Blog on Dilan's Site

The Pope: A Heretic?

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:36:37 -0400

Even though I’m a non-denominational Christian, my view on Catholicism is… complex to say the least. I think there’s good and bad with it.

So to lay out the TL;DR of my views.

The good: The sacraments build good habits for believers. Hierarchy of people who are well-studied on the Bible to ask if your understanding is on the mark. Active and diverse network of charities.
The bad: Intercession of saints in prayer. Perpetual virginity of Mary.

So yes, my positives on Catholicism outweighs the negatives of it currently.

Scam of the Century

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 23:10:27 -0500

Have you ever wondered why the consumer price index has been increasing a lot faster than inflation? Like the cards are rigged against regular people all the time.

It’s because they are. Let’s dive into it because this one will get wild.

Why the RAM price crisis isn't ending

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 13:10:12 -0500

The RAM price crisis is not ending any time soon. And there’s a good reason why. And no, it’s not just natural demand.

Oppose Age Verification

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 10:58:55 -0400

Sometimes it seems as though with every new day there is a new government overreach. In this case it comes at the hands of some new Digital ID legislation which is passing in mostly-red states.

The way that it’s currently being drafted, signed, and enforced is the most problematic part of it.

Why Kosa is Bad

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:21:33 -0400

In this article I just wanted to mention why KOSA (Kid’s Online Safety Act) would be bad for the internet if it’s passed. Just to make this available for those who prefer written articles and to have it be a more consistent link that can be shared.

First of all: I am someone who believes that children should be able to be safe online. But I know enough about the internet and technology in general to understand that over-regulation can harm the internet as well. So here goes.

Only Part of the Story

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 13:00:12 -0400

One of the reasons why I get frustrated reading the tech news is that there are often wild inaccuracies in a lot of different articles, usually on the account of sponsorships. It’s both a blessing and a curse to know as much as I do about technology. Well, in this case it’s more on the curse side.

And now a lot of the inaccuracy I spot in the advent of the newly publicized 16-billion leak is half-truths spun up and over emphasized to sell more subscriptions.

It Shows

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:42:53 -0400

As of April 29th, 2025, Microsoft has bragged about “as much as 30%” of their code is written in AI. And in the scope of things, I’m not sure if it’s something they should be bragging about.

Article about AI

Tariff Calculator

Sat, 03 May 2025 15:15:07 -0400

This post is to introduce my new tariff calculator web app, a small project I just created in an hour or two, to practice what I have been learning about web-app development.

One of the reasons I made it is to correct a couple of pitfalls I have seen with tariff calculators thus far:

Distribution Factor: Calling it this for now because I’m not sure if this already has a technical name. But this is a percentage of the price that accounts for USA-side costs and profit margins; including but not limited to:
- Final assembly: Some products may source parts or assemblies from the origin country, but the entire product’s final assembly may take place here in the USA (I’m a citizen of the USA).
- Transportation: Naturally, some of the cost of transporting the item to the warehouse from the port is built into the retail price of an item.
- Profit Margins: Importers typically build a profit margin into the final retail price of an item.
Total Cost: While it’s a disclaimer for now (I may play around with toggling it), at some point in the future retailers will build tariffs into the retail price. While the tariff cost result of this calculator will still be somewhat accurate, you can disregard the total price if the tariff is already included in the price of the item.

Feel free to comment and correct me if I’m wrong about any of this. I’ll issue corrections when I have time.

Microsoft Removing Bypassnro

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 20:40:44 -0400

In recent news, Microsoft is removing bypassnro from its new Windows 11 images moving forward. A move that will effect users of Windows 11 Home mostly.

Tiktok Ban Revisited

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 14:22:12 -0500

The TikTok ban is something that is difficult to even follow the history of even for some of us who follow technology news.

So I’ll try to highlight the important parts of the whole process in this article.

Enabled Comments on this Website

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 21:32:50 -0500

Out of curiosity I decided to go through with installing a comments section in my site, on a select number of posts just to test it. It is based off Github, and the comments section of each post will appear in the Discussions tab of my website’s repo .

Dead Internet Theory

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 10:03:57 -0500

Dead internet theory is a theory that the internet as we had gotten to know it is starting to die out. Some consider it a conspiracy theory due to them not noticing some signs that it could be true. It is safe to say that after the last couple of months, I’ve noticed enough signs to be a believer myself. Here’s why:

In Memory of Butterscotch

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:28:52 -0500

I wrote this a little bit later but decided to post this on my website as well. On December 2nd, 2024; I lost my beloved Butterscotch to chronic kidney disease. She will be missed. This article is for her memory.

Transferring Firefox Bookmarks

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 21:16:14 -0400

So you recently exchange someone’s computer, then get asked to transfer their Firefox bookmarks, there is no Sync account setup so they’re on the person’s old computer. What’s your plan of action?

For me, at least for a while, it was to pull the files off of the computer, and fetch them using MozBackup. Well, that was a no go this time around because of obvious reasons.

Let them have Kei cars

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:00:50 -0400

In recent news, another state joins the odd movement of banning Kei cars, Massachusetts. More in this article on ArsTechnica.com .

Crowdstrike Outage: Technician's Explanation

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 12:19:49 -0400

One of the things that was big in the news was the CrowdStrike global outage which effected Windows computers which were running CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor. News article here .

Linux heads, you’re not impervious to issues like this as this article here points out.

