Feels like the date should be important somehow.
Another warm damp and slightly overcast day. Wind was whipping around yesterday, gusting from every direction.
Did home stuff yesterday. A bit of cleaning. A bit of organizing. A couple hours of cutting the back yard grass…. Even met with an electrician about putting in the receptacle for the hot water heater.
Pickups today. And some more cleaning if I can manage it.
I’ve been neglecting stuff around the house, and it’s catch up time.
Oh yeah, I’m sure there’s something to stack…
n
Fell asleep at the desk, hence the short post. More later in comments.
55F and 51%RH this ante meridiem. All that wind must have blown something out or in.
n
The Atari will be desirable to video game nerds, particularly if it is Sears branded. If you don’t have a similar store in Houston, contact Game Over in Austin.
The only place I know in Dallas is the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, but they might be able to refer you to someone local who does buy/sell/trade.
BTW, the museum is a cool way to revisit the 80s for a couple of hours. They have some interesting exhibits as well as a full period arcade.
The tube TVs may also be of interest depending on size and availability of analog inputs. A 13″ Sony Trinitron with analog inputs is an automatic for anyone into 80s home computers.
I have a docking station for my Surface laptop that uses a USB-C connection. I suspect it would work just fine with the MacBook.
I don’t connect that much stuff anyway. An occasional thumb drive, perhaps a network port when I need wired, a HDMI video output. That has been it. Mouse is wireless, keyboard part of the package, etc. If either the Surface or MacBook were my primary machines the lack of ports might be concerning.
Yes, we are. Basically commodity items like a TV or clothes iron. May operate a little differently but the overall goal and result are basically the same. Even the OS wars are no longer applicable. Use what a person likes and be happy. Given a choice I would choose Windows for the simple reason of familiarity and a couple of software packages I really need. And I am familiar with those software packages and don’t want to learn an equivalent software package on another platform.
I have tried using Photoshop and Lightroom on the MacBook. While the general interface is the same there are enough differences that working in the applications requires more attention and sometimes searching. Quicken is just flat out significantly different. Enough so that I have no desire to transition to the Mac version. I could learn but why? I have the Windows version.
It is really amazing how far computers have progressed since I started. A lowly Z80 running CP/M and HDOS with hard sectored floppies on a machine with a monochrome text display that weighed 30 pounds. Now I have more computing power than all of NASA when a man was placed on the moon sitting on my desk. Even carrying that amount of computing power in my pocket.
I remember Dick Tracy comics from the 50’s where Dick Tracy has his wrist TV. Totally amazing. With the Apple watch it is close. I can take phone calls on my watch. No video, yet. But I suspect it is somewhere in the Apple pipeline. I have a calculator, heart and O2 monitor on my wrist, calendar, noise monitoring, activity monitoring, stock quotes, etc. on my wrist. Not even Dick Tracy had that, so there
This is pretty much what I do. I even got one of those PVC racks designed to hold standard bankers boxes. I knew plenty of junk should show up during the move to SA, so this system keeps it all organized. I even list spare parts from putting stuff together. In the db (spreadsheet) and in a box.
The MB Pros have four USB C ports. I have a stand that holds my M1 Pro upright on my main desk and a dock connects to two of the ports giving me lots of inputs. Two 27” monitors, new fingerprint reader BT keyboard and trackpad. Apple is the king of sticking it to you with peripherals.
I’m used to the trackpad now. I’m trying out some software that adds “gestures” to the trackpad, ie, draw a P on the trackpad and your pr0n stash pops up. If fine work on a graphic is needed, a mouse is better.
I store stuff in “clumps” or areas. I may not remember exactly what I have, or where it is, but I know that all the plumbing stuff is in one area. The electrical in another. Theatrical lighting, a third… etc.
Where that system falls apart is if I didn’t put the “like with like” or if it’s something I have so few of that there isn’t a ‘clump’ to put it in.
n
Ruh, Roh:
Greg Abbott: Texas Will Send Migrants to Washington DC Because Biden Is Ending Title 42
We‘re gonna need high speed rail between the Rio Grande Valley and DC. Stat!
