Yiddish Word of the Week Returns!

Back in 2011, I wrote what I had imagined was going to be a weekly schtick consisting of popular Yiddish words that had crossed over into English. But things became fakakt and one thing led to another.  I was detoured, unfortunately,  but the idea was always present & firing on at least one mental cylinder.  So henceforth, Yiddish WoW will be published each Friday in succession until I run out of words or I start to kvetch, whichever comes first.

Today’s word is much misunderstood, misused and often misspelled.  It means nothing, zip, nada.

As in, The Demonrats don’t have bupkis on President Trump.  They’re wasting taxpayer money to run a farcical impeachment in the desperate hopes of distracting Americans so they won’t elect him president again in 2020. 

 

November 2019 is Blade Runner Month!

By now you must have been made aware that November is Blade Runner month.  The social media-verse has been absolutely teeming with posts to remind us but I have to say that all the digital hot air currently befouling the ethernet was made by what I like to call the Reo -Speedwagon-bois.  You know, the heard it from a friend whooooo, heard it from a friend whooo, heard it from another how awesome the Blade Runner movie is. They don’t know jack but want us to believe how speshul they are because they’ve jerked off to the movie a thousand times in babusya’s basement.

I can be derisive, you see, because I was THERE, bitchez!  I saw the original Blade Runner movie in 1982 at what was then probably one of the last drive-in movie venues.  It was an amazing 2-for-1 Saturday night in July at the old drive-in starting with Escape From New York and topped off with BR.  I was just starting HS (Yes, I am that old) and it was a loooooooong night of two of sci-fi’s greatest hits.

Ah yes, I remember it well—greasy burgers & fries washed down with a 40-gallon drum of Coca-Cola flavored with real sugar (NOT the chemical shit storm it is today) from the concession stand and followed up with a 2-mile trek through children of the corn land to get to the restroom.  And let’s not leave out from our misty water colored memories the tantalizing treat we dove into AFTER consuming our transfats & caffeine–Velveeta melted and poured over Doritos (before they contained chemicals that cause anal leakage.)  Yum! Overkill, yes, but delicious, nonetheless.  The official term, Nachos,  had not been coined or maybe it was because Mexican culture hadn’t yet displaced Americana. All this was yours for a mere $8.50 including the price of admission for as many bodies you could cram into the Buick.  Use of the trunk not necessary since there was no limit.

If you take a stroll around the net today and read some of the posts others have made about BR month, you’ll fast determine that most of them (the bitter little trolls who have nothing else to say) either want to jeer at BR’s popularity for no other reason (that I can discern) than having zero appreciation for the movie, the fan-clan that developed around it, consequently, OR they want to bloviate/whine about climate change and/or the tech in the movie and the lack of it having developed during contemporary times.   Yes, really.  Apparently, the speshul snowflakes need a safe space to cry about how DARE reality NOT live up to fake news media tech expectations.

Blade Runner was based on a shitty short story written by Philip K. Dick and published in 1968 entitled, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.  The only similarities it shares with the movie are Rick Deckard and six escapee Nexus-6 androids set during the post-apocalyptic future.  But for Ridley Scott, the book would have been relegated to the kindling pile and Harrison Ford would have gone through his life as being known only for playing a dimpled chin, bumbling bounty hunter whose chief claim to fame was banging bun head Lea in a cheesy space opera that ripped off Frank Herbert’s Dune books.

Scott transformed a mediocre book into a kick ass piece of sci-fi folklore and released the movie in 1982.  Dick had set the year to 1992 but Scott set it mere thirty-seven years into the future in 2019 which was perfect according to my teen self’s opinion, thank you, very much.  The time frame was close enough to what was then, the current year, to stay firmly rooted in reality, and just far off enough to enable dreaming about the day when we’d have flying cars, human-like androids and off-world colonies.

BR is essentially a love story between Deckard (Who may even be a replicant himself–the flame wars still wage today) and Rachel, who is introduced as the niece of the CEO of the Tyrell Corporation but who is really a unique prototype replicant with implanted memories from Tyrell’s niece and whose lack of longevity is not an issue in the same manner as the Nexus-6 sociopaths.  The rest of the story in between is a high tech wet dream set to a soundtrack created by Greek musician and composer, Vangelis.  In fact, the music is a very much overlooked, undervalued absolute masterpiece as musical accompaniment goes.

The fact that we’re even having a discussion about an event that was referenced in a thirty-seven year old movie speaks volumes all by itself, so if you haven’t seen it then you’ve missed out, loser.  Go break three of your fingers–one for each of the killer skin jobs Deckard retired.

