09:26 – I’m still so busy building science kits that I haven’t had much time to do anything else, including work on the prepping book. There’s just no way I’ll have time to set a Santa trap this year, but I do have a Cunning Plan.
No Anti-Santa Gun this year, nor nets, nor poisoned milk and cookies. I’m just going to put up a large sign on the roof to announce that Santa and all his reindeer are eligible for amnesty under Obama’s plan to legalize illegal immigrants (like Santa), and that he and all his reindeer should sign up inside. Heh, heh, heh.
As part of the research for the prepping book, I’ve been ordering stuff from WalMart on-line. I’ve now placed several orders with walmart.com, and I don’t recommend them if what you’re ordering is even slightly fragile, like say canned goods. They just throw stuff in a box, without any attempt to keep it from being damaged in shipping.
USPS showed up yesterday with a box from walmart.com. I was standing with Colin in Kim’s front yard when the mail truck pulled up outside our house. The USPS carrier was obviously having trouble carrying the box up to our door. Barbara walked down to Kim’s house and said we’d just gotten a box full of dented up food cans, with the bottom coming out of the box.
Amazingly, everything that was supposed to be in the box was still in it: eight cans of Campbell’s Chunky Soup, four cans of Dinty Moore Chicken & Dumplings, three boxes of 100 Melitta #4 coffee filters, and a 3-pound can of Crisco butter-flavor shortening. There was no packing material in the box. Of the 13 cans, 9 were dented, several badly, but at least none fatally. Oddly, the four cans of Dinty Moore were supposed to be 24 ounces each, but were only 20 ounces each. I’m not sure why Dinty Moore makes two sizes so close to each other, or why walmart.com shipped me the 20-ounce versions when I ordered and paid for the 24-ounce ones.
Incidentally, although we sometimes have chunky soups and similar canned foods as quick meals, the real reason I stock up on them is as extenders for bulk foods like instant mashed potatoes and white rice. Those are pretty unappetizing by themselves, but one can make up a few pounds of mashed potatoes or rice, mix it with one can of soup, and end up with a reasonably tasty meal for half a dozen people.
I’ve ordered stuff to be picked up at our local Walmart, mainly to get the free shipping. What really surprised me was that the items were boxed and delivered to Walmart by UPS. This, in spite of the fact that everyday our Walmart gets at least one trailer load of stuff; maybe more than one. How inefficient!
in addition to that, their website is not very good. But then I’ve come to expect that from brick and mortar stores, whose main business is not running a website, but rather running the store.
I try hard to stay away from WalMart stores. The stuff I ordered is all stuff that no WalMart within a 50 mile radius carries. I suppose I could choose the local pickup option, but that’d mean driving over there and I suspect the stuff would be as dented up as if it were delivered directly.
Incidentally, with the ill feelings about WalMart so common, I’m surprised that the anti-Walmart agitators haven’t taken advantage of WalMart’s free shipping offer with no minimum order through Christmas. You can order one can of soup for a buck and they’ll ship it free.
What really surprised me was that the items were boxed and delivered to Walmart by UPS. This, in spite of the fact that everyday our Walmart gets at least one trailer load of stuff; maybe more than one. How inefficient!
Not really. Walmart’s inventory and store shipping system is said to be very highly optimized. There is a huge difference between sending cases of canned goods, appliances, toys, clothes, etc for stocking the shelves and random assortments of items in boxes. The picking and packing operations are different. It’s undoubtedly done by different staff, possibly at different locations.
All that stuff that OGH ordered sound like items available at a large Kroger or Safeway. Couldn’t you just add it onto the normal grocery run?
This, in spite of the fact that everyday our Walmart gets at least one trailer load of stuff; maybe more than one. How inefficient!
They probably have a contract with UPS for really cheap rates. Walmart distribution center loads cargo containers with stuff for the same UPS destination. UPS thus only handles the container, not the individual items until the container arrives at the destination facility. Still does not seem cost effective. The alternative as you mention is the truck. And that distribution is not designed for individual orders. That is warehouse stuff, pallets of products. Your puny order would get lost in the shuffle. Cheaper to pay UPS than to retrain store warehouse workers.
