Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

Wow - stuff got done - or as far as it could.



The taxes for More Vision Inc. are done. The only thing to do is to upload the files to my CRA account along with my electronic signature which's a whole other complexity that's unneeded. So I will upload and wait for the inevitable phone calls telling me what I did wrong. But hopefully no thousand dollar fine!




The Sony in the back with the external hard drive attached!



The issue with that Sony shotgun mic is now settled. I hooked it up to my Xoom H4 and recorded some audio and checked it out. It's not perfect but serviceable enough to keep. So all that fretting about was a waste and all the video purchasing is done!



The sump pump had nothing done so my memory is still intact. I disconnected it and put it aside till the spring.



The water meter reading thing was a joke. I got their phone number and it gives an automated answer. Tells you to leave your name, address, account number and meter reading at the sound of the tone and I was ready! They you hear the message that then mailbox is full - F**k!



And that was the kind of day it was .....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Surprisingly everything got done on Friday.



The water meter reading fiasco got done by deleting a part of the url given to submit the reading - so that got done. The phone number alternate just went on forever.



Vacant home declarations were done and you outside of Toronto don't even think about this.



Speed cameras are now banned in Ontario - Yes! But the red light cameras stay.



I had time enough to buy two cheap DVDs making the rounds in Scarborough. Physical movie sales actually rose 59% from 2024 - 2025 as younger people now see a reason to get them now that all sorts of movies are vanishing from streaming services.



I got my glasses back after smashing a lens in New York. Then I found the screw holding the new lens was unscrewing itself fast so I tightened it but bought some blue locktite and I should do that on Saturday. I messed around with nail polish but that was just a temporary measure and hopefully blue locktite works. Don't use red locktite as that is only used to actually be permanent - as in needing over 500 degrees just to soften it!







Lastly, the Imperial Pub and Library closed its door last night and into the early morning Saturday. I used to go there while at Ryerson in the late 1970s. Yes it's been around for over 80 years! Upstairs is the library - yes, it's a real library! Years and years ago I popped into the place just for kicks and met a guy upstairs I went to school with! Had drinks with my first real girl friend there. Go into a fight (that I lost) in the alleyway between the back of the Ryerson Business Building and the back entrance to the Imperial. Oh, the memories - you will be missed.....













Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Back to the usual tomorrow but stuff got done the last few days.







The WAIS+20 Review and vote travel plans are all set except for plane fare, so we are good to go! Why do this - because if everyone didn't care internet governance, it would all be in the hands of their individual governments. This is expensive and time consuming but necessary as I have access to this process like I did ten years ago. Back then it was also internet governance (multi-stakeholder model) but for me and many it was also citizen journalist rights and protections. You don't hear about people covering events and being shot and killed and claimed to be a protestor (like before protections were voted on) as opposed to a journalist. I was a part of that back then and in the end your participation mattered!



I just wanted to let you know where the advocacy stood with the United Nations.




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

The final shoe dropped - the More Vision taxes have been sent electronically to the CRA - Finally!







More taxes to come in December. It never ends but you have to deal with the taxman or bad things happen. If you watch YouTube and are into cars, Whistlingdeisel was arrested last week on tax evasion for a Ferrari he destroyed for the show. Hoovies Garage netted a half a million tax bill by making the mistake of buying a super car as opposed to leasing it. Even small time YouTubers are in trouble for this stuff in small amounts like 50 thousand dollars, but if you are small this is big stuff!


Handle your inheritance wrongly and then taxman takes half! Handle your retirement wrong and the taxman takes a huge chunk! Tax is boring stuff but doing it wrong can wreck your life. Not doing it can get you detained and restrained traveling to the States. More tax returns for the next few months as I have to submit three corporate returns to the IRS along with FOFSTOCK in December.



So when you hear me bitching about taxes I'm not kidding you - it's important.....




Goodnight.....





https://youtube.com/shorts/dZEwuewAUH0?si=517WZ2X8Id_aG09_

[Maurice Ali]

Miscellaneous ramblings.....



Now that the taxes are done, I strangely have time on my hands! I have nothing to buy with regard to guitars or video. I went to stores on the weekend and - nothing to buy. No real interest to buy either. I looked around for discs - and - I did buy two used ones but overall there was nothing to buy.



I'm actually thinking about raking the leaves in front of my house today. It has come to that! Maybe check the brake shoe linings in the Mustang tomorrow. I changed the oil and rustproofed the thing a week ago. The Buick Enclave only has 2K on its current oil so that can wait.




