Today should be hot and humid, with some sun. Yesterday was until it rained in the late afternoon. That dropped the temp to 74F but the humidity stayed at 90%RH. I forgot how humid Florida can be, even compared to Houston.
Spent most of yesterday on the water, looking at water creatures or eating them, details are in the comments if you’re interested. I’m continually amazed at what people could just DO in the 50s and 60s that can not be done now, and what a great benefit we get from what was done. Walt Disney World couldn’t be built today and it’s construction put central Florida on the map and brings in $100s of millions. Sarasota had little islands turned into big islands, with hundreds of multi-million dollar homes on them, and all the good things that having money like that nearby brings. What are we missing out on because of all the restriction and regulation? What massive benefit are we keeping from our kids?
You never know what you miss by NOT doing something.
—————-
Not sure what my schedule will be today but morning will be spent paying the rent. I’ve got stuff to install, stuff to fix, and some stuff to look at for next time. I’m not sure what an airBNB or something similar to this house would cost and I really don’t even WANT to know, but it would be a lot more than what I’ll be doing to help out while I’m here. If it wasn’t all in the family, I’d be pointing out the importance of meatspace, and intrapersonal relationships. Heck, even WITH family those things are still important.
Some of what you should be stacking is good will.
And food, water, resources, skills, and relationships, keep stacking those too.
nick
Spent most of yesterday on the water, looking at water creatures or eating them, details are in the comments if you’re interested. I’m continually amazed at what people could just DO in the 50s and 60s that can not be done now, and what a great benefit we get from what was done. Walt Disney World couldn’t be built today and it’s construction put central Florida on the map and brings in $100s of millions. Sarasota had little islands turned into big islands, with hundreds of multi-million dollar homes on them, and all the good things that having money like that nearby brings. What are we missing out on because of all the restriction and regulation? What massive benefit are we keeping from our kids?
To be fair, regulations and the National Flood Insurance program introduced starting in the late 60s created “Sarasota” and subsidize its continued existence. Just about everything west of I-75 would be toast in the event of a serious storm tracking up Tampa Bay at high tide. Florida looked a lot different 50 years ago. Heck, I’ve noticed a significant change in Tampa just in the last 15 years since the insurance carriers went insolvent and the state pledged to backstop the losses instead of facing the hard truth. Lots of dice being rolled.
I saw that the I-75/301 overpass at Ellenton is being rebuilt again as part of a multi year effort, but, about 10 years ago, a tanker truck exploded underneath it, forcing a reconstruction of the existing structure with a time frame of 30 days. After all the bidding rules/regulations were waived, if memory serves, the contractors got it done in 20 using all the available modern technolgy and materials without restrictions. Keep that in mind as you are rolling past that location this week. As Dr. Pournelle fequently commented, it isn’t a “dark age” until we forget that we could do something once.
The fat lady has not even started practicing her voice on the Feb freeze in Texas. There is fifty billion dollars in bills floating around out there. I have no idea how much has been paid but I would be surprised if it is half. BTW, the bills are to ERCOT and the natural gas suppliers. And ERCOT owes a lot of money too. This is all going to end up in the bankruptcy court.
A serious weather event-outage between now and the end of the year will be the queue for the warm up session.
I don’t think Robert Francis being in town last weekend was a coincidence.
“All right, all right, all right!” appearing at the opening of the soccer team playing at Q2 Stadium either.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/quinnipiac-university-poll-shows-texans-split-on-abbott-reelection
Serious question: why? If someone (or some company) lives in a flood zone, why shouldn’t they have to pay private insurance? Or, alternatively, not live in a flood zone? I genuinely do not understand the government’s involvement here.
Seems my desktop will not be able to run Windows 11. Time for an upgrade I guess. This system is probably 10 years old, upgraded to SSD, so runs quite well. Do I really want to upgrade to W11? If I need a new system it will be top of the line components, speed, 32 gig memory, 2tb SSD (two of them), etc.
TPM allows a bitlocker encrypted drive to automatically unlock on boot, since the encryption is tied to that hardware. You can use bitlocker without tpm, but you must either enter a password every boot or use an external usb stick as the key.
