DEFCON Nonsense

I fail to see why this conference gets any coverage at all?

As long as people, and the media, believe in such stuff the fact that this is just all Smoke and Mirrors will just get perpetuated. I don't really expect that the general public and certainly not politicians will ever understand all this.

At least this time it was just a robot breaking into a combination locked safe and nothing to do with The Internet of Things and taking control of a motor vehicle by WiFi.

Credibility

Information that you find on the Internet not only has to be credible it also needs to be consistent.

Simply making up a story needs evidence other than what one person says for it to be believed. This evidence also has to be credible and independent of the first source of information, The creation of another fiction is NOT credible evidence. \especially when there is a clear link between the original and the backup.

The folly of registering domain names using a false name or one that you are trying to discredit is quickly revealed when you can easily check that the registrations were made by the same person.

On the subject of consistency, you cannot claim that someone has never talked to you or done business with you and then claim that they sent you a hard drive to have the data recovered from it.

As far as I can see the only reason that someone would do this is that they don't like what has been said about them and it is the only (pathetic) way that they can come up with to retaliate. 

The second episode of GOT seems to be very popular

EZTV made the torrent at sometime after 3am, and at 7am (my time) there were plenty of peers. However there were so many wanting the upload of what I had after about half an hour I had to reduce my upload to 50k to preserve some of my bandwidth.

I don't think that this is unfair as there were so many seeds that getting a bit from all of them is not going to slow the whole process. In any case I will be uploading the file for my friends who don't want to torrent on their computers.

Episode 2 is coming tonight!

Now doubt I will be asked to upload it to my UK website for my Lebanese friend.

I have plenty of server space and the download here is pretty fast as I don't have to use a VPN. The advantage of being where we are in the UK is that our Internet does not come through BT whose block sites such as ThePirateBay. Also my upload speed is pretty much the same as my download speed as my Internet connection is symmetrical. This is unlike Canada as my upload was far slower than my download. I guess this was to discourage the running of a website on your Internet connection.

My situation is doubly ironic as there are many here in the UK that moan that they cannot run a business on a rural broadband connection as it is too slow to enable ecommerce. I think that it is more a case of misconception and a political statement about that the promise of "Super-Fast Broadband" has not been achieved when the government said it would. 

I am not sure why I bother

to update this blog.

It seems that those that visit or find it are either looking for information about themselves or looking for something that doesn't exist.

Lately I have been speculating on whether any web activity is relevant in the form of a website unless you are a major company or do your business online. The days of the private website are long past. In the days of Social Media the platform that is most useful for the private Internet user is one of those "Social" portholes.

My experience with a local village website leaves me to believe that not many visitors venture there and in most cases they cannot find it by making a search. In any case most of their activity is carried out on their Smartphones and websites are only visited when e-commerce is being performed. People send text messages rather than send emails, comments and reviews on websites are pretty useless as they are either totally in support or from those that have purchased a "duff" product or encountered bad customer service.

Interest from Calgary and Saskatoon

Ironic that I see interest on my website from both of these places on the day I get a reminder for the renewal of my hosting package in Canada.

As visitors don't seem to be bothered in finding what the website is all about, the visits from Calgary and Saskatoon know all too well so they don't have to look, it calls into question whether I should renew for another year.

Winter is coming

Winter has come for the Freys.

The army in the North is assembling. The Whitewalkers now have a giant.

Winter is coming for the Waynes

The thicket is almost conquered

The blackthorn thicket is pretty much cut down. A bonfire is alight and most of the scrub has been burnt.

I can pretty much see from one side of the property to the other, around 600 pages when I counted. It is amazing that I can clock between 30,000 and 40,000 steps without leaving the property.

Making something out of nothing

In some ways I can see what Donald is saying. This Russia "thing" really is a distraction when he should be concentrating on "Making America Great Again".

Similar to the continued interest in this blog by a certain person (of even a group of people from Saskatoon) seems to indicate that someone has something to hide. Are the visits to this blog made in the hope, or fear, that something new is going to turn up?

Like Donald and the "Russia Thing" there is nothing here, everyone should really move on. However, in the case of Trump what he is trying to hide is that he is an idiot elected by a group of malcontents who believe in his promises. The "Russia Thing" is actually helping him as it takes the focus away from the fact that all he has done so far I his term is actually making America even more of a failed experiment than it was before. I have never believed the American Dream and the rest of the world seems to be "getting it" as well.

Nice trip to Bury St. Edmunds

Free parking after 3pm makes a difference it was also a while since we had been up to "The Big Smoke".

It was raining so umbrellas were the order of the day but we did not intend staying for long so it was not too bad. We didn't make it down to the Abbey and to take a walk around the gardens.

Buzzed by an Apache

The brook at the bottom of the garden seems to provide a perfect training valley for the local Apache helicopters to make their runs.

You can feel the vibrations from the rotors before you see and hear their motors. At a low altitude I can see the terror that they would instil in an enemy. Some have the guns/rocket launchers strung either side, today not so. One wonders if they are carrying ammunition.

and what does this mean?