Barbara still does a supermarket run once a week, but it’s mostly for perishable stuff like milk, ice cream, pastries, and so on. She often comes home with just one shopping bag. All of the other groceries we need we buy at Costco (local and on-line), WalMart (on-line), Sam’s Club (local and on-line), or from Amazon.com. The stuff I ordered from WalMart.com is stuff that isn’t available locally at Costco or Sam’s Club: various flavors of Campbell’s Chunky Soup, the Dinty Moore Chicken & Dumplings, etc.
Yeah, it looks to me as if WalMart (and Sam’s for that matter) is trying to establish an on-line presence without putting in the footwork necessary to build the infrastructure necessary to complete efficiently with Costco and Amazon.
Zombies and Christmas, what could go wrong?
http://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2014/12/15
Dubbed by Gov. Patrick as ‘disruptive,’ protests near $2M in OT costs
Excerpt:
“I’m not sure what the goal of the protesters is. It really hasn’t been clear,” Walsh added. “We’re working in Boston on making sure that we’re dealing with the racial inequality. We’re talking about the police and the way the police do their job. We’re talking to the ministers and the youth groups … we’re actually having conversations about it.
“Let’s have some dialogue. I mean, it’s great to walk around and protest. I certainly would like to find out who is leading the protests and have some dialogue.”
Daunasia Yancey of Black Lives Matter said, “All of our contact information is public. If folks would like to get in contact with us, they certainly may.”
When asked if more Boston protests are around the corner, she said, “We will continue to fight to end state-sanctioned violence against black people.”
Provoke and annoy people–that’ll get your message across!
I know you said you were dropping Amazon Prime but have you looked at AP Pantry? One size box at $5.99. As you fill the box it shows you the percentage used.
I decided Walmart was still a better deal. We’ve just had a Walmart Neighborhood Market open about three miles from the house. Smaller selection of sundry items but the food is almost as large as the big stores. Hell of a lot less people which are my biggest annoyance. When it comes to shopping at Walmart, avoid the first of the month and GO EARLY, before nine o’clock. Costco is always packed and WM still usually has the best prices.
I did a couple of APP orders, but the prices just aren’t competitive any more. For example, Bush’s Best Baked Beans at $1.48 (plus the shipping cost) for APP versus $1.04 each at Costco or $1.06 each at Sam’s. Similarly Idahoan 3.25 pound instant mashed potatoes were (they’re no longer available in APP) something like $9.75 in APP and $12.50 in regular AP versus $5.98 at Sam’s.
“Provoke and annoy people–that’ll get your message across!”
In a negative way, of course. They’re doomed, demographically, if nothing else. No one will pay much attention to them anymore in a few years as they’re swamped by wave after wave of Hispanic immigrants, and outnumbered by them already, if memory serves. The prisons are battlefields between the two groups now, lethally so.
Another excerpt from that link:
“The staggering manpower costs of fielding armies of cops had an exasperated Mayor Martin J. Walsh and a state police spokesman yesterday lamenting the drain on resources at a time of tight budgets, worried about public safety and calling for talks instead of more marches.”
This did not seem to be a major concern when they ran their city-wide total lockdown after the Marathon bombing caper, about which we still know jack-chit.
WELL, THAT’S OVER.
Doesn’t mean anything much to me now, but central Sydney was closed down for a day as an Islamic terrorist took a coffee-shop (well, more like a chocolate shop (Lindt) hostage). But it did mean something. I used to work near there. The office building I used to work in was part of the total evacuation area. The site was a straight walk of maybe 200 metres from the New South Wales State Parliament building. I know that shop, from 15 years ago. Now the crisis is over, at a cost of three lives, one the terrorist.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/25780049/Siege-prompts-anti-racism-campaign/
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/25781078/sydney-siege-two-hostages-and-gunman-dead-after-heavily-armed-police-storm-lindt-cafe-in-martin-place/
And I used to live near where all those bastards congregated – just a couple of small suburbs away from where they built their first major mosque in Australia. I used to enjoy it. The foods suited me, I enjoyed their markets, I stocked up with their bulk grains, legumes, canned and bottled goods.
