No, it doesn’t. I just needed a place to rant about the European Cookie law. I mean, come on, did the politicians even understand how Cookies work? I hope they feel ashamed of how they introduced Cookie-popups to every single website, just when we figured out how to block ad popups. So, no, there are no Cookies used here – I just wanted to write that text above. What do you say? The privacy policy is exactly the one text nobody ever reads, so this rant is absolutely misplaced? Well, YOU are reading it right now, aren’t you?
Category: annoying
Winter, Meh.
This region does indeed have four distinct seasons.
I can deal with Spring and Autumn. Temperatures and precipitation are tolerable.
Summer is challenging. We’ve had a few weeks of temperatures hovering around 110F.
But Winter — it angers me.
We’ve endured -10F, which about what we’d endured in Soap Lake a few years ago. Fortunately, we’re not living in a 5th Wheel RV as we were then. It had its drawbacks. But it also had its benefits, like the ability to head to warmer climes.
But, presently, I’m disliking this whole “winter” thing.
No, that’s not quite right.
I don’t mind Winter, but I suppose I dislike most isn’t the cold or the precipitation — I’m disliking the current condition (existence? non-existence?) of the shelter, equipment, and gear to cope with it.
Scam?
We’ve cautioned everyone for decades to never, ever, share their passwords with anyone for any reason.
Ever.
Apparently, “never” means “except for this one case…” When applying for a mortgage, we’re now being prompted to provide the name of along with username & password for every financial account.
Don’t worry, though… it’s only used to verify account information that you’ve already provided as PDFs direct from the institutions.
And there’s no legal recourse — if you’ve willingly provided your authentication information, then they are you.
There are several things wrong with this and it absolutely feels like a scam or can be readily exploited by nefarious actors.
Coffee… Cup Needed
I’ve had this for several years. I made it maybe seven or eight years ago in Casper, WY, just because.
Fast-forward to today and it seemed the cats had grown tired of my mug.
Cat-holes.
Nine years ago, perhaps… back when my fur was mostly red:
I’ll need to see about either throwing a new one or just selecting and glazing a replacement.
Already said it once…gonna say it again: Cat-holes.
A Reboot is Not A Fix
Somebody said, “I need to reboot the DB servers…” and I immediately felt my eye starting to twitch.
I quickly asked, “Why are you rebooting it?”
“Because it’s unstable,” was his reply.
“But what have you done to it to identify the cause?” I challenged, “What changes have you made to correct it?”
“Well, none! I’m rebooting it because it’s unstable!”
I’m not concerned about rebooting a DB server, I mean, there will be a brief period of unavailability, but instead because a reboot wouldn’t address the actual problem.
You see, a reboot, isn’t a fix. It’s only a postponement of the inevitable. You’ll still need to address the actual problem itself that led to the instability. Instead, you’ve a flawed belief that a reboot would fix something, or that it would buy you time — this time — so it could be fixed.
And, predictably, doing a reboot only masked the issue.
Temporarily.
It was rebooted again about two hours later. Not fixed or troubleshot any further that time either. And is still in need of clearly understanding why it had become unstable to begin with: addressing the root cause of the instability itself.
It’ll be rebooted again. And again.
the rest of me 