you. i otherwise might not recognize you until i see you in a familiar article of clothing that i've seen you in before, or something else of the sort, even after i've seen you in multiple places and multiple contexts.

again: i'm not diagnosed. i might not have a brain injury; i might just be so hopelessly aloof that i can't or don't keep track of the people around me, because i live in my own head. it might just be that. but this reoccurs, and i am aware of it.

so, if i don't recognize you, i'm not trying to be rude. jog my memory. it's not that i don't remember, it's that i can't connect the dots.

or, play along and treat me like a new face every time, if you'd like that, too.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia

Saturday, July 1, 2017


i learned something at the bar last night: kathleen wynne needs to step down.

the person i was talking to would not be likely to self-identify as belonging to the left, but the liberals in canada are not the left-wing party (the ndp is.) and require at least a little bit of support from red tories and soft centrists. they need far more support from small-l liberals; they need to lean to the left. but, they have to restrain themselves, too. i'm a strong advocate of a three party system and have already made these arguments repeatedly.

the liberals in ontario are delivering to their voters far better than the federal government is. it's easy to be cynical about vote-buying. but, we need strong government interference in a broken and corrupt market, right now. in my view, they're doing almost everything right. the ndp are not offering me a reason to support them over the liberals, right now - and the liberals are not giving me a reason to vote against them. the only really strong point of disagreement i have with them is their privatization of the energy sector, but this actually doesn't affect me directly, and the reality is that this is baggage from previous premiers, both dalton mcguinty and mike harris. the root cause of the rise in electricity costs was harris' privatization, but mcguinty contributed to this by signing a lot of bad contracts (based on the assumption that we'd be using electric cars by now). if we owned the generating capacity ourselves, we wouldn't have to sign contracts with private producers, which are who is actually gauging consumers. and, as strange as it might sound, the way to decrease costs is actually to use more energy.

if i took control tomorrow, i'd just nationalize the lot of it and let the courts figure out compensation costs. i don't expect the liberals to do that...

the first complaint is something that the liberal party needs a pr strategy for. i need to clarify before i start that the entire situation is ridiculous. this person makes $16/hr - one dollar more than the minimum wage increase that is coming - working as a student labourer for chrysler. she thinks she ought to be making well over the minimum wage, and opposes the increase on those grounds. to begin with, i don't just disagree that she should be making well over the minimum wage, i actually think she ought to be making a student wage that is less than the minimum wage (and that tuition should be free). but, i don't think she should have that job in the first place. the real scandal here is that chrysler is hiring students. that job should be unionized, with benefits, and held by an adult with a mortgage and a family. rather than complain that other people are getting a raise, she should be fighting for a raise herself; she won't, though, because she's a student, and she's planning around getting an even higher paying job. 

who could possibly take her side in this? it's the definition of privilege. her position is unsupportable. it's not even ideological. it's really just clueless class privilege: she thinks she's better than the plebs and resents anything that might make them better off.

so, i don't have a lot of empathy on this point. but, the government needs a strategy to reach out to voters that are now going to be just over the minimum wage barrier, especially young ones with wealthy parents, and feel like they're being pulled down into the working class. these children of the bourgeoisie, complete with quasi-objectivist tendencies, are actually an important voting demographic for the liberal party. they basically run the federal party. they may be too socially liberal to lean towards the conservative party, but they will retreat to their class interests, like frightened animals, if they feel threatened by wealth redistribution.

the second complaint came across as a talking point, and while i'm not sure of the source, i found this article at the star, which has a reputation for being left-leaning but which any leftist will label a sounding board for banking interests:
https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2017/01/01/ontario-hydro-rebates-start-in-january-but-so-do-carbon-taxes.html

her complaint was that gas prices are going up because kathleen wynne has introduced a carbon tax. this is actually false on multiple levels, but we can see how the media is playing into it.

ontario does not have a carbon tax. further, it was the federal government that has mandated carbon pricing, not the provincial one. while gas prices are increasing, if you want to blame a politician, the politician you should blame is justin trudeau.

...but, even that is fuzzy thinking.

the article complains that the court order should have put a separate item on the bill for a "carbon fee". but, in doing so, it is presenting a false understanding of cap and trade as a tax levied by the government on consumers, which is precisely what the court ruled is false. that journalist should be fired. cap and trade is nothing of the sort: it is a punitive fine leveled against corporations by the state. if the corporation then chooses to pass that cost on to customers, it may do so, but it is correct to list that as an increase in delivery charges, as it is the corporation that is charging the consumer, and not the state. the purpose of the policy is not to raise prices or generate state revenue, but to create an incentive for corporations to generate less pollution. the actual person you should blame is yourself, and the thing you should do is use less carbon - whatever that means, to you. if you don't want to create less pollution, you have a social responsibility to pay for the pollution you're creating.

so, i don't have a lot of empathy for this complaint, either, despite being fully aware that carbon pricing will not reduce pollution so much as it will create a lot of whiners that don't want to take responsibility for their destructive behaviour. we need a different approach if we're going to reduce pollution.

