I detest those that don’t have the guts and fortitude to interact openly.
Maybe it is because I am an open book.
I don’t write anonymous posts, anonymous comments or anonymous reviews.
I will NOT GIVE any credence to this letter critical of Pope Francis supposedly written by an anonymous cardinals. Ya. I believe that. These days that letter could have been written by a Chinese ROBOT.
So, let me make this extremely PLAIN & CLEAR as to my policy when it comes to ANONYMOUS COMMENTS on this blog.
Just in case any of YOU are confused, let me please clarify a few things.
>> My BLOG. Not a public blog. I pay (a fair amount of money annually) for this blog. My dollar. My BLOG.
>> In case you have NOT noticed, this Blog bears MY NAME: guruge.com/blog. MY BLOG.
>> My platform. My megaphone. My opinions. MY BLOG. Not a public platform.
>> IF you want unrestricted access to comment JUST identify yourself.
OK. Got that? Smile. {There are some who seem to have trouble grasping this.} MY BLOG. My dollar. [I intentionally won’t say ‘My Dime’ because we are talking some serious money (albeit tax deductible) when it comes to ALL the costs associated with this blog — including what some of the plugins costs (yearly).]
I will entertain and TRY NOT TO CENSOR any and all comments from posters whose identity I can verify — ideally online (e.g., Facebook account, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even a Blog or Website). Of course, I will not permit anything offensive or illegal. Be realistic. Remember, I rarely if ever swear or use ‘bad language’ (& being British ‘bloody‘, ‘bugger‘ & ‘damn‘ are perfectly valid words).
Get that. IF I know WHO YOU ARE (& yes there a few posters here who are friends) I will allow you to post things that I might not agree with — or makes me look a fool (which is not that hard to do). Just today I approved and responded to a comment where I admitted that I WAS WRONG.
Yes, I will cut tremendous SLACK — IF I know who you are.
Only fair.
I will EVEN entertain SOME COMMENTS from those that I do NOT KNOW — if I find them to be ‘OK’ or amusing.
Yes, there is a poster here who name is patently BOGUS. And he/she won’t identify themself. But, to be fair, their comments NEVER raise my hackles. Most times, like one today, are AMUSING.
Come on. This can’t be that hard to understand.
I assert my RIGHT to deal with anonymous posters.
KEY WORD — anonymous.
Identify yourself & I will tolerate much abuse.
That is the DEAL. IF you want unfettered ACCESS TO MY BLOG, then I need to know who the hell you are.
FAIR?
Any questions?
Whether I respond that last question will depend on whether I know you.
No, it is NOT the price, though I will readily confess that $1,800 does give one pause. But, given the trade-in I would get for my ‘Pixel 7 Pro‘ I could get it for around $1,000 which is not that different to what the ‘Pixel 7 Pro’ cost when I bought it (though I also had a trade-in for that).
It has ALL to do with how I use MY phone.
As some of you know I MAINLY (like 97% of the time) use my phone to take photos. That is it. My phone, these days, is MY camera.
I am NOT big into phone calls or TXTs. So, I can go for days, maybe even weeks, without EVER having use my phone as a phone! That is I.
I also don’t do e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, banking, etc. on my phone. Do those on my BIG, dual-monitor desktop PC. I also happen to have THREE 10.2″ Android tablets.
So, the Pixel Fold is neither here nor there for I.
IF it was 6.7″ when folded (i.e., same size as my 7 Pro) I would consider it.
Plus, they are saying battery life will not be as good as on the 7 Pro. That is not good. With the 7 Pro I get a day’s worth even when I am using it, extensively, to take pictures. A shorter battery life will make life more difficult.
So, for NOW, I am taking a pass on the Pixel Fold.
If these documents are so SECRETIVE & SENSITIVE as they are said to be, why are they NOT tracked & monitored?
With computers it would be trivial to keep & MAINTAIN an accurate LOG of what documents were given to whom & whether they were returned.
Come on! This is NOT rocket science.
You wouldn’t have to do it with all documents, ONLY those of a certain level & above. Some of these, both with Biden & ‘Trump‘, are said to be ‘sensitive compartmented information facility’Â (SCIF) level documents. Come on. If they are that sensitive why aren’t they more closely TRACKED?
