The Microsoft Challenge

Has anyone wondered why new computers are always so slow?

It used to be expected of older, physically slower PCs, but these days it's true even of brand new computers.

 

I mean, back in the day - when I first started working as a PC technician back in 1999, I had a 486DX 100mhz with 48mb of RAM using Windows 98 2nd edition, and that was faster than most of the newer PC's I've used since. Such was my expertise back then that I rigged up a live toggle switch to the jumper settings on the board so that - while the PC was running - I could overclock it to 120mhz - play my first-person shooters - and then set it back down to 100mhz again. I even managed to play Heretic and Hexen on it smoothly, and without any trouble. I even built a cooling duct over the CPU and heat sink that ran to a fan at the front of the case to improve cooling and stability, and occasionally augmented that by placing a saucer filled with ice cubes in front of the case so that chilled air would be sucked in!

But then we got newer, faster PCs - with more RAM, bigger multi-core CPUs - and much, much bigger Windows.

The Pride Flag Murder - A Reflection

Last week in California, Laura Ann “Lauri” Carleton, a 66 year old woman was shot dead in cold blood by someone who can only be described as a domestic terrorist who took issue with a rainbow flag displayed outside her business. 

The terrorist in question was named as one Travis Ikeguchi, a slavering and brainwashed devotee of the Trump/MAGA cult.

While this event may appear at first glance to be a simple hate crime, or yet another commonplace shooting incident, one of many that has already taken place across the USA just this year alone, there are actually more facets to this event than initially meet the eye.

OceanGate - A Recipe For Stupid Deaths

The incident with the OceanGate Titan submarine disaster - from beginning to end - reads like a recipe for stupid deaths. 

Think about it: You've got rampant corner-cutting to save costs, use of the wrong materials (carbon fiber instead of steel) to build a deep-ocean submersible in the first place, no back-up systems and reduced safety practices, poor maintenance and industrial safety compliance, lack of oversight or regulation, and pervasive greed and suicidal risk-taking. It's all in there. The only really amazing thing about this is that it took so long for something serious to go wrong. (1, 2, 3)

Port Elizabeth & The Appalling State Of The Place: A Justified Rant

Port Elizabeth - my home town, the city on the southeast coast of South Africa's Eastern Cape province - has long been the mounting cause for concern and anger on the part of many residents - but aside from them, on my part as well.

Does space suck? Find out here!

"Space Sucks!" Space Sucks! Book 1

Does space suck? Find out here!

After an unexpected battle in orbit over a strange planet, the crew of the surviving ship lands to repair their damage. Will the locals welcome them - or try to eat them?

On the border of Terran space, a lone starship on frontier patrol is unexpectedly attacked. How will the rest of their day turn out? Will they miss dinner?

At the very last moment, Earth’s first mission to send a ship to explore a nearby star system, is delayed. A shuttle is on its way to dock – a shuttle bringing an admiral bearing bad news – and the captain of Earth's first starship finds her life – and her career, poised on the edge of the PR department’s knife.

On the other hand, Lance-Corporal Thomas O’Blivion – a newbie to a deep space mining station where the miners have just gone on strike and turned to violence, has no idea how bad his day is about to get!

Lastly, while in the midst of taking revenge (and a second magnum of champers) insurance salesman Eric Sloane is paid a visit by a strange and extraordinary alien (who informs him her name is Catisha), and points out the flaws in his plan.

Launch into space, the future and beyond! Enjoy a humorous look at life in space through the eyes of some colorful characters in this collection of five unique sci-fi tales by Christina Engela, spanning everything from adventure to suspense to comedy and then back again!

Narrated by: Jennifer Pratt, Published by Peever Publishing

Read more: https://wp.me/PcoTxI-1Yw

'It's Just A Joke'

I just blocked another old school "friend" on Facebook for posting a transphobic "joke". 

Honestly, what some people think is funny at the expense of other people's suffering is quite beyond me.

