Broody Chickens
Two of my chickens decided to go broody on me.
Blog
Sad days
One of our dogs died yesterday.
Flower Bed Update
Well, it’s starting to fill in:
Flowers from the garden
These came back up from last year:
Water Bath Canning: Part 1
I have, for the longest time, had a mental block of some kind regarding canning. I’ve always intended on learing how to can, I just thought, for some reason, that I needed someone to show me EXACTLY what to do, or I wouldn’t be able to get it right. This isn’t because I thought it was too hard, or there was a special trick to be learned, or anything like that, it just seemed to me like something that needed to be learned from someone, in person. Like I said, it was just a mental block about the whole thing.
Dropping Google and Facebook
I’ve had multiple debates with coworkers on the value of the “cloud” and placing your data in the trust of others. While I care about privacy, my views are shaded by a distinct pragmatism. I know many willing to share pretty much everything on Facebook and Google, and others that go so far as to host their own physical email servers and domains.
Looking at current “cloud” data providers, Google was an attractive choice for a few major reasons. First, all of their services HAD (very important past-tense) the feel of playing along well with others. Google pushed HTML5 and open video codecs, and federated chat servers with others. And then, you could pay for an ad free experience, which I did. Facebook has ALWAYS had a rather F-you attitude toward privacy and personal details. Not to mention, obvious commercial interests and a need to monetize users.
Big Brother is watching.....and waiting for you to invite him into your home.
So here is your horrifying thought for today: Your own government could very quickly have a video and audio surveillance device readily accessible in your house. But that isn’t the scariest part. You ready for it? YOU will be the one PAYING to put it there, by your own choice.
Don’t believe me? Let’s consider some things that have been happening recently:
1. The NSA’s massive Utah Data mining center - A 1 million square foot facility, capable of storing yottabytes of data, gleaned from every type of communication device we use. Also consider the fact that every piece of communication passes through a wire at some point, even your cell phone, so literally EVERYTHING is accessible at some junction point. Even if you encrypt your transmission with the highest level of encryption available today, that doesn’t matter in the long run. If they can’t crack it now, they will store it and crack it when they have the ability to in the near future.
Grapes!
And... Sort of done
Old posts are moved, and new stuff is coming.
Moving to Wordpress!
This blog will shortly disappear to be replaced by a new blog, no longer part of the Google mothership.
Shouldn’t be any need to update links, but if your reader feed dies, might want to try to update the RSS feed again.
Later!