Cooler, and very wet. Then if the sun comes out, HOT and very wet. Parts of Houston got rain yesterday, parts got a LOT of rain. We got enough at the house I didn’t do any outdoor work.
I did do some office work, and some auction stuff. Then I did my pickup which took most of the afternoon. Not a terribly productive day. I did get a couple of barrel pumps, and almost had a chance to buy a couple of hundred gallons of kerosene, but they turned out to be empty. I’d have loved to get 2 fifty five gallon drums… although I have no idea how I’d have moved them.
Today I’m using the kid’s minivan to move a few bins of auction stuff to my new auctioneer. Then I’ll be home to swap vehicles, and go do another pickup or two. I bought some very expensive speakers for resale… Hopefully, I can just flip them, and not decide I want to keep them.
The work on my Ranger should be done later today, which just means the next phase of work will begin shortly after that. I need it in between though. I’ve been watching a lot of Ranger videos. Very popular to keep them running and very straightforward. I also looked at some bluebook values and I see that while it’s possible to find some that are very cheap, ones like mine with the extended cab are apparently worth about double what I thought they were. Some are going for $8-12K depending on miles and condition. I feel a little better about spending money on it.
Always be working to improve your position. The easiest way is to stack. And to TEST and USE your stacked preps.
nick
Tuesday. Good morning!
Are you on strike? You can listen to music on excellent speakers while you are on strike…
I regret all the years of listening to music on suboptimal speakers for the sake of saving a few grand (which, admittedly, we didn’t always have). What a waste…
Hot again, but not quite as hot as before. Windows wide open to change out the air…
If you look very closely, you might see me poking my head out for a breath of fresh air:
https://www.ueberlingen-bodensee.de/webcam
Have a good day!
I use a Braumeister (story below), and I do have a pretty good recipe for a Pilsner beer. It’s the one my neighbors seem to like the most, because – frankly – it’s the most boring of my beers, most similar to the commercial beer you get everywhere. But I’m shw
My favorite recipe is a Klosterbier: a bit darker with a stronger flavor than a Pilsner or Lager. My wife’s favorite is a Weizenbier (wheat beer) that I make at about 3.5% alcohol. A typical evening, we each drink two 50cl bottles. Which explains why I have to brew so often…
Braumeister story: Mine is old, probably 20 years old by now. Worked like a champ until last year, when the control unit gave up the ghost. The good news is, you can buy a new control unit. The bad news is, you can buy a new control unit. Which comes with new and modern features. Always online, subscription required, the disease of the modern internet.
They have also tried to idiot-proof it. For example, when it’s time to do something (like removing the malt pipe), it stops, beeps and says “do X”. You do X, click “continue” and it stops ans says “have you done X?” requiring you to click again. Annoying. But those are minor grumbles. The beast must have produced something towards 10000 liters of beer by now.
I hear you. The standard American Coors, Budweiser, etc. are just awful. The first beers I enjoyed were dark beers. Then, in Austin, I discovered Shiner Bock. Hey, lighter beers can be great, too!
@Denis: You live in Überlingen? Really not far away! Nice view!
Sorry, I can’t link our webcam. Well, I could, but it’s been offline since January, while the town argues with SwissCom and Roundshot about who pays how much…
EdH, glad you are OK!
Brad, I am indeed in Überlingen, but just visiting…
Heading to your side of the lake on Thursday. I want to visit the LiqShop in St. Gallen.
I come from a country where a beer is known as “mother’s milk”. I live in a country with hundreds of beers (I haven’t tasted them all, but I have tried…). My BOL is right between two craft breweries, and close to a specialist beer emporium. I have two beer cellars.
I nevertheless find that, if I want a beer, I generally select a Pils; light, refreshing, and I can drink it without soon reaching a point where I say I don’t want to consume any more liquids.
My favorite is Tannenzäpfle. I think there is a reason that pilsner are a commercial success worldwide. Maybe I am just mundane.
Can your recipe be shared?
For those with ant problems:
https://www.wikihow.com/Kill-Ants-Using-Borax
A 4-pound box of 20 Mule Team Borax is often found with the laundry products at the grocery store. About $7.
It’s also available on Amazon, but you have to drill through the discount offers with $20 delivery to find the prime shipping eligible listing.
Hang on Here: Employers Hiring J-1 Visa Holders Make No Social Security Tax Payments?
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/08/11/hang-on-here-employers-hiring-j-1-visa-holders-make-no-social-security-tax-payments-n3817829
There are some jobs where there is a genuine shortage of labor and it makes sense to allow temporary visas for foreign workers. Ski resorts do not have any of those jobs.
The next phase of immigration enforcement should include applying all of the penalties currently on the law books to the employers–good and hard. Arrest illegal aliens working and arrest everyone at the company that is involved in hiring at the same time, put them in the same holding cells, and give them no priority for processing.
But first update the penalties to include public whipping.
Is there still such a thing as learning a trade in prison?
Seems like training short-termers to do roofing, drywall, plaster, and other jobs that attract illegals would be a slam-dunk.
UP and moving. Coffee brewing. Gotta get the stuff sold…
and then get the van back for the kid’s use. No way I’m letting her drive my Expy. It’s too big and too fast.
n
Thanks!
I do think that’s a good long term goal. My brush clearance is about as good as I can personally do, it’s bad neighbors that I don’t have control over that concern me (You will not be surprised to hear these are the neighbors with other bad social habits).
