Karl Auerbach

I'm a techie & attorney.

Been on the net a long time.

I have a Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility, and I've been a Fellow of Law and Technology at CalTech & Loyola/Marymount Law.

And yes, I am that person who was elected to the ICANN Board of Directors and who ended up suing them to see the financials (I won, hands down.)

Everything there is to know about me is on my personal and company websites:

Public Key

npub1a5q923w4qml55etpgah0tjuz665axpxc737z83rqekhfattszerq73p6vn

NIP-05 Address

karlauerbach@sfba-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsw6qz4gh2sdl62v4s5wmh4ewpdd2wnqnv0glprc3svmt5744cpv3spz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qz9nhwden5te0wfjkccte9ec8y6tdv9kzumn9wsare6cg

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

relay.primal.net

offchain.pub

Author Public Key

npub1a5q923w4qml55etpgah0tjuz665axpxc737z83rqekhfattszerq73p6vn

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Last Notes

2026-10-22 01:59:46 UTC

I finally gave up on waiting for the Fedora project to publish PHP updates.
So I shut down all of my websites.
I do not understand why the Fedora Folks are being so slow to respond.
At least they could have slapped up a non-PHP website (it is possible - in fact it is easy) that gives status.
What I think we are seeing is how vulnerable the Internet is to disturbances and how badly we are prepared to respond to them.

2026-10-16 15:56:58 UTC

Did Space-X's Starlink just commit slow-suicide?
By demonstrating that its service is in the hands of self-absorbed, knee-jerk, children, such as Musk and trump, how can any potential customer of Starlink have trust that the service will work when they need it to work?
Alternatives to Starlink are slowly coming online - and I suspect that many who might have considered Starlink will chose to use those new services, instead.

2026-10-11 18:19:58 UTC

Here in California certain highways are really little more than guideways for thousands upon thousands of 18wheel trucks.
Yet these highways run roughly paralllel to railroads that carry enormous consists carrying nothing but containerized freight.
The railroads are far more efficient - whether that is fuel, emissions, or employees-per-ton/mile.
Many of those highway truck's cargo should be on trains - trucks are for local delivery or special loads tha don't fit on rail cars.
In a sensible world those truck's cargo would be on trains, but it is not.
Hedge funds have been ripping up railroads, leaving the US with barely enough trackage - squeezing dollars out rather than improving their offerings to induce truck cargo onto trains.
Once again, we are dying the death of a thousand cuts, caused by short-term "quick" profit and "shareholder value" nonesense.

2026-10-06 08:56:40 UTC

Saw Hiromi Uehara perform again tonight. Excellent show!!! I've seen her several times and this was the best.
Hiromi was great (as usual) and Simon Phillips on drums was ... wow. Here's a photo of his setup.
The Kuumbwa is a great place for this kind of performance - it is small (about 200 seats) and it lets the musicians and audience really interact.
#jazz
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/117/393/122/913/319/306/original/3eb75ec157998e57.jpeg

2026-10-02 02:40:13 UTC

I want this doormat!!
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/117/368/998/247/814/343/original/1622845e6a365b02.jpg

2026-09-22 19:51:44 UTC

How many authenticator apps do I need?
I've got:
- Google Authenticator on my iPhone/iPads
- Authy (on some platforms)
- 2Stable
- RSA Authenticator (which seems incompatable with the Google one)
And now ID.me wants me to download their authenticator app.
Hey guys, can't we just have ONE standardized time-based authenticator that runs on Windows, Android, MacOS, iphone OS, iPad OS, Linux, and maybe *BSD?
And also, not cost $50/year - I'm looking at you 2Stable.

2026-09-03 18:43:00 UTC

@nprofile…ugpy - I just came across your piece, "The Nuremberg Caucus"
I've been working on a similar idea.
(I also included a link in my references section pointing to your piece, with which I agree.)
"The American Tribunal - Justice After The End of MAGA"
https://tribunal.cavebear.com/

2026-09-03 16:47:52 UTC

It was just brought to my attention that Cory Doctrow has proposed a post-trump "Nuremberg Caucus" that is in rough alignment with my proposed American Tribunal.
I rather like Doctrow's proposal to create lucrative bounties to incent ICE/CBP agents to provide information to convict other ICE/CBP agents.
Compare:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/10/miller-in-the-dock/#denazification
https://tribunal.cavebear.com/

2026-08-30 17:00:18 UTC

Add another item to the growing list of reasons why my resistance to the death penalty for ICE/CBP agents and their managers (all the way to the top) is fading away:
"Deportees Recount Harrowing Journeys to Africa: Shackles, a ‘Freezer’ and Blows"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/world/africa/us-deportation-flight-ice-detention-liberia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9VA.hGEW.elx2vOMTBdoa&smid=nytcore-ios-share

2026-08-30 06:17:46 UTC

I was unlucky, very unlucky. Back in the mid-to-late 1980's I got adult measles.
I have never been so sick. I was delirious - I was convinced that if I fell asleep, I would stop breathing, so someone had to watch me constantly. I was in pain. I had a high fever. A doctor even made a house call.
It was so bad that I had one desire - that it end. If that meant dying, that was OK.
I wish such a visitation upon all of RFK's minions and brainless followers. May they all get adult-onset measles.

