A few years later and this is still a problem. The article Unbloating the buffers describes a way of configuring your network to fix this:

“I traded about 10% of bandwidth (263Mbit down/41Mbit up per iperf3) for:”

• constant average bandwidth on both upload and download
• no impact of download on upload
• network load has no visible impact on latency
• effective traffic prioritisation

The solution isn’t so straightforward, though. You have to have control over your routing endpoint at home in order to set up AQM with a tool like CAKE.

I finally got around to deleting my LastPass account. I switched half a year ago to ProtonPass and never looked back.

“I have, after many years with LastPass, switched to ProtonPass. It’s included with my other Proton tools. The UI is more straightforward and friendlier (even if it’s not yet as good at detecting password changes and account-creation as LastPass). There is also the issue of LastPass having been infiltrated a few times. Thanks for the service over the years.”

Just in case you think I’m picking on him, here’s part of his last post of 2023 Inflection Point 2023 by Scott H. Greenfield (Simple Justice)

“[…] the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th and its ensuing war in Gaza has bubbled up the fundamental differences between a liberal democratic nation and the swell of simplistic authoritarianism of the young.

“Others in my position have adopted the woke view of the world, some because they needed the validation that comes from espousing the popular views of progressives, and others because they were never quite as serious as I thought. Or hoped. But how many more marches by the young and unduly passionate who justify terrorism and suddenly find rape and murder acceptable when done by those their tribe tells them to favor?”

He’s now just going to be part of the “old guard” defending “liberal democracy” from authoritarianism. Who do you see as being on your side? Who is for liberal democracy in the current political climate? Chuck Schumer? You might want to check carefully there. He’s certainly on your side in the current phase of the long Israeli war against Palestine, but he can’t seriously be said to be a supporter of liberal democracy. He can’t seriously be considered non-authoritarian. That goes for pretty much anyone in that party, from Nancy Pelosi on down.

And he makes sure to mention again that everyone seems to love rape as long it’s Jews and/or Israelis being raped. He thinks that these students are protesting for no other reason than to show their support of terrorism against Israelis. He thinks that every last one of them is happy that Israelis were killed and raped and hope that it happens more.

Did I perhaps misread what he wrote? Am I not being generous enough to what he thinks?

“I never would have believed in my old man head that we would be back to open Jew hatred again. Yet here we are, and tens of thousands of people who would claim the mantle of progress fully embrace the end of Jews. Never in its wildest dreams would Hamas have believed that raping and beheading Jews would turn them into progressive darlings, but here we are.”

Nope. He’s pretty clear. Most progressives hate Jews and love rape and terrorism. Black on white.

Want more? He’s not done.

“Will this cause young progressives to recognize the error of their ideology? Will they realize that their sudden existential concern for Palestinians when they cared nothing about them until it meant they could openly hate Jews”

Who hurt him? I mean personally? He used to be so level-headed. Now he’s completely derailed.

I don’t know how he could sanely come to that conclusion, but this is his go-to topic now. He’s not letting go. How will he possibly reconcile with anyone outside of a pretty tiny circle of people who are going to agree with that extreme viewpoint? Does he care? Probably not. But this is the slippery slope to grumpy, old, out-of-touch man territory. He’s basically the same as any person who watches FOX News and agrees with their wildest ideas about what’s happening.

You poor, lost guy. I wish you the best of luck in 2024.

This is the best answer selected for the question Annoying popup constantly asks for podcast signin. It’s barely English. It kind of has a thread that you can maybe follow, but either (A) the person who wrote it was having a stroke or (B) translated it from English to German to Chinese to Arabic and then back to English or (C) used a goddamned LLM to generate an answer to get cheap “points” on the forum.

“Hey again! I’ve been there.

“Since it happened with iCloud, until you changed your password, and now Podcast, even still after entering your new password, I’d say it’s probably a conflict with your local and iCloud Keychain, (Most likely).

“If you know all of your account passwords, and/or, have them stored in iCloud on another device and/or have a Time Machine backup, I’d say resetting the local keychain will probably fix it,

“So if you do have a copy of your passwords:

“Open Finder, select “Go” on the top menu, hold “Option” on your keyboard, (Only then you will see “Library” under the Go menu.

