Month: January 2020

Decimate Manufacturing

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

three dollar bill apple logo (low res)

Trying to figure out the linked article below, dear worst-reader. Sometimes I have that problem as I scan the Interwebnets being the info junky I am. And while some articles perturb me, others disturb me, this one kinda makes one side of me head glow as though I were the missing target of unicorns and their rainbow shooting liquid carbines. Either that. Or. This article is meant to get buyers to buy more APPL stock. Wait. Or could it be meant to get more suckers, like worst-moi, to buy more Apple stuff? Nomatter.

To worst-moi this is an interesting analogy. Comparing the value of a single company’s stock to the value of a country’s entire stock market… Well, I guess I wish I would have thought of that. But here’s the thing, dear worst-reader. Not only am I an Apple fan-boy but I’m also an expat that has been living in the #Eurowasteland tribe of Germania for almost thirty years. And so. Having some experience with the Huns, it’s a bit hard for me to swallow an article like this. Reason? Comparing a company that is the epitome of failupwards, free-for-all pseudo-capitalism, i.e. #Americant, where the manufacturing base has been completely decimated due to the political ignorance of voters, to a country that actually makes stuff (Germany is still a manufacture juggernaut), is a bit of a stretch. And all because of the price of… financial funny paper galore aka stock from a market that uses (stock) buy-backs in order to increase compensation packages of a bunch of compulsive behaviourist CEOs and and and…?

Or am I the only one noticing NOTHING from Apple is actually made in the (my) beloved & missed united mistakes of #Americant? Wait. Is that the point that the article is trying to make? Or how ’bout this:

Designed in Cupertino, baby!

Yeah, #Americant corporatism has perhaps culminated in companies like Apple. But at what cost? I mean. Where do you think Apple would be (stock price) if it made products where workers had to actually be paid a living wage?

Anywho.

Rant on.

-T

Link: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/01/29/apple-worth-more-than-germany-dax/

What Could You Get Away With

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

No. Seriously. Dear worst-reader. What could you get away with if there were no rules? For don’t you know, just the other day, I came across something that blew my mind. It was about getting away with things. Or was it about there being no rules (in life)? Nomatter. While scanning the news and perhaps listening to a podcast here or there, a rational human, who is proficient in the ways of the dark-arts better known as Economics, was going on and on about Neoliberalism. Out of the blue he said something along the lines of: Neo-liberals aren’t so much about small government and deregulation but instead they are about authoritarian government and re-regulation. Hold the presses! What did I just hear? Re-regulation…what? Talk about being thrown for a loop.

Yeah, I worst-thought. That’s it. That’s the word-game-link I’ve been missing for years regarding all worst-thought about what it is that makes/facilitates my beloved & missed #Americant, the land of FREE TO BE STUPID, post Ronald Reagan. #Americant politics in my life-time has never been about cutting and/or reducing government but instead it’s been about increasing it, infiltrating it in the name of a certain ideology, and then making it stealth so that an already dumb downed public won’t know the difference here or there as moneyed grubbers and their ilk get on about bidness that rides on the backs of others. And then, after they’ve done all that, thanks to the likes of Limbaugh and faux-newz, there is no such thing as deregulate, but there is/has been lots of re-regulate. Get it? No? It’s ok. Go back to your couch. A bag of chips is waiting. A favourite tv show! Or run off to your favorite third-world country where you can abuse women younger and stupider than you because, well, you’ve got a dollar or three in your pocket–and your mortgages are being paid by the military industry complex.

And that’s not what I wanted to get-on about today, dear worst-reader. Or is it? No. Today we want to get-on about some tech krapp–that is, perhaps, related in someway to re-regulation galore. Specifically, let’s have a go with smart-tech. For don’t you know, dear worst-reader, smart-tech ain’t and has never been what some may think it is. At the least it ain’t smart. Look where it’s from? It’s from the land of… that’s right. Regulate or deregulate or… Wait for it. Re-regulate. Indeed. The greed $hit$how that is my beloved and missed united mistakes of #Americant, in desperation to find more and more and easier and easier profits, is always hastily hoping to find the next hit, the next wunderkind, another Steve Jobs, albeit one without all the drugs, and in doing so, mega-unearned-profits ooze out of the ether like a stupid man’s religion.

Anywho.

