Another day of thunderstorm cells and rain keeping the temperature down, yesterday, today, and maybe even tomorrow too. It rained crazy hard in a lot of places around Houston yesterday, just like this whole week, and it will probably do the same today. It does make it harder to do pickups and move stuff with the pickup, if it can’t get wet.
So I did a couple of pickups with the expedition, then switched to the ranger for the bigger items. I got a nice short ladder, that I will be putting to good use. Some other stuff too.
Kid did another 1 1/2 hours of pressure washing. Still more to do, and she’s willing, as long as I’m paying, and it’s only an hour or two at a time. She managed to get herself covered in grime this time.
Today will be more of the same. Some auction, some fixing stuff, some cooking and cleaning, some pickup…
Some stacking too. Because it’s a good idea.
nick
Our last rental had two USB-A ports along with USB-C in a convenient location while the engineers hid the 12 V “cigarette lighter” outlet in the bottom of the center console storage, requiring the lid to remain cracked in order to run wires to my car adapter.
A spot below the AC controls in the center of the dash also offered wireless charging for Apple devices.
I have a PortaPow in the Jetta with a Lightning cable for my phone. I’ve never been able to find the setting in the infotainment system to turn off the audio redirection through the USB port which doesn’t play well with Waze prompts.
Driving down from Nashville after buying the car, I nearly missed a speed trap doing 80 in a 60 zone in Arkansas and ran the phone through my jumpstart battery the rest of the trip back to Austin.
Before leaving Nashville, I noticed my adapter wasn’t lighting up when plugged in and asked my wife’s nephew why the car’s 12V adapter didn’t work. He just shrugged. “It was like that when I bought it.”
The kid has ambitions to be a tech manager?!?
When I finally went to solve the problem of the 12V outlet, armed with three separate fuse box diagrams with different layouts for the same model and year from various VW sources online, I noticed that someone – I assume the nephew’s father, Big Papi – made a mess in the fuse box trying to handle the repair DIY.
Ultimately, I discovered that the correct slot was empty!
I plugged in a 5A fuse, which should be plenty to power a USB-A phone charger at 12V and left spares, including a 10A, in the glovebox.
I still keep the PortaPow in the car.
The Subie Eyesight system is working again. After some searching, there is a way to reset the system when it, specifically, overheats. The Subie has to be restarted three times to clear the overheat code. That worked.
The intertubes for the win!
@mratoz, now do the one to shut off the seat belt not fastened nag….
If you ever need a reminder that modern cars are computers, even 10yo cars, look up some of the more esoteric features. You plug and unplug seat belts, while putting other switches in specific orientations, all within a limited time…
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85F and bacon is in the pan.
n
Now 87F. I think we are headed to ‘hot’.
n
@Mr. Lynn: You are lucky to have had your father in your life and to be with him, or close by, when the final act played out. My father dropped out of my life when I was 23, his choice. I never had contact again until I attended his funeral. In Las Vegas, where I am now.
That time in Las Vegas I stayed at the Stratus (what it was called then, now it is the Strat). That was sort of a mistake as the access to the tram at that time was a several block walk. But the rides at the top were quite good, especially the one that tipped over 1,000 foot high tower.
The second trip to Las Vegas was to go to Ely Nevada to operate the steam train. I spent one night at some off the strip motel, something with a tropical theme, and it was not great. On the return to Las Vegas we planned to spend four days and see some shows. We stayed at the Luxor as one of the shows we wanted to see was KA and that was at the MGM Grand, a couple blocks away.
We are back at the Luxor. A little cheaper than some hotels. Mandalay Bay is really nice, but about $50.00 more a night. MGM Grand was about $70.00 more a night. All three of those hotels are part of MGM Resorts.
We walked to McDonald’s for breakfast. Dinner last night for a burger, coke, fries and a shake for $45.00 was not happening again. When our friends arrive about noon we will go to In-And-Out Burger for lunch, easy walking distance, then figure out what else to do.
Maybe we will go to New York Hotel and Casino and ride the roller coaster. I have done so before and it was quite good. We can also walk around down the strip and look in some shops. I seem to remember a M&M store from years past.
Friday maybe Hoover dam instead of today. That way we can start early in the morning when it is cooler outside. Saturday is The Sphere. At 2:00 PM but at least inside and air conditioned.
If you ever need a reminder that modern cars are computers
The amount of stuff in my truck that has settings, buttons instead of switches thus computer controlled, is almost overwhelming. A lot of the settings are controlled by selections on the main screen. The 4WD is controlled by the computer as is the locking rear differential.
It took me several minutes, and much searching, to find out how to turn on the courtesy lights inside the vehicle when the doors are opened. There are multiple options for the heads up display. That display changes depending on the driving mode. There are a couple of gauges on the dash display that can display different items at the owner’s discretion.
