Cool and wet again? Probably. Rained off and on all day despite my prediction yesterday. Guess I don’t really control the weather. Today will be the same, and warmer at some point.
I didn’t get much done on my list, but I did get my paperwork done for my wife. She filed the taxes too. No idea how that went.
Today I’ll be doing some stuff around the house, then one pickup, maybe two. It will depend in part on the rain, as one item at least needs the pickup truck, I think.
I’ve got a ton of stuff backed up but no plan to do it. Maybe plans would help? Probably not, based on experience.
Oh well, there’s always stacking.
n
James Woods was wrong.
Stallwell did not film his denial video in a Motel Six:
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2026/04/13/eric-swalwell-continues-to-crash-and-burn-as-billionaire-boots-him-from-mansion-where-he-was-hiding-n2201226
But don’t bet that the next one won’t be.
Do I hear Ali McGraw?
“We’ll always have stacking.”
73F, streets are dry, we’ll see about the sun when it comes up…
Kid’s lunch is made. Nothing but surly growls from the various dens as I tapped on doors this morning.
We’ll see how we get on.
n
Garbage in, garbage out:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/04/bixonimania-how-ai-turned-a-joke-diagnosis-into-peer-reviewed-medicine/
It will be interesting when the first wrongful death claim is litigated. If an AI vendor thinks their user agreements will protect them they should be asked if they are “4Imprint sure”.
Ali Mcgraw, there’s a name I haven’t heard in decades.
Microsoft has Patch Tuesday coming up.
I think I will leave my machine off until the end of the week. Apparently it is a big one, with UEFI update stuff from manufacturer’s needed as well for some people.
Best to let others be the beta testers.
It does have to be done, we are up to the point where there are apparently dozens of CVE’sper month, probably a monthly patch cycle is probably not adequate anymore.
But it’s also clear that Microsoft update QC process is not up to the task either.
Freshers, hired by colonist managers for the color of their skin rather than the content of their character or the honesty of their resumes, doing vibe coding. What could go wrong?
Any recommendations for a decent dehumidifier for a 2100± square foot space? One that will pump itself empty or has a drain hose would be nice. Having to dump a collection bin is a bit annoying.
Would it do any good to develop a very dry sense of humor?
@Chad
Dehumidifier condensate is mineral-free and good for watering plants.
Many dehumidifiers catch tanks have a knockout with male threads for attaching a hose.
I could just run episodes of The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart non-stop in the space.
I seem to remember the Midea brand being recommended several years ago, but I honestly have never met someone who has owned a Midea. I had a 35+ year old one my brother loaned me, but it died.
I have a Whynter 12,000 BTU two-hose air conditioner, and it works ok. I looked up dehumidifiers in that brand. The linked one has a gravity hose drain you can attach, or you can choose to empty the bucket.
They also have models with a pump built in.
I see a lot of chinese names in the returns auctions. Dehumidifiers are a high return rate item. I’d say stick with a recognizable brand.
n
I don’t have a Midea DH, but I have their window a/c units – bought a 2nd after trying the first – and also a chest freezer that has been excellent.
They stand behind their product: there was a kind of silly recall on the window AC units, some algae buildup when the drain plugs clogged, and they actually sent a repair tech out to my house in the boonies to drill out the small drain and put a bigger one in, for free.
I was flossing a crowned molar Saturday night and the crown popped off. I was searching for a dentist by the new house using Perplexity and dropped an online request. They called Sunday and could get me in Monday. The crown had a worn side, so I had to get a new one. Luckily, they have a CEREC machine and I am back home with a new crown. Waiting for the tongue to un-numb.
Tomorrow, I have an A/C installer coming to put a mini-split on the garage (I am mostly finished insulating the garage door). They recommended a two-ton unit since it gets over 100 24/7 in the Summer in Vegas. The cost is more than I estimated, but I have the money for it.
Next, I’ll lay some flooring. Probably the rubberized ones for garages. I don’t work on cars anymore, but the rubber tiles are rated to have a car parked on them. I think I’ll find a local handyman and get an estimate to have him/shir/shim install it.
