Thur. Aug. 13. 2020 – Friday the thirteenth comes on a Thursday this month

By on August 13th, 2020 in personal, WuFlu

Hot again.  I know, whodda thunk it?

Really hot and miserable yesterday.  112F in my driveway.

So I avoided working outside.

My back was feeling better, and I missed going to the chiropractor on Monday, and on Wednesday.  Hurts today, so I’ll be headed that way if I can make the time.

I got my pickup done.  Stopped at my secondary, grabbed the battery and charger off the forklift and put them somewhere with power to recharge.  There isn’t any electricity where the fork truck is sitting, and that has complicated getting it running to move the stuff I need to move.  It occurred to me, belatedly, that I could move the battery and charger…  While I had them in my hand I thought about bringing them home, but why would I want to do that???

When I got home, my wife informed me that her minivan’s battery was deader than Mel Gibson’s career.  And indeed it was.  I COULD have tried the recovery mode on my fancy pants charger.  I could have swapped in my spare battery.  But I didn’t listen to the little voice in my head.  Did I mention that my wife has a site visit first thing in the morning?  She’ll be driving my truck while I get her battery sorted.  Costco Interstate, not  even 2 full years on it.  I’ll be swapping that one out at Costco.  I tried jumping it from my Ranger, and noticed that my Ranger has a 2 1/2 year old Costco Interstate battery.  That will probably die soon too.  I’ve got a good idea why the Honda killed its battery, all the daytime running lights, and the electric fan.   The fan runs a lot after shut off, and I’m sure that beats up the battery.  On modern cars, if you notice the battery is low, there is a whole bunch of stuff you can’t turn off to get a bit more juice for the starter.  Poor design in my view.  (oh and the little lithium ion jump pack?  No help.  Of course the jump from the Ranger was no help either, so maybe I can’t blame the jump pack.)

Hopefully they will have something suitable in stock.  Maybe I should be proactive on the Ranger battery, and keep the current one as a backup.

There’s always something more to do.

Take a look at your vehicles.  I’m betting you’re closer to replacement for your battery than you think.  Since there are no more lead mines here, I’m guessing it all comes from China…

Keep stacking.

n

86 Comments and discussion on "Thur. Aug. 13. 2020 – Friday the thirteenth comes on a Thursday this month"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    I tried jumping it from my Ranger, and noticed that my Ranger has a 2 1/2 year old Costco Interstate battery. That will probably die soon too.

    Houston. I’ve never seen a car battery in one of our vehicles last all the way through the three year warranty period in Texas or Florida. Until Sears went away, I bought 3 year Die Hard batteries and got close. Currently I buy the 3 year Autozone since they’re up on the corner and I could walk there if we had no other operating vehicle.

    The only place we lived where I never replaced a battery was Vantucky (Portland). Not one in four years. There seem to be a lot more tire stores in WA State but fewer DIY retail auto parts stores.

    I’ve got a good idea why the Honda killed its battery, all the daytime running lights, and the electric fan. The fan runs a lot after shut off, and I’m sure that beats up the battery.

    How new is the van? Hondas have some alternator problems as of late. A girl my wife carpools with has chronic problems with her Civic’s battery, getting a replacement under the overall warranty at the dealer every six months so far. Fortunately, the carpool is done in a van the VA rents.

    (Trump spends a *lot* of money on the VA)

    The alternator job must be a pain in the butt that the dealer doesn’t want to mess with unless a fire gets lit under their butts. She is long past the point that I would have been on the phone to Honda if I bought the car new.

    Buy a Honda new, and they move heaven and earth to fix problems to keep their quality reputation intact, even if the original warranty expired. I think the hush-hush program is still running to replace the transmissions in the ~ 15 year old minivans, labor/parts included. They’ll probably have to do something similar for their recent DI engine problems.

  2. Pecancorner says:

    Nick, do you ever buy from the Schwann’s truck? They are pretty popular out here in the boonies, and the original “home delivery”. Delicious food. When our boys were home, we bought from them sometimes. We cook everything from scratch these days but if I ever got to where I needed more convenience, I think I would ask the driver to stop here.

    @Lynn, prayers for your wife & FIL….

    Hot and dry here. Lots of wildfires around the county, and our VFDs are getting a workout (God bless them, love the VFDs). 105F today (but most of the records were still set long ago, in the 1920s and 1960s or so… Texas goes in cycles). Where we live is close to Cross Plains, of interest on this blog because it was the home of Robert E Howard, and for prepping because of the 2005 wildfire that burned a large part of the town: more than 100 homes burned down. Figuring out how to prep for wildfire is a whole nuther animal.

    Sarcasm has its time and its place!

    Perhaps @RickH could implement a sarcasm tag?

    I’ve always wondered why no one invented a genuine sarcasm formatting option, similar to how we use italics, block quote, bold. The make-do version is ok, but would be much more convenient to have one built in… even an assortment of interpretive formats for emphasis would be nice. Emoticons are the only real advance in digital typography in a long time (from the reader’s perspective), and they are just icons, not acting on the font.

  3. SteveF says:

    a genuine sarcasm formatting option

    Comic sans.

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    So my pc (win10) must have updated and restarted last night.

    This morning, I’m greeted by the log on beauty pic of some German waterfall. And in the upper left? “Want to be a better ally in the fight for racial equity and justice? Find recommended articles, videos, and more on Bing.” And right in the middle of the screen? “If you are educating yourself on the current state of racial justice and equity for the Black Community… We’ve put together a list of recommended (and talked about) books on race in America.”

    F YOU Microsoft. F YOU. MY MACHINE. MINE. NOT YOURS.