I don’t have (or want) a pool, but maybe a small koi pond? It is always best to avoid
imperial entanglementscounty permitting and building inspectors If possible. Then there is the FF equipment itself and piping, generator(s) powerful enough to run it all, fuel storage, and PPE if I elect to stay. If I elect to go, timers and maybe comms/camera’s (one can’t really depend on utilities staying up).I may start replacing the old dry wooden trim, with some fire resistant engineered wood, fascia, soffitts, windows. I don’t like the looks of the stuff I have seen, but that may just be that people are picking the cheapest stuff available and not the attractive stuff.
Lots to think about. Well, the pyramids weren’t built in a day.
I really despise calling some companies, like Ally and Ameriprise. I wind up talking with someone in India with a horrible accent making them very difficult to understand. “I speakey English bery gudly” is not acceptable support. And to think these people, in a foreign country, have access to all my account information and the information of others. What controls are in place? No wonder people get scammed and money stolen or just flat out missing funds.
Fire resistant siding ideas.
https://www.backwoodshome.com/life-long-siding-with-fiber-cement-board/
That’s what I want.
My house siding is actually clapboards made of that stuff, though a layer paint on it means that it’s not entirely inflammable.
But the soffit and facia are old, dry, wood, and having soffitt vents means flames there have immediate access to the attic, so that is probably the next thing to address.
One of the reasons the English language is truly weird.
Lost power last night between 7:30 and 9:30. Every thing remained bearable and house only went from 76 to 78 during that time. D1 and grandkids here so flashlight crazy time with the 6 and 4 yo. Looking at the PGE text alerts I get we haven’t had an outage since May of 25.
103F coming up today better than 107F we had yesterday
Dropped off a vanload and back at home. Wish I could have looped in my two pickups that are up that way, but schedule didn’t permit. I’ll be headed up north again in an hour or two in my truck.
n
Ugh. I do think we have a cooling trend coming up, and there’s definitely some high clouds here today. I’m 60 or 70 miles as a crow flies south of you (other side of the Tehachapi’s), but they are predicting only 99F today – and high winds, natch.
I’ve been impressed by the little 2kW ‘Pulsar dual fuel’ generator – I’ve only run it on propane so old/dirty gas isn’t an issue. It started on about the third or fourth pull, after sitting for a year. I will probably order another propane regulator with hose, I didn’t have any problems but the high desert is hard on soft plastics, two is one, one is none…
Mamdani’s Wife Gets Brutal Response After Asking NYPD to Babysit Her in War Zones
https://redstate.com/rusty-weiss/2026/08/11/mamdanis-wife-gets-embarrassing-response-after-asking-nypd-to-babysit-her-in-war-zones-n2205467
It would be too bad after the visibility of all this publicity if something happened.
Kiddo the Cat, Reluctant Aviator
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/kiddo-cat-reluctant-aviator
Note the restriction in the photo captions “This is an archival image, do not reproduce without permission from the National Air and Space Museum archives.” has no force, as the images are certainly out of copyright from their 1910/1911 dates .
@Denis: Pilsner recipe? Sure, here it is: 4kg Pilsner malt, 1kg Wheat malt (light). 25l brewing water, 5-6 liter for lautering. Timing: Optional protein rest 53C/20min, then 63C/40min, 73C/25min and 78C/10min. Boil 90 minutes, with 20g hops after 20 minutes and 10g hops after 80 minutes. Which hops? Depends on my mood, but, but often Hallertauer.
Hope that makes sense?
DiJonai Carrington Denies Intentionally Fouling Sophie Cunningham — Then Threatens Her Again
https://redstate.com/rusty-weiss/2026/08/11/dijonai-carrington-denies-intentionally-fouling-sophie-cunningham-then-threatens-her-again-n2205472
The rest of the Fever should take turns hard-fouling this puta.
#WaitingForKantorandWhite
Dr Fauci made mistakes. But his persecution is a travesty
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/10/dr-fauci-persecution-republicans
Four errors in the tile and subhead:
He did not make “mistakes” and we are not second-guessing his decisions. We have hard evidence that he knew at the time that he was lying, putting people and their children at risk, endangering their livelihoods, and playing drunk with power games.
It’s not persecution to be called to account for crimes.
It’s not travesty, it is a just reckoning.
Funny how leftist word-grinders can excuse dishonest political policies that result in millions of deaths and untold destruction, but get all hurty-feelings when others don’t go along with their requirements to redefine words like “man” and “woman”. She’d have a teacher lose their job and be blacklisted for the “crime of misgendering”, but she wants to send Fauci the Butcher off to retirement with a six-figure pension.
Actually, I miscounted. Five:
“Republicans’ politicized response”
Rand Paul made thousands of pages of evidence of Fauci’s perfidy available ahead of his Senate appearance. Not one Democrat accessed that information–they already had their talking points written. THAT is a politicized response.
Thanks, Brad. Indeed it does. You have the 25 litre Braumeister?
Just reckoning? Impaled on a spike, his entire fortune dedicated to victims of his perfidy, including all those who suffered miscarriages, loss of life, maiming by the injection, loss of education, loss of socialization, stolen elections, lost jobs, lost careers.
Not stopping with him. Everyone in HHS, CDC, NIH, and such who knew, or should have known, of the dangers should lose their pensions, savings, and get clawback of their salaries for fraud and/or reckless incompetence.