Then it started to putrefy. Their elders (say the age of many of us) made the same mistakes many of us, or our contemporaries’ parents, made. They let them run loose, unsupervised, uncontrolled. They started to import a few clerics “from the old country”, who it turned out were radicals. The radicals won out over the parents, the youth became radical Islamics rather than the integrated Australians their parents had been. It became okay for radical Muslim youth to kidnap and rape Australian girls. After all, they showed their legs. I was no longer comfortable walking the streets and shopping the shops their parents used to control.
And so it goes. We aren’t training enough medical staff for our rural areas. Doctors from foreign countries, for the most parts Muslims, can afford to migrate here (government subsidy), take an extra year (only!) to train up to our standards (government subsidy), another year to learn to work in our systems (standard government salary), then they take over rural medicine, and start tightening a stranglehold onto the metropolitan areas.
They use our generosity, our liberty, our justice, against us, for their own ends. Much as it may gall us, we have to STOP that, offer LESS of what makes us great to the enemy within our gate.
One thing they could do to discourage such actions is bury the bastard’s body in a pile of pig shit.
Government malware not being detected by anti-virus software:
https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-1412.html
This is uncool!
One of your countrymen has an interesting take on it.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/12/15/sydney-hostage-crisis-australia-has-lost-its-innocence/
Our Australian and British and Canadian cousins need to wake the fuck up and dump their lords temporal who’ve disarmed and de-balled them ASAP. We need to do the same here, so I wouldn’t look to us for any inspiration on that score just yet; we’ve managed to hang onto our 2A by the skin of our teeth for many decades and the efforts to degrade and destroy it are without ceasing. Those places don’t have a 2A or anything close to it, so they’ll need to basically start from scratch. I wish them well but am not hopeful; things have gone too far. We at least have a four-hundred-year history of dissent, rebellion and independence, and we’re a very violent culture; Yamamoto was right to tell his colleagues it was a big mistake to take us on; but that was then and this is now. It remains to be seen whether we’ll manage to hang on much longer in the face of several possible perfect storms coming our way.
It remains to be seen whether we’ll manage to hang on much longer in the face of several possible perfect storms coming our way.
I think that we in the USA will muddle through our problems like we have in the past. You may need to bring a wheelbarrow full of cash to the supermarket to buy bread in a few years but that ship is sailing at full steam and then some.
If anything happens of significance, you may see The Great State of Texas split off again. And then Six Flags over Texas will need to add another flag. And, we will be taking Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Kansas and a few others with us. You can keep New Mexico and Colorado.
“You may need to bring a wheelbarrow full of cash to the supermarket to buy bread in a few years but that ship is sailing at full steam and then some.”
You may recall that that was the situation in Germany between the wars, just before you-know-what.
“You can keep New Mexico and Colorado.”
No thanks. They’ll be part of Greater Aztlan, along with Arizona and southern Kalifornia, and by the way, a good chunk of the great Lone Star State, too. Habla Espanol, Senor?
Viva Aztlan! Viva La Raza!
I’m shaking in my boots (not).
Julie Smith, IRS Agent, just called (a recorded call) and said that the “authorities” were on their way to arrest me and that I must call her immediately and pay the IRS what it is owed.
These scam merchants deserve to be drawn and quartered after first having all their nails and teeth pulled out.
I know how to check out and report these numbers. Reporting to DoNotCall.gov is a futile effort though, nothing is ever done.
I feel sorry for the old folks who do not understand that most of the calls they are going to get are scams.
Going to DEFCON 1, the pots of boiling oil are ready and the alligators are in the moat.
“Of the 13 cans, 9 were dented, several badly, but at least none fatally. Oddly, the four cans of Dinty Moore were supposed to be 24 ounces each, but were only 20 ounces each. I’m not sure why Dinty Moore makes two sizes so close to each other, or why walmart.com shipped me the 20-ounce versions when I ordered and paid for the 24-ounce ones.”
Are you asking for a refund? They won’t get the message otherwise and you’ll continue to be suckered.
The jerk in Sydney came here, of course, as a refugee, and was on bail for some quite serious offences. I would have sent him back whence he came instantly but the bleeding hearts have taken over the process.
