Supposed to be warmer, maybe a LOT warmer today. It sure was nice yesterday. The morning overcast broke up and we had blue skies and sun most of the day. Another stunning sunset too. At some point it was 95F in my driveway, but the sun might have been shining on the thermometer for a while too. There is apparently a warning that we might get dangerous and record highs in the next couple of days. We’ve had good weather for a while, some reversion to the norm has to happen.
Spent the day doing hobby stuff, then kid stuff, then wife stuff, and finally hobby and web stuff. Made dinner in there too. Picanha roast, or the “cap” from a sirloin roast. Prime, and on sale at HEB, I made one of the almost three pound chunks for dinner. Season, put in roasting pan, put in oven for 40 minutes. Slice and serve with sides. Easy peasy. In fact, I made canned peas, and instant mashed potatoes with some warmed up naan bread. Very low effort, very high payoff.
Today I’ll be at home doing computer stuff, auction stuff, and household stuff. I’ll do one local pickup in the afternoon, and then it will be kid stuff culminating in a band concert in the evening. I may get a trash run in, as I’ve still got debris in my truck from the BOL. Maybe a scrap run too. That is going to depend on the weather.
Who knows, I might even get some stacking in. You should to.
nick
Patents. That’s what the glass cockpit is all about.
Plus, Americans luvs them their gadgetry.
Thank/blame this guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgC0Y9hS90g
Austin is expected to hit 107 today. ERCOT may come close to the record if not break it.
The tradeoff of the strong. hot wind out of the SW making temps rise is that the windmills along I-69 down to Brownsville will be spinning.
Currently 74F, which is much closer to normal for this time of year, but 10 degrees hotter than a couple of days ago.
Coffee is ready. Kids are stirring.
Time to start the day.
n
Politics sits downstream of culture.
Tech sits downstream of the Production Design department of Stage 8/9 era “Star Trek”, specifically this set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfkQ12mFPzY
The carpet!
Does it have a lot of assist features, and will that help with teen driver insurance company premiums?
The very young and very old are drivers for which the new safety features might help a lot.
Geezer-Trek! They should of had a picture of The Shat on one of the screens.
The late Majel Barrett provides the voice for the computer one last time.
If you pay attention, you will see the final canon resting place of James T. Kirk in an earlier episode of “Picard” Season Three, complete with a picture.
D1 will not be driving mom’s new ride. It’s far too pretty and new for that…
n
Wow. Another brutal day at work, although I was WFH.
Stomach is requiring that I do something constructive about the breakfast, lunch and dinner I skipped while working head-down.
My local Chinese is closed on Wednesdays, so it will be noodles with red sauce from a jar for the sake of speed. With enough bacon, black pepper, grated grana padano, and cream, it is pretty good.
Now at least catching a few rays of the declining sun and watching the courtship display of a pair of blackbirds outside the back door. The small pleasures in life… seize them.
Ahh.
Bavarian classical radio is playing an hour-long feature of cellist Sol Gabetta, and I found some fromage frais lurking in the fridge, with maple syrup for dessert, so I am feeling considerably more reconciled with the world.
The title of the episode “The Bounty” is a huge nod to Geezer Trek and Doctor McCoy.
I saw the title card and I thought, “They aren’t going … there … are they?”
Oh yes they did!
I set a personal speed record for a Sam’s Club run this afternoon. 19 miles RT. I was out and back in 45-minutes, including getting gas. Spent $80, found two items out of stock, and added a package of fresh spinach to the spring mix on my list. Everything put away and the packaging recycled and it was still under an hour.
Take your victories where you can get them.
https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/cracking-code-supersolid-light-and-what-it-means-future-quantum-tech
The local wISP has been erratic since early February. There was a fiber cut somewhere. On the same day, at the same time, the wISP’s uplink provider decided to change out their modem gizmo. Which was defective. And no one actually seemed to know how to get it replaced and then program the darn thing.
So the wISP changed their upstream. To Verizon wireless of some kind that was well, was sucky in that it randomly drops like my phone does when I tether it. A few weeks ago they switched back to fiber that goes through Charter and others to Austin. But still the random slowness. It’s faster than Verizon but I’m not getting the speeds I had before February.
This morning the connection was dead. Again. It’s starting to be an every other week thing to just not work for a few days at a time. My router once again had no address from the network this morning. It came back after a couple of hours and is hey, is “slow” the word you use when e-mail (Thunderbird) times-out?
Enough. I just ordered Starlink. The $349 slab will be here Friday. The $65 wall mount arrives on the 22nd. Plus sales tax. Estimated delivery dates so we will see.
@paul, aren’t you paid ahead for some time still with the wisp guys?
WRT starlink, our experience has been seamless. Once I found a mounting spot where it could see enough of the sky…
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Home from my pickups, and no, this didn’t turn out to be a catchup day. In fact, I’m further behind.
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Called to make a dentist appointment, and my Dr of 20 years had a medical issue and retired. Somehow we missed the letter announcing it. His daughter joined the practice several years ago and has been taking care of the kids while W and I stayed with Dr Dad. I’m seeing the daughter tomorrow. When your doctors are older than you, you are probably going to lose them one way or another before you are ready. After this change, I think all my docs are my age or younger. Some are a lot younger.
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Currently sunny, in the 90sF, and windy as all get out. Smokey haze in the air too. Soon I need to take the kid to her band concert. Last one at the middle school. Boy they’ve come a long way. Bittersweet for her…
Time marches on, no doubt about that.
n
I defrosted the upright freezer yesterday. First time, too. I had stuff in the baskets that were in the chest freezer to organize with and I couldn’t get one out. It was overdue to defrost. The manufacturer’s label says it was built in March ’15 and I bought it in April.