It wasn’t that hard, folks. We knew from the Diamond Princess that the most virulent form of the virus (later ones were attenuated) was fatal in at most 2% of those infected, when you had a population of vulnerable older people. And before they realized that ventilators were the wrong approach. And that same population, trapped together for a period of time, vulnerable, had 80% who did not get infected. So the threat of death, to a largely vulnerable population, with incompetent medical professionals, was 2% of 20%, or 0.4%. 4 in a thousand. In its deadliest variant.
It’s those fools’ JOB to know this sort of stuff. Instead, we got masks, clot shots, mRNA poison, draconian shutdowns and mandates. PREP act, big pharma immunity.
Epidemiologists are innumerate idiots. Dunning-Krueger flags flying high.
Never again should a people suffer from this nonsense. It should be fatal to handle things this way. de facto if not de jure. Just sayin’
@Brad
The recipe didn’t include yeast. Is my understanding incorrect?
“EXCLUSIVE: Wuhan’s ‘Bat Woman’ Runs A New Lab Creating Coronaviruses That Can Infect Humans. U.S. Tax Dollars Are Still Supporting Her Work.”
https://nataliegwinters.substack.com/p/exclusive-wuhans-bat-woman-is-building
“Shi Zhengli is recruiting researchers for “pathogen discovery/coronavirus” and “cross-species infection risk” work. NIH-backed scientists continued collaborating with her after COVID, including on research using materials she supplied from her new Chinese laboratory.”
These people are crazy. We need them stopped right now.
I had a dream last night where Fauci created a coronavirus that killed off 90% of the population of the USA and the Earth. And Fauci was incredibly happy.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
For those with ant problems:
https://www.wikihow.com/Kill-Ants-Using-Borax
A 4-pound box of 20 Mule Team Borax is often found with the laundry products at the grocery store. About $7.
It’s also available on Amazon, but you have to drill through the discount offers with $20 delivery to find the prime shipping eligible listing.
I like using the Amdro ant killer because it is non-toxic to humans and animals (supposedly). My dog eats grass all the time in the backyard, I do not want to hurt her when I treat an ant bed in my ¾ acre back yard.
But first update the penalties to include public whipping.
We should bring back the stocks too. Lots of overripe tomatoes out there.
“Buying a New PC? A Windows 11 Price Hike Could Soon Make It More Expensive”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/buying-a-new-pc-a-windows-11-price-hike-could-soon-make-it-more-expensive
“Microsoft has increased licensing fees for Windows 11 by 7-10%, and at least two brands are set to raise PC prices in Taiwan by 5% this quarter, reports United Daily News.”
More people will move to Linux.
In other Win11 news, their built in weather app uses 1.2GB ram by default.
“Christian-Owned Women’s Nude Spa Forced to Cater to Men, Now Supreme Court May Put Hands on Case”
https://thelibertydaily.com/christian-owned-womens-nude-spa-forced-cater-men/
Boys have penises, girls have vaginas. Why is this simple phrase so hard to understand for some people?
Would a 20kT warhead on the site of each lab and storage facility be enough to 99.99% be sure of killing every pathogen or do we need to move into the MT range?
Thought 1: Any “woman with a penis” who forces “her”self into a women’s space should have the distinguishing characteristic which demonstrates “not a woman” removed. On the spot. A Buck knife or box cutter should suffice. Pour high-concentrate rubbing alcohol on the site of the surgery afterward to prevent infection.
Thought 2: Ain’t none of my business. Loud-mouthed women (which constitutes about 95% of all women) have been saying for two decades or more that men need to keep out of women’s issues. Mentally ill or predatory men in women’s spaces is clearly a women’s issue, so it’s no concern of mine. Let women handle it.
I let the hens out for 15 min or so while I cleaned the coop, filled the dust bath, and filled the food containers. They had run back to the compost area and eaten the eggshells and other yummy treats, then drifted up to the front bushes to sun themselves and roll in the dirt. Note that the temp is around 80F and the sky is as clear and non-hazy as it ever gets around here. Very reluctant to Go Home even when I hit the bushes with a stick and waved crackers in their faces. Eventually they made it in and happily ate their crackers.
I filled the coop with wood chips rather than straw this time. Let’s see if they kick all the chips out the way they kicked all of the straw out. Buttheads.
Also, it looks like a mouse or similar had been nesting in the wood chips bag – there was a wad of fuzz obviously taken from a piece of cloth. If I had any hope of ever getting her back, I’d leave the ferret in the shed for a few hours to see what pests she could catch. Of course, she’s a house ferret and so far as I know has never killed anything, so she might be as scared of a mouse as the mouse would be of her. She didn’t even recognize fresh beef and chicken as food when I offered her some. She seems healthy and happy enough, so I guess the pellets and cage are good enough. It still offends me on some deep level. She had fun running around this morning when I cleaned her cage and then had more fun fighting me while I tried to scratch under her chin and behind her ears.
In other Win11 news, their built in weather app uses 1.2GB ram by default
Luckily, this app is not running on my 32 GB ram Windows 11 office PC. Or else it is nymshifting which I would not put it past the current programmers at Mickeysoft.
“The Goalposts Won’t Hold Still”
https://areaocho.com/the-goalposts-wont-hold-still/
“Do it, then. No, actually DO it. Commit to the bit. – Take hormones (I recommend injections!) – Get facial surg, breast aug and SRS with the $ you got from being a hall of fame household name – Change your name and live as a woman in society Anything less is cis male COWARDICE”
“EXCLUSIVE: Former NBA first-round pick Royce White says he’s declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft, claiming he now identifies as transgender for the purpose of playing professional basketball. The 6-foot-8 former Houston Rockets draft pick follows fellow former NBA”
I am not sure what SRS is but I suspect that it is bottom surgery to convert the penis into a vagina. In other words, split the hot dog open and invert it.
https://www.thepelvichub.com/blogs/ask-the-experts/do-i-have-to-use-dilators-forever-after-srs
“Wendy’s has a massive problem: It’s closing restaurants left and right”
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/wendys-has-a-massive-problem-its-closing-restaurants-left-and-right-171131528.html
“Buried inside Wendy’s brutal second quarter earnings call last week was a mention that 289 locations closed in the US during the first half of the year.”
