08:31 – When Barbara mentioned to her physical therapist yesterday that she planned to go back to work four weeks after her surgery, he said that just didn’t happen with knee replacements. At least six weeks, he said, and often eight. Four was unheard of. She told him that she’d gone back to work four weeks after her first knee replacement in October 2011, and he was very surprised.
The refrigerator is doing fine, so far. Of course, it hasn’t had time for much frost to form and for the auto-defrost function to melt the ice and let it run down into the refrigerator section.
I read a short article on Obama’s proposed $4 trillion budget. I think he needs to simplify things considerably. What if everyone’s paycheck, dividends, interest, profits, and so on just went directly to the federal government, which could then just give each person whatever it thought they deserved? That would eliminate the “income inequality” that progressives are so concerned about, because everyone would have nothing.
12:35 – Well, I’m now running Linux Mint 17.1 KDE, which is an LTS version. The system had been acting hinky for several days. Yesterday the power failed for an hour or so. When I tried to reboot the system it gave some disk errors before it finally booted. I made backups of all my data while it was still limping along. This morning it died completely. The drive was a Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB that had about 18 months of run time on it. I wish I’d had a Hitachi spare, but all I had was an unused Seagate Barracuda 2.0 TB drive, so that’s what I installed.
I had been running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS because Linux Mint didn’t have their LTS version available when I installed Ubuntu. I checked and found that their 17.1 is an LTS version based on Ubuntu 14.04, so I went ahead and installed the 64-bit KDE version. It’s updating right now. I’ll get my data restored to the new drive this afternoon.
All of which reminds me that I need to do a section in the prepping book on using Linux on desktops and notebooks. In a situation where the Internet may be down, the last thing anyone needs is a computer running Windows that decides it has to phone home to Microsoft before it’ll work.
“… because everyone would have nothing.”
I think that’s the plan.
Except the One Percent, our lords temporal, and their minions will continue to live very comfortably. The rest of us will be on short rations and living in a Soviet-Stasi Orwellian police state. With a bit of Huxley thrown in; we’ll have our version of Soma, too: Krispy Kremes, ciggies, crappy Murkan lager and the tee-vee.
We’re well on the way.
The Redumblicans should adopt this immediately. Add in 10-20 million new crimmigrants and welcome to the new Banana Republic of America! Also, anybody with a house estimated at over $250K has to give it to an incoming crimmigrant to make up for their suck-ass life so far. All Whitey! peeps move to the nearest PRC. Obola El Presidente for Life, Moochelle First Matriarch of Fugg, Sharpless Minister of the People, Jackwagon Tax Collector from Whitey!, Holder Enforcer of Whitey!, Fartinacan Executioner of Whitey! Hollyweird exempt except for any right leaning peeps. Military replaced by New Black Panthers.
Did I miss anything?
In a situation where the Internet may be down, the last thing anyone needs is a computer running Windows that decides it has to phone home to Microsoft before it’ll work.
Probably won’t matter much regardless of what you use. There may not be any power. You may have batteries or a generator (if you have fuel) but I would use that resource for more important items. I would opt for a tablet such as an Android or Apple product. Small and easier to carry and doesn’t take as much power.
Yes, certainly. But I expect power to become less and less an issue as solar becomes increasingly common. I already have a section about using Calibre to strip DRM from ebooks, and it makes sense to talk about Linux as an alternative OS that doesn’t try to force users into a walled garden.
Geez, I just realized that I’m restoring about 800 GB of data from a USB2 external hard drive, which is probably going to take 8 or 10 hours to complete.
My former Mint 17.1 desktop is now running RHEL 7 with two Ubuntu 14.04 server vm’s, two CentOS 7 server vm’s and one Windows 7 vm. Learning open source tools for network security on that box now. The remaining desktop runs Ubuntu Studio, which both Mrs. OFD and me love.
I hope you’re right about solar, Dr. Bob; we don’t get a ton of sunlight here but could use the backup if we can assemble cheaper gear when it becomes available.
IIRC, average insolation at mid-latitudes is about one kilowatt per square meter. Even assuming low efficiency in the PV panels (and that’s getting better all the time) and losses in transmission, storage, and inversion, that’s a hell of a lot of free energy.
I’m convinced it’s either USB 3x or eSATA nowadays.
You know that replacement Seagate is dead disk spinning:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/01/hard-disk-reliability-examined-once-more-hgst-rules-seagate-is-alarming/
Although, if you need less than a half TB, then I recommend the Intel SSDs:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-Retail/dp/B00F0RD5H8/
480 GB for $250. Sounds like you need 800 Gb to start so I would go with a WD 4 TB Black.
In my day, we’d recover 800kB from our backup. And it took an hour. And we were grateful!
Snowing too.
Barefoot. Uphill. Against the wind.
Both ways.
