Cold and wet. Again. [51F and gentle drizzle]
Well, yesterday stayed chilly all day, although it technically got a bit warmer.
I stopped at a sale while out running errands, and picked up another accurite weather station for $20. Now I’ve got a spare, although I broke the anemometer getting it down from the garage soffit. I might just put the receiver display in the bedroom if it will hear my current station. It will be nice to see the temps when I get up. If I get a chance I’ll try it today.
I also moved my SIM card and SD card to my new phone. Contrary to my fear, it went without a hitch. I can happily say that for me, buying an “amazon refurbished” phone in “new” condition was exactly that and worked seamlessly, while saving me several hundred dollars. There is nothing about the phone to indicate it was anything less than new. I’ve ordered a protective sleeve for it so I don’t break it in the first week like I did my old phone.
To get the photos off my old phone’s built in storage, I signed up for google photos. It synced my old phone to my google account and moved all the pix. I haven’t yet found the vids though (they may not move, but they should be backed up elsewhere. If not, I’ll be microsoldering sometime soon.) The google photos page does some really cool things automagically. The coolest is “animations” where it takes any shots that are sequential and loops them into an animation. It really brings the pics to life. I tend to shoot candids in bursts, hoping to get a good one out of the group, so I have a bunch of unexpected and very satisfying animations. As a bonus, I can share the photo account with my wife so she can see them too. Some of the other things it did- it created panoramas out of a series of shots, it did something it calls “color pop” where only the main figure in the image is in color and all the background is in black and white (which is both very well done, and quite dramatic), and it built slide shows with music for related photos. All very cool, and all automated. The tech behind it is pretty impressive.
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I’m hoping the rain holds off for a couple of days. It would be nice to have some moderate temps and have stuff dry out a bit. I’ve still got plenty to do outdoors.
Plenty indoors too for that matter.
So I better get to it.
n
GM would be better off with an electric HHR, which they pulled from the market at around the same time as the Hummer. However, even an affirmative action hire like Mary Barra knows that a $40,000 HHR isn’t going to sell without tax credits, which Trump ended for all EVs on New Years Eve.
Looks like GM is reverse engineering Toyota again. The “Hummer” looks like the old Toyota FJ. The actual Hummer tooling got sold to China.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2020/01/10/hummer-gm-electric-pickup/4435200002/
Subbing again today. The math teacher has been assigned to teach a computer class. She is not trained for computer programming so it will be interesting. She is trying to learn as she goes, has been to a couple short courses. They are trying to teach the students Java, ugh. A language that is so sensitive to case of variables and exact syntax with less than desirable error messages. I have offered my services which have so far been declined, but noted.
For now it is basically drag and drop items from a menu to accomplish something. Make an icon appear, then make it say something. Very basic, little programming or logic. The dumbing down continues.
Bet this was a “spit take” moment at Jerry’s World. Wasn’t the quote “Any one of 500 coaches …”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HPajoFbOJA
Subbing again today. The math teacher has been assigned to teach a computer class. She is not trained for computer programming so it will be interesting. She is trying to learn as she goes, has been to a couple short courses. They are trying to teach the students Java, ugh. A language that is so sensitive to case of variables and exact syntax with less than desirable error messages. I have offered my services which have so far been declined, but noted.
Java is the language of the watered-down AP Computer Science curriculum.
No one invests any money into better compilers out of fear of Larry Ellison. I worked on IBM’s VPN client at The Death Star, and the #1 rule of developing tools for IBM internal use was “No Java” — the company did not want to get caught dependent on the language if Oracle got ligitigious … well, more than it is now.
There is clearly more to this story than is in the article, but as reported, it raises some serious issues.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7879919/Cops-locate-Louisiana-newborn-life-threatening-condition-400-miles-away-Alabama.html
“Parents are arrested for kidnapping their seriously-ill newborn daughter from a hospital while she was still connected to an IV and driving her 400 miles away
A newborn girl with a life-threatening condition was removed from a Louisiana hospital on Saturday morning ”
— number one being, how can the PARENTS be accused of kidnapping? The only way that makes any legal sense is if a court took custody away the instant of birth, and there is no indication of that in the story.
