Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Help Me Get This Hat ...

... since I'm sure you don't like seeing my bald head any more than I like getting it sunburned:

Yes, it's another one of those "Tom gets swag for referring subscribers" things.

You've almost certainly heard of Axios. Over the last few years they've become a pretty solid news source, banging out the relevant facts on breaking stories.

They offer several "free" email newsletters on various topics (including cryptocurrency!). As a news reader/gatherer/curator, I'm satisfied with the product.

I don't care much about the vinyl sticker (5 referrals) or the premium canvas tote (10 referrals), but I want the hat (25 referrals), t-shirt (50 referrals), jacket (100 referrals), laptop bag (500 referrals), and trip to Washington, DC (1000 referrals).

Especially the hat.

And at the moment, I'm 24 referrals short.

Naturally, I managed to mess it up on only the second pass.

In July, I introduced a KN@PPSTER calendar recombobulation:

  1. The live podcast will happen on the first Friday of each month at 11am Eastern.
  2. The blog post / thread to gather questions for the podcast will go up on the preceding Monday (which will only be on the 1st if Friday happens to fall on the 5th).
Which means that the monthly "Thanks For Asking!" thread should have gone up day before yesterday.

And that didn't happen, because I just completely spaced out and forgot that that was how I planned to do things from now on.

So this time, I'll plan on putting the AMA thread up tomorrow (September 1) and doing the live podcast on Friday, September 9.

Sorry about that.

Not All Bad Behavior by the Mises PAC is Unique to the Mises PAC

So, here's the latest situation:

  1. The (Mises PAC dominated) Libertarian National Committee attempted -- in complete defiance of its own bylaws and with no authority whatsoever -- to insert itself into the internal affairs of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico.
  2. LPNM responded first by warning against such outlawry, then, when it didn't cease, by terminating its affiliation with the LNC.
  3. The LNC responded to the disaffiliation by pretending that said disaffiliation is merely "alleged," and that it gets to further intervene in LPNM's internal affairs to decide whether LPNM gets to do what LPNM clearly and unambiguously did, and had the authority to do.
Now, that's obviously some bullshit right there, and as very much an anti-Mises-PAC person (aka a libertarian), you might expect me to attribute all of that to the Mises PAC's dominance on the LNC.

But to do that would ignore a good deal of Libertarian Party history.

In the year leading up to the Mises PAC takeover, the LNC was faced with several situations where the temptation to ignore its own bylaws and just do whatever it wanted proved irresistible. That temptation even affected the party's Judicial Committee which, from whole cloth, invented a new power for itself to rule on internal affiliate party matters.

And before that, there was a multi-year conflict in Oregon starting circa 2010, where an impostor organization tried to insert itself as the LNC affiliate in place of the state's LP, with cooperation from the LNC. That one took years to settle down, with the impostor organization sending its own delegation to each national convention and attempting to get itself seated in place of the real one (we saw the Mises PAC pulling similar stunts this year, but the tactic was nothing new).

And a lot of that goes back to 2000, when the LNC disaffiliated the Libertarian Party of Arizona, resulting in loss of ballot access for the presidential slate nominated by the national convention (since LPAZ was unrepresented at that convention, it picked its own slate -- L. Neil Smith and Vin Suprynowicz -- in preference to the convention-nominated Harry Browne and Art Olivier).

After the Arizona debacle, the LNC made some good decisions (largely staying out of internal affiliate disputes for a decade) and some bad decisions (e.g. filing a fraudulent trademark claim on the name "Libertarian Party" so that it could threaten malicious/vexatious/frivolous litigation against former affiliates in future such scenarios).

But circa 2010/Oregon, we started seeing an increase in the number/energy of LNC members who had joined the Cult of RONR (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised), and taken the trouble to get themselves certified as "official" parliamentarians.

They would, for example, insert themselves as individuals in affiliate affairs by "volunteering" to serve as state convention parliamentarians so as to achieve the outcomes they wanted  -- then use RONR as a cudgel to beat the LNC into submission to those goals (even though RONR is only applicable where "consistent with" the LNC's bylaws, these cultists always insist that any random/convenient semicolon or instance of the word "the" in RONR means the party must do whatever they happen to want done).

The current LNC secretary happens to be a member of that cult, and to have re-purposed its doctrines specifically to Mises PAC goals, but again, nothing new or Mises-specific here.

The LNC's unwillingness or inability to abide by its own bylaws, and its at least occasional ability to get away with violating them, was a huge problem long before the GOP "infiltrate and neuter" operation known as the Mises PAC came along. They didn't cause or create that weakness. They're just exploiting it.

Or, to put it a different way, the LNC had proven itself institutionally unfit to function as the national committee of a political party long before the Mises PAC "takeover." That "takeover" may finally be bringing the situation to a head, though, and that's probably a good thing.

Wordle 438 Hint

Hint: Solving each day's Wordle wins you two of these -- personal satisfaction and bragging rights.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: P

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Wordle 437 Hint

Hint: Could be rapid, might be delayed, but something's developing here.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: O

Monday, August 29, 2022

What I Saw at the Forward Party Meet-Up

Yesterday, I attended the Gainesville, Florida area's first Forward Party meet-up. I didn't record it or even taken any notes, so these are just next-morning impressions.

Attendance: About ten people.

Composition of attendees: About 60% male / 40% female. Based on overt claims and indicative statements, probably 40% current or former Republican, 30% current or former Democrat, 30% (including me) third party or "independent." Also about 30% (including me) "full-time politico" (me, the Forward Party's national political director, and a local Republican political consultant). At least 20%, maybe more, veterans.

The pleasant surprise, from my point of view, was that nobody there was hell-bent on making sure the Forward Party is all about their pet policy issue.

With one -- completely sane, I think -- exception, the consensus seemed to be that the party should be about solving the problem of turning the US into a true multi-party democracy that might be better fit to address all those other issues.

Ranked-choice voting (I approve).

Independent redistricting commissions as opposed to redistricting being done whichever "major party" happens to dominate the legislature (I approve, but I'd go further to algorithmic redistricting based entirely on population density from a random starting geographic location).

