It was nice yesterday, with some really gusty winds. Nice out though, mid 80sF and sunny. Hoping for more of that today.
Spent the morning doing auction stuff. Then went to buy a couple of jetskis. Very affordable, not at all new, but in very good condition. Trailer too. Then I went to do a pickup, and after that went to my shop to break down the laptop carts I bought. I asked the auctioneer if they were taking consignments, and they are, but only 20 lots every 2 weeks, and they want to average $30/lot. They also want to split the sale 50-50. Um, no.
Today I’ve got shopping to do, and presents to wrap, and things to get ready. I’m headed to the BOL on Saturday while my wife stays home to get the kids through their stuff. That means getting stuff done and ready for them first.
And of course all the other normal stuff needs doing too.
So do it! And stack.
n
Smell that? You smell that? No Denis, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of no Denis in the morning. Smells like… victory.
Um, still night in North America.
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72F and might be clear. When the sun comes up I’ll let you know.
Breakfast is in my belly. Kids are moving.
Definitely not feeling 100% and would like to just go back to bed for the rest of the day. Alas, such is not to be.
———–
n
I remember when the first research into this came out. Now it’s been weaponized against us.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/beyond-cookies-how-stop-invisible-browser-fingerprint-tracks-you-everywhere
n
Remember some time ago, I posted about tracking tech and “presence sensors”? Basically, advertizers using blutooth to track you thru the airport, and determine if someone stops in front of a display ad or billboard. JC DECAUX was mentioned by name in the linked article.
Everyone here should know by now that the cheap TVs are subsidized by the data gathering capability of the “smart” part.
I’ve recommended getting a non-smart “monitor” or “digital signage display.” Money where my mouth is, I bought a surplus NEC display yesterday. Imagine my surprise to read that
No mention that the sensors are used in any other way, but if they are there, SOMEONE will want to use them. Even just presence is useful information.
Harder and harder to escape the all seeing eye.
n
ROFLMAO. Enjoy, Chicken Boy! At least it smells better than fluffhead’ excrement.
No time for a “Good Morning” post today… I was out picking up a lifetime supply of .270Win ammo. Didn’t pay retail, I tell you.
Now to get dressed up in invisible and go out in the woods. Woohoo! Talk among yourselves.
You have to keep Lithium ion charged, btw.
Just realized yesterday that I hadn’t used the spare Roomba clone in a while. Battery is completely flat and will not take a charge. Heavy sigh. It is easily accessible and I will see if it’s worth ordering a replacement – looks to be a Byd unit.
I may play with the battery a bit and see if I can do that resuscitation maneuver with a direct charge from another battery for a few seconds. My understanding is that the chemistry gets messed up when they get that flat and it will never be as good as it was.
IDK what changes but the LiIon batteries in tools will be killed by over discharging. When the tool turns off, charge the battery, do not squeeze the last few drops out.
In other uses, they will sometimes just over-discharge when left idol for long periods of time, and can be recovered. There are little circuit boards available online that will charge a battery outside the device. I’ve used it on kindles, and other tablets. It’s poor battery management that lets them die, and sitting for a REALLY long time.
n
KENS news has some good video of the explosion in my SA neighborhood. One house is totally destroyed. The one next to it is severely damaged. The main entrance is still blocked.
IT daughter got to the house last night via a back route and we got the server up and checked the house. All is good. I’ll be going to SA in May to make the final move of the household to Vegas.
The new mini-split in the garage is awesome. I also had two new circuits put in the breaker box and outlets from each installed below the box. Plus a whole house surge protector. I’ll rough in some outlets sometime. Right now I have a couple of those mult-outlet strips that screw to the wall.
Sam Bent has a vid on how Tor browser developers left a finger printing hole.
Went to Boerne. On the way back I wanted to go to Costco in Selma, close to Randolph. That entailed a trip on I-410. What another mess that seems to populate the major road interchanges in San Antonio. The I-410 and 281 interchange is being redone with the usual bad roads, lane shifts, and interchange changes. Yes, there is a Costco at I-410 and 281 but memory seems to remember it was not easy to get to from I-410. Probably worse with the construction.
I did notice the Selma police are still heavily enforcing traffic laws as they were 38 years ago. I guess citations are still a major source of city revenue. 31 in a 30 may get a driver a ticket.
Leaving tomorrow. So far 1,700 miles and will put another 1,000 on the trip home.
if you still need a stop at Costco, Georgetown has a new store where I35 and 130 intersect, near the airport.
