analog_kidd

We've been talking about being willing to accept the consequences for flag stomping, and it occurred to me that these consequences could last a lifetime in today's digital age. I have been in a position where I have been able to hire people for really good, well paying jobs. The first thing I do when considering interviewing someone is to do a quick Google or Facebook search on them. If I were to see a video of someone doing this, or even "liking" a post, I would immediately disqualify them. You may be the smartest person for the job, but you know what, I don't like you. You make a choice, and so do I. The good / bad thing about the Internet, is this kind of stuff is forever. You think you're being clever, or making a statement now while you're young or in college. Wait until you're 30 and see how the world really works, and you want to provide for your own kids. If I'm making the decision, those actions just cost you dearly.   I saw one video of a young girl doing some kind of dance move stomp on the flag. She had an ass the size of Texas and I kept thinking that living in America she was able to have a nice, cushy life with (relatively) no worries, and sit around getting fat. She probably never in her life stepped up to help someone else, or try to make this country a better place, only caring about herself, and what she could get. I occurred to me that the only patriotic moments she may have ever had were saying God Bless America, right after stuffing a bag of Twinkies down her mouth.

My other hobby is whitewater kayaking, and it is a sport 99% populated by tree hugging liberals. Kayaking is a single person sport, but you need other people to go along with you for safety reasons, and to help with shuttle. I generally have to bite my tongue all the time just not to alienate myself from the group. I'd venture to say most of them have never even fired a gun, and would be repulsed at the very idea. I think most of them would pee themselves if they ever found the Ruger I carry in my backpack.   One weekend several of us were camping out in the woods near a river we were paddling. Many beers were consumed and the conversation turned to "what would we do if some crazy redneck hunter came out here and tried to make us squeal like pigs". Most talked about where in the woods they would run away to. I finally spoke up and mentioned I'd just get the 9 mil from the truck. Everyone sat there looking at me like I had said I would have thrown a dead baby seal at them. The conversation was over and we never spoke of it again.   They definitely don't like when I point out the hypocrisy of burning a couple of tankfulls of gas and emitting all that carbon every weekend to go on a river trip. It's OK to be a tree hugger environmentalist as long as it doesn't interfere with their fun time.

I'm a big fan. In fact, my screen name is taken from one of their song titles. I've seen them a couple of times, and they really put on one heck of a show.   I tend to like their older stuff. Through the years they refined their style, and it got more synthesized. I like the edgier sound of their earlier stuff.    Plus, Geddy just can't hit those high notes anymore  :)

Wow! That was a great post. Thanks for taking the time to share your story, and an even bigger thanks for serving.

I just bought a Raspberry Pi computer that I plan to use as a Media Center in the bedroom, and maybe another one in the basement if it works out. Rasberry Pi is a computer about the size of a deck of cards. It was designed for educational purposes, and has really taken off in the electronic hobbyist world. There are several Linux distributions that work with it, with a couple of them being set up just for use as a media center. Mostly they run an application called Kodi (formerly named XBMC),   Kodi can pull in content like video and audio that you have stored locally or on your network, or it can pull it in from Internet sources. It has a bunch of stuff it knows about natively, like Youtube or the DIY Channel's video library, but people have written add-ons that make it easy to watch other content, like video from other cable channels, and Crackle for free movies. I've even seen add-ons that stream live TV.   The Rasberry Pi cost me $69 on Amazon for a complete setup: board, case, SD Card, WiFi, cables. I just snapped it all together and two minutes later it's ready to plug in. If it sucks as a media player, I'll find some other use for it. If nothing else I can use it to surf the web and check email.

Over the last few years, my musical tastes have completely moved over to Blues. BB King is a legend. He has been an influence on so many artists over the DECADES that he has been a musician. He really helped to form the genre. Artists come and go, and most will be forgotten, but centuries from now, people will still know the name BB King.   Rest in peace.

  I always felt that way about Journey. Back when they were popular, the stations played the heck out of them. It always seemed to me the singer was crying through each song, and I couldn't stand it.   Now, I rarely listen to radio. I bought a stereo for my truck with a USB port on it. I loaded up a USB flash drive with about 300 albums, and I set the stereo to play random songs. It's like my own little radio station of just songs that I like, and never any stupid commercials.

Hello from Clinton

I don't know how much more the VA offer was, but you likely would have had to shell out money to make a lot of silly repairs, so it would have been a wash. And, there would be countless headaches and delays waiting on the VA. The Investors are going to give you your asking price, which is probably more than what you were willing to negotiate down to anyway. To me that would be a win.

Nackelback was very successful because they came up with a formula for songs that people liked. Too bad they wore that formula out, because every song sounds the same. Here is a good example. Someone took two of their songs, played one on the left channel, and one on the right. You can definitely hear what I mean:   https://youtu.be/Qs4tNeGyTyI  

Back when I was playing Call of Duty on the PS3, I would spend my time in the lobby turning off the audio for anyone that was speaking. I could take only so much F-Bombs and P**** name calls, I'd rather not hear anyone talk. Mostly it came from adolescents who thought it was cool, and would be grounded if their mom heard them talk that way. 

This thread would be so much better with pictures. Hopefully Mrs. John455 will be along shortly. No way I would have unlocked those cuffs without some sort of embarrassing photos being taken.