Non-partisan "open" primaries (I disapprove, because with ranked-choice voting no primaries are needed at all -- if a party wants to endorse a candidate, let it do so by convention or hold its own internal, non-government-financed "primary," and have a jungle election with all legally/constitutionally qualified candidates eligible to receive votes).

The exception was one guy who thought the party should have at least five specific and popular deliverables. He cited the 1990s "Contract With America" as an example of a party making big gains by offering an explicit set of proposals. He also name-checked Ross Perot and his focus on balanced budgets. I can't say I entirely disagree, but I think those "election reform" points above are the deliverables the party should focus on. Attempting to expand that will turn into a fight over whose ideological laundry list becomes the platform, with everyone else leaving and the thing dying.

There was also a seeming consensus that decentralization is a good thing, and that both "major" parties like it when it produces the policies they want and try to suppress it when it doesn't.

The in-the-know Forward guy was pretty clear that 1) Andrew Yang does not intend to run for president in 2024 and 2) there may not even be a Forward presidential ticked in 2024. The current priorities are getting state parties recognized/registered by state governments and getting them set up for ballot access ASAP.

Overall, I was favorably impressed.

That doesn't mean I'm optimistic that the Forward Party will succeed where previous third parties have failed (I'm not).

It also doesn't mean that I think the existing system can or should be saved from its impending complete dissolution (I don't).

But in the absence of an ideologically libertarian political party to hang out with and do stuff with while we await the inevitable collapse, there are far worse ways for me to feed my addiction to politics than to help pitch some non-anti-libertarian reforms that, if adopted, would probably make things a little better for a little while.

If things remain on the current track, I may be one of the people you see e.g. staffing a booth at a festival in a Forward t-shirt, helping administer what I expect will be Forward's version of the World's Smallest Political Quiz -- an event-specific demonstration of ranked-choice voting to show how it works (e.g. at a food truck rally, "rank the food trucks" ballots, and then a demonstration of how they're counted and a winner determined.

Of course, I strongly suspect that ideologues -- non-libertarian ideologues -- will get control of the thing, especially if it starts showing any potential, at which point I'll presumably be moving along. But I guess we'll see.

Wordle 436 Hint

Hint: Patrick Mahomes, in several respects.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: C

Sunday, August 28, 2022

I Try Not to Miss a Garrison Center Column Very Often ...

... but I guess this weekend's is going to be an exception.

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday, and we did a family outing for dinner, etc.

Today, I have a political event to attend in the early evening.

And in between I've been e.g. trying to take frequent breaks to avoid heat stroke while making a start on cutting up the big oka that fell in our yard more than a week ago (fortunately missing both house and cars by 8-10 feet) and that the landlord hasn't deigned to call me back about yet.

Also, nothing especially interesting seems to be going on, which means I'd probably default to a column about a topic I'm sick of (something, something, the disgraced former president, something).

I expect to make up for it next weekend, which is a holiday weekend that I'd normally consider using as a column holiday.

Wordle 435 Hint

Hint: It's the cover-up, not the crime ... and the ending is the opposite of easy.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: G

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Some E-Bike Observations

I've not even been on the Nakto lately (busy and always worn out, it feels like), but I try to keep track of what's up in e-bike world.

I especially follow new projects at Indiegogo, because I'm on their email list anyway.

I'm not out to slam this project specifically -- in fact, there are several things I like about it -- but it does highlight some of the caution signals I'm always getting.

Freetech eBike: 175-Mile Range, 15-Min Charge


First thing first: What it doesn't say.

I had to dig into the "discussion" tab to find this: "Almost pulled the trigger, but no throttle option. :("

In the main body of the pitch, it just mentions three modes (eco, comfort, and sport) with descending range claims (175, 140, and 100 miles). No mention that it's 100% "pedal assist."

Then there are those range claims.

What's the maximum range of an e-bike? The battery life PLUS that of a regular bicycle: It will go as far as you are willing and able to pedal it once the battery runs out.

So let's just say I'm skeptical of the range claims I'm seeing. Even on bikes that do come with a "just use the motor" option, I never see a range specified for that. It's always just rosy claims that don't really explain how much of the work you'll be doing to get x miles out of the bike.

I happen to have tested that range on the Nakto, and know that I've got, IIRC, a little over 11 miles of travel if I don't want to do any pedaling. For any new bike I consider, I'll want an idea of how that compares.

Wordle 434 Hint

Hint: If yesterday's puzzle felt abusive and impolite, today's is even more so.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: R

Friday, August 26, 2022

Raspberry Pi (and Other Computer) Updates

So, second time was the charm on getting an image of Manjaro Linux with the XFCE desktop (instead of the KDE Plasma version I'd been using) to write to an SD card and actually boot up. The first time, I just got a bunch of boot errors.

This time it worked, and I've got all my stuff configured (e.g. installing Chromium, uninstalling Firefox, and not bothering, at least yet, to install Vivaldi). Based on a few readings (using psensor), I think I'm running a lower CPU temperature and consuming fewer CPU resources and less RAM with XFCE, which was the whole point. It's not as pretty as KDE Plasma, but you know, it's not like I spend a lot of time looking at window change animations and such.

As to how I handled the SD card thing, the previous method was

  1. Download a disk image.
  2. Ask my son to loan me his SD card reader and walk me through the command line stuff that I can never remember.
The new method is:

  1. Download a disk image.
  2. Use the new Chromebook to write the image to an SD card (it has a built-in card reader) from the "ChromeOS Recovery" utility, which allows writing any local image, not just ChromeOS.
Speaking of the new Chromebook, I think it was a hell of a deal for $65.

It's got a small (11.6") screen and a not especially fast processor (Intel Celeron at 1.1GHz), but it sports 8Gb of RAM, can run Android and Linux stuff, and can also double as a large tablet because it has a touchscreen. With my second "travel" monitor, USB hub, real keyboard and mouse, it should be a good "travel" machine and a good "work outside instead of at my desk because the weather's nice" machine. With its Android capabilities, I may be able to use it instead of my phone for Callin or Twitter Spaces podcasting as well. We'll see.

