Hot and humid, not really much relief due to yesterday’s small rain. It did rain at my house, so that was nice. It was still 80F when I went to bed for the night.
Spent the day alternately online and sleeping. Felt only slightly worse when I went to bed. Coughing is slightly more frequent, and is productive. Aches continue. Brain feels a bit fuzzy. Still just self medicating and sleeping.
Still have weird patches of sore skin, that move and change with time. Only hurt with contact. Weirdness.
Can taste and smell.
Don’t really feel up to real work or even reading, but if I had to, I could. Really just like a cold so far.
Hope I’m done by the time the kids get home, and that the wife avoids getting it.
Hope the rest of you are still stacking…
n
@Nick
You have a blood oximeter?
There was some chatter several days ago about the power draw of a USB thumb drive. I have another point of reference.
I have a USB SSD, Sandisk 500 gig, attached to my MacBook Air. Normally the battery on my MacBook lasts over a week as I don’t use it that much. I then left the SSD attached. The battery on the MacBook was depleted in two days, down to about 5% from a full charge. So I connected one of those devices that measures USB voltage and current. Surprise, well no, the USB SSD was consuming about 0.09 amps while connected. This while not even being used.
I then connected a standard USB thumb drive. a 128 gig USB 3.0 model from MicroCenter. That device when not active is drawing 0.02 amps. At that rate of current draw I suspect it would take several years to discharge the battery in a vehicle. So leaving a USB thumb drive plugged will not be a problem in a vehicle.
UP!
Both me and the site. Some issues last night between 1130pm and midnight with Gateway Timeout Errors and crazy long page loads. Rick will let us know more when he knows more.
It’s 78F and 94% RH in the swamp this am.
I feel….. ok. Back is killing me from all the lying down. Haven’t coughed yet this morning either. If this was a cold, I’d think I turned the corner. Since I believe it IS a cold, with a test that can’t tell the difference, I’m happy with my progress.
@drwilliams, I bought a chinese pulse ox tester when this all started. It broke after a year, so I bought a differently named one. It is still working. I am about where it showed me when I was not sick, maybe one percent lower.
I think it’s a cold because I don’t have any of the classic covid-19 symptoms. No trouble breathing, coughing is very mild to not out of the ordinary, taste and smell are fine, no fever. Normal pulse ox.
I am clearly sick. My brain is fuzzy, I’m tired, I am coughing stuff up occasionally, nose is kinda runny. It started with headaches and scratchy throat, but those passed. There are body aches and I just feel sick.
Far better than being in a hospital so I’m not complaining even the tiniest bit.
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-woman-pleads-guilty-26-counts-voter-fraud-vote-harvesting-operation
—if they’ll do it, and there is a mechanism/framework in place to do it, for a frickin’ water board election, why would anyone deny the possibility during a general election when the stakes are so much higher?
n
Prominent ‘doomer’ Michael Snyder had this to say —
–I don’t think it’s a bad list, but it’s pretty basic, and 15 of the items broken out should be covered by “Food”. Many of the items are useless or very limited without related “system” stuff, like the generator. Without stored stabilized fuel, maintenance supplies, extension cords, and other stuff like transfer switches, the generator alone won’t really help.
Same for “seeds”. More like “start a food garden, and get all the stuff you need for that”.
Still, I’ve seen worse lists.
n
Because it doesn’t fit the narrative being rammed down people’s throats.
I have watched some of the repugnant 1/6 hearings until I feel like puking. The questions are leading, designed to get the answer desired. There is no attempt to get at the actual truth. Items considered to be against the goal are quickly ignored or not allowed. Testimony from carefully selected people is designed to reach the answer the democrats want.
What cannot be proved by facts are simply imagined and then recorded as fact.
The hearings are nothing but an attempt to get support for the answer the democrats have already created. Millions of dollars could have been saved by simply discarding the hearings and going straight to the result. Those hearings are nothing more than grandstanding efforts and freaking waste of time.
The news reporting is of carefully selected items that fit the narrative. Anything that the media does not consider as following the agenda is never reported. Trying to get a true picture of the proceedings requires watching and that is impossible due to the disgusting behavior of the heavily biased panel.
Pulse ox sensors go bad and have to be replaced frequently even on Agilent and other high end hospital gear.
From yesterday:
Easy, don’t rev the engine. On level ground, start engaging the clutch while opening the throttle just enough to keep the engine at idle speed. Fully engage the clutch with minimal slipping. Uphill starts may require a little more rpm and slipping. Practice.
When changing gears at speed, you don’t need any slippage if you time your shift correctly. Try to shift as if you aren’t using the clutch. Note: ALWAYS use the clutch when shifting a synchronized transmission, or you will quickly cause wear and damage. Floating gears (shifting without disengaging the clutch) is only for crash boxes (unsynchronized transmissions.) All US cars made since the ~1930s have synchronized transmissions.
