62F and wet. We got just under an inch of rain yesterday. The sudden high wind and T storms caused everyone to cancel events in the afternoon. It was a bit surprising because TX gets weather, and other than some wet ball fields, everything should have been fine.
I was thinking about ‘down time’ yesterday as my plans went awry, and I ended up doing light tasks all day, cleaning, bill paying, etc. My work history is ‘burst-y”. That is, work hard for a period, then recover. Go like crazy, then stop. The ‘down time’ was critical for being able to do the periods of heavy work.
I am pretty well adapted to that style of working, physically and mentally, after all these years. In fact, it seems like I will unconsciously ‘balance’ the work with inactivity, whether I think about it or not.
The problem is, there won’t be much ‘down time’ in any of the scenarios we prep for. People worked HARD. They worked constantly. There was always more to do. Even northern cultures found stuff to do during deep winter, be it embroidery, or carving, once the maintenance was done. Subsistence = deathmarch. It’s only with technology and widespread material wealth that we’ve gotten ‘free time’.
If either of those goes away, it will be ‘back to the grind’ for all of us who are left.
n
@rick, definitely something flaky with our webhost. I’m getting 300 errors frequently, and the admin dashboard failed to load for me this AM. Probably nothing you can do but I’m interested in what they have to say, if anything.
n
I have gotten several errors when trying to just read or post. Something is flaky.
Subbing again today. Two and a half days in a row for this teacher, art. She was supposed to start a new project for the students today but left no instructions. Thus the kids will just goof off. Not my problem. Second block is planning so no students. Third block is half lunch, fourth block is OK, fifth block is all freshmen which are some of the most irritating creatures on earth. May let the freshmen go to the gym.
What’s that you say? You think TSLA avoids Bankruptcy Court proceedings because they make money selling cars?
About as much money as Bezos makes selling books and (bent) CDs. Looks like Apple and Toyota will have to wait a little longer to buy TSLA out of bankruptcy.
https://www.enca.com/business/fiat-chrysler-pay-tesla-co2-emissions-credits
If I had to guess, there must be a price paid by Dodge for pushing Chevy trucks into irrelevancy … and rental car lots at ABIA. It wasn’t the fault of the engineers or designers who’ve run the GM product pipeline for the last seven years since Bob Lutz was “encouraged to spend more time with family”. Oh, Lord, no, can’t be that.
Oh, please, God, let this happen.
https://twitter.com/ABFalecbaldwin/status/1115255818281205761
Back in Tampa, about 15 years ago, the morning drive host of one radio station periodically played a tape he possessed of one of Alec Baldwin’s failed attempts at hosting talk radio. Trump would eat him alive in a debate.
Ah Chicongo….
—
—
Just SOCMOB*, at 330AM.
n
*standing on corner, minding own business- according to ER docs the most dangerous activity in America’s big cities. Leads ‘on way to church’ and ‘aspiring DJ’ by narrow margin.
Ebola is giving it the old school try….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6893529/Ebola-toll-tops-700-DR-Congo.html
The chart at the end is worrying. The trend is not your friend.
n
Just SOCMOB*, at 330AM.
The closest we got to that part of town three weeks ago was the science museum.
A sign indicated that the ticket office at the train station was permanently shuttered last fall. The ticket vending machines didn’t work. And this was Hyde Park, Obama’s neighborhood.
I’ve only been to Chicago once, for a conference in my industry in 2001. It was a quick in an out so all I saw was the airport, hotel, conference center, and a couple of nice restaurants**. I did find the time on the last day to go to the Field Museum.
Apropos of nothing else: recently I mentioned using a sliderule, that was because I had been given several old items as my parents are in the process of downsizing. One of the items is an old Waltham pocket watch in a 10 karat gold case. Online database search of the serial number tells me that it was made in 1919. This was clearly a daily use item. There is wear from being pulled in and out of a pocket for decades, a crack in the face and a replaced crystal. I wound it up and it just started working. Keeps good time too. Not bad for 100 years. I made a fob for it out of paracord, of course, in good prepper fashion.
** I met up with a former employer and was invited, with about a dozen other people, to go to places that were way outside of my budget. Two company owners who had been in the same fraternity in days of yore were always trying to prove to the other who was the most successful. Part of that was picking up the tab for big groups at fancy restaurants. I gratefully accepted my role in their game and ate well.