“Select “Library”, then open the “Keychains” folder.

“Select All by pressing Command A.

“To de activate the current keychain, while saving a local copy, while all is selected, on the top menu select “File” then “New Folder (With Selection)”, press “Enter on the keyboard after entering your Admin password if asked.

“Restart your Mac.

“Note that you will be prompted to re enter all of your account passwords again, (Only one time, that’s it), after that, it should work okay.

“In my experience, if using iCloud Keychain on other devices, the passwords should once again sync, if not for whatever reason, you should only need to enter them once to save and not again.

“Anyhow hope that helps!”

It absolutely does not help. I think you’re suggesting that I erase every single one of my stored passwords and then reboot my computer. Talk about the nuclear option. I weep for the amount of time this kind of stuff is wasting for people.

What did you do last month, Bob?
Oh, I got a lot done. There was this annoying popup that I managed to get rid of.
Anything else, though?
No. That’s it.

Exchange-rate-guarantee fee

What the hell? I’m getting charged for Amazon to guarantee the exchange rate for the duration of an instant transaction? Sure, sure, that sounds good. Slather on the extra fees. Death by a thousand cuts.

I responded to a question on LinkedIn asking,

“Why is the world focused solely on one person − Lionel Messi − who had probably the lowest ball possession and there were 10 other Argentinian team players that put their hearts and souls in it to make it happen? What am I missing?”

I wrote:

Ah, mixing it up early on a Monday morning!

Just generally, we are a species inordinately attracted to “great man theories” <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory>, so we pick heroes to the exclusion of everything else. No lesser minds than Blaise Pascal and Leo Tolstoy have come out against it (Tolstoy wrote War and Peace to refute it), but let’s not wax too philosophical on a Monday morning this late in the year.

In the world of sport, there are many dilettantes who watch an event every four years, who will happily focus on one person rather than put in the time and trouble to learn more names and actually follow the action on the field. I suppose that’s ok. The shame is when people do the same for more important world events.

At any rate, these celebrations and articles and focus on Messi are for them, those who don’t really follow the sport. Those who have grown to know the team know better.

I saw the match and think that Di Maria was the absolute hero of the first half, when they got their 2 − 0 lead. Martinez in goal was essential, especially in the final seconds with his clutch save. Mac Allister, Fernandez, and Alvarez were absolute work horses all match. Incredible effort over the 120 minutes.

In this case, though, Messi has put up statistics over the years that warrant the focus on him. He seems to inspire his teammates. It’s not how often he has the ball, but what he does with it when he has it. Even in this particular match, the final, he scored two of the three regular-time goals. He made plays, he hustled, he chased down the goalie, even late in the match. He wasn’t just on the team that won a world cup; he was very much integral to them getting there.

On the other side, it would be hard to argue that Mbappe wasn’t worth mentioning above his teammates. He scored all four of France’s goals. :-)

In case you might think that the New York Times took its pedal off the gas, see With Olympics Closing Ceremony, China Celebrates a Joyless Triumph by Steven Lee Myers and Kevin Draper (NY Times). The joylessness comes completely from the elements on which the authors focused. They just went through the litany of “hazmat suits”, a picture of Valieva crying—the standard, by now, to indicate to readers that they are learning about the 2022 Olympics, as if there were no other events—and, of course, talking about how all of the New York Times’s coverage of Taiwan and Ukraine “overshadowed” the Olympics. This is quite adorable, as those narratives are, in large part, produced by the New York Times itself. So, they’ve chosen to ignore and dismiss the Olympics and then wrap up their “coverage” by claiming that they’ve succeeded. Nice work if you can get it.

If you read very deep into the article, you can find some quotes from actual athletes, who have praised China for its organization, preparation, venues, and safety. They seem to like that they each get their own bedroom (not at all the standard at other Olympics) and that they were all tested every day, to keep COVID cases to an absolute minimum, allowing nearly every athlete to compete, as scheduled.