–THE HOSPITAL AND THE STATE DO NOT OWN YOU OR YOUR CHILD.
–I suspect the arrest was for something that happened prior to them being in the hospital, and the reporting is confused. I hope so anyway.
n
We finally watched the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who. Overall, it was decent. I still really dislike the companions. And they seriously need to have the old guy stop calling The Doctor “doc.” I did think the episode was better than anything last season, and it’s nice to see a return to 2 episode arcs.The SJW content is omnipresent, of course.
Reporter confused? Surely you jest.
I seem to remember something about the story but cannot find the link as the stupid school blocks google searches stating the connection is not private. I think the school blocking is to stop students from getting access to nefarious material. The more cynical part of me is so the school system can block any content with which the liberal central office educators (whom have never taught) does not agree.
Anyway, I seem to remember that a judge ordered the child to remain in treatment in direct opposition to the wishes and demands of the parents. I have mixed feelings about such a ruling. On one hand it is no other person’s right to tell parents how to raise their child. On the other hand there are some parents that harm children because they have not been told how to raise a child. Cases where a child will die without treatment and the parents refuse treatment. Who pays if the treatments runs into the million dollar range? Does the system bankrupt the parents into destitute poverty for the rest of their lives? Lot of good arguments for both scenarios.
If a judge so orders, then legal guardianship needs to be removed from the parents. Then all treatment costs must be paid by the judge or whomever gets guardianship. But as long as the parents are the legal guardians then the judge, ordering treatment to be maintained, has overstepped his/her/shim’s legal authority. In my opinion (which ain’t worth shirt(-r).)
?? Everything on your phone is just a file. Why not just find the files and simply copy them to a folder on your computer over your LAN using Wi-Fi? That’s what I do. I have used the Android ES File Explorer for years, but there are many others. Or, even more convenient, is to install one of the Android access apps on Windows, which allows you to do the same thing from your computer. I can’t recommend any, because this is one thing I was never able to get for desktop Linux.
Maybe someone else here can recommend other methods.
And thanks for the tip on Google Photos. I used to use Picasa until Google shut it down. I am now using Google Photos, but need to take a deeper dive into its backup settings. The “cool” things you mentioned ARE impressive, but I really have no use for them.
My biggest concern about Google is that Google now has my photos, using them for information. Along with GPS tags taken from photos from the phone Google now knows where I was, when I was there, and what I was looking at while there. I really don’t want Google knowing that information. Google makes money on information, selling that information, my information. No thanks.
We finally watched the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who. Overall, it was decent. I still really dislike the companions. And they seriously need to have the old guy stop calling The Doctor “doc.” I did think the episode was better than anything last season, and it’s nice to see a return to 2 episode arcs.The SJW content is omnipresent, of course.
The SJW content will continue through at least this season and the next thanks to AT&T stepping in with a check and replacing Amazon with HBO Max as the streaming partner, saving everyone’s job on the current production/writing staff. The rumors I’ve heard are that the SJW material now will get much, much worse before the current season is out.
Ray, I have had Google location recording (or whatever its name is) turned on since I got my first phone in 2009. I find it handy to look up this data for my record keeping. Since the TLAs already have this info, why shouldn’t I?
Sorry, as the man said, there is no privacy.
As for it being YOUR information, read your Terms of Service from your cell phone account… I’ll wait a few days. Ah! Thought so. I certainly don’t own mine, and you are probably in the same pickle. See just how far we have let the lawyers intrude into our lives? But you already knew that. Resistance is futile. All you can do is drop out. When you do, say hi to Ted Kaczynsky. Oh, wait…
Agree. The Graham character is a bit of a stereotype, with the “doc” naming, and much of his dialogue is only to explain the plot.
