Warmer and damp, with sun later? [cooler and overcast so far]
Yesterday was certainly drab enough. Cool, then rain storm including marble sized hail, then warm and sticky. Off and on rain. Not a good day for yardwork so I’m glad I got all that done on Friday.
I did manage to get a couple of things done.
I cleaned the garage fridge. It needed it. REALLY needed it. Since I only use it for packaged food and bottles, I don’t really care if it is dirty inside, but I’m going to put some potatoes, onions, cabbages, etc in it so it needed to be clean. I shouldn’t have let it get so bad. Very strange watching it empty out without plans for a refill.
I also got a small equipment rack up into the attic to be my main network rack. I’ve had it for a while, even insulated it, but didn’t install it. The plan is to connect it to the cool air return of my HVAC to keep it cool. We’ll see if that ever happens. At least it’s up there and off the back patio.
I mostly read and messed around in the house. Not a productive day.
Today I’ve got to get some other stuff on the list addressed, depending on the weather.
Dinner was left over ribeye roast, with leftover dinner rolls, and saute’d brusselsprouts with bacon. Yum. I had peanut butter cookies for dessert, the kids had Easter candy. Main fridge is slowly emptying out too. Kinda disconcerting, despite all the food on the shelves. Whole eggs and whole milk are going to be the biggest changes, IF I don’t make a store run.
My client wants me to come over and fix some stuff, which I’m reluctant to do. Very reluctant. He’s a good guy, good customer, and it pays well. But I’ve been isolated and he has not. I’ll be having a couple of discussions with my wife before I decide. I don’t have to have contact with him, but I do have to go in the house. On the other hand, it’s a BIG house.
If I decide to break isolation, I’ll be tempted to do a store run. It would be easier if I didn’t have to make a decision myself.
With that said, stay in, stay safe.
nick
I did a run to Kroger an hour ago. Put on N95 mask got got daughter some
PT. Now back out with dog for a walk.
PT? Exercise? Or typo of TP?
Or… Prune Tobasco? Pickled Tomatoes?
The question at the root of the issue is, how much worse will it get and how long will it be bad?
If we’re entering the economic collapse phase, then it would make sense to restock and even build up reserves. If we’re still in the medical phase, then continuing to isolate is the safest bet. But it means running out when there is nothing left if things continue to get worse.
Needs more thought.
In the mean time, Mexico is showing signs of an out of control spread, and the usual suspects are too. Even Japan is barely holding it together.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/were-completely-overwhelmed-mexico-city-hospitals-turn-away-patients-serious-covid-19
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8235975/Expert-warns-Japans-healthcare-verge-collapse-coronavirus.html
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tokyo-hospitals-turn-away-patients-15th-world-takes-first-steps-toward-reopening
n
n
PT: “Paper Towel”
I pray to be proven wrong but I am of the opinion, based on facts that are often conflicting, that everything is going to get much worse.
Ask a doctor who has not bought the party line and he/she/it will tell you that the “tests” (all the many) give a majority false positive as well as a majority false negatives. Putting it bluntly, the “tests” mean nothing.
How do you know someone really died of or had COVID-19 or one of it many many mutations?
An autopsy conducted by a competent coroner (not many of those, most are political appointments).
What are they looking for?
Certain specific lesions in/on the lungs, brain, and digestive tract as well as abnormal blood cells.
Our economic system has been shredded. So has our manufacturing and delivery systems.
There is not just some switch that can restore the world.
My feeling is that as soon as we draw down existing stocks, and work in progress, things are gonna get scarce. No matter what the “things” are.
n
Ft Bend County cops are following someone around. Surveillance continues as they seem to be working major crimes.
n
added- sounds like auto theft.
CowboySlim, your reply is reasonable but, well, boring. Therefore, I choose to believe that you left the house to get your daughter a Pygmy Tyrannosaurus.
I am not in denial.
How bad is it out there? It doesn’t look that bad to me, if you have a job or income of some sort (Great Depression quote). The goobermint forced the closure of commerce and destroyed small businesses (except what they deemed essential, like liquor stores, weed shops, Geez). We will never know the result if SARS ran it’s course, like Obola did, asleep at the wheel. I’ll watch the city infrastructure and farms as a clue if it’s the Zombie Barackalypse. If no food comes to the stores, how long can one last anyway? I don’t have a year of stored food. I don’t live in Bumfuck, Egypt, off the grid, farming and hunting. I also don’t want to live in a PRC eating soy rations and watching novellas.
Sending the tinfoil hat back, now.
MrAtoz, make sure you have a chest freezer, a butcher’s knife, and a slow cooker. Stock up on your barbecue sauce and ammunition. There’s plenty of meat wandering around, if you’re not choosy.
@MrAtoz you hit the nail on the head. If you are still employed, everything is still ok, just a little inconvenience. If you’ve lost your job, well, it’s your personal shtf. Just multiply that by millions. What is the tipping point to a cascade failure that involves everyone? Not minimally affecting, but bad.
We can’t keep the country on lockdown too much longer.