Of course, none of them offered to put this guy up in their own homes or go surety for him.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/sydney-siege-gunman-two-hostages-dead/5969162
A lot of it is the holiday season. They have to hire a TON of temp help to meet demand. Temp help is really bottom of the barrel this time of year as everyone needs temps. You should see the van loads (that’s right, they don’t own cars) of society’s rejects being dropped off where I work every day to augment staff this time of year. They catch them doing all sorts of crap. Hiding in the warehouse, sleeping in the break room, and so forth. I’m sure Walmart’s are just as bad (if not worse) and so when it comes time to pack a box they probably literally toss the stuff in and tape the box and seriously don’t give a shit how damaged it gets. Walmart can’t really do much about it because if beggars could be choosers they wouldn’t be using crap temp help at all. However, they don’t have that luxury. So, this time of year it’s either don’t fulfill the orders or fulfill them like that. They’re probably just happy the temps aren’t overdosing in their bathroom.
Not worth my time. WalMart has the Returns Policy from Hell. They intentionally make it as difficult and time-consuming as possible.
No, this is year-round.
“Our Australian and British and Canadian cousins need to wake the fuck up and dump their lords temporal who’ve disarmed and de-balled them ASAP.”
Actually, our currant lord temporal is gun owner friendly and has already reversed some legislation that further restricted our gun rights. We already woke up and dumped the ones that tried to disarm us any further. We did it by VOTING. An idea that is out of fashion on this site.
You did it by VOTING because for some strange unfathomed as yet reason, it still appears to work in your neck of the woods, at least for that one issue? You do mean British Columbia, right, not the whole country? Same deal here in Vermont; our current lords temporal know on which side their bread is buttered and have supported gun rights here for decades; in fact, if one of their party’s drones starts making noises about “gun control” they are told in no uncertain terms to STFU. But it’s not the same in NH or MA or CT or the Vampire State, or Quebec, all of which surround us.
Gun rights people in those other states, are, of course, outnumbered by ass-hats, libturds and progs. Or as several of our Founding Dads called it, “King Numbers.”
And dat’s some interesting cultural data on the temp worker phenomenon this time of year or all year; if the work was valuable enough to the PHB manglers, they’d pay decent wages and attract good help. Clearly it’s not, and is a further illustration of how they view their customers, you know, the ones who pay their greens fees and for their ritzy houses, cars and vacations. Like that Gruber fellow, they believe us all utterly stupid, worthy of routine deceit and theft, and hold us in utmost contempt and loathing.
Looks like Sam’s Club is jumping their website prices. My 12 pack of Softsoap Aloe has gone from $22 to $31 in the last year:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/softsoap-moisturizing-hand-soap-w-aloe-clean-fresh-scent-7-5oz-pump-12-carton/178665.ip
It was $23 in August. So there has been a $8 price increase since then. I wonder what is going on here?
It looks like we are going to get open carry of handguns here in The Great State of Texas when the legislature meets in January. We already have open carry of long guns.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/14/texas-considers-allowing-open-carry-handguns/
The real question is will the legislature require a CHL to open carry a handgun? CHLs are not required to open carry long guns.
Like that Gruber fellow, they believe us all utterly stupid, worthy of routine deceit and theft, and hold us in utmost contempt and loathing.
You are barely good enough to lick his boots clean. In his mind.
“It looks like we are going to get open carry of handguns here…”
I’m not a big fan or advocate of this; to each his own, but you won’t see me doing OC here, where it’s been legal for some time. Why advertise yourself like that to any potential bad guys, who, if planning evil, will be sure to take you out first? Some bozos here have made a big thang out of it, as in other OC states, and waltz around with AR’s slung over their shoulders and/or handguns on their belts. They look like idiots and do the rest of us no good. We’re not in a state of civil war just yet nor have the criminal hordes overwhelmed us.
“You did it by VOTING because for some strange unfathomed as yet reason, it still appears to work in your neck of the woods, at least for that one issue? You do mean British Columbia, right, not the whole country?”
No, I meant the entire country. And the strange unfathomed as yet reason is because we didn’t usurp our political will to corporations. We only rent them out as and when needed.