TheInquirer to end
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3084741/the-inquirer-reaches-end-of-life
Not as good as El Reg but usually a decent source of info and news (not as amusing either).
Sad to see it go.
Yes, I know. The privacy issue, and personal data, train left the station years ago. Just look at organizations such as the credit bureaus, Lexis-Nexis, and most medical providers. They know more about me than I know.
Regardless I still like to do what I can to preserve what little privacy I have left. And I take enough photos that I really don’t Google having access to those photos. When I put the photos on the web I put them in a subdirectory that is not known, and cannot be found, by search engines.
Wow, fell asleep in my chair. That was a waste….
When I stopped watching tech as a hobby, I stopped following tech news. I would see links to Inquirer articles and always found them interesting, but I count on someone else filtering the flood of news for me now. There is very little of interest that I don’t either come across on my own, or find linked here….
The interesting line in the article was about a drop off in online advertising.
If I’m any indicator, people either run ad blockers, or have trained themselves to not even SEE most online ads. The only time I pay any attention is if I’m doing or reading something where I consider the ads as important as the content (like a woodworking magazine or a trade magazine.)
billboards and radio are much more likely to make it thru my mental filters, but they are so “lowest common denominator” that the stuff is very rarely something I need or have interest in.
I can’t believe that online ads are successful outside of niche markets, and Proctor Gamble proved it to their own satisfaction.
n
n
I can’t believe that online ads are successful outside of niche markets, and Proctor Gamble proved it to their own satisfaction.
A lot of pension funds and 401(k) plans depend on advertising revenue continuing to flow to the big tech companies.
Long term, dependence on ad revenue is about as good for the tech companies as heroin is for the junkie.
Me too, although knowing what is effective is difficult.
Can you either describe how, or cite a reference? The only way I know how to protect content is to password protect a folder, but that can be impractical.
@greg, that’s one of the reasons the market is a hollow shell. Tesla is not more valuable to the world than Ford, no matter what the ‘market cap’ says. Neither are the financial middlemen and the others who snip off a little for themselves from everyone who actually produces.
@ray, I realized a while ago that as long as I carry a smart phone, they are gathering data on me. I signed up as a google “local guide” so I could get at least a tiny benefit from what they were doing anyway.
The photos thing is driven by necessity- my usb port caught on fire. I suppose I can email over 1000 photos and several hundred video files, but they’ll get reduced in resolution and MAN what a pain doing so would be. I don’t know of any way to mount my phone as accessible storage over wifi on my local network, but I’m willing if someone has a toolchain that works….
I don’t know if I’ll continue to use photo but it was a painless way to move at least the 32GB of photos from old phone to new, and back them up as well.
One of the dads at school raved about using google photo to pool his and his wife’s kid photos and to have them accessible across the family’s devices. I have to agree that it’s pretty slick.
I do take steps to minimize my data leakage where possible. I don’t use free in store wifi (so they can scan traffic and see if you are price checking.) I leave bluetooth turned off unless I’m using it (location and attention tracking.) I have geotagging turned off on my camera, and had it off on my old phone, thanks for the reminder to check on the new phone. I only use my gmail account sparingly, and not for anything serious. Since I’m running ad blockers, I don’t know what they might be mining from it. I only get email from 4 newsletters and my ham group to my gmail.
I don’t have any of the virtual assistants in the house, my TVs are not online, no cameras or mics on this pc, no security or baby monitor cameras inside the house, no nest or google home automation…
I try, but it is like having credit. At some point, if they don’t know anything about you, it will limit what you can do. Frankly, I’d love for ebay to vet new users to see if they are real people using real id. It would make my selling more secure.
n
Nothing magical. There is no reference to the sub-directory on my website, no links. Content on the folder can only be accessed by direct reference. Unless Google or other search engines are willing to try every possible combination of file names to find the folder. Probably as effective as anything else. I currently have several sub-directories with content. Go to my site and and there is no information, no reference to sub-directories, no way for Google to index the content it cannot find.
