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The Right to Post and Not Socialize

Sep 5th, 2022
by Steve.
Comments are off for this post

The world is a moving target. New ideas comes up all the time, some are great in forwarding our survival potential while others are not offering much and can even be counter survival.

We’ve recently seen how some were forced to socialize with fellow employees after work or get fired while others feel they have the freedom of speech threatened if they can’t express whatever they want wherever they are. I’m going to express my views on the above and how it’s easy for me to make the right decision.

I start with looking at the intention behind a communication. Some people manages to make you feel uneasy using words that does not necessarily sound, well, bad. This is where I ask myself and often the person – What was the intention with that communication?

That tends to instantly make it obvious to me that the other person is indeed trying to squash my survival potential. Or, it might just show the the amount of insecurity the other person is suffering from.

When someone lack understanding of a subject or person(s) they may resort to attacking others to cover up their own insecurity. Bullies are prime examples of this. If they did not feel insecure there would little reason to belittle others. The instinct is to shift attention away from themselves so nobody notices. And if people, especially kids, were not so quick in making fun of others the world would have fewer bullies.

Children are typically not very educated and lack answers to a lot of things, so it’s not all that surprising that they ridicule each others. When I grew up one learned to grow a “thick skin” and not take things so personally. Why take to heart things people say that are clearly not me?

Have you noticed how friends and family can hurt you more than strangers? You have many more agreements and often depend on them and any disagreement is a larger threat to your survival than a what a stranger says who don’t know you from a hole in the wall.

These days there is definitely a generation of people coming into adulthood who grew up with little tolerance of anything not absolutely clean and socially perfect. And though these are not bad things in and of themselves, they tend to come with a limited ability to deal with things that are different, or could have a single bacteria. In other words low tolerance.

Wanting a perfect world might be a perfectly valid goal – but should not come at the expense of not being able to deal with anything out of the ordinary. I call this having a lowered survival potential.

A high survival potential means being able to deal with a large variety of things. Have little to do with what you desire or want. Simply, can you handle what is going on in your environment?

One should be able to sit back and view the world from three feet behind it and simply observe.

Free from social ideas and pressures one has a vantage point to observe things that might not be clear when being in the middle of it. This is a simple yet very powerful ability to assume. From here one can make decisions that benefits more than it hurts (if it hurts at all).

Having a good understanding of people you can see what is going on and come up with a way to improve the condition they are in without getting bent out of shape because they said, for example, mean things.

I grew up intensely interested in people and what makes them tick.

In fact I spent my years up to 18 studying them to learn as much as I could about people. After having satisfied that I decided to observe myself in different situations and how I handle life. With that I arrived at a very stable place where nobody could easily shake my certainty. I discovered that I had a much higher survival potential than most. (I was able to make decisions that had a high level of success and it brought me a lot of happiness.) Unfortunately I also became arrogant which was not helpful.

It was not until I realized that compassion was something that helped others at a level much higher than just my own survival. I really should have learned that lesson sooner but I was happily “coasting” through life and livingness with few cares.

Fortunately I arrived at realizing that my happiness depended on others happiness and that to be able to help others you had to be able to equally carry a big stick and have a lot of compassion for your fellow man. (Yes, I know that this is not politically correct and I should say person. But in my eyes mankind means all people not just men. And certainly mankind would not survive (biologically) as a species with only men, or women for that matter.)

OK, looking at being compassionate, the ability to look at people with love and a desire for them to succeed and win in spite of. That clearly does not mean help a person committing crime or other actions that lowers people ability to survive. So where is the line, the line that separates pro-survival and counter-survival?

In actuality it is rather simple – does that action help or hinders the greatest number?

For example, if someone is about to blow up a building with people in it and the only way you can prevent that from happening is to kill the person about to do so, that is pro-survival. Sitting back and while in disbelief and horror and simply let him do so would be counter-survival. Taking the risk of personal injury while attempting to stop him is your decision. But doing so could be something you would do because of personal integrity.

Personal integrity is a key ingredient in having a happy life.

Many have lost track of what that means, often because no or few examples was present while you grew up. Life can be a jungle, where life can appear to have little value. We do have an innate (built-in) sense of integrity. There are things we would not do, or always do. Defending mom, for example, is a common always-do. These are the things that makes up each of our’s integrity. Thing that makes us feel good or bad about ourselves when dropping all the social attitudes and honestly look ourselves in the mirror.

If there has been enough violations of our own integrity we might find ourselves in situations we don’t really want, bad luck might be increasing. Right and wrong might be not clear due to having collected too many justifications in an attempt to not feel bad about wrong decision and not knowing how to correct those decisions. I consider luck being closely related to how I feel about myself and my personal integrity.

OK, let’s look at the right of free speech.

If you have your own or are visiting someone else forum there are typically rules of what is acceptable and not. In other words the owner can dictate what goes and does not go on their forum. Free speech is not a universal thing you have and can do as you please.

Free speech is the First Amendment in our Constitution and relates to what the government can silence or not. Not what others can enforce in their home or forum. In other words you can cry foul play if it is the government that tries to stop you from expressing something.

In a public place you have the right of free speech and you can seek help, and protection, by the government to be able to publicly express yourself in a public place or forum.

The First Amendment struggles with where to draw the line. For me it once again is a simple call – does the expression suggest or motivate people to commit legal and ethical crimes? Back to the greatest number of pro-survival or counter-survival acts.

The US is a country founded on laws. Laws that is intended to be pro-survival to ensure the people in the country survives. However sometimes they are out of date, out of touch and even plainly wrong.

One can commit crimes to try to correct the laws but that is ultimately not resulting in an increase in survival, even if it appears to do so in the short term.

Our laws are governed by the Supreme Court. Their job is to be the legal back stop, to ensure that when a law is applied it is applied fairly and justly. The Supreme Court adjust its view as the popular view changes. They are however usually many years behind.

When we dislike or even hate what others think there is a great possibility that we are not relying on our own observations but what someone else says is so. In other words we often rely on “knowledge” from others. Knowledge that might not be so much like free speech like but colored by someones personal gain.