“There are about 5,700 Wendy’s in the US.”
That is not good. I like their square burgers with all of the fresh fixings on them. But my diet does not allow burgers and fries anymore.
I wonder if the pi-hole would filter the ads? No matter to me. I go to the local NWS site for the weather forecast.
Also, the app on my phone is fantasy for my location. I think, don’t know, that I’m getting a forecast for the general Austin Metro area. Anyway, it’s not worth a bucket of warm spit.
Always be working to improve your position. The easiest way is to stack. And to TEST and USE your stacked preps.
I finally backed my up my new Dell home PC over the weekend to two external USB drives. I do have an 4 TB backup hard drive attached to my home PC that I run every weekend. But, I looked at my three external drives and found that they had not been updated for two years. So the 2 TB and the 4 TB are updated but very old.
Not in my opinion. More people will move to MacOS. A MacBook NEO will run circles around any Microsoft OS device at the same price point. And the installation includes very capable spreadsheet, word processing, Email, and presentation software, and some other software at no additional cost. The NEO does not suffer from the bloat that comes with Windows installations on cheaper laptops. The NEO is a better-quality machine than the half-baked plastic shelled stuff from HP that HSN sells and the overpriced Dell, ASUS, Acer machines at Walmart and Costco.
The integration of the NEO with an iPhone and iPad is something that Windows does not even come close to achieving. And the NEO comes in colors. The only real limitation over Windows laptops is the screen size.
There is also much better support for the NEO than with Windows. Apple has stores into which people can walk and get problems solved. Apple has phone support which actually works, the people speak English and know what they are doing. Support for Linux “RTFM and if you can’t find the manual you are too stupid to use Linux” is not going to win hearts with the average user.
The only real advantage to Windows machines is the desktops where customization is significant. Upgrades can be easily done with Windows desktops. Laptops can have SSDs replaced, memory upgraded, generally fairly easily. But your average user is just not going to be doing those types of upgrades.
Oh, they fully understand. But they have traits, like not brushing their teeth and bathing that makes any object of their desire run away from the stench.
Big diff between not taking a shower for a week and smelling worse than a nursing home resident or smelling like a horse or dog after a hard day’s work outside.
Assuming it’s some variant of low-carb, I hear most burger chains sell naked patties.
My standard order at McDonalds is 3 or 4 quarter pound patties, with same number of cheese slices, served on shredded lettuce. I’d hold the lettuce these days. You have to order with a human, and ask for the ala carte menu, but it can be done and it’s cheap-ish.
I haven’t done that in a while, like six months. But I did it before I fell of the carnivore wagon.
In-n-Out has a “double-double no spread protein style”, which is 2 beef, 2 cheese, tomato, and onion with an iceberg lettuce “bun”. It’s not cheap; In-n-Out believe their own hype.
I’ve heard of other people doing the same at BK and Wendy’s.
“Caterpillar sales surpass $20B as generators for data centers take off”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/caterpillar-sales-surpass-20b-growing-data-center-demand-q2-2026/827569/
“Power generation retail sales grew 72% year over year. To meet demand, the company is resuming production of a 10-MW medium-speed gas reciprocating engine platform it stopped manufacturing in 2022.”
The AI Data Center craziness is affecting all portions of our economy. When the musical chairs stop, the damage will be severe.
“Inspired By AOC, James Talarico Also Elects To Have His Eggs Frozen”
https://babylonbee.com/news/inspired-by-aoc-james-talarico-also-elects-to-have-his-eggs-frozen
I read this without warning and almost choked to death, I was laughing so hard.
I get 5 “Flying Dutchmen” at In-N-Out. Five burger patties with cheese in a box. Ask for a fork or carry your spork at all times.
“Nuke it from orbit, just to be sure.”
This reminds me of Fido. She was my cat. She showed up at the apt complex and the folks next door took care of her. She was already fixed. Anyway, they moved and handed me the cat. Uh, well, ok, she seems to like me.
I forget what they named her. This was way back in ‘80. But she came when I whistled at her. How do you spell that sound? As bad as I whistle I’m sure several Thorns þ would be needed. So I named her Fido. “Kitty” was too lame.
One time I was cooking hamburger patties on the hibachi. On the back porch. And not knowing what I was doing, constantly pressing and turning the patties.
A chunk of meat fell off. First joint of Index finger size. Raw. Toss it to Fido. She looked at it and sniffed it. Nope. So I put it on the corner of the grill and cooked it. Then she liked it.
After that I made sure to make her a small flat meatball when cooking on the grill.
That cat was a trip.
I will disagree. Linux Mint simply works. It comes with almost everything I need. The LibreOffice stuff starts almost instantly, just a heartbeat slower than NotePad on Win11.
Firefox and Thunderbird work as expected. Sure, you have to edit a config file so the new installs, on an entirely new OS, will use it. Pretty much seamless. And you have all of your FF add ons and tools bars and bookmarks.