“Why not just find the files and simply copy them to a folder on your computer over your LAN using Wi-Fi? That’s what I do. I have used the Android ES File Explorer for years, but there are many others. ”
I just plug my android (Samsung/Verizon) into the USB port and file explorer treats it like another drive.
“I just plug my android (Samsung/Verizon) into the USB port and file explorer treats it like another drive. ”
–that is what I used to do too, but the usb port on my phone burned up. I’m charging it with the Qi wireless charger, and when I get the last of those files (videos) off the phone, I can retire it.
n
@ray, my godaddy hosted sites all have unlinked directories as a TOS violation. They don’t want you using your website as straight up storage, or direct linking from elsewhere….
n
Mine may have the same TOS violation, I never read it. I don’t much care actually. And I do use it for storage, transferring files to my son, etc. I am probably being a bad boy. But in five years the host has never said anything so I will continue my disgusting practice.
Friday the 13th falls on a Monday this month …
“For First Time, A Colorado Judge Denies Confiscation Request Under Red Flag Law”
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/01/12/colorado-judge-red-flag-confiscation-request/
“For the first time, a judge has denied a request to take away a man’s guns under Colorado’s new red flag law. A Limon woman claimed a man who she had a relationship with threatened her with a gun and filed the request.”
Once out of thousands across the nation ?
There needs to be more proof than just “he or she threatened me verbally”.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
“Tesla surges past $500 on back of analyst upgrade, China momentum”
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/13/tesla-surges-past-500-on-back-of-analyst-upgrade-china-momentum/
“Tesla, perhaps the most famous electric vehicle company in the world, has had tumultuous last twelve months on the public markets. The company’s shares have traded as low as $176.99 in the past 52 weeks, and, as has high as $507.50 today.”
“The company is worth $507.28 per share at the moment, valuing Tesla at $91.38 billion according to Google Finance. As is often pointed out Tesla is worth more than Ford and General Motors combined. In a slightly more exotic forumation, Tesla is worth just under 64 times as much as Aston Martin.”
Crazy. Tesla does not make half of the cars and trucks that Ford does.
@Nick,
I use WebDAV Server by The Olive Tree Software, available from the Play Store – I think you’re using Android? I have it on the Nexus 5X that was my daily driver until I retired it just lately.
It Just Works, and lets you view/copy/delete any user file to your desktop/laptop, by mounting the phone as an external drive in your computer’s file manager.
Memo to self: Install it on the new Nokia 7 Plus, and the second N5X that still has a couple of apps that don’t work well on the Nokia, so that I can keep the phones nearly empty. After all, if it ain’t there, it can’t be snooped on, right?
I’m also in the process of setting up NextCloud for file synch across various devices, so that all necessary files are available on all.
Geoff
Crazy. Tesla does not make half of the cars and trucks that Ford does.
Speculation. Gambling, really. If Trump loses, the 54 MPG CAFE mandate and ruinous “gas guzzler” penalties get reinstated, and, yes, Tesla becomes the most valuable car company in the world because of the need for carbon credits.
Simply selling electric vehicles is a fast way to go broke. Just ask Nissan.
The issue is there is no way to connect the phone to the computer. The USB port has fried and is no longer function. Regardless of the file manager used, software on the phone, etc. without a physical connection to the phone there is no way to transfer.
What would be needed is a client on the phone that would act as a file manager over wireless. The security implications would be massive and maybe make such an app impossible.
By wireless, I assume you mean over the cell data network. My method using the Android ES File Explorer only works over Wi-Fi, so is on the internal LAN, behind the NAT router. If there is a concern, simply disconnect the WAN connection to the outside world. Or, am I missing something?
“Wind has almost edged out coal for No. 2 position in Texas”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Wind-has-almost-edged-out-coal-for-No-2-position-14964501.php
“Wind energy generated 20 percent of the electricity used in Texas last year, nearly edging out coal as the state’s second leading source of power, according to new data from the state grid manager the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.”
