6 Best Tips to Destroy Ads and Protect Your Identity

 

[UPDATED 2021-12-10]
[originally posted 2020-09-25]

With COVID-19 and it's variants still running rampant throughout the world, millions or even billions of people are using the internet more than ever before.

There are several steps to ensure that your online activity is safe. There are a number of things that you'll need to change to ensure online safety to the highest degree. Some steps are easier than others and some will take huge amounts of discipline and will power to be able to accomplish.


1. Use a computer, not a mobile device. This is the most important tip of the six listed.

    Besides emails, all internet activity should be limited to full computers. The biggest reason is that with computers like PC, Mac, or Linux etc, are more fully capable of blocking AI (Artificial Intelligence), Ads, and identity tracking types of software with Adblocking plugins, VPN software, overlay blockers and other tools. Another reason is that pretty much all mobile apps are designed to track your usage, and are submitted to software that uses AI to determine what you might like or might do next.

Do you want to see what I'm talking about? On any Android mobile device, go to the Google Play Store and pretty much every single app that exists will usually state that it contains ads. Even when it doesn't say "contains ads" that app will probably force you to pay for the App and spend money. The same could be said for the Apps in the Apple AppStore.

Just a couple of quick examples would be common apps like Facebook, or YouTube. The mobile versions of these apps were designed to try to subject you to advertisements based on your tracked internet activity. One time I was trying to watch a video clip on YouTube, and I tried tapping the back button, and then tapping the video again to try and skip ads but, YouTube just kept cycling the ads. This happened up to twelve times before I could watch my video. I could have waited for two ads to play fully through, but I prefer not to be brainwashed.
They do not prevent blocking of ads and purposely don't have mobile tools to block them. For years I've tried. The blocking tools are just not as available or not available at all on mobile platforms. So if you are using any kind of internet activity on a smartphone, tablet, or mobile device, the chances are very high that you will be subjected to advertisements while you use the app whether you like it or not.

However, browsing the full-site versions of Youtube, and Facebook on a full computer grants the ability to install security features on the internet browser. Only on a full computer can you block advertisements via Adblocking plugins, VPN software, overlay blockers and other tools.


2. Use Mozilla Firefox as your main internet browser on the computer.

    There are several other comparable browsers but Mozilla Firefox will allow you the security you need to block ads and tracking.


3. Install Security Plugins and extensions for the Firefox Browser.

The list of plugins or extensions that you will need are as follows:
    A.) Adblock - Firefox version.

    B.) Adblock Plus - Firefox version. 

    C.) Adblocker for YouTube - Firefox version.

    D.) Poper Blocker - Firefox version. 

    E.) Adblocker for Facebook - Firefox version. 

    Each of these plugins requires a tiny bit of configuring, but they are pretty straight forward as soon as you click and install them.

The biggest challenge here is switching all internet activity over to a computer and not using our super convenient handheld devices. This is just one way to help minimize our online presence and keep our information safe.

Every time you sign up for a mobile app with your email and username, you are potentially setting yourself up for getting more ads and are sharing your personal information to each app and the AI that is behind them.


4. Use a VPN. 

    A Virtual Private Network is a service that hides your original IP address, and geo-location. There's a tonne out there that usually cost a monthly or annual subscription. Just search the internet for "personal use VPN". Some people will work for companies that can share their corporate VPN to remote workers so that when they use internet, the internet traffic gets funnelled back to the company network, which is usually backed by several more layers of security.


5. Use Qwant Lite instead of Google.

    Qwant Lite (https://lite.qwant.com) is an internet search engine that does not track usage. It is very important to choose the "Lite" version so that it does not hijack your homepage. Qwant Lite will not keep a history of your user account, it will not keep your history of searches, it will not track you. It will not leave any digital footprints that make it easier for AI to access your personal usage statistics or information much like how Google search does.

    - Qwant Lite - Firefox extension. 


6. Use NewPipe instead of YouTube on Android mobile devices.

    On an Android mobile device then NewPipe is the best ad-free alternative for YouTube content. It uses the YouTube API, which essentially means that it is actually YouTube, but without commercial advertisements and interference. If you have NewPipe, you won't need to pay for YouTube Premium to get rid of ads. NewPipe also has some awesome features like 'Background Play" which allows you to continue to listen to just the audio portion of videos, while you press the power button on your phone to turn off the screen and save battery life. It is absolutely amazing for music playlists from YouTube. Unfortunately Apple iPad and iPhone users are out of luck here.

    - NewPipe (note: You will need to enable the option "Install from Unknown Sources" in your mobile browser.)
    - Whenever Newpipe stops working, there is usually a version update that you will need to install to make it usable and start playing videos again. This can happen quite frequently.

Top 5 Mistakes People Make When Blaming Wi-Fi

 

[UPDATED 2021-12-07]
[originally posted 2018-04-28]

When connecting to Wi-Fi, people will sometimes experience slow or bad connections. That's not to say that the actual Wi-Fi is bad, but there are many other things to consider. This is my list for the top 5 mistakes that people always make when blaming Wi-Fi.


#5. Too many people using one hotspot.