How bad is it out there? It doesn’t look that bad to me, if you have a job or income of some sort (Great Depression quote). The goobermint forced the closure of commerce and destroyed small businesses (except what they deemed essential, like liquor stores, weed shops, Geez). We will never know the result if SARS ran it’s course, like Obola did, asleep at the wheel. I’ll watch the city infrastructure and farms as a clue if it’s the Zombie Barackalypse. If no food comes to the stores, how long can one last anyway? I don’t have a year of stored food. I don’t live in Bumfuck, Egypt, off the grid, farming and hunting. I also don’t want to live in a PRC eating soy rations and watching novellas.
Crude oil just crashed to $5/bbl. That is 12 cents a gallon.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CL=F?p=CL=F
Refining cost 25 cents a gallon. Distribution adds another 10 cents to a dollar a gallon.
Demand for gasoline and diesel have dropped over 40% in the last two months.
3 million people used to work in the oil and natural gas industry. Another 12 million people (yours truly) support them. Many of these people have been laid off. Millions. Many millions. Maybe half of them. Average pay of at least $30/hour. 100% paid health insurance.
I have no idea where we are going but it is not pretty. I cannot guarantee that the lights will be on in August. I cannot guarantee that you will be able to buy gasoline or diesel in August. Change generally take 5 to 10 years in the oil patch. It has just been wrecked in the last 90 days.
Oil sands went NEGATIVE.
n
Mini T-rex is delicious.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/d90b2488008a0df3a6296bc76bff0728/tumblr_inline_ptj0ucDNGx1r09riw_500.jpg
n
I agree. This is not sustainable. Most of the country – if you look at the country by county’s – have have less that a half dozen virus related deaths. The economic impact is not justified by such a small loss over month.
Have everyone wear face masks. Change our social distancing but let most businesses get back to work.
$2.81, a few moments ago.
Wut.
Presumably the price is so low because there’s a glut in the system and it’s difficult to squeeze any more into the storage tanks and the pipelines. And presumably it’ll get straightened out, someday.
At $0.10/gal for crude, $0.25 for refining, $0.10 for distro, $0.10 profit for the retailer, we have $0.55 costs.
Federal excise tax is $0.18, NYS excise tax is $0.46, and state and local sales tax is 8%. This means that, using the above numbers, tax would be 60% of the price at the pump.
More in Cali. They used to have stickers on the pump showing the percentages of taxes in every gallon of gas. Bet that changed.
n
I made a ribeye for lunch. Pan seared then broiled. Came out perfect medium rare. Not bad for all electric, but I miss the real crunchy jar fire give it. Wine and a salad and I’m full.
I’m going to Home Depot to pick up a fuel canister for my torch. I’ll observe social retard rules and park in the “call us and we’ll bring out” slot. I have a magnetic stirring hotplate with a temp probe I’m setting up for an electrolysis experiment. The probe is not glassed (probably wouldn’t matter since it will not be an anode or cathode), so I’m going to try and make one. It’s 3mm OD and I ordered some borosilicate glass tubing of 4mm ID. I haven’t bent glass since High School chemistry, but there are some nice vids on YouTube on using a torch instead of a bunsen burner. Plenty of things to do whilst observing social retard rules.
That’s funny, before this whole mess started, I bought a case of glass tube to try some bending with. That’ll be a long time from now, now.
I love to watch the glass blowers and artists at an kind of craft fair. Scientific glass blowing is even cooler.
n
I went to drop my cable bill at the local Rectum -er- Spectrum office only to find the after hours payment slot off limits and an attendant at the door not letting anyone inside without a mask. Our county doesn’t have the mask kabuki so it must be either the store staff or the company making the decision.
I’ll mail the bill next time. I used the trip as an excuse to leave the house. It really doesn’t matter what the local governments decide as much as the big companies’ policies, but, to be fair, when Austin/Travis County enacted a mask ordinance, WalMart was quoted on the news that night as stating, “We’re not going to enforce that.”
Not all the corporations are on board with the kabuki.
I told the attendant I was going to go home and call AT&T.
Driving home, I noticed the big Indian motorcyle shop on the freeway access road was closed with a For Rent sign in the window. Those places were already in trouble pre virus.
Beautiful day and I should be outside but instead, fell down the rabbit hole.
This pc is maxing out at 150Mbps down and 22up. And by maxing I mean the graph is absolutely flat at 150 according to speedof.me My other PC that I use as an NVR is getting 317Mbps down, and 22up.
I’m paying ATT fiber for 300/30. Something on my main pc is limiting me to exactly 150, and I can’t find it. I suspected that damnable Dell/Rivit networks packet shaper, but I thought I’d removed it a long time ago on this machine. And it doesn’t show up when I go looking, so WTF has happened?
I’ll look more later but I need to do stuff outside in the cool….
n
WTF?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/historic-oil-crash-sends-canadian-oil-prices-negative
“Update (1425ET): And there it is… May WTI just traded below zero for the first time ever (trading below NEGATIVE $40 per barrel)… There was a small bid right into the settlement at 1430ET leaving the May contract to settle at negative $37.63.”
How is that even possible?
n
Try a different speed test. I used speedof.me and got download speed of 46 Mbps, upload of 5 Mbps. Then I used speedtest.net and got download speeds of 250 Mbps and upload of 20 Mbps.
