dcr Blogs dot Com

Postless Wednesday

dcr — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:30:12 +0000

No photo, no words!

Except these words. And the ones above. Plus the title.

So, it appears I’ve already lost Postless Wednesday because this is a post. Such as it is.

Weather Reports

dcr — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 03:13:34 +0000

Many years ago, we had a station on our cable system that just showed the local weather radar 24 hours a day, seven days a week, along with details scrolling at the bottom or top of the screen. That was useful. Anytime, you could switch to the channel and see the current weather radar. You could see if storms were heading your way or not.

Later, they teamed up with a local news station and began adding weather reports and advertisements. Eventually, there was no longer a guarantee you would see the radar when you switched to the channel. You might see ads or a repetitive weather forecast instead when all you wanted was the weather radar.
Sometime later, they dropped the channel entirely.

Internet resources went the same way. First, you got to see the radar and weather reports. Then, later, they added ads and videos and more ads and even more ads.

Along with that seems to be an increase in TV weather people that are camera hogs. They interrupt programs to warn you of bad weather. But, as weather forecasting and tracking technology has reportedly grown more accurate, they seem to spend more time on air instead of less.

No complaints when there is actually severe weather in the area. But, in one example, a local TV weather person stayed on the air long after the storms had moved out of the station’s viewing area because, you know, you might have friends and family in those areas and you could tell them what’s going on. Um, no. Sorry, camera hog, but I think they are watching their own local stations and checking their phones and such and not waiting to hear from the friends and family who are stuck watching you.

Anyway, on top of that, they almost always have to mention the risk of tornadoes. Yes, there is a risk of tornadoes with any storm but sometimes the risk is high and sometimes the risk is small, yet by playing up the risk every single time, they increase the likelihood you will not believe them when the risk actually is high.

It’s the whole “boy who cried wolf” scenario.

And, now? Well, now we’re at the point where weather apps and TV weather people and weather sites will be all like: Warning! Warning! There is a risk of severe weather, including tornadoes, in your area! Oh, but first, watch these ads . . .

I guess their next step will be: Tornado warning! Please watch these ads then seek shelter immediately!

Monday Madness

dcr — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 03:37:03 +0000

As I continue to try to figure out a blogging schedule (again), I have nothing much to post today, so I’ll use this opportunity as another honeypot post to snare the spammers.

I can hopefully do that by mentioning current popular spam topics like gambling and online gaming. Online gaming and gambling. Gamble, gamble, gamble, says the gambling turkey. Probably. Is there a gambling turkey? There should be. Maybe someone should do a painting of turkeys gathered around a card table playing Poker. Oh, I know what you’re thinking . . . You’re thinking you could have generative AI generate a digital painting of that. Sure, you could, but did you know that each time you have AI generate art, a vicious bird rips off a fairy’s wings? You don’t want that, do you? Do you have kids? Do you want to tell them it’s your fault that fairies are having their wings torn off and how they suffer as a result? Those wings don’t grow back, you know?

Which leads us to gaming. Well, it really doesn’t but we’re trying to ensnare comment spammers here. Also, mental health and hooking up to city sewers have been recent spam attacks too. I guess it would be bad for your mental health if your sewer backs up, especially if it backs up into the toilet and the bathtub and, ugh, the kitchen sink. Don’t gamble with your sewer system as that’s a game you don’t want to lose or it could be bad for your mental health.

Okay, then, we’ll see how long before the comment spammers start hitting up this post.

Let’s Starve the AI Bots!

dcr — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 02:17:46 +0000

Remember when the future was going to be great? Robots (later AI) would free us from having to work and instead we could spend our time, which would mostly be leisure time, doing whatever we wanted. We would be free to spend our time learning and expanding our minds and expressing ourselves through creative pursuits.

Instead, what we’re getting is AI that is trying to replace us from those creative pursuits. You don’t need to learn to draw or paint or sculpt or write or anything creative. Nah. Just learn how to write “AI prompts” and the machine will do it for you.

Who in Tartarus asked for this?

Tech numbnuts that never graduated past drawing stick figures or who can’t write in complete sentences?