     A Wi-Fi router or Access Point is a true bottleneck. Multiple users will be using the same hotspot. Take a look around and if there are more than 5 people using Wi-Fi, then chances are the connection speeds are going to be limited. These days, each person can have 4 or more Wi-Fi devices on their person at any given time. This includes all IoT (Internet of Things devices), smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, and video game systems. Divide a single Wi-Fi connection by the number of users, times the number of devices they are currently using and the shared bandwidth speed of the internet connection speed keeps getting smaller and smaller. In other words, the size of the slice of the Wi-Fi pie shrinks for every device connected. The optimal number of devices on one AP/router should be kept at 15 or less.



#4. Distance.

     People often connect to the Wi-Fi but they don't even try to look at where the router or access point is. The farther away you are from it, the worse the connection will be. Let's say you walk into a building whether it be an office, or shop or a restaurant of some kind, and you connect to the free Wi-Fi but you are only getting 2 out of 5 bars of signal strength. You automatically say, wow this connection sucks. But did you ever take into account where the Wi-Fi is coming from? Can you see the actual access point?


#3. Noise A.K.A Co-channel Interference.

     I'm not acutally talking about audible sounds type of noise. Noise in Wi-Fi terms is talking about co-channel interference from other radio frequency devices. Co-channel interference and noise most often comes from other Wi-Fi devices. So you're connected to a specific Wi-Fi network SSID but, when you were connecting to it, did you see the list of all the other Wi-Fi SSID network names in that list? Those ones are most likely interfering with your current connection. How about your neighbor next to you. Are they using their phone to create a tethered Wi-Fi hotspot for their other devices? Any other Wi-Fi network SSID name, other than the one you are trying to connect to is called a Rogue network, and can potentially cause noise and interference.



#2. Battery Life.

     How low is the battery on your device? If you are using a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet or something compact, it usually means, the device is likely optimized for lower voltage to extend battery life and also that their Wi-Fi antenna won't be very strong to begin with. What that also means is that there is far less electricity to power the Wi-Fi antenna. As the battery drains past 50% or more, most devices will go into a power saving mode that will likely decrease electrical power and may also reduce the effectiveness of it's Wi-Fi. Some devices will turn off Wi-Fi entirely at a certain point.
 


#1. The age and Wi-Fi standard on their device. (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax ?)

     Is your device dual-band capable and is it using the latest standard? If your device is less than 4 years old, then the answer is most likely yes. The 5.0 Ghz band on 802.11ac and higher, is the optimal way to use Wi-Fi as it will experience far less noise interference, and has a much higher connection speed. If the device can only use 802.11n or lower, then those connections will be much poorer and susceptible to interference almost always, and will have a much lower connection speed.



Conclusion.

People can be very quick to determine that the Wi-Fi sucks, but in reality it actually doesn't suck at all. All five of the things mentioned above need to be taken into account when troubleshooting. The Wi-Fi router/Access Point could be the absolutely newest, fastest-speed one on the market, and people will still blame it for bad connections, rather than taking a minute to assess their own device and how it connects.

There are also other things to consider, such as the layers past the Wi-Fi router/AP, like "how fast is the actual internet connection?", and "are there any problems on the rest of the wired network?"

Compartmentalized Wi-Fi Design and Me

One discontent I have with larger Wi-Fi LAN designs in my opinion, is how groups or individuals want their entire site to have seamless roaming with only a single SSID. A single blanketing SSID to cover very large spaces are often used. This can work well to a certain degree, however I believe there is a more precise design method and it involves compartmentalized SSID's and multiple SSID groups. This especially works really well in smaller deployments such as homes, or small businesses. I have used this design on multiple (SB) small business and consumer level deployments with less than 10 AP's site wide, without a WLAN controller, and without cloud management and with huge success.

My compartmentalized SSID design involves having an SSID per AP hotspot to individualize every AP location. This mostly only works with deployments with up to ten wireless Access Points, as the maintenance would be too tedious with deployments having a larger number of AP's. This can be implemented on a larger scale with WLAN controllers and cloud capable AP systems, but I have yet to see it done and executed without internal company politics interfering.

I can try to explain why my compartmentalized Wi-Fi design is better. Let's take my Home Wi-Fi Design for example. I have four Wireless AP Zones. That is four individual AP's each configured with their own individual SSID.
    - One AP for the garage, front driveway, and front yard outdoor area.
    - One AP for the living room and kitchen.
    - One AP for the guest bedroom and master bedroom areas.
    - One AP for the home office and back yard outdoor area.

The main reason I do this is to manually ensure that each of my end-user devices is using the strongest, most optimal AP in it's vicinity. For example, if I am using my phone or laptop in my office or back yard zone, I want to make sure it is using the office/backyard AP and I don't want my phone or laptop to be connected to any of the AP's located in the other zones even if the signal strength is still okay. If I am in the kitchen using my iPad looking for food recipes or cooking videos, I want to make sure it is connected to the living room/kitchen AP and not an AP in the other zones. I want to be able to verify that my end device using the right AP for every zone and so forth without wondering if it is still connected to a less optimal AP in a further away zone. 

The issue here is the capability and age of each end user device. Each end user device, needs to connect to each zone and AP initially to save each separate network within it's memory. A connection list needs to be populated for each end user device. From there, the roaming is determined only by each device's capability. Newer devices with newer Wi-Fi chipsets seem to handle roaming much more seamlessly and resolve much more quickly than older legacy devices. However as a power user, I can still easily select the Wi-Fi settings within my phone or laptop, and choose the correct, and strongest network SSID manually, if the device didn't already automatically pick the right one. That is one enormous issue with larger deployments using only one SSID. You just don't know if your device is picking the right AP on it's own because they are all under the same SSID name instead of individual ones. It could be picking and using the AP way down the hall 55 feet away instead of the one that is just 15 feet away...