A Tale of Two Authoritarians by Matt Taibbi (TK News)

“I don’t mean to understate the seriousness of January 6th, even though it’s been absurdly misreported for over a year now. No one from a country where these things actually happen could mistake 1/6 for “a coup .” In the real version, the mob doesn’t take selfies and blaze doobies after seizing the palace, and the would-be dictator doesn’t spend 187 minutes snacking and watching Fox before tweeting “go home.” Instead, he works the phones nonstop to rally precinct chiefs, generals, and airport officials to the cause, because a coup is a real attempt to seize power. Britannica says the “chief prerequisite for a coup is control of all or part of the armed forces, the police, and other military elements.” We saw none of that on January 6th, but it’s become journalistic requirement to use either “coup” or “insurrection” in describing it”

“The reason it wasn’t worse is because Trump has also been constantly mislabeled as a Hitler, Stalin, or Pinochet. The man has no attention span, no interest in planning or strategy, and most importantly, no ability to maintain relationships with the type of people who do have those qualities (like Steve Bannon). Even if he wanted to overturn “democracy itself” — I don’t believe he does, but let’s say — Trump has proven over and over he lacks the qualities a politician would need to make that happen.”

“All those things Trump is rumored to be, Dick Cheney actually is. That’s why it’s so significant that he appeared on the floor of the House yesterday to be slobbered over by the Adam Schiffs and Nancy Pelosis of the world. Dick Cheney did more to destroy democracy in ten minutes of his Vice Presidency than Donald Trump did in four years.”

“You don’t have to like Donald Trump to recognize the dire threat represented by a clique of mediocrities with just enough brains to use their offices to organize the criminalization of their opposition.”

The Histrionics and Melodrama Around 1/6 Are Laughable, but They Serve Several Key Purposes by Glenn Greenwald (SubStack)

“Putting the events of January 6 into their proper perspective is not to dismiss the fact that it was a lamentable event — any more than opposing the exploitation of 9/11 and exaggeration of the domestic threat of Muslim extremism, which I spent a full decade doing, meant that one was denying the heinousness of that attack. The day after the 1/6 riot, I wrote in this space that “the introduction of physical force into political protest is always lamentable, usually dangerous, and, except in the rarest of circumstances that are plainly inapplicable here, unjustifiable.” I still believe that to be the case. There was nothing virtuous about the 1/6 riot.”

“Hapless defendants who are not even accused of using violence have been held in harsh solitary confinement for close to a year, then sentenced to years in prison — while self-styled criminal justice reform advocates say nothing or, even worse, cheer.”

“[The Democratic party’s] only ideologies — neoliberalism, corporatism, militarism — are widely despised failures, but they are imprisoned by their donor base from offering anything else.”

“What happened on January 6 was ugly and disturbing. But it was nowhere near an insurrection, a coup, or anything threatening in a fundamental or sustained way. That core truth — that it was a protest that turned into a three-hour riot killing nobody except four of the protesters — destroys its value. Only the false narrative that has been constructed over the last year and consecrated by today’s inane festivities can convert this banal episode into some world-historic event that at once makes heroes out of those who were there to oppose it and justifies everything and anything done in the name of preventing its repetition.”

China’s lockdown in Xi’an suppressing COVID-19 outbreak by Jerry Zhang, Peter Symonds (WSWS)

“The outbreak in Xi’an is the largest for 2021 and by some accounts the largest since the initial eruption of the virus in Wuhan in 2020. The lockdown has undoubtedly been a disruption to the daily lives of its 13 million residents. There have been reported delays in the housing of non-residents caught in the city, confusion over changing regulations, shortages of food and other necessities and in the worst cases, bureaucratic excesses, which have understandably led to complaints and criticism on social media.”

“Not noted in the article was that the greatest difficulties confront migrant workers from outside Xi’an who stay in the densely packed urban villages in the city and have a disproportionately high number of infections. Most are stranded without access to kitchens and cooking utensils and are forced to survive on instant noodles. Unlike in other neighbourhoods where residents are asked about their needs for meat and vegetables, local officials simply ask migrant workers how many more packs of instant ramen they need.”