    No setting to change. NO opt out of political messaging. I can vote on the freaking picture, but not the proselytizing.

    I wonder if MS users in Saudi got a message about women’s rights this morning? Or maybe china got one on free speech?

    And there’s no where to even complain.

    n

    The best part is that it was enough of an update that all my normal stuff didn’t start, NOTHING started until I logged in. This is the machine for my security cams. So no recordings between whenever MS decided to scold me and now. I’ve got updates turned OFF. Someone here said automatic updates were good. Here’s an example of where they are not.

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  5. Mark W says:

    In Outlook for Android, in the suggestions area, there’s a suggestion titled “Remove LGBTQ SUPPORT LOGO” and another one about making the logo optional. People don’t like it.

    They made it semi unusable for me in the last update. I have 5 email accounts that all have my name, so they all show up as a circle with an M in it and when you select one all you get at the top is the M in the circle, so I can’t tell which mailbox I’m viewing. Stupid.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    I wonder if MS users in Saudi got a message about women’s rights this morning? Or maybe china got one on free speech?

    If I had to guess, the Saudis have signing keys from Microsoft allowing them to monitor whatever goes across the HTTPS connections to/from the company’s servers. Beyond that, they may even have access to the management engines that Intel and AMD embed in all of their modern designs once specific trouble makers are identified.

  7. SteveF says:

    Question for the house concerning power washers: I’m thinking of getting one, for washing vinyl siding and similar. If it could blast dried paint off of slate patio stones that would be nice but it’s not essential.

    Would an electric washer be strong enough? All I’ve ever used is gasoline-powered, and everyone here who’s mentioned that they have one has indicated they have gas units.

    Cost isn’t the main consideration. Low maintenance is more important. Low weight and not taking up too much space in the shed is also important. I expect my wife to want to use it more often than I and I’d rather not have to do all the setup and cleanup on it.

  8. JimB says:

    MY MACHINE.

    So 1980s. We don’t “own” anything in computing any more; even the hardware has IP restrictions. If you thought I was going to suggest some alternative, no.

    Part of his is probably some leftover revenge from the glass house refugees.

  9. Greg Norton says:

    So 1980s. We don’t “own” anything in computing any more; even the hardware has IP restrictions. If you thought I was going to suggest some alternative, no.

    You license Windows and don’t “own” the install in the traditional sense. Increasingly, with Microsoft, you pay more to be annoyed less as they slowly move consumer Windows towards being an ad-supported project.

  10. CowboySlim says:

    My painter just washed my house this past Monday. He’ll be back shortly and I’ll check with him.

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    wrt power washers.

    I had and used a basic electric unit for a couple of years. It had a variable width tip (instead of interchangeable tips) and a fixed length hose. It was pretty powerful for an electric, pretty weak by gas standards.

    It was fine for all the house maintenance tasks but they take longer. You have to focus the stream and move slower to get the same effect. That is the main benefit of a more powerful machine- quicker removal and a wider spray with the same power.

    Avoid the Karcher units that look like upright vacuums.

    n

  12. MrAtoz says:

    Question for the house concerning power washers: I’m thinking of getting one, for washing vinyl siding and similar. If it could blast dried paint off of slate patio stones that would be nice but it’s not essential.

    I have this electric Sun Joe.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CPGMUXW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I went electric for the same reason as getting eGO mowers, to avoid gas engine maintenance and easy for anyone to use. I’ve only used it for washing the car. Works fine. I’ll do the driveway soon using the power nozzle to see how that works. You lose the portability, but I’m not planning on power washing in the parking lot of WhatABurger. The new/old house in SA is 85% brick, so not much siding to wash.

    If don’t need to PW in the middle of nowhere, I think electric is the way to go. Maybe rent or borrow an electric to see if it meets your needs.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    -can’t stop the signal Mel

    They went after low hanging fruit, kids being kids. 3D printing to make a plastic gun is a huge kludge when a $1000 Chinese-made CNC machine driven by a PC can make an AR15 lower receiver, the controlled component on that weapon. Even Wired covered that scene a few years ago.

    I’ve brushed up against the South Africans living around here who are prepping for the inevitable white genocide in that country. They’re huge in the AR15 customization scene.

    BTW, I think Hollywood has pretty much forgiven or are at least willing to overlook Mel Gibson’s antics since “Hacksaw Ridge”. What studio wouldn’t love to distribute the much-rumored “Passion of the Christ” sequel right now?

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hey, there’s a version of the security software I use for linux. Maybe it’s time to blow that machine away and set it up once and for all as just a dvr for the cams.

    n

  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    My roommate for a couple of years in SanDiego was a white south african. One of the places I did work was founded by a white south african. The climate in SD must by similar…

    n

  16. Greg Norton says:

    Hey, there’s a version of the security software I use for linux. Maybe it’s time to blow that machine away and set it up once and for all as just a dvr for the cams.

    Which distribution stream are the developers targeting?

    If they’re going for Ubuntu/Debian flavors, Pop! OS is worth a look as a starting point for an install for starting out.

    RHEL flavors offer several options with CentOS paralleling the commercial release sans IBM support and Fedora running on the bleeding edge with latest kernels and GCC versions.

  17. Nick Flandrey says:

    “Agent for Linux has been tested on Ubuntu 18.04, 19.10, Debian 10 and Linux Mint 19.3”

    there’s also something called a Docker image?

    n

  18. RickH says:

    re: power washers

    I got a Sun Joe SPX3000 2030 Max PSI 1.76 GPM 14.5-Amp Electric High Pressure Washer https://amzn.to/3ix1KgO , I think it was recommended here.