Rather than seatbelt warnings, there is display on the dash that shows each seat, red for a passenger and no seatbelt fastened, green for a passenger with seatbelt fastened.
The only item with a physical switch is the headlights. Everything is a control, button, or dial, that sends a command to the computer and the computer then sends a command to the device. All done with a network inside the vehicle. Well sort of, there are circuit breaks for the 110V and 220V outlets, two inside the truck, two 110V in the bed, and one 220V in the bed.
The truck has internet and can be used as a hot spot. I have not figured out how that works, who the provider is, is there a cost (most likely) and why would that even be useful.
My 2023 F-150 is internet connected full-time (at least when cell service is available), and must be using a Ford provided cellular account. If I try to turn on the hotspot, it wants me to establish my own account, I think with AT&T. I declined, since I carry a hotspot around in my pocket.
It took me a while to figure all that out. I have a Sirius XM subscription, and I discovered it doesn’t always use the satellite antenna. I have all the channels available, not just the satellite ones. If I listen to the classical pops channel, or a variety of others, it was always playing songs from the beginning whenever i changed stations. In my old Toyota Rav4, it was satellite antenna only, and changing stations just picked up the current live stream, in the middle of songs.
I had eye surgery and parked the truck for 2 weeks, and killed my battery. The truck is constantly doing stuff over the internet, installing software updates, and monitoring, and if you don’t run it, you’ll lose charge. In my case, it wasn’t just charge; the actual AGM battery died. It was covered by warranty.
I see my ROKU has reset the background theme to push the new Superman movie this morning.
I set it back to the (also ad filled) screensaver.
Enshittification of a former prosaic product in real time.
2nd time in a month, last time was some reality TV cooking show.
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Guess I need to build my own streaming gizmo?
I do have an Intel based mac mini going out of support soon. I have no idea what streaming file formats and protection schemes are these days. I’m pretty sure the Roku is just a little linux/android box, but do they have an inside track to the big boys, Netflix and prime and YouTube?
@EdH, there are a variety of <$20 chinese media player boxes based on a linux distro the name of which escapes me at the moment. EDIT – KODI is the name. If you are ok with chinese boxes on your network, they are pretty nice for the money, work with vpns, and are aimed at pirates and people who want to watch stuff blacked out in their home countries.
You can dl and install the distro on your own hardware, which I did, and it works pretty well. LOTS Of customization and potential media sources.
I ended up using the amazon fire stick though, as Youtube support on the linux box is poor and that’s mostly what I watch.
n
I knew that from my experience with my 2014 F-150. In the larger cities Sirius has ground based antennas and those are used rather than the satellite. On road trips the system uses the Satellite signal. With my current player in the new truck, I can pause, skip forward (limited number of times) and skip back. This is not something I could do in my older truck.
Same here. I don’t see the need for a hotspot. My phone has unlimited data, I can tether to my phone, so why connect to something else. My truck can connect to WiFi and does at the house. I need to do that for software updates. I could connect the truck to my iPhone while on the road.
That is an interesting turn of events. I wonder how dealers deal with trucks that sit on the lot for a month or so. You may have issues with the battery and the non-use for two weeks finally did in the battery. I’d say you were lucky to have it happen and get it replaced under warranty. I hope Ford covered the tow to the dealership.
My CPAP machine at the house reports back to some mother ship over the cell network. It does this every day. Records my usage, events, how often I get up to pee (generally once a night). It has enough storage to stack several days and report them all at once. I have no idea who, or what, is paying the cell service to make that happen. There is no monthly charge for the machine so I guess it was baked into the price.
The last time we went to Vegas was at the tail end of the Clinton Administration so all of the big hotels had Krispy Kreme stores.
The Sleep Apnea Medical Industrial Complex.
Once diagnosed, the insurance companies will classify you as non compliant if you do not follow the treatment regimen or get a clear home sleep study on your medical records.
Having non compliant status will make you ineligible for a CDL. That status could also be grounds for denial of life insurance coverage or payout on an existing policy if that is an important element of your estate planning.
Out messing with drip lines and misters.
One of the trees in the fy looks a little too light leaf green, compared to the cohort of tree’s around it at the same time. Dang.
Supposed to be 105F today, ugh. Beats the 108 they were predicting for today last weekend tho.
Thanks, Nick. I will look into it.
Another project forced upon me by corporate greed…
Putting together a funeral service is not easy. Lots of egos involved. Very few located on site.
The obit has not been passed atound yet. Makes me wonder what is in there.
The high here yesterday was 87 F. It is 98 F now.