2026-08-16 19:13:12 UTC

I like to re-watch (and listen to) the following ... it was produced by the US Federal government. It is an amazing artistic work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uEwGmjhquU

2026-07-26 18:23:26 UTC

I agree. There are so many who read our Constitution's supremacy clause incorrectly. Federal law is supreme only in those areas in which the Federal government has authority. Yet the 9th, 10, and Preamble make it clear that the scope of that Federal authority is limited.
And all of the rest falls to the states and the people.
Thus Hawaii - and every other state - has the right and power to tell SCOTUS to take a flying leap at a rolling donut when the matter in question is subject to State law and not Federal jurisdiction.
"One Judge Has the Guts to Put the Horror of This Supreme Court Term in Context"
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/07/one-judge-supreme-court-horror-show.html

2026-07-22 22:53:29 UTC

Has anyone stopped to do a quick calculation?
Every $billion spent by the Federal gov't costs each and every person in the US about $3.
A $trillion is 1000 $billions.
So this new budget (which is really $1.15trillion) will cost each and every one of us, including our parents and children, somewhat more than $3000 - per year.
Can you afford that?
And don't forget, people like trump and musk and bezos and ellison do not pay taxes. So you and I and our parents and kids get to pay for their share of this abomination of a budget.
And don't forget that this $1.15trillion is larded up by hundreds of $billions more for Hogsbreath and two-names Mullin projects.
"US House passes $1 trillion defense bill despite Iran, Israel concerns"
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-house-passes-1-trillion-defense-bill-despite-iran-israel-concerns-2026-07-22/

2026-07-22 01:17:37 UTC

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@nprofile…mk4g Old things can be quite useful ... or troublesome.
Down the coast from me is Hearst Castle. It is surrounded by massive lands that are still owned by the Hearst family.
A couple of decades back the Hearsts resurrected some subdivision plans from before year 1900 and used them to tell the State of California to go pound sand when the state tried to stop the Hearsts from building (and selling) some very pricey houses. (I'm not sure that those houses were actually built.)

2026-07-21 22:14:20 UTC

Over the last 250 years Congress has been incredibly stupid by passing laws that do not self-destruct (i.e. require re-passage) after a period of time.)
Those ancient laws have become land mines or weapons in the hands of a stupid vindictive president like trump.
https://www.axios.com/2026/07/21/trump-smoot-hawley-tariffs-canada

2026-07-21 00:44:24 UTC

I've lived on the Monterey Bay for nearly 40 years and I've never seen anything like this... Wow!
(It is not uncommon to see whales on the bay, even close to shore - although the orcas tend to stay further out.)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/dolphin-killer-whale-22352601.php

2026-07-20 18:05:40 UTC

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@nprofile…2pg0 I have trouble accepting anything rooted in a country code top level domain (ccTLD), such as .me or .it, as being secure for use identifying people in the US.
ccTLD domains are effectively controllable by the political forces in the country they represent. Some countries have delegated operation of their ccTLD to private operators. (ccTLDs are run, to the main, reasonably well. I am speaking here of possibilities not necessarily present realities.)
Because DNS queries typically contain the entire set of DNS labels, it is possible for a ccTLD operator to capture nearly all queries to that ccTLD (by setting very short TTL values) and feeding controlled (or manipulated) answers (even with DNSSEC enabled.)
I wrote a bit about this twenty years ago, but more about root servers than ccTLD servers.
"What Could You Do With Your Own Root Server?"
https://www.cavebear.com/old_cbblog/000232.html

2026-07-16 06:20:09 UTC

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@nprofile…j9f5 I probably would have simply glued on some (possibly industrial strength) velcro.

2026-07-15 19:21:32 UTC

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@nprofile…qdy6 I've had to abandon perfectly good (and expensive) test equipment.
Why?
The equipment was still completely usable - but only if one retained a laptop to control it, with that laptop running Windows 2000.
Why? Because the equipment used the SSL/TLS security layer over TCP for its web control interface. SSL/TLS use "message digest" algorithms to check whether the data valid and authentic. But the Internet standards bodies have essentially written off use of the message digest algorithms used by my test gear, so modern browsers do not implement those algorithms, thus preventing me from using my gear except via ancient laptops that I've preserved.
I am expecting this kind of problem to increase as Internet of Things devices get more deeply deployed for very long term use (decades) in very hidden locations.

2026-07-14 22:55:21 UTC

Almost every time I go to our company's PO box I find it stuffed - and I mean stuffed using hydraulic rams - with gigantic U-Line catalogs (which go straight to the recycling bin without passing Go or collecting $200.)
The postal workers are similarly bothered.
U-Line is getting reduced postal rates for this garbage. The Uihlein family owns U-Line; they are $billionaire supports of trump and MAGA.
They are poster children who are sucking on the teat of the Federal government - or as they would have been called in the past, welfare queens.

2026-07-14 18:41:00 UTC

Oh the judges on SCOTUS are concerned about security, even though they each have several full time bodyguards.
They want more protection - from us.
I would consider their concerns to have a lower priority than guaranteeing the security of people from our roving, masked death squads that we call ICE/CBP.
Perhaps SCOTUS could open the bargaining by eliminating "Qualified Immunity" of police?
"US Supreme Court seeks major boost in security funding over threat increase"
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkvkjddjd7o

2026-07-14 01:45:10 UTC

Lauren W. has noted that trump is spending tends of thousands on taxpayer dollars on huge banners bearing his face that are hung from public buildings in DC.
(Those banners do smack of the huge banners that were hung by Fascists, Nazis, and other dictators over the span of the 20th century.)
The image on those banners is similar to his mug-shot.
As a copyright lawyer that raised a question in my mind - Is trump (or the government) violating the copyrights of whoever took the original mug shot? Or is the banner image a new work?
https://newrepublic.com/post/212990/trump-spending-giant-banners-face-federal-buildings-dc

2026-07-11 08:38:50 UTC

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@nprofile…gj0l Librarians have long tantalized us with this question:
Dewey or don't we?

