MacGyver

There are probably two ways to think about them: 1. It looks like they've gotten a few hundred thousand overall downloads. That's not quite to the point where they need to think about scale like Facebook - but it's quickly approaching where they need an actual business model that lets them make money. To my knowledge they haven't received VC funding, so that cliff is going to come sooner rather than later. Especially now that downloads seem to be slowing - it'll be hard to fundraise if your subscribers aren't going "up and to the right." 2. Probably more relevant right now in that people are looking for a place to go since Parler shut down is the conversation that practically every corporate attorney in America is having today. That is, how do you define "providing material support" to an insurrection? That's what has caused Apple, Google, and Amazon to remove Parler. It's what's caused 14 of the biggest tech companies on the planet to deplatform the most powerful man in the world. It's what's caused companies like DOW and Ford to immediately suspend all donations to members of Congress who supported overturning the results of AZ, GA, and PA - https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2021/01/11/ford-dow-suspend-political-donations-capitol-riot/6623557002/ It's what caused Cumulus Media to tell hosts like Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, and Dan Bongino to stop talking about the election being stolen at risk of having their contracts terminated: https://www.ajc.com/life/radiotvtalk-blog/cumulus-media-tells-its-conservative-talk-show-hosts-to-stop-talking-about-a-stolen-election/PE2VM6SQKBFBZBULQTFZLQUV7A/ Y'all can form your own opinion on whether you think this is justified or not - but I expect you'll see more examples in coming days. This is just to give an idea of the conversations management teams are having with counsel behind the scenes.

In a move that I expect you'll see more of in coming days: The Michigan Capitol Commission voted unanimously (every Republican and Democrat) to ban open carry in the statehouse. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/01/11/michigan-capitol-open-carry-gun-ban/6623331002/

It’s hard to say - but I doubt it. Frankly, most of the cases I’ve been in over the years with stuff like this have been brought by private action. I guess Parler would have some remedies available to them. That’s assuming they’ve got the money/desire to go to court. I doubt they do.

All of the above - plus Amazon is almost certainly in receipt of a preservation order.

Unfortunately, we’ve known them to be susceptible to stuff like this for a while. They built their site on a platform (Wordpress) that had some known vulnerabilities. When Twilio (their authentication provider) booted them, they still wanted people to be able to login - so they basically set the site to “fail open.” The combination of these things is what’s letting people mine the data. The fact that they failed to take basic precautions like removing EXIF (location metadata) is so comical that it’s either extremely incompetent or by design. Or maybe both. We’ve been warning about the fact that a hostile foreign intelligence service is almost certainly involved for a while. They’ll have access to all that data. Now “hacktavists” will to. If you know people who this applies to, I’d certainly plan accordingly.

I'm locking this thread for now. It's not because I don't think that the new administration/congress will be anti-gun. It's because there's nothing but Facebook fear mongering in the posts above. The "13 page app" that was posted was the ATF Form 1 application to make a firearm. Post the text of a bill from the current Congress. Even the text of the platform of the incoming administration. But do some research - we have to do better with actual facts.

I spoke a little bit earlier about Parler having no meaningful information security protections in place. It gets worse (better?) It seems that their lack of forward planning is now having the entire site mined of data - and that even when users deleted stuff - they didn't actually get rid of it. So, now you have users who uploaded their actual drivers license being added to no fly lists in realtime. We've had questions about who's behind Parler for months now. I mean, their founder went to Russia, met a girl, got married in a government facility, and came back and developed the app with no apparent source of funding other than Dan Bongino (who doesn't have anywhere close to the funding it would take to scale something like this.) I want to say this clearly to anyone here who might have uploaded their license data to be a "verified citizen." Make sure you've invested in good identity theft protection from a provider who knows what they're doing. You're likely to need it in the coming months. Forget the fact that you uploaded your ID to a foreign intelligence service. Since all of this data is about to be publicly available - there are going to be plenty of folks who will be quite willing to misuse that data to purchase cars, open credit accounts, traffic in stolen goods...you get the idea.

You might check out some Hultafors axes. This Ekeland Hunting Ax has been in continuous production since the 1870s. https://www.hultafors.com/products/axes/H0292-ekelund-hunting-axe/160443

I own three Gransfors Bruks axes. They’re handmade Swedish purpose built axes. They come shaving sharp - which can be strange/dangerous for anyone who’s only ever used cast hardware store axes. Not only are they perfect tools, they’re works of art. I’ve got a large splitting axe, a small forest axe, and a wildlife hatchet. They’re more expensive than a Fiskars (which is actually a completely fine axe for everyday needs) - but your kids will fight over them.

