Chamber of Commerce weather yesterday, and more on the way. Please gnu, more like that. Hot in the sun but cooler than last week, with a nice breeze. It was down to 61F when I went to bed. That’s the lowest since spring.
I did my pickups yesterday. Got some test gear used by NASA. It’s pretty beat so I don’t expect much, but if it does work I’ll sell some and keep some for playing radio. The other was mostly poisons, fertilizer, and garden chemicals at a nice discount from “store bought”.
Since I was in a new area of town, I hit a smallish Goodwill Outlet, and a large Family Thrift (which is a regional chain.) I ended up with some decor for the house and Christmas presents, and some books and half a dozen Retrevis walkie talkies from the Goodwill. You never know what you will find.
Got home and did some more ebay cleaning and sorting. One of the coffee makers came down to soaking in bleach to get the coffee stain out of the pot. Even the diner trick of ice cubes and salt swirled around inside couldn’t get the last bit out. Dropped my one sale off at the post office on the way home.
It was strange and frustrating that one pickup location was one of those places that google can not get you to. Google kept directing me to go around, behind, and near my target address, but I had to call the guy to find out where they really were. When I finally used the feedback tool, the problem looked like the address pin in the map was at the back of the property, not at the front near the street. I did the “here’s where the entrance REALLY is” update feedback, but my guess it they stay un-routable for a while. Even as a human, an address like 10801 Busy St that ISN’T at the corner of 10800 Busy St, and 700 Smaller St. is confusing and hard to find.
So now I’ve got enough Raid Home Defense Max to keep the cockroaches at bay for a while, and kill the grubs that would infest my yard and gardens, and maybe even enough to ride through the coming unpleasantness. Not that the condition of my grass is crucial, unless it is in order to remain “grey man.” You don’t want to stand out, in a good or bad way. And for a couple of fiat bux, I’ve got one more person covered with Christmas gifts ahead of time.
Stack what you need, what you think you’ll need, and maybe a bit extra. If bankers are writing articles about collapse, maybe it’s time to pay attention.
nick
55F and 89%RH this am. Down right chilly. Also the coldest it’s been in months.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10018545/Bidens-approval-rating-hits-new-low-37-independent-voters-Kamala-46.html
–not that I suddenly believe in polls, but I am laughing about this one.
n
It was strange and frustrating that one pickup location was one of those places that google can not get you to.
If you have Android, load OsmAnd from Fdroid and cache a map of Texas. The address may or may not pin correctly there, but it is always good to have a backup that doesn’t depend on a data connection driving around the boonies of the state.
On iPhone, Apple Maps draws from different data than Google Maps/Waze.
–not that I suddenly believe in polls, but I am laughing about this one.
People were bored last Fall and voting Trump out was something to do which generated a lot of positive feedback for their action in the various media outlets. Everyone wants to feel “smart”.
Now the feedback isn’t so positive, and images of 15,000 (I’ll bet there are a *lot* more) Haitians streaming non-stop across the Texas border horrifies the Asians on the West Coast who reliably vote Dem for the reason I stated above.
Friends who are still up there tell me that the Dragon Moms around Seattle who live close in are now getting big dogs and eyeing guns.
We haven’t heard from the West Coast Chinese relations in a while. They hate having their racism and hypocrisy exposed, and I closed the free medical care window when we left.
I would imagine that Haitians pouring into the country scare a lot more of the left than they will care to admit. To them, the Mexicans make reliable domestics — plus the landline phone goes in the maid’s name — but the media images out of Haiti for the last 40 years have not been kind.
I’m ok with the new pages. Bob’s Pic and the title need to return to the top.
edit – and my gravatar has shown up.
edit again – however my name and email were not saved in the comment form
I am just posting this to see if my avatar shows up. I have nothing else to contribute. It did, never mind.
We need your fondue sets!
Severed Ties
When a regeneration experiment on his severed arm grows a deadly reptilian creature instead of a limb, a mad scientist uses the serum on homeless crippled veterans to create an army and get his research back from his evil mother.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09GW8TDMG/?tag=ttgnet-20
There used to be a log in box at the bottom right column.
name/email still has Alzheimers.
Perhaps Mr. ech could review these facts for us:
30 facts you NEED to know: Your Covid Cribsheet
Inquiring minds want to know the truth.
Ah, WA State, always at the vanguard.
I’ve stayed at that hotel. My wife’s father’s family originates in Centralia. Setting up camps -er- quarantine facilities in that area of WA State is smart because there are a lot of unemployed people available to staff the positions who reliably lean left and have a hunting tradition/guns in the family. Plus land transportation is unparalleled in any other remote section of the state — freeway and railroad without “rush hour” congestion.
A Great Wolf Lodge, just up the road, provides the trained workforce in “hospitality” aspects of the job.
https://thepostmillennial.com/washington-state-hires-isolation-quarantine-strike-team-consultants
No, Great Wolf won’t become a camp. Not at $700/night and the overhead of running that place just to turn the lights/heat on.