but, the government, at the least, needs to make sure that people actually understand what is happening, and do not fall victim to right-wing propaganda about tax increases. there is a subset of low information voters that the liberals will never swing or control; they get their information from sun newspapers and facebook feeds and are just beyond any concept of reason. this person was not that, she was a young professional that was misinformed and may have very well been misinformed by the toronto star.

these are substantial obstacles for the government to overcome. but, she seemed to be angry at kathleen wynne, particularly. when i explained that the policy came from trudeau, her tone changed: she was not nearly as hostile towards him as she was towards her.

it was absolutely clear to me last night that they're going to need a new spokesperson if they want to compete in the next election - and that if she does not step down very soon, we're going to have to cut bait and throw our full support behind the ndp.

Friday, June 30, 2017

i want to clarify what i mean when i talk about the ancient war between east and west. i get sloppy, but the context is here and clear.

 i consider the dividing line between east and west to be further than most colonial era historians would: the line is the indus river. certainly, persia is an integral aspect of western culture. you can't separate the iranians out into an east the way you can separate the hindu-descended thought systems. if the persians had kept to zoroastrianism, and europe had remained pagan, these lines would be blurrier. and, certainly, the arabs with their perverted judaism and fetish for greek math and babylonian astronomy are firmly in the realm of western civilization. you can't pull anything out of islam that originates in india or china. it's a fully western culture and always was.

but, when i talk of the ancient war, it's not a war between the greeks and the hindus. rather, it's a civil war within the broadest realm of hellenism that you can get your head around.

it is egypt v. mesopotamia, greece v. persia, rome v. persia, catholic v. orthodox, london v moscow, america v russia. centers of power shift and mutate. but, it is a war within the empire, rather than a war between them.

it is not the only war. when the arabs fought the byzantines, it was for control of the east of the empire. when the british fought the franks, usually backed by the pope, it was for control of the west of it. so, capitals shift. but the war carries on.

the ancient war transcends geography. it even transcends ideology, in the sense that it transmutes it. but it is present throughout history.

it would be a remarkable story, should anybody fully understand it enough to narrate it.
the coup in ukraine was a turning point in history. but, perhaps the true lesson is that the long war, the ancient war, never ends - that it is a characteristic of civilization, itself.

the russians were defeated. it was partly their own fault, granted: they had spent the better part of the last twenty years trying to appease a force that was clearly out to dismantle them. they offered co-operation on the most naive terms, and seemed genuinely hurt when it was refused. surely, a new leader would appear in washington that would be interested in collaboration?

they eventually woke up one day in early 2011 and realized that the americans had played them for fools at the security council to take out their oil interests in libya. there was an offensive missile shield being erected just outside their borders that would give the americans a clear first-strike advantage. and, now the americans are closing in on kiev?

it was all over.

russia was doomed.

the unfolding of history was obvious: a german-chinese alliance would pick the russians apart from either side. it might be in slow motion - one oblast at a time. but, it seemed irreversible.

two things happened as a consequence of the coup in kiev. the first is that the russians dropped the bullshit and finally resolved themselves to the need to treat america as an enemy. the second is that obama fucked it all up.

first, the sanctions. academic critics of the sanctions were clear: this will not harm russia, but merely create closer co-operation with their neighbours. russia reacted to the us sanctions by building a closer relationship with iran, including a closer defense relationship. this in turn led to russian involvement in syria, which is straining nato relations with turkey, and possibly even qatar. the russians were able to offset the effects of european agricultural imports by focusing on food sovereignty; the europeans, on the other hand, are now in a much worse state, as they remain reliant on russian energy.

we freely attack the bush administration for not listening to the academics on iraq, but we don't hold the obama administration to account for refusing to listen to the academics on sanctions against russia - despite the consequences being equally dire. it was just as stupid. did obama even understand his own trade rhetoric, or was he just reading it off a screen? he should have known better. he should have expected this. it wasn't just predictable, it was predicted!

the russians have increased their position dramatically, but don't misunderstand: the same basic power differential remains at play. russia remains in deep peril. what's changed is the politics around it. the russians may in the end be unable to defend their heartland, but they've shifted the hotspots and balances of power enough that the destruction of moscow will not end the ancient war, but merely shift the eastern focal point to a different capital.

china is everything, in this. and, i want you to realize that both approaches have the same outcome. if the chinese side with the russians, they take over russia from the inside. if they side with the americans, they take over russia from the outside.

moscow may still live to see another century, if the americans decide to pull back. but, if they move ahead, the outcome will not be the end of the ancient war, but the crowning of beijing as the new east.

let history record that obama was as close to victory as anybody has ever come in this, and let us take note of his error: it was the sanctions against russia, and the diplomatic actions around the invasion of libya, that cost him the win.
nah.

the i7s get very expensive, very fast. it's still only 60% difference.

i'd rather have hyperthreading than extra cores. i'll stick with the i3, afterall.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

aaaaaactually. i can get a newer chip, too.

lol.

why would i get an i5 if it lacks hyperthreading? let me look at the i7s.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P9D_WS/HelpDesk_CPU/
rave board review.

it's asus. i know.

the one i bought in 1998 still runs. the one i bought in 2007 still runs. it's time for a new one. and, all three will still be running in 2027, when i get #4.

who will #4 be for, though?

don't get me started on #5....