Downloaded and installed the new Edge Browser from Microsoft that is based on the Chromium based engine. I think MS has finally given up on making their own browser engine. Netscape learned their lesson long ago and late thus disappearing from the planet. So far no issues except some extension I want are not available. I am writing this from the Edge browser but this site does not stress the browser.
@nick (and others)
About the 500 errors:
– are you getting them on the main site, or only in the admin area?
– are they intermittent (I suspect) or repeatable?
– are you getting them only when you do a certain ‘thing’ (whatever that is)?
Anyone else seeing them? 500 errors are really hard to diagnose, especially when they are intermittent. If others are getting them, please comment here (or email me directly at rhellewell (at) gmail.com.
Thanks.
We saw the failure of NASA’s SLS years ago but the bureaucrats are finally beginning to notice they have been throwing $billions$ of OUR dollars down this sink hole for years.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/nasa-s-17-billion-moon-rocket-may-be-doomed-it-ncna991061
Hey rick, I’ve been getting them when posting comments. Reload (and OK to resubmit) has worked every time to get the comment posted and the correct page displayed.
Early today I got a partial load of the admin page (bare text menu on the left, huge stats charts way down the page, but no ‘new post’ section. Reload got the normal page.
I don’t usually have any issues whatsoever, so getting several 500s today and the ones yesterday was bothersome. If it’s just random and temporary I’m not sure it’s worth chasing. It seemed to be worse today than yesterday (happen more often).
n
I’ve been seeing the ‘500’ errors over the past two days (but not today). All I would need to do to generate them is to refresh the page in an attempt to get latest comments. The second refresh would generally work. The other instance was when I clicked on the link at the top of the page to load the next day’s comments.
It was annoying, but I did not see any today.
I have seen one error today when simply visiting the page for the first time. A reload worked.
Saw my first ever error today doing a reload. I hit F5 and it reloaded just fine the second time.
No errors for me, but almost all of my use is via a feed reader. I only use the page directly when I feel the need to comment.
61º and mostly sunny. Great day to get out at lunch time & enjoy it. I just completed my first full race weekend of the year, and it was great. Had a “surprise” chip race (he was going to NOT do chips, but told me the day before that he wanted chips.) Handled it well, as I have a bunch in stock & ready to go.
Now the need for talking is done.
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@ttgnet.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
n. b. – when making that last post – it took nearly 10 seconds (I started counting at 3) to post. This may or may not be a symptom.
edit: “this” post took a little over a second to post, but the editor took 7 seconds to load to add this edit.
NOW I’m done.
We saw the failure of NASA’s SLS years ago but the bureaucrats are finally beginning to notice they have been throwing $billions$ of OUR dollars down this sink hole for years.
SLS is an aerospace jobs program. I’ve found that denial about that is strongest among people who live closest to NASA centers with the possible exception of Kennedy.
Downloaded and installed the new Edge Browser from Microsoft that is based on the Chromium based engine. I think MS has finally given up on making their own browser engine. Netscape learned their lesson long ago and late thus disappearing from the planet. So far no issues except some extension I want are not available. I am writing this from the Edge browser but this site does not stress the browser.
Mozilla is the only browser platform alternative to Chromium now. I’m not sure that is a good thing for the Internet.
I’ve only been to Chicago once, for a conference in my industry in 2001. It was a quick in an out so all I saw was the airport, hotel, conference center, and a couple of nice restaurants**. I did find the time on the last day to go to the Field Museum.
We did most of the things on a CityPass ticket, including the Field Museum, but our experience was essentially similar to your list.
We had kids in tow so the only “nice” restaurant we hit was Frontera Grill.
I’ve got plenty of working gear in the field, cameras especially, that only work properly with some version of IE, with Active X controls, and it’s a huge pain in the arse. Have to change security settings, make exceptions, load and run the control, etc. Lazy manufacturers, and no updates to firmware.
n
Freefall: you’ve got to earn mutiny
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3300/fc03262.htm
Heh.
Questionable Content: how do you make a latte with a dagger
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3976
Aging happens to the best of us.
I’ve got plenty of working gear in the field, cameras especially, that only work properly with some version of IE, with Active X controls, and it’s a huge pain in the arse. Have to change security settings, make exceptions, load and run the control, etc. Lazy manufacturers, and no updates to firmware.
Microsoft provided lots of ActiveX/IE sample code and help via MSDN subscriptions.
I know people who built careers on being aces at pasting together Microsoft sample code without a lot of understanding. It is the Dark Side.