Advertising Disclosure

I started this one up a few days ago and forgot to mention it, but I do like to let KN@PPSTER's readers know what's going on with who gets ad space here and why. Keeps me honest, etc.

Down at the bottom of the blog, you'll see a 468x60 banner. On any given page load, it will likely pull up a different advertisement.

It's a "banner exchange" thing. Every time I show you a banner, I get a banner shown elsewhere (I also earn a commission on sales of banner impressions to people who sign up through my affiliate link, but it's mainly a traffic-driving thing, not a revenue-generating thing, from my perspective). I'm using it to promote my daily Wordle tips, Rational Review News Digest, etc.

Since I don't personally sell or serve the ads, please do not construe the presence of any particular ad as my endorsement of what's being promoted in that ad.

The Most Banal Writing Tip is Also the Best Blogging Tip ...

... if your goal is sustained prolificacy.

That tip:

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW


Another version:

WRITE WHAT YOU DO


For the last couple of years, I've maintained a standing blog goal: Average at least one KN@PPSTER post per day.

Suddenly, over the last few weeks, that's become very easy (so easy, in fact, that I'll probably double the goal for next year).

Why? Because there's something I do every morning, seven days a week. It's something I seem to do reasonably well (indicating I know it reasonably well), and that a lot of people seem to find interesting.

That thing is Wordle.

I play it every morning, seven days a week (I've even got an Alexa reminder in case I forget).

I almost always "win" (that is, solve the puzzle in six or fewer turns), I usually do pretty well by my own standards (that is, solve the puzzle in four or fewer turns).

And fairly early on, I noticed that daily Wordle tips or hints are a thing on the Internet.

Well, hell, I can do that. Easily. My tip/hint usually takes a couple of minutes to come up with and post, and I've already got a standard post format and graphic for it.

Boom. Instant daily post, which gets me to my daily goal before I do anything else.

But wait, there's more!

If you look at my numbers for this month, I'm suddenly averaging more than one daily post in addition to the daily Wordle tip/hint.

Why? I have a couple of hypotheses.

One is that the act of publishing a post each morning constitutes a habit. The more I blog, the more I'm likely to blog.

Another is that meeting my goal so easily removes any pressure to meet the goal, leaving me more relaxed and more likely to put something up because I feel like it, instead of agonizing over what to do my "required" single post on and maybe just blowing it off.

No, I'm not suggesting that you do your own daily Wordle post, although there's nothing wrong with the idea.

I'm suggesting that you pick something you know and/or do frequently, something you know you could write about from a position of knowledge and comfort on a regular basis, and that you do so.

Maybe you start each morning off with a random song from your favorite streaming service. Spend two minutes on Wikipedia researching the song or artist, grab a fun bit of trivia, and post that little nugget (and a YouTube embed of the song). You can do it while finishing off your first cup of coffee, and you will have started the day off as a writer/blogger, motivating you to do more writing/blogging through the day.

It could be that. It could be the weather. It could be the overnight police blotter in your town. It could be pretty much anything that you pay attention to on a continuing basis and take the time to learn a little bit about.

You're welcome.

Wordle 433 Hint

Hint: I used all six guesses to get this one, but I was merely feigning ignorance, Socrates-style.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: I

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Wordle 432 Hint

Hint: Pennywise isn't pound foolish here. In fact, it's right on the nose.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: C

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

McAfee 2024?

He may not be dead (I don't think he is).

Even if he is dead, he's at least as alive as Joe Biden.

And even if he's dead, he couldn't possibly be a worse president than any of his, say, five most recent predecessors.

He should make a big entrance and declare.

And he should name me as his running mate just to have a good excuse to name the campaign committee MKUltra.

Word PSA

ship, v. to put or take on board a ship or other means of transportation; to send or transport by ship, rail, truck, plane, etc.

Do you see anything in that definition about printing a label?

No?

Then how about you stop sending me "your order has shipped" emails with tracking links that, two days later, still return the status "shipping label has been printed?"

That's like telling me you're pregnant when what you actually mean is  you're entertaining the idea of a roll in the hay some time next week.

Workers (From Home) of the World Unite (While the Labor Market is Still Tight)!

"[A]s remote work looks likely to survive in some form for the foreseeable future," writes Don Lee, "a battle is starting to brew over who should pocket those savings [on commuting, office wardrobe and other expenses], with some employers arguing that working from home is a benefit that should be offset by lower salaries."

Lee notes that the idea hasn't yet caught on that much in the US, "probably because of the tight labor market."

While the labor market is "tight," workers from home should use that tightness to their advantage when their bosses talk about "bringing them back to the office."

Well, OK ... but I'll have to be paid for my commute time.

Well, OK ... but I'll be requiring a gas allowance.

Well, OK ... but if there's going to be a dress code, you might want to start a line of credit and such at a local store, where you'll be paying for my neckties.

Well, OK ... but if you don't have a lot with "free" parking, you'll be paying for my spot.

If the job can be done from home, but the employer prefers having the employee at an office instead, that employer should be willing to cover the costs of said preference. And, while it's hard to find help anyway, probably will either pony up or agree to "work from home" terms, if the employee makes doing so a condition of continuing the relationship.

Especially if it's not just one employee here or there making it a matter of market negotiation rather than just doing whatever the boss wants.

Wordle 431 Hint

Hint: Poor me ... solving today's puzzle felt like an emotional necessity.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: N

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Wordle 430 Hint

Hint: As no one said ever, "don't put all your rugs in one basket."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: W

PSA

PREGNANT? YOU STILL HAVE A CHOICE!
VISIT MAYDAY.HEALTH TO LEARN MORE

Why is this announcement here? No, I wasn't paid, or even asked, to put it up. And it has nothing to do with my opinions on abortion.

But at least one state regime already seems to be hinting, and some others seem to be getting ready to say, that it might be illegal for me to put it up.

Well, fuck that noise.