TBird was a little for cranky but I went from TBird 2.xx to 140.xx. But that was an easy “right click on folder and Properties and Repair Folder.”
Everything I use works. VLC is the same. FileZilla is the same.
I haven’t figured how to type þ. The Windows way of alt 0254 doesn’t work.
þ
It’ s confusing.
þ þ
þ plus a ; seems to work.
After which, you say “Sure, you have to edit a config file so the new installs, on an entirely new OS, will use it.” which is beyond Millennials and Grandparents.
You also have to buy a laptop/pc and install Linux which is beyond Millennials and Grandparents. Or, if it comes installed, you get no instructions. “Go flat pack it in or get a tarball…”
I’m an Apple fan boi and I run several flavors of Linux in VMs to goof with. When I say that to anybody else in the household, I get “What you talkin’ bout, Willis?”
“Senator Rand Paul Reveals What He Found After Going Underground Inside Fort Knox to Inspect America’s Gold (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/senator-rand-paul-reveals-what-he-found-after/
147 million ounces of gold bars. That is 588 billion dollars at $4,000/ounce.
We are in deep financial trouble.
The last time I went into Wendy’s, the bill was almost $15 for a Single and a large drink. No fries.
I don’t see anyone in the Wendy’s closest to my house.
The radar imagery is probably cached and uncompressed if sufficient memory is available.
I’m not Redmond’s biggest fan, but I can understand the design choice. I wrote an iPhone weather app in grad school at one point.
The NWS radar data has one map projection, and the map widget on iOS uses whatever the default is on Google Maps. Windows is probably similar.
A big obstacle to presenting radar data is remapping the pixels to the map projection. That one stumped me for a few days until I figured out how to trick the iPhone into doing all of the math on the fly.
LMAO!
Redhead Rejected: AOC Quietly Boots Fiance Riley Roberts
The Soy-Boy was probably not commie enough for her.
She don wan no red-headed step-chile.
BillG, boy genius, would be thrilled.
To be fair, I heard Glenn Beck deliver a rant a few years ago about his family summer trip to Yellowstone, and, as I listened to him go on about dealing with the crowds/lines to do anything, I wondered if he would contribute to a research effort to wipe out a big chunk of humanity.
He certainly came close to suggesting it in that hour-long tirade.
I think Yellowstone is on a reservation system now.
Ruby Falls in Chattanooga is on a reservation system because of all the Colonists streaming through the city on their way to Nashville from Atlanta or vice versa.
If you want to understand the magnitude of the problem, go to the Riverwalk in San Antonio and park yourself on a bench in front of the ice cream store about 10 PM on the Saturday night before Labor Day. Then, count how many of the normally slow-moving river cruise boats speed by your location in a 15 minute period, every one loaded completely full of Colonists.
Red-diaper baby, not red-head baby!
When I was working in Minnesota 17 years ago, The Elder Child and I looked into a trip to Yellowstone. Decided against it because a lot of people on blogs and such were saying that it was no fun because of the crowding. Ditto for Mt Rushmore and some other popular attraction.
We did do a fair amount of just driving and walking around northern Minnesota and enjoyed it. Plus a trip to the Mall of America for birthday shopping, which he greatly enjoyed and I greatly did not. I was living and working in a very small city – small enough that my presence was noticeable on the census the next year – and the number of people in the restaurant where we had lunch was greater than the number of people I normally saw in a day.
Those prices are typical for just about any burger place – big chains or independents.
My local Wendy’s shows $7.50 for a Single “Dave’s” cheeseburger. Large drinks are about $4.00. Plus tax. All the other big chains are similar prices. Combo meals are sometimes a bit cheaper.
In-N-Out might be cheaper, if they are in your area. But all places have much higher prices than a couple years ago. The result of higher wages, higher beef costs, transportation (big trucks needing $6/gallon diesel), etc. Higher diesel costs are a big factor in increased prices of just about everything. And not helped by bad decisions by various governments.
Any time anyone has to edit a file to “make it work” puts Linux beyond most households. I programmed, and used computers, since 1969. I am not editing a config file where a misplaced comma, semicolon, dash (-) this or dash that etc. will make a system inoperable. Those days are long gone.
Add in multiple distributions, multiple shell selections, just adds to the confusion. People want to buy a computer, turn it on, and it works. That does not happen with Linux as you clearly stated.
Throw in dependencies, arcane commands “grep anyone?”, oddball piping method, horrible or non-existent support keeps Linux out of the mainstream for the average desktop user.
Then good for you and keep doing what works for you. I believe your technical expertise is well above the average user and probably mine. People such as yourself keep Linux alive.
Even Apple machines, which are supposed to be easy to use, is questionable based on my experience at the Apple Store when I am buying something. A dozen, or more, people having problems solved at the Genius Bar. The “average” user is not computer literate.
Judge Oldham Delivers the Zingers As 5th Circuit Nukes Biden-Era Stove Rule
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2026/08/11/more-expensive-and-less-useful-judge-nukes-biden-era-stove-restrictions-in-hilarious-decision-n2205490
I’m amazed that the Founders gave the federal government the duty of regulating stoves.
Bad, and decision, by any government is redundant.
I may have eaten at wendy’s once. And that was at least 40, maybe 45 years ago. No desire to eat there at all.
I used to like Arby’s, the mystery meat is delicious if you aren’t expecting a french dip sandwich, but it’s been since the late 80s since I had anything from there.
Tried Whataburger once. Got a bare cheeseburger, because I didn’t know to order stuff like ketchup and mustard or onions. Done with that.