2026-07-03 01:45:04 UTC

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@nprofile…j9f5 I find it quite amazing that you and I (and many others here) know one another and worked together to create the Internet, one of the major historical techno/social changes - up there with the invention of the printing press.
I wish and hope that most of our younger people can find something that will give them the pride and sense of accomplishment that our Internet group has been so luck to obtain.
There is so much interesting work to be done - I think the present AI stuff is a side-path that will ultimately prove futile and be replaced by a synthesis of biochemisty and electronics. There is much great work to be done!!

2026-07-02 18:29:17 UTC

This is so cool!!!
And I know several of these people. (And I am especially glad to see Steve Casner in the collection.)
https://viterbischool.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Postel-animated-stamp2_face-moving.mp4
https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2026/06/for-americas-250th-we-created-commemorative-stamps-of-trojan-builders/

2026-06-29 01:24:28 UTC

This is scary ... no matter whether I look this as a networking, web person, or a privacy/computer security person this is scary.
The damage to citizens and companies from this kind of exposure is beyond measure.
Trust in government is hard to establish. This will erase it. This turns maga fantasies about dark government into real concerns.
"‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/28/government-website-visitor-tracking-surveillance-fears

2026-06-04 21:42:11 UTC

I am truly sick and tired of the HP "instant ink" program.
And they abuse you even when you cancel (assuming you can figure out how to cancel) by disabling the ink cartridges in your printer.
Word to the wise - never sign up for HP Instant Ink in the first place.
(And if you use 3rd party cartridges, remember to disable firmware updates in the printer - those are usually updates to put in yet another block against 3rd party cartridges.)

2026-06-04 20:53:42 UTC

Time to read or watch Persepolis again...
"Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French author whose graphic novel series “Persepolis” introduced millions of readers to the struggles of ordinary Iranians during the turbulent years around the Islamic Revolution, has died at 56."
(The film is visible on various streaming - such as Amazon and Apple for a couple of $$ - well worth it.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/world/middleeast/marjane-satrapi-dead.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY

2026-06-03 18:42:21 UTC

Gee, I guess to this judge, being dead is not a valid excuse to not appear at a hearing.
This judge is a Obama appointee - but she worked a Peoplesoft, a company that in my opinion seemed to follow a silicon valley tradition of management-by-brutality. (Peoplesoft was acquired by Oracle, a company run by Larry Ellison - an organization and person with an "interesting" way of dealing with the world and people.)
This reminds me of the Richard Farina tune "House Un-American Blues Activity Dream" which contains the line "plying mother justice on a pile of manure".
"Dead but deportable: US immigration judge signed order to eject teen murder victim"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/north-carolina-judge-deport-teen-murder-victim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vhotdRJAoA

2026-05-17 09:10:07 UTC

It ain't just gasoline that is going up in price... and limited availability.
So is the oil that goes into motors...
https://www.axios.com/2026/05/15/motor-oil-shortage-synthetic-oil-prices

2026-05-05 00:09:17 UTC

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@nprofile…eqsh One limit could be that the gas pumps don't have enough high order digits (which might mean that some places may begin to charge by the liter rather than the gallon.)

2026-04-28 19:18:50 UTC

This is sick. It is fully in keeping with the model established by Orwell in his book 1984 and practiced in places such as North Korea.
I am glad that my present US passport is likely to not expire before El Cheato does.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/us-trump-passport

2026-04-28 06:33:16 UTC

We should quite calling it a "ballroom" - trump is building a bunker, and we should call it "a bunker".

2026-04-26 17:55:59 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq You raise an important point - physical possession of a device that is holding private key/crypto data is problematic. However, modern desktops, laptops, and phones have tamper resistant chips designed specifically to hold stuff and also be really hard to crack open and get the data. These are usually called "Trusted Processor Modules" or TPM - these are one of the reasons why Windows 11 was initially restricted only to platforms with a TPM.
Of course, there are means to open up a TPM, but those means tend to be practiced by things like national security agencies rather than run-of-the-mill crooks. But crooks are always getting newer and better tools.

2026-04-26 08:22:01 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq I'm not able to evaluate the relative strength of those time-based authenticators vs passkey, but from my own actual experience, passkeys are easier on the user. (And when it comes to time-based authenticator devices I personally prefer the ones that run as apps on my phone rather than on a separate device.)

2026-04-25 22:43:18 UTC

Gawd sometimes I hate passkeys.
I have to deal with some fairly old people - people who have lost much of their vision and who have never been particularly technically minded.
The modern race-to-lock-everything has moved a lot of services (such as outlook) to move to passkeys.
That's nice - unless one is trying to deal with problems for an old person who is 800 miles away.
It appears that many of these services treat having a passkey as a one-way ratchet. Once someone (me) has set up a passkey (limited to my computer and phone) then the service switches to demand a passkey rather than the password to get in - but the old person's phone/computer does not have the passkey nor knows how to use it even if they did.
Our present Internet - largely programmed by young people with tech knowledge and good eyesight - is becoming increasingly hard to use by older people while things (like medical services) increase security that these people do not know how to use and can't be managed remotely.