I was “logged in” after my post, because when I closed that browser tab, and then reopened it, the system allowed me to edit my post without needing any credentials from me. Even though it did not remember my name/email for a NEW post, it did allow an edit of the old one (within the usual time window).
Today, my Tina post from yesterday is still red, but my Pecancorner post from yesterday is not.
[EDIT to add: now, today’s Pecancorner post is also red, along with yesterday’s Tina post. But not yesterday’s Pecancorner post]
And, no one else’s post will turn red when I click on the date/time from the sidebar. Those are not clickable from within the post thread, only on the sidebar. But it is not remembering what I’ve clicked on. 🙁
Severed Ties
Garrett Morris? Now that’s a name I associate with quality filmed horror.
I’m surprised the film hasn’t received the full treatment from MST3k.
Hmm, Haiti is a sh!tehole. A camp with 15K Haitians is a sh!tehole. What could possibly be the common element?
n
BTW, don’t prep and you become a refugee. You might become one anyway, depending on fate, but without resources and planning, your “bug out” is really just you becoming a refugee.
n
(got portable wealth?)
White racism? Toxic masculinity? Oh, I know, environmental degradation caused by rampant capitalism!
Details of the 3D printed house process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCWKJvsqjb4
First floor only, but includes doors and window penetrations, electrical chase and insulation.
Hmm, Haiti is a sh!tehole. A camp with 15K Haitians is a sh!tehole. What could possibly be the common element?
The common element on the border right now is everyone there believes passage of the overdue once-a-generation amnesty bill in Congress is imminent, and, much like 1986 and 1966 before that, only illegal immigrants already residing in the country will be protected.
I’m not simply being a smarta** when I call it the Ted Kennedy Memorial Amnesty. He was a driving force behind the previous two mass amnesty laws, but was too far gone mentally and politically to get the job done in 2006, even with a willing President Bush 2.0.
Won’t be too long before people start to think of the invaders like farmers think of coyotes.
n
Details of the 3D printed house process:
First floor only, but includes doors and window penetrations.
If they don’t make the houses look like the new construction using traditional methods, it will never fly in the growth areas around Austin.
Subcontinent shopping for their 3000 sq ft “starter” American house using the wife’s six figure dowry wouldn’t even look twice at one of those. If you want to know what that demo looks for in a house, any new construction around me caters to their tastes.
Well, yes it is. The people, maybe not so much. I laughed reading Greg’s comment regarding the Dragon Moms – really? – 15,000 poor Haitians worry them but the other 300 million people (most well armed and some with very poor impulse control) don’t worry them?
The big problem with bringing in the Haitians will be language. French will be the first language for most. Quebec, in Canada, has taken in quite a few Haitians. Canada is a long boat ride, so they head for Mexico and the Texas border. Not saying Canada would take them in, but maybe Biden ought to have a quick chat with the Canadian and Quebec governments about this.
Ugh. Woke up to smoke from horizon to horizon here in the high desert.
Inciweb shows nothing new locally so it’s probably the big fire up in Sequoia.
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov
EOSDIS doesn’t show the smoke, but lags by 12 to 24 hours.
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v=-144.5134324987011,13.666303740267217,-90.10311123282719,64.28222102312625&t=2021-07-17-T23%3A37%3A17Z
Aesthetics aside, there is no mention of costs vs traditional concrete building methods. There are advantages to utility efficiency and storm/flood resistance over usual stick built systems, but those are true for any well thought out poured concrete system. You could, for a price, stucco the walls for a traditional appearance. And there are other demographics moving to TX. There are other growth areas in the country, as well.
Well, yes it is. The people, maybe not so much. I laughed reading Greg’s comment regarding the Dragon Moms – really? – 15,000 poor Haitians worry them but the other 300 million people (most well armed and some with very poor impulse control) don’t worry them?
The Haitians are just the latest scare, but my friends on the ground in the close-in suburbs say that a lot of the Asians have been flipped out since the CHAZ/BLM events.
Most Americans are viewed as polite to a fault, a weakness to be exploited.
Alongside Rosey Grier and Ray Milland in _The Thing with Two Heads_!
https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Two-Heads-Ray-Milland/dp/B01KCOSMYO/?tag=ttgnet-20
To shamelessly steal a line from Pournelle, I watch these movies so you don’t have to.
So far the only pain on the new pages is when I reload, usually at the end of the comments, it keeps coming back to where I posted earlier and not where I was at reload. And the comment form memory is worse than my own 😀
Still keep in mind I think everyone here appreciates your efforts Rick.
Alongside Rosey Grier and Ray Milland in _The Thing with Two Heads_!
Scott Glenn and Jennifer Salt in “Gargoyles”, but that TV flick is increasingly viewed as a classic because of Stan Winston’s early career work on the creatures.
Svengoolie runs “Gargoyles” at least once a year.