Here’s some more details about the jerk in Sydney:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/iranian-man-haron-monis-named-as-man-behind-sydney-siege/5969246
He had a serious record, including the following:
“Man Haron Monis, who was granted political asylum in Australia in 2001, was on bail for a string of violent offences, including being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife.
He was also facing more than 50 sexual and indecent assault charges and had a conviction for sending abusive letters to families of deceased Australian soldiers.”
He took a lot of court action, undobtedly on public legal aid too. I’m getting mighty sick of them.
It’s a picayune point, but: Santa’s not an ‘illegal immigrant’. He spends less than a day inside the jurisdiction of the United States, so at most he’s an illegal transient. And if the North Pole has friendly diplomatic relations with the US, he might not even need a visa to enter the US.
Julie Smith, IRS Agent, just called (a recorded call) and said that the “authorities” were on their way to arrest me and that I must call her immediately and pay the IRS what it is owed.
I have been getting calls here with a live guy from a call center in India. “Adam Smith”, who is looking for my daughter supposedly for IRS tax issues. He wanted to know if I was her husband – she’s not married – and refused the first 5 times he called to leave a callback number.
Santa is a repeat home invader — homes containing sleeping children. This is exactly the kind of illegal immigrant, or “transient”, we do not need, even if he does it as an act of love.
““Adam Smith”, who is looking for my daughter supposedly for IRS tax issues.”
Someone is playing a little joke on you. See, Adam Smith is the author of “The Wealth of Nations,” and his wife is named Julie….or is it his daughter that’s named Julie…I forget…
Oh wait–Mr. Smith never married.
Hey you guys, there really is no Santa Claus, ya know. It’s all a myth! Never mind what that guy Clement Moore wrote.
Just gave up watching Monday Night Football tonight, in the third quarter; Chicago Bears getting crushed by the Saints. It’s like the Pop Warner team showed up to play; they’re terrible. 21-0, and just got intercepted. Again.
The crew coming back tomorrow, supposedly, to install the shutters that allegedly arrived today.
And much ado, once again, with the various fem parties up here as to who is going where and when during the upcoming weekend and Xmas week, jockeying of travel plans, vehicles, etc., etc. Very tiresome. Mrs. OFD seems to be putting her foot down this year, though, and refuses to go anywhere and also refuses to buy more toyz for the grandchildren, who already have rooms full of them down there in MA. We’ll see if she caves eventually…I don’t, which is why my rep for this stuff here stinks. My thing is to stay home, go to masses, and listen to decent music. Maybe watch a couple of good movies. Oh, and also eat real good.
“U.N. sending thousands of Muslims to America”
http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/u-n-sending-thousands-of-muslims-to-america/
Oh good. Just what we need more of, bankrupt people who do not have a clue how to live in our society nor do they speak our language. They are going to “vet” them, whatever that means to the proles in the state department. You know, the Gruber wannabees.
Yet, we will continue to need to reduce our CO2 production because the proles in the EPA say so. What a country!
You know, if you believe the prats at the EPA and NASA, the North Pole is getting ready to melt. Therefore Santa and his elves XXXXX little people XXXXXXXX vertically challenged people, will need resettlement. Given that we are resettling 300,000 Syrians to the USA, why not a fat guy, his wife and a couple of thousand elves? We could put them in Detroit!
However, if they want to resettle the polar bears to the USA, I have an issue with that. Wait, I know a few guys and we all have guns, hunting trip!
Speaking of scam calls, I finally got one of those Windows malware calls when I was sitting at the the computer. I decided to string the agent along a little bit. After the usual stuff, she asked me to find the key next to the Control key. “What is that key?” I said the “A” key. Long pause. She said, “No, next to your Control key.” I said “Yes, that’s the letter A.” She said, “You should know, your Windows key is next to the Control key.” I said, “I don’t have a Windows key.” She hung up.
Good thing she didn’t ask what’s on the other side of the Control key, because that would be the F6 key. My keyboard is OLD! (Actually, it is a Northgate Omnikey Ultra with F-keys on both the top and side. Still feels good after all these years.)
Thinking that didn’t go so well, I went back to what I was doing, only to be called a minute or so later by a male agent. After the usual stuff about your computer is downloading malware etcetera etcetera, he said “What version of Windows are you using?” I said, Windows? I use Linux.” He hung up even more abruptly.