The Dark Side has cookies.
Yeh, Chromium becoming the only choice may not be good. It obviously is liked and used by many otherwise it would have obtained that position. I just don’t like Google having so much of so many things. Google makes a living on data, personal data, any data, and anything they can get is apparently fair game. Their policy is that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
I’m sick of the Dumbo’s kneeling at Al Sharpless’ trough grifting for reparations. Even ‘ol Bugeyes Horseteeth is on the bandwagon. This is a sure way to reelect tRump. The Dumbo primary is going to be a circus.
About the 500 errors:
– are you getting them on the main site, or only in the admin area?
– are they intermittent (I suspect) or repeatable?
– are you getting them only when you do a certain ‘thing’ (whatever that is)?
Anyone else seeing them? 500 errors are really hard to diagnose, especially when they are intermittent. If others are getting them, please comment here (or email me directly at rhellewell (at) gmail.com.
About a dozen times over the weekend and today. Both while reloading the webpage and posting new comments. And editing old comments.
I suspect the server needs to be rebooted.
The Dark Side has cookies.
The first time that I read this, I saw “The Dark Side has cooties.”
“Building the System/360 Mainframe Nearly Destroyed IBM”
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/building-the-system360-mainframe-nearly-destroyed-ibm
“Instead, the S/360 proved to be the most successful product launch ever and changed the course of computing”
Pretty cool article. I knew it was tough, I just did not know how much.
Hat tip to:
https://www.codeproject.com/script/Mailouts/View.aspx?mlid=14266&_z=1988477
“How excess speed, hasty commands and flawed software doomed an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/excess-speed-hasty-commands-flawed-060312861.html
So the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX hit a bird on the MCAS pitot tube and went nuts ?
And the pilots never reduced the throttles from full takeoff level ?
Thanks, Lynn. That was very interesting.
I started in the Marines, programming a 1401, which was pretty much obsolete at the time I learned it. Then about 25 years on the S/360 and S/370, then on to Unix and Linux. At the OS level, (if I can even say that about a 1401 because it didn’t do much for you), there were massive differences. If nothing else, it kept senility at bay.
I get a laugh out of all the recycled three letter algorithms I see come up again for something completely different from their original use.
My RSS Reader checks the Daynotes Journal web page every hour, from its log it has been getting a 500 error 75% of the time over the past several days. When I access the Daynotes Journal using a post’s link in the RSS Reader I get a 500 error about 50% of the time, but when I reload the page it comes up.
And just now when I tried to log in to post this (via the “Meta” login link), my login failed the first time and then succeeded the second time.
Definitely sounds like something changed a day or so ago. Not likely to be something in our control though.
Hopefully the hosting service can get it straightened out.
n
of course they’d say that…..
n
😉
A 500 error is the generic “something screwed up” error.
@paul (and others) – yeah, the 500 error is *so* helpful….
Just finished chatting with the Dreamhost support person. They just saw a few timeout errors in the logs, but increased memory limits to see if that will help. Server reboot not needed.
So, let me know if there are further problems after the timestamp of this entry. I’ll keep poking around.
I just got the server error
“NASA says mysterious dancing blue lights spotted over the Arctic Circle were caused by vapor tests and NOT aliens, as some feared
Mysterious ‘alien’ lights were actually the result of a new test from NASA
By releasing gases into the atmosphere, NASA hope to study solar winds
The lights created by the experiment are similar to those of the Aurora Borealis
They study will illuminate the pattern of particles in the Earth’s ionosphere “
A B-52 pilot captain brought burritos for the entire crew …
Today was interesting.
Sitting on the front porch, swilling beer, it’s 85F and I gotta stay hydrated… Just saying. High pitch squeaky noise happens. The dogs are off. And a couple of cats, too. I’m thinking rabbit.
Here comes Missy, Mighty Huntress, with a …. not rabbit. A squirrel. She dropped it for me, Penny grabbed it. Five seconds of growling later, Penny dropped Missy’s squirrel.
Well, it died. Rather, she died. Very plump. I’ll guess she was a week from giving birth…. just from looking at her nipples. Teats. Whatever. I don’t know, I’m guessing from what I see with cats. The cat’s I have payed attention to start to leak milk a day before having kittens.
So I’m carrying this very dead critter to toss over the fence. Instead of holding by the tail, I held her with her belly in my palm. Uh, this critter is extra warm and am I feeling a heartbeat? Yeah, and with an ear to her belly I can hear two heartbeats.
Like I said, interesting.
Re: 500 errors
They’ve been happening the last few days during refresh for new comments and when moving to the new day. Another refresh fixes it.
Edit: And when posting this comment…
My squirrels are still chasing each other around the trees and “hugging”.
They are paired up, but I don’t see any little ones.
n
Ah the news if full of fail today.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6900621/Teen-accidentally-shoots-best-friend-face-kills-playing-new-gun.html
“Teen” was selling drugs to his friends, and illegally in possession of a pistol, with intent to sell it – to someone else that was prohibited. Dropped the mag, didn’t clear the chamber, played silly games, won silly prizes.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6898125/Girl-18-killed-brother-cut-penis-ate-magic-ritual-Brazil.html
“‘We are investigating if the child was killed during some kind of devil worshipping ritual. We want to know if the accused had links on social networks to a group of Satanists or black magic practitioners and if she was encouraged or incited by someone to commit the crime.”
–um, ya think? This story is so horrible it defies belief. Never showed any indication she was out of her flipping mind? Never?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6900559/Teen-pleads-guilty-plotting-terror-attack-Texas-mall.html
–another FBI informant
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6900361/Maryland-man-plotted-ram-truck-crowd-pedestrians.html
“Maryland man ‘with a hatred for non-Muslims’ accused of stealing a U-Haul truck and plotting to drive it into crowds of pedestrians near Washington DC in ‘ISIS-inspired attack’
Rondell Henry, 28, from Maryland is accused of plotting to drive a stolen U-Haul truck into a crowd at a busy public space ‘to commit mass murder'”
–caught by accident, no FBI involvement
n
On another subject (still poking around for the 500 errors)…
In my fictional book (Book 2), ‘our hero’; needs to carry a weapon for self-defense against two-legged critters. Not being well-versed in that, I need to know what weapon would be ‘acceptable’ to carry. This is not a SHTF scenario, just an ‘excursion’ in a rural area that might meet a bad guy or two. No need for four-legged critter defense in the book’s scenario. But it will be carried by a guy that often goes hiking in the back country and may encounter an attacking critter. Not used for hunting, need something to carry and quick/easy to fire.
Probably lots of answers that have to do with personal preference. I’m just looking for something that would be ‘appropriate’ without getting all technical.
And what is the term/description for what you do to a preloaded magazine to make sure it is ready to go?
Thanks.
My 77 year old mother is going to have surgery again on Thursday to fix a bleeding area in her hip implant incision that is causing her severe pain and having to have daily blood transfusions. She has yet to walk from last Tuesday’s hip implant surgery and has been having confusion and paranoia in response to the narcotic pain meds.
This nightmare was getting worse, I stayed with her last night until midnight as she was crying for help. At one point, there was almost a dozen nurses and nurse practitioners in her room trying to help her. They tried Fentonyl first but that did not work at all. They then tried a bag of Tylenol which took the edge off, lowered her pain from a 20 to a 10 (her analysis). By the time I left, Mom had stopped asking me what we did to her every five minutes or where she was.
My 80 year old father is exhausted and went home this afternoon to file a delayed tax return and get some clean clothes. I am hoping that he takes tomorrow off as he has been spending 12 hours a day with her and sleeping at my brother’s house by the med center.
My wife went to go see her a little while ago. She reports that Mom is doing much better and is less confused. The Tylenol seems to be working even better today, she is still in pain but more comfortable. My wife is now trying to get her to eat her soup that they brought her.
In my fictional book (Book 2), ‘our hero’; needs to carry a weapon for self-defense against two-legged critters. Not being well-versed in that, I need to know what weapon would be ‘acceptable’ to carry. This is not a SHTF scenario, just an ‘excursion’ in a rural area that might meet a bad guy or two. No need for four-legged critter defense in the book’s scenario. But it will be carried by a guy that often goes hiking in the back country and may encounter an attacking critter. Not used for hunting, need something to carry and quick/easy to fire.
I like to carry a Ruger .357 GP100 7 shot 4 inch barrel revolver as my primary weapon and a Charter Bulldog .44 special snubbie as my backup. I am going to move to S&W .357 snubbie as my backup though. That .44 special just hurts too much to shoot it much (gives me a blister on the web between the thumb and index finger after 10 rounds).
https://ruger.com/products/gp100/models.html
I just don’t like semi-autos anymore even though my Springfield XDM .40 is the best handgun that I have ever shot. I keep on limp wristing the gun though and causing it to jam. It is my fault, not the guns fault. I scored a 250 out of 250 with it at my gun carry class a few years back.
https://www.springfield-armory.com/products/xdm-4-5-40-cal/
And what is the term/description for what you do to a preloaded magazine to make sure it is ready to go?