You can have my freedom of speech when you pry it from my cold, dead vocal chords.


Monday, August 22, 2022

Libertarian Party Held Hostage, Day 95

A couple of the usual disclaimers:

  1. I'm trying not to come back to this subject too often, but I'm probably going to continue doing so occasionally. If you don't like that, well, you're free to not like it.
  2. Over the last year or two, as the Mises PAC "takeover" project has become increasingly successful, there have been a number of public departures from the Libertarian Party that smack of "look how important I am, and I'm leaving." Rest assured, I know that I'm unimportant. The Libertarian Party needs me very little if at all, and I need it even less, and so far I have not technically departed from the national organization (I am a dues-paid "sustaining member" in good standing until some time next year), although I disavow any implication that I approve of the current LNC's actions.
So anyway, it's now been more than three months since the Mises PAC "takeover" of the Libertarian National Committee succeeded.

How's it going?

Well, that depends on who you ask and what you're asking about.

If you want to know what the new LNC is up to in terms of "messaging," I suggest the following Twitter accounts, if you can see them (over time, the new "leadership" has been blocking people who disagree with their course, or who even notice how bad they're making themselves look):


If you're asking me how it's going, well ...

Hanlon's razor states that one should "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

I do not see that stupidity adequately explains the uniquely toxic mix of batshit insane messaging on one hand and continued attempted centralization of authority over affiliates into LNC hands (not a new problem or unique to Mises PAC) that we've seen over the last 95 days.

While there's certainly stupidity involved, the pattern is established far in excess of Auric Goldfinger's rule of three: "Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.'"

Events continue to confirm my earlier assessment that the Mises PAC is a GOP "infiltrate and neuter" operation with the mission of protecting Republican candidates by ensuring that the LP ballot line is too toxic to lure "liberty-leaning Republicans" away from even the most rabid Trumpists on the Republican ballot line.

Does that mean the Libertarian Party is done as a going political concern?

Not necessarily.

It's possible that libertarians will regain control of the (currently Mises-PAC-controlled) LNC in 2024.

It's possible that libertarians will regain control of the Vichy (that is, Mises-PAC-controlled) state affiliates by then or shortly after.

And it's even possible that by the time those two things happen, there will be something left worth saving/rebuilding from in terms of name/brand recognition and assets like ballot access continuity.

I wouldn't count on it, though.

The more likely way to save the LP from complete destruction as a libertarian political entity of any use whatsoever where supporting freedom is concerned would be for the non-Vichy state affiliates to sever their relations with the LNC immediately, and set up a new national committee to govern their mutual relations (e.g. shared presidential ticket).

That's not guaranteed to accomplish much, but it probably offers the best (however slim) chance of success for those who want an ideologically libertarian political party to work with or support.

Raspberry Pi: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

This morning, I attempted a minor change of operating systems on the Raspberry Pi.

After multiple attempts to get the 64-bit version of the Raspberry Pi OS to work (it had a "freezing up") problem, I recently switched to Manjaro Linux. I like it. Nice OS. But the version I chose was the one that comes with the KDE Plasma GUI, and I decided to reduce resource usage by switching to the XFCE GUI version.

So, I burned the Manjaro image to an SD card (the one that originally came with the Pi, on which the old 32-bit OS used to live), booted the computer up ... and got boot errors. No dice.

Which means I'm back to Manjaro with KDE. I may give it another try some time.

That's the first step back.

The second is that I am -- tentatively, at least -- switching back from the Vivaldi web browser to plain old Chromium.

I don't know if it's because I switched to the 64-bit OS, and therefore 64-bit build of Vivaldi, or if perhaps Vivaldi's updates are causing the software to get more demanding and less stable, but it no longer resembles what I wrote about it just a little over a year ago:

"Vivaldi (which is a Chromium-based attempt to re-create Presto-era Opera, which I did like pretty well) seems, so far, to load and render pages faster than Chromium on the Raspberry Pi. It seems to handle YouTube videos more quickly as well (less churning, quicker non-choppy play)."

The situation is now reversed: Chromium seems to be faster than Vivaldi. Additionally, with the latest "stable" update or three of Vivaldi, the browser has started pulling a weird crash thing. I'll try to close a tab. Instead of the tab closing, the browser will freeze for several seconds and then close. Not so often that it's not usable, but once or twice in a long day. Which is once or more twice than I like. If it was still noticeably faster than Chromium, I'd probably stick with it, but between the two things I'm done with Vivaldi for the moment. I may drop in on it from time to time to see if new updates have fixed the freeze/crash problem and if it's back to being fast, though.


Wordle 429 Hint

Hint: Badges? I ain't got no badges. I don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges! But if you're an Eagle Scout, you've presumably got some of your own and like to show them off. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: M

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Chromebook "Looks Like a Pretty Good Deal" Alert

It's a refurb Dell 11.6" Chromebook with 8Gb of RAM, 32GB eMMC for storage, and a 1.1GHz dual-core Celeron. Not a lot of computer, but a pretty decent Chromebook for $65 at Newegg (not an affiliate link).

I actually bought two.

One is for me. I had been thinking about upgrading from my old 4Gb HP Chromebook for a little while, to make working outside with a laptop and travel monitor a little faster, and this one gets OS updates through some time next year (mine stopped getting them at least a couple of years ago).

The other one may be for Tamara. She runs a Windows laptop that's provided by (and owned by) her employer, but doesn't have one for purely personal use. If not, our youngest is always grabbing my old Chromebooks/Chromeboxes and turning them into Linux rigs (his "daily driver" is the very first Chromebox I bought in 2012, which he boosted the RAM on, put a newer and bigger SSD in, and Linuxed up; and he also still uses my original Chrombook as a "doing normal things" supplement for the boss gaming PC he built from the motherboard up).

Anyway, if you've been thinking of a Chromebook and this meets your specs, you're welcome.

I Finally Gave in to my "Buy an Instrument" Jones ...

... in an impulsive but budget-conscious (in the short term, anyway) way.