In the last ten or twelve years I’ve consumed two refrigerators. Wait. Is that right? Yes. I’m on my second fridge which I bought within the last ten years. I think my mother has a fridge that is well over twenty years old. Nomatter. The first fridge I bought was an LG standalone1 fridge. It was a piece of shit. But it had some bells & whistles. You know. It had a water dispenser, a special beer rack, and an ice maker that would deliver three types of ice: whole, crushed or ice with smiley faces. The problem with the fancy fridge, though, was that within a year it started leaking at the bottom. I put up with it for a few years while having to put a towel underneath it to soak up the leak. And while it ruined the wood floors it stood on, I cursed it and this consume-to-survive life of hell I’m forced to live in. After that I bought a Liebherr fridge. It has no frills or bells and whistles but works great–and it doesn’t leak. So hang on a sec as I try to bring this post around to a cohesive subject.

Anywho.

Anyone remember that smart-fridge with the Windows 8 screen on the front door? I remember staring at the thing while buying that piece-of-shit LG fridge. “This can’t be good,” I thought as the sales guy pitched me about a fridge being a IoT device for the home. “You want this thing to hook up to my home wifi,” I asked. “Sure,” was his response. Little did he know that I had worked at the end of the Dotcom boom for a company that created a tool that allowed online retailers to parse URLs and thereby alleviate the need for cookies and still track users. Wonder what happened to that company. Nomatter. And let me not even get into the experience of buying my last flatscreen TV and how I tried to tell a salesman to stop trying to sell it as a “smart” device. “There’s no such thing as a “smart” device,” I said. “And IoT is gonna bomb,” I added. Yeah, the lie of IoT sucks as much as IoT sucks. Which brings me to…

I’ve solved both my fridge and TV problem. How? I bought devices that are not “smart”. But then the “smart” speaker thing hit. Or were you not impressed with Sonos when it first hit the market, dear worst-reader? I was most certainly impressed. Reason? I was sick & tired of multi-speaker surround systems. I had fiddled with them for years. More on that here. The main reason I never bought Sonos, though, was simple. IoT sucks! And. As soon as I looked at the software controlling the Sonos speakers, I knew it wasn’t for me. Like the smart-fridge or the smart-TV, these things are not in a anyway regulated and yet they are a total and complete compromise to my home network system. Above and beyond that, I have absolutely no control over the software that makes them work. I’ve long since adopted open source in my life. But that’s another worst-post.

Anywho.

Not only was Sonos charging delusional prices for stuff that should have cost a third their price, there is no waaaaaaay that they would be able to maintain the software if they were creating a device that was supposed to compete (mimic) what someone would/could own for half a life time. I’m worst-writing, of course, about the product life span of speakers and stereo systems. Obviously Sonos put marketing before product. It probably also thought it could mimic Steve Jobs’ success with having done the same thing. But. Again. The problem is, playing with computers isn’t the same as sitting down and listening to music. Sonos tried to make something smart that was already way beyond the marketing hype. Long story short. I knew at the get-go from Sonos that it would have a problem in the future maintaining speakers as it also tried to improve the customer experience. Lo and behold, Sonos recently announced that its solution for that experience. Again. Dear worst-reader. We are at a cross-road of forced corporate obsoletism.

Indeed. This is what happens when sales guys run the greed $hit$how. Or am I the only one to have given up on Microsoft as soon as that whack-job took over after Bill Gates? Nomatter. Although Sonos was/is a great idear, it was/is doomed to fail on account, well, the software that makes those speakers function sucks bat-balls.

  1. All proprietary software sucks2
  2. Updating upgrading hardware software = can only lead to forced obsoletism of older devices3
  3. What do you do when competition starts to kick your ass?4
  4. To this day Sonos speakers can’t play FLAC files5.

Worst-writing about companies that are run into the ground because ship builders shouldn’t sail ships–or–sailors shouldn’t build ships… Here’s yet another example of it. Boy am I glad I never bought Sonos speakers. Lesson to be learned? You betcha! Can anyone say Boeing?

Anywho.

Rant on.

-T

Links:
– https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51206604
– https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/23/sonos-to-deny-software-updates-to-owners-of-older-equipment

  1. For those not in the know, in the Germania region of #Eurowasteland, you have to buy kitchens, inducing a fridge, when you rent apartments or houses. ↩︎
  2. Everyone should avoid using it unless absolutely necessary not to. ↩︎
  3. At least Apple can claim that it’s iPhone batteries can’t last forever. ↩︎
  4. Amazon speakers, Apple HomePod, Hifiberry, etc. ↩︎
  5. When a company tries to tell me what file format my old ripped CDs should be in and it’s not the file format I want… Fuck you Sonos! ↩︎