I wonder if MS is going to try and make drive encryption a standard part of the install. I also wonder if they will include it in the home edition, since it isn’t in Win 10. Also, you still need to keep track of the long unlock key in case things go wrong. I can’t see the average home user doing that.
I ran into the TPM issue a couple years ago when we finally started our Win 10 migration at work. One of the STIG requirements is to have bitlocker encryption enabled with TMP 2.0. I had a couple servers that had TPM ports and were 2.0 capable but didn’t have the chips. One was a Dell and one a Supermicro. Chips for both were unobtanium. Also had several workstations with no TPM or TPM 1.2. Those were the first to be lifecycled.
“National Flood Insurance program introduced starting in the late 60s created “Sarasota” and subsidize its continued existence”
Serious question: why? If someone (or some company) lives in a flood zone, why shouldn’t they have to pay private insurance? Or, alternatively, not live in a flood zone? I genuinely do not understand the government’s involvement here.
The program started with good intentions, but the cap on coverage kept expanding.
I don’t even know if my Alienware gaming PC MB is TPM 2.0 compatible. I’m not buying a complete system, pricey. Only a year old, etc. Maybe Dell will offer some kind of MB upgrade at a reasonable price before W10 is sunsetted.
I suspect CPS is trying to wring a little more profit out of each day to pay off that half billion, by avoiding the highest generation costs, since their customers (at least residential customers) pay the same amount per kWh no matter what time of day.
My home desktop isn’t Win11 compatible despite being a 2nd gen Ryzen chip and modern mobo and video card. Maybe it’s the storage space that is the problem? I’ll test my laptops later.
Second thought: I probably turned off secure boot in order to use Linux at some point. That’s an easy fix.
I built my desktop last year with an MSI X570-A PRo motherboard and AMD CPU. No TPM. I found one vender that supposedly has the a compatible add-in module in stock. I’ve ordered it – hopefully it exists. 25 bucks.
It’s the common issue of a small, widely-distributed cost versus a large, focused benefit; combined with most government business being conducted out of sight; combined with the Tenth Amendment having been dead since shortly after its approval and certainly for the past century.
Regarding multitool clumsiness, when I used to travel overseas, I would take tools I might actually use. The whole collection weighed less than a pound. I have had to fix companions’ eyeglasses, and once had to fix an intermittent camera charging connector. The latter proved my planning. I had a small pair of good pliers, diagonal cutters, a good blade, some vinyl tape, and some lacing tape. I could only twist the wires together, but it worked. I had to carefully cut open the connector, expose and splice the wires, wrap with tape, and reinforce the whole thing with the lacing tape. Others’ needs will vary.
I mention this to point out planning, and knowing one’s own needs. Some more general advice: carry some sort of magnifier you are comfortable using. It can make a real difference. Good quality small pliers are always handy. Most here might be familiar with lacing tape used in electronics, but it is a waxed nylon blend of flat woven “string.” It has tremendous tensile strength, and can be used for many things. Try to get small spools of it, but lacking that wrap about 100’ around something handy. If you need it and don’t have any, you won’t find any in usual stores anywhere. Substitutes are poor at best, but any port in a storm… The next best substitute is button thread, which can be found in sewing stores. It is much stronger than thread. Fishing line might be appropriate for some needs. Improvise.
There is much more. Another thought: try to carry things you can’t easily get. You can borrow or purchase common items, but not some of the very things that could be essential.
My desktop system is from 2009 – or at least that is the date AMD Phenom II X3 chip in it came out. Maxed the memory (8GB) and using an SSD. Works for every day just fine and I don’t play games so could care less about the latest graphics card (using Radeon 3300 on the MB). Unless this PC croaks (and it might, it is old), I won’t replace it unless I am forced to do so by WIN 10 going out-of-support. Of course, the 3 laptops I have may also then need replacing. Bah, humbug!!!
Back from the Home Depot store, got my supplies. Time to get to work.
n
Microsoft just pushed an update to the “PC Health Check” app for Win11. It auto-updates, all you have to do is run it again.