I leave you with my favorite scene –

 

 

 

 

[WoW] Word of the Week Returns

Young Ernest Hemingway

Bawcock

Colloquially, bawcock means “a fine fellow.” Its origin is from the French beau coq, meaning “handsome rooster.” Its first recorded usage was during 16-Century English. Used in a sentence, American journalist & novelist Ernest Hemingway was a bawcock back in his day.

 

Happy Birthday, US Marine Corps!

Defending America Since Day One

Two hundred and forty-four years ago, the Second Continental Congress established the Continental Marines with the following decree:

That two battalions consisting of one Colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors and other officers, as usual in other regiments; that they consist of an equal number of privates as with other battalions, that particular care be taken that no persons be appointed to offices, or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve for and during the present war with Great Britain and the Colonies; unless dismissed by Congress; that they be distinguished by the names of the First and Second Battalions of Marines.

Tun Tavern, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and owned by Robert Mullan, the first Captain, is considered the birthplace of the Corps.  The first Marines were enlisted under Commandant Samuel Nichols and were deployed a year later to the very first conflict our infant nation was to fight–the Revolutionary War.

More than any other branch of America’s military, the United States Marine Corps values and embraces its history.  Beginning in boot camp, every Marine is educated on the Corps’ proud and storied past as they learn what it means to be part of such a prestigious organization.  In the spirit of the tremendous value the Corps places on its history, the editor & chief of Prattle On, Boyo seeks to give Marine families and supporters an opportunity to learn about the Marine Corps legacy and embrace it as intently as the greenest Marine recruit is taught to.

Accomplishments & Milestones

March 1776:  Commandant Nichols led 210 Marines on the first landing in Marine Corps history to a hostile shore on a raid of Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas.  The raid was not as successful as hoped for but did succeed in capturing the town along with a substantial supply of guns, mortars and gun powder.  During this same month, the Marines also saw the first combat death, that of Lieutenant John Fitzpatrick.

January 1777:  The Continental Marines joined with General George Washington’s Continental Army to defeat the British at the Battle of Princeton in New Jersey marking the third defeat in 10 days for the British Army.  The victory raised morale among the American troops and inspired more young men to join in the fight again the British.

January 1778:  Captains John Rathburn and John Trevett led a second raid on Nassau once again capturing it.  Their victory marked the first time the Stars and Stripes was raised over foreign soil.

April 1778:  Marines under the command of John Paul Jones made two daring raids on British soil–once at the port of Whitehaven in Northwest England and the second later that day at St. Mary’s Isle in southwest Scotland.

1779:  A Marine detachment secured New Orleans preventing British traders from entering the city while Marines also led a series of raids on British Loyalists living on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain outside the city.

1781: Continental Marines engaged what would be their last official act of the Revolutionary War when they escorted a supply of silver from Boston to Philly.  The silver was a loan from King Louis XVI of France and allowed the nation’s first bank to open.

March 1783:   The last actual action the Continental Marines saw was during the final confrontation of the war–a duel between the USS Alliance and the HMS Sybil off the coast of Florida five weeks after the war had ended.

Over the course of seven years of battle, the Continental Marines had only 49 men killed and just 70 more wounded out of a force of roughly 130 Marine Officers and 2,000 enlisted men.

Legacy

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Marines’ uniforms consisted of a green jacket with high leather collar to protect the neck against sword blades.  While the Marines changed the color to blue in 1798 (to honor its naval tradition) the collar remained part of the uniform until  the 1870s. Over time, the wearing of the leather led sailors on the ships the Marines were serving to refer to Marines as leathernecks, a nickname by which Marines are still known today.

The Revolutionary War not only led to the founding of the United States (Continental) Marines Corps, but also highlighted for the first time the versatility that Marines have come to be known for.  They fought on land, at sea on ships and they performed numerous amphibious assaults which, over time, would become one of the Marine’s most dangerous and defining capabilities as would be seen in the Pacific Theater of WW II and at Inchon in Korea.

From its earliest days, the Corps has played a vital role in securing and defending the freedom of our nation.  While the role Marines played in the Revolutionary War is often overlooked, it should not be underestimated.  As the great American author James Fenimore Cooper once wrote:

At no period of the naval history of the world is it probable that Marines were more important than during the War of the Revolution..the history of the Navy, even at that early day, as well as in these later times, abounds with instances of the gallantry and self-devotion of this body of soldiers.

 

Happy Birthday, Gentlemen.  Policing the world since 1775–Semper Fi!  Oo-rah!

Prattle Celebrates 10 Years on the Web!

