When I returned from my camping trip, I tried to get back online, but the browsers I tried didn’t open. So I opened Notepad, and wrote:
Please unblock YouTube. I would like to listen to music.
Lo and behold, the browser mysteriously opened, so I wrote ‘thank you’ in Notepad. I spent the rest of the month typing in what I called my mental sandbox. I was certain my computer activity was being monitored and I tried to write reassuring things. Once when I left my room to get lunch, when I parked at the post exchange, two soldiers from my company got out of the car next to me and said they’d been following me since I left the barracks. When I asked them why, they said they were instructed to find me and make sure my ID card would stay valid through my last day in the Army, which is something I mentioned in my mental sandbox.
When I moved into my new apartment, I suspected I would see the mysterious black screens again, and in a few weeks, I did. At this point I was upset that despite the jig being up, I was being monitored instead of being interviewed in person. I expressed my anger in my mental sandbox and then all of the sudden I got a text from my closest military friend, the one who loaned me the Achilles in Vietnam book. Over the next few months, there were another five or six times she would text me after I wrote something emotional in my mental sandbox. In a way it was reassuring to know that my closest friend was in cahoots with my mysterious monitors. If she was helping them, then surely, they had no nefarious intentions.
My last full day in the Army, I went to a place with a dozen soldiers from my company where we threw axes and did escape rooms. One room and an insane asylum theme and the other had an NSA/hacking theme. It was like the owners made those rooms just for it, though I think it was merely a coincidence that time. The owner is an Army veteran and had some kind of intelligence or electronic warfare job, based on the decorations I saw which were souvenirs from his service.
At the end of May, I left for my celebratory road trip to dig for dinosaur bones in Wyoming. I booked the dig through the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. Although it’s called digging, it’s really more about scraping and brushing the crumbly mud stone of the Morrison formation which covers much of the state. After several hours of diligent excavation in over 100 degrees of heat, I found a bone, and a good size one at that.
It was big enough that it was tagged BS 1990 and set to the lab for cleaning. It will probably get sold to another museum. It was wonderful to finally fulfill I dream I had since I was in kindergarten, and on my first try too. Because the young woman I was digging with didn’t find anything, I decided to share the credit with her. Because her name was Amanda, I suggested to the guide that in the unlikely event it belonged to a new species, it should be named Tomandasaurus (from ‘Tom-Amanda-saurus’). Later after a paleontologist examined the bone, I got an email saying it was the metatarsal of a Camarasaurus.
By this time, I was a few days past my discharge date from the Army, but because of the interesting events which happened in the following months, my story does not end here.
I spent most of June on the road, including five days where I got stranded in Baker, Nevada after my car broke down. I camped in the backyard of the mechanic who tried unsuccessfully to fix my car. On the plus side, I had some great beer while there and finished the works of Shakespeare. It’s a good thing I brought that book with me. Baker, Nevada, because it is so far away from any city, is a wonderful place to view the stars. They’re so much brighter there. It was also great to see the nearby bristlecone pines in Great Basin National Park. I walked through a grove of them, and most were at least 5,000 years old.
When I got back, it took me about two weeks to find a welding job. It was the fastest job hunt of my life and left me greatly encouraged about my future. Although the pay was decent and the work interesting enough, after about a month I was getting bored with it. I think I spent more time sweeping the floor and mowing the lawn than welding, though I admit that I am not a very good welder. Once when I was mowing the lawn, I was thinking about how in college I worked extra hard for an A in multivariable calculus and now I was doing this for $17 an hour. Not a terrible fate, just thought I could do better.
One weekend, I decided to look up a list of unsolved problems in computer science on Wikipedia. One of them was the existence of one-way functions, which if proven to exist, would be extremely useful for cryptography. There are functions used in cryptography today which are thought to be one-way, but only because of the limits of the best computers currently available. After many hours of deep thought and a few cups of coffee, I believe I discovered such a function and plotted it with an online graphing calculator. The equation was elegant and for the sake of national security, I will neither write it nor describe it here. I will note that the NSA made the secure hashing algorithm (better known as SHA) available to the public in 1995, and it is what makes internet communication secure. At least, it will be a secure method until significantly faster computers are invented.