"#5 needs input. iiiiiinpuuuuuut."

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6035/asus-p9d-ws-workstation-motherboard-review/index.html
i'm going to just compare benchmarks. the differences in the lines have to do with things like encryption that don't concern me much.

my pentium D was fast when i bought it. i'm surprised it's even listed here, really. but, i've never had a performance issue, either. really, i haven't.

the 4th gen i3s are clearly a dramatic improvement over the D. i should notice it. it's good enough.

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-D-340GHz-vs-Intel-Core-i3-4370/m5820vs2817

but what about the other board, with the ridiculous ram, just to compare?

the fastest 6th gen i7 is actually only about 50% faster than the fastest 4th gen i3, and some of them are actually slower. i don't know why intel is being so weird with it's names, but whatever.

here's another comparison:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/494/Intel_Core_i3_i3-4370_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-6600K.html

...which is weird to me, because i thought the generation shifts were all about efficiency. how did the i3 end up more efficient? the i5 is twice as fast for hyperthreading, but i'm actually more concerned about single-threading, as i use a lot of older software, and i could very well be booting into 32-bit xp for quite a while, still. they're the same...

so.

my new machine will have this board/chip combo:
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/P9D_WS/specifications/  (~ 235 us)
http://ark.intel.com/products/77495/Intel-Core-i3-4370-Processor-4M-Cache-3_80-GHz (~$140 us)

if i want to stay in budget, that leaves me with around $200-$300 to build the rest of it, which is just going to be the case/psu, memory and some drives. but, it's an arbitrary ceiling. i wasn't expecting to upgrade desktop 2.

i've never put a machine together with my own hands from total scratch before. i'll have to think about that carefully. i might pay for assembly, just so i can blame somebody. plus, the stores have parts and cases. it might cost me less to pay for assembly than it would to pay for shipping.

or, maybe i can find it pre-assembled.

but, that's the new machine. it's not so new, absolutely. but, it will be a lot faster.

and, i guess i'd might as well swank it out with an ssd for programs and that extra 2 tb disc. i'll have to go through piece by piece and figure out where things ought to be before i decide exactly what i need. but, i should have ample optical drives, and most of the disc space, even. i'm going to need a second audiophile card, i guess. it's all very minor....
let's have a good singalong with a golden oldie.

c'mon, kids. you know the words...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoA_zY6tqQw


the president did campaign on a muslim ban, and he won that election.

the court will evaluate a number of legal questions, sure. but, it cannot overturn the results of the election.

the democratic legitimacy of the policy as an expression of the popular will will be central to the ruling, when it comes.
i'm realizing that i have no idea what processor is faster than any other anymore.

you'd think i7>i5>i3. but, apparently not. it's generational.

my initial feeling was that you'll never tell the difference: they're all really fast. but, let me try and get my head around this just a little....

it's probably the year i want to check. and, i'm probably fine with anything in the last five years. really.
well, i found one:
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/P9D_WS/specifications/

almost. so close.

firewire + 2 pcis means i don't lose anything in my recording studio. and, i can put dual 8s in, making it an upgrade that isn't ridiculous.

this is almost the board i want.

it would just be nice if i could take an i5.

but, that is the least of my concerns.

the other option, right now, is this:
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/B150-PLUS/specifications/

that can take an i7, but i'd have to dual at a ridiculous 2x16. i'll have to use my firewire pci card. and, it actually has less expansion and fewer usbs, although they're both ample.

there are some other options i might consider for the access point, but they'd involve buying pcie cards for firewire or lan, which strikes me as silly. right now, it looks like i'm doing an upgrade in the music room, primarily.
the only thing i can imagine 32 gb of ram being useful for is government surveillance.
the firewire thing is a kind of a big deal for me.

modern asus boards come with thunderbolt connectors on the board, but you have to buy a pci-e card. i'd then have to get an adapter.

the purpose of the setup is intrinsically connected to a 1394a device. any machine in this space needs to be designed to utilize that device. i will not be updating that device.

i'm not really happy about bringing a 1394a pci card into it, but it's certainly better than using the thunderbolt header..

i'm going to exhaust my options with asus. but i may have to move on.
so, they call vga ports "d-sub" nowadays.

back to the drawing board...
yeah. i may have jumped to conclusions regarding the idea of swapping the boards out, or moving the machines over at all. i need to slow down a tad and work this out a little more carefully.

why don't i list my options.

1)) i could leave desktop 2 where it is and buy a new desktop 3. if i do that, i'll want to get something cheap; 8 gb max. that will help me find the right specs, too. ps/2 outs. integrated video. no wireless. lots of usb. etc.