45-years ago I worked for IBM which used to be paranoid about security — industrial espionage (in particular), but also too much government snooping. They had a very hierarchical document security system. The highest level that (quite junior at the time) I had access to was deemed ‘Registered Confidential‘ documents. The ‘Registered’ part designated that the document was indeed registered — there was a log of it & you had to sign it out & sign it in, in presence of a document custodian. So, IBM had a track of who had the document & whether it had been RETURNED.
This was 45-years ago. Basically like a library book check-out/check-in system.
Obviously the U.S. government does NOT have such a system, even for SCIF level documents.
Think about it.
If they did, they would have known that both Trump & Biden still had checked-out documents that they had NOT returned. Come on. This is simple stuff.
Now to my next question.
So, there was NO record that Biden had these 20 (or so) confidential documents.
Can we all agree on that (& ditto for the hundreds that Trump is supposed to have taken with him).
So, what would have happened IF Biden had not disclosed it?
Had them destroyed or sent to the ‘National Archives’ in a plain envelope.
Could they have been traced back to Biden?
Basically, Biden, the ol’ Catholic guy, was being too honest, too much of a gentleman.
Think about it.
Yes, if he got caught he would have to be impeached & maybe even sent to jail. But, what were the chances of that.
IF it was his lawyers who found them he would have been protected by their client-attorney privilege. WOW.
Yes, it took U-Haul close to 3-months to get this hitch but it was not all their fault. Their suppliers kept on letting us down. I ordered the hitch in mid-September 2022 & they, i.e., U-Haul in Concord, NH, only got it in mid-December 2022. During that time I got to know many of the folks at that U-Haul location. THEY WERE OUTSTANDING. A great bunch of human beings; helpful, courteous & professional. I will never go anywhere else for another hitch OR anything else I can get from U-Haul.
I was very impressed & pleased.
They did a nice job & the pricing was outstanding. Yes, they gave me quite the discount to compensate for the delay. [I bought a few accessories from them to makeup for that.]
I needed a hitch for my new Mazda CX-30 so that I can attach a small cargo carrier platform. Well I finally have a hitch & I used the platform that very day. It all worked great. I am very happy.
I haven’t watched ‘Willow TV‘ in weeks (though I have a fully paid up annual subscription) because, alas, they don’t have the streaming rights to the T20 World Cup. Instead, I have been watching all the World Cup games on ‘ESPN+‘. Though the cricket watching experience with them is nowhere near even close to that of Willow, they, to their credit, have done a fairly decent job with the World Cup. Much to my delight & relief we do have 15- to 16-minute highlights of all the matches. Those are what I watch. I don’t have the time to watch 3- to 4-hour long match.
But, with the World Cup ending on Sunday, i.e., November 13, 2022, Willow will be back in the streaming business. Hence, why I wanted to share the upcoming schedule with you. They sent it to me in the form of an e-mail. Enjoy.
What is infuriating about this is that the story (& as such this movie) STARTS by saying it is set in Maine (albeit in the fictitious town of Harlow). After that Maine gets mentioned, fairly regularly, quite a few times. That, as some know, is quite common with ‘Stephen King‘ works. He is a proud Mainer & likes to promote the state. Plus, it makes sense to set stories in a state that you are extremely au fait with.
So it was beyond annoying to see that this movie was NOT shot in Maine. It is pretty obvious to anyone who knows Maine — & while I have yet to cover all of Maine, I do know Maine quite well.
Why it could NOT have been shot in Maine is a mystery to I. Maybe it has to do with union regulations, local fees or state requirements. [I just did a quick Google. It appears that Maine is actually quite a cheap & fun place to make movies!]
Does NOT make sense. Don’t tell me that it is because they couldn’t find a fancy house in Maine. Au contraire. There are plenty of grand houses in Maine. There really is no shortage. So, that can’t be used as an excuse.
This movie could easily have been shot around the Rockland/Rockport/Camden area or even towns further south.
I am surprised that Stephen King, who I assume had some kind of say, did NOT object.
Well, I don’t care about others, I am offended & aggravated that this movie was NOT made in Maine.
I need a hitch for my new Mazda CX-30 so that I can attach a small cargo carrier platform. The dealership, ‘Seacoast Mazda‘, was not in the least helpful. Basically blew me away. Said they couldn’t be bothered! So, I had to look at other alternatives.
I, as is inevitable, kind of knew that ‘U-Haul‘ did hitch installations. A quick Google confirmed this. So, I went to them online.