And, to top it off, these faux-AI systems are only able to do anything because they’ve scanned and digested and allegedly “learned” from real people that do know how to do these things, often and usually without permission or compensation.

And, you can’t “Fight the Future” or so they say, so you might as well get used to it and you might as well like it.

Well, to Tartarus with that thinking!

For my small part, I have now blocked AI crawlers from scanning this blog for “training” (i.e., IP theft, in my opinion) purposes by updating my robots.txt file to tell them they ain’t allowed here. (Yes, I know, ain’t ain’t a word and I shouldn’t use it anymore as I learned in school, but I also learned a lot of other things in school I’ve had to unlearn over the years so pardon me if I use ain’t if I wanna.)

Granted, they may not obey the robots.txt file, but it’s a start at least.

If you also have a blog and you want to try to stop these human creativity stealing bots from scanning your blog for content, you can update your robots.txt file too. Here is the resource I used:
ai.robots.txt

If you don’t know how to change your robots.txt file, you can find instructions here:
Go ahead and block AI web crawlers

It may not be much but it is one way we can start starving these creativity-stealing AI bots that no one asked for.

Gambling Spam Comment Thoughts on a Saturday

dcr — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 02:39:35 +0000

Kind of disappointing that the gambling spammers haven’t discovered yesterday’s post, Wage Against the Gambling Spammers, but I have a measure of confidence they will find it sooner or later.

For now, they seem content with trying to spam a 16 year old blog post instead. Don’t they realize the blog post is underage for their gambling schemes? LOL.

And, I’m sorry but if you’re thinking, but they are just bots and don’t know anything, I know. You do not need to tell me. I know. Either you need to develop a sense of humor or I need to make jokes more obvious.

I don’t necessarily care for obvious jokes so the latter may not be an option. Sorry.

Wage Against the Gambling Spammers

dcr — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 02:46:36 +0000

Oh, silly spammers, how silly thou art. Else, how silly and stupid art thou bots that attempt to post thoust spam for you. Here’s the thing: it ain’t getting approved. You’d think thou would makest thouest bots smart enough to detect and ignore blogs whereist thouest spam comments doth never show up, but such would require thou art be intelligent enough to code thouest bots in such a manner and also that thouest not be completely lazy.

Anyway, if I happen to mention keywords like gambling or online gaming possibly with loot boxes or maybe even dice or cards, this post will be sure to attract gambling site spammers like flies to dead, decaying flesh or rotten fruit which seems appropriate, I suppose. It will also help to mention stuff like winning big money, like $1,000,000 or more, which you will more likely than not never actually win on any gambling site. You could quite possibly deprive your future self of such monetary rewards if you waste your time on gambling sites instead of taking the money you’d throw away on a chance to win something and instead invest it somewhere. If not for rampant inflation, you’d probably be better off even just sticking it in your sock drawer.

Also, don’t hide your winnings in your sock drawer. That’s the first place thieves will look unless you also keep your dirty underwear in there. Put the one with skidmarks inside-out and on top—that’ll learn them. Or, if you have a baby, keep your money hidden inside the diaper disposal bin. Will thieves look there? Who knows? I wouldn’t but also I’m not a thief. I also don’t run a gambling site, but I repeat myself. Oh, silly gambling spammers, you’re going to be stupid enough to think this post is a good one to leave a comment on. Oh, how stupid you will look should one of your comments slip by me. Spoiler alert: They won’t. That, however, I am sure will not keep you from trying.

Happy Independence Day

dcr — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 02:07:39 +0000

Happy Independence Day to all, unless you’re outside the U.S., in which case, Happy Thursday the 4th!

Wordless Wednesday: Raja Does Not Like to Be Disturbed

dcr — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 01:09:03 +0000

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Swirled Enough and Thyme

dcr — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 03:30:44 +0000

A recipe for an herbal shake?
Healthy greens growing in a large lake?
Or, a weak and poor excuse
For a post, you silly goose?
Or perhaps this is a big head fake?

Monday Monday

dcr — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 03:13:56 +0000

If Monday were not a day, what would it be?
Might it be just a moon ray, or golden key?
Would it be a sad kitten?
Perhaps even a blue mitten?
Still a downer, you might say, that’s what it’d be.