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Paul E. Jones' Blog

LinkedIn Using Demographics to Artificially Promote Users

October 22, 2021

I logged into LinkedIn and was greeted with this. They want to “improve equal access and opportunity” by asking me demographic questions. There is only one possible way to use such demographic data: to modify algorithms to artificially promote some people and demote others based on demographics. There is nothing “equal” about that kind of behavior.

I am a firm believer in promotion based on merit. Anything other than merit-based promotion is demoralizing, degrading, and unfair those who are intelligent and who have worked hard to achieve accomplishments.

Permalink: LinkedIn Using Demographics to Artificially Promote Users

Crumbling Discourse in Society

October 6, 2021

Our society seems to be going off the rails. I am not sure where the problem is rooted, but people have become more and more intolerant of views expressed by others in recent years to the point that I think it is harmful. I have seen friends become enemies. I have seen people rebuked for merely having a different opinion on a topic. Any day of the week, you can visit Twitter and see some of the nastiest, hateful exchanges between people. Twitter isn’t alone, of course. The same thing exists on Facebook. And it is because of the hateful exchanges I’ve seen that I do not have account on either platform any longer.

Before I closed those accounts, though, I had many animated discussions with people on different topics. Some people participating in the conversation agreed with my opinions and some did not. Personally, I appreciate the fact that others have a different opinion than my own, since hearing their views helps me to expand my thinking about whatever issue is being discussed. However, there were some people who had absolutely to tolerance for any view except their own. And it was sad, too, because most of those people who were so bigoted in their thinking called themselves “liberals”. Liberals, they were not.

In 2021, it is clear that the free exchange of ideas is still being oppressed by these types of bigots. One of the platforms I was using was “Nextdoor”. For those unfamiliar with Nextdoor, they are a community-oriented site where people have discussions about things happening in their town or the neighborhood. I had not visited the site for a few days, but tonight when I went to log in I was greeted with this notice.

I was being falsely accused of violating community guidelines, specifically in sharing “misinformation.” I had not been involved in any heated exchanges with people, but I was involved in discussions related to vaccinating children. There are some in my neighborhood who want to require all kids to get the new COVID-19 vaccine. I believe we should not force it on them until we know more about the effects. Is my opinion “misinformation”?

It might due to the references I used to support my position. On the CDC’s web site, they show that children are not nearly as affected by COVID-19 as older adults. In fact, as of today they show the total number of deaths of children aged 0 to 17 at 499 people, whereas the same page shows that the number of children who have died from pneumonia is 1010. We also know, generally, who in that age group is most at risk, as the CDC has published that information, too. The research is pretty clear about it.

And my concern about vaccinating children is a concern shared by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in the UK. They wrote:

For persons aged <18 years old who do not have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19, there is more uncertainty in the precision of the harm-benefit balance when considering the impacts on children and young people themselves.

My concern is also shared by Pfizer, too. In a document published October 2021, they wrote the following:

The number of participants in the current clinical development program is too small to detect any potential risks of myocarditis associated with vaccination. Long-term safety of COVID-19 vaccine in participants 5 to <12 years of age will be studied in 5 post-authorization safety studies, including a 5-year follow-up study to evaluate long term sequelae of post-vaccination myocarditis/pericarditis.

In short, they need five years to determine whether it is safe for children.

My expression of caution is clearly shared by medical experts. Even so, the bigots who police Nextdoor falsely claimed that my opinion, with data points taken from the CDC and linked directly, is “misinformation”.

Well, this is one more social media platform I will not be using. It’s sad that our society is so full of intolerant, bigoted individuals. What’s worse, though, is that they lie. I did not publish “misinformation”. Apparently, though, I published information with which they did not agree.

How can we function as a society when conversions are shut down by intolerant, bigoted individuals like those at Nextdoor?

More importantly, how many deaths like this, this, this, this, this, and this will there be among children due to vaccines the government claims are “safe”? Perhaps we will know once research is conducted on what is actually causing the adverse side-effects.

UPDATE 9/2022: A year later, the CDC is now sharing even more information about how to deal with the health issues that we observed in 2021. Nextdoor still says I shared misinformation. I did not. Not only did they suppress information I provided from the CDC, but they also lied about me and still lie about me.

UPDATE 10/2022: It has now been made public that Pfizer did not test to see if the vaccine stopped transmission.

Permalink: Crumbling Discourse in Society

Credit Cards Paying 2% Cash Back

September 6, 2021

Talking about credit cards that pay 2% cash back has nothing at all to do with technology, but I just found it interesting that recently there are several cards on the market paying this amount. What prompted me to take notice was the fact that I got an invitation in the mail from PayPal for a credit card that pays 2% cash back. I knew PayPal had debit cards, but until I got that letter in the mail I was completely unaware that they even had a credit card. (It might have been advertised to me when I logged in, but I'm really fast at bypassing ads without reading them.)

As I looked around, I found several cards that pay 2% or more cash back on all transactions. I'll maintain this list for a while of those cards I find (or if you tell me) that pay 2% or more cash back. I do not want to list cards that use gimmicks like paying 5% in "top categories" or have "requirements" you have to satisfy periodically or limits on the cashback amount.

Here are the consumer credit cards I found that might be of interest (in alphabetical order):

If you find more, send them my way and I'll put them on the list. Just don't email me cards that use gimmicks.

Also, while credit cards like the Amazon Prime card with its 5% back are great for Amazon customers, and the Apple card is great for Apple Pay users, I just want to list the general use cards that consistently pay 2% or more cash back.