On Tuesday, September 20, 2022, the day after I got the CX-30, I placed at online order with them for a 2″ hitch. That part was easy enough & their prices were GOOD. I was impressed. I had asked for a Friday (Sept. 23) installation, but noticed that the EARLIEST that they would give me was Wednesday, September 28, 2022. I worked out, eventually, that they needed that lead time to get the hitch to Concord, NH for installation, i.e., it was not in stock & had to be ordered.
I was given a 2pm installation appointment for Sept. 28. I was all set. At 10am I get a call from them saying that they DON’T have the hitch! Ah! They also had NO TRACKING (i.e., FedEx) data. Basically the hitch had not shipped as yet, i.e., FedEx had NOT picked it up as yet. So, there was NO delivery time! Not good.
I had to go to Concord anyway. I had arranged to pick up a new microwave from ‘Best Buy’. So, I stopped by U-Haul. Neat operation & the ‘young kid’ was as helpful as he could be. But, he agreed that he had NO idea when the hitch would ship — let alone get delivered. So, I cancelled the whole order & SUPPOSEDLY got a refund on my credit card (which I have yet to see). Bottom line: I still don’t have a hitch.
Did a little more digging when I got home. I now see that U-Haul is claiming that the hitch I need will not be in stock till October 10, 2022! Why didn’t they tell me that earlier. Not good. Not happy.
I love Christmas. I love Christmas presents. I love buying Christmas presents. I love giving Christmas presents. I, however, hate — DETEST — Christmas wrapping paper.
Such a WASTE.
So pointless. So unnecessary. So stupid.
Why can’t we just give Christmas presents without having to wrap them?
Yes, of course we can. My 15-year old daughter lives for Christmas. She adores Christmas. She is not avaricious. She does NOT ask for much or want much at Christmas. But, whatever she gets, she wants it WRAPPED.
The IRONY is that she is a great believer in going green.
I have, for as long as I can remember, hated the waste of Christmas paper.
I am willing to compromise. I will GLADLY use old newspaper.
When I was young, my uncle, who bought me a LOT of Christmas presents, gave them to me in pillowcases. It was his spin on Christmas stockings. All my toys wouldn’t fit into stockings so he would give me two, three or more STUFFED pillowcases. I liked that. I would do that now.
Don’t give the prattle that Christmas wrapping paper can be recycled. Recycling uses energy and as such costs real money.
We should just do away with Christmas paper.
There is all this talk about carbon emissions & fuel mileage. Why doesn’t anybody talk about the stupidity of using Christmas wrapping paper?
‘GoDaddy’ & I, as I talked about in this September 2021 post, go back 22-years.
I was a huge fan & promoter of GoDaddy. At one stage, c. 2010, I probably had 35 ‘products’ — viz., registered domain names, hosted sites & e-mail accounts — at GoDaddy. I had ALL of my ‘Web’ stuff with them (without exception) & tried to get most of my clients to move their stuff over to them too. I swore by GoDaddy — but the swearing had to do with how great they were. My yearly invoices from GoDaddy, as I would be reminded each year as I filed my taxes, ran into the thousands.
GoDaddy, under the legendary founder ‘Bob Parsons’ was good to I & I was grateful. It was not always smooth sailing, but boy, ‘oh, boy!’, did they try. Their support used to be so responsive. They had a highly technical group called the ‘Tiger Team‘. If you were a ‘preferential customer‘, either because you had highly technical needs or you bought a lot of products, your technical issues would be escalated to the ‘Tiger Team’. They were good. They would get on the phone with you.
Well, this is BUT nostalgia.
GoDaddy is a shadow of what it used to be in its heyday. ‘Blake Irving‘, who became their CEO, in 2013, in my opinion, changed the company forever — &, alas, not for the better. I was never a fan of his. I guess this 2017 post was not that subtle as to how I felt. SMILE.
Click image to access my 2017 post at my old blog.
Well, alas, this is not the first unfortunate data breach that GoDaddy has endured. They had another one just 2-years ago! Yes, just two years ago — October 19, 2019.
I started this, my latest (& hopefully ‘greatest’) website/blog in June of this year. I spent weeks looking for the right hosting company for I — & I had decided I was going to use WordPress. I had had 20 (or more) managed WordPress sites at GoDaddy. But, this time around I barely spent 5 minutes thinking about them as an option. I went, in the end, with ‘HostGator‘. So far, they have been immaculate.
I am, of course, delighted that I am NOT a GoDaddy WordPress customer. This data breach will be such a pain for MILLIONS as they scramble trying to change passwords etc. This was NOT acceptable on the part of GoDaddy.
