Saturday, August 30, 2014

Family Artists Standing Side by Side on the Features Page

The artists represented are not the only painters in the family but they're only ones, to my knowledge, with Web pages.

Valerie Fraser and Alex Fraser are now all set on the Features page of My Duck Soup.  It might interest you to review their work and look for the genetics.  I see it in the passion for their art but I don't see it in their styles except insofar as they push outward, beyond, or whatever you want to call it.

If any other artists want to stand up there with them, let me know your Web site or I can make one for you (family ONLY - you buy the Web site and I'll build it.  If you can throw in some pepperonis for the pizza, that would be quite good).

To some extent this is making my own gravestone and I look at it dispassionately as did my ol' Mother.  It freaked me right the hell out when she started talking about her own funeral arrangements but to her it was like talking about making a grilled cheese sandwich.  In my current situation, now I see how she could do that.  It is like making a grilled cheese sandwich.

So, yah, I'd like to leave behind something more than a pile of mindless yap on social networks and it would suck if people thought that's all there was ... but how would they know if I don't show them.

Smoking is only one aspect of the self-destructiveness but the Web site I can put back together.  I'm pleased with how it goes as no programmer will ever put something back just the way it was.

One aspect may trouble you in that I've sold my soul to the Lucifer of Social Networks and I'm in-process of putting share buttons on one or more pages.  All of these godless demons load tracker cookies to you but they're inescapable unless you put mountainous barriers around your system.

If you want mountainous barriers then consider Ghostery as its mission is specifically the blocking of tracker cookies.  My preference for add-on software solutions is Avast! as its approach is subtle and selective so I've abandoned Ghostery and use Avast! exclusively for comprehensive malware protection.  Note:  Ghostery and Avast run on anything, even Windows.


The sequences below are stock Mac processes.  Use them.

Mac Users:

  1. Click System Preferences
  2. Click Security and Privacy
  3. Click the Firewall tab
  4. If it's not on then turn it on
  5. Click OK

Optional but worthwhile:

  1. Click Firewall Options (may need to click the lock / enter your password to permit changes)
  2. Click Enable Stealth Mode to activate it
  3. Click OK

The above will mean when some external entity Pings your computer, it will not respond.  That Ping may represent the first probe in an attack.  Don't answer it.

  1. Click Advanced (bottom of panel)
  2. Unless you use an infrared remote control for your computer, Disable Remote Control
  3. Click OK

I don't know how much potential there may be for some Dagwood to cruise down your street trying to pair a remote with your computer but infrared means it has to be line-of-sight so it's kind of improbable.  Nevertheless, why permit it if you don't need it.


It's not my purpose to go beyond the above to third-party security solutions.  The stuff I have listed is mandatory for any Apple computer.  If you do want more, consider Avast! as I've found it to be powerful, effective and unobtrusive.  Virus updates are posted daily.  Free.

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