Biohacker – Good News and Bad News

Good News: The CEO who injected himself with an untested Herpes cure back in February lived to tell the story.

Bad News: The CEO who injected himself with an untested Herpes cure back in February lived to tell the story — until May.

Full story here.

Additionally…he could also have played Kylo Ren. He looks a little like Adam Driver.

The Raspberry PI Post

I am writing this post on my Raspberry PI. For anyone who does not know what that is…

It is a computer that basically fits in the palm of your hand. They are incredible powerful and do a lot of things. Some use them as their home PC. Some use them for robotics projects. They are amazingly powerful for their size. HDMI video output, 4 USB ports, built-in Wi-Fi and ethernet port. It also supports bluetooth connections.

The official website is here.

Government Assumption – Fire Zones

Government in general usually makes a lot of assumptions when it comes to knowledge that the citizens should or should not have.

Fire zones are just one of the many examples.

What the hell does that even mean? How the hell would any of us know what a fire zone is and why would we?

It is meaningless bullshit that only the retarded government worker who came up with it knows. Not everyone is a fire fighter and not everyone knows what these stupid idiotic retarded zones mean.

Whomever invented them. Fuck. You.

Seriously.

Pseudo Camping Trip

I’m finally taking a few days off. I’m happy that our big project is past the first big hurdle and we are now into phase 2.

With that being said, I believe it is time to test some new camping gear. One of the latest additions is the Lynx ALPS 4 tent. It is a rather large tent weighing in at 10 pounds. I like the smaller Bivy style tent I have but sometimes you just need more room.

I’m going to spend most of the morning trying to figure out what gear I’ll need and then — pack it up. I’m taking the Trekking King 60L Survival Rucksack.

I’m looking forward to some winding down.

Robocall Relief Possible

Great article over at Engadget about congress trying to pass stricter laws against Robocallers.

I get about a dozen of these per day. I wish Apple would just allow us to block any number that is not in our contact list.

Yes. I like using “asides” to post. I think bigger posts should be handled differently. Asides are great for quick posts. Love. Them.

A Night Out

Last night I decided to try out both my mid-range sleeping bag and the Winterial bivy style tent.

I was amazingly warm and actually very comfortable last night. The temperature was 58 F when I went to sleep and got down to low 40s when I woke up.

The air cushion also helped to make the overnight enjoyable.

Thumbs way up — can’t wait for camping season.

Time for A Short Story

I wrote a story a couple of years ago called “P-5443 or Bust.” I’m not sure why I chose the name but it seemed fitting for the story itself.

I’ve added the story to the short story tab above.

I just re-read it and I still like the story — especially the ending. Hat Tip to my friend John who always believes that stories need hope — somewhere.

There is some hope in this story…sort of.

It is a very quick read. The idea was a small word count. I was originally going to submit this to the yearly PBS writing contest but never got around to it.

Enjoy.

Go-Live Weekend

Well, the time has finally arrived. After several delays — this weekend should mark the dawn of a new WMS where I work.

I think we’re all ready to just get this thing overwith — already.

I’m not sure how much posting I’ll do. I came up with a great short story idea a couple of days ago and I plan to write that out.

I may also post a short story I wrote a couple of years ago about a “space mishap” and a stranded Marine.

Hope everyone enjoys the fabulous weekend weather!

Update: 3:00 pm – The process seems to be taking a little longer than anticipated. We don’t anticipate being able to start anything until at least 7:00 pm. We’ll have another update at 6:00 pm.

Update: Sunday Afternoon – 3:17 pm. We have completed the upgrade and are moving forward with our configuration. I had a straight 36 hours of being awake. Time for bed.

Update: Wednesday Morning – April 16, 2018 – 2:19 am. We’ve been using our new system since Saturday. It is not without it’s flaws but we are pounding through it. Monday and Tuesday have been mostly mission critical patches and we still have a few of those but we’re getting through the problems. I’m not surprised by any of our issues. They are pretty standard pain points in any upgrade. The folks on the project have been wonderful and I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of co-workers.

Update: Sunday Morning – April 22, 2018 – 10:19 am – We are almost finished getting to a stable state. Only a few more things to work out. It has been a very long week.

Cracking iPhones?

As an Apple iPhone user, I am grateful that Apple takes security and privacy seriously. So much so, that they’ve been to court many times over it.

A story from Engadget this morning sounds troubling. Apparantly, there is a hardware device on the market that can crack iPhone security. From the article…

Based on an earlier report by Malwarebytes, GrayKey is a small box that can unlock two iPhones at a time. (See the two connectors in the image of the device below?) It was developed by Atlanta company Grayshift, which is run by long-time US intelligence agency contractors and a former Apple security engineer, according to Forbes. To use GrayKey, all cops need to do is connect a phone to it for two minutes. They simply have to wait a bit after it’s unplugged to see a black screen pop up with the passcode — how long they’d have to wait depends on how complex the passcode/passphrase is.

Hopefully, Apple will release a patch that will negate this device.

A Series of Books

As you can see by the sidebar (today anyway), I am reading a series called Arisen. It is an awesome series about a ZA or Zombie Apocolypse for anyone who doesn’t get the lingo.

I started the book yesterday and I was immediately confused about what series this was. You see — I have probably read about 14 books between the last book, Book 12, and the current book, Book 13.

A lot of different things have happened in a lot of other books. It can get really difficult to keep track.

I suppose it is a great problem to have. Reading so much that you can’t tell which series you are in.

Ok. Just wanted to rant a bit.

Chuck is Back

After a few weeks of ups and downs, my friend Chuck is finally out of the hospital. He collapsed at work several weeks ago from a mild heart attack. After a few days of diagnosis, it was determined that he required open heart surgery.

After the surgery, Chuck has some more battles to overcome including standing up and then — dying.

He was brought back and then forced into a coma for a few days.

He was supposed to be able to come home yesterday but the hospital wouldn’t release him.

Today — after all of this — he is finally home.

Watching a friend go through this makes me look at where I am as far as my health is concerned.

I certainly don’t want to go through what he has.

Anyway, I’m glad he is finally home.

Update: (04.21.2018) – Chuck had to go back into the hospital a couple of times because of respiratory issues. Fluid builds up in his lungs and he can’t breathe. This has happened twice now. He finally came back home again yesterday. He sounds much better and has lost a lot of weight. I have to admit that I was getting worried when I didn’t see him this morning. His brother called and finally woke him up. I was honestly wondering about whether or not he had passed as a reason for not seeing him this morning. My mind wonders and I couldn’t be more happy to be wrong in this instance.