For those of you have been following Prattle all this time, a sincere thank you.  And for those who may want to toss their hat into the blogging ring but don’t have a blog of their own, now is your chance!

Prattle On, Boyo has a fairly high internet search engine ranking so your content may be noticed by third parties but if that’s your only impetus to write well then you probably shouldn’t waste your time.  If OTOH, you live to write and want to share your musings with others for the sheer joy of it, please feel free to submit your thoughts accordingly.

In celebration of PoB’s upcoming GLORIOUS ten year anniversary on November 17th,  submit your topic AFTER you review the guidelines, of course.  I’m not picky about subject matter and I don’t expect a ten thousand word thesis, but I stand pretty firm as to ground rules so be sure to review them at the following link.

Prattle On, Boyo Guest Blogging Guidelines

 

 

 

Prattle Me A Scam, Scumbag

Apropos of probably the fact that I recently opened a new line of credit, I’ve been phished not once but twice in as many days.

If you’re not up on your InfoSec terminology, phishing is a fraudulent attempt to obtain confidential information. It is a cybercrime perpetrated by someone posing as an authorized entity for the purpose of luring unwary individuals into disclosing sensitive data such as usernames and passwords which the scammer can then use illicitly.

The target is typically contacted via email, telephone or text message disguised as legitimate communication. Save reporting it to the institution that was spoofed–in my case, Wells Fargo bank–there’s not a whole lot can be done about it. (Assuming you did not fall for the con, that is, in which case that is an entirely new level of misery) I’m writing about it as a public service to alert readers that phishing scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. It’s not enough just to be aware phishing exists. In fact, in order to protect yourself, you have to dig a little deeper than obvious red flags that bludgeon you with comical errors.

At first glance, the two phishing attempts that targeted me looked absolutely legit. Even the telephone numbers checked out but then I’m quite sure the criminal counted on the fact that most people would rather use their shiny eight hundred dollars worth of smartphone technology rather than placing a tired old, antiquated phone call.

Further, there was none of the usual grammar and spelling errors which are part and parcel of a phish attempted by a criminal who does not speak English.

For example, a typical phishing expedition would have included something along the lines of:

If you havent recieve you card call us at 800-WE-GOODE.

Or some other obvious grammatical and/or spelling error.

And a less discerning person may have taken the bait simply by virtue of the fact that not only was his name included in the greeting but it was also spelled correctly rather than the generic Dear Valued Customer which is SOP for scams of this nature. You may be wondering how a scammer would know your name and that you have accounts at Wells Fargo bank but hold that thought.

Behold the Scumbaggery

Exhibit Alpha – Activate Your Card

Exhibit Bravo – Deposit Your Check with a Smartphone

Given my natural state of vigilance and suspicion combined with a heaping helping of information security as a side gig, I don’t want to say that it is impossible to scam me but, in reality, it will be quite the frosty day in Hell when I’d be dumb enough to click on a link contained within an unsolicited message especially from a high profile bank that encouraged me to activate a credit card and another link in another message to deposit a check with a smartphone. Ain’t happenin’, Jimmy. And any bank that sends such correspondence to you should be reported to the state and federal Attorneys General offices accordingly.

Returning to the question of how a scammer would know your personal details such as name and accounts, the answer is they don’t. At least, not usually, unless, of course, your identity has been compromised. But Wells Fargo has a significant presence in financial markets sufficient for scumbags to gamble (and usually guess correctly) that a satisfying portion of their target audience probably would. And even if you did not, there are those out there who may still click on the links anyway because they mistakenly believe that they have hit the FICO jackpot–

Hey, I don’t even have an account at Wells Fargo and I never applied for credit but they want to give me free money, woo hoo! Let me click on that link right now and give my social security number, username, password AND mother’s maiden name! What could possibly go wrong?

Even the return address domain seemed kosher but still smelled like unadulterated dog shit to me.

Always check the headers

A quick trace and peek into the WHOIS database yielded that connect.wellsfargoemail.com resolves back to Cheetahmail which appears to be a legitimate business entity. And presumably, the Cheetahmail domain has been spoofed/hijacked for the purpose of scamming unsuspecting consumers, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Maybe the administrative contact named below in the public record spends his free time perpetrating cybercrime?

Suffice to say, after having forwarded both phishing attempts to Wells, I have not received a response nor do I expect to mostly because the fraud department does not inspire confidence. While I was researching the connect.wellsfargoemail.com domain I found a previous thread in @Ask_WellsFargo twitter feed and its operator either could not or would not answer the question whether connect.wellsfargoemail.com even belonged to the bank. Shouldn’t an account named “Ask Wells Fargo” possess fundamental knowledge about the organization it purports to speak for on social media?

