Today is the four year anniversary of Frankly Curious. On this day those many years ago, I wrote, Everything Interesting for Everyone Interesting. The next day I wrote an article about kitchen knives. And then I waited another month before I posted anything else. I was exhausted! Then there were a couple of months of binge posting. And then the blog came almost to a standstill. Then I discovered politics. Through the 2010 election, I did a news roundup every day. And then I stopped. I was exhausted! But it did up my productivity to 10-15 articles per month.

Things went on like that. I continued to get more comfortable with the format. Also, I stopped explicitly marking my political rants as such. I had always felt that writing about politics was slumming. This strikes me as strange, given that everything I was doing was slumming. Looking back, I’m shocked that I was writing so little. Just what was I doing with my time? Well, actually, I know: I was reading books. But even still, it seems strange to me now that I didn’t find it necessary to write about the books I was reading. Now I can hardly move to a different room without writing about it.

Something strange happened on the morning of 8 July 2012. I was reading Crooks & Liars as I did every morning at that time. And then in the morning blog roundup was, “Frankly Curious evaluates the very serious Ezra Klein.” I was shocked. No one had ever linked to me before. I had never commented on the site. I still have no idea why they noticed me. But it did encourage me along the path of political writing. So if you don’t like my political focus, you can blame it on Crooks & Liars.

What I find amazing about the whole process of running this blog for the past four years is how the work gets better over time. In the early days, I fretted over every article. They took lots of thought and lots of time. And when I go back and read them, they are weak. And even more, they are thin. An early article that I quite liked at the time was, The Sound of One Hand Clapping. But there’s almost nothing to it. It strikes me as a bad freshman essay. The tone is wrong, for one thing. But more important: it touches on issues without getting into them. It deserves 10,000 words, not 500. But clearly, I didn’t see that at the time.

Now I dash off stuff that is far better than things I worked very hard on even a year ago. And I hope I’m able to say that next year and four years from now. Because as much as my work is better now that it has been, I still think that much of it is dreck. I often finesse articles into a presentable state that ought to be either abandoned or reworked. So I look forward to reading this article sometime and thinking, “Yikes!”

I have a feeling that I’ve taken this blog as far as I can. At this point, I really need to publish a book that will give me a wider audience and credibility beyond being yet another blogging ranter. And I am working on a book. It’s political, of course. And it brings together a lot of my thinking from writing this blog over the years. It is also making me do work that I do not feel comfortably doing—like actual political science. But it could be good. I’m just not sure my style, which could be charming over the course of 500 words, is all that readable over an entire book.

Regardless, thanks to all of your who have been around these last four years and who have put up with all this. I assume you all must have a good sense of humor…

Against my will, I was forced to get a smartphone. My friend and partner Will wanted to get a new phone so he decided to give me his old phone. It is some kind of a Samsung unit, but of course, compared to what I’ve had, it is awesomely amazing. I think what I had before is 0.0001g or some version of SLIP. (That’s old hacker humor!) This thing seems to do all the things I see people doing with what must be much better smartphones. I’m on Twitter, getting updated about what drunken atheists are up to. And I can check my 15 different email accounts. But it makes me wonder about the people who tweet and email throughout their days.

How do they do it? I’m a really good typist. In fact, I’m so good that I’ve forgotten where the keys are. My fingers know, my eyes don’t. The little keyboard comes up and I’m thinking, “Now where is that H character?!” It does, however, have this little microphone gadget that does a surprisingly good job of converting my voice into text. It makes obvious mistake. It is hopeless with homophones. It puts numerals into sentences when I don’t want them. And most of all, it is hopeless with punctuation and doesn’t know how to capitalize the beginning of a sentence. Still, it’s pretty amazing. I can get a tweet completed a lot faster than I could type it in. Of course, it is nowhere near as fast as I type on a proper keyboard.

The way I used the internet on my old phone was that I would enter a website and then put the phone in my pocket. After a few minutes, I would check to see if it had loaded. Mostly it did. Sites like Wikipedia do an excellent job of spitting out bits of pages to phones like mine. But even after regular pages would load, it was a hassle. It was very much like the old days using the text-based browser Lynx. If there was a left sidebar, you would have to scroll all the way down it because the page didn’t do any formatting. And worst of all, the phone’s browser would only load so much of a page. So the Frankly Curious page (which is hardly long) would only make it upwards of half way down the page.

