Tag Archives: blogs

Troll Busted

Posted on by John Klein

Cory’s 20th Blogiversary Cake With FBI Icing

Posted on by John Klein

Notable author and blogger Cory Doctorow got a call from the FBI for his blog anniversary.

Please read how he handled the encounter. It’s in stark contrast to the wrong way exhibited by the #Qultists who are also being questioned by the FBI.

==

Unlike Cory who didn’t do crimes, the Trump fanatics have hilarious indictments online of their Capitol Riot misadventures.

Plague Update: Saskatchewan Descends As Faithful Cheer On The Coming Darkness

Posted on by John Klein

Saskatchewan has COVID-19 getting out of hand.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/27/canada-prairies-coronavirus-alberta-saskatchewan-manitoba

Former health CEO pushing what appear to be a health hoax, using incorrect hospital bed availability numbers from stats.

Meanwhile, the reality in Saskatchewan, as it is in Alberta and other overwhelmed Conservative regions, is dark.

We can look to religion for comfort and ethical guidance? Fat chance.

His congregation can’t celebrate the “muffled Word”, and he can’t figure out a microphone, but can use Twitter.

How Bad Is WordPress’s Block Editor? Bad.

Posted on by John Klein

I have over 2 decades experience editing websites. 18 years of writing blogs, from Angelfire, to CMS systems like WordPress. And the latest update to the editor is mystifying. Who wants it?

I wrote a blog post just a few minutes ago. I tried to find where to tag it, I couldn’t. I pushed Publish in defeat, and then it gave me the option to tag it.

I tried to find where to write my next blog post. I couldn’t. I went back a few pages, and pressed a button to write a new blog post. I pasted in a tweet. It failed to embed it and gave an error. I re-opened the tab, I tried again, again it failed. I finally found where to edit the code for the block, but at that point I opened this blog post in a different browser and started writing this instead. Now I see why experienced blogger Elan Morgan was remarking about how much the block editor sucked in WordPress.

I went back to try to edit the failing blog post and got this instead:

“The editor has encountered an unexpected error. Attempt Recovery | Copy |Post TextCopy Error”

Then I tried to move it up a line so there isn’t extra space, and a text formatting box popped up into the spot where I was clicking in between lines, so I turned bold on, and when I tried to turn it off, it didn’t lose its highlight so I couldn’t tell if it was really off or not yet. Some of this is just normal interface frustration, from using a new interface, and some of it is bad UX design by WordPress.

I haven’t blogged very much in the last year or two, but if it’s this hard now, I’ll probably stay with writing mostly on Twitter.

I just had to dismiss a button at the bottom saying the site uses cookies. Well duh!

Podcast on Sunday

Posted on by John Klein

Jeff Cliff interviewed me for his Facebook Live stream on Sunday. We discussed Saskatchewan politics, media, blogging, censorship, and the Amazon Fires.

For instance, I can link to Facebook, but people trying to link here from Facebook are told my blog doesn’t meet Facebook’s “Community Standards”. If you can figure out why, that would be quite the feat.

Also noticed that http://www.abandonedstuff.com isn’t redirecting to this WordPress address right now, so I don’t know if that’s a permanent problem introduced by WordPress, or something else.

Greens Hire a Political Strategist Some Don’t Like

Posted on by John Klein

I don’t much care for his strategy most of the time, but the Greens can’t keep doing the same thing when the other parties are playing to run out the clock. We’ve less than eleven years left to maybe, hopefully have enough time to get emissions to a point where we’ll survive the first half of this century. If a punk rocking blogger with a mean streak is able to help the Greens break-through, then good enough.

Gone John Himpe

Posted on by John Klein

John Himpe was a radio and blogging wizard. Now he’s gone, at a young 38 years of age.

Here’s his account of first getting on the Internet:

Because there were only so many hours of Internet for the year, I was always mindful of the clock.  Many days, spending an entire hour online seemed like an eternity.  Today, that can pass in the blink of an eye.

The Internet of 1994 was a distinctly different experience from today.  Web pages were primarily coded by hand – not generated by databases.  Dropping an e-mail to whoever was responsible for a website usually ended up netting you a new friend in the process.  And, admiration – not SEO – was the motive for linking to another’s online creation.  It was a very different time, and the content reflected that.

In my circle of friends, I was that kid – one of the first on the block to get Internet access.  When people would come over to hang out, the Internet was a mild distraction – but one that wouldn’t last for long before we’d head off to watch TV or otherwise get in trouble.

UPDATE: He passed away from a brain aneurysm. Unfun fact: a young woman died of that only meters from my desk at work, less than 2 years ago.