2026-04-21 03:40:09 UTC

I see nothing in the US Constitution that blocks Presidents N+1 et seq from revoking Pardons and Commutations made by Presidents N and before.
Now, many will claim that historically pardons/commutations are a one-way ratchet. But I would answer that that such a belief is merely inertia because the question has never been clearly faced, much less clearly answered.
It seems to me that when we (if ever) get to begin reconstructing the US after trump that we will have to face some serious questions about what the Constitution really means, what it enables, and what it restricts.
Were I elected, one of the things I would do on inauguration day would be to revoke every trump pardon/commutation and let the courts winnow it out while the pardoned/commutated individuals reside in their cells.
Personally, I think we need a Constitutional change that limits the pardon/commutation power so that it requires Congressional approval or allows Congressional rejection.

2026-04-17 07:02:37 UTC

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@nprofile…4w8z You might find something I proposed in 2018 about these silly government "challenge coins"...
"A Bill to ensure that United States Treasury funds are not expended for certain purposes of personal aggrandizement or self promotion."
https://www.cavebear.com/cavebear-blog/no_coin/

2026-04-11 23:04:26 UTC

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@nprofile…nj9h Thanks for your comment - I personally don't hew to any religions - unless that one considers adherence to mathematics and the principles of science to be religious.
I don't want to be controlled by primitive mythology based on conjectures by people who did not have understanding of how the world works.
If there is to be a god (or gods) I vest them into each individual person and allow those to act only within the scope of that person.
I do look to organized religions for one purpose, however, which is as a source of experience of people living with one another and resolving the frictions that arise. Thus to me religions are interesting examples of systems of law, governance, and ethics from which we may, if we chose, draw lessons.
Thus, for instance, when I disagree with the Catholic church about abortion I find it useful to treat that church with respect as a body of experience and articulate reasons why I am disregarding their advice in the matter.

2026-04-11 20:49:07 UTC

Is Christianity is the most intolerant and murderous of all religions? Islam has often been described as being spread by the sword - but it seems to me that that description is more appropriately applied to Christianity and its modern blood-lusty fundamentalist evangelists.
"Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/10/pete-hegseth-christianity-iran-war-crusade

2026-04-03 17:47:50 UTC

Headline: "Trump seeks $1.5tn for defense department in budget request to Congress"
Headline: "White House Seeks 40 Percent Increase in Military Budget"
Let's run some numbers - Each $billion in Federal expenditure costs taxpayers about $3 per person.
$1.5tn is 1500 $billion - which works out to be $4,500 per tax payer.
So trump is asking for $4,500 from each person, each man, each woman, each child, in the US.
Or for a family of 4, that's $18,000 in taxes to pay for the trump/hegseth wars and war machines.
Corporations, like Amazon, Tesla, Exxon, won't pay a penny - they tend to escape taxes altogether. Same for many $billionaires - for instance none of the Trump family will pay a dime for this.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/03/us/trump-news

2026-03-31 23:15:25 UTC

My own sense about this is that the maga-klan and el-cheato do not care about "fair" elections, or even that elections produce results.
Rather they are trying to sew disbelief in the process of voting and thus allow trump to swoop in and either elections invalid (and of course only those won by D candidates will be "invalid") or to block the use of the outcomes so that the present Congress will continue in place past Jan 3, 2027 when it would normally be replaced.

2026-03-24 23:40:47 UTC

California Democrats are proof positive that humans are not an intelligent species.
Here in Calif we have a unique primary system - a single primary for *all* parties. The top two move onto the general election, the rest are out of the game.
So here we have two R's splitting a smaller part of the electorate and a dozen D's splitting a larger part.
The result is that it is likely that the two R's will get larger vote counts than any of the dozen D's. Thus *only* those two R's will move onto the general election and *ALL* of the D's will be sent to the showers. And California will end up with a conservative R governor despite the state being overwhelmingly D.
The key is that at least ten of the D candidates need to drop out, IMMEDIATELY. But they are squabbling like D's normally do about identity politics and other stupid things.
"California governor poll raises prospect of two Republicans contesting runoff"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/24/california-governor-election-republicans

2026-03-22 22:19:59 UTC

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@nprofile…nxq7 Do Thomas Brothers maps still exist?
I can't remember ever having a car in the pre-internet world that didn't have one.

2026-03-22 21:20:22 UTC

More on Alexa+ - When I'm build up a new computer (which I often do several times a day) I begin in the BIOS by setting the time to GMT.
So I usually say "Alexa what's the GMT?"
Old Alexa would promptly give me an answer.
New Alexa+ takes about five seconds of deep (and probably power consuming) thinking and then tells me the meaning of GMT.
Then I yell that I want the time in GMT and, after that five second pause, tells me the GMT time (but not the date, which is often, for me, tomorrow.)
On another front, when I asked Alexa+ for the opening hours of our local bagel store it responded with the location of bagel places in Atlantic city - 3000 miles from me - and then on retry ones in Las Vegas - 700 miles from me.

2026-03-08 15:54:10 UTC

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@nprofile…p0k0 @nprofile…kq5d I've got the console - and only the console - from one of my old PDP 11/70s. I used to have the boot address in the switches but somebody messed 'em up.
My fingers sort of vaguely remember the switch settings to boot Unix (we mostly used Interactive's IS/1), but they have forgotten the details and I'd like to put the switches back to what they ought to have been.