Still, the whole thing makes me wonder. How is it that the whole society is going toward tablet computing. Maybe I’m just biased because I’m a writer, but I find a traditional setup with a keyboard and mouse far easier to use to get work done. Even for reading, I would rather just hit page-down than zip my finger across the screen, which seems always to cause the screen to move more than I wanted. Admittedly, I will doubtless get much better at that. But I wonder: does anyone get actual work done with these devices?

I’m afraid that the answer is no. My experience in corporate America is that very little work ever gets done. And I suspect that the hyper-connectivity in modern business is just a way for management to convince itself that it is accomplishing things. I don’t mean to suggest that these tools can’t or even don’t help people be productive. But I think at this point, it would take me about four times as long to create an article on my phone—and that’s assuming I could use the microphone function. I could use the phone to tweet as I go about my life, but that would likely turn me into one of those sad people who tweet things like, “Just bought a BBQ chicken at Whole Foods. Yum!” And I can’t imagine anything but the tersest of responses on email.

The way the phone helps me greatly is that it will allow me to read my standard websites while I’m out. And I assume it will also work as a book reader. Also: the microphone function on the text messages is great, although Andrea has already complained about typos in the three texts I’ve sent her. But there’s no doubt that this is a major advance. It is just that its a major advance in the ways that I was already using my phone. And I don’t think those were making me especially more productive. In fact, I think that computers generally have made me less useful to society. So I curse them generally.

Of course, now that I’ve downloaded Q*bert, all bets are off.

According to Reuters, These Coders Say They Taught a Computer to Crack CAPTCHA. According to the article, the San Francisco based company, Vicarious, has developed this program as part of his larger mission. As their website says, “We’re building software that thinks and learns like a human.” What I find so remarkable about this is that this wasn’t done a long time ago.

For those of you who don’t know, CAPTCHA is an acronym that stands for, “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” They are those pictures of distorted characters that you have to enter to, for example, post a comment on some blogs. You may have noticed that you do not need one here. This is because I’ve used them in the past and have found that they prevent absolutely no spam comments. This led me to believe that the spammers were just using programs that were able to crack the CAPTCHAs.

The truth is that I don’t see the problem with writing such a program. Imagine a simple CAPTCHA with a graphic with black letters on a white background. That should be as simple as running through the alphabet and doing a two-dimensional cross-correlation with each letter. Clearly, the more common distorted letters would be harder. But even these have standard algorithms that ought to allow one to reverse engineer them. And then increasingly, the CAPTCHAs have visual noise on them. It isn’t clear at this point just how well the Vicarious solution does with these. But often humans aren’t that good at this themselves. Here is a standard image that almost no one gets unless they are told that it is a picture of a spotted dog:

The big problem with the CAPTCHAs is not that computers can solve them. Vicarious has only approached the problem as a way to show what they can do with artificial intelligence; they aren’t trying to revolutionize the spam industry. That’s a good thing, because at this point, at least part of most spamming is done by hand. So a computer program will deposit spam on a web site and if it comes upon a CAPTCHA, it will be forwarded to a human to decipher. The article explains:

That could well be cheaper than the costs of breaking it by computer alone. My cross-correlation idea, for example, would take up a lot of cycles and a lot of real time as well.

I still don’t see what the purpose is of all the spam that I get. Absolutely none of it gets through. Almost all sites where it does get through post them with rel=”nofollow” options, so there is no search ranking increase from the link. And no one but a complete idiot would click on those links. I understand in the old days of spam email, there was effectively no cost of sending out 10 million email messages for a return on 1,000 clicks. But if Dr Mori is to be believed, then the spammers are paying a dollar for every 840 spam posts. That’s more than a tenth of a cent per posts. I just don’t see how it is worth that unless the people doing the spamming are scamming the companies that they work for.

Regardless, spammers do an enormous amount of damage to the internet for very little profit. It is the ultimate example of the tragedy of the commons. The funny thing is that despite what Ayn Rand said, people really do exhibit altruism. And most people will not pollute the entire network for the smallest of personal advantages. But in this context it really only takes one person to cause significant harm to all the others. The whole thing leaves me with very violent thoughts.

Afterword

One of my favorite spam comments goes something like this, “I have a site very much like yours. Do you have much of a problem with spam? Could you tell me what plugins you use to fight this?” It is quite clever because every time I see it, for an instant I want to respond. The more standard spam is more like, “It’s difficult to find experienced people in this particular subject, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about!” This raises the question of whether they know what I am talking about. That particular comment was in reference to an April Fools post based on an article in The Onion. Yes, I am experienced in that particular field; it is no wonder I sound like I know what I’m talking about!