    I use it 2-3 times a year. Last use was to wash off some peeling paint on the back wooden deck. Worked quite well for that. Have also used it to clean the driveway. And to clean off the light green mold from the car that sits outside (it gets a bit damp in the Olympic Peninsula WA). It has five pressure nozzles. Have not used it to clean off the siding (cement board) of the house, but worked well on all the other projects here.

  19. SteveF says:

    Nick, Docker is sort of like a virtual machine. (It isn’t, but you can sort of think of it as a special purpose VM.)
    You can install Docker for Windows, download the image, and then “run” the image in Docker. That should let you see whether it’ll connect to the cameras.

  20. SteveF says:

    Thanks, all. With the dual recommendations I think I’ll get the Sun Joe. It costs about the same as renting the gas one from Home Depot for two or three mornings, and much less nuisance in getting and returning it.

    We rented a power washer in June or July to clean the old paint off the deck, and while we had it we cleaned (most of) the siding on the house. But we did that unevenly and every time I sit on the deck to work I see the missed spots: the bottom of one of the gutters, the upper siding strips where my wife wasn’t tall enough to reach, and so on. And that’s just in the portion of the house visible from where I sit.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    “Agent for Linux has been tested on Ubuntu 18.04, 19.10, Debian 10 and Linux Mint 19.3”

    there’s also something called a Docker image?

    Docker is a lightweight virtual machine environment that doesn’t actually do full virtualization like VMware or VirtualBox but still provides a lot of the same security benefits.

    Linux Mint would probably be the safest place to start if you want to throw it on a spare machine and play. The 19.3 version is supported for another three years.

    Linux Mint also runs well inside Virtual Box under Windows if you don’t have a spare machine with sufficient specs — a CPU made in the last 10 years and 4 (minimum) – 8 (realistic, usable) GB RAM.

    BTW, Virtual Box is kept as open source by Oracle, but the license changes for the “Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack”, and you’ll want to avoid the add-on doing paid work.

  22. Chad says:

    The only place we lived where I never replaced a battery was Vantucky (Portland). Not one in four years. There seem to be a lot more tire stores in WA State but fewer DIY retail auto parts stores.

    I’ve gone 6+ years on batteries in my northern Great Plains flyover state with several vehicles. The longest was probably 8 or 9 years. If I had to replace the battery every 2 years I’d be pissed.

  23. Greg Norton says:

    Linux Mint would probably be the safest place to start if you want to throw it on a spare machine and play. The 19.3 version is supported for another three years.

    I forgot to add that I currently run Linux Mint 20 on my main desktop dual booting with Windows — Q6600 CPU, 16 GB RAM, and a GT240 Nvidia graphics card. Not bleeding edge by any stretch, but uber stable. I mostly use Linux on that machine to compile Lineage OS for my (mostly) corporate-free phone and tablet.

    My home server runs Fedora 32 (or whatever is current) exclusively.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    Video of another shooting, cops vs armed dumbassss.

    They hit him several times and he still gets back up. Could be high on meth. “Non-life threatening injuries.”

    https://www.police1.com/officer-shootings/articles/san-diego-police-release-video-of-shooting-at-headquarters-D6dV690EI8JDSPtT/

    n

  25. lynn says:

    @Lynn, prayers for your wife & FIL….

    Thank you ! She is headed to Lewisville, should be there by now. She called me a while ago and said the hospital said that he got the feeding tube at 5 am and was talking to them in complete sentences. They also called last night and said that his kidneys were failing. I doubt that he is strong enough for dialysis.

    I reminded the wife last night about heroic measures listed in his DNR. Apparently her definition of heroic measures and my definition of heroic measure is very different. Her definition of heroic measures starts at surgery …

  26. Chad says:

    I wonder if there is the opposite of a DNR? Like, “Do whatever the hell you must to keep my heart beating including intrusive surgery, cybernetics, and experimental drugs and procedures. Under no circumstances should I be allowed to be declared legally dead.”

  27. JLP says:

    I lost my case in court. The judge decided to not extend the restraining order. Although he basically seemed to agree that there had been abuse he said he didn’t believe that there was a threat of continued abuse because I’m a big man and she’s a small woman (close to his exact wording) so I have no reason to fear her. The fact that she has a gun license and is kinda insane doesn’t seem to matter. There were several procedural issues with the hearing and my lawyer objected several times. The judge always replied “I’m going to allow this.”

    Well, it’s all water under the bridge. She is out of my house and I will not let her back in. At the end of the hearing she asked the judge if she could go back to my house on a daily basis(!!) to continue to pack her stuff. The judge replied that the housing situation is a matter for the housing court. Knowing this might be the outcome I went to plan B. I drove straight from the courthouse to my local police department and filed a “no trespass” notice and had it served on her the next morning. At the moment the worst she can claim I have done is “improper eviction”. [yeah, I know she could claim all kinds of things but she would have a very hard time making any of them stick]

    Now to get her junk out of the house. Apparently I have to give her a reasonable time frame to pick up her stuff. Seems like 2 weeks is considered the norm. I have sent a letter and email telling her to arrange to get it out by the end of this month. If she ignores my letter I need to know how long do I have to wait before I can build a bonfire.

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  28. paul says:

    Can you box up her stuff and put in in the driveway? Under a tarp?

  29. JLP says:

    According to the law I have to take reasonable care of it. But the real problem is that she has a LOT of stuff. Right now it is better to keep in out of the way in the second bedroom. But I want that bedroom to make a nice guest room / home office.

  30. RickH says:

    @JLP – how about one of those moving pods? Secure, weatherproof, and big.

  31. CowboySlim says:

    Painter uses electric Yamaha (around $300 at Home Depot)…..masking house as I type.