2026-03-02 19:08:04 UTC

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@nprofile…4w8z I used (and sometimes operated) UCLA's 7094 in the late 1960's, but as far as I remember, everyone used Fortran.
Go IBSYS!!

2026-02-26 16:48:14 UTC

If El Cheato wants to go after corruption here's one that is close to home...
To me this item suggests that we really ought to leave DHS unfunded, permanently.
"Homeland security awarded $250,000 contract to Trump-aligned consulting firm"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/homeland-security-contract-trump

2026-02-25 16:44:33 UTC

As far back as 2011 I posited the idea of each state enacting laws over the corporations chartered on that state's laws as a means to restrict the effect of the Citizens United decision.
I have been glad to see that idea grow into The Montana Plan and now this piece and possible action in California.
(Note that this state by state approach will probably leave "corporate havens" by states that want to reap the benefits of attracting corporations to move their incorporation to those states.)
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-california-can-neuter-citizens

2026-02-25 01:06:46 UTC

Trump screws the youger generation out of Medicare benefits....
"In less than a year, Trump erased 12 years of solvency for the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A"
https://fortune.com/2026/02/23/how-trump-wiped-out-12-years-of-medicare-funding-cbo-one-big-beautiful-bill/

2026-02-24 22:07:33 UTC

The Feds keep saying "We did not" or "We will not" buy this or that empty warehouse for use as an ICE prison.
What they are hiding is that in order for a warehouse to be an ICE/CBP prison that the warehouse need not be "owned" by the Feds.
Rather the warehouse could be bought by a maga-friend, like Elon or Ellison etc and then leased to the government.
The Feds would not bey lying when they say they are not buying the warehouse. But they will still have use of that warehouse as a prison.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-detention-centers-pushback-24e702da67281a672b0f77287aaa87ba

2026-02-17 02:49:41 UTC

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@nprofile…segw I know some people who hold dual US/Canadian citizenship. Their residence is in the US.
They fear visiting Canada. Why? Not because of Canada. Rather, they fear that the US could decide that because they are Canadian that the US could ignore their US citizenship (and residence) and block their return home.
In other words, they have concerned that should they ever leave the US, particularly to another country in which they hold citizenship, that they may have crossed a ratcheting barrier and might not be able to return home.

2026-02-17 00:29:41 UTC

Why do people continue to use the honorific title "Mr President".
An honorific is endowed by those who speak it, not expropriated by those who desire it.
At best we should be calling trump "Mr." (although none of us have seen proof that he is indeed a "Mr.")

2026-02-03 18:51:06 UTC

This is a super scary article about a hyper scary process ...
"Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/02/03/homeland-security-administrative-subpoena/

2026-01-30 00:11:12 UTC

The headline below is wildly incorrect.
It should read:
"D's cave, again. Allow ICE to continue".
It isn't just trump who is TACO, it is the D-party.
By passing most of the funding the D's have given away their leverage to affect things in the future. Schumer could publish a book titled "The Art of Losing".
I do not think the D party knows the word "No".
"Deal struck to keep government funded, Trump and Democrats say"
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/29/shutdown-spending-deal-trump-00756372

2026-01-24 23:43:16 UTC

I had not heard that the trumpies have ordered the National Symphony to begin every concert with The Star Spangled Banner.
Are there any among us who have the talent to create a melding of the Star Spangled tune with what really ought to be our national anthem, Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Our Land"?
Then the symphony could begin with that.
And wouldn't it be cool if at sports games, after the singing of the Spangled Banner song the crowd picks up and sings This Land Is Our Land?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/arts/music/kennedy-center-national-anthem.html

2026-01-11 23:12:46 UTC

I've been beaten by the LAPD. I lived in Berkeley in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I've been tear gassed and watched police push people backwards off of highway overpasses. I knew and understood many Black Panthers.
I am sick and tired of Kumbaya songs. I am sick and tired of turn-the-other-cheek reactions to current affairs in the US.
But I am also a lawyer, sworn to peaceful methods.
What do I do?
What strikes me is the age old method of ostracism - practiced in ancient Athens, written about in plays like Lysistrata, and rendered into strong force by churches through the practice of excommunication.
We ought to perform civil excommunication on ICE agents - do not sell or rent products to them in stores, do not rent hotel rooms to them, do not fund them, treat them like modern day lepers. Businesses should make it clear that they will never be hired for a job. Do not adopt Jesus' policy of acceptance of them.
Spread their names so that we may cut them off from society.

2026-01-08 22:01:12 UTC

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@nprofile…j9f5 @nprofile…sx0h I've got a PDP-11/70 console in my storage unit - it's just the console front with the lights and switches. And it is the later blue/white color.

2026-01-08 18:28:45 UTC

Here's a piece about $billionaires threatening to leave California because of a proposed 5% wealth tax.
Hey guys (and as far as I can tell they are all guys): Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.
They say "oh, California you will lose taxes because we are gone." Boo hoo - don't these guys know the concept of a non-performing asset, you know, a thing that produces no revenue? Well, from the point of view of Calif. these guys already pay nothing so their absence will be no loss - and perhaps even a gain: these guys are experts at sucking from the public teat.
(I have met some $billionaires who are decent people - yes, really! - but they aren't the ones getting up on high horses and threatening to move to texas or florida.)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/08/billionaire-tax-california

2026-01-07 01:09:27 UTC

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@nprofile…gf9n I sometimes have trouble with faces - who are these people? Well, the one on the left I recognize, although I wish I did not. It's the other one who looks familiar but I can't pin a name on him.

