All Lives Matter

Posted on June 3, 2020 by kellyzdude

Warning: This post contains a number of generalizations. If you, personally, do not fit into the generalization, that doesn’t invalidate the statement, it makes you an exception. Congratulations, or condolences, as appropriate.

Have I got your attention? Good. The world is feeling a lot of feelings right now, and I understand that. There’s been a lot going on, a lot to process, and almost no time to process it. But for the hundreds of people who are dying, the thousands who live in fear of dying, and the millions who may not fear death but are still actively oppressed, it is our duty to expedite that feelings processing so that we can move onto fixing the problems that plague (pun not intended) our society.

When you hear the phrase “Black Lives Matter” what comes to mind? Is it a group of peaceful protestors, or is it an angry mob? Is it one or two people, or is it a crowd? Do you imagine mostly black people, or are there white, Asian, or Hispanic people mixed in too?

When you hear the phrase “All Lives Matter” what comes to mind? Because for me it’s a phrase that on the surface seems to have the right message, but underneath is hurtful and causes more pain where there is already too much pain. It also seems to come predominantly from white people who, aside from the color of their skin, have other privileges not afforded to everyone in our society — a house to live in, a job that provides reliable income, a safety net of sorts when it begins to crumble. Not everyone who is black is poor, and not everyone who is poor is black, but there is an overrepresentation of non-white skin tones at the lower ends of our socio-economic scales.

For too long, I have sat idly by while the Black Lives Matter movement waves in and out based on current events. I’ve thought “I’m a white man, my voice is not needed here..” — but I’m beginning to think I was wrong. This isn’t about black people claiming what is rightfully theirs, it’s about the rest of us standing up, offering them a hand, and letting them know we’re with them, and will do whatever we are able to help them achieve equality — and doing it.

For decades, nay, centuries, in the United States especially but around the world also, the law and the culture have been configured to treat minorities in general and black people specifically as less-than. Whether it is granting them only 3/5s of the vote of a white man, or assuming that black people are less intelligent, or less capable, or less anything than they truly are. And after centuries of oppression at the hand of the supposedly-superior white man, they come forth with their largely peaceful “Black Lives Matter” protest movement, and what do we do? We throw it back at them and say “No, no no. All lives matter!”

Black people in our society believe their lives are not valued by white people, and All Lives Matter tells them that their belief is invalid. Black people are seeking equality, and All Lives Matter perverts the message to suggest that “Black Lives Matter” means “Only Black Lives Matter.” Black people want recognition of their unfair situation, and All Lives Matter blatantly fails to recognize the pain and oppression not only of the past, but of the present — and if we do not continue to change our culture, the future also.

This isn’t a zero-sum game. Ending the oppression of minorities in our society doesn’t mean we lose. Hundreds of studies have shown that increasing respect for diversity means benefits for everyone, white people included. It’s in our best interests to elevate our black brothers and sisters. All they are asking for is equality — parity. It doesn’t hurt us to give them what they are asking. It hurts us not to.

What can you do? Plenty. Start by educating yourself. Do some reading on the Civil Rights Movement, because there was a lot more than just Martin Luther King Jr. standing in front of President Lincoln’s statue and giving a speech, or Rosa Parks refusing to move. Listen to the stories of black oppression today, and believe them. And if you’re eligible to vote wherever you live, look into the stances of those you are able to vote for or against and learn their positions on things like #BLM. Find ways that you can speak up, whether it’s online or in person. Whether it’s proactive statements, or just reacting to those who belittle — intentionally or otherwise.

Most of all, stop telling people that All Lives Matter. They do, but that’s not the point right now.

Please do me a favor and dont post this black square on your Instagram.

Justice Rant One

Posted on August 29, 2018 by kellyzdude

There is an often cited tenet of the “western world’s” justice systems, and that is that an individual who is accused of a crime must be considered innocent until they are proven guilty. And yet so often our knee-jerk reaction is to encourage violence against those accused of heinous crimes — not yet even convicted. To suggest cruel and unusual punishments to those against which we perceive guilt, regardless of what evidence may have been presented, or withheld.

The righteousness of a Justice System is found not in how it treats the guilty, but in how it accounts for its treatment of those who are later found to have been innocent.

I suggest to you that even after an individual has been proven guilty before a court of law, their punishment must be such that those held responsible for their welfare during their incarceration, as well as we as a collective society, are able to live with it if we later determine that the proof was lacking, nay, that we prove conclusively that the individual was wrongly convicted. I further suggest that this doctrine should apply not only to those found guilty under protest or silence, but to those found guilty by their own admission, their own proclamation.