How does one make one’s own observations when it seems too difficult or entirely impossible and out of reach?

Clearly in that situation one can’t.

In that situation one has to get good at evaluating the source of the information. Do they have personal observations or in their turn relies on someone else? If you read it or hear it in the news what is the actual observed evaluation you have done of what they say? Are they mostly forwarding bad news, speak in generalities with few or no specifics?

I do my own investigation of the type of articles a reporter writes. What is the language and the intention in their message? Is it promoting pro or counter survival actions and views?

Again, here it is important to see if it is legal to follow their suggestions?

Some people (and reporters) tend to hide their intention behind a message that promotes something that might be good for some but is destructive to others, and also have a tendency to not offer a legal solution, one that could result in jail time, physical damage and even death.

Having evaluated the above points one then looks over the balance of the various points to see where do they fall? When adding them up you must brush aside personal views and simply evaluating it from greatest good for the greatest number, which includes legal options.

Look at it this way. If you go around violating the law you are promoting not following the law, which is why often laws are enforced in a way as to set an example. Unfortunate for the person in question, even bad luck, but without following our laws we will not have a country of the free.

Laws are broken down into civil and criminal law. Which breaks further down into levels of severity.

Traffic law is usually a violation of civil law but when the violation is sever enough becomes criminal.

Running your car into a group of protesters that you feel are a threat to your survival might seem like the thing to do but ask yourself this question, does it violate any law, and in this case criminal law? The person doing so might think it was the right thing to do because of the perceived vile nature of the demonstrators.

However a quick evaluation show that the demonstrators were actually exercising their First Amendment. Hitting people with your car is not a protected action but falls under criminal law (murder or attempted murder). Looking at both the short and long term potential solution to whatever problem that person thought he was solving that action did not make any difference other than get him sent to prison.

Therefor it is a good practice to evaluate the action, and to do so more thoroughly the greater the liability involved.

For example, regardless of what you think of any political party, having an armed insurrection and storm a sitting Congress, even if the sitting president says so, is filled with huge liability with next to no positive potential outcome.

It might be considered a fun activity, lots of challenges and excitment. You might feel you have the opportunity to be part of 1776 part 2 and have your name in the history books.

It is however full of really real liabilities. In 1776 we fought an invading force trying to remove our independence. If you have looked at all at US history you can see how political things swing back and forth and does not go over the edge in either direction.

Inciting a violent overthrow of the government is not the American way. That happens in countries where people don’t have a strong constitution such as ours. They do it because their living conditions are so poor their only hope of actual survival is to force a new government into place.

Unfortunately for those countries, it never ends up with a fair government by the people for the people. Look at Russia, several countries South of the border, throughout history people in these countries have very low survival potentials. Something I hope the US will never sink to.

If you support illegal actions you never end up with in a long-term increase in survival potential.

The excitement of a successful coup is quickly squashed when the new dictator grab the reins. Russia has never had anything but a dictator in office, except for a short period which resulted in the end of the Soviet Union and brought democracy to the public. Putin ended that over a number of years but slowly installing new laws that limited, for example, free speech. Now it carries 15 years to speak up against him.

The way to happiness does not come from or is accomplished through illegal and violent actions but from caring for your fellow man, from showing him compassion and support, from increased education about people and certainly from knowing the laws of the land and how to successfully operate within it.

Remember, lies persist and truth solves problems.

Posted in: Humanity.

Online Security, is it really needed?

Aug 12th, 2022
by Steve.
Comments are off for this post

What value does security have anyway? Misapplied it can become a great stop, a barrier to get anything done.

This includes information that you don’t want to be publicly available to anyone, it does not matter if they are specifically interested in it or simply stumbles upon it. That includes information which could be used against you, sometimes in ways you never considered. It does not have to be something illegal, simply embarrassing, or more commonly have a financial value.

Security the art of applying an optimum balance between functional and inaccessible.

The harder it is to make and retain resources, such as money, to care for yourself and your family, the more common it becomes that people come up with what is known as Unusual Solutions.

Examples of unusual solutions are robbing banks, old ladies, becoming a drug dealer, online theft and sabotage for profit, just to mention a few.

With technology running ahead of common knowledge it starts to become a mystery that only the few can understand and master. I think it’s safe to say that computer technology has pretty much always been ahead of common knowledge. Typically we have young people reaching to master this mystery and become its master. Their curiosity can put them on a path of criminal activities without the balance of personal ethics and integrity.

The more you learn about computers the more you realize things you can do with it. One thing that has always been very popular is being able to communicate between computers. Some of you remember modems. A device used to connect a computer with another computer. Huge progress!

Then we got networks where one computer can reach many, which eventually resulted in the internet. Now we have huge portions of the world able to reach anyone across the world.

That opened the door for even more exciting opportunities, which for some, meant seeing how many computers they could get into, just for fun. Some people were more oriented towards destruction and would laugh gleefully (I imagined) at wrecking havoc on someone else computer.

At some point some individuals got the idea that some people would pay to cause or prevent damage. Which of course grew to groups, political parties, and governments in different countries. Today it is so prevalent that most computers are likely to be “touched” by someone else who does not have your best at the forefront of their mind. What they can do depends on how your computer is set up and your activities.

Fortunately individuals, groups etc. exist who wish to prevent the damage being caused.

However, ultimately it is up to you, the individual with a computer connected to the internet, to take some positive action towards maintaining some security. The more you don’t know the more it can hurt you. You can pass the need for knowledge onto someone who knows more than you and that you have a reason to trust.

Statistically it is safe to say that it is better to find someone you have a reason to trust than waiting for someone to approach you. Trusting one, any one, that you chose to give good advice is better than not doing anything to stay safe, or at least safer.

For many this whole subject is a big black mass of not knowing. But you can do something about it using common sense. You can establish, by yourself, some basic policies that will be better than ignoring it all. Just don’t fall into the group of deniers that think that because they don’t have anything of value on their computer they will not become a victim.