Update: Jennifer Salt works on “American Horror Story” now. I always associate her name with comedy, but I stand corrected.
@tv, is there any place nice in Haiti? I mean a public place, not some oligarch’s compound.
n
Alongside Rosey Grier and Ray Milland in _The Thing with Two Heads_!
Oh, and how did I forget Pia Zadora in “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians”!
Interesting that Haiti is such a dump, notwithstanding natural disasters, while sharing the island with the Dominican Republic which is much less so.
And there are other demographics moving to TX. There are other growth areas in the country, as well.
The only place I’ve seen poured concrete systems used consistently is on the high end barrier island communities off the Florida coast, places which have either been smacked hard by hurricanes and rebuilt or feature anti-growth laws forbidding rebuilding of damaged houses.
The systems have been around for at least 100 years. The Edison museum in Fort Myers has a model and drawings on display (or did), and Edison’s home on the grounds features one of the first in-ground swimming pools ever built in the US, still going strong at over a century old.
Of course, Tom’s secret to durability was a lot of asbestos in the concrete mix, one of the new things we learned on one of our recent visits.
One of the few movies that actually raised the hair on my arms when I first saw the movie on TV. When the gargoyle jumps on the roof of the car I actually got tingles and shuddered. Don’t know why. I still do when watching the reruns.
So far, the new page is … OK ish. It’s a bit harder on my eyes for whatever reason, but I’ll adjust. The two issues I did notice:
1 Previous / Next day links at the top and bottom are gone
2 Comment links only turn red if you’re going to a different day
(added) and my name / email address are not saved in the comment box
Ding ding ding, we have a winner! Lol
I had a pin up poster of Pia on my dorm room wall. Kathy Ireland too.
Rrrowwlll….
n
How many millions did the Clintons steal from Haiti?
How many cases of cholera did the Haitians get from the infected UN troops?
That Haiti is a shiitehole is indisputable—look up the satellite views of the whole island and guess which end is Haiti—but the UN and the Clintons have helped them stay that way.
Trying an experiment: I’ve deleted user id cookies. Now to see if the new cookies will preserve my credentials for reuse.
G.
Nope. Still not remembered by the site. Browser does, so 4 clicks to set.
Added: but comments visited now change colour in the sidebar – on returning to the page. So that’s one problem sorted. I can live with font size, and the weird scrolling performance.
G.
Site theme tweaks so far:
Working on
Things will change throughout the day as I get responses from the Elegant Themes people who built the theme, and other tweaks as I get the time.
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@ttgnet.com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
“Booster shots” are available if you want one now, either check the ‘I’ve never been vaccinated’ box or the ‘I’m immuno-compromised’ box (neither requires proof) and you can get the jab of your choice. Of course, only bring your vaxx card if you choose the latter option.
CDC previously reported that ~1 million people have gone this route. Latest reporting is that it’s up to 2 million, so lots of folks not agreeing with the FDA.
Will be interesting to hear more findings about cross-product boosters – i.e. getting Moderna if your first two shots were Pfizer (and vice-versa).
Dang. Got a 500. I’d submitted the comment, but one wrinkle is that my login expired and I had not entered any name info. Got the message about that, clicked on the back link, (text was gone), typed new comment, all text no paste, entered name stuff, submitted and 500 errored. Sent R email with IP.
copy paste of the error message worked just fine. ironically.
n
and my creds are not remembered. I turned off uBlock this time, although it said nothing blocked on this domain.
Pearls Before Swine: Strip Layout
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/09/23
What could go wrong ?
The plugs administration is the absolute worse:
Peter Doocy drops massive mic on Jen Psaki after she insists that ‘there is certainly not an open border’ and tries to make him the bad guy [video]
How can this birthing person stand there with a straight face and say the border isn’t open? Geez. And now, border patrol horses are suspended. WTF! Very effective at keeping the border CLOSED! The damage plugs will do in his first term may never be fixed. We’d need a tRumpian for 16 years.
One vote here for another px or two increase in the base font size PLEASE.
“Biden’s EPA orders a slash in climate-warming chemicals used in air-conditioning and refrigeration”
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/23/bidens-epa-orders-slash-in-climate-warming-hydrofluorocarbons-hfcs.html
“The Environmental Protection Agency is ordering a sharp cutback in the the use and production of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, the climate-warming chemicals widely used in air-conditioning and refrigeration.
The move is the Biden administration’s first major regulatory action to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
The agency will start phasing down the chemicals next year and gradually curb production and importation by 85% over the next 15 years.”
What could go wrong ?
Wait, there is not any air conditioning equipment in mass production using CO2 yet ?
Also happens on the desktop.
Also a little confusing (more so on the phone) that when you click into the Name or Email text boxes, the field label disappears.
Was this the same with the prior template?
The “Click to Edit” link is specific to the browser where the comment was entered? If I add a comment on my desktop and then immediately bring up the comment on my phone, there’s not Edit link on the phone?