Human Wrongness Essence

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

So glad to hear Maher going where things need go. You know. As in. How to rid humanity of that which is the origin of all ills, don’t you know, dear worst-reader. Royalty makes so little sense to me that at this point in my worst-life, I’m still asking how come the French Revolution stopped with just French Royalty. There were (are) so many more heads worth rolling, eh. Then again, considering how things went back then, I suppose it’s a wonder so many royal families survived. Or? Considering how so-called (western) democracies have evolved, especially with the likes of #Trump, I suppose one could see (if one were inclined to do so by giving up reality-tv and such) how so many of the plebeians love royals. At the least, we still have their sick-stink to deal with. And so. Could I give a hoot what British “royals” are planning now that it’s becoming more and more obvious how truly disgusting they are? As though one of their dips (Harry) leaving the family will make a difference, don’t you know. The only thing that will/could make a difference (in the future) is if said dip turns out to be, well, just like all the other (Andrew) dips. And then we finally have a repeat/continuation of the French Revolution. So let’s give him (Harry) a year or two more with his dip actress wife before he hightails it back to the comfort zone of privilege galore. Yeah, their split is gonna be a laugh, eh.

Rant on.

-T

As You Live, Eat And Breath It: Compulsive Behaviourism And Fascism

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

Stopped watching at exactly 16:51, dear worst-reader. Reason? It’s all I could stomach. What a disgusting display of… Of? Of? Well, how ’bout this: what a disgusting display of life, liberty and the pursuit of greed (at any cost) that is the current state of  my beloved & missed united mistakes of compulsive behaviourism, aka #Americant. Why should any honest, hardworking person give a fcuk about these privileged people and their complaints about the cesspool of life that they obviously chose from the get-go to participate in and hence build/enable? Oh wait. Where does this sort of behaviourism come from? Does it come from men eye-groping as skirts walk by? Does it come from ill-construed patriarchy and submissive matriarchy? Or what about the women who raise the men that give us such ills? Yeah, what about those mothers?

You mean, dear worst-writer, that with all their privilege and education, they weren’t able to see (judge) the cesspool of life/career that they were getting into–from the get-go? As soon as blondie #1 started talking about how she worked her way up, just prior to the 16:51 mark, I thought I was gonna lose control of my eyes rolling into the back of my head. Thank goodness I recovered. Or?

Bimbo #1, like so many #Americants born since the 1950s (in her case 70s), has never worked a day in her life. What she has done, though, is something much better and much more deserved than work and it is probably the future on account, well, what else is there now that the $hit$how has reached new heights above and beyond the incorporation of seven deadly sins? Sarcasm on/off. Indeed. She has BEHAVED. She is the epitome of compulsive behaviourism–like so many of her ilk, her generation, #okboomer?, Gen-X?, corporatists with the right skin tone, hair colour, etc., etc… All who have what they have because of how they behave–AND NOTHING ELSE. But enough about the bimbo coalition that makes up half a species and how they emulate the other half (that is just as bad).

Who should give a hoot about the players who play in this game? I mean. Come on. Now that the game has ruined life for so many (culminating but probably not ending with #Trump), should those of us who chose not to participate in it, put up with all this fcuking whining? Again. I quit the video at 16:51. Like most people on this planet who must live with choice and consequence, who gives a fcuk that you had to raise a skirt while dancing in front of your career choice? Oh wait. Maybe some of you had to give the boss a blowjob? Of course none of you thought about just walking out from the get-go. I mean. Come on. Who wants to give up a career because, well, the next bimbo could lift her skirt better?

Which brings me to the heart of the issue. Welcome to your new world order of Neo fascism. Yea, baby. This is but a game in a game that is fascism. More than any other political ideology, fascism is about exactly this. I mean, it’s not only about power and money. It’s about old, fat men finding loyalty up the skirts of chicks who grew up never questioning why all those other women in magazines and on TV so easily acquire the gaze of men men men. Or am I wrong, Walter? Put another way, there would be no fascism without all the bigotry, greed and a few bimbos never questioning what is so intriguing up a skirt. Which begs the worst-question:  what about all those women who not only did the skirt twirl without question but also gave great loyalty blowjobs?

Ah. What we all do for love and career.

And so. For $hits and giggles, let’s run down a worst-writer definition of fascism for the moment–or this worst-post.

  • Bigotry, of course, is the hate that my beloved and missed #Americant has been utilising since it squandered the end of the Cold War, or perhaps even earlier.
  • Greed, of course, is the capitalism that is currently feeding on the negative of bigotry so that the Have-Mores don’t have to pay-up for cheating the Haves who in turn have always cheated the Have-Nots.
  • Or check here.

What better facilitator of all of this is there than faux newz, #Americant political and social conservatism, and the bimbos that make all the old male owners, the Have-Mores feel better about their dick pills? And so. The reptile brain of greed mongers–in this case the compulsive behaviourist bimbos–know this, dear worst-reader. In fact, Bimbo #1 might finally know it more than ever. Welcome to the world you created, sugar tits. Hope you make the world better for daughters.

