Today would have been the 65th anniversary of Robert Bruce Thompson’s birth. He would have been 0x41….
Take a moment, light a candle, say a prayer, help a kid, look up at the night sky, inventory your stored supplies, or just do a page of hard math in a celebration of rational thought.
Miss you Bob.
n
In that vein…the night sky has finally been clear for the past few nights. My son has been itching to get his telescope out. He has two immediate projects. The first is to get a decent pic of Saturn. He succeeded last night. Now, its an iphone picture at low magnification. But you know what, you can tell it’s Saturn and he had fun doing it.
His second project is to track the 4 main moons of Jupiter. He’s doing nightly observations (when possible, of course) and charting their locations in his journal.
Awesome!
Just reread his birthday post from last year.
Happy Birthday, RBT!
Anyone watching any good shows on Netflix/Hulu/whatever? My wife just started watching The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, but I’ve avoided it. It sets off my manhater-radar. I did think it was a period piece set in the 19th century, but it is actually a dystopian future. I did watch Jessica Jones on Netflix. It was good, but a little dark and depressing to binge watch. I do enjoy Billions on Showtime. But then, I’m a big Paul Giamatti fan.
Anyone watching any good shows on Netflix/Hulu/whatever? My wife just started watching The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, but I’ve avoided it. It sets off my manhater-radar. I did think it was a period piece set in the 19th century, but it is actually a dystopian future.
We don’t watch “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Elisabeth Moss is the ultimate “Woman Scorned”, both in the roles she accepts and her personal life. “Peggy” should have taken a hint from the elevator scene in the “Mad Men” finale; Matthew Wiener spoke volumes through Joan in just a few minutes.
If you want a good strong female character without manhating, find the first season of “American Gods” on DVD. The “Dead Wife” is amazing, especially when she’s interacting with the leprechaun (you’ll understand when you watch). Just the penultimate episode alone should have earned Emily Browning an Emmy, but, IIRC, she wasn’t even nominated.
Maybe the “American Gods” producers were too kind in giving Jesus equal time without ridiculing his believers. And there was the devastating (to Progs) monologue delivered by Gillian Anderson as … lets say the most notable Kennedy victim.
56º and partly cloudy today. Eye appointment this afternoon with the eldest, so I drove to work. I get to run at lunchtime.
Scrap run on Friday (which eats into exercise time). But I’ll get rid of 500+# of assorted steel & aluminium. And I get money for that. I’ll take it.
Anyone watching any good shows on Netflix/Hulu/whatever?
I’ve been watching the “South Main Auto” channel on Youtube, as well as “Eric the Car Guy” lately. Reality TV.
I’ve tried to watch a few dramas and action shows on Netflix, but I just can’t get into them. Dropped Hulu altogether.
Happy Birthday @RBT. Your influence has extended to The Great Beyond. Please continue to keep a watch over us, of course we are going to do our own thing anyway.
@RickH – something really weird is going on the ttgnet RSS feeds. Started yesterday with Barbara’s journal feed, 7 days of previously read post showed up as unread, so there were duplicates for 7 days. Today in RBT’s journal feed there are 21 duplicated days and in the comments feed 75 duplicates. None of my other 99 feeds are exhibiting this. Could it be due to the host moving you were doing and things getting crossed in the ether?
Also something changed with Login persistence/remembering. Did a “cookie” check and they are all there.
Happy Birthday RBT.
Hard to believe that we’re going on a year since Dr. Pournelle passed and RBT began battling what turned out to be a heart problem. I’ve been busy, but time passed really slowly for me last summer at CGI then sped up over the last three months at the new gig.
That reminds me — I believe the recruiting firm has been paid for my placement in the new job. I haven’t seen their reps in the office as much lately.
I have been having weird issues with logins all across the net, so there may be other issues in the wild at the moment….
For a guy who mostly never left the house, RBT has had an enormously out-sized effect on people.
n
Yes! Happy Birthday to RBT!
Also, OFD?
(Added my name and email address)
_Points of Impact (Frontlines)_ by Marko Kloos
https://www.amazon.com/Points-Impact-Frontlines-Marko-Kloos/dp/154204846X/
Book number six of a six book alien invasion series. I read the well printed and bound trade paperback. I do not know if there are going to be any more books in the series but, I will purchase them if so.
We have a new battleship to take the fight to the Lankys ! We won the war for Mars by nuking the planet into a radioactive hell for a hundred years. Now it is time to start defending some of our interstellar colonies from Lanky invasions. But, can we ?
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (419 reviews)
I just finished reading thru last year’s birthday post. It starts with this from Eugen, who we haven’t heard from in a while.
If you are lurking, do you still feel the same way? And how did your political activism go? Any negative personal impact?
Also, Brad had a good comment well down the page, that seems pretty spot on a year later.
n
@DadCooks: the login/fill-in-the-fields was required again because of the switchover to SSL mentioned yesterday. That required new https cookies to be set.