IDK the last time I had mcd’s but I bet I had it once in the last 20 years. Same for BK.
I’ve had In n Out several times in the last couple of years, and would have it more often but the stores aren’t convenient to me. I love the double double, but will admit it took a while to warm up to their fresh fries.
I’ve had Jack in the Box more often than anything, but it’s getting too expensive and the one near me closed.
I’ve probably had KFC more than JinBox in the last couple of years.
Had Cane’s once in the last 10 years, iirc. Never had Popeye’s that I can recall.
Haven’t had Taco Bell or Del Taco in at least 2 decades.
I’ll eat chain store pizza if it’s in front of me, and you paid. Maybe.
Chik fil a doesn’t do it for me, and I only really know from them catering our kids’ swim team a couple of times.
——-
I’m starving at the moment, but no one else is home. Dunno what I’ll make.
n
She probably has a Sugar Daddy who needs to be serviced, but Soy Boys are so 2023.
Celebrity women are hanging with finance bros now. The higher the dollar amounts of the Monkey Trick circle jerk, the more important the finance people become.
Maybe when the tolled portion of 29 reaches Burnet.
That’s coming sooner than you’d think.
Meanwhile, flying under the radar.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/residents-storm-city-council-texas-over-islamic-center-approval
Tyler Durden byline but not protecting cowardice from a mainstream source.
If you think “MAGA” Mays is going to continue whatever Paxton is doing if he wins the election, I suggest you go look at Middleton’s record in the Texas Legislature.
McKinney is 30% Colonist.
Everyone repeats the “linux has bad support” meme, but when was the last time you got support for windows? Windows “support” for most people is asking someone who knows, or just putting up with whatever is wrong. Next level up is google and youtube which is completely crapified by not being able to search by OS and all the AI scraped garbage.
Millions if not a billion or more people use linux every day and it just works. On their phone, which is either already, or going to be soon, the most common way to access the internet.
We, here, think of computers as tools, a hobby, a job, or something else. Computers for us exist separately, even if they are dirt common. For everyone younger than us (in the technological West) they just exist.
For the vast majority, you can substitute “TV user” for “PC user”. They can turn it on, and control it to some extent, but they don’t “use” it in any particular way except passively.
Calling today’s kids the “digital generation” or “digital natives” is like calling someone the “pencil” generation, or the automobile generation. You might even be able to infer a lot more than I mean from those names too. These kids have no idea that computers and phones are even “technology”. They’re bricks that do things. They’re just part of the way things are == like cars. They don’t know the history of the IC engine, or the development of the highway system, or the societal changes brought about by the ease, freedom and low cost of travel by car. They know there are cars and trucks, that some people “race” cars, that some cars use batteries, and that roads connect things. They might have access to good cars, or old broken down hoopties. They know other people have better cars. That’s it. Of course there are outliers in computers and in cars, but not many. Maybe not enough.
n
The soyboy looked like a handler to me. Not a love interest.
n
Socks-n-Sandals was part of AOC’s Brooklyn tech nerd affect.
He’s served his purpose, and she no longer has to pretend about being “Sandy from the Block”.
Maybe she’ll hook up with Hasan Piker.
True, sort of. I have never once been greeted with an answer of “RTFM” or the one time “If I am stupid to know the answer I should not be running Linux” when asking for Windows help. Those two responses alone when asking for Linux help really left a sour taste.
Because the phone provider wrapped a shell around Linux that obscures the underlying OS. Apple does the same thing. The vendor provided all the drivers. The phone is very much a fixed environment, with known hardware the user cannot change.
The same cannot be said for running Linux on a desktop or laptop. Getting the network drivers, video drivers from the correct source, then editing some configuration file because something is different in the machine, is not workable for the average user.
Asking those same clueless generations to install and configure Linux is not going to happen. They don’t know what an operating system is, what a driver is, what a network card is. They just want their device to work. Linux is not to the point of just working. You yourself have had mysterious problems in the Linux for your video recording system. Do you think the average user is going to know enough to fix those issues?
We have been down this road before multiple times. Nobody has changed their mind, and won’t. Stubborn old mule I can be sometimes. I just want a machine to work without bit fiddling. Linux is not there.
Throw in dependencies, arcane commands “grep anyone?”, oddball piping method, horrible or non-existent support keeps Linux out of the mainstream for the average desktop user.
I use grep 10 to 20 times a day looking for code. With 1.4 million lines of code, finding code for a bug is incredibly difficult because you never crash at the bug location.
“Whistleblower nurse speaks out on Texas Children’s settlement”
https://wng.org/sift/whistleblower-nurse-speaks-out-on-texas-childrens-settlement-1786452966
“Vanessa Sivadge, a former nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital, on Monday told WORLD that after two years of litigation and intense stress, the hospital’s settlement finally cleared her name. The Texas Children’s Hospital’s settlement with her and the Justice Department was finalized last week, with the hospital saying that going ahead, it was focusing its resources on life-saving care and discoveries. The agreement ended an investigation into Sivadge’s whistleblower testimony that the hospital illegally used state funding to provide gender transition procedures for minors. She lost her nurse job after coming forward and now leads a child-advocacy and parental rights organization, Protecting Texas Children.”
“As part of the settlement, the hospital must permanently remove statements in which it labeled Sivadge a liar and a disgruntled employee, she said. The hospital also agreed to stop all gender-transition procedures on children. Instead, it must open a detransition clinic this fall and make all detransition treatments free for the first five years. The hospital also agreed to fire five physicians allegedly involved in providing so-called gender transitions, and will pay $10 million to resolve both federal and state Medicaid fraud claims.”