Rant on.

-T

Links:

 

Cerebral Rock

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment
rush albums.jpg
Rush collection

Three bands by the late 70s that rocked my world:

  • Led Zeppelin
  • Budgie
  • Rush

With the passing of Neil Pert I can’t help but recall my first reaction to the 1976 album 2112 which I listened to on a hand-me-down plastic mono record player in my suburban hell bedroom. What the hell are they making music about, I said, after playing side-one over and over and over. Here’s a summary of the song, dear worst-reader. By-the-buy, the lyrics of this song–or is it anthem–were written by Pert.

“2112” tells a story set in the city of Megadon in the year 2112 where individualism and creativity are outlawed, with the population controlled by a cabal of malevolent Priests who reside in the Temples of Syrinx. A galaxy-wide war resulted in the planets forcefully joining the Solar Federation (symbolised by the “Red Star”). By 2112, the world is controlled by the priests who take orders from giant banks of computers inside the temple. Music is unknown in this world absent of creativity and individuality, but in “Discovery”, a nameless man finds a beaten guitar inside a cave and rediscovers the lost art of music. In “Presentation”, the man takes the guitar to the priests at the temple, who say, “Yes, we know, it’s nothing new; it’s just a waste of time”, and then proceed angrily to destroy it and banish him. Next, in “Oracle: The Dream”, the man dreams of a new planet, established at the same time as the Solar Federation, where creative people live. He awakens, depressed that music is part of such a civilization and that he can never be part of it, and commits suicide, in “Soliloquy”, originally titled “Soliloquy of the Soul”. Another planetary war begins in “Grand Finale”, originally named “Denouement”, resulting in the ambiguous spoken ending: “Attention all planets of the Solar Federation: We have assumed control”. (Source: Wiki)

Of all the bands I listened to growing up, Rush is the only band that made me sit down and contemplate not just the music but what the heck were they going on about.  Compared to Zeppelin, Rush was a creative power that would take me years to truly comprehend. That is, where Zeppelin covered a lot of their famous tracks, Rush wrote and composed every damn story-be-told song. When I saw Rush in concert the first time, from the only nose-bleed seats I could afford, Neil Pert looked like an octopus wrapped inside a monstrous drum set. You could barely see the mans head. But you could see those arms, multiple, many arms, and sticks, all flaring around making magic sound galore. Indeed. A band to make one think. So I guess I’ll continue choking-up when listening to Tom Sawyer or One Little Victory, etc. Btw, the intro to One Little Victory still boggles my mind.

neil pert drum set

As far as that fantasy I’ve had for years, I guess I’ll never run into Neil Pert while riding a motorcycle cross country, which I’ve heard was his preferred mode of travel to concerts. Oh well. There’s still all those songs to listen to, to think about, to comprehend.

RIP Neil Pert.

Rant and rock on.

-T

Links:

The Glory Of Squander

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

Been saying it for years, dear worst-reader. The squander of it all. As in: American Squander. This inner saying, though, has taken on variation, I have to admit that. Now it goes something like this: LAND OF FREE TO BE STUPID. I mean, come on. Am I wrong reaching the conclusion that in order for a country like my beloved & missed united mistakes of #Americant to get to the likes of #Trump there has to be a lot of stupid to go ’round? Just give a look/listen to the broadcast and digital airwaves back home. The advent of reality TV is indeed a quagmire, as well–which has resulted in the likes of #Trump. The genius of disguising/cloaking stupidity in entertainment or newz is a godsend for the mindless masses, don’t you know. Worst-speaking of mindless masses. Forget entertainment. Just call it all newz. Since I can remember vividly listening to NEWS as far back as the late 1960s, it’s easy for worst-moi to say that it’s changed. Changed for the better? Changed for profit. And there you have it, dear worst-reader. The conclusion of all conclusions. The winner take all of the game of who can be stupid the fastest with the most toys and the ugliest hair style. And so, there’s a generation chasm in the making, I’m guessing. One generation after the next, #okboomer, annihilating what is/should come. And so…

In America, though, life seems to move faster than anywhere else on the globe and each generation is promised more than it will get: which creates, in each generation, a curious bewildered rage, the rage of people who cannot find solid ground beneath their feet. -James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son, from in the opening of “The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory.”

Perhaps I’ll read the book written by the interviewee in the accompanying link/video below. Perhaps not. Do I need to read more about what I already know? About what I’ve lived through and runaway (expatriate) from? Or. Perhaps a better question is: who is gonna write the definitive work about that which can result in #Trump? Indeed, dear worst-reader. Perhaps it’s time to stop making fun of #Trump. Instead, perhaps it’s time to get to the heart and soul of the 60m people, DasVolk, who give the world #Trump.

