Cool, damp, sunny later.
Nice day on Saturday. I did some things, picked up some things, bid on some things, and received some things I ordered.
Spent some time at my secondary working to free up space. I realized that both of my local auction houses have basically said what I gave them is all they’re taking until next year. Also, from Thanksgiving to February ebay sales have always been slow for me. That means if I want to get the stuff out of my house, I need to either have an auction of my own, move some to my secondary and storage, or take a bunch to a listing service. Or just start scrapping out what I can. Or I embrace the power of and…
I will say I’m filled with anxiety. The number of people celebrating the end of honest elections in the US is frankly terrifying. Their willingness to overlook obvious problems, discount what the actual law and procedure say, and accept the biased media line they’re being fed doesn’t bode well for the future. They’re well trained sheep, herded whatever direction the shepherd wants them to move. Outrage on tap, denunciations, two minute hates- the whole shebang. What’s the difference between a happy mob in the street and an unhappy mob? Still a mob. Still a wild animal, barely under control.
What have we already seen? NATIONAL movements to deify career criminals, and demonize cops. Mobs chanting “Death to America” in our cities. Tide pod and other dangerous and idiotic challenges sweep across social media. Freaking “13 Reasons Why” on television. Blue whale on the internet. FFS. MTV broke the nation’s ability to concentrate and facebook, twitter, tiktok, et al broke the ability to think of consequences past 5 minutes of cut rate fame.
The biased media reports on the crooked count and people line up in the streets to celebrate. Which, BTW, apparently means hounding people out of their homes… It’s been only a few days. The conditioning to expect instant and omniscient results has worked. The mob acts like they think Trump will leave tomorrow and their new king will be crowned on Tuesday.
The left is already calling for ‘accountability’ and tracking of Trump supporters. I feel like I’m suddenly in the USSR. I know what an “accountability file” means when the far right uses it. I’m pretty sure it means the same to the left. And what it means in practice is imprisonment, impoverishment, and extra judicial killings. Every single time.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we have until February at the latest before the shooting starts in earnest.* It’ll be kooks at first, or victims of the mob, but singletons. Then it’ll be sneaky but still basically suicide with no real hope of getting away with it. THEN it’ll go pro. I REALLY hope I’m wrong. I really hope there are people on their side to calm the murderous masses. I really hope the people on our side decide to live and fight another day. I guess that will depend on how bad it gets, and how quickly.
I’ll also bet that they are calling for Trump to resign and ‘make way’ before the end of the coming week. They’ll want to keep the momentum up before the law can catch up with the cheating. They might use mobs in the street and threat of violence so Trump can resign to ‘calm passions’ ‘for the good of the nation’… no one will want to hear a word about Hunter either, he’s going to get away with it.
Biden couldn’t even get through his first speech without a ‘gaffe’. He won’t last until the Ides of March. I’d put a case of Mountain House on that bet.**
There are people saying “it’s not that bad, he won’t have the Senate, it’ll be gridlock” and “he’ll suck so bad we’ll get it back in 4 years”. Except we won’t. The fix is in. If they get away with it this time it will be worse next time. And think about this, Ol’ Joe wakes up dead in February and the world mourns the passing of an elder statesman, just like drunken killer Kennedy… and we have Harris for 8 years, and her hand picked vice, AOC or the Iman, for 8 more after that. The Mean Girls ™ will be armed with the full power of the bigcorps, and three letter agencies. A weaponized IRS denying tax exempt status will seem so quaint, if any of the dirt people can even remember that. It certainly won’t be in any of the online ‘learner tools’…
Long before those 16 years are up, we’ll be fighting for independence again. I’ll have my Republic of Texas passport after all. It’ll be printed in Spanish.
Keep stacking.
nick
*by ‘shooting’ I mean armed violence, could be shooting, or arson, or bombings
** guess what it was before I changed it for sounding like a vague threat
I’ve got flightradar up in a tab, and the sky over houston is QUIET tonight. one sheriffs helo, that I don’t think is involved, and a couple of commercial jets on the ground at airports.
IIRC, Flightradar is delayed by 15 minutes. Things may have changed since I last looked, however.
An original Raspberry Pi Model B will run dump1080. I would recommend plugging in a powered hub for the TV dongle, however.
@greg, no desire for a german grocery getter will survive too much of this. And not too many male relatives will stand for it either.
In my age group, that desire dies hard.
Other than the Dallas suburbs, I haven’t seen it as much here in Texas. I saw lots of G Wagons in Portland and Seattle.
Austin still has solid representation of the thought process in the suburbs, though. In Williamson County, Trump lost, MJ Hegar won, and the frequent “Live PD” star Sheriff was sent packing in favor of a Dem with a campaign funded by the local trial lawyers.