I thought I had four briskets but could only find three. I found the missing brisket. I found a ham, too.
A few things are going to the trash. A couple of Nighthawk dinners in flavors I don’t like and a box of spinach that feels pretty light. Plus a pie that says best by ’12.
While the ice was melting I looked at canned goods. Almost all of the Keystone canned pork is history. The cans have lost vacuum. No bulging. No problems with Keystone beef, turkey, or chicken. While I was at it I cleared out the canned veggies. Other than a can of sauerkraut looking plump, they all look fine but I’m not going to eat the green beans or peas or varieties of canned ranch-style beans. I might get that hungry someday but doubt it.
I’ve offered the canned goods to folks. “No room”. Not even for a few. Who can’t find room for a can of peas? So to the trash and I don’t have to worry about leaks.
One of my trade magazines covers a lot of light and optics research. Last month was full of crazy stuff. Spiral light. Chirped light. Squeezed light.
There is a lot of work bearing fruit right now, and it all sounds crazy weird. There have to be some more general theories to come out of all this stuff.
n
(I’ve been thinking about quoting some of the articles, but haven’t had time. The stuff is nuts.)
About half of the HDTV channels I receive disappeared last night despite clear conditions.
I expected reception issues from places like the Waco/Killeen transmitter with the H&I signal, but the Austin Faux News station disappeared.
I can usually get Austin Faux News with a “mudflap” antenna.
Everything seems back to normal this afternoon.
Dentists are really getting hit hard by insurance companies right now. Ours isn’t accepting any new patients without a problem to resolve above the hygienist level because the insurance pays less than what routine cleanings actually cost.
Dentists typically also have the worst student loan issues.
Had a few chores in town, after morning yardwork.
I always forget how crazy it is.
In the end it was only a quick check on a friends cat (he wanted food but no laptime), and grocery store run: register lines were jammed, it was warm, and a cool sit down seemed in order after.
I have no dental insurance nor does my wife. Too expensive for what little it covers. My dentist does give me a 30% veteran discount which helps, but no discount for the wife.
From CNN:
“Some members of the former president’s Cabinet did not believe he could be relied upon in a 2 a.m. emergency by the final year of his presidency”
Personally I don’t think he could have been relied upon at any time, day or night, in an emergency. Someone(s) were propping him up, covering for him, manipulating him, and otherwise keeping his real issues from the public.
It is a shame what people will do to keep an incompetent person in office.
We were living the “Star Trek” future on planet Ekos from “Patterns of Force” except that the “Fuhrer” eventually woke up and did the right thing.
I just saw an article which discussed aides plans to get Corn Pop a wheelchair in the second term.
That may be in Tapper’s book.
We didn’t have dental insurance until the kids got old enough for wisdom teeth extraction.
Strangely, both my employer and the VA have the same mediocre dental insurance carrier.
You would think that the company was on top of the world right now and trying to keep the workforce motivated, but my current employer’s only decent benefit is the 401(k) matching.
The “Fuhrer” on the show, not Corn Pop.
“There have to be some more general theories to come out of all this stuff. ”
Sturgeon’S Law has a Special Case for Physics: Add another 9.
No soup -er- Bing for you!
I’ve used the Bing API myself for grad school projects.
A lot of AI search engines massage Bing API search results. I wrote code to do similar things with what used to be current natural language processing a decade ago.
I still believe AI is a monkey trick doing more elaborate tricks but not truly more sophisticated than what I did except without a person in the loop marking what they believe to be relevant search results.
A lot of startups are going to be scrambling for a new data source.
https://www.wired.com/story/bing-microsoft-api-support-ending/
The bands were great. The beginning band was passable, I wasn’t wishing for earplugs. The advanced band was good. Small wobbles, but overall very good.
The director is building a program. He’s incredibly talented at teaching the kids and getting them to work as a band. Really stunning how far the kids have come.
n
>>D1 will not be driving mom’s new ride. It’s far too pretty and new for that…
The other question is will H1 ever be driving it??
>>I have no dental insurance nor does my wife. Too expensive for what little it covers.
I have one of those “dental discount plans.” Not insurance, rather a defined discount amount that the dentist agrees to for each individual procedure code. No deductibles, no waiting periods, no procedure exclusions and no yearly coverage cap. Savings are less than traditional insurance, but costs for me (single adult) ~$150/year. Some have plans that add on vision coverage if you don’t otherwise have it.
The other question is will H1 ever be driving it??
– not without permission and a darn good reason…
I did test drive it. I wanted to be sure it didn’t have the three biggest defects of the Honda Oddysee
– massive torque steer. Oddy would twist the wheel out of your hand with hard acceleration while turning. Pilot is very mild mannered. It’s all wheel drive instead of front.
– really bad glass. The oddy has ripples in the windshield that make me motion sick riding in the passenger seat. The factory tint on side windows is blotchy under polarization. Pilot is clear, and very clean.
– crazy loud interior. Oddy has a noisy engine sound, and stupidly loud road and wind noise. Pilot has soft wheel well sound absorption pads. It’s quiet inside.
She likes it, and she’ll drive it. I do think it’s a good looking vehicle. Very butch. Sporty and rugged styling. Cool grey enamel paint, which she specifically wanted. Orange stitching in the black upholstery for that sporty look…
Happy wife, happy life.
n