2) i could move desktop 2 in here (minus the peripherals) and buy a new desktop 3 (using some parts from desktop 2). in that case,

a) what os would i use for desktop 2? xp 32 winlited? xp 64 (winlited?)? 7 64? answer: i'd need to experiment. is this a minor oe major concern? dependent on optins.

b) can i find an ideal desktop 2 board? or an ideal desktop 3 board?

that's maybe where i should start: what can i find? can i find the perfect board for one or the other? and, if so, how can i adjust the other?

and, what if i find two ideal boards?

ideal desktop 2: basically the p5b-premium, except the chipset was iffy for 64-bit with 2007 tech. i need to experiment.
ideal desktop 3: 16 gb ram max (8 for now). no wifi. firewire in back. ps/2. ample sata & usb. integrated vga video.

k.

i'm going to search every single asus board for the ideals, and go from there.
so, what am i looking for in this thing?

i need:
- some firewire of some sort. that's obscure, today. especially in a non-mac. i happen to have a pci card. i could buy a pcie card. but, i'd rather it be native.
- i don't care about the video out. i don't game. it's a recording pc. i'd like a cheap monitor, too. so, i'd like an integrated vga out, please. otherwise, i'm either looking for a dvi monitor or a dvi-->vga, or sadly an hdmi---> vga, out. i'm not paying for an hdmi monitor to mix on.
- ps/2 mouse & keyboard would, in fact, be preferable, but this is minor. well, maybe one of those fail safe combos would be acceptable.
- i want four ram slots, because i'm only going to start with two. 16, 32, 64, whatever. i'll get there eventually. or, i may split my oczs in half to get desktop 3 up to 6/8.
- i'm actually not at all concerned about the processor. they're all really fast, nowadays.
- no wireless.
- 6+ sata connections.

also, these idea about swapping cases won't actually work. the new board won't have a floppy connector, or example, and the new case won't have space for a floppy drive. hey, i've been in scenarios where i've actually had to use it. if i'm buying a board with 6 sata connectors, it should ship in a large enough space to plug them in, right?

the only things i can't get around are the number of sata connectors and the number of dimms; and, i don't want a wireless card. i'll have to check each model for the ideal, then circle back. right now, i'm nodding off....
and, i went to find the manual, just to be sure.

this is the actual model:
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5B_Premium_Vista_Edition/specifications/

same form factor. and all the things i want, in here.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

sorry, it's a p5b-deluxe, not a p5b-vm.

whch means it's a:
 ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm )

that was a potentially awful error. glad i caught that.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5B_Deluxe/specifications/
well, it says there are drivers.

that's the only thing i should really worry about.

http://www.alesis.com/products/view/multimix-16-firewire

i don't want this machine on the internet. at all. are the processors so fast now that winliting xp-64 is a waste of time? or should i just go with 7?

i'll be dualbooting for the near future, anyways. i can experiment a little.

yeah. this is the way to go.

i don't want to move the tower;  the new desktop won't have four hds and 3 optical drives in it.  but, i'll take the board (it's a p5b: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5BVM/specifications/) with the ram in it, and take the video card, too. that means i'll need to get a microform to replace it.

this board has the ps/2 set up i want, it has two rj-45s and it doesn't have wireless. it's actually ideal.

i'm loyal to asus; their boards just don't break. i'm hoping i can find a barebones with the board i want and swap them out, then fix them both up.

wish me luck.
i'm going to take a good look at it.

but it may make more sense to build desktop 3 around the board in desktop 2, and then upgrade desktop 2 after all.

that machine is a beast, as it is. i can obviously connect to the internet with it. but, the minimum specs on new boards seem to be 16 gb. and, if i'm going to buy a board like that, it should be where it's needed, and put to better use than deployed to argue over youtube.
i was expcting an infrastructure bank that would print interest-free money for this kind of thing.

but, at least they're doing it. it's a rare positive step. this is what government ought to be doing a lot more of...

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2017/06/28/toronto-waterfront-receives-125-billion-to-clean-up-and-protect-the-port-lands.html
they even got a fucking kennedy to write it.

trump has a few more years to convince everybody he's not a crook. it will be a while before pence has to pull out. but, people seem to forget that nixon took agnew down with him.

who's around that....huckabee.

clearly.

(it would actually be paul ryan)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/13/opinions/kennedy-syria-vietnam/index.html
http://www.distancefromto.net/distance-from-syria-to-vietnam
desktop 2. what do i need? not a lot...

my monitor died last fall. i replaced it with something that has a poor resolution for cubase, but is good for general browsing. so, i'll use that monitor for the new desktop.

what i want is a square monitor that is not too big. 15-19. 20 is too big. can i find one?

not really. i sort of knew that, already.

there are some refurbished square models at best buy, but for three-four times what i'd pay in a pawn shop. amazon is the only place that sells them at the aspect ratio i want,and they're not that expensive for new monitors, but i'm kind of not keen on paying out. for monitors, i'd rather sort through pawns shops.

i'm willing to pay, at most, $50. $30 is more realistic.