The only reason the Subcontinent female “Engineer for Congress” lost was that Williamson shares the Congressional district with Bell County, technically an exurb anymore, but beyond reasonable commuting distance for a job in Austin for all but the very wealthy.
@Pecancorner: Absolutely. A hand-count is probably more efficient that a machine count, once people start questioning the machine and raising a ruckus. It’s the observers that are key – and with R-observers having been excluded in many cases, well… Holding a fair and honest election is not difficult. Where difficulties arise, it’s because difficulties were desired.
Non-technical managers have no clue. I’ve seen non-technical managers who understood this and got out of the way. The problem comes when they figure they can interfere anyway. It’s like a business major in a hospital wanting to direct surgeons how to operate – it cannot possibly lead to a good result.
Of course, sometimes even apparently good programming teams can seriously screw up. I was a consultant at the beginning of a project, and even advised on a company to hire to do the programming, so I suppose I am indirectly at fault. The system was supposed to be multilingual – Switzerland is a regular polyglot of languages. Anyway, they did make the data storage multilingual, but they neglected to make the actual program interface multilingual. So you could save English data, or German data, or French data – but the program itself was only in German. Stupid, stupid, stupid…
It is technically fantasy, but the magic is consistent, with mechanics that make some sense. You can see it as unexplained technology, perhaps as “science fantasy”.
I don’t envy y’all – I’m frankly glad not to be there. The amount of Schadenfreude on the left, making lists of Trump supporters, going on a general power trip. It’s not pretty. We won’t mention the chances of Biden serving out his full term – and what happens if/when he doesn’t.
My Win10 and Ubuntu machines will play Region 1 DVDs just like any DVD player. Does anyone know if they would also play Region 2 DVDs? There is a British series I want, called “Coal House”. Unfortunately, the DVDs seem to only have been produced in Region 2 format.
I have the second series, “Coal House At War”, which is brilliant, and from the two episodes of the first Coal House series that are on YT, it looks like it is just as good if not better. Most of the various “House” series have been severe disappointments. 1940s House lived up to every expectation, though, and so does Coal House At War, with the participants and producers staying – for the most part – true to the customs and norms of the era.
(Trying not to drive myself crazy while waiting for the resolution of our election… )
Brad, very true.
Pecancorner, Coal House (and Coal House at War) is available on BitTorrent. Morally, and I’m pretty sure legally, you’re in the clear if you download it. It’s not available for purchase and use by you, so if you download it you haven’t cost them a sale.
@Peacancornet #DVD Regions
I have a long standing LG DVD player here in the UK which I early on applied an available ‘fix’ to make it multi-region. As a result I can play Region 1 and Region 2 with no problems. Might be worth looking into with regard to your DVD player.
I watch “The Five at Five” just to hear what dumbshit Juan Williams says. He is truly a Dumbo sycophant. And “Tucker” if it looks like he is got someone interesting to interview.
I watch on the ‘net with the Cox Contour app and leech off our Vegas condo account.
My Win10 and Ubuntu machines will play Region 1 DVDs just like any DVD player. Does anyone know if they would also play Region 2 DVDs? There is a British series I want, called “Coal House”. Unfortunately, the DVDs seem to only have been produced in Region 2 format.
Have you tried VLC on the Windows machine with a Region 2 DVD?
VLC is available on Linux as well, but you will need to follow the instructions about installing libdvdcss. The install for the library should be fairly painless on Ubuntu.
MakeMKV on Windows may also work to rip the DVD to a DRM-free file format. I’ll check that one on my Windows desktop later today with my Region 2 “The Boat That Rocked”, the only way to get the movie without half an hour chopped out by Miramax.
I also have Region 2 “Hamlet” with Patrick Stewart and David Tenant from 2009. Importing was the *only* way to get that for a while, when that was the hottest theater ticket on the planet.
The big problem with Region 2 isn’t the DRM as much as the video signal from the DVD. The UK used an analog TV standard called PAL with slightly higher resolution and better color than the NTSC standard in North America and Japan. The tradeoff is that NTSC color was backwards compatible with black and white TV sets going back to the dawn of TV broadcasting, a beautiful mathematical hack.
IMHO the FBI are part of the Deep State. They’ve had the laptop too long not to make a case. Plugs Jr. escapes prosecution. All the *agents* involved in the Pee Tape dossier will skate. Maybe even pardoned by Plugs and reinstated. All the old Dumbo cronies are vying for a spot on Plugs’ admin. I bet even Cankles will get something like ambassador to someplace nice. Or BJ. Or any Dumbo who was defeated.