  32. JLP says:

    Storage unit, moving pods, under a tarp in the back yard. All options, but I’m going to follow legal advice at the moment. Not only take reasonable care of her stuff, but I can’t move it out of the house to another location. At best I can move it around in the house if it is a problem. For example she left a big pile of stuff in the dining room. I moved it, as it was, up into the second bedroom. I’m kind of stuck with the situation at the moment. It is still infinitely better than her being in the house.

  33. paul says:

    I bought a 10 pound bag of chicken quarters at HEB in December. I forget the brand, blue bag. “Country Pride”? NOT like any chicken quarters I have bought before. This was actual quarters… including the backbone with whatever that dark chunk is attached to the spine.

    Ok, chopped off the spines and trimmed the skin a bit. Vac sealed in meal size portions. It smelled off, but I /really/ hate messing with raw chicken. Beef, pork, and turkey are not a problem.

    So, wait a couple of weeks and toss a package worth on the grill. Nothing fancy for seasoning, just black pepper and seasoned salt. And dang if the chicken didn’t have the same funny taste that it smelled like. Ok, this is trash… I separated it from other packages of chicken and filled a grocery bag.
    A few days after New Year’s Eve.

    We don’t have trash service. They are much more proud of it than we make trash. $60 a month for the big green wheeled can when we make about a kitchen bag in two weeks. Getting the can the mile to the street would be a problem, too. We do check on a friend’s house and put his mail on the kitchen counter. So once a week, that happens and he usually gets a bag of trash in his can. It works out.

    Today, I _finally_ remembered the chicken. Just eight months later.

  34. Ray Thompson says:

    Under no circumstances should I be allowed to be declared legally dead.

    Joe Biden.

  35. lynn says:

    “Kamala Harris is an ‘anchor baby.’ Is she a natural born citizen?”
    https://noqreport.com/2020/08/12/kamala-harris-is-an-anchor-baby-is-she-a-natural-born-citizen/

    “Kamala Harris: b. 10/20/64 Oakland, CA
    Father: Jamaican, came to US 1961
    Mother: Indian, came to US 1958?
    No public record either was US citizen then.”

    “Just about anyone born on United States soil is a citizen of the United States, save children of certain visiting dignitaries. But does that make her a “natural born citizen”?”

    Unfortunately, yes.

    hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

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  36. lynn says:

    Storage unit, moving pods, under a tarp in the back yard. All options, but I’m going to follow legal advice at the moment. Not only take reasonable care of her stuff, but I can’t move it out of the house to another location. At best I can move it around in the house if it is a problem. For example she left a big pile of stuff in the dining room. I moved it, as it was, up into the second bedroom. I’m kind of stuck with the situation at the moment. It is still infinitely better than her being in the house.

    Good luck. I would not let her back in your house under any circumstances.

    Tell her to pull up a truck and your guys will bring the crap out to her.

  37. MrAtoz says:

    I lost my case in court. The judge decided to not extend the restraining order. Although he basically seemed to agree that there had been abuse he said he didn’t believe that there was a threat of continued abuse because I’m a big man and she’s a small woman (close to his exact wording) so I have no reason to fear her.

    That there is sexist. I can’t believe you can’t just throw someone out of your own house. Nuts.

  38. Chad says:

    According to the law I have to take reasonable care of it. But the real problem is that she has a LOT of stuff. Right now it is better to keep in out of the way in the second bedroom. But I want that bedroom to make a nice guest room / home office.

    Haul it all to the dump. Then, call the cops and say it was all stolen so you get a police report. Then inform her and give her a police report so she can make a claim on the renters insurance she probably doesn’t have. “It was the strangest thing, officer. They only stole the stuff from this room. Perhaps I spooked them before they got to the rest of the house.” lol

  39. Nick Flandrey says:

    Did my chiropractic visit, did my auction pickup, exchanged the battery at costco, went BACK to Costco because I’d left my membership card, and finally home.

    Now to install the battery.

    And it’s 113F in the sun in my driveway. Joy.

    n

  40. Greg Norton says:

    “Kamala Harris is an ‘anchor baby.’ Is she a natural born citizen?”

    In the current media environment, her status wouldn’t matter.

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  41. Rick Hellewell says:

    Re: sarcasm tag

    Challenge accepted.

    Just because I can – and it may disappear at any time – there is now a ‘sarcasm’ tag you can use. Just surround your sarcasm with the opening and closing sarcasm tag.

    RickH has too much time on his hands…

    What background color should be used for sarcastic comments? Right now, it’s ‘cyan’. And the background color wont survive an edit of the comment.

  42. lynn says:

    I lost my case in court. The judge decided to not extend the restraining order. Although he basically seemed to agree that there had been abuse he said he didn’t believe that there was a threat of continued abuse because I’m a big man and she’s a small woman (close to his exact wording) so I have no reason to fear her.

    That there is sexist. I can’t believe you can’t just throw someone out of your own house. Nuts.

    This case (and the millions of others like it with rent controls and such) are a seizing of property without compensation, a violation of the fifth amendment.
    https://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm#amend05

    Unfortunately, it would cost millions to get it to SCOTUS and I am not sure that they would see it that way.

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  43. lynn says:

    “UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Slow Joe Biden Calls for Tyrannical Federal Mandate Requiring ALL Americans to Wear Face Diapers When Outdoors ‘For Next 3 Months at Minimum’”
    https://disrn.com/news/biden-calls-for-mandate-requiring-all-americans-to-wear-masks-when-outdoors-for-next-3-months-at-minimum/

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

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  44. lynn says:

    So my pc (win10) must have updated and restarted last night.

