From Pine View Farm

The Surefire Sales Strategy 0

PoliticalProf sums it up.

Share

QOTD 0

Patrick Swayze:

The way to screw up somebody’s life is to give them what they want.

Share

Recommended Viewing 0

The Victorian Home.

This show examines dangers that persons invited into their homes without realizing that they were dangers.

It really is quite disconcerting.

I’m watching it on Tubi.

Share

And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

This song was part of the Piano Puzzler on this week’s Performance Today Weekend. (And, no, we didn’t solve the puzzler.)

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness can be a moving experience.

Share

Misdirection Play, Distraction Desperation Dept. 0

Methinks Ted McLaughlin nailed it.

Share

Extra-Special Bonus QOTD 0

Pamela Meyer:

Nothing is certain in life but death and taxes. And in Donald Trump’s case, lies.

Share

Rand Gestures 0

Cliff Schecter discusses Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman’s reaction to Rand Paul’s Putin fetish. (Warning: Mild language.)

Via C&L, which has commentary.

Share

Tesla Trucks Spotted in Cali 0

A finish with a blemish:

. . . after two days of rain, Max posted photos of tiny orangish marks on the Cybertruck, adding that the marks had survived a wash with dish soap.

Another forum member, listed as Will, wrote that he noticed corrosion forming across a few days of Los Angeles rain in February. His photo showed dozens of orange and black dots on his Cybertruck’s steel exterior. He later wrote that an application of the cleanser brand Bar Keepers Friend removed the spots easily.

Aside:

I will second the endorsement of Bar Keeper’s Friend. It’s the best brass and copper polish I’ve found.

Share

Republican Thought Police 0

At the Des Moines Register, a history professor argues against a bill currently being advanced in Iowa to whitewash–I use that term advisedly–the teaching of American history in primary and secondary schools.

Share

QOTD 0

Kerry Greenwood, in the voices of Phryne Fisher and Jillian Henderson:

Phryne: I’m shocked. Have you no regard for the truth?

Jillian: If you had entered the law, you would know that truth is a very dicey quality. “What is truth?” said Pilate, and I have always thought he must have been a solicitor.

Greenwook, Kerry, Flying Too High, in the collection Introducing the
Honourable Phryne Fisher
(Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2011) p. 239.

Share

Geeking Out 0

Mageia v. 9 with the Plasma desktop. Firefox is shaded near the top of the screen under the Plasma menu. Xclock is in the upper right, GKrellM in the lower right. The wallpaper is from my collection.

Screenshot

Click for a larger image.

Recently, I ran an online upgrade from v. 8 to v. 9. The online upgrade from v. 7 to v. 8 went smooth as glass, and this one seemed to also, but, when it was done, I was unable to run updates or install new software from the repos. I poked at the problem for a while, but was unable to resolve it, so last night I installed v. 9 from optical media while listening to a BBC Lord Peter Wimsey mystery at the Old Time Radio Theater.

The installation went quickly and easily, and, as I have a separate /home partition, when I fired it up, all my configuration files were still in place without my having to restore anything from backup (and, no, you can’t do that on Windows). I’m currently cleaning up the dust bunnies, such as, for example, installing the few applications, like Xclock and GKrellM, which are not part of the standard Mageia installation.

Share

The Voter Fraud Fraudsters 0

Share

Hate Sells 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Andrea Matthews analyzes the appeal of hate. A snippet:

The reason that hate has the power to control one’s behavior is because it denies that there is any other source for the hate than the other. They cause me to hate. They are the problem. Of course, I hate them, they deserve to be hated.

Share

The Fifth Columnists 0

Vladimir Putin says,

Click for the original image and the artist’s commentary.

Share

Are You Being Served? 0

A local television newsperson describes how he and several of his colleagues were targeted by telephone scammers claiming to be process servers, but who were actually identity thieves.

The story goes on to say that, according to the Better Business Bureau, this scam is one of the hot new things.

Share

A Stormy Day in Court 0

Share

Merchants of Death 0

Title:  Speaking of parents who should be held responsible for their kid's massacres . . . .  Image:  Man and woman labeled

Click for the original image.

John Kander has more.

Share

Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

There are none so blind as those who don’t want to see.

Share

QOTD 0

Niccolo Machiavelli:

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

Share
From Pine View Farm
Privacy Policy

This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.