Now this is my kind of an app!

Finally! An app for my social type!

The Story:

We have myriad tech-enabled ways to encounter friends (and strangers!) in real life. We can check in on Foursquare. Tag a location on Instagram. Swipe on Tinder. Tweet, from just about anywhere.

The inevitable backlash has, at last, arrived: It’s called Cloak, and it’s an “antisocial network” that uses social check-ins and other geo-location information to help you avoid people you’d, well, rather not see.

Here’s how the app works. After downloading Cloak for the first time, you can connect it with Foursquare and Instagram (with more networks to come soon). Cloak then plots where your Foursquare and Instagram contacts are, according to their most recent check-ins. You can casually check the map, or — for exes, chatty neighbors and other undesirables — “flag” them to receive an alert when they pass within a preset radius.

via Meet Cloak, the ‘antisocial’ network that helps you avoid people.

You bet your dollar I will be downloading this; I have to try it. I’m not much into the social interaction thing, at all. So, it’s going on the phone. Finally! An app I can actually use! 😀

Update: I just checked the website for the app. It’s only available for apple devices on the iTunes store. Ugh. 🙁 Not fair. Hopefully, they make a version for Android soon.

Ray Dolby, Audio Pioneer dead at 80

Sad news to report:

SAN FRANCISCO –  Ray Dolby, who pioneered noise-reducing and surround-sound audio technologies which are fundamental to the music and film industries, has died aged 80, the company which bears his name announced Thursday.

Dolby had suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for a number of years, and was diagnosed with acute leukemia last July, it said, adding that the Oscar-winning scientist died at home in San Francisco.

“Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary,” said Kevin Yeaman, President and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, the company which the young Dolby created in 1965.

‘Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary.’

– Kevin Yeaman, President and CEO of Dolby Laboratories

“Ray Dolby founded the company based on a commitment to creating value through innovation and an impassioned belief that if you invested in people and gave them the tools for success they would create great things.

He added: “Ray’s ideals will continue to be a source of inspiration and motivation for us all.”

via Ray Dolby, audio pioneer, dies aged 80 | Fox News.

 

 

The Saturday Night Music Express – Special Memorial Edition – Presents: Stone Temple Pilots

Los Angeles (CNN) — Aaron Swartz, an Internet savant who at a young age shaped the online era by co-developing RSS and Reddit and later became a digital activist, has committed suicide, a relative told CNN Saturday.
He was 26 years old.

A prodigy, Swartz was behind some of the Internet’s iconic moments, soaring to heights that many developers only dream of. At the same time, he was plagued by legal problems arising from his aggressive activism, and he was also known to suffer depression, a personal matter that he publicly revealed on his blog.

Related:

Others: AlterNetMashable!GuardianThe Daily CallerThe VergeVentureBeatTowleroad News #gayThe Raw Story and Gothamist,  New York TimesHullabalooAlthouseGuardian and Brad DeLong,  Crooked TimberThe AgonistThe Atlantic OnlineGuardianBalloon JuiceThe Lede,Le·gal In·sur·rec· tionGawkerTechCrunchAlthouse and Lessig Blog, v2The Reality-Based Community (Memeorandum)

Yeah Sure: Instagram says no user photos in ads

They really expect us to believe that?

SAN FRANCISCO — Instagram, the popular mobile photo-sharing service now owned by Facebook, said Tuesday that it will remove language from its new terms of service suggesting that users’ photos could appear in advertisements.

The language in question had appeared in updated policies announced Monday and scheduled to take effect Jan. 16. After an outcry on social media and privacy rights blogs, the company clarified that it has no plans to put users’ photos in ads.

That said, Instagram maintains that it was created to become a business and would like to experiment with various forms of advertisements to make money. Instagram doesn’t currently run any ads. As of now, the free service has no way to make money and brings in no revenue to Facebook.

“Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience,” Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

What had riled users and privacy advocates was Instagram’s new assertion that it may now receive payments from businesses to use its members’ photos, user name and other data”in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation” to them.

via Instagram says users’ photos won’t appear in ads | Technology | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

Needless to say, I deleted my account, right after seeing about this on twitter. I’ll just use twitter’s photo sharing service instead.

California tech world shows its true colors

This comes via Bill Quick, it is related to this here:

IDFSpokespersonFacebook
#PillarOfDefense
IDFblogFacebook
Some idiot at TechCrunch is not pleased.

Wonder if they would feel the same way if Palestine were doing it? Even better, wonder if they would feel the same way, if Obama were doing it.

It is to wonder.

Update: Yes, I know what I posted here. There is a grand canyon of difference between pointing out a NeoCon’s idiocy and actually hating on Israel for defending themselves. Anyone that does not know the difference between the two; has no business being on the internet, much less reading blogs.

Also too, like I wrote before:

If you are Jewish, I have zero quarrels with you at all; but, please, if I happen to say something you do not like, SUCK IT UP and please, do not wave your damned yarmulke in my face, and call me a hater —-because if you do, I am going to tell you to kiss my ass.

I stand by that comment. I just do not respect, nor do I traffic in identity politics; left or right. I do not do it with the Blacks or Latinos; and I do not do it with the Jews, at all. I also happen to not be too fond of White Nationalists either. Because that too, is just another form of identity politics.  I believe in equal rights for ALL. Special privileges for NONE.  This includes with the wealthy. I could go on and on, but I think you all know what I mean here.