Good luck suckers.

Rant on.

-T

Links:
– https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/9/andrew_bacevich_iran_iraq_qassem_soleimani

SBC Rundown

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment
Pine64 Digital storage solution w/out NAS

As I’ve stated here and there in this worst-blog, Steve Jobs had it right. Long live the post-PC era. Long live… Steve?

With that in mind, as of the end of 2019, I’ve got two too many SBC’s in my abode. You know, post-PC stuff galore, dear worst-reader. Oh what to do, what to do, what to do?

Have I ever been more tickled with so much tech gluttony? There was a time, don’t you know, when I had too many Macs hanging around. What a time that was, eh. The good news is: unlike the old school computer world, to which I’m kinda bound heart and soul, when you have too much of anything, Macs included, it’s easy to use them all as a kind of tech filler in a life of early retirement fanboy boredom. The thing is, Macs, unlike PCs, can’t just fade away. In my experience a ten year old Mac can do as much as when it was new, whereas a PC of the same age can only be useful if turned into a linux machine–and even that has extreme limitations. But let me move on as my pretentiousness might be getting out of hand.

In my case, not only was I able to find purpose for most of my ageing Macs, as in, you know, a file server here, a Plex media server there, but I also let my better half take one of them and slowly claim that she too is a Mac user (when in reality she’s still stuck in the corporate issued PC world). After a decade or so of maintaining all those machines, though, and thereby accumulating a relatively vast library of digital media–and waking up to the reality of streaming media which is also part of the post-pc era that I’m failing at avoiding, circumventing–I got bored as hell waiting for files to copy, data to process, backing it all up, lifting a forty pound Mac Pro from one room to the other, etc. And so. Welcome to the new world of SBCs, especially Raspberry Pi. Indeed, dear worst-reader. Where would I be today without these little miracle devices that have been a long time coming and have finally provided the means to break away from the old guard truck-PC world of wasted digital everything?

But. Again. Before I get too far off on my pretentious sailing yacht named tech-no-nevermind, here’s where things stand with worst-writer’s post-pc era household. Here’s a rundown of my SBCs and their usefulness galore.

RPi3B + HiFiBerry Amp2 + Volumio

Been dabbling in this–dare I call it–cheap-audiophile setup for going on two years now. Other than a few glitches here or there, it works like a charm. Of course, it also sounds great in any room hooked up to Audioengine P4 speakers or Pioneer BS22’s that I stuffed in a suitcase and lugged across the Atlantic last year on account I couldn’t buy them in #Eurowasteland. In fact, as far as I can tell, it works with any set of speakers. Considering its cost, especially if you already have digital media and server capability in your life, and, perhaps, a few speakers from the good old days laying around, I don’t understand why any #okboomer doesn’t have one of these just for the fun of it.

That worst-said, since using this as my go-to audio player, a question has arisen with my better half: as an Apple household, is it time to go (aghast) HomePod? Indeed. But the biggest turn-off with Apple’s HomePod is the simple fact that I cannot use it with my current music library setup–unless I integrate that setup into Apple’s greed $hit$how music subscription service, previously known as iTunes.

First of all, iTunes sucked bat balls, including its new iteration “Music”. The only place I use it is on my iPhone–and only because I transcode and install MY music manually from my Mac, from my home music server, to my iPhone. The HomePod is basically an extension to Apple’s subscription Music service. It doesn’t really work without that service. Although I’ve battled internally with accepting this as the future, there’s simply no way that I can currently go for a subscription music service. I’m not well informed as to how the HomePod is selling for Apple, but the entire concept is such a deal-breaker to me simply because Apple 1. doesn’t support FLAC and 2. I can’t just play my music on its fancy pseudo smart speaker. In other worst-words, have I reached the the point of… I can’t give Apple my money?

Back to my current wondrous pseudo-audiophile setup. As far as glitches with Volumio, most have been caused by my fiddling around with settings thinking I could get more out of both the RPi and the HiFiBerry hardware. As usual, I was fiddling all for naught. In fact, after most recent update to version 2.692 at the end of 2019, things kinda went haywire. The update seems to have bricked the thing. Although the UI worked after the update, library access didn’t. There was also no HiFiBerry configuration in the “Playback Options”. The digital volume control only went from 0 to 100, which meant I had a few almost speaker exploding moments trying to figure things out. To save the day I did a factory restore which returned the system back to version 2.389 (which is from 2018). And get this. Maybe it’s my ears playing games, but the old software version sounds better than any of the updates. The UI isn’t as clean and there are few add-ons that are no longer available, but I’m good with that on account it seems to sound as good as ever when playing Bowie, Beethoven or the friggin Bee-Gees. I love it–glitches n’all.