This sort of compartmentalized SSID design works well in deployments with less than 10 AP's and the AP's can be managed individually. When you start getting into larger AP quantities, it becomes far more difficult to manage unless the system is designed around a corporate styled Cisco-like architecture where by the AP's are either controlled via a decentralized cloud management interface over the web, or through a centralized on-site Wireless LAN Controller. That is most likely why I see a large blanket SSID used in offices and buildings. Most often, there will usually be at least three main SSID groups. One SSID name for Guest public use, one SSID name for Faculty and employee use, and one SSID name for I.T. Administration use. The problem here is that even though these SSID's are separate, they are all covering vast spaces rather than being specialized to the zone that they are in.

I believe that troubleshooting times can be reduced, by using the compartmentalized SSID design by shortening the amount of time pinpointing Wi-Fi trouble spots in specific areas, rather than looking through an entire site to fix them.

This brings up another point that AP's IN LARGER DEPLOYMENTS NEED TO BE LABELLED AND DOCUMENTED, to help in locating and troubleshooting when and if a problem is detected. The hardwired Ethernet MAC address, and AP name need to be collected, and maintained. Using a WLAN controller GUI, or a spreadsheet is imperative. It needs to be updated every time an AP is taken out or replaced.    

Here's some of my history in I.T. and how I got into Wi-Fi. (I have been in I.T. before Google existed).
I have been in I.T. pretty much since I targeted the industry in my highschool years. At 14, I knew I was good with computers and pursued it with the help and recommendation of my highschool counsellor Mrs. MacLean. I had prior experience with Apple Macintosh computers at an early age from elementary school onwards but didn't really take to computer science until 1994. I remember it was around the time just before Windows 95 changed the world and IBM styled Intel powered PCs became a fascination of mine.

Later on after about a decade of PC related experience at age 25, I became charmed with Wi-Fi technology and it's potential. Around the year 2005 after being with the network security tech company IOSecure for about one year since 2004, I expressed interest in Wi-Fi technology. While Wi-Fi was still in it's early stages, I had requested training and was given the opportunity to attend multiple courses and conferences that provided resources for Wi-Fi. In the beginning, I travelled to Las Vegas multiple times to attend Cisco Live conferences and learning classes. In the following years, I travelled a number of times to distant provinces in Canada where I've never been before to perform Wireless Surveys for IOSecure clients. I have been doing Wireless Site Surveys ever since. Roll forward to the present 2021 and for 16 years, I have done hundreds of walk-throughs, and hundreds of site surveys in the British Columbia and Greater Vancouver Area. I have helped design deployments tallying nearly 4000 Wi-Fi Access Point deployments for numerous large corporate clients and (SMB) small to medium business clients and have become one of the most experienced professional Wi-Fi surveyors in British Columbia, if not Western Canada.

And while Wi-Fi still remains to be of point of interest to me, working in the industry for so long, I have found myself drifting further from this specific I.T. landscape and focusing on other things going on in my life such as family, and certain lifestyle changes that comes with marriage and fatherhood. My wife and I have a son that is Autistic. Being a special needs parent is a full-time job, and family has always been a priority for me.

How I feel About COVID-19 in August 2021

I am tired of COVID-19 and every collective challenge to society that comes with it but I will never give up against it. I am tired of watching the infection numbers falling, then rising steeply again. I can't help but think about the selfish people, the misinformed people, and the people that fear the unknown, making their own false assumptions. Why do they keep doing it? I feel like deep down, some of them want to keep COVID-19 around so that they can just keep blaming governments, to keep blaming ethnic minorities, and to show that they can keep getting unwarranted attention by using all of their annoying whining and complaining.

I will always trust the words of the world's top scientists and doctors, over the word-of-mouth and shit-stained Social Media Apps and false opinions out there. The other so-called self-proclaimed experts, with absolutely no credentials in the health and medical fields, spouting rhetoric because they have a lot of friends and followers is just plain garbage to me.

The problem is people. Society today is way too obsessed with celebrity status than they are with having truthful facts. We are all guilty of it too. I would usually choose to watch some funny comedy or action-packed fictional movie over watching a real non-fiction educational documentary.

Not enough people out there are educated on the spread of diseases. Too many people are too focused on themselves and their freedoms rather than the well-being of others.

I am planning my wedding to my wonderful spouse bride-to-be at the end of this month. We are doing our wedding in a non-traditional way and are only having immediate family attend, and the rest of the friends and extended family will be viewing through an online Zoom video-conference. We're not just doing it to be 'cool' or 'hip' or trendy. 

Here are the reasons why we chose a Zoom wedding:

1. We want to keep our family members safe, especially our parents. They are all elderly and range from 73 to 80 years old. They are all double-vaccinated against COVID-19, but catching any kind of illness, whether it be a common cold, regular flu, or something else is still devastating and inconvenient at that age.

2. With all of the uncertainties of COVID-19 and the new Delta variants, and any future pandemics that haven't hit yet, we wanted to make sure we could still celebrate our union with our parents before something bad can happen to them. Over the years, we've lost many family members, and now we wish they could be here for us but they can't.