A P-90 Les Paul as one of my last purchases!


Most fascinating is how I love guitars but have zero interest in purchasing gear. The guitar stuff was necessary to cement the musician title and no regrets, but - wow - it's all about the non-gear aspects of music now. The video purchases was more just regaining the ability to produce and distribute again by updating the equipment. We can now do it all. Look, on weekend I took apart my boom pole and finally replaced that crappy and cheap Yorkville cable inside with an industry standard XLR cable. Anyway, the video and audio capabilities at FOF are currently up to snuff. I even turned my attention away from the 20 year old camcorders back to my Pocket 4K.




An iPhone recording ProRes Raw internally like the big boy cameras!


In the land of the iPhone 17 Pro Max: I finally came back to my expensive to purchase Halide app. And thank God I never went the subscription route. Anyway, they now have an option called "Process Zero" which gives you the least amount of processing from the sensors. This gives you a bland and grainy image - but - with no manipulation after the fact! As true to the moment - like a film camera. This is important especially if you're a journalist. I will see how much exif data is collected in the process zero world and see if this gives me a true journalistic version of photography.




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

We may start the update interviews as early as this weekend starting with Shane. And so it has begun.




The Portkeys monitor on the Canon Camcorder!



I'll probably stay with the Canon Camcorder for this one with maybe a lab on Shane but maybe not. I should breakout the Pocket sans monitor also but that is a hassle outside. Maybe use the iPhone as a backup in that cage with the el'cheapo shotgun mic as a test. We shall see and that is why we are starting with Shane as we can do a retake if necessary.




The iPhone 17 Pro Max in its cage!



If all goes well we will approach the others one by one and take another look at the documentary. Apart from that I have to decide which web domains to keep and which to release.



So it goes.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

One more year with Regus...




Our office in Markham!



Our office is with Regus and Regus as a whole are a sneaky corporation. I believe there are new charges coming in 2026 but I'm pissed off with myself for my negligence. They send you an email and you have ten days to cancel or haggle for a better deal. I knew this going in but forgot so I'll suck up the eight dollars more per month. It could have just been 4 bucks but whatever. When I switched locations it was a bigger deal and I had to fight with them to get out. Read their "house rules" to see how they operate. But I'm still pissed I left money in the table - I guess I'm getting old. We may move again for 2027 but I want to stay there next year because FOFSTOCK is getting reviewed for consultative status. I'm still pissed but this is all my fault.




Actually I could run everything out of my house - but not yet. Maybe when I retire as I can still use my global card for Regus in New York. Office space is extremely expensive in Manhattan and I can just get the cheapest deal from Regus or Nomad where we are currently at.



So Regus gets eight more dollars a month out of me as our swan song for our office in Markham. Seriously an office in Toronto is just more convenient than explaining to everyone where Markham is in Canada. So I'll just leave everything alone and move next year.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Surprise - I'm late because I had to pick up my new phone: 1+ Nord N30!













Why? Because I can install Linux on it. For some reason Lineage OS has given the signing keys for people to install all manner of Linux operating systems. I'll check things out on the weekend. Super interested to fool around with this phone.....



I'm also dropping website domains as nobody goes there anymore.....



The top level domains for the corporations and orgs stay. The artist domains stay if they are still working with us or are offered to them before we abandon those domains. The rest are up for grabs.



The main advocacy ones stay. So the worldwide vote, positive mandate and global social contract stay even if we did not snag all of them - as long as we have .org we are good. I made the hard choice to just stay with thefortressnewspaper.com and be done with it for ENG news as we still put out the magazine now and we may put out another real paper newspaper shortly. So fortressnews.com is going away.



I had 200 dollars of domain renewals come up this week and that's unsustainable in retirement. I'm still pissed off at losing four bucks a month at Regus for the next year but look at how I squandered that money at Starbucks and eating two sandwiches! It's the fact this was business - that's why - but it will pass.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

A late one.



The Shane stuff didn't happen so I spent the day setting up the phones.







I felt remorse at cowardly ditching Graphene OS that was on the Pixel because some police departments flagged the OSl, but with the Nord N30 I could scrub Google off the Pixel phone and replace it with Graphene OS as my default super privacy phone! This time I did it right only adding Signal and Proton Mail as apps and side loading them. With the extra Android phone I can keep the Pixel focused on privacy for a journalist phone if needed. Screw the mafia connection as I have a legitimate reason to use this device.