    This morning, I’m greeted by the log on beauty pic of some German waterfall. And in the upper left? “Want to be a better ally in the fight for racial equity and justice? Find recommended articles, videos, and more on Bing.” And right in the middle of the screen? “If you are educating yourself on the current state of racial justice and equity for the Black Community… We’ve put together a list of recommended (and talked about) books on race in America.”

    I am having a real hard time believing this. I just cannot believe that Mickeysoft would be that idiotic. Just imagine seeing this on a business PC. A home PC would be bad enough.

    Are you running Windows 10 x64 or x86 ? Pro or Home ?

  45. lynn says:

    “Over 100 AMC Movie Theaters Reopen Aug. 20”
    https://www.pcmag.com/news/over-100-amc-movie-theaters-reopen-aug-20

    Will anyone go ?

  46. Greg Norton says:

    “Over 100 AMC Movie Theaters Reopen Aug. 20”

    Will anyone go ?

    I’d rather have Alamo Drafthouse reopen.

    The half hour of pre-show at Alamo is always interesting. They had an exclusive interview with Edgar Wright in front of “Baby Driver”, and “The Florida Project” pre-show included all of Burt Reynolds old commercials for citrus products from the Florida Agriculture Commission.

    Like a lot of other businesses, AMC was circling the drain pre-virus, but there will always be a market for a *good* movie experience.

    We saw “Ford v. Ferrari” at home, and our AV setups just don’t do the practical effects sequences — real cars! — justice even on the flat screens.

  47. Greg Norton says:

    “Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months at a minimum — every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing”

    Dennis Miller’s guest today, John Nolte, raised the possibility that Plugs could emerge unscathed from the first debate, and that would doom Trump’s chances of reelection since the Republicans are counting on a meltdown.

    https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-joe-biden-mask-mandate-20200813-s7mmaijlqneqxmfptwnn7uizkq-story.html

  48. MrAtoz says:

    Will anyone go ?

    Nope. Not wearing a face diaper for 2 1/2 hours. That would ruin it for me. What, pull it down for every mouthful of ‘corn. They probably won’t even have concessions.

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  49. lynn says:

    We saw “Ford v. Ferrari” at home, and our AV setups just don’t do the practical effects sequences — real cars! — justice even on the flat screens.

    “Ford v. Ferrari” was awesome on the big screen. I think that was the last movie that Dad and I saw at the Cinemark in Victoria, Texas.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_v_Ferrari

  50. Marcelo says:

    Just because I can – and it may disappear at any time – there is now a ‘sarcasm’ tag you can use. Just surround your sarcasm with the opening and closing sarcasm tag.

    START SARCASM. What, no magic button like Quote/Link/etc?!. Sheesh. END SARCASM

    The highlight looks good to me.

  51. Greg Norton says:

    “Ford v. Ferrari” was awesome on the big screen. I think that was the last movie that Dad and I saw at the Cinemark in Victoria, Texas.

    “Zombieland 2” was my last big screen movie, after Christmas at the dollar theater near the house.

  52. SteveF says:

    I’m sure the sarc tag will make everyone’s life better.

    OK, I give up. What’s the trick?
    I’ve tried <sarc> , which disappears, <sarcasm> , which is still there in the comment when I edit it but which does nothing, and <s> , which does a strikethough, as expected.

    EDIT (about edit 7, in fact): OK, now the highlighting is showing up. Maybe it needed a page refresh after the comment was posted.

    For everyone’s edification, indicate sarcasm by typing
    <sarcasm>whatever snarky thing you want to say</sarcasm>

    If you type your comment and then edit it to add the sarcasm tag and save it, the highlighting won’t appear when the comment is put back up. Refresh the page and you should see it.

  53. SteveF says:

    As for formatting sarcasm blocks, instead of setting a background color, how about changing font or font size, or using effects like shadow. (Though that might not be supported on all systems.)

  54. Rick Hellewell says:

    The new sarcasm tag (which I did while waiting for the first coat of paint to dry on the back porch), only works on new comment text. If you go back and edit a comment that has the sarcasm tag, that previous sarcasm will go away. But new text with a sarcasm tag will save on an edit (I think).

    That behavior is because of the editing add-in, which messes with previously-entered tags.

    So, enter your sarcasm correctly the first time. Because your first comment entry is the best version.

  55. Rick Hellewell says:

    Here’s a story with a list of 10 phone apps related to survival/prepping

    https://beprepared.com/blogs/articles/10-survival-apps-need-now

    Some of the apps work off-line. Have not tried any of them. But they look interesting.

  56. lynn says:

    “Ford v. Ferrari” was awesome on the big screen. I think that was the last movie that Dad and I saw at the Cinemark in Victoria, Texas.

    “Zombieland 2” was my last big screen movie, after Christmas at the dollar theater near the house.

    I have yet to see “Zombieland 2”. And the new “Jumanji: The Next Level”.

  57. lynn says:

    The wife called and told me that her father’s kidneys are now working. Apparently the feeding tube revitalized him. So no dialysis needed.

    The hospital gave him a swallow test. He swallowed just fine to his stomach so they are mystified as why he was swallowing to his lungs (aspiration) in the nursing home.

    The wife has no idea what they are going to do now. A friend of mine suggested moving him to a hospice facility from the nursing home. My friend did that for her 95 year old father a couple of years ago, they just made him comfortable for his last days. At least we would be able to visit him in the hospice facility. I found one in Carrollton, Texas attached to a local hospital that does still allow visitors.

  58. Nick Flandrey says:

    @lynn, win10 pro

    Yeah, I am still steaming mad.

    I can’t imagine Exxon coming to work today and all their machines rebooted, with racial crap on them and no processes running until after log in. Any overnight jobs dumped too.

