2016 — 4 March: Friday
Despite the bright sunshine — at 09:40 or thereabouts, hereabouts — I get the distinct impression it's jolly cold out there at the moment. I have to go out at some point to transact my final bit of banking business as dear Mama's executor as it entails a physical bit of paper pushing. Now there's old-fashioned. I can do it in Eastleigh or Soton. Golly! Remember the days when all the major High Street banks tended to grow, in fungal clusters, in all but small country villages? Things are falling apart...
Now here's a...
... rather unedifying little snippet about the "Land of the Free" that I didn't know:
A judge affirmed not only that Border Patrol agents had the right to search travelers' physical and electronic belongings without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing but also that they could do so far beyond the border crossing itself, within a hundred miles of any "external boundary." As the ACLU points out, two-thirds of the population of the United States lives within 100 miles of the border. Nine of the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas — including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston — lie within this band of extended border authority. As a result, some 200 million Americans actually live in de jure border zones, subject to an almost complete exemption from the Fourth Amendment, which is supposed to protect citizens from arbitrary stops and searches.
A very interesting piece that passed me by at the time.
I've hooked...
... my NUC up to the 27" Asus screen via its DisplayPort output. It's perfectly happy to drive the Asus at full 2560x1440 with 60Hz refresh rate, rock solidly. So the NUC now lives where I can comfortably use it from my sofa. How hedonistic is that? I've already confirmed I can also "run" it on the 34" Dell screen at my desk, courtesy of the LAN and of NoMachine (though only at lesser resolution, which actually makes its performance even spritelier). Best of both worlds.
Mind you, I was using it just as a music player1 last night.
Nearly a decade...
... after taking early retirement I can still recognise a few of the names of senior IBMers doing their usual rounds of IBM insider trading with their bits of Corporate paper. I'm acidly amused to note that precisely one such trade (in the last month) fails to dwarf the amount of the cheque I've just paid into my bank now that Uncle ERNIE has slung dear Mama out of his little organisation. The rich are truly living on another planet.