Better than written instructions would be to get a demonstration by someone who is good. Finding such a person nowadays is a challenge.
Learning this is a bit like learning to play a musical instrument: technique plus practice. Having a good teacher helps.
Well, I’ve had my dentist visit. Turns out I cracked the root of the tooth known as LM5, a top-to-bottom crack that left the entire tooth in 2 pieces, the larger, with the crown, loose and wobbly, the smaller still attached to my jaw.
Took quite a bit of drilling to loosen the still-attached part, but it’s all out. And as the local anaesthetic wears off, it’s aching, like a dull toothache. That will go away in time – please, let it be soon! – but the pain when I bite is gone. So that’s a (partial) result.
Cost me £65.20 (say $75) for extraction, x-rays, and anaesthetic – dentistry is not fully covered by NHS.
Now I have to go and argue with my local Postie, after I didn’t hear him ring the bell yesterday. This is a parcel that requires signature, because tracked.
G.
I think I’m going back to sleep.
Don’t burn the place down.
n
"…some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."
I like me some Michael Caine
@JimB
Re clutches
Ha! I taught her correctly without knowing it -grin-
I don’t rev, I do match. You can hear when the engine is ready, you can feel the tension between the gas and clutch. That’s what I was trying to get her to feel as she practiced. I started her facing down hill the first three or four times to garner some success and confidence before we switched to flat. She shouted the first time she really “got it”. Love seeing that joy of understanding.
“You’re hard on your clutch” came from my mechanic. My husband revs. Maybe I’m not the culprit -laughter-
I had a 1978 Honda Civic. I thought it was a neat trick to time my shifts, listening to the engine, and shift without the clutch. This is the same civic I blew the engine on going 100 mph multiple times. My dad drove my moms hatchback home from San Francisco sans clutch. He was a genius with engines and all things mechanical. He fixed her clutch with literal baling wire.
Don’t know that I’ll ever make it happen, but I’d like to attend one of those fancy driving school things where you go really fast, and also learn fun tricky stuff about driving a stick.
Justice Thomas writing for the 6-3 majority in Bruen:
Bye-bye Cornyn.
“#39 A Pocket Knife”
How about “An assortment of edged tools?”
Pocket knives for everyone.
Ditto fixed blades.
Machete.
Bayonet for the rifles (Oh, your rifles don’t have bayonet lugs?”
and while we’re at it:
quarterstaff and class for everyone (or, preferentially, the infamous “buck-and-a-quarter staff”)
My Garmin Tactix 7 has pulseox built in. I didn’t even know. I run about 95% and can pump it up to 98% with some deep breaths.
Soon: double clutching 101.
But seriously, after she masters the basics, teach her how to reduce clutch slippage when starting from a stop. That will go a long way toward extending clutch life. I am surprised how many people never learn this. They are the ones who get only 50k miles on a clutch. There is no reason a clutch can’t last the life of the car. Changing a clutch on a front wheel drive car is a pain.
I have owned six standard transmission vehicles. Plus driven manual transmission tractors way too often. I pulled a 28,000 lb 48 foot gooseneck trailer with a one ton dually chevy diesel crew cab automatic back in the 1980s. After I blew the engine the third time (the diesel fuel pump shotgunned itself into the engine), we got a Ford one ton dually crew cab with a 460 gas V8 and a four speed manual with a granny. Reduced the time to 60 mph from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. Still could not stop though.
Reducing the clutch slippage when starting is a learned skill. Especially on a steep hill with a truck one foot behind you. I have given up in that situation and just rolled back onto the guys bumper very slowly.
All shifts while rolling should be as quick as possible.
I’ve got a 2005 manual transmission 123K miles Honda Civic EX Special Edition for sale for $4,000 if anyone wants to buy it. I am going to figure out how to take pictures with my phone again (all the pictures it takes now are mpeg files) and list it on Craigslist and Auto Trader. It is a bright red coupe with the factory spoilers, aluminum wheels, sunroof, and 6,800 rpm engine. Shifts like a dream.
“In 6-3 ruling, court strikes down New York’s concealed-carry law”
https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/in-6-3-ruling-court-strikes-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-law/
“The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York handgun-licensing law that required New Yorkers who want to carry a handgun in public to show a special need to defend themselves.”
“The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, is the court’s first significant decision on gun rights in over a decade. In a far-reaching ruling, the court made clear that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right “to keep and bear arms” protects a broad right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. Going forward, Thomas explained, courts should uphold gun restrictions only if there is a tradition of such regulation in U.S. history.”
They did it. I am so proud of SCOTUS and Trump. All I wanted was one conservative justice and I got three.
25 states are already Constitutional Carry. Texas is one of these.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/constitutional-carry-in-states/
Regarding last nights outage – the ‘504’ errors if you waited long enough to see them.