    How the hell do I kill updates?

    n

  59. lynn says:

    @lynn, win10 pro

    Yeah, I am still steaming mad.

    I can’t imagine Exxon coming to work today and all their machines rebooted, with racial crap on them and no processes running until after log in. Any overnight jobs dumped too.

    How the hell do I kill updates?

    Exxon uses an “Enterprise” version of Windows. No updates from Mickeysoft. Only approved updates from their own update server(s).

    I cannot believe that Mickeysoft put racial advertising on their Win 10 Pro version login screen. Mickeysoft may have lost control of the message, if so watch out !

    Hopefully the people involved are getting a taste of the cat today.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_o%27_nine_tails

    And you cannot turn off updates in Win 10 that I know of. I beta tested Win 10 Pro five years and went straight back to Win 7 x64 Pro. Win 10 had some serious issues with networking and prior application compatibility in my shop so I judged it “not ready’.

    “How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10”
    https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10

  60. Greg Norton says:

    @lynn, win10 pro

    Yeah, I am still steaming mad.

    I can’t imagine Exxon coming to work today and all their machines rebooted, with racial crap on them and no processes running until after log in. Any overnight jobs dumped too.

    How the hell do I kill updates?

    Exxon gets whatever they want out of Redmond by writing a big check every year for the site licenses.

    You can try Windows 8 with Classic Shell. Support sunset isn’t for another three years. I run that on my 2012 MacBook Pro under Boot Camp and VMware Fusion because the Windows 10 license would require me to pay for two separate serial numbers.

  61. SteveF says:

    How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10

    Step 1: Put a Linux installation image on a USB stick.

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  62. Pecancorner says:

    Challenge accepted.
    Just because I can – and it may disappear at any time – there is now a ‘sarcasm’ tag you can use. Just surround your sarcasm with the opening and closing sarcasm tag.
    RickH has too much time on his hands…
    What background color should be used for sarcastic comments? Right now, it’s ‘cyan’. And the background color wont survive an edit of the comment.

    I like it! And the color is a hoot. You’re awesome, Rick.
    and I don’t ever say that to developers 😀

  63. Pecancorner says:

    rats, the s didn’t work. It is a strike-out instead
    Now that’s punny HaHa

    I should have actually read SteveF ‘s comment, who so kindly told us how to do it.

    Edit to add: but it still didn’t work 🙁

  64. Pecancorner says:

    The wife called and told me that her father’s kidneys are now working. Apparently the feeding tube revitalized him. So no dialysis needed.

    The hospital gave him a swallow test. He swallowed just fine to his stomach so they are mystified as why he was swallowing to his lungs (aspiration) in the nursing home.

    That is wonderful news! Obviously something was happening that was a problem, glad it was fixed.

    Re the Windows 10 update last night: happened here too – the forced update. I hate them, and I hate that they hide the download and don’t announce an update until the download has stopped interfering with all use of the computer or internet. The BLM message I got on Bing for weeks, a month or two ago. They finally turned it off.

  65. Jenny says:

    @Nightraker
    08/10/2020 comment
    Whoa – thanks for the link, Nightraker. We went off grid for a few days and I missed this. The Mayor managed to crank the daily penalties up to $15,000 so Mr. Kriner had to cave. He negotiated a settlement with the city and is following the emergency order now.
    We missed it, but there was a massive protest, estimates of 500 people, outside Loussac Library during the Assembly Meeting on 08/11/2020. The Inspector General has also advised the city that indeed, buying buildings with CARES Act funds for homeless shelters is not permitted. Mayor has flipped his finger and declared the IG has no authority on this.
    The Assembly had a lot of shenanigans that night. There have also been a number of problems with the recorded and streaming video of the meeting. Big issues in Anchorage.

    @nick
    08/11/2020
    2015 rabbits – honestly I have no memory of that comment. Welcome to fun with brain injuries. I lost about two years after the crash in 2014 – I was mostly function, but I’ve only got bits and pieces of memory.
    2020 rabbits – I’m set up for ease of maintenance with generously sized stock. I do recall I had a lousy inefficient setup in 2015, and stupidly small breeding stock.

    We intended to be at Maclaren River Lodge, at mile 42 of the Denali Highway, for the full week. We had a medical event and are back in Anchorage. Everything will be ok, but the medical thing required a rapid return to Anchorage for the emergency room. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.
    We had a gorgeous couple of days, some good friends with their children joined us. It was really fun. They stayed for the rest of the week and were kind enough to keep our kiddo so she could have a bit of fun and relaxation.
    We are catching up on Anchorage news. The ordinance to purchase the buildings with CARES Act funds, for the homeless, passed as expected. Apparently the dog and pony show was pretty awful. I haven’t been able to stream the recorded meeting. The Assembly switched to a new platform and there seem to be problems. Shocking, I know.

    I started working on getting the webcam working again for the lodge. I got the camera spun up (air gap resistors are a nuisance), got the software and firmware up to date. Got the FTP stuff working. Got the initial uploads working. They need to keep the uploads down to no more than once an hour because of bandwidth (completely off grid – satellite, solar, generator). My initial tests had a fresh image uploading about every 30 seconds. Whoops. I adjusted the settings to the intended once an hour, started testing, then we had our medical event and had to leave. I’ll shoot our lodge friends an email with what I think needs to happen next and hope he can sort it out from the foundation I left. I document everything I do as I do it, so at least he isn’t stranded with my half finished job.

    Here’s the lodge website. It’s a beautiful place. My favorite place in the whole world.

    http://www.maclarenlodge.com

  66. lynn says:

    Here’s the lodge website. It’s a beautiful place. My favorite place in the whole world.

    http://www.maclarenlodge.com

    Cool ! I love staying at places like that in Colorado and Montana.