For example, you probably lock your car which is a simple policy that you probably do every time you use it without even thinking. A computer is harder to keep secure but still there are simple things you can do. The first is to ensure you have a password which is not obvious which means it is not the birthdate of someone in your family, in fact it should not be any birthdate. That is not enough (or different) characters, rather it’s better to let your computer generate a password for you. Today it should probably be at least 10 long and contain a mix of lower and uppercase letters, numbers and if allowed some symbols.

Then ensure each have a unique username (if possible) and password for each online login you have. Often people loose security from using the same login across different locations. (Your password manager easily keeps track of them for you.) When one organization is hacked your data can be part of it. These lists of logins are then spread across the internet with people who loves to make it work for them

The most basic datum should be that if you put any information (data) on a networked computer then it can end up in someone else hands. If you think with that and accept the possibility then you are less likely to suffer too much.

Email is a very popular and unfortunately effective tool to get you to open the door for them to get into your computer, which includes making you go to your bank and giving them your money on some pretense that has but one purpose – to steal from you. This is called social engineering, they pretend to be someone else in some imaginary situation where you feel sorry for them being in that imaginary situation and then give them your money (sometimes even thinking it’s their money you are returning).

There are security updates coming out somewhen frequently, these should be applied when they come out. Any online tool are in a direct position to cause great harm to your computer and whatever you have on it or access to. Thus ensuring they are kept up to date is of outmost importance.

General bug fixes are good as well. Unfortunately some companies creates new problems when they fix the old one. Unless you really need that fix, wait for one or more fixes before applying it which allows time for them to solving it properly.

Another security issue is using software running on their servers, for example, online accounting, or whatever service offered that is running on their servers (I’m not including running your website).

For one you have no physical control of your information, if they go down you will too. Someone else is in charge of looking after your information, at whatever pay grade and motivation that you will never know. Imagine hiring someone to work for you where you don’t know when they are there, what they are actually doing, from whatever country or organization with whatever motivations?

It can be as simple as something goes wrong anywhere between you and them and you cannot access your company information. It could be someone digging a trench and accidentally cuts off the network cabling below ground. They could be under attack and brought down since they are hosting many other companies and maybe one of them is a target. In the end you have no control.

Such a company might be a life saver when you don’t know enough to have these computer functionality in your own operation, if so, ensure to have a definitive plan to get it in-house and maintain full backups of YOUR data, even if it is on their servers.

Avarice, which is defined as extreme greed, have put many in the “poor house” from having lost all their savings through some scam. Even plain greed makes people go for that quick buck. This is often a case where the person believes they cannot make enough money and will happily be fooled into thinking the fast buck will be their ticket to permanent happiness.

When I receive a call from some stranger, even if I know the company they claim to work for, I never accept the “good fortune” they are presenting me with. If it was legitimate I would also receive an email and a physical letter proclaiming my good fortune. AND that is not enough to convince me I’ve won something. I would have to have enrolled in that something AND if it comes through an email it would know my name and other details AND have proper grammar AND be professional sounding, then I would still be on my guard and NEVER make ANY payments to release my funds, boat or whatever they claim. They would also have a number I could compare to a publicly posted number.

In other words I NEVER believe it to be real unless I could use some different method to verify their claim that is not coming from them.

If it is a phone call the easiest way to call their bluff is to ask for their name and a call back number. If given a number I then search the internet for that number with the word scam. Usually someone else have been targeted and it has been noted online.

Any legitimate organization that would have a reason to give you ANYTHING, would be easily accessible and 99% well known.

Regardless of how someone else could possibly determine if you have, or don’t have, anything of value to them without breaking into your computer, there IS something you have of value which is a computer connected to the internet. Any computer is valuable even if it is empty as a tool for someone else to use to wreck more havoc on the internet.

Of course if your computer is an office computer of some organization, that organization might very well be a target for nefarious activities. There better be someone who understands computer security or it’s just a matter of time.

A little example from years past. A country deemed untrustworthy of harnessing nuclear power was approaching some level of being operational that another country decided to put a roadblock there.

The challenge was the lab was not on the internet and could not be broken into remotely. They solved it by ensuring some computer code was inserted into a printer being sold to that government, specifically that nuclear lab. When they connected that printer to their internal network the code sprang into action and established connections to other devices, devices which were then sabotaged in way that was not obvious but delayed their progress towards having the bomb.

Spend a little time towards at least understanding the concepts of computers. A computer is a tool, a stupid tool without any real intelligence. Any perceived intelligence is programmed into it, without that programming it is a door stop, with great potential but still a doorstop. It can only follow exact instruction one after the other. It is programmed to make logical decisions that again is programmed into it.

Most of the times computer terms comes from terms used in daily life. If you look at the plain English definition you can usually figure it out. Take “network” you have heard of networking, getting together with a group of people to maybe promote each others products and services, or home made cookies. For a computer it is also networking by connecting a communication cable called a network cable. That cable in turn connects to one or more devices which ends up creating a connection to the physical wiring across the world known as the internet.

You have the intelligence to do networking a lot easier for you not requiring special shared programming amongst all the computers and having a radio (for WiFi) and/or a cable to connect it to others. Computers follow protocols, much the same as we have protocols in how we address each other. The difference is that a computer will fail if the protocol is not followed EXACTLY.

Though everything a computer does is based on human principles, after all, humans built it. 🙂

Posted in: Computer 101.

VPNs, safe and unsafe use

Jul 18th, 2022
by Steve.
Comments are off for this post

I’m following a security investigator (Brian Krebs) who is one of the very top ones in the biz. He recently posted an article on VPN services and one in particular named 911. It occurred to me that others might not realize the liability these VPN services poses and who might be behind them and you might want to warn your loved ones in turn. A comment and definition on VPNs and some additional warnings and workarounds by me at the bottom.

Brian Krebs wraps up his article with these words (link below):

Beware of “free” or super low-cost VPN services. Proper VPN services are not cheap to operate, so the revenue for the service has to come from somewhere. And there are countless “free” VPN services that are anything but, as we’ve seen with 911.