That is a huge difference in the two speed tests indicating to me that speedof.me is incorrect. I am paying for 300 down and 20 up. So 250 is not too bad as I suspect Comcast is limiting some speeds because of traffic issues.
Is that the retail gasoline price near you? Wow. Gas Buddy says that the lowest cash price here in our California valley is $2.18. (I hate it that Gas Buddy truncates the $0.009 instead of rounding.) Lowest price in CA is $1.59 at Farmersville. National average, reported on the business nooz earlier this morning was $1.82, which made me feel overcharged. It is under $1 in 13 states.
No wonder you like living in NY. (Don’t get me wrong, I used to have several very good friends in upstate NY, and used to go there on business a lot a LONG time ago.)
Nick, we still have those tax stickers on the pumps. I always read them while waiting for the tank to fill. It lists the federal and state taxes in cents per gallon, and the sales tax, which only says “Varies”. Yeah, transparent.
Just looked in the Googles: $0.473 state excise tax plus 2.25% sales tax, which varies throughout the state. There are other fees and surcharges, but I couldn’t find any one source that listed everything in easy to understand format. It appears that some fees and taxes are added to the price per gallon before it hits retail. Some say the total is almost $1 per gallon. A newspaper wrote a letter to the AG requesting an investigation. You can guess what happened. As long as we elect these crooks, we will suffer the consequences.
Spent the day moving a phone connection and TV cable connection. It was not supposed to take that long. The old connections came up through the floor. With new carpeting going in I wanted to move those into the wall. What a pain. Locating cables, rerouting the cables getting them into the walls. It is done. While in the process I also pulled some inactive telephone cables. Those were installed when there were no wireless phones and every phone required a physical connection. I absolutely hate working in the basement ceiling because it is insulated and that fiberglass is annoying.
Almost ready for the carpet. Need to fix a spot in the floor that has water damage. Small section to be cut out and replace. Also need to screw down the floor in several places to try and mitigate some squeaks. That will be done tomorrow. Thursday is the first phase of carpet installation. Thursday night relocate furniture from the un-carpeted areas to the freshly carpeted areas. Installation gets finished on Friday.
I am thoroughly convinced that the wife was raised in cluttered house. Have to move one thing to get to something. Stuff everywhere. Finish with something and just leave it there. Her brother exhibits the same life style as does her mother. Clutter makes her feel comfortable.
Nick and Ray, could you lend me your test-to-test variations? Even 10 mbps would really help. Sore point. Still waiting for Starlink or a competitor to go live.
I am jealous. I am paying our rural internet service for 300MB and getting 12MB maximum. When I complained to Swiftlink, they pointed out my service grade was “maximum” of 300MB not a guaranteed 300.
A true spousal anarchist.
Speed tests aren’t real world but they can be useful as an upper bound test. Lots of fun trying to verify a 10Gbps circuit.
On speedtest, run the test against several different servers, multiple times. Remember to disconnect other devices from the network. Your result is the best up and down of all the tests. If your ISP has their own speedtest, use that too.
If the price of oil is negative and I “buy” 1,000,000 barrels at, for example, -$1.50/barrel does that mean I’ve got $1.5M coming to me? lol
Ray, an old friend who is a general contractor once told me to dust a little talc on top of carpet over a squeaky floor. He said it will work in and quiet the squeak. I am skeptical, but admit I never tried it. As long as you can get to the floor itself, screws are a much better idea.
And, one person’s treasure is another’s clutter. I’m sure you know that. We once spent several days visiting my SIL. Her husband seemed to spend his time either golfing, watching sportsball or walking around, picking up something, and asking if she needed it. If no immediate answer, he literally put it in the trash. Didn’t matter what it was. Annoying. He needed a job, but was retired. Care to guess if they were preppers?
YAAAAAAASSSSSSSS! A headline that is a dream! From the NYT no less!
Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message
I think you are onto an investment idea.
LOL! indeed.
Yes, your check will be direct deposited into your account.
Hold your breath while waiting.
Yes. And you will have to rent storage for your million barrels. It’s a money loosing proposition.
“Update (1425ET): And there it is… May WTI just traded below zero for the first time ever (trading below NEGATIVE $40 per barrel)… There was a small bid right into the settlement at 1430ET leaving the May contract to settle at negative $37.63.”
How is that even possible?
They’re paying someone to take the oil and store it somewhere?
I’m binging Hunters on Amazon Prime. I love to hate Nazis! I can envision Shot Girl as “The Colonel.”
No no, that was the price per barrel. Lynn had said it was at $5 and gave a link. I checked the link not long after and crude was at 2.81. IIRC Lynn said it costs more than that to pump it out of the ground (though I don’t recall if that includes amortizing the cost of the rig).
“If the price of oil is negative and I “buy” 1,000,000 barrels at, for example, -$1.50/barrel does that mean I’ve got $1.5M coming to me? lol”
–um yes, that’s exactly what it means but you have to take delivery to get the money.
and the reason it’s negative is that there isn’t any space left available to store it, so they’ll have to cut production or mothball rigs. Costs money to mothball, and to later restart, so in a short term situation, it’s cheaper to pay someone to take your excess.