A logical person would assume that Ask Wells Fargo would at least be peripherally aware as to what domains Wells Fargo actually owns, but you’d be mistaken if you thought the official twitter feed served any other purpose than mindless, happy, shiny marketing drivel which is exactly why you have to possess a working knowledge of what are and where to find email headers. In fact, stay tuned for an upcoming tutorial on that particular subject matter. Until next time, don’t click on any links from within your email, especially for special deals and services from financial and banking entities.

Fleebin-Flobbin

Greetings and Salutations Prattle Ppl:

So it has been about a year since I last posted to convey having removed Prattle from an increasingly totalitarian liberal loon social media platform and now it’s time for another update.

Throughout the past year, I’ve been practicing my front-end web dev endeavors and otherwise pursuing software-related minutiae but paused to include for you some software developer jargon that can just as easily crossover into the mainstream vocab of the decidedly non-developer vernacular. See how many terms you can identify and then incorporate into your daily communications.  Impress your friends and vie for that promotion today!

Deprecate

Code that is still part of the overall application and remains in place for the sake of  backwards-compatibility.  e.g. a deprecated relationship

Rubber Ducking

A method of debugging code taken from The Pragmatic Programmer (1999).  The act of carrying around a rubber duck (or some other object) and explaining your code line-by-line to it in order to understand it better.  This sometimes happens in personal relationships when one side refuses to communicate and the other has to constantly second-guess the other side’s increasingly fucked up behaviors.

Reality 101 Failure

The program, or more likely a feature of a program, does exactly what was expected but when deployed becomes annoyingly obvious that the problem was misunderstood and is basically useless.

Happy Path

A default scenario that experiences no exceptions or error conditions and leads to successful execution thereby generating a positive response.  Contrasted with an exception path that results in reality 101 failure.

Nopping

Taken from assembler language NOP  meaning no-operation. Similar to a nap but doesn’t imply sleep, just zoning out.

Copypasta

Code which contains direct or nearly direct copy-and-paste.  As in a copypasta Dear John letter.

Yoda Notation

Two parts of an expression are reversed from the typical order in a conditional statement. A Yoda condition places the constant portion of the expression on the left side of the conditional statement. The name for this programming style is derived from the Star Wars character named Yoda who speaks English with a non-standard syntax. As in,  Let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, do not.

Egosurfing

Scanning the web for one’s own name.  May be to monitor personal brand but is typically for narcissistic purposes.

Jimmy

A generalized name for a clueless n00b.

Bikeshedding

A futile investment of time and energy in a discussion of marginal technical issues such as worrying about where the bike shed will go on a property that doesn’t exist.

Unicorny

An adjective to describe a feature that’s so early in the planning stages that it might as well be imaginary.

Stress Puppy

One who requires stress in order to function well yet voices dissatisfaction with it.

F–k Off, Facebook

Greetings Prattle Followers:

Please be advised that effective immediately, the social media pages for Prattle On Boyo on Facebook have been deactivated due to the current anti-free expression stance of social media giants such as Facebook have recently undertaken to quash any and all expression that does not puke up MSM/Leftist talking points.

In its blind, fanatical zeal to aid its globalist overlords in destroying the United States, many of the brand name tech companies, such as Facebook, have rigged its platform algorithms to feature content only from those sources who regurgitate the rigid, authoritarian orthodoxy of the Left.  I cannot, in good faith, or as an American citizen, continue to patronize such a platform, particularly since its claims of free expression have become vividly clear to apply only to Left leaning viewpoints, meanwhile it labels by default any opinions to the contrary as racist or whatever the MSM outrage of the day happens to be.

You can still follow PoB on Twitter and Gab.

Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter and thanks for following my pages.

PoB

Heeeeeere’s Nigel

Yes, after a long hiatus (cough cough cough) I have returned.  I’m sure you’re happy to see me, again, eh?   Go grab more of whatever you’re deliriously eating/drinking/rolling around in because you’ll probably enjoy what I’m about to write.  Well, I enjoyed it and that’s really the only thing that matters, after all.  The fact that you’re accessing this site really only proves one thing…that you like to lurk!  This is the only reasonable deduction since very few of you ever bother to comment.  Or follow me on social media.  Or say, Hey, PF, dude, where the hell you been?

I wrote the follow apropos of a little thought experiment.  Basically, I created a character and inserted him into a well known movie. (Kubrick would be proud.) But before you read about it, you really ought to head out to YT and watch the following clip as it sets up the scene I wrote.  The audio is really craptacular so be sure to crank your speaker.

The Shining – Bar Scene

Now on to what you really came here for.