Mr. Nick’s right. If this massive voter fraud isn’t exposed and fixed, we’ll never have a decent President again. Harris has a lot of ass-kissing ahead to get the Presidency. Dumbo Deep State prefers senile old dotards who can be controlled.
Use at least a VPN. Big Brother is watching.
I’m also sure Hollyweird is looking to make a big comeback after Plugs saves us from COVID-19. If they can survive more months of lockdown encourages by the “Administration of Healing.”
Geez, I just had a fear. Plugs is going to *invite* 10,000s more Mooslims from the worse countries. Citizenship up front, of course.
And yes, the Lame Stream Media is doing it’s best “don’t look behind that curtain” to cover fraud. The sheeple already believe Plugs’ is President and tRump needs to vacate NOW because CNN/MSNBC say so. The media has become a blight upon the Nation.
In the old days, you could change the region setting on your pc software up to 5 times legally. IDK, but look for a setting. The PAL format should play on a pc just fine, you shouldn’t even notice. On a DVD player, you might have difficulty.
Is the show like the various BBC “Farms” shows? Modern people living in a place and conditions of a specific time period? Wartime Farm, Edwardian Farm, etc? Because the Farm series of shows were very good.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8926415/Biden-plans-repudiation-Trumps-policies-executive-orders-end-Muslim-ban-rejoin-WHO.html
then it will be shutdowns, handouts, and taxes. LOTS of taxes.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8925675/Theres-Hunter-Joe-Bidens-son-appears-stage-dads-victory-speech.html
–ah the prodigal has returned.
n
Geez, I just had a fear. Plugs is going to *invite* 10,000s more Mooslims from the worse countries. Citizenship up front, of course.
Without control of the Senate, Biden can sign an Executive Order that being in the country without authorization is not a crime and subject to detention. Once a few million Number One Sons show up from China, the Subcontinent, and God knows where else, staked by wealthy families, the Chamber of Commerce will strong arm the Republicans into work visas, the political ghost of Adam “Opie” Putnam rising from his Florida grave.
The female swing voters in the suburbs of DC and the tech hubs still don’t understand how they’ve been had trusting “Joe and Kamala” not to take their lifestyles away.
DC. Charlotte. Pittsburgh. Philadelphia. Phoenix. Detroit. Milwaukee. Atlanta. Imagine if just these cities’ suburbs had gone a different way. We have a problem here in Texas too in Dallas, Austin, and Houston, but not in significant enough numbers to swing an election — the economy is too diversified and the state too big.
Go back and play Harris’ speech from the convention. The repeated “Here’s the thing” mantra is not an accident but exactly how that kind of voter talks. The only sentence missing was “I’m jus’ sayin'”.
God, I hate “I’m jus’ sayin’.” “Kiddos” and “The Fam” are not high on my list either.
Dave Chappelle on SNL:
He cited Trump’s racist term for the virus, ‘the Kung flu’.
‘I said, you racist – hilarious son of a b***h. I’m supposed to say that, not you! It’s wrong when you say it,’ he said.
‘You know, when he got coronavirus, they said everything about it on the news. You know what they didn’t say? That it was hilarious. It was hilarious,’ Chappelle added.
‘Trump getting coronavirus was like when Freddie Mercury got AIDS. Nobody was like, “how did he get it?”‘
‘This guy’s running around like the outbreak monkey. Looked like a 1970s penis, raw dogging. Raw dogging Earth,’ he said, prompting laughter.
‘Meanwhile, Chris Christie’s fat a** is in the ICU, fighting for his life. Chris Christie got all the symptoms. Everything coronavirus likes to eat, that’s what’s in Chris Christie’s body,’ he said, roasting the former New Jersey governor.
‘Fat, check. Asthma, check. Diabetes, check. Coronavirus like, mmm-mmm! Herman Cain’s black a** has been dead for two weeks. Where’s his secret serum?
‘Think about that. For four years,’ he continued. ‘What kind of man does that? What kind of man makes sure he’s okay while his friends fight for their lives and die? A white man.’
Plus the frequent use of the word nigger.
LET THE HEALING BEGIN!
CNN Anderson Cooper:
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has revealed he ‘regrets’ referring to Donald Trump as an ‘obese turtle’, saying ‘that’s not the person I really want to be’.
The TV host bashed the president on Thursday after Trump launched a speech falsely claiming he won the presidential race.
Cooper then said on live TV: ‘That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world. And we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over.’
Sorry, *not* sorry, the classic excuse.
LET THE HEALING BEGIN!
@Pecancorner
The _House_ series were okay, but I really enjoyed both _Edwardian Farm_ and _Victorian Farm_. Don’t miss the Christmas specials, either.
Lots of useful information for post-apocalyptic preppers in there…
SteveF and MrAtoz, Thank you! I am trying to avoid a download of any kind, but will keep that in mind. I want to have a hard copy on DVD… it is just more versatile and reliable for me.
