Month: March 2019
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Is Western civilization collapsing?
A perennial topic for me (and many of us) is the notion that there is a deep malaise in Western civilization. There are, it seems to me, three main camps on the question, “Is Western civilization collapsing?” 1. The conservative position. “Yes. And it’s a horrible thing. For one thing, elites have basically stopped reproducing.…
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How I replaced Dropbox
Updated April 2 at bottom. My main beef with Dropbox is that it’s not secure, not adequately encrypted, and there’s been a little too much indication that Dropbox is spying on user data. Ever since I decided to lock down my cyber-life, I had Dropbox in my sights. It was going to be a pain…
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How and why I got a VPN
As part of my ongoing efforts to lock down my cyber-life, I finally decided to investigate VPNs (virtual private networks) and subscribe to one, if it seemed to be a good idea. Well, it is a good idea. So I got one, and it was pretty cheap. What is a VPN, anyway? A virtual private…
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Should we be satisfied with mediocre schools?
Michael J. Petrilli is president of the conservative educational thinktank, the Thomas J. Fordham Institute–whose tagline is “Advancing Educational Excellence.” Petrilli argues that it’s totally okay if his children study at a school that is “often mediocre.” This a breath of fresh air in regards to his honesty and candor, at least. What sort of…
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Further on my Linux journey: Ubuntu on a laptop
First, I decided to switch to Linux. I have to tell you: I’m so glad I did. It’s not just the sheer relief from the knowledge that I’m not being monitored by Microsoft or carefully controlled by Apple. I’ll admit, that’s probably the biggest advantage to Linux for me. But I really, truly find Linux…