I've been craving a new guitar. For some reason, 11 or 13 (I forget which at the moment) aren't enough. And I've been playing again a little bit, maybe just to justify acting on that craving.

Not that I was planning to go crazy or anything. What I had in mind was a ~$100 Glarry semi-hollow Telecaster clone (not an affiliate link), or possibly a round-neck Pyle resonator I noticed on sale at Amazon for, IIRC, $139.

But I resisted. I kept holding off.

And then Tamara and I did our Saturday morning yard sale thing, and there it was for $20:



The seller said he thought it was from the 1930s. Based on some looks at places like this gallery, I think he may have been right.

It's cool. It would be cool as just decor, but after looking at all those rigs online, I'm thinking of getting it set up as part of a "one-man-band" style kit, perhaps with a hi-hat (or lowboy or snowshoe) and a "trap table" on top like back when. I've already got a pedal/beater around here somewhere from a cheap drum kit one of the kids got, then FORgot.  I'll need little side legs or a base. Etc. The scheme would work well with my Gretsch reproduction of a 1930s "camp ukulele" (see here and here).

Of course, doing all that would probably put me up past the cost of just buying a damn guitar. And I'd need to put more time into learning ukulele and some drum technique. But that would be over time, not instant, so I can pretend for a little while that I "saved" myself eighty bucks while still feeding the addiction.

Wordle 428 Hint

Hint: If you get the last four letters of this one correct, there are still six possibilities. You'll want not to be hurried,  or worried about your social position, here. Like Jesus said, the last shall be first.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: W

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Wordle 427 Hint

 Hint: Let's get together some time -- lunch is on me. Can I pencil you in for October 31?

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.

New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.



First Letter: T

Re-Thinking My Wordle Strategy

Wordle is a daily five-letter word-guessing game. You get six guesses to figure out the word.

It is not exactly a cryptogram -- there's no "plaintext" to derive by figuring out a substitution cipher -- but it's nonetheless worth treating as a cryptogram in the sense that the best ways to solve it are by starting with words that include the most frequently used letters, and by treating the letters you reveal (for each guess, it lets you know which of the letters you used are in the word, and whether they're in the right places in the word) as "cribs" that can be clues to which word it might be or can't be (e.g. if it starts with "T," the word obviously isn't "ROSES," but could possible be "TWICE").

Let's go through my current strategy before I start talking about the changes I'm going to be making. Here's yesterday's Wordle (#426), which I'm using because I've been waiting for one that took me all six tries to solve, the better to examine technique.


As you can see, my starting guess is "TENOR." That's the word I've been using every day for some time, because it includes frequently used letters (in descending order, E, R, O, T, and N are the first, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh most frequently used letters in the English language).

The logic behind my second guess, "RAIDS," is to get two more vowels into play, since neither "E" nor "O" are in the solution (A and I are the second and fourth most frequently used letters), and to end with an "S" both because S is the eighth most frequent letter and because many solutions could be plurals ending in "S." It also lets me test the only letter I got (but in the wrong position) in the first guess in a different position.

Well, a little joy there. I know the word contains "R" and "S," but neither of them are positionally correct yet. And I've tried four of the English language's six vowels with no luck. Since English words almost all include vowels, I'm going to try the last two in my next guess:

"SURLY." Hey, I have two letters in the correct places, and now know the word includes a "U" but not a "Y." There's really only one likely place for that "U" to go ... and I should have guessed here that the second letter would be an "H," but I tried to be clever and go with a rugby term.

"SCRUM." No "C," no "M." This pushes me to the conclusion that the first four letters must be "SHRU." I've got two choices, and two remaining guesses. I guess wrong ("SHRUB"), then right ("SHRUG"). Whew. Got in just under the wire!

This method, with this starting word, has generally worked well for me. I've had winning streaks of more than 100 Wordles in a row, and I usually get it in three or four guesses, not five or six (occasionally even in two!).

But I think I can do better.

The placement of the "E" in "TENOR" bothers me, and my knee-jerk reaction is that it's likely to be the last, rather than second, letter in more words. According to some formulae, I'm correct.

Also according to some formulae (I've been doing quite a bit of web searching on these subjects), one of the most common starting two-letter combinations for English words is "TO."

So, I think a good starting word should beging with "TO" and end with "E."

What to stick in between there?

"Q" is not a commonly used letter, and I've already got two vowels in there, so "TOQUE" won't do. For the double vowel reason, I also dislike "TOILE" and "TOUSE."

"TONNE" and "TORTE" use letters twice and I prefer not to double letters until the logic forces me to.

But I see that "TORSE" is a word. That gives me the "TO" at the beginning, the "E" at the end,  keeps my "R" from "TENOR" and gives me an "S." As a bonus, if "S" and "E" are in the word but not in the right places, reversing them seems likely to turn them green. The word's composed entirely of high-frequency letters, with three of them appearing in their most common positions.

Assuming Wordle will accept "TORSE," I think that's going to be my starting word for tomorrow. 

Friday, August 19, 2022

Remember Cryptocurrency Faucets?

I was thinking about them the other day, and wondered whether they were still around.

They are.

So I'm working on a FAQ about, and list of some of, them.

Wordle 426 Hint

Hint: This one took me all six tries. I'm not sure whether that should make me feel indifferent or (Ayn) Randian.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: S

Thursday, August 18, 2022

A simple litmus test

"People shouldn't be allowed to do that" is a claim which requires consideration of what "that" consists of to evaluate.

"People shouldn't be allowed to say that" is a claim which instantly and unfailingly identifies its maker as one of the bad guys.


Wordle 425 Hint

Hint: If you're playing country music correctly, your voice and your guitar both have plenty of this.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: T

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

My Opinion, as Expressed on the Forward Party's "Platform Chat" Discord

After having watched all the ideas, at this point I'm pretty set on limiting the platform to structural issues -- ranked choice voting, etc. -- and leaving the rest up to candidates. The "center" is a moving target that differs from locale to locale and that is a function of the populace, not something a party can just name, claim, and hope to monopolize. In one area, a Forward candidate who would otherwise be a Socialist Alternative member might do well. In another, a Forward candidate who would otherwise be a Libertarian Party member might do better.