Isn’t the Starship supposed to fly out of Boca Chica?
Border Patrol is already part of the unofficial security for SpaceX at the facility. When we drove out there, we passed a checkpoint where the officers just waived us through.
Abbott is trying to be Ron DeSantis, but the problem is that Abbott still cares if some in Texas media like him.
DeSantis doesn’t care. Even Disney’s “woke” BS is irrelevant.
@Mr. Lynn: Looking for an EV? https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/04/the-hummer-ev-is-an-electric-truck-for-people-who-think-evs-are-stupid
I looked at a MB Pro. Too much money and too heavy. I wanted the cheapest and lightest MAC that I could get. I had no plans for it to be a production machine. Just something to use on the road and learn more about the MAC.
What I have not been able to find is pure USB-C thumb drive. All the ones that I find are combination units, or just have an adapter to convert from USB-A to USB-C. I have found USB-C external SSD drives but those are too large, usually have a cable. I want a thumb drive, USB-C only, for the faster speeds. The converted thumb drives run at the slower speeds. My search was not fully exhausted as I just gave up.
Just deduct it on your C corporation expenses. 😉
Tearing down the suspended ceiling in the basement apartment. The stupid stuff that has been done over time by others before me is amazing.
Apparently there was sheetrock on the ceiling before as all the nails are still in the joists with remnants of sheetrock. Wiring is scattered everywhere. There are rigid ductwork for the HVAC vents and those have to come down.
I need to move some wiring. Found one electrical box with no cover or grommets in the openings. I will replace the HVAC ducts with flex duct. I will remove all the nails. Insulation that was installed was done poorly with not enough wire supports so need to fix that issue.
Need to figure out what to do with the ceiling lights. Will probably install flat LED light panels so I need to work out the wiring for those. Some just have one power junction with low voltage to the other lights.
Will be having a new suspended ceiling installed in a couple of weeks which I will hire out to someone that knows what they are doing.
AAA Magazine has an article this month about EVs. It’s nice to see some reporting that isn’t trying to sell them.
Not even Dick Tracy had that, so there
Dick also didn’t have tracking.
“GMC does not even quote a 120 V AC charging time, but based on the math, it would take about a week.”
What? Everyone has spare 60 A service for the 16 hour charge at 11.5 kW, right?
Granted, an EV Hummer will be a toy for a rich Show Ya who will get the service installed, but I thought the point was to save the planet … or save money on gas … or something.
Strikethrough not a default button in the ‘classic’ version of the new editor. May get added in the next upgrade, as soon as I figure out how to do that.
Default fonts are different. There will be some tweaking of those. They are google fonts at the moment, hosted on the site to reduce download/load time.
Default fonts are different. There will be some tweaking of those. They are google fonts at the moment, hosted on the site to reduce download/load time.
Thanks. Glad to help out.
The placement of the columns ( main content, right sidebar) is dependent on the screen width (the ‘viewport’). Narrower viewports get the columns ‘stacked’. They also get the menu items on separate lines, so that mobile links are not too close together. (Search engines don’t like things that are too close together for mobile users – and since search engines are more mobile-focused, you have to adjust for that.)
The next version will have the usual ‘hamburger’ button for menus for smaller viewports.
Note that the ‘viewport’ is not a measurement of the entire screen, but the screen inside the browser window. If you make it smaller, then the viewport is smaller. Below about 900px, the ‘stacking’ occurs.
Option is to make the viewport wider, then adjust the font size larger if needed. Font size setting is stored in a cookie, though, so if you clear your cookies, that font setting will default back to normal.
Maybe. But a function of how you have to design for mobile screens (narrower viewports).
The ‘edit’ process uses a separate function to display the comment edit window. Haven’t figured out how to get that to use the CKEditor window yet.
Thanks for the comments.
I have started putting a number on all boxes and making a log (paper to start, then entered into a database/spreadsheet) of what is in the box.
It takes some time and effort, but I no longer have to search through every box to find what I want. Plus the wife and kids (adults) can find things.
