There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." - Isaac Asimov (1980)
Tyler K. Nothing

Tyler Knows Nothing

All the nothing Tyler knows in one place!

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Into the Unbeing Part One #1

Zac Thompson

    ...

    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 …

    ...

    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. …

    ...

    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 …

    ...

    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 …

    capitalism

    Longform

    Why outrage doesn't matter anymore

    " “>

    Here's the thing. We, as Americans, have lost the ability to lash indignant hellfire at those who violate our collective sensibilities. Cops outright murder Black people almost every day, and we get mad, but nothing changes. Our politicians lie, cheat, steal, and send dick pics to minors, and we get mad, but nothing changes. Companies like Facebook, Google, Uber, the entire oil industry, the entire pharmaceutical industry, the medical establishment sell each of us for $12 a year, tricks hundreds of thousands of people into indentured servitude, skirt the law with impunity, and price gouge with lip-licking voraciousness, and nothing changes. Banks, housing, dialysis, the battle for a living wage, the death of education, …

    ...

    animation

    Longform

    America's Ghost in the Shell really sucks

    " “>

    So, I'm watching Ghost in the Shell and the only thing I can think of is, "these gringos don't get Japanese story tells." Not that such a thing stops white people from stealing non-white media and remaking it in their forced, anemic, pasty white image. It's clear that they cribbed mostly from the original film and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (an anime series) to create a franken-movie, not bothering to understand that the film and the series are two different tales which just happen to use many of the same characters. Just to be clear, GITS: SAC is one of the best anime series ever made. It's the only anime series that ever made me weepy over a robot. A ROBOT. GITS, the feature film, is considered one of the …
    ...

    movies

    animation

    Longform

    How Pixar killed traditional animation

    " “>

    It's hard not to think of Pixar and, by extension Apple, as amazing American institutions built by the astonishing, guiding hand of the late Steve Jobs. Pixar, after all, has churned out a steady stream of box office smashes, with the occasional stumble. Yet, at the same time, Pixar has become a cancer that has infected the Western World's lauded history of traditional, hand-drawn animation like an invasive species. We are paying a very steep price for Pixar's success today, and for the foreseeable future. 

    There is no question that Steve Jobs was a visionary and reshaped our expectations of computers and technology. He and friend Wozniak almost single-handedly created the personal computer market in the mid-70's. …

    ...

    animation

    Longform

    Disney, Stop Ruining Animated Classics

    " “>

    So, I watched Beauty & The Beast (2017) last night. Wow. Just SUPER wow, and not for the reasons you might think. It's a dud. A flop. I hate it. The entire opening musical sequence, so full of life and deeply engaging in the animated feature, is dead, limp, and lifeless. Everything after that is a disjointed, misshapen mutation of the brilliant, reinvigorating, emotional feature-length animated version from 1991.

    httpsi0wpcommedia2slashfilmcomslashfilmwpwp-contentimagesBeauty-and-the-Beast-belle-songjpg

    Disney had a hit in 1977 with The Rescuers, but were having trouble with 1981's The Fox & The Hound, 1985's The Black Cauldron, and 1986's The Great Mouse Detective. They struck gold in 1989 with The Little Mermaid and 1991's Beauty & The Beast would be the first two steps in a long string of …

    Longform

    Salted Wounds: The Ultimate Fuck You

    " “>

    I've talked about this before. I don't talk about being homeless a lot. It's painful, living in hotels for two and a half years. It's a short story if I leave out a lot of the detail. Two and a half years ago, around Christmas, we were evicted from our apartment in Mission Viejo because my publisher sat on their asses getting my advance check to me for my book, Getting An IT Help Desk Job For Dummies (available on Amazon, cheap plug). I worked my ass off to finish that book. 330 pages in three months. They didn't care. Companies don't care, so we were screwed. We figured we'd be out for a month or two then find a new place.

    The thing is, nobody would take us.