On my phone, comment text is bigger (without adjusting,) title text is smaller, but readable. Really miss the Next/Previous Day function.
I’m away, so haven’t seen it on my computer.
And, Rev. Sharpless is in Del Rio, TX, to save the Haitians from deportation. I wonder if he will house any of them in his mansion?
“Thirteen” by Richard K. Morgan
https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Richard-K-Morgan/dp/0345480899/?tag=ttgnet-20
A standalone science fiction book, no sequel or prequel that I know of. I read the 544 page well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Del Rey in 2008. The eight point font was a little small for me but a larger font would have made the book huge, well over it’s current one pound weight on Earth.
The Solar System of 2195 is a radically different place from today. There are over a million people living on Mars in several colonies. There are regular spaceships traveling between Mars and Earth, mostly in free fall with the humans in cryogenic sleep due to the average seven month journey each way. The USA has split into three countries: New England, The Rim States, and Jesusland.
You have to be tough to live on Mars. The surface air is almost non-existent and poisonous. The people are tough, so the lawmen have to be tougher. So, one of the governments on Mars created a genetically enhanced man, the thirteens, to be the lawmen. The Earthers immediately outlawed the “mutants” from coming back to Earth. So, of course, they snuck back to Earth.
Carl Marsalis is a thirteen on Earth. He is a bounty hunter for the COLIN (United Nations COLonial INitiative Authority). He hunts rogue thirteens. And the UNGLA (United Nations Genetic Legislation Authority) says that all people have rights to only share their genes when they want to so there is no testing, officially.
The newest thirteen to sneak to Earth is a doozy. Instead of docking the spaceship at the space station and coming down the nanostalk, he crashed the spaceship in an ocean. Plus, there is no food on the spaceships, only cryogenically sleeping humans. And the newest thirteen was awake for the entire trip.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (502 reviews)
BTW, increased font size a bit on phones. And increased the space between the comment message area and the name/email fields area. And removed the URL field.
Working on the other issues. Some of them may require a bit of work by creating a Chile Theme, as there are programming changes to make to theme files. (You don’t want to change the theme files, but you can override things with code in a Child Theme.)
Adding the next/previous link box at the bottom will require a Child Theme. It might have a higher priority, since it is something I use daily. Heh.
And, Rev. Sharpless is in Del Rio, TX, to save the Haitians from deportation. I wonder if he will house any of them in his mansion?
Sharpless is there to steal their goobermint handouts.
The smoke’s gotten worse – the entire world is yellow orange.
I’m reminded of Hell Tanner’s sunglasses…
No A/C in your EV ‘stakeboard’ (I think that’s what Greg calls them).
I put the Ford van door back together today. I don't know if the window motor is bad, it makes thunking noises for each direction, or if the window mech is jammed. When it worked it moved smoothly. That window has been a problem since the van was new. Mom and Dad would get "All fine" from the dealer. "Factory Defect" says the current owner.
The window mech is riveted in. There's room for short bolts. I've never messed with this stuff on anything but Chryslers, Plymouths, Dodges, and a couple of Imperials.
My guess, and I don't know where to look, is a bad ground or two somewhere. That would explain why the locks work today and not next week. If the tailgate had a keyhole I wouldn't care about the locks. But unlocking the tailgate is sorta a wanted thing when you have the pit behind the back seat full of groceries.
Oh well. Book on the van is all of $400. Less than the current set of tires. Basic insurance is around $350 a year. It's in a carport, I have the space. A spare set of wheels is handy. And taking dogs to the vet? Worth it.
@nick, have you tried this? Used to have it in the office (before we got the fancy ‘by the cup’ machines) and it would always get the stains out of the glass pots that were left dry overnight on the warming burner.
https://www.amazon.com/Urnex-Clearly-Cleaner-Airpots-Satellite/dp/B000FDDV8A/?tag=ttgnet-20
Just got this error trying to post the comment above. Went thru on the second try…
This site can’t be reachedwww.ttgnet.com unexpectedly closed the connection.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED
"No A/C in your EV ‘stakeboard’ (I think that’s what Greg calls them)."
Electric skateboards.
I'm exaggerating, but the masses are deluded if they think they will all drive Tesla-class vehicles. Even a Leaf or Bolt will seem high end compared to what will be available to the average consumer in 2030.
People with $40k household incomes buy $50k trucks today, but that is made possible by a lot of funny money games with the Fed buying car loans and a fundamental lack of understanding of the fiscal danger of purchasing a vehicle with a three year warranty on 90 month payment plans.
"Democrats want $273 billion in tax credits to achieve Biden’s climate goals"
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/democrats-want-273-billion-in-tax-credits-to-achieve-bidens-climate-goals-150736565.html
"In recent weeks Democratic lawmakers have formalized just how much they want climate change to be at the center of the forthcoming multitrillion-dollar budget reconciliation package.
They have formally unveiled a proposal with measures that include taxes on some imported fuels, a new federal aid program for clean-energy developers, investments in electric vehicles, and more.