The laptop says “Processor not supported”.
Desktop says “The PC must support secure boot”. I’ll fix that later.
I got one for my ASUS MB for $15 from New Egg. Check there and Amazon.
My desktop system is from 2009 – or at least that is the date AMD Phenom II X3 chip in it came out. Maxed the memory (8GB) and using an SSD. Works for every day just fine and I don’t play games so could care less about the latest graphics card (using Radeon 3300 on the MB). Unless this PC croaks (and it might, it is old), I won’t replace it unless I am forced to do so by WIN 10 going out-of-support. Of course, the 3 laptops I have may also then need replacing. Bah, humbug!!!
Windows 10 going out of support may, arguably, be a tougher problem for Microsoft than ending Windows 7. Given enough memory, Windows 10 ran remarkably well on hardware going back at least as far as the ThinkPad T420 with 8 GB I used in grad school, and, for the last few years, Microsoft gave away Win 10 licenses to surplus resellers as part of the effort to purge Windows 7 from the older hardware.
“Number of missing in Surfside condo collapse rises to 159, Miami-Dade mayor says”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article252353208.html#storylink=bignews_main
“Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Friday morning that the number of people who are unaccounted for in Thursday’s building collapse increased to 159 — dramatically higher than the 99 reported earlier. The official death toll rose to four, as three more people were found in the rubble.”
Unreal.
So: what does the requirement for TPM 2.0 imply? What will the actual effects be on the system? Anyone know?
TPM allows a bitlocker encrypted drive to automatically unlock on boot, since the encryption is tied to that hardware. You can use bitlocker without tpm, but you must either enter a password every boot or use an external usb stick as the key.
I wonder if MS is going to try and make drive encryption a standard part of the install. I also wonder if they will include it in the home edition, since it isn’t in Win 10. Also, you still need to keep track of the long unlock key in case things go wrong. I can’t see the average home user doing that.
I ran into the TPM issue a couple years ago when we finally started our Win 10 migration at work. One of the STIG requirements is to have bitlocker encryption enabled with TMP 2.0. I had a couple servers that had TPM ports and were 2.0 capable but didn’t have the chips. One was a Dell and one a Supermicro. Chips for both were unobtanium. Also had several workstations with no TPM or TPM 1.2. Those were the first to be lifecycled.
So is Windows 11 going to require a TPM chip or just a TPM socket ? My home PC failed, it said that my PC must support secure boot. And it said that my home PC is ten years old.
https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp
From
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11
I wonder if they are going to use secure boot to fight off the ransomware thieves ?
I wonder if they are going to use secure boot to fight off the ransomware thieves ?
Copyright enforcement for BluRay and streaming services.
From what I understand, generating torrents of HBO Max and very secure BluRay discs involve hooking into the Windows video driver stack at a very low level. With Windows 7/8/10, secure boot was optional.
As for ransomware, Windows will still offer RDP server. PPTP VPN too … maybe. SSTP is still SSL, and the revision level supported is up to the tunnel server. Preventing TeamViewer installs, proper configuration of the desktops, and activation of those vulnerable services is a policy issue at the organization level.
I find it interesting that so many water treatment facilities have TeamViewer-related security breaches this year. Something must be broken in the protocol.
I suspect CPS is trying to wring a little more profit out of each day to pay off that half billion, by avoiding the highest generation costs, since their customers (at least residential customers) pay the same amount per kWh no matter what time of day.
You do know that CPS Energy can change that any time that they want to. And, those times are coming since the “smart” meters phone home every 15 minutes.
From the below link about Windows 11 and TPM:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/25/22550376/microsoft-windows-11-tpm-chips-requirement-security
So is Windows 11 going to require a TPM chip or just a TPM socket ? My home PC failed, it said that my PC must support secure boot. And it said that my home PC is ten years old.
https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp
From
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11
Won’t install on my Windows 7 Pro x64 PC at the office. Nice going, Mickeysoft.