the only other thing i'm going to need for this machine for right now is a new hard drive. i just bought a new hard drive, right? but, i'm going to be slowly replacing them out. i will take a 250 gb out as backup when it's full. if i can get back on track, it won't be long. this is a good idea.

in the long run, what am i doing with it, though? well, i've had no reason to seek an upgrade - except some minor annoyances about ram. but, i'd have to upgrade to 64 bit before i can think about that. this is really at the crux of the pull back. and, of course, there's driver issues.

i guess i'm going to eventually ease into it by dual-booting into a 64-bit OS. my RAM is functional; it wasn't supposed to be. i was supposed to have had to upgrade by now. that will be the next step, after 64-bits: i'll take the ram out two sticks at a time, as they fail, until i'm maxing the board, which happens at 8 gb. 4x1---->4x2. i'll want to move the 64-bit OS onto an ssd or sshd and move the 32-bit onto a second partition of it while i'm at it. it can be a smaller drive, even. but, this could be ten years from now. you can do a lot with a dualcore, 4 gb of ram, cubase and an n-lited xp. i'm not anywhere near feeling the pull to upgrade, and i don't know what i'll upgrade to, if i do. as of today, it would be 64-bit xp.

so, i don't want to spend money on parts that could sit for years, and that i'm not even sure how i'll use. i mean, there's some logic in putting the money down now, sure. but, this is something that's going to cost me $50-$100, here and there, over a long period and it's better if i space it out than drop $700 on it and let the parts rust. the ram, for instance, will already be quite cheap to replace when it finally dies. but, why replace it when it works?

there was a time when i wanted a mac as backup for sound recording just in case, but that era has passed.

my primary task when i get to it will be backing up files to blu-ray.  so, i should check the price on bd-rs. it's around $40 for 50 printable discs, either at amazon.ca or best buy - they both beat amazon on this one. but, i may or may not buy at all from either. i may get an amazon gift card just for the ps/2 to usb, in which case getting blank media would make sense.

i have lots of printable cds, but i only have lightscribe dvds. so, i should get printable dvds too, i guess. best buy wins, hands down: 50 printable for $12. well, why not get cds, too, i guess? to keep it under $100 on media, let's stick with 50 for $25 from amazon.com. & that means i need 200 jewel cases, too. staples finally wins at something, here: $80 for 200. these are overhead costs, under the hope that i actually sell some media. it's there, now. i have plenty of paper, but won't buy ink ahead.

the drive is a 2 tb seagate in a generic packaging. so, let's see what i can get out of this...

i can't tell any difference between these two drives:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?CompareItemList=14|22-148-910^22-148-910%2C22-178-993^22-178-993

if anything, the cheaper drive seems to be a few years newer. if there's a difference at all, it's that the more expensive drive comes in a box and with some software i'd never, ever install. the cheaper one is also only available online.

i didn't do a lot of research into the more expensive drive when i bought it a few months ago. i was walking in the direction of staples. i wanted to bring it home on the day of purchase. i haven't tested it much, yet, frankly.

but, if i can save myself $20 and get a newer drive at the expense of a box and bloatware, i'll do it.

and, you know, it's not like i'm running raid. i don't really need matching drive types. i should focus more on cost.

...but, it does turn out that these seagates are cheaper across the board. they must have really taken a hit, recently. i don't believe one brand is better than the other. i'll take advantage of it.

but, it's again not clear whether i'm better off with amazon or best buy. they're both around $105. i'll have to work that out the day of.

updated total:
phone (amazon): $105
battery (amazon): $27
2 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x15 [ships to canada]
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon): $13 [ships to canada]
4 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x32 [ships to canada]
2 tb external drive(amazon) : $117 [ships to canada]
50 cd-rs [amazon.com]: $25 [ships to canada]
500 gb sshd laptop drives (best buy or amazon?): $2x80-85 [ships to canada]
2 gb internal drive (amazon or best buy): $105 [ships to canada]
50 bd-rs [amazon.ca or best buy]: $40
ps/2 to usb connector [amazon.ca]: $5
100 dvd-rs [best buy]: $30
200 jewel cases [staples.ca]: $80
square monitor (pawn shop): <$50
  < 140 gb ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
==================
$871-881

total phone: $105
total mp3 player: $13
total laptop 1:  $137-142 + usb sound card
total laptop 2: $149-154 + $117 (external) + editing software?
total desktop 1: $20
total desktop 2: $155
total desktop 3:
total optical media:  $175

it adds up, but when you look at it, it really isn't a lot: $150 on three machines each, $100 on a phone, $100 on an external drive and $200 on optical media, which is something unique to what i do.

minus the media, which i hadn't budgeted for, and the external, which i was going to get anyways, it's about what i expected: around $500 to max out and fix up my four existing machines.

i haven't eaten yet today. but, i'm going to get to actually designing the new desktop when i get back. i'm expecting it to run around $700-800, if i go overboard. the hard part is going to be finding the right board.
so, i'm back to figuring out what the best deals on the drives was.