2025-12-26 22:43:20 UTC

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@nprofile…va7c If the musician (Redd) gets a piece of the ticket sales then he can counter sue on the grounds that the attempted (and unlawful) name change has undermined the value of the contract by driving down ticket sales and is thus a material breach by the Kennedy Center.
(This would be a counter claim in addition to any potential anti-SLAPP claim.)
It is can be fun to turn a case around with a counter claim and/or anti-SLAPP so that the ill minded plaintiff (in this case the manager of the Kennedy Center) can not withdraw and has to face discovery, trial, and damages.
Does DC have an anti-SLAPP statute? ... Yes it does:
https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/titles/16/chapters/55

2025-12-26 05:57:33 UTC

So, today, here in Santa Cruz, California, our iPhones lit up with an "imminent" tornado warning and we were told to seek shelter.
That's a big deal. A really big deal.
So how did our alert system go?
Not well.
The iPhones came through, but not everybody has an iPhone at hand.
How about FEMA weather alert radios - they were silent about it.
How about the Watch Duty app? Again, silence.
How about Amazon Echo/Alexa devices (that tell us about every other weather event) - Silence.
US National weather service website - the notice was there but it was hard to find.
Basically our emergency notification system got, at best, a D grade.
One might wonder why. My guess is that this is the result of El Cheato and Elon's DOG-E dismantling things.

2025-12-25 02:08:01 UTC

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@nprofile…7e7l Don't forget that in 1952 the City of San Francisco passenger train got stuck there.
My wife and I wanted to create The Donner Family Restaurant at Donner Lake. It would serve finger food and would not cost an arm and a leg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxOo016WjZo

2025-12-18 20:24:21 UTC

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@nprofile…j4xh We weren't allowed to talk about our security work ... that kinda came with the territory considering that our "customers" were US and UK national security agencies usually with three or four letter acronym names. Plus the data our systems were intended to handle were things like nuclear launch data. (And yes, I've been in those War Games movie style war rooms and watched simulated war games on those giant wall displays.)
I wish we had been able to publish. We invented (or re-invented) lots of cool stuff that had to be re-invented by the public decades later: block chaining, VLANs, VPNs, key management systems. One of our team members went on to public key crypto (or as our customers hinted, he re-invented it.)
I tried to push our capability based protection machinery out of a single computer and over the net. I didn't find a decent answer, public key would have helped.
We trusted our processor hardware, memory, and I/O devices - something that I'm not sure can be said today.

2025-12-18 08:55:34 UTC

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@nprofile…j4xh One might be able to write formally verifiably "secure" software.
And oh, did we ever try. (This was during the mid-to-late 1970s.)
But it wasn't easy.
The difficulty we ran into can be expressed by these two words: "define secure".
Our criteria for security was pretty simple, the LaPadua & Bell "star property". But defining that precisely was essentially impossible. In our case the issue was covert channels (e.g. affecting memory usage so that page-in/out delays could be detected by another program) - in particular the question of what is the lowest bit rate of data leakage that would concern us. We picked 300 bits/second.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%E2%80%93LaPadula_model

2025-12-17 20:25:40 UTC

The move of the Oscars to Google's YouTube carries a message that nearly everyone is missing:
Broadcast TV is dying.
This is OK (except that our point-to-point model of media dissemination on the Internet is far from efficient as compared to broadcast radio/TV.)
Note that the right wing in the US has been busy trying to buy up broadcast assets - both radio (AM mostly, but some FM) and TV.
That's like making an investment now in wagon wheel and buggy whips.
The switch to ATSC 3.0 will slowly obsolete many of the TV's that are presently in service. And my guess is that those who watch broadcast TV (and radio) these days tend to be people who will be the last to switch to the new technology, if at all.
In other words, the move of the Oscars to Youtube suggests that the right-wing investment in broadcast media is only of short term value.
(Personally I'd like to see good broadcast tech - for efficiency - and return to home DVRs.)

2025-12-12 20:51:11 UTC

I just sent a very angry note to my Congress Critter who voted to block the resolution to impeach trump.
Sure, it won't pass the Senate, but that's not a reason for Congressional cowardice.
(I was quite ticked off that one D congress critter said that he did not vote for it because they had to do research to figure out if trump had done bad things!!!!!! What utter hogwash!!!)
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/11/trump-impeachment-vote-house-al-green-democrats

2025-12-09 14:58:16 UTC

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@nprofile…sxu8 I do not know. The laws about anti-competitive practices are both complex and also exist at both Federal and State levels.
I do vaguely remember the Hunt brothers trying to corner the silver market back in the 1970s. But it is an extremely faint memory, and possibly completely wrong.

2025-12-09 02:28:09 UTC

From various rumors and sources it appears that Open AI - a company organized under Delaware law but with HQ in California - is the cause of the tripling of computer memory prices and shortages.
Word is that Open AI bought up all of the large wafers from Samsung and Hynix that are used to make memory. The intention seems to be to corner the market in order to hobble Open AI's competition.
I am not an expert in either Federal or State laws on anti-competitive practices.
But this action by Open AI sure creates a strong scent of improper restraint of trade and competition.
I'd be curious what others think about this. And if it might be useful to raise the issue to the Atty Generals of those states (particularly California) that have state laws about these things. (Given that Open AI contributed to El Cheato, the Federal justice dep't will, of course, just ignore this.)