    Dad and I went fishing in central Alaska back in August 1981. I have no idea where the central camp was but it was only float plane accessible. It had a diesel generator that they ran about 4 hours per day for lights in the evening. No late reading unless you had a booklite.

    Ate some of the best salmon in my life on that trip, dad or I caught a 5 ? 6 ? lb salmon and the guide threw it in the fire on the river shore, wrapped in tin foil. I think I ate a full pound of the salmon.

  67. Rick Hellewell says:

    The Zon has a good deal on Germ-X hand sanitizer https://amzn.to/2CvvSKk
    Germ-x Germ-x Hand Sanitizer, Original with Pump, 8 Fl Ounce (Pack of 12), 96 Fl Oz
    $35.38

  68. lynn says:

    “President Trump Announces Peace Deal Between Israel And United Arab Emirates”
    https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/13/trump-israel-united-arab-emirates-peace-deal/

    “The United States has brokered a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, President Donald Trump announced Thursday on Twitter.”

    “Leaders from the three countries released a joint statement on the deal, saying it is a major step toward securing peace in the Middle East. The statement says Israel and the UAE will begin extensive cooperation on coronavirus vaccine research, as well as begin negotiations for investment, tourism and trade between the two countries.”

    I think that this is a big deal but I am not sure. I doubt that Trump will get much recognition for it though.

    The UAE has run out of crude oil and is producing natural gas only. We used to have customers there but when the crude oil ran out, they really cut back their operations.

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

  69. lynn says:

    “A.F. Branco Cartoon – In Bad Taste”
    https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-in-bad-taste/

    “It’s been said Kamala Harris will do anything to get to the top no matter who it hurts. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2020.”

    I would not taste anything for Slow Joe that Kamala made.

  70. dkreck says:

    Did a stress/echogram on Tuesday. Removed shirt so hair-removal pads could be attached. Must wear a mask. Have you tried breathing hard with a mask? Eight minutes fast walking with just a mask, shorts and shoes.
    Is there no dignity?

    Yeah – did just fine.
    (edit – there is no sarcasm either but the tags are there. Not even after reload)

  71. Nick Flandrey says:

    @jenny, having a baby, or dealing with grief wipes out your memory too. Glad you’re better.

    Daughter 2 has been bugging us for a new animal, mainly a hedgehog. I’ve said no many times. Then she says “what about a bunny” which launched me into “only for food” mode, which she didn’t care for.

    Politicians lie and steal. It’s good to force their lies and theft out into the open. you fought the good fight and laid groundwork for the next battle.

    n

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  72. lynn says:

    Did a stress/echogram on Tuesday. Removed shirt so hair-removal pads could be attached. Must wear a mask. Have you tried breathing hard with a mask? Eight minutes fast walking with just a mask, shorts and shoes.
    Is there no dignity?

    Yeah – did just fine.

    Good to hear. Sounds … strange with a mask. And potentially dangerous due to CO2 re-use.

    They won’t let me do the stress test on the treadmill anymore since my heart surgery two years ago. I have to do the drug simulation now. They give you a chocolate Hershey kiss to wipe the after effects of the drug away, the last time she tried to give me the one with the almond inside. I am allergic to almonds.

    Reminder to self, I am going to have a EKG in October. Time to shave the chest. Or else they use a dull bladed razor with no shaving cream.

  73. Nick Flandrey says:

    I worked on a project for the Abu Dhabi Oil company. I suspected they were illegally using their SGI super computer for military purposes based on some imagery I saw on the system that they quickly took down. No one to tell though. Given enough time, it all worked out in the end.

    Didn’t know they were actually out of oil. Knew that all the tourism and financial stuff was an attempt to move away from an oil based economy. Wonder if they truly made the jump or if they’ll be crashing out soon.

    n

  74. lynn says:

    “Walmart Brings the Big Screen to Its Parking Lots Starting August 14”
    https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/08/05/walmart-brings-the-big-screen-to-its-parking-lots-starting-august-14

    “BENTONVILLE, Ark., Aug. 5, 2020 — Grab your popcorn! Walmart is lifting the curtain on plans for the Walmart Drive-in, a drive-in movie theater experience, which is rolling into 160 Walmart stores across the country beginning this month, created in partnership with the Tribeca Film Festival.”

    “Available for free to Walmart customers, the Walmart Drive-in will transform Walmart parking lots into outdoor cinemas from August 14 through October 21 with 320 showings of hit movies. Starting today at 5:00 p.m. ET, families can visit http://www.TheWalmartDriveIn.com to discover dates, store locations and the movies for each stop of the movie tour.”

    Ours on Sept 4 “Friday Night Lights” and 5 “Cars” are already sold out.

    Note: Bring your own gun. And no shooting the screen !

  75. Nick Flandrey says:

    After more than two years of investigations, the DoJ has finally determined that Yale university’s discriminatory practices during the admissions process amounted to evidence of discrimination against white and Asian-American applicants, in violation of a federal civil rights statute.

    The DoJ’s two-year investigation concluded that Yale “rejects scores of Asian American and white applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit.”

    Prosecutors found that Yale has been discriminating against applicants to its undergraduate program based on their race and national origin and “that race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year.” The investigation found that Asian American and white students have “only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials.”

  76. lynn says:

    Didn’t know they were actually out of oil. Knew that all the tourism and financial stuff was an attempt to move away from an oil based economy. Wonder if they truly made the jump or if they’ll be crashing out soon.

