Trump-class BBG? It's Either the Best Trump Joke ever or End of US Navy

Recently, the announcement of "Trump-class" BBG USS Defiant started a bunch of analysts all with different ideas. 

I am not a naval analyst. I am a bull**** detector. And I detect a huge amount of bull****. Thus the title here: it's either the best Trump joke ever, or this is the end of the US Navy as we know it. In other words, China won't destroy our navy in a conflict in the Pacific. We're doing it to ourselves. 

Let's start with the joke part. Why do I think this is a joke? 

* The class name. Everybody who knows navy knows, the first ship of the class is what the class is named after. So why is the ship called USS Defiant, but Trump-class? This is a press-release ship, vaporware. There is no real plan to design it, much less build it. It's not even a concept. It's a wishlist. 

* There are currently NO SHIPYARD IN THE US capable of building this ship. That's right, NONE. You need to upgrade a few of the existing yards to even THINK about building them. 

* The current form of this ship is VERY INEFFICIENT as a missile bank. It barely has more VLS cells than the retired Ticonderoga-class CG (guided missile cruiser), yet costs two to three times more, with presumably 2-3 times more crew, and probably takes 2-3 times longer to build... (see above)  At this rate, even if we start upgrading the yards now, we won't see even the prototype until the 2030s as a hull, muchless commissioned and accepted into service. 

* It doesn't address the problem of US Navy is being outnumbered on VLS cells by the Chinese Navy, i.e. PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy), whose Type 55 "Destroyer" (which is larger than our Ticonderoga "cruisers") is already in service and already has nearly 100 VLS cells per ship. Remember, we're RETIRING Ticos. We barely have Arlieigh Burkes, We planned for 2 dozen Zumwalts. We got 3 instead. The Littoral combat ships are disasters. And we just CANCELLED Constellations. 

But what if the Navy was serious, that they really intend to build this thing, by diverting all the money planned for Constellation and DDG(X) into this BBG, and the half-baked FF(X) idea, which is bolting some VLS cells onto the Coast Guard Legend-class cutters? 

* It doesn't help (rehash of the last point), even if they find the budget, and Congress rubber-stamp the proposals, because, as mentioned, it's NOT an efficient missile platform. Adding the guns and whatnot doesn't help. This is a floating wishlist, as it can do a little of this, a little of that. It's a little of everything... master of none. It looks great ON PAPER, and it'll definitely sooth DJT's ego, but it doesn't help USN address the growing hull and VLS disparity between USN and PLAN. 

* They actually said this will be the "best-looking" ship. No joke. and DJT himself even said he wants it that way because "I'm very aesthetic". Since when do warships care about "looking good"? This is just a concept rendering, Heck, it even has the front RAILGUN spitting flame like a conventional cannon!?!  Not even the Iowa spit flame out the barrel! Huge plumes of smoke, sure... But this is official press release from the US Navy itself?!

* There doesn't seem to be any actual Navy people at the announcement (Hegseth doesn't count).     

How MAGA is Dishonoring Charlie Kirk's Legacy

Charlie Kirk's assassination has shocked the nation. While I do not agree with his views on many things, I believe the vast majority of us would agree that we do not wish him death, or even maimed. We can agree to disagree on many things. While his death will silence him, his ideas will live on, and you can't silence an idea. 

However, MAGA's current clumsy attempt to maximize the propaganda value of Kirk's death by trying to venerate him, and the various overreaction to anything about Kirk that's NOT complimentary (posters of Kirk as a "saint", Trump floated the idea of giving Kirk a posthumous Medal of Freedom, FCC bullied Disney into suspending Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about Kirk, WaPo fired a black female reporter who cited an uncomplimentary quote by Kirk on black females for "endangering colleagues"...), IMHO, is dishonoring Kirk's legacy. 

You don't get it? Let me walk you through this. 

Why did Kirk's assassin do it? 

To stop Kirk from speaking out, right? 

So how does MAGA and those organizations kowtowing to MAGA (such as Disney, WaPo, etc.) react? 

By stopping anything that's not "nice" about Kirk from being aired or even spoken on public media. 

MAGA used the death of an outspoken man... as an excuse to CENSOR other people! 

Oh, the irony. 