Jack Torrance sat at the empty bar and took a slug from the 2-fingers worth of bourbon that Lloyd, the red-jacketed bartender, had just poured into a small highball glass for him.  He held it up, lovingly, eyes twinkling, and made a toast, Here’s to five months on the wagon and all the irreparable harm it caused me.  As he set down his drink, he admired how the ambient lighting in the ballroom glinted off the crystal.  Just then, Wendy, his wife, scampered into the room, carrying a wooden bat and whimpering.  Her blubbering snapped his reverie and he was suddenly plunged back into the present –the bartender, his glass and bottle of bourbon all having vanished from sight.  His glee had been swiftly transformed into annoyance, and when she put her hand on his shoulder, to force him to listen to her, there was no escaping.  The silly bitch was always pestering him with what he considered inanities, and was forever sobbing about Danny, their seven year old.  The poor kid couldn’t make a move without the old sperm bank wailing about it.  And then, as predicted, she launched into an agitated account about a crazy woman in one of the rooms of the hotel having attempted to strangle his son.

At a table located far from the bar, he watched them, Jack Torrance, the new caretaker of the hotel, and his delirious wife, Wendy, as she described a woman in a bathtub going after their child. He chuckled, softly, to himself, when Jack asked Wendy if she was out of her mind. He had finished his own drink as he patiently waited for Jack to tell her to go back to their quarters before he made his presence known. Excuse me, Mr. Torrance… His tone was as balmy as his mint julep cocktail had been. A word before you speak to Mrs. Abernathy? He asked, affably.

Startled at the sound of the stranger’s voice, Jack spun around, nearly losing balance. The bartender and his bourbon had both reappeared the moment Wendy had departed the ballroom. As his perception settled back into his alternate reality, the intruder strode towards Jack and held out his hand. My name is Thorpe. Nigel, to my friends. Jack shook his hand, enthusiastically, while Lloyd replenished his glass and poured another for the newcomer.

Thorpe reached for his drink and apologized, Pardon me, for saying so, but Agnes didn’t mean to alarm your son. He was picking off imaginary particles of dust from his sharply starched lapels and continued, It’s just that it has been so long since her own son has visited, well, the poor woman was positively delighted for the company! Her, uh, exuberance, was a bit much, admittedly, but she meant no harm. He said, sheepishly.

Jack considered his explanation, briefly, eying the man’s monocle and crisply tailored jacket. The two then clinked their glasses together, amicably, before downing their drinks. That’s quite alright, Nigel, my friend, Jack’s tone was mollifying. Wendy has an over-active imagination and often creates drama where absolutely none was intended.

Happy to hear it, old chum, Nigel’s tone was as superficially magnanimous as Jack’s. What say we both pay Aggie a visit? He suggested, with a wink. She absolutely adores entertaining guests from the comfort of a hot bath!

Nigel, my boy, I think I’m in the mood for a bath, myself, Jack announced, as his face broke into a wide, lewd grin.

It Will Be Fun They Said

For those who follow this blog, I sincerely regret the rather extended hiatus.  No, that’s not entirely accurate.  As evidenced by the POB Twitter feed embedded on this page,  I haven’t been gone at all, but rather, just active on other channels.

So what has POB been up to this whole time?

A variety of things, most prominently, learning front-end web development which as it turns out doesn’t really involve what you’re thinking it does –

Not quite.

Here, take a look for yourself.

The glory of JavaScript

Learn front-end web development.  It will be fun, they said.

That’s nice, POB.  I don’t know what I’m looking at but it is quite colorful.

And now for the $64 thousand dollar question on everyone’s mind…

So when will I write my own original content again?

That’s a really good question.  I’m always good for a retina-searing diatribe against state and federal agencies that are allegedly consumer-oriented in nature, most notably, California’s own ironically named Employment Development Department whose main job (as far as I can tell) is to determine exactly how many levels it can take Dante’s Hell to while proclaiming (with a straight face) that it is helping the state’s unemployed workers.  For those who missed it the first time, and for those who want to relive the fun, follow the link to the article in question – EDD Tenth Circle of Hell.

I don’t have a target date of my next piece.  All I can say is follow me on Twitter so you won’t miss a beat.

Thanks for your continuing support and encouragement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not Dead Yet

Greetings PoB followers:

Just a quick hello to let you know that yes, it has been awhile since I published anything here, however, I am still very much alive.  If you want a PoB fix follow me on Twitter @prattleonboyo or on the PoB Facebook Page.  Best bet is Twitter if you don’t want to miss anything since Facebook seems to only post about 10% of what I actually post.