The Dreamhost tech support guys didn’t see an issue with the hosting server (that they admit to). A 504 error indicates that the server didn’t communicate with another server. In a WordPress environment, there are two main server ‘processes’ – the base site that does the PHP processing, and the SQL server that does the database queries.
The problem last time (with the very slow response times of 10-15 seconds) was a SQL server issue. I verified this with a plugin (“Query Monitor”) that shows the times of the various SQL queries. Plus looking at the Network timings in the browser developer tabs.
The network timings indicated that the server had a good initial response, so the issue didn’t appear to be the PHP server on shared hosting. The Query Monitor plugin (plus the network monitor) showed that the bottleneck was due to the database queries taking too long.
The Dreamhost people found that the SQL server was in a different data center (on separate US coasts), so they moved the SQL database server to the same data center as the host server. I find it curious that the separate server locations was the problem – it was probably with the original SQL server. Moving the database to another server that was in the same data center as the host probably fixed the issue of the data being on a defective SQL server, more than the actual physical location of the servers. (I assume that they have good bandwidth between the various data centers.)
In any event, moving the SQL server fixed the slow response times a couple weeks ago; normal data response is now under 2 seconds, rather than the 10-15 seconds seen before the move.
The issue last night is a communications issue between the host server and the SQL server (now in the same data centers). That’s what a 504 error is – one server (the host server) not getting a response from another server (the SQL server).
The Dreamhost support couldn’t find any issues in their logs. They suggested WP themes or plugins, but those did not change yesterday. They suggested a database optimization, but that has already been done. The 504 issue is not related to theme/plugins, or the SQL server. I suspect a routing error, or a switch error, in their data center.
Regardless, they fixed the problem. Whatever they did they did not share the fix with the first-line support that I was chatting with. I may take a look at the logs just out of curiosity, but the response time is now normal – under 1.5 seconds consistently.
Which is all probably a lot more than most of you wanted to know … perhaps those that actually read this far are interested. But, for me, knowledge gained.
@Rick
For your knowledge gained, I bow in your general direction. Thanks for your hard work to keep the lights on here.
Thanks Rick, sometimes mysteries are mysteries, but I bet SOMEONE there knows what happened.
My first troubleshooting question is always “what changed?” Most times, the answer from humans was ‘nuthin’, followed by “nuthin that should have affected the thing”, followed by “oh, does it really need that to do that? We just did the other thing because we didn’t know…” They always start out sure that what they did couldn’t POSSIBLY affect you, yet it did.
n
That’s good news from the Court.
Waiting for the abortion ruling to light the match on this weekend’s violence…
n
ProgLibTurd heads are exploding on social media. One of my favs “SCOTUS has ruled you HAVE to carry concealed…” LOL! Wait for the Roe ruling.
Biden did more damage to the liberal cause filling the Roe seat than Trump did with his nominations.
The Libs are down to Hermione Granger for writing important opnions. I’m guessing Breyer wrote the dissent if Roe is overturned.
@Jenny, maybe you should teach your husband. Or not… Happy spouse, happy house. I heard that somewhere recently. 😉
It is possible to shift a synchro transmission without the clutch, and doing that on a beater can be a learning experience. A quick learner will only ruin one transmission. Maybe zero. I drove my 65 VW Beetle a few miles with a broken clutch cable once. It is challenging. A crashbox is actually easier because it gives better feedback.
I took one of those “fancy driving school things” in 1983. It was a great opportunity, and cheap. The teacher was an instructor at the local community college. He had previously campaigned a road race Corvette, so had some direct experience and was a very good teacher. He patterned the class after the Bondurant driving school, and got authorization. It was taught under the administration of justice category at the community college, and was allegedly for law enforcement personnel. A few officers did take the course, which I think was run only three or four times. It was mostly classroom, with two days hands-on at a closed airport. We did everything: slalom, emergency lane change, and road course with two ten lap sessions with the instructor riding and coaching. We also did high speed backing, reverse slalom, and controlled sliding U-turns in tight spaces. Those were required to make it qualify under the pursuit driving part of the admin of justice category.
The cars were a couple of retired police cars: mid-70s Dodges with pretty tame 440 engines. The only modifications were deleted catalytic converters with slightly muffled exhaust, and a water spray to cool the front brakes. The instructor was very impressed with their stock handling, although they were nowhere near as good as earlier models, and of course couldn’t compare to real road race cars. They had automatic transmissions. The best thing about them was their handling: they were stable and predictable, a good platform to teach vehicle dynamics. Although speed took a back seat to cornering, they could reach about 100 mph on the one strait section of the course. There was a tight 180 degree dogleg turn that required throttle steering to not knock over cones. That dogleg and the reverse slalom were the most challenging.
I have a friend who took a course somewhere near Phoenix. It was a NASCAR style course that used realistic practice cars, with real retired race cars for the finale. The cars were spaced out on the course, so no racing, just practice. I think it was a whole week, and was quite expensive. He came away very impressed. Said he wasn’t good enough to be a race car driver. I knew that before I took my cheap course.