2025-12-08 19:24:48 UTC

Back when I worked at SDC in Santa Monica (roughly 1971 through 1980) one of our department's projects was an early AI project.
We had an entire IBM 370 mainframe running CP/67 (which became IBM's VM) running LISP based AI code.
I think that the group may have been using it for continuous speech recognition - which we knew our "national security' customer was planning to use to automate wiretaps.
(I used the speech recognition project's soundproof room as a place I could play music really loud when working on my own network security projects. That room was also used as a set for a silly Peter Graves "documentary" about searching for Bigfoot/Yeti.)
I never got near that project, in part because I never learned LISP, but more because the group had lots of cigar smokers and my lungs simply could not abide meeting with them.

2025-12-08 18:09:13 UTC

Here is yet another example of the maga-klan's goal of suppressing free speech and freedom of exercise of religion (except for speech and religion that conforms to maga-land.)
"ICE director demands Mass. church remove ‘ICE was here’ nativity scene"
https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/12/ice-director-demands-mass-church-remove-ice-was-here-nativity-scene.html

2025-11-29 18:59:27 UTC

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@nprofile…mwft These seem sensible in reasonably flat areas, especially areas with light traffic. But I wonder about these with a full load trying to go up Jones St. in San Francisco or, potentially worse, brake fade going *down* Green Street.

2025-11-25 01:42:15 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf You may well find that the cost of trying to upgrade your old machine is higher than buying a new one, especially if you are running Windoz and are getting hit with the Windoz 11 issues.
(If your machine only has VGA/DVI then it is quite old.)
Remember, the Display Port over USB-C is DisplayPort - and a lot of monitors do not have USB-C (with Display port carriage) or even native display port.
(I tend to run Linux so I am only mentioning the Windoz issues second hand.)
I've been quite pleased with the NUC and similar small sized mini-PCs. (I"m using ASUS, Moginsok, and Geekom ones, but they can be a bit pricey.)
Also DP-over USB-C tends to require good quality cables - cheap USB-C cables may not work.

2025-11-20 20:42:19 UTC

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@nprofile…9x0w My age is showing - I initially mis-read your post as talking about Control Data Corporation, CDC.

2025-11-15 15:54:24 UTC

So, it looks like the US+Israel are proposing to construct what Apartheid South Africa called "homelands", but which are actually very large concentration camps...
They euphemistically call it "Green Zone".
Which, in addition to being a concentration camp is one that is intended to be a no-mans land between to protect Israel.
Moreover, the remaining "Red Zone" is the area that the trumps+jarad-k+Saudis+Emirates want to bulldoze and use to build luxury beach resorts.
And the US wants EU to undertake to police these areas.
This seems like a plan to merge the worst of the historical British woes with Ireland/Northern-Ireland, and the US experience in VietNam.
"US military planning for divided Gaza with ‘green zone’ secured by international and Israeli troops"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/14/us-military-plan-divided-gaza-green-zone

2025-10-23 00:30:52 UTC

In response to El Cheato tearing down a building that you and I own (i.e. the East Wing of the White House) then I propose that NYC condemn trump tower (for being unsafe and also for violations of the promises to preserve the prior Bonwit Teller art) and repurpose it for low incoming and homeless housing.

2025-10-18 06:20:53 UTC

On our Tesla we have noticed that the design and construction has tried new methods to save weight, but that those methods have not withstood the test of time (or weather).
For example we've had to replace some of the ball joints in the front suspension because they were not water proof and ended up corroding - a problem solved back in the 1960s by other car makers.
And now there's this...
"Half of Tesla Model 3s Failed Their Mandatory Inspections in Finland"
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a69074489/tesla-model-3-failures-mandatory-inspections-finland/

2025-10-17 21:55:24 UTC

They're back....
'Surfboard-loving sea otters strike again in Santa Cruz'
https://www.kron4.com/news/california/surfboard-loving-sea-otters-strike-again-in-santa-cruz/

2025-10-16 20:29:29 UTC

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@nprofile…e4ry Oh, have we reverted to 2008 and the system of bundling and rebundling and securitizing bundles of bad loans that brought down so many firms and banks and cost many people their homes?

2025-10-15 00:16:41 UTC

How does it feel to have given $60 of your money to bail out Argentina?
What, you did not know that $60 was pulled out of your pocket (and the pocket of every man, women, and child in the US) to be gifted unto Argentina?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-trump-meets-with-argentinas-milei-as-u-s-prepares-20-billion-bailout

2025-10-12 20:16:24 UTC

I have seen little comment on the question "Israel vs Gaza - why peace now, why not before now?"
The answer could be that El Cheeto loves and supports strong-men such as Netanyahu.
And it is clear to any observer that Netanyahu is in political and legal trouble, and that the genocide in Gaza is putting Netanyahu into a vise between various sides that will, probably, cause him to lose office (and lose his defense in his criminal trials.)
So El Cheeto is throwing Netanyahu a life preserver. By putting pressure on Hamas and Israel Cheeto is giving Netanyahu an escape route.
And Netanyahu has little to lose for going for it - Bibi has already accomplished the effective destruction of Gaza and its people (as they say, it is bulldozer ready for the next Trump hotel and golf course.)
In other words, what Daddy Trump did for El Cheeto by buying chips to bail out cheeto's failing casino, Cheeto is bailing out his "friend" Netanyahu.