Of course, it’s only cheaper in EXTRAORDINARY circumstances, like natgas found themselves in a few months ago, or in May, when projected demand, plus filled up storage, means shutting down production, or encouraging more storage to come on line.
n
Over The Hedge: Quarantine !
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/04/20
Hmmm.
Hmmm, I wonder how long it will be until the price of tobacco or chocolate crashes. Nylon stockings?
A friend of mine in India, none too bright unfortunately, asked me how to make a still since they have lots of pineapple and even coconut milk. I had previously given some thought to this because a pressure cooker makes a great fermenting pot and given an induction cooktop, it might be pretty easy. I’m still stuck on a hack for an efficient condensing coil (remember it’s hot down there and he doesn’t have a good source of running cool water), and especially an off-the-shelf means of controlling the temperature.
I’m open to ideas for the coil hack, but what I really need is a sensitive thermostatic relay he can stick on the outside of the pressure cooker to turn the induction cooktop on and off without rewiring the cooktop. Does anyone have any ideas?
speedtest.net has all the earmarks of a scammer. They default to a server in my neighborhood, which will OF COURSE give high speeds, especially if they cache locally, like the test my cable company used to recommend.
Normally, I want an idea about overall speed if I’m having an issue, because I assume I’m getting what I’m paying for. Today, looking to see if the link between me and the world is full speed, it won’t matter if I use a local server, and might actually be better for what I’m trying to find, today.
I switched to using speedof.me because their speeds seemed to be much more in line with what I knew the provisioned speeds to be. Forexample, on both pcs speedtest.net shows me getting better than 300 down and better than 300 up. I’m not paying for symmetrical service. If it’s really symmetrical, why would speedof.me report up as 22 on both machines?
—-
well, I ran the tests again in IE with no ad blockers, and found some funny business.
First run, speedof.me gave me 300+up an 30 down. speedtest.net gave me 300+/300+.
Watching the performance monitor to see what was moving across my network card, the rates match the data that actually moved. On IE, speedtest really did move data at 300/300, speedofme really did move it at 300/30, and ALSO at 150/21. Looks like speedofme has some issues requesting or dealing with the data some times. And it looks like I’m really getting 300 symmetrical.
FWIW I told speedtest to use a server in Dallas, and I was still getting those speeds.
Unfortunately, since the speed test sites all sell ad space I don’t trust ANY of them, and especially not the one comcast cable recommended. However, seeing the data move thru the card at that speed pretty much says it’s POSSIBLE that I’m really getting 300/300. Even likely. And I won’t be using speedofme anymore.
n
@~jim, will the induction cooker work with aluminum pressure cooker pot? I’ve never seen a steel one…
Seems like you could just monitor the temps in the pot manually with a thermometer thru a hole, or set up a water bath-double boiler to heat the pot and monitor the temps in the water…
In junior high I made sour mash whiskey, all the way to just short of actually distilling it, cuz that would have been illegal. I used a coil of copper tube in a five gallon bucket as the condenser. any water at all should be cooler than ambient when drawn. Or put the water in unglazed teracotta like the natural wine chiller things and let evap cooling chill the water slightly? Wrap the coil in wet sponge? Only distill at night?
n
Dilbert: No Handshaking
https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-04-20
We are making a fundamental change in our trust relationships. The handshake is both used to initiate a trust relationship and to complete the trust relationship. I am not sure what the replacement will be. Certainly not the fist bump or the elbow bump.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/here-full-explanation-behind-oils-unprecedented-negative-price
@~jim, also every book I’ve ever read about distilling alcohol for drinking says you must use copper for the pot. Stainless is also probably ok, but there is a lot of lore that Al is not.
n
Somewhere I have an Arduino controlled plugin outlet. You’d have to get a 220, I guess, version, write the code and add a temperature sensor. Too complicated?
Also, I’ve seen home-brew distillers that put the coils in a barrel and use a small dc aquarium pump to circulate the water through a radiator. I know indiamart sells cool glass condensing towers. You’d run the water through a radiator again. Nothing like over engineering a solution, is there.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8227943/Mum-reveals-keeps-walls-clean-using-fabric-softener.html
–um, yes, because it’s soap. and the “scrub like mad, rinse and repeat” probably helps too.
n
I have a steel pressure cooker that I use with my induction plate. Aluminum won’t work. Only ferrous on an induction plate.
Maybe the wacky speed tests have something to do with using IPv6 instead of IPv4? Just a random thought.
My ISP talks about enabling IPv6 but they have not yet. When they do I’ll learn something new.
Even Japan is barely holding it together.
So Japan is faking their SARS-COV-2 numbers also ? 11,000 cases for a 127 million population is just a blip.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/japan/
Fort Bend Journal: The Good Old Days by BH
“Overheard:
Remember the days when Ozzy Osbourne could eat a raw bat without causing a global pandemic ?”
Yuck.
Unfortunately, since the speed test sites all sell ad space I don’t trust ANY of them, and especially not the one comcast cable recommended. However, seeing the data move thru the card at that speed pretty much says it’s POSSIBLE that I’m really getting 300/300. Even likely. And I won’t be using speedofme anymore.