Drag racing is another matter. There are seldom serious accidents, and almost anybody can compete. Winning is another matter. Automatic transmissions have a real advantage, with shock torque converters and instant shifts. Still, there are some who cling to four speeds. Here is a short video that shows the technique. Note the quick reflexes needed. The lighting is poor, but you can see the clutch action, and the throttle held wide open. Drag racing is hard on equipment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU7B2-JgHms
Excluding warm up and burnout a drag racing engine has to only turn about 600 revolutions during the timed run. The racers are jamming so much fuel into the engine that hydrolock is a very real problem. And when it happens the results are Spectacular.
That would be Top Fuel. Yep, spectacular even when there are no mishaps. Another friend of mine used to work as a fuel official for NHRA on the Top Fuel circuit. He took samples and assayed (?) them to make sure they conformed to regulations. Almost all nitromethane, with just a few percent of detonation suppressant. Nasty stuff. Expensive racing.
The writing on the wall:
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/russia-is-winning-the-financial-war
When I was doing race day events for Peterson Publishing I hated the weird fuel drag runs. The exhaust was choking in a desiccated throat kinda way that’s hard to describe but can be terrifying.
Worse though, you couldn’t see the flames if the car caught on fire, and someone always did.
Funniest line I ever heard, we were on a Nascar speedway, one of the local guys mentioned they had a crash during a practice run the day before… “What happened?” I asked. His deadpan reply “Ran out of talent.”
n
Train yourself to exhale CO rather than CO2. This keeps more oxygen in your body. That’s science, so you know it’s true.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/supreme-court-issues-ruling-gutting-miranda-rights-threatening-fifth-amendment/
– not something I was watching. seems to just limit suing afterward, so were people suing? As we have seen with the Alec Baldwin case, all the body cam footage seems to be admissible, with interviews and no miranda warnings….
n
Prominent ‘doomer’ Michael Snyder had this to say —
Gun ? Ammo ?
Uh oh, I just triggered punctuation boy again.
I can’t help but wonder if “cutting ties” means rejecting the money, and I somehow think, probably not.
n
clutches
When my children were ready to learn driving I took them down to the church parking lot with my Land Cruiser, put it in low 1st and had them start moving and stop without touching the gas pedal, multiple times until they could do it consistently without killing the engine. Then we moved on to shifting to 2nd and 3rd, the parking lot wasn’t large enough to get to 4th. Then we started learning what the gas pedal would do. Only took a couple of sessions and they’ve never had a problem since.
@Jenny, maybe you should teach your husband. Or not… Happy spouse, happy house. I heard that somewhere recently.
It is possible to shift a synchro transmission without the clutch, and doing that on a beater can be a learning experience. A quick learner will only ruin one transmission. Maybe zero. I drove my 65 VW Beetle a few miles with a broken clutch cable once. It is challenging. A crashbox is actually easier because it gives better feedback.
The clutch cable broke on my 1987 VW Jetta at 120K miles. I could shift it once I got going after starting it in second gear. Luckily, it was only ten miles or so to the house. I gave that car to my brother-in-law at 145K miles.
It is unclear what is behind her rejection of their father, in such a public way – Elon Musk has yet to comment
I did see a comment from Musk. But it was from 2020, “In July 2020, Musk courted controversy for tweeting a controversial two-word opinion: “Pronouns suck.””
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-transgender-comments-resurface-child-changes-gender-1717486
Y’all gotta quit jacking with the language . It makes you look like you flunked English class or you are a ghetto dweller .
For example : Musk’s transgender son has petitioned to a California court to recognize her new name, Vivian Yeah, no. Sons are called “he” and it’s “recognize his new name” until he goes to the chop shop.
It is unclear what is behind her rejection of their father, This is just wrong . They may as well go whole hog and use “there” instead of “their” .
The ex-wife , or is it now birthing person ? She’s crazy and has poisoned her son’s head.
Sure , Elon is quite possibly a total asshole in the Father Department but , ya know ? , you don’t become the richest man on the planet by being the dad on Leave It To Beaver .
Pearls Before Swine: Does I Write Goodly ?
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/06/23
Yes I does !
Arlo and Janis: The Emergency Is Over
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2022/06/23
Luddie does not care, he gets fed regardless. I’ve got one of those too. I flushed a rat from the dishwasher cabinet, the rat ran right past my cat. I swear, he looked at me and said, “did you see that ?”.
I do some slang and I could always use Proper English and folks on the Internet who I shall probably never in person may be impressed by my erudition .
Yeah , no man . I’m not writing a term paper complete with foot notes for my English class .
A Girl And Her Fed: Date Night
https://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.1961.html
OK, that is just drawn cool.