Question for Mr. Ray or any iPadOS 26 beta testers:
My beta has a black, floating, lock icon on the screen (even the lock screen). I can move it anywhere around the edge of the screen. Touching it freezes the screen and any where I touch I get text of what that item is.
I’ve never seen this before. Does anyone know how to get rid of it? I’ve searched with AI, Googles, Ducks, etc. and the only thing that comes up is the floating Accessibility icon. This isn’t that.
Our local public library has been ransomwared. Total system shared between 8 libraries and several servers is gone. Apparently no working backups. The county has spent $3 milloon trying to bring it back up so far. Total failure.
They are using paper notes to checkout and checkin books and audibles for the last several weeks.
This is why I use rotating external USB drives with simple images using robocopy to backup my office LAN. Only one of the seven weekly drives is in the office at any goven moment.
Pr0n on work computers.
Absolutely criminal they have no backup. $3 million down the tubes. Now the begging will begin for new hardware, help to catalog, and, while you are at it, a new buildings just because.
Absolutely criminal they have no backup.
No usable backup. I have seen many people to reuse old tape backups until the bits start flaking off the physical tape. This is why I hate backup tapes with a passion.
No problem here. Take a screen capture and send the issue to Apple.
Took an Uber to In-And-Out, not the one I planned. The location closest to the hotel failed to show that it was across the interstate and required a long circuitous route. From there we hopped over the monorail, took that to the MGM Grand, walked through over to New York, New York, then across the highway to Excalibur and took the short tram to Mandalay Bay. Walked back through hotel and the bridge with multiple shops to the Luxor. Bought tickets to Blue Man Group, normally $150.00, the lady gave them to me for $75.00. I have no reason why.
In-n-Out convenient to the Strip would never be allowed.
Shake Shak is the current $20 burger chain of choice. God only knows why.
PE of 473. I’m not the only one who thinks that it is overrated.
We have several new locations not far from the house, but the only time we’ve gone is in New Orleans out of desperation to get lunch in less than an hour.
A Massive New In-N-Out in Las Vegas Is Set to Open Next Year. Here’s a Sneak Peek.
There is one also hidden in the LinQ Promenade. I’ve never been to it, but it has a Strip address.
Gee, really:
No Way: Judge Blocks Trump’s EO Ending Birthright Citizenship
One, unelected judge, ruling for the whole country. Wake up SCOTUS. Give us some clarity on what is going on. If SCOTUS doesn’t do anything, PLTs will just shop every district to impede the tRump Administration for the next four years.
I still believe Birthright Citizenship, ie, ya’s born here, ya’s a Citizen is wrong. Brennan’s footnote on illegals having babies here, is just that, a footnote, not a Constitutional right. At least one of your parents has to be a US Citizen for the their kid to be a US Citizen.
@Lynn
”Our local public library has been ransomwared. Total system shared between 8 libraries and several servers is gone. Apparently no working backups. The county has spent $3 milloon trying to bring it back up so far. Total failure. ”
Sounds like the library board needs to be replaced along with a good chunk of county IT.
It also begs the question: How vulnerable is the rest of the county.
I’m glad to be wrong. Still, I have to wonder how hard the family got shaken down by the city.
OTOH, weed munchies triumph over all other concerns, hence In-n-Out in Vantucky soon.
The downside of the locations here is that the presence of the chain marks the growing infestation by Californians.
Isn’t that county run by the scandal-plagued KP George?
Backup tapes were made to a very high standard and came with procedures for use, storage, inspection, and retirement. They were a functional and effective backup solution for the time. Condemning them for the misuse of idiots is equivalent to blaming Michelin for tires that can wear to the cords.
If the county library was using backup tapes that were out of spec, in a system long since discontinued with no replacements available except dodgey crap from eBay, then every “professional” with knowledge of same should be grabbed by the feet, their faces pulled from the public trough, and tossed permanently out of the building.
What do the rules say in Mexico about citizenship there?
DEC’s standard tape backup system had a recommended mode where the tape was written, then rewound, then verified that it was possible to read it correctly, including checksums. If there was a failure to read the tape, you were warned to use a different tape.
I don’t know anyone who used that. In fact, most people used other backup programs.
We used the Dec backup system at work. Saved out butts a couple of times.
Boring task, we rotated the duty:
“Sergeant Pinback’s turn to feed the alien.”
“Oh mannnnnnn n…..”
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However, without knowing the specifics I’m hesitant to condemn the library system. There are a lot of zero days out there, and a public facing system has a lot of attack surface.
There should be a good back up, and it is hard to believe that whatever turn key $$ system they were probably using did not have a backup option.
And that is where we went. It was full of people. I ordered while the wife and our friends scouted for a table by watching like a hawk for someone to leave, then pouncing. Two people stationed at strategic places to double the odds.