Rant: Child Dead in LA is Just a Sign of Things to Come

When Trump nominated RFK Jr to CDC Head, things are going to get bad, and the latest news is merely a sign to come. 

RFK Jr is, for lack of better term, a so-called vaccine freedom-fighter... as in vaccine should NOT be mandatory. They claim the "risks" of vaccine means it should be a personal choice, when it *should* be public policy, because diseases affect everybody. Once RFK jr took office, one of the first things done was firing the entire vaccine advisory panel... and replaced it with a group composed of various vaccine denialists that were discredited during COVID. Since then, CDC has basically waived every school vaccine mandate, claiming it's a state-level issue or personal freedom issue. As a result, childhood diseases such as measles, which was nearly eradicated decades ago (back in Year 2000), and used to be only counted in the teens, except for a few cases in isolated communities where vaccine denialists congregate, is making a major comeback. Measles case count per year is at a 33 year high. 

And this new child death in Los Angeles is a sign of things to come. 

To keep a long story short, Los Angeles County Health has reported a death of a child from a measles-related brain disorder called SSPE, which was basically "delayed measles". The child probably contracted measles while very young (less than 1 year old). While it is notable that this is probably BEFORE the child could be vaccinated for measles (generally MMR vaccine is given between 12-15 months old), but unvaccinated people are often protected by "herd immunity" (low chance of encountering the disease due to high percentage of vaccinated people around them). SSPE means measles virus entered the brain, and lay dormant until months or even years later. The child appears to have recovered, then the symptoms started appearing, as the virus started to destroy the brain and nerves from within. First memory starts to go, then mood changes, then muscle coordination deteriorates. Mental acuity lessens. All this, in the course of a few months... and the body lives on... And there is no cure and no treatment. 

Los Angeles County Health officer Muntu Davis released a statement, from which I quote: "Infants too young to be vaccinated rely on all of us to help protect them through community immunity. Vaccination is not just about protecting yourself—it's about protecting your family, your neighbors, and especially children who are too young to be vaccinated."

And yet RFK jr is proposing that we do away with vaccines because of "freedom". 

Would you not sacrifice a little bit of YOUR freedom to lessen the health risks for your children and your children's children? 

Self-Hosting Discoveries: Part 1 of ???

Recent random surfing and curiosity got me into "self-hosting" a few apps that normally I would have left up to the big cloud companies like Google and Microsoft and others...

Generally, that means 

1) Install "Windows Subsystem for Linux" or WSL on your Windows 11 Home PC

2) Install Docker Desktop and register for a free tier membership

3) Download and configure whatever app you want to self-host available in Docker container form

4) Install Tailscale distributed VPN and register for a free tier membership, then setup your nodes (i.e. your host PC, and whatever peripheral you want to access it from, probably your smartphone)

5) Test if everything works! 

However, there are a LOT of little niggles that causes a lot of problems in practice, at least on my personal desktop (Win11, NOT Pro), which I guess I *could* have solved by using an old PC to host these apps...

a) startup sequence

The startup sequence was kinda screwed up, as the Docker Desktop refused to initialize properly, which means none of the containers (apps) works either. Keeps complaining about not "signed in", even though it just opens up my browser, and my browser *is* signed into Docker. Had to close Docker Desktop completely, then reopen it. 

THEN the services won't open, kept complaining about port not open. Had to Powershell admin mode, then net stop hns to fix that. THEN the containers in Docker Desktop will start normally. 

b) Can't resume from sleep? 

This may be my PC's own fault, but the net effect is if my PC went to sleep I can't be sure this thing will keep running. 

c) Containers are still a mystic art

There are many ways to configure a container, and many of them require the use of CLI, or editing a Docker Compose file (YAML). 

There are more, but I am figuring them out... slowly. 

Condiment Review: Frank's RedHot | Nashville Hot Wings Sauce

I personally find my food bland and boring, but one can only eat Sriracha hot sauce for so long. Thus, I have amassed a collection of condiments to be added to my food, and this is going to be first of various condiment reviews. 

Frank's Red Hot is a whole family of hot sauces, and this one is supposed to be good on chicken wings. Personally, it goes well on everything. 

