Fifty Shades Of Black

My darker side scares me sometimes. There is something way fucking evil in there.

I'm Sorry But The FBI Is Acting Like A Bunch Of Children In This Spat With Apple.

I keep seeing this back and forth between Apple and the FBI in the news and it is making the FBI look really, really bad.

They can't get what they want so they are going all out with a media blitz trying to shame Apple into complying with the court order they got hit with.

At this point I hope Apple sticks one in 'em and breaks it off just on principle, let alone the Constitutional privacy issues .

FBI owes it to victims to access San Bernardino killer's phone, director says

FBI Director James Comey said late Sunday that the agency owed the victims of last December's San Bernardino terror attack a "thorough and professional investigation", in an effort to explain why law enforcement officials are trying to compel Apple to help them gain access to a cellphone owned by one of the gunmen.
In a post on the Lawfare blog, Comey wrote that the FBI "can't look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don't follow this lead."
The post was Comey's first public statement since Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company would fight a federal magistrate's order to help the FBI hack into Syed Farook's work-issued iPhone. Farook, along with wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in the Dec. 2 attacks.
Cook claimed that the judge's order required Apple to "build a backdoor to the iPhone", which he described as "something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create."
The CEO said that if the technology to hack Farook's iPhone was created, it "would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes."

Snip

Comey did acknowledge in his statement that the clash has laid bare a tension between privacy and security. But he said that divide should not be resolved by the FBI nor "corporations that sell stuff for a living."

"It should be resolved by the American people deciding how we want to govern ourselves in a world we have never seen before," he said.

We've read the book Comey so we know how this ends already.

There Is A Light At The End Of The Tunnel Now

Hopefully it isn't a fucking freight train this time.

I have been so incredibly busy that I am afraid to start listing all the shit I have gotten done in the last week.
I don't think even I would believe it but I know it was a metric assload of chores.
Just the running around back and forth between here, the old place and work, I put over 250 miles on my rig this last week, on top of all these chores and all 3 places are within 15 minutes of each other.

Just for fun I had to put in overtime at work a couple of nights, last Friday I didn't get home until two thirty in the morning and was up at ten and on the road again.

Trying to figure out how much all this fucking bullshit is costing us is enough to lock my jaw shut.
Counting all the tools, the roll away I gave to my kid and the car parts I threw away, the total outlay for this Fandango is right about forty five hundred bucks, if we have to eat the security deposit.

I have already pretty much wrote that off because of the garage door that self destructed on me . We shall see. The back fence decided to try and visit the neighbors back yard here in the last couple weeks too. The wife noticed it sagging two weeks ago, the neighbors yard is about six feet below the fence and there are a bunch of trees in the way so it's not real easy to notice when it starts sagging. I went and looked at it yesterday and it is now to the point of total collapse. In two weeks it has went from a barely noticeable sag in the middle to literally hanging at about a thirty degree angle over the neighbors back yard and is only being held up by a stump and two posts for a span of about thirty feet.

This guy is going to eat that one.
It all started after he told us to get out and I have been too busy to fuck with it.
I still have to get my buddy over there to do some trim work around some of the doors, the lumber is already there and I have to go find a new door latch assembly for a twenty year old Maytag dryer. I also have to get a tow truck over there and haul that POS Sprite over here. How I am going to get it in the garage has yet to be determined as it is full of boxes and shit.

I don't think we have fully unpacked one single box here yet, we have been too damn busy over there.

Everything else left over there is cleaning, the wife says she should finish tomorrow and then the landlord is supposed to show up Tuesday to look at the place.

Either fucking way I am going to be done with this little adventure here real fucking quick, the end of the month approaches rapidly.
It won't be a minute too soon either, I have pushed myself real close to my limit and don't have a lot of reserves left. The word of the day is exhaustion, every day, lately.

Jeb's Done

Stick a fork in that boy.
I'd like to say it beaks my heart to see him bail out but I can't. He didn't have a snowballs chance in Hell to begin with after his brother Stupie McFuckwit shit all over the Presidency.

To be honest, Trump scares the living shit out of me because if he gets in then he will turn into a fucking dick tater as soon as someone starts explaining how things actually work in our new and improved (cough, cough) Amerika.