 

 

I accidentally messed up my Mom’s Laptop

I thought I would give you all an update on what is going on with my laptop saga. Needless to say, it has been a nerve racking 24 hours around here. As you all know my Laptop’s LCD display went on fritz. It had been acting up for a good long while. When the Laptop would boot up, it would have a reddish color to it, and sometimes it would flicker; which drove me up the wall.

Well, finally yesterday, my LCD display on my laptop finally went out, while I was watching a video on youtube. Luckily for me, I have an old SVGA 17 inch monitor, it is a Amptron GS17 monitor. It is old school, but hey, it works.

So, anyhow, my Mom, who is the greatest lady ever — lent me a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop, that my dad used, before he started using an 17 inch Dell laptop, that my Mom gave to him, when she bought herself a newer 17 inch laptop.  This laptop had Windows Visa Premium in it. Also too, and please note this point: The Laptop HAS NO Harddrive LIGHT at all.

So, I got the thing, and of course, it needed like a bunch of updates, because it had not been hooked up to the Internet, in long while.  So, I started the process of getting all of those updates. In the process of doing all that, I did something stupid — I had an excuse and reason for it — But I digress.

While the laptop was apply all of the updates for Windows Visa, the update process seemed to have stalled; remember what I said about the Hard Drive light? Yeah, that’s right, I had zero clue as to what was happening in that Department. So, I committed the ultimate stupid mistake. I actually shut the machine off, while it was applying the updates.  Oops. 😳

So, needless to say, the Laptop’s hard drive “Drive Table” is hosed and I mean hosed good. Can’t boot from CD, the computer wants a driver for the Hard Drive, and naturally the driver is not on any of the CD’s that came with that laptop.  So, now, I not only have this laptop, of whom the LCD display is hosed, I also screwed my mother’s laptop, that she used on occasion in her bedroom, horribly up.

To say that my Mother was displeased with me, would be the understatement of the century. I tried to explain to her, that it really was not my fault, that I had no idea what was happening in the Hard Drive department; but all she knows is that she loaned me a laptop and that I screwed it up. 🙁

So, the chances of me getting a new laptop from my parents, at this point, is slim to nil. The horrible part is, that it is all my fault; if I would have left that damned laptop alone and let it do it’s thing, none of this would have ever happened. But it did and now, I am back to square one, and now owe my mother for the laptop that I destroyed.

I was thinking of putting up Donation buttons in this posting; but I doubt very seriously that would do any good. I know I am not well liked by anybody in the blogosphere. But, my Mom does not know this. All she knows is that I blog to defend the “Republicans” as she calls it. She also most likely thinks that “He ought to go ask his rich Republican friends for donations to cover the cost of my laptop.” Which all makes me very sad, because I happen to know that the Conservative Blogosphere and the rich Republicans, as she calls them — happen to hate my guts.

So, yeah, needless to say; I am in a serious bind. I have zero clue what to do at this point. My sidebar has a button, if you wish to donate; give enough, so I can pay my Mom for the laptop that I messed up and so I can get me a new laptop to replace the one that went out on me. I will not hold my breath, because I know my status in the blogosphere, but I have to try and make things right.

I brought it all on myself and for that I feel really small and honestly folk, that feeling really sucks to the high heavens.

Update: October 21, 2013: Someone must have done a search on this, because it popped up in my stats. I am very happy to report, that not long after this was posted, my Mom was able to do a recovery from the actual laptop itself. I don’t know all the details, all I know is, it worked. 😀 I’m still using that laptop, it works very well. 🙂

Chuck Baldwin minces no words about Paul Ryan

I have to like Chuck Baldwin, he does not mince words:

It has happened again. We go through this every four years, and every four years the vast majority of “conservatives” fall for it. This is such a broken record. What did Forrest Gump say: “Stupid is as stupid does”? And wasn’t it P.T. Barnum who said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”? Well, here we go again.

Neocon RINO George H.W. Bush picks “conservative” Dan Quayle. “Conservative” G.W. Bush picks neocon RINO Dick Cheney. Neocon RINO John McCain picks “conservative” Sarah Palin. Now, neocon RINO Mitt Romney picks “conservative” Paul Ryan. As long as there is one “conservative” on the ticket, mushy-headed “conservatives” across the country will go into a gaga, starry-eyed, hypnotic trance in support of the Republican ticket. I’m convinced that if Lucifer, himself, was the GOP Presidential candidate, he would get the support of the Religious Right and Republican “conservatives” as long as he selected a reputed “conservative” to join his ticket. And, by the way, the notable “conservative” wouldn’t think twice about joining such a ticket, either, I’m convinced.

Let’s just get this on the record: since 1960, there have only been two Presidential nominees (from the two major parties) who were not controlled by the globalist elitists. One was a Democrat, John F. Kennedy; the other was a Republican, Ronald Reagan. Kennedy was shot and killed; Reagan was shot. Every other President, Democrat or Republican, has been totally controlled, which is why none of them have done diddly-squat to make a difference in the direction of the country. On the issues that really matter, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are just more of the same!

via Chuck Baldwin — Paul Ryan: More Of The Same.

He goes on to say that Ron Paul is the only one; and I disagree with that. However, I will say this; he is right about Romney and Ryan. Which is I am voting for:

Goode/Clymer in 2012

He will not win the election

But voting for anything else is simply Anti-American

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