If you stop, just be aware that the exits direct traffic in different directions, and if you go out the wrong one, you will have a challenge getting back on the interstate northbound quickly.
Lots of puckered sphincters live in Georgetown, and the increasing Colonist population living in their own enclaves along Ronald Reagan west of town isn’t helping.
The upside of the store is that it is mostly free of Colonists, unlike the others around Austin.
“Confirmed: The Four Anti-American RINOs Revealed Themselves by Opposing the SAVE America Act”
https://discernreport.com/confirmed-the-four-anti-american-rinos-revealed-themselves-by-opposing-the-save-america-act/
“Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined every Senate Democrat to sink Sen. John Kennedy’s effort to attach a version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to the GOP’s immigration enforcement funding package. The amendment failed 48 to 50. The vote confirmed what everyone who has been paying attention already knew. The names were not a mystery. They are the same four senators Majority Leader John Thune has spent months shielding from any vote that might expose them.”
Yup. RINOs. We’ve got way too many of them.
Wait, I got TEN thumbs up and THREE thumbs down ??? I don’t think that I have ever seen three thumbs down before.
The “clutching pearls” line is a favorite of at least one member of the troll cabal so I assume they have been busy here this week.
Today was the last day to withdraw with a W for the spring semester if I read the calendar at God Forsaken Blue State U correctly so I imagine the grading is over until Sunday night.
You may want to keep the hammer on standby. If they stick to the usual pattern, at least one will go on a bender tonight, and that’s when things get ugly and personal.
Thanks for the information. I am good for at least 500 miles from when I leave San Antonio. I will find a Buc-ee’s for gas and a bathroom break.
Wizard of Id: You Pull it Yard
https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2026/04/24
No, no, no, no.
“So much fail”
https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=13001
I need a Side By Side real bad. About a hundred of my 350+ neighbors have one. My brother’s boys rolled one of his Side By Sides, a Kaw Mule, back about 20 years ago with 6 kids in it, one broke an arm.
Hat tip to:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/04/pie-in-sky-prepping-or-getting-real.html
“Old Houston mall coming down as Texas bullet train plans heat up”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/northwest-mall-bullet-train-texas-22224230.php
“Could a bullet train actually be coming to Houston?”
My dad and nine other guys owned the Northwest Bank And Trust at that mall back in the 1970s, Northwest Mall. Dad was the President of the bank. Dad and them barely got out with their shirts right before the crash in 1986. The new owners of the bank managed to crash the bank, got it seized by the FDIC, and spent some time at the Federal Resort in Big Spring, Texas. When you own the bank, you control the auditor, for a while. Then the FDIC auditor shows up and writes off everything suspect.
It is a shame to see what that mall has become.
You need a SxS like my chickens need a handful of raisins. Sure, you want it real bad and you’ll carry on loudly about not having it, but you don’t neeeeeeeeeeeed it.
(Yes, I compared you to my chickens, but I didn’t compare your intellect to that of my chickens, so it’s ok.)
“Reflex: A Jumper Novel” by Steven Gould
https://www.amazon.com/Reflex-Jumper-Novel-Steven-Gould/dp/0812578546?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a four book science fiction series. Or is it a fantasy series ? I have read this book several times, maybe six or seven times now. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Tor in 2005. I am reading the third book in the series now.
I have always wanted to be a teleporter. I mean, it is the ultimate for a lazy man. I first picked this book up on a lark in 2005 and was extremely surprised at how good it is. The characters are well developed and suck you into their stories. I actually read this book before “Jumper” and bought “Jumper” after I finished “Reflex”.
Would you like to be able to teleport ? What happens if someone kidnaps and chains you to the wall while they “train” you to perform their nefarious deeds ?
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,233 reviews)
Lynn
“Husband Turns Pregnant Wife’s Texts Into a Pop Punk Song and It’s Actually Pretty Good”
https://rumble.com/v78xwq8-husband-turns-pregnant-wifes-texts-into-a-pop-punk-song-and-its-actually-pr.html?mref=1wxk5&mc=ehuil
Funny.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“I got an inside look at the plan to bring the soul back to Windows 11 — Microsoft’s bet on quality, community, and making the OS feel human again”
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows/i-got-an-inside-look-at-the-plan-to-bring-the-soul-back-to-windows-11-exclusive
Too little, too late ?
