Tyler K. Nothing

Tyler Knows Nothing

All the nothing Tyler knows in one place!

Reading

Book Art

BIG-ASS SWORD

Andreas Butzbach

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    movies

    animation

    review

    Longform

    Hotel Transylvania: Transformania | Film Review

    " “>

    Despite the growing recognition in the West that animation is not a medium made expressly for children, there is an expansive industry that revolves around productions that aim specifically for that audience. Ahem… Disney? Heard of ‘em? There are a number of outfits that play in that space these days. Warner, Illumination, Pixar, DreamWorks, Universal, and Sony Pictures Animation, in no particular order, are a smattering. Each studio has their own “voice” but Sony’s Hotel Transylvania franchise is a series of films that speaks in its own voice, and that voice is Genndy Tartakovsky.

    And yet, Tartakovsky’s participation in the fourth entry in the tetralogy is limited to writing the story, co-penning the script, and acting …

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    linux

    Longform

    Are keyboard shortcuts really more efficient than a mouse?

    " “>

    As a Mac user, there is one very specific admonition from Windows and Linux users I hear frequently; too much mouse! But I’m not just a Mac peep, I’m also a Windows and Linux guy. I started as an Tandy Radio Shack kid, became an Apple ][ kid, then a PC teen, and ultimately a Mac jerk (read: young adult.) In the mid-90’s, when the public internet was spun up, I was still a Mac guy sporting a PowerBook 145b emitting a veritable thatch of SCSI peripherals. But the story gets even more complicated.

    When I met my wife and started my second phase of life as a writer, I was working on Windows books. Without any PCs at the time, I did all my work in Connectix Virtual PC. Later I would upgrade to a PowerMac 7300/200 and buy a …

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    Longform

    Using introspection to understand my own limitations

    " “>

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    I wrote up this draft in 2018 and (clearly, nerd) didn't post it. Here it is, mostly unedited, for your potential enjoyment/derision. -Ed.

    I often tell this story when ferrying people around and the subject of jobs come up. A long time ago, I used to get really mad at people who didn't follow through on their commitments. In consulting and IT work, my targets would often be vendors and service providers. I would angrily tell them how they were violating the terms of their contract and, due to their incompetence, were costing my client money for every minute they continued to fail at their singular job.

    Needless to say, …

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    Longform

    Dumpster Fire: The Bed!

    " “>

    Despite being deep inside the artificially warmed folds of Holiday Happy-Ganda Season, I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st. If the image above wasn't enough to convince you of the sheer janky-ness of this "concept", check out the lede from the official press release:

    A leading platform for fandoms and online communities has partnered with an independent bedmaker to create the ultimate ‘TV Binge Bed’. The ‘TV Binge Bed’ includes self-cleaning sheets, a ‘Netflix and Chill’ setting, and for those who don’t want to leave their bed at all, an optional built-in potty. The expected retail price of the bed is from $14,999 (£11,321). The unique product is being developed after the platform found that the …

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    Longform

    Universal Basic Income in the Post Space Age

    " “>


    I originally wrote this piece in 2017 and am reposting it now because I believe the idea is critically important to the future of humanity and the survival of Earth and humanity. -Ed. 

    We should come to grips with the idea as soon as possible. We are, after all, heading for a rather dramatic shift in human thinking. We need to figure out how we humans are going to formulate our societies as soon as we have self-driving vehicles of all stripes, artificial intelligence running everything, smart grids that deliver all manner of clean energy, and robots that deal with all manner of work. We will be living in a version of the dystopian we’ve all seen in movies, but it won’t be quite so dystopian.

    It will be a world without …

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    apple

    review

    Longform

    iPhone cases & an important charity for Peruvian children

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    Phone cases are a dime a dozen. 

    Well, not literally. They cost real money, but they’re available everywhere for all kinds of mobiles and at every conceivable price point. When it comes down to it, consumers will select the style and price that fits their circumstances and financial wherewithal. Hell, a lot of Chinese phone makers include a (cheap) case in the box that I’m sure a handful of people around the globe actually use.