In general, the rule of thumb for transacting online is that if you’re not the paying customer, then you and/or your devices are probably the product that’s being sold to others. Many free VPN services will enlist users as VPN nodes for others to use, and some even offset costs by collecting and reselling data from their users.

All VPN providers claim to prioritize the privacy of their users, but many then go on to collect and store all manner of personal and financial data from those customers. Others are fairly opaque about their data collection and retention policies.

krebsonsecurity.com/2022/07/a-deep-dive-into-the-residential-proxy-service-911/

My comments, examples and workarounds on the security of VPNs

Virtual Private Network is a name given to a design which allows for traffic to travel between two network points and be encrypted.

By encrypting the content of the connection points, the communication can travel “safely” between the two points. (I say “safely” because there are a number of details which makes it safe or not.) 

(And it is a moving target, moving as decrypting encrypted communication is constantly getting better and better as computers get faster and faster and holes in encryption methods are found.)

It is all in the design. How is it designed? There are many many encryption methods, few are actually considered secure. 

It is an everyday thing whereby someone is delivering something they claim to be completely secure and they express how they go out of their way to be secure. 

Then you (a cryptologist) look into the implementation of some encryption method and discover that what they are using is out of date, or maybe never even was secure. 

Typically the “secure” tunnel is between your device and the service provider, and then they establish another connection between them and the other party. Meanwhile in the middle they have the communication entirely without encryption to do or not do whatever they decide.

To be secure the minimum requirement is that the tunnel runs between the two end points and is encrypted when passing through the service provider. For example, between my cell phone and yours. There is NO valid reason to be anything else but would be considered at best a poor design, at worst incompetent or with criminal intent.

Then we come to use a VPN, how is it being used.

Let’s say you have an office or home office, and you are on the road and like to be able to access your data at the office. You get a VPN service or some set up whereby you now have a VPN in place.

You leave on your trip and as you arrive at some location you now want to safely reach your data at the office. (In this example we are going to go with you having an actual secure connection.) 

If either device on either end also has internet access for browsing in particular, or with a cell phone where you have installed various handy apps, if anyone of those apps or locations you browse are hacked or include malware (code with evil intent), the perpetrator will now have a nice and secure connection into your home office. 

In other words if your remote device is hacked – then you are allowing hackers through the VPN into your office network with the same access as you have. (And there are many way of increasing access to administrator once someone has any user access.) 

The safest approach with using the internet is to be OK with anything that you put on it might end up available to all. (Including the ramifications if that happens.)

If you were to check applications you will find that they commonly ask for permissions far beyond what it needs. I never install those. 

For example a calculator that wants access to your contacts! Or your network. What valid reason would a calculator have accessing those?

Who puts a bunch of efforts in to designing, writing and releasing a program with no exchange? Many programmers do, from just being helpful and liking that others are using their creation. But also, many criminal intent can be traced to using the Free model to spread their malware.

(Stranger – Danger!)

What is more convenient, the feature the apps provides or getting dragged in to some criminal activity unwittingly, or discovering you owe a ton of money for a bank loan you never took? These are real ramifications, at best a bunch of wasted time and effort to sort out.

Hackers learn from what other hackers have done are getting more and more sophisticated, so much so that anyone from a teenager in his room to organized crime to country espionage is thriving. Mostly because people are ignorant about security and have low confront and misunderstoods of course.

For example Chinese law Requires Chinese to spy for them if asked…

Russian law enforcement have an unwritten rule not to go after Russian hackers as long as they don’t attack Russians… (One way they determine if you are Russian is by looking to see what languages your computer supports.)

If you find an app that looks to be the cat’s meow then do some research, not just how many are using it as that has nothing really to do with how secure it is, but search the terms [name of app] and the words “security issue”. 

That will generally tell a big tale. While you do so observe who are saying they are good or bad, many have single posters that never posts anywhere else because they are fake reviewers. Of course look at the domain name to see where it comes from.

For example someone suggested I contact them on WhatsApp. It immediately revealed that:
1) security researches recommended against it and, 
2) it comes from Facebook, 
3) WhatsApp out of the box want your contact list. 

Meanwhile Signal is an ideal option where it truly is safe encryption between the endpoints.

As our world has grown into a digital co-existing world where there is a tremendous amount of attention placed on it by Every Imaginable Player with whatever intent.

— 
Steve

Posted in: Internet.

Should Police Help People?

Feb 27th, 2021
by Steve.
Comments are off for this post

I just watched a YouTube video of a woman with two children around 4-6 years old get fatally shot by a police officer, in a small city in Nevada.

The officer acted as he’s been trained which is why this became a fatal shooting. The woman was clearly not operating with the current scene but as if there were dangers lurking behind any person. Many would call her crazy.

There were two officers on the scene and she had a knife in her hand yelling to the police to not touch her children. A 911 caller had reported that she was afraid that something was going to happen to her children.

The complete failure and reason this turned deadly was due to the training of officers to basically treat anything dangerous as if it was a military assault. Which is very effective if the people you deal who are mentally there.

If you want to calm down a situation the last thing you do with an irate person is to oppose their view. The best thing to do is to play along with them and try to understand what demon/situation they feel they are dealing with. You can only calm them down when they feel understood. Opposing them, yelling and acting threatening is not very workable. This is true to anyone upset.

The first thing you want to do is to get in communication, this means thoughts are being exchanged with understanding, without force, threats or demands. Simply act is if you care about them and try to understand their problem/situation.

Once the person feels someone else is on their side they can then start calming down. Be a ‘safe person’, don’t seem to threaten them but be their ally. It is surprisingly simple and easy to do if you have any compassion for others.

Imagine one of your family members being the other person and treat them with the same love and respect, you will be surprised how easy it beome to defuse situations.

I’ve never failed to handle any person with the above, and I’ve talked down gang members, a cop killer, run of the mill nut cases who were really unhappy and ‘charged’ up. One threatened me with a knife in close quarters outside my apartment door demanding access. I relaxed, leaned to one side of the door frame on one leg and said ‘One one condition, that you owe me an apology when you see that that person is not here.’ as perfectly calm and friendly completely ignoring the threat (knife yielded by a much bigger person than me).