I love Texas Children’s Hospital. They saved the life of my cousin in 1970 with open heart surgery when she was three days old. They saved the life of my daughter in 2024 when the regular obgyn surgeons refused to do a hysterectomy on her because her endometrial tissue had grown up into her intestines, requiring the removal of her intestines and scraping the tissue off them.
But the Gender Clinic at TCH and the way they treated this nurse is just wrong. They even filed HIPPA charges on her with Biden’s FBI.
Her detailed story is here:
https://wng.org/podcasts/the-edge-of-accountability-part-i-1784230943
and
https://wng.org/podcasts/the-edge-of-accountability-part-ii-1784914534
Intel “Wildcat Lake” SOC laptops for Windows and Linux are starting to become available with specs similar to the Neo, but only the fringe Chinese brands have them available to order.
That’s a whole thing, right?
Just now I downloaded Ubuntu, the ARM64 version to install under Parallels. The install when OK.
I thought I would download MINT. Nope, no ARM version. The average user does not know if they are running ARM or X86. Ask them what X86 is and the result is a blank stare.
Then I tried to update the system as new updates were found. Three times the system generated a fault and asked to report the fault. Whether the updates installed, who knows.
Then I tried to download Libre office and do the install. There are two options for installation, RPM or DEB. Which is which? I tried RPM. It downloaded. But it won’t install as I don’t have permissions to open the files. Now what? I try DEB. When I open the folder I have dozens of files none of which say “install”.
A web search provides installation instructions. A person must use “sudo apt install libreoffice”. And where exactly does a person enter that text? That is not explained that it must be from the command line. OK. How does a person get to the command line? Another web search. CTL-ATL-T, but that does not work on Parallels.
OK, open the App center on a guess. Now do a search for “Libre Office”. Nope, comes back with a two items, none of which are related. Ah, let’s try searching for “Libreoffice” instead. That brings up the install button for Libre Office.
L:ibre Office installed and asked about a database. Why? Once I provided a response, there was a database screen. I clicked Save as there was no other option.
I click OK. I get a message that the database connection failed. No Java installation could be found.
Then Libre Office says I need JRE. I must install JRE, then restart Libre Office. No instructions about how to install JRE.
I go back to the App center, do a search for JRE. Nothing shows that is a java runtime environment.
I do a google search. I found a location. To install JRE I need to use “sudo apt install default-jre” from the command line. I am now back to the problem of accessing the command line.
I find the command line by clicking on the circle on the bottom left of the screen. A lucky guess. I paste the command to install JRE. I think it work. Lots of cryptic messages on the screen. Libre Writer now launches.
Do anyone really think the average user is going to go through this to get a system with a word processor and spreadsheet? What I did was from a clean installation, followed the prompts which were less than helpful, and used some common sense in searching for answers.
As long as Linux requires this much manual intervention, convoluted command lines, The average user would abandon Linux in a heartbeat.
As opposed to my MacBook. I powered it on, created a password, provided a WiFi password, answered some questions about location and keyboard, generally straight forward. Under applications I found Pages, Numbers and Mail already installed.
The same cannot be said for running Linux on a desktop or laptop. Getting the network drivers, video drivers from the correct source, then editing some configuration file because something is different in the machine, is not workable for the average user.
– you can order from certain big companies and get exactly that. Everything works out of the box. Change a video card under windows and it needs downloaded drivers too.
Schools do it with Chrome notebooks.
We think of computers separately from the OS because that’s how we came up. That’s not the case for most people. The kids have “chrome” notebooks, not Acer, or Lenovo. Or they have “Apple” computers. Or whatever phone.
Yes, I had issues with my linux box running the NVR software. I’ve had problems with my windows boxes running different software too. Installing the software updates fixed the issues and it’s been running untouched for a couple of years now, except I’m still doing the disc management because I can’t find a setting in the software to do it.
My points were, millions of people use linux every day and DON’T CARE. Millions use QNX (the underlying OS for Ford) without caring. I remember putting QNX on my laptop to see if I could. Yep, but wasn’t good for much.
They don’t see a car or a phone as a computer and don’t even think about the OS separately from the device.
We’re a dying breed who see the hardware separate from the OS and the intended usage.
n
Linux on ARM is for OEMs, Chromebooks, Android, and hobbyists. I don’t think any of the major vendors Qualcomm garbage ARM laptops run Linux well.
As for Apple Silicon hardware, Apple has not been forthcoming with details about the system devices so the M and A series SOCs are a black box. The M1 is the most advanced in terms of Linux support.
The DVR requires an old version of Mint.
Unless the developer updates the binaries, your best bet long term would be to get a Docker container running on Windows with a path on the host drive mounted in the container as the destination for the video files.
IIRC, that version of Mint has shaky NTFS support.
90F, overcast and windy.
Well, the skinny little black cat was hanging outside the back door. Probably drinking from the bird bath overflow.
Started to hobble off when I came out, but I put down a dish of nice soft food and it came back as soon as I went indoors. Then came back for some dry food.
I don’t want another cat, but a free outdoor vermin exterminator is welcome. Foods cheap.
And….we have a juvenile rabbit in the house, somewhere. Brought in by the dog. The dog caught another juvenile outdoors and we took the bunny away and it ran off. The dog earlier today was nosing under the couch, we found nothing. Then I caught the dog sniffing under my recliner. I tilted the recliner and the bunny ran into another room. We searched the room, under all the furniture, nothing.