Bah. I like short declarative statements. I use sentence fragments. Especially to make a point. And I start sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but’. I overuse ‘so’ and ‘well’. RBT used to chide me for my fondness for the comma. “Voice” is important to me. (“vice” too, when it makes things funny)
and I sometimes miss a capitalization. I have my own rules for ‘ vs “ trying to only use ” when I’m actually quoting something, and ‘ where some people would use the “scare quotes”…
and I sign everything so that even the special-est of the special can know that I wrote it, I claim it, and I stand by it. Also, back in the day, before everyone required blogger accounts or some other log in, the comment would be attributed to ‘anonymous’ in the header. Since I’ve been doing this a while, I’ve got some habits that the baby ducks don’t recognize or understand the utility of. I’ll also end a sentence with a preposition. Or a proposition, if you want to go there with me…
n
And, I’m a serial abuser of the ellipses … so sue me.
When I started driving, I had Driver’s Ed at school . They had the simulators back then . Cheesy but useful .
Then Mom went to some computer school in Florida and told Dad she’s not coming back . That went over like a ton of bricks . So Dad left us a hundred bucks and went to Florida . Late ‘70’s .
He left the door key for the ‘64 Chevy van but took the ignition key . I hot wired the van. Easy . I still have the five inch jumper i made with lamp-cord and a couple of alligator clips . We didn’t go anywhere , just to the grocery store and I made sure to add a few gallons of gas before they came home a couple of weeks later .
Fun times and I doubt he ever found out .
I tend to use a comma where it’s not grammatically correct, but where, when speaking, I would probably pause or draw a breath or the like. I guess I sort of use it to dictate the cadence of the sentence.
Rick, obviously use what you’re comfortable with as you’re the one that has to maintain it, but, as I recall from personal experience 15+ years ago and what I’ve heard around since, Dreamhost isn’t what it used to be. There was a time when all of the "real geeks" hosted on Dreamhost as they were hands down one of, if not, the best hosting providers back in the early 2000s. They’ve been downhill ever since. I’m hosting on Runbox these days and like it (also, it has the added benefit of Norwegian privacy laws which are some of the strongest in the world). Though, I don’t demand much from a hosting service. YMMV.
I swear my keyboard is going wonky . I’m sure I typed “probably never meet in” . The X key had been sticky for a few months and the left side shift button is starting the same . Or maybe I’m going wonky in the head .
What the heck . It’s an AST keyboard . I like it and gee , it has almost 25 years of use . I think it came with a used 486 discarded by Ericsson . I do have a spare , it came with an eMachine running XP , I forget what CPU , that i used for 6 years or so until I bought this i5 in January 2013 . Might be wearing out….
@paul, run it thru the dishwasher. IIRC that was JerryP’s solution.
n
A year or two ago, I attempted to move this site (and Barbara’s) to my JustHost account, to reduce the hosting costs that Barbara pays. Although the sites were moved, Barbara had issues with trying to reconfigure her email client to the new place (especially since she was still monitoring RBT’s account), so the move was aborted.
Dreamhost support has been generally responsive to issues here, with native English speakers, as far as I can tell. Their recommendation yesterday to increase timeouts and enable FastCGI were not based on any particular knowledge, but a “let’s try this because that’s what the support script says to do”. They also said to ‘optimize the databases’, but that isn’t needed here (it’s already optimized). And they suggested caching – which would probably slow things down further.
I rolled my eyes at those suggestions, but didn’t bother correcting them. I might change the timeouts and FastCGI settings back to original values later.
I’ve got 25+ years experience on web site hosting – maybe more. Probably from before most tech support guys learned to read. But I don’t want to self-host – too much time needed to monitor/update/fix things, and I have never gotten deeply into *nix systems. I can deal with the tech support guys.
I’ve had DreamHost since May 2002. It’s not the same. Dallas and Josh! and the rest of the gang moved on to do things like getting married and raising kids. The bean counters moved in and yeah, being bean counters, they don’t have the spark of crazy DreamHost had.
Still. My site has been solid and when I have been stumped with a problem, they help me and they don’t talk down. You know, condescend.
Careful, grasshopper. You can easily ruin a keyboard that way.
If you must, rinse cycle only, warm water, no soap, no dry cycle. Let it air dry on a towel for a couple days. Then use a can of air to further dry it off. And let it sit out for a few more days.
If you just have dirty key caps, lens cleaner solution works well (on a cloth, not directly sprayed). If you have spilled something sticky on there, maybe an electronics cleaner like this.
But, IIRC, key switches are sealed, so if the contacts inside are dirty, there may be no way to clean them. Replacement is easy and cheap. There are some good quality keyboards out there.
Hmm. I ordered a switch for my fridge’s light. They sent a dryer door switch. I sent an e-mail and they sent the correct switch. $8.05.
I returned the dryer door switch. $4.80 for a one ounce padded envelope is stupid expensive. I used the envelope they sent the switch to me. I expected to pay at most $1.50. Anyway, they received the switch today.