Ticket Auction Manager becoming more crossplatform

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:13:00 -0400

Now that I’ve primarly switched over to Linux, I have been working on another Python version of Ticket Auction Manager. This time under my dbob16/tam-py repo. Because Python is more flexible as a programming language, it has one extra feature compared to the Access-based versions prior.

The ability to add new tablesets, i.e different types of tickets and items, on the fly.

Well... That Was Quick

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 23:36:46 -0400

In recent news, Microsoft rolls out a new AI feature which will be available and possibly on by default for devices labelled with the “Copilot+” badging, called Recall. Which saves screenshots every few seconds and uses AI-backed optical character recognition as well as AI identification of images to save descriptors of said activities.

The following linked video is by Eric Parker, where he plays around with the current implementation of Recall, and confirmed some findings by security researchers.

False Advertising: Chromebook edition

Tue, 14 May 2024 09:40:27 -0400

Oops, accidentally published this without finishing it, so here goes:

After being somewhat vocal about this one a while ago, I still keep seeing this issue where I work.

I think the reason why is for two reasons: 1. Chromebooks do cost less than normal computers of the same spec level. And 2. The advertising involved isn’t too honest about what they are.

Is Microsoft good for Enterprises?

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 11:27:50 -0400

Contrary to my previous article, just wanted to post one to highlight one area where continuing to use Microsoft and Windows for now makes much more sense, Enterprises.

By day, I actually work for an organization with an enterprise-like environment in place, using mostly Windows endpoints and some Windows servers running on a cluster of hypervisors. And in that context Microsoft and Windows is easier and makes a lot of sense.

Doing another Linux trial run

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 15:29:25 -0400

After I noticed some more changes to Microsoft’s Windows lately I decided to give Linux another go. Currently on Debian for my laptop, though that may change in the future, and I selected EndeavorOS on my desktop due to my graphics card being too new for Debian.

So far, so good. For the first part I will highlight what has gotten me to the point of trying Linux again after a year and a half of going back to Windows.

The Age of Forced Arbitration

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 13:40:22 -0400

In the world of identity politics and constant tragedy, often times policy changes get overlooked by the people. I think currently one of those things is forced arbitration.

Lately I have noticed that a lot of the services I have used required me to accept new terms and conditions. Over half of them introduced new “arbitration” clauses into the terms. In short, what it means is that they can no longer be sued for making a bad or even downright dangerous product or service.

Tennessee Protecting Singers/Songwriters Against AI

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 10:21:40 -0400

In a strange turn of events, Tennessee becomes the first US state to protect musicians and songwriters against AI. Which a red state protecting its citizens against overreaches of private innovation was aout of the cards, at least according to Democrats.

This is a response to the news article on apnews.com .

TikTok and the Election

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:42:04 -0400

From what I’m seeing in the news, it looks like potential TikTok bans will play a role in the election.

Article on NPR

From the last time I looked at it, it seemed as though most Democrat politicians were against banning TikTok. And now that whole paradigm has spun on its head. So what has happened?

Personally I think there’s some information being withheld from the general public. I’ll break down topic by topic what I think is really going on.

Living With a Forester Wilderness

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 23:47:04 -0400

Today marks three and a half weeks with my 2024 Forester Wilderness. Man, time does fly when one is busy. And so far I like it. Of course I did like my 2020 Forester Sport.

Even though I try not to be a fanboy of any particular brand, it’s hard for me personally to find things to dislike about Foresters.

Thoughts about my Framework 13

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:18:20 -0500

Over the course of my ownership of it so far, my Framework 13 has become quite the conversation piece. Either someone will notice that the brand emblem isn’t familiar with them or they will ask me what kind of laptop it is and I’ll watch them grow more and more confused as I say “Framework” over and over again.

Petty Revenge: Mortgage payoff

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 23:35:39 -0500

Like any good story involving banks or another service, this one starts with some added fees which were not explained well at the time. Which is where this one starts.

Ebay Stalking Scandal

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 10:27:30 -0500

One of the things in the news that struck my attention is the eBay stalking and harassment scandal. Some of the final details of it broke a few weeks ago but it saw a resurgence among Youtube creators after being buried in the news sites’ algorithms.

Birthday Website Updates

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:59:19 -0500

I may be a little weird, sitting down to do some updates to my website on my birthday. But this is the way I express myself, is by having a personal website.

So here I am. Highlighting the updates.

Progress Updates

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:32:38 -0500

I figured I’d write a progress update about some of the projects I had been working on since this is one of the few weekends I’m bored at home due to having to do a medical test.

Why I'm reducing my Facebook usage

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:26:04 -0500

This essentially marks a year and a half I’ve been at bat against apparent misunderstandings on the behalf of Facebook’s AI moderation technology, if that’s not just one of their own lame duck excuses.

For those who may not have gotten the whole story, here goes:

Switched to Hugo

Sun, 25 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of months ago I woke up with an email from Blogger. Stating that I had been suspended indefinitely for no stated reason.

If I were to guess, it probably would be that they didn’t like how I was critical of President Joe Biden in my article titled “The dangers of sweeping surveillance camera regulations” in this new world of big tech favoring candidates solely based on what party they run under.

The Dangers of Sweeping Surveillance

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Out of most of the news articles posted in the past decade, one of the ones that I’ve been following the most pertains to the security camera debacle which includes Hikvision and Dahua, among a few others. And some people think they’re good because they don’t, or have never owned a security camera system under either of those names.

New Ticket Auction Manager Version

Fri, 06 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I released a new version of the Access database I use to manage the annual SPCA Theme Basket Auction for the SPCA Serving Allegany County. The changes are below: