Making an alternative to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google is not going to be easy

Now that the major tech companies have all removed Trump’s accounts, finding alternatives simply aren’t there and likely will take many years, if ever, to create – let alone be competitive.

Parler today just got added to the list of banned apps on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store, yet another avenue cut off. The power of big tech wielding it’s weight is impressive to say the least! These are power companies in every sense of the word and just like PG&E or AT&T, when those go down, the lights go out.

UPDATE 1/9/2021
Apparently Amazon (AWS) was hosting Parler. It has now removed it from their servers. Wow.

UPDATE 1/13/2021
One of the arguments the GOP is making against Big Tech shutting down their social media accounts is that this will somehow drive the radical right underground. I would argue that’s specious at best, the underground is already there. What it most certainly will do is make it much harder for Trump and the GOP to communicate to their base. How could it not?

Arthur “Bomber” Harris called the bluff to a similar objection in World War II to carpet bombing Germany regarding the efficacy of British air power to end the war. In that case, the British went forward despite the outcries to fire bomb German cities and civilian populations, most controversially the raid on Dresden which cost thousands of civilian lives. Their cities and factories destroyed after relentless Allied bombing, Germany lost.

JamKazam moves to subscription model

I’ve been using JamKazam over the past year and have tolerated the kludgy app to at least be able to play duos, because it was better than trying to use FaceTime or Zoom for simultaneous sounds and also, because it was free. Now the powers at be have enabled a subscription model where the free plan only gets 4 hours a month – that sucks. Hopefully one of the tech giants like Google and FaceBook will take on this niche and do it right.

11 3/4 INCH SKILLET

I have an unmarked cast iron pan stamped 11 3/4 INCH SKILLET on the back. There’s one on eBay in much better condition that looks very similar. Listing says Griswold – asking $160.  I’m not so sure about the make being Griswold. From what I’ve found online, the font, raised inverted triangle on the handle and “S” stamps looks more like Wagner Ware.

eBay

Mine

Skillet still works great. Been using it all week!

Humans becoming a problem? OK, here’s a virus.

As the saying goes, “You can’t fight Mother Nature.” Perhaps COVID-19 is just her way of correcting the damage the human species has done and is doing to the planet. The dinosaurs ruled for 150 million years, we’ve been here for maybe 2.5 million – just a blip. An asteroid took out the dinosaurs and the world went into darkness. Then Mother Nature came back and over time somehow we came into the picture. Now the human species is under threat from a virus – not as lethal as Ebola, but lethal enough to disrupt mankind worldwide. Last time anything like this pandemic happened was 1918 with the flu. That flu took anywhere from 50-100 million lives. So far, COVID-19 has claimed 1.5 million. Fortunately now there are vaccines coming to the rescue. Nonetheless, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the economies and changed perhaps forever the way business is conducted.

The internet in 2020 has shown that remote work is not only viable for many businesses, but actually preferable. Why have high-rent skyscrapers in cities when employees can do work from home? Other business models, like restaurants, movies theaters, hotels, concert halls and on and on, have shown how vulnerable they are to a pandemic and many in 2021 I’m sure will close for good, vaccine or not. The planet will survive no matter what, regardless of what humans do. Our survival depends on us, if we screw up, then Mother Nature will simply come along and take us out.