Chauvin guilty all counts


Derek Chauvin convicted of the murder of George Floyd. For the first time in Minnesota state history, a white police officer has been held accountable for killing a Black man.

According to the New York Times, Derek Chauvin is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in Minnesota’s only maximum-security prison after he was convicted of murdering George Floyd and led out of a courtroom in handcuffs, according to authorities.

 

Barb on the beach

For the last year Barb and her sister Jan were diligent in keeping themselves and those around them safe. They were hunkered down. Now that they and their close family have been vaccinated, a few of them are spending a week at Barb’s place in Destin, FL. Well deserved. No indoor dining but lots of beach time.

Nobody Trailer

Action is my movie genre-of-choice and I’ve watched a bunch of them. But I’m not sure I’ve seen a better one than Nobody, staring Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska) as Hutch Mansell, “an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. A nobody.”

I watched most of this movie standing in front of my TV. Don’t recall doing that before. Hell, Christopher Lloyd has an action role in this movie and he rocks it. One more thing… I paid $20 to rent this film for 48 hours. Haven’t done that before but I’ll get my money’s worth when I watch it again tomorrow night. So much going on in the action scenes there was no way to catch it all.

And while I’m all hyperbolic, this movie might have the best soundtrack of any action movie I’ve seen and I’ve always thought Quintin Tarantino films owned that.

“New App Lets Banner Ads Listen, Remember, Respond”

In the late 90’s I played a small part in our company’s early efforts to get on “the information highway.” We went all-in on an idea called AdActive. Proving, once again, that nothing ever dies on the Internet, I found the following on ClickZ. (1998)

Straylight in Seattle launched AdActive, a software product that allows existing banner ads to provide advertisers information on end-user brand perceptions, letting marketers target future messages based on individual responses.

Designed to support one-to-one relationships between customers and companies, AdActive works with a Web site’s existing ad delivery system or network to extend the traditional banner ad, the privately held company said.

Users are offered a number of options to tell advertisers what they think of the product or brand being presented without being taken away from the content they are viewing. AdActive then records the response so that it can be aggregated to provide detailed brand/product perception reports and used to more effectively target future ads.

“AdActive allows Web sites to realize new revenue by giving advertisers the ability to interact directly with consumers,” said Allen Hammock, technical director for Straylight’s AdActive Product Group. “Advertisers will also be able to look at what people think about their brand and products while giving Web surfers the ability to actively shape their online ad experience without registering or giving up their online anonymity.”

AdActive features a response bar, a small footprint Java applet, allows an individual to pass along positive or negative responses to an ad, contact an advertiser directly or even cancel an ad from being shown again.

The app gives advertisers the ability to respond to individual consumer brand perceptions with new advertisements or to refocus their efforts on consumers who chose not to respond at all.

AdActive is designed to work with NetGravity’s industry-standard ad delivery system, AdServer. The software is priced in a tiered structure based on a site’s traffic and computing resources.

Simplicity


Spotted this motorcycle in front of our local coffee shop. I know nothing about motorcycles but find this one especially beautiful. No saddlebags. No radio. No cupholder. No windscreen! No place for a passenger.

Time Capsule

In early 2008 Apple introduced the Time Capsule, a wireless router that automatically backs up data for any computer connected to your wifi network. In approximately 2016, Apple disbanded the wireless router team that developed the AirPort Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme router. In 2018, Apple formally discontinued both products, exiting the router market.

Don’t recall when I got mine but it was a long time ago. Since Apple no longer supports the device, I retired mine and replaced it with an external hard drive, using Time Machine to back up my MacBook.

Was planning to take the old Time Capsule to the recycle place but remembered it still has my data on it. A lot of data. I could plug it back in and erase but I’m told it would take a long time so I decided to destroy the thing. But it’s impenetrable! No way (that I can see) to get it open and get to the hard drive. I could probably beat it with an axe or a sledgehammer but that sounds like a lot of work. So I’ve decided to take it down into the woods (we live on six acres) and bury it. I know, probably not good for ground water but I’ll do my best to seal it up.

I kind of like the idea some alien archeologist discovering the thing and being frustrated she can’t find a power cord or cable for it.

So what next?

“The first step is to tone down the prophecies of doom and switch from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down. Bewilderment is more humble and therefore more clear-sighted. Do you feel like running down the street crying “The apocalypse is upon us”? Try telling yourself, “No, it’s not that.Truth is, I just don’t understand what’s going on in the world.”

— 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018)