The realities of modern warfare make hosting your applications and data in data centers a risky proposition. However, with novel coding techniques, it may be possible to install applications, and maybe even store data, on end users’ own devices

Our Hidden Power

“Consider who you are. Above all, a human being, carrying no greater power than your own reasoned choice, which oversees all other things, and is free from any other master.”
— Epictetus, Discourses

The psychologist Viktor Frankl spent three years imprisoned in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz. His family and his wife had been killed, his life’s work destroyed, his freedom taken from him. He quite literally had nothing left. Yet, as he discovered after much thought, he still retained one thing: the ability to determine what this suffering meant. Not even the Nazis could take that from him.
Further, Frankl realized that he could actually find positives in his situation. Here was an opportunity to continue testing and exploring his psychological theories (and perhaps revise them). He could still be of service to others. He even took some solace in the fact that his loved ones were spared the pain and misery that he faced daily in that camp.
Your hidden power is your ability to use reason and make choices, however limited or small. Think about the areas of your life where you are under duress or weighed down by obligation. What are the choices available to you, day after day? You might be surprised at how many there actually are. Are you taking advantage? Are you finding the positives?

-- Commentary by R Holiday and S Hanselman
https://stoics.gemlog.ca/index.html#September_07
https://stoics.gemlog.ca
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545426/the-daily-stoic-by-ryan-holiday-and-stephen-hanselman/

You know, I used to have an opinion.
I used to be a twenty year old IT guy, doing electronics with an opinion.
Then I was 30 and 40, still doing board repairs, but also writing a lot of code and doing websites. Very opinionated.
And still doing house calls on debit machines and banks and whatever.
Now I'm 65. I can still do all that stuff. Fix photocopiers, laser scanning lanes. VHF or microwave radios. CO's.
What is this python doing? Why is this nginx cfg this way?
That's all me. I can still do hardware.
But now I'm just a useless old geezer?
No.
I'm going to do something. I don't know what. OK, that's fair.
But I'm going to write something or... do something electronically... IDK. I don't.
But I'm going to fight back about being useless. Because I'm not.
I do have a lot of utility left in me.
I will catch back up a bit before I die.
I still want to have fun, before I pop off :-)

"Ad Blocker Detected"

I didn't block your advertisement - I simply didn't ask for it.

http/s is a pull protocol.  Not a push like TV.

I didn't ask for you to send it.
Not 'blocking', just not 'asking'.
You said it was available content and I didn't want it.

How do the words "Fuck You" strike you?

Gently and succinctly I hope?
Minus hugs and kisses, me.
Fuck you very much.
I'm not asking for your ads or promoting your garbage to my friends.
No.

You have NO room on the bandwidth that I'm paying for.
Go away.
Garbage.

I post a lot, but unlisted by default.

@cstanhope Also things like this that I just took for granted existed:
"No national minimum wage existed prior to 1998 in the UK"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Wage_Act_1998?useskin=vector
Wut? Wow. There's been a minimum wage in my province and across canada since 1965-66 https://minwage-salairemin.service.canada.ca/en/since1965.html
That one I just learned this morning.
A few months ago I became aware that not everyone had deposits on beverage containers - a litter fee. For e.g. only 10 USA states have a 'Bottle Bill'‽ https://www.bottlebill.org/index.php/current-and-proposed-laws/usa/additional-links I'd like to think I'm misunderstanding something. There's been a litter fee on things like pop bottles since the late 60's here. It was a late idea to the UK, in fact, it's not clear to me if Wales has even done it or not yet:
https://www.bottlebill.org/index.php/current-and-proposed-laws/worldwide/united-kingdom
Does the USA still have plastic bags in the supermarkets? No idea. Canada was late to that party behind some nations in Africa.
Other things...
"In the majority of nations, including all industrialised nations except the United States , advances in employee relations have seen the introduction of statutory agreements for minimum employee leave from work—that is the amount of entitlement to paid vacation and public holidays." No holiday pay. I actually knew that one. Many years ago I had a bizarre  argument with an inner-city school teacher in D.C. who was incredulous and got very angry at the suggestion of holiday pay "why should someone get paid for not going to work??" Wild! Mind you, Canada is a bit cheap with it compared to other countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country?useskin=vector
I suppose there's just too many differences to know without actually, at least visiting, if not moving to another country.
Still, there is a lot of data out there - you just have to think up the question to ask in the first place!
Canada is Not looking good on ER/A&E wait times:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-care-wait-times-by-country
Two of my favourite words to use in internet searches are "by country" :-)

Many College Students Losing the Ability to Read

The /. article states the title as a question, but I've now read enough to know that it's true and getting worse.
https://alterslash.org/#article-24018202
More related articles at Futurism.

Just another day at the office

I had begun a post on this, but I somehow lost it, so I'm going to try again, because it was such a nice day to be at work.
You know, some days are really good when you write something that works perfectly and solves a problem for people. Other days, you just code stuff that will save other people time and bother. All good.
Then you go back out into the world and plant trees at a Christmass tree farm and care for them. Or forage for mushrooms. Or fish salmon or trout.
https://gemlog.ca/files/AnotherDayAtTheOffice.png

Being gemlog is a bother.
Because of the things I want to promote and, also, because of the things I don't want to encourage.
In real life people criticize me for not shopping at walmart "because it's cheaper".  Yeah, and I know exactly how.
I don't go to Amazon.
My search engine filters out facebook, twitter et alia and I don't boost them. I don't go to bsky.
Some posts I agree with whole-heartedly, but I don't boost, b/c I don't want to give the subject more oxygen. Period.
And then some of my friends think I'm somehow dissing them. No.
I'm only trying to act my moral best as I understand things and maybe I'm wrong; I'm very good at being wrong - I have lots of practice.
I learn from all kinds of places, including fedi. Sometimes I have an unexamined belief that I've held all my life even! And I'm wrong.
Or, my youngest housemate of 24 years of age will enlighten me.
Or, again, another housemate of 78 years... same, same.
I'm not here to make enemies and argue. I'm here for what my longtime 'penpal' @mpjgregoire has termed a dialectic. Not an argument, but a search for truth.
I do try to fine tune my moral compass in various ways.
In general, my interests are tech and socialism. And maybe I'm a bit of an anarchist of some persuasion - there are lots of flavours to choose from. I'm in the Greens provincially. NDP federally (I'm in Canada).
I know being this kind of a pedant rubs some people wrong, but I can't help it. Just block me or mute me. Fedi is wonderful for all the mod tools we have. Or filter me even.
If I seem to be espousing anything contrary to the above, then call me out on it, b/c I've simply messed up writing.

Sorry. My other attempt just kept hanging.
This one is 'gotosocial', which is only a backend, so I had to supply a web frontend for it!
Whatever. It's all fun - I mean, except the part where I am bothering all y'all with my repeated follow requests... yeah. Sorry.
Hopefully I will land on this as my server and my instance.
Better to have my own server than depend on someone else anyhow right?