I have no idea why they refunded the purchase price. I wrote on the packing slip why I was returning the part. I have no idea why the refund according to Walmart is $8.55. Sales tax, I reckon.
I sent an e-mail and zero response so far. At this point, I might send them a check for $5. Maybe $4. Maybe nothing. Shrug.
Oh. and back in February when I bought a couple of power supplies for my Squeezebox? When the PO lost the package for a while? The seller re-shipped. So I received FOUR power supplies on the same day. I asked and then I mailed the seller a check. Ain’t been cashed yet. You would think they had some kind of way to deposit a check… like with a phone app or something.
The keyboard isn’t bad enough yet for the dishwasher . I’ll take it apart and hit it some tricloror whatever or some Radio Shack TV Tuner Cleaner .
Just for grins .
And…. if I do the dishwasher thing, what ? I’m w/o a keyboard for a week ? By then my spare keyboard will be normal .
I think that having used the same keyboard for 25+ years , I can manage to adapt to a new keyboard when the time comes . It’s just the X key and to a lesser extant , the left shift key being sticky . For now , just press harder .
Our late host used to recommend the dishwasher for old school clicky-clicky IBM keyboards, the kind still sold by Unicomp in Kentucky, with mechanical key mechanisms and not membrane tech like most new keyboards.
The dishwasher worked about 50% of the time for me with a stash of old IBM keyboards I brought home when all of the old junk got tossed as the Death Star dowsized our physical space in the early 00s.
I switched to this Coolermaster “gamer” keyboard when I was having issues with my Dell chicklet keyboard. The one I wore grooves into the keys with my rough fingers…
I like the cherry switches, and increased travel. I can type much more accurately and none of the keys are funky. I did wash it with lens cleaner (to get soil off) then isopropol alcohol for oils and greases… I’ve never tried the dishwasher trick, but most keyboards are seriously filthy, and if it isn’t working, what do you have to lose?
Anyway, this keyboard doesn’t have a number pad and I miss that more than I ever expected to. It fits better on my sh!tpiled desk though, so I’ve not tried to replace it with one of the other hundreds of keyboards I have somewhere.
n
I’ve got a youtube running in the other window, some korean fish processor, and the unguarded bandsaws are giving me anxiety so bad, I don’t think I can keep watching.
The bandsaw is one of the most dangerous tools in the shop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmo_Tm8hD0k
n
Ok, cough is definitely getting worse. Still not anything but a cold, but def. more coughing than yesterday.
n
Which model? I was eyeing this one for a while, but it isn’t super high on my list of things to get.
Good grief, poor Elon Musk. And his son. And Johnny Depp. Etc etc. It hurts to read about such troubles.
No better illustration to never, ever, envy anyone. Paul and I have a charmed, magical life – thanks be to God – compared to some who seem, on the outside, to have it made. We’re happy every day, and like each other. I would not change shoes with anyone.
@chad, It’s this one
https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/peripheral/keyboards/masterkeys-s-with-superior-pbt-keycaps/#specifications
MX Brown, tenkeyless
no pretty colored lights that I’m aware of, and apparently does a bunch of stuff I didn’t even know about. I got it at goodwill for $3 iirc. It did need cleaning. Lots of cleaning.
n
added– it’s VERY solid. no ‘twang’ sound when you hit the spacebar either.
I’m not a gamer so I can’t comment on the gamer features.
n
added more– from the specs it’s got a freaking arm processor 32bit ARM Cortex M3 embedded…
n
One bad case leads to 110 years of citizens being denied one of their most basic rights, the right to self defense.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10946615/How-1911-New-York-murder-led-strictest-gun-restrictions-SCOTUS-just-struck-down.html
n
@Sue
Done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gbtm-93oqE
n
It appears Alito is suffering liberal fools less gladly this year:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/06/23/alito-takes-a-blow-torch-to-liberal-justices-opinion-on-latest-gun-case-n2609218
Not just white flight, green as in dollar flight…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ken-griffin-moving-citadel-miami-leaving-chicago-crime-cesspool-forever-behind
n
“ERCOT breaks all-time power demand record for the fourth time this month”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Forecasts-show-ERCOT-may-need-reserve-power-17260753.php?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow
“For the fourth time this month, ERCOT broke the all-time record for the most electricity demand on the grid on Thursday and deployed some reserve generation units to in order to keep up.”
“By the afternoon, Texans were using 76,592 megawatts of electricity, up from the previous record of 76,566 megawatts used Monday afternoon. One megawatt is enough electricity to power about 200 homes on a hot summer day.”
The previous years peak demand was 74,820 MW in August 2019.
“Among the new operating procedures, generators are paid to sit on the sidelines and to be ready if they’re needed when grid conditions tighten. That stands in contrast to how the power market has operated since it was deregulated in 2000: Power generators in the past were only paid when they were producing power, said Michele Richmond, executive director of the Texas Competitive Power Advocates, a trade group for power generators and other market participants.”