He turned out to be a cop killer on the run. He was taken back by my smile and total lack of displaying any indication of being in danger. In fact he did not dare passing next to me, I had to step away from the door before he stepped in, only to realize this was not the place. He tried to pay me off but I insisted on the apology, which he could not easily fathom. He had screwed up and he knew his word had never meant anything, so the idea that he would just say sorry was utterly unreal to him. It took a couple of minutes before he finally did, but he did say sorry and melted like butter when I said OK, thanks! At that point he told me his life history as if in a confession.

But you see what I did, I handled the situation with complete calm and care. His problem was my problem, and we solved it together. Threatening and putting him in a defensive mode would not have worked out well. Sure I could have just shot him but on principle I only use force if needed and that was not it. (Though many would say if any situation was that this was it. And that would just demonstrate their inability to handle it gently. You can take it to the bank that this guy never forgot me, and being treated well in spite of.)

Another time a woman whom our office security could not handle was in our reception interrupting things. I told security to leave us and got in communication with her. She was on about aliens and spirits and what not in some garbled version. I simply demonstrated an interest in her and her situation, and acknowledged everything she said. I suggested we get away from these other people (the staff in the office) so we can talk uninterruptedly, which she liked, and walked her outside. Spent a few minutes with her and she ended up walking away looking happy.

The whole ‘trick’ is to honestly care about others and wanting to understand them and help solving their problem. Caring is a secret weapon that can solve so many situations. Yelling to people is a method of force. It is not being in very good communication but more out of communication. So if you want to get others to do or not do something it makes a big difference if you are duplicating each other and have a good understanding.

In another situation a woman was really upset and yelling on the phone about the alleged problem some employee of ours had caused. I got the call transferred to me and I asked her what happened? Hearing her loud upset and accusations I simply acknowledged her really good. I said

‘WOW! That’s HORRIBLE!!’ she immediately stopped, was quiet for a few seconds and said Thank You!

So that’s another ingredient, proper acknowledgment. That is the sign that you have understood what they said. If someone says ‘And then the truck rolled over the baby!’ You would not calmly say OK.

You see a drunk and disorderly, how do you handle it?

Be a friend, care and try to understand them, then give a proper acknowledgment. A little over acknowledgment might be needed if their attention to the the environment is lowered, drunk or upset for example. But always in a friendly tone.

If you don’t want to shoot and kill some mother in front of her young children that’s how you do it. Police Academy are you listening? Your officers are dealing with any number of threatening situations each day. Meanwhile society is anything but pleased with the amount of police shootings. Demand that your officers are able to communicate with strangers in a friendly voice, and not oppose everyone as the immediate go to solution. It does not instill respect as it simply shows an incompetence in dealing with people. Your officers should not only drill all the other things they do but drill handling people in various stages of upset and ‘out of it’.

Manners is one of those thing kids used to learn at an early age. And if the adults set a good example themselves then the kids usually saw that it works.

The officer that drew his service weapon on a young girl needs to train in how to handle kids and probably people in general.

A police office is not a soldier. He may feel it when citizens shoot at him, but something has gone wrong long before those bullets come his way.

Groups get along and win when manners are applied from the beginning. When you treat people with respect above all, people feel safe and are less prone to pull a weapon on you. When equality rules the day and compassion is in use, society becomes a good place to be in and you will want to be part of it.

The Declaration of Human Rights is what should govern the day. All talk about how some people are less, or not people, is only made by people who are basically insecure. If a four year old tries to make fun of you I suspect you would not feel threatened. I simply agree and laugh along. In fact if anyone is making fun of you the best response is to simply agree and laugh along. You will not remain a target of ridicule for long.

It has long been proven scientifically that all the human races are human and are no more nor any less than anyone else. Individuals are different and a small number have a problem in dealing with things.

They may be and often are different in some way. That should make life more interesting, getting to know and understand someone from some other background than your own.

If you are in a group which is not treating you with sincere respect then you might not be in the right group. Same goes for work, if you cannot win there then maybe you should not be there? Why slave somewhere where you cannot be happy and winning?

Force yourself to smile in front of a mirror and see if you can keep that frown. Wish upon others that which you want for yourself.

🙂

Posted in: Humanity, Politics, Security.

What does Permaculture have to do with Winning?

Feb 4th, 2021
by Steve.
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Permaculture is an interesting way of life, it is made up by two words, permanent and culture, but is however a much wider subject than what the name indicates. It literally covers a huge part of life, and it does so in a sustainable and regenerative way. Created by Bill Mollison and organized by David Holmgren, it is the how-to anyone can be more self reliant with a minimum of resources.

It does not teach you how to, for example, build a house, but it does give you the tools to learn to do it in a sustainable, regenerative and resilient way as part of what is known as Whole System Design. This is a powerful yet simple way to approach problems and design something that is adding more than it takes. In short, if properly done you can apply it over and over and be more and more beneficial to you and your family, friends, society and life on our planet.

It starts with ethics as the foundation. Without personal ethics you may have no reason to evaluate your actions in such a way as to be more beneficial than detrimental. You may, for example, only think of yourself to get maximum gain right now. Not bothering to see what it does long term, not only for you but everything else that lives on this rock we all share.

When society is more driven by money than care for each other and the planet you can say it is off kilter (off balance). Money is simply an idea to make life easier that everyone has agreed to. The alternative is exchanging products and services and with food being the most basic product, it easily becomes a logistical problem to, for example, haul farm products around so that you can exchange it for other things. Much easier to use money for the exchange. Money is not evil, it is the use of it that makes it so.

And like the wobbling wheel on a car, or cart, it tends to only get worse and worse. Society functions in much the same way when personal integrity has left the building. When the scarcity pushes a big enough part of society to be focused on money above all else, then one cannot be surprised to see a society out of whack. To see more upsets and the resulting violence, to see a drive towards helping fewer and fewer people, until only yourself, which is a clear indicator that there are fewer and fewer leaders who are doing any leading.

