Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Month: September 2016

Dispatch from the Trenches #17

A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River

Yellowstone River is now closed because more than half a billion years ago, a jellyfish-like animal started transforming into a parasite.


FBI Apparently Made Darkweb Child Porn Site Faster During Its Hosting Of Seized Server

A better child porn site, brought to thousands of criminal suspects all over the world by your tax dollars. What a time to be alive!

The motion to dismiss points out that making it easier and faster to download child porn images runs contrary to assertions the government has made in support of prosecutions and stricter penalties for child porn viewers.


Two Photography Tribes

In the first phase of a revival, each general keeps to its in tribe. 70-year olds sell to 60-year olds and stay off that new-fangled whatever that helped kill their business. 20-somethings sell to 20-somethings on the web and off, establishing a new tribe. Eventually, the tribes meet and either work together (in the case of vintage pens this is happening right now), or repel each other (this is what I saw yesterday at this show – other shows may differ).


Comprehensive Guide To Hillary Clinton’s Email

Was Hillary Clinton’s email server ever hacked?

No. The FBI found no evidence that Clinton’s server had ever been hacked.

Has the State Department email ever been hacked?

Yes. The State Department has admitted that they have been hacked.


Dispatch from the Trenches #16

Photive HF1 Bluetooth Headphones

Feel is important to me. I wear my headphones all day — every day. When they are not on my ears, they are wrapped around my neck. My wife thinks I am anti-social. I can’t hear her.

This is how I want products to be reviewed. Real world use. Explaining why they’re good or bad for his use. I got price, if they folded, how they charged, and how they fit.

It wasn’t full of gushing hyperbole. It wasn’t proclaiming they were saviors of the world. It was a real-world experience about a product and his views of it. That’s what I miss about reviews.


Free Wi-Fi Kiosks Were to Aid New Yorkers. An Unsavory Side Has Spurred a Retreat.

Users were expected to make short stops at the kiosks. But the sites quickly attracted homeless people and other idle users who took full advantage of the unlimited access to the internet to turn the kiosks into al fresco living rooms, watching movies and playing music for hours.

I could have told you in a moment this would be the result. I used to work for the City of Richmond, VA’s help desk and we would receive calls from irritated people who could not watch porn on the public library computers. If there is access, people will use the access how they see fit.

I am surprised at least simple internet filtering wasn’t in place for the tablets on the kiosks. The media streaming could be limited by site, or by bandwidth or time usage. I’m happy to see the developers of the kiosks see this as an iterative process so they’re aware there will be challenges and are working to make the experience better for everyone.


The Falling Man

Most images of 9/11 depict destruction on a massive scale. But Richard Drew’s quiet picture of one man falling from the towers conveys the tragedy of every life lost that day.

While never officially confirmed, the man is believed to be Jonathan Briley. You can learn more about Jonathan Eric Briley.


Here’s How Obama’s Female Staffers Made Their Voices Heard

Female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called “amplification”: When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to its author. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own.

I’ve seen men take credit for the work of their female colleagues time and time again. In some cases, the people getting the work knew where it really came from. But there have been many more times where the man was given credit for work he didn’t produce.


Saul Williams: Tiny Desk Concert

In terms of sheer intensity, Saul Williams’ Tiny Desk concert may be the most potent in our eight-year history.

Saul Williams is passionate and brings fire to his words. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him live twice in support of Nine Inch Nails and as the headliner. His intensity is infectuous and his words penetrate.

Question your authority, genocide and poverty
Treaties don’t negate the fact you’re dealing stolen property
Hacker, I’m a hacker, I’m a hacker in your hard drive
Hundred thousand dollar Tesla ripping through your hard drive

— Saul Williams, Burundi

World Cup of Hockey

I got a call late yesterday afternoon from my wife. She asked if I wanted to see a hockey game. Her sister had two extra tickets to the World Cup of Hockey pre-tournament game between Team Europe and Team Sweden. I jumped at the chance because hockey is a blast to watch, and even better live. I’m a late convert to hockey for sure, but I’ve fallen in love. The seats were great, three rows back from the ice, almost behind the net. We had a blast watching the high-scoring affair. Both teams played a good game, but Europe was too much for Sweden and won 6-2.


