I Was Walking Down The Street One Day....

A couple of unique San Francisco Streetcars; they have been preserved from the 40s and 50s, as well as augmented by imported antiques from cities such as Milan which no longer require them.


This is the Wells-Fargo bank in Montgomery street. Unfortunately I had left my pistoleros and sombrero in the hotel, so I couldn't mount a raid.

This was a 'get Smart' underpass at the SFO domestic terminal. The real view was much better than the picture shows.
This is the Ferry Terminal, key to exploring the waterfront of San Francisco.
Anyway, so here I am with flowers in my hair.
Better not go down Polk Street.

Whoops!

So here I am five thousand miles from home, and my hotel key stops working.
Go to the desk, they say, "How long are you staying?"
Not a good question seeing as I paid the full $900 the day I arrived. They fix my key, but I can't find my receipt when I get back to my room.
However, thank heaven for computers because they've got the records. All fixed. I'm coming home at the right time.
That's that. Horrible moment averted.
Soon I shall be back in yurp.

Rip Off Britain.

I needed to phone a cab.
I bought a T-Mobile PAYG phone for 15 quid.
The most expensive rate is 33cents per minute, half the UK rate.
The whole thing took five minutes from walking in the shop.
I've been making transcontinental calls to Canada at 33cents/ minute.
The phone is a Nokia which works anywhere in North America.
Vodafone? Don't make me laugh.

Just Gets Better.

I've just been watching C-Span.
The Libertarian Party Conference. The real Libertarian Party. They had a presidential candidate debate with seven candidates. They were the real thing. They spoke intelligently for the most part, with heroes like Ayn Rand, Cicero, Yogi Berra(?) and WSC.
They want to scrap drug laws, income tax and gun laws. They are an excellent collection of people, not to be confused with non-American imitations.
Incidentally, one candidate runs an online poker business. His name is Root.
It will be on again tomorrow; here in Colorado the Libertarian Party gets as much attention as the Labour Party in England.
Don't tell me Britain is free. It isn't.

Holiday

Just been for a trip up the California Street hill - Nob Hill - for a sandwich in town. Obviously I rode the cable car up the hill, but today is a holiday weekend and so I tried to avoid the crowds.
Word to the wise, dudes and dudettes - Chinatown is on the cable car ride, which starts at the Ferry Terminal.
Also starting at the Terminal are East Bay Ferries and the Streetcars(not the same thing), which go along the waterfront to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. Fisherman's Wharf is a prime tourist attraction, chocka today, but get this; the restaurants a reasonable, the food and beer is superb(you must try an Alaskan) and the place is filled with actual fishing boats.
The souvenirs are quality and not too expensive; for example, San Francisco can get windy, foggy wet and cold on the hottest of days.
So what do the guys sell?
That's right. Windcheaters with linings and hoods for $20. Also bought a decent hoody for $15; of course, it's embroidered with "Alcatraz Psycho Ward - Outpatient".
Works for me.
Try the New York Steak sandwich at Castaglianos, looking over the harbour. Yum.
Only trouble is you need to pay a lot of cab fares.
But once you get to the BART just go to the Embarcadero stop(Ferry Terminal) and that is the key to San Francisco; the Romans knew it, the Carthaginians knew it, and now you know it.

All A Lot Of Fuss Over Nothing.

So there's a knock on the door; it's my new neighbour, he's locked himself out and can he climb across the roof from my kitchen?
Sure.
We introduce ourselves, shake hands and the guy is soon back in his flat.
Bollocks to the last two weeks.
Paranoia? Test of patience and character more like.
The guy really isn't much trouble.
But I might still move.
No neighbours is still better than good neighbours.
Guess I wouldn't fit in Australia. Then again, there was that guy from WA I worked with in the eighties; stock phrase?
"Yer nearest neighbour is fifty miles away - if you're unlucky!"
On hols from tomorrow. Pictures to follow in a couple of weeks.

It's All ABout Oil?

The USA is the world's biggest wheat exporter.
The Middle East is the world's biggest wheat importer.
Why go to war?
We could collapse the lot and starve them out in months.