They are forcing ALL of the power plants in Texas online. Here come the tube leaks in these old units, some of which are over 60 years old. They were old back when I worked on them in the 1980s.
I left Chicago for Californication 60 years ago and am still alive. Actually, I have two sisters there who are still OK as they live in gentrified communities.
BTW, it was 103 F at 4pm while I was driving around today. Hot ! I filled up my truck for $4.439/us gallon with 21 gallons of regular unleaded.
I have family working in the city and living there too. The area where your home is might be gentrified,but 2 blocks away it’s a shooting gallery. And you have to transit those areas to get to your area.
Remember when Rahlm’s son was jacked for his phone in front of his home on the gold coast? zip code won’t protect you.
n
Zip code is a target discriminator.
Another trivial data point on the inflation. I noticed that Doritos chips are thinner normal, probably 50% thinner. Price is still the same.
The Texas media is so bored that the local Faux News opened last night with the cost overruns on the Austin downtown transit tunnel/homeless shelter.
Dunno if they are ‘thinner’. But there are 5 less in each bag now, according to Frito-Lay.
Lots of ‘shrinkflation’ going on. Take a look at this story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10606459/Doritos-latest-victim-shrinkflation.html
And there is this; from https://www.rd.com/list/things-didnt-know-doritos/ :
Doritos historical bag weights:
16oz>15>14>13>12>11>9.75>9.25
approximately
The Lays Classic Party size was $2.50 on “normal” sale at HEB, it’s now just under $4 sometimes, and over $4 others. I’m not eating as many chips as before.
n
And just found some sausages and bacon that were in the garage fridge for a couple of weeks instead of moving to the freezer. Damn.
Oh, they are thinner. Light can now pass through.
A perfect example of why you need to read the headline, then skip to the end for the truth…
this was his third strike
n
How to clean a keyboard, according to ~jim :-p
Part 1
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PmWid2RqUxM
Part 2
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sXSvdIIrcYw
*****
Here’s a handy thing from Google I just discovered:
https://takeout.google.com/
Another trivial data point on the inflation. I noticed that Doritos chips are thinner normal, probably 50% thinner. Price is still the same.
The filling in the Oreos is way thinner also now. The filling must be more expensive than the cookie halves.
The Oreos double stuff filling is what I remember the regular filling being 55+ years ago when Dad would bring a huge bag of them on our weekend fishing trips. We would sit in his little 15 foot boat and eat Oreos when the bass were not biting.
Man, I am getting old.
Meatsack.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/unbelievable-look-piece-paper-biden-holding-instructions-reminding-basic-things/
n
“In 6-3 ruling, court strikes down New York’s concealed-carry law”
https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/in-6-3-ruling-court-strikes-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-law/
“The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York handgun-licensing law that required New Yorkers who want to carry a handgun in public to show a special need to defend themselves.”
“The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, is the court’s first significant decision on gun rights in over a decade. In a far-reaching ruling, the court made clear that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right “to keep and bear arms” protects a broad right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. Going forward, Thomas explained, courts should uphold gun restrictions only if there is a tradition of such regulation in U.S. history.”
So if I ever go back to Washington DC, can I now carry a gun ? The wife and I went to DC for a long weekend about 20 years ago and had a great time. Walking to our hotel from the subway at night or the Mall was a little unnerving though. We ended up at the Lincoln Memorial at 11pm one night and a USA Park Ranger was giving tours and answering questions. It was a very neat experience.
@Nick
When we are gone our enemies will gloat about the small investments that ruined us.
@Lynn
The next law will limit carry to single-shot 22 shorts.
Should only take 80 years to overturn that one.
@Lynn
Don’t stop.
Don’t stop.
I got to work at 1pm today. I went out at 3pm and ran errands (mailed a birthday flashlight to my favorite niece (I only have one niece)), bought some gasoline, dropped off my shirts and picked up shirts at the cleaners, and grabbed some lunch at Chikfila (where they know my name). Got back at 4pm and ate my lunch while reading more of my daily 200 emails.
Left office at 745pm and went home to walk 1.2 miles with the wife at 8pm. Freaking hot ! Got back to office at 9pm. I may leave at 11pm. Maybe midnight.
What is this stopping thing ? I plan to die at my very dirty 32 year old Northgate Gold Key/102 keyboard with the function keys on the left side where God intended them to be.
https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=20477
And it weighs 15 lbs so I can rest my head on it when I die without collapsing.
>> (from yesterday) Net is all cars will basically be EV driven, even if ICE powered.
The “greenies” don’t want any ICE left lest the Earth turn into a cinder.
From a more practical perspective, I don’t want an ICE in my EV. One of the reasons we have only EVs (two LEAFs) is they are virtually maintenance free and have only about 10% of the parts of a conventional ICE car. And the current hybrids have more parts than either an ICE or an EV.