I received a notice from Computershare about someone’s Warner Discovery stock. Like, contact us or it’s going to escheat to the State of Texas. Because we have have no contact with you about this account.
I asked. Warner Discover has not paid any dividends in 2022, Ah, so, why would there be any contact, like a cashed dividend check?
Anyway. She’s going to send a package of stuff so I can transfer the 11 shares of Warner Discovery to my name. Should hopefully also take care of the 44 shares of T.
I ought to dig up the paper shares. 44 shares at Computershare but I don’t know if that includes the paper shares he received 30+ years ago.
So once this is sorted maybe I can sell all of it. The T dividends are all of $13.32 a quarter. Half of what they were before the Warner Discovery scam.
I just looked. T is $26.20 a share. When I worked for Bernie, VCRs were new. Beta was Best but VHS was cheaper. He would have me call his stockbroker for share prices. Every morning. It got to where I called before he arrived at the store and I’d hand him a sheet of paper with today’s prices.. [I think by his smile he really like that.] I sorta think T was pushing $100 in the mid-80’s.
I haven’t looked, I assume the WD stock is all of $3 a share.
So get rid of T and WD and maybe pocket all of $1500. After fees, of course.
But done. One less thing to deal with at tax time.
One less, perhaps the last, thing to do to with his estate. I’m sure something will pop-up.
YES!!! Ok, maybe not like Aunt Clara landing in coat closets. But to the grocery store, and back to the house with a couple of bags of groceries? You bet.
Yeah, the teleporting into bank vaults is tempting but I hope I’m too honest to ever do that.
Like “jaunting” in Bester’s “The Stars My Destination”? Yes, very cool indeed.
Overall, Yes. Add on the constant updating and constant nagging to use Onedrive.
And don’t forget the spyware baked into the operating system.
North on I35, your options will be Temple, Hillsboro, and, NE on I-30 heading to Texarkana, Royse City.
Arkansas wouldn’t give The Beaver tax breaks under the old Governor. The first in the state will open in East Memphis next year.
In just about everything you use. Your computer (except build-your-own Linux systems, but the apps on that system probably have spyware), social media, your phone, your vehicle, your grocery store, your ISP, your credit report, your postings on sites (even this one), etc., etc., etc.
Very hard to be ‘invisible’. If not impossible.
Microsoft’s bet on quality, community, and making the OS feel human again”
– category error. The OS should be invisible, and it never did, nor should it, feel “human”.
n
It is a shame to see what a lot of malls have become.
Retail will have to be re-learned including advertising.
The neighborhoods around mine are adding more Flock license plate reader cams. Even out in the country on the way to the BOL, one of the towns or the county put a Flock camera on the state highway.
The sheriff was bragging that they used it to catch a serial scofflaw with several reckless driving, racing, and fleeing charges pending.
I’m not a fan.
n
I have MacDonalds and ChevronTexaco at ComputerShare. I log in once a year to keep the account active and get the numbers to enter the dividend reinvestment transactions manually into Quicken for taxes.
– they’ll use the existence of the station as a sunk cost fallacy argument for continuing to develop the project. I’d like a high speed link to Dallas, if you could walk on and off, but I’m sure it will be like airport TSA screening. Also, with this project, there are still right of way issues and angry landowners who don’t want their property seized or cut in half by a rail line.
The area around that mall is already being re-developed with tall skinny dense housing and big multi story mixed use apartment complexes springing up.
n
Current T is a essentially Southwest Bell under a new name with Ameritech, Bell South, and Pac Bell folded in. The old T was essentially worthless when SBC took it over.
When we stopped at The Varsity in Atlanta last Fall, the BellSouth building no longer had the Death Star logo. The building was gutted when I was there for scab training in 2009, but the company no longer pretended by September of last year.
High speed rail to Plano or even DFW would make sense, but not Downtown Dallas.
Yeh, there is a Buc-ee’s on I-30 that I have stopped at before. The biggest issue in Arkansas is the truck traffic. Two trucks, one traveling at 65.10 MPH, the one next to it traveling a 65.11 MPH, for 20 miles.
Maybe the Dems want to be out of power in Florida for three generations.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ashley-moody-must-beat-people-165140885.html
I almost learned the hard way that Waze is useless in Arkansas for avoiding speed traps.
80 in a 65 zone. Fortunately, I spotted the “gumball” lights in the distance in time.
