The Southern Poverty Law Center, Needed Now More than Ever
Since my political wakening in my 30s, I've done my best to financially support charities and organizations who I consider to be not just beneficial for society, but downright heroic. These include:
American Civil Liberties Union Brady United - Campaign Against Gun Violence Southern Poverty Law Center During the 1980s, my home state, North Carolina was plagued by white supremacist groups. The worst of these was led by a former Green Beret master sergeant named Frazer Glenn Miller. The White Patriot Party, Miller's organization was eventually sued out of existence by the Southern Poverty Law Center, led by Morris Dees, an attorney that Miller plotted to kill.
The SPLC, founded in 1971 in Alabama has successfully shut down numerous Klan and Nazi groups, winning large judgments against them in court and distributing 100% of the proceeds to the victims of racism and their survivors.
The SPLC also maintains Hatewatch which actively monitors the far right movement in the United States. President Trump pardoned two national leaders of active hate organizations, The Oath Keepers and The Proud Boys who had received long prison sentences for anti-government activities around the 2020 election. Monitoring these types of groups is vital in the current political climate.
You can also refer to the Extremists and Ideologies section of the SPLC website to track what hate groups are active your area.
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Battery Monitor: Health, Info
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In the modern era, a time when most people us laptop computers as opposed to desktops, keeping up with your battery's remaining charge is something we've trained ourselves to do. There are apps that let you make extremely detailed plans to carefully manage how your battery charges. These apps provide a wealth of information about your battery's lifespan and electrical data. In normal operation, they keep your battery from charging past 80% to help prolong its lifespan. They will also run a calibration cycle to allow your battery to come close to fully discharging and the fully charging. These practices are reputed to be necessary to get the longest lifespan for your battery. The two most widely used apps for this type of management are: BatFi and Al Dente.
Not everyone believes these practices are needed or, indeed, are beneficial. They are satisfied with just monitoring their battery's health. A good free app for providing the information you need is Battery Monitor: Health, Info from Rocky Sand Studio, Ltd. It has a simple but useful feature set.
Features
- Charge percent and time in menu bar
- Detailed battery information
- Configurable low and full battery alert
- Configurable Themes
You can get Battery Health Monitor from the App Store.
Good People, It Seems
I am indifferent to celebrity culture most of the time. While I admire talented people who can act or sing or hit home ruins and free throws, I don't find anything particularly heroic about it. I am all for athletes and entertainers extracting as much wealth as they can from billionaire sports team owners and the stock holders of movie studios. I'm a little less enthusiastic about concert ticket prices, but then, the cost of music is pretty cheap otherwise. I don't think for a minute that most celebrities are just regular people, only richer. Living with constant adulation is bound to end up making you weird after a while. None of my minor brushes with celebrity have been terrible. As a kid, I watched a minor league baseball game with Bob Feller, a baseball Hall of Fame member who talked to me for the whole game. I walked by Will Smith and his son in San Francisco and was delighted to see them beat boxing to one another, just goofing off.
Basketball legend Michael Jordan opening new doctor’s office in North Carolina - Today, there was a news article about one of North Carolina's biggest celebrities, Michael Jordan, who jas a bit of a reputation for being prickly. He just funded a medical clinic here, the fourth one he's done that for. The clinic is in Wilmington, where he grew up in the same neighborhood where some of my grandkids live. They attend the same high school that he did. I think opening medical clinics that serve uninsured people qualifies you for good person status. Sure, MJ still has plenty of money, but he's doing more than many rich athletes do.
Other celebrities who seem to have a good heart:
Lebron james - I Promise School - Lebron James Family Foundation and Akron Public Schools
Dolly Parton - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Robin Williams - A Tribute to Robin Williams - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
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Work Friends, Real Friends
We spend so much of our lives at our job, often more than we spend with our families. Somehow, it has become common in this country to place an impersonal distance between ourselves and the people we work with. Folks are quick to tell you that your co-workers are not your friends. I suppose the rationale for that is simple. People depend upon their jobs and can be expected to look out for themselves first and foremost in relation to employment. Although they may seem friendly and personable, given the chance to earn more money or to look good to management, coworkers can almost be expected to chuck you under a bus. Being loyal only to one's self seems to be expected. I think that's a horrible way to live, and I struggled with it all my working life.