PaultheManc, thanks! I’ll look at the book and see if it is changeable.
Greg Norton, that’s a good idea. I don’t have any Region 2 DVDs to test with, but it might be worth buying this one to see if it will play on my computers (since it is an old series, it isn’t every expensive even from the UK).
Nick, thanks, I think I will go ahead and buy a copy and try it on my machines. Yes! This is somewhat like the Farms shows (which are wonderful… I re-watched Wartime Farm over the past week), with the difference being that it is non-experts trying to “live the life”. What makes Coal House and Coal House At War really special is that they actually follow the men in their trials, as well as the women. The men go to work in the coal mines, so it’s a whole new ball game for most of them. The “Coal House At War” series is available in dvd for Region 1, and I have that one.
The Farm series’ are all on YouTube right now, but I want to add them to my DVD collection eventually.
@Peacancorner
Details were not in the manual – they were located via Google.
~jim, agreed, the Farm series are all really special, and they hold up very well to watch repeatedly over the years.
Paul, ah ok thank you, i will do some searching after it arrives. I just found a dvd on Amazon that is in the US. 🙂
I tried really hard to buy the whole Farm series, and there were a bunch of them, and covered a lot of eras, but they just weren’t available. I think ONE was at $90… Even finding them on youtube was hard as I didn’t know what exactly to search for. Reading a couple of comments on each one I found pointed me toward the others.
I think I will have to look at D/Ling them soon.
n
‘Fat, check. Asthma, check. Diabetes, check. Coronavirus like, mmm-mmm! Herman Cain’s black a** has been dead for two weeks. Where’s his secret serum?
Hermain Cain had a cancer co-morbidity.
What is saddening and very consistent across accounts of real wartime, sooner or later they are down to eating grass.
Got preps?
n
Greg Norton, that’s a good idea. I don’t have any Region 2 DVDs to test with, but it might be worth buying this one to see if it will play on my computers (since it is an old series, it isn’t every expensive even from the UK).
In the past, I purchased Region 2 DVDs from the UK via Amazon.co.uk. Postage isn’t terrible.
I’ve been on a 15 year trip down the video piracy -er- enthusiast rabbit hole since the first DVDs of the “Doctor Who” revived series hit stores in the UK in 2005.
I know how to convert Region 2 PAL to region-free NTSC for the living room DVD player, but that involves recoding the video stream from lossy back to lossy and quality arguably suffers.
https://www.tmz.com/2020/11/08/alex-trebek-jeopardy-host-dead-dies-stage-4-pancreatic-cancer/
The Big C. One of the only funny sketches on SNL was Celebrity Jeopardy. RIP Alex.
The Big C. One of the only funny sketches on SNL was Celebrity Jeopardy. RIP Alex.
Sean Connery and Trebek within a week of each other. If SNL doesn’t play with the concept in the cold open next week, they might as well pull the plug on the program.
Toss “Turd Ferguson” in the sketch too.
Best “Celebrity Jeopardy” line: “Sean Connery” to “Robin Williams”: “Boy, I think you might be retarded.”
Over The Hedge: Living with Rona
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/11/08
Oh my !
@all: #re DVD regions
DVDs are recorded in what’s technically called “component”. It’s only the player hardware that contains the colo(u)r encoder. The players are manufactured to be region-agnostic, i.e. they are not region-locked as they roll off the production line, and the only region-specific hardware is the colour encoder chip. Region-locking occurs when the player is packaged, and will most likely involve an obscure, highly-undocumented series of remote commands, although jumper wires on the pcb are a less-likely alternative. The idea that you should manufacture players for specific countries is anathema, be cause of economies of scale, despite what the MAFIAA would have you believe.
Lo, these many moons ago, I had an enhanced-RCE R1 DVD (I’m in UK, which is Region 2) and had to research de-regioning my player. The googs/ducks/bings were my friend for this. Nowadays, I wouldn’t bother – the open-source appliation Handbrake should do it out-of-the-box – available for Win/Mac/Linux – although I haven’t done it specifically with an R1 DVD.
And yes, in past years, computer DVD drives could be region-switched up to x times (for x=5 or so) Then the drive would irrevocably (so it is said) lock to the last region selected.
Search something like “DVD player make/model multi-region” or perhaps “DVD region 0 (zero)”
G.
WTF? Who really runs the Democrats? FIRST thing Biden wants to do is “end the muslime ban”.
Huh, I thought we might have more pressing concerns.
n
And oh the freaking puff pieces, each one reinforcing the idea he’s won and is president.. foreign newspapers are all getting in line to kiss the ring too. first dogs, first kids, second wife blah blah Let’s see a financial breakdown of the power behind the throne, jill. Where are their tax returns?
