Anti-Virus Software Update Fuckin' Microsoft and McAfee.

 The race against bad guys in software is so frustrating! Everybody KNOWS how much pain it causes to the individual, the organization, and to the whole damn world. How does Microsoft let another company (McAfee) make a buck by expiring my OS software protection and needing me to re-up a subscription for monitoring and preventing malware?! I mean, you want me to be loyal and paying for this OS ecosystem, how can you allow yourself to be vulnerable like that?

One of my greatest incentives to go in with Chromebooks when they came out was the lower threat of virus bullshit. I have no memory of any malware issues with any of the Chrome ecosystem products I've used over the years, and I know that's no guarantee of future freedom from fuckery, but one thing is for sure. That is a huge factor in my business choices. I remember it also being a major decision point when deciding between Apple and PC. 

Microsoft, fix this with some of your hundreds of billions of cash. Invest it in doubling your cybersecurity force for the basic platform and stop making a third-party interrupt my attention by having to decide whether I need them to help you keep your OS safe! Am I the only one who finds this amazingly short-sighted and obtuse? Microsoft, your future is in the balance (as it always has been). Why not bring that important consideration into your asset column instead of "scary liability." Stop making me want to dump you!

What's with this goddamn foot?

 Thursday just after lunch, my foot started hurting just upfoot of my index toe, mostly on the top. It felt at first like the bones just got out of whack, like a tendon got slipped over to the wrong side. It got progressively worse as the day went on until I was limping. Tender to the touch on the top, it hurt now, even when I wasn't walking on it. I was sure it was a hairline fracture in one of my metatarsals. My upcoming trips were going to be tough. Googling it let me know I'd probably have to wear a boot or special shoe, and would need to give it rest, and it could take six to twelve weeks to heal. Crud, I was hoping to be hyperambulatory in the Bay Area and later in Japan over the next 4 or more weeks, and was counting on riding my bike to work over the rest of summer school, keep off any more weight gain for all the good reasons. By the time I hobbled to bed, I figured I'd go to urgent care right after work tomorrow (Friday), and get started on taking care of it, and be lame for my trips. When I got up, it was the same -- my morning ablutions were slow and I filled 5 dixie cups of water and put them in the freezer anticipating having to ice the area in the upcoming days and weeks. I drove to work, and my slow painful walk to the bathroom before the first bell was slow. Would the students notice my condition? By the end of first period (of four), it seemed to be getting better? By third period, I wasn't really limping anymore, and though I could still feel it, it was clearly improving. And now, tonight at 10pm, it's normal. I can still register a sensation when I clamp down on the area with my fingers, but no, it stopped hurting. From being certain I'd be having to take ibuprofen and ice to get to sleep to being a hundred percent. What the hell?

We Deserve the World We Get (Climate Version)

 When we evolved on earth, with its climate and biomes, we were one with it (and still are). It was dispassionate which is another way of saying it is harsh and bloody. Everyone lived a life of serenity and terror, toil and joy, triumph and death, birth and pain.  And lately, like within the last few millennium, the same is true for a lot of us in a lot of ways. A select (not fortunate) few are spared much of the trauma and drama because of the economy of scale and specialized economies afforded by money and trade. But still, around the world, and for all time, much of humanity still struggles to survive, and often doesn't. 

Although to tools exist to give all of humanity a lot less toil and a lot more joy, we don't think it's that important that we share it with those without the tools. 

It's ironic that we have put the human habitability of the planet at risk just in time to develop the tools to put it back into the realm of sustained future habitability if we choose to. Ironically those tools we used to threaten us are the same ones we've become so enamored with that we can't give them up to save the species. I guess the part that feels unfair is the people who make all the decisions for the world will suffer the least as they sentence the lot of us to a Mad Max future. It only feels unfair because we choose to value peaceful comfort instead of feral excitement.

Can people ever choose what to value or are shackled to the defaults of their historical lot and upbringing? Tearing our situation down to the basic reality, we're animals with no moral mandate -- merely the biologically engrained urge to survive (which looks really weird in a modern, 21st Century abundant economy). And, (so interestingly!) our biological development also gave us this overactive cerebral cortex which give (some of) us the ability to transcend these urges if we so choose. Or if we're so inclined by personality and cognitive ability and personal preference, to transcend them internally.

This world we bequeath to our progeny is going to be rife with a lot of change. Some of the affluent will surf through it until they die, some will be brutally tossed around in the tumult, and some will drown. Our habit is to lament dangerous and damaging elements in life instead of preparing for them and dealing with them.