I use to write the contents on the box, but if I didn’t write on all four sides, the side(s) without information was what was visible. It is so much quicker to write a number on all four sides.
I’m retired and have nothing but time. Yeah, right. 😉 😉
My house has recessed ‘can’ lights. I got LED bulbs for them.
The flat panel lights are good if you don’t have room for a ‘can’ light. Do require enough room for the included transformer. I think ‘can’ lights are cheaper. Guessing.
Thank you for the explanations, Rick. No worries here, I just figured you would like to know what we are seeing. 🙂
I am not a person who adjusts my machine for each site individually, so I won’t mess with things. As long as a page is not covered with pop-up ads, or those stupid rolling head banners, I’m cool.
There are a couple of places I no longer read because they got ad happy (Don Surber is one) and their ads don’t play well with my view. I don’t use an ad blocker because I don’t object to a site making a little money on my visit. However, pop-ups and interstitial ads and the ones with faulty scripts that won’t load, will drive me away.
I really appreciate how clean ya’ll keep this site. It’s a breath of fresh air.
You repeated the font answer for this one, Mr. Rick.
I’m watching snippets of the upcoming Star Trek:SNW. Please don’t bollux this up Paramount. It doesn’t need to be hip and woke.
Kurtzman Trek so it will be woke to some extent. However, “Strange New Worlds” will have “The Orville” as competition for fan attention so there will be a limit about how far they can go.
The other defining characteristic of Kurtzman Trek is reshoots/edits at the last minute. I strongly suspect Whoopi was recast and those scenes reshot on “Picard” in the wake of what happened on “The View”.
And given the announcement of the TNG cast returning for “Picard” Season Three, it is a good thing the rumored Season One Beverly Crusher death scene ended up on the cutting room floor … or did it. We’ll see.
Nick, did you send me a printout of a web page and a $2 bill? I can’t think of anyone else in the Houston area who has my mailing address. I plan to frame the printout and money. I think it’s the first time I’ve successfully mooched anything.*
For the benefit of kibitzers: My “about the author” page on Daily Pundit includes a repeated suggestion to send me a dollar.
* On a long-term contract a decade or so ago I had a running joke about “Yah, I can take care of that for you… for a donut.” I never got a donut, of course, but one time a new secretary offered me half of the muffin she’d just gotten herself for breakfast. Totally flummoxed me but after a few moments of jaw-dropped stupefaction I managed to thank her but decline. So I suppose I could have successfully mooched but I’d have felt guilty taking her breakfast.
“The Scoop: Inside Fast’s Rapid Collapse”
“What can software engineers learn from the shutdown of the company? Exclusive details.” https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-scoop-fast?s=r
Spent $100 million and made $1 million. Wow.
Tampa. I’m sure the principals pocketed tax gimmies from the state and city.
Cathie Wood’s ARK boondoggle is across the Bay in St. Petersburg, and Tampa probably wanted a piece of that action at any cost.
Okta had a huge breach in January. What a coincidence that the Fast SVP of Technology jumped ship at around that time.
Tampa Bay is just one bad quarter of bad Bloomin’ Onion sales from not having a Fortune 500 company HQ within the region. Even Fort Myers has Hertz … for what that’s worth.
Isn’t the usual plan to drum up a bunch of hype, sell out to one of the big guys, and take the money and run?
Get a M.2 SSD and one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/ineo-Tool-Less-Enclosure-Housing-USB3-1/dp/B07MZNRGK6/ref=asc_df_B07MZNRGK6/?linkCode=df0&hvadid=344022943810&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16096802429042730187&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9031719&hvtargid=pla-738233344025&psc=1&adgrpid=69534739336&tag=ttgnet-20
Ironically, Fast probably wanted to sell out to Affirm, where the story indicates that a lot of the engineers are headed.
Not that Affirm is significantly more stable, but the CEO is Max Levichin, Bob Cringely favorite and one of the co-founders of PayPal – the actual tech/math nerd.