Of course, thinking like this doesn’t help…
Western States Try To Weasel Their Way Out Of Rural EV Charging
>> I have watched some of the repugnant 1/6 hearings until I feel like puking.
Did I miss the announcements for the:
Inflation hearings?
Gas Price hearings?
Supply Chain hearings?
>> I’ve got a 2005 manual transmission 123K miles Honda Civic EX Special Edition for sale for $4,000 if anyone wants to buy it. I am going to figure out how to take pictures with my phone again (all the pictures it takes now are mpeg files) and list it on Craigslist and Auto Trader. It is a bright red coupe with the factory spoilers, aluminum wheels, sunroof, and 6,800 rpm engine. Shifts like a dream.
@lynn, you sure you want to deal with the people that respond to Craigslist ads these days?
Maybe try eBay?
>> Going forward, Thomas explained, courts should uphold gun restrictions only if there is a tradition of such regulation in U.S. history.
Hmm…according to Wikipedia, the first US red-flag law was enacted in 1999. (In 1999, Connecticut was the first to enact a red flag law, following a rampage shooting at the Connecticut Lottery.)
Is 23 years enough for a “tradition?” In most states a car isn’t an ‘antique’ until it’s at least 25 years old. I see some lawsuits sooner of later.
>> I’ve got a 2005 manual transmission 123K miles Honda Civic EX Special Edition for sale for $4,000 if anyone wants to buy it. I am going to figure out how to take pictures with my phone again (all the pictures it takes now are mpeg files) and list it on Craigslist and Auto Trader. It is a bright red coupe with the factory spoilers, aluminum wheels, sunroof, and 6,800 rpm engine. Shifts like a dream.
@lynn, you sure you want to deal with the people that respond to Craigslist ads these days?
Maybe try eBay?
I rented my office warehouse four years ago on Craigslist to a pair of brothers. It has worked out so far even if they are fairly crazy.
I sold our 1997 five speed Honda Civic on Craigslist about 5 ? 7 ? years ago to a young man who needed a running vehicle for not much money. The working A/C was a bonus to him. He gave me $1,300 cash in my office and I gave him the car.
>> I have a friend who took a course somewhere near Phoenix. It was a NASCAR style course that used realistic practice cars, with real retired race cars for the finale. The cars were spaced out on the course, so no racing, just practice. I think it was a whole week, and was quite expensive. He came away very impressed. Said he wasn’t good enough to be a race car driver. I knew that before I took my cheap course.
Used to be more into NASCAR but these days I only watch the superspeedway races (Daytona and Talladega, and now the repaved track in Atlanta). It still amazes me the skills required to race at 200mph in packs of 20 or 25 cars literally touching bumpers. Of course, does often lead to spectacular wrecks.
>> Drag racing is another matter. There are seldom serious accidents, and almost anybody can compete. Winning is another matter. Automatic transmissions have a real advantage, with shock torque converters and instant shifts. Still, there are some who cling to four speeds. Here is a short video that shows the technique. Note the quick reflexes needed. The lighting is poor, but you can see the clutch action, and the throttle held wide open. Drag racing is hard on equipment.
Anticipating the green light and leaving the line as soon as possible but not red lighting wins many drag races.
>> Excluding warm up and burnout a drag racing engine has to only turn about 600 revolutions during the timed run.
And they literally tear down and rebuild the motors between heats. Controlled chaos.
>> Funniest line I ever heard, we were on a Nascar speedway, one of the local guys mentioned they had a crash during a practice run the day before… “What happened?” I asked. His deadpan reply “Ran out of talent.”
Several years ago there was a reality show that was based on a group of NASCAR nubies (‘kids’ 15, 16 or so) that had all come up the lesser ranks (go-karts, dirt racers, etc.) and were competing for a chance to drive in the lowest level of NASCAR (the “pickup trucks”). It was interesting to watch and see who had the natural talent and who quickly washed out of the competition.
[Dinner break, back in a bit…]
I used to watch AMA Superbike but there was an accident caused by a rider who was showboating. Life changing injuries, and career ending injuries resulted, and the showboater was never punished. I couldn’t support them in any way after they let that go by.
I never had much interest in cars.
n
What Nick said, about that list. It’s pretty random, some really specific stuff (“canned chicken”) alongside really general entries (“buckets of food”). It also mixes short-term preps with long-term. Not very helpful, really. Who is supposed to be the target audience of that list?
Um…who cares? Seriously, what a weird headline.
There’s clearly some family drama going on, but – until now – they’ve had the decency not to air their dirty laundry in public. One child obviously has mental health problems. That also should have been kept private, but said child is a teenager, and teenagers love drama, so…
Perhaps also worth noting, his ex-wife receives something like $80k/month in alimony, as long as the kids are minors. That will presumably be coming to an end in about two years. Which may also be a great reason for her to be stirring up publicity just now…
What is going to happen to places like Chicago? Turn the cities over to the gangs. And then what? Do you build a fence to keep the animals inside?