Category: Geekitude

Monday Links – Lots of Links

June 12, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Sit back, this is going to be a long one this week.

First, let’s start out with a bunch of Reason links.

Here’s an article on the recent Trump federal indictment.

No, Adam Smith was not a progressive.

Critics of lockdowns were muzzled.

Firing professors for the political views is unconstitutional – left-wing views edition.

SPLC is still overcounting hate groups.

Finally, the Biden administration is still refusing Second Amendment rights to cannabis users.

In other gun news, the deadline for pistol brace owners to submit the proper paperwork or be considered felons as passed. According to The Reload, only a quarter-million did so. In the best case, that’s 250,000 out of 3,000,000 – or about 8%. However, using industry numbers, it’s more like 250,000 out of 40,000,000 – or about 0.6%.

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, let’s go on to our light items.

First, here’s some teasing that there’s a new Macross animation in the works.

Speaking of Macross, here’s an article that AnimEgo is going to crowdfund a release of the old Macross II anime from the nineties.

From The Brother, we have the top 10 finalists for Illusions of the Year.

Also from The Brother, we have an Ars Technica article about Redditors using Stable Diffusion to create working anime QR codes.

Monday Links

May 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Happy Memorial Day! We’re going to start off with several Reason articles.

First, the face of teachers’ unions during the COVID pandemic only taught for three years, but is expected to get a full pension. I’m of the opinion that if you’re working for the union, the union should be dealing with your benefits.

Next are a couple items on the reshuffling of the political parties. I’ll let the headlines speak for themselves. The left-right spectrum is mostly meaningless and the rise of right-wing progressivism. Just as the labor market is in flux, the political market is similarly in flux. Fun times.

Finally, an article from The Volokh Conspiracy discussing a recent Florida Supreme Court decision that loading and openly carrying a gun on your property is not criminal use of deadly force. Although, if you’re having to face multiple attackers on your property, it may be more prudent to have your weapon already loaded. Or get behind cover to load and wait for the police.

In the vein of self-defense, we have an article from The Hill about a “prank robbery” going horribly wrong when the pranksters came across an armed civilian. And this kind of outcome won’t slow down these kinds of pranks. Because the dumb fucks think it won’t happen to them.

Now for our light items.

I think this is probably vapor-ware, but this Extreme Tech article depicts a “laptop” with six monitors, dual AMD Epyc “Genoa” 96-core CPUs, and 24 DIMM slots for up to 6TB of DDR5 memory. And it weighs 55 lbs. Um, yeah. There’s part of me that wants one in a kind of morbid fascination way.

Finally, we have a Variety article on Weird Al. Because Weird Al.

Monday Links

May 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

It’s going to be a little sparse on the ground this week.

First, we have a Reason article about Disney suing DeSantis. Based on statements made and the timing of actions, I think Disney has a decent case. I’m also not liking this populist trend of DeSantis using government power to achieve political ends regardless of civil liberties.

Next, Professor David Yamane has an article in The Hill explaining that Stand Your Ground laws do not give people a license to kill. I agree with a lot of commentators that the consistent repeating of this mantra is misinforming a large segment of the populace – who then rely on that misinformation to inform their actions. When it comes to self-defense, that has life-changing and life-ending consequences.

From The Verge, we have an article that Microsoft is shuttering a large segment of its peripheral business. They’re shifting to “premium” Surface-branded peripherals. Which means I probably need to stock up on some Sculpt keyboards.

The Drive has a profile of an Oregon company that does custom lifts for Subarus. Okay, the idea of lifting the Ward Wagon intrigues me, but the likelihood of me using any off-road capability is minimal.

Finally, Blabbermouth reports that a new Savatage album is coming next year. According to Jon Olivia, this will be the last album for Savatage. Thank you Jon for giving me decades of music.

Monday Links

April 24, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Of course, we’re going to start with some Reason links.

First an article on the administration’s plan to charge borrowers with high credit scores additional fees to subsidize borrowers with lower credit scores. “Oh, it’s only $40 a month more.” That’s a tank of gas. Also, law of unintended consequences in 3,2,1…

Here’s an article on Fox settling with Dominion for almost $800 million.

DeSantis signed a law no longer requiring unanimous juries for death penalty recommendations. After having read about all the abuses from prosecutors’ offices, I’m no longer in favor of the death penalty, much less lowering the bar.

Also, the FDA head wants the authority to regulate “misinformation.” Oh, yeah, that would never be abused.

This one’s more for the journal-side of this blog. Last week, Floridians were awoken by an accidental emergency alert. Before 5am. The Wife and I were at the gym, but needless to say, there was much uproar. And the contractor responsible was fired.

From ABC, the manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin have been dropped. Rumors are that the weapon was found to be modified and found to be faulty. I’m sure we’ll learn more. It still doesn’t excuse the complete lack of safety protocols on that set.

From Larry Correia is a rant that readers need to get over the hurt inflicted by authors who promised and never delivered. Because there’s a lot of new authors that deserve a chance. As someone who may be one of those new authors, I wholeheartedly agree.

Finally, from Gizmodo is an article on Netflix ending its DVD rental program after a quarter-century. First off, I didn’t know they were still doing that part of their business. On the other hand, it does bring fond memories of the early aughts when I was a master on the quick churn of the red envelopes.

Tab Clearing

April 20, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Monday Links was pre-empted by history. I still need to clear out some links that I’ve built up.

Let’s start with a few Reason articles.

