Browser Shenanigans …

My online world broke this morning, like this tile broke … and was rethought in the way that I’m having to rethink my desktop …

I was glad to hit on a familiar page at last with this one … my WordPress dashboard. Thankfully, it was the same as it’s always been. I heaved a sigh of relief when I arrived.

It was then 2.30 PM and I’d struggled since I sat down after breakfast and chores to get back to my familiar scenario. My troubles began when suddenly my online bank was unavailable and the helpline operator and I thought at first that I’d been hacked.

But no, my then-browser updated overnight and apparently threw up a firewall that kept me out of my bank as well as several other places. Well I thought, away with that browser. I de-defaulted it and all my problems began.

Who knew there’d be 500+/- settings, and that there’d be a whole different architecture to accustom myself to, and that there’d be a bunch of new rules? One good thing about the new old browser is that everything is easy to find. I learned more about browsers in a couple of hours than I’d learned the whole year with the de-defaulted one.

I hope all the new stuff sticks in my head, as do I hope that all the stuff I have open on the desktop stays on there when I close the laptop. That I don’t have to find it all from scratch again next time I open the lid.

And although I enthusiastically welcome the password app, I also wrote down a bunch of them. You never know when you might be shut out, and at what level.

I managed to retrieve the situation without the help of an AI assistants, I’m glad to say. What FB AI assistants are doing beggars belief.

Avatar Remaindered 18

Having a problem posting Avatar Remaindered 18, which I meant to put up yesterday. It obviously didn’t stick. Today the same trouble.

Let me put up a picture. The chapter is called Into the Chasms … Working on it.

Well, it worked. Whatever I did. Really not sure and–you know how it is–I’d rather not touch it in case it disappears again.

18. The Chasms, posted Download

Algorithm Researches

Yesterday I ‘interacted’ with two sites by Liking them, sites that are apparently being used by Zberg’s AI bots to learn their trade on. So I get this in my Messages this morning … this is a screenshot, there are ‘six’ pages of it …

I didn’t ask for it and I resent the bot using my interaction, electricity, internet plan, adding to my carbon footprint unasked. those are my feelings about the matter. It’s good to have informed opinions, though.

These are the facts …

As well as the full instructions on how to solve a Rubrik cube, of about six pages, there were a further four pages with an explanation of an astronomical event I’d taken an interest in. Talk about information overload!

This is an example of a summary composed after ‘scraping’ knowledge requisite to the topic from around the internet. It’s not even the first time that we’ve been training bots. Remember teaching GoogleSpelling?

You have to accept this is a far more accurate process than the primitive efforts of the spelling bot.

But it is not yet a sentient bot. Doing a light edit, I discovered a lot of unnecessary repetitions, unseen by the bot. Lama 3.2 cannot think for itself.

Below the copy-and-paste about my comet inquiry. Interestingly, I googled my inquiry and this reply came by way of one of Zberg’s platforms.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has been visible in the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky since early 2025, and its visibility has improved as it moves farther from the Sun. Although it’s currently dimmer than it was at perihelion on January 13, 2025, it’s still a great target for binoculars or cameras ¹.

Here are some key visibility dates for Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) and other comets in 2025:

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS): Visible in the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky since early 2025, with improved visibility as it moves farther from the Sun. Its brightness peaked at magnitude -3.4 on January 13, 2025 ¹.
210P/Christensen: Expected to be visible via large binoculars in November 2025, with its closest approach to Earth on November 8, 2025 ².
24P/Schaussman: Will reach its brightest point in early 2026, with its closest approach to Earth on January 4, 2026. It may be visible with large binoculars ².
C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos): May become visible through small telescopes or large binoculars in the autumn of 2025, with its closest approach to Earth on February 17, 2026 ².

Then there are the facts of what it all costs … more research needed.

Tony’s Bologna blog: How to Find What to Write About

Have You Ever Wondered What to Write About? It happens to me pretty much every morning. I wake up feeling lost, watch one too many YouTube videos — …
How to Find What to Write About

I’m often in the same boat—wondering what to write about—and I suspect most of us are. Some of you turn to WP Prompts, and OK, there’s a whole prompt culture out there for people in the I-must-write-something-everyday brigade.

I’ve left those times behind. Both because I’m no longer trying to put myself on the so-called map, and because I’m no longer physically able … age and infirmities will keep me honest.

I found the Tony’s Bologna post again this morning, and discovering my star on it already, thought next is sharing it… it’s such a good message!

Write about something that makes you feel!

About Blogging: Drafts …

Today my Drafts folder contained a list of ten titles. It’s the place where I’ve got in the habit of keeping ideas for future posts but looking them over today, I am disappointed at how many just aren’t current anymore.

At least one is dated back to May last year and since there have been eleventy-five articles about it in the press, anything fresh I might have had to say about it has gone into oblivion.

A problem with about a third of the ideas/titles that I bothered to record, is that they have no accompanying notes. I want to go back and ask myself, huh? What was that about? And as not-very-good-titles give me no clue. Useless in the here and now.