Valve finally released some updates on their new Steam Machine. The RAM crunch is delaying the release until later in the year, but promises to get it out in 2026. I’ll get the Steam Machine, Controllers, and Frame (VR headset) bundle.
I’m sure the price for the Steam Machine is going to reach $1,000 due to RAM.
Which brand? When I was researching them a year or two ago Mitsubishi was the only brand that was rated to run outside at over 110F ambient. A couple others were in 105 to 106F range.
One of the installers I talked to mentioned that he would suggest putting it on the south side of the house which sounded weird, and would require a longer run on the lines. But in summer and fall it is actually shaded there and it gets more sun in the winter, which helps with the heat pump efficiency.
I never had it done but I’m getting closer to pulling the trigger on it.
—-
And my dentist is muttering about a crown molar replacement – probable decay under the gum line at the tooth-crown interface which results in constant inflamation and discomfort. I am not looking forward to my August checkup.
Statements such as that are just begging for a Your Mom joke.
There is an interesting YT video out, by Scott Manley, on the Artemis heat shield issue.
Well worth watching.
There was a change away from the cellular legacy abestos mix (understandable IMO), and to a tiled rather than monolithic construction (Dragon is also tiled), but the culprit seems to have been the re-entry profile, which on a long skip caused the outer layers to chill and become impervious to the gases created (by design) in the inner hotter layers which in turn caused pressure build up and the spallation..
A2 had the same heat shield compound but only a small skip to avoid the chill, A3 will have a new & better compounding – but is orbital only and won’t stress the shield, so A4 is the earliest a real lunar return heating can be tested.
It is a 2.0 Ton Mitsubishi 18 SEER2. The installer said he has the same one on his garage. They are going to run 220 from the meter to the unit instead of the standard DIY double circuit breaker from the inside panel. That will also leave me space for a couple of CBs of strip outlets. Garages are always weak on the outlets. They’ll drop a pad for the outside unit, and with walls on that side, it will be pretty shaded. They have to drill a hole through an outside wall to get the 220 to the unit, but said that is pretty standard the way houses are laid out in the area. The lines are low to the ground and can be painted to throw off the HOAfukstikians.
My understanding is a ton of a/c is 12,000 BTU. So for a garage which is probably not insulated as well as the rest of the house, a 2 ton mini split sounds right.
If the system has any brains, like being able to control for humidity and sure, variable speed fans, I suppose it will similar to my house system.
Low fan on whisper at first, you can feel the air drying, then it kicks it up to medium fan and cools the house. While the outside unit is running on low speed.
So you have 2 tons of capacity but it runs on low and manages with a ton.
Yeah, I don’t know. I have a 4 ton unit and it almost always runs on low. Does that mean I’m cooling the house with 2 tons? Shrug.
I am beginning to develop a serious hate for the out of the box experience for Windows 11 Pro.
The latest crap is Onedrive. I have instructions to turn it off but have not figured out the real life yet.
This is overbearing to beyond belief. I copied files directly into the file structure for the Desktop and they were totally ignored.
I have bad considerations about Turbotax 2025. It is so full of ads as to be obnoxious. The new owners must be desperate.
My understanding is a ton of a/c is 12,000 BTU
Yes, a ton of A/C is 12,000 btu/hr.
The last few days have been rain and drizzle. The dogs are like, no, no walking to the gate, we go poop and pee a few times and go right back in the house. And Penny wants to be dried off with a towel. She gives me “the look”.
It’s not raining today. Sort of half sunny.
There’s a kitten out there meowing. For a couple of days now. I found it this morning. A very pretty mostly white with tan spots. Eyes still closed.
I don’t know where his mother is. But the flies with blue butts have found the kitten. Not a good sign.
Today I wandered out about 10:30 to the feed shed to feed the cats.
Across the back of the house is a covered walkway. The cats like sleeping there. Shady, some some sun, some breeze, no ants frying to crawl up their noses.
One of the calicos is curled up asleep. I fed the cats and she’s still asleep. Which is odd. She’s dead. Cold like she was stored in the refrigerator. Not a mark on her.
I think she was there yesterday afternoon, too. I put the potted plants on the walkway. And re-filled the hummingbird feeder. All through the sliding door. Maybe 20 feet away.