Congrats. I’ve never seen anything like that in middle Tennessee. Or anywhere that’s not behind a fence for that matter.

Glory. How’d you get that thing in the truck?

Yep. Their hosting (and infrastructure) provider is booting them. As of tomorrow afternoon, their app is homeless. It’s so poorly written, it would basically take a rewrite - and a bunch of money and time to stand it back up. It’s not to say a Peter Thiel or Larry Ellison won’t step in to fund it - but even if that happened, it’s gonna be a minute.

AWS just booted Parler - so unless they stand it up on some Russian server farm they’re effectively done for now.

Brother, you'll be in my prayers. That's a lot going on at once. Thankful your dad was able to leave the hospital. It's a long road.

Over the course of my career, my work has taken me to a lot of unpopular places in the world. I've seen the effects of unmitigated hatred as people kill one another in places like Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia. I've spent plenty of time in the Middle East, and even though I'm only in my mid-40's, I can remember what a awesome city Damascus was before the war. I've slept in the shadow of Khobar Towers. For a bunch of years, my job often took me to these unpopular places. Talking to a counselor several years ago, she argued that there shouldn't be a D on PTSD. That nothing is wrong with you - that everything you're experiencing is a normal reaction to extreme stress. I've thought about that a lot over the years. I found myself thinking about it yesterday as I watched the events of yesterday unfold. I found myself getting irritated. My heart rate was up above where it normally is, and I couldn't seem to relax - nor could I really focus on anything particularly well either. I know these signs, and knew that I was going to have nightmares last night. I've got a lot of support in my life. I have a hard time with the word blessing - but this is an area where I'm truly blessed. But I've spoken to a lot of folks today that I know don't have that support in their life. That haven't gotten the support they've needed. Vets. Foreign Service. Agency friends. A lot of us watched yesterday and found ourselves in a weird place. We've seen what happened yesterday a bunch of times other places - but maybe don't have a place to put it when it has happened here. Anyway, that's a long way of saying - if yesterday has opened old wounds - or maybe opened one some you didn't realize you had - there are folks here in a similar place. I'm happy to talk anytime if you need something. Feel free to reach out.

I say this as someone whose superpower is not being particularly afraid of screwing stuff up. That said, calipers and castings aside, I’d sure as heck take it to someone who knew what they were doing before I pulled that trigger.

SOL also makes an emergency bivy that is great quality. In an immersion type accident, getting those wet clothes off is going to be key. We were taught and trained to get the clothes off - do something really rigorous like jumping jacks to get our blood circulating, and then get into the shelter/poncho with a heat source. The real key is creating your own air space that can heat up the layer of air closest to you. The only suggestion I might make is to add something like a BlastMatch to the kit that can be used one handed. From experience - when you're really cold, the manual dexterity needed to get a spark off a flint and steel can be a challenge.

Nice work actually field testing this.

A friend got a positive test today that's quite worrisome. She's in the midst of chemo right now, so her immune system is already quite suppressed. Prayers would certainly be appreciated.

That’s no longer true. Times are definitely changing.

Gracious, Robert. You’re in my prayers for sure. And, I know they’re not really letting visitors in - but if you need anything - I’m local - just let me know.

Don’t discount the AMD Ryzens outright. It’s probably worth reading up. I know you’re probably like me and have an opinion on Intel vs AMD formed in the 90’s. But, there are a bunch of diehard gamers on that platform.

This all feels quite probitive - response times, tactics, etc. Y’all keep your heads down.

While there’s a conversation to be had about future proofing on the i7 vs i9, if you’re looking at price differentials - most of the performance that a gamer would probably care about would come from spending that money upgrading the graphics card. Memory and processing power offloaded to that discrete card are likely to net him a lot more than just the CPU itself.

I hope that each of you will be surrounded by ones you love - either in person or at a distance - some virtual. It’s a strange year for sure - but I pray that each of you will feel some of the peace of Christmas. For some, This Christmas is hard because of those you’ve lost - either this year or in years past. Know that you remain in my prayers - and I remember you and them - so many we’ve lost. I pray an extra measure of peace will surround you.