The progression of making money scarce, has and is creating famine, despair and wars as people try to find solutions in a society which has lost it’s balance. Witness the attack on the US Capitol. Each side being convinced they were in the right. Observe how the storming was the culmination of people who felt disenfranchised, or left out of the process. How their solution was not based on a legal process but on force. It also lacked basic understanding of the laws of the land, specifically who can change the outcome of the votes cast in each state. They sounded like they were willing to hang the Vice President if he did not do what he had No Power To Do. And shoot the Speaker for something she Had No Power To Do.

In other words it was, however baseless, a futile exercise that had no chance to succeed in bringing about the change they so believed in. They felt so in the right that they themselves became guilty of what they accused Congress of.

This was not the culmination of a short term problem but a much longer one. One based on not able to have, not being able to share in the benefits of society over a very long time. So long that any other reality was long lost. You can see how despair on a large enough scale will bring about chaos and war. To our very own society.

What can we do about it?

Permaculture introduces approaches that mitigates the problems we face in our daily lives, it teaches us how by working towards the greater good we can and do win in spite of the problems we face. In short something can be done where everyone can contribute to and be part of. When all are doing well crime diminishes as the unusual solution it is. Permaculture is not a theoretical subject but is based on real hands on solutions that anyone can learn and apply, it is a solution for the people by the people.

An example, pertinent to these days where food is ever more on peoples minds permaculture offers the food forest, a method of growing your own food that anyone can learn. Food safety is important.

Permaculture is likened to a flower where Ethics and Design Principles are the foundation. Spanning it are seven petals:
– Building,
– Tools & Technology,
– Education & Culture,
– Health & Spiritual Well-Being,
– Finance & Economics,
– Land Tenure & Community Governance,
– Land & Nature Stewardship.

I’m fortunate enough to know a world renowned permaculture instructor and designer who is not only on the national board but has trained most of the permaculture designers in Florida, in full disclosure, a person who I joined forces with and am contributing to her classes and benefit from our clients and graduates. The school is called Grow Permaculture and is located in central Florida. We hold regular classes and are delivering the famous Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in both urban and farm focused courses. It comes with a world recognized certificate.

In addition there are design and consulting services that we make for our clients. I recommend you check it out!

Posted in: Health & Nature.

When a subject drives you angry

Jul 7th, 2020
by Steve.
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There are a lot of us living on this rock going around the sun.

Sometimes we don’t agree on things and get in each others faces. Certainly we don’t have to agree on everything. Allowing each of us to have our own observations and likes is of course a very basic right.

A while back I had a friend that had a very emotional response to something very casual and simple. It was a total surprise to me that something that plain would cause that reaction.

For me I have the experience that says if I have a strong emotional reaction there is something that _I_ have an issue with, not related to the other party in the discussion. In other words my reaction is not that the other person said it but something within me that caused the reaction.

This is good because it opens the door for me to be able to address it, unlike when someone else have an issue.

Why would I want to “address” it?

I don’t know about you but I like being in charge of MY life. I do not agree with being a victim. That does not lead to a happy life. And I do recognize that happy for some could mean not being beaten that day. For me I look at reasons to have a smile on my face. The fastest way is of course to just force yourself to smile and you soon find a reason to. 🙂

I’m talking about smiling from interactions with my fellow man, woman or child. Helping to improve others brings me the biggest joy, and I daresay helping others is the most valuable thing one can do.

So when a subject comes along that has that “out of control” reaction, I view that as something not desirable. I prefer to analytically look at something, let’s say an injustice, and work out how to best resolve it. Analytically, not reactively!

When I have a strong emotional reaction I don’t automatically jump on the bearer of the subject but how come _I_ have that reaction? I may ask what was the intention of the person with that communication, which might be to bring me down. Generally I can tell who my friends are and they don’t have that kind of intention. If they are not my friend – why should I get upset? Why not just recognize the communication as something someone else made and if upsetting to not allow it to continue having that effect?

I saw a mime that suggested to hold a grudge or upset is simply allowing the other person to live in your head. Someone else suggested that the biggest secret of all might be the ability to forgive in spite of.

We are very occupied with what others may have done to us, rarely do we look at how our actions may have hurt someone else. There’s something behind every strong emotional reaction, 99% is from what we have done to others, not the other way around. I’d suggest think twice before yelling at someone else. Instead try to understand WHY they did and if your words/actions will help them.

Treating other the way you want to be treated is a healthy attitude.

For many that can be hard to follow but it is so very remunerative! Your reward is an increasingly happier life with fewer and fewer things getting you unhappy.

Posted in: Health & Nature.

Online Clueless Ad Companies

Oct 9th, 2019
by Steve.
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It might actually be users that are clueless. With me and my friends we have a policy of never buying anything from pushed ads. If we are interested in something we will look it up ourselves. Then if we want it we buy it and that’s that. Don’t bother trying to sell me what I’ve already bought.

Trying to make me buy something from large ads that have changing content which is annoying as heck, is a surefire thing to stop us from using them.

Now I do recognize that it’s a clear minority viewpoint as they would not do ads unless some, I’ll try to be nice here, people did not respond to them. Same with spam, if it was a waste of time it would not be so prevalent.

Then you always end up with ads that are based on some browsing somebody did on your internal network. Of someone not the same sex as you, which you might never be able to use, or look funny wearing… What happened to cookies that should keep track of that?

In the end I’m cutting out, or moving to the bottom of the bookmarks, sites with 3rd party ads. I rarely have to go to sites like that so no big loss.

This whole scene is motivated by making money. Everything is justified by the need to make money. Things people to each other to make, or take, money. Amazing, you’d think there was some kind of scarcity. There are so many ways of earning an honest buck without throwing away your self respect.

These online ads are not the why, just a symptom. An annoying symptom at times, but still only an indicator of where society is at. I don’t have an issue with advertising your products and services, but I get annoyed enough that I avoid ones that are forced upon me. Never mind ones that thinks it cool to play audio when you arrive without asking first.

