Au Cochonnet Marin

Privacy? What privacy?

We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.
William Orville Douglas 

Google is by far the most popular search engine in the world, and chances are that you are one of its users. But by doing so, you allow Google to collect an amazing (and disturbing) amount of information about yourself.

If you are a regular Google user, you have no privacy. Big Brother knows your name, your gender, your birth date, your cellphone number, where you live, where you work, where you go, what you like, what you watch, what sites that you have searched, etc.
It probably knows more about you than your own mother.

To its defense, Google allows you to control what you want to divulge about yourself, but navigating through its privacy labyrinth is an extremely laborious process… and few people bother to venture there.

Google, by the way, is not the only company collecting personal data. They all do it. Your personal information is now floating in cyberspace for anybody to grab. And crooks of all creeds and colors are on the lookout for it.

The real danger though is when politics are involved. It would now be very easy for a totalitarian regime to trace and detain anybody disagreeing with its policies.

Few people might think about it, but we are scarily close to Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 1949, George Orwell already imagined what such a society would be.

With cameras popping up everywhere and with face recognition software already widely used, there is no privacy anymore. We are already under the scrutiny of Big Brother. With its society now extremely polarized, it would not take very much for an American hardliner to take over and adopt spying technologies to frighten and control the masses.

“Religion is the opium of the masses” said Karl Marx. True, but not anymore. Smartphones are now much more addictive and dangerous than religion.

Kids today could not exist for three minutes without their smartphones. They would feel like fish out of water. If you would take it away, they would get in a withdrawal slump almost instantly and methadone might be needed.

Regardless or maybe ignorant of the danger, there is little chance that people will stop and desist. They will continue to use (and abuse) their smartphones. It is too devilishly appealing and convenient to give it up.

Just like any addiction, people won’t stop until something drastic happens. And it might be too late.

Alain

PS: Do yourself a favor: go to your Google Account and scrutinize your Privacy Checkup.

 

Santa Claus was gracious enough (despite my naughty behavior) to drop a little present in my sock. It is called an Amazon Fire TV Stick, and it is supposed to give you free access to a trove of TV channels.

The (scant) instructions accompanying this gizmo said that the installation would be a cinch! No sweat! Really! You just plug this device into one of your TV’s HDMI port and follow the instructions shown on your screen.
A five-year-old could do that!

Well, not exactly… First of all, due to the scarcity of HDMI ports on today’s TVs and the increasing number of devices plugging into that TV, it is difficult to find a free port.

The real purpose of this gadget is to break free from Comcast’s tyranny and allow you to pick what specific channels you want to watch.
But you have to be careful. Most of the channels proposed by the Amazon Fire TV Stick demand a monthly subscription; if you are not careful, you might end up paying more than what Comcast is presently charging you.

The trick is to “jailbreak”. To escape what is imposed on you and allow you to make independent choices.
First, you need to install on your TV set a special program called a “downloader”; this application will give you the opportunity to download and install little known channels. Those are often free and won’t charge you anything for watching their offerings.

As I said earlier, you need to do some reading and experimenting before being able to enjoy this gizmo.

Any time I need more information about a product, I turn to my computer and ask a query it. And after a few false leads, I hit the jackpot. I found a site called Troypoint (troypoint.com/firestick-apps) that will guide you step by step to make your Firestick work as intended.

It is a rather lengthy process but ultimately, it will take you to the Holy Grail. To watch as many movies as you want without being nickeled-and-dimed for it.

The dominance and the relevance of the cable industry are being increasingly questioned. According to the experts, Comcast is losing speed and altitude and might have to change significantly to stay aloft.

In the meantime, if you are intrepid enough and want to have access to more movies without disbursing more dinero, invest $35.00 in the Amazon Fire TV Stick and go for it.

Bonne et heureuse année a tous ?

Alain

May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions!!

The year 2020 is almost upon us and we are presently bathing in a felicitous Capricorn (December 22 – January 20) interval. If you pay close attention, you might notice that people are extra jolly this time of the year. We Capricorns will take some of the credit. Thank you.

To refresh your memory (and your Zodiac lineup), Capricorn is a Latin word for “horned goat” and it is depicted as a mythical creature that is half goat and half fish.

The Capricorn originally had goat legs because he is connected to Pan, the god of nature who also has goat legs. Pan was a loafer; among other things he liked to play panpipes and cavort with nymphets.
The Capricorn finally got a fishtail because one day, during a gathering of gods, the meeting was interrupted by Typhon, a monstrous serpentine giant. Extremely scared, and to confuse Typhon, all of the gods morphed into different shapes and ran; Pan himself jumped into a river, and to confound the monster, he reshaped his legs into a fishtail. And that’s why the Capricorn is now a horny goat with Billy goat legs.

As you can see, Capricorns are resourceful, disciplined, dependable and trustworthy.

Famous (and infamous) Capricorns are legions… Joan of Arc, Benjamin Franklin, Al Capone, Elvis Presley, Louis Pasteur, Richard Nixon, Mao Zedong, Martin Luther King, Steve Allen, Stephen Hawking, Giacomo Puccini, Elizaveta Petrovna (Empress of Russia), Greta Thunberg, etc.

Maybe lesser known Capricorns, but closer to home, we have William Lavelle, Jacques Gautier, Jean-Claude Bunand, Carlos Couto, Margo Efron, Bart Zachofsky, Mark Shirkey and your humble chronicler.

Capricorns are a sturdy lot. They are resilient and opinionated.

“I don’t like to bother people, says a man who drove himself to the ER with a nail in his heart.”

Spoken like a true Capricorn!

 Among the major presidential candidates, Pete Buttigieg is the only Capricorn. He is a smart guy, becoming the mayor of South Bend, IN, at age 29, and he is a good debater.

I would definitely endorse him if he became the Democratic candidate. It seems to me that he is the type of guy would walk to the ER with a nail in his heart. Our actual figurehead would be incapable of doing this because he cannot walk and tweet at the same time.

“The most compatible signs with Capricorn are generally considered to be Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, and Pisces. The least compatible signs with Capricorn are generally considered to be Aries and Libra.” 

All right then, Sanders is a Virgo, Biden is a Scorpio. Any of these two will do.

Bidy/Butti (Biden/Buttigieg) has a nice ring to it.

Alain