So that explains the abandoned kitten.
I took the kitten out to the feed shed. Petted a couple of mama cats, yep, got nipples, sat them next to kitten. Not really interested. Maybe one will adopt him. I doubt it, but maybe.
If not, tomorrow is bucket of water time. Bleh. I hate doing that.
Sometimes this Green Acres thing really sucks.
Ha, ha.
Eric Swalwell to RESIGN from Congress after scathing sexual assault allegations as he admits ‘mistakes’
The only reason “Bang Bang” would resign from Congress is the allegations are true. I wish the Constitution included a clause “if a member runs for any other political office, he must first resign from Congress”, you know, clear out the riff-raff grifters.
I wonder if he was paid to “retire”?
I hear Humphrey Bogart.
The latest I’ve read about installing w11 with only a local account is to unplug the Ethernet and turn your wi-fi router off during installation.
There another step I forget. oobe/something at a command prompt and it restarts Setup. But no Internet connection is most of it.
Yeah, it will nag you forever to log into your MS account you never set up.
I got tired of the nonsense. The monthly re-boots. The trashing my LAN shares.
Mint isn’t perfect, far from I’m sure, but I suppose most of the lack of perfection is me not knowing what the hell I’m doing. But ya know? That makes dicking with my PC fun again!
Thunderbird and Firefox profiles from the Windows machine copied over almost perfectly. Text files, yeah, I had to mess with permissions… so they are not set to Execute like some windows batch file.
The main issue was that the Avcoat compound was impermeable by design. During the Artemis I long skip, it wasn’t the outer layer cooling that caused the issue but the heat soaking farther in. Gas built up from the heat and since the Avcoat was impermeable, the gas caused cracks, leading to chunks spalling off. The Apollo honeycomb design minimized the spreading of cracks.
They have tested blocks made both ways in an arcjet and the new formulation is fine, the old showed spalling. There are times when coming back from the moon, a longer skip is needed. IIRC, the worst case to get to off the California requires a skip from off the coast of Chile.
Re Win11 and OneDrive – I seem to recall turning that off by removing it from the Startup list.
Hitting the Windows key and typing in Startup ought to get you into the neighborhood of that setting.
DDG search results include this:
I’ll bet there’s a .reg file out there that will kill Onedrive with a simple merge and re-boot. If not, there is always PowerShell.
A window’s key? Ain’t got one. But r-click on the taskbar to find task mangler is the way to go.
I’ve seen some stuff in Mint about a “Super Key” to do some stuff. Is that the Win key now common on cheap new keyboards?
Too lazy to DDG an answer. 🙂
But yes. Open Task Manager and disable all the garbage. Be aware the next Windows Update may re-enable the garbage.
Mint is popular on late production Intel MacBooks so they call it a “Super” key instead of “Win” key.
To add to the confusion, Apple calls it a “Command” key.
Monty: The Rich Paying Taxes
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2026/04/13
The rich kid has a future of hanging out in secret island lair someday.
Chile, eh?
There was a scifi book years ago that had a space shuttle do an emergency landing at Easter Island as the hook.
As I recall they just left it there in the end.
Cargo! The gods listened to our requests!
Opinions are divided:
https://www.americanthinker.com/cartoons/
Outdoor portable toilet, Klingon penitentiary, scale model of Barrack’s ego, grave marker for 1000 trees, etc.
Valerie Jarrett makes $740k as the head, and wants volunteers without pay to submit 47 kinds of ID and get DNA testing for the privilege of reciting paeans to the The Lightbringer for tour groups.
When I got rid of Onedrive (not an easy task), it changed a lot of my program data URLs. I am not happy.
Onedrive had interposed itself all over the place without my explicit permission. It put all of my data files, email, and passwords on the cloud. I have been totally compromised now. I am not happy.
The ‘Who Knew What and When’ Phase of the Swalwell Scandal Begins, and I Have Thoughts
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2026/04/13/what-the-media-know-about-eric-swalwell-before-sexual-assault-allegations-n2201249
The coverup has been going on for more than a decade.