“The opposition of the WSWS to the politics and authoritarian methods of the Chinese regime are well established. However, its response to the pandemic, whatever the flaws, is a scientifically-based strategy aimed at eliminating the disease and thus minimising deaths and damage to the health of the population.”

“While a largely upper-middle class layer is critical of their “loss of freedom” and argues on social media that China should also learn to “live with the virus,” that sentiment has become significantly muted amid the current COVID wave swamping the US and Europe.”

I recently bombed a local descent right near my house and thought I’d done quite well. Strava told me I’d gotten my third-best time, which is correct by their calculations, as I’d tied my second-best time, as shown below.

My Results

However, if I switch to the “I’m Following” list, I see my PR as the fourth-best time in the list, a full 10 seconds slower than my real PR.

I'm Following

On the left-hand side, Strava is showing my time for the current ride, which is four seconds faster than the PR it’s showing on the right-hand side.

I just see these things because I’m an engineer and am sensitive to odd numbers (which usually indicate a bug in software I’ve written). It may be that Strava’s confused because I only show numbers to users that follow me (rather than to all users) and maybe their caching is not optimized for this situation. This happens a lot, though.

The following segment shows that Strava is technically correct when it says that this was the second-fastest time (it considers a more recent tie to be inferior, which is fine, I guess), but it’s positively convinced that my PR is still 33s, although it hasn’t been that since March of last year. How long is this data cached?

Adetswilerbump Sprint

I haven’t even bothered to fact-check this gem from Facebook. It doesn’t matter if any or all of it’s technically true. As Dave Chappelle said: “We didn’t choose him; you did.”

What is the point of posting this? If all of this is true, does it mean that George Floyd got what he deserved? That he should have known better? That trash like him is bound to be taken out at some time? That it’s not a question of if, but when? What is the racist point of the idiots re-posting this? They don’t care. They just seem to be happy he’s dead. One fewer of “them”.

Facebook post on George Floyd

The article Here’s what WHO says your mask should have to prevent COVID-19 spread by Beth Mole (Ars Technica) details the technical specifications for making your own facemask. tl;dr: “you’re probably doing it wrong, guidance suggests.”

The WHO says:

• “[…] masks should only ever be used as part of a comprehensive strategy in the fight against COVID.”
• “WHO now recommends that healthy members of the public wear homemade or commercially-available fabric masks in places where the new coronavirus is circulating widely and where physical distancing (staying 6-feet apart, etc.) is not possible or is difficult.”
• “[…] a minimum of three layers is required for fabric masks”
• “[…] these masks are for source control only, not personal protection—that is, they can help prevent the person wearing the mask from spreading the virus, but they will not necessarily protect the wearer from becoming infected.”
• “Masks are not a replacement for physical distancing, hand hygiene, and other public health measures,”

A few days later, Baker published the short post Why Should Anyone Care About Paying Big Bucks for Vaccine Government Funded? by Dean Baker (Beat the Press), which put a finer point on the oligarchic and classist nature of the government funding of research for which it then grants private patents.

“[…] reporters don’t seem interested in asking questions like this when the beneficiaries of government handouts are rich people (generally white). They generally are far more concerned about a few hundred dollars that might improperly be paid out to someone on food stamps rather than the hundreds of billions that the government hands out every year with its patent and copyright monopolies. (Emphasis added.)”

Ragenbuech is not a real segment

So I averaged 20.8kph on a 19% climb for 4007 VAM? And I only used 252w with a heart rate of 161bpm while doing it. Impressive.

Strava still can't math

13 years later and the Lud is still kicking! It’s still right where we left it, but now hosted at another site. The clues and rules are still the same. Kath and I just tried one for the first time in a long time and managed 100% on the first try. This is not because it’s gotten easier, but because we’ve gotten so much better. Most of the puzzle was deceptively easy, but we had to make an educated guess on the final letter g where “kind of palm” (“sago”) and “mulled wine” (“negus”) crossed.

“Negus”? Really?