To extend and revise: While the old parties have large baskets of issues they seek member/candidate conformity on, even those parties organized around one or two particular ideas early on. The Republicans, for example, were about ending the expansion of slavery, and instituting a tariff to fund big public works. Isn't "turn America into a true multi-party democracy" a big enough bite to chew off for now, rather than trying to cram every issue into our candidates' mouths as well?

I've seen everything on the platform chat from anti-nuclear and anti-nuclear-weapons to pro-nuclear and pro-nuclear weapons, from reducing healthcare regulation (e.g. eliminating Certificate of Need laws and letting nurse practitioners practice independently instead of only with the permission of an MD) to fully socialized healthcare. And of course, everything from complete victim disarmament to constitutional carry.

Hopefully the participants are starting to figure out that "the center" they're looking for isn't something that a rigid platform can either accommodate or capture.

I've been holding off on looking for (or creating) a Libertarian Caucus, in part because I'm not interested in trying to make Forward into an ideologically libertarian party. While I doubt that it can succeed at all, if it can succeed, I'll measure its success in terms of accomplishing structural reforms that break the "duopoly" grip on elections. And even if it's successful at that, I don't think it will do more than slightly delay the complete dissolution/replacement of the United States of America as we know it, which (as I've said for several years) I expect by 2050 or so.

Per the Recommendation of Reader Thane Eichenauer ...

... I just ordered an Echo Show 5 (on sale at Amazon for $39.99, but with a $10 off coupon code, at least for me -- not an affiliate link).

Impulse purchase? Not exactly. I had some Amazon credit sitting there from a recent refund, and happened to notice the sale. Probably no dice, except that I remembered a Twitter conversation (which I now can't find) with Thane Eichenauer, who was enthusing about getting his Echo show back after a repair or replacement.

According to the reviews I consulted, the audio quality is pretty good, although probably no better than that of the 4th Generation Echo Dot I'm currently using as my bedroom music player / book reader / alarm clock, etc.

The main selling point for me, once the price became attractive, was that now I'll have an alarm clock I can just glance at instead of having to ask Alexa what time it is (one version of the Echo Dot does have a visible clock, but I didn't get that version).

BUT! There are other interesting features. I can have it display lyrics to sing along with when listening to music. If I really, really, really want to watch a movie or TV show in bed, I can. It has a camera (with a physical cover) for video calling, or I could point it out a window and use it as a security camera that I can view from my phone.

And of course I can upgrade my wife or daughter's 3rd Generation Dot to the 4th Generation one I'm using now. They both like music, and Gen 4 has a better speaker.

So, thanks to Thane for planting the idea in my brain.

Wordle 424 Hint

Hint: There are no repeated letters in today's puzzle, but once is still not enough.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: T

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Woke vs. Anti-Woke ...

... plays to me like two ever so slightly different sects of Puritans arguing over which hat buckle must be banned lest its shape tempt those who see it toward the sin of masturbation. And they're all masturbating while they debate the issue.

[Rescued from an old tweet after I had occasion to recall it and decide it was worth memorializing here]

The NRSC Signals Its Agreement With My US Senate Predictions

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling $10 million worth of advertising buys in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Rolling Stone reports (citing the paywalled New York Times).

Translation: The NRSC agrees with me that those states are pretty much irretrievably in the Democratic win column and will be redirecting the money to seeking turnovers in Nevada and Georgia, and saving JD Vance's hide in Ohio, which was supposed to be a relatively easy Republican "hold" but is now a real horse race with Democrat Tim Ryan polling 4.5% ahead.

Additional translation: The GOP is giving up on the idea of a net gain of one seat in the US Senate to get a majority, and hoping to limit its losses to one or two seats.

Wordle 423 Hint

Hint: There's a Twist in this one ... don't even think of asking for more.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: G

Monday, August 15, 2022

Something I Don't Understand About ChromeOS Machines

I can buy a Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i -- that is, a Chromebook with a 3Ghz Intel Core i3 processor, 8Gb of RAM, and a 128Gb solid state drive -- for $389.99 at Amazon (not an affiliate link).

But the cheapest Chromebox I'm seeing with similar RAM and storage numbers, and with an i3 (but at only 2.1Ghz), is an ASUS  ... for $99.01 more (not an affiliate link).

The Chromebook is more or less the same computer ... with a built-in monitor (touch screen, even!), keyboard, and trackpad, yet it costs much less than the Chromebox, which is, well, just a box.

I have two working hypotheses as to why this might be the case.

One is that the per-unit cost of building the Chromebox is higher because they move smaller numbers of them.

Another is that while they move smaller numbers of Chromeboxes than Chromebooks, the people who buy Chromebooks are a hard sell (they're considering Windows laptops, Macs, etc., there's a lot of competition, and the price point makes a big difference), while the people who want Chromeboxes really want Chromeboxes and will pay a premium to get them.

I don't know if either of those hypotheses explain it.

I could actually pick up an HP Chromebook with 8Gb of RAM and an AMD 1.8Ghz CPU, refurbished, for $139.95 (not an affiliate link). It only has 32Gb of storage, but I don't use a lot of storage and could always plug in a USB drive or external SSD if needed. It's not obvious that it has any dedicated video out ports for a second screen (other than my USB travel monitor, that is -- I'm thinking it could be used as a desktop machine), but I'm sure I could figure that out. I may consider it, if for no other reason than to boost my "sitting outside and working" power.

A Thought on Plato's Phaedo

I went to sleep last night listening to it (from Stoic Six Pack 6 -- not an affiliate link). I've read it before, but it's been a little while.

The case that Socrates makes for an afterlife (or, more specifically, perhaps reincarnation), from his previous claims that all knowledge is recollection and that everything is just cyclic increase/decrease, is, well, quite interesting.

Which is not to say that I necessarily find it convincing, but it was definitely food for thought.