In most jobs I had, I left the relationships behind when I moved on to the next opportunities. That is a good demonstration of the difference between friends and coworkers. Thankfully, there is an exception or two. On the job I held the longest (20 years), There are a couple of people I grew close to and with whom I stay in touch. I am about 15 years older than both of them. We hired them when they were pretty fresh out of school. I knew them before they were married, and I've watched them become fathers and move on in their careers.
Peyton came onboard as an intern, wearing a backwards baseball hat and his beloved Cheerios tee shirt. He had a degree in history from our state's flagship university in Chapel Hill, but his interest had turned to tech. He had a knack for figuring things out, and he was exceptionally polite. A very likable guy, it was easy to make him laugh, and I tried to do that at every opportunity. Coincidentally, he grew up living in the same house where I'd lived back in the 70s. He was relatively apolitical, and I harangued him for years with my left wing outlook on life, even taking him with me to organizing meetings out of town. When he and his first wife split up, and he was at a low point, I loaned him my spare bike and took him out riding. He fell in love with the sport and is still riding today. We even rode across the state together one year on a bike tour. He eventually moved on to other and better paying tech jobs, ending up working in higher ed. Now in his mid-40s, he recently became a father for the first time (to twins). He shares pictures of them with me and a few other folks constantly.
I'm friends with another former co-worker from that job because of his extreme open-mindedness. Jeremy grew up in the Pentecostal Holiness Church in a small town east of where I live. When I met him, he had very traditional conservative values. I more or less harassed him for years. Those were the days before I quit drinking and my personality, to put it mildly, was a bit abrasive. When I finally sobered up and started treating people more like I wanted to be treated, we became friends, talking at great length about religion and politics and actually listening to each other instead of trying to score points. He went through an examination of his faith that had little to do with me. He came out of it still a believer, but with a much less traditional outlook on life. Jeremy has a real knack for analyzing people, and I always respected the conclusions he came up with. He started his own business when he left our shared job, and it is still doing well. We strike up conversations at random times about random things. I have no doubt that we will never lose touch.
I hear many men say that as we get older, it becomes more difficult to make new friendships. That's true, I think. Holding on to the friends we do have should really be a high priority. I can think of few things more valuable.
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FlexiBackup Solves Real World Problems
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I faced a concerning issue last year when it was time to replace
my iPhone. For some reason, neither Apple nor I could solve. For over
two years, my phone had failed to back up to iCloud. Over the 16 years
I've been using Apple's flagship product, I've had to perform restores
on multiple occasions. I'm not comfortable going without a backup of any
technology device I rely on. The old school solution when iCloud doesn't
work is to connect your phone to a Mac and back everything up to the
computer's hard drive. The location where the backup is hard-coded,
however. You don't get to choose a location for the save files. It's
going on your hard drive whether you like it or not. My problem was that
I only had a 256 GB hard drive and the backup from my phone consumed
over 90 GB. After doing a lot of research and doing some hacking, a
janked together a system using symbolic links to get the backup on to an
external hard drive. It was a pain.
If I'd had FlexiBackup from indy developer, Kah Seng, things would have been much easier. Seng's new app takes care of setting an external drive as the repository for iOS and iPadOS backups when you do them locally. If you have multiple family members using the same small iCloud storage account, this is an ideal app to add to your Mac, as long as each person has physical access to a computer where it is installed. You can do a backup and a restore by connecting a device to your Mac, launching FlexiBackup and running the native Mac utility.
FlexiBackup requires macOS 14.6 or later and is compatible with all iPhones and iPads, regardless of the iOS version installed. The app is available for $5.99 on Gumroad. There is no free trial, but it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Busted
Wonder Woman - Busted. She ran a marathon the day before and was supposed to be out, going for an easy walk, but when I saw her, she was running.