It’s probably to much to hope that Stallwell will get convicted of rape and end up in prison, and the litigation will expose all the people involved in the coverup.
Going to be interesting to watch Bragg screw it up. Maybe DOJ can get involved and look hard over his shoulder.
Going to be very interesting to see if the House slush fund was used to pay anyone off. The people have a right to know and should rain hell on any elected official who was complicit.
I gave up trying to disable OneDrive. I simply opened the settings and turned off sharing for Desktop, Documents, and Pictures on my personal Windows 11 laptop.
OneDrive still runs, but it doesn’t do much.
I’m still comfortable on win8.2
And my Mint NVR box hasn’t been updated in over a year.
Dad’s little mini win10 box gets taken over by MS spam telling me it’s EOL and I should buy a new machine. No. Just no. Click until the nonsense goes away.
I use it to play Solitaire when I miss him. I thought I might need some of his automatic log ons but it’s been years and I didn’t need to get to anything.
The real irony to keeping a win10 machine for solitaire is that win10 killed solitaire and it has to be added back manually. They had some dog vomit online gaming “community” they wanted to force people into. F that.
I guess I could install SDR on it and use it for radio stuff, since it’s there, but the little deck of cards machine is pretty underpowered. Not a lot of room to install stuff on the SD card anyway and the built in ram is full of win10 and updates.
n
I am having severe issues deleting OneDrive off my PC even though I removed the program from my PC. Looks like it left tentacles all over the place.
I may have FUBAR’d my desktop.
As I recall, when I disabled OneDrive from my Win11 laptop, I didn’t bother with removing it. I just disabled it from automatically starting up. This might have been after the installation finished.
I then copied my docs/etc to the Documents folder associated with my local user account.
Don’t see a reason to delete the actual program, since I had disabled it from working. I might have also disabled any setting related to the Microsoft account, and any saving or automatic copying of files to the OneDrive location.
The laptop worked just fine after disabling OneDrive. Files saved locally, etc. just fine.
Sat out for a tiny little fire and finished a book. One cat came by on patrol, just a shadow moving casually but still faster than you think.
Damp as an armpit out tonight.
Time for a snack and bed.
n
Chile, eh?
There was a scifi book years ago that had a space shuttle do an emergency landing at Easter Island as the hook.
As I recall they just left it there in the end.
“Red Thunder” by John Varley. Really good book, one of my six star books. Plus there was a fire inside and the pilot shot out the windshield with a .45 cal pistol. He was not suppose to have a pistol. And they hit a water buffalo landing the beast. So they and the natives cooked and ate the water buffalo while waiting for rescue.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Thunder-Lightning-Novel/dp/0441011624?tag=ttgnet-20
I am having severe issues deleting OneDrive off my PC even though I removed the program from my PC. Looks like it left tentacles all over the place.
I may have FUBAR’d my desktop.
Ok, I got everything going and my 2025 tax return half done. Made a $47K profit on the large commercial property last year. We won’t talk about the small commercial property.
I need to get the parents tax return done also plus the wife needs to do an estate tax return also. Both versions of TurboTax require Windows 11 and so does the H&R Block software. I just waited too long to get started. Got too much stuff going on in my life. My mother is worried that I am going to have another heart attack, she was there for the first one in 2009 and did not like that very much.
I had fun ripping onedrive out of the registry. That was not for the faint hearted.
I don’t know what Mickeysoft is thinking but putting everyone’s stuff in the cloud is very bad idea in my opinion. Of course, what do I know, I am just an old programmer who has written software on twelve different platforms. And all of them had security issues.
EdH:
“Shuttle Down” by Lee Correy (G. Harry Stine), wherein a shuttle, on a southward launch from Vandenberg, suffers premature MECO, and the only contingency landing site is Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
NASA 905 has insufficient endurance to fly from Rapa Nui to anywhere we would consider civilised, while carrying a shuttle orbiter, and cannot be refuelled in flight. Not by modern active boom refuelling, at least.
Until someone realises that relatively old-fashioned probe-and-drogue refelling can be done. And is.
But not before a Soviet agent plants a bomb on a USAF C5 Galaxy.
I read it in the original serialisation, in Analog magazine, in the early 80s.
G.