Whose Side Are You On?

This is an article about the people who want to save everything.
But not poor people, apparently. After years of violent nursery school-type campaigning, they have finally forced the food companies to cut research.
And the result?
Food shortages.
Hitting the poor.
Fucking humanitarians?
Boil 'em in oil.

Don't Forget Now.

In the Yorkshire Post, a little reminder of absolute inspiration.

Carter - More Than Just Peanuts

When Carter took office in 1977 he ordered a review of the entire program. By this point the projected cost of the program had risen to over $100 million per aircraft, although this was lifetime cost over 20 years. He was informed of the relatively new work on stealth aircraft that had started in 1975, and decided that this was a far better avenue of approach than the B-1. Pentagon officials also stated that the ALCM launched from the existing B-52 fleet would give the USAF equal capability of penetrating Soviet airspace. With a 1,500 statute mile (2,400 km) range, the ALCM could be launched well outside the range of any Soviet defenses, and penetrate at low altitude just like a bomber, but in much greater numbers. A small number of B-52 operating outside interception range could launch hundreds of ALCMs, saturating the defense. A program to improve the B-52 and develop and deploy the ALCM would cost perhaps 20% of the price to deploy the planned 244 B-1A's.^[12]

On 30 June 1977 Carter announced that the B-1A would be cancelled in favor of ICBMs, SLBMs, and a fleet of modernized B-52s armed with ALCMs.^[7] Carter called it "one of the most difficult decisions that I've made since I've been in office." No mention of the stealth work was made public, the program being top secret, but today it is known that he authorized the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) project in early 1978, which eventually led to the B-2 Spirit.^[13]

Taken from Wikipedia, with thanks.

I Live And Learn.

When the bastards learn what it is that makes your life pleasant and dare I say, tolerable, they waste no time in trying to abuse this suspicion at their earliest opportunity.
So for example, if they suspect that your 'Invisible Sun' is writing on the www, or anywhere for that matter, they will try to cut your rights off at the knee.
Thus the power cut, to divorce me from my pursuits.
My responses?
Either remove their agent(the rapid route to criminalisation, so much easier in these days of no defence) or buy a UPS to restore my right defensively.
Which latter is the course I have chosen first.
Of course, Nat Taggart's option was to build a railway, and when the bastards tried to cut that right, he killed one.
Which worked in the 19th century. Or in the superlative fiction of Ayn Rand.
Of course, tomorrow I find out whether or not I have succeeded in delivering myself entirely from these life-forms' clutches.
Maybe it is just coincidence; but two weeks ago I was getting all excited about my first trip abroad in two years.
Then they hit me.
Again, as is so often the case when something good is on the horizon. And I don't agree with Frank Sinatra;that is not life. That is the chronic operating method of the bastards.
Well now. In another month I could be out of their reach again.
They aren't so numerous.
They also cannot or will not make much effort to hide.
Look for the out-of-place young creep, hanging around your street corner, clocking you and filing your face away for his bosses, finding you again. Not an ordinary type, a face far too cunning and busy to fit.
They have access to local authorities, they have access to electoral roles, they have access to bent business - there is much of this in Yorkshire, which is tied up pretty tightly by the bretheren.
I'm sure if I do get out, they will keep trying; but what to do? No neighbours, no chance, just the direct approach.
Which would be unwise of them. Even assuming they found me at all.
Filthy bastards that they are.

Renewed Purpose.

I went to see a new flat yesterday.
It is in the country, miles from the nearest town, with no immediate neighbours. I have expressed an interest.
Even if I don't get it, I have seen paradise, and it is real.
The loudest noise was the Swallows playing in the hedgerows. The flat costs the same as the one I'm in, and a mate at work lives nearby, so we'd share transport costs.
No neighbours.
No neighbours!
I'll keep an eye out for more of the same.

What Can I Say?