Both Netflix and Amazon does the same with their shows and movies. You cannot casually try to find something of interest without being forced into something that starts playing because letting me choose is not effective or something. Makes me treat them the same way, find someone who does not. Not very easy at this late point in the game.

Posted in: Internet.

How Fear and Force Undermine Each Other

Sep 15th, 2019
by Steve.
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The physical universe is based on force. There’s gravity pulling you down with force. There’s matter telling you how you better get out of its way or get hurt. There’s wind trying to push you over, earthquakes tossing you around. There’s the stronger guy in school not getting beaten up because he’s the strongest. Guns, batons are all saying use me and win! Over and over we are reminded how force rules the day.

Or does it?

The physical universe has no intelligence. Does not care nor is aware of who’s affected and is merely held together by a design which is based on the attraction matter has towards itself.

Man has actually conquered the physical universe to a very large extent. The bully is conquered by a combination of intelligence and force. Earthquakes are similarly imposing itself, but our buildings are designed to bend a bit and hold together. We have a group of people that keep an eye out for strong winds and issues warnings. We have planes that fly into the eye of the storm to see how it is made up to keep us abreast of what might be coming our way. We walk upright and do the most amazing motions in spite of gravity. The bully is simply insecure and is trying to shift attention away from himself and onto the impression that he should not be messed with, or questioned, which may reveal his insecurity.

Smart use of force between people is to only use it to the extent it is needed to get someones attention, then it serves no further positive value.

A child who has eaten a lot of sugar may not respond when you try to stop him from running on the walls breaking all in his way and may need to be physically stopped before you can get his attention. But once you got it you better back off, or you are simply telling him how you are bigger and stronger, which will not earn his respect, as you would just have become a bully in his eyes. That would teach him that force wins the day, and the cycle starts over.

To get out of the vicious circle we need to set a good example. Society is constantly showing itself by example how it needs to live in order to survive.

Fear is usually based on not being able to face the unknown, and will usually result in being afraid of something that does not exist. The fear itself will help create the condition of that which one is afraid of. Fear results in no inspection and less communication. And when man goes out of communication with man fear comes in to warn you of the threat of the unknown. If you were looking for a vicious circle look no further!

One of the most simple things ways of solving problems, by the way, is to look. For example, I had a air conditioner that stopped cooling. My immediate thought was it had run out of coolant. Now I was facing calling an a/c guy to come out and fix it. But before I got to the phone I thought I should look and see if there was anything obvious I could see. I opened the outside box and looked inside. It had a couple of relays and other components.

Triggering the a/c to start I noticed how one relay did not appear to fully close. Using a voltmeter I could see that it was indeed not closing. A quick visit to a store and $10 later I had a new relay and the a/c was working again. It took maybe 15 minutes of my time to discover what was wrong. OK, so I understand electricity, but that just tells me that what you don’t know you can be in effect of. In other words education is quite valuable as a general tool. And if you live life willing to look and learn you can handle more of life.

All I had to do was to be willing to look and see what I may see. In my mind I had drawn up a wait for a technician to come out and certainly a bigger cost to get it operational. You see how easy it resolved once I looked?

This is not a unique example, simply how it gave a live example of the value of looking. Take the child afraid of what may be lurking under the bed! Once you gather enough to look, and maybe a flash light or two, you can establish that there’s nothing there and you can rest.

Here’s another example of force. Have you ever held a child on your lap. When you do he or she, will squirm and try to get down. While it will be perfectly content simply sitting there if it can leave on it’s own self determinism.

That tells you something else of value. In dealing with humans, things work easier if they can have their own self determinism. Your only issue is getting compliance in some situations where some control of the environment is needed.

Most people then will respond well if allowed to execute self determinism, and are not controlled by force anymore than is needed and a bit of good positive communication.

Good communication is dependent on the ability to communicate which in turn require you to be there and be able to look and observe others and how things change. If you act with certainty and respect you can get almost anything you need from others. Most people are very willing to help. It is a basic trait of man, his willingness to help.

If you bypass his willingness then you are probably using force and not so much respect. A real authority is a person who can control the environment or the subject at hand. An apparent authority is someone who is taken at face value without inspection. Looking was missing to allow the observation of the person’s ability and knowledge of the subject or situation.

Man is actually a simple animal who’s sometime trying to be complex to appear more valuable than what he or she thinks of themselves.

OK, so we learn that treating others how we ourselves wish to be treated is a way to happiness. This is indeed needed by society at large to function well.

In a military situation the use of overwhelming force is a good practice which saves lives. However it is not a good tool to build a society for mankind.

When protecting people it becomes vital to have an understanding of man based on observation of proper application of force and respect, which with it needs a healthy dose of compassion. It does also require a bit of courage to look and deal with what is going on.

A man held down by overwhelming debt, maybe an equally upset wife from her goals being squashed and neither being able to look and discover what is behind their problems, might get disillusioned enough that he momentarily gives up. Which could manifest itself in loud and disturbing actions. Possibly with the show of force to counter the pressure he feels.

To calm down and stop the destruction such a person may demonstrate does not require more use of force as is so commonly done. Simply a proper acknowledgment usually does the job.

So what is a proper acknowledgment?

It is that which shows the person that he or she have been heard and have been duplicated. In other words the person feels he or she is understood. Once understood the person feels there is someone else who shares the burden. That can be a very big relief and should not be underestimated. In fact you can entirely disarm someone with a proper acknowledgment. I’ve single handedly, purely with a few words, handled a really large man that a number of bouncers could not handle. All I had to say was that he’s really large and the others are acting the way they are because they are afraid of him. He instantly stopped and got in good verbal (vs physical) communication with me.

You know force is not simply physical actions. Your voice can also demonstrate and at least threaten physical force. It depends on your ability to demonstrate intention in any one direction. You can enter a room full of with violent action and simply give a simple command with a strong intention and stop everyone in their step.

In fact you merely showing up with a calm presence and being there able to look and duplicate what is going on can stop violence. It looks like magic of some sort. But it is simply being a larger presence than the confusion. Being the stable datum that everything else can align itself with. You cannot be sucked into the confusion and have to be able to hold your position.