Temp Worker Nation USA

According to the BLS, the total number of temp workers surged by 7.5% in the past year to 2,279,800 in May.  That’s the highest it has been since it reached 2,767,300 in October 2006.  And if you have been looking for a full-time, permanent job lately, you know exactly what the situation is like  despite the smokescreen of sunshine and roses as portrayed by the mainstream media.

Getting on board with the official meme that temp work = wonderfully liberating, amazingly awesome, and, gives you lots and lots of time for stopping by the corner corporately owned coffee monopoly (because as we know, paying $6 bucks for a thimble full of burnt joe is what all Americans should aspire to) , various and sunder across the web have chimed in with opinions that weren’t just rendered while wearing rose-colored glasses, but those shades were absolutely embedded to the writer’s eyeballs permanently with a blow-torch.

Futurist Speaker blogger, Thomas Frey, writing about The Great Freelancer Movement is chock full of figures to make you all warm and fuzzy, not to mention, hot for, the world of temporary work, particularly as it concerns the Millennial Generation, or Gen Y, those who were born between 1980 – 2000.

Frey is positively brimming with the gospel according to the corporatocracy, and, hits us with eight (8) pie-in-the-sky bullet points of temporary serf goodliness.  Get a load of this load.

Frey writes:

The freelancer benefit package No, being a freelancer doesn’t come with health insuranc,vacation time, or a 401k plan. But what it does offer is far greater.

 

You’re in control so you get to decide who you want as a client, when you’re available for work, and most often, how much you’ll get paid. Yes sometimes you’ll get fired from a project, but you can also fire your client.

 

Freelancing done right will give you a far higher salary,a far more influential circle of friends, and an ability to make a difference.

Wow,  Frey makes it sound as if being a temp does everything except solve world hunger.  Rest assured, however, after reading his assessments, temp work  will eventually yield  exactly that result, as well, I just know it.

Hey, maybe if we work at it hard enough, we can also ride a flying white unicorn while sprinkling magic pixie dust to save the planet from the oil companies and create wage equality for all while we’re at it.

Well, first things first -working as a temp, specifically, one who freelances electronically using portals such as oDesk, will in fact, put you on equal footing with the rest of the undeveloped world, that is for sure.  Yours truly has been workin’ the ol’ freelancer gig long enough to know what is and is not kosher on that count.

Not to pick on oDesk (it just happens to be the one freelancing site that I am most familiar with at the present time) but taking a long look around its neck of the ethernet will typically yield a gig as follows:

Click to enlarge

The employer wants you, the freelancer, to put in 35 hours of the week preferably for  less than $1.50/hr  Sweet!  That oughta get you that brand new , 27- inch widescreen flat-panel IPS LED HD monitor in no time, sparky!

You mean I, too, can experience the thrill of working for Third World wages in a digital sweat shop of my own choosing?

Yes, you can, little American worker! Thanks to the miracle of the global labor pool, you can be just as poverty stricken as Apu over in Bangladesh who earns $0.10 per day!  Except in Bangladesh, Apu can still afford food and lodging.  You, on the other hand, will have to move in with your parents or into your car or whatever makeshift shelter your freelancing salary will afford you.  Perhaps a cardboard box under the bridge just outside town?

It’s a glorious worker’s paradise, dont’cha know? Hey, and don’t forget, if you’re not satisfied with the luxurious salary of less than a buck fifty per hour, remember that you can always fire your client!

Doesn’t that sound awesome?

You know it, baby!  Temp work is soooooooo incredibly liberating, character building and altruistic, that the only generations being exhorted and encouraged to take advantage of it are those born after Boomers like Frey have already golden parachuted out of the workforce and have otherwise stockpiled their six digit pensions and 401(k) retirements and are now telling you that you don’t need to have any of the benefits and security his generation had.  Don’t you just love how that works?

Amazon’s Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts

I agree 100% with Scalzi’s initial thoughts, and, as “preliminary” as they may be, from the POV of a writer, this is a raw deal. Avoid it like the plague.

Further, I do think that gullible writers will jump on the bandwagon thinking this is a great way to get noticed. See also HuffPo bloggers who contributed to the site only to make Arianna Huffington an even bigger millionaire since she then sold the site to AO hell.

Compensation to bloggers = Zero.

Huffington’s cut: $315 million.

Writers who are willing to work for free are no better than indentured servants.

See also Unpaid Blogging:  Digital Servitude

Whatever

The Twitters are abuzz today about Amazon’s new “Kindle Worlds” program, in which people are allowed to write and then sell through Amazon their fan fiction for certain properties owned by Alloy Entertainment, including Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, with more licenses expected soon. I’ve had a quick look at the program on Amazon’s site, and I have a couple of immediate thoughts on it. Be aware that these thoughts are very preliminary, i.e., I reserve the right to have possibly contradictory thoughts about the program later, when I think (and read) about it more. Also note that these are my personal thoughts and do not reflect the positions or policies of SFWA, of which I am (still but not for much longer) president.

1. The main knock on fan fiction from the rights-holders point of view — i.e., people are using their characters and situations in…

View original post 1,094 more words

Opinion | Face It; We Don’t Teach Out of Convenience!

Written by Guest Blogger Rachel Davis

It’s summer break and coupled with the fact that I have been on medical leave for 3 additional weeks, I have been cruising the web, and reading too many Facebook posts.  The trend right now seems to be teachers bashing teaching.  The I Quit letter that recently made the rounds and today a 12 minute video of an elementary school teacher complaining about her job is what has put me to mind to speak from the other end of the spectrum.

I will start my 13^th year of teaching, 12 of which were at a Title One magnet high school in North Carolina. Let me preface this by saying that I have thought about leaving teaching many times, but not because of the government cutbacks or their impositions on evaluation and curriculum; that’s another entry for another time. The point I want to make is that I don’t see everything about teaching as some dream job with easy hours and all sunshine and butterflies.

Teaching is not easy and if for a minute you think you are going to walk into a utopian ideal of what a classroom should be, then you’re in for a rotten reality check. But it can be as long as you are ready to hear “no” and enjoy hitting brick walls, but always rising to the challenge of getting what you want, or at least a compromise of what you would like.   Teaching can be rewarding, can be entertaining and can be very enjoyable.  I would teach for free if what I actually got to do was teach.  But I don’t get to just teach, I have to do all the other crap that goes along with it, so I take the meager salary that goes along with “teaching”.

Teaching is for the crafty folks out there (and I don’t mean paste and crayons crafty).  It’s about using your brain to make things work to the best of your ability, and remembering every day that you are not doing this for the money, but for altruistic purpose of helping others.  The End.

It’s crap when people say things like “the government dictates how I teach” or “what I teach”.  In the aforementioned 12 minute video, she claims that government doesn’t allow her to hatch chicks in her class because they have taken the money away for that.

Really?  You think that is a line in the state budget?

Bill 800.12: Cut funding for eggs that hatch chickens in the 1^st grade classrooms.

Um, no.  It’s about the way your school is being run and the local importance of things like that.  Maybe it is more important to the school to have calculators than it is have chicks hatching in the classroom.

So, what do you do about it?  Make a 12 minute video crying about your job, bashing teaching?

How about getting off your ass and making a change within your school? Or leave your school and find one that is more to your liking.  There is probably a charter school out there who will let you hatch chicks in your classroom.  Ohhhh?! Did I say the C word? Yup!

After 12 years, I have left public schools for a charter school.  We’ll see how it goes.  I am optimistic. Hired by folks who have put their trust in me to teach what I know.  Folks who hired other folks who will do their job on a regular basis.  I didn’t like the way my school was run and it was time for a change.  And I found a place with the same basic teaching philosophy as myself.  That’s why we need charter schools.  It’s called competition.  Now get off of your ass, quit your whining, and make a change if you don’t like what you’re doing or where you’re doing it!

Review | Sony PRS-600 Touch eBook Reader

So after much thought, deliberation and research, I finally decided to seriously consider purchasing an electronic book reader.  I wanted to buy it used because I’m on a budget, but that doesn’t factor into my review here.  Instead, I will focus on the practicalities, in addition to the FAB (features – advantages – benefits).

I must admit that I didn’t want to like it.  In fact, when electronic book readers became ubiquitous not so long ago, I was still staunchly against them.  This was mostly due to the high profile debacles involved with the Kindle -stories of consumers’ entire book collections being deleted remotely because Amazon was too intimidated by the legacy publishing and/or established writer’s cartels to stand up for its customers only helped to fuel my anti-electronic book reader vitriol.   Why would I possibly want to spend money on an appliance that was only going to screw me over and otherwise aid & abet the corporatocracy ‘s continued assault on Fair Use rights?

I was determined, nonetheless, to avoid any electronic reader containing  a proprietary format (such as Kindle’s .mobi and Nook’s .epub). Proprietary formats serve to prevent customers from transferring content from reader to reader in much the same manner the entertainment companies seek to prevent the end user from transferring digital content from DVD to computer hard drive.  The better to SCREW you so that you will have to separately purchase the same content in a different format to accommodate the use of different players.  (This is what the Kafkaesque digital rights management is all about.)