One of my thoughts, though, every time I dig into his alleged sayings and supposed arc of life:

Is it possible that Socrates was just a wise-ass troll?

I suspect there's a reason that "sophist" eventually became a put-down.

But still interesting.

Wordle 422 Hint

Hint: The winning hand doesn't even include a pair -- and you might have to draw in the middle, okay?

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: P

Sunday, August 14, 2022

Wordle 421 Hint

Hint: Not exactly cowardly, but not quite in a brown study either.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: K

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Reading Recommendation: Stoic Six Pack Series

These days, I read in four different ways: Online, in physical print, on my (old model and frankly in need of replacement) Kindle, or by having my Echo Dot read to me at night in bed.


I've "read" the two volumes of the Stoic Six Pack series I own in mostly that last manner.

Those two volumes are (not affiliate links):

Stoic Six Pack 4 - The Sceptics: Pyyrhonic Sketches, Life of Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus, The Greek Sceptics, Stoics & Sceptics and Life of Carneades (Illustrated)

and

Stoic Six Pack 5 – The Cynics: An Introduction to Cynic Philosophy, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, Life of Antisthenes, The Symposium (Book IV), Life of Diogenes and Life of Crates (Illustrated)

I particularly like the latter, and have "read" it several times. Diogones (of Sinope) is my co-pilot.

On one hand, they're very engaging and thought-provoking (although I've accompanied my last two going to sleep sessions with Aristotle's Ethics instead).

On the other hand, the problem with starting a book like this as a way of going to sleep is that I, well, go to sleep, and usually lose my place, and usually have to start over every time. But I have made it through the latter volume at least once by telling Alexa to pause before drifting off and then picking up where I left off next time.

I have to be careful about having Alexa read me to sleep. I recently noticed that I wasn't feeling very rested each morning, and concluded that it was because I was engaged in my latest re-"reading" of Shelby Foot's The Civil War: A Narrative. Both because it keeps me awake and interested for longer than is probably good for me, and because it probably gives me bad dreams.

So I went back to philosophical stuff. Nietzsche is enjoyable for "semi-engaged drifting off" purposes. For hardcore insomnia or when you just want to get unconscious ASAP, I recommend Kant, Wittgenstein, or especially Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy.

Anyway, if you are at all interested in Greek philosophy generally, or the Stoics or any of their associated schools specifically, you should give these collections (as the title implies, there are six selections in each "six pack" volume) a look. They're inexpensive and worth your time.

As for me, I've placed the other seven six volumes on my Amazon Wish List in case anyone wants to help a brother out. If not, I'll probably continue picking them up over time. It seems like there's always at least one volume on sale for 99 cents (even as I wrote this, I bought the sixth installment at that price).

Wordle 420 Hint

Hint: Fabio, back when. But none of the letters in that name are in this word.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: H

Friday, August 12, 2022

I Don't Gripe About Blogspot Much ...

... because it's a "free" service that's pretty darn good at what it does. I don't have to worry about hosting, paying for a domain name, etc., and there are lots of easy tools to do the things.

But the changes they've been making have not all been for the better.

Back in the old days, the sidebar widgets here at KN@PPSTER included a "quick edit" button that only I could see (and only if I was logged in). If I wanted to change something, I just clicked the button and went to work.

Then they disappeared. Now if I want to edit the sidebar widgets, I have to click on "design," then choose "layout," then choose the widget, etc.

OK, no biggie. It's not like I edit the widgets every day or anything.

BUT!

When I was messing with the blog template the other day, accidentally nuked it, and ended up choosing a new template, a different "quick edit" function disappeared.

Before that, when I was logged in, there was a little pencil icon at the bottom of every post. Click it, and start editing out typos, adding updates, etc.

Now, you guessed it, I have to click on "design" or "new post," find the post I want to edit in a list, and edit it.

It all seems to have something to do with Google wanting to move away from cookies ... but these things seem like fairly basic functions that could be done without cookies.

Things May Be About to Get VERY Weird (Note: This Blog Post Was Completely Wrong and Now Includes a Correction)

UPDATE: I WAS TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, AND INEXCUSABLY WRONG.

I don't normally think of myself as dyslexic. But in looking at the Trump warrant, I read "§1591" -- which I looked up and found referred to "sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion," when the actual number was "§1519," which refers to "Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy."

Thanks to Jake Porter for catching my error before I went any further down that rabbit hole.

Some people erase (and maybe even try to deny) their mistakes.

I figure it's better to just own them, correct them, and apologize for making them.

So, original, completely erroneous, post below.

----

The Trump Mar-a-Lago search warrant was just released. Here it is.

The headlines run in this direction: Trump suspected of violating Espionage Act, according to search warrant

But the warrant also includes reference to materials possessed in violation of  18 US Code § 1591. Which is: "Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion."

And it occurs to me that the judge who signed the warrant was once an attorney who repped employees of Jeffrey Epstein (with whom Trump was known to hang out) back in the day.

Panarchy as Platform/Protocol

A summary via select quotations from Paul-Emile De Puydt's Panarchy (1860):

On the civil level we provide against unworkable households by legal separation or divorce. I suggest an analogous solution for politics, without having to circumscribe it with formalities and protective restrictions, for in politics a first marriage leaves no children or physical marks. My method differs from unjust and tyrannical procedures followed in the past in that I have no intention to do anyone violence. Does anybody want to carry out a political schism? He should be able to do so but on one condition, namely, that he will do it within his own group, affecting neither the rights nor the creed of others. To achieve this, it is absolutely not necessary to subdivide the territory of the State into so many parts as there are known and approved forms of government. 

...

Do you know how a civil registry office works? It is just a matter of making a new application of this. In each community a new office is opened, a "Bureau of Political Membership." This office would send every responsible citizen a declaration form to fill in, just as for income tax or dog registration.

...

[W]hatever your reply, your answer would be entered in a register arranged for this purpose; and once registered, unless you withdrew your declaration, observing due legal form and process, you would thereby become either a royal subject or citizen of the republic [or whatever other option you chose. Thereafter you would in no way be involved with anyone else's government ...