3. We want to save money. Weddings are known to have exorbitant costs. Especially if you consider that in just a single day, the costs of these types of events could help fund a family to live for half a year to a full year alone instead. Last year, COVID-19 in 2020 wasn't exactly a good money earning year for most people including ourselves.

4. We want to keep it small to focus on us, and not the wedding itself. I would rather be known and remembered as me, rather than by how many people we can jam into a church or fancy reception hall. Over the years, I have grown to be humble and now I always will be now that I am a parent.

It is not going to be like the numerous house parties I used to throw in my late teens and early 20's where everybody was allowed to be idiots. I won't be in a drunken stupor with dozens of my friends and strangers. There will be no huge messes to clean up, there will be no fights! No noise complaints! No cops arriving to shut things down. I'm an entirely different person than that now.

As of now, I am still illness free since April of 2019, and I want to keep this healthy streak going. 28 months of no sickness so far. That's probably a lifetime record for me. I'm not going to do anything that will put myself, or my family or my friends in danger. I want to stick around, and I want to keep all my important people around as well. So fuck COVID-19. Pandemic to Endemic. Sure I'll take Endemic, but god damn, I am hating how it is taking so fucking long to get there.

Don't get me started on climate change. It is absolutely, devastatingly real. Those massive forest fires are very, very, real. Look at the smoke. Smell the smoke...

8 Months Later With XBOX Series X vs Playstation 5

  

I own both consoles and I've been fortunate to be able to test them both. I want to start off by saying that I am not any sort of Fanboy that just likes one console and hates the other. I am judging them with unbiased, honest opinions. I have favoured Playstation over XBOX in the past but that doesn't stop me from enjoying both.

Right now, I have owned the XBOX Series X since its launch, back in November 2020. I have owned a Playstation 5 Digital Edition since the beginning of March and had some troubles getting it since November 2020. I've had about 8 months with the new XBOX and about 5 months with the new Playstation.

Here are some quick comparisons of the specifications that I grabbed from IGN.

Since I've had the XBOX Series X longer, I'll start with its pros and cons.

 XBOX SX Pros: 

    * It includes a 4K Bluray drive, and does not have the option to come without one. This made it even easier to decide to get a PS5 Digital Edition without one. I don't need two 4K Bluray movie players.

    * It has a CPU that is about 8% more processing speed and power over the PS5.

    * It has about 15% more total computing TFLOP performance over the PS5.

    * It's SSD architecture is very fast. It sometimes beats the PS5 loading times in certain games and sometimes only falls short by just a few seconds behind the PS5 which is negligible.

    * It has more usable SSD storage space than the SSD inside the PS5.

    * It's form factor and architecture are much more compact, but still allowing it to breath and have excellent airflow.

    * It is absolutely silent. I haven't heard the fans at all.

    * It has a new controller that has haptic feedback triggers that is similar to the PS5's DualSense controller. The rest of the controller is the traditional rumble.

    * It has available expandable storage, with extreme performance as fast as the internal SSD. I ended up buying a 1TB expansion after getting access to Game Pass Ultimate.

    * Games and cloud saves are automatically updated from the cloud. No need to fuss around with uploading or downloading even with older versions.

    * Out of every game I've played, I've had solid, consistent, smooth, performance and I haven't had a single crash, or error message.

    * The Game Pass Ultimate subscription is absolutely mind boggling and packed with savings. For the full price of a single game, you can buy about four months subscription and get over 100 games. There are even promotions to get free months of Game Pass Ultimate. 

    * It is amazing for cross-platform games and has extreme fidelity. The performance, sharpness, and smoothness of games is on par with the expensive $3000 dollar modern gaming PCs.

 

XBOX SX Cons: 

    * The interface is not as nice looking as the PS5's but is at least customizable.

    * It has far less first party Game titles and exclusive games than Playstation.

    * It is hard to get at retail stores and online because of abusive scalpers and shop bots.

   

Playstation 5 Pros: 

    * It has an option for a unit including a 4K bluray drive, or the Digital Edition without a 4K bluray drive and with a reduced price. 

    * It has a massive library of backwards compatible PS4 Games.

    * It has excellent first party Game titles and exclusives and far more than XBOX SX. The exclusive game titles are absolutely stunning.

    * It's SSD architecture is very fast. It can beat the loading times of XBOX SX in many game titles.

    * It's form factor makes it look like a work of art. The flowing curvature and distinct look make it stand out literally.

       * It has a new controller that amazes. The PS5 DualSense controller features full haptic rumbles and haptic feedback triggers. The DualSense is very ergonomic and is probably the most comfortable game controller I've ever held.

       * Games that are backwards compatible sometimes get a next-generation enhancement to boosted frame rate, and higher resolution for a look that is almost like a remaster.

    * It is amazing for cross-platform games and has extreme fidelity. The performance, sharpness, and smoothness of games is on par with the expensive $3000 dollar modern gaming PCs.

 

Playstation 5 Cons:  

    * It's form factor is way too big. It is massive.

    * It's overall performance is lower than the XBOX SX and anywhere between 15% to 20% less.

    * I experienced stick-drift on my right thumbstick on the DualSense controller within only two months of use. Luckily I have a second backup DualSense controller that my wife bought for me before I even owned a PS5.

    * It's storage is smaller and only expandable via USB. I've had several errors with the 1TB external USB hard drive that I connected to one of its ports. It annoyingly comes on almost every time I power on the PS5.