Fascinating story, Derp.
Thanks for retelling your story.
Wondering how much of the military’s spying is based on your personal experience is freaking me out. I know much of it did occur, but not its extent. How much/when does it cross into fiction? Or, to non-military/IC folk, is all non-fiction? (I know all monitoring can be and is done, esp in the military. Um. There’s another great reason they wouldn’t ever have me.)
Great example: WordPress/etc underlining bits of writing in blue and then questioning my grammar. It sometimes is helpful, but I don’t like it questioning my sanity. Therein lies the too-close-to-horror of reading parts. It’s not pleasant when one’s sanity is questioned, and especially when the questioner proves to have a point.
An NSA security manager gave me a standard briefing part of which consisted of showing various incidents of service members being punished for things they posted on social media. He flat out told me that NSA monitors the social media of its employees. I’d estimate about 1/5 of NSA is tasked with spying on the rest in some way or another. I signed umpteen consent forms I barely read as they were thousands of words of legalese. There’s no way to negotiate the terms and I couldn’t have done the job without signing. In that case, I concluded it didn’t matter whether I read the forms or not. So I presume I no longer have 4th amendment protections, at least from the feds.
I know what codes NSA has and hasn’t broken, which means I also know what codes they can and can’t break. Foreign governments would pay me millions of dollars for this information. Not that I need the money.
I haven’t seen the mysterious black screens in about 2 years, and never on my current laptop. It seems their preferred tactic these days is to jam my internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y38c59YfAY
On my experimental computer, I had to reinstall the OS after a kernel panic, and I briefly saw a screen about an SSH being established. SSH means secure shell and it proves that someone was accessing that computer remotely at the time.
Fuck. The Black Screens were, and jamming *is* currently occurring, re-raised by remote controlling your shit. Christ. That’s certainly a way for folk to help ‘treat’ mental illness. (Obviously, and understandably, that was never their objective.) Certainly escalates certain dangers.
re NSA codes: I almost don’t want to imagine how fast they’re changed. Not silly password shit, but entire…type of code used. To put in old-fashioned shit, I don’t know if the C++ is changed to C# etc to ‘completely’ change shit. (Does the entire encryption system get altered, or merely avenues on the old system get rerouted to avoid the encryption breaking? That phrasing may not have helped.) I also imagine much of it is changed by AI through-and-through. That is terrifyingly predictable.
I’m also an idiot, and most of what I know comes from my legit computer science business creator Big Bro and Sneakers, perhaps the most underrated (by others) Perfect Film of all time. Prescient as fuck. Likely the writers knew or were helped out by folk who did back then.
Have you considered a career as a math teacher?
Or, have you tried writing a book on math?
Yes to both. I moved to FL last year to be a math teacher. It did not last long, unfortunately. I still have my substitute teaching job, but not sure when they’ll let me work again. In May, an unruly 8th grader punched me in the face, so I got suspended from that job. Last August I wrote a math book and tried to get it published. No luck there either. I’m still waiting to hear back from some math teacher jobs I interviewed for and have been applying to others. The local volunteer center contacted me about math tutoring. Hopefully that will help. In the meantime, my next project is to get my class B CDL so I can drive buses. The local schoolboard will pay me to get trained.
My savings will last another 2 years or so. I try to look on the bright side. Tractor Supply Company and Wal-Mart haven’t rejected me yet. I got a gym membership today and did a real work-out for the first time in years.
My new strategy is to apply to all the Christian schools. I think I’ve applied to most of the public and charter schools already.
“Camerasaurus.” Talk about a lazy fuckin’ name, right there. Oddly, NOT named after a camera.
Hilarity ensues on wiki discovery: Found in 1877 by an Oramel William Lucas, who sent it to Edward Drinker Cope. DAMN. Edward. Drinker. Cope. Fuck. Was born in a wealthy Quaker family. Apparently died of a “gastrointestinal illness he said was cystitis.” If he was right, that’s apparently a urinary tract infection. Fuck that shit.