The key driver on the supply side – i.e., insuring there are enough solar panels and wind turbines in operation to allow an energy transition – are through tax credits, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Yahoo Finance.
"It is really the tax credits associated with rewarding the private sector,” she said, that will drive a build-out of the nation’s capacity. Experts say the credits could help turn the corner on the carbon economy, though budget watchers estimate they will cost $273 billion in the next decade.
The forthcoming credits could also touch many areas of the economy if Democrats are able to push through their ambitious package: $134 billion is set aside for renewable electricity and energy and $42 billion for electric vehicles, just to cite two examples.
The larger picture, Granholm said, is the Biden administration's “big, hairy, audacious” goal to have solar power fuel 40% of the nation’s electricity by 2035, as well as a carbon neutral planet by 2050."
Wow. The dumbrocrats have really figured out how to steal from the federal coffers. Even though those coffers are bare.
New truck's owner manual says it can play home made CDs. Usually. No guarantee. That's fair. I've burned disks that don't play two weeks later on the PC they were made on.
I'm happy to say my boat CD works in the truck. Shuffle / Random works, too.
Truck has a Rockgate/Fosworth system. Factory. I think that's the brand. The sound is clear. Not shrill. Could use a bit more treble but I'm chalking that up to my ears getting old. It has a sub-woofer under the back seat. A potent woofer that needs a level control of its own. Yeah, Ohio Players "Rollercoaster" sounds great with lots of thumpy disco bass. Perhaps the treble level is fine after all.
I'm just not a fan of the arm rest vibrating along.
More playing with controls when parked needs to happen. Silly touch screens when "Why back in my day you turned a knob and you liked it!" was the way. I can braille a radio with knobs…..
"New truck's owner manual says it can play home made CDs. Usually. No guarantee. That's fair. I've burned disks that don't play two weeks later on the PC they were made on.
I'm happy to say my boat CD works in the truck. Shuffle / Random works, too."
Burn at 1X (or the lowest speed the disc burner will support) with a quality blank Hecho en Japan if you want CD-Rs to last.
I have a mix CD-R which has been in my car for nearly seven years that still plays perfectly.
I burn at 1x when I care.
The mix cd in the truck is 15 years old minimum. I would play it in the Tosh 486 laptop on the SeaRay when it was on Texoma. Headphone jack to cassette adapter.
That machine got sort of weird with random crashes so I used the newish Tosh 8000. But with no a/c it does get hot in the cabin. Too hot. Then a cheapo portable walkman type of player. Then to Travis for a few years and then the boat sat in the boat shed for another few years before we sold it.
I’m somewhat surprised the disc still plays.
A lot of people are sadly discovering that all of those family photos and videos they burnt to CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, or DVD+R/RW haven’t withstood the test of time. 🙁
Those of you helping Rick troubleshoot may want to go into your browser settings and disable “Show friendly HTTP error messages” (or its equivalent in your preferred browser flavor) as that may give you a more raw and detailed error message.
A lot of people are sadly discovering that all of those family photos and videos they burnt to CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, or DVD+R/RW haven’t withstood the test of time.
We’ve touched on the subject here before. The CD and DVD blanks available at Sam’s, Costco, etc. haven’t been decent quality for years. Strictly short term use.
I noticed about a month ago that the local Sam’s was blowing out DVD-R blanks on clearance.
DVD+R has *some* error correction but movies burned to that media don’t always play on living room disc players.
The problem with CD’s is that the reflective layer is on the top of the disc with almost no protection. Easily scratched or otherwise destroyed. DVDs have an additional polycarbonate layer above the reflective layer providing much protection. Thus DVDs will survive much longer. I use archival DVDs to store stuff, supposedly good for 100 years. How do they know since the discs have not been around 100 years.
My theory is that if the data lasts my life time, that is good enough. My kid, or his kids, will not give a rodent’s rear end about any of the data on the disc.
My advice to people for whom I have photographed weddings and provided fully digital copies of the images, is get the ones they want to keep printed. Use Walgreens, not Walmart, as Walgreens uses dye sublimation printers rather than ink printers of Walmart. Printing is the only, truly secure way to keep images. Print two of each and keep one offsite. I have images from 100 years ago of my relatives that are still in excellent shape. B/W of course.
A lot of people are sadly discovering that all of those family photos and videos they burnt to CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, or DVD+R/RW haven’t withstood the test of time.
We’ve touched on the subject here before. The CD and DVD blanks available at Sam’s, Costco, etc. haven’t been decent quality for years. Strictly short term use.
I noticed about a month ago that the local Sam’s was blowing out DVD-R blanks on clearance.
My 2019 F-150 4×4 is having trouble talking to my Samsung 128 GB USB thumb drive. If the handshake does not happen in 3 to 5 seconds then it throws me back to the radio on startup. Then I go select sources after a minute and the USB drive is available.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7PDLXC/?tag=ttgnet-20
ADD: I have about 200 albums ripped to the thumb drive. Takes about 15 GB or so.