At the last job, I worked for Gillman Louie, the tech exec who licensed Tetris out of Russia and founded Spectrum Holobyte. We had three major direction shifts in the year I worked there, but people still give Gillman the benefit of the doubt and invest because of something he did *35 years* ago.
re: SSD M2 enclosures: when I removed an SSD from my laptop (256GB replaced with 512GB), I got one of these for the 256GB SSD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MNFH1PX?psc=1&linkCode=sl1&linkId=cca18f56e528772e3bbe20fa556152b4&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&tag=ttgnet-20 ($19). Came with both types of USB cables.
I also got this one to hold the old 1TB hard disk https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LS31KQG?psc=1&linkCode=sl1&linkId=efa4818703121c7d29233f5b8ae10dff&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&tag=ttgnet-20 ($12) which came with a USB “A” cable (not micro).
Both were easy to install; they even came with little screwdrivers for the screws. Recommended.
I have done enclosures with a retired SSD. Problem with both solutions is they still have cables. I have a 1TB external SSD with USB-C. I want a true thumb drive with a true USB-C connection, not some hybrid. No cables.
>> Tampa Bay is just one bad quarter of bad Bloomin’ Onion sales from not having a Fortune 500 company HQ within the region. Even Fort Myers has Hertz … for what that’s worth.
There are though several F500 companies with decently sized tech and/or operations outposts in the area.
@ray – like this one? SilverStone Technology M.2 SATA SSD to USB 3.1 Gen 2 Enclosure with Retractable Aluminum USB Type-A Housing in Silver MS09S
It is USB-A. Not what I want. It is also larger than a typical thumb drive. Yes, I am picky. I have many USB-A thumb drives and external SSDs for storage. A couple of the SSDs are USB-C.
I can find USB-C thumb drives but internally they convert USB-A to USB-C and are not USB-C speeds. Maybe those speeds cannot be reached with thumb drives and I am being unreasonable.
@Ray
Confused, I am.
I thought you were looking for a thumb-drive type container for M2-SSDs. Which that one is. Although it does have a USB-A connector. The size of the container is because of the size of the M2-SSD.
If you want USB-C, there are these small adapters.
Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Sanfeya-Smartphones-MacBook-Tablets-Samsung/dp/B07LGLQT11/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=usb%2Bc%2Bthumb%2Bdrive&qid=1649366716&sr=8-1-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFENVE2VEEwTExYSU4mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA4MzUxNDAxR05XRVQ2TlJERk9QJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4NDU3MTUzRTZZR0ZSUkhRNlVaJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1&tag=ttgnet-20
That’s the first hit when I searched Amazon for “usb c thumb drive”
That’s where I worked for GTE and Death Star Labs, but, for the most part, any big company is going to use Tampa for cheap labor to staff back office operations.
…or this one, which has USB-A and USB-C connectors. Here. (Not for M2 SSDs, but various sizes.)
Perhaps this Kingston flash drive?
It could be that the grade of flash memory well suited for use in a thumb drive doesn’t have speed which justify a pure USB-C interface.
I have several of the SanDisk drives Mr. Rick posted about. Good compatibility with A/C. Not the fastest, though.
I found an Orico enclosure on amazon.ca that takes an nmve drive. It has a retractable USB c plug, no cables required. I have been using a similar device with an A plug and they are damn fast! Nothing at all like a thumb drive. This is the Orico https://www.amazon.ca/Enclosure-Aluminum-Retractable-External-Caddy-Silver/dp/B07ZCT4KFD/ref=sr_1_26?crid=1816RRLVO9EZM&keywords=nmve+ssd+m.2+enclosure&qid=1649369951&sprefix=nmv%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-26&tag=ttgnet-20 and this the one that I have using https://www.amazon.ca/Adapter-Board-Converter-M-Key-Reader/dp/B097BC1RY4/ref=sr_1_41?crid=1816RRLVO9EZM&keywords=nmve+ssd+m.2+enclosure&qid=1649370139&sprefix=nmv%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-41&tag=ttgnet-20
Make sure that you have a good heat sink on the drive. They can get very hot!