if you'll recall, i initially decided upon 500 gb drives. these were basically the same price as the 1 tb drives. but, what was initially $70/drive slowly morphed into $95/drive, and i do not want to pay that much, so i'm revisiting.

for these laptops, i only need 500 gb. one is an actually mobile access point/guitar effects processor. the other is a half broken editing machine with external storage. performance is not particularly important for either. so, let's start over again with 500 gb.

these are my options:

staples:
500 gb barracuda hdd for 65 + tax + environmental = $75

best buy
500 gb barracuda sold out
500 gb firecuda sshd for 72 + tax + environmental = $85
1000 gb firecuda sshd for 83 + tax + env = $95

amazon
500 gb barracuda hdd for $44 usd.  ships to canada for $74. pick up would be 44*1.5 + 5*1.3 = $73 + border fees. app.
1000 gb barracuda hdd for $49 usd.  ships to canada for $85. pick up would be 50*1.5 + 5*1.3 = $82 + border fees. app.
500 gb firecuda sshd for $50 usd. ships to canada for $85. pick up would be 50*1.5 + 5*1.3 = $82 + border fees. app.

1000 gb firecuda sshd for $60 usd. ships to canada for $97. pick up would be $60*1.5 + 5*1.3 = $97 + border fees.

i also checked walmart, the source, newegg....not of much use all around...

so, here's the logic: if i'm going to get a 500 gb drive, i'd might as well get the sshd and the extra three years on the warranty for the extra $10. while the tb drive is then the same price, it's not an sshd, and the warranty comes down. it's less that the tb sshd is too expensive in absolute terms, and more that it's not something i need. i'd just be pissing money away, and even if i have enough of it, it's still stupid. the thing is that when the drive was $4 less, the price was essentially interchangeable due to rounding. now that the price has increased, it makes sense to stay with the cheaper model - because i don't need terrabyte drives in either of these machines.

it still makes sense to buy at best buy, unless the dollar comes up dramatically in the next week. i'll check before i send. it's come up a bit the last few weeks, it very well might. best buy seems to be increasing their prices as the dollar is falling. good luck with that strategy, best buy.

the external drive isn't even close:

best buy
2 tb wd external for $120 + tax = $135 + environmental.

amazon
2 tb wd external for $75 us. ships to canada for $117. pick up would be 75*1.5 + 5*1.3 = $117 + border fees.


updated total:
phone (amazon): $105
2 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x15 [ships to canada]
battery (amazon): $27
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon): $13 [ships to canada]
4 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x32 [ships to canada]
2 tb external drive: $117 [ships to canada]
 < 140 gb ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
500 gb sshd laptop drives (best buy or amazon?): $2x80-85 [ships to canada]
==================
$536-46

total phone: $105
total mp3 player: $13
total laptop 1:  $137-142 + usb sound card
total laptop 2: $144-149 +$117 (external)
total desktop 1: $20
total desktop 2:
total desktop 3:

i decided last night that, rather than put the editing machine in the living room and connect it to the tv, i should leave it near the access point and connect it to the desktop monitor. so, i won't need to buy a monitor. instead, i'll need to get some kind of shelving unit; but, i can use the one in the living room, if i get a table for there at ikea, instead.

that means i don't need all those cables, i just need some kind of kvm. and, i'll figure out what i'm doing with audio in this room when i build the desktop. i'll probably bring in a receiver and a pair of little jbls, along with my 5-disc changer (and my alarm clock). that will make sense once the shelving unit is up. it was kind of the plan, all along.

as it is, i have a kvm. it's ps/2. what's more important is the video switch, so let me make sure that it works..

the video switch works, but i don't have the cables to check for mouse or keyboard. it's just that the laptop doesn't have a dedicated mouse or keyboard, right.

ok, how is this going to work? i will have to take the keyboard and mouse up and off the shelf in order to use it. how much is a usb kvm..?

amazon is again cheapest. there are some cheaper options, but i don't want a flimsy switch. it will break. the trendnet is the cheapest option with a solid switch. it's $17 us, and ships, so it should be between $30-35.

i like the kvm i have better, though. it's 4 switches. it's solid. i'll just have to make sure that, when i build the desktop, it has ps/2 connections. i would want ps/2 mice & keyboards, anyways. that means that all i'll really need is an adapter, and they're $6 us.

if i ship to detroit, it will be $14.50 + the bus. if i ship to canada, it will be $21. the shipping is overpriced. and, there's an option at amazon.ca for $4.50, including shipping, but they don't take paypal. i'd have to find a giftcard. loblaws. that's store #3.

i can't find evidence of it online, but i suspect i may be able to find one in town for less than $20. so, i'll add in the amazon.ca price for now.

i'm not sure if i want to connect it via a home network and upload over the access point (probable), or use the extra router to create another subnet. either way, i don't need to cable an extra rj-45. i have plenty of short ones.