    It's easy. Just have the biggest recession since The Great …

    movies

    Longform

    Damon's The Great Wall isn't so bad

    " “>

    You know, if more Americans watched Chinese movies, they might understand films like The Great Wall better. I'm more of a Japanophile myself, but I watch a good number of Chinese epics. Netflix is loaded with them, and some of them are quite good.

    The thing you need to understand about Chinese culture is that the ideal of working for the benefit of the whole has been around for a lot longer than Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution (communism, if you didn't learn about Mao in school). The other thing you need to understand is the Chinese love for tales of mythology. Chinese culture has been around for a very, very long time, so they've got a lot of them.

    Now, before we get to the idea of whitewashing, I'll say up front, I …

    ...

    video games

    Longform

    Why Pharah Sucks

    " “>

    httporig03deviantartnetb3b1f201432034overwatch_wallpaper__phara_by_haikai13-d86ksb7jpg

    Pharah. That flying rat. The one and only flying hero in Overwatch, is the single most annoying hero of the bunch. Nobody else can fly. Mercy can glide and Winston can jump really far, but no other hero has flight capability like Pharah, which makes her suck. Pharah's missiles are also quite lethal, which means anyone playing her who is even vaguely good at twitch games can do a load of damage, and it's very difficult to counter her.

    Counter her with a sniper, like Ana or Widow, and it works, but they have to be really good snipers. Counter her with Torbjorn, and her missiles can ditch that Swedes turret in a couple of shots before the gun's bullets can deal enough damage. Counter her with another Pharah, and its like …

    Longform

    The future face of computing

    " “>

    You might not have noticed, since you’re most likely looking at your smartphone, but a significant amount of time people spend on the internet is through a mobile device, dominantly said smartphone. We’ve got some nifty charts lined up from ComScore so you can see just how much.

    [[Had an image here, but need to go track it down. Hopefully I don't forget. ed.]]

    As is illustrated in the above chart, things start shifting around 2012 when mobiles started to take over from desktops (this includes laptops, I presume), and that gap continues to widen. In general, this shows what we likely already know just from looking around; when you need the internet, you reach for your phone around two out of every three times. …

    ...

    Longform

    I’ll Disable My Ad Blocker When You Stop Exploiting Me

    " “>On January 8th, ExtremeTech published a piece about Forbes forcing users to disable their ad blockers in order to see any content, and guess what happened. Malware.

    For the past few weeks, Forbes.com has been forcing visitors to disable ad blockers if they want to read its content. Visitors to the site with Adblock or uBlock enabled are told they must disable it if they wish to see any Forbes content. Thanks to Forbes’ interstitial ad and quote of the day, Google caching doesn’t capture data properly, either.

    What sets Forbes apart, in this case, is that it didn’t just force visitors to disable ad blocking — it actively served them malware as soon as they did. Details were captured by security researcher Brian …

    politics

    Longform

    Support reasonable regulation of the vaping industry

    " “>

    I was a smoker of 30+ years. I smoked a pack a day and, for a few years, I smoked two packs a day. Almost two and a half years ago, I tried an e-cigarette and I stopped smoking and started vaping. Millions of smokers try to quit every year and fail. They try patches and gum and drugs, but none of it works effectively. Electronic cigarettes, however, have been exceedingly effective in smoking cessation. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to regulate e-cigs and I’m not keen on kids getting into vaping because of the candy-flavored juices, but that’s no reason to let a small group of puritanical zealots smash the one industry that smokers can count on to quit into little bits. After all, you don’t use a sledge hammer …

    Longform

    In Defence of The Grand Tour

    " “>

    Granted, I'm not entirely in love with the first season of Amazon's highly anticipated Clarkson, Hammond, and May vehicle (that's a pun), The Grand Tour, but it needs to breathe (that's a wine reference) somewhat before it starts to shine.

    In the latest R&T op/ed from Jack Baruth, the Avoidable Contact scribe rants about the failings he perceives are being perpetrated by The Grand Tour team, and he is right on some accounts. It does feel overly scripted, for the most part, and the best thing about Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May is their repartee en flagrante. We don't quite get to see it just yet, but it's more complicated than just getting the trio back in front of the cameras again.

    We need recall …