Restore complete with no problems.
While crows shat on us and cranky old farmers took shots at us.
From Gary North’s site today:
“…If the bubbles pop this year, which I expect, and if the recession begins in 2016, which I expect, then it is likely that the Republican candidate will be elected president, and Republicans will have an even larger majority in 2017 than it has today. Then we know what is going to happen. The new president, who will probably be Bush, will be told by all of his advisors from the Council on Foreign Relations Team A that he has to run massive deficits. He has to spend money. Congress will not resist him, any more than Congress resisted his brother in his brother’s first term, when his brother promoted the disastrous idea of the Medicare prescription boondoggle. The Republican Congress will roll over and play dead. Whatever Bush says he wants, he is going to get. We will get Keynesianism to the max, and it won’t work. We’re going to get price inflation and unemployment. If the recession can be held off until the November elections in 2016, and if Hillary Clinton wins, then the Republicans will pin the tail of disaster on her backside. Of course, it deserves to be pinned on the Federal Reserve, but no matter who wins the presidency, it is never pinned successfully on the Federal Reserve. I would like to live in a world in which everything is stable, and nothing is misallocated because of central bank policies. But we have not lived in that world since 1914. The swings get wilder. The losses get greater. I don’t expect this to change over the next five years.”
It appears that when the Jebster and Bishop Mittens were meeting recently and probably being interviewed/vetted for the position, the former gave a better b.j.
And no one wants one of those from the Heroine of Tripoli and Benghazi and she may not be able to run now because of those two events and the latest capers of her billy-goat lecher of a “husband.”
Which means the Dems may have to run Granny Warren from Maffachufetts, who won’t stand a chance against the RINO country-club juggernaut.
Walker is likely to be the R nominee. Bush has too much baggage – his name, common core, etc.
Walker is likely to be the R nominee. Bush has too much baggage – his name, common core, etc.
Scott Walker may be peaking too early. We shall see. Plenty of time for mistakes and bad moves to sink the ship.
You are correct, it will not be Jeb Bush. Great guy, great family. Too freaking fiscally liberal. I love his brother to pieces but just too dadgum fiscally liberal.
And Monica Lewinsky’s ex-boyfriend’s wife will probably not run either. Google “lolita express” and see Bill Clinton’s name popup all over the place.
From Gary North’s site today:
If no URL then it did not happen!
Did’ja get the job?
“If no URL then it did not happen!”
I get Dr. North’s emails and have a site membership so I can only cut-and-paste rather than link to those areas. I realize North’s religious beliefs are way outta line in relation to mine but hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day and he’s had a lot of interesting and informative stuff on there plus some pretty good insights.
Did I get the job? Not yet. Skype interview Friday morning to go over the tech stuff; whatever, I don’t much care. I am just doing the due diligence thang and would just as soon go back to my own plans ASAP.
On vacation, so I haven’t been reading the discussions. I happened to check in today and saw the comments about Ubuntu 14.04/Mint 17.1. I installed Xubuntu 14.04 a couple of weeks ago, and have been having various wonky problems. No show stoppers, but irritations. Just a few:
– Close the lid, the laptop suspends. Open the lid, the laptop wakes up and then immediately suspends again. Second try always works. The computer is supposed to request a password on resume, but it doesn’t.
– LibreOffice freezes every few minutes for about 10 seconds. This started a couple of weeks after the installation, so it must be due to something else that has changed.
– There is a bug (already reported) that prevents display recognition from working correctly. So when I dock or attach to a projector, I have to set the displays manually.
Since I lecture, and am always attaching/detaching to projectors, and use LibreOffice to give my presentations…well, I may just scrap the whole installation and try Mint 17.1. If that doesn’t work, I still have a perfectly fine Mint 16 installation – it’s just not LTS, which is a problem.
I had the same problem with LO freezing on Ubuntu 14.04. The screen would gray out and refuse to accept input. So far, Mint seems fine. No LO problems.
Good to know. Likely back to Mint, then. I was actually very happy with Mint 16, except for it not being LTS.
OFD wrote:
“I realize North’s religious beliefs are way outta line in relation to mine…”
You’re not wrong. I just had a look at his Wikipedia article, he’s even more loopy than you… 🙂
No kidding. I’m a fount of reasonableness, probity and rectitude compared to him, at least on this score. Look up the Christian Reconstruction/Rushdoony angles, though, and be amused. Sort of. Stoning for lying about one’s virginity. Or being a homosexual. Among other wack stuff.
You wanna ask ’em; ‘yo, what about Jesus telling the mob “Let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” ? Then you wonder if they’ve read or even noticed the New Testament.
Look up the Christian Reconstruction/Rushdoony angles, though, and be amused. Sort of. Stoning for lying about one’s virginity. Or being a homosexual. Among other wack stuff.