Break out two front teeth, one headlight and one taillight, and you should be golden and able to blend in with the locals. A faded, slightly torn, pair of jeans that are stained with pig crap will really set the local charade. Tobacco stains on the fingers are optional.
I generally travel about 4MPH over the posted speed limit, when I can because traffic is not an issue. I despise the left lane losers that camp in the left lane, and the middle lane morons that have to be passed on the right. Both groups are complete idiots.
“Texas Power Demand Could Quadruple by 2032, ERCOT Warns”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Texas-Power-Demand-Could-Quadruple-by-2032-ERCOT-Warns.html
“ERCOT, which serves most of Texas, set its current peak demand record of 85,508 MW in August 2023.”
Why does ERCOT keep on pushing this distorted view of expectations ?
The capital requirements to build all of these facilities are in the trillions of Dollars.
“IEA’s Birol Says Iran War Will Permanently Cut Into Future Oil Demand”
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/IEAs-Birol-Says-Iran-War-Will-Permanently-Cut-Into-Future-Oil-Demand.html
“International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol says the Iran war has permanently changed the fossil fuel industry and will accelerate a shift toward renewables, nuclear power and electrification at the expense of oil demand.”
Meh. The demand for oil is very elastic based on the price. People have temporary options to move to something else or they stop using energy for a while.
When and if the price for oil drops, the demand will skyrocket again. Oil is just too flexible as an energy source for people to walk away from it.
I use Android Auto, basically Google Maps + Waze, when driving through Arkansas.
It’s been very good to me about warning of “police activity” ahead.
In the past, I had the same complaints about truckers in Arkansas, but my trip last month was excellent. Smooth sailing up to St. Louis and back. Even the construction seemed better.
Waze is only as good as the reports it gets from people. If nobody reports a speed trap, you won’t see it.
I use it when travelling. I’ll usually see several po-po icons spread out a bit, both sides of the highway. That tells me there is at least one camped out, but not necessarily at the exact spot of the icon.
The more travelled the highway, the more chance you will get reports of things. I recall there being a setting to show you other Waze users.
Overall, useful. But always good to keep a sharp eye out. Although by the time you see the po-po, they have already seen you with their radar. @Greg got lucky.
I have a simple solution, I just drive the posted limit. I used to push it, and in my younger days was quite cavalier about speed limits. DOZENS of tickets in my first couple of years driving… And when I rode a superbike, I treated the signs as optional, and still got caught more than once. Took the class in every jurisdiction every time I could. One time, only became eligible a few days before getting popped again.
All the driving I do around town now, and all the trips to the BOL thru little towns with 30mph for one block, convinced me it’s just not worth it. The money and time it costs now, when you add in the hit to insurance rates, is too much for me to justify.
I don’t like to rush, rushing is when you take risks, and I like to only take risks when there is a reward. I’m also flexible on my arrival time, which not everyone is, but everyone can control when they leave.
I worked for decades in an industry where “on time is late, and 15 minutes early is on time” was a standard.
And I’ve challenged myself more than enough times now to believe the google estimate, and trust that local knowledge really won’t get me there sooner. Nor will bursts of speed.
BTW, I’m one of the people hitting the “object on road” or “police ahead” buttons and reporting the issue, so if you’re in Houston when I’m driving around, mutter a thanks! (google sends notices about how many people you’ve helped with a report. Sometimes it’s 20, sometimes 200)
—————
One kid is out of town on a school event, the other was working and is now at a party. Wife and I decided to watch a movie, and I’d found the short clips from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to be entertaining, so we watched that. Um, bait and switch. It’s a bunch of short films, mostly concerning people getting graphically killed or being killed in very sh!tty circumstances out west during the 1800s. Very little of the “dark humor” that the blurb promised. The last film was the weirdest and ended about 10 minutes before the story got to the “makes sense” point.
Not recommended, despite the good performances. (Liam Neeson, Tyne Daley, others)
—————–
Waiting for D1 to get home. Maybe I’ll have a tiny little fire. Or maybe I’ll just shower and read for a bit.
n
This probably isn’t good.
https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-15762741/stolen-agricultural-drones-new-jersey.html
n
Kid’s party got shut down by police and they are blocking the cars leaving, presumably so they can screen the kids. So now she’s out after curfew.
And this dear child, is why we didn’t want you out late tonight.
n
Kid made it home safe. Her bestie got puked on by another girl, so they are learning… and she learned that I won’t be cleaning puke out of her car.
n