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Cake day: October 4th, 2023

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  • I use my computer for so many things and I have about 200 applications on my computer. I don’t know why, but it bothers me that everything happens on this one machine as well as seeing so many app icons (even grouped into folders).

    If what you want is organization from a workflow standpoint, I think that you’d have an easier time just using some form of launching system that doesn’t show a single monolithic menu of all your installed executables. Either have a launcher that permits breaking up stuff by task and lets you customize those groups, or just use a non-menu-based launching system.

    I mean, /usr/bin on my system has 2694 entries. I don’t see them, though, since I’m launching software via bash or tofi, so…shrugs

    VMs can have uses, but I’d mostly either use them for software compatibility, or to isolate things for security reasons. They wouldn’t be high on my list of tools to organize workflow.




  • How much you want to bet we’re going to start having military parades to “show off our strength”.

    Trump specifically asked for this in his first term. As I recall, his advisors recommended against it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_2018_Washington_Veterans_Day_Parade

    The 2018 Washington Veterans Day Parade (colloquially called “Trump’s military parade”) was a planned military parade that would have taken place in Washington, D.C., on November 10, 2018, in honor of the Veterans Day holiday (which took place on 11 November).

    The parade was expected to include members of all five armed services; the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and the Coast Guard, with other units that were to be dressed in period uniforms representing earlier times in the United States military history.[3] A memo from General Joseph Dunford reported that the parade was to have focused on historic battles and conflicts such as the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.[4] Between 5,000 and 7,000 service members were to have taken part in the parade, which was to begin at the U.S. Capitol and end at the White House. The evolution of women in the service was also to be highlighted in the parade, along with an emphasis on the price of freedom.[5] The parade would have included 100 wheeled vehicles instead of tanks, as well as a heavy air component featuring 50 aircraft at the end of the parade.[6][7] U.S. President Donald Trump would have been situated in a reviewing area and surrounded by military heroes.[8] Medal of Honor recipients would have been included in reviewing the parade with the President and would have marched in the parade.[5]

    Opinion of parade

    Support

    In February 2017, very few lawmakers backed the idea of a military parade. Senator David Perdue, a Republican of Georgia, told reporters “He’s the President of the United States. Personally, I would prefer not to do it. But he’s the president.”[20] Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, supported the parade if it honored the military itself, and not the “…Soviet-style hardware display.”[20]

    AMVETS, a group that advocates for military veterans, felt that potentially the parade would inspire more Americans to join the armed forces.[21]

    Against

    Other politicians spoke out against the parade. Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat of Washington and members of the House Armed Services Committee released a statement that highlighted “A military parade like this - one that is unduly focused on a single person - is what authoritarian regimes do, not democracies.”[20] Senator John Kennedy, a Republican of Louisiana, told reporters “We’re not North Korea, we’re not Russia, and we’re not China and I don’t want to be”, while speaking out against the proposed parade.[22]

    Robert O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL, tweeted in February 2018 that any military parade would be “…third world bullshit.”[23] Other military veterans echoed the sentiment with calls for the money to be spent on housing, employment and mental health care to better support the troops.[22] A veteran of the War in Afghanistan highlighted that it would seem unreasonable to hold a parade in celebration while a 19-year-old war (per 2020) was still ongoing.[21]


  • The latest incident, Friday afternoon, occurred while four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talons were en route to Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia for a flyover, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. A T-38 Talon is a two-seat supersonic jet used to train pilots, according to the Air Force.

    Around 3:15 p.m. local time, Delta Flight 2983, bound for Minneapolis, took off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Soon after, an alert sounded off inside the cockpit of the passenger plane, indicating that another aircraft was nearby, the FAA said. In response, air traffic controllers issued “corrective instructions” to both aircraft, the agency said.

    VASAviation visualization with ATC traffic:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQjQ23YTJo





  • I am pretty sure that that’s up to Trump’s discretion to grant and am skeptical that Trump would grant it.

    https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-disappointed-after-trump-removes-his-secret-service-detail-2018535

    Bolton, national-security hawk who played a key role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the first Trump administration, has continued to require Secret Service protection due to threats from Iran, even after leaving the White House in 2019.

    After Bolton was fired by Trump, the president terminated his security detail. However, former President Joe Biden reinstated the protection upon taking office in 2021.

    The purported plot against Bolton in 2021, one of the most thoroughly documented alleged assassination attempts, is part of what U.S. prosecutors and former government officials describe as ongoing efforts by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. These efforts aim to target Trump-era officials responsible for a 2020 U.S. airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Guard’s elite Quds Force.

    “The Justice Department filed criminal charges in 2022 against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official for attempting to hire a hitman to target me. That threat still exists, as shown by the recent arrest of someone trying to orchestrate President Trump’s assassination. The American people can decide for themselves which president made the right call,” Bolton said in his statement to CNN.