I should add, most R1 DVDs are likely to play in R2, and vice versa. It’s only “enhanced RCE” discs that refuse, in my experience.
Note: you should get NTSC colour out of an R1 player, after deregioning, even though the scan rates will be wrong – 625/50 versus 525/60. The TV shouldn’t notice – modern TVs will accommodate this without adjustment. The colour will only be an issue if you’re using the little yellow Cinch (phono) plug. If you’re using HDMI or analogue component (and these days, why aren’t you?) it won’t be a problem.
G.
WTF? Who really runs the Democrats? FIRST thing Biden wants to do is “end the muslime ban”.
Huh, I thought we might have more pressing concerns.
The tech companies have people who they need to bring into the country from “banned” places.
Who runs the Democrats? Laurene Powell Jobs for one.
Lo, these many moons ago, I had an enhanced-RCE R1 DVD (I’m in UK, which is Region 2) and had to research de-regioning my player. The googs/ducks/bings were my friend for this. Nowadays, I wouldn’t bother – the open-source appliation Handbrake should do it out-of-the-box – available for Win/Mac/Linux – although I haven’t done it specifically with an R1 DVD.
Most of the living room DVD players capable of de-regioning have gone to Silicon Heaven at this point.
I still have a de-regioned Philips kicking around, but the output from a PAL disc looks like cr*p on a flat screen TV. If I want a living room disc, I do the conversion route, but that is rare anymore. Our BluRay players will handle x264 MKVs from a flash drive without a problem.
Re DVDs of all kinds/encodings/regions/DRMs/partridgesInAPearTree, I just say NO! Haven’t watched one since I got mad some couple years ago. If “they” want me to buy and “consume” their stuff, they will have to make it convenient. I can always go back to books. They were written much better in the good old days. /rant. 😛
I was wrong. Handbrake will not process an R1 DVD out-of-the-box. I just tried. Sorry, folks. I gave you bad info.
That said, DVD Decrypter can remove the encryption. I’ve done it, on R2 discs. I see no reason why it won’t work on R1. Of course, the MAFIAA had kittens over it, and got it taken down, for a while.
G.
I’m reading an old Mercedes Lackey book that is slowly falling apart. Or not so slowly…
Which leads to a kind of random idea: It seems like Amazon (or the authors) could offer a deal whereby you can “replace” books that you own with Kindle editions. I’m not willing to buy 20-30 Kindle books for full price, when I already own the paperbacks. Given some sort of deal – say, half-price – I might. Extra money for Amazon and the author – what’s not to like?
I really like Tubi. Good for olde, cheesy, schlocky sci-fi and horror films, too.
Victorian Farm
Edwardian Farm and the Christmas specials are there, too. Edit: no, they’re not.
Haven’t heard of _Wartime Farm_. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
On a completely different topic – back to the election – I came across an article showing that there was definite fraud in the election. Specifically for Joe Biden, and specifically where he needed it the most.
Benford’s law is an odd beast that makes zero intuitive sense. It is, however, a real thing, and quite reliable when analyzing naturally generated numbers (like numbers of votes cast). In this case, it indicates that those numbers have been substantially tampered with.
Unfortunately, knowing that fraud occurred, and proving it in a court of law, are two very different things.
I was wrong. Handbrake will not process an R1 DVD out-of-the-box. I just tried. Sorry, folks. I gave you bad info.
Handbrake on Windows? Clean install?
You’ll need to find the right copy of the libdvdcss DLL and place it into the Windows Handbrake directory under “Program Files”. Use your favorite search engine for the terms “Handbrake Windows libdvdcss”. Only follow the links that pull libdvdcss from the Videolan.org server.
The Handbrake people stopped including the library to avoid DMCA problems.
@greg:
If you were using a composite connection (the yellow Cinch) it probably would have. RGB SCART or HDMI should work better.
edit: just saw your follow-up. No, this is out-of-the-box Handbrake, on a MacBook Pro. Must research that. And yes, of course, from VideoLan’s servers, only. I’m not unaware of the problems associated with obtaining software from non-canonical sources. Not just “no”, but “h*ll, no”
G.
Alex Trebek has passed, died, hit the big final Jeopardy. Always enjoyed that game show. Some days I did very well, other days I was on the far left of the bell curve, a spectator, an idiot. RIP Mr. Jeopardy.