If you can, and you like good audio, get yourself one of these, dear worst-reader.

RPi2B + HiFiBerry DAC Pro + Plex Client

This thing has been working like a charm since day one. Ok. Wait. It ain’t all roses here. I need to hard restart it every once-a-once. My guess is it freezes up because of memory cache issues, or the like. But that’s no big deal on account it reboots quickly. After almost three years of consistent use, though, and considering the price of this thing, like the Volumio device above, all worst-readers (of age) should use one of these things as a media player.

By-the-buy, it’s connected to an old Sony 1080p flatscreen. Controlling it is done mostly by using the Sony remote and HDMI-CEC. It’s like a TV but on steroids, baby. Keep in mind that we have no broadcast TV in our home. We just use Plex, an AppleTV3, which also gives us Amazon Prime, and, as previously mentioned, Volumio. Anywho. Sometimes I’ll use the iPhone app to control this Plex client but, like most tech stuff with any lifespan these days, Plex has gotten a bit complicated and it’s easier to just use the cheap Sony remote to control it.

This is my go-to device if you have or want a home media player that’s as simple as eating pie–and not baking it–and don’t want to rely solely on AppleTV or any other streaming box, let alone rely on krappy broadcast TV. Although it can do things like photos, I’ve never used it for that as I just use Apple’s Photo app along with a few iOS devices. And get this. Since this Plex client works so well, I’ve put off getting a new Apple TV even though the newer ones are capable of running a Plex client. The thing is, I love the RPi + HiFiBerry DAC as a music player as much as I love the Volumio player (RPi + Hifiberry Amp2) that I use downstairs (as previously mentioned). As far as I’m concerned, as a cheap audiophile, the sound of these things in combination with my TEAC amp is darn tooting’ good. Nuff said, baby.

Oh. By-the-buy. Again. The difference between Volumio and Plex, as far as audio is concerned, is that Volumio works headless. Although I’ve read that Plex can be used headless, I don’t quite get the point of doing that since it is being used with a flatscreen. So. Indeed. Again-again. Even though Plex is getting unnecessarily complex, these devices are so cheap, why doesn’t everyone have one? Oh yeah. The tech stuff. Flashing an SD card, etc., etc. Speaking of tech stuff…

Pine64 Rock64

I use the Pine64 Rock64 device as a test device as I’ve not quite found a steady digital purpose for it. It’s been a pihole adblocker, a Volumio tester, a distro fun-maker, etc. Unfortunately for Pine64, the Rock64 and RockPro64 (below) might be the last devices I buy from these guys. Although the the boards are excellent, they are a bit too techi for me, unlike Raspberry Pi. I’ve been battling with software installs, distros, etc. since day one with these things, which is mega disappointing. Right now, the only software that I’ve found to work is DietPi and whatever I can install from that–but that doesn’t always work without tech tweaking that is usually over my head. Yeah, these things are my SBC disappointment. That said, I still kinda recommend them.

Pine64 RockPro64 + DietPi

Even though I’ve been disappointed with the software available for Pine64 devices, I’m kinda tickled with the RockPro64’s server performance–and my ability to actually get it to function. It has been quite a fight, don’t you know. Remember: this thing replaced a 2010 MacPro (the cheese grader) but there have been moments… What saved it from the dung-heap? The minimalist Linux distro known as DietPi. If you’re a newbie and not afeared of a bit of Linux CLI, this is my distro recommendation for the RockPro64 as a do-everything linux server. It works ALMOST like a charm. So far it has been running as a Plex server, a samba server (for my household Macs) and I’m even using it as a ad-blocker (pihole). Heck, I even installed a WordPress install on it so as to maintain a copy of this blog. Indeed. For the past 18 months or so it’s never crashed once. Whaaaaaaa?

The most disappointing thing from Pine64 is the fact that I have yet to get OMV to work. OMV is an open source NAS system that is supposed to emulate and/or compete with those stupid-expensive NAS boxes, aka Synology, Drobo, etc., which I refuse to buy. The problem is–as with most software I’ve tried on Pine64–I couldn’t get OMV to work. It would boot, I could access it via my network, I could dabble here or there with it. But as soon as I started messing with “shares” or add-ons (like Plex), it was crash time galore. Now that I’ve kinda gotten use to the CLI of DietPi, I’m not even watching out if OMV gets out of beta for this thing. The heck with it. DietPi works–and I’ve learned to live with a basic Samba file server! All in all, this home server project has turned into a reliable home media and file server device–that has, again, replaced at 2010 Mac Pro. Whaaaaaa?