...

If a disagreement came about between subjects of different governments, or between one government and a subject of another, it would simply be a matter of observing the principles hitherto observed between neighbouring peaceful States; and if a gap were found, it could be filled without difficulties by human rights and all other possible rights. Anything else would be the business of ordinary courts of justice.


It's not 1860 anymore, and it seems to me that the "Bureau of Political Membership" De Puydt refers to would be better served by distributed technology than by traditional bureaucracy.

As readers of this blog know, I've engaged in a kind of desultory investigation of cryptocurrency "tokens" as the instrument for constructing a panarchy platform or protocol.

Frankly, I didn't find Ravencoin's assets offering very particularly suited to the task. Some Ethereum token projects for e.g. personal identification and such looked like they might be a possibility. And, in the back of my mind, there was another one.

Today, Edge Wallet brought that other one to the front of my mind. They've announced their support for Polkadot.

And what, pray tell, is Polkadot? Per Wikipedia:

Polkadot is an open source blockchain platform and cryptocurrency. It provides interconnectivity and interoperability between blockchains, by enabling independent chains to securely exchange messages and perform transactions with each other without a trusted third-party. This allows for cross-chain transfers of data or assets, between different blockchains, and for cross-chain DApps (decentralized applications) to be built using the Polkadot Network. ... Polkadot provides a primary chain (relay-chain), which can host a large number of validatable and globally consistent data structures (parachains).

So, let's envision a number of "parachains" interacting through the Polkadot "relay-chain":

  • An individual identification token chain. I'm not going to get into the weeds here on how intrusive the process for acquiring such a token might be (and there could be various providers with varying criteria, and in theory it could actually be anonymous in many respects), but it's a token that says "I am the person who controls this token, and the person who controls this token is me."
  • A polity token chain. A bunch of us, voluntarily and of our own accords, form a mutual governance structure (a Covenant of Unanimous Consent). We codify its rules of operation, including how it will relate with other polities and its admission standards for individuals. We issue a token that can be acquired by meeting those standards.
  • The De Puydt style Bureau of Political Membership chain, which keeps a ledger of interactions establishing (or ending) the affiliations of individuals with polities.
  • Additional chains to provably codify mutual relations/agreements/affiliations between polities, between polities and arbitration organizations, etc.
Are there problems inherent in panarchy? Well, define "problems."

Presumably some individuals would choose to remain unidentified (that is, eschew procurement of an ID token), and/or to not affiliate with any polity. I don't see that as a "problem" per se. From the POV of mutually affiliated polities and the "bureau," these people would be ... outlaws. No, not criminals. Just persons having no affiliations with, and therefore no entitlements to specific considerations from, or treatments by, the polities.

I suspect that there would be limits to the disadvantages of outlawry. The bureau might require that all registering polities operate above some "minimum basic law" floor that e.g. requires due process through arbitration even for "outlaws" before they can be punished for crimes, have property seized, etc.

Of course, there would likely also be "outlaw" polities which refuse to provide a "basic law" floor, claim geographical territorial monopolies rather than even acknowledging the panarchy, etc. In fact, it's virtually guaranteed that that would be the case at the beginning, since this panarchy would presumably be a case of "building the new society in the shell of the old." The old-style territorial polities aren't going to give up their juris-my-diction crap easily.

But to the extent that panarchy is a desirable direction and project, I think that blockchains and tokens provide the best design/launch/operation prospects. And I hope someone with more technical ability than me will get to work on making them happen!

DISCLOSURE: Shortly after publishing this post, I acquired some (low three figures USD value) Polkadot. Not that I expect this post to move that market, but mentioning seems right from a transparency perspective.

The One Indispensable Hardware Accessory for Your Raspberry Pi 4B

I love my Raspberry Pi 4B. Love it. I've worked entirely online, 8+ hours per day, for more than two decades, and my 4B (the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Extreme Kit, 8 Gb of RAM, 128Gb mcro SD card "hard drive," $139.99 at Amazon, not an affiliate link) is my "desktop daily driver."

Unless you require special/proprietary software that's only available for e.g. Windows, the Pi can probably handle your desktop PC needs, at least if you go with something like my "high-end" kit. Kits with less RAM and less storage are still useful, but if you're planning to use a Pi as your main computer, go big.

Most kits come with everything you need to get started: The actual computer, which is just a stand-alone circuit board; a heat sink, and possibly a fan, both of which snap on easily; a case to cram that stuff in; an AC power adapter/cable; Mini HDMI to HDMI cables to connect up to two monitors (you'll need adapters or different cables if you're running VGA, DVI, etc.); and a micro SD card with NOOBS pre-installed on it (NOOBS lets you choose which of several operating systems to run, including the Raspberry Pi OS and some others).

But most kits don't include one absolutely, positively indispensable accessory:

A USB Hub

The Pi 4B sports four USB ports -- two of them USB 2, two of them USB 3.

Now, you may only use two of those ports on a regular basis -- one for your keyboard, one for your mouse.

But you know you're going to want to plug other stuff into the machine now and then. A USB flash drive. A USB hardware key for logging into "two-factor authentication" sites. A USB cable to charge up some other device. You might even want to keep a USB headset or webcam plugged in all the time, which would use up additional ports.

And the ports on the Pi are really cramped for space. They're all located on one end of the box, and right next to each other.

Here's the basic 4B, not yet installed in a case (photo by Michael H. („Laserlicht“) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0). Keep in mind that the whole thing in a kit-provided case is about the size of a pack of cigarettes:




As you can see, with even two of the ports already in use, maneuvering something into the third or fourth (let alone the third and fourth) is going to be a real pain.

So, when you order your Raspberry Pi, do yourself a favor and throw a decent USB hub with a cable several inches long into your shopping cart at the same time. Having several open USB ports hanging out away from the case will save you from several seconds of irritation every time you want to connect or disconnect something.

You're welcome.

Wordle 419 Hint

Hint: You'll find -- and possibly feel -- today's answer inside your shirt or blouse.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the graphic below.



First Letter: L