I suppose you could do that as well, although we currently don’t have the IOC involved in creating metadata. Almost everything is a helper method to make it easier and quicker to create metadata—if you don’t like the way the helper method works, then just write your own helper method. We’ve been slowly but surely getting rid of larger extension/helper methods, so passing in an IOC so that it can create the aspect seems kind of like overkill.

You can either just write your own extension method, like so:

public static ClassCacheAspect SetSuperCacheAspectValues(
  this IMetaClass metaClass,
  Action<ClassCacheAspect> setValues)
{
  return metaClass.UpdateAspect<IClassCacheAspect, ClassCacheAspect>(
    new SuperClassCacheAspect(),
    setValues
  );
}

We can call this as follows:

Elements.Classes.Person.SetSuperCacheAspectValues(a => a.Capacity = 1000);

If I go the IOC route, then I would make the base helper method accept another parameter (I guess?). This is kind of neat, and would let me push the machinery for creating a new aspect down to the next-level methods.

The method that works with aspects that implement ICopyTarget looks like this:

public static TConcrete SetAspectValues<TService, TConcrete>(
  this IMetaClass metaClass,
  IServiceRequestHandler handler,
  Action<TConcrete> setValues
)
  where TConcrete : TService, ICopyTarget<TService>
  where TService : IMetaAspect
{
  return metaClass.UpdateAspect<TService, TConcrete>(
    handler,
    (aspect, existingAspect) => aspect.CopyFrom(existingAspect),
    setValues
  );
}

The fully generalized one that has no expectations of the aspect actually creates the aspect using the IOC.

public static TConcrete SetAspectValues<TService, TConcrete>(
  this IMetaClass metaClass,
  IServiceRequestHandler handler,
  Action<TConcrete, TService> copyValues,
  Action<TConcrete> setValues
)
  where TConcrete : TService
  where TService : IMetaAspect
{
  var aspect = handler.GetInstance<TConcrete>();
  var existingAspect = metaClass.Aspects.FirstOfTypeOrDefault<TService>();
  if (existingAspect != null)
  {
    copyValues(aspect, existingAspect);
  }

  setValues(aspect);

  return aspect;
}

And, finally, the caching-specific method looks like this:

public static ClassCacheAspect SetCacheAspectValues(
  this IMetaClass metaClass,
  IServiceRequestHandler handler,
  Action<ClassCacheAspect> setValues)
{
  return metaClass.UpdateAspect<IClassCacheAspect, ClassCacheAspect>(
    handler,
    setValues
  );
}

Now I don’t have to ever call new for an aspect, but I have to pass in the handler, every single time.

Elements.Classes.Person.SetSuperCacheAspectValues(handler, a => a.Capacity = 1000);

I would have to make sure that the handler (IOC) was available during metadata construction (which it generally isn’t, but could be, via constructor injection on the metadata builder class, e.g.)

I think this is a matter of preference, but given how small the chance is that I would want a different cache aspect to be created—and how easy it is to make my own helper method—then I would opt not to use the IOC, just so I don’t force all callers to (A) have a reference to an IOC around and (B) have an extra parameter that isn’t needed in 99.9% of the cases.

Although, since these are helper methods, there’s nothing stopping anyone from creating the methods I outlined above and using that pattern instead. Perfectly valid to use the IOC there, but a bit uglier to get it down to where it can be used.

Making it easier to port to .NET Core by Immo Landwerth (MSDN)

“While there is certainly some value in presenting new customers with a cleaner API, it disproportionately penalized our existing loyal customers who have invested over many years in using the APIs and technologies we advertised to them. We want to extend the reach of the .NET platform and gain new customers, but we can’t do so at the expense of existing users.”

After publication of the article above, I encountered another issue that I’d seen before, but had assumed was something I was doing wrong. Nope: Photos cannot show previews of adjustments and enhancements in real-time anymore. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. The solution, according to Adjustments not working in Edit mode using Photos is that “[q]uitting and relaunching the application fixes the problem temporarily.” What a lovely workaround. This issue has apparently been in Photos since it launched in April. No fix from Apple in sight.