There are 2 TB thumb drives for $40 now ??? Are you freaking kidding me ??? 2 TB !!!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BTVHTGD/?tag=ttgnet-20
Oh golly yes. My grandson is smart: 22 and has no debts. Lives on his own and pays his bills. He has always bought what he calls “cash cars”, and does his own repairs. Smart kid. [EDIT: Smart man.] But, now he is making noises about getting a “nice car” with a loan. I reminded him that if he can’t afford to pay a shop for repairs, he can’t afford a monthly payment on a car that will still require repairs. He said “warranty”. That “warranty” word deceives a lot of people, esp young folks.
I enlightened him that those warranties do not cover much at all of the actual repair cars need. Told him the story of the time his grandfather and I made payments for a year on a non-running car because we “couldn’t afford the repairs”. I know it disappointed him, but hopefully he can find a nice classic car in real good condition that will stave off the hunger for a cool car, and keep him in something he can afford.
I have never had any issues with repairs needed while under warranty. Maybe it is the dealer, who on a couple of occasions found a warranty issue for which I was unaware. In one case I was provided a rental at no cost as the part needed would not be available for a day. All the repairs have been at zero cost to me.
What is not covered is normal maintenance and items that are considered maintenance items. But that can vary by dealer. Had a serpentine belt on my Avalon that was showing excessive signs of wear, in the warranty period, normally a maintenance item, covered by the dealer as the belt was at about half it’s expected life span.
Extended warranties that are purchased on the open market are crap. Those find a way to not pay and any decent mechanic will tell people to avoid after market warranties like a porn star with open festering puss wounds.
And they will probably have no way of actually playing them…
I have not used or burnt a CD\DVD in ages. Thumb drives are much faster and carry much more data with no need of burners and playing with coasters.
My 2019 F-150 4×4 is having trouble talking to my Samsung 128 GB USB thumb drive. If the handshake does not happen in 3 to 5 seconds then it throws me back to the radio on startup. Then I go select sources after a minute and the USB drive is available.
I had to work some black magic and format with FAT32 using one of my Linux boxes to get a thumb drive to talk to my Camry’s audio system.
I enlightened him that those warranties do not cover much at all of the actual repair cars need. Told him the story of the time his grandfather and I made payments for a year on a non-running car because we “couldn’t afford the repairs”. I know it disappointed him, but hopefully he can find a nice classic car in real good condition that will stave off the hunger for a cool car, and keep him in something he can afford.
I had a co-worker at CGI in Belton who was four years into a seven year loan on a new Chevy Blazer when the transmission started slipping. Three year warranty, of course, and neither GM or the dealer would do anything for him. He had no choice but to keep driving the lemon until he could pay off the loan and try to unload the vehicle.
I believe that a bunch of GM unibody SUVs derived from that platform were finally recalled recently, but I doubt it helped that guy. My last day at CGI was in early 2018.
Used cars are expensive right now, especially from dealers or places like Carvana/Carmax. Your grandson’s best bet is to keep his eyes open locally and buy in a private deal. Truly private where he’s sure that the seller actually owned/drove the car for a while.
Used a Magic Eraser on a heavily scratched CD last night. The scratches were heavy cloudiness from rubbing in the binder. Worked great. Made the disc uniformly light haze which ripped.
I’ll try a couple more tonight.
n
Pretty damn thick on the westside of the Sierras too.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tqAF1yK8az0Od4vqbAL_PRTieMhudDvL/view?usp=sharing
Alos been hot high 90s.
Used a Magic Eraser on a heavily scratched CD last night. The scratches were heavy cloudiness from rubbing in the binder. Worked great. Made the disc uniformly light haze which ripped.
Ripping with CD Paranoia under Linux also helps. There are options that are useful for CDs which won’t rip clean under Windows.
@dkreck: Yep, could have taken that shot in my front yard five minutes ago. Oh well.
OTOH my brother in Carson City is camping now, weather is great apparently…
Hmmm. Still not saving name and email. Is there a fix for that yet?
Couple of computer related things today:
1.
Apparently the GIMP 2.10 is broken on Mac Big Sur.
Spent the afternoon thinking it was me, finally checked the forums…a lot of people are having problems, apparently one developer for that port only, and he is MIA.
I think 2.8 uses X, which is no longer included in OSX? There’s probably a workaround, but..
2.
Google Backup&Sync is apparently getting rolled into Google Drive on October 2. I just discovered that while trying to put it on a new machine though supposedly users were to be notified. In theory there is a “flow” to switch over, after which it automatically deletes the old app. This is not something I’m looking forward to.
I used Microsoft OneDrive/SkyDrive/&%**#Drive for a while, but after a while all the changes got too much, and my account stopped working.
Then I used DropBox…same story.
Now Google is joining the “If it aint broke we aint fixed it enuff!” crowd I guess.