No, I am looking for a true USB-C thumb drive. About the size of the ones that Microcenter sells of their branded drives. Not some gobbled together adaption of USB-A to USB-C that plague the ones I have found on Amazon. I want the speed of USB-C. I have adapters from USB-A to USB-C but they run as USB-A speeds.
Too expensive for the storage capacity. I can get USB-C SSDs with twice the storage for that price.
That is what I am beginning to think is the issue. No real advantage to USB-C speeds in thumb drives.
That would not fit well with my Surface Pro and MacBook Air as the clearance around the USB-C ports is close.
I suspect I may just be relegated to a regular USB 3.0 thumb drive and an adapter and be happy. Thanks for the input.
The discussion of flash drives adapted to USB was fascinating, and gets this site back to tech stuff instead of non-tech. Hooray! Busy as usual, but I will take a look at this in more detail later. I have a few external spinning drives, including one that I made using a regular drive in a purchased enclosure, sort of backwards from Lynn’s drives removed from enclosures. I like them, but am ready for something newer.
Which reminds me. I have a bunch of SD cards going almost back to the beginning of the format. I never adopted a scheme to label these postage-stamp sized things, and so many have no labels. I could just pop them in the computer and see what is on them. Except when they fail. Fortunately, I have all of them backed up, but it would be reassuring to be able to see their contents just to verify that. I briefly tried a recover utility, but it couldn’t read them. All of them were formatted in a camera, but I don’t think that is the problem. The camera can’t read them either.
My question is about the reliability of storing data on flash media. The SD cards above were not plugged in for perhaps ten years. I wonder if they lost their capacitive charges? I have most likely ruled out static discharge, a big problem here in the dry climate, because I use extreme safeguards. That is SD cards, but what about thumb drives. I have a few, but all of them are plugged in at once per year. So far, no failures. Finally, what about flash drives intended for use in computers. Isn’t there an expectation that they will be powered up frequently?
I still trust spinning drives. They have their failure modes, but as backup media they are just about the lowest error medium available.
Thoughts?
@steveF, I didn’t do it! What webpage was included?
Had a successful forage at habitat for humanity’s reStore in Ft Bend Cty. Got a bunch of repair parts I need for the BOL.
The stew I made in the slow cooker was delicious.
Time to fall asleep in front of my computer again.
n
For stuff that is really important I used to store the files on archival gold CDs which are rated for 100 years shelf life. What I don’t like is the reflective layer is on top and can be easily scratched. I have switched to DVDs for storing files. There is a layer over the reflective layer that protects the reflective layer. DVD readers are dirt cheap. I figure the files will be readable in 30 years, long after I am worm dust. At which point I probably don’t care.
I don’t fully trust spinning drives as the bearings can stick if not used, brought up to speed, every so often. I had one drive that I stored files on, never used the drive for two years, when I went to use the drive there was no motion from the platters. Driver board failure or bearings? I tend to think it was bearings. I say this because I had another drive that failed to spin up but I got it working after giving the drive a hard horizontal jerk in an attempt to release the bearings. It worked. I got the files off the drive and discarded the drive.
Huh, speaking of old vacuum bottles, I just bought a sony trinitron 20″ with remote… paid $5 for it.
n
For a moment I thought of Cankles.
Gas prices on the central and north west coast. We left Salem OR on April 2, the day after we filled the tank for $4.51/gal. We filled the tank at the same station today, the day after we returned for $4.13/gal, seems to be coming down. Our overall mileage over the 1716 mile trip 24.8 mpg, with an average gas cost of $5.16/gal – I-5 to 45 mi past Fresno; about half I-5 and half Hwy 101 on the coast back to Salem. Some stretches of 27 mpg, avg speed of 70-75 mph on the freeway, less along the coast. I planned for slightly less mileage and higher cost in CA, but did not experience that where we were. Gas was definitely less last year, but there weren’t near as many people competing for it. I reflected that it cost me about $5 in fuel to go 25 miles; vs a minimum of $5 for a sandwich to fuel myself to walk 12-15 miles, at a much slower pace, and without luggage, or wife in this case.