At the Death Star, we told users to access speedguide.net if they were concerned about their network speeds. I still occasionally use that site, but proceed at your own risk. No endorsement, just a user.
well, I ran the tests again in IE with no ad blockers, and found some funny business.
First run, speedof.me gave me 300+up an 30 down. speedtest.net gave me 300+/300+.
Watching the performance monitor to see what was moving across my network card, the rates match the data that actually moved. On IE, speedtest really did move data at 300/300, speedofme really did move it at 300/30, and ALSO at 150/21. Looks like speedofme has some issues requesting or dealing with the data some times. And it looks like I’m really getting 300 symmetrical.
FWIW I told speedtest to use a server in Dallas, and I was still getting those speeds.
Unfortunately, since the speed test sites all sell ad space I don’t trust ANY of them, and especially not the one comcast cable recommended. However, seeing the data move thru the card at that speed pretty much says it’s POSSIBLE that I’m really getting 300/300. Even likely. And I won’t be using speedofme anymore.
I use fast.com which is owned by Netflix and used in the background by them to constantly adjust your viewing resolution.
https://fast.com/
My truck came with two key fobs. I’ve been using the very slightly less worn fob. When the dash cluster died, first thought was that the key fob was bad.
Spare fob didn’t work. For extra fun you need a working fob to add new fobs. Or the joy of dickering(-ering)(+ed) by some genius at the dealership for what I’m sure is /not/ a nominal fee.
Ebay to the rescue. There are plenty of “re-furb” fobs, old guts, new case. I paid a couple bucks more for a used fob. $9.50 with tax instead of $6.50 plus tax. It looks like someone’s spare fob. I went through the programming routine and for grins, tried the old dead fob.
I now have three working fobs. No clue why my dead fob quit working. Perhaps something to do with the dash cluster failing. Shrug.
Or put the water in unglazed teracotta like the natural wine chiller things and let evap cooling chill the water slightly
That’s a good low-tech solution and big clay pots are easy to come by! I’ll keep it on the back burner until I figure out the heating solution. That and an aquarium pump may just solve the problem. Copper coil is also easy to come by, and almost all modern pressure cookers down there have a steel base because so many people use induction cooktops. Al, is out, of course, but stainless is widespread.
Drilling holes in the pressure cooker is something I’d do, and even delve into Arduino and make my own thermostat but I’m afraid that’s beyond him. I think perhaps an infrared thermometer, setting the cooktop at a constantly low level and manually futzing with the temp of every so often is the easiest solution.
Does the oil price crash mean I have to send California Resources a royalty check every month instead of the other way around?
No no, that was the price per barrel. Lynn had said it was at $5 and gave a link. I checked the link not long after and crude was at 2.81. IIRC Lynn said it costs more than that to pump it out of the ground (though I don’t recall if that includes amortizing the cost of the rig).
Not long ago, Exxon claimed that they make money at $45/barrel. That is the production price and does not include amortization of the costs. But it does included salaries, the rig rental price, the landowner share, the oil taxes paid to the state, the patent royalty for fracking, etc, etc, etc.
The crude price given there is the futures contract price which closes tomorrow for May contracts, the trading of those contracts ended today. Somebody got stuck holding a lot of oil and no place to store it. The June contract closed at $21/barrel today.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CLM20.NYM?p=CLM20.NYM
and
https://www.autoblog.com/2020/04/20/oil-price-crash-no-storage-space/
About 30 to 40% of the wells in the USA were closed already before this craziness. We are going to have to shut in almost every oil well in the USA to clear up this mess. The producers are just now starting to accept this reality. In Texas, you can only shut in a well for six months out of the year but I foresee this changing.
BTW, every seaport with a crude terminal has oil tankers sitting out there on anchor waiting for them to offload. Those oil tankers are not cheap.
Fast.com is good for download speed. They seem a bit optimistic but hey, they are trying to sell you Netflix.
http://speed.ui.com/ seems decent.
https://testmy.net/ is interesting.
http://openspeedtest.com/ seems to work well.
I don’t stress too much. I know the EDC box is getting 25+ mb down. In the house I get about 14 to 17 but Spring happened and the Nanobeams are shooting through a clump of baby elm trees covered with grape and briar vines. The cardinals are happy for now…. My connection
is solid.
Sex. It’s not exactly casual sex, because it’s used to seal a deal, but it won’t have any personal meaning. And it’ll be a good way to get more women into the C-suite and the corporate boards, because all those stodgy old men won’t want to have sex with the stodgy old men in whatever company they just made a deal with, so the feminist agenda is pushed, too. Winning!
Now I just need someone who can make this argument to the opinion leaders with a straight face.
Tell that to Tim Cook!
Tax laws?
Where will the snowflakes get fuel to run power plants to charge their Teslas? Then claim how they are carbon neutral.
In Texas, you can only shut in a well for six months out of the year but I foresee this changing.
Tax laws?
Texas Railroad Commission. If the well is shut in longer than six months then you have to plug it, usually with 2o+ feet of concrete down the wellhead.