3.
My linux box is hanging hard after a few minutes, no matter which OS I use, Devuan or Mint 20, and has to be unplugged to reboot.
I’m not sure where to even start with debugging that. Memory? That’s probably easiest to swap out, two 16GB sticks as I recall. Pull one, see if the problem persists, if so, reinstall and try the other.
———-
Well, it’s quitting time, I prophesize a glass of good single malt in the near future.
Apparently the GIMP 2.10 is broken on Mac Big Sur.
Spent the afternoon thinking it was me, finally checked the forums…a lot of people are having problems, apparently one developer for that port only, and he is MIA.
I think 2.8 uses X, which is no longer included in OSX? There’s probably a workaround, but..
Been a long time since I did X Windows. But this came up in the googles: “Can’t get X11 to work in macOS Big Sur”
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/421564/cant-get-x11-to-work-in-macos-big-sur
I think 2.8 uses X, which is no longer included in OSX? There’s probably a workaround, but..
OS X requires separate installation of XQuartz to provide the X capability.
I don’t have Big Sur on either my work machine or personal MacBook Pro, but I know XQuartz is solid on Catalina.
X isn’t going away soon. A lot of legacy internal Unix applications at big companies still run Motif/X, and tunneling X over SSH is a lot more effective/secure than RDP.
My linux box is hanging hard after a few minutes, no matter which OS I use, Devuan or Mint 20, and has to be unplugged to reboot.
I’m not sure where to even start with debugging that. Memory? That’s probably easiest to swap out, two 16GB sticks as I recall. Pull one, see if the problem persists, if so, reinstall and try the other.
Check your motherboard manual about which slot to use for a single memory stick configuration. It isn’t intuitive with a lot of manufacturers.
A lot of Linux install ISOs offer memcheck as a boot option. The utility is a place to start if you suspect the RAM, but it doesn’t always find problems. On the upside, if memcheck finds a problem, it is usually a real issue.
What CPU and motherboard chipset? How old is the power supply?
There are 2 TB thumb drives for $40 now ??? Are you freaking kidding me ??? 2 TB !!!
Scam thumb drives programmed to report more than their real capacity have been around for years. They work fine until you try to use the missing capacity.
Ah. Thanks Greg. I’d rather not, but if I have no other choice….
@Greg: Good idea, memcheck.
I have the info written down somewhere, I’ll find it.
It is an AMD 64 bit, not amazingly new but not ancient either. A name brand mobo as i recall, info should be available.
Re:X.
I just mentioned all this in a phone call to a friend of mine, and he started laughing, “Remember when…”
We used to work together and at one the pointy headed bosses decided that we would all use “X-stations” instead of actual workstations. Hilarity ensued as we wrestled with thousands of feet of cable, switches, splitters, vampire taps, black widows and 40 years of dirt, angry electricians, angry other network users (it was mostly already overloaded 10Mb cable), incompatibilities between IBM and AIX and Iris and…
After about 6 months we got our workstations back and the X stations moldered in the corners of the office.
But yeah, for a brief time I dived far deeper into the X black hole than I really wanted, where servers were clients and clients were servers and…
where servers were clients and clients were servers and…
–and real men pulled thinnet…
n
Strolling back in time, apple fanbois…
I’ve got some old apple starnet? starlink? networking gear in a box somewhere in my storage… anyone need it desperately?
n
There are 2 TB thumb drives for $40 now ??? Are you freaking kidding me ??? 2 TB !!!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BTVHTGD/?tag=ttgnet-20
Scam thumb drives programmed to report more than their real capacity have been around for years. They work fine until you try to use the missing capacity.
If that is true you would think that Big River would have tripped to that scam now.
Now you make me want to buy one and mess with it.
And this one has a 4.8 star rating with 92 reviews. But reviews say that it is 128 GB or 64 GB. Yes, looks like a scam ! ! !
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091Y1SQ4P/
Just watched the movie “Red Tails” about the Tuskegee Airmen. Excellent movie. Recommended.
“The Coming Climate Crisis Shakedown in Scotland”
https://buchanan.org/blog/the-coming-climate-crisis-shakedown-in-scotland-158567
“In 2016, an inconceivable event aborted the Paris climate scheme. The Americans elected Donald Trump. Calling the Paris deal a rip-off of his country, Trump swiftly pulled the U.S. out of the accords. Upon what grounds? Put simply, America First.”
“Meanwhile, China, the world’s number one polluter, if carbon dioxide is a pollutant, was to be permitted to increase its carbon emissions until 2030. Thus, today, China is responsible for 28% of world carbon emissions, while the U.S. contribution is half of that, and falling.”
“Came then President Joe Biden, who immediately reentered the Paris deal.
In April, he pledged to pony up $5.7 billion as a payment on our share of the $100 billion. At the U.N. last week, he pledged to double that contribution to $11.4 billion. Congress has yet to appropriate either sum.”