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On Identity
Many adamantly profess to hate labels when it comes to people. They argue that as complex, individualistic beings, our true nature can't be captured with conventional language. Well, of course it can't, but unfortunately, until we develop the ability to do Vulcan mind melds, we are going to have to use our words.
Most of my adult life, I've used the convenient crutch of describing myself by my job title, conflating what I did with who I was. It was an easy and convenient (and kind of lazy) way to self identify. Of course, there are numerous ways to label ourselves. We do it by our relationships. I get to be Mr. Wonder Woman quite a bit because my wee, shy, introverted wife attracts a lot of attention by virtue of a high-profile job and her athletic prowess. When I go visit my dad, despite being a grandfather myself, I get defined as being Johnny's boy, which kind of makes me feel like Tony Soprano.
As a retired person, I suppose I'll use that label from now on and let people make assumptions based on that, since most of them will be true. They will also make assumptions based on pale skin, gender and age and most of those assumptions will not be correct. I'm not a contrarian just to be one. I am, unfortunately it seems, a minority among white men my age. Most of my peers are conservatives whose actions demonstrate a belief that people of color, gays and women have gone too far, gotten too many privileges and no longer know their place. Some of them are willing to say that out loud. Others will deny supporting those beliefs while doing absolutely nothing to stand in the way of their enforcement.
It is neither lazy nor wrong to assign characteristics to groups of people as long as you keep the exceptions in mind. I make plenty of disparaging remarks about white people because, let's face it, we have a poor track record in many areas where I am keeping score. Conservatives disparage identity politics. It makes them angry when we stubbornly point out systemic racism, systemic homophobia, systemic sexism. Now that they've won the fifth-closest election in American history and labeled it a mandate (because the truth doesn't matter)l, they are doing their level best to erase any mention of Wounded Knee, Selma, and women's suffrage from school libraries.
Suffice, to say, for me, worrying about labels is not something I engage in. I'm not bothered by anyone's good faith attempt to describe a person or group of people in polite, conventional terms. And, certainly, if you are describing a group of obnoxious assholes, feel free to label them as such. If I don't think you can defend your assertion, I'll probably let you know.
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Genealogy Why?
The first time I heard of someone who'd done genealogical research, was in the 70's when Alex Hailey's book, Roots was made into the most talked about TV series ever produced up to that time. Despite all the obstacles faced by scant records for enslaved people, Hailey famously traced his ancestors all the way back to West Africa.
Today, genealogical research is an industry involving multi-billion dollar companies and often DNA technology. It's entirely possible to sit at a computer and trace your family back through generations without any of the hassle of visiting cemeteries, courthouses and your great-aunt Betsy. That's the "How" part of it. What is the why?
For me, it was a life long interest in history, coupled with an interest in the stories my grandparents told. I am the furthest thing you can get from being a candidate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, even though my ancestry would support membership. My mother's side of the family is descended from Quakers who were abolitionists. My favorite relation from that war was drafted more than once. He served three shorts stints in the Army and always came back home as soon as he could. I could not find any record indicating that he deserted, but he wasn't eager to be there, that much is definite.
Another ancestor from the 19th century named Moses Parker got married and had 12 children. Then his wife died, so he got married again and had 12 more more children.
If you are interested in looking over old census records and finding out how many cousins you have, you can get started today.
NGS Recommends...17 Important Free Websites for Genealogy Research - The National Genealogical Society (frequently referred to as NGS) is here to help individuals learn about their family history. We are a non-profit organization headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia. For 120 years, we have been the leader in teaching genealogical research skills and providing a pathway to scholarly work
Find your family. Free Genealogy Archives - Everything on FamilySearch is Free. A completely free genealogy database website. You can use an Advanced Search tool by surname, record type, and/or place to access millions of records. The FamilySearch Wiki is a “go to” resource to find what exists for a wide range of family history topics, even beyond FamilySearch’s extensive databases.
Ancestry | Family Tree, Genealogy & Family History Records - Start your family tree for free. Connect with your family story on Ancestry® and discover the what, where, and who of how it all leads to you.
Genealogy related news/articles and discussion - A subreddit about all things genealogy
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Winter trees in Dupont Forest in Western, NC.
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Improve your Google Searches
I am in the process of moving all my Internet research to Kagi, but I wrote this for someone who needed these instructions today.
Google, the advertising company that also has a search engine, is more interested in having you click on things it gets paid for than it is showing you the information you are looking for. Of course, it is also tracking every breath you take in case it figures out how to extract money from the very air you breathe. There are a couple of steps you can take to generate more useful information from the company's search results.
Use a Different URL for your searches
Google is the default search engine in most browsers. It pays billions of dollars for that privilege on iOS alone - one of the reasons your choice of search engines is limited on Apple products. Everyone knows the standard address for a Google search is just https://google.com. When you search there, you get a bunch of useless AI crap and ""suggested links". If you want the good old 10 Blue Links of yesteryear, add “udm=14” to your default search URL, so it reads as “https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14” instead of Google dot com.
To set this up in Chrome, go into Settings, then Search engine > Manage search engines> Site search.
You can also do this in other browsers and in launchers like Raycast for Mac. Other search utilities like DevonAgentLite also support it.
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Filter SEO Churn With Ublacklist
Ublacklist is an extension that totally blocks certain domains from appearing in your Google search results. You can also get it for other browsers. Once you have the extension installed, head over to this Codeberg page to subscribe to lists of sites to exclude from your search results. These lists were inspired by the article How Google is killing independent sites like ours on HouseFresh and Detailed.com's How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results.
There are more specialized but still helpful lists at Subscriptions | uBlacklist
This railroad crossing in on one of the cycling routes my club takes. It’s been the cause of many, many concussions through the years when riders didn’t cross properly.
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A farm pond in Gray’s Creek, NC in winter. The next year, swollen by rains from Hurricane Matthew, the dam burst. It has never been rebuilt.
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Learning Linux
If you have an old computer lying around, so what i did, for less than $100, I bought an SSD and 32MB of RAM and had a machine perfectly capable of running the free operating system, Linux. Not only is the operating system free, there are also a great many apps available at no cost. If you enjoy tech and would like to expand your horizons a bit, try this experimint in your spare time.
Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus to install| Ubuntu
New Here? Let's Get Started! - YouTube
How to Build a Linux Media Server - A step by step guide -
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Moments Worth Savoring
I decided not to let the never-ending fire hose of WTF coming out of Washington ruin every moment of my life. I still read the news once a day. I still reach out to people affected by all the random craziness. There are numerous federal workers in my hometown, Most of them work on Ft. Bragg, but there are also quite a few who work for the VA, including our daughter. Her job is safe, she's told. For my own mental health, I've been trying to be mindful when doing things that bring me joy, to really savor them and to take in the experience.
Picked Out a Concert
Wonder Woman and I haven't been to a concert in recent memory. As much as I love music, the prospect of dropping a thousand bucks for a weekend's worth of tickets, lodging, parking and restaurant food took the appeal out of the experience. Tonight, on a whim, we went through a list of upcoming shows to see if there was anyone we could see without having to sell a kidney. Bob Dylan is coming to Raleigh in May, and we thought about that for a minute. We kept looking, opting out of a long list of senior citizens like Rod Stewart, Billy Idol and Rick Springfield. We finally found a home-grown band I dearly love, Old Crow Medicine Show, playing a couple of hours away at a venue with festival seating. Sold! Now I have a show to look forward to and a few albums to put on repeat until we go to the show.
Building a Home Lab
I got my hands on a couple of old computers, spent a few bucks on some extra storage and RAM, and now I have a little mission control center set up in my new home office. I installed Linux on one of the machines, the first time I've messed with that in years. I upped the speed of my home Internet connection, since I won't have any more of that sweet fiber optic action from my job any more. I'll have fun trying to figure out new uses for this old hardware.
The Regular
On Saturdays (and Sundays), I usually go to the diner at the end of my street for breakfast, They were exceptionably busy this morning, and it took the server a little longer than usual to get to me. I wasn't bothered in the least. When she came to the table, she brought me my usual drink order without even asking me what I wanted. Then, to make me feel extra special, she asked which of the two meals I alternate between was going to be my choice today. Hundreds of people are in and out of this place every day. It feels good to be remembered and treated with such warmth.
Keeping Up with the Kiddos
I've been hearing from my kids a lot lately. My son's 10-year-old Prius finally died and he was excited to send me a picture of its replacement, a nice looking Jeep that will serve him well driving around the Texas Hill Country outside of Austin. My poor daughter waited until now, she's soon to turn 40, to get poison ivy. What's worse was that she got it on her face. I had to offer up some sincere fatherly sympathy for her plight. I've also started texting some of my grandkids more regularly lately. I love to send all of them pictures I find of them "back when they were cute." Of course, they are still cute now, but teasing them is my love language.
Good Email
I have a few folks I exchange messages with regularly these days—all people I've met through blogging and Mastodon. My app review blog gets many visitors and sparks some conversations, but on good days, the tech people who have questions and comments about what I write there, open up a bit and we move on to other subjects, not that I mind chatting about tech. I like having folks who have similar backgrounds and opinions to get to know. Typically we just talk about life experiences, with only a little moaning about the fascist takeover. No one is losing sight of the country's precarious position, but we aren't resigned to living in a gloomfest either.
So, there you have it. I looked for a few good things, and I found them. I encourage you to do the same. We will survive this together.
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I’m not phobic about snakes, but this thing was just creepy looking. No cuddling for him.
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File List Export for Mac
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One of the apps I recently picked up from the new Bundlehunt sale is File List Export by developer Georgios Trigonakis. This simple but surprisingly powerful utility is available for just a dollar right now. The normal price in the App Store is $7.99. You can get a trial version at the developer's website.
I tested the app by having it create a spreadsheet of my Obsidian vault containing 9722 files and 1843 folders. You can choose an output file in either csv or xlsx format. By default the app does not calculate folder sizes to speed up the analysis, but you can toggle it on if you want the information. On my M2 MacBook Air, the process was still relatively fast.
The most useful feature of the app is its ability to export metadata from files, particularly helpful for photos, video and music. Because the data ends up in a spreadsheet, you can manipulate and sort it in all kids of ways. If you have album artwork associated with your music files, it even gets exported into your spreadsheet. You also get the path of every file in your analysis, which can be helpful if you need to operate in the terminal.
For Every File, You Can Get This Info:
- File name
- Date modified
- Date created
- Kind
- Size
- Path (the location of the file)
- Comments
- Tags
- Version
- Pages
- Authors/Artist
- Title
- Album
- Track NO
- Genre
- Year
- Duration
- Audio BitRate
- Audio Encoding Application
- Audio Sample Rate
- Audio Channels
- Dimensions
- Pixel Width
- Pixel Height
- Total Pixels
- Height DPI
- Width DPI
- Color Space
- Color Profile
- Alpha Channel:
- Creator
- Video Bit Rate
- Total Bit Rate
- Codecs
- md5
- sha256
Exif Metadata for Your Photos
- Camera Make
- Description
- Camera Model Name
- Owner Name
- Serial Number
- Copyright
- Software
- Date Taken
- Lens Make
- Lens Model
- Lens Serial Number
- ISO
- FNumber
- Focal Length
- Flash
- Orientation
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Maps URL
- Camera Make
- Description
- Camera Model Name
- Owner Name
- Serial Number
- Copyright
- Software
- Date Taken
- Lens Make
- Lens Model
- Lens Serial Number
- ISO
- Fstop
- Focal Length
- Flash
- Orientation
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Maps URL
Koalas are adorable to look at and fun to photograph, but if you’ve ever thought about adopting one, do yourself a favor and Google “Gumnut and Craigslist” and you can thank me later.
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