You do know that CPS Energy can change that any time that they want to. And, those times are coming since the “smart” meters phone home every 15 minutes.
CPS is a city utility like Austin Energy. Mayor Nirenberg is a hardcore Prog, and he’s up for reelection next year.
LOL I love the “FCUK BIDEN” banner”:
Scene outside El Paso border patrol station when Kamala Harris arrived was ‘not the welcome I think she was expecting’
Kamel go home!
Isnt’ the tpm part of the whole management engine that allows remote access to your computer below the os level? That (if true) would make your disk encryption moot?
I don’t like forced upgrades, especially if it ‘happens’ to make a competitor’s life harder (like linux and the new replacement for bios?)
n
One nest cam installed. The actual mounting system is innovative, and the process to add a cam to your account is pretty seamless. The non-detachable, super long stiff cable is less useful. They do supply a bunch of cable mounting clips and they work well.
The packaging is a work of art.
Size and quality looks good so far.
New lights are installed. 2 of 3 anyway. Thunder lightning and spatters of rain had me moving indoors.
Now to look at the other light….
n
You do know that CPS Energy can change that any time that they want to. And, those times are coming since the “smart” meters phone home every 15 minutes.
CPS is a city utility like Austin Energy. Mayor Nirenberg is a hardcore Prog, and he’s up for reelection next year.
Yup, we sold electricity to them back in the 1980s when I was with TXU. Their biggest generator was 70 MW if I remember correctly. We had eight 750 MW units in our fleet of 124 generators.
Doesn’t matter if the mayor is a prog. Debts are debts. They have to raise the money somehow or the bankruptcy court put in a trustee and do it for them.
Doesn’t matter if the mayor is a prog. Debts are debts. They have to raise the money somehow or the bankruptcy court put in a trustee and do it for them.
Yes, but then it will be the trustee’s fault.
And, as Detroit has proven, pensioners will be first in line for payouts, and pensioners will not take haircuts.
Copyright enforcement for BluRay and streaming services.
Not just that. I was given the National Geographic 100 years of stuffTM on a bunch of DVDs some years ago, right after I moved to Linux. Would not install or run. I contacted the company, and was told I needed Windows or that other OS.
If I had still had a working PC Linux OS computer set up, I might have tried it, but I doubt that would have worked either. That distro had the reputation that it would run more proprietary stuff than any other desktop Linux. I liked it a lot, but it fouled up on one of their rolling updates, and I dropped it like a hot potato. My opinion is that some third party should write whatever is necessary to make Linux able to run anything, and I mean more than WINE. The decision should be up to the end user what he should be able to install. In those famous words, “Make it so.”
Now, it seems as if MS is going in the same direction.
Isnt’ the tpm part of the whole management engine that allows remote access to your computer below the os level? That (if true) would make your disk encryption moot?
That part of the CPU is called, literally, the Intel Management Engine. I don’t know the AMD name, but they include something equivalent.
IIRC, ironically, the ME is a 32 bit microcontroller for efficiency reasons.
The ME is separate from the TPM but can probably access the facilities like everything else in the system, including CPU state and memory contents.
If you’re really paranoid, in theory, Apple turns off the ME in Intel Macs and, from what I understand, a few Linux vendors, including System76, do as well. OTOH, Apple ditched Intel in favor of their own chips — God only knows what’s going on in there — and System76 hasn’t had much to sell since March.
Gubbermint is the insurer of last resort. The actuaries for the mainline insurance companies (Gecko, Flo, Emu, etc.) would all keel over at the suggestion that they offer homeowners, much less flood, policies in FL.
What I wonder about sometimes is why you’re allowed to rebuild in a flood zone. If your house is a ‘total loss’ you’d get paid but could not use those funds to buy/build in a flood zone.
“Gun Sanctuary Movement Erupts, 61% of US Counties Now Protect Second Amendment”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gun-sanctuary-movement-erupts-61-us-counties-now-protect-second-amendment
“According to Noah Davis of sanctuarycounties.com, “1,930 counties that are protected by Second Amendment Sanctuary legislation at either the state or county level… this represents 61.39% of all of the counties in the United States of America.””