When I worked at the credit union our backups were on tape cartridges. We did two backups nightly, one stayed on-site, the other was taken off-site. We also did weekly backups and those were taken off-site. The retention on the daily backups was 30 days, retention on the weekly was 365 days. The yearly backups were placed off-site and retention was forever.
The off-site location was another credit union branch that was 100 miles away. If a disaster was big enough to encompass that much area, I, or anyone else in the credit union, cared if anything was ever restored. And that is exactly what I told the auditor when he asked if 100 miles was enough.
If a backup tape produced any errors during the check, the tape was destroyed and a new tape used. There was no room for errors of any kind. Yearly backup tapes were always new, never before used.
Of course, there is now no longer anyway to read any of those backup tapes. Same at the bank in San Antonio. Yearly backups were kept forever. 9 track, 1600 BPI GCR tapes, created using LOADMP, a Burroughs software package. The tapes might be able to be read, but the proprietary software no longer exists, or the OS the software needed to run. Those “forever” tapes are essential good for nothing but the landfill.
I have this image of certain managers being met in Hell by an impish team of auditors:
“We found some irregularities in your 1992 transactions and have some questions…”
Weed munchies.
Trump Announces 35 Percent Tariffs on Canada
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/07/10/trump-announced-35-percent-tariffs-on-canada-n2660220
U.S. domestic lumbering has been hamstrung by a variety of factors–not least “green” eco-zealotry–for years. If these tariffs stay in place for long it will put strong pressure on reform.
Two Women Who Claimed that French President Macron’s Wife Was Born as a Man Just Won a Defamation Case
https://twitchy.com/aaronwalker/2025/07/10/french-court-dismisses-defamation-claims-after-two-claimed-macrons-wife-was-actually-a-man-n2415490
A NYC Man Tried to Set Up a Date. Things Took a Turn When the Woman Asked Him This Question.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/07/10/a-disastrous-almost-date-in-nyc-thats-led-to-a-total-batst-lawsuit-n2660143
DoD Pulls Nomination of Admiral Who Held Drag Queen Performances on Carrier
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/07/10/dod-pulls-nomination-of-admiral-who-held-drag-queen-performances-on-carrier-n3804667
see:
Robert Heinlein’s Crazy Years
https://thingfinder.blogspot.com/2018/08/robert-heinleins-crazy-years.html
but every once in a while there is a moment of sanity:
https://x.com/RepFine/status/1942743268338389102
Maybe. I will say that the one we frequent in CA when visiting family is consistently busy. It isn’t unusual at all to not find a table for lunch or in the evening.
The two locations near us are within walking distance of Supercharger stations, one on I-35 and the other on the tolled section of US-183. Both are busy from lunchtime until closing.
Weed munchies could be a factor for the one on US-183 since that is the most common route headed into Austin for travelers returning from Colorado.
>>The off-site location was another credit union branch that was 100 miles away. If a disaster was big enough to encompass that much area, I, or anyone else in the credit union, cared if anything was ever restored. And that is exactly what I told the auditor when he asked if 100 miles was enough.
Before I “retired” from Big Bank, for any mission-critical systems, the primary and secondary data centers had to be deployed connected to separate inter-connects.
In N out Burger is awesome. Took me a while to get behind the fries, but now I love them. Nothing but potato and salt.
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temps down to 81F after we got rain all afternoon.
It was sunny until dusk though.
No power at my buddy’s shop and no indication of why. Bill pays automatically, and isn’t even due yet. Neighbor says they didn’t move any electrical in their ongoing upgrades. I’ll have to do some more poking at it later.
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trying for another early bed time.
n
And I cannot get my Dads computer to connect to the intertuhes. And Alexa is acting weird. But my phone says that the wifi is fine. And the printer is down.
I will bet that my father has every computer part he ever bought since 1980. And there are over 100 cords behind his computer desk. Unreal.
>>And there are over 100 cords behind his computer desk.
…and one is none…so it keeps going…
I’ll not mention my cord collection…
@lynn, I’ll bet that every cordless phone is there somewhere too, and that there are at least 3 different systems.
Some things are common to us all.
n
89F and sunny. Tea is steeping in the mug. (I know, sacrilege.)
The world is still here, if a bit stranger every day.
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Thank you to the folks checking in and commenting that we haven’t seen in a while, and to the folks we haven’t seen before. It’s the group of readers and commentors that keep this place special.
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I think I should drink some tea now.
n
@lynn, check the computer’s IP addy, if you haven’t already. With all the storms and power glitches, it could have a self assigned IP like 169.xxx.xxx.xxx that is keeping it off the local net.
This has caught me more than once.
n