I’ve noticed prices slightly lower here in Houston too. $3.59 and .69 instead of 89…
n
I really appreciate how clean ya’ll keep this site. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Amen ! I am trying very hard to stop cursing.
I don’t fully trust spinning drives as the bearings can stick if not used, brought up to speed, every so often. I had one drive that I stored files on, never used the drive for two years, when I went to use the drive there was no motion from the platters. Driver board failure or bearings? I tend to think it was bearings. I say this because I had another drive that failed to spin up but I got it working after giving the drive a hard horizontal jerk in an attempt to release the bearings. It worked. I got the files off the drive and discarded the drive.
When I bought my first “fluid bearing” drive, I worried about the oil eventually evaporating with continuous use. Now that I have several, no problems so far.
Before that, drives used ball bearings. The new sleeve bearings are quieter, but I still worry about oil evaporation. I suspect they use silicone oil, which does have a low evaporation rate. Both designs can work well with good design.
I have powered up drives that have been stored for over ten years. No problems, but the sample size is insignificant. You are right to be concerned.
For the utmost reliability, we have to store multiple copies of important data on multiple storage media. When I mentioned error rates, I was remembering Bob Thompson’s discussion on CD and DVD error rates compared to hard disks. I also remember when tape was the medium of choice. Tape’s error rates were horrible, but error correction and huge redundancy cured that. Single bit errors were very low in practice. We will never have perfection here on earth.
@Mr. Lynn: Looking for an EV? https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/04/the-hummer-ev-is-an-electric-truck-for-people-who-think-evs-are-stupid
No thanks, I do not want a $175,000 ornamental toy. My $39,900 ($54K MSRP) toy is more than I wanted to pay but they would not take any less.
BTW, I got 23 mpg in my 2019 F-150 4×4 from Oklahoma City, OK to Rosenberg, TX (475 miles). That is good enough for me. In fact, I am impressed even though it was downhill all the way. And I had a 1,000 lbs of trash in the bed from my FIL’s house in Carrollton, TX to the dumpster at my office. Only another 20,000 lbs of precious stuff.
I reflected that it cost me about $5 in fuel to go 25 miles; vs a minimum of $5 for a sandwich to fuel myself to walk 12-15 miles, at a much slower pace, and without luggage, or wife in this case.
Interesting comparison. In 1959 my parents, with me as a passenger, drove their new 1959 VW Beetle from Pontiac, MI, to Los Angeles round trip, on $52 worth of gasoline and one oil change. That was on old US 66, with only a small percentage of the new Interstate highway in operation. I just looked up the distance, and it is now 2400 miles one way. It took us five days at a relaxed pace, and we stopped at several attractions each way. They repeated the trip two more times in succeeding summers in the same car. We took different routes each time. I did some of the driving on the last trip. I still like VWs, and sold my last one in 1989. I would like to own a Karmann Ghia some day.
Cheaters again?
https://deadspin.com/the-tom-brady-retirement-saga-took-a-big-stupid-new-tu-1848764820
Tom, what were you thinking??
I don’t fully trust spinning drives as the bearings can stick if not used, brought up to speed, every so often. I had one drive that I stored files on, never used the drive for two years, when I went to use the drive there was no motion from the platters. Driver board failure or bearings? I tend to think it was bearings. I say this because I had another drive that failed to spin up but I got it working after giving the drive a hard horizontal jerk in an attempt to release the bearings. It worked. I got the files off the drive and discarded the drive.
I’ve got about 40+ external hard drives in my offsite storage of ages six months to twenty years. I archive one of my seven rotating external drives every six months.
I haven’t tried to pull a file off one the archive drives in years. The seven rotating drives just about always meet my needs.
BTW, most of the 8 TB drives and above use a helium environment to cut their windage heating. The drives are rated to keep their helium for five years. I wonder what happens after then.
>> Huh, speaking of old vacuum bottles, I just bought a sony trinitron 20″ with remote… paid $5 for it.
Something like this?
something very much like that, the KV-2092r. Black with woodgrain body…
Wish I had the 36″ multisync units with VGA inputs that we trashed years ago. We used to use them on the trade show floor, and there were thousands scrapped by the school districts.
n
@Rick
Reading the page is a new experience today.
