Fri. Aug. 7, 2020 – am I forgetting something?

By on August 7th, 2020 in decline and fall, march to war, WuFlu

Hot and humid.  We’re on the edge of a system, so we might get rain, or not.

Yesterday was plenty hot enough.  It was ok in the shade if you were standing still.  Everywhere else, it was too hot.

I got very little done yesterday.  My back was hurting, so I took it easy.  I did sort through a bunch of ebay stuff that I could divert to one of the local auctions.  Found a bunch of stuff too.

Seems like I must have done more than that, but I’ll be jigged if I can think of what it was.

Sometime this morning I’ll go for another chiropractic visit.  I hope I get some better movement this time.  Apparently both of my siblings and my dad suffered with sciatica.  It’s new to me though.  I feel like some stretching and some adjustment ought to get it fixed for now.  Later today I’ve got an auction pickup.  Some hobby stuff, some household stuff, some ebay stuff.  I need it to not rain in the afternoon so I can use my pickup for the pickup.

I feel like I’m forgetting something about the date, but can’t think what it might be.

Last night the scanner had a multi-agency task force working a drug buy with surveillance in my neighborhood.  It’s worth reminders like that to have the scanner running.   That’s the second time I’ve overheard them working only a mile or two from my house.   I do live in the city, so I shouldn’t be surprised, and I’m not REALLY surprised, but I don’t like the confirmation either.  Bad people are everywhere.  Keep your head on a swivel if you are out and about.

And stock up on whatever you think you might want if the economy collapsed.  Take a look at a couple of recent posts by John Wilder, and Peter Grant  wrt how they see the economy coming apart and what you might want to do about it.  I don’t see any point in duplicating their efforts…

I do see a lot of advantage in getting your financial house in order, and stacking stuff high….

nick

83 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Aug. 7, 2020 – am I forgetting something?"

  1. ITGuy1998 says:

    I’m watching the first season of This Old House. Obvious pains of a new show, but it’s interesting to see the construction practices of 1979 in action. Oh, and I’m on episode 3, and Norm is already shooting Bob dirty looks for being in the way.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    I’m watching the first season of This Old House. Obvious pains of a new show, but it’s interesting to see the construction practices of 1979 in action. Oh, and I’m on episode 3, and Norm is already shooting Bob dirty looks for being in the way.

    I didn’t watch “This Old House” much until Steve took over after Bob was fired. Steve had some visible cred with Norm since he was a “hands on” boat restorer and navigated the South Pacific alone as documented in “The Last Navigator” book and … PBS series!

    Steve’s first “Spring” season, the Mormon Temple conversion in San Francisco for the Gap exec, and the “Savannah” project during the “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” fad are very entertaining even if they are a bit lacking on hands-on work or introducing new materials. “This Old House” arguably did a better job than the Eastwood movie with “Good and Evil”, and the San Francisco shows captured the city arguably at its peak charm, after the Embarcadero Freeway started being dismantled but just before the Locust class descended in the 90s.

    I haven’t watched much since Steve was fired and replaced with Kevin, who is the most unqualified host they’ve had, a former VP at Fleet Bank, but more relatable to the homeowner wives than Steve or Bob ever were.

    I’ll check it out again when they fire Kevin. “This Old House” is the last old school PBS show standing since John McLaughlin died. Austin is a second tier PBS town so we’re a little behind — if Kevin has already been fired, I wasn’t aware.

  3. Chad says:

    Bob Villa was always trying to do things he thought were neat or interesting. Probably trying to drive ratings. Unfortunately, many of them were outright stupid and Norm Abram was never great at controlling his body language (and on occasion his tongue). Last time I caught a new(ish) episode on PBS it seemed the show has morphed from “let’s restore this old farmhouse” to “how do I fix a leaky faucet.”

    I enjoyed watching New Yankee Workshop. I used to have dozens of episodes on my DVR until it crapped out and needed replaced. There’s a whole episode where he shows you how to build various jigs for the table saw and then how to use them for all sorts of cool stuff. Great show.

  4. Mark W says:

    I have no idea how to address the IPv6 connectivity since NAT is only for IPv4.

    You don’t NAT ipv6, just use the firewall.

  5. JimB says:

    Re: Starlink. It was designed to cut latency from the fastest transatlantic fiber optic cable from NY to London. The financial markets paid a few hundred million for that one to shave something like 3ms from the next older one, which is still in use for other purposes. In the trading world, a couple of milliseconds makes a big difference. The sat to sat propagation time is low because the signal is moving through a vacuum, while in fiber the light speed is much slower. I’m too groggy this early to present some numbers, but you can look them up.

    As for users, it appears the financial world is the big supporter, effectively subsidizing us unwashed users. To me, that is better than government subsidies and controls. Free enterprise in action.

    As for privacy, satellite leakage is a valid concern. The days of dedicated pipes are over, and all data moves over shared links, making encryption very important. We can hope that the heavy financial hitters are doing this right. Don’t forget that our data is already moving over lots of links, each with its privacy problems. It is a closely held secret how much is lost to security issues, but it is a lot. Starlink probably will not add much to this. Our data is out there, never to be kept private.

    I would also point out that my various account providers send me emails in the clear to announce credit card balances, deposit confirmations, and other stuff I would rather keep private. They don’t listen to my requests to stop this behavior. IMO, the financial world has some of the worst privacy practices of all. We are cooked.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    Bob Villa was always trying to do things he thought were neat or interesting. Probably trying to drive ratings. Unfortunately, many of them were outright stupid and Norm Abram was never great at controlling his body language (and on occasion his tongue). Last time I caught a new(ish) episode on PBS it seemed the show has morphed from “let’s restore this old farmhouse” to “how do I fix a leaky faucet.”

    The home improvement project budgets have grown way beyond what the typical “This Old House” viewer could ever reasonably afford so, when I check in from time to time, I notice that the show is covering techniques and materials someone could incorporated into a more limited project rather than spotlighting the overall remodel.

    Even 30 years ago, the budgets were getting pretty steep. I was home from college watching one episode in the early 90s, and my father, a long time Ford employee, walked in, noticed the homeowner, and said “That’s [X], he’s a big dealership owner in Boston.”

    I said, “They didn’t mention that. He’s being portrayed as having a limited budget for this project and keep emphasizing it, showing his pregnant wife arguing their case at the zoning meeting without a lawyer.”

    “No. That guy? Tens of millions in the bank.”

  7. JimB says:

    Another thought on privacy. Ever notice how the real secret keepers avoid tech altogether? I’m sure all of us could list many examples, but my best one is Ted Kaczynsky. He evaded capture for many years by simply keeping his life off grid. Only practical if we really have something to hide, and don’t mind the sacrifices needed. The rest of us are an open book.

    I have a friend who, although very smart in a lot of business areas, is not very tech savvy. Some years ago, he closed on a house and applied for a mortgage. He naively thought he would have to provide some financial information, but the bright millennial (yes!) across the desk quickly pulled up stuff that made his eyes water.

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    This Old House launched the DIY movement, but now they never do any DIY. They use contractors for everything. Admittedly, I stopped watching some time ago.

    It also became a showcase for the paid sponsors, and so you couldn’t trust that something was the best way or product, but only that someone gave it to them.

    Howmeowners used to vie to get on the show because all the high end free stuff would leverage your budget farther.

    In the early days Bob V has said that he purposely embraced the “Everyman” role, and behaved as if he was totally clueless even when not. The first book they put out was very interesting.

    n

    NB- a lot of the stuff they pushed, super insulated, alternative techniques, etc had ‘growing pains’ because it was new, or has failed entirely. There are people now working who do remodels and remediation on all those 80s and 90s building techniques….

  9. Chad says:

    Ever notice how the real secret keepers avoid tech altogether?

    Like a mob movie. 🙂 Write out your order for a hit on a paper napkin. Once the hitman nods light the napkin on fire. No phones. No texts. No spoken word for the wires to pick up.

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    WRT New Yankee Workshop, I watched it a lot back in the day, especially when I was working as a carpenter in Hollyweird, in the shop daily. Norm is an affable guy with a nice TV presence but he was a carpenter who became a woodworker. A lot of his NYW projects were complete hacks that had half the audience groaning. On the other hand, I did learn from the show- there is always something to learn.

    The unintentionally funniest thing was the way he’d change routers like most people would change router BITS. It was a byproduct of the shooting schedule, and him having a shop with a crew’s number of tools, but only him working. It was still jarring when most people were agonizing over which SINGLE router to buy, that he had so many of them.

    n

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    I hate the recent trend to label solar systems as “solar generators” but this hit my inbox and looks pretty cool. I’m sure there is a DIY project somewhere that looks like it….

    Renogy PHOENIX 246.24Wh/150W Portable Generator All-in-one Kit with 20W Built-in Solar Panel for Outdoors Camping Travel Emergency Off-grid Applications

    https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Portable-Generator-Applications-Emergencies/dp/B01K60N1DQ?tag=ttgnet-20

    n

  12. Chad says:

    Does anyone know of a good historical weather (weather almanac) site? I was to be able to look up a zip code and see what the weather was on any given day. For example, what was the temperature, humidify, and total precipitation for October 17th, 1986, in Flagstaff, AZ.

    The local news websites will tell you what the weather was yesterday, but that’s as far back as they’ll say and it’s not searchable.

  13. Ed says:

    Ever notice how the real secret keepers avoid tech altogether?

    “Never write when you can speak, never speak when you can nod, never nod when you can wink”.

  14. JimB says:

    Changing routers… When I was doing a lot of bench work, I had a bunch of inexpensive pneumatic drills and drivers. I set them up with different bits and tools. It might have saved me some time, but was really satisfying to not have to change things constantly. I also do that with drill presses. I have just two, but set each one up for a different task. I am an old production guy, and am familiar with those techniques. Production floors have many stations and setups. It is efficient, and reduces errors. I have seen some of the best. Some of these ideas require a lot of space, but some not much. Some are just very convenient. Designing work flow is satisfying for me.

  15. JimB says:

    Does anyone know of a good historical weather (weather almanac) site?

    Here’s one example:
    https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/hnx/hjo/lcd/98marhjo.htm

    I just looked it up, and have no experience with it, but there seems to be a lot of data. Poke around.

    I have always wanted seasonal forecasts, but have never found a really good one. Anyone?

  16. Greg Norton says:

    NB- a lot of the stuff they pushed, super insulated, alternative techniques, etc had ‘growing pains’ because it was new, or has failed entirely. There are people now working who do remodels and remediation on all those 80s and 90s building techniques….

    PEX was a big one TOH pushed early which ended up having growing pains.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    WRT New Yankee Workshop, I watched it a lot back in the day, especially when I was working as a carpenter in Hollyweird, in the shop daily. Norm is an affable guy with a nice TV presence but he was a carpenter who became a woodworker. A lot of his NYW projects were complete hacks that had half the audience groaning. On the other hand, I did learn from the show- there is always something to learn.

    Norm was a MechE grad from UMass Amherst who worked for some huge NE companies in the 70s before starting his own contracting firm. I always viewed Bob Newhart’s character in “Newhart” as a poke at Norm, much more true than Al on “Home Improvement”, a more idealized version created by Disney.

  18. Nick Flandrey says:

    Some of you might find this interesting, or valuable….

    The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) today has published guidance on how to expose as little location information as possible while using mobile and IoT devices, social media, and mobile apps.

    As the agency explains, protecting your geolocation data can be the difference between being tracked wherever you go or knowing that your location can’t be used to monitor your movements and daily routine.

    “Location data can be extremely valuable and must be protected,” the NSA explains [PDF]. “It can reveal details about the number of users in a location, user and supply movements, daily routines (user and organizational), and can expose otherwise unknown associations between users and locations.”

    However, as the NSA adds, “[w]hile the guidance in this document may be useful to a wide range of users, it is intended primarily for NSS/DoD system users.”

  19. Greg Norton says:

    Another thought on privacy. Ever notice how the real secret keepers avoid tech altogether?

    The legend is that GNU founder Richard Stallman does not carry a cell phone, but he has an assistant who does carry one on his behalf.

    Tech people know the legal and psychological issues. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs famously kept their kids off of i-devices until they were almost adults, and I’ve written here before about how the stats about upper income demographics “cutting the cord” with regard to copper phone line service are misleading, especially in California.

  20. Nick Flandrey says:

    The facebook founder that keeps his kids off of it because they knowingly designed it to be addictive…

    and lots of knowledgeable people in tech that tape over webcams….

    n

  21. SteveF says:

    the signal is moving through a vacuum, while in fiber the light speed is much slower

    Gah. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “the speed of light is a constant” and seen calculations made on signal travel time based on speed of light in a vacuum. Including from a professor when I was working on my MS.

  22. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hmm, looks like if you give them an inch they take a foot.

    Furious Mayor of Portland accuses protesters of attempted MURDER for setting fire to a police precinct with officers still inside as violent demonstrations flare up again following withdrawal of Trump’s federal agents

    –it’s all fun and games until someone points out you could go to jail as a co-conspirator. Wonder what made the Mayor change his mind?

    n

    Caltrops –

    Portland police said some demonstrators in the group laid ties made of rebar in the street that caused damage to police vehicles.

    BLM? Not so much. Wonder if the angry moms have signed the manifesto? You KNOW there must be a manifesto…

    The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, which advertised the Wednesday rally on social media, used Twitter to announce ‘Round 2’ of the same demonstration on Thursday night with the slogan ‘No cops. No prisons. Total abolition’.

    The group, which described itself as a ‘decentralized network of autonomous youth collectives dedicated to direct action towards total liberation,’ did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

  23. Mark W says:

    The sat to sat propagation time is low because the signal is moving through a vacuum, while in fiber the light speed is much slower.

    These are LEO sats, right? They must have an algo that understands the satellite positions and movement and switches the service from one to another as they pass overhead. There will be latency variations too.

    In more general terms fiber wins due to bandwidth, but this is a special case where latency beats everything.

    I wonder why the traders don’t just install equipment in a DC nearby to the trading DC? I guess they might be doing some kind of inter-exchange arbitrage.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    hah, one of the surveillance teams on the scanner just called out another of his team– “you do remember how to do surveillance don’t you?” “Yeah, why?” “You’ve got a City of Houston placard hanging from your mirror….”

    n

  25. Nick Flandrey says:

    Occasionally there is a bit more ‘science-y’ content here…

    This sentence in a trade magazine caught my eye. It has a HUGE “but” in it….

    It has long been understood and verified by experiment that silica glass is insoluble in water. But in 1921, Sir George Thomas Beilby published a work entitled Aggregation and Flow of Solids, in which he proposed the idea that while silica glass may be insoluble in water, it is not unaffected by exposure to water.

    Turns out that water does enter the glass, and change it, at least in a VERY thin layer. And you can use that change to get better results when polishing the glass. Modern life uses a LOT of polished glass in optical and laser systems.

    n

  26. Nick Flandrey says:

    For obvious reasons, India has been focus of concern for global health officials from the start of the pandemic crisis, given its tightly packed population of over 1.3 billion.

    The country hit a grim milestone on Friday, surpassing 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including over 41,000 deaths, which commentators have somewhat positively noted is a comparatively low mortality rate compared to other global hot spots. Friday saw a record daily jump in confirmed cases.

    –looking at pictures and reporting for the last several months, India never really locked down, no matter how many people they beat with sticks, or what the government said.

    n

  27. Greg Norton says:

    These are LEO sats, right? They must have an algo that understands the satellite positions and movement and switches the service from one to another as they pass overhead. There will be latency variations too.

    Probably a really sophisticated modeling algorithm feeding Quagga routing packets between the satellites, ground stations, and radio links. Proposed solutions have bounced around CS grad student thesis and dissertations for years.

    It will either work brilliantly or fail to meet the advertised performance in a really spectacular way. There will be no in-between. To quote Derek Jacobi’s antagonist at the climax of “Dead Again”, “Well I, for one, I am very interested to see what’s going to happen next.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ta3tLhzuas

    Damn, Branagh was brilliant.

  28. Pecancorner says:

    This is what I have used for past weather. Last fall I did a little project to see if I could use past rain info to predict rain. Over 3 months, making my guesses for each month in advance, I did better than the weather people at predicting the number of rainy days in a month. That is not saying a lot – I didn’t try to predict temperatures, and I gave myself a lot of leeway: if it rained within 48 hours of the day(s) I had marked for rain, I counted it as a win.

    https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/brownwood/texas/united-states/ustx0167/2007/6

  29. Greg Norton says:

    Gah. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “the speed of light is a constant” and seen calculations made on signal travel time based on speed of light in a vacuum. Including from a professor when I was working on my MS.

    IIRC, the propogation speed ends up roughly half of the speed of light in a vacuum.

    One of the big CS authors (Stallings, maybe?) squeezed a whole book out of wireless comm. I have it around somewhere.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    –looking at pictures and reporting for the last several months, India never really locked down, no matter how many people they beat with sticks, or what the government said.

    I’ve never believed India’s reporting. Both of my wife’s close calls with exposure at the VA came from Subcontinent doctors reporting to work “asymptomatic” but popping the term at 102 as soon as the infrared hit their foreheads when staff noticed them visibly ill and management ordered examinations.

    One doctor, a podiatrist, saw patients all day before being sent home on quarantine, including several from vulnerable segments of the population.

  31. Clayton W. says:

    IIRC, the propogation speed ends up roughly half of the speed of light in a vacuum.

    For electrical signals the propagation speed is ~85/SQRT(Er)ps/in. So for a normal PCB is is right at 50% the speed of light in a vacuum. It causes signal loss, too. That’s one reason high quality coax cables use expanded foam teflon.

  32. Nick Flandrey says:

    Propagation in wire is very important to hams and anyone who uses antennas…

    Almost all coax has a prop factor listed in the specs.

    I know that people use rings of fiber optic as delay lines in lasers and telcom too, run a signal thru a spool of fiber vs a 3 ft jumper, and you’re gonna see the difference.

    TDR uses those different propagation rates to figure out how long cables or fiber is…

    n

  33. lynn says:

    Swan Eaters: no no no no !
    https://www.gocomics.com/swan-eaters/2020/08/07

    On hiatus until Oct 2, 2020, no freaking way ! Must remember to breathe …

  34. Chad says:

    COVID-19 statistics out of developing and undeveloped countries is a joke. The entire African continent is one big lie when it comes to infection rates and deaths. I imagine the same is true for most of southeast, south central, and southwest Asia.

  35. lynn says:

    I have no idea how to address the IPv6 connectivity since NAT is only for IPv4.

    You don’t NAT ipv6, just use the firewall.

    Yeah, I know. But I don’t know how to program a firewall and I don’t have the energy to learn.

    And my Peplink 30 does not do IPv6. Not a problem for now but someday it will be.

  36. Mark W says:

    If you go to a trade show like OFC you’ll see 10km spools of bare fiber sitting in the booths connected to a transceiver at one end and a scope at the other showing the eye pattern. Very cool. At 400Gb/s too.

  37. Mark W says:

    Yeah, I know. But I don’t know how to program a firewall and I don’t have the energy to learn.

    Block everything inbound. Should be the default setting.

  38. lynn says:

    “Video: Antifa Rioters Decided To Attack Houses In The Residential Are Last Night – Angry Residents Send Them Packing”
    https://redstatenation.com/video-antifa-rioters-decided-to-attack-houses-in-the-residential-are-last-night-fed-up-residents-send-them-packing/

    The Antifa are using lasers to blind people (permanently ?) in the suburbs in Portland.

    That raises any response to the justified critical level here in Texas.

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

  39. Mark W says:

    What blocks a green laser? Regular sunglasses? Or the mirrored kind? Or?

  40. SteveF says:

    12 ga.

  41. SteveF says:

    And I’m serious about that. If I’m lit by any kind of laser I’m going to assume that it’s attached to a firearm or that it’s intended to blind me. In either case I will try to kill whoever is wielding it.

  42. paul says:

    What blocks a green laser? Regular sunglasses? Or the mirrored kind? Or?

    I have read a couple of articles. Might just be ZeroHedge “buy gold we all gonna die!” stuff. 🙂 But one thing that stuck out was that an infrared laser will blind you too. It doesn’t have to be green. Could be red or any color. Green is to help you aim.

    If you know what they are using, you could wear goggles or such to block that frequency. But how to know?

    I suspect that waving laser lights around at a “peaceful riot” (what?) will result in some lead smart pills being returned.

    And I’m serious about that. If I’m lit by any kind of laser I’m going to assume that it’s attached to a firearm or that it’s intended to blind me. In either case I will try to kill whoever is wielding it.

    Amen.

  43. paul says:

    Yeah, red dot sights are suppose be great. But it’s like having a FLASHLIGHT attached to the barrel. It helps your aim but the other guy knows exactly where to aim also.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    The Antifa are using lasers to blind people (permanently ?) in the suburbs in Portland.

    That raises any response to the justified critical level here in Texas.

    SE Portland has been a wreck for a long time.

    I learned that my eye problems were not the result of a laser, just some normal aging.

    On the upside, the problem motivated me to get my progressive prescription filled. I didn’t want to go into the office with the old lenses still in the frames.

    My last experience with progressive lenses from Costco made me really hesitant to try them again. This time I went to WalMart and bought Zeiss lenses at about double what I paid at Costco, but the adjustment has been a lot easier.

  45. SteveF says:

    Back in the far-distant days when I was in my 20s, I was lit by a red laser spot while walking on the college campus at night. Reflexes kicked in, which is kind of dumb because I’d never been hit with a laser attached to a real firearm, only in training. Lucky for them, they were in the top floor of one of the engineering buildings and my conscious mind realized they were just playing with some gear before my unconscious mind got my body within range of them.

  46. Mark W says:

    Green on green? Blind them when they aren’t expecting it. Follow up with something more kinetic, if it’s a life or death situation.

  47. Greg Norton says:

    Yeah, I know. But I don’t know how to program a firewall and I don’t have the energy to learn.

    And my Peplink 30 does not do IPv6. Not a problem for now but someday it will be.

    The IPv6 gear for SOHO/consumers just isn’t there yet. Part of the problem is demand.

    Though, even if IPv6 gear does start to show up, it isn’t in the interest of the “IoT” manufacturers to let you firewall off unsolicited packets so I’m wondering how easy it will be to get to the advanced firewall rules.

  48. lynn says:

    “Kamala Harris, Ocasio-Cortez Push For Climate Bills To Be Scored Based On How Much They Impact Black People”
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/07/kamala-harris-ocasio-cortez-push-for-climate-bills-to-be-scored-based-on-how-much-they-impact-black-people/

    “Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York are teaming up on a proposal requiring lawmakers who introduce climate bills to consider the impact such legislation will have on black people and poor communities.”

    “The two Democrats introduced the Climate Equity Act Thursday that would, if passed, require Congress to score future climate bills based on how much they may negatively impact poor and minority communities, The Washington Post reported. The two Democrats initially unveiled a draft of the bill in 2019, when Harris began her unsuccessful run for president, media reports show.”

    I believe that is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

    1
    1
  49. DadCooks says:

    Last night a “not so bright guy” (NSBG) got an alert on his “security camera”. Took a look and saw a couple of “ne’er-do-wells” (NDWs) trying to steal some stuff. So Mr. NSBG goes out to confront them, without calling 911 and being unarmed. So the NDWs pulled guns and fired. Poor shots so Mr. NSBG lucked out and the NDWs left rapidly without trying further to hit their mark. Neighbors heard the shots and the Local LEOs were there in a flash. Long story short, a good description of the car (stolen), soon found ditched, K9s found the NDWs in the bushes and got in a few bites. The well tattooed NDWs had warrants out so now they are enjoying some free room and board.

    Lessons: (1) call the cops and (2) don’t leave your home without an equalizer or two.

    Just another quiet day in the Tri-Cities.

  50. Greg Norton says:

    I believe that is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

    I don’t believe Plugs has ruled out Kamala Harris being on the ticket and, potentially, the defacto President.

    1
    1
  51. MrAtoz says:

    I’m reading Susan Rice was picked for Plugs.

    1
    1
  52. lynn says:

    I believe that is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

    I don’t believe Plugs has ruled out Kamala Harris being on the ticket and, potentially, the defacto President.

    She won’t be president and has already been told that. Rush says that there is an executive council propping Biden up (literally !) and they will make all the decisions for him.

    1
    2
  53. lynn says:

    “Billionaire Black Woman Lectures Poor White People on Their Privilege”
    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/08/05/billionaire-black-woman-lectures-poor-white-people-on-their-privilege/

    “RUSH: Now, we got Oprah Winfrey, for crying out loud, and people are starting to ask the question that I have been asking about The Oprah for I don’t know how long.”

    “I have three different stories about this. The first one is from Glenn Beck’s website, The Blaze: “Billionaire Media Maven Oprah Encourages White People to Admit that They are Racist in Bizarre Video — Oprah Winfrey said on video that white privilege and whiteness give white people a leg up over people of color in all situations. In a recent seminar about what it means to be white, the self-made billionaire told white people that they’re racist even when they might not realize that they are racist.””

    Wow.

  54. ayjblog says:

    Well, forgive my errors and nonsense

    first. Flash Boys, HFT trading, yes, radio is better than fiber for this, latency is the king of the game as you know
    second. I remember Jerry P crying eons ago about his satellite and the latency, later he had 2 links, Rick H could explain better than me, he was on the kitchen, I only was reading his misadventures.
    third. encryption, It only make the things worst, because you are gonna to encrypt, satellite is going to encrypt again or at least, dissasemble packets, why? because I foresee mesh, and If you hace mesh, you add another layer.
    fourth. I dont know really about bandwith and O2 notch on higuer Ghz, and, of course, survivabilty and reliability with solar flares and solar weather

    For me, fiber, and If I have not this terrestrial radio wimax or something else YMMV

  55. Greg Norton says:

    first. Flash Boys, HFT trading, yes, radio is better than fiber for this, latency is the king of the game as you know

    The Flash Boy crowd had, at considerable expense, a new fiber run between Chicago and New York, on as straight a line as possible. On top of this, they have access to the switches feeding the exchanges to know the prices of the trades before they happen, all to game the momentary discrepancy in prices between the two major US financial centers.

    The Michael Lewis book is fascinating reading even if you aren’t particularly interested in the financial markets. It is a fast read too — I think I read it on an airplane ride. I always have a stack of unread books in the Kindle in my “go” bag.

    Currently, however, with zero commission trading and an artificially inflated market, Robinhood and the other brokerages sell the order flows to make money and the sheeple keep lining up to be sheared, making the HFT antics unnecessary. Limit Order? That’s so 2010s.

  56. Greg Norton says:

    second. I remember Jerry P crying eons ago about his satellite and the latency, later he had 2 links, Rick H could explain better than me, he was on the kitchen, I only was reading his misadventures.

    I remember reading in the 90s that Jerry used to call PacBell DSL service in the early days and no less than Scott Adams would answer the phone.

  57. Greg Norton says:

    Again, “From the people who brought you Microsoft Bob …”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/gates-foundation-teams-up-with-vaccine-maker-to-produce-3-covid-19-shots-11596804573?mod=djemalertNEWS

    Gates is serious about making his vaccination fetish into his great intellectual achievement for which he wants to be remembered, whatever that means for the rest of us.

  58. Rick Hellewell says:

    @Nick:

    Re: today’s date.

    It looks like today is Dr. Jerry Pournelle’s 87th Birthday.

    I miss his analysis of things. I find myself often thinking ‘What would Jerry say about that?’

    Condolences to the family on his and Roberta’s passings.

  59. ITGuy1998 says:

    The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) today has published guidance on how to expose as little location information as possible while using mobile and IoT devices, social media, and mobile apps.

    As the agency explains, protecting your geolocation data can be the difference between being tracked wherever you go or knowing that your location can’t be used to monitor your movements and daily routine.

    “Location data can be extremely valuable and must be protected,” the NSA explains [PDF]. “It can reveal details about the number of users in a location, user and supply movements, daily routines (user and organizational), and can expose otherwise unknown associations between users and locations.”

    However, as the NSA adds, “[w]hile the guidance in this document may be useful to a wide range of users, it is intended primarily for NSS/DoD system users.”

    Someone got paid by the word. A simple “there is no privacy with these devices” would have sufficed.

  60. Greg Norton says:

    I miss his analysis of things. I find myself often thinking ‘What would Jerry say about that?’

    His thoughts on SpaceX currently closing in on providing on demand manned access to space from the old Apollo launch complex would be, no doubt, interesting.

    I think they are there with the X37B but aren’t advertising the capability.

    And the pandemic. Trump’s response. The Dems running a clear invalid for President …

    Almost three years has passed since Jerry passed. Jeesh, time flies.

    4
    1
  61. lynn says:

    I think they are there with the X37B but aren’t advertising the capability.

    The cabin with the X37B is only four feet tall. It will need to be supersized to put men in there.

  62. Geoff Powell says:

    @Lynn:

    The cabin with the X37B is only four feet tall. It will need to be supersized to put men in there.

    Which would make it the size of the Russian Buran, at least, if not a Shuttle.

    You want the US Space Force to refly the Shuttle?

    G.

  63. Ray Thompson says:

    Someone got paid by the word

    Have you ever known anything written by a government worker or agency to say something in fewer than 12,000 words that could have just as easily been stated with “No”?

    1
    1
  64. Nick Flandrey says:

    Laser safety eyewear..

    https://gunfreezone.net/advice-about-laser-eyewear/

    wrt green or IR frying you, the green will, and with the cheap green laser pointers from china, you get IR along for free. RESPONSIBLE manufacturers put an IR filter in there to stop it getting out. China? Oh no F’in way. The IR is there because that’s what they start with, and do some trick to get green, or the IR is some multiple of whatever they do to get green, and it’s just along for the ride.

    The problem with IR is that it doesn’t trigger your blink reflex. The trouble with green is that your eye is very sensitive to green and the power level is high enough to burn you.

    I have mentioned that I have three dead spots in my left eye from getting hit with a sparkle from a very high power green laser. F’ing laser boy would use his leather wallet as a power meter. If it smoked when in the beam, the power was high enough. Over the course of our show the green beam cut it’s own path thru a black fabric scrim (like cheesecloth). It was the same laser on our stage as the MGM used from the top of their pyramid at the time.

    n

  65. SteveF says:

    ayjblog, don’t worry about your English. I don’t know about anyone else, but my rule of thumb is that if someone speaks English better than I speak his native language, I won’t harass him about mistakes.

  66. MrAtoz says:

    http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2020/08/photo-of-domestic-terrorists-trying-to.html

    Yeh, that right there is why there should be hidden snipers from the SWAT team on rooftops. No more bullshit “they’re just peaceful protests”. Some kid shines a laser at a plane and the SWAT team crushes him. Mayors better start taking action or the Feds need to send in the Marines. Followed by us Army types to shovel up the detritus the Marines leave behind.

  67. Greg Norton says:

    I think they are there with the X37B but aren’t advertising the capability.

    The cabin with the X37B is only four feet tall. It will need to be supersized to put men in there.

    Doh! I meant to say that they were there with the X37B for *unmanned* capability.

  68. Greg Norton says:

    You want the US Space Force to refly the Shuttle?

    Shuttle isn’t flying again. The story I saw a decade ago was that even two more flights to cover the commercial crew launch gap would have consumed the budget for commercial crew launch development.

    NASA has plenty of pork in SLS even if it never flies.

  69. Jenny says:

    Anchorage is blowing up over our Mayor’s abuse of his emergency super powers. Ground zero this week has been Kriner’s Diner, a family owned restaurant that defied EO-15 and opened for in person dining all week. EO-15 closed inside dining, was announced late Friday and enacted early Monday. City is claiming if Andy didn’t like it he should have talked to the city about it (ignore the fact that the city was closed for business between giving notice of the mandate and enacting it).

    A judge today granted the injunction against Kriner’s and has ordered Kriner’s to close dining inside their building. In the parking lot is fine. Take out is fine. Andy has stated his intention to open for inside dining again tomorrow.

    Andy’s argument, that their food sucks for take out and their parking lot is next to one of our busiest streets and not even safe for outside dining, are valid in my opinion. The man is going to lose his livelihood over EO-15. The arguments that EO-15 is being applied inequally, is irrational given our infection and hospital usage, were all good arguments. The judge ruled otherwise, regrettably.

    So here is the dirty trick that has been leaked, to add insult to injury. The city intends to shut off power to Kriner’s Diner to force compliance. It’ll destroy Andy’s product, including his two tons of meat in his freezer.

    What on earth has happened to our country? We truly have lost our collective minds.

    Alaska Watchman should have an updated story regarding the electricity threat sometime tonight.

    https://mustreadalaska.com/judge-kriners-must-close/
    https://alaskawatchman.com/2020/08/06/attorney-warns-that-diner-case-could-spark-class-action-against-anchorage/

    1
    1
  70. Greg Norton says:

    What on earth has happened to our country? We truly have lost our collective minds.

    Alaska Watchman should have an updated story regarding the electricity threat sometime tonight.

    At this point, it is about the election.

    Whatever happens with the virus is pretty much set unless they are going to treat it like TB and quarantine the sick.

  71. SteveF says:

    What on earth has happened to our country?

    Mayors who do things like that are not being tarred and feathered.

  72. lynn says:

    The cabin with the X37B is only four feet tall. It will need to be supersized to put men in there.

    Which would make it the size of the Russian Buran, at least, if not a Shuttle.

    You want the US Space Force to refly the Shuttle?

    Boeing has worked up the plans for the X37C which will hold a pressurized manned capsule with six Marines. I doubt that they will ever build it though as DOD is one of the investors in SpaceX.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#X-37C

  73. ayjblog says:

    Thanks for your kind words Steve

    Yesss! I mixed things, my fault! but latency over radio is better, I read time ago another project and I mixed both
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_Networks

    And I am unable to locate original files of Chaos Manor, so the issue of satellite is unsolved, could be my memory too, but also I remember his tales with Verizon and Internet/mobile calling

    cheers

    PS latency is gonna be a nightmare with Tony Stark, I assume a lot of local sites for CDN

    PS : The german mastermind is getting me, forgive me again

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    Photo linked above, with the squatting laser protesters is from Chile…

    https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/11/photos-lasers-discontent/602263/

    Apparently this is a relatively new tactic, certainly new in the US.

    and holy shirt, those blue lasers will photo bleach your eyes and cause permanent loss of color vision in seconds.

    n

  75. lynn says:

    Photo linked above, with the squatting laser protesters is from Chile…

    https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/11/photos-lasers-discontent/602263/

    Apparently this is a relatively new tactic, certainly new in the US.

    and holy shirt, those blue lasers will photo bleach your eyes and cause permanent loss of color vision in seconds.

    This will not end well.

  76. lynn says:

    The cabin with the X37B is only four feet tall. It will need to be supersized to put men in there.

    Which would make it the size of the Russian Buran, at least, if not a Shuttle.

    You want the US Space Force to refly the Shuttle?

    Boeing has worked up the plans for the X37C which will hold a pressurized manned capsule with six Marines. I doubt that they will ever build it though as DOD is one of the investors in SpaceX.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#X-37C

    I did not finish my thought. Why send a six man squad of Marines with an X-37C anywhere in the world in 100 minutes with a runway when you can send a 100+ Marines with heavy weapons in a SpaceX Starship that can land on any fireproof flat spot in 30 minutes ? Both cases are ballistic but Starship does not need a runway, just some concrete. And Starship can carry 100 tons compared to X-37C’s one ton.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship

    I think that we will have hundreds of Starships going ballistic around the Earth, to orbit, to the Moon, and Mars by 2030. Certainly 2035. I can assure you that USA DOD will own a few.

  77. Marcelo says:

    Certainly 2035. I can assure you that USA DOD will own a few.

    And cheap as chips compared to the alternative.
    What’s not to like. 🙂

  78. lynn says:

    “Podcast: Biden’s Fantasy Land Climate-Energy plan would harm America”
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/07/podcast-bidens-fantasy-land-climate-energy-plan-would-harm-america/

    “Anthony Watts speaks with Alex Epstein, founder and president of the Center for Industrial Progress and author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. We talk about Joe Biden’s energy plan, which calls for outlawing reliable fossil fuel electricity and mandating unreliable solar and wind electricity. This will not stop CO2 emissions from rising but it will destroy American industry, impoverish American consumers, and jeopardize American security.”

    “1. Energy schemes around the world based on “unreliables”—solar and wind—have been driving up electricity costs, harming economies, destroying domestic industries, and harming consumers. Germans pay 3X US electricity prices to get just 1/3 of their electricity from solar and wind.”

  79. Nick Flandrey says:

    Once you start telling yourself stories, why not make them really good ones? They broke with reality long ago. Besides, what chance does it have of passing?

    If it was Pelosi’s plan, and January, I’d be worried.

    n

  80. Nick Flandrey says:

    @jenny, barely even sounds like the same events.

    And I’m always suspicious when they just quote percentages, especially percentage INCREASE.

    n

Comments are closed.