Pinephone with Ubuntu Touch!


Before Graphene the Pine Phone with Linux was supposed to be that privacy phone but the reality is a broken phone that works worse than a flip phone. The Pine Phone is actually a hacker phone and that is exactly what it ended up being as it does that so well and nothing else. With Kali Net Hunter you can do what this phone was ment to do and that is hack. It's really at home just sniffing for wifi signals using wifite and the accompanying tools. But there are many other tools to fool around with. I'm not into any of that especially the black hat stuff but it is of benefit to know and understand that you yourself are vulnerable to a hack attack by seeing things from the other side.



Hobby hackers are all over the place if your radar is up for them. I was at the steps of this downtown building years ago just sniffing the traffic after getting the Pine Phone along with a dongle to get extra reach and this guy ten feet away with another"suspect phone" just smiled or sneard at me knowingly and then went on his business. They are everywhere.....




Anyway the Pixel is back doing what it was ment to do and Graphene only works on Pixels so.....




Nord N30



I ordered a military grade case for the el'cheapo. Nord N30 to replace that disgusting clear case on it now. You need a case as this phone is all plastic except for the screen. The sides actually look like aluminum but it is plastic. Look beyond the plastic and you have a decent backup phone. 6.7" display at 120hz just like my iPhone that costs 10X the price. I threw a cheap micro SD card which increases the storage to 695 gigs and 8 gigs of RAM. 625 Snapdragon processor with face and overprint unlock. But the big deal is with software development.



Right now you can get Lineage OS replacing Oxygen OS that comes with the phone. On the pure Linux stage Postmark OS has started but they haven't been able to boot you on this two year old phone. The five year Nord10 has working Linux everywhere but crappy specs for a phone these days. If will happen with the N30 with time.



I got fed up with the internal fighting and politics at Pine64. Right now I believe there is just one guy working part time on the kernel - so no the upgraded and expensive Pine Phone Pro for me. It probably still does not work. But the Nord N30 is a different beast. I already have Linux running on it but not rooted. In the end, maybe the Linkage Os Is the best alternative to offer for those who hate Apple and Google. I've kept my options open with the latest cellphone purchase as I also need a test mile device for our app.



So. that is what happened today.




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Some more.....



Why am I so hung up on cellphones and operating systems?



The answer is because the worldwide vote app is just a voting app. It's a help in policy making for the UN. It also a form of governance for this future new level of global interaction for all of humanity. And how will they participate? Will we cram them all into the Secretariat Building?



You already know the answer - they will interact through their smartphones. That brings up a whole host of problems and challenges. Most are just dealing with Android but iOS is a bigger problem. At least we have some contact with Apple HQ.



Anyway, the cellphone and operating systems are a for real reality in the development of humanity. For once a smartphone can be a good thing for all of humanity. All I have to show member nations is that this involvement is not a threat to the current geopolitical status - that it is not a threat to religion or cultures. It is something new. It is something "added on" separate from everything else.



Anyway, I'm no super geek with delusions of my importance. If anything I am one of the few that actually could need and use a privacy phone. However, it really doesn't matter as I operate in "lone wolf mode".



If it ain't broke don't fix it - so - just carry on.....




Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/V8wriIUL0rI?si=h8MY-qXP1snxju_O

[Maurice Ali]

I am done with smartphone for a while.....


The One Plus Nord N30 is all set up with all my credit cards and all that! I even have music and videos on the expandable storage. So this becomes my second phone if something happens to the iPhone.



The Pinephone I have stays the same with no more updates unless something big happens. The much vaunted "Pinephone Pro" with better parts was an expensive disaster and in August Pine64 quietly stated it was ceasing production immediately and support in like two years. The original version that sold for half the price of the Pro is also out of stock, but the one I have which was in between is still for sale for the next two years at least. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that these phones are on death watch. Which is the reason I got the current phone.



Our Linux phones suck as daily drivers. No banking apps. No Apple or Android pay. No NFC or any of that. So what is left? Converting current phones to a less proprietary OS like Lineage OS. There are still Linux devs trying to get reasonably modern phone running - but this is a tall order. Graphene was successful but Google seems hell bent to disparage the OS as a mafia phone and harden up parts of Android making it harder for Graphene to work on newer phones.



So the Nord N30 may get Lineage OS if it can truly be a daily driver. Maybe Postmark Linux if Pine64 abandons the Pinephone completely. We shall se how all this shakes out in the end.



Now back to more normal and less geeky updates.....




Goodnight.....