    * I've had many errors playing many third party games not made by Sony studios. Crashes to main menu and error messages are common.

    * cross generation saves can be troublesome. Getting an old PS4 game save file to work for the same game on PS5 can require extra steps which are bothersome.

    * It is nearly impossible to get at retail stores and online because of abusive scalpers and shop bots.

 

Conclusion:

In my opinion, the XBOX Series X is pulling ahead as the winner so far during this first year of the console wars. It has more Pros, and less Cons. With that said, I have actually played the PS5 more extensively than the XBOX Series X as well because I enjoy the exclusives more, but with all the negative points, I think that XBOX SX will give people a lot less headaches.

What Does My IQ Score Mean?

I feel that my college days was when I was at the peak of my intellect and studious achievements. It was probably the sharpest I've ever been. Back in my college days at 1997 through 2000 I tested my IQ and took the Mensa IQ each year. In 1998 I scored 127, in 1999 I scored 126, and in 2000 I scored 127. So what does this mean?

What is Mensa?
Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. In order to become a member of Mensa, you need to achieve an IQ score of 132 or higher.

What is the origin of Mensa?
Roland Berrill and Dr. Lance Ware founded Mensa in 1946 in England. According to American Mensa, Ltd., the Latin word mensa has several meanings: "mind," "table" and "month." Mensa was created to serve as a round-table society for highly intelligent people to meet on a monthly basis.

How is IQ measured?
Standardized IQ tests are given and scored by trained administrators. The score represents how you compare to your peer group in:

    language
    reasoning abilities
    processing speed
    visual-spatial processing
    memory
    math

If you have a high IQ score, it means your reasoning and problem-solving abilities are better than average and may signal intellectual potential.

An IQ of 70 or below may indicate limited intellectual functioning. However, IQ alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Testing of social, practical, and conceptual skills is needed to make that kind of determination.

What are the typical IQ score ranges?
IQ scale        Interpretation of IQ score            % of population
121-130        Gifted                                         6.4%
111-120        Above average intelligence        15.7%
90-110          Average intelligence                   51.6%
80-89            Below average intelligence        15.7%

I was good at everything I did but I was not an over achiever. I didn't strive to be at the top of the class, nor did I want to be. Instead, I was more focused on being very social and was super passionate about being around the people important to me. Martial Arts, girls, friends, sports, and partying were higher on my priority list than proving I could get better grades than my peers.

I'm in my 40's now and of course there are days where I feel dull, and can't remember certain things that should be easy to recall. That's when caffeine is my saviour. My preferred caffeinated beverage is Rockstar Zero, and Rockstar Thermo-X which is the sugar-free energy drink that comes in a myriad of different flavors. If don't have access to those, I usually go with a home-brewed Keurig K-Cup Tim Horton's Original coffee with cream and sugar.

Am I still smart? I'd like to think so but I know for sure that I've lost much of what I learned back in my school days. Alot of what we were taught in school was not even really practical, and only the practical things that we use regularly are what makes us wise in our current state.

Am I ever going to use Calculus to find derivatives in things?...NOPE! Am I going to try to calculate Moles and Titrations when combining Hydrogen molecules, with Oxygen molecules?...I don't work in a lab. Do I need to know if 320 Kbps or 192 Kbps is better for MP3 or AC3 audio-streaming?...well yes. Can I still, trip take-down an opponent and crush their wind-pipe in three moves?...also yes.

We take only the knowledge of what we need based on what we do in day-to-day life. That's not to say that some of what I learned in school was a complete waste. Rather, education in general is an exercise to test the potential of anyone's abilities, so that one's self can carry that knowledge into whatever direction life takes them.

Some Observations During 2019 Through 2021

 

My name is Walt Jimenez. I am 41 years old born in 1979. I am an Asian man of Filipino-Spanish descent, but I am 100% Canadian and was born and raised on Canadian soil. I practically bleed Maple Syrup. English is my main language. I have not had any illness or colds since April of 2019. That was two whole years ago and well before the current pandemic began. My family and I have always obeyed COVID-19 rules, and policies since the beginning of February 2020 and I can attribute my excellent health to the extreme social distancing methods, face mask wearing, and constant washing of hands and just general good hygiene practices. Before the summer of 2019 I did not really follow those simple rules and our family members regularly took turns getting sick with colds, and flu at least three times a year previously even with regular annual cold & flu vaccinations. It really goes to show what a positive difference it makes to follow rules and not spread sickness.

My spouse Marie and I had also made some changes in our autistic son Xavier's education at the end of the 2019 school year in June when he had finished Kindergarten. We had decided to begin homeschooling him in September 2019 where he would start Grade 1. When we had him kept at home rather than being together with hundreds of other children or away from publicly used spaces, we noticed that none of us would ever get sick. We absolutely did care that he would be missing out on important social contact, but we felt that he needed us with a bigger focus on individualized learning to help him feel comfortable in his own progression. In previous years, where he went to daycare, preschool, and kindergarten, it almost seemed like a never ending cycle of getting sick. One or all three of us would be getting sick every other month it seemed.

I remember the first time I heard about the new Novel Corona Virus way back in the first week of December 2019. I saw it on the news several times and distinctly remember that it began with a reported outbreak of 64 infected people in Wuhan, China, and knew it was extremely serious as soon as they even mentioned "CDC" (The Center for Disease Control) and no cure. Right then and there I took it extremely seriously, and began denying business meetings, turning down friendly meets with friends, and even not visiting family before it was even announced that we had to do so. I regularly checked on updates on the news for this Novel Corona Virus that would become referred to COVID-19. Every time I heard about it, the numbers multiplied...64, 266, 1100, 2800, 4200, 10,000, 14,000 etc. and the days and weeks went by and the numbers kept skyrocketing. More and more countries were reporting outbreaks, and it was getting worse by the day.

For me when social distancing rules were announced in March 2020, not much had really changed for me at all. I had already taken a backseat from big social meets and interactions. I feel like I already naturally started social distancing in the past few years since I was probably around 35-years old back in 2014. Perhaps it was the realization that I needed to be a better dad. I just wasn't interested in abusing my health, partying so hard that my wallet was empty, and having to suffer effects of a hangover for 24 hours anymore. In my mid 30's I pretty much stopped drinking any alcohol for my own personal health. The last time I had an actual hangover was September 2018 and that's because I went to a bachelor party for my cousin. In my 30's I was absolutely not the party animal, that I was in my 20's. In my 20's I also used to smoke like a chimney buying packs of cigarettes from the years 2000 to 2008 but I did manage to quit and quite successfully. 2008 (29-years old) for me was a very rough year battling depression, ulcers, and extreme overworking and anxiety. After that, I made some lifestyle changes and came out stronger than ever. Even now, I don't over indulge in anything except maybe Netflix, and video games.

A positive thing about being locked down and staying indoors, was that it brought me closer to my family via video conferencing. I was and still am talking more often to my siblings and parents via Facetime, Zoom, and WhatsApp more than I have in years or even decades. I love my my family and we were brought even closer together in the fear of losing our parents and elderly to COVID-19.

Then starting in March 2020, I tried out my own social experiment over a number of months to observe people's behavior when I did or didn't wear a mask. I religiously walk my dog twice a day around the neighborhood. Most of the time I would wear a mask to cover my nose and mouth but sometimes I purposely didn't and was making some astute observations. I randomly recorded that on average, 5 out of 10 times, people will berth wide and walk around me when I wear a mask and only 1 out 10 times people would walk further away to avoid me when I didn't wear a mask. To me, this is totally backwards and not right. I can only extrapolate and try to understand the logic here. It could be that some people automatically associate mask wearing, with already being sick which is false. It could also be assumed that these people are associating non-mask wearing individuals as not being a threat, or not being infected with COVID-19 which is also false. Perhaps, it could be simplified that most people just favor unmasked individuals over masked individuals because their identity can be made and therefore seem safer!? That's not a very wise assumption that people should be making either. People need to understand that masks make it safer, period.

While outdoors and social distancing while riding my bike I again made some other observations. A few times while out riding my bike while wearing a mask, I received some dirty frowning looks. Other times I got weird comments like, "Are you feeling okay to be out like that?" or "You aren't social distancing." (commentor walks closely with a group of four other people not even social distancing amongst themselves). I just shake my head and wonder why these people exist. Racism towards me is not new to me whether it be a joking matter or a serious threat to my well-being. Every time I hear about racism, or anti-maskers, or anti-vaxxers, or anti-asian hate and violence, the more and more I think that Thanos actually had the right idea. Oh well, at least it's just cowardly words. If they would actually come at me they'd just be digging their own graves.

My Top Ten Games Enhanced By PS5

 

These games have gotten a visual boost with Playstation 5. They all feature increased resolution, increased frame rate to 60 frames per second, and smoother responsive controls than on the original Playstation 4 hardware. 

1.  God Of War
   
   
2.  Monster HunterWorld: Iceborne
   
   
3.  Ghost Of Tsushima
   
   
4.  Spider-Man Remastered
   
   
5.  Days Gone
   
   
6.  Titanfall 2
   
   
7.  Spider-ManMiles Morales
   
   
8.  Ratchet & Clank
   
   
9.  Killzone: Shadowfall
   
   
10.  Knack

Next-Gen Hardware Spring Update

As it stands right now in April of 2021, all next-generation gaming and graphical hardware is still pretty much impossible to acquire unless you are a scalper using AI purchasing bot tools. It is unachievable for any normal consumer to buy a new Playstation 5, or an XBOX Series X/S, or a GeForce RTX 3000 series GPU, or an AMD Radeon RX 6000 series GPU. These types of units have been unattainable since October, November, December of 2020 etc or when they all had their respective debuts recently. 

What's new is that Crypto-currency miners are now involved. Crypto-currency companies are now using bots to buy up all of the new next-generation GeForce RTX, and AMD Radeon RX GPU's (Graphics Processing Units otherwise known as Video Cards) in order to use them in crypto-coin hashing calculations and crypto-mining operations. This creates another huge problem and effectively keeps these useful GPU's out of the hands of gamers, and content creators and video editors alike.

The bots + scalpers are the biggest most obvious issue but are only part of the problem.
There is the abysmal quandary of not having enough units to meet the demand in the first place.
There is also the dilemma in which the manufacturers, and distributors are not setting rules for how the products are distributed by retailers. The manufacturers and distributors probably don't even give a damn since they are just able to just offload their full stock, and are already meeting their quota and getting paid.
An additional frustration is that retailers themselves are doing little or not enough to fight, let alone stop AI purchasing bots via the online avenue.
Similar in fashion to the manufacturers and distributors, the retailers probably just don't care about the actual consumers because they are able to just offload their entire stock to bots & scalpers and are still able to get paid. They don't really care if the product actually reaches the hands of real people, and real buyers, and real individual users.

COVID-19 is an obvious culprit, forcing the manufacturers to have lower than desired output of actual hardware. The current pandemic plays a big hand but, the supply & demand & hype trends have existed for much, much longer and continue the same patterns they've had for decades.

As long as retailers only trickle out a few hundred units at a time or relatively small quantities, there is no hope for us normal consumers. Bots will continue to snap up all of that limited stock every single time. If retailers are even able to push out thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of units, there would be a much better result for regular consumers. With plentiful stock, there would be absolutely no chance for bots to be able to buy up everything as they are doing now. The deceptive profiteers behind the maddening AI bots are just not rich enough to buy up all of the units if the inventory was ranging in the high thousands.

My opinion in the last three paragraphs in my winter blog entry still remains very similar:

If I could reach out to my fellow people and shoppers out there I would say this, "Please don't spend your hard earned money on next-generation hardware from Scalpers. Every time one of us buys from a scalper, we just enable them to keep doing it. Wait patiently and in a few months we will all have one from a retailer at a fairer price".

Because of how the supply and demand system works, there will still likely be a shortage of Next-Generation hardware well into 2021 and maybe even into 2022.

Retail online websites absolutely need to protect us consumers and change their websites and online sales systems. They need to implement a form of 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) in order to stop these auto-buying AI bots from ruining everyone else's experience. One good example of 2FA would be introducing a Captcha form somewhere during the sequence of an online transaction. Captcha images usually rely on human user input to select either an image sequence, or selecting a word from analogue cursive writing style that is not using a regular text font. Another one is MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication in which a one-time alphanumerical code is sent to the human purchaser's point of contact, whether that be a mobile phone call, mobile phone text, or an e-mail address and then that code has to be sent back to verify that they are a real valid human being that is shopping.

One interesting tactic I had heard rumors about was that one retailer was very concerned with protecting it's human buyers. So this rumored retailer implemented a massive price hike of the PS5 to add something like $2000 over the retail price, but then only offered a specifically handed out coupon to real human buyers that discounted the $2000.  The positive result here would then cause these bot-using scalper type scammers to lose money if they attempted to buy up PS5 units.

Any of these can help deter AI bots and can significantly reduce the amount of non-human buyers.

Netflix Secret Codes and Categories Search

Here are the secret categorized Netflix codes that unlock a plethora of hidden movies and shows. 

*THESE ACTUALLY WORK! I CHECKED THEM!*

Just input the numeric code in the search bar and it gives you all the shows, documentaries, and movies without searching each one individually by name.