Paul, don’t mess around with security keys, another name for your “key fob.” If you make a mistake, it will cost you big bucks. First, there are many different systems, even with the same manufacturer, so what I am about to say here will be very generic. Find out about yours by reading the owners manual; if you don’t have one, I highly recommend you get one either by ordering a printed one from FCA or by downloading it. For instance, my 2006 Chrysler Town & Country uses a system that is no longer used, but is similar in concept to newer ones. The owners manual correctly states that I can add a new key myself only if I have two independent functioning keys. This means the RFID serial number is different in each one. They can’t be “clones”, which is what some locksmiths do. If they are independent, I can simply cut the new key to fit the lock using one of the other keys, and then go through some magic tap dance with the two working keys followed by inserting the new key. You don’t need a dealer or a locksmith. Sometimes owning a Chrysler product has its advantages, but I’ll bet other makes do something similar.
If I don’t have TWO independent keys, then I am supposed to go to the dealer, who will supposedly charge a minimum of about $300 to fix things. Don’t do that. Go to a locksmith who specializes in these things. He will have a programmer that is supposed to be able to fix things the dealer can’t, although this will vary by make and model. He is also cheaper and usually more competent. As you can guess, some of the imports are harder and much more expensive to get out of trouble.
So, it is good advice for everyone who buys a new car to put away at least TWO working security keys. As you probably found, you can buy security key blanks for $10-30. Do that and use them for everyday use. Buy as many as needed, considering that some people lose keys. Losing enough keys is a REAL pain!
There are other ways to skin this cat, but are beyond this short discussion. One thing is certain, the newer the car, the more integrated is the security system. Yours is in the instrument cluster; mine is in another module. Defeating them and having the car run normally is usually not worth the trouble. Makes me long for that older, simpler car.
Oh, BTW, contrary to what the insurance BS says, defeating most of these security key systems to steal a car is pretty easy, and all thieves worth their salt know how. The newest cars with keyless “pushbutton” start are even easier, although they require different techniques. You can read up on all this on, where else, the web.
I use fast.com which is owned by Netflix and used in the background by them to constantly adjust your viewing resolution.
20 years ago, there was a decent Windows real time network performance tool produced by a small company … name escapes me … which Lucent assimilated into their collective right before they went bankrupt.
I’d never heard of Cushing, OK. I looked it up on Google maps. Wow.
I ran oil accounting program on my S-100 bus PC in 1980 when oil crashed in Oklahoma. They had to shut down hundreds of producing wells till things stabilized. Same regulations as in Texas, had to plug the well with concrete to render it permanently unusable. Many wells that were plugged weren’t producing enough to justify redrilling so lots of cheap oil was lost.
I tried to do this when I got my 2017 Hyundai. I bought two blanks from eBay and took them to the dealership. The technical mechanic explained that Hyundai limited each car to only two working fobs. He said there wasn’t any way to register more than two at a time. On my 2004 Chevy, I can get as many cheap fobs registered as I like.
Doctors have no idea about how good or bad lab tests are. And a test can’t give both majority false negatives and false positives.
A test which was -100% accurate — ie, totally reliable except inverted — would give more false positives than accurate positives and more false negatives than accurate negatives. I’d say that qualified as “a majority false positive as well as a majority false negatives”, regardless of standard terminology.
As for unreliable tests not being allowed to be released to the market, my understanding is that the nose swab tests have good accuracy when used correctly, but they frequently aren’t used correctly. 40% is the number I saw for the tests coming from some hospital, where I belive the accuracy rate was 40% because the nurses didn’t stick the swab far enough up the nose. I don’t know how to report the usefulness of a test which is 95% when used perfectly but 40%-90% as actually used; I’m inclined to say the accuracy cannot be taken as better than 40%. That is, useless.
I’ve added dozens of fobs to ford trucks over the years. It’s a dance involving turning the key back and forth and then hitting the button, but it works. We used to carry extra fobs when I traveled for a living, and immediately add a fob to the rental vehicle so my partner could unlock his own door or get in the truck if needed. Hertz used to hide the spare behind the glove box…
Not too long ago my Expy fob lost the rubber part that makes the buttons. I got an empty case at the parts store (where they are sold as fashion items) and it came with the rubber keys. I moved the circuit board to the new case and Bob was my uncle. Cheaper than a replacement fob.
————
huh, fast.com says I’ve got 350/350…
n
I’d never heard of Cushing, OK. I looked it up on Google maps. Wow.
Try Sinclair, WY. The refinery is the town.
“Dinoco” gas from Toy Story. They also own Little America, WY, another fun satellite image, but nothing refinery/oil related besides the gas pumps.
Iowa has the big ethanol plant, but I’d have to spend some time looking on Google maps to find it — somewhere along the western edge of the state, close to the Interstate along the river across from Nebraska.
The media acts like this woman is the Protest Governor of Georgia. She would be a disaster for Plugs.
Elections have consequences.
Maybe they’re bored. Florida’s Protest Governor, Andrew Gillum, melted down the first week of Wuxu Flu … partying on South Beach!
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/stacey-abrams-vice-president-joe-biden/
Crazy places. I’ve never been in Wyoming, closest I’ve been is SLC.
I took a look at the San Antonio fuel terminals. Not a lot of storage there. This city would be in big trouble if that pipeline stopped.
https://chembiodiagnosticsinc.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/chembio-diagnostics-receives-emergency-use-authorization-dpp?utm_campaign=DPP%20COVID%20Launch&utm_content=126294409&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-137278
No mention of accuracy.