I’ll look into the RSS problem. Might also be related to the SSL – and the new https on all links. Barbara’s place also got the SSL implementation, so that’s my theory.
HTTPS here for URLs/links was not fully implemented before yesterday. Now it is.
Both links for RSS on the sidebar work just fine, as far as I can see. Perhaps the link used by your RSS needs to be updated to https ?
Both systems up.
Downloaded the modem/router manual and discovered the WAN port should not be used unless it is used for input top this device. Moving my D-Link Router to the last spare Modem port clear my connection problem.
I still have the “Read Only” Folder problem and the new Default Windows Font is horrible.
Ordered a new router myself. DD-WRT-based, buffalo brand. Old one (the predecessor to the new one) started flaking out & I cannot get into it. It still works, so I’m going to put in the new one, then do a hardware reset on the old one to see if it will work “right” again. If it does, it becomes a backup or a remote hotspot at home. We can certainly use it.
I really appreciate how just about everything is available & configurable.
“Tropical Storm Allison blew through Houston on this day 17 years ago”
http://abc13.com/weather/tropical-storm-allison-disaster-began-16-years-ago-today/2075243/?ex_cid=ktrk_nextdoor
“HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) —
It’s been 17 years since Tropical Storm Allison roared into Houston, showing us that storms don’t have to have hurricane strength to cause massive amounts of damage.”
“Tropical Storm Allison caught the city by surprise, dropping more than three feet of rain in some areas and causing deadly flooding and billions of dollars in damage.”
“In Texas, 23 people died as a result of the storm, which first made landfall on June 5, 2001.”
Until Harvey, I thought that Allison was the worst that things could get. I was sadly wrong.
Hey, Mr.Lynn, I loved the latest “Frontlines”, also.
You should read BJ Klinton’s novel next and let us know his wife got killed. Surely that’s not Hildebeest.
As much I despise my former corporate masters at the Death Star, especially whenever I have to write the $50 check every month, I don’t buy landline phone service from the cable company.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/6/17435096/comcast-xfinity-landline-phone-outage-affecting-businesses
You should read BJ Klinton’s novel next and let us know his wife got killed. Surely that’s not Hildebeest.
Uh no, even I have standards. I am now reading my cousin’s latest zombie book, “Feedback”:
https://www.amazon.com/Feedback-Newsflesh-Mira-Grant/dp/031637931X/
I still have the “Read Only” Folder problem and the new Default Windows Font is horrible.
Sounds like something is corrupted on your pc. Not good. Might be time for the old Jerry Pournelle advice, “nuke from orbit and start with bare metal”.
You still write checks? How quaint. 🙂
I write one a year for the rent (property taxes) and a couple more for car tags. I have enough for oh, 75 years…
Yeah, the county office for car tags does take plastic now. I’m not paying an extra 4% for the privilege to pay a stupid windshield sticker.
You still write checks? How quaint.
I write checks for everything I can. Why, because I got an anal exam from the IRS in 1986 ? and want a complete paper trail for them. I do pay my home mortgage with an inter-account transfer since that is not a trackable event for the IRS.
You still write checks? How quaint.
I write one a year for the rent (property taxes) and a couple more for car tags. I have enough for oh, 75 years…
Doh. The phone company is the one I pay online every month since they don’t send a bill.
The rest of the bills get paid with paper checks, and I periodically balance the account in Quicken.
Yes! Happy Birthday to RBT!
Also, OFD?
Yes, felicitations to Dr. Bob on his natal day!
Does anyone remember Dave mentioning his birth date? In any event, later this evening I’ll be preparing a “hang in there” card for him to be included in tomorrow’s outgoing mail.
You still write checks? How quaint.
I still pay all my bills by check, mainly for the “paper trail” (my bank sends me printed images of the front of the check, with the images of both sides available online), but also for the visceral satisfaction of writing the check and firing it off in the mail.
Does anyone remember Dave mentioning his birth date? In any event, later this evening I’ll be preparing a “hang in there” card for him to be included in tomorrow’s outgoing mail.
I seem to remember OFD mentioning that he was older than RBT by a month or two. But my memory lately is not very good.
In any event, later this evening I’ll be preparing a “hang in there” card for him to be included in tomorrow’s outgoing mail.
Thanks for the reminder, I need to do this also.
Hillary died in Israel
Hillary Clinton while on a fact-finding visit to Israel suffers a heart attack and dies.
The undertaker tells the Americans accompanying her, “You can have her shipped home for $80,000, or you can bury her here, in the Holy Land for just $800”.
The Americans go into a corner to discuss for a few minutes. They return with their answer to the undertaker and tell him they want Hillary shipped home.
The undertaker is puzzled and asks, ‘Why would you spend $80,000 to ship her home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and you would spend only $800?
The American diplomats reply, ‘Long ago a man died here, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. We just can’t take a chance on that happening again.