Another factor that pushed me into wanting an electronic book reader is that I am going to self-publish Book #1 in a seven book series in the supernatural/gothic/horror genre very shortly and exclusively in electronic format.  As a writer, it doesn’t sit very well with me to publish my work in manner that I can’t even see the finished product for myself.

And so with this criteria in mind, I found (ta da!) the Sony PRS-600 Touch.

The Good

File Formats

 Sony is not wedded to any particular file format;  That is to say that while it does support proprietary DRM-infested formats such as  .epub & .mobi, the consumer is not forced to purchase content exclusively in one format or another.  Additionally, the Sony will also support .pdf, .doc, .jpg & .txt.  While this is all very nice, the catch is that you must choose a single format because the Sony will not read multiple formats at the same time.  For example, you won’t be able to read files in .pdf, .mobi, .epub & .txt file formats concurrently.  So choose wisely should you decide to purchase this particular reader.

This limitation hasn’t been a problem for me, however, as the content I want to read is exclusively in non-DRM portable document format. (.pdf)   (Note here that when I say non-DRM, I am referring to a plain vanilla .pdf file, not a .pdf that has been digitally signed with Adobe’s version of digital rights garbage.)

Ability to Annotate

I am a big fan of the highlighting, note taking and dictionary features, but then again, I’m a writer.  I like to take notes.  And while the built-in dictionary will be helpful to the average person, I find that both my vocabulary, as well as that of the books I read (mostly late 19th Century writers such as Blackwood, Bierce, James, Lovecraft, & Machen)  is much larger than what the New American Oxford Dictionary has in its memory bank.

Expandable Memory

The PRS-600 has an SD slot to expand its memory.  And with memory being relatively inexpensive these days, the sky is the limit.

The Bad

Sony’s File Management Software

Upon having charged up the reader, the first time you plug it into your computer, it will immediately prompt you to install Sony’s file management software.  I suppose this is helpful provided that the end user is unfamiliar with any other options, but Sony’s software should be avoided if you can help it.  Although I have not personally experienced any particular problems, I have read numerous reviews written by other end users whose main complaint is with the software because it apparently does not facilitate the transfer of purchased content from vendor to reader very smoothly.  (This hasn’t been an issue for me because it has never been my intention to purchase electronic books.) Additionally, if you want to avoid using Sony’s software then consider using Calibre, instead.

The Ugly

Calibration

With the ability to annotate, you must calibrate the reader so that it recognizes the stylus.  This is easier said than done.  The process of calibrating the unit was very problematic.  It took me over an hour and made me want to throw it out the window.  Calibration should not be this difficult given that Apple also uses the exact same technology with its products and calibration is not like pulling teeth the way it is for the Sony.

Arbitrary Lock Ups

Since I don’t know the history of this particular unit, I don’t know why this model Sony inexplicably freezes.  Perhaps the previous owner pounded the shit out of it and drop kicked it on a regular basis?  I tend to think not since the casing isn’t scratched up or marred in any way.

Sony blames unit freezing on a corrupted file, but that’s a load of ca-ca in my opinion.  It’s too easy to blame a file for a malfunction, particularly since my files are all in non-DRM .pdf format.   In fact, it’s a lot like complaining to Caltrans about pot holes and being told that the ginormous holes in the road is due to the weather.  Pffffffffft!  Maybe that excuse flies on the east coast where it snows, sleets and the weather otherwise pulverizes the roads, but over here on the other side of the country, where the sun shines approximately 300 days of the year, not so much!

But then again, this is a used product and the locking up issue may or may not be attributable to previous use and abuse.   The main thing I absolutely adore about an electronic book reader is that I can store hundreds of books on it and have them at my fingertips on a slim unit instead of hauling around dead tree books in my bag.  (All that extra weight adds up when you’re a bus & bikin’ kind of person.)  And also, real estate for extras such as books  is at a minimum given my current living situation.  For a bookworm like me, the ability to have instant access to the content that I don’t want to have to read on the computer is priceless.

In reading reviews written elsewhere, a lot of end users bellyached about the absence of sharp fonts and a glare problem on this model, but I haven’t been troubled by either as the glare issue is solved with a simple re-angling of the unit into another position.  As to the fonts, this model lets you select the size of the font from five different sizes plus a zoom feature.  So if you’re blind as a bat, then you’ll be glad to know that not only can you select XXL sized font, but you can also zoom in.

In the final analysis, I’m fairly happy with this reader.   But fret not dead tree lovers, electronic book readers won’t replace printed books 100%, but it sure does wonders for portability and convenience of reading material.

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