Third are the ideas where I pasted a link that I intended to discuss. Several of those apparently had a use-by-date and now show up with error messages.

So there are three recommendations for your—and my—Drafts folder … stay current, make more notes and don’t let anything hang in your drafts folder for longer than maybe 6-8 weeks.

Lol, one good thing about not finding any inspiration in my drafts folder is that it gave me a topic to write about.

Two for the price of one, in this instance …. searching for an appropriate image … and none to be had … thought I might as well catch up on some of the books I’ve been reading. This one over the Christmas – New Year break.

I often have more than one book on the go and this one, a calm read, was a great contrast to The Mercy of the Gods.

My interest in Ancient Egypt was kindled when in my teens one of my brothers had to have his tonsils out—which necessitated a hospital stay—and any child having to go to hospital got a book as a get-well present.

My father didn’t always pick the right book and the Tutankhamen one seemed to have fallen flat with the patient. Some of us at home gobbled it up.

Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt is more an acount of the tombs that Egyptologists have expected to find and haven’t yet. It’s amazing to me that with all the digging that’s been done people still expect to find anything new.

This book also explains the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, how they relate to each other, and lists all the known pharoahs. Even Alexander the Great gets a few pages. It’s possible he was buried as a pharoah, somewhere in Egypt. One of the tombs still to be found.

It’s a book that can be thought of as a reference book but belongs to the in-house library. I enjoyed it, as I said. Definitely worth reading for Ancient Egyptophiles. Chris Naunton’s style makes it an easy and interesting read.

Cory Doctorow: Proud to be a Blockhead

Under the above title was going to be a link to Doctorow’s post of that name, but I don’t think so. Not yet. The link I pasted turned into a wall of text, virtually unreadable. So, again, this post will be the ‘About Blogging’ … how often already this year have I tagged a post that way?

Because what happens usually when I click on a Share Button, the title of the article/post to be shared and its URL are copied and saved on a virtual clipboard. Then, when I click and copy on a place in my post of my choosing ... usually after I’ve introduced the article/post as I intended to do here … the article/post will paste into the position directly under the title and shove the intro to the bottom, or into a never-never land where it can never again be found. (Yes, that is a hint to myself to save a draft though I’m not sure if that’ll work.)

I can but give it all another go.

Lol, this is a straight-out quote that reverberates in my head … from one of my own fictions, and when I say or think those words, I always feel like I’m hovering over Tardi Mack (trucker and surfer starring in Mongrel [published] and Meld [still being edited]) saying it while he is giving x y or z problem another go.

Intro

I’m proud to be a blockhead the same as Doctorow. Quoting from Doctorow’s article … “the most laughably false statement about writing ever uttered is Samuel Johnson’s notorious “No man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money”: … Yep. I’m definitely a blockhead.

There’s so much in this article that resonates with me, that I relate to, the whole article is rich with quotes about ‘making art’, creative endeavors of all kinds, how badly musicians are paid, and that by Spotify that people tell me I ought to be ashamed of not using them in preference to Apple Music, for example. All of them guilty of the same practices?

Why it’s important to read and read lots, how writing is a way of thinking, a way of working stuff out. While Doctorow is afraid his luck will run out in relation to his writing career, I’m often afraid that the internet will fall over and how easy that will be when it does, with all the links in the chain from me here typing this to you opening WordPress or your mail service, and reading. And there’s much more.

So I thought you might as well read the original … https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/21/blockheads-r-us/

HTTP 404 pages

I’ve been a fan of HTTP status codes, and in particular 4xx client errors, since I discovered this April Fool joke one year when I was directed to a “418 I’m a teapot” page. See quote below from Wikipedia …

418 I’m a teapot (RFC 2324, RFC 7168) This code was defined in 1998 as one of the traditional IETF April Fools’ jokes, in RFC 2324, Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol, and is not expected to be implemented by actual HTTP servers. The RFC specifies this code should be returned by teapots requested to brew coffee.^[18] This HTTP status is used as an Easter egg in some websites, such as Google.com’s “I’m a teapot” easter egg.^[19][20][21] Sometimes, this status code is also used as a response to a blocked request, instead of the more appropriate 403 Forbidden.^[22][23]

From there it was only a short distance to HTTP 404 pages, some of which are great advertisements for their parent sites, some have games you can play, and others are just plain fun. A few for you to try … (Don’t be surprised if some don’t work) … LOL, so far, I’ve only ‘experienced’ a few 404s and the one 418, but my ambition is to see examples of all of them over time …

http://wildlifeqld.com.au/bird-conflicts/plover.html

https://www.pixar.com/404

https://www.netflix.com/NotFound?prev=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netflix.com%2F404

https://www.cloudsigma.com/404-error

https://hotdot.pro/404/

https://www.kualo.co.uk/404

https://pointepest.com/404

https://thisjungianlife.com/404

One of the best I’ve seen was on Ecosia but cannot find it again to show you. They get cagey when you try to catch them just for fun …