First, one on the EPA banning the production of gas-powered cars. I’m not a fan of mandates. I know surprise.

Second, a discussion on the benefits of teen employment. I am a fan of young people learning work ethics from their first job. My years managing fast-food showed me the best and worst of employing teens.

Third, a discussion on proportional representation. I’m kind of leaning more and more to something like this.

From ABCNews comes a story about every gun owners worst nightmare. Police get wrong address, homeowner comes to the door with a gun, and as the article states “chaos ensues.” Homeowner ends up dead.

An article from Android Authority reports that the FBI warns not to use public charging ports. Also, don’t plug your phone into the USB ports in a rideshare or taxi. Just don’t.

An article from Bounding Into Comics about WoTC’s decision to remove half-races from Dungeons and Dragons. On the one hand, it invalidates decades of lore and characters (both in the novels and players’ favorite characters). On the other hand, it would be more in line with actual biology – unless orcs and elves are some form of human. On the gripping hand, the stated reason for the change is fucking bullshit.

Finally, an article about finding the original recording of the Wilhelm scream. H/t to FB friend Rob Reed.

August Release, Huh?

April 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The thing that helps any Star Wars project is a cohesive vision. That’s what plagued the sequel movies. There was no cohesive vision for the story. Those were just money grabs with directors who didn’t understand or didn’t care about the universe.

The television shows haven’t suffered from this. Including the animated shows. So, I’m glad to see this.

Monday Links

February 20, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I missed last week due to day job antics. A lot of tasks that looked simple that weren’t. Oh well. I managed to get it done on time. So, this week I have some serious items, and then a bunch of light items that have been building up. Buckle up, this is going to be a bit longer than normal

First, for the serious items.

From Reason comes an article about the lone Republican on the Federal Trade Commission Board resigning in protest of Chair Lina Khan’s expansion of the FTC’s power and disregarding the rule of law. While I personally like some of the areas Khan’s addressing (non-competes come to mind), I don’t think her method is good for the health of the republic. See ATF.

Speaking of gun laws, we have an article from Townhall about a judge declaring that the ban on marijuana users from owning guns is unconstitutional. While I have a personal dislike of the devil weed, I also dislike how its handled in our laws. I also don’t think users should be prohibited from owning guns. Anymore than alcohol users should be.

Moving on to economics, we have a Reuters article on how orders for industrial robots hit record highs last year. Tight labor market for workers means its more economical to automate.

This was a big brouhaha last week or the week before, but here’s an article from a local station on AMC going to a tiered pricing for its tickets. All I heard from most of the voices was complaining about price gouging. Unsurprising, I find this “concern” unmoving. With the changing economics of the movie theater industry, the companies are going to have to find some way to make it more profitable. If it causes a significant backlash, they’ll quietly discontinue.

For the last serious item, an article from NBC about how colleges are looking at nuclear mini-reactors for electricity. I like the idea of a decentralized power system with a bunch of smaller nuclear reactors.

Now, on to the light items.

These are more local interest stuff, but hey, it’s my blog.

First, an article on the “dead” University Square Mall. Huh, I actually thought it was shut down. I have a scene in Badmoon Rising set in the mall.

Next, an article about local businessman and philanthropist Dr. Kiran Patel finally finishing his huge compound. We’ve been watching that one go up for years.

The Wife and I joke about winning the lottery and building a compound for the family. Which is why this article on an old summer camp for sale caught my eye. Heck, it’s only a couple million.

SQUEE! New Civilization is coming!

The Brother sent me this article about the math around the anime missile swarm.

Oh hey, I can park Serenity in front of my house. Sort of.

Monday Links

February 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Let’s start with some gun-related news.

First from Reuters, a US judge blocked Rare Breed from selling their AR triggers after the Justice Department sues.

And from Fox News, a federal judge ruled that a wrongful death suit against Kenosha police, authorities, and Kyle Rittenhouse may proceed. From the article: “The father of Anthony Huber – one of two men Rittenhouse killed – filed the lawsuit in 2021. The lawsuit, which names Rittenhouse, police officers and others ad defendants, accuses officers of allowing for a dangerous situation that violated his son’s constitutional rights and resulted in his death.” This is why I am very glad with Florida’s law that prevents civil suits against those who were judged to have acted in self-defense.

Speaking of Florida, I have a local article on legislation being introduced for Florida to go permitless carry. I’ll believe it when it actually gets signed. Even then, I’ll keep my permit for those rare incidents I go out of town. Or need to do a private purchase.

For those of you following the recent brouhaha surrounding D&D’s Open Gaming License:

Erin Pallette sums up the end result nicely in this blog post. TLDR, Hasbro pretends it was all a big misunderstanding, they didn’t really mean it, and no one is really believing them.

I’m sure this Reuters article on Hasbro cutting 15% of its workforce isn’t related to their recent money grab at all.

From the file of reporters not understanding costs:

CNN is saying that buying a house is cheaper than renting in five cities. By cheaper, they mean the monthly payment. Not including little things like maintenance and upkeep that are usually handled by the landlord when renting.

And from Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, a local brewery is going to charge men more than women for a specific seltzer because “PINK TAX”. Um, okay. Let’s see how that works out for you.

Lastly, this is something I want to see:

Gizmodo reports on rumors Apple will bring a foldable iPad to market in 2024. Depending on the form factor, this may be worth exploring. It would be nice to have a device I could use as an iPad mini and then fold out for larger needs.