2025-10-08 17:56:14 UTC

Why do the D's in Congress talk about "negotiating" the continuing resolution and ending the federal shutdown?
What is there to talk about?
From the D perspective should not the health care demands be a non-negotiable red line?
Personally I don't believe the D's should worry whether the shutdown extends until the end of el-cheeto's terms. Cheeto will ignore any negotiated limits or obligations and will simply declare "emergencies" and take money from the treasury and do what he likes.
Better to starve the mad dog known as trump than to feed it.

2025-10-06 21:26:28 UTC

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@nprofile…6yg2 I've been trying to nudge someone to write a play about Ida Tarbell. (The playwright I am trying to nudge wrote a really good one about Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who made one of the most important scientific discoveries of the early 20th century.)
(I also think that McClures magazine would be a great context for a well done TV series.)

2025-10-06 21:11:17 UTC

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@nprofile…6yg2 Don't forget a prior generation of true journalists, largely at McClure's Magazine - such as Ida Tarbell.

2025-10-06 21:08:46 UTC

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@nprofile…6yg2 Shirer was there. Shirer's books (he wrote more than the one most people know about) on the rise of the Nazis are well worth reading as lessons for our current time.

2025-09-29 23:33:16 UTC

To my way of thinking it is better to starve a mad dog than to feed it.
If this shutdown slows down the destruction being caused by the maga-klan then the hurt we will feel from the shutdown will be more than repaid by the retardation of our rapid descent into fascism, inflation, and international irrelevance.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-shutdown-government-chuck-schumer-8510b2fa4d40c4bbc058951c49c42468

2025-06-20 07:09:43 UTC

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@nprofile…cl5w Thank you!! I learned a lot from reading those materials.

2025-06-20 06:08:58 UTC

I am wondering if others are having the same experience?
Ever since USB-C came along I have noticed that many inexpensive devices that charge via USB will not charge except from an older USB-A charger and an older (not high wattage) cable.
I've got some headphones and a (new) cordless screwdriver, among other things, that have this problem (some even have a USB-C socket on the troubled device.)

2025-06-19 18:52:06 UTC

Q: What is the most terrifying word one can hear on headset when working backstage?
A: "oops"
#theatre #theater

2025-06-19 18:18:54 UTC

From the BBC:
"Meanwhile, Israel's defence minister says Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after the Soroka hospital was hit, AFP and local media report"
One might wonder whether that Israeli minister has taken a look at the hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities that Israel has destroyed in Gaza?
And in the case of Israel/Gaza those launching the missiles and firing the cannons can sometimes even see, with their own eyes, the targets.

2025-06-19 18:00:09 UTC

Now the unidentified secret police (the Miller-Noem - the "Millnos"?) are threatening to arrest people who ask them who they are...
"Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/oregon-vineyard-manager-arrest-ice

2025-06-18 21:25:59 UTC

I wonder if people realize that the proud boyz lawsuit against the Federal government is really a sub-rosa means for the Feds to pay $100,000,000 to the proud boys. That will happen when Blondi Bondi simply concedes the case and "settles" the claim.
One might hope that a judge would deny that settlement, but who can tell in this era of a judiciary that has been packed with maga sycophants.

2025-06-17 02:30:31 UTC

Vance Boelter has shown us the true face of the R-party: murderous, violent, gun-addicted, rampaging, and deceptive.
His act of disguising himself as a police officer in order to deceive his victims makes it beyond necessary for police and other law enforcement to have clear, readable, and accurate identity tags, front and back, that can be read at a distance. And such officers must not hide their identity by wearing face covering masks.
It is critical to both know that a law enforcement officer is actually that, and we must be able to identify each officer.
Otherwise we are being attacked by mobs of secret goons and secret police.

2025-06-17 02:14:39 UTC

This strikes me as not only a good idea but a necessary idea...
"California bill proposes misdemeanor for officers who cover their face on duty"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/california-officers-face-covering-misdemeanor

2025-06-16 21:16:39 UTC

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@nprofile…0av5 OK, then let us hold anti-ICE protests in places like Oklahoma City, Orlando, Bismark, Salt Lake City, ...

2025-06-15 00:08:58 UTC

I am not seeing many photos of "the crowd" at the DC imperial march.
From what I've seen attendance looks sparse, but many of the photos do not have timestamps to indicate that they were taken when things were actually happening.
?????

2025-06-14 20:32:40 UTC

It's two hours out from the start of FFOTUS' imperial march in DC and it is looking like the gods disapprove and will be micturating on his parade.

2025-06-14 02:20:58 UTC

We see cops going crazy.
There will be lawsuits.
Cops and the places that hire them will incur legal costs and even higher payouts for damages.
This is likely to force cities to raise taxes to cover those costs or, more likely, to cover the massive increase in insurance premiums that cities will have to pay in the future.
Of course, ultimately it will be you and me - taxpayers - who foot these bills for the insane excesses of cops.

2025-06-13 23:39:29 UTC

Has any one done a survey/count of the number of technical or other US-venue meetings or conventions are being cancelled because of the danger to foreign nationals who attend?
The US has become a police state much, much faster than Nazi Germany did in the 1930's.
I've already noticed a downturn - for instance I was able to book rooms at a fancy hotel (Four Seasons) for about 1/2 of the normal rate.

2025-06-13 01:45:45 UTC

Methinks that Israel's attack on Iran is going to result in an effective closure of the Straint of Hormuz which will, in turn, cause a severe shortage of petroleum shipments to much of the world.
At a minimum, I would expect that the tsunami-sized impact of that will afflict prices of gasoline here in the US.