From the back of the bottle: "hot 'n spicy with a touch of sweet" and "kicked-up flavor from Aged Cayenne Red Peppers, Mack pepper, and a hint of sweet molasses". According to the ingredients list, the primary ingredient is distilled vinegar, and you do taste the tartness. Next is aged cayenne red peppers, then sugar, canola oil, and water. 

Visually, the sauce is a very orange and thick sauce with a LOT of flecks of black pepper. If you taste the sauce alone, your tongue will feel the tartness of vinegar first, then the individual pepper bits as if you hit specks of sand. THEN the heat of the cayenne pepper hits the back of your throat and tongue. But the heat is relatively subtle, yet it will make you feel you are sweating somewhat, but the sweetness counterbalances the heat. 

If you put it on meat or other food, the thickness of the sauce allow it to cling to various surfaces, which is very helpful in retaining the sauce where they are needed. However, one tablespoon is 30 calories, and 340mg of sodium (about 15% of DV), and you probably need a bit more than that. 

Better than Tabasco or similar type sauces, IMHO. 4/5

App Discovery: Karakeep (aka Hoarder) a web clip manager

If you go on the web a lot, you often come across articles that you want to reference later. So do you bookmark it, email it to yourself, or do something else? (Evernote? OneNote? Obsidian? Pocket?)

I personally had used various services including one called Omnivore, but that shut down a few months back. Then I read somewhere that if you host your own, you don't have to be EVER at the mercy of some other service provider.

As I find clipping to Evernote way too slow (up to 15 seconds per clip), I decided to look for something else. 

Then I found KaraKeep. 

How KaraKeep Works

KaraKeep is both an app and a service. It takes clippings of articles you can transfer to it via bookmarks, Android app, app share, iOS app, Chrome or Firefox extensions, and so on. It will take whatever you sent it (and optionally, run it against an LLM to extract keywords) so later you can go back and browse or search through via regular search and keywords. 

How to Install / Self-Host KaraKeep

What's great about Karakeep: it runs via a Docker Container, so there is minimal configuration if you already have Docker Container all set up. You simply download the whole package, and "run" it. Done. They have documentation online, and Discord channel as well.  

To make KaraKeep server available to you from almost anywhere, you setup a Tailscale distributed VPN, and enroll both your PC (whichever that runs the Docker container) and your smartphone (where you plan to clip from) to make sure they can see each other. And really, that's it. 

From now on, when you see an interesting article on the smartphone, simily do share >> KaraKeep. No need to choose keywords, no need to choose specific labels, no need to specify title... Share it, and forget it. It's clipped almost instantly, no matter where you are, and whether you're on cellular data or wifi. 

Run the app itself (or if you're at home, go to the machine running KaraKeep and browse to http://localhost:3000) and you can see what you've clipped, and use search and keywords to find what you clipped on that subject. 

If you want to use LLM to automagically pull out keywords for your searches, you need to configure KaraKeep (server, on your PC) by following this guide. 

Troubleshooting

Oh, and if you ever run into a problem with Docker, something about port 3000 is already taken, you need to restart hns, with "net stop hns" then "net start hns". You may also need to restart the Docker Container for Karakeep. Then it should work. 

If it fails on the smartphone side, make sure Tailscale is RUNNING. Obviously Tailscale needs to run for the VPN to work, and send your traffic back to your network to the KaraKeep "server". 

Now go have fun clipping everything you needed. 

Watch Out for LEGAL Scams: App that Cost WAY TOO MUCH on Subscription

For those who don't operate multiple phones... Androids use JPEG (or JPG), but iPhones use HEIC. The two standards are NOT compatible. If you share a photo from iPhone straight to Android, it will not be viewable. So what do you do? 

You convert it. 

Except the first convert I ran into is... essentially a scam. It basically won't do anything unless you engage the "free trial" which means you'll be charged in 3 days. It didn't exactly mention what's the cost. Then I looked at the email I just got:

Auto-renew subscription of $14.99 PER WEEK for an image converter?!

This app subscription costs $14.99 PER WEEK. 

Not per year. Not per month. PER WEEK?!

And this app doesn't even do HEIC to JPG, despite its name, "Image Converter Premium". 

Needless to say, I cancelled ASAP.