Category: computing

Warm and wet again. 60s and 70sF with really high humidity. Yuck. Blue sky helps, but it’s still unpleasantly damp. And it will continue for a few days yet. Probably.

I spent the day on my computer and phone. Turns out I hit my deductible and so all medical expenses until the end of the year are paid for (subject to copays and other limits.) This is the opposite of what I thought happened, ie, I wouldn’t make it so save discretionary treatment until next year. It would have been nice to know last month. I was able to schedule one office visit this year. I haz a sad because I have a half dozen to schedule. Still checking things out, no bad thing lurking.

I’m also poking at my auto insurance both for an old claim, and for the possible new one. Fortunately Ranger parts are pretty cheap, and widely available. If I decide to fix my trucks axle, no matter who funds it, it should be doable and in the ‘reasonable to do’ range for me.

This means I didn’t get anything else done. Other than laundry. So I’ve got all that still to do.

It’s always something, and there’s always more.

Stack. Because the alternative is actually working on stuff…

nick

Cool, low 60s to start and end, with a bit of warmer in between. And a lot of moisture, either misty drizzle or really heavy condensation.

And the damp does make it feel colder.

I did my pickups, and some other stuff, including getting my Ranger back from the inspection. It seems like the universe revels in piling new stuff on top of the old. I need to just start taking a figurative machete’ to tasks or I’ll get lost in the jungle.

Today I’ll work the list. I’ve got my truck back so I can move stuff to the shop, and maybe get another load or two out of storage. I need to organize some place to put the stuff first though. And I need to start working harder on getting rid of stuff to make room. The house is cluttered and disorganized with the holiday stuff and BOL stuff, and stuff that is in transit. I can fix that fairly easily, so I should.

And I should do a bit more exploring of the present closets. I have time to remedy any deficiencies, if I act now. Waiting for a week would be … bad.

I’ve stacked up a bunch of presents. Now it’s time to pull them out and use them. Like good preps.

n

Cool but not freezing, and warming later. I think it got into the mid-60sF yesterday. I saw at least 63F on a sign… And it was sunny and clear for most of the day, with some overcast later.

I took a bit longer to get out of the house than I’d hoped, but I did get out. Did the missed pickup in the morning, then two more in the afternoon in Stafford. Lots of new building, new infrastructure, and new power transmission lines going in in Stafford. Lot of empty lots waiting for new homes and businesses. But judging by the political campaign signs, it’s a subcontinent stronghold with subcontinent in all local offices. I’m not interested in being governed by subcontinent.

Speaking of new transmission lines, they are upgrading the lines through the greenspace/right of way in my area. This is the second time in a couple of years. Everywhere I go they are putting in new transmission lines. Texas is spending the money needed for growth.

Later in the day I put up some of the new Christmas lights I picked up, and put out a few more inflatables. I think I’m probably done with outdoor decor. I might work on low lying fog, and get out the snow machine to do at least one night with snow effects. I’ll put out something interesting to blow the fog and fake snowflakes around if I do.

Today I’ve got two or three pickups. I need to do some more stuff around the house and at the shop too. Maybe I’ll wrap some presents. It could happen. I need to assess where I’m short in the present department. The problem with buying all year is forgetting what you have. I suspect I have too much for D2 and not enough for D1. W is now taken care of with a couple of smalls, and a new macbook.

Stacking up good times, and canned goods. You can do it!

nick

Warm and moist. Ewwww moist. It was super gross and moist yesterday. It did get better later in the day. I’d be happy if it was NOT so gross and damp today.

I did my volunteer day at the middle school. We got a lot done. Sound kid graduates to High School next year and his crew don’t want to step up and do the main part of the job. I will probably be doing some intro classes next year in the hope of stirring up some interest in the crew position. Business continuity isn’t just for businesses. If you have a group and some people do the important and difficult jobs, but you don’t have anyone to step in if they disappear, you aren’t going to last as a group.

Today I’ve got home stuff and a couple of pickups to do. Routine stuff. Ordinary stuff. Probably some domestic bliss too. Ah well, some days are just that, ordinary.

So on an ordinary day, do ordinary stuff. Like working. Or stacking.

n

Cold. Temps were dropping when I took the garbage out last night, and I expect the cold came back. We’ll see, but I’m thinking “cold”. It was hot and wet, although not actually raining yesterday. Grey most of the day. Might be the same today, except cold…

Did some stuff. Mainly replaced and reconfigured some gear at my client’s house. It should have been quick and easy. It wasn’t. The control system moved from a traditional IDE that any programmer might be familiar with, to a sort of drag and drop web based automagic atrocity. It’s very object oriented. It builds the connections in real time on the fly, based on what you tell it about each of the objects. But you must do it in the correct order, no skipping steps, no editing to make a simple change, deleting the old before it will let you populate the new. And it’s completely opaque and backwards.

Swapping one piece of gear, with only 5 attributes, maybe 6 if you count where it “virtually” lives, with another almost identical piece, with the same attributes should take minutes but it took hours. Edit which IP addy the controller talks too, add the addresses of the connected gear. That’s the OLD way. The new hotness is much more tedious.

The software doesn’t recognize that the hard wired PoE version of the hardware is essentially identical to the WiFi version, just a different IP addy. Had to delete the old, add the new, then re-connect all the virtual patching between the controller, the new expansion box, and the TVs connected to it. Straightforward if annoying. BUT I had to also delete the objects representing the TVs before I could re-add them, so I lost what THEY were connected to. Had I known, I’d have looked and noted the connections before deleting. As it was, my partner had to connect remotely and re-do that part of the setup, and I confirmed that it was talking to the hardware and actually doing the things, there in the rooms. One hour job turned into 4 hours and I needed remote help.

The new hotness is like a straightjacket.

And the gui to do all the attribute setting was designed by mac fanbois, so no scroll wheel, no right click context menus or drop downs. Instead of window sliders, you have to click and flick to move the lists and they move OPPOSITE the way you’d expect. To add injury to insult, all the icons are unique to the app and don’t have tool tips, it’s all done in shades of grey, and the visual clues like highlighting, “busy” indicators, etc are either very subtle, or positioned in dumb places.

I’ve used other software to configure and “build” virtual control systems using drag and drop, graphical tools. Drop your component on the drawing, edit its attributes, draw lines to connect it with other “blocks” or components to describe interconnections and signal flow. Very discoverable. Very intuitive. Like using Visio, but the blocks all are hardware or hardware modules and they all actually do something when the drawing is ‘compiled.’ This POS has none of that. Reinvent the wheel. But this time, it’s square, and only rolls when the surface it contacts has the right shape.

Bah. I’m not a programmer for reasons that should be obvious. We got it done, and my client is back up and running again. Fighting the tools is teh sux tho.

————-
Today I’ve got some pickups to do. There is lots of stacked up domestic bliss waiting too. Should be a full day. Longer and fuller if it’s raining.

But I’ll have some more stuff for the stacks, some more hobby stuff, and some more radio stuff both to use and to sell. Those are good things.

Kinda like stacks. Good to have. Useful.

nick
Today