Continuing the fun, “Cope often prescribed himself medications, including large amounts of morphine, belladonna, and formalin…” Who the fuck WOULDN’T?! It’ll certainly make ya feel better. That’s half+ the point of medicine, yeah?
I just saw/realized it’s ‘camArasaurus.’ *slinks away…returns* Cuz of my oddities, I learned about Eddie! I wonder if he was a ‘good’ Quaker or didn’t mind nicknames. “Charles R. Knight, a former friend called, “Cope’s mouth the filthiest, from hearsay that in [Cope’s] heyday no woman was safe within five miles of him.”‘ I’m guessin’ the later. He seems like Derp’s type of dude:
“I have often seen him busily engaged in such comparisons, all the while whistling whole passages from grand opera, or else counting the scales on the back of a lizard, while he conversed in a most amusing manner with some small street urchin who had drifted into the museum and was watching in awe with eyes and mouth wide open.”[104] His self-taught nature, however, meant that he was largely hostile to bureaucracy and politics. He had a famous temper; one friend called Cope a “militant paleontologist.”‘
Kinda like me in the brighter moments of my imagination, says a contemporary: “[Cope’s] little slips from virtue were those we might make ourselves, were we bolder.”
The Cope-Marsh feud is one of those epic tales of nerd rage. It began when Cope put the head at the wrong end of a prehistoric reptile later named Elasmosaurus. Marsh was the first to notice this mistake.
***
To hide his mistake, Cope attempted to recall all copies of the preprint article, and printed a corrected version with a new skeletal reconstruction that placed the head on the neck (though it reversed the orientation of the individual vertebrae) and different wording in 1870. In a reply to Leidy, Cope claimed that he had been misled by the fact that Leidy had arranged the vertebrae of Cimoliasaurus in the reverse order in his 1851 description of that genus, and pointed out that his reconstruction had been corrected. Cope also rejected the idea that Elasmosaurus and Discosaurus were identical, and noted that the latter and Cimoliasaurus did not have any distinguishing features. Though Cope had tried to destroy the preprints, one copy came to the attention of the American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, who made light of the mistake. This led to antagonism between Cope, who was embarrassed by the mistake, and Marsh, who brought up the mistake repeatedly for decades.
***
Later, Cope challenged Marsh to have their brains weighed after death to prove who was smarter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Wars
Another early paleontologist broke into the Smithsonian to modify Langley’s plane:
***
In light of the Wright brothers patent war and to discredit the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss in 1914 helped Walcott secretly make major modifications to a failed aerodrome built in 1903 by Professor Samuel Langley to make it appear able to fly. After the flight demonstrations, Walcott ordered the Langley machine be restored to its 1903 condition to cover up the deception before it was put on display.[13][14] It took until 1928 for the Smithsonian Board of Regents to pass a resolution acknowledging that the Wright brothers deserved the credit for “the first successful flight with a power-propelled heavier-than-air machine carrying a man.”[15][16]
***
Ooooh, I vaguely remember that! I’m glad Eddie was involved. Predictably, humans are such stubborn creatures, especially on things they think/ know they’re experts on.
Nerds do it the same as warriors, businessmen and musicians. “I’m right, dammit! And *I* am FAR superior to you! Dumby! McPoopypants!” *spits*
The strict adherence to the anti-meritocracy that is DEI might be overplayed by those who fight against it. Calling out every non-white person as a DEI hire might not be the best strategy.
The best strategy is pointing out that DEI undercuts every minority hire precisely because it leaves you guessing as to whether they made it on merit or by virtue of some protected trait.
That I agree.
What we are seeing in the real world is an all-out call against anyone black/brown/etc that doesn’t conform to a certain ideology is a DEI hire and must go. That is not a winning message.
I agree with Bro as well. Those who were hired on their actual merits will resent being considered a DEI con. Those who know they ARE a DEI con will resent the fact others know they are.