Permalink: Credit Cards Paying 2% Cash Back

Scott Adams' Financial Advice

December 27, 2020

Today, I was listening to Scott Adams daily video blog. As the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams is well-known through that cartoon for highlighting the stupidity often found in the corporate world. In this video (episode 1233) he mentioned that he had outlined a list of financial advice and suggested we search for it. He said that he wanted to write a book about financial advice but gave up since it really boiled down to just these ten things and the rest of the “financial advice” industry is more-or-less a fraud.

Here is his list of recommendations:

  • Make a will
  • Pay off your credit card balance
  • Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
  • Fund your company 401(k) to the maximum
  • Fund your IRA to the maximum
  • Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
  • Put six months’ expenses in a money market account
  • Take whatever is left over and invest it 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount brokerage company and never touch it until retirement
  • If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issue), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges you a percentage of your portfolio

I would make one suggested change. Buy a house once you find yourself in a fixed location. Regardless of whether you are renting or buying, you are paying for a place to live. If you are renting, though, you are essentially buying somebody else’s home or business.

Permalink: Scott Adams' Financial Advice

How to Pronounce GIF

December 4, 2020

Click on this link to learn how to pronounce GIF.

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Rise of New Technology Platforms

November 8, 2020

When new innovations come along, inevitably those innovations will be copied. It happens every time in every industry, so it is no surprise to see several new video platforms, social networking platforms, and messaging platforms get created in recent years. What is unfortunate, though, is that I think people are often unaware they exist.

Today, I received a message about "Rumble" being one of the top apps on the Apple app store. How could I not have heard of this platform and it be ranked so high? I know why: I usually have my head down working and I don't get so engaged in many of the new platforms that come along.

That said, there is something refreshing about seeing new platforms emerging and so I decided to spend a few minutes making a list of the new platforms I've discovered in recent months and years. If you know of one I should add to the following list, send me an email (ahem, yeah, I still use email mostly) or a message via Telegram (I'm relatively new to that platform).

Video Platform

Social Media

Messaging

Live Streaming

Permalink: Rise of New Technology Platforms

America, Stop Listening to the WHO and Much of What the CDC Says

April 4, 2020

When the new coronavirus (COVID-19) became known to me in early January, I took interest in it since I am married to a woman from China and have family there. My wife and I would talk about it daily. I was tracking the infection rate and getting tips on how to avoid it.

All the while, I was absolutely dumbfounded that the WHO was recommending people not wear masks. Even as late as March 31, 2020, CNN was reporting that the "WHO stands by recommendation to not wear masks". That is absolutely stupid. The WHO was also reporting incorrect death rates. I was looking at the data China was publishing, and I kept seeing far higher death rates. Finally, the WHO reported that the death rate was 3.4%. That was a closer number, but still low. China was clearly tracking over 4% and some other countries are tracking even higher. Spain's death rate stands at over 9% as of this writing. The WHO simply cannot be trusted, so do not listen to them.

Yes, wear a mask! A mask isn't just to prevent you from spreading it to others. That seems to be the new claims from the US CDC, but even that’s misleading. It does help with that, but a mask also helps prevent getting it. The reality is that they are just concerned that you might buy the masks the medial teams need. In fact, they made that a bit clearer in a tweet. The reality is that a surgical mask or an N95 mask is absolutely your best defense if you must be out in public, but any good mask is better than no mask. The best defense, of course, is to not be out in public.

I think everyone has heard many of the recommendations about washing your hands, keeping distance between yourself and others, cleaning anything that enters your home, etc. I have also heard claims that drinking hot liquids will help. I have no evidence to support the claim, but I have seen "fact checking" sites say it does not help. At this point, I do not trust any site that claims anything does or does not work. What I can tell you is that pretty much everyone in China is required to wear a mask in public and at work. Many businesses require employees to drink hot liquids before shifts start. It is either that or gargling hot salt water. Given China's success rate at combating this virus, I put more stock in the common practices there than I do in what "experts" are telling us in the west.

By all means, do not listen to people like this:

The bottom line is this: if it makes sense, even if remotely helpful, do it. Help protect yourself and your loved ones.

Permalink: America, Stop Listening to the WHO and Much of What the CDC Says

Eric Ciaramella, Alleged Ukraine Whistleblower

February 14, 2020

Something is seriously wrong in America when a Senator mentions the name Eric Ciaramella, the alleged whistleblower who raised concerns with Adam Schiff that then led to the Impeachment of Donald Trump, and the video from his talk on the Senate floor is removed by YouTube.

Something is very, very wrong.

Permalink: Eric Ciaramella, Alleged Ukraine Whistleblower

Preventing Windows 10 from Rebooting after Installing Updates

September 18, 2016

Microsoft made the dumbest decisions I've ever seen with Windows 10 to simply download updates, install them, and then reboot your machine for you! I've lost work I was doing several times and finally decided to track down a solution.

Here is what seems to be working for me.

1) Run "gpedit.msc". 2) Under "Computer Configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Windows Components" -> "Windows Update"... 2a) Select "Configure Automatic Updates", select "enabled", select "3 = Download the updates automatically and notify when they are ready to be installed", uncheck "install during automatic maintenance". I also checked "install updates for other MS products", though I'm not sure if this has any effect. 2b) Under "No auto-restart when logged on users for scheduled automatic updates" select "Enabled". 3) Run "gpupdate /force".

This works for Windows 10 Pro. I believe that "Home" versions may not have the ability to manipulate policies, so you just have to live with the crap from Microsoft, I guess.

Permalink: Preventing Windows 10 from Rebooting after Installing Updates