    ADNOC and ADGAS had site licenses of our software from the 1970s to 2010 or so. They pumped crude oil out of the reservoirs and let the reservoir pressure drop. When the reservoir pressure dropped, the light crudes all turned into natural gas.
    https://www.winsim.com/userlist.html#UnitedArabEmirates

    Same old story all over the planet except for Saudi Arabia. Aramco keeps Ghawar at 3,600 psig by injecting sea water to keep the light crudes from converting into natural gas.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghawar_Field

    And http://www.adnoc.ae says that they produce 3 million barrels of oil per day. I wonder if they got some deep water reservoirs going now ? Just in time for the crude oil prices to crash.

  77. Nick Flandrey says:

    BTW, my main machine is running win8 with classic start menu. I guess I could get some win8 licenses and use it whereever I would prefer to use win7…

    n

    Win8 will still crash out of classic start menu for some things. Like clicking on a”Mail” link.

  78. Greg Norton says:

    Reminder to self, I am going to have a EKG in October. Time to shave the chest. Or else they use a dull bladed razor with no shaving cream.

    We saw multiple commercials for the “Lawnmower” Manscaping razor tonight during “Deep Space Nine” reruns on H&I.

    I did waxing once for a costume at the big anime show in San Antonio. Painful, but it worked. The pictures are classified.

  79. Nick Flandrey says:

    classified- as dangerous to the sanity of mortal man!

    n

  80. lynn says:

    I did waxing once for a costume at the big anime show in San Antonio. Painful, but it worked. The pictures are classified.

    No freaking way for me. My two foot wide chest has got about a thousand hairs per inch. A million hairs per square inch like a fine Persian rug. And about four inches long at the moment. I’ve had to shave it so many times for heart tests that I think that it grows faster now.

    Lets see, why would a guy wax for an anime show ? Not playing a furry. How about Alley Oop ?

  81. Marcelo says:

    So my pc (win10) must have updated and restarted last night.

    I know better than to post a comment on this but I would be remiss in voicing my opinions on the subject (once again).

    Under normal circumstances this should never catch you unawares if you just remember that there is (at least) one patch per month known as Patch Tuesday that will take effect (in the US) on the second Tuesday of every month.

    I have several machines on Windows 10, most of them Home x64. Each of them has been set up with Windows Update\Advanced Options\Download updates over metered connections = Off and Windows Update\Pause updates for 7 days. All of that works for me and gives me a 7 day window in which I can control how and when things get done.
    Within that period of time and after Patch Tuesday I take a Restore Point, do a system Image using (free) Macrium Reflect, do a Search for Updates that will present me with the option of downloading outside of My working hs. Given that it is happening when I want it, I proceed to download and install under my control.

    I have yet to need a rollback but that will depend on your environment. I have been tempted on notifying here that it is Patch Tuesday but never did in the past. I read about 5 IT sites each day and am very well aware when it is happening, most things that are being patched and the possible issues with the patch. If you think it would be useful I could post a warning here.

    This morning, I’m greeted by the log on beauty pic of some German waterfall. And in the upper left? “Want to be a better ally in the fight for racial equity and justice? Find recommended articles, videos, and more on Bing.” And right in the middle of the screen? “If you are educating yourself on the current state of racial justice and equity for the Black Community… We’ve put together a list of recommended (and talked about) books on race in America.”

    I do not get that. Must be a US citizens thing. ..

  82. Nick Flandrey says:

    @marcelo, definitely feel free to mention it’s patch tuesday, especially if there are any issues. I normally (since win3.1) set updates to NO!!! but with win10 you can’t set it to not update. My single purpose machine for my security cam software is the only win10 machine in the house (Wife has a work lappy that is win10, but I don’t support it.) The result is win10 updates always catch me by surprise.

    Most of the time, my ‘startup’ list runs even if I’m not logged in, so my cams get recorded. Today that didn’t happen, and I don’t know if it was because of the social BS or because once I did log in, I had a “lets complete your setup by linking everything you own to this pc, continue now or later??” screen. Frankly I never want to see that screen again either, but there isn’t a “NO NO AND HELL NO” choice. Any reason for not restarting every piece of software that was running when they took over the machine and updated was a really poor design choice and speaks to an arrogance on the part of MS. In this case, I have no recordings from 2 am until I logged back in at 9am.

    It’s the same arrogance that insists on installing updates when you exit and shut down, even though you might be shutting down so you can run to catch your flight… and again, no choice in the matter.

    Building that win10 machine and running the software NVR was a bit of an experiment. I know now that unless it’s a special case, I will only recommend to anyone that they buy a hardware NVR, and not try to do it on the cheap. Windows will do what windows wants to do, and that is not dependable for an appliance.

    If I find time, or if it makes me angry enough, I will probably change that machine to linux since there is now a version of the software I use for linux. Or I will by a hardware NVR and repurpose that machine for my kids.

    n

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  83. Marcelo says:

    @Nick. I’ll post warnings then. 🙂

  84. gavin says:

    It’s the same arrogance that insists on installing updates when you exit and shut down, even though you might be shutting down so you can run to catch your flight… and again, no choice in the matter.

    I’m not sure if Win10 is the same as Win7 for this (I don’t have Win10 on anything) but my workaround for shutting down without installing updates is to select ‘Restart’ and then power off once it starts the BIOS screen on reboot.

  85. Marcelo says:

    I’m not sure if Win10 is the same as Win7 for this (I don’t have Win10 on anything) but my workaround for shutting down without installing updates is to select ‘Restart’ and then power off once it starts the BIOS screen on reboot.

    Windows 10 does 30% of the install before restarting. It seems that doing what you do with Win7 would be quite risky for Win10…

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