At least a restart did solve the problem, as advertised. I hope it survives without further restarts for the 60 pictures I want to touch up.

An interesting article published a few years back CHARLIE HEBDO: Not racist? If you say so… by Olivier Cyran sums up Charlie Hebdo as follows:

“You claim for yourself the tradition of anticlericalism, but pretend not to know the fundamental difference between this and Islamophobia. The first comes from a long, hard and fierce struggle against a Catholic priesthood which actually had formidable power, which had − and still has − its own newspapers, legislators, lobbies, literary salons and a huge property portfolio. The second attacks members of a minority faith deprived of any kind of influence in the corridors of power. It consists of distracting attention from the well-fed interests which rule this country, in favour of inciting the mob against citizens who haven’t been invited to the party, if you want to take the trouble to realise that − for most of them − colonisation, immigration and discrimination have not given them the most favourable place in French society. Is it too much to ask a team which, in your words “is divided between leftists, extreme leftists, anarchists and Greens”, to take a tiny bit of interest in the history of our country and its social reality?”

These are just some notes I plucked from an interesting email conversation with a friend.

On the distribution of resources and where to invest:

I think it’s important to think about companies that provide value in the “essentials” area (bottom of the Maslow pyramid) and those that do so in the areas that clearly involve “disposable income”. While we have so many people incapable of fulfilling their most basic needs, how much resource expenditure should be tolerated/encouraged for such frivolity? Those that benefit initially convince themselves that such progress is utterly necessary in order to drive society forward for *everyone*, but that sounds very much like the underpinnings of trickle-down economics.

On the transition from brick and mortar to Internet:

I’m reminded of the article I read last year in that magazine you gave me, about the fracking boom in the States. Most of the companies listed there were values in the dozens of billions, if not more, and had dozens of thousands of employees.

That is one of the differences I see in the move to Internet value as well: these companies are valued in the billions but have hardly any employees (relatively speaking). That is, they are perfect vessels for funneling a tremendous amount of wealth to a handful of people. That’s great for those people. Not so good for all of those who are finding it harder to find jobs in an economy based more and more on this scale of company.

And, without jobs, where do people get the money to purchase Uber services? This is all kind of short term, to my way of thinking. It’s short-term gain for Uber, but they too will collapse because Uber’s very model helps create a world where there are no Uber customers anymore. There are solutions to this, but they are either not very classically capitalist or quite fascist.

On the valuation of GoDaddy at over $2 billion:

As for GoDaddy: this is one of those company whose 2.25b valuation is an utter mystery to anyone who still thinks that the company’s main service is to its supposed customers (the users). They are very good for funneling advertising and “trapping” customers. This is considered to be very valuable to those who are just interested in turning a profit and not interested in *how* that profit is turned. As long as there exists such a strong separation between ethics, *true* value and investment, we will have these dilemmas.

The stock corporation was truly both a blessing and a curse. It allows companies to grow more quickly (and to presumably provide more value to its customers), but it also allows companies that would otherwise go out of business to survive and thrive simply because they know how to turn a profit (if not actually provide a non-parasitic value). The world would be a better place without GoDaddy in it. As long as GoDaddy can figure out how to make money for its investors, we’re stuck with it. And, no, I’m not sure what to do about that either: is it good or bad? Dunno. I’m just thinking out loud.

I just saw the article RadioShack continues death march, loses $98.3 million in a quarter by Megan Geuss (Ars Technica) and it got me thinking again: where do you usually find Radio Shack stores in the US? In poorer neighborhoods, where they more often than not provided a convenient place to find replacement parts for electronic goods.

Did the need for Radio Shack’s goods disappear? Or is it just that it provides value to the wrong target market? With our overemphasis on valuation, are we not also picking winners and losers? Are we not preferring the opinions of the wealthy over those of the poor? If you can vote billions, you get your way. Once again, we circle back to the question of to whom is value being provided?

In defense of the OpenSSL project, the article OpenSSL code beyond repair, claims creator of “LibreSSL” fork by Jon Brodkin (Ars Technica) cites its OpenSSL Software Foundation President Steve Marquess “describ[ing] OpenSSL’s struggle to obtain funding and code contributions.”