For trivia’s sake Mr. OFD’s wife, Mrs. OFD, was a contestant on the show. Didn’t win. But did better than I.
edit: just saw your follow-up. No, this is out-of-the-box Handbrake, on a MacBook Pro. Must research that. And yes, of course, from VideoLan’s servers, only. I’m not unaware of the problems associated with obtaining software from non-canonical sources. Not just “no”, but “h*ll, no”
Handbrake on a Mac should pick up VLC’s libdvdcss if both are installed and the same binary type (32 or 64 bits). Or, at least, that’s the way it used to work.
If you were using a composite connection (the yellow Cinch) it probably would have. RGB SCART or HDMI should work better.
Component video. The player is too old to have HDMI and scaling.
We still have tube TV sets around the house. The playback is fine on those.
Still have my DVD player from when we lived in Hong Kong. Will play any region. Most of the pirate DVDs there were Region 3 but all the expats had US & UK DVDs too. So the players there would play anything.
Different channels have the various ones up, so I can’t link to one channel for all of them. However, this site has a list of the titles in the Farm Series, so you can search YT for each of them:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/BBCHistoricalFarmSeries
Thx Pecan. Good spot for all of them.
I absolutely loathe YouTube, but will probably succumb to the dark side to catch up on the ones I’ve missed.
RiteAid is out of stock for propanolol, a super common heart drug. Curious.
I’d only worry if *all* stores were out. A single store outage is, IMHO, not a trend. Unless you like conspiracy theories. If so, we’re all going to die (sooner than later)!!
@greg:
It didn’t. Putting a copy in /usr/local/lib, followed by a restart, did the trick.
Thanks.
G.
Speak for yourself.
The end is Nearer! The end is Nearer!
Woe, woe and thrice woe!
Cassandra, in the BBC’s “Up Pompeii” with the late Frankie Howerd.
G
MakeMKV and Handbrake running on one of my Windows 7 machines would not touch my Region 2 encoded disc, but both decode “Frozen” (my gold standard for copy protected DVDs) just fine. Hmmmm.
The machine is our 2009 MacBook Pro, and I’m sure the DVD drive was region locked when we first got the machine. I’ll find my portable LG drive and try it again.
UPDATE: The LG is region locked too, apparently, but the DVD drive is only a year old. MakeMKV worked to rip the Region 2 disc.
@greg:
My MacBook Pro is the mid-2012, running Mojave. Two attempts to upgrade to Catalina failed – the machine would not boot, leading to visits to the geniuses at my local Apple store. I consider Apple support for my machine ended when Catalina came out, all Apple’s protestations to the contrary.
That said, whether the DVD is region-locked shouldn’t matter – Handbrake and similar programs treat the disk contents as data, AFAIK. But I can now rip R1 encrypted DVDs, thanks to your help. I’ve not tried yet, but I suspect R2 will be as easy.
G.
HaHa! Dr Clyde Thomas, of Big Spring, Texas, was a doctor of the old school. Sometimes a patient consulting him in preparation for some serious surgery would say “Now Doc, if I die….” he would interrupt: “When. When you die.” Sometimes he would continue “but you aren’t dying soon”, and sometimes he just stopped there.
Most were speechless, until they told the story later. 😀
My MacBook Pro is the mid-2012, running Mojave. Two attempts to upgrade to Catalina failed – the machine would not boot, leading to visits to the geniuses at my local Apple store. I consider Apple support for my machine ended when Catalina came out, all Apple’s protestations to the contrary.
I have a mid 2007 MacBrook Pro which should have been fine running operating systems up through Mountain Lion, but, in reality, never ran anything later than Snow Leopard without issues.
My mid-2012 MacBook Pro, the last 15″ with a Superdrive, runs Catalina well, but that’s the end of the line for me. I dual boot Windows 8 via Boot Camp, and when support for both ends, it will either become a Windows 10 machine full time or Linux.
Apple’s ARM chips will have to present a really compelling price, performance and/or battery life improvement for me to stick with the company’s laptops, which are essentially disposables at this point. I don’t think even Apple is sure about ARM.
If you are running Windows 10 and your device is connected to the Internet this should not affect you since you are in a later version by now…
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-starts-force-upgrading-users-on-windows-10-1903-to-1909
Just heard from my grandson in the Air Force, stationed in Alaska. This was his first year eligible to vote and he was excited. He and 3 friends from Cologado sent in for absentee ballots at the first of October. Not one had received their ballot by last week.
Alex Trebeck said that very same thing.
OK, I am bad. Ban me for 30 days. TTGNet Jail.
As is mine. I did upgrade to a SSD and a full 16GB of RAM first (Apple lied about the 8 maximum btw), and haven’t any issues with Catalina (yet).
That said, while I haven’t benchmarked it, the early 2020 i5 Mini is much much faster with only 8 GB.
Devuan: am about to give up.
(1) I downloaded the install image, but the old Mint 19 wouldn’t accept the root password so it wouldn’t let me write a bootable USB.