I just don’t know if this means anything when the oath breakers at the FBI show up at people’s homes and start seizing guns.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/06/mybook-users-urged-to-unplug-devices-from-internet/
A NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive should never be visible outside your network (from the Interwebs).
If someone (or some company) lives in a flood zone, why shouldn’t they have to pay private insurance? Or, alternatively, not live in a flood zone? I genuinely do not understand the government’s involvement here.
Gubbermint is the insurer of last resort. The actuaries for the mainline insurance companies (Gecko, Flo, Emu, etc.) would all keel over at the suggestion that they offer homeowners, much less flood, policies in FL.
What I wonder about sometimes is why you’re allowed to rebuild in a flood zone. If your house is a ‘total loss’ you’d get paid but could not use those funds to buy/build in a flood zone.
Hurricane Ike took out every house on Bolivar island (next to Galveston) in 2008. All of the home owners were allowed to rebuild but the home elevation requirement changed from 16 feet to 24 feet.
https://www.weather.gov/hgx/projects_ike08_bolivar2
and
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Ike-changed-Bolivar-Peninsula-forever-4285143.php
A NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive should never be visible outside your network (from the Interwebs).
Chillax, dude. The boss wanted that doc updated today and the kids have soccer. Who’s going to know?
“I’m gonna get me one”
https://gunfreezone.net/im-gonna-get-me-one/
“The Air Force Reserve are selling 80% Raptor jets. I just got mine delivered. Get yours while they are still in stock.”
Did WA State just find a way to pass an income tax regardless of what their own laws say?
Coming soon to Texas and Florida…
https://www.sequoia.com/2021/06/get-ready-for-washington-states-new-long-term-care-program/
In the old SovUnion the mimeograph machines were locked down.
TPM be damned. Every one of those pale sweaty billionaires has put their fat pink butts up in the air at command. Anyone that thinks that their data can’t be screwed, blued, and tattooed at the direction of 47 different governmental agencies isn’t just sheeple, they’re mutton.
TPM be damned. Every one of those pale sweaty billionaires has put their fat pink butts up in the air at command. Anyone that thinks that their data can’t be screwed, blued, and tattooed at the direction of 47 different governmental agencies isn’t just sheeple, they’re mutton.
The camps will have WiFi and free Baby Yoda streaming.
Closing the bittorrent loophole for the Baby is part of the master plan.
“Stockpile of Unfinished Ford Super Duty Pickups Missing Chips Is Now Visible from Space”
https://www.thedrive.com/news/40458/thousands-of-unfinished-ford-super-duty-trucks-are-parked-at-kentucky-speedway-due-to-chip-shortage
“It’s no secret that the global chip shortage is wreaking havoc on automakers; even chip-hoarding Toyota is starting to feel the heat. Stellantis, Ford, GM—pretty much everybody is getting a taste of a major supply-chain shortcoming, and needless to say, it’s bad for business.”
Hat tip to:
https://gunfreezone.net/is-crisis-in-the-auto-manufacturing-business-driving-up-prices-of-used-cars/
@Nick
Ordered some Columbia wicking t-shirt 67%poly/ 37%cotton. I’m curious to see how this fancy-schmancy tech textile goes. I believe you said they were all pretty much the same except marketing and fit?
@Lynn
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CL1:COM
Generic WTI hit $74 today. You say $100 by Labor Day, but I smell a pullback coming. I do hope you’re right, though!
Gold got whacked, too.
https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif
“Here’s what you’ll need to upgrade to Windows 11”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/06/heres-what-youll-need-to-upgrade-to-windows-11/#p3
“Windows 11 is the first Windows version to require a TPM, and most self-built PCs (and cheaper, home-targeted OEM PCs) don’t have a TPM module on board. Although this requirement is a bit of a mess, it’s not as onerous as millions of people have assumed. We’ll walk you through all of Windows 11’s announced requirements, including TPM—and make sure to note when all this is likely to be a problem.”