““I’m looking at you, Fortune 1000 companies,” Marquess wrote. “The ones who include OpenSSL in your firewall/appliance/cloud/financial/security products that you sell for profit, and/or who use it to secure your internal infrastructure and communications. The ones who don’t have to fund an in-house team of programmers to wrangle crypto code, and who then nag us for free consulting services when you can’t figure out how to use it. The ones who have never lifted a finger to contribute to the open source community that gave you this gift. You know who you are.” […] As for Heartbleed, “the mystery is not that a few overworked volunteers missed this bug,” Marquess wrote. “The mystery is why it hasn’t happened more often.”(Emphasis added.)”

The emphasized text is what we should all learn from this experience.

The article Fukushima Emergency debunks the fancy we-re-all-gonna-die chart that’s also been making the rounds (shown below).

Purported chart of Fukushima radiation (it's not)

“However, that chart did not actually track or measure radioactive discharge emanating from Fukushima in 2013, or any other aspect of the Fukushima disaster. It was a plot created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) immediately after the Tohoku earthquake in March 2011 showing the wave height of the tsunami that followed. It had (and has) nothing to do with the flow or spread of radioactive seepage from Fukushima.”

Nice. Take a chart from 2011 about a completely different topic and use it to “prove” that people are being duped by Tepco about the radiation in Fukushima. I think Californians can breathe easy, at least as far as dying from Fukushima radiation is concerned.

““The Pacific Ocean is an enormous place,” said Norman, who found radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power in California rainwater, milk and plants soon after the earthquake and tsunami. “There’s a lot of material between us and Japan. No matter what happens in Fukushima, it’s not going to be a problem over here.””

From Who is responsible for the US shutdown? The same idiots responsible for the 2008 meltdown by Slavoj Žižek (The Guardian)

“[…] sales of her opus Atlas Shrugged exploded. According to some reports, there are already signs that the scenario described in Atlas Shrugged – the creative capitalists themselves going on strike – is coming to pass in the form of a populist right. However, this misreads the situation: what is effectively taking place today is almost the exact opposite. Most of the bailout money is going precisely to the Randian “titans”, the bankers who failed in their “creative” schemes and thereby brought about the financial meltdown. It is not the “creative geniuses” who are now helping ordinary people, it is the ordinary people who are helping the failed “creative geniuses”. (Emphasis added.)

“John Galt, the central character in Atlas Shrugged, is not named until near the end of the novel. Before his identity is revealed, the question is repeatedly asked, “Who is John Galt”. Now we know precisely who he is: John Galt is the idiot responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown, and for the ongoing federal government shutdown in the US.”

You’ll have to dig out any references to the wrong version number. First, do as Marc says: get rid of all compiled assemblies that Visual Studio may be using. Also make sure that VS can’t find the wrong version in the GAC because it might be grabbing that one as well. Restarting VS is also a good idea as it sometimes retains caches references in memory.

If none of that works, then you have an explicit reference to the assembly using the old version number somewhere in your solution. Check project files for references with that version number; check those pesky license.licx files (you can just delete the offending line from those).

Good luck! And be reassured, there’s always some logical reason for the assembly mismatch. It’s just sometimes tedious to find.

And then there are the people who really are living on the edge of destitution, eviction and being frozen out of society (in the colder states, quite literally); the article Chart of the day: The working poor by Felix Salmon (Reuters) has this to say:

“Nearly 1 in 3 working families in the United States, despite their hard work, are struggling to meet basic needs. The plight of these families now challenges a fundamental assumption that in america, work pays. […] The workers in these families have a much greater risk of becoming unemployed than the population as a whole, and of course they’re financially much less prepared for any period of unemployment than most of the rest of us.”

The chart below shows the 200% of poverty level income for various family sizes. The census reports that 30% of the working families in America are at or below this line. More proof of the lopsided distribution of wealth and prosperity in an increasingly expensive society.

200% of Poverty Level for Various Family Sizes