    On Tuesday, CNN reported that former National Security Adviser John Bolton expressed frustration and disappointment over former President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke his Secret Service protection just hours after he returned to the White House.

    “I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has made this decision,” Bolton said in a Tuesday statement to Newsweek. “Despite my criticisms of President Biden’s national security policies, he made the decision to extend Secret Service protection to me in 2021.”

    Bolton has a hostile nation-state actively trying to assassinate him for his work for Trump. Trump pulled his protection because he doesn’t like him.

    Judge Boasberg has ruled against Trump in one major case and I imagine will most-likely do so in at least a second.


  • Finstad said he held a Feb. 26 telephone town hall joined by 3,000 people in his district.

    clicks on link

    https://www.facebook.com/RepFinstad/posts/pfbid0bBgaYsihdnArsU3kw2fr6mhT1zXCQJjZNnaYMmhAgffAoEVKs8z5khzANPDaWJxcl?rdid=WrvrHq7dpyeCxxAZ

    Finstad: Great to talk to and answer questions from the amazing folks in #MN01! Thank you to the 3,000 constituents from across southern Minnesota who tuned in to our Constituent Update Call last night!

    Sarah Kujawa: How do we get notified of these? I am your constituent and didn’t get an invite

    Anastasia Hopkins Folpe: Sarah Kujawa exactly

    Jacque Drew: Sarah Kujawa I just called all 3 offices and asked the same question. No one had an answer but would pass my request along.

    MarilynPalmer Frisch: Sarah Kujawa probably another mistruth we have to deal with!

    Tori Ann Gross: Sarah Kujawa exactly. I’m on the email list, have called and asked your staffers specifically when you’ll be holding a town hall with constituents. How are you notifying people of your events??

    Jenni Hollar: Sarah Kujawa it was a lame attempt to appear that he’s listening to constituents.

    Karen Klefstad Monson: Sarah Kujawa and you note there is no response from him here.

    Sharon Vandenorth: Interesting. I spoke about this very lack of communication w your Rochester office yesterday morning and he never mentioned an “update call”. Invitation only? That’s one way to control the content isn’t it. Shameful lack of honesty.

    Shannon Helget: I called your office and voiced my concerns yesterday. I wasn’t informed of any phone call or town hall meeting where I could hear directly from Congressman Brad Finstad. How do you plan to notify all constituents in your district of these opportunities? You represent ALL of us.

    Hmm.



  • It looks like Trump already did that.

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/22/politics/who-is-judge-james-boasberg/index.html

    In a series of social media posts, Trump smeared Boasberg as a “Radical Left Lunatic Judge” and called for his impeachment

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Boasberg

    James Emanuel “Jeb” Boasberg (born 1963)[2] is an American lawyer and jurist who is the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Appointed by President George W. Bush, he served as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 2002 to 2011, before Barack Obama nominated him to the US district court for the District of Columbia. Chief Justice John G. Roberts appointed him to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in 2014, and he served as the presiding judge of the FISC from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, he was appointed to the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court and designated chief judge.

    If he’s “radical left”, no doubt this is all part of some sort of grand conspiracy between President Bush, President Obama, and conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts to infiltrate communists into high positions in the government.


  • There’s an already-extant ground-based vessel navigation system, Loran-C, though I’m sure that it’s possible to improve on it and I have no idea how much of the receiver hardware is still out there.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loran-C

    The introduction of civilian satellite navigation in the 1990s led to a rapid drop-off in Loran-C use. Discussions about the future of Loran-C began in the 1990s; several turn-off dates were announced and then cancelled. In 2010, the US and Canadian systems were shut down, along with Loran-C/CHAYKA stations that were shared with Russia.[2][3] Several other chains remained active; some were upgraded for continued use. At the end of 2015, navigation chains in most of Europe were turned off.[4] In December 2015 in the United States, there was also renewed discussion of funding an eLoran system,[5] and NIST offered to fund development of a microchip-sized eLoran receiver for distribution of timing signals.[6]

    The National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2017, proposed resurrecting Loran as a backup for the United States in case of a GPS outage caused by space weather or attack.[7][8]



  • I’m sure not, but even without looking at any technical details, it will have at least a couple benefits:

    • First, it’s short range. GPS satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, which is a pretty high orbit. Wikipedia says about 22,000 miles away. For GPS, the jammer is going to be far closer than the legitimate signal.

    • Second, I’m guessing — though we’ll see — that this is going to be a civilian system, and I suppose that they could even try to mandate that militaries not use it. GPS was, from the beginning, a military system, and there are weapons being used in Ukraine that use it for guidance. Unless you’re solely out to be a dick — which isn’t impossible — probably not a lot of benefit to stomping on civilian-only frequencies.