    When I received a press release from Illusion Photograph offering me a review sample of one of their phone cases, I told them up front that they should focus on getting samples to more visible …

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    politics

    Longform

    Where’s the rage? | Pandemic Edition

    " “>

    Sandy Hook gun lawsuit moves forward in Connecticut Supreme Court - CNN

    Where is it, the rage? We should all be really, quite upset. Why aren't we marching in the streets, demanding accountability for the endless stream of corruption and criminality that has been unveiled on an almost daily basis for quite a few years? The French? Fuck, they're out in the street if anyone, anywhere sneezes on their rights! The Yellow Vests? You might have heard of them? 

    The …
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    movies

    review

    Longform

    Greenland (2020) | Film Review

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    Good GOD, what a pig. Sure, Gerard Butler was a staple in mid-budget action flicks, but this dumpster fire isn’t one of his better ones, and it’s not going to inject any enthusiasm into prospects for his ongoing career.

    BUDGET: $35 million BOX OFFICE: $47.5 million (worldwide)

    Directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Chris Sparling, this schlocky disaster flick wannabe already instills a sense of dread before you cue it up after seeing that the movie poster proudly proclaims the movie is from “the” producer of the John Wick franchise, The Town, and Clash of The Titans (that monster hit… get it.)

    When was the last time you were excited to see the latest film from your favorite producer?

    Look, I’ve tried to write a …

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    Longform

    How To Be The Most Amazing Person Ever

    " “>

    So, you want to be the most amazing person ever. The good news is that, through the power of positive thinking, you can have anything* you want, as long as you know the secret.

    What is the secret?

    Well, it wouldn’t be much of a secret if I didn’t drag this unnecessarily hyperbolic exposition out for as long as humanly possible only to tell you something ludicrously obvious at the end, would it? In order for the secret to actually work, you’ll need to tolerate a lot of extraneous narrative that leads you to the very narrow conclusions I, the author, want you to “discover” for yourself. So, how am I going to do that? Easy. We start at the beginning…

    The Problem

    You’re stuck in a rut. You’re spinning your wheels. You can’t …

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    Longform

    My father died today.

    " “>

    My father being arrested for protesting, something he was quite happy to do. He was staunchly anti-war and would always stand up for the little guy. Well, mostly always…

    My sister summed it up best.

    “I haven’t seen him in so long, he’s already been dead to me,” she said, or something like it. You get the point.

    I was watching a video on YouTube about the new Anbernic RG351M when it paused itself. Then my phone rang. I could see it was my sister from the image that appeared on the display. I knew at that moment that she was calling me to tell me dad had died. She had texted me the day before letting me know that he was in hospice at home.

    This was a marked change from years past. When my older sister died in the early …

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    capitalism

    Longform

    Does our future require Capitalism?

    " “> A neighborhood in Mexico City that shows a stark divide between the wealthy and powerful and those who cannot afford to live in a safe, clean place. [SOURCE: BoredomTherapy]

    There is an existing dynamic between capitalism and science which fosters a high stakes game of one-upmanship among different corporations and organizations to find the “killer app” and crush the competition. An enormous component of this dynamic is the winner-take-all mentality that is a core tenet of today’s current hyper-capitalism.

    Proponents of capitalism claim that it is the market that is the catalyst for the competition that has created all of our advanced technologies and drives our future. Without capitalists being allowed to do whatever they …

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    Longform

    Spare Seat | Short Fiction

    " “>

    The clattering melody the train wheels sang under my feet was hypnotic. It beat a staccato rhythm against the rails, countering the smooth, blur outside the double-pane window upon which I rested my right temple. The car swayed; gently, then roughly, and gently again. Several tons of steel, aluminum, plastic, wood, and fabric played a cacophonous symphony as it hurtled down the misty California coastline. I watched without seeing, my vision blurred as my mind juggled thoughts of indecision and mortality.

    “Is anyone sitting here,” said a voice over my left shoulder. I sat alone in a set of four seats arranged to face each other.

    “No,” I responded, leaving my head on the chilly glass.

    “Indeed,” said the voice.

    Santa …

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    open source

    security

    Longform

    How open source software can save you from the horrors of Social Media

    " “>

    Facebook. WhatsApp. Instagram. Adult Friend Finder. Yahoo. Marriot. Anthem Health. eBay. JP Morgan Chase. Target. Equifax. Adobe. RSA Security. The US Office of Personnel Management. [SOURCE]

    This is a partial list of organizations that have been hacked and lost control of millions of user accounts since 2011. In the case of Yahoo, it was 3 billion.