Utilizing Safari in an iPhone. Initial page is as expected for a mobile device. Clicking heading to an entry, necessary to read comments, presents a page with no text wrapping.
Page scrolls to right until there’s a carriage return.
Have not tried a desktop or other device .
Cleared cache, tried Safari with “request desktop version“ enabled as well as disabled. No apparent change.
Adding a comment is a similar experience. Scroll right for miles, no text wrapping.
I can swing as far right as I care, so that’s liberating, if a little unsettling to read.
Thanks for your hard work. Tech being what it is, will be entertaining to see if I can recreate the unique layout tomorrow.
I have the opposite problem nowadays. Worked long and hard yesterday, and just could not wind down. Watched a movie, watched a stupid TV show, went to bed, and…sleep? What’s that?
– – – – –
All the talk of SSDs and such: I reckon I ought to slowly look into updating our little home server. It’s running just fine, but the hardware (which includes two spinning disks) is getting older. Plus we have our NAS (with four spinning disks) which is even older.
It’s always the question: do you run your hardware until it dies? Both might last years longer. Or do you prevent problems by replacing it when the hardware is theoretically EOL?
– – – – –
Ah, inflation. Even here, in conservative Switzerland, it’s running at 7%. Hopefully just for a couple of months, we’ll see…
Elsewhere in Europe, inflation is arguably 15% or higher. The US as well, as a glance at ShadowStats will show.
– – – – –
I read about the EV Hummer on another site. Nuts. But then, so was the original Hummer. Dunno what the restrictions are the in US, but my license here tops out at driving a 3.5 ton vehicle. Hummers are way over that limit. Which makes sense (IMHO, European mentality?) – vehicles that size are inappropriate for ordinary private use.
@brad:
Here in UK, that’s a Category B licence, if issued after 2001-01-01. Before that, it’s 8250 kg. That’s the one I hold. Cat. B includes motorcycles, and towing up to total weight of vehicle and trailer up to the weight limit. And minibuses, with up to 8 passenger seats.
All I’ve used is the private car permissions, with up to 7 passengers, and, rarely, 35cwt Transit Luton van. That’s a 1.75 ton box van, with the load compartment extended over the cab.
The ‘leccy Hummer is about 4 tons. Ridiculously OTT. But it probably drives to its range, non-stop, in comfort. Like US pickup trucks. Which is the only excuse, as far as I’m concerned, for driving such a behemoth. My personal vehicle is a SEAT Ibiza (think VW Polo, rebadged), 20 years old, which will likely outlast my ability, and maybe desire, to drive.
G.
@Geoff: It may be a European standard? My license is Swiss, of course, and that’s how it’s stated: 3500kg total vehicle weight, including a possible trailer.
I think what bugs me most about 4-ton hummers: If that hits any normal vehicle, safety will be out the window. No normal car is going to survive a serious collision with a monster like that.
@brad:
Probably is. The coincidence of values would suggest as much. And the change in “max train weight ”, as it used to be known, probably indicates when UK licences were harmonised with EU.
G.
Huh, we don’t have any limitation on towed weight, or combined weight that I know of. Certain large motorhomes require a big truck license, but that might be because of size.
We have a commercial restriction that you must get if you drive for pay, either as a limo driver, or a big truck. There are classes of commercial that might include weight brackets..
I know I can rent a 24ft box truck or stake bed truck with my normal passenger car license, I’ve done it. I can also rent any trailer my vehicle can tow. I rented a 10,000 pound capacity trailer to move my forklift using my Expedition as tow vehicle. It has a max tow rating of 10,000 pounds.
Motorcycle is another class, with specialized training classes, a practical road test, and written test. I let my motorcycle endorsement drop years ago.
And of course, driving licenses are issued by the states, which all have slightly different laws. For example, some restrict where and when kids can drive. Some don’t. Some let kids drive at 16 with all privileges, some restrict until 18.
Fedgov jumps in for “interstate commerce” and regulates trucking and passenger busses.
n