You hold a position with certainty and competence. Your competence will come from, you guessed it, being able to be there looking and observing. Knowing what you are doing and having demonstrated enough competence in the past. In turn that will give you certainty. Which comes right back giving you more ability to hold that position stably in spite of the tumbling confusion.

A confusion is only a confusion until a position, or viewpoint, can be held and be used to sort out the random particles in it.

That position is your certainty of self and the situation. If good enough would cover any situation.

The subject here is how fear and force undermine each other.

Fear undermines you and your ability to handle force. You will not look and observe what is going on. For example a fighter depends on being able to be there and look at the motion of others bodies and any particles involved, and take split second steps to handle them when they become a threat, or even before they can become a threat if you are good.

Fear depends on uncertainty and not looking or understanding, the present situation. It will feed on itself and if not handled ruin your day.

Force also depends on uncertainty and not looking or understanding the present situation. It too will feed on itself.

Compassion and love of your fellow man is actually your foundation that will make life a lot easier and return a lot of value to your life, and others in your environment. It too feeds on itself. Compassion breeds compassion. Care is part of that.

Indeed it looks like you will get what you put your attention on.

If all you look for is motion and your general attention is on finding and stopping motion before it moves too fast you will end up a miserable problem yourself.

Police and security people are at risk of falling into that trap. The way to stay well is to look at everything going on. Society has far more positive things going on than negative. When you see an upset or disorderly person don’t insist on immediately stopping him or her. Be willing to let the person be upset. Be willing to understand that person so that you can properly acknowledge them.

If you have enough care for your fellow man it will show. It will allow you to approach each person as a person with respect, which will make a positive impact, even if it is not immediately obvious. There might be more upset that you need to discharge. Simply be a safe terminal for the person to share his or her upset with. Presenting force does not make you a safe person. It simply adds more force, or promise of force which will simply escalate things.

True, you can scare people with enough force that they cave in and are subdued. But it is not a good general way of operating, again only use force until you get their attention.

So what do you do if you cannot get their attention?

You may need to have a good balanced use of enough force that you can control the person until such time that you can reach them. I’m thinking of drugs and maybe earlier show of force that made them hide so deep that you cannot easily reach them.

When a person is armed with deadly force it easily becomes a huge liability to society, unless that person is balanced enough and able to be there and communicate verbally and only use enough force to handle the situation. The first action cannot be an automatic draw and fire. If a person is afraid of other people and cannot be in their shoes and have care and compassion for them they are not suitable to keep us secure. They will end up being a bigger threat and undermine the people they are suppose to support and help.

If someone is upset they usually have a reason. Caring enough to hear and trying to understand them will make them hold you high long after you have left.

Let’s talk about criminals.

A child will as soon as they can try to contribute to the family. By not allowing them to contribute you will end up fostering criminal behavior. I believe man needs to be able to contribute to feel good and be happy. When a man cannot contribute he thinks himself not very valuable. If not valuable and you cannot make a positive impact then it does not matter what you do.

Add some experiences where some of those impacts will be actions against the common good of society. Robbing someone, for example. If they succeed then they have learned they can be good at something. It may be the only option they feel they have since they cannot or are not allowed to hold a job and have some common decent respect of self and others.

That child which is not allowed to help with dishes is being taught their contributions are not wanted. They are completely the effect of the much bigger bodies around them and can only try to upset you to get even. Bed wetting, breaking things, screaming are all indicators of having disagreements. You could ask yourself if some broken dishes are more valuable than the child?

For that matter give them some plastic ones to clean. Maybe their own plates.

A gang member is a person who does not believe themselves able to contribute to society. A criminal is a person who have lost their self respect.

The way to turn both around is to allow them to get some respect back to learn they can contribute to our society and they will happily do so.

But it will require care and compassion to get there as the road may not be an easy one to walk down. It will also require a healthy dose of courage and belief in your fellow man. But it will ultimately be more rewarding than the other option.

I for one think a society based on care and compassion would be more pleasant than one based on fear and force. What do you think?

Posted in: Health & Nature, Other, Politics, Security.
Tagged: · · ·

Accurate search engines are all gone

Sep 10th, 2018
by Steve.
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Over the years I frequently get annoyed with Google and all other search engines because they will not return what I ask for.

Using the + and ” as explained is almost useless.

What is it that one cannot get a specific search done?
I enter, for example:

+”5.5 mfd” 400v motor capacitor

I get hundreds of replies that are NOT 5.5, and a couple that are, but all others are not. Changing the search to:

+”5.5″ mfd 400v motor capacitor

gives some more 5.5 replies, still most are something else including the first row of advertised ones.

Back in the early days of the internet there was an engine (Altavista) that not only returned EXACTLY what you searched for but you could search the result! Of course they were successful and got bought up. The new owners promptly ruined the functionality and they disappeared. Maybe it was a competitor that did not like competition. Why else be so stupidly incompetent?

These days Google thinks its better to guess what you really want and return that instead. They clearly don’t think much of us. The same with every single engines that I have tried – utterly incompetent as far as I’m concerned.

By all means, deliver the “improved” results, but allow for exact searching! You have the capacity to do that, and even pretend to deliver it with + and “. People in most professions that require specificity would move immediately. Imagine being able to search for something specific and only get what you asked for!!

Posted in: Internet.

Microsoft requires disabled man to have email & cell phone

Sep 30th, 2017
by Steve.
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Today I helped an old man who wanted help restoring Windows 10 to his laptop that his kid gave him. The hard drive was broken and needed replacing.

The install went fine until Microsoft asked for an email account. He does not want to receive any emails from anyone but family so I gave it a test domain email address to use, and then it came to needing to send a text to his cell phone on order for them to be able to verify who he was. We entered his number, which is not a cell phone and cannot receive texts and that was the end of the install.

They try to send you a text which you are then supposed to enter into the computer. But without the ability to receive texts you are left out. There was no way of moving forward.

Looks like a dangerous road where they are limiting people with disabilities just because they are not fully on-board with technology.

Posted in: Computer 101, Legal.

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