@Nick – Amex once again closed my dispute with vendor-who-shall-not-be-named over the T440 so I’ll probably find out the legal status in a few days via snail mail.
If you’re still struggling with the setup for OFD, I will swap for the T420 if there is nothing else Amex will do for me in this situation. I’ll admit my issue is a first world problem which generates little understanding among their third world customer service staff.
Two big downsides to the T440:
1) Weird looking 900p 14″ screen. My issue with the laptop.
2) Windows 10 license. The refurb vendor removed the Windows 7 sticker.
If it has a native USB 3.o port that will solve a bunch of issues and simplify the cabling, eliminating one major chance for things to stop working at the same time….
Given the nature of the eye tracking, I might like a different screen. The onscreen keyboard takes up a LOT of space. And it looks like you want big icons and text, so even less real estate… which would be better on a wide screen… maybe.
In other words, no idea until seeing it. I can use this installed license for win7 if I’m not gonna use this machine, or suck it up and move to 10. There is software that only runs on 10 that might be better than some of the other choices. My main issue with win10 is the gods-be-damned tiles interface (solvable with classic start menu, mostly) but the damnable thing might actually be better for eye tracking use than the classic windows GUI. There are some compatibility weirdnesses on my win8 with classic start menu, and the eye track driver. I got dumped back into tiles until I rebooted. Could have been something I ran and demo’d but wouldn’t actually install though. Hard to say.
Someone said they had a bunch of win7 licenses, which I’d like to have a couple of anyway for other projects. Might have been Ray, so it’d be a bit before that happened.
nick
If it has a native USB 3.o port that will solve a bunch of issues and simplify the cabling, eliminating one major chance for things to stop working at the same time….
I’ll pull it out of the box and double check, but I believe that it has one of those blue (3.0) USB ports. Screen resolution is odd at 1440×900 in 14″. I actually prefer 14″ machines to either have 768 or, like my work HP laptop, enough vertical resolution that I can set magnification at 150% or 200% without the end result looking odd.
Windows 8/10 are usable with Classic Shell, but the author gave up on the project recently since tracking the API changes for 10 started consuming too much of his time for what started as a “hobby” effort.
Yeh, it was me. I have license keys that are good for multiple installs, several slots have been used but there are still some available slots. I have found that if I use a key that has been used in the past using the automated phone activation works OK with Microsoft. So I couldn’t give you several keys, just one key that will work. The highest I go for Windows is 8.1 (looking through my records while traveling) such keys working for Windows 10 I am told. I may have Windows 10 but those would be at home,
Currently in Kronberg. Gets light real early, as in 05:00 and stays light until 22:00 (5:00 AM to 10:00 PM for you non European or non military types). Annoying with sun coming in through the skylights.
Some trip today to a castle. Good to see the family of our first exchange student. Really great people and I consider them good friends having known them for 18 years. The exchange program has been wonderful for my life experiences and has been richly rewarding in personal friendships.
Took the slow train from Cologne to Frankfurt and am glad I did. Followed the Rhine for part of the journey and was really quite scenic. Had a compartment in 1st class on the train with just the wife and I. Made for pleasant journey.
I write checks for everything I can. Why, because I got an anal exam from the IRS in 1986 ? and want a complete paper trail for them. I do pay my home mortgage with an inter-account transfer since that is not a trackable event for the IRS.
Didn’t think about that. The mortgage processor we have is extremely efficient, and a check sent to their office in LA (from Austin) is usually processed and cashed, hitting against my bank account within two business days. Three tops.
BBVA started playing games with my wife’s car payment, and a check sent to them in Mobile from Austin can take a week or more to process. I’m already ticked at them for helping Group One scam us on the last car — lots of mischief can hide in a 2% loan.
I’ve talked about the Austin IRS campus here before. I thought it was Lockheed Martin or another DoD contractor at first. I wouldn’t want to be summoned to that place — I’m picturing the inside looking like the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
Top men working on things in there. Top. Men.
@Ray, that sounds like a cool trip. You were on one last year at this time too…
I wanted to do the luxury river cruise that Amex sends out booklets for, but that seems pretty unlikely now.
n
Yes, I was. Same as this year, to attend a wedding. This time Croatia, last year was Norway. Always try to visit Germany on these trips as the majority of former exchange students are in Germany. Cannot see them all but we do what we can. Makes for a lot of travel between cities.
Didn’t think about that. The mortgage processor we have is extremely efficient, and a check sent to their office in LA (from Austin) is usually processed and cashed, hitting against my bank account within two business days. Three tops.
My bank account, mortgage processor, and mortgage owner are all the same bank so it is just an inter-account transfer for me. I just go to xyz.com, sign in, and direct them to move money from my checking account to the mortgage account.
I refuse to pay bills using a bill processor. Too many horror stories from my Dad. And the stories keep on accumulating.