“Coal-fired plants generated 20.3 percent of power in Texas last year, down from nearly 25 percent in 2018, according to ERCOT. Meanwhile, wind’s share of generation climbed from 18.5 percent in 2018.”
And every single one of those wind turbines must have a gas turbine backup using natural gas.
BTW, China is putting five new coal power plants online every freaking WEEK this year and next.
I have used ES Explorer to transfer gigs from PC to phone via WiFi. It does take some time and getting the Windows shares right is “fun”.
and just one more issue
https://principia-scientific.org/50000-tons-of-useless-wind-turbine-blades-dumped-in-the-landfill/
Not to mention they’re ugly
https://religionnews.com/2017/04/20/scientific-inquiry-should-be-an-american-value-too/a-wind-farm-part-of-the-tehachapi-pass-wind-farm-is-pictured-in-tehachapi/
@Ray: does your phone have a memory card in it that you can remove? You could then copy all the pix files onto the microSD card and then remove that and insert into a card reader into your computer.
@Nightraker, interesting. I have no share problems between desktop Linux and Android, an anomaly in this network. I DO have problems with Linux to Linux file sharing, and have never been able to fix it. Sometimes it works fine, other times file ownership and permissions can be messed up. Just an inconvenience for me, but drove my wife nuts. She refuses to use Linux for this and other reasons.
Ironically, I never had any problems with Windows to Windows and Linux to Windows during tests and setup, but I did have problems from Windows to Linux. When I did my final cut over to all Linux, I started with fresh installations, and had only (initially) two Linux computers on the LAN. To allay the criticisms of my Linux expert friends, I never allowed a Windows computer on the LAN, lest it “pollute” SAMBA. And, SAMBA supposedly is better than Linux file sharing, or whatever the native service is called. I could never make that work.
I have heard that newer versions of Windows (10?) are sensitive to permissions, but a Windows expert friend disagrees. He sets up many systems for small business customers, and has yet to have a problem. He is the first I will call if I have a problem when I go to Win 10. 🙂
“RIP Windows 7: We’re Going to Miss You”
https://www.howtogeek.com/469859/rip-windows-7-were-going-to-miss-you/
“More than a decade after its release, Windows 7 support ends on January 14, 2020. Let’s look back at what made Windows 7 so awesome and why it’s a great operating system we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”
WebDAV server only works over wireless, there is no need of a physical connection. It can be installed over cellular or wifi – if your phone has a network connection, it will install.
As far as I can tell, it only presents your phone’s filesystem over wifi, and then only when the app is running. Obviously, doing this over public wifi is a no-no – I only use it at home, behind a NAT router.
I have used ES File Explorer, which also works. I find it unintuitive. YMMV.
Geoff
Crazy. Tesla does not make half of the cars and trucks that Ford does.
Speculation. Gambling, really. If Trump loses, the 54 MPG CAFE mandate and ruinous “gas guzzler” penalties get reinstated, and, yes, Tesla becomes the most valuable car company in the world because of the need for carbon credits.
Yup, the entire stock market is speculation and gambling. Most people invest, yours truly included, by expecting future performance to be as good or better than past performance.
My take on carbon credits is that they are just about total fraud. Lots of accounting games are played with those non-existent entities. Moving from one category to another a person might make a small math error and increase their carbon credits by a factor of ten.
https://www.hstoday.us/industry/security-company-ceo-charged-with-multimillion-dollar-stock-and-carbon-credit-fraud/
and
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/09/20/carbon-credit-climate-scam-the-fraud-prosecutions-begin/
I am not the one having the issue. It was mentioned that the phone would appear in explorer once connected. The chap with the problem has no way to connect via a cord.
No, I think I am. Film at 11:00.
Unless something really unexpected happens, Trump will lose only because of massive, and undeniable, vote fraud. That may well kick off the shooting war, at which point CAFE standards and carbon credits will be moot.
If Trump loses
Unless something really unexpected happens, Trump will lose only because of massive, and undeniable, vote fraud. That may well kick off the shooting war, at which point CAFE standards and carbon credits will be moot.