You wanna ask ‘em; ‘yo, what about Jesus telling the mob “Let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” ? Then you wonder if they’ve read or even noticed the New Testament.
I always resort to the WWJD (what would Jesus do?) rule in these cases. Works every time if you have read the New Testament even once. I have come to the realization that Jesus would sit down and eat supper with the worst of the worst. He was just that kind of guy. He might even eat supper with me!
He did indeed seem to ignore class, ethnic and racial distinctions, and His main arguments were in opposition to the ruling theocracy there. If He comes by tonight here, I’m having lasagna. Whatchoo havin’ down there in the Land of Sugar?
He did indeed seem to ignore class, ethnic and racial distinctions, and His main arguments were in opposition to the ruling theocracy there
I heard he also uses a MacBook Pro, like me. 🙂
Instead of WWJD, you should follow the WWSD rule, particularly when I’m in a fouler mood than usual, such as today.
– You come across a brawl. It’s not clear who started it, who’s on what side, or anything else. WWSD? Kill them all!
– Dishonest, politically motivated bureaucrats are harassing some group of citizens. WWSD? Kill them all!
– Politicians at the federal level are refusing to defend the nation’s borders, or allow states or individuals to do so. WWSD? Kill them all!
– Jealous little retards overseas get other little retards to hijack planes and fly them into American buildings. WWSD? Kill them all!
– Professional politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucrats continue to draw breath. WWSD? Kill them all!
Here we go again. Obola wakes up and wants to go fight ISIS. Worst…leader…ever. What’s changed since the last beheading he didn’t give a shit about?
I also hear our drone fleet is tapped out. He’s going to send troops would be my bet.
President Barack Obama will soon give Congress his proposal for a new authorization for the use of military force against Islamic State fighters, and it will place strict limits on the types of U.S. ground forces that can be deployed, according to congressional sources.
Murkan wars are required in every generation; fact of life. Way it is. Empire writ large. Mind other peoples’ biz. Straight from Puritans.
Here at home:
“If you listen to the media, you know the United States is in the middle of a crisis. Blood is running in the streets. Children are dying. Violence is at epidemic levels. And to the anti gun contingent, this is no surprise. After all, by some estimates, there is a gun for every man, woman and child in the United States of America. This makes the people who would like to control the average citizen a bit nervous. The elites, after all, study history. And history shows that if a populous is pushed too far, they tend to revolt. And in the history of the world, there is no more heavily armed populace than the American people of the early twenty first century . . .”
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/02/john-butler/running-gun-violence-numbers/#more-349368
Then there’s WWOFDD:
“– You come across a brawl. It’s not clear who started it, who’s on what side, or anything else. ”
Laugh and walk away, maybe take some iPhone pics and upload ’em to the Tube, monetize the channel while you’re at it.
“– Dishonest, politically motivated bureaucrats are harassing some group of citizens. ”
Get their names, addresses, vehicle tags, emails, social network ID’s, etc. You get the picture. For later use.
“– Politicians at the federal level are refusing to defend the nation’s borders, or allow states or individuals to do so.”
See above. And we have a lot of those names already; we also need the intel on the lower-level scumbag bureaucrats who implement all this shit. Or don’t implement/enforce what they’re supposed to.
“– Jealous little retards overseas get other little retards to hijack planes and fly them into American buildings.”
We need more and better intel on this event, for starters, over and above what we’ve been told. If it’s little groups of retards, send in Seals, Delta, etc. to go terminate them with extreme prejudice. If it’s a sovereign state actor, obliterate it.
“– Professional politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucrats continue to draw breath.”
Labor battalions and work camps. For those who caused death or false imprisonment or other grievous offenses in some way, terminate. Terminate with extreme prejudice.
But if OFD ain’t around, feel free to ask WWSD?
Let he who is without stones cast the first the first sin.
Wasn’t there a group of females once called the “plaster casters”?
“to the anti gun contingent”
Cars kill people!
But they save more lives than they cost.
Vaccines kill people.
But they save more lives than they cost.
Seat belts kill people.
But they save more lives than they cost.
Skid lids/brain boxes/safety helmets kill people.
But they save more lives than they cost.
Doctors kill people!
But they save more lives than they cost.
Police kill people!
But they save more lives than they cost.
Nuclear weapons kill people!
But they save more lives than they cost (so far, anyway).
.
.
and
.
.
Hammers kill people!
Knives kill people!
Rocks kill people!
Water kills people!
Electricity kills people!
Drugs kill people!
Antibiotics kill people!
But they save more lives than they cost.
.
.
and
.
.
Guns kill people!
But they save more lives than they cost.
“Wasn’t there a group of females once called the “plaster casters”?”
Yup. Inventive little groupie sluts from the earlier rock era.
http://www.cynthiaplastercaster.com/