    That’s billion, with a capital “B”.

    Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

    That’s a lot of people’s personal and, as in the case with Anthem Health, very confidential, data. In some cases it was just email addresses and passwords, some of which weren’t even encrypted. In others, complete packages of personally identifying data was taken. Many of these people are now targeted by …

    Longform

    How did we get to Trump? - The Abridged Edition

    " “>

    The following essay is from a Quora comment that I made in response to this honest question:

    But I still think it is strange what has happened to the USA. It used to be the country that got together to solve any kind of problem or public need. You had the entire country to have paved roads and everybody had cars way ahead of us even so with electricity and telephones. You invented the Internet. But now it looks like every community expects somebody else “big corporations” to come and sort all problems out. What changed so that the US stopped to be a “let us get together and solve this shit!”. I am by no means complaining to you I just don't get it. It is like the public is afraid of starting or wanting changes. - …

    video games

    animation

    science

    Longform

    Anime and video games don't make people psychotic

    " “>

    Western societal ideals have always been broken when it comes to animated content. First, there is the core element that states when you are no longer a child you leave childish things behind and grow up. Adults aren't supposed to like the same things when they were children. Kids drink juice boxes. Adults drink coffee. Kids watch cartoons. Adults watch TV dramas. It's not okay to retain your childhood because that means you aren't responsible. This infects the entire scope of western animation production because it is a core principle that we perpetuate. If you liked Toy Story when you were a kid, it's only valid to look back on it with nostalgia as an adult or share it with your kids. Watching it alone, however, is …

    Longform

    The Single Worst Job I've Ever Had

    " “>

    NOTE: I started writing this earlier this year when I was fired from my first new job in four years after four months. I just got the to the point where I didn't care to tell the tale any more, but now, some months later and more depressed than ever, I wanted to post what I'd written, just to get it out there. I'm no angel. I'm nowhere near perfect. I make mistakes and sometimes I've been fired because it was the right thing to do, but not this time. This is simply a matter of a rich asshole who thinks he's all that and a bag of chips can treat people like shit and it will never touch him. Something similar happened in France a while ago. That didn't end well. -TCR

    On July 14th of this year, I will turn 50. That's quite …

    writing

    Longform

    The hardest thing to do is the one thing you desire most

    " “>

    Since I was nine I've wanted to become a science fiction author. I wanted to create worlds and explore amazing things, and over the years that has grown into something not entirely unlike my childish fever-dream. Of course, now that I'm verging on fifty years old, I am now wholly in touch with my depression.

    ...Not that awareness makes anything better.

    Said depression about everything in my life, with diminishingly few redemptive aspects that just makes me even more depressed, is significantly reductive. It saps every last bit of will out of my soul, no matter how fiery and passionate I am about a subject, like writing or social justice or racial equality or anything good and fair, and I just drive, play video games, …

    Longform

    Interview with a woman named Larry | Short Fiction

    " “>

    I'm just going to write something directly out of my head, so we'll see how it goes. -TCR

    I've always liked the name Larry. It feels old without being stuffy, and there's an inherent jocularity about it. When you hear that you'll be meeting with some dude named Larry it instills in you the idea that the interaction won't be dark or heavy. When I walked into the room to meet my particular Larry, however, things didn't go as expected.

    My Larry was a woman and anything but jovial.

    "Sit," she said, not looking up from her tablet. I sat.

    "Thanks for agreeing to meet with me," I said as I settled into the uncomfortable straight-back chair. I noted that her chair was a large, stuffed leather affair, but pushed away the envy. …

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    Longform

    Is everyone famous a perverted asshole?

    " “>

    So, next on the pervert docket we have legendary serious news journalist Charlie Rose...

    Wait, what?

    So, let's take the list of people called out for being predatory assholes so far: Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, John Besh (supposedly famous chef), Louis C.K., Hadrian Belove and Shadie Einashai (rich assholes with movie theaters), Richard Dreyfuss, Gary Goddard, Andy Henry, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Knepper, Andrew Kreisberg, Jeremy Piven, Brett Ratner, Steven Segal, Tom Sizemore, Jeffrey Tambor, James Toback, Senator Al Franken, and now Charlie Rose. But wait, there's more! Yeah. I mean there's a longer list, but I'm not going to type out any more names. If you want to see the mostly complete list, look here. 