The October surprise awaits. Soon, the dumbocrats will be casting lots to see who thrusts their dagger into the President. Maybe it will be several of them.
When I went to my new phone Google handled the contacts. I found a program on the Play store that transferred txt messages. All of the rest I copied to the memory card and then moved the card to the new phone.
It wasn’t a big deal.
edit
And yes, I tried the wi-fi method. F that. Stuff in a memory card and move it. SneakerNet lives.
“Astros fire A.J. Hinch, Jeff Luhnow after MLB report into sign-stealing”
https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-Jeff-Luhnow-A-J-Hinch-suspended-one-14971684.php
“Astros owner Jim Crane fired manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow on Monday shortly after Major League Baseball announced the pair would be suspended for a year as part of the penalties for the investigation into alleged electronic-sign stealing.”
The two guys who had nothing to do with the catcher sign stealing got fired. Amazing.
None of the players who were involved were mentioned or penalized. Amazing.
The Bench Coach who was intimately involved, and is now the Boston Red Sox head coach, was passed over for now.
The Houston Astros will now become the Lastros again.
Major League Baseball sucks.
” Stuff in a memory card and move it. SneakerNet lives.”
–That might actually be the easiest choice. And one I hadn’t considered.
n
My experience is that Linux and Android don’t always play nice together. I’ve been able to move files back and forth using Ghost Commander with the Samba plug-in. I’ve also had some luck with Nitro-Share. Both are available from F-Droid.
Should I stock up on carbon based bullets? For trading purposes.
The Houston Astros will now become the Lastros again.
Smells like ownership was already thinking about a change, maybe at the end of this season. I know very little about baseball, but I gather that Tampa Bay coming close made an impression.
Starting to come up for air after our move and the Holidays and the wife’s accident.
We moved to a very small town in rural Oklahoma from a very metropolitan area. Noting new. We lived on remote farm in the 80’s and 90’s. But this is different. One thing I noticed is that 20% of gas stations are NO ETHANOL and even WalMart gas pumps have a 100% Gasoline option. There was none of this in the Memphis area. And it’s clear that a book isn’t it’s cover. I met Mike, a grubby old cowboy by his attire and speech, who likely never wondered far from his homestead. But it turned out that he spends most of the year in the EU and Asia buying for his import business. Can’t say I love it here yet but it’s growing on me. I’d be happier if I had some free time but since the wifes accident I am her constant nurse and chair pusher. She’s slowly getting mobility back but VERY slowly. I look forward to her recovery.
From yesterday:
“We had to eat the cost of leaving scons because that developer didn’t want to mess with converting Python 2 to 3.”
scons ?
A utility to do builds, similar to Make, but more flexible due to it being a Python script.
We replaced it with CMake, but that process wasn’t easy.
@hcombs, I hope your wife recovers more quickly, and both of you settle in and love your new retirement home. Moving is more difficult than most people anticipate. Sometimes it’s some of the little things that make us uncomfortable. Making a few new friends helps.
One thing I noticed is that 20% of gas stations are NO ETHANOL and even WalMart gas pumps have a 100% Gasoline option.
E10 is very hard on cars predating the late 90s. E15 will kill off most of the US fleet made before the last 20 years.
Trump vacated the mandate that most gasoline had to leave the refinery mixed with the ethanol.
The ethanol won’t go away. Take a drive north on I29 out of Kansas City, and you’ll understand why — about mid way to Council Bluffs, along the river. Someone spent a ton of money on that plant.
“@hcombs, I hope your wife recovers more quickly, and both of you settle in and love your new retirement home.”
–from all of us, in spades.
n
It’s pedos all the way down…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mueller-probe-witness-faces-30-years-jail-after-guilty-plea-second-child-porn-charge
“but admitted to having received an email including violent sexual images of infants in 2012.”
n
It’s pedos all the way down…
Things in Virginia are going to get real sporty this year.