Action & Adventure (1365)
Asian Action Movies (77232)
Classic Action & Adventure (46576)
Action Comedies (43040)
Action Thrillers (43048)
Adventures (7442)
Comic Book and Superhero Movies (10118)
Westerns (7700)
Spy Action & Adventure (10702)
Crime Action & Adventure (9584)
Foreign Action & Adventure (11828)
Martial Arts Movies (8985)
Military Action & Adventure (2125)
Anime (7424)
Adult Animation (11881)
Anime Action (2653)
Anime Comedies (9302)
Anime Dramas (452)
Anime Features (3063)
Anime Sci-Fi (2729)
Anime Horror (10695)
Anime Fantasy (11146)
Anime Series (6721)
Children & Family Movies (783)
Movies for ages 0 to 2 (6796)
Movies for ages 2 to 4 (6218)
Movies for ages 5 to 7 (5455)
Movies for ages 8 to 10 (561)
Movies for ages 11 to 12 (6962)
Education for Kids (10659)
Disney (67673)
Movies based on children's books (10056)
Family Features (51056)
TV Cartoons (11177)
Kids' TV (27346)
Kids Music (52843)
Animal Tales (5507)
Classic Movies (31574)
Classic Comedies (31694)
Classic Dramas (29809)
Classic Sci-Fi & Fantasy (47147)
Classic Thrillers (46588)
Film Noir (7687)
Classic War Movies (48744)
Epics (52858)
Classic Foreign Movies (32473)
Silent Movies (53310)
Classic Westerns (47465)
Comedies (6548)
Dark Comedies (869)
Foreign Comedies (4426)
Late Night Comedies (1402)
Mockumentaries (26)
Political Comedies (2700)
Screwball Comedies (9702)
Sports Comedies (5286)
Stand-up Comedy (11559)
Teen Comedies (3519)
Satires (4922)
Romantic Comedies (5475)
Slapstick Comedies (10256)
Cult Movies (7627)
B-Horror Movies (8195)
Campy Movies (1252)
Cult Horror Movies (10944)
Cult Sci-Fi & Fantasy (4734)
Cult Comedies (9434)
Documentaries (6839)
Biographical Documentaries (3652)
Crime Documentaries (9875)
Foreign Documentaries (5161)
Historical Documentaries (5349)
Military Documentaries (4006)
Sports Documentaries (180)
Music & Concert Documentaries (90361)
Travel & Adventure Documentaries (1159)
Political Documentaries (7018)
Religious Documentaries (10005)
Science & Nature Documentaries (2595)
Social & Cultural Documentaries (3675)
Dramas (5763)
Biographical Dramas (3179)
Classic Dramas (29809)
Courtroom Dramas (528582748)
Crime Dramas (6889)
Dramas based on Books (4961)
Dramas based on real life (3653)
Tearjerkers (6384)
Foreign Dramas (2150)
Sports Dramas (7243)
Gay & Lesbian Dramas (500)
Independent Dramas (384)
Teen Dramas (9299)
Military Dramas (11)
Period Pieces (12123)
Political Dramas (6616)
Romantic Dramas (1255)
Showbiz Dramas (5012)
Social Issue Dramas (3947)
Faith & Spirituality (26835)
Faith & Spirituality Movies (52804)
Spiritual Documentaries (2760)
Kids Faith & Spirituality (751423)
Foreign Movies (7462)
Art House Movies (29764)
Foreign Action & Adventure (11828)
Classic Foreign Movies (32473)
Foreign Comedies (4426)
Foreign Documentaries (5161)
Foreign Dramas (2150)
Foreign Gay & Lesbian Movies (8243)
Foreign Horror Movies (8654)
Foreign Sci-Fi & Fantasy (6485)
Foreign Thrillers (10306)
Romantic Foreign Movies (7153)
African Movies (3761)
Australian Movies (5230)
Belgian Movies (262)
Korean Movies (5685)
Latin American Movies (1613)
Middle Eastern Movies (5875)
New Zealand Movies (63782)
Russian (11567)
Scandinavian Movies (9292)
Southeast Asian Movies (9196)
Spanish Movies (58741)
Greek Movies (61115)
German Movies (58886)
French Movies (58807)
Eastern European Movies (5254)
Dutch Movies (10606)
Irish Movies (58750)
Japanese Movies (10398)
Italian Movies (8221)
Indian Movies (10463)
Chinese Movies (3960)
British Movies (10757)
Gay & Lesbian Movies (5977)
Gay & Lesbian Comedies (7120)
Gay & Lesbian Dramas (500)
Romantic Gay & Lesbian Movies (3329)
Foreign Gay & Lesbian Movies (8243)
Gay & Lesbian Documentaries (4720)
Gay & Lesbian TV Shows (65263)
Horror Movies (8711)
B-Horror Movies (8195)
Creature Features (6895)
Cult Horror Movies (10944)
Deep Sea Horror Movies (45028)
Foreign Horror Movies (8654)
Horror Comedy (89585)
Monster Movies (947)
Slasher and Serial Killer Movies (8646)
Supernatural Horror Movies (42023)
Teen Screams (52147)
Vampire Horror Movies (75804)
Werewolf Horror Movies (75930)
Zombie Horror Movies (75405)
Satanic Stories (6998)
Independent Movies (7077)
Experimental Movies (11079)
Independent Action & Adventure (11804)
Independent Thrillers (3269)
Romantic Independent Movies (9916)
Independent Comedies (4195)
Independent Dramas (384)
Music (1701)
Kids Music (52843)
Country & Western/Folk (1105)
Jazz & Easy Listening (10271)
Latin Music (10741)
Urban & Dance Concerts (9472)
World Music Concerts (2856)
Rock & Pop Concerts (3278)
Musicals (13335)
Classic Musicals (32392)
Disney Musicals (59433)
Showbiz Musicals (13573)
Stage Musicals (55774)
Romantic Movies (8883)
Romantic Favorites (502675)
Quirky Romance (36103)
Romantic Independent Movies (9916)
Romantic Foreign Movies (7153)
Romantic Dramas (1255)
Steamy Romantic Movies (35800)
Classic Romantic Movies (31273)
Romantic Comedies (5475)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy (1492)
Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy (1568)
Alien Sci-Fi (3327)
Classic Sci-Fi & Fantasy (47147)
Cult Sci-Fi & Fantasy (4734)
Fantasy Movies (9744)
Sci-Fi Adventure (6926)
Sci-Fi Dramas (3916)
Sci-Fi Horror Movies (1694)
Sci-Fi Thrillers (11014)
Foreign Sci-Fi & Fantasy (6485)
Sports Movies (4370)
Sports Comedies (5286)
Sports Documentaries (180)
Sports Dramas (7243)
Baseball Movies (12339)
Football Movies (12803)
Boxing Movies (12443)
Soccer Movies (12549)
Martial Arts, Boxing & Wrestling (6695)
Basketball Movies (12762)
Sports & Fitness (9327)
Thrillers (8933)
Action Thrillers (43048)
Classic Thrillers (46588)
Crime Thrillers (10499)
Foreign Thrillers (10306)
Independent Thrillers (3269)
Gangster Movies (31851)
Psychological Thrillers (5505)
Political Thrillers (10504)
Mysteries (9994)
Sci-Fi Thrillers (11014)
Spy Thrillers (9147)
Steamy Thrillers (972)
Supernatural Thrillers (11140)
TV Shows (83)
British TV Shows (52117)
Classic TV Shows (46553)
Crime TV Shows (26146)
Cult TV Shows (74652)
Food & Travel TV (72436)
Kids' TV (27346)
Korean TV Shows (67879)
Miniseries (4814)
Military TV Shows (25804)
Science & Nature TV (52780)
TV Action & Adventure (10673)
TV Comedies (10375)
TV Documentaries (10105)
TV Dramas (11714)
TV Horror (83059)
TV Mysteries (4366)
TV Sci-Fi & Fantasy (1372)
Reality TV (9833)
Teen TV Shows (60951)