Despite the other tenet that says “it is better that ten guilty men go free, than one innocent man face punishment” history tells us that this is not often held to. Even on its best day our justice system allows for innocent men to be found guilty, be it by evidence that is incorrectly interpreted by the police, the prosecution, and the jury; or through the falsely accused being coerced into pleading guilty for fear of harsher punishment if a trial does not end favorably – after all, it is generally far more difficult to prove you did not do something, if there is even minimal evidence that can be arranged to suggest you did.

It is not enough for the government to send an apology or to offer a little restitution to those who are granted freedom after providing enough evidence of their innocence. It is imperative that we treat all of those that we incarcerate with dignity and respect, not because it is deserved by the truly guilty (for it is not), but because it is owed to those who are not. We are obligated to show humanity to the convicted, not because we have reason to believe it is in their best interest, but because it is truly in ours.

Stay tuned for the next Justice Rant…

Gah, Politics

Posted on June 23, 2016 by kellyzdude

Ah, another day, another political post on Facebook. Another one that makes me frustrated, and demands me to respond.

Here was today’s item of note:

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Sounds like Congress in general, really.

Let’s take a step back, though. They were “doing nothing” because the Republican speaker of the house ended the session, rather than doing the work that the Democrats were asking them to do. It wasn’t difficult work, either. All they wanted was to vote on a bill. A vote they knew they were probably going to lose, but a vote they wanted to occur nonetheless.

Since that’s their job, to write, debate, and vote on legislation, one could argue that the Democrats were more about getting their job done than the Republicans.

But no. Instead of allowing the vote to occur, the speaker prematurely ended the legislative session and left. So, who is choosing to be “doing nothing” in this situation?

Look, I get that both sides suck. They both play political games, they both game the system to get done what they need to get done. More often than not it’s using childish tactics to stop things they don’t like from happening. It doesn’t get us a functioning government. It gets us polarized and gridlocked politicians, which leads to polarized constituents who will de-humanize members and supporters of the other side. And once your opposition doesn’t have a normal human face anymore, it’s far easier to attack them.

It’s far easier to attack the faceless monster in Washington DC, or the faceless slut, or the faceless fag, or the faceless moron, or the faceless clown. What does it matter, it’s just a Facebook post, right? “If you disagree with me, why don’t you just unfriend me!” Because then you live in even more of an echo chamber, regurgitating the same views that everyone else around you has, despite being in the minority overall. “Everyone I know thinks ….” How many people do you know? Do they all agree with you on almost everything? Maybe you need to meet more people, find some people with whom you disagree. Get to know us, we’re not all monsters or clowns. Morons, maybe.

What I find frustrating is the constant implication that one side or the other is un-American, or worse, anti-American. I believe, quite firmly, that most Republicans in politics are firmly committed to doing what they believe is best for the country. I do. I believe the same for the Democrats, and for the independents. The problem is that those views are so opposed in many ways that they are directly incompatible. If we could just shut up for a few minutes and actually have reasonable conversations about the issues, we might find consensus and common ground. I’ll bet a lot of gun-rights activists could find common ground with those who are vehemently anti-gun if they would put away the rhetoric (and possibly the guns, at least holster them ;)) and talk. The same goes for the abortion debate. The same goes for the religious rights debate, for healthcare, for drugs, for gay/lesbian/transgender rights.

Stop de-humanizing the other side. They have thoughts, feelings, and opinions too. They’re just as valid as yours — you might even agree with one or two of them.

My Beef with Comcast

Posted on March 19, 2014 by kellyzdude

Wow, has it really been 6 months? I need to update more often. I know, I know, I feel like I say that (to myself at least) every time I update, but there really hasn’t been much happening to write about.

It seems to me that everywhere I look, someone is complaining about Comcast or Verizon and their terrible customer service. I know that “the squeaky wheel gets the most …” blah blah blah, but I’m curious what their ratio of satisfied to unsatisfied customers is. Because really, there are alternatives. Not so much for cable or phone, depending on where you are, but with mobile phones at least there’s really not a whole lot of reason to stick with your current provider if you’re unhappy, and yet somehow these companies remain in business – they must be keeping someone happy.

Now, part of the problem seems to be that people call support for stupid reasons. If your cable goes out at 2am, call support but don’t be too mad if it doesn’t get “fixed” for a couple of hours, because chances are they were doing maintenance while most of their area was asleep. It sucks for those of us that are online at 2am because of our schedules, but we’re statistically few. On the other hand, if it goes out every day at 2am, that’s a good reason to call and start complaining.