Indeed. All is good in the land of the SBC, glitches n’all.

Rant on.

-T

PS Oh yea. I started this worst-post ranting about having two too many SBCs. So get this. Waiting in the wings for some purpose is another RPi3 and for Xmas 2019 I received the new RPi4. I’m considering the RPi3 for another audio project, perhaps with something other than analog audio outputs. The RPi4 is a different story. Currently the RPi4 is my Raspbian Linux training station which I use headless. It has already proven that there is no need to buy any other SBC again. (Sorry about that Pine64.) The RPi4 is finally a fcuking great little computer. Needless to say, I’m excited about fiddling with it as 2020 progresses.

Toxic Male Delusion And Such

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

Been meaning to post something about this jerk-off for some time now. And don’t you know, dear worst-reader, it’s been an inner fight to do so. I mean, come on. How many of these men should I worst-write about? The problem is, toxic men are running this worst-world. Am I the only one that knows that? Of course not. How presumptuous of worst-moi. Or? Which constantly makes worst-moi beg the question: am I toxic too? Oh how this coincides with the mutant Harvey Weinstein or the bat$hit that is President Stupid. These men, John McAfee, #Trump, Weinstein, Cosby, along with countless other men who think (are delusional) they’ve achieved in life, have one significant thing in common: in their heart of hearts they are scumbags. Either that or they simply cannot know love. Does worst-writer know love? Perhaps not–for I am divorced. But when given the chance to have “intercourse” (as indicated in the vid above) I would rather get to know someone first, find a connection, figure out how to make it nice for both of us–and then truly fall in love with the birth of a child, divorce here or there. But before I get too far off worst-subject.

Say what you will armchair psychologists the world over, McAfee and his ilk are another level of toxic manliness and I worst-say they are abundant in the world today. Indeed. They are manifest in at least two generations of men. But what is it that steers these men down this path that is ultimately about abusing, dominating one half of humanity? What makes them do this sort of thing? And don’t forget, even though the politically conservative powers-that-be have been trying to sweep the Steel Dossier under the rug, it somehow lingers in the ether between all things fake and a few things that are real. Is it splitting proverbial hairs to ask whether or not #Trump likes young, vulnerable, poor women to poop in his mouth or pee in it or just watch gorgeous Russian whores pee on the same bed that Barry-O and his wife slept on in a Russian $hitbag hotel in the middle of Moscow? Just look at the eyes of President Stupid, John McAfee, Weinstein & Co. These men are the epitome of manliness today. They own it. They make it. They dictate it. And all because everyone else languishes in anti-intellectualism thinking there is nothing left to be done–but make a buck, even if it means only doing so on the backs of someone else. And so, your choices are #Americant or, perhaps, the burning bush that is Australia, i.e. just like a man, don’t you know, to make Mother Nature suffer on account a few white men can’t be convinced how shitty they really are. Or maybe not.

Good luck choking on it suckers.

Rant on.

-T

First RPi4

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

rpi4

Thought I was gonna wait a bit longer, dear worst-reader. You know, being the never-buy first iteration consume-to-survive guy that I am, at the least, I was gonna put off getting this till the thermal problems were dealt with in version 2.0. But then it was required of me for Xmas that I post some sort of wish list–at the last minute, don’t you know. Which raises this worst-question: What does a man who already has everything wish for? Especially when such a rational thinking man (worst-moi) wishes he could wish for that used ten metre sailing yacht that’s just waiting for me on the baltic shores.

Screenshot 2020-01-04 at 19.33.37.png

Or perhaps there’s that thought or three that been lingering with me for sometime now about getting back into motorcylces. You know, motorcycles for old guys. I’m really digging Kawasaki’s W800 retro bike. Although I think it’s priced a bit high considering the cost of an Enfield. Also. Considering western world demographics, there’s plenty of new old guy motorcycles on the market these days. Am I wrong?

Screenshot 2020-01-04 at 19.37.45

Anywho. Other than a pair of gloves that also work with touch screen interfaces (iPhone, Apple Watch), the only other wish I could came up with (again, at the last minute, at the behest of my better half), which was on the tip of my tongue, was a Raspberry Pi 4 w/4GB–including case. Lo and behold, my better half delivered–on the RPi. (Or was it Santa Claus?) The case my better half ordered wasn’t up to worst-writer specs, though. She ordered a case that included some cheap cooling fan. It’s also some kind of push-together plastic case. Cheap, push together stuff a big turn off, eh.  Although I think I’ll keep the case for future RPi4 orders, on account it’s so cheap, I’m gonna fiddle with the new RPi4 first without a fan. And so. I ordered the FLIRC aluminium case, which has some pretty good reviews and, because of its design, seems to circumvent the need for a cooling fan.