No, really. There's a lot of them about. The mewling, obsessive, creeping transient 'population' of Britain.
Nowhere else in the world is the desire to own ones own house so widespread, or so necessary, due to the endemic inability of the British psyche to leave other people the hell alone!
Obvoiusly, through all the years and all the sieges, no bastard has previously arrogated to itself the right to violate my rights to access the world by shutting off my power.

It probably won't happen again.
The fact that is happened at 11pm( the legal 'no loud music' hour) indicates that the life-form exists in thrall to some ideal of 'rules'. Not that I was listening to music. Just laughing at 'Big Bang Theory', and as we all know, laughter and enjoyment are the great satan of the British oppressive classes.
God help him if he does it again.
In any case I've bought an Uninterruptable Power Supply so my physical rights are safeguarded.

They're Heeere!

So the new tenant makes no effort to introduce itself.
Curtains drawn in furtive rejection, the keys jingle every time he goes in and out of the door.
And that is often.
Yes.
One of those.
Meanwhile at eleven in the evening my power goes off.
Total blackout.
In the street? The lights are on.
So I start down to the hall, and see a crack of light under the door.
Halfway down the power comes on again.
Much key-jangling and door-closing.
Oh dear. Who knows what pressures made the lovely previous tenants leave?
Is this creep part of the organisation?
Likely, since no exchanges have happened, no nuisance from me, just 'Wham!' straight in and my server is down.
On the other hand, there is an automatic power-out switch if an earth fault develops.
But then why would it come on again?
Why has it never happened before?
Why did it happen only after he went in the hall?
Maybe he was changing a fuse?
Take it easy.
And start looking for a non-shared property.

Make Common Cause Against Common Purpose

"What do you want?"
"Control"
"Where am I?"
"In Britain."
"Who are you?"
"We are Common Purpose."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are of interest."
"Whose side are you on?"
"That would be telling."
"I am not part of your plan!"
"Then you will fail."
"Fail in what?"
"In everything you try to do."
"I am a Free Man!"
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad. Ha ha ha ha ha !"

Oxy-Morons.

Just thought I'd let you in on an interesting secret.
The British Libertarian Party only allows membership on approval, and then no other party membership is allowed.
This means, that they are trying to dismantle the state, and replace it with a 'Libertarian' Monopoly.

As George Orwell said, to paraphrase 'Animal Farm', "they looked from pig to human, human to pig, and they couldn't tell the difference any more..."

All hail to the Zanu-Libertarian Party.

Foreign Policy.

The Local Government Association was particularly critical of the binding targets imposed from Whitehall.

"Imposing centrally-decided unachievable targets may deliver new homes, but will not deliver communities," it warns.
- in the Yorkshire Post today.
What with all the controversy, should we engage in yet another 'nation-building' programme, especially in an area as sensitive and volatile as Great Britain, for years a defender of the Free West way of life?
Even now the indigenous populations of places such as London have expressed support for the more Conservative elements of their communities, where Boris El-Johnson has recently assumed leadership of the local authority.

Napster Is Shite.

Looking for 'that song'?
Don't look in Napster.
They only deal with Windows computers.
They will ask for all your personal information.
Their software will take over your computer.
You won't be able to uninstall it when you find that they don't even have what you wanted and cannot supply it.
Even if they did they would retain control.
They charge as much as a broadband account for their 'service'.
Their software is slow and rigid.
Their signing up process is slow, rigid and intrusive.

Napster- the cutting edge file-sharing service beloved of the 'end of the world' MSM- is nothing more than a power-and-money grab by a bunch of authoritarian control freaks.

I am now considering whether to reinstall windows or just hack the registry to remove their fixed software intrusion.
Obviously I've deleted what I can find.
It's what I can't find that worries me.

Sure. You Bet.

The Verdict, or How To Fix Hardy Heron Display

I've finally upgraded my Linux server.
Faced with the prospect of loss of support on Feisty Fawn, and tempted by the prospect of obtaining a five year support programme for nothing, I downloaded Hardy Heron Server from Ubuntu.
The success of the project was mixed and not without difficulties.
On Thursday I tried to back up all my music to a spare drive; much was lost and about halfway through I backed up only my essential files and cut to the chase.