ok. so, new total:

updated total:
phone (amazon): $105
2 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x15 [ships to canada]
battery (amazon): $27
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon): $13 [ships to canada]
4 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x32 [ships to canada]
2 tb external drive(amazon) : $117 [ships to canada]
 < 140 gb ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
500 gb sshd laptop drives (best buy or amazon?): $2x80-85 [ships to canada]
ps/2 to usb connector [amazon.ca]: $5
==================
$541-551

total phone: $105
total mp3 player: $13
total laptop 1:  $137-142 + usb sound card
total laptop 2: $149-154 + $117 (external) + editing software?
total desktop 1: $20
total desktop 2:
total desktop 3:

i think i'm finally done with the editing machine, now. maxed ram. new drive. all peripherals. it should sit at the bottom of the shelf, more or less always on, and definitely always plugged in. i'll just have to figure out whether i want to pay for software or not.

next up is the recording desktop.
back to the computer talk.

i'm going out of my way to cut the wireless, so it would be silly of me to just turn on the wireless on my router and hook my phone up to it. i need to have the wireless isolated, somehow.

i think this is correct:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/28679-42-create-isolated-etwork-router

...and, luckily, i bought four routers for $20 on kijiji a few years ago. some company was going out of business. dude just wanted to get rid of them.

so, i can do that without buying a router....and it's as safe as it can get....

i don't need a sim card, either. i even think 16 gb is sufficient for space, but i don't really know. at the end of the day, it's probably more space than my mp3 player. maybe i can use my phone for other people's music, and keep my mp3 player for my own. i'm just trying to imagine extra costs for the phone...but i think that's it....

speaking of which, how's my mp3 player doing?

well, it's ten years old. but it works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYujG9TEwJU


i just wanted something i could plug in like a usb key. no proprietary software. it was a very anti-apple decision; this is an ipod mini without the bullshit. it plays mp3s and flacs. no drm, either. at this point, i need to be concerned that i'm getting up to caching limits. but, it demonstrates my point about the phone, right: this is volatile memory, and it's still fine after ten years of read/write. but, i should maybe be focusing more on the sd card in it in order to keep access down. it's a 2 gb drive; there's currently a 2gb card in it. can i do better than that? what are the device limits?

the literature seems to suggest a 2 gb limit, but users have different stories:
http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-other-MP3-players/10GB-Sansa-Express-Working/td-p/75145

if it doesn't work, i'm sure i'll find a use for an 8gb card. and, that adapter is worth $10 to me, itself, frankly. it probably needs a firmware update, anyways.

i'd guess that i'll move to the phone in the long run. for now, amazon is selling it for $9.29. this exact model isn't available elsewhere, it doesn't seem.

updated total:
phone (amazon): $105
2 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x15 [ships to canada]
battery (amazon): $27
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon): $13 [ships to canada]
 < 140 gb ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
 1 tb laptop sshds (best buy): $2x90
==================
$375

i guess the next topic is the broken laptop. and, what do i need, actually?

1) ram.
*2) the right video cables to connect to the tv
*3) the right audio audio to connect to the stereo
*4) wireless keyboard/mouse
!5) hard drive
6) external storage drive
7) usb hub

*i should test this, first.
! already determined

the ram...

it has 4 gb in it. pc3-10600. can i do better than that, or is it top rated?

it's top rated, and relatively new, so it's a little more. still cheap, though. $25, us.

i bought an external drive for mp3s a few years ago. it hasn't worked out exactly as planned. but, i'm going to need an external for vlogs, now. i think i'll probably use the existing terrabyte drive for vlogs and move my mp3s to a new 2 tb disc, which i'll go ahead and plug into my new desktop, when it comes.

i was going to just get it at best buy, but it seems like they increased their prices on the sshds over night, and i'm not impressed. i'll have to revisit that. i'll be back in a new post.

for now...

updated total:
phone (amazon): $105
2 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x15 [ships to canada]
battery (amazon): $27
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon): $13 [ships to canada]
4 gb laptop ram (amazon): $2x32 [ships to canada]
 < 140 gb ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
 laptop sshds?
2 tb drive?
==================
$259

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

what a sick, twisted, immature buffoon.

it's the kind of thing you'd expect from a twelve year-old.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-sniper-shot-iraq-1.4179825
gah.

i forgot to fill in my oeptc form with my taxes. i actually kind of vaguely recall not filling it in, and wondering where the form was. it may have been absent from the package. that's a monthly tax credit i get for rent. it cuts my rent down by about $35. combined with the ostc (a sales tax credit), it means i get about $60/month in provincial credits. in my mind, this pays for most of my estrogen prescription. before i increased my dosage, it actually paid for it outright.

i edited the return online; it took a few seconds, and i should have a reassessment within a few weeks.

there's actually an upside to this: they're going to give me the sales tax part of it in a lump sum in mid-july. that's going to be $296. for this month, that will work out a little better, as i have to get $290 to loan sharks on the first. so, that will cancel out. it's also a gst month, which will make up the difference.

it's just empty accounting; i'm expecting that check from my nana, soon. but, this means i won't have to juggle it for a month or two.