All in all, so far, I’ve been impressed with the new Pi.

Let’s run down the issues after first few days of use and some minor testing, shall we.

Pros

  • Fast, fast, fast
  • Finally can boot and run Raspbian via VNC without obnoxious lag on client machine (this Mac)
  • USB-C power socket, finally away from flimsy mini-usb power (see con below)
  • Networking feels fast and sure (wifi and ethernet)
  • USB 3 provides great speed making this a definite alternative to the non-NAS I’ve been working on in 2019 that has also left me disappointed (on account of Pine64 software offering)

Cons

  • It’s un-understandable why there are two obnoxious Mini HDMI ports that are so non-backward compatible (since this is a cheap alternative to expensive PCs and NAS devices, why over do it with these connections???)
  • Mini hdmi does not work with (my) 1080p Dell monitor via display port > hdmi adapter, which means I have to order yet another adapter to try and connect it via DVI
  • USB-C power socket feels flimsy and probably won’t last a bunch of in-out connections
  • Heat – the FLIRC alu-case gets surprisingly warm even with my minor testing

Rant on.

-T

Impeachment Galore

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

trump stubby

Admiring Nancy Pelosi lately, don’t you know, dear worst-reader. When I read that she was holding back submitting articles of impeachment to the Senate, I giggled and smirked and danced the hoochi-kuh. What a great idear, I thought. Not only should she hold back on submitting impeachment articles to the faux-newz Senate but if she can do this once, why not do it till the cows come runnin’? I mean, don’t bother even acknowledging the Senate. Just keep impeaching President Stupid–for posterity! In fact, when you run out of legitimate reason to impeach him, which there are many, impeach him a few more times for various forms of stupidity. And after that let’s see if Pelosi can find a few ways of impeaching #Americant for all its stupidity in allowing a once great nation to go down the $hithole of LAND OF FREE TO BE STUPID.

Rant on.

-T

Link:

Real Reason Peoples Should Be Afeared Of This Guy

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

Pete Buttigieg should drive anyone away at the moment it’s revealed that he worked for the likes of McKinsey & Co. Forget about the fact that he’s just some man-child that gained a few thousand votes  to become mayor in the hellhole that is some midwest country bumpkin town. Now don’t get me wrong, dear worst-reader. I worked for McKinsey once, too. Yeah, that was a long time ago, don’t you know. Perhaps I worked for them in a galaxy far far away, as well. But that’s neither here nor there. The reason people should be afeared of the likes of Pete Buttigieg is that McKinsey is an outsourcing $hithole where corporatists the world over can pin responsibility for corporatist exploitation in something akin to a greyzone. The zone, by-the-buy, is where deceit and lies and fakery rule the day. For that is the only thing that McKinsey and any other so-called consultancy does. It is high-end outsourcing that enables corporatists to scoot a bit more beach-time into their schedule where they can count shareholder value with more and more gusto and never face up to the reality that corporatism is no different than political conservatism and other than mentioning the name McKinsey that should be/say enough to not put this guy in the whitehouse. Or maybe not. I thought Hillary was gonna win, too.

Rant on.

-T

Link:

Rare Moment Corporatist Creativity?

~ Tom ~ Leave a comment

cello case

As worst-writer has always worst-said: the rarest commodity (product worth anything) within not just The Corporation but the corporate mindset… is creativity. For it is the one huuuuuge element, don’t you know, dear worst-reader, that the rest of us must endure if/when all-things go haywire or, possibly, shoot us to the heavens. When it goes haywire, like a seething wound, bound by thick puss on the verge of hardening–but never quite hardening enough–the minions of a corporate and neo-fascist world wait in the wings entertained or disgusted–all in the name of shareholder value. But don’t get me wrong, dear worst-reader. There are a few cases of gallant corporate effort. Steve Jobs comes to my worst-mind, don’t you know. Even though I would never have wanted to work with/for him, I’m a big fan on account he was able to take his crazies to new levels and thereby quite literally change the world. Carlos Ghosn, on the other hand, is quite the opposite when it comes to being a creative corporatist. Or am I wrong? For he did come up with a pretty keen way of escaping Japanese corporate $hitbag justice. If the story is true, see link below, he escaped bat$hit corporate Japanese justice by hiding in a musical instrument case and then hopping on a private jet that managed to sneak him out of a country without showing his freaking passport. That alone should get him arrested anywhere in the world. But let’s not mix hairs here, or? Like most corporatists, the man got away with it with no consequences. Just like so many others. Talk about golden parachutes.

Rant on.

-T

Links: