jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

This RSS feed may or may not work. Haven't fiddled with it in forever. RSS Feed


2018-08-29-0513Z

`debootstrap` doesn't seem to be working on my new Debian Buster system. I get the following errors:

I: Extracting util-linux...
I: Extracting liblzma5...
I: Extracting zlib1g...
W: Failure trying to run: chroot "/opt/jessie" dpkg-deb -f /var/cache/apt/archives/dpkg_1.17.27_amd64.deb Version
W: See /opt/jessie/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details
W: Failure trying to run: chroot "/opt/jessie" mount -t proc proc /proc
W: See /opt/jessie/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details
W: Failure trying to run: chroot "/opt/jessie" mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
W: See /opt/jessie/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details
I: Installing core packages...
W: Failure trying to run: chroot "/opt/jessie" dpkg --force-depends --install /var/cache/apt/archives/base-passwd_3.5.37_amd64.deb
W: See /opt/jessie/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for details

the log doesn't show anything of interest that I can see. and attempting to chroot into the new system gives me a segfault. [comment]

2018-08-23-0118Z

finished welding up replacements for the broken plastic joints in my camp chair. I had some really messy welds but they seem to be holding up, and the chair folds up as it's supposed to.

that virus I picked up never amounted to anything. I still felt a little discomfort in my throat even today, but it could just be my usual overproduction of mucus. unless it blows up later, which happened once before, I don't have to count any "sick days" for this year. [comment]

2018-08-19-0136Z

took the SMART train today, since it was free, to map out how well the bastards have built out the trail, which was supposed to be "in lockstep with" the rail. apparently there is no way to force them to keep their promise.

the trail runs from Guerneville Road south to Bellevue Avenue in Santa Rosa, then there's nothing for about three miles until you hit Golf Course Drive in Rohnert Park. from there it continues south until Railroad Avenue in Cotati, at which point it disappears again, never to reappear except for a couple of short, rather useless, stretches in Novato. what a bunch of lying, incompetent crooks. [comment]

2018-08-18-0452Z

forgot to mention, after tweeting about the $15 charge from FreedomPop, they finally offered to refund the charge, and they did. Twitter is definitely a useful tool for publicly challenging any corporate, celebrity, or other entity, because they cannot easily ignore you, especially if you have over a thousand followers (which is easy to do if you're part of a support group like TGDN (Twitter Gulag Defense Network, organized by Todd Kincannon, who later ran off the rails), and they usually, in my experience, do what they can, publicly, to make things right.

so I added that $15 back to my "other expenditures" fund, and was able to place my Amazon order for a new coffee grinder (my old one is falling apart) and shoulder bag (ditto). got them today, after coming back from the Loon Lake campout. [comment]

2018-08-18-0417Z

lost a tooth tonight, painlessly, just while eating a simple meal. luckily it was one of the side teeth and doesn't make my smile any worse than what it was.

I rarely have use for any non-wheat pasta (and I loathe the sweetness of whole-wheat pasta) but I found that rice fusilli makes a great substitute for rice when in the mood for arroz con pollo. it cooks in less than half the time, and the rice pasta is much more tolerant of the "just enough water" method than is wheat pasta. of course, the chicken has to be pre-cooked (it was), or it's a moot point, because chicken has to be well done, at least for my sensibilities. chicken sashimi just doesn't cut it. I'd rather eat raw pork, and I have. [comment]

2018-08-17-2158Z

the "flat earthers", over the last couple of years, seem to have latched onto a new conspiracy, that of "directed energy weapons", and a lot of Twitter and Facebook bandwidth is taken up by supposed photos of such in action.

one in particular that's been tossed around a lot is this tweet by the Klamath National Forest Service. the FS says it's a lens flare, but if you read the other comments on the tweet, it's being used as evidence of a DEW in action.

interestingly enough, one of the conspiracy websites, on the 2nd half of the linked page, shows the photo along with a claimed "original", but if you look closely at the latter you'll see it is lacking a lot of detail compared to the tweeted photo, and in particular the area where the lens flare should be is all washed out. this leads me to believe the bottom photo is in fact the one photoshopped. what they're trying to accomplish with this bit of disinformation is puzzling to me. [comment]

2018-08-17-2135Z

throat is feeling a little weird since sometime this morning. might be coming down with something. I ate a little yogurt from that 4-pound container I bought about 10 days ago, but it didn't smell good and I threw the rest out.

made a little cash today fixing a neighbor's sprinkler system. [comment]

2018-08-08-2305Z

in addition to scaring me with warnings about a new SIM card and a new plan (for which I did not assent -- I very carefully navigated the multi-webpage contract so as to not click on any extra charges or "freebies"), today FreedomPop charged my credit card for $15 for data overages, instead of simply cutting off my data which was the original agreement. I've submitted a ticket, but I might end up having to file a fraudulent charge notice with my bank, getting rid of FreedomPop and going back to Tracfone which didn't pull any shit like this. it's a shame, because I thought I could use FreedomPop as the backbone of a number of projects. but not if they're going to pull sleazy shit like this. [comment]

2018-08-08-0430Z

if you've ever donated to Charles Nichols's lawsuit, you should be receiving his newsletter, in which he has recently stated:

The short version is that anyone, except for me and Mr. Young, can walk into any police station (in California any police station or county sheriffs department) and demand both an application and license for a handgun Open Carry license.

When the police chief and/or county sheriff refuses to give you an application and a license, you (and your competent attorney) can file a Federal lawsuit demanding that you be issued the license and every Federal district court and magistrate judge is bound to apply the Young v. Hawaii decision to your lawsuit even though the police chiefs and sheriffs are not bound by the decision in Young.

I highly recommend that you read my article linked above. The short version of the article is that you can be arrested, prosecuted, convicted, fined and jailed were you to openly carry a firearm anywhere in the 9th circuit where there is a state or local Open Carry ban. That will remain true until a Federal judge issues an injunction against the ban, or unless the legislature or local government repeals its ban which isn't going to happen in California or Hawaii.

Of course, anyone who files a lawsuit based on the Young v. Hawaii decision should have a competent attorney AND be prepared to appeal should he lose in the district court because he will only get the one chance. Barring some subsequent US Supreme Court decision, as occurred during Mr. Young's quest for his permit/license, having lost in the district court and not filing an appeal (or losing on appeal) means one won't get another bite at the apple.

I can't do this for various reasons I won't go into. but I'll be glad to kick in a few bucks if you want to go this route, and you promise to actually open carry when you win. [comment]

2018-08-07-0701Z

got my debt down to $9000. feels good.

making progress in learning languages with Duolingo, but have an observation to share about it: it counts the number of days you've consecutively met your goal, and if you miss a day, it "lets" you keep your "streak" by paying about $5. all for the vanity of "proving" to other people that you've met your goal every day when you haven't. I don't know about you, but that has absolutely zero appeal to me; it's fundamentally dishonest, and it doesn't fool anybody who uses the app himself. but whatever, the app seems to be helping.

also, I'm continuing my law studies and am back on the Justice course at EDX, reading Kant. I was totally mistaken about his categorical imperative. the more I read the more I like about it. the prose is pretty dense though, it's hard to go more than a few pages a day. [comment]

2018-08-02-0647Z

in Scalia's majority opinion in Heller, he stated:

"Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."

and yet the state of California's attorney, during oral argument in Nichols v. Brown, asserted that the right to bear arms does not extend beyond the interior of one's home. why then did Scalia waste words and not just say "forbidding the carrying of firearms outside of the home"? [comment]

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