Sanders is a Commie bastard and Clinton makes the Mafia look like wannabe thugs.

In short, I'm sitting this one out. Don't even bother trying to tell me that if I don't vote that I can't bitch or that it's the only way to keep one or the other from getting in.

The game is rigged ladies and gentlemen.
The fact that Clinton isn't in jail right this fucking minute should be the only clue you need.
It's been said many times before and I'll say it again, we aren't voting our way out of this, it's too far gone.

In the mean time I've already bought the ticket so I'll just sit back and enjoy the show.
All three rings.

Just Shut Up And Give Me A Gallon Of Black.

My wifes permission. Kiss my ass.

We Are STILL Moving

And it sucks giant donkey balls. We are about through getting shit out of the old place so that means the cleaning and fixing of little shit begins. It's going to take me over a month to get the new garage unpacked and reorganized. The Wifely Unit has an even bigger chore with the household crap but that is off limits to me thank God.

Apple To Fight Court Order To Unlock Data Erasing Software On San Bernardino Shooters Phone, Cites "Government Overreach"

This is big, very big.
Apple normally complies with court orders but this time they are saying the government has gone too far.
They would have to create the software necessary to bypass the auto lock feature of the phone, which the FBI wants so they can try unlimited attempts to crack the actual encryption. If someone attempts and fails to unlock this feature ten times, it erases all the encrypted data. Apple says that if they do that, then the government could unlock any Apple phone any time they wanted to.

Apple to oppose order to help FBI unlock phone belonging to San Bernardino shooter

 

 

In a statement released early Wednesday, Cook said that such a move would undermine encryption by creating a backdoor that could potentially be used on other future devices.

"In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession," the statement said.

The order is aimed at removing what had become a barrier in the investigation of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Snip

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in Riverside directed Apple on Tuesday to help the FBI get around the phone’s passcode protection and any auto-erase functions the device might employ.

“The government has been unable to complete the search because it cannot access the iPhone's encrypted content,” U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker wrote in a 40-page motion to the judge. “Apple has the exclusive technical means which would assist the government in completing its search, but has declined to provide that assistance voluntarily.”

Snip

The health department gave the FBI consent to search the phone, according to the motion, but authorities have been unable to bypass the phone's passcode lock for fear its operating system would destroy all data on the phone after 10 failed attempts.

In its motion, the FBI said Apple should be able to turn off the device’s auto erase functions, allowing the government to submit “test passcodes” to the phone without the risk of destroying the data it seeks. The motion said that Apple routinely complies with law enforcement when presented with a search warrant or judicial order.

This battle has huge long term implications and the FBI is trying to strong arm Apple into giving them a back door to this technology which Apple can see would possibly destroy peoples privacy and the security of their data.

It wouldn't surprise me for one second if the FBI pulled out the old "National Security" card just to get what they want here.

Serious Motor Porn

Holy Mother of God.

3420 horsepower, 24 cylinders and 12 blowers.
It's gotta be a plumbers nightmare but DAYUM, is it cool!

Any old diesel mechanics out there would be able to tell you it was a Detroit just by listening to it blindfolded. They have a very distinct sound, especially when they are first started, before the idle smooths out.

Being a two stroke motor, they have damn good throttle response too.

I would pay money to see that thing in a truck that goes down the road.

One Hell Of A Good Read

Selous Scout over at Something Wicked Comes has been working on a book for a few years now and I think he is getting the finishing touches done up on it.
For quite a while he would work on it and then occasionally post the latest chapter on his Blog and I'm here to tell you, I ate it up as soon as I found out about it.

It's called The Cache and it is a story about a guy who barely escapes from work when some government types come for him and then continues on about his journey trying to get to some goods he has cached some miles away.

I personally think it would make a Hell of a good movie myself and once you start reading it, you will see what I am talking about.

He just finished the Prologue to the story and I can see some serious improvements in what I already considered to be a good book.
Do yourself a favor when you have a little time to kill, go and bookmark his site, then start reading the story. Start with the Prologue, he has the rest of the chapters up on his sidebar that you can click on as you go.

If you are like me you won't stop until you are finished.
I keep telling him I want a copy of this book and I am dead serious.

It's good, I promise.

Go read it and tell him I sent you.

Happy Valentines Day