10 Thoughts for July 29, 2014

1. It was some 15 years ago when I first purchased Sun Microsystems' Star Office, upon which led me down the Open Office path for most of this time.  Of late, I'd been using Google Drive for document editing and spreadsheets because it's simplified and easy to access.  But, because Google does not offer client-side encryption, if someone is accessing your data, it's wide open for them, so I used OO for the most sensitive of documents then encrypted it.  This year I'm going to make a switch.  Kingsoft recently made its office suite free -- WPS Office.  A huge factor, is the 10 different encryption options with up to (selectable) 128 bit encryption length.  Where Google Drive Spreadsheets excels over WPS, is graphing simplicity and ability to make quick edits to stylized elements.
2. Many people believe that cloud storage is not as safe as keeping your stuff on your computer.  I believe the right cloud storage and set up is just as safe as storing stuff on your computer.  So here's how you'd do it: Two factor authentication with a client-side encryption storage service such as Tresorit, making sure that you encrypt your sensitive documents.
3. Don't do this. When you address people, do make sure that you know who you're addressing.  This congressman thought that he was talking to a delegation from India; instead, he was talking to government employees from the departments of state and commerce who are of Indian descent.  If you watch the video, Arun Kumar from the ITA has a big smile on his face as Nisha Biswal explains that the congressman probably meant to address this to the Indian delegation.  No apologies from the congressman, just a comment, "Okay, let's see some progress."  Hilarious stuff.
4. A hipster gets upset that his almond milk might not be good for the environment or all that nutritious, then threatens to spill some milk.  I officially called this, "Rolling Almond Milk."
5. The ludicrously disingenuous cognitive dissociation that is the flood of undocumented foreign children at the southern border: We are angry that children are being treated as poorly as this; we think we should enforce our borders to prevent this flood of children and deport them immediately.  It's the finest example of American NIMBYism.
6. Americans, I don't think, understand what impeachment is.  They seem to think that impeachment is a political tool.  Well, it is, but it's meant to be used to remove officials who've committed a criminal offense...aka "high crimes and misdemeanors".  It's not meant to wield against someone that you think has misinterpreted the US Constitution or laws passed.  If you think that, then half of SCOTUS should be immediately impeached frequently when the House majority is upset with a ruling.
7. It's official: Russia is directly at war with Ukraine.  Russia has been caught with satellite evidence of firing mortar rounds into Ukraine.  I'm not a statesman and I don't play poker, but if I were POTUS, I wouldn't have released this evidence via social networking.  I would have printed them out onto massive, 4' x 8' boards, and convened a general UN assembly with the photos, and request to have the UN either send arms to Ukraine to defend itself or establish a 25km wide demilitarized zone on either side of the border, patrolled within the zone by drones and UN forces that prevent arms from crossing over.  You see, the first option of a proxy war is a nudge to Russia into accepting a demilitarized zone and shut down the war, immediately.
8. The Ebola outbreak in western Africa is the largest ever, and is still spreading.  A death in Nigeria, of a man who had boarded an international flight, is a big deal, as in scary.  You see, a person can be asymptomatic for up to 21 days.  This also marks the first time that (a deadly variant of) Ebola has appeared in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and now Nigeria.  That should be disconcerting, because the primary path of transmission is through human contact with infected animals, and the usual hotspot of Ebola is nearly 2,000 miles away.
9. This one incident has stuck with me all these years, since I was a freshman in high school.  During PE, a couple of bullies were picking on an outwardly gay student by chasing and snapping a towel at him, as he ran around shrieking.  It didn't last very long -- maybe a couple of minutes.  This was nearly 30 years ago, back when people rarely came out officially.  If you recall, this was the Edwin Meese era.  Nonetheless, I feel ashamed that I did not step up and interrupt it, nearly 30 years ago, as I was probably the only one there in my PE class who did not fear bullies.  Hence, it has stuck with me all these years -- a compilation of the events where I fell short of my own standards.
10. Have you tried the online version of Autodesk's AutoCAD -- AutoCAD360?  Remarkably good.  I'm holding out hope that Autodesk makes basic AutoCAD good enough to use via the internet to make Chromebooks even more useful.  There are two versions, one which utilizes HTML5, but lacks some certain features including a command line.