I usually fill a few 2 liter bottles with water and freeze them. The ice blasts out of the back of the bottle and makes a nice visual. And, unlike water that leaks out as soon as you hit the bottle, the ice keeps for several shots.

I have a friend who has a theory that memories are like marbles in a tube. The tube can only hold so many, and if you add a new marble, one drops out the other end and is gone forever.   He says he is always worried that the marble that drops out is the one that reminds him to drop his pants before going to the bathroom. He says that he really likes that marble.

I keep honey bees, and so far, my dogs have not gotten stung. They wander near the hive every so often, but have never gone right up to it. My bees are fairly non-aggressive, I frequently open the hive with no gear on and they don't bother me. Especially if it's just a quick, take a peek, kind of thing. I did get stung just below the eye once, but I had opened the hive all the way up and was doing some work in there. She got me just as I took off my hood.   I did have a nest of yellow jackets in the barn last summer. I put on my bee suit and went after them. Now, they were aggressive. They would attack and not stop. Even with the suit on, I still got about a dozen stings before it was all over. 

Does the computer give you any error messages, or a blue screen when you try to boot it? If so, please share them. You can Google them too and see if that gives any insight.   Sounds like you found your restore CD's, which is good. Not sure why booting from them didn't fix your problem. Boot from disk one again, and see if there is an option to do a complete restore. That would erase your drive and completely lay down all new bits. You may have just done a "refresh" and left whatever is causing your problem, still on the PC.   Another thing to try, is take off one of the little covers on the bottom, and find the memory. Remove and replace them. Sometimes, over time, with the heat generated in the laptop, the memory will expand and contract and eventually work loose a bit and not make a good connection. Just pulling them out and putting them right back in will fix that.

The Linux idea is a great one, if it's just the O/S that is broken. If all you are going to be doing is using a web browser, you'll be up and running and surfing about two minutes after installing the O/S, it's really that easy. You can even boot directly from most Linux CD's without installing the O/S, just to see if you like it. It will run a little slower like that, but you'll at least get an idea of what you'll be in for.

I've been a whitewater kayaker for about 35 years now. In fact, it's one of the main reasons I was drawn to move to TN. I would come here every year from flat water Florida, to the glorious mountains of E. TN to paddle the rivers.   I will tell you that there are quite a few different styles of kayaks, and you really need to decide what kind of kayaker you want to be. You cannot take a kayak designed for the lake down a whitewater river, and you will be miserable taking a whitewater kayak on a lake since it would be sluggish and have a tendency to turn all the time.   Here are the basic styles of kayaks. try to figure out what is your main goal and go from there. Fishing (will have rod holders and a place to put fish and tackle) Touring / Lakes (will be a long boat  and have a keel to help you go straight and fast) Whitewater - Playboat (will be very short with very little volume. designed for whitewater "tricks") Whitewater - River Runner (mid-sized boat to just have fun paddling down rivers) Whitewater - Creek Boat (big faty boat with lots of volume to help stay on top of the water)   If you wanted a boat that could be taken on whitewarer or a lake, I would look at the River Runner style. It will be great on rivers, and just OK on a lake. It will not be good to fish from, however.   Figure out where you want to end up paddling, and go to a place that sells kayaks, and talk to them about what you want. The demo day that was mentioned above is a fantastic idea.   CraigsList is  a great place to find boats too and you can save a lot of money. Flatwater kayaks will probably be in good shape. You'll need to scrutinize a whitewater kayak a bit more, since it will likely have lots of scratches and gouges from rocks. Whitewater kayakers tend to be committed to the sport and will keep doing it (its an adrenaline rush addiction that can't be shaken), so there may not be as many of those used boats. Flatwater kayakers will often buy the boats, use them a time or two, and then they sit in their garage taking up space.   Whatever you decide, get out on the water and have fun.

What happened to your laptop? Is it hardware dead, or did the operating system just get corrupted? The operating system can be fixed. Laptop hardware can be fixed, but it's usually not worth it.

Thanks for the tip. my copy is on the way.

I have had that same watch for probably ten years now. Never once had to change a battery or set the time. I think I've replaced the band twice now. the band holds up well, but the small band you tuck the tail into is what breaks. Its always cool to see the time change at exactly the same time as other things that use the atomic clock to sync with, like the servers at work, or the Comcast box

Isn't he just amazing? Apparently a Whitehouse Photographer took this photo of him on Air Force One. Supposedly getting some ridicule across social media.

  Back in the 80's when I signed up, I recall there not being any question by anyone of my age group. every one just KNEW you had to sign up. I don't know if the Gov just did a better job of making that known, or if there was just more of an attitude of loyalty to the country, and that was just a part of it. I suspect that current generations just don't care. Maybe it has to do with being war weary from over a decade of fighting someone.

I really like RSA for VPN authentication, but for server authentication, it's just a pain in the neck. It does not make one bit of difference for connecting to a server via a UNC path, or remote management, both of which give you full Admin access of the server. So if I can gain an admin password, bypassing RSA is trivial. Plus, if I can get physical access to the server, I can boot it with a utility disk of some sort, like DART, and one or two easy registry edits later, I have RSA turned off and the admin password reset.   We use RSA on our servers, and its just more of a hindrance than anything else. Having to look at your fob a hundred times a day and enter the token+pin is time consuming and annoying. Especially when followed up by a 16 character password.

  :up:  I work in IT, and we use that a lot.