Let’s start this by stating the obvious: Back up all your important files, NOW! Being more specific… Just backing up your files sounds simple enough but some aspects of correctly doing so are not so obvious… and if you are competent in doing so, it’s not likely to be the case for your neighbor, family member or co-worker. Please warn them and help them with the process.

Your files that really matter to you: Taxes, spreadsheets, the photos of dead Aunt Edna (referencing N.L.’s Family Vacation), the best resume you ever wrote… All should be manually copied over to an EXTERNAL hard drive AND that drive needs to be kept a safe distance from your PC. OK, viruses of the computer varieties cannot be transmitted by mere close proximity, but they are easily spread and conveyed and can be activated/launched/etc at any inopportune moment. In other words, DO NOT keep your backup drive, or your main backup drive, connected to any of your PC’s. This is for many reasons, but above all, is the fact that any connected drive, when infections launch, will likely suffer the same damage as your primary system drive.

The worst of these malwares, right now, seems to be the famed Crypto Locker, which does actually ‘lock’ your files away with monstrously effective encryption. This means you will NOT be able to open, access, edit, print your files. Even if you are fortunate enough to eradicate the actual infection and prevent its resurfacing, any damage previously done is essentially PERMANENT! Yikes and yikes again.

As of yet, there is no fix for this infestation. No antivirus application has been shown to be effective in prevention or removal. Articles about Crypto Locker really started to crop up in September of this year, 2013. Now, in late October, the stuff has really hit the fan.

The term Ransomeware refers to any malwayre which demands funds to correct, remove or unlock your system or files. In this case, Crypto Locked files will supposedly be unlocked for you, once the proof of payment is confirmed…..but don’t count on it. Check out this safe link from BleepingComputer:

Where do we pick up computer viruses? Well, the point of infection is almost an endless list. The old way, convincing the user to download, unzip and execute files, has been replaced by drive-by infestation… visiting a polluted website or following a seemingly innocent link to say a UPS tracking number.

Other common transports of malware are media files, such as music or video downloads. It is assumed that clicking boarder adds on popular sites, such as Facebook, can lead to infestation.

I cannot promise this posting will be followed with a later one, offering a comprehensive solution. Furthermore, I don’t know if the false comfort offered by that type of information would truly be helpful. Consider this a wake-up call for your own diligence in being prepared for a worst-case scenario.

What’s the point of dumping my random thoughts into the abyss of cyberspace if no one is going to acknowledge me? I mean, can I get a little validation up in this bitch?[1]

[1] I hope I’ve used that expression correctly, otherwise it might draw attention to my overall distance from popular culture and that would be awkward. Not that anyone would notice because no one ever does. I mean, come on!

What we’ve got here (is failure to communicate! sorry) …
is the uncooperative DVD (optical drive) button on a Gateway SX2802-07, which can be easily fixed.

This unit does not want to eject a DVD and it has nothing to do with the functionality of the drive itself, it has to do with the way the button Eject button on the chassis is made. This is what the inside of the front panel looks like, on the portion which is of concern to us:

What I did was take the button out (carefully), take similar plastic from a VHS tape housing and glue a small flat piece to the angled end of the button. Then used nail clippers to trim it down to size and a jewelers file to shape and smooth it, to wind up with an 8th inch extension of the button end, so it looks like this:

If you try this repair, be very careful not to snap off any tabs inside the panel and not to lose the springs that make the button stay up.

If your OS loads from CD only part way (yes, some of us still use discs), then hitting several errors about loading drivers or files…… very often it is a mismatch of Master-Slave relationship on the optical drive(s). CS (Cable Select) option is an easy way to set these up, sometimes…. but some cables and drives just don’t work right together, in this mode.

No video at startup……machine you just worked on not sending display? Often we find this to be a ram issue. While most boards will send error beeps, several models -including HP DX2400 series PC’s- just don’t……. they take a more passive approach, not starting all the way. Check the ram for proper seating and type.

No video after changing video card. Many possible answers here….This is far from a complete checklist, but some of the things to check:
-Used/bad video card? Try a known/spare card.
-Bios setting, making sure the slot you are using is set as an active or preferred video output (which can be done, of course, only if you have video during bios)
-Ram/board not syncing with new card…. try full reset of bios to default. This does NOT only mean taking the CR2032 out. Google ‘bios reset.’ This is more common than you might think.
-Wrong card specs for board/slot. This was a big issue with 4x/8x etc AGP boards and slots.
IF the system has on-board video, please back track, simplify and make sure that feature works.
I’ve seen this problem go from days to weeks. You have your work cut out for you.