My interactions have been minimal. In the last year I have been the owner of a Comcast Account, I have called them twice. The first was a year ago, to set up my account and get online with my purchased modem. The second was today, when I called to upgrade my account to add TV service. Both occasions were relatively quick, I was given the information I needed to make an informed decision (combined with research earlier in the day), and so far I’m happy. They were a little pushy for a couple of addon services that I neither can afford nor have desire for, but their goal is to make money. The tech is coming out to get us set up for TV on Friday and I’ll update if that doesn’t go well.

Am I in the minority? Are there really so few of us that have positive interactions with these large, terrible companies? Really, my only major complaint in this situation is that I had to call to make the change. Comcast’s website knows that there is an active account at my address when I enter it in looking for deals, but then it just tells me there are no deals and that it can’t find my address in the system to make changes to the service. That, to me, is the epitome of frustrating.

In closing, Comcast, please fix your website’s backend so that people like myself don’t have to call to make changes to our service. Let the customer service team know that they did well on at least these two occasions. And if you want to reward me for giving you a good review, you can always lower my bill a few dollars a month. You really don’t have to though, for now I’m a satisfied customer and expect to stay happy until we move to a location that forces us to switch provider.

Five

Posted on May 24, 2013 by kellyzdude

I didn’t note the day or the month, or even the year, for that matter. We say “when we were twelve” because that’s our best guess (though she probably remembers better than I).

It doesn’t really matter, the specific date, or even the year. What matters is that we met, and talked for a while one random, long-forgotten night. And then again another night, and another.

It was lost for a while, changes in life, adjustments in time zone, we didn’t connect at all and eventually lost touch completely. Until another random, long-forgotten night, when I decided to clean out my contacts list. She happened to be online, so I asked who she was. We talked some more, and eventually made a connection to an event we both remembered (something about underwear and pyromania).

Even for this, it doesn’t really matter, the specific date or time that we found each other again. What matters is that we did, and that we talked again, and again, and again, and then some more.

Time went by, and the story evolved in the way so many do. Boy meets girl, boy decides he likes girl and girl decides she likes boy, they get together and make the best of it. But that’s where we are a little different, because we are so far separated. Not in a Romeo/Juliet kind of way, our families didn’t hate each other – they didn’t even know each other. We faced a different challenge: isolation. I lived in Wellington, New Zealand, she lived in a small town somewhere in Virginia.

Somehow, though, we made it work. Through plane tickets and immigration paperwork and moving and money and more immigration paperwork, we made it work. And so here we are. Today marks five years since we committed to what we had in front of friends and family, what we had essentially committed to a few months before that by beginning the application process to USCIS, what we had almost committed to just by stepping foot on the planes the very first time, flying to meet the other, meeting the friends and family, seeing the home towns and environs.

Kelly, I love you. Here is to another five years, and then another five, and another five after that, until how long it has been doesn’t really matter anymore, until what matters is that we met that random, long forgotten night, so many years ago. You were, are, and maybe always will be the best decision I ever made – to ask who you were, and not to just hit “Delete.”

China’s High Speed Rail

Posted on November 1, 2012 by kellyzdude

Below are some cool photos of China’s High Speed Rail network that I received via email today. I was intrigued, however, by a comment at the bottom.

It read as follows: “HOW DID THEY DO THIS? THEY COPIED THE USA IDEAS OF THE 40’s & 50’s AND COMBINED THEM WITH TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY”

Here’s my quibble with this statement. In the 40s and 50s America and Europe were both big into rail transport and the networks weren’t doing too badly. But the whole thing with “progress” is that things don’t always stay the same. Things are replaced or upgraded. In the case of Europe, they elected to subsidize public rail transportation options and thus the Swiss have great public rail transport, the French have great high speed rail transport with the TGV, as do the Germans with ICE. Even Great Britain is doing pretty well with their HSTs and the Eurostar and other similar trains.

But the United States elected to neglect it’s passenger rail system in favor of cars and planes. In the 70s several passenger routes were doing so badly that the government had to step in and save them – a decision which is still debated to this day – forming Amtrak, a thriving railroad in the North East of the country, but that’s about it. Everywhere else is underutilized and largely noncompetitive against road or air options.

So yes, it’s probably true to state that China’s High Speed Rail is a “copy” of the USA’s rail system of the 40s and 50s, but it’s more accurate to suggest they took the ideas of Japan, France, Germany and Great Britain and did their own thing. It’s hardly fair to blame Communist China for copying the discarded ideas of Capitalist America.

Anyway, enough ranting. Here are some cool photos showing how far China has come in it’s development of high speed rail, setting the standards high for sure.