    So, I let …

    science

    Longform

    Amateur Egghead - Why is psychology a science?

    " “>

    In this series, Amateur Egghead, I examine a range of different subjects on which I have no formal education or expertise of any kind. The opinions and thoughts within are my own and will likely piss a bunch of people off, mostly the ones who benefit from the things I talk about. -Ed.

    It's difficult to start this without getting directly to the point; why is psychology still a science when the only thing we're learning about the human mind is all about the mechanics of the brain? The brain is the medium in which the "mind" resides, but it is not the mind itself without the person attached to it and the experiences that person has had. Science, as defined by Oxford, is:

    "the intellectual and practical activity …

    Longform

    How To Kill Money

    " “>

    “It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money.... Let me give you a tip on men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the...bell of an approaching looter.” -Ayn Rand

    Ayn Rand was special, and not in a good way. She was a caustic, belligerent herald of the apocalypse that is raw, uncontrolled capitalism. And yet, Rand was simply a product of her time. [Keep in mind that this is not supposed to be an exhaustive analysis of the rise of Randian concepts, but just a loose overview of some of the things that led to the …

    Longform

    Jony Ive's Innovation-Free Apple

    " “>

    Welcome to the brave new world of DESIGN OVER FUNCTION that Jonny Johnnee Jony Ive guy has crafted at Post Jobs Apple where a glass sandwich costs you $1,000 and you must pay for the privilege of using your purchased media in their walled garden. During Apple's unveiling of "One more thing" in the shiny new Steve Jobs Theater on the shiny new Cupertino campus, Craig Federighi tried to use Face ID to unlock the demo phone. It didn't work. Today in The Guardian, there's a convenient PR piece explaining why. 

    Apparently, Apple peeps kept fingering the phone before the demo which locked out the Face ID because, well, it's supposed to. 

    I don't have an issue with Face ID. What I do have an issue with is the wanton removal of …

    Longform

    Damn You, Walter Becker

    " “>

    Why'd you have to go and die, man. I get the news this morning from Rima via Telegram. I can't believe it, but it's true. So many people have passed in the last few years, it brings mortality into sharp, unpleasant focus. Since it would be ridiculous for me to suggest that you haven't heard Steely Dan, go ahead and have a fresh listen to an old friend, the Dan's Gaucho, my personal favorite (if you deem valuations based on tenths of a degree valid, otherwise ALL Dan records are my favorite). 

    Steely Dan was really two bands. One was the studio iteration where Becker and Fagen crafted their amazingly textured albums, staffed with a never-ending assemblage of guest artists from all walks of music. The other was the band …

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    review

    Longform

    Wonder Woman? Meh.

    " “>

    httpcdncollidercomwp-contentuploads201603wonder-woman-movie-cast-slice-600x200jpg

    So, I've seen Wonder Woman now. As was common in the Golden Age of comics, there's a lot of cannibalism. WW effectively is DC's Captain America, complete with a cadre of hardened war vets with distinct personalities, even a Scot with a funny hat. That, however, is NOT why I ultimately didn't like WW. It starts simply enough (don't worry, no significant spoilers).

    The Black nanny.

    Does anyone in Hollywood know what's going on? We're having a lot of issues with all kind of civil rights things, like trying not to marginalize Black people!? The top of the film features a young Diana Prince (she gets the last name later) running, only to find that she's run away from her Black mammy. Oh please. Diana is white. The Queen is …

    apple

    Longform

    Apple has jumped the shark

    " “>

    It wasn't long ago that you couldn't walk down the street without tripping over some new Apple rumor or buzz over the latest and greatest Apple gear. Now, it's all about the white noise we hear from the tech industry as a whole. Are we living in a politics-style news bubble, is Microsoft beating Apple at their own game, or does the Cupertino megalith have something up its sleeve that would make the ghost of Steve Jobs giggle.

    I remember, albeit vaguely, when Steve Jobs rolled out the brand new iMac in 1998. You really had to be there to see it live, but I did manage to see it eventually. I was, at the time, an Apple "phanboi", Ever since my first Apple ][, I had loved Apple. I've had lots of Apple products. I drank …