@ech?
I’d say that sounds impossible. Something cannot be at the same time accurate and inaccurate.
Of course, I’m a writer, not a maffs person, so I’d like the kindergarten version of the argument, please.
The last time we ran out of storage prompted a huge building boom in tank farms. I can think of two that I drive by fairly regularly that expanded dramatically. One on I 10, the other on Nasa Rd 1….
Talking with my wife about the impending collapse, which by the way isn’t avoidable here in Texas. Halliburton lost a couple billion dollars, and all the rest are close behind. We’ve diversified our economy A LOT since the oil crashes previously, but $20bbl oil is going to crash the last expanding economy in the US. She makes her money in construction, and while lots of projects continued so far, she’s starting to hear of delays and cancellations. After today, there are sure to be MANY more. Even if everyone went back to work tomorrow and wuflu disappeared, the economy won’t recover that quickly. And let’s face it, neither of those things is going to happen.
n
Where will the snowflakes get fuel to run power plants to charge their Teslas?
Heh, that reminds me of a thought I had yesterday. How many molecules of CO2 will it take (in toto) to produce one molecule of a COVID cure?
That was a negative 100%, not a punctuation dash.
A test can be -100% accurate if it gives a simple Yes/No result but is always wrong. Imagine you are the test apparatus and you report your results by pushing a Yes button or a No button. “Is the ceiling light on?” You are able to see the light and you’re honest and your coordination is up to the task of pressing the correct button … but the buttons were labeled backward by mistake. You, the test apparatus, are wrong 100% of the time.
Contrived example, of course. It shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with scenarios in which a test gives an accurate positive reading less than half the time and an accurate negative reading less than half the time — the body product is obtained incorrectly, failing to keep the test devices at a constant temperature from manufacture to reading damages them, presence of air pollutants in the nasal passage triggers a false reading, only certain versions of the test processing kits work with these test sample kits. Someone who develops or works with medical diagnostic kits could probably give actual examples rather than speculate on error sources.
Too many!
As for adding fobs, I think you are referring to the RKE, AKA Remote Keyless Entry or “remote control” rather than the ignition key. Based on the way some of the ones I understand work, there is no limit to how many of those can be added. They are just rolling code transmitters. Others transmit a longer string of characters that limit the number of RKEs that can be added. Our 1997 Chrysler T&C limits to six. Part of the reason is that it does other things like remember the seat and mirror settings for each remote.
As for the key, I am referring only to those with RFID circuits. These are limited by the body control computer’s software. From what I know, there is a definite upper limit, sometimes six, of how many unique RFID binary codes can be stored. However, there could be several with identical codes. Never heard of two, but I think there might be a larger number than six. Just depends.
More confusion comes when the physical key is combined with the RKE. In the one I have, the two are in the same housing, a really dumb design IMO. I prefer the older ones, where there was a separate remote and key, and the key was just a key. Endangered species now. My 2006 came with three different keys: a plain metal key that only unlocks the doors, a key with an RFID module that unlocks the doors and starts the engine, and a clumsy thing that has a remote control, the RFID, and a metal key. The last one does everything.
Then there are the many other schemes I have never studied. I only know what I have or intend to buy. I first learned of all this nonsense when I was thinking of buying a used car. Fortunately, the owner had all the original keys, and I tested each one successfully. He was surprised to find out it was so complicated. Didn’t buy the car, but not because of the keys.
https://chembiodiagnosticsinc.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/chembio-diagnostics-receives-emergency-use-authorization-dpp?utm_campaign=DPP%20COVID%20Launch&utm_content=126294409&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-137278
No mention of accuracy.
Abbott Labs has been shipping an SARS-COV-2 antibody test for a week now. “ABBOTT LAUNCHES COVID-19 ANTIBODY TEST” “New test can help determine if someone was infected with the virus and if the person has developed antibodies.”
https://www.abbott.com/corpnewsroom/product-and-innovation/abbott-launches-covid-19-antibody-test.html
“The new antibody test is to be used on Abbott’s ARCHITECT i1000SR and i2000SR laboratory instruments, which can run up to 100-200 tests an hour.1.”
Looks like you have to buy an analyzer also. That analyzer looks expensive.
I would like to see a simple and accurate test like the flu test that can be run in a couple of minutes with you standing there.
“@~jim, will the induction cooker work with aluminum pressure cooker pot? I’ve never seen a steel one…”
I’ve got an 8″ diameter 3/16″ thick steel plate I’ve used on the induction burners, worked well under the aluminum pressure cooker.
This still doesn’t make sense to me. I, for instance, am 100% wrong in picking stocks that will go up. If you short every stock I buy, you will be a rich man.
And it doesn’t make any difference whether I feel well when I make my pick, or my eyesight isn’t quite right, or my finger slipped on the keyboard when I bought. I am always 100% wrong. So I am 100% accurate, but inverted. If you know I am always wrong, I am a perfect indicator.
Same would apply to any test which is 100% accurate in a positive way. Accurate is accurate. It is not inaccurate. Unless, of course, it is a Schrodinger test. But I’m not sure even that would make the argument.