Johnstone: Supports Coal, But Calls Out Wall’s Lack of Plan

Posted on by John Klein

A notable column in the Star Phoenix from Bruce Johnstone, as he chastises Premier Wall’s “grandstanding” and for having no plan to deal with climate change.

Wall called the plan, […] a “betrayal” of the PM’s promise to develop a collaborative climate change policy with the provinces.

This despite the fact that Wall and the other premiers were told months ago to develop a carbon pricing plan, or have one imposed upon them. They were reminded of this again last week by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.

[…]

Wall has also threatened to take the feds to court, claiming that the carbon tax infringes on provincial control of resources, which is protected under the constitution. While provinces are exempt from federal tax under the constitution, the courts could allow a carbon levy if used for regulatory rather than revenue-generating purposes, legal experts say.

Another Wall argument against carbon pricing is that it “holds the lowest potential for reducing emissions, while potentially doing the greatest harm to the Canadian economy.” Yet many economists say carbon pricing is more effective at reducing emissions than regulation or cap-and-trade systems because it changes consumer behaviour by increasing the cost of carbon consumption.

Wall’s weakest argument is that Canada accounts for only 1.6 per cent of GHG emissions, and Saskatchewan accounts for 10 per cent of Canadian emissions, or 75.5 million tonnes. “I deny the fallacy that a new tax on Canadians whose CO2 emissions are 1.6 per cent of the global emissions is the best way for Canada to help fight climate change.”

So what is your plan, Mr. Wall? If not carbon pricing — either through a carbon tax or cap and trade — what is it? Carbon capture and storage (CCS), tougher regulations, like the Management and Reduction of Greenhouse Gases Act that was passed in 2010 but never enacted, a carbon tariff on imports, with an offsetting rebate on exports, as suggested by Regina-Lewvan MP Erin Weir?

The fact is a majority of Canadians support some form of carbon pricing.

Also, in the Leader Post is a flawless column by Murray Mandryk:

Absolutely nothing Moe has said or done in the past week has had anything to do with him being an environment minister.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the government’s decision to storm out of the federal/provincial environment ministers’ meeting, that its initial reaction was to call Trudeau’s proposal “National Energy Program II” tells you all you need to know about why the government has not, and will not, address GHG emissions in a meaningful way.

So why have an environment minister at all?

If these two keep writing entirely sensible columns, they’re going to put my blog out of a job pointing out their earlier mistakes in logic and worse.

CBC Censoring More Of My Comments

Posted on by John Klein

The following is blog navel gazing that you probably won’t be interested in, but I’m keeping a record of it for my amusement.

A change (probably in personnel) about 2 months ago at CBC has prompted them to start disabling (deleting) some of my comments on their news stories. A collection of them is below for amusement. The title of the story is the first line of each.

In response to someone’s amusing grammatical error:

Man dies after reportedly being hit by a meteorite
@ReaLies The dead can’t buy them.

–

Changes coming to Earls after allegations of sexist dress code
I try to avoid these sorts of restaurants, if I know they discriminate against their female staff members.
https://saskboy.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/avoid-browns-social-house

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Spirited sparring during leaders’ debate in Regina
@rex heeler The format set by CTV, CBC, and Global was a real sham. The Liberals and Greens are both running enough candidates to form government, and the PCs enough to be opposition. They should have been there, and the format longer and less confrontational.

–

Fast charging stations for electric cars a priority for Ottawa
@MY MILKSHAKE Electric cars will be cheaper than gas ones in possibly 6 years. Then, only “rich” people, or the foolish poor, will own new gas vehicles.

&

@Bob1 http://suncountryhighway.com/ is free. If you charge a Model S at home, it uses about $6 of electricity to be fully charged, at 13¢/kwh. Equivalent required for gas to go the same distance is presently more than $25, to even $40.

I responded to a commenter listing Jim’s home address and saying it looks “dilapidated”, because he obviously doesn’t like Jim and maybe doesn’t understand what cedar siding should look like. That one wasn’t deleted. “@ iamsam You don’t seem to understand how cedar is supposed to look. There’s nothing wrong with Jim’s property.”

I also responded to another who said Jim has a small footprint “my bum”.

Regina’s Jim Elliott uses rainwater for everything but drinking
@Nicholas O’Myra (Offseason Santa) I think your comment could have just said, “my bum”, and left it at that.

Then CBC turned off the commenting section on his story, effectively removing all of my comments on that story.

#CBCbehindthestory at UofR

Posted on by John Klein

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CBC talking about how they cover stories.
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