Boy, you just can’t string anybody along these days!
Next time, I will say I am using Windows 3.1 🙂
Speaking of scam calls
I have had a few of those.
Several years ago I got a call from someone looking for Amanda. I said there is no Amanda here you have the wrong number and hung up. A couple of minutes later same call from the same person demanding to talk with Amanda. He stated he knew Amanda was there and wanted to talk with her immediately. I was a little pissed but decided to get even. I said, OK, hold on let me find Amanda for you. I waited a couple of minutes and said “Amanda is busy having sex with my brother and his wife and will call you when she is done.” After a few seconds of silence the line went dead.
I have also gotten the support calls. I string them along like I am a real dummy. The usual attempt to find the log entries, go to a certain website, etc. I keep playing the idiot until at some point I ask them why they are calling me about Windows problems when I am using an iPad. I try and waste as much of their time as possible. Wastes my time also but at least I get a chuckle out of the effort.
I never get the fun calls. We just get people selling toner or offering SEO services. All pretty harmless. My wife tells me that her secretary once got one of the Windows support calls; I don’t remember what happened exactly, but I think nothing worked right because she doesn’t have administrative privileges on her PC.
Just a reminder to our friends to the south. The criminal code in Canada (and this includes firearm legislation) is a federal responsibility although enforcement is left to the provinces. The conservatives abolished the long gun registry that the liberals had brought in, at the insistence of Quebec, as a consequence of the “Montreal Massacre”. The provinces were expected to implement it (and cover the cost of implementation). Only Quebec (and the police chiefs) wanted it.
It’s unlikely that the current restrictions on hand guns will ever by lifted. They were implemented (throughout the Empire) in the ’20s as a response to a fear or anarchists and Bolsheviks.
An exception is that geologists in the field now have the option of carrying an hand gun instead of a rifle. You never, ever go unarmed in bear country. When my brother went for firearm training, he had the option to also receive training with a handgun. He said the additional paper work and cost wasn’t worth it. It isn’t much and it has no impact on anyone outside of a geological survey crew but at shows that at least someone, who can make a decision, listens sometimes.
And in response to something Lynn said several months ago about setting the drinking age at 21 and young drivers. Most provinces, Ontario and Quebec for certain, you can get your driver’s license at 16. The legal drinking age in Quebec has been 18 forever (or at least since the ’20s ). Ontario used to be 21 and is now 19 and new licenses are more more restrictive but certainly having a driver’s license at 16 and drinking at 18 hasn’t made Quebec’s accident rate any worse than any other province. Hell, if you can go to war at 18 you certainly should be able to drink!
Drinking age here is 16 for anything but hard liquor, which is 18. We still have a particular subset of kids who get trashed on weekends, but mostly teenage drinking is a non-issue. Actually, the set that gets smashed and makes trouble includes enough 20-30 year olds – mostly the underemployed set – that age really isn’t even the issue.
The issue, if there is one, are the “vodka” manufacturers that take industrial alcohol, dilute it to 40% and sell it for the price of the alcohol taxes plus 50 cents (the latter, because you are not allowed to (blatantly) sell spirits at a loss. This is the product of choice if you want to get drunk cheaply. Seeing as there is no profit in there anywhere, I just do not understand the motivation to produce and sell such a product.
Our kids have grown up living on the floor above a whisky bar. The younger one has friends over. He has given his friends the odd taste, but there has never been any issue of drinking to excess. Heck, once he was going to a party, and asked if he could take some whisky along. We said yes, and gave him a selection of small sample bottles, so he could offer his friends a choice (all top-class single malt, btw). Something like 3/4 of the whisky came back.
Obviously, there are cultural differences on top of the difference in drinking age, but I think it all goes hand-in-hand. There is still this deeply rooted puritan streak in large parts of the USA (including most of my family). This makes alcohol into a “forbidden fruit”, which just raises the attraction of abuse. When it’s just a normal part of everyday life, the pressure is off and people seem to generally behave better.
