outsourced and homeless

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About Me

Just another IT worker who was outsourced. I got unemployment for awhile but then it ran out. Now, I am just trying to survive. (** Update - I am no longer homeless. Read blog to see the progression**) Since I became homeless I spend most of my time driving my beater around northern NJ, job hunting, blogging, and sleeping in parks or in my car at night. The rest of the time I devote to keeping all of my old projects, ideas, and dreams alive. Other than advertisements,all of the links and graphics on this site have been created by me and reflect my various projects and accomplishments over the years. The point is, even though my formal IT career is apparently gone, I hold out hope that my “Cloud Computing” projects or OLAP application will right the ship for me. I am pinning all my hopes on these so you will find links and articles scattered around the site and in the posts. There may be some who wind up here for reasons of employment or homelessness. Others may stumble on this site because of some linkages to stock market indicators and data. Others may stumble here because they are interested in Cloud Computing. Whatever the reason, I feel that my situation and ruminations may resonate with all people who come here, especially with others like myself. Continued below...

About Me Continued

Not having blogged before I actually look forward to the prospect of sharing ideas and experiences with others who may have suffered a similar fate – not just in the world of IT and outsourcing, but in a larger, more profound way. People who have suffered, lost, fought, triumphed, and perhaps fallen again. People who find themselves contemplating mortality, the past, present, future, the fate our country, and countless other things. I will often include photos or video in the posts if I feel they may enhance them in some way. As long as my laptop and car don’t let me down, I still have the wherewithal and means to keep fighting. I am always in the debt of those who leave their wireless routers in their default state (linksys + no encryption). Hotspots like coffee shops and bookstores also prove useful to me but at the same time, I believe that keen observers can tell that I am homeless no matter how hard I try to conceal it. This is a constant source of stress and embarrassment. I sincerely believe that this blog will ultimately have a happy ending. Frankly, the longer I continue this, the worse it will be for me.

Archive for March, 2010

Chechan Rebels “Will be Destroyed”

March 29th, 2010

Not “bring them to justice.” Why can’t we get someone to state it like it is?
Even when Bush said “Dear or Alive”, he was skewered by the media as coming across as some Western Cowboy.

Chechan Terrorists

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Explorers

March 20th, 2010

Some of the posts I have written over the past year have had to do with explorers and their fates – of either triumph and survival, or failure and death. Sometimes, as the decades and centuries roll by, historians are able to uncover the truth; namely, that when subject to closer inspection, it is the noble death which outshines the ignoble survival. The real heroes and the real cowards are fleshed out posthumously. I can site many examples of this. From time to time I may post one because I find these stories of exploration fascinating. I learned a lot from the book below. There were many stories of exploration of which I was not aware. After reading this, I was able to seek out the original books. Sadly, I lost many of these over the past couple of years. Some of them were quite valuable… and not just as keepsakes. So, if you are interested in this sort of stuff, I recommend the book below. Better to get it in hardcover (my personal preference).

The Oxford-Book of Exploration by Robin Hanbury-Tenison

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Edward John Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George’s Sound, in the Years 1840-41

March 16th, 2010

Living vicarously really sucks.
—————–

The Murder of His Overseer, James Baxter (1841)

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Toyota takes aim at California runaway Prius story

March 16th, 2010

Toyota takes aim at California runaway Prius story

Excerpts from the article, and my comments in red. Sounds like another “Balloon Boy” to me.

Prius owner Jim Sikes made national headlines last week with claims that his car’s accelerator got stuck as he sped up to pass a car while traveling on California’s I-8 highway outside of San Diego, and that he was unable to stop the car.
“As I was going, I was trying the brakes … and it just kept speeding up,” he said.
Sikes said he called 9-1-1 for help as he was traveling in excess of 90 mph on a winding, hilly portion of the interstate. He said dispatchers tried to talk him through ways to stop the car, but nothing helped [how about hold the ignition button for 3 seconds].
Eventually, a California Highway Patrol officer was able to catch up to Sikes and used the patrol car’s public address system to instruct Sikes to apply the brakes and the emergency brake at the same time. That tactic worked, and he was able to stop the car. [I assume then, that when the car was stopped, the cop observed that the car was still trying to surge forward? If so, I admit it was a problem with the car].
Sikes’ attorney, John Gomez [bottom feeder], denied that the report proves his client was wrong about what happened to his car.
“The notion that they weren’t able to replicate it in this particular case tells us nothing,” he said. “They haven’t been able to replicate a single one of these.”

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Despicable magazine tries to obtain nude photos of murder victim

March 12th, 2010

This is a disturbing article. There seems to be no limit to the moral depravity to which we have succumbed. There are lawyers for Hustler magazine who are contesting the judge’s ruling to NOT allow these photos to be distributed. Now… had this request come from a reputable magazine, it would be bad enough. The fact that is comes from a hardcore porn magazine is ghastly and disturbing. Think about it? Why would they want these photos?

You will see comments at the bottom of this article from people who are runaway free speech advocates. There is apparently nothing which will deter them from their ideology. They make reference to the fact that, were these photos of Pakistani women killed by American bombs, no one would care. I actually agree with this statement with one caveat: Why should we care as much about these deaths? Most people in Pakistan hate us anyway.

Full Article

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Something Different – Vanderlei Silva vs Guy Mezger

March 9th, 2010

An excellent fight. Saw the whole thing years ago.

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Fake UPS or USPS emails delivering Trojans

March 6th, 2010

This has been around for a few months now. If you ever get one of these emails about a failed package delivery, delete it. Russian hackers spam these out, knowing full well that some of the recipients will have actually mailed a package recently. They will then open the zip file and the executable within it. Once they do, they become just another zombie in a botnet. In the dark underbelly of the internet, they are then referred to as “Somebody’s Bitch.”

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Class Action Lawyers adopt even more Dastardly tactics

March 6th, 2010

I have noticed a new trend lately. Class Action lawyers have decided to try and corner the market on very specific niches – usually pertaining to side effects or death from the use of certain prescription drugs. Years ago, one of these bottom feeders began this trend by cornering the market on “Mesothelioma” victims. These are people who suffered asbestos poisoning. Okay, of course, there is some legitimacy to this, however, a decade later they are still advertising. I would think the market for this would have dried up by now.
These newer bottom feeders are going after Pharmaceutical companies and NOW, Dannon. This ad was front and center on either yahoo or cnn.com a week ago. It is very expensive to get your banner ad on the front page of these sites.
Can anyone say “John Edwards”? This is what he did to get rich.

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Tracking Cookies

March 6th, 2010

I forgot to add this. If you have your cookies set to manual, you will see something like this when clicking the link in the prior post:

This is a tracking cookie. Most people know what cookies are. These tracking cookies are a bit more pernicious. They claim to “enhance” the user browsing experience by serving “relevant” ads to the user. It’s a bunch of crap. 2of7.net is one of the top dogs. I always block them.

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Jobs: Short-term hope, long-term despair [with scam ads on the page]

March 6th, 2010

Was reading this article today on CNN.com

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/06/news/economy/jobs_recovery/index.htm?hpt=T2

However, on the same page, there are scam ads to take advantage of people. The ads may be different if you click this link but whatever ads you see under “sponsored links” are scams. So, what have here is an article which might appeal more to someone who is out of work. They might then click the sponsored link and guess what? Because they are desperate, there is a chance they will get suckered in and actually lose what little money they have. Here is a screenshot of the ads I see. The Penny Stock one is obvious. The other is less so but is a scam nonetheless.

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