Will/are they though?
I’m guessing enough will be resentful to spark some shit. Easiest example is Asian-Americans not getting selected for universities etc to balance the scales in favor of other minorities. I don’t know when there will be enough to make a difference, as like many/most of us, small drops don’t wanna make social waves until they can flood the opposition.
Social primates don’t wanna start ‘fights’ they can’t win. Til there’s nothin’ left. I ‘spose we’ll know it when we see it.
*Clarence Thomas has entered the chat*
See, also, affirmative action.
“Affirmative action hire” has been an insult going back decades. Unfair to those who actually earned their spot – but who can be sure?
Bad for everyone but the grifters.
DEI hiring is tricky to combat, especially because we do see it every day, let alone the broader implications. Great/best example: Commercials. Every single one is as mixed as possible, with some ‘could be brown OR black’ question marks added in.
In my current standing, I bite my tongue and do my best to move along through it without conflic, the all straight, white young man who gets lost in the demographics. Add single to that mix, *raises hand*, and if not THE most mentally unbalanced group, certainly the most to get violent about it. Fomenting anger in a large group of young, single men is not a great idea, historically. Well, it is if uprise is the intent. It certainly will happen again and I doubt it will go as ‘intended.’ (Well. If it’s a straight-up, say Chinese plan to fuck the US from within, well.*Swish*)
What sucks is, as a maintenance technician, I want diversity. Just not what they define it as. Equity is built naturally through solid leadership and inclusion happens when you have a solid core. All those have been met in the past. Did they meet a quota? No. No they did not.
In my current job a broad diversity in background knowledge and viewpoints is critical. I and my client both try to hire to meet those requirements. But that is not DEI.
The current common use for the word “Equity” is evil. It diminishes the individual to nothing more than a checkmark. Ayn Rand is credited with “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” Equity by definition tramples that idea.
“I found a bone, and a good size one at that”
TWSS.
https://archive.is/ZVeeE/0be1dcb8abe873b6ad7182eb033dd229eaaea2bb.jpg
NSFW.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Gonna be another hot one today on the stack- TALL SWEATY CANS!
Morning.
Working from home today, so I have the AC going.
I had off Friday and Monday.
Back to work for me shortly. 😐
I might have enough comp time to not go into the office all week.
Hey, hey Glibs!
Get up and kick some ass.
🌞👢😉
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts
🎶🎶
You’re not the boss of me.
Good morning, Sean, U, Ted’S., homey, Stinky, and Grumble!
Morning, How goes?
So far, so good! I think we’re ready for this evening’s Board meeting (which, thankfully, I still don’t have to attend thanks to the magic of Zoom recording technology.) However, there’s still a chance there won’t be a quorum – so far not enough people have RSVPed to be certain. I’m pulling for no quorum, which equals no meeting, which equals no minutes to write! 😁
How about you?
With the comp time I’ve racked up, I can probably take Friday off with just one hour of personal leave.
😁
😃👍
Good morning, GT and all.
How are things going with you? Not too much to grumble about, I hope?
“Joe Biden is going after polluters of MINORITY neighborhoods.”
-My TV
I imagine with a cape and a mask of some sorts…
Man, I had a comment so good it would have changed your life; it would have changed my life; and the damn server ate it. Oh well, I guess this’ll have to do: I guess whites can just get fucked then.
So, he is going after money. Industry is usually located on less valuable property, i.e. around minority neighborhoods.
I’m imagining a Captain Planet type theme where five diverse urban youths summon Captain Senility with power rings like the Power of Graft and Corruption.
Banner 18!
As talented as they are, the Celtics are a poorly coached team. The have no interest in exploiting matchups or altering what they do based on game situations. They had multiple games in which Luka and Kyrie had an early foul called on them and the Celtics would not force that person to play defense. They just kept playing playground ball, chucking 3s whenever they felt like it. Talent got them this ring, not smarts.
Mornin’ and a rainy one it is. Not bad, weeds in the garden are happy.
Now for the first cuppa joe