Alright, a bunny amongst the dust bunnies… Ray wins the interwebs for today…
n
My favorite burger is the In-n-Out 3 by 3 (3 burgers plus 3 slices of cheese) “Protein style” (no bun, wrapped n lettuce), “Animal Style” (cooked in mustard with grilled onions, extra sauce and extra pickles). You should never get this to go; it’s too messy to eat in the car. Does come with extra napkins, and I usually need them.
“And….we have a juvenile rabbit in the house, somewhere. Brought in by the dog. The dog caught another juvenile outdoors and we took the bunny away and it ran off. The dog earlier today was nosing under the couch, we found nothing. Then I caught the dog sniffing under my recliner. I tilted the recliner and the bunny ran into another room. We searched the room, under all the furniture, nothing.”
Better than having vermin loose, but still does not belong in the house.
I don’t look under things without a slipper or shoe in my hand.
Most fast food burgers are cooked to grey meat. No thanks.
I don’t remember the last time I had a fast food burger–it was probably Culvers. Since I get a half every year and put the round steak and half the chuck into burger, I have a lot of it. I make 3/8-pound patties for the grill, and usually cook eight rare/medium rare along with steaks and brats. I eat a burger while the steaks are resting, then a steak. I like leftovers. YMMV.
At this point in my life I am not interested in faffing about with anyone’s OS, and not their applications, either. Both have too much crap that is useless to most people. They push “new” releases out the door that are barely beta, and they all suffer from dumbass programmers who think they should rearrange menu items and bury things you use everyday five layers deep while never addressing the obvious suppurating pustules.
Case in point: Background colors. WITF do I not have a choice in Win11 that is not black or white?
And why can’t I simply group my most-used features of MS Word onto one custom toolbar?
And why does my car work just fine when the gas tank is 80% full or 80% empty, but a computer acts like someone poured sugar in its memory?
And since I’m asking, why is it that we don’t have huge ditches all over the country that are full of dead spammers with plenty of room for more? (Good practice for commies)
How much money did Apple take under the table to make the last iOS update so spammer friendly? I would hand-dig that ditch and set the spikes that would hold Cook and the rest and make them horrible examples.
Why do I have “blazing fast” high-speed internet but I don’t have the option to tell my browser to quit swapping things to memory and just reload from the internet, rather than slow things to a crawl and thrash the hard drive when I have more than a hundred pages open?
And finally, where is the “Send 50 volts to Programmer” key that I requested more than twenty years ago?
Is AmigaOS not an option?
This +1000. This has always been one of Linux’s biggest problems – their community of gatekeeping a-hole power users.
I agree with other’s observations that the moment you have to drop to a command prompt or edit a config file you lost most of your home desktop audience. The Linux community never seemed to “get” this. The numbers speak for themselves. 25+ years into desktop Linux and market share still hasn’t broke out of the single digits.
I enjoyed Linux as a hobbyist OS many years ago, but my interest waned and now I lack the time or motivation to mess with it.
I use Windows 11 at work because that’s what I’m given and I use macOS 26 at home because that’s what I chose. I don’t do any extreme gaming. I’m not trying to run multiple file or media servers at my house. I write some code when the mood strikes, watch or listen to some media, and try my best to find the end of the internet in my browser.
My points were, millions of people use linux every day and DON’T CARE. Millions use QNX (the underlying OS for Ford) without caring. I remember putting QNX on my laptop to see if I could. Yep, but wasn’t good for much.
They don’t see a car or a phone as a computer and don’t even think about the OS separately from the device.
We’re a dying breed who see the hardware separate from the OS and the intended usage.
Actually, when you bought a computer before 1980, the operating system and the compilers were free. The source code for the operating system and the compilers was on a 9 track tape. The computer even came with three feet of manuals. Of course, the starting price for the hardware was half a million dollars.
I wish I had enough guts to wear this tshirt:
“PRISON IS PERFECT FOR LIBERALS
1. EVERYONE IS EQUAL
2. FREE FOOD & HOUSING
3. NO GUNS
4. UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE
5. SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS”
https://savnshop.com/products/2
Instead of finding and custom installing an Android head unit car stereo, here is a universal recycle a tablet into Carplay or Android Auto with rear camera:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1559671905/hermix-nano-turn-your-ipad-into-a-smart-car-system?ref=b0zmov
Cheap at the intro $74 price, not terrible at MSRP $99,
Tiny little fire tonight, although temps had risen from the high 70sF to 87F after nightfall. It did get down to 84F before I sat out. And there was a nice cool breeze for a while.
One black cat tonight. One helo, and one possible very large drone. It had the wingspan of a light aircraft but was very low and slow, and didn’t really sound like a prop driven plane. And it kind of drifted to the side as it moved away from me. No tail light, no blinking. Just white on each “wing tip” and something a very small distance in front of that line, a red light. Odd.
Earlier in the day while I was making my last pickup at a fun store north of IAH, a commercial jet went over with a stream of black smoke coming from the right side. It continued north away from the airport for a few seconds, then began banking left like it was returning, before I lost sight of it. Nothing in the news though.
Lots of pickups and driving tomorrow, so I better shower and get to bed.
n
adsbexchange.com/ doesn’t show any aircraft passing over my house in the time the weird drone like thing did. The helos all follow freeways mostly… and there were a lot of helos up tonight, just none passing over me. No small aircraft either.
One helo with the call GUNRNR was working over Ellington field, presumably a .mil flight…
n
Words to the wise!