I’ll echo Brad’s statement about making alcohol a forbidden fruit. And chuckle at his offering of single malt scotches for younger people to sample. A sure way to turn people off drinking hard liquor! I was the exception in my 20s. I absolutely love the taste of a peaty Islay single malt, such as Lagavulin. Neither of my kids are drinkers, and I suspect that is mostly because as parents we modeled sensible drinking habits.
BC’s age limit for all alcohol is 19, which is too high IMHO. I would drop the age to 18, as it is in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, as I support Rolf’s stance that if you can go to war, you should be able to drink. However, Rolf is incorrect about Ontario’s age limit, which is currently 19. It was lowered to 18 in 1971, but was retracted due to a perception of high school students getting drunk.
Actually, it is a Northgate Omnikey Ultra with F-keys on both the top and side. Still feels good after all these years.
Oh my goodness! My office keyboard is a Northgate Omni Key/102 (Gold model) with the function keys on the left where God intended them to be. I’ve owned it since 1992. Or 1991. I love it and will have a funeral pyre with a wake if it ever dies.
I bought a Unicomp Ultra Classic a while back, and I love it. I was missing my old IBM.
Interesting discussion of old keyboards over at Hardwareguys2 .
Bill:
I know that the age limit was dropped to 18 but it is currently 19, raised for exactly the reason you stated.
I had the experience, along with a friend of mine, to have been charged with “having consumed liquor while under the age of 21 (more or less)” This was in ’65 and we were both with a couple of months of our 21st birthdays. Note that the charge was not drinking, or in possession but have consumed liquor! Liquor was anything in excess of 0.5%. The penalty was $25 or 5 days. I father paid the fine. I had been drinking at home since I was about 17. My 21st birthday fell on a Sunday. I could not get a drink in restaurant in Ontario.
My tipple of choice back then was Haig & Haig Pinch. Now I just drink beer. I was in Victoria last summer. I had some of the best beers I’ve ever tasted there and none are available in Ontario. I would be happy if the only beer I drank from now on would be Hoyne’s Dark Matter. Probably one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted.
I’ve had several Northgate keyboards, alas all now deceased. I’m writing this of an original IBM AT keyboard (ps interface). It weighs almost as much as the computer.
“Two New Security Risks Detected: Beware Ransomeware”
http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/briefs.html?StoryID=14Dec15_1
“Security experts are warning companies about two new “ransomware” vulnerabilities that put companies with unpatched computer workstations at risk.”
“Ransomeware is a computer vulnerability that locks the files on a compromised computer, so that the owner can only retrieve the files by paying a ransom.”
“Security expert Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4, explains that the two new Ransomware vulnerabilities are very sophisticated, which increases the risk.”
Well that sucks. Sounds like they are using my diskid32 freeware to identify a pc:
https://www.winsim.com/diskid32/diskid32.html
I used to know a guy who could resurrect a Northgate keyboard if you are interested. He may still be alive and working but I do not know. His career started with IBM Selectric typewriters.
Yes, here he is on ebay using the name svdplus:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/REPAIR-REFURBISH-keyboard-Northgate-Omnikey-101-Ultra-T-102-PLUS-P-/380840621876?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item58abdeb734
He will buy broken Northgate keyboards also.
Or, maybe it is this guy:
http://www.northgate-keyboard-repair.com/
Sigh, the memory is leaving me.
“Sigh, the memory is leaving me.”
Welcome to the club, Mr….ah…Mr….what was yer name again??
Wait another ten years and grok how much worse it’s gotten…
Teens and drinking: I was 14 for my first beer, a Bud, in the old steel cans. At 15, and over six feet, I used to throw on a black leather jacket, slick my hair back, put on shades, and have a ciggie dangling from my gob, and I could buy whatever in any packy all along Route 9 from Worcester to Boston, no questions asked. This was such a kick that I kept right on slugging ’em down until five years ago. Bad call.
YMMV.
My apologies Rolf, I read your post as lumping Ontario in with Quebec and Alberta with an 18 yr age limit. The devil is in the details!
I’ve never been charged, but had much beer confiscated by the RCMP while a youth.
“I’ve never been charged, but had much beer confiscated by the RCMP while a youth.”
I hope they enjoyed it… 🙂