Part of a post that is supposedly about me made by someone who thinks that I "have it in for him":

And all the people if you have harmed now we have the proof who so how does the bully like being bullied now put the pants and shirt on and jacket because it’s going to get f****** cold b****

All of the people (if) {I} have harmed
I have "harmed" nobody. Not even you it seems!

now we have proof - who so - how does the bully like being bullied?
What proof? Bullying???? - that is just an accusation that I made you of. and who is the "we"? - you are on your own on all this.
Making up stories about me is ludicrous - unlike what I have told the world about you.

now put the pants and shirt on (and jacket) ----- cold?
What???? Pants, shirt and jacket.........

Local Music Festival

I am really looking forward to this event! Held at the village hall, the local musicians and singers will be performing.

A BBQ and a clown for the kiddies, what more could you ask for?

The fires still burn

Last week I had a bonfire that lasted 6 days. The one I started on Saturday is still alight this week. The one I started last night is still alight this morning. The trouble is getting enough brush to feed them both.

Looking for deleted pages and graphics

Again I see a log entry for an image of my image of "Articles of Dissolution" from Montreal.

There was no search for it in Google cache so I am assuming that the person who was looking does not know how to do this. I am also assuming that the access was made from a Google Image search, although I am not sure how that would work for anyone interested in what I previously posted.

There was a similar visit from Montreal on the 27th June again I was not what this was all about.

Riverwalk Drive, Connectut

Where I lived when I worked on a contract for Executive Risk.

Looking back on Google maps it is strange to think that I once lived there. The location is quite superb looking overlooking the hills of Talcott Mountain State Park. My daily commute was a cycle ride along the disused railway line only crossing highway 10, State 202, the once before I arrived at work. At one point, when I was there on my own, I didn't even have a rental car. At the height of the contract there were 4 of us there from Canada and we rented two houses on the Riverwalk development.

To be honest I don't really know why I was there. The work was not that demanding but it was fun living in the States for a while and the money was good. The weekly commute from Toronto to Hartford was not a difficult one as Air Ontario were still in regular operation. Unlike when I was in New Jersey when they were more than often on strike and I had to make my way to Newark on other airlines. This was an opportunity to see the terminals at LaGuardia and Newark, and to experience carriers such as Continental.

It was also the time when my partners father passed away and I spent long hours emailing her mum in the UK. I think that I helped. I would spend a large part of my day writing to her looking out over the turning trees the other side of the Farmington River.

Simsbury was a strange place, not the America that Donald seems to want to make great again. In some ways I don't really see it as America. My views on that have changed since then as I was happy to call Canada my home at that time.

Times were different then, this was the age of  Oksana Baiul running her car into a tree. She was a resident to Simsbury at the time when she was training at the International Skating Center. This was also the age at the start of the Internet revolution. There was email and some websites but no Social Media and I am not sure if blogging had been invented. I can remember the wonder of making a search on Netscape and being amazed at the results.

34 Years in Canada

I really can't believe that we spent s long in Canada. On Canada Day it is time for a little reflection. We have been back in the UK for about 2 and a half years now and in some respects it was like we never left. I grew up in rural Essex and now I am back. A completely different part of the county but never the less the same one as my childhood. Perhaps that is why I have such an issue with the "Council Houses".

Canada was great for us. Leaving the UK on the eve of Margret Thatcher was probably a good move. Canada benefited from our UK education and they reaped all the taxes from our employment.

This place "just fits". In truth, where we currently live is not really the UK. The UK is currently in crisis with Brexit, something that I think will be a good thing in the long run. However, whatever the outcome it will not be something that will effect us too much. In a lot of respects the political situation has no bearing on our day to day lives.

Now living in a house that parts of which date from the 14th century with a garden that approaches 2 acres, we are having a lot of fun living the country life. Never in my wildest dreams, both when I originally lived in the UK and in Canada, did I think I would live in such a place. I must have cycled past such properties in my youth never thinking that I would ever live in one. As for the Social Class aspect of it all, I guess that Canada allowed us to side-step all that. Now we are rubbing shoulders with those that have had business and military careers and represent the "elite" of the UK.

In some ways this feels like an extended vacation. We joke between ourselves about extending the holiday rental and putting the flight date back. So are we Canadians? We are citizens and our first year we put the Canadian flag on the front gate on Canada day. Now I am not sure where it is. Will we ever go back to Canada, perhaps not for a vacation but possibly to sort out some business and finances. Most of our money is still in Canada, which is probably the best thing due to the current fall in Sterling. Eventually all the money will have to be repatriated and who knows what Canada pension we are entitled. RSPs will need to be converted or closed in any case. As far as a company pension my investments are taking care of that. I have long been amused by the "Pension Debate" that constantly goes on here in the UK. The "Triple Lock" certainly has little relevance for us. As for a heating allowance I am busy building a wood pile.