“In Glasgow from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12, the U.K.’s Boris Johnson will host the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26.”
“Brand the U.S. as history’s great producer of carbon dioxide. Depict the Second and Third Worlds as victims of American self-indulgence. And get on with the shakedown. Demand more money. Castigate the Americans by calling Biden’s $11.4 billion a pittance, not enough.”
Aren’t Climate Screamers suppose to forego children to cut the overpopulation problem ? Then why does Boris Johnson have five kids with a sixth coming soon ?
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/uk/boris-johnson-admits-he-has-six-children-intl-gbr/index.html
@Nick
“I’ve got some old apple starnet? starlink? networking gear in a box somewhere in my storage… anyone need it desperately?”
If it’s LocalTalk, some of it might be worth listing.
Thirty years ago it cost just about $7,000 to outfit a corporate secretary with an IBM PS/2 Model 70, software, and an HP laserprinter. Another $1200 or so for an HP pen plotter to do color graphs.
Friend of mine in another organization watched a consultant charge $15k to set up a network to basically share printers. Failed.
I had a bunch of bright PhD’s come online at about the same time, and the most eloquent described their computer needs as: “We need a sack of Macs”.
(I had seen one of the prototypes for the Mac II (nice clear acrylic case–I should have made a deal) and had a peek at the first Apple LaserWriter, but the actual deliverables were a bit short until the Mac IIci came out. That machine should have swept IBM out of the market, and would have, except corporate IT everywhere was solid “no one ever got fired for buying IBM” and had built their headcount on the high level of support required for blue.)
I ordered eight Mac IIci’s, 13″ color monitors, and two 600dpi laser printers. Spent a Saturday morning setting up a LocalTalk network. They walked in Monday morning and everything just worked.
It’s been a long time since I had that box of stuff open, it’s in the lowest strata of stuff in storage, but it was whatever the apples used before ethernet.
Didn’t localtalk become appletalk? In any case, I’ll get to that box eventually.
Somewhere in those boxes, I’ve got some foil bags with plotter pens in them.
n
The testing and probing begins.
–not gonna end well doesn’t even come close….
n
For those that are keeping track; the two biggest issues are (besides the 500 issues, which are still a puzzlement):
All three issues are on the list for tomorrow – along with other projects.
The other items (see my previous comment) are somewhat lower priority. But will be fixed.
Would it be possible to create a link like this
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2021/09/23/thur-sept-23-2021-tired-but-the-weather-is-great/#respond
only have it point to the most recent comment no matter what the day?
I’m going to bed. It’s 64F and only 77%RH. Freaking chilly!
n
@~jim
There is a way, already built-in to WP, to make a link to a specific comment. (Geeky WP stuff follows:) The template used for the post ‘page’ has to have that as part of the code that displays the comment. In the prior theme, I had to modify the page template to display that link, and the next/prev post links at the bottom of the page.
That code has to be moved into a new template that uses the new theme’s functions. That’s on the list for Friday/this weekend.
I could write code that would go to the very last comment, but don’t think that would be very useful. Most people want to read the comments after the last one they read, which was done via clicking on the comment date/time stamp – which would change the color of the comment link in the sidebar also.
If you had a link to the very last comment, then you would have to scroll up to see unread comments.
Hey Rick – I like the new look.
We’ve been busier than usual so haven’t had time to do more than skim comments.
Home inspection this weekend. Heating system service and cleaning first week of October.
Closing last week of October.
Snow flew earlier this week. Cold, wet, windy today.
Still, for pete’s sake, haven’t moved the -mumble-mumble-mumble-lots of words- rabbits.
The world keeps spinning. More local political shenanigans. Our leftist assembly hates the guts of our conservative mayor. They are lining things up to kick off a recall as soon as he is past his first protected 120 days. The corrupt nine are unbelievable.
More people are waking up locally, but I fear not enough to turn the tide. We are all too darned comfortable, until we aren’t. Venezuela, here we come.
Circle K.
One was built a couple blocks from our home in my youth. It backed up to the paddock where my Shetland resided. On Sundays, after the Shetland and I delivered the newspapers, we would stop for a treat. Our usual was sharing a chocolate cake donut and a cup of hot chocolate.
Shetland would escape her fence and trot over to the Circle K while I was at school. She would wait for someone to open the door then mosey in, looking for donuts.
My dad got a mite annoyed about the frequent calls to come get his kids horse.
Hey Jenny, I told the wife this story while we were walking about tonight. I know that your plate is full and then some but, the wife said that this would make a great children’s book. I agree with her.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – A Bridge Too Far”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-a-bridge-too-far/
“Biden is just one big disaster after another and the crisis at the Del Rio border is one of many. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021”
Dad used to have a deer lease outside Del Rio back in the late 1970s. Del Rio is a very desolate area. Very desolate. I would hate to be walking around out there, lots of rattlesnakes too.
I’d rather scroll up a few entries than scroll all over the place. I seem to be getting lost with the new layout.