Before getting to the birthdays, we need to stop and note that this is a different kind of birthday. Sixty-eight years ago, the nuclear age started. That happened in the form of Trinity, the first nuclear explosion in the history of the world. I’m not keen on the nuclear age, but I am especially depressed about the role that the United States played in it. The small sliver of goodness is that it is an excellent example of “American know-how” combined with “government will” solving a very difficult problem. But that is a very small sliver indeed compared to all the harm that was done. It was not necessary to drop the two bombs on Japan. Now it seems very clear that the whole purpose was to show the USSR what we could do, and we didn’t care about the hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians we killed in the name of sending that “message.” I tend to think that our genocide of the native peoples in America throughout the 19th century is worse; but Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a close second. And 68 years ago, it all started in a real way.

It is a good day for artists. One of the great painters of the High Renaissance Andrea del Sarto was born on this day in 1486. The English sculptor Joseph Wilton was born in 1722. English painter Joshua Reynoldswas born in 1723. And the great French painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was born in 1796.

The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy was born in 1821. God must have been looking out for her health, because she lived to be 89. She was clearly a freak, but I have a great deal of respect for people who take their religion seriously. What really pisses me off is the modern fashion of faux spirituality. I know people who don’t accept Darwin’s theory of natural selection. These opinions are based upon the fact that their pastors have told them that natural selection is incompatible with the Bible. But they don’t doubt all the medical advances that have come about from the the theory that they assume is wrong. These people are willing to accept all the good things that science provides them, but the moment that science requires the smallest rethink of their religious beliefs, they balk at it. If you really think God is so great, let him cure your disease. And don’t be like modern Christian Scientists who run to the doctor with a broken leg as if God can cure cancer but can’t manage to set a broken bone. If you believe, then believe and live with the consequences!

The great and tragic baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson was born in 1887. I don’t know if he was guilty or not. But I think MLB is a hypocritical organization. They allowed some truly vile men to both play and enter the Hall of Fame. For example: Ty Cobb. The truth is that Jackson is one of the great players and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. The idea that MLB or any professional sporting organization is made up of anything but a bunch of assholes and often even monsters is preposterous. Of course, the fact that I think professional sports is just a bunch of bullshit probably makes my opinion less important than it could be.

Modern classical composer Goffredo Petrassi was born in 1904. His music is very difficult—so difficult that I find most of it impossible to enjoy. But here is a short choir piece that is among his most accessible:

Popcorn king Orville Redenbacher was born in 1907. And they still use him in some of their commercials. Creepy! Hollywood beauty and a damned good actor Barbara Stanwyck was also born in 1907, but died 5 years before Orville. And Dancing legend (And quite a good actor!) Ginger Rogers was born in 1911. Here she is with Fred Astaire in Swing Time. Remember: she’s doing all that in one take with three-inch heals:

The first ever Jewish Miss America (perhaps not coincidentally in 1945), Bess Myerson is 89 today. Representative Barbara Lee is 67. As usual, I have a reason for listing politicians. There is lots nice to say about her, but she’s here today because she was the only person in Congress who voted against the Afghanistan War. And that really says something because a number of good people voted for it, even though at the time it seemed pretty obvious that the country was just lashing out rather than responding appropriately to 9/11. The founder of the band The Police, Stewart Copeland is 61. Screenwriter Tony Kushner is 57. Great poker player and by all accounts horrible human being, Phil Hellmuth is 49. Will Ferrell is 46. Look, none of my friends like him (that’s an understatement), but I’m just going to say it: he is a comedic genius. There are a number of his films that I didn’t like, but it isn’t because of him. I find him funny as hell. I especially recommend the much maligned Semi-Pro. I love that film. Here is one of his many brilliant Old Milwaukee Beer commercials:

The day, however, belongs to Wikipedia founder Larry Sanger who is 45 today. I have more problems with Wikipedia than most people, but it is still a great thing that makes the internet a much better research tool. And in particular, it is responsible for about 80% of all the research that I do for these birthday posts. I always thought he would have more hair, but now that I see him, I think he’s just perfect.

Happy birthday Larry Sanger!