(2) downloaded again and used the OSX disk utility to write to the USB. This partially worked- but shortly into the install it hung, looking for the CDROM…
(3) Win10 and Rufus. This actually worked, but no wifi. Found the firmware online, put onto the media and tried again – couldn’t find it. Put it on ANOTHER thumb drive alongside the install, it found and installed it. Still can’t detect the card… Module is shown as installed. Tried different Linux things, no joy.
Elapsed time: 8hrs+
Mint:
(4) Downloaded Mint 20, used Rufus, installed alongside Devuan. Wifi immediately configured and working.
Elapsed time: 1 hour.
Oh well.
TTGNet Jail
That reminds me. What does TTG stand for? Been meaning to ask this for a long time, but always forget. I did search for it once, a long time ago, so please don’t yell at me. 😉
Here are facts that shoot down most of the fraud allegations:
– Trump encouraged voting on election day and discouraged mail-in voting.
– Biden and Democrats encouraged voting as early as possible by mail.
So, Trump would lead on election day and see it chipped away as the counts went on.
The 100%+ turnout in Wisconsin is plausible because they allow registration on election day at the voting locations.
It is unlikely that any of the court challenges (except the PA challenge to not count votes received by mail after 8 PM on election day) will be sustained if no state law was violated. The Constitution gives state legislatures control of time, place, and manner of the Presidential election. In fact, they could say that the legislature meets and decides on the electors. (This via a Trump-supporting conlaw prof, John Yoo.)
Added: I just looked and Michigan had more voters registered this year than in 2008. So the higher number of votes for Biden vs. for Obama isn’t surprising. Remember that a Black woman was on the VP ballot and Black women vote at higher rates than men.
The Tiny Goldfish Net
Triumphant Trans-Girl Net
Tats Tranqs and Guns Net
@JimB
What does TTG stand for?
Thompson’s Techno Grotto
Techno might be tech or technical, I don’t quite remember.
Grotto is definitely correct.
I’m pretty sure the first T was Thompson’s.
@ech, except that there are counters to most of that, including that a metric ton of black and hispanic voters voted for Trump instead.
The late ballots with no down ticket votes are the most damning in my mind, and that their “mail in” ballots don’t match the distribution of votes in any other city, or any other time or place, ie. FAR too many democrat votes for the number of ballots. Because despite what trump encouraged, lots of republicans did vote by mail or early, and those percentages are consistent and NOT like the late counted ballots.
As someone put it, the Rs didn’t lose down ticket votes they expected to get, the dems didn’t have any real upsets down ticket either, and yet somehow Biden won for president? That would have to be Rs voting for Biden for president, but straight party below that.
In any case there are lots of documented problems, lots of suspected problems, and the only way to resolve it is to investigate, and NOT to just say “quit already, it’s embarrassing.”
It’s about far more than Trump at this point. If they get away with the cheats that are so blatant this time, the next time will be even worse.
I grew up in Chicago under decades of corrupt democrat machine politics, while they taxed and spent, let crime run rampant, violated peoples civil rights, got away with outrageous vote fraud. NO ONE should want that for the rest of the country.
n
Would it be ok to say “C’mon, man!”? Or to pull Hillary Bitch Clinton out of the crypt to say, “Can’t we just move on?”
Well, that’s just boring. Can’t we get back to the tattoos meaning?
Though “Thompson’s Techno Grotto” would have some pretty good dance music.
@lynn
“I agree with everything except “The Magic Engineer” since I have not read it. And it seems to be fantasy instead of science fiction.”
@brad
“It is technically fantasy, but the magic is consistent, with mechanics that make some sense. You can see it as unexplained technology, perhaps as “science fantasy”.”
I included The Magic Engineer because in Fall of Angels (6th in publication, 3rd in chronological order) and Magi’I of Cyador (10/1) the origins of the two cultures are shown to be opposite sides of a stellar war between two technological opponents.
Many writers have passed a protagonist from a technological world into a magical world. Norton’s Witch World is probably the best known and most successful example. Some have allowed free passage back and forth, as in Doyle/MacDonald’s Mageworlds, DeChancie’s Castle Perilous, and Adam’s Stairway to Forever, to name a few.
Spent all afternoon at my secondary cleaning and rearranging stuff. Found stuff I haven’t seen in literal years. I have let things get out of hand. [hangs head]
I’ll make it better though, it will just take throwing a ton of stuff out.
n
The TV streamer provided by the VA to my hearing aids is working really well. Hearing a lot of sounds from TV that I have been missing. Audio is much crisper. On side advantage is I get stereo sound. Recommended if one has hearing aids.
That looks like a hoot. In small doses I’ve been enjoying The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, though the humor is probably broader and not as witty.