My problem with the argument remains.
Talking with my wife about the impending collapse, which by the way isn’t avoidable here in Texas. Halliburton lost a couple billion dollars, and all the rest are close behind. We’ve diversified our economy A LOT since the oil crashes previously, but $20bbl oil is going to crash the last expanding economy in the US. She makes her money in construction, and while lots of projects continued so far, she’s starting to hear of delays and cancellations. After today, there are sure to be MANY more. Even if everyone went back to work tomorrow and wuflu disappeared, the economy won’t recover that quickly. And let’s face it, neither of those things is going to happen.
Many of the oil companies have totally canceled their exploration budgets for the rest of the year. I not sure if they are laying off the entire departments but they are certainly laying off people.
This still doesn’t make sense to me. I, for instance, am 100% wrong in picking stocks that will go up. If you short every stock I buy, you will be a rich man.
And it doesn’t make any difference whether I feel well when I make my pick, or my eyesight isn’t quite right, or my finger slipped on the keyboard when I bought. I am always 100% wrong. So I am 100% accurate, but inverted. If you know I am always wrong, I am a perfect indicator.
Ah, a contrarian ! You should start a contrarian stock fund. “Past performance does not guarantee future results” could be your battle cry.
True enough, and you’ve put your finger on a flaw of contrived or exaggerated examples.
The problem is when a test is somewhat reliable. If it’s 50% reliable, it’s the same as guessing, and useless… except if it’s only 50% accurate in one direction. If a test never misses someone who’s really sick (and is quick and inexpensive) it’s a good screening test: everyone whom the test says is healthy really is healthy and can go on his way. Everyone whom the test flags as sick needs to get the more expensive but more accurate test.
Many of the oil companies have totally canceled their exploration budgets for the rest of the year. I not sure if they are laying off the entire departments but they are certainly laying off people.
We had an interview through from Emerson-Rosemount Analytical a couple of weeks ago.
Single parent, needed the job, but he blew our coding challenge.
“And it doesn’t make any difference whether I feel well when I make my pick, or my eyesight isn’t quite right, or my finger slipped on the keyboard when I bought. I am always 100% wrong. So I am 100% accurate, but inverted. If you know I am always wrong, I am a perfect indicator.”
Ah, a contrarian ! You should start a contrarian stock fund. “Past performance does not guarantee future results” could be your battle cry.
I bet against my mother-in-law, a Disney retiree, when she sold a bunch of her stock at 35 around a decade ago. I’m still holding the stock.
Right, it depends on what you need to know. Local speedtest servers (using speedtest as a generic name) are useful because they give you a good idea of how your cable circuit is working, especially if they are local and on the ISP’s network. Most of the time I run speedtest I’m diagnosing a Spectrum issue or a cabling issue in my house.
Sometimes you want to know how your ISP is working and for that you can use a remote server.
There are lots of caveats. Running speedtest at 8pm nowadays is going to give you a really bad result due to Netflix. Early morning might be best.
BTW I have used speedtest to diagnose multi-gigabit carrier circuits in the past. We had a problem with a bad fiber patch cable, and as it happened the cable I replaced it with was bad too. The speedtest results were really variable but I got enough info out of about 50 test runs to diagnose the cable issues.
We couldn’t afford a fancy 10Gb Ethernet tester.
@Paul
I’ve got an 8″ diameter 3/16″ thick steel plate…
Thanks! I’ve always wondered what the right thickness for that would be. Newer stainless steel or aluminum cookers have a plate of steel or iron built into them but older ones, including mine, do not.
Holy crap!
“In a stunning turn of events, late on Monday, president Trump tweeted that “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!””
If that’s not a kick in the teeth for the deep state and DNC, I don’t know what is.
n
If that’s not a kick in the teeth for the deep state and DNC, I don’t know what is.
Tech companies in Silicon Valley need that slave labor. There will be blowback in the morning.
Okay, now that makes sense. Thanks!
BTW, wasn’t that the CDC’s stance back in the dim, dead, long forgotten times of six weeks or so ago? We don’t care what your local positive tests say, you have to send the samples to us for confirmation?
Yes, RKE.
I think the limit is four.
For keys with a chip, limit eight. Maybe, I skimmed that page. I don’t have a chipped key for the truck.
The Ford van is similar with the added bonus of having chipped keys.
@markW
You linked to a press release from Chembio. They haven’t put the specs for their SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. Here is the data from their Zika test, which uses the same technique:
Excellent Agreement to Laboratory EIAs*
Laboratory EIA Overall Agreement
Overall IgM 94.7%
Overall IgG 91.7%
Both have to be positive for a positive test. That’s similar to tests from other companies.
It’s likely to be found in commercial and large hospital labs. Abbot said there are 2,000 in the US.
Abbot already has that. It was mentioned in the press release you linked to.
The ID NOW system is the size of a large toaster, costs $12k or so, and is widely used for flu tests in doctor’s offices, ERs, and doc-in-the-box locations.
The first test for the big analyzer is an antibody test. The ID NOW test is a virus test and takes 15 minutes or so. But a machine can only do one at a time.