Bier

T-3 days till departure...

Have fun Pappy and stay in one piece! Imagine the irony if you would gutsify yourself... :-) And yeah... Pics or it didn't happen!

This behaviour is only logical if you take into account what an incredible force Google is on the internet, and in real life... They are already big enough and have enough resources to their disposal to put up a fight with anyone or anything standing in their way, be it another company, disruptor or government. And when it suits their need they'll use legal pressure, illegal pressure (all the fines that they got during the years everywhere around the world), or just dirty tricks (like in Chrome), and this is only scratching the surface... Imo they are already acting like a corporate government on many aspects of life, smeared out over half the globe. If this goes on like this they will have infiltrated almost everything and everywhere in all aspects of life which controls our daily existence... As it stands now we still have some choices we can make, but you have to be willing to pay for the services one uses and be able to install/configure/maintain these, because they will not be all so integrated like Google does it and usually not for free, but it's a price I'm willing to pay... And there the biggest problem pops up. Even if one wants to pay for services to be independent, only a few percent of people (in my circle) have the skills to handle that for themself and if you take this into account then maybe 5 or 10 percent of the internet population is in a position to do this. For me that leads to the sickening conclusion that we are totally fucked, and the only strategy left is keeping these moguls under control with rules and legislation. Until Google buys a country. Then they can make their own laws too... Sweet dreams!

To add to the ads discussion, Google is planning for Chrome to ban all adblockers in the near future, so there wont be any escape at all anymore when using that browser. Due to this FireFox is getting more and more popular again (which it totally deserves!). So, be prepared to make a choice soon... Hanging on the leash of Google, who is doing now what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer 6 ages ago, or step over to a privacy centered browser which keeps you in control. Choose wisely...

Epic piece mate, and it reflects my thoughts about Google exactly! The irony is that when google started I was a real fan of it and advertised it to anyone who wanted to hear about it. The only more-or-less usable search engine in those days was AltaVista, and at the end Alta Vista was so laden with ads and shit that you had to actively search for the box to type in your search request. When Google entered the internet their search page was completely empty with only the search prompt in the middle, which was a godsend! Googles search page is still like is was when it started, so I give them credits for continuity. But it also made users not associate Google with ads.... Boy, do we know now... Alternatives for Google: For their services there almost no alternatives. At least no alternatives that are also free to use. You would also have to use many separate services from all kinds of providers for which you usually have to pay, or take all kinds of restricted functionality for granted. The best thing you can do imho, is running your own cloud server with OwnCloud, FreeNas, Synology or something equivalent (there are a lot out there), but then you need to be technically savvy to make this work just as easy as Google does and don't forget installing, maintaining, updating and backing up... For their search engine, I switched to duckduckgo a few years ago. I only use google when duckduck does not give me satisfying results which, to be honest, happens some time. For Youtube, I use that in my FireFox browser which has the uBlock plugin installed. This combination gets rid of all the ads Youtube puts in front and in the middle of their videos... Facebook I have never used, nor any other kind or form of social media... They and their users all seem to be not so 'social' as they pretend.

Isn't this Portal?

That was an old post.. I never heard anything about it anymore. Looked like it had some potential, but those shiny floors..... Ugh!

I use FreeCad for 3D designing... (Free Open Source) But I am playing with OnShape now. That looks very promising... (Free for Students and Makers) They al look very complex, but you can also use them for simple things. You do have to put in a few hours of work to get to know software like this. If you are new to this, I recommend OnShape

I have been playing around with some graphics programs, but I'm sorry to confess I have no talent at all at creating something useful.. When you know what you like but you don't know how to create it. Aaarrgghh!

I like it!

Great Idea.... Will be a nice memento for the future! I will fire up my trusty vector editor and try to come up with something...

They have been playing together for a long time. George is credited a lot in Zappa's work. You can see him on keyboard and vocals in the Inca Roads clip in my earlier post.

George Duke was one of the best keyboard players in Zappa's band, I think. Or was it Bobby Martin, or Alan Zavod? Just to say there's a lot of great keyboard passages and solo's in Franks music too... Check them on youtube, when you're bored... :-)

Here's a tiny selection of Zappa from me: Pay attention to the lyrics here.. And to show he is not always 'serious':

Luis, For the earlier period I recommend: Filmore East, June 71 Overnite Sensation Apostrophe One Size Fits All The middle period: Sheik Yerbouti Joe's Garage ACTS I, II & III You Are What You Is Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch Man from Utopia Also 'You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol. 1, 2 and 3' live albums gives you quite a feel what it was to be at a Frank Zappa concert! Enjoy!

Correct! And I want it to fade in just before the last sentence: ...and quietly plays his last imaginary guitar solo.... You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 1... Just one of my favorites... From 'The Florida Airport Tape' which still makes me smile, 'Sofa #1 and #2, and of course 'The Torture Never Stops'. Don't want to stop there because everything rocks on it! And it's through these compilation disks I regressed back to the earlier work a bit easier... And the atmosphere it breathes, and the quality of those old recordings due to Franks genius insight to record practically every(!) concert he ever gave in digital form, way before anybody else was doing that. No degradation over time, all still in excellent quality! One size fits all, Apostrophe, Overnight Sensation I all learned to know them later on. Jean-Luc Ponti, Napoleon Murphy Brock, and ofcourse Ruth Underwood. With her lightning fast percussion probably the only person to play Franks compositions with confidence! Love Her! Even at the end, when he got more and more politically active, the music was still great, but the lyrics got a little to political for me. It had less connection to the European fans because of that. But if you have heard all of the earlier work, it's clear that had to happen sometime...

Hehehe... This should be fun indeed, and educating to the general public too. Frank must never be forgotten...! A fine selection indeed you posted. Will take some time to absorb though.. :-) I got to learn about Zappa at age 14, just blind buying the Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III. There was something about the song titles that got me curious somehow, and up to this date it's still one of my favorite albums. One of the pieces on it will be played at my funeral. Can you guess...? So I got to know him when he was in his 'commercial' period (Sheik Yerbouti, You Are What You Is). All the catchy tunes and songs he produced in that time sounded great to me... And then I started to pay attention to what he was really singing/rapping about, and then the depth of his message came clear to me. Fan ever since. When I got exposed to his earlier more experimental work, there were also enough gems in it to learn to appreciate it too, even up to the Flo and Eddy days. Filmore '71... Mudshark Baby! And the best Groupie Routine! I'll try to come up with a selection of my own favorites soon. Alas I'm a bit pressed for time right now to do proper research. The fun will continue....

Nice player indeed. Welcome to the club!

Great player, and nice to have on the team! I don't have to say yes, as I did the invitation...

So... Just a little bit of relief then. Sorry to hear the treatment is not definitive. I really hope things will turn more positive soon. Will have my fingers crossed!

Hi Pappy, So sorry to hear your family has to go through this ordeal. Life sometimes throws some really ugly things... Y'all be in my thoughts.

That does not sound as a bad solution mate... Personally I would break it over my knee. Must be something fishy going on with you silent.dat file or your profile or something like that. Might want to check your disks...

I'll ride out Windows 10 as long as possible. Got it under control now so I will sit it out till 11 has reached the same stability, and there is a fix for being forced to create a Microsoft account.