“With election rigging via mail-in ballots, the real purpose of the COVID bioweapon now becomes clear”
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-11-08-election-rigging-via-mail-in-ballots-covid-bioweapon.html
“(Natural News) It’s now abundantly clear that the real purpose of the engineered COVID-19 bioweapon was to allow Democrats to steal the election via mail-in ballot fraud.”
“By deploying the coronavirus weapon in China and allowing it to spread globally (thanks to the WHO and left-wing media calling Trump a “racist” for trying to close flights from China), the globalists were able to engineer long-duration lockdowns across America in defiance of medical or scientific justification.”
“The real purpose of these lockdowns was three-fold:
Crush the domestic economy and blame Trump for poor economic performance.
Cancel in-person voting and justify mail-in ballots, allowing massive election fraud by Democrats.
Keep children home from school, allowing them to vote by using the mail-in ballots that were sent to them by the Dems. (Yes, children were filling out ballots and voting for Biden.)”
Cool ! I am not the only one who thinks that COVID-19 was a conspiracy between China and the dum-bro-crats to release a bioweapon upon the USA.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
At first I thought it was China getting back at the US. As it drug on, into the election I have felt it was to influence the election. Destroy the economy and people will demand change. The relaxing of rules, adding another way to sway an election, by allowing mail in ballots was the icing on the cake.
I also think that Harris was chosen by Pelosi. Pelosi floated the 25th amendment not for Trump, but for Biden. Biden will be declared incompetent after two years. Harris becomes president and gets to choose the VP. The fix is complete as Pelosi is chosen by Harris to become VP.
“Don’t Jump Off That Ledge. This is Just a Blue Smokescreen”
https://pjmedia.com/columns/sarah-hoyt/2020/11/08/dont-jump-off-that-ledge-this-is-just-a-blue-smokescreen-n1131834
“Oh, projected results, is it? According to whom and why? The mass media? The same people who’ve been projecting a blue wave for half a year now? The same people who pushed their projection that two million people would die of COVID-19? THOSE projections?”
“I realized what I was looking at, and suddenly I’m not depressed anymore.”
“I’m still angry, though. I’m angry at the left for their staggering chutzpah and their treasonous attempt to stab at the heart of the republic, and I’m a little angry at all you zombies (Heinlein reference) out there who bought and are buying into it, and yes, that includes me till about two hours ago.”
I hope that Sarah is correct.
“Developing: Pelosi’s Chief Of Staff Is Also Chief Executive Of Dominion Ballot Counting Systems”
https://welovetrump.com/2020/11/08/bombshell-pelosis-chief-of-staff-is-also-chief-executive-of-dominion-ballot-counting-systems/
“So you remember the Dominion software we have been reporting about? The one taking Trump votes and switching them to Biden via a “glitch’?”
“Both Pelosi and Senator Diane Feinstein have intimate connections to Dominion’s executive management.”
“Kyle Becker
@kylenabecker
In Texas, Dominion Voting Systems was turned down THREE TIMES for certification in state elections. It listed numerous reasons why the system had major security issues.”
“Dominion is now linked to voting irregularities in both MI & GA.”
“TEXAS KNEW
https://sos.texas.gov/elections/laws/dominion.shtml
”
Are you freaking kidding me ?
They’re progs and socialists. Insert Stalin quote about who counts the votes. Their big daddy laid it out for them…
It’s the brazenness that gets me.
n
@jimb:
IIRC, Triad Technology Group.
G.
Hah, found it. My memory was partially correct.
Professionally it was Triad. When Robert switched to blogging under the same address and wanted to tweak the name, Barbara suggested Thompson’s Techno Grotto.
Week of June 11 2001
That was a loooong time ago. I’d started reading him the year before.
https://www.ttgnet.com/daynotes/2001/20010611.html
Barbara points out that when I first registered the ttgnet.com domain name more than six years ago, the domain was named for my corporation (Triad Technology Group, Inc.) and was primarily for business use. Since then, things have changed. Most of our business-related stuff is now on other domain names, and this domain has become almost purely personal. Actually, it always has been registered to me personally and paid for by personal check, so I suppose it makes sense to start treating it as a personal domain.
Barbara suggested renaming the site to something appropriate for the actual use we put it to, but wanted to keep the same TTG initials. She suggested Thompson’s Techno Grotto, so that’s what it is now. I’ve made a quick change to the index page, but I suppose I’ll need to do something better soon. You can send any suggestions or comments to Barbara. I’m just the webmaster.
PAL too
The Habit just texted me that my burger is ready.
Thing is, I didn’t order it, I’m at home, 20 miles away, it’s probably a wrong number.
If I lived just a little closer it’d be a free lunch!