The installation is superior to older versions. However, choosing 'Guided' partitioning resulted in a tiny partition with the Heron in a corner of the drive which had been spare. There was no sound, the video resolution (which was automatically configured ) was only 800x600 and very blocky, and Firefox wouldn't start. To compound matters there was no effective networking as I had given the new installation a duplicate name.

I rebooted to the (intact) Feisty Fawn and tried again Friday night.
This time I ran GParted Live to image the disk.
It took all night, and failed at the last moment to install a mount point on the destination disk.

On Saturday morning I installed anyway.
I was left with the faulty display, no sound and a system which, though partial, had been easy to install.
Particularly noteworthy was the reliability of downloading the iso file to Feisty and burning an image with a right-click.

All day I couldn't fix the display. I remembered an old Edgy Eft trick for sound; simply use Alsa Mixer to change the settings, which are all muted by default.
Fucking stupid thing to do on install, but there you are.
The display resolution was more of a problem.
The configuration in Heron is fully automatic, and the 'fixes' on the internet were typically clueless.
The configuration file was difficult to edit as all the entries now are non-specific.
However, I found the absolute king of fixes on the xorg website after several hours.
They said, "don't use displayconfig-gtk" a utility introduced with Gutsy Gibbon.
So I used it.
It had a list of practically every monitor ever made, including my ten-year-old CTX.
So I selected my monitor, and a list of the proper resolutions appeared; I applied the biggest, and now I have a beautiful, fully working installation.
My personal website was up and running (automatic server start on boot, another improvement) in a short while.

Setting up e-mail was easy, and getting the networking up was simply a matter of re-naming my XP computer (redundant systems make for better maintenance).

All I have to do now is take my time and rebuild my music collection. It's all legal CD Audio source anyway.

PS-: After two days, I am finding that the computer boots twice as fast and operations take place much faster; the directory structure now comes automatically with integrated Music and Document folders, which make filing much easier and less cluttered.
Rhythmbox absorbs new music on instruction without leaving behind key songs, although I haven't seen it auto-find like it used to.

The single negative factor is that when either the music player or the web-browser has ben playing sounds, the other is locked out of the soundcard.
Pity. Feisty used to play any mixture of sources simultaneously.

Red Ken

It's Ten PM Friday.
Still no result in the London Mayoral Election.
Is Livingston pulling a Zimbabwe?

Another Day, Another Headline.

Hardly a day goes by at the moment without somebody, somewhere, reporting the latest communist outrage.
The parade of the Olympic Torch in just about every place possible, wherever the communists have a chance of creating a lie, is the outrage which sees these criminals rubbing their denials in our faces, simply to see just how far the deceit will carry.

They pretend to the title of 'responsible', 'power', 'world class influence' and 'benign sponsor', but they do it in the cheapest and easiest ways they can; they don't mind if, behind the handshakes and smiles, they aren't taken seriously.
They just want to be taken at any rate, happy to bulldoze thought out of existence even in its home countries, mobilising their terrified student stooges with blackmail and the threat of death at home so that they must support the monstrousness.
Such has been the change in the attitude of the students, that I can only assume they are making a fearful play for equally insincere loyalty, having seen what a fake the West's pursuit of freedom is after Tiannenman Square, where they were abandonned by their sponsors here.

Now the tyrants enjoy a revolting popularity, only partly based on fear, mostly due to the lack of external hope, the lack of anywhere willing to let them stay as defectors, and the desperate clinging to the mantra of 'country right or wrong' as the sad consolation for their rejection by the West.
Indeed, the students find that their masters' attitudes are echoed by the authorities here, in an attempt to partition our culture into accepting 'two-systems, one world' .
The Chinese tyrants have swallowed our efforts, and are now vomiting them back at us in an attempt to overwhelm our outrage, while all the while real-politik is arranged to make them stronger and more indispensible by the hour.

They are a new Soviet Union; but this time they really do have the means to make our system collapse.