Fast loading a revolver is called a speed loader. You open the cylinder, eject the old brass to the ground, and individually load more bullets or use a speed loader for that pistol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedloader
Fast loading a semi auto using previously loaded magazine is called ????. You eject the current magazine to the ground, grab a new magazine from a pocket or belt and slam the new magazine into the gun. If the gun was empty and the slide was back, you thumb the slide release (some semi autos will do this automatically when you slam the new magazine). If the gun was empty and the slide was forward, you rack the slide to load a bullet in the chamber. If the gun was loaded, you do not do anything, the next shot will automatically load a bullet from the new magazine. Keep your finger off that trigger while reloading ! Yes, I am famous for doing that and popping a round over the berm. Senior Range Instructor gave me a long long look one day after I pulled that trick.
I was shooting with a guy a few years ago on a moving course. He was using a .45 semi auto, a heavily modified 1911 model. He kept six loaded magazines on his belt with eight ??? bullets in each. He would always drop the current magazine after shot 5 or 6 and load a new magazine so he was never going empty on the next shot.
I’m sick of the Dumbo’s kneeling at Al Sharpless’ trough grifting for reparations. Even ‘ol Bugeyes Horseteeth is on the bandwagon. This is a sure way to reelect tRump. The Dumbo primary is going to be a circus.
Geesh, who qualifies for reparations? Base payment on genetic tests? How pure do they have to be?
I had ancestors who came here as indentured servants in the early 1800s. They were mercilessly exploited by the same property owners in Southern Mississippi, and my maternal grandfather’s family only climbed out of lingering poverty after WWII. Do I get a check?
OTOH, my paternal grandfather’s adopted mother was the granddaughter from an old plantation family in Central Georgia, and the wealth remnants allowed her to live without working her entire life. Does that disqualify me?
And why should I pay? My father’s people were serfs in Russia while slavery was legal here, and it was 40 years past when he arrived. None of my mother’s ancestors ever had a pot to piss in, and certainly didn’t own slaves.
I certainly haven’t “benefited” from slavery. I took a back seat in college admissions to blacks that didn’t score as well as I did on tests. I have had to work harder and longer to make up for the unqualified and unskilled blacks the company hired in preference to qualified whites*. We already pay a truly astounding amount of taxes so that black kids can get 3 meals a day at school, so that they can have phones, apartments, and groceries provided to them. They can’t be disciplined at school because they have ‘different social/behavioral norms’ and ‘different learning styles’ but my kid is threatened with a suspension for talking back to the teacher. I have to hear the filth that passes for ‘music’ whenever their cars pass by.
in other words, I’m paying already, every day.
n
* to be fair, I’ve had to work harder and longer for the dumbass white guys they hired too, but they didn’t get any preference.
softball game tonight, we’re still not winning, but the girls were playing real ball tonight. beautiful night too. Horned moon, cool but not cold. A bit damp still.
And way too late at night. Kids need their sleep.
n
An outdoorsman might choose a magnum revolver for carry against 4 legged varmints, filling the cylinder with various loads from snakeshot to +P bearstoppers. 2 legged varmints won’t volunteer to be shot by any load.
OTOH, any polymer “Wonder 9” by Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Springfield or Glock are surprisingly inexpensive and easily toteable. Therefore, common as dirt.
M1911’s have a long tradition of man stopping and might be an inheritance. New ones range from less expensive foreign (Asian) manufacture, almost price competitive with Wonder 9’s. Domestic, quality examples range from 2x polymer prices to the sky is the limit.
“Tactical or Speed Reload” is the term for quick change of magazine during a gunfight whether or not the magazine has been emptied. A prudent soul might carry a couple spare mags at least, but if expecting trouble would probably want to carry a rifle.
When I go for a hike I carry a Ruger LCRx 38sp with +p jacketed hollow points. That should be enough fire power for anything I might encounter (4 or 2 legs) in this neck of the woods. Around here carrying a gun in the woods with a much longer barrel is considered “hunting without a license”.
It is very comfortable to carry which is important while hiking. A good holster and belt are important for comfortable carry on a rough trail.