Continue reading →

Read Only Friday: A Collection of Humor

Posted on June 15, 2012 by kellyzdude

Read Only Friday is a practice that a number of IT departments in large organizations are adopting. It is the idea that on a Friday, no major changes (and in some cases includes minor changes) are made at all. This decreases the probability that anything will go wrong over the weekend and require the services of the on call admin.

This means that on Friday there is typically a full compliment of systems administrators who are sitting around at their desks with a limited supply of tasks they can work on. That tends to also mean that they are bored on the internal IRC channel, providing an increased dosage of humorous banter with each other, and with the developers who are tired and ready to check out for the week.

I decided to collect some of the more amusing samples, and have taken efforts to obscure names of people, servers and projects. In some cases they may not have come from that IRC channel, but from one of the many I frequent which are full of nerds.

As a final side note, most of these aren’t from Fridays. They have been gathered over several months and on various days of the week. (I never said sysadmins were ONLY funny on Fridays..)

<dev> syadmin, in my notes from our meeting yesterday, I have: ‘learn to use math, “averages”‘ do you have pointers on where I can look to read up on these topics?
<dev> maybe there’s like a seminar or conference on “averages” ?
<dev> 🙂
<dev> our training budget is running low but this sounds like an important skill

<syadmin1> smells like untrusted input and no validation. 🙂
<syadmin2> sure does. You can trust me, I’m a DBA
<dev> exactly. and he checked a checkbox that says something like “ONLY USE FOR TESTING. DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION”
<dev> on a read-only friday

<sysadmin> I am a bearded lesbian with pitbulls?
<sysadmin> I had no idea…
<sysadmin> Whoa. that changes everything.

<syadmin1> dev1, dev2: I’m extending app database. You guys can fight about the bill
<syadmin1> syadmin2: ^^
<syadmin2> no
<syadmin2> they can clean up their storage first. too many 1’s and 0’s being wasted there. 🙂
<syadmin1> okay
<syadmin1> yeah, why are they storing the zeros AND the ones?
<syadmin2> no clue
<syadmin1> it seems like a lack of a 1 is good enough to indicate a 0
<dev3> the zeros shouldn’t even take up any space
<dev3> it’s 0
<me> perhaps you need to balance your data better then, too many 1s and not enough 0s?
<syadmin1> it seems like you could make a map
<syadmin1> where you let X = 0 and Y = 1, and then substitute them
<syadmin1> like a hash map
<syadmin1> would save a ton of space

<dev> really?
<dev> lt, pgt, st, tgt? those are the names of your tables?
<dev> sheesh
<syadmin> can someone hack together a simple keepalive please?
<dev> well we’d have to call it a application_kt in this app, it seems, syadmin
<dev> since THEY DON’T USE ENGLISH in this app

<syadmin> dev1: how’s AWS involved? : )
<dev1> it’s hosting the media server
<syadmin> interesting
<syadminboss> dev1 on who’s AWS account?
<dev2> yours syadminboss
<dev2> 🙂
<dev2> $’s are ticking
<syadminboss> I don’t have a AWS account 🙂
<dev2> keep right on thinking that
<dev2> until the credit card bill shows up 🙂

<syadmin> interesting .. There is no memory ballooning on devenv01, vmware tools is fresh and good, stopping tools doesn’t cause load to fall…
<syadmin> certainly chewing the megagizzles cpu-wise on vcenter

<syadmin> I’m going to be taking that down and restoring from backup here shortly
<dev> someone go flip that breaker again 😉

<dev> umm xeon E5645 how does it sound?
<dev> syadmin: ^ ?
<syadmin> probably clicks a lot
<syadmin> maybe some whirring
<syadmin> I have to expect that all of those transistors closing and opening as fast as they do probably sounds a lot a rainstorm. So I’m going with rainstorm.

<dev1> sysadmin: I don’t think so. It’s just looking at one xml file and building a huge number of ruby objects from it
<dev2> and by 1 xml file you mean 21 megs of text
<sysadmin> dev1: I don’t really see a lot of CPU burn on that box
<sysadmin> unless you’re single threaded.. ?
<dev1> yes, single threaded
<syadmin> what?!
<sysadmin> you come to me on this day, the day of my daughter’s wedding, and ask me to give you more processor time on 4-core box for your single-threaded application?!
<dev1> But Don, you have no idea how hard it is to work with this Global Interpreter Locks

<sysadmin> wow..what’s stored in that?
<dev1> logged in user details
<dev2> shouldnt it just be a few details though? the manager id and the user id?
<dev2> sounds like its the entire manager object and user object
<analyst> dev2: it’s bigger, looks like 10MB per row
<sysadmin> also their pictures and an Mp3 of them saying “Hello”
<dev2> haha

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