Halak at the ready.


Team Europe after the game.

Dispatch from the Trenches #15

Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply with your requirement to remove this picture. – Aftenposten

I follow you on Facebook, but you don’t know me. I am editor-in-chief of the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten. I am writing this letter to inform you that I shall not comply with your requirement to remove a documentary photography from the Vietnam war made by Nick Ut.

Facebook is the world’s largest media outlet. And they’re ill-equipped to handle this responsibility.

Facebook has responded.

“While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others,” a spokesman for Facebook said in response to queries from the Guardian.

What they mean is “it’s hard for a computer to understand this.” A human could. Facebook fired its human editors and a fake news story started trending Not everything is solvable with software.


An Amish Approach to Technology

Upgrading to the SE would mean a change of phone plans and additional cost. You see, when the carriers dropped the subsidized payment model — where you got the phone for “free” with contract — it actually allowed them to raise the price. Now, you either buy the phone outright or make monthly no-interest payments but you still pay the same monthly price for most plans as you used to when you got the phone for free. I’ve priced this out and, basically, what it means for me and my family if we take the monthly no-interest payments route is we will me paying about $40 more per month if both my wife and I upgrade. Kind of a big hike.

My last upgrade was from an iPhone 6+ to a Google Nexus 5x on Project Fi. The phone cost a quarter of a new iPhone and my monthly phone bill is less than half.


The Black Queen

Found from Rob Sheridan’s post about the opening to Altered States, Stranger Things and the opening of one of their videos that Rob directed, Ice to Never


D.C. will hide once-banned books throughout the city this month

The D.C. public library system is hiding several hundred copies of books — which were once banned or challenged — in private businesses throughout all eight wards to celebrate Banned Books Week. The “UNCENSORED banned books” scavenger hunt kicked off Sept. 6 and will run through the month.
Each book is wrapped in a cover that explains why that book was banned or challenged. For example, J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” will say “Anti-White” because in 1963, parents of high school students in Columbus, Ohio, asked the school board to ban the novel for being “anti-white.”

What a fun idea! I wish I still worked downtown.


Understanding how Hillary Clinton would govern

“Hillary Clinton’s gift is to shut up and not talk and really listen to you.”

This 15 minutes is enlightening to how someone who has been attacked by the media so many times, she’s stopped listening to them. She wants to make policy and improve people’s lives. Not provide the media sound bites.


Humans of New York

If you’re not familiar with Humans of New York it’s an amazing series of vignettes on the lives of all kinds of people. Recently, they’re posted two posts with Hillary Clinton.

In the first, she addresses controlling her emotions as a requirement for women.

But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that’s a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don’t want to seem ‘walled off.’ And sometimes I think I come across more in the ‘walled off’ arena. And if I create that perception, then I take responsibility. I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional. And neither do my friends. And neither does my family. But if that sometimes is the perception I create, then I can’t blame people for thinking that.”

This is not something limited to her. I’ve seen and heard this from woman of different backgrounds. It’s a requirement for a woman, especially one under scrutiny of the public eye to wall off to a degree.

In the second, she addresses the double-standard of speaking styles.

Women are seen through a different lens. It’s not bad. It’s just a fact. It’s really quite funny. I’ll go to these events and there will be men speaking before me, and they’ll be pounding the message, and screaming about how we need to win the election. And people will love it. And I want to do the same thing. Because I care about this stuff. But I’ve learned that I can’t be quite so passionate in my presentation. I love to wave my arms, but apparently that’s a little bit scary to people. And I can’t yell too much. It comes across as ‘too loud’ or ‘too shrill’ or ‘too this’ or ‘too that.’ Which is funny, because I’m always convinced that the people in the front row are loving it.”

What’s OK for a man is not OK for a woman.

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