It's not satire, because satire is meant to make fun of powerful institutions and people who are literally untouchable as far as ordinary people are concerned. Satire doesn't attack people who are vulnerable and victimized by society, or dehumanize them, or add weight or legitimacy to the arguments against them. 

What this constitutes is, in fact, bullying.

I mean, are you posting this sort of asinine infantile garbage because you think that letting people know you think the suffering of other people is genuinely funny, is somehow not going to hurt anyone - least of all the people whose suffering you're making a mockery of? Do you expect them to not be hurt by it simply because you're the one sharing it, and you're ostensibly their friend? Or do you simply not care?

Are you so self-centered or disconnected from your own humanity that you're somehow oblivious to the fact that you're actively rubbing salt in the wounds of any transgender people watching, and that you're basically laughing in their faces at their discomfort, their pain and their very real fears that they may be next?

Sharing material like that publicly, knowing that you have transgender people on your friends list, especially people you were friends at school with and know in real life? And doing so at a time when transgender people are being marginalized and being fucking murdered just for existing? 

What the fuck is wrong with you? 

A Better Way - An Alternative To War

It's no understatement to say that there are countries so well armed in the 21st century that we as human beings have the capacity to destroy the Earth many times over. Further, for nearly 80 years, humanity has lived under that threat of mutual annihilation as if it is somehow a "good thing" as presented by various dominating nations who hold the bulk of nuclear arsenals themselves and whose actions - either accidental or deliberate - set the tone of this "Cold War". A "hot war" would mean a return to open military action, real war, and a threat of total devastation - not only for the warring nations, but for every human being, every other species of life on Earth!

Why any species that considers itself so intelligent as to be worthy of colonizing neighboring worlds, or the stars, would paint itself into such a terrible corner, no-one knows. IF there were a god of some kind, they would most likely marvel at our human capacity for folly and fascination with large-scale industrial level death and destruction, and probably feel a little jealous, even slightly threatened.

As a teen I grew up under the threat of global nuclear war - it set the tone of my youth and given subsequent political and military actions around the world - the Gulf War, Sarajevo, the Balkans, Russia's war on Ukraine - even my adulthood. Humans don't seem able to choose a change from the way things have been since Hiroshima. Why can't things be different? Why must it always be thus? What if there was an alternative to the way things are? Surely there must be?

Let me offer you one.

My Rage Is Forged In Death

Another mass shooting in the USA isn't really exceptional these days, after all, it happens every other day, doesn't it?

 

Even so, the fact that it's taken for granted - and NOTHING gets done to address this growing problem is a striking indictment of the country that loves to bill itself as a bastion of the freedoms of speech and expression and as "the land of the free". Sadly it seems that inanimate objects in the shape of guns, have more rights than living, bleeding human beings do.

On the 20th another mass shooting took place, this time in an LGBT club in Colorado. Another cowardly white supremacist Christian terrorist has struck down people who had never interfered with him or his own life, nor threatened him in any way, shape or form. 

Let me point out that this is a case in point why I don't write for the masses. The masses are stupid. Stupid people hate those who differ from them for being different. Granted, a small part of that majority are stupid enough to commit violent acts of terror fueled by the stupidity shared with the greater whole of stupidity, but the stupidity is shared and the same.

Darkness Fades

 

Have you read the Galaxii series yet? It's got action! Adventure! Space Opera!

Have you read the Galaxii series yet? It's got action! Adventure! Space Opera!

Galaxii is an epic futuristic saga written by Christina Engela, that relates the struggles and adventures of diverse characters, each realistically portrayed with their own unique interests, circumstances, and each has their own challenges and obstacles to overcome: career-minded Space Fleet officers, solo adventurers and rogues, and Corsairs – the space pirates who made the space-lanes perilous to travel in their pursuit of autonomy, wealth and notoriety. The good guys aren't always what they seem, and neither are the villains.

Currently there are four titles in the Galaxii Series: “Blachart”, “Demonspawn”, “Dead Beckoning” and "Sentinel".

 

Read more about the series.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2022.