“If you didn’t get one of the few TPM modules available yesterday, don’t worry—you almost certainly don’t need one. OEM hardware TPM is generally considered the most hardened version, and it’s soldered directly to the board in PCs intended for enterprise use. Less-hardened firmware TPM support is built right into modern AMD and Intel processors, and that will satisfy Windows 11’s TPM requirement just fine.”
“It’s a bit difficult to get a complete, accurate list of all CPUs with support for onboard, firmware-based TPM, largely because the demand for it was fairly low until this week. As far as we can see, every x86_64 CPU on Microsoft’s supported processor lists includes that support.”
“Intel calls its firmware-based TPM iPPT (Intel Platform Protection Technology), and AMD calls its own fTPM (Firmware Trusted Platform Module). Generally speaking, iPPT shows up in most Haswell (4th-gen Core) CPUs, although the K-series gaming models inexplicably fail to get iPPT until Skylake (6th-gen Core). On the AMD side, we see fTPM show up with Ryzen 2500 and up.”
“There is one more gotcha to navigate, though. Although the vast majority of semi-modern CPUs support firmware TPM, almost all motherboards ship with it disabled in BIOS. So you’ll need a three-finger salute and a deep dive through the “advanced” part of your machine’s BIOS to try to find and enable that support if you need it.”
So most motherboards made in the last five years or so have TPM in the BIOS. All you have to do is turn it on.
Good to know.
My T470 ThinkPad doesn’t meet Windows 11 CPU requirements.
That’s my newest machine. It runs any flavor of Linux well, however.
Yes, Secure Boot is active and the drive is formatted for EFI boot management.
“Rocket Report: China to copy SpaceX’s Super Heavy? Vulcan slips to 2022”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/06/rocket-report-china-to-copy-spacexs-super-heavy-vulcan-slips-to-2022/
“Welcome to Edition 4.04 of the Rocket Report! About two months ago, we reported on China’s state rocket company releasing a rendering of a spacecraft that looked a lot like SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. Now, a senior Chinese space official says the country is modifying its plans for a very large rocket, the Long March 9. This booster, it turns out, also looks similar to the design of SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster, which will serve as the first stage of Starship.”
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
So is Windows 11 going to require a TPM chip or just a TPM socket ? My home PC failed, it said that my PC must support secure boot. And it said that my home PC is ten years old.
https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp
From
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11
Checked, and my desktop is Win11-ready. Watched as much of the fluffy promotional video as I could stand.
Woo. Hoo.
Time to dust off my mad Linux skilz.
Kim du Toit’s reaction to Win11
Now this is sad … and funny.
https://www.kimdutoit.com/2021/06/25/righteous/
ou said they were all pretty much the same except marketing and fit
–wrt t shirts, they all seem to perform similarly. Some are stitched from several panels, some look like trad t shirts. Some of the material is thicker than others, some feels “slicker” some feels softer. Cotton t shirts had a lot of variables too. FWIW, I wore a 100%cotton t at home last week in the evening, because I didn’t think I’d be doing any sweating. Sitting in my office (82F because of gear running) I found myself wondering why I felt so hot and uncomfortable. Remembered I was wearing cotton…
I find the difference really astounding. The new fabrics let a lot more air thru (and you can see thru them if you hold them up to the light) and wick better. Made a difference for me.
n
Glitter bombs and global warming.
I’m not looking forward to the weather forecast in Seattle this weekend & Monday. I got thinking that a bomb full of glitter aimed between the hot-spot and the sun might reflect enough sunlight to reduce the temperature, but no. Couldn’t possibly make that much glitter. Not enough surface area.
But… but… Would a rocket with a huge reflective Mylar sail work, if placed in precisely the correct position between Sun and Earth? I’m no good at trigonometry, but it seems to me we can pretty much place things where we want ’em anymore.
Science fiction, or not?
IIRC Musk wanted to try something like that.
Larry Niven had shade panels on the Ringworld to provide night to the inside of the ring.
China’s coal burning will eventually put enough particulates into the air to block the sun, just like they do in Shanghi and Shenzen and Guodung.
n