the downside is that i'll be getting $25/month less. but, i shouldn't notice that until next year.

they might also correct the issue before the deposit goes through on the....oh, it's actually on the 7th. hrmph. probably not, then.
i don't go to pride. ever. it's a co-opted, corporatist, queer-washing waste of time.

first of all, i'd propose banning politicians. even the queer ones. sorry.

next up, i'd go after the sponsors. and, i still probably wouldn't want to go, even after that.

broadly speaking, i don't think that queer people need to compromise on their principles in order to feign inclusiveness towards groups that they know are hostile to them. when that happens, the idea loses itself. if pride is just an event where anybody that wants to be proud of something can show up, it loses it's meaning as a specifically queer event. that is called co-option.

when politicians and religious groups speak at pride, that is co-option.

the queer movement has every right to single out oppressive groups, like christians and muslims (and jews, too, although they're the lesser evil, by far), and confront them on co-opting something that is not meant for them.

unless they want me to show up at the mosque and start making out with multiple dudes up at the front, while buddy is going on about some easily debunked nonsense? i'd do it...
on the question of jews and human sacrifice, though, you should watch this documentary.

it suggests that the practice was endemic to the region (the carthaginians were originally from modern day lebanon), rather than any specific ethnic group, and that the story in the bible may have been a parable to try and change existing behaviours.

what is the bible? it's a justification for the existence of the jewish elite. it's meant to help primitive people come to terms with basic issues of social order. and, there is evidence that child sacrifice was actually a thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK-I53nESw4

of course, there's always the jewish media conspiracy theory. there's one for everything. never fails.

it's kind of true, though. think about it, muslims: the jews have got you celebrating the saving of their race, and making it the center of your calendar.

http://submission.org/Abrahim_His_Son.html
besides.

shouldn't the muslims be lamenting the fact that abraham didn't kill isaac?

i mean, if abraham had killed isaac, there'd be no jews, right?

"if there were no angels, would be there no sin? better stop me before i begin...."
the american media is strangely silent on this. it's telling.

but, what the aclu is doing, here, is upholding it's own strawman; the administration denied from the start that it was a muslim ban to begin with, and that's the crux of the ruling: the administration's actions were never intended to be a muslim ban, and can be upheld on those terms (while clarifying that a muslim ban would be unconstitutional, and the reasons why, and how to ensure that this doesn't happen).

i very rarely disagree with the aclu, or it's canadian equivalent (the ccla). i'm not even disagreeing with them, here, really. but, i'm calling them out on a dishonest presentation. this was not about civil liberties, it was about politics, and they should re-examine their mandate in the wake of their loss.

it's not the aclu, exactly, that i'm pointing fingers at, either, but the broader neo-liberal identity politics crew that jumped on this as a wedge issue and got a bunch of circuit judges on their side by gaming the media. they began by accusing the administration of all kinds of things that were obviously untrue. on the basis of these false accusations, they got injunctions they never should have gotten (but, when you yell fire in a crowded court room, that court is more likely to put down a temporary stop until the issue can be dealt with more rigorously). then, when it gets to a real hearing, they claim they've won when the court upholds that their frivolous accusations are unconstitutional - even as it upholds what the administration was actually trying to do. then, they try and spin it as a political victory, even though the administration got exactly what it actually wanted.

if you go back a few months, you'll see i analyzed this correctly at the time.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/clear-victory-president-trump-muslim-ban-20-hardly
i mean, if you think voting for a guy that wears eid socks to the pride parade is going to do anything to advance queer issues, you need to pull your head out of your ass.

do you know what eid al-adha is? it's the other eid, granted. but, look it up. it's 2017, and people are still celebrating this?

it's mass insanity is what it is. and, any concept of progressive politics that is worth advocating should be looking to stamp this out, not uphold it or normalize it.

if somebody came to you and told you that god told him to sacrifice his son, would you throw a feast or call the police? i'd put the sick, twisted fucker in jail. and, i'd denounce anybody that suggested otherwise.

out of all the stupid religious nonsense out there, this is the dumbest and, frankly, the most offensive.

queer rights are judicial issues. and, this governmnt hasn't done anything for queer rights that it wasn't ordered to do by the courts. you're out to fucking lunch if you think otherwise.
i bet trudeau would walk out on the country if he got offered an acting job in hollywood. or maybe a tv spot.

that's what he always really wanted.

and, that's basically his job: he's a pretty-boy paid front for corporate lobbyists. he's reagan on the surface, but without the baggage of broken altruism, and instead with the cold cynicism of a clintonian worldview.

i'm just saying that he would probably leave if you offered him a big enough check, and a glossy enough photographer, to follow him around california and take sexy enough shots.

i'm not hinting at anything.

not giving anybody any ideas...

but, i look forward to running against him from the left, and mercilessly tearing him down, as i do.

if i get my way, he will lose in 2019. and i don't even care if that means andrew scheer wins. there's no meaningful difference on any issue i care about that the courts won't act as the only meaningful arbiter of protection on, anyways. there really isn't.