Sunday, 5 June 22

My Movavi Software

It's bloody cold and wet, and boring.

Doing anything outside today is a no, no. It would be okay if one couldn't avoid it, but it's not a day for outside activities.

I just read an article by Jon Rappaport indicating that several once free, democratic countries are now implementing laws and agencies to address what they call "misinformation". So, freedom of speech is on a rapid decline.

When they talk of misinformation, what they really mean is information of which they don't approve. Information that doesn't meet their preferred narrative.

We've seen the insidious creep of this with an ever-increasing number of people and organisations de-platformed, ostracised, banned, had bank accounts cancelled or suspended, and worse - some have been assaulted by the Left because of their unacceptable views.

My view has always been that anyone should be allowed to say or think anything no matter how stupid, ridiculous, childish, or irrational they wish (think of religious dogma) provided it doesn't induce violence or other genuine (not perceived) unlawful activity.

Unless you and I do something about this, it will get worse. 

Social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube are now censoring posts and videos they believe give clients the wrong idea about something. Once, we were left to decide what we did and didn't believe, but now we have social media executives telling us what to believe and what is truth. 

Have we become a bunch of automatons? 

In-house Activities

As I'm not going anywhere today, I'm devoting my time to relearning some graphics manipulation using Movavi Image Editor and Paint.Net software programs and desktop publishing using Scribus.

During my days as a TAFE teacher and staff development and training manager I produced tonnes of instructional media, course notes, computer-aided instruction programs, newsletters, brochures and more. 

I mastered Adobe Pagemaker (is anyone old enough to remember that), then moved on to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. In classes at Bundaberg TAFE I taught desktop publishing using a program called "Publish It!", a name poorly chosen, but an excellent basic program that was inexpensive and suitable for most DTP work.

Once, I was an expert in Multimate, Word, and WordPerfect wordprocessing programs and taught each along with proprietary programs on Tandy computers.

The long passage of time and alternative activity, however, dulls one's memory and skills and now I have to relearn much of what I once knew but have forgotten. The good side of course is that much of it comes back much faster than it would had I never have experienced and mastered it.

Now it's time to get to work.

#Robinoz

What are Your Pronouns?

 

NatWest staff will be able to display their favoured pronouns and phonetic name spellings on new environmentally friendly bamboo badges from next month as the taxpayer-backed lender launches a drive to appear more inclusive.

The bank, which has been trialling the new name tags since late last year, said the changes will mean that someone called Louise can now have "Looweez" on their name badge so that customers don't pronounce their name wrong.

Branch staff across the UK will also be able to add their chosen pronoun, such as she/her, he/him or them/theirs, to their new plastic-free badges and can choose to be identified by an abbreviated or ‘known as’ version of their first name if they prefer. These changes are all optional, the bank said.

I wonder where this nonsense will stop, if anywhere.

No matter how people wish for it, there are still only two genders: male and female. Any suggestion that there are others is Leftist nonsense.

Can you imagine working in a company with several hundred employees and trying to remember what pronouns - and there are said to be numerous of them - to call someone? You call on the phone and before you discuss anything, ask for the person at the other end's preferred pronouns. FFS.

Maybe it's reasonable to include the phonetic pronunciation for those with impossible to guess names like Podsiadly which isn't pod-si-ad-ly, but podchadly when considered in English. This would still be a problem on the telephone although when answering a person could give their name and its proper pronounciation.

What do you think? What are your pronouns or are you like me and don't give a rat's arse what pronouns someone uses for you?

#Robinoz

Truth in Profiles

Owls - Nothing fake here

There are said to be millions of fake social media accounts that are being used to influence people's worldview, especially in politics, ideology, buying decisions, and much more.

Fakesters have been caught flooding the internet with identical commentary, all promoting a specific topic eg, climate change and how it's going to kill off the planet or how we need to vote for a particular political party.

While I'm a believer in as little government imposition in the lives of citizens as possible, I do think there is a need to legislate that organisations like Twitter, Parler, YouTube, Instagram, and the thousands of others involved in social media require proof of identity for those subscribing to their services.

Even if they charged a nominal fee paid via EFT or credit card it would improve the situation because the name on the account would have to be identical with the credit card account. Users would only be allowed two accounts, a personal account and if they had a business, a business account.

Better still, proof of identify at sign-up would be a great idea.

This would reduce much of the obnoxious commentary aimed at individuals by those hidden under pseudonyms, stop anyone having dozens of separate, ad hoc accounts to influence others on what is right or wrong. It would clean up the industry very well.

The only social media network I know that requires proof of identity, or more accurately, proof of residence, is Nextdoor. When you sign up for a Nextdoor account, you are required to verify your address, which helps verify your name. Even if you provide a fake name, you can be found via your address.

Unfortunately, this plays into the hands of the World Economic Forum elites who want to impose a one world government upon us and a social credit score. The latest madness is that we will all require a "Personal Carbon Allowance" and be penalised if we exceed it.

However, there is still time to implement the proof of identity concept and reject the unelected WEF idea of communism imposed on the unwashed masses.

#Robinoz

Dear Diary - Every Day is the Same

 

Today's diary entry says it all.

Every day is a repeat of every other day. Well, it is when one is retired. Not completely, but mostly.

Let me explain.

Most days for me go like this, I:

1. wake up and change into my day clothes
2. look out the front door (to the East) to see what type of day it's likely to be (sun's up!)
3. open the blinds to our loungeroom side door and rear windows that look out into our patio cover and lovely garden full of lilly-pillies, lavendar, wooly-bushes and an oversupply of a variety of succulents (they grow very well and easily)
4. boot my laptop
5. turn on the television (which I later regret)
6. make a cup of coffee
7. jot down a few things in my diary/notebook that I expect to do today - in conjunction with my Google Calendar. I do a lot of volunteering so most days I have something to do for someone
8. check email and the news
9. make a cup of tea for my wife who usually sleeps in longer than I do
10. have breakfast between 10 and 11 am when I get hungry
11. do some volunteer work, much of which is on a laptop (writing grant applications etc)
12. go for a walk, ride, do some rowing exercise in my rower and a few reps of fitness tube exercises
13. have lunch around 2 pm
14. sit down in my comfortable Lazyboy chair and watch some tv after lunch
15. make dinner or help make dinner at about 6:30 pm
16. watch Home and Away (much to the laughter of my daughter who thinks I'm too old for that)
17. view some how-to videos on YouTube: carpentry, cooking, tool use
18. go to bed at 11:30 pm

The next day is much the same. But at the back of my mine, it seems that life is like that. We get into a routine, follow it and it becomes a way of life. Wake up - go to work - go to sleep with a few different thing in between.

Some days I think it's boring. 

#Robinoz